Green Boot Camp: Week Sixteen–Packing Green Lunches

This post offer ways to green a brown bag lunch (tip #1–ditch the brown bag), whether you pack it for yourself to take to work or for your kids to take to school or camp.

When it comes to reusable bags, I don’t care what my bags look like or where I got them. As long as they can hold my groceries so that I don’t have to take paper or plastic bags when I checkout, I’m happy. Others may feel a bit differently. To them reusable bags should be aesthetically pleasing or perhaps they want them all to match. It’s in the latter scenario that I imagine most people are purchasing a supermarket’s reusable bag, and I must admit–some of them are quite pretty. The bags that Whole Foods is selling, now that it has banned plastic at the checkout counter, are fun and colorful as are the bags I’ve seen in my local SuperFresh, which is part of the A&P company.

As far as supermarkets go, you can’t judge its environmental mission by its reusable bags, but you can give it props for trying. For example, Kroger (where I would grocery shop when we lived in Michigan) just announced a “Design a Kroger Reusable Shopping Bag” contest. You don’t have to be a Kroger customer to enter, but it probably makes sense: the winner gets a $500 Kroger gift card. The 10 runners up each receive a free reusable bag featuring the winning design.

It’s not like Kroger is waiting for the winning design to begin offering reusable bags. You can already pick them up in the store (if you’re so inclined to pay for them), including an insulated bag (it costs $2.99). Now that’s a great idea for ensuring your perishables don’t, well, perish on the drive home.

Are you aware of other supermarkets offering these kinds of contests? I’d love to hear about them and maybe feature something about them here–especially if it’s a supermarket near you. Then others who live in your geographical area could consider entering the contest and, who knows, they might win something cool like that $500 gift card.

Keeping with the theme of reader questions (which I’ll say again that I love. I find your questions to be very inspiring and help spark my creativity), here is one I received from Suzanne last week. I’m sure her quandary is one we all face:

I’m slowly learning about greener living and your insight has been so helpful. Which is why I’m writing, in the hopes you know the answer since I haven’t found it anywhere else!

I have three little ones (1, 3 and 4 years) and you can imagine the number of sippy cups and plates we go through. Do you know if it’s better to use paper, which I’m inclined to do for breakfast and lunch, or to run the dishwasher as many as two times a day? I feel as if both aren’t the right choice, for one fills landfills or fills the air with smoke from burning, and the other is so wasteful. Same goes for paper napkins vs. cloth and oh so much more!

What have you found that you’d be willing to share?

There are a couple of ways of answering this question, especially if budget isn’t a concern. For example, there are companies making “disposable” dishes these days that are made of biodegradable materials, such as corn. Mark Caserta of 3RLiving says that you can find dishes made of bamboo and also sugar cane, both of which are biodegradable. A company called VeneerWare makes the bamboo dishes, and Greenwave makes the sugar cane plates. For other biodegradable plates and dishes, check out what’s listed on the Biodegradable Products Institute website.

In addition to green disposable plates, you can buy plastic utensils that are made from recycled plastic and which are recyclable. Hmm, that makes me wonder: are all plastic utensils recyclable then? Something else to look into. Anyway, if you’re not ready to give up your disposable ways yet, these are options to consider.

As far as saving the environment goes, reusable dishes washed in the dishwasher is definitely the way to go. According to Maria Vargas, a spokesperson with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “there is an embedded energy in paper plates,” meaning that you have to think about the amount of energy used in creating the paper plates. Adds Caserta of 3RLiving, “With paper plates, you are cutting down a tree, trucking it to a paper mill and maybe several factories. The process uses diesel fuel, [and] lots of electricity and water.” The same goes for paper napkins, which is why reusable cloth napkins that you toss in the washing machine make the most sense for anyone trying to live green.

With regards to the dishwasher use, Vargas recommends not washing dishes before loading them (I let my dog do the pre-wash, sort of like this dog is doing) and, with a plug for the EPA’s Energy Star program, suggests that you use Energy Star-compliant appliances so that you know you’re saving the most energy and water possible. Caserta suggests making sure that you run full loads of dishes only and, if you can find it, choose an eco-friendly dishwasher detergent.

Again, the same applies for the washing machine you would use for cleaning your cloth napkins, along with the rest of your clothes. Make sure the machine is Energy Star compliant, always run full loads only and choose detergents that are good for the earth.

From time to time readers of this blog email me with questions about something related to living green and for which they do not have the answer. They always say how approachable I seem in my blog and that they figured it would be OK to write and ask for my advice. I love that people feel comfortable enough to do that, and I welcome questions anytime.

