Sharing recipes, crafts and frugal living, the challenges and triumphs of parenting a neurotypical child and a child on the Autism Spectrum. Yoga Instructor said goodbye to her nightly glass of Chardonnay to give up habits that were not serving her purpose in life! The CocktailMom name remains, however with a new focus on healthy and authentic living.

2/11/2007

Using things twice (or more)

Green living is very popular these days. But I'm more concerned with conscious living. Green living seems like another advertised consumer choice. Conscious living, to me, is using my head and instincts to try and use my resources in the best possible way for me and my world. My New Year's Resolution in 2007 is to pay more attention to the 'Reuse' in the old adage, 'reduce, reuse, and recycle'. My current artistic project is a cycle of plays created around the theme of sustainable living. (For more information visit confluencetheatre.org) Researching The (re)Cycle Plays completely changed the way I looked at recycling. As it turns out much of what we recycle is really downcycled. Downcycling often produces toxic chemicals as a by-product and uses large amounts of fossil fuels in the process. So, I've taken it as a personal project to reuse things at least twice or give them a second life. For example, instead of buying anymore disposable Tupperware I reuse the salsa jar or spaghetti jar for leftovers. It is cost effective and makes me feel like I am throwing less things away. My favorite resuse this year is shown in this picture. It is a bag of shredded bank statements and old bills etc. I am going to use the shredded paper as packing material for shipping. It's a little thing but a cost effective thing. I'd love to hear about how everyone else is reusing everyday objects so please make some comments on this post.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Over here at Casa del Skovron we use the shredded paper for cat litter. We started doing it because my cat has very sensitive skin and the scents they put in most cat litter irritate his bum. Plus, it's a hell of a lot cheaper AND we're reusing paper. The one minus is that I have to change it a lot more frequently.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jessica- This is Wendi, one of Gretchen's Jitterbug friends. I am going to be moving in the next two months and am totally using your shredded paper moving idea! Thank you so much! I have a ton of old bills that I can shred and reuse!

Anonymous said...

Hey Jessica, I'm totally going to use this idea too. Now that immigration has come through I can get rid of old bills and documents that I'd been saving for "proof of relationship." This weekend I'm carting them all up to Butler to shred and use for packing. Yay.

Can't wait to see you next week!

Jen V.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails