Re-cycling Re-sources

For those of you that requested this, and those of you that didn't...I am giving you some easy recycling resources. Are you like me and you know you saw a site once that told you how to dispose of your old cell phone or rechargeable batteries, but you can't remember what it was? Here is a list of sites that give you the how and where on recycling those items that don't go in your recycling bin every week. If you don't know what goes in your bin, go to your local town website, (mine is http://www.norwalkct.org/) and there should be a recycling guide on there somewhere that pertains to your particular town.

The following is a list of websites that will easily help you to recycle.

-Recycled batteries and old cell phones: http://www.call2recycle.org/ just plug in your zip code and off you go! My zip code came up with 3,232. stores or locations to drop them off, many within a couple minutes from my house, now there are no excuses!

-Phone books, who uses those anymore!? If you want to stop receiving phone books call:
* ATT/ Yellow Pages: 1-800-479-2977*

Verizon: 800-555-4833, press 4, then 5, then 2*

DEX: 1-877-243-8339, press 2*

Yellow Book: 1-800-929-3556, press 2

Or, go to http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/

You can also sign a petition at http://paperlesspetition.org/

-A great site that is your guide to recycling practically everything is http://www.earth911.com/. There, you can simply put what it is that you want to recycle and your zip code and viola!

I just typed in mercury thermostat (we replaced our old thermostat for a new digital energy saving one) and found out that I have to drop it off at my counties hazardous waste day, which are held a few times a year and luckily one is coming up in October.

-If you have energy efficient cfl bulbs, which do contain mercury so they cannot go in the regular trash, I just saw a recycling bin for those at my local Home Depot, but you can also use http://www.earth911.com/ to find a drop off for those too.

-If you still aren't using cloth bags at the grocery store (shame, shame) you can go to www.plasticbagrecycling.org to find a dropoff location for your extra bags. Most major grocery stores will have drop off bins at the entrance to the store as well.

If you have items that are still usable try putting them on http://www.craigslist.org/ to make a few dollars or a great website that you can join is http://www.freecycle.org/, where neighbors can give away or pick up unwanted items for free! You will find anything and everything on there! Your local consignment shops, clothing bins, Goodwill, or Salvation Army are also great spots for old clothes, shoes, and household items, depending on the location.

Don't just say "oh well" and toss it in the trash. It is not a magical bin that makes everything just disapear. Those things are going to sit in our landfills and waterways for hundreds, thousands, or millions of years and some of them leach chemicals into our ecosystem at the same time. And please, if you are going to drink out of plastic water and soda bottles, at least throw them in the recycle bin and not the trash when you are done. Most statistics say that only 23% of water bottles are being recycled, which means 77% or rest are ending up in our landfills and oceans. Since we are consuming about 70 million bottles a day, that is a lot of unnecessary waste! I love my sigg reusable water bottle, which you can find at www.mysigg.com. It only takes a few extra minutes of time to find out where things can be recycled. There is very little that needs to end up in the landfill if you take a little extra time. For some staggering fun, or not so fun facts on waste and recycling go to http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html

-If you would like to donate to any environmental causes or just read up on them, here are some of my favorite organizations:
www.nrdc.org
www.worldwildlife.org
www.sierraclub.org
www.nature.org

Take Care, Stay Green

The Greenwitch

Feel free to contact me if you ever have any recycling questions or help in finding eco-friendly products for you or your family, I will be more than happy to assist you! You can respond here or reach me by email at sarah@organizedbysarah.com

It's been a while...

Hi everyone,

Sorry I have been MIA for quite some time now, Christmas to be exact! I have been busy with other things, as we all are, and before you realize it, it's May 12th! I started a new business called Organized by Sarah which you can find on facebook or http://www.organizedbysarah.com/. I starting doing residential closet organization and am very excited to start my new venture, while continuing with my job at Quester Gallery and hopefully putting up more greenwitch posts as well!

I am really excited to announce that in July, my town of Norwalk, CT will be accepting plastics with the recycling numbers 1-7 now! Yes, that does excite me. Right now they only take numbers 1-3. I always cringe when I have to throw away yogurt containers, chinese food containers, deli containers, and other plastics that they won't accept. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just flip over any plastic container and you will see the small triangle shaped recycle symbol with a number inside of it. Most towns will accept certain numbers, usually 1-3 because they are a certain type of plastic that has the plants in place to recycle them. Can't wait for July, my Stonyfield Farms Organic yogurt is going to be that much sweeter when I don't have to toss the container in the trash anymore!

