***Darla’s Guest Post***

Welcome to Save-the-Earth Saturday! I hope you’ll join me with a story or a tip.

Last week I introduced you to Gaylord A Nelson, father of Earth Day. As many people know, recycling is buying plastic and glass items, using them, and dropping them off at the recycling center. I will show you some other ways to recycle in these next few paragraphs.

Try to buy cloth shopping bags, and use them again and again. A fifteen to twenty-year-old tree is only big enough for 700 grocery bags!

To help the earth in another way, when you’re shopping with your cloth bags, look for Recycled Toilet paper and paper towels. Some brands that we’ve used are Atlantic® 100% recycled paper, whitened without chlorine. Another is Green Forest® which is also 100% recycled paper, whitened with out chlorine. We found Green Forest at The grocery store and Atlantic at Menards. They were cheap, like 99 cents, or three rolls for $1.

I got a lot of information from the book, 50 Simple Things Kids Can do to Save the Earth. (Thanks for the tip, Jamie.)

When you’re going to get eggs, get the kind with the cardboard case, instead of foam. Foam takes over 1,000,000 years to decompose.

Try to live in a pre-owned home. If your hopes are really set on a new one, by a tear down, TEAR it down and build another in its place. Animals would not notice the difference that way.

Did You Know? 90% of America’s trash is dumped into landfills because it is the cheapest way!! A way to fix some of that garbage is to stop your junk mail! Whoever gets the mail in the family will be delighted and planet Earth won’t stink!

Did You Know? A Mother sperm whale died because of a single balloon swallowed. Don’t let go of your balloons!

Did You Know? If Earth keeps going this, way, we will be losing up to three spices a day!

And Pamela mentioned a great way to recycle last week in comments:

We’ve been composting for several years. I’ve been shocked at how quickly my kitchen scraps (not cooked) and certain yard debris have filled the huge containers. Last year, using the rich compost from the bottom, my squash plant grew out of the garden and climbed a tree in the flower bed. It was so funny to see the flower blossoming from the top, and then later a butternut squash hanging in the viburnum bush.

Here are some fun ways to recycle:

Fire Starters

Materials needed: EGG CARTON, LINT, WAX, YARN

First, start melting the wax from old candles in a pan on the stove. Then, cut the egg carton into separate cups. Tear up smaller pieces of lint and place them into each eggcup. Cut the yarn to two inch pieces. Stuff one end of the yarn under the lint but have the other end sticking out like a wick. Take the hot wax off the stove and pour little amounts into each eggcup. Let the wax harden and you’re done! To use the fire starters, light the end of the yarn with fire and throw into the fireplace. This is an easy, fun and recyclable way to make a warm campfire.

Bulletin Board

Another way to recycle is something our family has been hoping to complete for some time: a cork bulletin board. All the corks are from wine bottles. Our aunts have one and that is where mom got the idea. I’m not sure how you actually put it together, but when we figure it out, we’ll let you know.

If you have any other recycling tips, please post them in comments.

Here our some helpful recycling links for kids:
Washington State Department of Ecology Kids Page
Kids Recycle!
Environmental Kids Club

Next week I’ll be talking about clean air.

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