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 contacted yesterday with a request to write an article about a relatively new company and I approached the request with equal amounts of skepticism and intrigue! The request was to write about a company that takes used cardboard boxes and sells them back to businesses and the general public at low prices. What I found was an extremely environmentally aware business whose value system is centered around reducing waste and recycling as many cardboard boxes as humanly possible;

“You don’t have to cut down a tree, to make a used cardboard box!”

The founder of the company, Marty Metro, started selling used cardboard boxes in his local neighborhood back in 2002 and he saw the potential for a big business;
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Have you ever wondered where all of our old computers and out dated electronics go? The shocking answer is usually that they go to a landfill but one company is making treasures out of e-trash and their waste electronic recycling is a wonderful thing!

Piles of E-Waste!

I have noticed a trend of e-waste products starting to hit our local stores in the form of circuit board picture frames etc, but I wanted to find an online store / company that sold them a little cheaper than the big retailers, that’s when I found “Terracycle”. All of Terracycles products are made from recycled items and their waste electronic recycling products are the best…

Waste Electronic Recycling by Terracycle

As a family we certainly have enough re-usable material to create some cool looking decorations, this is so much better for the environment than buying new, so we started to trawl our cupboards, garages and loft spaces for things to turn into our Irish Green decor!

 

A Handmade Green Clover

A St. Patricks Day Gift Box

I learned today that this week is a very special week for “The Grinch”, it marks his creator’s birthday, Dr Seuss would be celebrating his 105th birthday this week and we thought it only fitting that we take a look at The Grinch and how we can learn from his surprisingly Eco friendly way of life!

Let’s start with his appearance, the first and most obvious advantage he has over the rest of us eco warriors is that he is in fact “Green”, he can’t help it! In addition to actually being green he has a large belly and is covered in fur, this means his biological heating system is super efficient. It’s probably a fact that he barely uses his central heating system and rumor has it that is electricity and gas bills are next to nothing! He even has pockets of fur which he uses to keep his hands warm in the cold of winter.

How The Grinch Stole Recyclables

I have tried to be more Grinchy and have started wearing an extra sweater instead of just turning up the heat in our home.

The next admirable trait is that the Grinch is an amazing re-user of waste, in fact he hardly throws anything away! His cave is full of the scraps from Whoville and his clever inventions are all made from the things that the “Who’s” throw away. Perhaps his most famous re-use of waste materials is when he skillfully recreates Santa’s sleigh.

My quest to be more Grinchy will also involve trying to re-use as many things as possible before deciding to throw them out. This weekend will herald a Grinchfest in the garage where my wife and I are going to see if there is any waste we can put to use. I can’t promise I will be making a flying sleigh but there must be something creative we can do.

So let’s all take a page from the Grinch’s book on life and turn down that thermostat, put on a furry green sweater and strive to re-use as much as we can! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss…