TerraCycle Programs

September 16, 2019September 16, 2019 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

09.16.2019

0600

TerraCycle offers a range of free programs that are funded by conscientious companies, as well as recycling solutions available for purchase for almost every form of waste.

TerraCycle offers free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help you collect and recycle your hard-to-recycle waste. Simply choose the programs you’d like to join; start collecting in your home, school, or office; download free shipping labels; and send us your waste to be recycled. You can even earn rewards for your school or favorite non-profit!

TerraCycle reuses, upcycles, and recycles waste instead of incinerating or land filling it. This moves waste from a linear system to a circular one, allowing it to keep cycling in our economy.

You can collect points, by collecting trash for your specific program and then redeeming your points. You can redeem your points by either receiving a cash value, or you can donate the points to charity. There’s a list of charities that team up with TerraCycle, in which you can choose to donate your points to.

I always donate my points, since I think this program is a great way for charities and companies to get involved with creating less waste, and I really don’t value the cash redemption as much.

Some of the charity organizations I was looking at to donate my points were:

100 points = Help safeguard 1 acre of rain forest for 1 year in the Northwest Gaia Amazon.
1 point = Help http://www.Carbonfund.org to reduce a 2 pounds of emissions from the atmosphere.
1,000 points = Help http://www.Carbonfund.org to reduce a metric tonne or 2,205 pounds of emissions from the atmosphere.
300 points = Have a tree planted in an American forest through Arbor Day Foundation
300 points = You can provide one year’s supply of clean drinking water to a person who otherwise would lack access to this most essential element.
625 points = You can help the D’Addario Music Foundation give one child a free music lesson.
2500 points = You can help the D’addario Music Foundation provide a child with 4 music lessons for a week. Kids who study music are 5x more likely to stay in school, graduate on time and apply to college.
100 points = For every 100 points, TerraCycle will send $1 to the American Red Cross to provide aid to those affected by natural disasters.

For this round, I decided to split my points between a couple of different charities. I decided to redeem my points with:

Providing one year’s supply of clean drinking water to a person who otherwise would lack access to this most essential element
Help http://www.Carbonfund.org to reduce emissions from the atmosphere

If you want to participate in the TerraCycle programs, check them out at https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/select-country to see which programs you can join. The participating companies change often, so check back with the website to see updates. There are a lot of programs to choose from and supporting the partnership between TerraCycle and the participating companies creates more awareness to how much trash we produce, and how companies take responsibility for the trash they pass onto us consumers.

Rollup Christmas Tree

November 28, 2017November 15, 2018 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

11.28.2017

0600

Materials:

8 baseboards at 28″ long
15 pieces of 12″ long thin twine rope
Extra: Matches to melt the ends of the twine together so it doesn’t come apart over time)

Tools:

Miter Saw
Drill & Drill Bits (Need 1/8″ drill bit for all holes)

Measure each base board at appropriate length
Organize each baseboard to it’s general location on the tree formation and mark the corners of where you plan to make the 45° cuts. I made my marks for my 45° cuts on the bottom edges of my baseboard pieces so my baseboard lengths would stay consistent.
Using a Miter Saw, take each baseboard and cut each end of each baseboard at 45°
Starting with the top of the tree, mark off each of the holes for each piece.

Drill each hole to create openings
Using the twine pieces, start tying the pieces together. To keep each space consistent, I tied the knots towards the end of the rope and the same amount of twine end to melt later.

It’s a simple tree where the clean up is just rolling up the tree. When I put up the Christmas lights, I simple wrap them around the edges of the pieces. I usually go in one direction so that the lines are more evenly spaced. Same as my blog post Minimalist Christmas Tree, I hang my ornaments off of the lights. For the more fragile ornaments, I hang them from paperclips and then hang them from the cord.

This was created as an option to not use push pins on the wall, but it was an interesting take on a holiday tree as well. Give it a try if you’re interested, and you can even change out the material I used too.

Minimalist Christmas Tree

November 21, 2017November 15, 2018 / Yen-Van Tran / 5 Comments

11.21.2017

0600

Materials:

Christmas lights (Used a 25′-0″ length Christmas Light cord)
Ornaments
Paper clips (Used 14 for the tree + a few extra)

Tools:

Measuring Tape

Christmas is one of those holidays that comes with more decorating than the others. It’s not just the food that’s plentiful, but the decorations as well. Which means of course, that I was determined to minimize my decorations for this holiday.

My family has always used a fake tree so we always knew exactly how much mess to expect when decorating for this holiday. However, I wanted to figure out a way to simplify that. This lead to my Christmas tree design, made up of Christmas lights.

I wanted the base to be 36″ wide, simply because it was the width of a standard door. For a 25′-0″ cord I was using, it seemed like a good base point. I first plugged in my cord and measured out 36″ in the direction I wanted my tree to be located, and then 6″ up. At that point, I placed a pushpin. I then hooked a paperclip to my cord so that it would reach the pushpin. This 36″ length of the cord would create the bottom branch of the tree.

