Mrs Green’s six stories on Sunday

Filed in Blog by on July 5, 2009 0 Comments
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l Emmons shows what is left of a house he owned in Greenfield. Photo credit: Jeffrey Phelps

Al Emmons shows what is left of a house he owned in Greenfield. Photo credit: Jeffrey Phelps

It’s that time of the week again when I get to share some great eco friendly stories from around the world.

They will be linked to reducing, reusing, recycling or composting our way to a zero waste future.

So without further ado, let’s see who has been helping make the world a better place this week.

A zero waste day

If you’re ready for an entertaining story from compost woman, then look no further than her excellent post ‘My zero waste day’.

She weaves a good tale that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat about her adventures in trying to go waste free for a day. All to celebrate and support WRAP’s Recycle week.

Her forfeit should she  fail was to sit in the compost bin. Go and find out whether her bottom got hot, or not …

Reducing e-waste

This is a great story, because the issue of mobile phone chargers has annoyed me for many years.

Picture the scene; you need a new mobile phone, and you have a perfectly good charger with your existing ‘phone. BUT, when you buy a new phone, you get a new charger too. Regardless of whether or not you need one. Hands up who has a drawer full of orphan phone chargers?

However, some of the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to adopt a new universal standard of phone charger in an effort to be more environmentally friendly.  You can read all about it in the Telegraph’s ‘Manufacturers agree on standard phone charger.’

Clean bin celebrates one year

I feel like a proud mother! Jen and Grant and earned themselves a place on my Sunday spot again.

This week was a very important time for them as they reached day 365 of their ‘clean bin’ project. For a year, they have not bought anything new, making do and mending for a full 12 months. It’s lovely to read their post and find the answer to the question on everyone’s lips: What will their first new purchase be?!

Head over to their post ‘The End‘ and find out what new purchase Jen has her eye on and how much their landfill waste is – it makes us look like monster consumers by comparison!

Congratulations Jen, Grant and Rhy; it’s been an amazing year and I’ve loved reading your blog.

Reuse cardboard cereal boxes

Tammy from the Frugal Musician has come up with a fabulous idea. She reuses her cardboard cereal boxes as mailers for sending items in the post; similar to the ones Amazon use to post books.

I love her tutorial and she makes it look so simple and effective. Reusing cardboard boxes in this way is something I had never thought of myself. Thanks for the inspiration Tammy!

Follow her “The Frugal Musician makes a cardboard mailer” and let me know how you get on!

Recycle your house!

We thought we did a lot with our recent garage declutter, but Al Edmmons, on the other side of the pond recycled his entire house.

Unable to renovate his home, demolishers wanted $10,000 to do the job. Al decided to let people help themselves instead of demolishing and landfilling things; and they did!

Stone, windows, sewerage pipes and even plants from the garden were taken away by grateful recipients until only a few floorboards and some concrete blocks remained. Read the amazing story “helpful scavengers recycle home piece by piece

Children taught about beach litter

Over on Maisie’s “Our Year Of Greener living” blog, she tells a great story about some students at one of her kids schools going on a litter watch at a local beach.

The most shocking piece for me is about a washing up liquid bottle they picked up with a price on it.

That price was written in old money.

Go and have a read about the other empowering information these children were given by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust in her ‘School trip‘ post.

That’s it for another week. I hope you enjoyed the stories. We’ll be back tomorrow for more rubbishy adventures.

About the Author ()

I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

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