Most recently here’s what a reader wrote to ask:

“My cordless phone is dying and has terrible battery life. My fiancé and I agree that the time has come to upgrade our phone. Now, the question becomes what to do with the old phone. We only have a need for a single phone (1 phone jack). The old phone would probably work all right if the battery was replaced so we want to donate it, or at the very least, recycle it. Through earth911.org we found out that Staples recycles electronics, but when we called the store, they said they don’t recycle phones, and don’t donate them. Do you know where I can donate or recycle a phone? “

I thought that finding the definitive answer to this question was going to be a snap, but it turned out to be nearly impossible. That’s because many companies have jumped on the green bandwagon to recycle cellular phones but not so much the cordless, portable phones that people use with landlines. I was able to find out a few things that might help this reader with her dilemma.

Roxanne Smith, a spokesperson with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recommends checking with your municipality about whether or not they can accept regular phones in recycling. “Each municipality is different in what it accepts for recycling purposes,” she says. If the municipality or the waste company you contract with for recycling services can’t help you, ask if they can guide you to an e-waste recycler nearby.

Mark Caserta, owner of 3R Living, could help you if you were looking to recycle “cell phones, ink cartridges, batteries, small electronics (handhelds), laptops, CD’s, Cassettes, DVD’s, VHS Tapes, etc.” However, he can’t help with regular phones. The e-recycler he uses, called Green Disk, says that they figure that most recyclers won’t take old-fashioned phones “because of the quality of plastic that regular phones are made of, or that the electronics [inside the phone] may not be as valuable [as cellphones].” Therefore, it’s just not worth the recycler’s while.

This seems to be the case with this e-waste recycler I found, which lists what kinds of electronics they’ll take off your hands for recycling. Unfortunately, cordless phones don’t appear on that list (though this company seems to sell refurbished ones. Go figure).

If all else fails and you can’t recycle your phone, you might want to put it up for grabs on Freecycle or Craigslist so someone can reuse it. Who knows what people will take for free? Or, you might want to give your local high school or regional theater a call to see if they could use some donated props, in the form of your now-non-working portable phone.

Stay tuned for more reader questions.

During my Earth Day satellite media tour, one of the tips I offered was using baking soda as a scouring powder to clean your tub and sinks. It’s an eco-friendly and economical way of keeping your bathroom spotless and odor free, and something I’d written about before.

Now that I’ve got baking soda on my radar, I keep finding new and creative uses for it. Here are two uses I just came across and which you might not have considered:

* Removing stains on light-colored counter tops
Yesterday, I was wiping down my kitchen counters, which since we haven’t gotten around to renovating our kitchen yet, are still “vintage” white 1960s counter tops. Add coffee and cranberry juice to the mix and, well, I’m always battling stains. For awhile I was using the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, a product I hadn’t tried before but which my Realtors had introduced me to last year when I needed to get scuff marks out of the hardwood floors in my old house–and any other discoloration so that the house was always “show ready.” That Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is pretty magic, but with our new green and frugal living, I wanted to find a replacement that I didn’t have to pay extra for. And I found that replacement in a baking soda box.

Yesterday, for the heck of it, I sprinkled some baking soda on the leftover cranberry juice and coffee stains, and then used a wet rag, with a little bit of elbow grease, to clean the surface. Though the baking soda left behind some nasty grittiness, it did the trick in getting rid of the stains.

* Taking away the burnt smell on dishes
You may recall that last fall one of my fireplaces (yes, we have three) malfunctioned, and left my kids’ playroom smelling as if we’d had a bonafide house fire. After trying nearly everything under the sun to get rid of the smoky smell, I finally settled on open bowls of baking soda placed strategically around the room. Within days the smoke smell was nearly all the way gone. What reminded me of this was a Q&A on a blog I subscribe to called Home-Ec 101. (It’s got a clever tag line: “What you wish your mama taught you.”)

Earlier this week someone had written in about a plastic cup that had fallen in the dishwasher and melted on the heating coil. While she was able to clean up the melted plastic, the rest of the dishes were left with a burnt plastic smell, which washing and rewashing did nothing to remove. The experts at Home-Ec 101 suggested soaking the smelly dishes in baking soda and water. Then, if that didn’t work, putting them back in the dishwasher and filling the soap cup with baking soda instead. I’ll bet that not only will the baking soda do the trick with the odor but also it will make those dishes–especially the light-colored ones–look cleaner than they have in a long time.

Have you come up with other creative uses for baking soda? I’d love to hear about them.

On Tuesday, April 22nd, Earth Day, I will be participating in a satellite media tour from New York City to offer television and radio stations nationwide tips on how to live like it’s Earth Day every day. I thought you might enjoy hearing some of my tips and then seeing which stations will be broadcasting me. I’ll paste that list at the end of my post.