I was actually inspired to write on here today not just to catch up, but to tell you all about a new product I found that I like. If you are a chocolate and coconut fan then this one is for you. It's Kashi's TLC Dark Chocolate Coconut Fruit & Grain Bar. It's actually really tasty and the chocolate is thick and gooey, yum! It has 4 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, 120 calories, and only 7 grams of sugar, which is really good for a granola bar that still tastes good. It does have soy and nut products so be careful if you have allergies. It's a great breakfast if you're on the go or a snack when you are craving something sweet and salty or just some chocolate. No, they don't pay me to say these things, I just like spreading the word on things that I believe in.

I Hope you find yourselves enjoying the warmer weather and getting outside when you can. I planted bushes, plants, and flowers this weekend at my house and it felt good to get my hands in the dirt with the worms! Still haven't cleaned up the track of mud I left in the hall, but that's OK!

Take Care, Stay Green

The Greenwitch

Treecycling

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had great holidays! If you're like me and my husband and don't know what to do with your tree when you are done with it and your husband ends up driving all around creation trying to dump it into non-existent woods in your neighborhood like he did last year, here is a good alternative! Go to this website to find out how and where to recycle your Christmas tree in your area. There are programs that will turn your tree into compost or mulch to be used again, hooray! http://green.msn.com/Tools/GreenDirectory/Recycle/Default.aspx

Just type in Christmas Tree in the "What" and your zip code in the "Where".

According to Earth911

"Christmas trees are recycled for five main types of large-scale uses for post-harvest trees:

Chipping (chippings are used for various things from mulch to hiking trails)
Beachfront erosion prevention
Lake and river shoreline stabilization
Fish habitat
River delta sedimentation management

Today around 98 percent of real Christmas trees are grown on farms throughout all 50 states and Canada. Real trees are a renewable, recyclable resource, and real trees are planted to be harvested just as corn and/or pumpkins are cultivated for a harvest.

For each real Christmas tree harvested, up to three new seedlings are planted in its place, depending on farm size and current field rotation. Young trees in their rapid growth years have a high rate of photosynthesis and thus produce more oxygen than older trees.

This year, over 60 million new seedlings were planted by Christmas tree farmers all over North America."

Now you don't have to feel so bad for chopping down that tree, and feel even better for recycling it when you are done with it!

Take Care Stay Green,

The Greenwitch

Holiday Wish

Happy Holidays! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the spirit of giving, sharing, and enjoying time with friends and family this year. I appreciate so much in my life every day, especially in these hard economic and unknown times, and I hope you do too. My wish is for everyone to look past all the doom and gloom that we hear every night on the news and look to those you love and realize that is what really matters.

I couldn't leave off without giving out some free information, of course!! I just read a post on http://www.ivillage.com/ go green about natural beauty products and I thought I would share it with you. If you are still looking for gifts, as most of you men probably are, get someone you love something that is good for them and will make them look and feel beautiful too! Or, just get a little treat for yourself! I'm still in the process of swapping out the old toxic with the new natural products myself. A great website to check out the ingredients that are in your shampoos, makeup, cleansers, moisturizers, etc. and what they mean to your health is http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/. Nourish your body from the inside out, which means eating organic whole foods, but don't forget about your skin, which absorbs up to 60 percent of 200 chemicals daily! These are some of ivillage's favorites:

