I finally found a place for all the clutter -- at Best Buy!

We are big tech people. I can’t count how many servers, workstations, gaming consoles, and pieces of consumer electronics that we’ve purchased since we’ve been married. I’ve been recycling the big stuff — computers, laptops, monitors, and televisions — for a while now, but it’s been more difficult to figure out what to do with all the cords, remotes, and other electronic-related items that were left over. Oh, and I can’t forget the plastic gift cards that we used to purchase them. They were invariably thrown into the trash. Until now, that is.

I’ve always known that Best Buy has a fabulous electronics recycling program, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized the store also took stuff that other recycling sources won’t: CDs, DVDs, gift cards, wires, cables, cords, remotes, and controllers. Oh, and the store also has a repository for plastic bags, batteries, and ink and toner cartridges, too. At last! I have a place to get rid of everything — for free! While you might not think throwing away an empty gift card here and a wire there is a big deal, it really is because it all adds up. We, as a society, generate more than 4 billion pounds of e-waste every year, so it’s important to take every recycling opportunity we can. We should be recapturing whatever we can.

My Best Buy epiphany had its roots on YouTube. I found out about the company’s recycling program by doing a search. (I was looking for a place to get rid of all my old CDs and CD-Rs.) Even though I was busy that day, I actually sat through the company’s video about how it recycles. I wanted to be sure Best Buy wasn’t like so many other companies that say they are recycling but simply collect everything and dump it overseas without removing the hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. (It’s a great video, BTW, and worth sitting through and showing to your kids.) I was really happy to see that Best Buy is able to break down all those tvs, laptops, keyboards, and monitors into their most basic elements so they can go back into the supply chain. Who knew a keyboard could go right into a shredder?

Last week I made a trip to Best Buy with my kids. They watched as I unloaded a black garbage bag full of wires and cables as well as a small box of old remotes. When I got home I started a bag for gift cards. It’s sitting in the garage next to my bag of old batteries. While I know I can’t recycle everything, it really makes me feel good to lessen my footprint — if only just a little bit. How about you?

I used to feel really guilty about that, but now that I’ve discovered that kids really don’t want that much, it’s not so bad. For example, I recently got rid of what seemed like a ton of stuffed animals, board games, and puzzles. (Okay, it was only three large bags, but still…) The kids did not even notice they were gone.

Of course, I’m pretty careful when I’m doing my weekly thrift store donation analysis. Before I toss anything I run it through a checklist:

1. Do either of the kids have any emotional attachment to this item?
2. When was the last time they wore it/played with it?
3. Do I know someone who would get use out of it?

The answers help me figure out whether to keep something or toss it. When it comes to emotional attachments, well, my decisions are much easier for Big Girl’s stuff than with Little Girl’s stuff. My little one latches on to stuff in a way that her sister never did. Case in point: Her bed. Right now there are about a dozen assorted animals that sleep with her every night. She knows EXACTLY who should be in there and complains bitterly if they are missing. This, I think, is the most important part of the check list. If there’s no emotional attachment, the decision is really a no-brainer.

Still, I am not an ogre. Just because someone doesn’t swoon over an item doesn’t mean it’s not worth something, so that’s where the time element comes in. My rule of thumb is simple: If it’s been more than a month or two since they played with something I can probably safely squirrel it out of the house. I figure if they haven’t looked for it, they probably aren’t going to.

I use the same lenses when I am pillaging my own closets. Sometimes, I cut too deeply and regret it (WHY did I get rid of those great thigh-high white boots?!?), but for the most part my excavation works really well. How about you? Do you sort and toss often? Once a year? How does that work for you?

We got rid of the equivalent of two carloads of stuff from the garage, four large boxes of old electronics (including a 37-inch LCD TV that was broken), two huge boxes full of cardboard, three boxes of dangerous chemicals, fluorescent light bulbs, and paint, our old stainless refrigerator, 70 empty plastic DVD cases, a dead red maple, a bag of old batteries, a pile of stumps and logs, two bags full of clothing, a giant bag of plastic bags, about 200 magazines, and about 10 pair of shoes. Oh, and all of the empty cosmetic and personal care containers I’ve been saving since Janaury.