Here are five of my eco-friendly tips for Earth Day:

1. Choose detergents that don’t harm Mother Earth or her waterways. For example, a dishwasher detergent without phosphate (which promotes algae growth that can choke rivers) is kinder to waterways than ones with that ingredient.

2. Think outside the box and inside the pantry for ways to clean your home. Baking soda makes an excellent scouring powder for scrubbing your tub, and vinegar can get out the musty smell in wet laundry that’s sat around for too long. Vinegar and water also do a bang up job washing hardwood floors. Put vinegar and baking soda together, and you’ve got an eco-friendly way to unclog drains.

3. Limit your paper consumption throughout the house. Always print on both sides of a piece of paper in your home office, and make sure that paper ends up in recycling (not the trash) when you’re done with it. To help you give up your paper towel habit, you could choose paper towels made from recycled paper or you could do what my mother taught me to do–turn old t-shirts and towels that were past their prime into rags. These have become my sustainable cleaning tools because after I use them, I can wash them in the laundry, and use them again. When they get too threadbare to continue using, I shred them and toss them in my compost. (You can put shredded paper in the compost as well.)

4. Install compact fluorescent bulbs throughout your house. I’ve posted before how after we switched out our incandescent bulbs for CFLs, our electricity bills went down. If that isn’t reason enough to choose these eco-friendly light bulbs, I don’t know what is.

5. Always bring reusable bags with you to the supermarket or any store for that matter. I know you’ve heard this from me time and time again, but just the simple act of not taking a plastic or paper bag from a store when you checkout can go a long way towards reducing landfills and reducing a company’s need to use petroleum and raw timber to make their bags.

Now as far as where I’ll be appearing on Earth Day, here’s a station rundown. Most segments will be live during the morning news. All times are Eastern:

7:15 WPSD, Paducah, KY
7:20 Daily Buzz, National
7:30 WYYZ Radio, Atlanta, GA
8:10 WDUN Radio, Atlanta, GA
8:30 WAMV Radio, Roanoke, VA
8:45 KWLM Radio, Minneapolis, MN
8:50 KMIR, Palm Springs, CA
9:00 WQEL, Columbus, OH
10:00 WCTV, Tallahassee, FL

Happy Earth Day!

Some of the biggest news in the green world last week was reactions to a study that show the possible adverse effects of bottles (and other products) made with bisphenol A, or BPA, the chemical used to make my beloved Nalgene bottles. This news hit home when I heard an interview on NPR with one of the study’s authors.

While I was aware that putting these bottles in the dishwasher (top-rack only) could lead to a breakdown and possible seepage of chemicals–which is why I would replace bottles every 6 to 12 months–this newest news is too dire to ignore. In fact, with Nalgene pulling all of its hard-plastic bottles from store shelves immediately, it’s time for me to pull my Nalgene bottles from my shelves, too.

As you know using a reusable water bottle is a smart step towards reducing disposable plastic water bottles in landfills, especially since some studies indicate that only about 10 to 20 percent of plastic water bottles actually make it to a recycling facility. The rest? They get dumped in landfills.

Surprisingly, TreeHugger hasn’t come out and damned Nalgene bottles, but instead offers some level-headed advice on what to do about preventing any possible BPA exposure in the future–and what kinds of products you should choose to remain BPA free.

I think what’s also important to point out is that not all Nalgene water bottles are worth worrying about. Check out this comparison chart on the Nalgene Choice website. It spells out for you which bottles contain BPA (yes to the polycarbonate, screw-top bottles that I use and pack in my kids’ lunch everyday–no more) and which don’t (the 32-ounce, green “Filter for Good” bottle that I’ve been using. That’s a huge relief).

I’ve heard that the best and safest reusable bottle you can use is one made from stainless steel. I’m thinking at this point, to be a smart and safe consumer, you should make sure that any reusable water bottle you choose says straight out that its BPA free. This is especially important if you’ve been using these bottles in your kids’ lunches, since recent studies have said that BPA may adversely affect youngsters the most.

What concerns me as well is this notion that BPA is in dental sealants, which both of my kids recently had applied to their 12-year molars, and the composite fillings I’ve got in my mouth. The American Dental Association says there’s no cause for concern. Nonetheless, I’ll have to give the dentist a call about all of this.

So many people think that in order to live a green life, they’ve got to live like Ed Begley, Jr., and I know from my own experience that this isn’t true. Like with so many things, when it comes to behavior changes, you’ve got to take it one step or one day at a time.

