Blog: Green Forests, Cool Planet

Twice a year they arrive on my doorstep with a loud and familiar thump: the “yellow pages” - a book two inches thick and wrapped in plastic so that the pages don’t get ruined by the rain or dew or sprinklers. And when it arrives, I dutifully pull my old dusty, yet unopened book out from underneath my computer monitor, throw it in the recycling bin and put the new yellow pages in its place, where it will hold up the monitor until the next book arrives.

What a waste! It takes 19 million trees, 1.6 billion pounds of paper, 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, and 7.2 million barrels of oil to produce the 500 million directories that are delivered across the nation each year. (Source: YellowPagesGoesGreen.org, an organization working to stop the delivery of unwanted Yellow and White Pages Books.)

And for what? For most of us, the yellow pages are obsolete; there are so many great online resources that are available like switchboard.com or yellowpages.com. These sites provide all of the address and phone number information that we used to gather by flipping through the yellow pages, plus they can provide maps, directions and more.

If you are using one of these (or similar) online directories and no longer wish to receive yellow pages, contact the company that publishes your yellow pages and ask them to stop delivery to your household and/or business.

• Verizon (Superpages/Idearc): 800.888.8448 
• Dex (Yellow Pages): 877.243.8339
• Yellow Book: 800.373.3280
• AT&T/YellowPages (formerly SBC/Bell South): 800.792.2665 for AR, KS, OK, MO and TX only/All other states call 800.848.8000

Or, you can sign up with YellowPagesGoesGreen.org and they will contact your local phone company for you. Their service is free.

I just found a wonderful new book, The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green, by Terra Wellington. It is chock full of great information, resources and simple life style changes that can help us all to live greener lives.

You can learn a recipe for a homemade non-toxic bug spray for the garden; where to buy washable and reusable air filters for your car; how to stop your junk mail; and what all of those different recycling symbols and numbers on the bottom of your plastic containers mean. Wellington also tells you why and where to purchase pretty much anything you need for your home: carpets and paints that are no- or low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) products, energy-efficient appliances for your kitchen, low-flow toilets and water-efficient showerheads, etc.

In one of my favorite sections of the book, Wellington shares an inspiring step-by-step guide for any mom wanting to help bring about change in her child’s school. The “Green School Action Blueprint” includes questions to ask, solutions to advocate, and sage advice on how to most effectively be a force for change.

The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green was written as a resource for “busy moms,” but really, it’s a great how-to guide for anyone. Check it out!

~Margie

It’s that time a year again - flowers are in bloom, bees are buzzing, and New Yorkers are about to take to the streets for the city’s annual AIDS Walk. This year’s AIDS Walk New York will take place on May 17th in Central Park and will draw over 45,000 walkers who will raise funds to benefit the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and other tri-state area AIDS service organizations.

What’s more, many of these walkers have registered for the AIDS Walk Green Walkers Program. Green Walkers agree to opt-out of printed and mailed materials related to the AIDS Walk event and instead do all of their registration, fundraising, and communication about the walk online. This saves paper and postage, which means that more money will go toward to HIV/AIDS prevention and care. What a great way to save trees and help in the fight against AIDS!

~Margie

As Earth Day approaches, how about taking a moment to applaud yourself for everything you’re already doing to be kind to the planet. Maybe you’re saving energy (and reducing global warming emissions) by driving less or adjusting your thermostat. Maybe you’re saving trees by using less paper and buying recycled paper products.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the wildlife that lives around me. Born Free USA reminds us that “our earth is their earth home too.” Their “Coexisting with Wildlife” campaign is designed to promote the peaceful sharing of the earth, particularly in areas where people and wildlife tend to come into conflict. Their website has all sorts of resources for humanely living with the animals in our midst.

Check it out and share it with others!

For anyone living in an urban area or in areas abutting undeveloped natural lands, rats, mice, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, deer, and even coyotes probably live in your neighborhood, and even in your home. Sometimes it may be tempting to call these critters a nuisance - when the deer feast on your favorite flowers or the raccoons make a mess out of your tidy trash bag or a skunk sprays your dog. This year on Earth Day, send out a moment of appreciation for all these wild and semi-wild creatures and keep on caring for the Earth we all share!

~Margie

Cheers to the City and County of San Francisco for becoming the first city in the U.S. to support a national Do Not Mail Registry! On March 31st, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution (by a 9-2 majority) urging both the California State Legislature and the U.S. Congress to establish a Do Not Mail Registry, which if created would allow citizens to “opt-out” of receiving unwanted junk mail (like the national Do Not Call registry. Although the resolution is non-binding (meaning there are no laws connected to it), it is nevertheless a strong statement by the Board of Supervisors and a big victory for citizens (and trees everywhere!). Special congrats to our friends at ForestEthics who inspired this local action in our favorite uber-Green city.

