Putting
the Joy in Recycling
Bag
of Joy News – April 2017
The
Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs. According to some sources, the Easter bunny first
arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in
Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase”
or “Oschter Haws.” Their children made nests in which this creature could lay
its colored eggs.
New
from Bag of Joy
 |
| Christmas cards made from gift wrap and recycled materials. |
The
April addition to the Bag of Joy array of products is handmade greeting cards.
I use images from copyright-free catalogs, some dating to the mid-‘70s, used gift wrap and
scraps of fabric and findings. Each card comes with an envelope (recycled of
course) and is packaged in a plastic sleeve. They sell for $3 each. Email or message me for more information.
Nonprofit
Partner of the Month
 |
| A Busy Blanket from Bag of Joy |
I continue to designate 25% of the sale price of my Busy Blankets to the
Aloha Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. If you manage a local nonprofit, get in touch. I'm always looking for recipients of a percentage of my sales. No political, religious or environmental groups, please.
Bag
of the Month
 |
| "Ocean" is colorful and practical |
“Ocean”
is a large tote with a magnetic snap closure. It has outside and inside
pockets, plus a handy cell phone or sunglasses pocket on one end. The fabric is
a colorful, classy cotton, lightly padded and self-lined with a rigid bottom.
Ocean may be found in my Shopify store.
Bags
in Books – a monthly contest for readers
Can
you identify the book this passage was taken from?
“Housing
was most often a strange fusion of coconut wood, thatch, corrugated tin,
plywood, and rice bags, and it took time before we could distinguish the
dwellings of humans from those of pigs.”
The
first person to correctly name the book title will win a gift from the Bag of
Joy collection. Just make a comment below or send me an answer through any of
the contacts listed. If you live off-island and are the first to answer
correctly, I’ll be happy to mail your gift.
We have a winner in our March contest! Cindy Wiling O’Farrell correctly
identified "The Historian" as the source of the Bags in Books quote
last month. Well done, Cindy!
Welcome
to the Recycling Department!
Can I help you?
Compost
I’m
always a little surprised at the reactions I get when I ask people if they have
worms? Of course, I mean composting worms. I see grimaces, shudders, lots of “ewwwww”
and “ick”. You have it all wrong folks. These little guys are the answer to so
many trashy issues:
 |
| Joy, the worm lady |
• They
eat all your organic kitchen waste.
• They
reduce the odor of rotting fruits and veggies.
• They
reduce damage to septic and sewage systems that occurs when stuff goes down the
garbage disposal.
• They
don’t smell, they don’t wander, they don’t ask for anything but edibles.
• They
produce the finest organic fertilizer available anywhere, and a liquid soil
amendment (“worm juice”) is an added bonus.
• They
need very little attention once established and can live quietly inside your
home – under the sink, in a closet or back entry.
If
you’re interested in starting your own little worm farm, get in touch.
Recycling
Bathroom bottle recycling
by Jared Paben
Personal
care product company Garnier is working with TerraCycle and a nonprofit group
to help consumers keep plastic out of the trash stream.
The
company also noted that it boosted the amount of recycled content in its
packaging starting this year.
Garnier,
a hair and skin care products brand owned by L’Oreal, teamed up with nonprofit
organization DoSomething.org for a campaign called “Rinse, Recycle, Repeat,”
according to a press release.
After registering online, participants accumulate 10 pounds of empty
containers, at which point they can print out a label for free shipping to New
Jersey-based TerraCycle, which recycles the materials.
The
effort also includes a competition, which kicked off April 1 (no joke), in which
dozens of college campuses will compete to to collect the most empty
containers. The winner will receive items for a garden from Garnier and
TerraCycle.
The
campaign is part of the large Garnier Beauty Recycling Program, which, since
its 2011 inception, has diverted more than 8 million containers from landfill.
Garnier
also noted that it boosted the post-consumer recycled plastic content in its
Garnier Fructis products from 30 percent to 50 percent as of January 2017.
 |
| My award-winning entry into last year's Art of Trash. |
Recycled
News you can use
Recycle
this thought: Just because it says “recyclable” or “compostable” doesn’t mean
it really is! Your community may not have the facilities to recycle many
materials. Don’t get sucked into the green-washing that is so rampant.
Contact
information
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Joy-of-Recycling
Shopify:
https://www.facebook.com/JoyofRecycling/shop
Phone:
808-572-6303
