Conscience buying.

I talk a lot about my enthusiasm for reusing everyday items to keep things out of the landfills but, most importantly, it also helps keep my carbon-footprint conscience from eroding. These past few years I've concentrated on removing more items from our household to create a more harmonious livelihood for my family. It sounds so simple but it isn't always easy and I'm so envious of those folks who really put themselves to the test - like the little New York family in the documentary No Impact Man who lived off the grid for a year. This movie inspired me a few years ago because I don't have the balls to do it. Not even close. I daydream about it but don't think I could pull it off. I don't even drive an electric car - or even a Hybrid for that matter. In fact, I recently sold my 14-year-old Subaru Outback with 160,000+ miles for a friend's Jeep Cherokee because it only had 40,000 miles. I went from a 4-cylinder to a V-6 and, quite honestly, I'm ashamed by it. But I couldn't walk away from a car that wasn't dripping oil all over town and smoking after I went on long trips.

Conscience buying to eliminate waste is always in the back of my mind and while I'm not perfect, I'm working on it and with a family of four - that's all I can hope for.

I've put together a little list of my 'waste-not, want-not' accomplishments: 
(Don't roll your eyes, you knew this was coming.)

1.) ZIPLOC BAGGIES

First item to tackle was those really handy, easy-to-use plastic baggies we call Ziploc. They are great for marinating vegetables or meat, perfect for throwing a few snacks in for kids and great for packing up leftovers from dinner. Once I finally pulled my head out of the sand and realized what they were, and how many I was using, I was embarrassed - and appalled - and decided I would no longer be associated with them. After year two of the boycott, I've never looked back.

ALTERNATIVE TO THE PLASTIC BAGGIES: We reuse all our containers that sour cream, cottage cheese and yogurt come in. We particularly love reusing glass containers and fill these up with snacks for the kids or leftovers. We don't buy any new Tupperware containers, just use what we already have. It's been an easy transition and very rewarding!

2.) PAPER TOWELS

They are just so damn handy. I love soaking up everything with these squares of paper. I mean, how do you soak up all the bacon grease without these little guys? (We eat BLT's regularly). Paper towels are a tug-of-war thing for my husband and I: He wants them. I don't.

When I finally eliminate them for months at a time, he talks me into buying them again for a month until I get the environmental guilt-ies and refuse to buy any. I hate paying for paper products you don't need (now toilet paper is not one of them) and paper towels are expensive!

ALTERNATIVE TO THE PAPER TOWEL:  We have a basket of old rags and towels we use for wiping up just about anything. We don't typically wash these right away unless they get down right dirty. I haven't figured out the soaking up of bacon grease yet so I just lay them out on a plate. I might start laying it on towels, but I haven't tried it yet.

3.) LIMIT (OR IF YOU'RE AWESOME ELIMINATE) RETAIL PURCHASES.

Second hand and consignment stores are my friends. Like, my really good friends. I've always had a knack for busting through a used store and coming out with some pretty solid shit. Macklemore has nothing on me - I'm the queen of the thrift stores.

ALTERNATIVE TO RETAIL: Check out thrift stores or children's consignment shops for all those little things kids need gear for: soccer shoes, shorts, shin guards, baseballs, basketballs and so much more.  There are also organized clothing swaps in various communities where folks take kids clothes and gear to swap for other things they need - all for free. Take advantage of not buying (new) retail!

4.) WORKPLACE SHAPE UP.

I don't know how a company in today's times can continue getting away with buying Dixie cups for available "pure" water and endless amounts of plastic utensils and paper plates - but many of them do. This is ridiculous to me and once I went back to work part-time for a large corporation last year - they had no idea what was coming. I couldn't believe the waste and almost immediately started spouting off my nonsense. Well - my rants worked because they no longer are stocking huge boxes of Dixie cups (which from a storage standpoint is also ridiculous) or boxes of plastic spoons, forks and knives. You're welcome environment.

NEXT UP ON MY ELIMINATION LIST:

• Swiffer (thanks to my husband's sister laughing at me that I don't do paper towels but bust out a Swiffer.) Touche' my friend. (In all honesty, I can't stand those either.)
• Sponges. My husband loves these and color coordinates one for dishes and one for counters. We did start buying recycled material sponges, but it still feels dirty.

