Good morning, good afternoon, good evening!! Thank you for stopping by for this month’s edition of Where Bloggers Live. Today the gals and I have been asked to share ways in which we are eco-friendly. For years now, everywhere we’ve gone, I have tried to pick up 3 pieces of trash. Sometimes I pick up PC’s 3 pieces, too. I know, that sounds like a really silly, insignificant thing. But now my grandbabies, even 2-year-old Declan, are picking up trash, too. That would be something I do on the ‘daily’ – except right now when I am not out and about much.
Lauren and Francisco are especially conscientious about recycling. They are rubbing off on me in that I am thinking about it more. The other day, we drove through a stretch of I-10 that is being widened. Piled up in the median was all of this concrete that had been torn up from where the road was being expanded. Really unsightly, I thought. Then it dawned on me that all of that rubble, that concrete and steel and gravel has to go somewhere. But where?
Where Bloggers Live 09.2024
Here in El Paso, our recycling program is not very extensive. We can only recycle 2 types of plastic, #1 and #2. They make those numbers so tiny on the bottoms of plastic containers that my old eyes really struggles to tell the difference between a #2 plastic and a #5. So I mess up often but with the very best of intentions. In addition, we can’t recycle those pesky Walmart bags or any glass. We are required to wash out any plastic food containers, too.
Unraveling Recycling in El Paso
So what if I do slip up and put something into the bin that isn’t recyclable here? Does it matter? I mean, isn’t a plastic by any other name still a plastic? Apparently not. Decided to put on my librarian’s hat and research the types of recyclable plastics. And to maybe learn the difference between #1, #2 and #5. And what about 3 and 4?? Are they types of plastic, too?
A Rose by Any Other Name
Here’s what I learned. According to the Smart Plastics Guide: Healthier Food Uses of Plastics for Parents and Children there are 7, count ’em, SEVEN types of plastic. And the recyclability of those messy plastic peanut butter jars that I have been taking pains to clean and recycle is debatable. The Smart Plastics Guide shows the jars as #1 plastics but the lids are #5 plastic. Meaning I need to remember to throw out the lids and recycle the jars.
I found it interesting that the Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that mimics the action of the human hormone estrogen, found in #7 plastics can leach from polycarbonate plastic. Of all things, baby bottles, sippy cups and sports drink bottles are made with #7 plastic!! The Smart Plastics Guide explained:
Human exposure to BPA is widespread. A Centers for Disease Control study detected BPA in the urine of 95 percent of adults sampled. Scientists have measured BPA in the blood of pregnant women, in umbilical cord blood and in the placenta, all at levels demonstrated in animals to alter development.
Hormones stimulate certain cancers. Bisphenol A has been found to stimulate prostate cancer cells and causes breast tissue changes in mice that resemble early stages of breast cancer in both mice and humans. One study found an association between ovarian dysfunction and higher levels of BPA in urine.
Know anyone with prostate or breast cancer? I do.
Ridwell.com
I found this small graphic at Ridwell.com and think I will print it out and tape it on the outside of the lid of our recycling kitchen garbage can.
While I was still wearing my librarian’s hat, I looked into the Ridwell Company It provides an at-home pick up service for hard (and easy) to recycle items. The company sends you bags for each category of recyclables – including batteries, light bulbs and clothing – and you let them know when your bags are full and ready to be picked up. Sadly, they aren’t servicing our area – yet. But they are in Austin, Texas so there is hope!!
A couple of times, despite our (almost) best efforts, we have put something in our blue bin that should have been put in the gray trash can instead. And we have on occasion received warnings tied to the bin alerting us to our improper sorting of our recycling. We are cautioned that if we receive a second consecutive warning, we may lose our recycling privileges. Not sure who that’s hurting us or all of us?
Thrifting
In what other ways to I try to show Mother Earth some love? Admittedly, I have been slow to get on the thrifting bandwagon. We just don’t have nice thrift stores like many other cities our size or even smaller. We have Goodwill. And that’s been about it until a few years ago when Uptown Cheapskate came to town. And this summer an Uptown Cheapskate opened within a few miles of my home. I never fail to find something I need in there every time I visit!! Have also had pretty good luck selling them clothes I have purged from my own closet.
You might remember the straw bag I picked up there in the spring. Have used it all summer and it still looks great.
I wrote about all the straw bags in this post, here. Just retired it this week to pull out something more fall-ish.
A Step Above
Not to be a thrift store snob, but our Goodwills really have little more than children’s school uniforms and very old household odds and ends. Uptown Cheapskate looks more like large-ish, well-lit, modern boutique. Take a look around.
