Consumable Earth – Kamloops

When was the last time you looked in a phone book? Ok I did this week but honestly I could have just as easily looked online. Every year thousands of phonebooks are printed, trucked to doorsteps and discarded or never used. Until we can manage to convince the publishing companies to make recieving a phone book a request based system do the opposite and request to NOT get yours.

The InfoTel book – stop sending me phone books!

The Yellow Pages by filling out the online directory form
or call Yellow Pages Group at 1-877-909-9356
or email the request to call.centre@ypg.com

The Aberdeen Community Garage Sale is this weekend you can check out the particiapating addresses on the Aberdeen community website. Man, my community needs a website…

Sorry to the other communities whos Garage Sales I missed posting please comment here and I will be sure to get your info up next year. Or if any one has lived here long enough to know the rotation please comment!

Freecycle is quite possibly one of the greatest sites going in that it connects the local community in a way that is completely unique – everything is FREE. Post what you want or what you have and someone from your community or better yet your neighbourhood will come and get it if they can make use of it!

Recently my partner and I moved in together and have done a big renovation (highlights include: high efficiency furnace, tankless water heater, better insulation, cork floors and low VOC paints) which means a lot of waste and a lot of extra stuff. The answer: freecycle. Every time we create a pile of things that have to go I head upstairs to the computer with a list and post it all on freecycle. Within a few days it has all gone to new homes where it can be useful!

This is nothing short of amazing and beautiful. Imagine if even more of the things you ever had or will get were obtained in this way? Freecycle couches, furniture, kitchen items, clothing, movies, it is endless and we certainly have enough stuff to go around, no doubts there.

Short of getting what you need for free there are always thrift stores and it is garage sale season. It has been a habit of mine for years to try and hunt something down and buy it used before I resort to getting it from a store. We all can make do without a lot of the things that we consume on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. When we make time in our lives for these things it is my belief that we will all feel better in our hearts, our minds and generally with our selves.

Be good to yourself and to others.

On Earth Day this year, consider doing something for Mother Earth, such as:

• Organize a neighbourhood clean up.
• Buy environmentally friendly cleaning products or try using natural cleaners such as vinegar, lemons or baking soda.
• Reduce the amount of resources you use and generate less waste.
• Pack a litterless lunch, reusable items can be 45% less expensive and they have approximately 89% less waste than single use lunches.
• Composting reduces household waste by 30% and helps decrease greenhouse gases generated from our landfill. * Reuse items before discarding them.
• Donate used goods to local charities, shops or schools.
• Post items on the TNRD Reuses website to give away or sell up to $99
• Recycle materials that can be made into new products.
• For materials not accepted in the curbside program, please visit Recyclopedia at TNRD Reuses for alternate options.
• Buy Local. For every pound of local food you buy, you save a quarter pound of C02 emissions and also support local businesses.
• Turn off your computer monitor if you are going to be away for 15 minutes or more, the monitor uses 75% of a computers’ electricity.
• Use a layer of organic mulch around plants to reduce evaporation and save water.

In our community:

Chase’s Haldane Elementary School is celebrating Earth Day on April 20th with an assembly, tree planting, gardening, birdhouse building and more! For more information on this event click here

**For more information on Earth Day please visit the Earth Day Canada website

Someone near us is building an earthship and they want you to come and see what they are doing!

If you have seen the movie ‘The Garbage Warrior‘ then you know what the heck I am talking about. If you haven’t the movie begs the question what do beer cans, car tires and water bottles have in common? Not much unless you’re renegade architect Michael Reynolds, in which case they are tools of choice for producing thermal mass and energy-independent housing. For 30 years New Mexico-based Reynolds and his green disciples have devoted their time to advancing the art of “Earthship Biotecture” by building self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities where design and function converge in eco-harmony.

The Burkholders are building an earthship in Darfield BC and are sharing their journey and the story on their blog. Also they could use some old tires. Not random tires but fairly specific ones to simplify their constructive process.

"They MUST be 245, 235 or 225 as we use them like bricks so the thickness has
to be the same.  Diameter (anything after the R on the tire) doesn't matter.
We certainly appreciate any donations of these sizes!  And after going
around the tire shops for the last 6 months, there is certainly no end of
tires....a real eye opener."

We would love to go out and visit when they start constructing walls and would like to arrange a group of people who are interested. I imagine they are pretty busy so showing a larger group around once would take up less of their time than a whole bunch of people lots of times. Comment or post here to express your interest and we’ll make it happen!

Kamloops

E-Waste Collection (hosted by 1-800-GOT-JUNK)

Help us dispose of electronic waste the right way! Bring your unwanted e-waste to our Earth Day event on Saturday, April 18th for our e-waste recycling. Only the first 100 residential drop-offs will be accepted. We can take computers, monitors, keyboards, mice and printers. Laptops less than four years old will be donated to the Developing World Connections charity. ReStore volunteers will be onsite to see if any old PCs can be refurbished as well.
Date: April 18, 2009
Time: 9am – 1pm

Location: Aberdeen Village Center, 1395 Hillside Way – Come to the west end of the parking lot by Pacific Way

Contact Email: kamloops@1800gotjunk.com
www.encorp.ca/electronics

Penn and Teller had this wonderful program called BullShit! Sorry if that offends but that’s the name! They called Bullshit on recycling which was incredibly eye opening and SO true. Check it out here.

So before you happily and blissfully throw all your ‘recyclables’ into that blue lidded bin think twice about where that yogurt container is going and what you want your sustainable solution to be.

Check out these 5 recycling myths

And these 8 myths on recycling

Confused yet? There is a lot of conflicting information out there so you’ll have to draw your own conclusion and make decisions for yourself. Keep the whole picture in mind and focus on your goals!

Oh and before you throw it out try out the TNRD waste redirection program. Or post your items on Freecycle Kamloops.