Can I Recycle That?

This is a question my kids ask me all of the time. Can I recycle that? I want to talk about that question and use for example: egg cartons. Egg cartons have been a big issue in my house for years. I felt like I was always pulling egg cartons out of the trash. Egg cartons are on the list of do not recycle items. However, I have found that I do not feel good about throwing them out. The cardboard egg cartons make a great fire starter. I like to fill them with dryer lint and shredded paper. That creates a good steady burn. This can be used outside in a fire pit and inside in a wood stove as well. Now please, do not use the polystyrene cartons as a fire starter, they will only melt and send toxic fumes into the air. Only use cardboard egg cartons. Cardboard egg cartons are also good for seed starting. After the seeds starts to sprout, place them directly in the ground and let Mother Nature take care of the rest.
Now for the polystyrene egg cartons. I usually give them to my local farmers (at the local farmers market) so they can reuse them. I have found the farmers to be more than happy to take them off of my hands. If you have young children, you may also find a home in their preschool class room or elementary art classes. Many crafts are created with the egg carton. Other uses for both are shipping containers for home made goodies, shipping materials (used to insulate and protect) and even a change sorter. If they must to be thrown out, put one or two in the bottom of your fresh trash bag and use them to prevent the bag from tearing and leaking. I would certainly hope that we would choose to find other uses for our egg cartons but I understand that sometimes we have no choice. My next topic will be added next Tuesday, December 1st. I will continue talking about what not to recycle as well as alternative uses. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Recycle - Recycle - Recycle

I have taken a hard look at my families buying and consuming habits. We were out of control to say the least. I knew we weren’t alone. I was making purchases just because I or we wanted that particular item. I didn’t think twice about the packaging. I just didn’t pay attention and most of the packaging went into the trash anyway. That is why I began to read the boxes (to see if they were made from recycled material) and made a point to get my family involved in knowing the difference as well. My goal was to make sure I was able to recycle the packaging from everything we purchased. Each type of material or packaging has a symbol that reflects whether it can be recycled or was processed from recycled materials. I felt paper and cardboard was a good place to start. Think about this, some boxes can also be reused and again this too will help with reducing waste. With just some small changes to my shopping list I have been able to change my buying habits so my waste habits would benefit. Of course our recycling bins have grown but it warms my heart to make a difference. So take a hard look at what you are bringing into your home. Is it recyclable? Was it made with recycled material? Try looking at your shopping list in a different prospective. You will save money in the long run by reducing your waste removal cost. Not to mention you will also make an environmental difference as well.

Saving Money by Recycling

Whether you run a household a business or both, the ultimate goal is to not waste money. With the economy today, everyone is watching their dollars. What’s interesting about this is I find myself along with many others clipping coupons and watching sales papers or newspaper ads daily and weekly before a purchase is made. I am talking about a purchase as small as a can of soup to major appliances or even a vehicle. So what happens to that product once it comes into our home? A can of soup, we open it, consume it and then what? In my house, I rinse it out and recycle it. Many homes just put in the trash. If you choose to do that, you’re putting your saving for that item into the trash as well. Why you ask… because you are paying someone to remove it. How crazy is that! Look at it this way; if we take the time to reevaluate what we put in the trash we will certainly reduce waste. In short, this will cause us to save in our weekly trash removal costs. So how do we reevaluate our trash? Look at the packaging almost all products come in. Cereal, soup, shampoo, cooking oil even aluminum foil packaging. For example: aluminum foil packaging, I fold the box flat after removing the cardboard cylinder and the metal cutting edge from the box and put this in the appropriate recycling bin. So the cylinder, cardboard box and aluminum are recycled. It takes a few seconds to do this. It takes a bit long to do this without thinking twice about it. In the following weeks, I will take a look at the products we bring into our home and how we can recycle them.

Composting and Your Local Master Gardening Program

Honestly, my husband is the master gardener of our household. Long before I could see the benefits of composting and the use of compost, my husband was making it happen. He was diligent in composting our yard waste for years. He would make leaf tea before you really heard about that. We even had water collection barrels in the garden that I added fish to in the spring to control mosquitoes and for watering plants. I did this with him because he was so passionate about it but my heart was not really in it. We did have a beautiful garden, lawn and trees. If something was unhealthy, he would dispose of this and would not add it to the pile. That meant no rotten vegetables or leaves with mold on it. As we moved around to different states each area presented us with new problems in the garden. Then we moved to Schuylkill County. The clay soil was so bad. I could hardly get a shovel into the ground. Our lawn was full of weeds and bare spots. A garden was not happening anytime soon. Then we received a letter in the mail inviting us to a composting class given by the local Master Gardening Cooperative Extension. I thought to myself what a waste of time. After all, I lived with the Master Composting King! What could he learn and more importantly, what could I learn? Well, I leaned a lot. A lot about the area, how to amend the soil using composting and honestly, my heart was in it this time. I just needed to hear everything from a fresh prospective. Your local Master Gardening Program is worth a look. They deal with environmental issues, wildlife challenges, gardening and of course composting. Every event I attend I learn something new. They work with reclamation projects with other agencies like Waste Management. It is true dedication on the part of your Master Gardeners. Did I mention they volunteer to educate us all? Most of this is volunteer work for them. If you are not yet a member or have not attended a meeting or class, do this for yourself. You will not regret it. This is a great way to socialize with others who have the same love of gardening you have and you might even learn something from it. If you need help finding out information about a local gardening program in your area, let me know. I would be more than happy to look into that for you.