That’s why I like this idea of “transitioning” to a greener life. For example, if you want to reduce how much trash you produce, you can make one change toward that goal. You can refuse bags at a store and bring your own. You can start a compost pile, and do your best to keep organic matter out of the garbage can. (I’m still working on my kids about putting apple cores in the compost.) You can choose to buy products based on their packaging–or lack thereof.

This summer, when our CSA farm is up and running, we’ll make a transition to locally grown, organic produce. Sure, I might have to pick up a cucumber or two from the grocery store from time to time, but I’ll be doing my best to keep my veggie carbon footprint as small as possible.

We all know that Wal-Mart is doing its best to endear itself with the green world, what with its packaging mandates and promise to build energy-efficient stores. This past Sunday there was a Wal-Mart insert in my paper, and it had a special pull-out section on green products.

The headline was “Can low prices make a better world?” with the logo “Save money, live better.” I guess this is Wal-Mart’s new way of branding itself. Nonetheless, I enjoyed looking through the eight-page flyer–not only because it included my favorite reusable shopping bags that I made a part of my holiday giving last December, but also because it had something that I’d never heard of–transitional cotton.

Here’s how the insert explained what transitional cotton is: “It’s cotton grown on fields that recently converted to organic farming methods, but not yet certified organic. When you buy a transitional-cotton T-shirt, you’re helping farmers make the switch to more Earth-friendly organic farming.” (You can find more details about transition cotton on Wal-Mart’s corporate website.)

It helps that these shirts are wicked cute, too. The shirt (above right) is from Faded Glory and costs only $6. There are also shirts made from recycled soda bottles ($7.50) that say things like “Recycling is Hot.” The insert says these shirts are 52% cotton and 48% recycled plastic bottles. OK, so it would be better if they were 100% recycled plastic bottles, but I’ll take 48% to start.

I hope that eventually these kinds of hybrid fabrics become more commonplace in all retail stores around the world. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if shirts made from recycled plastic soda bottles became the norm rather than the exception? That would make all of our transitions to greener living a lot easier.

Thought you would be interested in knowing that my blog Green Boot Camp is highlighted in the May 2008 issue of Working Mother magazine (page 52). Here is a link to the online version of that story, which includes a hotlink to the blog.

Yesterday was the first time I’d seen gas around here in the $4 range. Lucky for me it was for diesel fuel (my car takes regular), but I must tell you that it was heart stopping to see that price displayed for all the world to see. From what economists are forecasting, it’s a price that we should all start getting used to seeing come summer.

I felt it was quite fortuitous that also yesterday, my friend Lauren Fix, aka The Car Coach, sent me her newsletter “Car Smart News,” which included fuel-saving tips. I thought it was important to share some of Lauren’s tips, along with my own contributions, so that if you happen to live someplace where gas already is $4 a gallon, you might find some relief.

* Keep your tires inflated.
Tires that are low on air make your car drive less efficiently. Think about a basketball that needs a good pumping up. How poorly does it perform on the court? Conversely, well-inflated tires can help up your gas mileage–Lauren says by as much as two miles per gallon!

* Have your engine filter changed regularly.
In my old house we had to replace the forced-air heating/cooling system’s filter each month, because once it was filled with dust and dirt, it pretty much stopped working. You could feel a marked difference in the air that came through the vents before and after a filter change. Your engine’s filter works the same may–and stops working when it gets all gunked up. Next time you’re in for an oil change, ask about having the engine filter changed, too.

* Secure your gas cap.
One of my special talents (LOL) is snapping gas-cap tethers. I’ve managed to do it with each of the cars we’ve owned. Perhaps I’m too strong for my own good. Nonetheless, without the gas cap attached, I’ll usually end up either driving away with the gas cap on the roof of the car (never to be seen again) or left behind at the gas station. The guys at Pep Boys know me well when I stop in for replacement caps. Lauren says that without a properly closed gas cap (or without one all together, as I’ve sometimes driven around), you can lose a lot of gas to evaporation. She says that last year Americans had 147 million gallons of perfectly good gas just disappear from their gas tanks.

* Create no idling zones.
I recently read about some schools in New Jersey that created “no idling zones” in the pick up line. That is, they’ve instructed buses and parents waiting for kids to turn their cars off. This helps them to reduce their gas consumption (as Lauren says, idling gets 0 mpg) and it reduces emissions, too. I wish my daughter’s elementary school would institute a similar policy, if only for the good of the environment.

* Slow down for better gas mileage
Two things will ensure that you will have to fill up faster. One is driving fast (you get premium gas mileage around 55 to 60 mph) and the other is quick starts called jack-rabbiting. In these instances slow and steady will win the race at the gas pump.

Together these tips should help you get the most mileage from your full tank of gas and let you cut your emissions, too.

