Seeking a Strip Computer Calender from a Good Cause!

Lots of us hate all the address labels we receive, unsolicited, in non-profit mailings.  A few labels are useful, but when they get to be dozens upon dozens, they wind up in the recyclable trash, due to the backing and adhesive.
But here's a suggestion to nonprofits: send out computer strip calendars with your logo.  I love them for my computer monitor - they are super useful.  We once got one from Sierra Club and I used it all year long.  I even asked for a new one from them.
These don't seem to be available individually anywhere, except as a download.  What I do now is just cut up a calendar and tape it on my computer, but it doesn't work nearly as well as these vinyl guys.  I don't like that they're vinyl, but the amount is better than all the labels, and the mailing would be lighter.  Maybe there's a recyclable alternative, even?
Source, anyone?

No More Address Labels! That Means You, Amnesty International!

Amnesty International is a great organization - so I can't figure out why they feel the need to send me 72 address labels at a pop.  Even in the days when I wrote letters, that would have been an annual supply.  Sent them off a plea to stop, but found form this online at Charity Navigator, which is a form to send back in their return envelope.  Of course you need to put on the postage, but probably worth it just in saving your time.  I am all about reuse, unless it's my name and address.

FUNDRAISING REDUCTION NOTICE
I am sending this note to reduce the waste and invasion of privacy caused by unwanted mail solicitations and telemarketing calls. If you would like me to consider contributing to your organization in the future, please agree to the following checked items:
___ Remove my name and address from your mailing list.
___ Do not sell, rent, exchange, or give my name or contribution history to any other organization or business without first receiving my approval.
___ Do not send me direct mail solicitations more than ___ times a year.
___ Do not telephone me to ask for money, or...
___ Phone me no more than ___ times a year, and only on the following day(s) and times:
Name and address labels from your solicitation(s) to me are enclosed.
Thank you for respecting a donor's wishes.

PS Used 2 of their labels - one for the return address on the envelope, the other on the page with my form.

My No-Disposable Vows

About a year or two ago, I decided I would simply not use disposable cups, plates, or silverware.  (So-called silverware, plastic forks et al) unless they could be washed and reused.  When I go to meetings and conferences, I bring a mug, my own silverware, et al.  Much of what I eat can just be consumed without utensils.  If I forget to bring a mug, I just don't drink anything.  I am able to stick to this personal practice pretty easily.  I see it as more than just a eco-habit and entering into a spiritual practice.

There are some situations which have proven to be too awkward in which to observe this prohibition, though.  When I am a guest at someone's house and they directly serve food to me on paper plates, I accept it.  Who wants to be the one at the birthday party to throw sand?  I have yet to have the nerve to directly confront someone and say, "Sorry, I don't eat on disposable plates.  In my book, they aren't kosher."  Maybe someday I'll get there, but not yet.  I suppose I could also take my bamboo plate to people's homes just in case the dreaded disposables appear on the table, but that does seem a little holier-than-thou.  And I would like to be invited back to people's houses!

Any one out there taken the pledge?  Just found a group online, called - cleverly - Refuse, the Plastic Pollution Coalition.  Sad enough, though - my google search for "pledge not to use disposables" also brought up Disposable Pledge wood polish.  Yuck!

Image from oceanswavesbeaches.surfrider

Hemp Bathroom Rug - Child Labor Free!

When we start shopping for an item I try to remember to search for the most sustainable option.  Often such searches come up empty, but at least I have  taken myself through the motions.  We decided we needed bigger bathroom rugs - those tile floors get really cold in the winter.  What is acrylic fiber?  You guessed it - plastic, basically. As is nylon.
Cotton is a natural material often used for rugs, but unless it's organic cotton, it's not environmentally friendly since growing it consumes immense amounts of water and pesticides.  Googling "natural material rugs" didn't glean much, but going more specific, there were a lot of hemp rugs.  Hemp grows with very little water or inputs, so its eco-footprint is nicely petite.  Safavieh has a whole line, Organica, which are hand-made hemp rugs in all different colors and sizes, so we went with those.
Can't say the rug much resembles the online pictures, but hey.  It's for a bathroom floor and it's fine.  What I did love was the label on the back.  Child Labor Not Used.  What a nice feeling to know that!