The stuff from the garage went to the local thrift store. They were happy to get it. The boxes of electronics including old laptops, mother boards, and wires went to the e-waste recycling program. Same with the batteries and dangerous chemicals — they found a new home with the Stop Throwing Out Pollutants (STOP) program. The tree and stumps were ground up and brought to my town’s local compost location. The clothing went to the thrift shop. The cardboard went to my friend’s curb since her town recycles cardboard and mine does not. I Freecycled the DVD cases. Someone picked them up within two hours of my post. The personal care and cosmetics packaging went to the Origins counter at the mall. (They will recycle or burn for energy anything you’d like to drop off.) The shoes joined the other ten I had already dropped off at the Soles4Souls collection at my daughter’s school. The magazines got bundled up with twine. They go out Wednesday night with the rest of the recycling. The plastic bag of plastic bags went into the collection bin at Lowe’s. I sold the fridge on Craigslist.com for $200.

I can’t explain how free I feel right now. I have a clean garage. My husband’s office, which we also painted and rearranged, looks the best that it’s ever looked. I have two completely empty shelves in my clothes closet. Empty! Same with my shoe shelves. My kitchen was already clean from last month’s purge.

In addition to all the purging, we spruced up the house a bit. Big Girl got a gorgeous chandelier in her bedroom. My husband put that in the same day that he spackled a hole in our bathroom and changed the lamppost out front. The previous weekend he put up wire shelving in our coat closet so now the mittens are with the mittens and the hats are with the hats. (Did I mention that he’s truly amazing around the house?!?)

I find it much easier to work — at home, with the kids, with my job — when everything is clean and neat and in its place. And the best part: Everything that used to call my house its home is in the process of finding another home. Nothing ended up in a landfill or an incinerator. There are no heavy metals leeching into the water supply because of my old computers, for instance. It’s a wonderful thing.

Ever drive around on December 26? You’ll see bags and bags and BAGS of garbage. The amount of trash we produce grows exponentially during the holidays. What’s in most of those bags? Wrapping paper and cardboard packaging. But the front of your house doesn’t have to look like a trash heap since most of the stuff you throw out during the holidays can be recycled or composted.

Take wrapping paper. What’s it made of? Paper, of course. Paper like your old newspaper. Paper like the printer mistakes you recycle. Paper like your junk mail. You can recycle it by simply tossing it in with your regular paper recycling bin. The one exception: Foil wrapping paper, which should go into the regular trash.

There’s other waste, too. We open lots of cans of stuff, empty bottles of stuff, too. In the hustle and bustle of the day it might seem easier just to toss it in the trash. However, if you take the time today to bring your recycling bin into the garage (or place it outside the backdoor), it will be a lot easier to recycle and less tempting to trash.

And how about all the packing materials and cardboard you will inevitably find hanging around the house? Get rid of cardboard with your regular newspaper recycling. (Yes, all those doll and truck boxes, too!) Packing peanuts find a second life at places like Mail Boxes Etc. or the UPS Store. You can find the closest place that accepts them at the Plastic Loose Fill Council’s Web site.

Holiday food such as coffee grinds, fruit, unbuttered veggies, and bread can find a second life in your compost bin.

And what about the scads of plastic bags we generate around this time of the year? Take all the plastic bubble wrap, air wrap, plastic bags from toys and electronics — even dry cleaner bags and good old shopping bags — to a store like Lowes or CVS or your local supermarket where you can recycle them in the plastic bag recycling bins. Not sure where your local plastic bag recycling location is? Check out the American Chemistry Council’s Plasticbagrecycling.org.

And when the dust clears and you’re looking to get rid of your old electronics to make room for your new DVD player, smart phone, or PC? Please be kind to your fellow man and dispose of it properly since all of the above have heavy metals and all sorts of toxic, nasty substances inside. Check out the Environmental Protection Agency’s listing of resources online.

Say no to plastic spoons!

It is no secret that I LOVE Trader Joe’s. Love it. One of my favorite things about the store is tucked way in the back along the left wall: the sample counter. Yesterday, they were sampling Checkerboard Mousse Cake ($6.99.). Are you freakin’ kidding me? So sweet and smushy and yummy. I couldn’t buy it. I will, but not until the day before I will be toting it to my in-laws’ house so I don’t eat it all in one sitting. The other sample was Sweet Potato Pie Bites — layers of fillo dough filled with sweet potato purée, brown sugar, butter, and a candied pecan. Sounded amazing, but I had to skip it since it contains nuts. Last Wednesday they were giving out samples of Fully Cooked Half of a Roasted Turkey as well as pre-made mashed potatoes. I took some of both (and yes, both were good), but I felt SUPER guilty about it. You see, in addition to two little paper cups, I also got two plastic spoons.

