2012-Personal Challenge #4- Green my Toilet Paper

Well I have been wanting to start this but had to wait until my current stock of toilet paper has been depleted.

Well yesterday I ran into Giant to purchase my Sun and Earth laundry detergent as this is the only place local that sells it, and wouldn't you know they had Marcal Small Steps toilet paper on sale $4.99 for a 12 pack. It was on my list to get and was actually a few cents cheaper than what I pay for our normal toiletpaper so I grabbed a few.

So I am slowly replacing paper products in our home with reusable items or greener options. I think the only paper product left to replace are the Kleenex. Which I see Marcal makes those also.

Not familiar with Marcal products? This is their story, which can also be found at
Marcalsmallsteps.com

Based in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, we at Marcal Manufacturing have prided ourselves as being one of the oldest environmentally friendly paper companies in the US. For 60 years Marcal® has been making paper products using recycled paper.
In 2009, Marcal Manufacturing, LLC, introduced the Marcal® Small Steps® line of 100% recycled bath tissue, towels, napkins and facial tissue for both home consumption and to distributors for commercial use. These products deliver strong performance without the typical “green premium” cost. The name Small Steps® signifies the small and easy steps toward making a difference in the world that you can make by using these recycled paper products.
For over five decades, Marcal has reducing landfill by making our paper products from recycled paper. We use paper collected from curbs in residential neighborhoods in cities and towns across America–from the small blue baskets in office buildings, unwanted junk mail, and waste from printers–all in an effort to do something good, to produce something that people need.
Marcal is an integral part of the northern New Jersey community. Our company uses recyclables from local municipalities and recycling facilities for our paper recycling process.

What is the difference between Recycle and Upcycle?

Let's first take a look at their definitions:

Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.[1][2] Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy.

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

To get a better feel of what the difference is please check out this article.

Cereal Box Craft - Bookmark Holder

I created this nifty bookmark holder for my daughter. She is starting her career today as a 4th grade teacher. I made her 30 of recycled bookmarks for her students and decided to make a holder for them to sit in on her bookcase. I used a fruit roll-up box, tape runner, scrapbook paper and then covered it all in mod podge.

The Three R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

This should be everyone's motto! Unfortunately, it seems as though must of us just reduce and recycle or just recycle. The middle "R" reuse hardly ever gets used. Oh, and don't worry I am guilty of this too and that's the reason for writing this. My goal is to not only cut back on the amount of trash we produce in our home by reducing but I also want to cut back on the amount we recycle by reusing.

Now to find ways to reuse the things we would normally recycle. Let's see cereal boxes will become bookmarks, postcards, magazine holders and desk organizers. Milk jugs will become sandwich containers, holders for blocks and toys and other items, list clean items on freecycle, make and fill a container with clean recyclables to keep on hand for crafts and school projects, reuse glass jars and plastic containers for leftovers and such, donate or freecycle any unwanted items in the house and old wine jugs will eventually become lamps.  This is just a small list for starters. As time goes on I will hopefully come up with more ways to reuse items that will be beneficial for us.

What ways do you reuse items instead of recycling them?

What are some

Cereal Box Craft - Postcard

I have decided to try and reuse cardboard cereal boxes, fruit snack boxes, etc... along with the liners in the cereal box.  The liners can be used to wrap food in for lunches, can be used in place of waxed paper and make great paint catchers for small paint jobs such as crafts.

The first craft I did was the bookmarks and now the postcards. There will be more to come as I complete them.
I am thinking about making little gift sets  of all the recycled cardboard crafts to give out to kids in my daughters classroom for Christmas.

First flatten out a cereal box, soda carton, fruit snack box etc.... and gather needed supplies such as paper cutter, scissors, xacto knife, ruler etc..

Cut into 4 x 6 rectangles (this is the max size allowed as a postcard per the US Postal Service).

Round corners using a corner punch or leave it as it is.

Take a black permanent marker and draw a line down the middle and then draw lines for the address.

The finished project!

Homemade Reusable Sandwich Container

This is a great way to reuse a clean milk jug, and to save from using all those sandwich baggies. This is also a better alternative to store bought ones because it's not a big deal if one gets thrown away by accident. Make some now and be ready when school starts.

Materials
1-gallon milk jug
Marker
Scissors
Thumbtack
Adhesive-backed Velcro dot

Instructions
Mark a clean 1-gallon milk jug.

Cut along the lines with scissors. To make the crease lines, use a thumbtack to pierce a row of dots at 1/4-inch intervals across each side of the jug, 1 3/4 inches up from the bottom. Fold the flaps at these dotted lines, then open them and fold them in the opposite direction along the lines (this will make the flaps easier for your kids to open and close). Fold up the box and add an adhesive-backed Velcro dot closure.

Bookmarks from recycleables

About a month ago I came across myplumpudding which had this wonderful idea...bookmarks from cereal boxes, but I took it one step further by laminating them to make them last longer. Well then I thought why stop there? Why not from labels, soda cartons etc..... These make adorable gifts. You can add them inside a card, a stocking, or put them with a book for a cute gift. I will be offering these for sale for $1.00 which includes shipping. If you purchase 2 or more the first one will be $1.00 and the others will be $.75 which includes shipping.

I will be offering some of these free to the first 20 followers of my blog. So far I have 4. Please comment and let me know the easiest way to contact you to get your mailing information. Not sure how to promote this as I am new to all of this but please spread the word. I will be offering this through the month of July.
Thanks for looking!