Did You Have a Nice Earth Day?

How did  you celebrate Earth Day? Sadly, I didn't do anything particularly celebratory. I had hoped to have all my business registration stuff done by then and officially launch the business on Earth Day but it didn't work out. Apparently I'm not the only one who didn't party like it was 1999--at least judging from the report on Cake Wrecks.

My Confession

Okay, I'm not going to lie. I know that paper towels are wasteful and that a rag can accomplish just as much, but I love paper towels! There's just something repulsive to me about washing dirty rags. I mean, I do it, but I usually grab a paper towel instead. But, for those of you who don't like the wasteful nature of paper towels, I offer this solution: unpaper towels. My favorite are made my a woman named Heather (her website is here) and I prefer hers because they actually snap together and can live on a roll like regular paper towels. And, of course, you can get them in all kinds of cute prints.

Maybe if I had cute unpaper towels I wouldn't think of them as rags . . . hmmmm. Well, for the moment I'll keep being a bit wasteful, but maybe someday I'll take my own advice.

Setbacks and Perseverance

I am currently having trouble legally registering my business in the state of Utah and getting the required tax ID numbers, but I can better define what services we will offer. Unpaper Route will gladly pick up your: 

• newspapers
• office paper
• phone books
• cereal boxes
• magazines
• brown paper bags
• construction paper
• cardboard

That's right, folks, cardboard is acceptable. Unfortunately you will need to fold your cardboard down smaller than a pizza box. I can tell you from experience that pizza boxes don't fit in the drop slot in the recycling dumpster. We use dumpsters provided by Green Fiber so we do what they tell us to. 

A couple of nitpicking facts for anyone who cares: Green Fiber does not accept string, but we will pick up parcels tied with string. Why? Because we'd so much rather pick up your recyclables in a tidy, easy-to-carry package so we'll cut the string off for you when we drop of your paper and cardboard.

Green Fiber will use your recyclables to create insulation--just in case you were wondering where it would go.

And yes, I will properly register my business before I take money or begin pick-ups. But seriously, that website was the technological equivalent of using elephant bile. (Using it for what? Doesn't matter. The comparison will hold.)

How Much of That is Recyclable?

Did you ever wonder how much of your electronics really was recyclable? Wonder no more, my friends. Those techies at Wired put together this great summary of just what happens when we send our dead PDAs to be recycled--and there are lots of photos. Just click here to view the article.

P.S. I just realized that I don't have to type "electronics to be recycled" anymore. Apparently those in-the-know are calling it ewaste. I don't care what your views are on making up new words willy nilly--this one I'm happy about!

Making a Dent

I once watched a movie (I think it was Get Shorty) where the annoyingly optimistic character often said "You can't change the world but you can make a dent!" I have the urge to slap those Pollyanna types as much as the next gal, but he had a point.

Think about it. I can't change the world in any earth-shattering way. I lack the influence, ambition and possibly talent to make that kind of mark. What I do from day to day will go unrecorded in the annals history, despite any well-maintained blog. I am an unremarkable person in the grand scheme of things. 

But I am one person. I consume, discard and (hopefully) give back every day. And with this little enterprise, I am attempting to help myself and others discard a little less and give back a little more. Maybe the paper products I'm recycling don't make a huge difference, but if you add my paper products to yours, and my neighbor's and your neighbor's and a few other people neither of us know . . . it adds up. 

It reminds me of a golf ball. Each of those little dents on the ball are awfully small. They don't really look like the kind of thing that would affect the overall performance of anything. But, put together, those little dents improve the aerodynamics of the ball. And each dent counts. So recycling today's installment of junk mail counts for something too. 

Old electronics

Do you have a pile of old electronics you aren't sure what to do with? I do. It's not really a pile, it's contained in a cute storage box, but the principle still applies. I don't want to send these things to a landfill because I have no idea what's in them. For all I know, they could leach something toxic into the water supply or something. (Why no, I don't follow any conspiracy theories, but it sounds like I do, doesn't it?) Also, most of these unknown contents are encased in plastic--and I know that's recyclable. So what do I do with them? Here's a great article listing how you can recycle lots of different old electronics--some of them for free! (I have had a great experience with Gazelle.com and plan to use the other resources soon.) Thanks to Wired for the article!