It took me less than five seconds to devour those goodies, but those plastic forks will remain forever in our waste stream. Yes, forever, because they are made from traditional petroleum-based plastic, which hurts the environment during manufacturing (petroleum by-products sort of suck — benzene, xylenes, etc.) and during disposal because it’s not like anyone is recycling all those plastic spoons and forks. For example, I know my own town’s recycling program won’t take plastic forks and spoons. In fact, according to the Clean Air Council, enough paper and plastic utensils are thrown away every year to circle the equator 300 times. From a recent press release I got:

“It is estimated that close to 40 billion individual plastic utensils—meaning between 14 and 18 billion plastic spoons—are produced each year… [and] most of them end up in our landfills, beaches and oceans, where they are likely to remain for hundreds of thousands of years.”

Uggg. In the past, I’ve turned down the forks, sticking with the squeeze and suck method to get the food out of the little cups. And it does work for the most part, but I always figured there had to be a better way. This morning I got a press release from a company called EcoTensil, which sells, something that fits that bill: Paperboard spoons that are recyclable and compostable.

Sounds like a great idea, right? The company is making some decent inroads. I was very impressed that Stonyfield Farms is using EcoTensil’s EcoTaster spoons for its event samplings. Recently, Stonyfield used about 60,000 EcoTasters at the U.S. Open! With that kind of backing and visibility I am hoping that smart, eco-friendly companies like Trader Joe’s get the hint and get rid of stupid plastic spoons. (And no, I have nothing to do with EcoTensils or Stonyfield OR Trader Joe’s. I just like this idea.) Until then, I’ll be sticking with the squeeze and suck route. How about you?

I recently discovered PopCorners, an amazingly good snack food made with air-popped popcorn. Flavors include butter, sea salt, kettle, and jalapeno. I’ve got some samples to give out to ten readers who post below. I’ll be choosing winners randomly and “popping” them in the mail by Friday, December 3. Want to be one of the lucky ones? Tell me why you need a new snack fix.

Sure, we’ve been recycling plastic yogurt cups and take-out containers since we first got our yellow recycling pail. But now I’ve started collecting polyethylene — better known as the plastic that bags are made of — too. You know, the ones that comprise a big part of the Pacific Garbage Patch. (Don’t know what that is? Check out this post from last year.)

And it’s not just plastic bags I’ve been stowing away for later recycling. Nope, I’ve been recycling all of the following:

Magazine and newspaper wrap and bags
Paper towel, napkin and toilet paper wrap
Dry cleaning bags
Shrink wrap around food (not to be confused with plastic wrap)
Bread bags including rolls, white bread bags, and English muffin bags
Furniture wrap
Electronics wrap (those plastic bags that are around, for example, a new DVD player)
Cereal box liners
Produce bags (although now I bring my own)
Bubble wrap and deflated air packets (I get a lot of press kits)
Bottled water case wrap (Well, only one since we don’t do bottled water)
Diaper and baby wipe packaging (Again, not really buying this anymore)
General “wrap” such as the film from a roll of wrapping paper, the bags the new phone books came in, and the polybag from my kid’s new toy

I get a big plastic bag and stuff as much as I can into it. After a month or so I take a trip to Lowes like I did today. Then I empty all that plastic into the recycling bin where it is eventually hauled off and made into new plastic bags or plastic lumber. A beautiful thing, right.

Today’s recycling mission was the equivalent of literally hundreds of plastic items. I was amazed as I emptied my bags into the bin. I really made a dent in my own personal garbage stream by taking on that recycling. Trust me, it’s easy to do, and once you get started you just don’t want to stop. Want to learn more about recycling? Check out the official America Recycles Day website. And with that I am off to wish my husband a Happy America Recycles Day! Hope everyone has a good one!

How often do you recycle? If you don’t, what’s stopping you? I’d like to know.

My $70 desk and chair garage sale find. Gotta love garage sales!