What do we do with our finished compost?

Through your conscious efforts you have really reduced your household food and yard waste. Give yourself a hand. After considering your options like, outdoor compost piles, bins, tumblers and indoor composting. You made the choice based on your lifestyle. So what do you do with all of your finished compost? Last week we reviewed compost tea. This will give your plants a burst of energy but that is only one shovel full. Ok, the answer is also easy, spread it around. What I mean by this is not only can you add it to you garden; you can spread compost all over your lawn and around your trees and shrubs. Compost has really helped us break down our hard clay soil here in Schuylkill County. I was amazed at how this worked out. Each year we see such a big difference. In some areas that were almost impossible to turn over we just added layers of compost on top and as it was absorbed, it started to break down the clay so it was manageable. This may also be a good time to build out some planters or fill hanging baskets. Another option is give it away. I'm sure your neighbors’ will be glad to take some compost off of your hands as well. If you have any ideas that I did not mention or questions you may still have, please feel free to let me know. I would love to hear from you.

Lets Talk about Compost Tea

This is a great time to think about compost tea. My husband and I have used this a few times but did not aerate the water. Here is some information that may help to make great compost tea with or without leaves. If you are using a compost tumbler you will find that you have drippings from the composting process, this is tea. This can really give your garden a jump.
Ok, there are two types of compost tea, aerobic (one made with oxygen) and anaerobic (one made without oxygen). Let’s look at aerobics today. Simple equipment for simple tea: Take a 5-gallon bucket – put an aquarium pump beside it and run a plastic hose into the bottom of the pail. You can use a brick or large stone to hold the hose down. Do not use an aquarium stone to break up the air bubbles into tiny bubbles, you want big powerful bubbles. Besides they will plug up quickly with algae and other bacteria. Add Water to the pail (if your using chlorinated water, let this sit 24hrs to get rid of the chlorine). Start your filter, now we are ready to add our compost. We used a stocking but you can use a porous bag. Fill your bag or stocking with one shovel full of compost or leaves and place it into the pail. Let the mix bubble for 12 to 24hrs.and then apply immediately. We have added fish emulsions to our mix in the past.
Now this is a recipe I found that may help you out.
* One small shovel of compost (about 3 big handfuls)
* 2 tablespoons of molasses because molasses contains several different kinds of sugar
* 2 tablespoons of seaweed emulsions or fish emulsions for micronutrients
* 1 teaspoon of citric acid for the bacteria (you can toss a couple of 500mg. vitamin c tablets or several tablespoons of lemon juice)
I hope this has been helpful. If you have a topic or questions you wish to discuss, please feel free to contact me.

Compost Indoors All Year Round

At this point in my composting life, I am freezing my food scraps. That's right, freezing vegetables, fruit, egg shells, coffee grinds, tea bags and filters. I do this because its getting cold out and I would rather not run out to the bins every day. Instead I will add my scraps once a week. I also add shredded paper to this mix. Notice I didn't mention meat, fish, bread and dairy products. Thats because traditionally it is not recomended because of the wild life this may attract. Now you can use a crock that is made to contain food scraps. They can be placed on your counter top and are very stylish. There are however products out now that will alow you to put all table scraps including meat, fish, egg, bread, dairy products and fish bones as well.
I know...it's hard to believe. This gives you the benefit of adding nitrogen(Green) and carbon(Brown). Nitrogen being your fruits, vegetable scraps, meat, chicken, fish, fish bones, shrimp tails, cheese, eggs, egg shells, tea leaves, grass & plant clippings. Now your carbon materials will be sawdust, wood shavings (untreated, unpainted), nuts, nut shells, bread, rice, pasta, grains, straw, dry flowers, small yard leaves, coffee grinds and paper filters. Can you imagine the look on your trash collectors face when you call to change your garbage pick up plan to a smaller one. Not to mention the satifaction you will feel to have made such a big impact as one family on a mission.