More Ways to Stop Junk Mail

Do you get those Twin Cities Values packs from the StarTribune? First of all, they don't fit in the box and they definitely don't promote green businesses! If you flip to the back by your address you can see directions to be removed from their list. I am taking our address off right now....

Also, we just received a coupon pack from Red Plum. If you get those and no longer want to, click here. Goodbye junk mail!

More on Green Traveling (and Green Driving in General)

In the week and a half that Guthrie and I posted about Green Travel, we have actually learned a ton more that I wanted to share with everyone. Most of these refer to traveling by car and are from or inspired by The Green Year by Jodi Helmer, a cute little book from my grandma.

For the first time Guthrie and I used a GPS. Though not very useful in Minneapolis where 99.9% of the time we know where we are going and it's gridded, taking out much of the guess work, it would have been helpful in Atlanta! On trips, it's quite helpful because it saves buying maps and printing off directions. If you must look up directions (and this is anytime), have the directions sent to your phone or at least write it on a scrap piece of paper and recycle or compost it afterwards.

More on packing light - in cars, 100 pounds of cargo decrease fuel efficiency by 2 percent. It can add up quickly if you travel a lot! If you currently store things in your car -- take it out! You only need the essentials: car emergency kit and some winter clothing items if you drive in Minnesota in the winter months. Those golf clubs? They should be stored in the garage.

If you are gone more than a couple of days, contact the post office and stop the mail. Transporting excess mail that won't be read for a while and can just wait will save the post office on fuel costs.

Keep an eye on your Tachometer (you know, the thing with the RPMs we rarely look at). Keeping the car revving lower than 3,000 rpms will not only save on gas, but is more gentle on the engine, extending the life of your car.

A/C v. Windows? This book says that you improve fuel economy by 20 percent or more if you drive with the A/C on and the windows up, though this is on the highway, which is where you mostly are on road trips. In the city, most of our driving is within an hour of home and not on the highway. Put those windows down says treehugger.com.

One for air travel -- invest in a luggage tag and keep it in your luggage always. Using those small plastic/paper tags at the airport every trip is just waste. They rip and really only last one trip.

Hotel stay - whether or not you can stay in a green hotel, leave a comment card at the end of your stay highlighting what the hotel did well and what kinds of things they could improve upon. If the hotel does not already have a sign saying that they will, leave a not telling them not to change the sheets or new towels unless they are put on the floor.

Update on our trip -- sadly we had to cancel our trip to Iowa for Labor Day weekend, but instead we are heading up to Duluth to visit Guthrie's family and to fish. When we do visit IA, we will be able to stay with a friend to help keep our carbon footprint down since it was not looking good for mother earth as of the last post.

Have a safe and fun labor day!

Peace!

Nineteen - Tennis Balls

I've been playing tennis a lot more than normal over the last couple of months and have wondering what to do with all of the spent tennis balls. I came across Green Eco Services, a website that details what to do with those garbage prone balls. Here are some great ideas from the site:

• Rebounces is an organization that will go so far as to pay shipping costs for you to send them your used tennis balls for recycling and refurbishing
• Donate to dog shelters, schools and/or Boys and Girls Clubs
• Use as a door stop
• Use as a car marker in the garage to know when to stop
• Cut in half to use as a can opener
• Cut in half to use for stationary supplies

Over 300 million tennis balls are manufactured each year. These balls contribute to 19,000 tons of non-biodegradable junk that litters our landfill. Knowing this, Laura and I will now be putting tennis balls in the dryer to ward off static cling, and it will save on drying time as it helps keep the clothes separate.

Keep the tennis balls in play!

Offset Your Carbon Footprint!

As promised, Guthrie and I gave a donation to offset our carbon footprint for the trip to Austin (awesome! btw) and our upcoming trip to Iowa. Guthrie and I love the Green Institute, as it is local and we donated to them for our wedding. Check it out--it's off the Greenway on Minnehaha and 28th.