For Colorado-based Pangea Organics, the mandate is "truly organic" and full disclosure. At Pangea, healthy means "of the earth" — not "ingredients taken from the earth and then mixed in a lab with unnamed additives." Calendula, rosemary, Egyptian fennel and Nigerian ginger are but a few of Pangea's herbal extracts that support body and mind. Pangea products enjoy a two-year-plus shelf life, yet tend to biodegrade in 48 hours.
For EO, a small, 12-year-old family business, plants matter. Essential oils are concentrated, aromatic plant essences, and they give the company its name and passion. Used in aromatherapy for centuries, essential oils are a main ingredient in EO's products, which are based on traditional healing practices. The company has studied herbalists, chemists and family-owned farms, and it boasts the first USDA-certified organic lip balm. EO relies on its oils to "awaken and delight the senses."
Devoted to wholesome skin care, New Zealand based Living Nature, began 17 years ago, and since then, it has consistently offered some of the world's most natural products. Still isolated and relatively unpolluted, New Zealand provides exceptional raw materials. Many of the company's plants are "organic wildcrafted" — grown and harvested chemical-free in the wild. But because they are wild, some are not certified organic. New Zealand 's special plants, manuka honey and clays are rich in bioactive ingredients and positive medicinal benefits.
A leader in holistic skin care for 35 years, Dr. Hauschka's pure botanical products and treatments are anchored in unique farming methods that protect life rhythms and a plant's core healing properties. Ingredients are grown organically, biodynamically (a more holistic form of organic agriculture) or ethically wild-harvested. Dr. Hauschka uses a high-quality alcohol distilled from vegetables and grains instead of the isopropyl alcohol usually found in cosmetics. The company's Website offers comprehensive answers to a range of questions.
The brainchild of a California businessman, Organic Fiji promotes the vitamin-rich, natural healing and moisturizing properties of 100 percent certified organic coconut oil. With one of the world's only certified organic coconut plantations, the company uses an ancient Fijian recipe for its soaps. Its facial products protect the skin with natural antioxidants, and the company is committed to clean, humane and healthy environmental practices.
Devour started out with a wildly successful hand-blended fragrance oil. The company prides itself in long-lasting scents, and its nonalcoholic fragrance base blends naturally with a woman's own body chemistry for a scent that, unlike commercial perfume, is personal and distinctive.

Have a safe and healthy New Year!

Take Care, Stay Green,

The Greenwitch

Fall Is In The Air!

Autumn in New England usually begins for me when you can actually smell Fall in the air. For anyone who lives in CT, you probably know that to be true. It is my favorite time of the year and I look forward to everything that comes with it, especially the comfort food! Unfortunately, it is also a time when we start closing up the windows, doors, and sealing up the home for winter to keep in the heat and save as much as we can on our electric bills. It is also the time where many of us resort to candles and air fresheners to give us that clean, fresh, or warm Fall scent that you can only truly get with fresh air or your favorite treat baking in the oven.

I belong to many online newsletters, where I learn a lot of information and also get some new ideas. I just recently received one from http://www.seventhgeneration.com/. They sell eco-friendly household and paper products, which I myself use, enjoy, and believe in, but they also give out good information and tips for you at home. This is what they have to say about the use of air fresheners, including aerosols, plug-ins, potpourri, and some scented candles .

"According to the Children's Health Environmental Coalition, the fragrance products industry relies on over 3,000 different chemical compounds to create its olfactory wonders. These include flammable propellants like butane and propane; terpenes, xylene, benzene, and other volatile organic compounds; petroleum distillates like naphthalene; and chemicals like phenol, cresol, and paradichlorobenzene. Recently, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigation of air fresheners found that nearly a third of the samples tested contained phthalates.
These and other ingredients are combined in air freshener formulas to create products intentionally designed to fill our homes with invisible airborne fumes that linger in the air where they can be repeatedly inhaled. And manufacturers aren't required to tell us exactly what's in the air fresheners we buy. Instead, most hide their ingredients behind generic label terms like "fragrance" and "scent agent." When we use these products, we have no way of knowing what we're really breathing, and in winter's sealed-up homes, our exposure to them can be nearly constant. "

For me, personally, the more products with "fragrance" or "scent" that I remove from my life, the more I notice how sensitive I am to these products when they are around me again. A few years ago I used to use dryer sheets and perfume with no problem. Now, if I am in some one's house that is doing laundry with strong scented detergent or fabric softener, the smell actually gives me a physical reaction and bothers me. I choose to use seventh generation unscented laundry detergent and no fabric softener and I am happy with the results. Don't get me wrong, I love things that smell good. It's just that the perception of what "good" means to me has changed. Things that smells good to me now are an actual apple pie baking in the oven, a toasty fire in the fireplace, a fresh bunch of flowers, or just opening the door to the crisp Fall air. To each his or her own on what you think smells good or not, but I hope that whatever aroma it is you choose to add to your life comes from nature and not a bottle of chemicals that could be hurting you, your family, or your pets.

