You are probably about to decorate this years Christmas tree so we wanted to share our Top 10 list of ornaments made from recycled materials. Many of these awesome eco creations could be made at home from recyclables but each of the top 10 recycled Christmas tree ornaments shown below can be purchased online.

Number 1: Recycled Mother Board Ornaments

These ornaments are made from recycled computer circuit boards and they’re some of our favorites, a top pick for any green geeks!
Avialable from MotherBoardGifts.net

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Here we are at the start of the Holiday season, around our house, Thanksgiving plans are in full-swing! What can we do to get our holiday season off on a green foot? A lot!
How about shopping for your Thanksgiving meal with two words in mind, organic and local. If you buy local, you enjoy fresher food and you support your local economy. If you drink wine with meals, consider buying organic wines to be more eco-conscious.

Instead of planting yourself in front of the TV for the day, well maybe just for the Football game, consider getting out some and getting fresh air or play a board game. Take advantage of the time together with family while decreasing your energy usage.

If you are going to someone else’s home for dinner, consider turning down the thermostat and turning off the lights to save energy at home while you are gone.

Don’t forget to recycle. Encourage everyone to pitch in and put the recyclables in bins. Recycling all the packaging from the fixings for the meal, as well as any beverage containers, will significantly reduce the number of times you have to take the trash out, as well as the amount of garbage you send to the landfills.

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I was recently invited to take a tour of a local Texas recycling center which is operated by the AbitibiBowater’s Recycling Division. Casey Gray is a “Business Recycling Consultant” and he gave me an amazing tour of the AbitibiBowater recycling center in Arlington, Texas. The division that Casey operates the EcoRewards Recycling program and they educate and encourage local Texas businesses to begin recycling as much of their waste as possible.

I arrived at around 12PM on a sunny Friday afternoon to the AbitibiBowater “Arlington Recycling Operation” building and was immediately impressed with the high level of activity surrounding the recycling center. Trucks were constantly loading and unloading at the centers numerous loading bays.

I had always wanted to see how both domestic and commercial recyclables are processed and my tour of the Arlington facility gave me a fascinating insight into how the recycling process works;

1/ COLLECTING THE RECYCLABLES:

The first stage for any recycled materials is collection. Their are several types of vehicles which perform the recycling collections;

There are three main types of collection vehicles, the Front End Loading (FEL), the Rear End Loading (REL) and the Roll Off type vehicle (RO). You might recognize one or all three types of collection vehicle, try to spot them the next time you take a road trip!

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A brand new recycling center has just opened in McKinney, Texas and it promises to revolutionize recycling in the local area. The IESI McKinney recycling facility is called a Material Recovery Facility and is situated in McKinney near the Collin Airport. The Mckinney recycling facility will be the first privately funded single-stream LEED certified Material Recycling Facility in North America.

The McKinney recycling center building is fully LEED certified which means the building itself was built to the strictest eco friendly standards;
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of green commercial structures.
The new recycling center also houses a second-floor community room and observation deck overlooking the recycling operations area.

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Inspiration for our articles comes from many different places and last week I found a great company that inspired me to logon and write;

My inspiration came when I was “Googling” for recycled bags and purses, buried on the second page of my Google search was a name that just jumped out at me… UrthBags with a cool sounding description:

“Eco-Chic Purses & Handbags Made From Recycled Materials. UrthBags are hip purses & handbags made with a purpose”

Needless to say I was intrigued and a click later I was surfing through a wonderful site filled with beautiful handbags and purses all made from recycled materials. My husband and I put as much of our waste plastic, newspapers, magazines etc, into the recycle bin but we never get to see where they go or what they become. UrthBags takes these everyday recyclables and creates truly inspirational accessories. The company was founded by Monica Ralli and they are based in Hungtington Beach, CA and I have already placed several of their creations on my Christmas list. (I hope my Hubby is taking notes!)

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REBAR: A rod or bar used for reinforcement in concrete or asphalt pours. This bar is used for many other things as well. They’ve been used for Pavilions, stakes for vining plants, set up like a tee pee and string lights on them and they look like Christmas trees, art work and many other things. Below is a video of how they recycle cars, refrigerators, scrap iron and other metals to make rebar.