Another trip note--stop by the local farmer's market where you are staying. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and fabulous live music on Saturday morning in Austin. :-)

Eighteen - Green Travel

Guthrie and I are about to head out to Austin, TX this week for our anniversary. Labor Day, we are driving to Des Moines, IA to visit with friends and family. In October, Guthrie is off to Montreal (jealous!) for work. With all of this travel, how do we still be good to Mother Earth?

Before you leave:

• Unplug all electronics
• Lower or turn off any heating and cooling devices

Flying? Here are some tips:

• Pack only what you need, don't bring extra weight
• Most of the energy is used in take off and landing -- take a direct flight whenever possible. We are flying to San Antonio to avoid this and driving a compact car the hour to Austin
• Take a train! It could reduce your CO2 emissions by 90%
• Reuse those quart sized baggies -- we have two that we reuse over and over again for flying
• Reuse little plastic containers -- pack your own shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, contact solution and all of those other liquids and gels with buying new ones. We have a little travel basket in our hallway closest where we save these things just for this reason
• Cook when possible - we are renting a small cottage where we can stop by the farmer's market or co-op to get food and prepare it ourselves during the day
• Bring a water bottle! Just because you're away doesn't mean you throw your eco-lifestyle out the window

Driving? Here are some tips:

• Check your tire pressure
• Make sure the vehicle is properly serviced
• Look into ways to offset your carbon footprint as we did with Enterprise when we had to give in and rent our first car
• Leave the car at the hotel and walk, cycle, or use public transportation -- we'll be on the bus in Austin!
• Pack only what you need -- don't bring extra weight 
• Plan ahead -- it helps avoid getting lost and driving around
• Try to avoid sudden acceleration, engine revving, and sudden braking - it can use up to 30% more fuel. Keep you eyes on the road 3-4 cars ahead
• On the highway, drive with the windows closed to reduce the drag (though this brings up the AC v. windows down issue, find a balance)
• Don't idle

*info from Carbon Footprint

Where to stay?
The most eco place would be a campground; however not always the easiest and best choice for every vacation. We looked into it for our Des Moines trip when the friend were were going to stay with had flooding in her house, but, again, with recent rains and flooding, ever close campsite is sadly closed. Instead, we started looking at Green Hotels which is a guide to find hotels that have sustainability in mind when making business decisions. Of course, the only one listed was in Cedar Rapids. Strike three. I think we are stuck at a motel. At least we can reuse sheets and towels as much as possible. If you are planning a vacation, a great site National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations.

What to eat? 
Guthrie and I have taken many mini-road trips. When we are hungry, we work hard to pass up the McDonalds (can't even remember the last time I ate something from there...) and all of the other fast food chains. Sometimes, it is unavoidable, and you are hungry, and you would rather use their bathroom than the one at the Citgo...but I digress. Point is: look for those mom and pop shops and support the local economy. Guthrie and I have found some gems, and some scary places -- but they all at least leave you with a story! When in town, continue to support local and independent shops and restaurants. You'll get a better feel for the city and really be helping the local economy. I know we definitely want to do things that will help Keep Austin Weird :-)

Offset your Carbon Footprint
Use a calculator and then offset it! The link is for TerraPass - it's easy to calculate your flight and you can offset it through them or through another organization. Carbon Fund and Native Energy are also really helpful. It's not perfect, but it's better than doing nothing. Money goes to planting trees and conservation efforts and other projects that reduce CO2 in the air.

Some things to keep in mind, I know we will! Happy and safe travels to you!

Peace!

Energy Pyramid

Have a home? Looking for a step-by-step way to make it more eco? MN Power has an interactive Energy Pyramid that does exactly this, starting with ways that are more simple and cheap to implement with instance savings all the way up to solar panels! Check it out. Sadly, living in an apartment we can only get about half way up, but this is something we want to keep in mind when we finally own our own home.

