Welcome to our weekly challenges! If you are new here, please read our "rules" to get acquainted.
Last week we tried to eliminate catalogs from our life and reduce paper waste. For some it was an easy challenge, consisting of logging into Catalog Choice and selecting the catalog to be eliminated ... for others it was more difficult and entailed contacting businesses directly to ask that they remove us from their mailing list. Easy or difficult ... each catalog eliminated was paper and resources saved. Thanks to all who participated. Here's our Honor Society:
Ange took the challenge and she "upped" it one: "May I go one step further and suggest we all write to our favourite store and ask them not to print as many of their catalogues and rather to take the lead in E catalogues ..." Brilliant idea, Ange ... and I take that challenge!
EcoGrrl joined us. Here's a reminder she had for reducing our paper use: "Being more conscious when grabbing those paper towels in the restroom, those napkins at the cafe, etc." Great reminder!
What A Card doesn't have an online "opt out" for catalogs in her area so she accepted the challenge and continues to call companies to get her name off their list. Great job!
Our bloggy friend, Argentum Vulgaris, stopped by. Thanks, AV, for spreading the word about the killing of Grey Seals in Canada!
A new Asheville bloggy buddy, Wendy Roche, came by ... nice to "see" you Wendy!
Ann joined us. In her post she talks about saving the world by saving our children. You can read it HERE.
Le-Chat took the challenge and shares her paper saving techniques HERE.
Mrs. Green joined us and is ""Saying No to 1500 Catalogs a Year".
Rewinn suggested that we "Dump Your Home Printer" as a way to save paper. In that article, he talks about living without his printer (for over a year) and all the other things he's saved in the process.
As always, our Honor Society did a great job. Ready for a new task?
This week's challenge was suggested by our bloggy friend Heather, from Earth Promise, after reading Monday's post on books. I think it's a fantastic idea! Here's her challenge:
Think of all that we read on a daily basis, whether it be magazines, newspapers, books, etc. I propose that for one week we do not purchase a newspaper, magazine, book, but rather swap with someone or find your news online......
It's a wonderful challenge!
Just a reminder ... if you write an article about our challenges, be sure to leave a comment ... I'll Stumble and Tweet them.
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!
I'm glad you stuck with a paper theme. For three weeks I have been meaning to get around to writing a blog post of paper themed ramblings - maybe this week will be the winner?!
ReplyDeleteWe don't buy the paper, but do get magazines - there a comfort thing, I'd buy way more books if I had the money to, but the library sees me a lot so that's a good thing - it would be awesome if i knew people in my area that actually liked to read the same things as me and a swap would be possible... gotta work on that!
breaking the magazine addiction was definitely a challenge...i've not been successful as a whole in my life, but like everything, small steps reduces the footprint. i no longer buy fashion magazines. when you realize that you can get through one in 10 minutes because you aren't reading, just flipping through, it's not worth the $5. so i spend my time at barnes & noble reading the zines then putting them back (i know, bad!!).
ReplyDeleteok so what am i doing? the oregonian delivers a news supplement to ALL (I don't subscribe) once a week. so im calling them to ask them to stop!
Oooh - there's a girl that just organised one off her blog and so I managed to get two vintage Martha Stewart's in exchange for a couple of French ones I sent to her. Great fun too!! (and cheaper than buying new magazines to boot. Happy to send off a couple of French mags if anyone's interested...
ReplyDeleteAnother suggestion for Maurie and others - why not put up a sign in a local café for a book swap club? I have friends that do that here and they meet once a month to both swap books, and review/chat about the ones written... And we can all find our news online rather than buying the papers.
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea Ange - thanks. Ecogirl - isn't that what BnN is for?! *Insert wicked grin.
ReplyDeleteOk, Small Footsteps - I failed and succeeded all in less than an hour.
http://bit.ly/c61FUf
I sell books online that I found in the trash. My profit is often not more than 50 cents, but my biggest reward is finding a new home for them. What I can't list I give away. Yesterday my crochet student walked out with three kid's books for her little boy or the school where she works. Needless to say I don't buy books. I have a choice whenever I feel like to read. Here's an example of a rescue that found a new owner:
ReplyDeletehttp://trashcollector.blogspot.com/2010/01/freeform-seventies-crochet.html
Well any excuse to browse in the library gets my vote! Have written up my post and will publish on Tuesday; I discovered a startling fact about the amount of waste generated in the publishing industry :(
ReplyDeleteI'm late. But I had a paper-free week. In fact most of my weeks are paper-free. I CTWWed it on Tomus Arcanum http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteAV
I agree with Ange, here in our letter boxes, some of the residents including me, have a sticker " No circulars or addressed mail only."
ReplyDeletePeople delivering the mailers know they should not drop these mailers in the letter box, if they get a complaint, they will lost their jobs.
These mailers and fliers often just get thrown to the ground and litters the place.