From there, I measured out 34″ of the next section of the cord and moved in the opposite direction of the bottom branch and measured 6″ up, where I placed the next push pin. I straightened my 34″ section of the cord and placed a paper clip onto it and hooked it onto that pushpin.

I repeated these steps, for each branch of the tree, where each time I subtracted two inches for each branch and measured six inches up to place the next push pin. The height of your tree will really depend on the width of your bottom branch. If you have a longer length of cord and you want the bottom branch to be wider, you can do just that. However, if you have a longer cord and you still start out at a 36″ wide bottom branch, your tree will be taller, which may look just as beautiful.

If you really want to test out how far your can push this design, link up two cords and see how tall you can make it. However, the longer the cord, the wider the base should be. The sequence for each branch will still be the same. The height of this tree ended up at about six feet high from the floor.

I hung my ornaments around each light and distributed them as needed. If you have trouble hanging the ornaments up, hang the lighter ornaments on the lights themselves and hang the heavier ornaments on the pushpins. If you have delicate or fragile ornaments, consider double looping them around a Christmas light or using a paperclip to hang them up by securing it to the branch (the way you secured the previous paper clips to the pushpins).

A lot of my ornaments are fairly light and I create ornaments from old keychains I’ve collected over the years. You can click on that blog post, Christmas Ornaments Hack and read about how I made them. It’s interesting when I stand back and look at the tree, because even the keychain pendants have a unique memories tied to them.

You can place a blanket in front of the tree to place presents on and it’ll still look like and regular Christmas Tree. I like to wrap my gifts in reusable fabric and reusable fabric bags and place them under the tree. I wrote about how to create a Zero Waste Christmas or an Eco-Friendly Christmas, in my other blog posts and you can check it out if you’d like any ideas.

Well there you have it, my minimalist Christmas tree. If this works for you that’s great! I hope this blog post inspires you or jogs up some ideas for you.

Eco-Friendly Christmas

October 15, 2017August 12, 2018 / Yen-Van Tran / 8 Comments

10.15.2017

0600

Having an Eco-friendly holiday isn’t as daunting as it sounds. It might sound complicated because the concept is different, but it’s actually pretty simple. So for each holiday there are basic aspects of the holiday celebration I like to check off: decorations, food and entertainment. I don’t always cover all three categories equally and majority of my focus will usually be on the food.

Decorations tend to be covered easily being that Christmas is such a huge holiday celebrated. Honestly, any type of decoration that is compostable or reusable is a good idea. Here are some ideas for zero waste holiday.

Decoration Ideas:
1. Seasonal
  1. Seasonal leaves, fruit, create a centerpiece suing branches and colorful seasonal leaves.
2. Christmas
  1. Use existing jars filled with some seasonal and colorful leaves to decorate the table
  2. Use branches and leaves from outside to decorate the table surface

Zero Waste Food
1. Consider using fresh fruits and vegetables as ingredients in your dishes. You can compost the skin or the non edible pieces after
2. Buy your ingredients from the bulk aisle or bulk bins
3. For ingredients that usually come in packaging, consider making your own homemade version or looking for it in paper, aluminum or glass packaging
4. Share recipes or give the gift of different types of dishes to one another

Gift ideas can be tricky for this holiday since it’s based around an iconic tree as well as what surrounds it on Christmas Day. However, here are a few ideas for zero waste gifts, you might want to consider. Check social media sites (Groupon, Living Social, Ticketmaster, etc.) for great deals for events and activities for family and friends during the holidays.

Gift Ideas:
1. Compostable Gifts
  1. Food, snacks, bulk candy wrapped in reusable packaging or compostable packaging
  2. Buy bulk foods and create a recipe kit for a gift
  3. Seasonal fruit, fruit basket gift
2. Gift of Goods and Products
  1. Consider checking out thrift stores to find a gift for the recipient
  2. If you want to give a new gift, look for gifts with no packaging or recyclable paper packaging
3. Gift of Experiences
  1. Sporting events ( football, soccer, tennis, gymnastics, baseball, etc.)
  2. Theme parks (check for local theme parks near you or near the recipient)
  3. Outdoor experiences (pedle boating, wind sailing, kayaking, rowboats, canoes, skydiving, zip lining, rock climbing, trampoline time, golfing, etc.)
  4. Gift card or money for food & drinks (breakfast, lunch, dinners, coffee, tea, desserts, wine bar, wine/beer tour)
  5. Gift card or money for activities (cooking classes, yoga, spin class, kickboxing, zip lining, etc.)
  6. Gift card/money for events (museums, concerts, festivals, fairs, movies)
  7. Gift card or money to treat yourself (spa, massage, facial)
4. Service Ideas (This will differ based on location, so check your local listings)
  1. Volunteer for a charity or organization that will help hand out food during the holidays
  2. Donate toys, clothes, coats, shoes to an organization that will help distribute them this season
  3. Volunteer your time in a hospital, care home, nursing home to those who may not have family near or at all

Gift Wrapping:
1. Reusable cloth gift bags with string to tie bows (if wanted)
2. Fabric sheets or bandanas to wrap and tie around gifts
3. For the larger gifts, I’ll use a pillowcase or really large bed sheets to wrap the gifts
4. For medium sized gifts, I’ll wrap the gift in an extra t-shirt.