FreeCycle Goes Mainstream

Technology excites some of us; others are technophobic.  But technology is agnostic – it creates new ways of doing things, but how people deploy them is idiosyncratic.  Freecycle.org is a perfect example of a tool born of technology.   Created in 2003 in Tucson, AZ, Deron Beal started it to facilitate donations of used office equipment.  At present, it has grown to 4,924 groups with 8,185,513 members around the world.

Popular items posted run from large items like sofas (“you’ll need two people and a flat bed truck”) to teensy things, like knickknacks, leftover formula, or magazine collections.  Creative uses of our yahoo technology abound, like the “curb alert”.  Suddenly folks who saw something left out on the street could report this to the larger community.  Thinning your iris bed?  Now it’s possible to find just the right new home for surplus plants.

Some posters want to tell a story – how it is that they are giving away 31 pounds of Gevalia decaf?

I have 13 pounds of Gevalia Chocolate Raspberry, 14 pounds of Gevalia Mocha Java, 2 pounds of Gevalia Select Vintner and 2 pounds of Select Vintner Spice. All decaf, all unopened, all unused. Most still in the box it was packed and shipped in. "Why so much?” you ask. Well, when I joined Gevalia I chose the auto-pay option thingy. Every month I'd get a case of coffee and think, "Coffee again? I really need to fix that!”, put it in the cabinet, and then promptly forget all about it. That's why. Happy now? *blush* [:">]
Here's the worst part: I don't even drink coffee.

Other posts are spare, like offering medical supplies no longer needed once a patient has passed, not referencing all the TLC that went into caring for that elderly loved one at home.  Children’s toys, clothes, and equipment change hands, as happy parents clean-out and reclaim some of their living space. Sometimes people ask and offer simultaneously: “I just got a copy of my Grandmother (and I believe my great grandmother's) dill pickle recipe, and I want to put up some pickles. If you have any canning jars that you are not using, I would love to have them. In exchange, I will give you a copy of the recipe. All the best, Frank”.

Matches are sought: Cuisinart base looking for a processing unit.  Kids needing books for their school reading.  Old Verizon phone to replace the one dropped in the toilet.  Households on the move list all the stuff they cannot take to their next destination, often with urgent requests for instant pickups; readers get the sense the moving van is in the driveway.  Once folks are settled in their new places, packing boxes and styrofoam peanuts appear on the list for the next household packing up to move. 

Perhaps we need a special category of Failed Intentions FreeCycling for all the Nordic tracks, fish tanks, and musical instruments which are offered.  And a category for Things We Can’t Bear to Toss, with old calendars (the pictures are frame-worthy!), outdated technology (cassette tape recorder, anyone?) and Scrabble games with missing tiles. Not to mention the proverbial kitchen sinks folks offer when they redo kitchens. The magic is that generally there are folks out there who DO want said items.

Freecycle now actually has competition for giving away and acquiring free things, such as Craigs List, Facebook, clothing swaps, college Dump and Run programs, and smaller listserves which have adopted the strategy.   I hit the jackpot last fall when a FreeForAll gardener donated an entire shoebox of seed packets.

For folks who are impatient, FreeCycle might not be your best bet.  Ask around, and find a Frequent Freecycler to post your item and pass it on. Freecycle rules are simple.  Items must be legal – no offering leftover prescription drugs, for example.  And Freecycle has its etiquette to observe.  Don’t supply too much information, like the woman offering 36DD bras, or that you’re collecting house goods for a woman whose ex has a domestic violence protection order.  And above all, if you are the lucky recipient of another freecycler’s offer, make a plan to pick it up and follow through.

Three cheers for the technology which helps us to change the world, one Freecycle post at a time. How nice that freecycling has become a new norm in our neighborhoods.  I sometimes wonder what we ever did without it.  Despite the multitude of systems for passing things along, though, there doesn’t yet seem to be any shortage of clutter in our houses, does there?