Regular readers know I have recently implemented a new practice in my house: If something new (and inedible) comes in, something old has to go out. It’s challenging when that “something” happens to belong to Big Girl.

Recently, she got a few new pairs of shoes, a few new tops, and a gorgeous desk for her room. (Bought the desk at a garage sale for $70. After hubby and my father-in-law got done with it — and I added $50 worth of new hardware — it is gorgeous.) So with so many new things it was time to get rid of some old things. I went through and collected stuff. A Strawberry Shortcake doll and bike she hadn’t picked up in ages, a few sweaters, some old sneakers, a stuffed animal or two. I bagged them up with the old Diaper Champ and Ocean Wonders aquarium we weren’t using any more. Then I threw in some of my husband’s nice but never-worn shirts, and some housewares, too. The bag was sitting by the door when I heard it. “Mommy, these are MY things!”

I ran to the front door to stop Big Girl before she dug much further into the bag. I didn’t want her to see the toys or the stuffed animals. Especially since she cried during the last clean out when she found out I got rid of her “favorite” white sweater. I reminded her about our policy. How we didn’t want to accumulate so much, and how there are so many people in need who would enjoy her old things. She calmed down and slowly went back to her game, looking at the bag with a critical eye. Later that night I stuck the bag in my car so there would be no rummaging. I dropped the whole mess off this morning at the local thrift store. I was pleased to see the Diaper Champ go outside right away with a $8 sticker on it.

It’s not easy to give stuff up. I know it. I still feel twangs when I think of some of my prior donation sprees. I miss, for example, my thigh-high white boots. (Could have used them as a Halloween costume, darn it!) But I am much happier with fewer things in the house, and I know some day Big Girl will forgive me. But in the future, I plan on getting her involved so she has more of a say about what stays and what goes. And that, I am sure, will be an interesting exercise.

Do you “clean house” every once in a while? What do you do with your castaways? I’d love to hear about them!

Okay, so I searched the Earth911.com website for a close drop-off location. I found one a few towns over next to my Trader Joe’s. Last week I loaded the car with my boxes and headed over to the Town of Hempstead Department of Sanitation Recycling Drop-off. I got there and it was a zoo. A ton of people with trunks and backseats and flatbeds full of junk. “Where do I put my cardboard,” I asked. The guy in the blue shirt waved me over to Dumpster #1. I backed my car up to it, got out and looked in. It was filled with carpeting, bagged garbage and other debris. Wait, what happened to recycling? I could send my cardboard to a landfill by putting it in front of my house. I wanted to avoid that fate. There must have been a mistake. I went to another guy in a shirt. “Excuse me, I want to recycle my cardboard.” Again, I got a thumb in the direction of bin #1.

Now I was getting frustrated. I went to a third guy and explained my fate. “Do you have cardboard? Then put it into bin #1,” he said. “But that’s all garbage,” I said. He walked away without another word. I kept my boxes in my trunk and drove off close to tears. This was not what I wanted. I wanted to recycle. But I also realized that this, this feeling was not what I wanted, either. Recycling is supposed to make you feel good. I did not feel good. In fact, I felt a little foolish and nutty. Not to mention hot. (It’s crazy hot here in New York.) I came home and left the boxes in my car.

This weekend we went to my friend’s house. She told me that she puts all her cardboard — including cereal boxes — in her recycling bin and they are picked up and carted away. As long as I flattened all my boxes I could leave them there at her garage. Her mother-in-law, she said, did the same thing. She doesn’t like wasting resources, either, I guess. I left it, of course.

This morning, though, I wanted answers. (And a place to get rid of my cardboard that doesn’t entail pizza grease-caked sandals.) I called the town sanitation department. Seems like the guys in the shirts were telling me the truth. “That is just a sorting container,” the woman on the phone told me. “It’s a convenience for our residents. It goes up the hill where it is sorted. We try and recycle everything,” she said. Whew! I feel much better, but I also feel a little worse. I am so mistrustful these days when it comes to everything environmental. I really need to relax a bit. I know that. The point of this blog — the point of what I am doing, really, is to do the best that I can do. And that’s all anyone can do, right? So I’ll be back to the town dump next week, cardboard in hand and a cooler head, I hope.

Hey, are you following me on Twitter? Have you joined my Facebook Like page? Thanks in advance if you have!