The Little Eco-camp That Could.

This past summer I had the cool opportunity to finally launch an Eco-camp I designed specifically for kids ages 3-6 years-old. This 'little camp that could' was warmly titled: Jack and the Greenstalk Eco-camp and was built around the idea that introducing kids early to some environmental basics gives them the tools to grow into Eco-minded adults who make a difference, hence our slogan, "Where kids become sustainable leaders!"

This idea started simply enough. My son is a die-hard environmentalist. He's constantly picking up random street trash with his delicate little hands and - although I appreciate his efforts - encourage him to wait until we have gloves because you never know what you'll find. I'm not gonna lie, he tells on people who litter. He doesn't like it and isn't afraid to say it. He also doesn't like any amount of water running that is not directly being used. I like his style. He gets it and he's only four. During an earlier trip to the Seattle Science Center this year, he was appalled to learn an exhibit made up of plastic bags, golf balls, electrical tape, Capri Sun juice boxes and rope were actually the contents of a whale's stomach beached earlier in West Seattle. He not only talked about that whale and the garbage in his stomach for days - he talked about it for months.

This got me thinking.

How can we encourage other kids his age to be aware of their environmental surroundings? How do we get them excited about picking up litter, using less water, understanding the impact recycling has on oceans and animal life? In essence, how do we help shape their lives where they grow and want to act on their commitment to the environment and become conscientious adults?

And this, my friends, is where Jack and the Greenstalk Eco-Camp grew from an idea into a day camp for kids which was first introduced at my son's Montessori preschool in Seattle.The agenda was simple enough: introduce things like recycling, composting, planting trees, playtime with worms and dirt, up-cycling items instead of throwing them away and using food as natural dyes.

Day 1 of this five-day camp started out with a fun display of a whale bath tub (for an infant) that I filled with - you guessed it - plastic bags, golf balls, electrical tape, Capri Sun juice boxes and rope to mimic the contents found in the real stomach of the whale beached in West Seattle. My family and I had just been at the beach along the Oregon Coast when we found tons of trash on our walks in the sand. It actually hit home more than ever how our garbage - and lots of it - is ending up in our oceans, lakes and rivers. We picked up some of this beach trash to bring with us to the Eco-camp and drive home why we should be picking up after ourselves. We followed this up with our crayon project and broke up a bag of old crayons to melt down into new ones. We removed the paper and broke them down into the color designs we liked and placed them in mini muffin tins. We placed in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 250 degrees. This created the most spectacular colors and we displayed them in a plastic berry container after filling it up with shredded recycled paper. We drew a personalized label out of a cereal boxes that said: "100% Recycled by...(insert name here)." It was cool and the kids were psyched about their new crayons.

Day 2 - This was our 'using natural dye' day and it required various foods to be either boiled down and the juices strained or using the natural juices of foods liked canned beets. We chose to boil down purple cabbage and onion skins and used both canned beet juice and grape juice to color our hard-boiled eggs. We added a tablespoon of vinegar to each dye and poured our dyes in various reusable containers like mayonnaise jars and cottage cheese containers. The best part about this project is the kids thought it was so cool to be able to drink their "dye" which you typically don't  encourage with your store-bought dyes. The kids loved seeing what colors their food dyes produced. (I'm always partial to the rusted orange the onion skins produce.)

Finished eggs and the variety of colors using food dyes.

Not afraid to drink the 'dye'.

Day 3 - This day was focused on composting and tree planting. I brought my composting bin filled with red wiggler worms for the kids to run their hands through. They loved finding and holding the thousands of worms inside the bin. It didn't matter they had to sort through food waste to get to them. Next, we took 'composted' dirt and planted Evergreen trees into various recycled containers. They each got to take a tree home and replant at their house! It was a fun day of getting our hands dirty and seeing how little worms can make rich dirt to plant trees with.

Day 4 - This was a review day of everything we learned during the week. We documented our Eco-week by cutting up paper bags and cereal boxes and binding them with old yarn to make a book titled, "Jack and the Greenstalk Eco-Camp 2012." Each page included a photo of them doing each project. The front of the book included the entire class. It was a nice keepsake to take home and show their family what they did during the week at camp.

Our 2012 Eco-camp participants with their new trees!