By the way, you can watch Lauren, who is an expert on all things auto, on ABC News’ Program 20/20 this Friday night, April 18th. (She’ll be discussing foul-weather driving.)

When I started this blog last year, as a way of holding myself accountable for living our Suddenly Frugal lifestyle in our new house, I quickly learned that adding green to the frugal mix made for a successful combination. Then a book agent read my blog, loved what I was doing, and suggested I write a proposal for The Lean Green Family Routine (thus the new name for this blog).

This agent, who has cheerleaded for me in a way no agent before ever had, shopped the heck out of the proposal. At least a dozen big New York City publishing house saw my Lean Green book proposal–and then they rejected it for one of two reasons.

They all said they loved me, loved my personality, loved my writing. But I didn’t have a big enough “platform” (that’s publishing-speak for a ready-made audience that would buy my book, like a Rachael Ray or Sara Snow would have, thanks to their TV shows), and my green advice wasn’t fresh enough (you know, fresh like fresh organic produce). Oh, and there was this whole notion about having missed the green boat all together, because coming in 2008 and through 2009, there would be a ton of green books flooding the market. (Here are two Publisher’s Weekly articles on new green books coming out in 2008, including green books geared towards kids. Hey, I see that there is a Green Living for Dummies book. Maybe I should pitch myself for a Complete Idiot’s Guide or another Everything book–I did one on etiquette?)

So unless I could come up with something new and interesting, such as a TV show or a syndicated newspaper or magazine column to promote the book, or content that people would want to buy, I would never be publishing my green book.

Now here’s what I don’t get. Consistently, the feedback I’ve received from the readers of and linkers to this blog is that I’m offering approachable advice and doable tips for the everyday person. Isn’t that really what you want in a self-help book that you’re interested in buying?

I’m sure it would be entertaining to read about how Ed Begley, Jr. lives green in Hollywood (or is entertaining to watch his TV show) or how a single, young person in Canada attempted to go “green as a thistle” for a year during her urban existence. But really, much of it is relevant to the majority of people interested in green living? Aren’t most of you more like me, bringing green into your lives whenever you can but also wanting usable ideas that have you spending less money not more? And don’t most of you live in suburban places where you can walk from time to time, like I do, but mass transit just isn’t a feasible option?

I believe that green is here to stay and, in the magazine world (from which I hail), April issues will forever be about green living to tie into Earth Day just as August/September issues will focus on back to school, October issues will be about breast cancer awareness and February issues will promote women’s heart health. That’s why I also believe that there will continue to be room on the bookstore shelves for green books, so that even if I’ve missed the first wave of green books debuting, there will be another wave right after that one that I can hang-ten on.

Now, here’s where you come in. First, if I am completely wrong about how I’ve been serving you, dear reader, and my advice is completely off topic, set me straight. What would you like me to be addressing so that I can help your needs? I know that many of you had asked for easy ways to add green habits to your lives, and that’s why I started Green Boot Camp. But if there is more that I can be doing for you here on The Lean Green Family, let me know.

Second, book publishers want blogs with big traffic numbers. Right now about 4,000 people visit this blog monthly–a not-too-shabby number but not a number that make publishers sit up and take notice. They want to know that 12,000+ people are reading a blog each month, at a minimum. So if you can spread the word about my blog and help draw more readers to it, I will be forever grateful.

In the meantime I’ll continue to brainstorm ways to make The Lean Green Family as valuable as possible for you, and I’ll continue to share my thoughts, ideas and advice, unless I hear otherwise. I think I’ve got something good going on here. I hope you all agree.

Before you know it wedding season will be upon us, and with green being the new wedding white, you can bet plenty of people will be planning eco-friendly weddings. I recently read an article that offered some of the following tips for planning a green wedding :

* having a daytime, outdoors wedding so you don’t have to use electricity
* choosing locally grown flowers
* serving organic fare
* purchasing a pre-owned wedding gown, such as from a consignment or thrift store

Now, as you probably now, weddings are pretty pricey affairs: these days, the average wedding will set you back about $30,000. That’s more than the starting salary I got when I entered the magazine world fresh out of college. It’s also one of the reasons that my last wedding book was (here comes shameless self promotion) Tie the Knot on a Shoestring. (Here’s another shameless self promotion: if you’d like to buy the book, you can click on the button at the end of this post.)

But thinking about family and kids–and considering I’m not planning any weddings soon nor am I writing about them much these days (though any publisher that’s interested in having me do a green weddings book, please email me)–this topic made me realize that you could easily apply this green wedding notion to any celebration you might be having. At the same time, you can make it an eco-friendly party that won’t bust your budget.

