A week ago, I asked (in a poll) how often you reduce, reuse and recycle. The results of the week-long poll show that two-thirds (67%) of my readers reduce, reuse and recycle as much as they possibly can, whereas 25% only practice it whenever they are in the mood to do so. However, 8% of my readers say that they do not reduce, reuse and recycle their trash.

While there are many reasons why people do not, or put very little effort in reducing, reusing and recycling their trash, I believe that one of them is that they do not find the incentive in doing it. Some people find it very convenient to just trash everything instead of sorting them out in their homes. And some people think that their recycling efforts will not do much difference to the world if other people aren’t doing their part.

And well, some people do not recycle their trash because they do not know how to do so!

Now, how do you reuse or recycle:

• business cards?
• shredded paper?
• tissue boxes?
• UNUSED sanitary napkins or tampons?

What about:

• unwanted chopsticks?
• milk cartons?
• cooking oil?
• dried up pens?

If you’re looking for ideas on how you can reuse or recycle a whole bunch of things from your office or your home, How Can I Recycle This? is the perfect place for you. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a new item will be posted and readers are welcome to share their ideas and suggestions on how to reuse or recycle that particular item. You have an item but it has yet to be mentioned on the website? Pop them an email and suggest it!

Or if you have recently reused or recycled something in an interesting, clever or creative way and want to show it off, (also) pop them an email, tell them what you did and send a photo if you can, and it will be added to the “Clever Ideas” category.

Brilliant, isn’t it?

Thanks to Amanda @ The Good Rabbit for the tips!

Earth Hour 2007 was a Sydney event. Earth Hour 2008 is a global movement.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

- Source: Earth Hour

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm on the 29 March, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tel Aviv and Manila will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.

Beyond turning off your lights for one hour at 8pm on 29 March 2008, there are lots of things you can do to make Earth Hour 2008 an even greater success. Here are just a few to get you started.

• Sign up. Not only will you really feel part of it, but you’ll also receive lots of useful tips and tools.
• Tell a friend. Better still, tell all your friends, and your family, and your workmates. Just email them with a link to this website.
• Create your own Earth Hour (PDF) – learn how to organize Earth Hour in your town or local community.
• Advertise. If you’ve registered as a business, don’t be afraid to advertise your support for Earth Hour. It’s great for business and the environment!
• Support. If you’d like to take a more significant role in Earth Hour 2008, contact WWF to find out about support opportunities.

Watch this promo video (3 mins) for more information:

This article was posted in PlanetThoughts.

A San Francisco man has saved over a year of trash because he ran an experiment in consumption. For one year, 35-year old professional caterer Ari Derfel kept every tissue, receipt, food wrapper and plastic bottle inside bins located in his kitchen and living room apartment. Ari even organized the trash by type, so it could be “seen, felt and understood more clearly.”

What started out as dinner with three friends ended up with him collecting his trash in his kitchen closet. His original intention to get two 96-gallon bins from the local waste management company did not get through because “it was illegal to keep trash in bins and not have it removed regularly.”

So what has he learned from his project? In his own words:

1. The vast vast vast majority of trash comes from food packaging.
2. When I ask people to put prepared food in my own containers it disrupts their flow and makes them think.
3. Saving trash leads to increased consciousness of what I consume.
4. Recycling sucks.
5. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference.
6. Trash sucks.
7. Changing is fun, much more fun than it is stressful.
8. Cleaning out food packaging takes time and is necessary to get rid of odors and to ensure bugs and rodents are not attracted to it.

Ari is planning to start a second year to see if he could make less trash then he did the first year. He also hopes to attract some other people to do it with him, “perhaps make it a national competition for fun to see who can make the least amount of trash in a year”. On top of that, he also plans to film the second year and to make a fun, interesting, funny, informative documentary about it. So if you want to help out, now is the time.

And here’s a poll: How much do you reduce, reuse and recycle?
(polling closes on Jan 25th)