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For today’s post, I had hoped to style the Michael Kors animal print heels I discovered at Uptown Cheapskate in July. But I am reduced to one foot right now with my right foot broken. And when I tried to roll my office chair into the closet to get the shoes to at least photograph in a flat layout, my chair wouldn’t fit through the doorway. PC has been fetching my clothes and shoes from the closet so I hadn’t tried to go in there yet.
I did take these pictures of the shoes at the store on the day I bought them. They were new with tags, originally priced $140, marked down to $119. And I got them for…
$19.95!!
Hope to wear at least the left one very soon.
I am looking forward to shopping Uptown Cheapskate once the temps turn cooler. They have had some very unique cardigans and jackets in past years. Take a look at these pieces I tried on the end of winter when I needed to be looking for spring things. So many interesting textures, colors, patterns.
The Where Bloggers Live Series
The ideas for this colorful series originated with our adventurous leader, Bettye, at Fashion Schlub. She describes this series as being kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! Every month, Bettye challenges the six WBL bloggers with a prompt that invites us to reflect on our lives, dreams and memories. Every prompt makes me think!! Good for this ole brain. In case you missed it, find last month’s Where Bloggers Live post, here.
Just a reminder: Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After occasionally uses affiliate links which are usually italicized. If you click or make a purchase from an italicized link provided I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.
Please find the places and posts where I link-up on this page.
Speaking of…you remember these gals, right?
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Sally at Within a World of My Own
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Hope you will join me in stopping by their blogs to see the ways they are eco-friendly.
Your Turn
What are some of the ways you are showing Mother Earth some love? Do you have a robust recycling program where you live? Are you a thrift store shopper? If so, what was your best find?
In thinking about this post, I came across this article on MSN.com about 13 things we should be thrifting rather than buying new. Got me started thinking about other ways I can love our planet. Hope you’ll take a look. In fact, my knee scooter and wheelchair are both thrifted. Well, they are loaners that the insurance company allowed me to borrow. Was sorely tempted to buy a transport wheelchair but we are figuring things out with these borrowed pieces, and our 3 rolling office chairs!! Yay us!!
Thank you for spending a few moments here with me. Wishing you a restful, peaceful weekend.
Hugs and kisses,
Well, you’ve got us beat; our town doesn’t have trash pick up at all so no recyclables either! I was feeling really awful that all our trash goes into one giant dumpster that we share with our neighbors until my husband went to work at the recycling plant. The largest trash pick up around us uses a new sorting system in the warehouse that separates plastics from glass and metal and recycles what they can from there and he was hired to streamline and help the sorting plant work better. It was an awful job and he developed quite a cough afterwards but it sounds like he was quite successful in helping them get the machine working the way they wanted it to. That’s about our only contribution to recycling– though we don’t have plastic bags in our state since they were banned years ago.
Wow, no plastic bags!! That is a good one. Our plastic bags keep getting thinner – which is a step in the right direction, I guess. But they fly around the city like flags, stuck to every chain link fence and tree branch. They can look eeriely pretty when they are shredded by the wind in a tree branch. But I would like to see them banned here.
Yay for your hubs helping the trash company streamline the way the sorting plant operates. That is a major contribution. Your area is so gorgeous. I hope you never see trash on your beautiful hikes or garbage washing up from the lake.
I love your cute leopard shoes and the summer tote was a winner too! I really like the idea of of picking up 3 pieces of trash wherever you go: if everyone did that, there would be a lot less trash laying around! I am bad at mixing my recyclables and not washing them. I wonder how much actually gets recycled!
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
I was thrifting before it was cool, but I’m glad it makes it seem like I’m helping out Mother Earth now.
SO interesting about the plastics. It’s crazy how it’s taken over our life and in our bodies and everything.
OXOX
Jodie
Thank you for all you do. Recycling is difficult. There are so many rules. But we try our best to rinse our jars and sort our things.
I have never gone thrifting but we have stopped on the side of the road to pick up a few treasures. Our favorite mind was a like new lego table and a red wagon.
I love your rule of picking up 3 pieces of trash wherever you go. I’m going to start doing that! I agree, there are so many guidelines around recycling; it is hard to keep track! Love your leopard shoes! I hope your foot heals quickly!
Jill – Doused in Pink
Hi Leslie – sorry to hear about the broken foot – that must be so frustrating for you. I’m a big fan of thrift store browsing (we call them op shops in Australia) and my husband takes a bin bag with him for his beach walks so that he can collect all the scattered rubbish he sees as he walks. He feels like it’s his contribution to the planet.