Here’s how I might do that with my each of my daughter’s upcoming birthday parties:

* Use invitations made of recycled paper to invite their friends.
Or, we could forgo paper all together and invite everyone using Evite.com (hey, all their friends have email accounts at this point, so why not?).

* Give reusable Nalgene water bottles as favors.
What I love about Nalgene bottles is that they come in various shapes, sizes and colors. That way each daughter could choose bottles based on her favorite color. (I already know that one would go for purple while the other would go for green.) Since an empty bottle could be seen as so boring, we could fill each one with organic candy, such as Green & Black’s.

* Make part of the celebration a trip to a pick-your-own farm.
Since both my daughters have summer birthdays, when our CSA will be in full swing, it’s worth considering having part of their celebration at a farm. Then, each kid could take home a pint of berries or a bushel of apples as her favor.

* Bake our own cake from scratch using organic ingredients.
There’s something to be said about cooking with your kids, and baking your own cake will allow you to have fun time with your kids, make an organic cake and save money to boot.

What are some other ways you might plan an eco-friendly celebration?

Thought the folks here would like to know that this blog was recently highlighted in a roundup of noteworthy green blogs. You can read all about it here on Yahoo Finance. Enjoy!

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I’ve been unhappy with my trash service from the day I moved into my new house. Because our town does not provide trash or recycling collection, it is up to residents to contract privately for this service. Since all the residents on the street where we’d moved had those blue BFI/Allied Waste trash cans, I figured they were a fine company to contract with and so I signed up.

Boy, was I wrong. Not only did Allied Waste offer a sub-par recycling program (plastics, glass and newspapers/magazines only) but our twice-weekly trash pickup often occurred only once a week. Then, on a number of occasions, when I would go to the curb to retrieve my trash can, I would discover half of my trash still in the can. I called each time this happened (I had to leave a message since it’s nearly impossible to get a live person through the company’s customer service line), and for a week or so, my trash cans were emptied completely. Then the amount of trash left behind would creep up again, and I would have to call once more to complain.

Not that I would want to work as a trash collector, but I believe that no matter what your job is, you should do it 100 percent. It seemed that Allied Waste wasn’t communicating this to its on-the-truck employees.

My contract with the company is expiring at the end of May, and I’m now in the open window when I can alert the company that I’m not renewing my services and not incur any additional fees–as long as I don’t stop service before the anniversary date. Last week I sent a certified letter letting the company know as such. Then, unfortunately, something happened yesterday that required me to get in touch with the company again. Below are excerpts from the letter I sent:

Dear Allied Waste Customer Service:

I have contacted your company in the past and have never received an answer back. I am currently waiting on hold for your customer service department, a department that is nearly impossible to reach. It makes me think that Allied Waste isn’t really interested in serving its customers.

We did not receive trash or recycling pickup on Friday (this is not the first time this has happened), and the company made no attempt to notify the customers that the pickup would not be occurring on the regular schedule. In fact, we’ve never been given a heads up when trash pickup would be delayed or cancelled.

Like in the past calls to your customer service department, when my neighbors and I could get through, were unhelpful. Of course, I continue to pay for twice-a-week service, though you don’t always deliver it. May I deduct $5 from my monthly bill for late service, just as you can add $5 to my bill for late payment?

Today, Tuesday, is our regular trash pick up day, and I just witnessed something that made me sick to my stomach: because my recyclables were still out at the curb (because, as you know, you didn’t come on Friday to pick up recycling, the only day you take recyclables), your regular trash guys took them and tossed them in with the garbage with my regular trash.

How is it possible that your employees thought that this was OK? Your own corporate website says the following about your environmental efforts: “Nationwide, Allied Waste is committed to sound environmental stewardship and working closely with customers to help them achieve their own “green” goals. The company’s environmental initiatives extend beyond the management of waste volumes and include alternative energy generation and the introduction of clean-burning alternative fuels into its fleet.” Given what I just witnessed, one can only question your commitment to “sound environmental stewardship.”

Bottom line: your company needs to rethink its customer service initiatives, and you need to educate your trash haulers that tossing recyclables in with the trash, where they will all end up in a landfill, isn’t serving your customers who care about the environment.

I don’t know if it is illegal to dump recyclables in with the trash, or it’s just stupid, lazy and rude. Nonetheless, I’ve contacted my state’s Environmental Protection Agency, and I’m going to let them sort that out.

In the meantime, I’m counting down the days until May 28, 2008, when I can sign on with my new trash company (some of my fed-up neighbors are signing on, too). While this company is cheaper, it does offer trash pickup once a week only, but that’s OK–with our commitment to composting, we put out very little trash each week anyway. What I’m really looking forward to is being able to participate in this company’s progressive recycling program. Not only is it single-sort but also it takes cardboard. Yahoo!