Both New York and Florida have bills under discussion in the legislature that would establish state-wide registries. If you happen to live in Florida or New York, please contact your state representatives to show your support. The sponsor of the bill in New York is Senator Carl Kruger. And in Florida, the sponsors are Senator Dave Aronberg and Representative Mary Brandenburg.

We’re proud of San Francisco and hopeful that the New York and Florida bills will pass, but establishing a national Do Not Mail Registry is a long-term project. Meanwhile, we each need to stop the deluge of junk mail into our home mailboxes. 41pounds.org can do it for you, or do it yourself with the Stop Junk Mail Kit.

~Margie

If you are on the move to a new home, a new job, a new life, check out Box Quest, a company that helps you to find and buy used moving boxes and packing supplies in your local community. Some people sell their boxes for cheap and some give them away for free.

You might also want to check out Freecycle, a network of regional email lists through which individuals give away stuff, including moving boxes and just about any other thing you could possibly need. Each of these web sites allows you to search by locale, so you can find your recycled boxes as close to home as possible.

Once you’ve moved and unpacked, you can use these sites to sell or give away your boxes to other folks. Keep the cycle going and keep the trees in our forests!

~Margie

I found some great websites offering clear and easy instructions for art projects using recycled newsprint, junk mail, or other scrap paper.

EcoKids is a program of Earth Day Canada offering environmental information and educational resources for teachers and kids around the world. Their website includes instructions for making paper out of recycled paper using recycled newspaper or other scrap paper, water, a blender, and vegetable dye (or leaves!). What a great, fun way to teach kids about recycling and the need to keep trees in our forests!

Junk Mail Jems is a company that not only sells unique gift items made from junk mail, but also shares some of the tricks of the trade with us. Their website includes a do-it-yourself page that provides instructions for innovative ways of reusing junk mail. Though I will have to search far and wide for junk mail scraps around my house (I’m a subscriber to the 41pounds.org junk mail reduction service), I love the Junk Mail Jems instructions for how to make your own junk mail gift bag.

Can you imagine it? Beautiful hand made recycled paper delivered in a one-of-a-kind recycled gift bag. I know what I’m doing with my kids this weekend…

~Margie

The US Postal Service is proposing cutting back its delivery service from six to five days per week. Which day would be cut from the delivery schedule is not yet known, but I’ve read Saturday or Tuesday. The reason? Budget crisis – an issue not new to the US Post office.

Whatever the reasoning, at this day in age, I think this reduction in the mail delivery schedule makes great sense. Many people today are using the internet to connect with friends and family, to receive and pay bills, and to learn about new products and ideas. In fact, in 2008, the US Postal Service delivered 9 billion fewer pieces of mail compared to 2007. Though not so great for the postmaster, this is clearly great news for trees! Cutting back delivery service will, I hope, encourage the use of modern communication technology, making us all less dependent on paper mail, and improving our environment. Think about the C02 emissions from all of the little (and big) mail trucks that wouldn’t be making their way around our neighborhoods and across our states on Saturdays (or Tuesdays).

Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas opened an exhibit earlier this month by artist Annette Lawrence that highlights the amount of junk mail that one person receives over the course of a year. The exhibit, called “Free Paper,” displays the artist’s junk mail shredded into two-inch wide strips and then stacked in 12 piles — one for each month of 2008. The total weight of all of her junk mail is 265 pounds. The tallest (and heaviest) stacks of junk mail are around the winter holidays.

Because I like things to be generally nice and tidy, I find the stacks oddly comforting to look at, almost beautiful. (Granted, I have only seen images of the exhibit via the Internet.) Still, the message behind the artwork is clear. In an interview with KXAN, a local Austin news channel, Lawrence says that she wants visitors to the exhibit to take a way a sense of “wow, that’s a lot of paper.”

And a lot of paper it is!

If you’re in Austin, check out the exhibit, which runs through February 6th at Flatbed Press and let us know what you think!

Have you been doing some online holiday shopping recently? I have. Just last weekend I sat in front of the computer with my sons’ Christmas lists and started shopping. Walkie-talkies, monster trucks, and a chess set — my kids will be pleased. And since I was feeling generous, I also bought myself a subscription to a new gourmet cooking magazine.

This is not only the time of year when we pull out our credit cards and spread holiday cheer, but it’s also the time when many of us tend to spread our name and address around…and around. That toy company I just purchased walkie-talkies from, they have my name and address now. And that cooking magazine I just subscribed to, well they have my name and address too. I’ve just been listed, again. Both the toy company and the magazine publisher are going to rent or sell their list to others and then suddenly I will start to get catalogs in the mail from all kinds of companies — trying to sell me more toys, kitchen utensils and dried fruit.

The best way to avoid the catalog deluge is to make one simple request each time you buy something — whether online or by phone or in the store. Tell the company not to send you any of their catalogs AND not to rent, sell, or trade my name and address.

And remember, if you’re a 41pounds.org customer, anytime you get a catalog in the mail that you don’t want, simply contact 41pounds.org and tell them to get you off that company’s list.

~ Margie