Green Tips for St. Patrick's Day

What better day than today to talk about how to make our world a greener place. So I’ve got a couple of green tips for you. Not far from The Yarn Haven is a Goodwill Industries Recycling Center. I go there to drop off items that I have to recycle. They take plastics (with recycling # of 1-7), aluminum cans, newspaper, flattened cardboard, mixed paper (like phone books, catalogs, magazines, etc), and glass. They also take other household items that they can sell in their non-profit shops. Here is the link for a map of this center and others around the city of Knoxville.

I think the first key to recycling is to ask yourself a question before you throw anything away. Ask yourself “Can I recycle or reuse this item?” Many times the answer will be “Yes”. But knowing what types of materials can be recycled will help you to put action to that question.

Other green tips that I personally do:

• Fill a big glass jar with water and put it in the tank of your toilets. That way every time the toilet is flushed, it uses less water.



• Change the margins when printing out something so that you use as little paper as possible.



• Reuse envelopes that come in the mail: to do lists, bank deposits, put mailing label over address and reuse it (be sure to blacken out any barcodes at the bottom), etc.



• Pay my bills online so that you don’t have to use more paper to send in your payments.



• Bring your own bags when shopping…and don’t forget to use them. :-)



• Shop at used book stores instead of buying books new. My favorite is McKay’s Used Books. Sometimes you can get knitting books there that look brand new.



• For items you no longer want, but don’t want to simply trash, go to freecycle.org and find someone else that will take the item off your hands. (You’ll have to set up an account, but it’s free.) I’ve gotten and given several articles this way that would have ended up in the landfield otherwise.

So there are my green tips for the day. Why don't you share some green tips with us that you do. And have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!