MULCH: A mulch is anything that can be used to suppress weeds, conserve water, or give a “polished” look to a garden. There are two types – organic or inorganic.
Most organic mulches, like newspaper, shredded paper, tree bark, or grass clippings, will eventually break down (decompose) into the soil. Another organic option, called a living mulch, is a plant (clover, vetch, rye) planted beneath taller growth. This is often used in vegetable gardens to suppress weeds around tomatoes and peppers. In the fall, the living mulch is turned into the soil to improve it. You’ve also seen after a storm where trees have come down, the city or a company will mulch tree branches to clear streets, power lines, etc. creating mulch. At Christmas time cities often have a place to drop off your real Christmas trees so they can be mulched and used for city gardens around town.
An inorganic mulch is commonly used in more permanent beds, and the kinds usually chosen are heavy-duty plastics, sometimes topped with another inorganic (stone) or organic (bark) mulch. I recently heard about using shredded tires for mulch. Wow! we’ve gotten so creative.

FLY ASH: Fly ash is a fine, glass-like powder recovered from gases created by coal-fired electric power generation. U.S. power plants produce millions of tons of fly ash annually, which is usually dumped in landfills. Fly ash is an inexpensive replacement for Portland cement used in concrete, while it actually improves strength, segregation, and ease of pumping of the concrete. Fly ash is also used as an ingredient in brick, block, paving, and structural fills. Fly ash can be a cost effective partial substitute for Portland cement in markets that are experiencing cement shortages. Because this ingredient is recycled it is not put into our landfills. The image below is of Fly ash particles at 2,000x magnification!

INSULATION:Insulation helps to protect people inside a building from heat, cold, and noise, and conserves energy. Environmentally preferable insulation options offer additional benefits, such as reduced waste and pollution in manufacture and installation, more efficient resource use, recyclable, enhanced R-value, and reduced or eliminated health risks for installers and occupants. Finally, recycled-content fiberglass insulation is becoming increasingly available (ask for minimum 25% post-consumer recycled content and minimum 50% total recycled content). Some products are designed with heavier, intertwined glass fibers to reduce airborne fibers and reduce the fraction of fibers that can enter the lungs. However, cutting to size can limit these benefits.

ROAD BASE: Road Base often comes from crushed concrete. It is used for sub-grade for roads, driveways and parking lots. There are several places that take concrete which had been tore out to be replaced and crush it to look like gravel. It is a cheaper way to get your project started and it saves on our natural resources.

READY MIXED CONCRETE: There are several ways to recycle this concrete. Most all company’s recycle to some degree. They can pour blocks at their facility with leftover concrete that comes back. These blocks are used for reinforcing erosion at lakes or shoring up embankments.Ready Mix company’s can patch area’s on their property, some facilities have a reclaimer that allow them to pour wet concrete in to it and it will wash the rock and sand and pile it up to be placed back in the pile, while the cement is kept in a wet state to be reintroduced in to the next load as slurry. The company’s often wet up returned concrete and pour it into a washout pit and when they clean it out, it can be used as base as well.

There are many more products that are recycled these days. It is estimated that recyled products save 30% or more energy than a virgin made product. Just imagine if every product was recycled, 30% would add up to a lot less pollution and save our planets natural resources. Do your part and research the products you need and see if there is a recycled alternative. If you know of a construction product that is recycled, made of recycled materials etc.,  let me know. I think we will both be surprised at what is out there.

Potential is a funny thing. We all have it, the potential to go green. It’s just an idea, not real yet,  just a maybe. It can inspire you, make you rethink things, different ways to do something. What is true is that potential can never be taken away from you. There is always a possibility, always a maybe. Here at Our Everyday Earth, we hope to inspire your Green Potential with one of our many blogs. The potential to go green is limitless, it is only a matter of finding that one idea that interests you.

Is it:

Recycling plastic water bottles: Did you know that 40 billion plastic bottles are produced each year in the United States, mostly for beverages. Two-thirds of them end up in landfills. All things considered, this is not good for the environment. Avoid landfills by recycling them. Most often there is a special curbside collection for recycling, but otherwise take them to your local Bottle-Bank.

Or is it Solar power, Did you know that a solar energy system of any size increases your earth print, reduces your carbon footprint and protects your home from brownouts and blackouts. http://www.solarpowerathome.com

or Wind energy, Did you know that small wind turbines are electric generators that utilize wind energy to produce clean, emissions-free power for individual homes, farms, and small businesses. With this simple and increasingly popular technology, individuals can generate their own power and cut their energy bills while helping to protect the environment. The U.S. leads the world in the production of small wind turbines, which are defined as having rated capacities of 100 kilowatts and less, and the market is expected to continue strong growth through the next decade. http://www.awea.org

Take some time to explore your green potential, it is always possible, that green thing, a small step, exploring an idea. Turning a maybe into a yes!