Oh, what a wonderful idea…a bin bag on walks!! Going to implement that as soon as I can ‘walk’ again!!
Thank you for coming by. I am frustrated about my foot. I just uttered (and wrote) the words that life was so good right now.
BAM!!
That’ll teach me!!
Ooh, I love your “pick up 3 things” rule. I tend to just pick up things lying around where they oughtn’t be, but it’s occasional, not 3x/outing. It may not seem like a lot to you, but that adds up! Especially as others are influenced by you and do the same. Good for you!
Yeah, it does stink to be in a good thrift store desert. I was really lucky when I was living on Long Island and ebaying…the Salvation Army stores were gold mines…TONS of stuff, not picked over…cheap prices. Over time I could really see the supply drop and prices go up…and some shops tried to get “fancy,” and then I was out, ha ha. I haven’t even set foot in a thrift in Seoul…it is HIGHLY unlikely they would have anything in my size (that was hard enough in the states where there WERE fat people…here, people are like size 1 and below so any fat girls are surely holding onto their clothes until they literally fall apart.
Fun Fact (which is not so fun), the most common size in Korea is OSFA – One Size Fits All. Guess what? NO IT DOESN’T.
I forgot to mention this in my post, but when I buy electronics, camera equipment, etc., when available I almost always buy used or refurbished. It’s cheaper, puts less strain on the environment, and honestly, they always seem brand new to me. I’ve never had any issue with a refurbished item.
Hope your foot is usable again soon! Thinking ehaling thoughts for you!
Bettye
Thank you for those ehaling thoughts. I am so blessed by the thoughts and prayers of family and friends.
I have not purchased refurbished electronics but maybe I will consider that next time. I think the replacement phone I received through my insurance policy when my phone blew into the hot tub may have been refurbished. It has a few annoying quirks like getting overheated and shutting off the Internet then shutting down. But in the last few weeks, it has become more agreeable. And our temps have dropped by about 8* too!!
I was recycling when recycling wasn’t cool! Points for the reference! Actually, I was in a philanthropic sorority when our town started a recycling center. We would work R-Days and receive a bit of money from the amount of recycling we collected that day. It was disgusting. I had beer running down my arms from the beer cans and bottles I’d have to separate as the people just drove through and handed your their stuff. I also had lots of cans that hadn’t been rinsed. I could never decide if it was better in the heat when things smelled worse or in the cold when you were just plain freezing! We also eventually got to work the recycling wheel…it was this thing where the recycling would come through on a track (think Lucy and Ethel packaging candy), and we’d have to pull things to go in the right place.
Now, we have a huge recycling container…same size as our trash can. I’m a stickler when it comes to recycling. If it can be recycled, I do it. Many times, our trash can has just a little bit of something in it while our recycling bin (which is only emptied every other week) is chock-a-full! The other good thing (sort of) is our garbage is actually incinerated at a plant where my SIL works. That produces steam which powers many downtown Indianapolis businesses. So, if I do miss something, I don’t feel as bad. I’m trying my best to help Mother Earth with the exception of thrifting. We only have Goodwill in our town and one other thrift store. I’ve been in there a couple of times, and it is definitely not me!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Wow, what an inspiration you are. The queen of recycling early on. Love hearing that the steam created by the incineration of trash is powering much of your downtown. Why can’t all cities do that same thing?? And if glass is recyclable in one city, why can’t it be recyclable everywhere. Our proram here seems so pitiful compared to the program in Ft. Worth where my daughter lives. We have so much trash that gets blown about in our crazy desert winds. Walmart bags attached to everything and flying like flags. I wish we could implement a program where folks could get paid to pick up trash. Moms with children, teens, grandmas on their daily walks. I would absolutely do that.
Thrifting is a great idea! I read that most of what we recycle ends up in a landfill because they can’t recycle it all, which is very discouraging. What do I do? I compost, I re-use everything including tea bags and sandwich/storage bags. I usually drink out of my own stainless steel cup, and rarely purchase a coffee in a coffee cup or water in a plastic bottle.
I have never heard of recycling 2 types of plastic, we don’t do that here. I’m sorry to read about your foot! I hope you can wear both the gorgeous shoes soon!
Do you guys recycle all types of plastic or no plastic at all? I wish they would make the numbers larger that indicate the type of plastic. It is so hard for me to try to decipher!!
I will be hopping on one foot for at least 5 more weeks. Not at all a good patient. Thank you!!
As always, lots of great info and ideas from your post! Love your rule of threes. That’s a super practice we can alll adopt! It’s very sweet that you have set such a great example for all your littles!