Some people are obsessive about buying shoes. I’m obsessive about buying glasses frames. I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that I’ve worn glasses since I was seven and, after having my kids, developed an eye condition that prevented me from wearing contacts. What also helps is that I have double-wide feet (yes, like a trailer) so I can’t just buy shoes off the rack. Anyway, I loved getting new glasses frames, though with our new frugal budget, I haven’t splurged on frames in over two years. However, I’m due for an eye exam and who knows? I might need some new glasses and some new frames.

But back to my obsession with glasses. This means that over the years, my glasses have come in and out of style just like the fashions. For instance in the preppy 1980s, when I was wearing Topsiders and Izod shirts, I had oversized, horn-rimmed glasses. In the grunge-oriented 1990s, when slopping clothing was all the rage, my glasses were dark and daring. These days I’m all about looking neat and professional, and so are my glasses, thus the frameless glasses I’m wearing in the picture on this blog.

What this also means is that over the years, I’ve accrued a lot of glasses frames that I no longer need–either because the frames went out of style or I never bothered to update the lenses to match my changing prescription. A quick search of my bedroom nightstand uncovered five pairs of glasses that haven’t been in my regular rotation for years now. Truth be told, I keep one pair (it’s happens to be Giorgio Armani frames) as my painting glasses. Currently, these high-fashion frames look like a high-fashion Jackson Pollack painting.

While I’ve been very diligent about donating clothing I’m no longer interested in wearing to charity, I haven’t done the same with my glasses frames–mostly because I wasn’t sure how. But in the spirit of reduce, reuse and recycle, I’m glad that, this week, the PR person for Give the Gift of Sight got in touch with me. She wanted to let me know about the organization’s kick-off campaign to get people to think about donating unused eyeglasses as they think about spring cleaning. That is, as you clean out the old to make room for the new, don’t forget about those eyeglasses that you might have piling up in your nightstand like I did.

Here’s what she told me about this worthy organization:

Give the Gift of Sight is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free eye exams and glasses to people (men, women and children) around the world who need glasses to see but can not afford them. To date, the Gift of Sight has helped over 6 million people internationally.

I’m told that you can find Gift of Sight donation drop-off boxes at all Pearle Vision, LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut stores. You might also find similar collection boxes, which the Lions Club sponsors, at non-chain optician stores. I’ll have to check to see if my local eye doctor has one.

So, folks this is one more way you, too, can reduce, reuse and recycle, and one more thing that you can keep out of landfills–eyeglasses–and help a good cause at the same time.

As you well know earlier this week, executives from five top oil companies (Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP America, Conoco Phillips and Chevron) testified before Congress to explain how it is that these companies continue to need government subsidies (to the tune of $18 billion) when they have been enjoying record profits while we, the American public, have been “enjoying” record-high gas prices.

My favorite quote from those hearings, held on April 1st, was from Rep. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts. He was quoted on CBS News saying, “On April Fool’s Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil.” My least favorite quote? How, according to NPR, the oil company executives pretty much said, “It’s not our fault.”

If one of my kids admitted to doing something that she knew was wrong, and then threw, “But it’s not my fault” at me, that kid would be in a ton of trouble. But what can we do to punish the oil companies? What they’re doing is definitely wrong, even in our free-market economy. I mean, if they’re making money hand-over-fist from American drivers, why aren’t they passing along any savings to us?

I think it’s time to figure out how to protest this despicable corporate behavior. People need to find a way to drive less. They need to determine how not to buy as much oil and gas. They need to come up with ways to stage a protest any way that they can.

Forget going green for the good of Mother Nature. Now is the time to go green to stick it to the man–the big, bad oil company man.

That’s why earlier this week I pushed so hard to show how, with a little effort, you can figure out a way to use your car less during a typical day.

That’s why last year, I posted about how you can figure out how to carpool in the real world, even if it’s just to and from your kids’ sporting events or religious classes.

That’s why, if I had my druthers, we would get rid of our fully paid-off SUV and get that hybrid we’d considered but decided against buying last summer. Just this morning, with news that gas prices will likely climb past $4 a gallon this summer (it’s already there in places like California and Hawaii), my husband and I crunched the numbers on how much we’re spending on gas each month. And it dawned on us that we’re spending more on gas than we do on our car payment. But right now we can’t afford to give up a car we own outright to take on another car payment to save money on gas. That math just doesn’t add up for us. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t find ways to be economical with the vehicle we own, such as driving less and walking more.