Seventeen - Rid Your Life of Junk Mail

As Guthrie and I move from place to place, one of our biggest pet peeves is junk mail -- how do they find us??? We receive junk mail daily, and though some can be recycled, it seems that a lot of junk mail uses plastic making them indestructible! The average adult receives about 41 pounds of junk mail a year! I did some research and found some great ideas. It seems that putting one or two of these into action will cut down on waste and unwanted junk.

http://blog.timesunion.com/kristi/2005/get-rid-of-junk-mail/

First of all, Guthrie and I started putting "return to sender" on anything no addressed to us. We ran into problems with those pesky catalogues from the previous tenants that have their name as well as "current resident". My insider at the post office told me that those catalogues receive postage at a discounted price, but they do not have a return service, thus, writing "return to sender" will just annoy your mail carrier.

Now, when I receive a catalogue I don't want--which are all of them because I would rather order online and save the resources--I call the 800 number and tell customer service to remove me from the mailing list. This is simple, and legally they have to comply. We didn't want to stop there, so here are some other ideas were are putting into place to cut down on the unwanted paper waste showing up on our doorstep:

1. Be careful when filling out forms or signing up for anything -- make sure that you check the DO NOT MAIL box.

2. Pay all bills online.

3. I also heard that USPS will use your information if your address on file is a permanent one (wish we knew this three months ago!). When moving and updating your forwarding address, check that the move is temporary - six months, instead of permanent.

4. Another pet peeve is the junk mail we get when we donate to an organization: The thank-you letter they sent which just lowered the impact of our donation, the flyer reminding us to renew, etc -- it drives us nuts! Why are you wasting our money reminding us of what we already know. Next time we receive a mailing from MPR and other organizations that we support finically, I will call or email them that because we would like to save resources, Guthrie and I will no longer give money to organizations that send paper solicitations (emails OK). I have heard this has been effective for others, and think it is a good idea.

5. Catalog Choice is a free service that will help you to opt-out of catalogs.

6. Direct Marketing Association will remove you from a lot of listings. The account is active for five years and then you can renew.

7. OptOut helps to remove you from lists of credit card and insurance offers.

8. If you want to go ever further, you can have one company do the leg work for you. For $41 for 5 years, 41lbs will take of this for you and plant at least 15 trees on your behave.

Definitely excited to put this one into place!

Peace!

Recycling Update - Tom's of Maine!

We have been using Tom's of Maine toothpaste for awhile now, but we have always been throwing the tube away when we are done. Another benefit of using Tom's is that it does come in a recyclable metal tube. Just cut it open, rinse, recycle, and repeat!

Sixteen - Produce Stickers

First of all, I think I was a little ambitious with Friday posts given I am in grad school. I think we will not make new posts on Sundays, so sorry for the delay!

This week, Guthrie and I started to save our stickers -- you know, those produce stickers that come on about every piece of fruit. We have an index card that we stick them to and once we will up a couple, we'll send this to this guy:

Here is the letter from his website. 

S.O.S. Foundation (Save Our Stickers)

I ask you to pause for a moment, and think about the humble food sticker. Performing his (or her) appointed duty without complaint. Without these noble stickers our food distribution system would utterly collapse! Modern Society would simply starve to death!

And yet, once they arrive at their new home, reveling in the successful completion of their noble mission, these stickers are callously cast away, fated to some foul-smelling landfill! Is this fair? Is this right? NO! I say they deserve better. Now there is hope!

S.O.S. the Save Our Stickers Foundation provides a new home and a meaningful purpose to these unassuming stalwarts of our supermarket lifestyles. Won’t you please help? If you could find the compassion in your heart to simply peel these valiant warriors off the skins of your preferred produce and then place them, sticky side down, on a piece of notepaper (paper, not plastic) they can live as artwork, (united with thousands of fellow food stickers as part of a symbiotic visual presentation), bringing joy to young and old alike.

Please send your stickers to:
Barry “Wildman” Snyder
POB 301
Erie, CO 80516

With you there is hope!

Sincerely,
Wildman

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Next time you are eating an apple (oo! there will be so many Minnesota apples to chose from soon!), consider saving your sticker. 

Peace,

Laura