Entertainment during the holidays can be daunting as well. Usually families have kids around or simply need entertainment playing while the day is happening.

Entertainment
1. Movies- if you are able to stream movies, there are a few great resources to stream holiday movies during this time. Check YouTube or other streaming media, they usually have full movies uploaded to watch.
2. Board Games – Ask your guest if they have any board games to play or would want to bring for the kids to share and play with
3. Card Games – these games are always fun because a deck of cards can be really versatile

I hope this outline helped to brainstorm ideas for you. This is an overall idea list and if you want to check out other holiday blog posts, check out these holiday blog posts from these websites:

Suburban Salt- How to Cure Olives for the Holidays
Little Sprouts Learning – Holiday Gifts Make Garden
Ever Change Productions – Christmas Gift Mason Jar Recipes
Curbside Overhaul – DIY- Reversible Holiday Sign With Scrap Wood
Pink Paperdoll – Decorate With Squash

Zero Waste Christmas

December 1, 2016August 12, 2018 / Yen-Van Tran / 3 Comments

12.01.2016
0800

My family has used a fake Christmas tree for the month of December since I was brought into this world. I’m not sure if we simply did not want to go get a fresh chopped down tree or if it was more that when my family came to the United States, buying a fake Christmas tree was just more convenient. Either way, I’ve never had a real Christmas tree, and as I got older, I understood the extra steps needed to take to keep a real tree in your home for a whole month.

After the Christmas, the sidewalks around my neighborhood had dead Christmas trees laying out on the sidewalks or street curbs for pickup. However, this was not always the proper way of discarding Christmas trees in accordance with each city’s municipal recycling center. (Check with your local city’s municipal recycling center for holiday recycling items) After seeing all of the trees laying out on the street curbs, I was thankful that my family used a fake tree after all these years. In fact, we never seemed to buy new holiday decorations either.

We use the same holiday decorations and the same tree that we’ve used for years. Unfortunately, there was a time when we had family staying with us (let’s just say that they’re not the brightest bulb in the family) who had decided to take it upon themselves to throw away all of my family’s Christmas ornaments and replace them with brand new ornaments. They didn’t comprehend the concept that ornaments hold sentimental value and also mark a point in time when it was brought into the home. They saw our nineteen years of old ornaments as ugly and had no value, so why show it off. All of my brother’s and my childhood ornaments were tossed out, that included ornaments from when my parents first came to the United States too. For years after that, we slowly built up our ornament collection again.

This was when I started making ornaments from my family’s sentimental items that included small memorabilia we had collected over the years. (My next post will give you instructions on how I make key chains into ornaments- it’s actually very simple). Our tree is now covered in memories of vacation trips, landmark life events, graduations, jobs and companies we were once a part of, and so much more.

For gifts, we actually don’t give gifts to one another as much anymore. Counting the birthdays, mother’s day and Tet (Vietnamese New Years) celebrations, Christmas is just a time for our family to get together, watch movies and indulge in delicious holiday food. During the year, the items that each family member may need usually gets purchased throughout the year. We don’t really ever save up a wish list and make it known for the holiday. So here are some of the gift ideas as well as some gift wrapping ideas that I’ll go through to give as gifts…

Gift ideas- Zero waste ideas
1. Experience ideas
  1. Sporting events ( football, soccer, tennis, gymnastics, baseball, etc.)
  2. Theme parks (Great America, Raging Waters, Six Flags, Disneyland, etc.)
  3. Outdoor experiences (pedle boating, wind sailing, kayaking, rowboats, canoes, skydiving, zip lining, rock climbing, trampoline time, golfing)
  4. Gift card/money for food / drinks (breakfast, lunch, dinners, coffee / tea, desserts, wine bar, wine/beer tour)
  5. Gift card/money for activities (cooking classes, yoga, spin class, kickboxing, zip lining)
  6. Gift card/money for events (museums, concerts, festivals, fairs, movies)
  7. Gift card/money to treat yourself (spa, massage, facial)
2. Food gift ideas
  1. Main dishes, side dishes, trade food/drink recipes
3. Fruit gift ideas
  1. Seasonal fruit, fruit basket gift
4. Zero waste shopping starter kits
  1. Cloth produce bags, shopping bags, reusable jars, water soluble crayons to write PLU codes onto the bags and jars
  2. Help tare the weight on all of the reusable items
5. Bulk bathroom gifts
  1. Soap bars, bulk soap, bulk bath salts, recipes for homemade makeup
6. Bulk kitchen gifts
  1. Bulk staple foods, bulk spices, combination of some bulk spices, create a meal kit from bulk items for a loved one
Wrapping Ideas
1. Reusable cloth gift bags with string to tie bows (if wanted)
2. Fabric sheets/bandanas to wrap and tuck around gifts
Service Ideas (This will differ based on location, so check your local listings)
1. Volunteer for a charity or organization that will help hand out food during the holidays
2. Donate toys, clothes, coats, shoes to an organization that will help distribute them this season
3. Volunteer your time in a hospital, care home, nursing home to those who may not have family near or at all