I don’t do much thrifting (and have sort of lost my enthusiasm for in-store clothes shopping) although we do have some really nice options to do so locally. I’m an avowed on-line clearance shopper, although $19.00 shoes is a superior score! Gosh, I hope you snagged that tweed blazer! That is gorgeous!
I use Facebook’s “Buy Nothing” a lot to rehome items we no longer use. My knee scooter and crutches from last year’s non-fracture found great homes there (as have home furnishings and other out-grown items.). We have a local church that collects home and injury care items as well. They are wonderful and have supplied my parents with lots of walkers for home and “on-the-road”
Hope you are not in a lot of discomfort! You seem to be keeping a very positive attitude and have someone very special to provide back up! xoxo
Thank you for sharing about “Buy Nothing”. I had heard someone else mention it but didn’t know it was associated with Facebook. Will check it out. I wanted to buy a small transport wheelchair at around $100 but PC didn’t want to have something else to store once this injury heals. I figured we could park it in the corner somewhere because I think there is a chance we will need a wheelchair again someday. Perspectives, I guess. Or optimist vs pessimist.
Have you started thinking about getting the gang together for a family picture as the holidays approach? I know you mentioned hoping to do that soon. Hope it comes to fruition.
I LOVE your shoes. And, I love to shop thrift – though I don’t have the energy to do so very often. I try to always donate my discarded clothing and shoes (which I need to do soon). I also live the idea of picking up a few items of trash.
I’m so sorry about your foot, praying for healing.
Iris
Thank you for your prayers, my friend. They mean a lot. I have been pretty out of it today. The grands came yesterday and I think it was a lot!! But I so enjoyed seeing them.
I think picking up a few items of trash each time we go it is such an easy way to show our planet some love. My daughters were horrified when I was doing it during Covid! Ha!! But I lived to tell about it.
Hope you can go thrifting in the near future, maybe drop off your goodies and then shop for some new-to-you things. A snuggly cardigan or sweater to keep you warm this fall.
I am luck in that I have several good ‘thrift’ shops near by. We call them charity shops here in the UK. Although I usually go to them to pick up books, this summer I found a good denim skirt and pair of knee length summer trousers.
Far too much comes in plastic packaging, but I do quite a bit to live a greener life.
Hope the foot gets better soon.
Hey friend!! Thank you for coming by. Interesting that thrift shops are called charity shops in the UK. Do the profits go to charity? We do have thrift or secondhand shops where charities benefit from sales and then we have just thrift shop businesses. I should start shopping for books at our Goodwill, although, the titles they have are usually pretty old. Good job scoring the skirt and summer trousers at your charity shop. I am dying to meander Uptown Cheapskate to see what fall finds they are featuring but hate to ask the hubs to wheel me around in there.
We do recycle some, but I could be a little better about it, for sure. I recycle the plastic bags because I use them as trash bags in our vehicles and also to clean up after our dog on our walks. Hope your foot heals quickly. Oh and the shoes are really cute!
Thank you, friend. I don’t know how I had missed visiting your blog but somehow I have. Will do better about popping in. Making a concerted effort to be more present with my favorite blogging friends.
We use Walmart bags for trashcan liners, too. So they do get a second life. Just ordered some reusable grocery bags. My daughter gave me some ages ago and it is time for new ones. We had so many Walmart bags that PC got frustrated and took them out to the trash!!
My foot really is feeling much better but this clunky boot and the inability to put weight on my foot is frustrating. Thank you for your good wishes.
They now collect our garbage and recycling all together and supposedly sort it . . . I’m not so sure how that works! I’ve read about it, but it still seems iffy to me.
That would be wonderful if our folks would sort for us. That way there would be fewer mistakes. And it would probably provide jobs. I would be okay with our trash collection fee going up a little to make that happen.
Recycling is a big thing in the county where I live. We have three wheelie bins and one crate. There’s a two weekly cycle of collection so you have to remember which bin goes out for collection on which week. One week it is black bin which is everything that can’t be recycled. Next week it is blue crate for paper, brown bin for garden waste and raw food from meal prep, and black bin with blue lid for plastics. Then we also have a bin in our local supermarket which takes all the soft plastic used in food packaging like the plastic bag a loaf of bread comes in. It’s great that it happens but it makes life confusing sometimes!
Those leopard shoes are just a beauty!!!! We do have recycling here, but sometimes I wonder how much they really recycle it. I would love to get into thrifting eventually, I just don’t have the time for it right now. But, I love hearing of what everyone else finds on their adventures!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com