What else can you do to formulate your own protest against the big oil companies? Because just as we don’t let our kids get away with “It’s not my fault” as a valid excuse, we shouldn’t let these millionaire CEOs get away with that kind of lame excuse either.

Read how you can make your own green cleaners using only vinegar and baking soda, and find out about Leah’s All You article on going green and saving money, too.

Green Boot Camp: Week Thirteen–DIY Cleaners with Vinegar and Baking Soda

This post may not be about green and frugal living, but I felt it was an important one to write.

Two nights ago friends of ours lost their home in a fire. The parents and all five children got out safely but the house is a complete loss, as is all of their possessions. Our community has rallied together so quickly and enthusiastically that, in less than 48 hours, the family is no longer in need of clothing donations nor do they need additional help replacing the kids’ sports equipment (it was a family of athletes). That’s pretty incredible.

What would have been pretty incredible as well was if the family had never found themselves in this situation in the first place.

It turns out that just before the fire began, someone in the house had cleaned out the fireplace and stored what were still-burning ashes in the garage. There must have been gasoline vapor in the garage, because that’s where the initial explosion occurred that caused the fire.

The dangers of working with hot embers is one of the first safety lessons that fire departments share with homeowners with fireplaces. The Connecticut Commission on Fire Prevention and Control had this to say about fireplace ashes: “Be sure to dispose of fireplace ashes in a closed metal container, away from your house. Ashes can retain their heat for hours, even days, and can cause nearby combustibles to ignite.”

I know that when we clean out our fireplace, we always do so days after we’ve last lit a fire. And when we do dump the ashes, we put them in a trash can in our backyard, away from anything that could catch fire. Our trash can is plastic, so I’m going to replace it with a metal one instead. My mother’s friends never made the plastic-to-metal switch, and stored some ashes in a bucket in their entrance hall one evening. When they came downstairs the next morning, the bucket had melted and the entrance-hall floor was scorched black. How that all never erupted into a fire is pretty much a miracle.

Besides storing ashes in metal, covered cans, here are some other fire-prevention safety tips to consider:

* Never close the flue or damper on a fireplace until you’re sure that the fire has died all the way down.

* Have your chimney cleaned professionally each year (we do it in fall) to avoid having any leftover debris in the chimney catch fire when you light one in the fireplace.

* If your power goes out and you must burn candles, put them on a steady, fire-proof base. That way if they tip over, they won’t cause a fire. We always place our power-outage candle stash on some large dinner plates before we light them.

* Also regarding candles, never burn them near draperies, rugs or other kinds of fabrics, like bedspreads. And never burn candles in a bedroom. Just like the danger of smoking in bed, something made of fabric could easily catch on fire when a candle tips over or someone drops a lit cigarette. In fact, the National Candle Association says that 40 percent of candle fires start in bedrooms. That doesn’t surprise me. When I was in high school, I knew a girl who loved to burn candles in her bedroom. One day, she left her bedroom with the candles burning, and one of her cats jumped off the bed to follow her out of the room. When the cat jumped down, he knocked over a candle, and within minutes her bedroom was filled with flames. She ended up burning down her whole house, from one stinking candle gone astray in her room.

It goes without saying that you should have working smoke detectors throughout your home. The National Fire Protection Association recommends that you have at least one smoke detector on every level of your home, including the basement, and a smoke detector outside each of the homes’ bedrooms. In our house, we have a smoke detector in the upstairs hall, where all of the bedrooms are clustered, plus one inside each of the four bedrooms. I’m guessing that our friends’ did, too, and that’s why even though they’d just put all of the kids to bed when the fire started in the garage, all seven of them were able to escape this fast-moving fire without anyone incurring any injuries.

Finally–and this isn’t about fire safety but more about protecting your financial assets–make sure that all of your insurance policies are up to date and sufficient to cover all of your belongings. As I mentioned this family we know lost everything in the fire, including their two cars. I also know that they had moved into this home about three years ago, and, at least at one point, must have had home-owner’s insurance, since you can’t get a mortgage if you don’t have proof of home-owner’s insurance. However, there’s no law that says that you have to maintain your home-owner’s insurance once you’re living in the house. I can only hope that they had been vigilant about keeping their insurance up to date so that as they go about replacing their lost possessions, they won’t have to incur any additional heartache involving money.

Our community is going to do whatever it can to help this family rebuild. In the meantime I’m going to confirm that all of my insurance policies are sufficient to cover our belongings, and that all of the smoke detectors in the house are, in fact, in working order. I’m going to go buy a new metal trash can to store our fireplace ashes, and I will make sure that we discuss a fire-exit plan with our kids on a regular basis–even have a fire drill from time to time. I hope that you will take similar precautions to protect your home and loved ones from the tragedy of a fire.