Seventh Generation has some suggestions of ways to keep your home smelling nice without subjecting yourself to all of the chemicals in artificial air fresheners. Summed up they are:

1. Use undiluted 3% hydrogen peroxide or vinegar to remove bad smells like mildew in the trash can.

2. Use natural mineral borax and/or baking soda to deodorize surfaces and other places in your home. Lemon juice is also a natural deodorizer.

3. Open a door or window for a short period of time just to let the fresh air in and any chemicals or stale air out.

4. Make your own air freshener by adding a few drops of an essential oil to two cups of water and put in a spray bottle.

5. Put a drop of essential oil on a light bulb or add to a pot of water and put on a radiator. Or, use cinnamon sticks, cloves, or dried herbs in some boiling water.

6. A few drops of essential oil in your vacuum's exhaust filter or a couple drops of lemon into the bag.

7. If you burn candles to scent air make sure yours are made from beeswax or other natural waxes like soy rather than petroleum-based paraffin wax. Choose candles with lead-free wicks and naturally-derived scents. And use them sparingly ― natural candles may be safer but they're still filling your air with small amounts of combustion byproducts.

8. Problem situations can sometimes be helped by an air purifier that contains an activated charcoal filter. Don't use devices that generate ozone, which is a hazardous pollutant.

I hope these tips help you to enjoy a safe and healthy Fall season, now go jump in a pile of leaves!

Make sure you sign up to receive all of the Greenwitch blogs!

Take Care, Stay Green

The Greenwitch

Keep Your Cap!

Hopefully, like you, I think I've finally gotten the hang of recycling at home. Every time I throw something away I am contstantly sorting the plastics, glass, papers, cans, cardboard, etc. but I'm always frustrated when I have to throw out the caps to the plastic bottles since they do not recycle them. Yes, that's right, they DO NOT recycle them, so stop throwing them in your bin! I found this article on www.ecosalon.com by Sarah Irani that gives us one solution to the cap problem. If you're intersted in saving those caps from ending up in our oceans you can go to www.aveda.com/caps for more information or just bring them into your local aveda store. www.aveda.com

Take Care, Stay Green

The Greenwitch

LIFESTYLE / ECOSALON HOME
Sep 10, 2008 at 5:00 am by Sarah Irani
A Place for the Peskiest Plastics

And why is it that we can’t recycle plastic caps? Any of us who sort and separate our plastics know that we have to remove the little buggers and throw them away. It’s because caps are made from a different kind of plastic that cannot be easily recycled. Thanks to Aveda, there’s a place for these caps can go.They’ve had a cap collecting program in place for months now and repurpose the caps into new packaging for their products. This is great considering most plastic caps end up in rivers and oceans; tiny colorful tidbits for animals to munch on and get very sick from.So round up your caps and take them to any Aveda store, or just mail them in if that’s more convenient. (You'll have to email them for an address on that).Yet another triumph for the zero-waster in all of us!

Image: preciouskhyatt

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Sarah, aka, The Greenwitch. I'm just a "regular" girl, or woman I guess since I'm in my thirties, that wants to make healthy changes in my life while doing the right thing for the environment and our planet. I'm not one of those people that gets out there and joins campaigns or travels the world to try and stop the melting ice caps, but I do care. I do care, and I want to do things here at home that are healthy for us and the earth while having fun and maintaining my current lifestyle. I'm not the kind of person to stop shaving or give up deoderant, but I do want to know which one is the healthiest and most effective one I can find. More about that later! I started this blog to let people in on my quest to live a green life and hopefully spread the knowledge of what I'm learning and hope people will pass along what they have learned in return. Gandhi said "be the change that you want to see in the world" and if that means means letting my friends know what kind of organic toothpaste is the best, well for me, it's a start! I don't claim to have all the answers and I don't claim to be the perfect ecosapien (I just made that up), but I'm working on it, a little bit at a time. I hope that, together, we can become a group of aware, knowledgeable, and proactive friends that want to pass along what we know and spread the word that organic, natural, and eco friendly is a great way to live. This is just the beginning, so look for lots more posts, lots more information, and maybe just some random thoughts! Thanks for stopping by!
The Greenwitch