Kenneth Cole sells shirts to support the Gulf cleanup efforts.

I have a big problem with plastic. It’s everywhere. Everything we buy — even at environmentally-conscious stores — is wrapped in it. Bread comes in plastic bags. Cereal is in a box. Inside the box: a plastic bag. Most cheese is wrapped in plastic. Even the paper milk cartons we use are lined with plastic. Very disheartening. It was making me really sick. With everything going on in the world today couldn’t I find a way to reduce my plastic use? Which brings me to my first Favorite:

PlasticBagRecycling.org. This site is where I found out I could recycle, “grocery bags, retail bags (hard plastic and string handles removed), paper towel and toilet paper plastic wrap, plastic newspaper bags, plastic dry cleaning bags and all clean, clear bags labeled with a #2 or #4.” Oh, and bread bags, Ziplock bags, potato bags, and others. Sweet. I was able to search for drop-off locations in my area, too.

Of course, there are other types of plastic that weren’t covered on the above site, which led me to my next Favorite:

1-800-RECYCLING.com. This site is wonderful. You click on the type of plastic (using the number on the bottle or packaging) you want to get rid of, enter your Zip code and receive a list of where you can take your junk. And it’s not just for plastic, either. You can also search and find drop off locations for electronics, paper, glass, metal, automotive, yard, household and hazardous waste, too. (Who knew Target takes Plastic #2?!?)

Once I get rid of all the plastic in my house I’ll need to tackle all the piles and piles of clothing I have. Especially since my little girl is outgrowing stuff and my husband is tossing a lot of his unwanted work clothes. I needed a place to get rid of everything in an eco-friendly way. Enter my next Favorite:

Bigwardrobe.com The site, which is finally making its way to the U.S., is part Craigslist and part eBay. Dedicated to clothing as well as a limited number of household items, you set a price, upload photos and sell. You can also find really nice stuff to buy. Right now most of the items are located in Europe, but it’s worth browsing around. Buying on the site is free; it will cost you one euro to sell, however.

And speaking of clothing: my last Favorite is from a press release I got via e-mail. Kenneth Cole is raising money for Gulf cleanup by selling t-shirts. All of the net profits will go directly to AWEARNESS, The Kenneth Cole Foundation, which is committed to supporting the Gulf efforts. They come in 14 colors and 12 slogans. (Cute and poignant: “We Can All Clean Up Well,” and “I Clean Up Well,” are two of the 12.) They are a little pricey at $35, but worth taking a look at. Oh, you can only buy them on the company’s Facebook page. Just thought you should know…

Hope you have a great weekend. By the way: Are you following me on Twitter? Find me @NaturalAsPosMom. I tweet pretty regularly throughout the day. Also, see the little brown button to the right? The one that says Top Mommy Blogs? (You might have to scroll down a bit.) Well, can you click on it and then click to vote for me? I’ve fallen out of the top 100 and I’d like to move back in. You can vote once a day…

M.A.C. Cosmetics. For every six pieces of M.A.C packaging that you send back to the company, you’ll receive a free lipstick via its Back to M.A.C. program. Yes, you have to mail it in, but the packages are pretty light so it shouldn’t cost too much — or create too large of a carbon footprint.

Origins. This company rocks. It just does. Aside from the fact that many of the products are organic and free-trade and are rated pretty solidly on the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, they are willing to take back any and all cosmetics packaging for recycling or energy recovery. (Plus, you’ll take home a free sample of an Origins product.)

Aveda. While you can’t drop off your product bottles, the company will take back caps — all your caps, actually. From the website: “This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.” Yes, you’ll have to get your school involved, but it’s such a good program!

EcoTools. When brushes go bad — or hand creams or body washes get old — you don’t have to throw them out. According to the company’s site, you can turn in old items and get coupons for an EcoTools equivalent. From the site: “For each item turned in, participants will receive a coupon for a free EcoTools alternative! [Up to $7.99 value, limit 2 coupons per person, per household]. To continue to show respect to the earth, items collected will be recycled.” Nice, right?

Bond No. 9. Got old perfume bottles? Heading to New York City? While you’re there you can bring your old bottles to the company’s store and it will take them for recycling and give you a free purse spray.

Know of any programs I’ve missed? Please let me know. Up until now what did you do with your old bottles, sticks and tubes?