What are you doing to go green? Have you made any lifestyle changes to help the environment?
One day I ran out of paper and needed to print something. (Sometimes I’d rather read from paper than my computer.) Since it was night and I couldn’t get to Staples, I improvised. I inserted used paper into the printer and printed on the opposite side. Worked like a charm and I’ve been doing it ever since. Not only does it help the environment, it also saves me money on paper.
And, speaking of that printer, I got it for free. Brand new. Recycled.
A couple of years ago someone told me about a website called Freecycle. Their mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling its members to benefit from the strength of a larger community.
I’m not on the mailing list now, but when it started, you would get an e-mail from someone who wanted to give away something that was perfectly usable to someone who could make better use of it. A greeting card company in the Village had purchased a printer. It was incompatible for their Macintosh computers and couldn’t be returned. They decided to give it away. I was the lucky and grateful recipient.
I also got a computer keyboard, books, and random other stuff from Freecycle. I’ve also given away stuff too. People have come up to my Harlem apartment and I have gone to other Manhattan neighborhoods to pick up the items.
The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,761 groups with 6,796,000 members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own neighborhoods. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer and membership is free. To find our more information, click here.
Do you recycle your garbage? Purchase “green” products? What overall conscious decisions have you made to produce less waste in general? Do you have any green tips to share?
