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Archive for October, 2009

Manly and Green: John Rambo

October 31st, 2009

Some of you might think I am a crack pot after this post, but the point of these weekly explorations of green manly men is to find the people or characters that exemplify a macho persona and have a very green quality about them. Why not John Rambo? You know, the guy played by Sylvester Stallone and was in First Blood, First Blood II, Rambo III and finished off with the 2008 version Rambo: Grandpa Returns. John Rambo (particularly the original, semi-realistic version) was very green in the movie First Blood.

rambo01 Regardless of any political ideologies of Vietnam, war or any background issues you may have with the character or the movie, the man was able to sustain himself in the wild. What does it mean to be green? To me, one definition of being green is to have a small environmental footprint on the world. John Rambo fits this profile with his ability to live completely off the grid in the movie First Blood.

After he was wronged by the local police and escaped town, Rambo ran into the mountains to escape and hide. While in the wild, he manages to remain camouflaged, feed himself, find shelter and fight off the National Guard at the same time. If he had not been chased by the local police, he would have been just as comfortable in the woods and living off of the land in a completely carbon neutral and environmentally friendly manner.

So, John Rambo, you hippie greenie, if I were the sheriff of Hope and you came meandering into my city, I think I would tell you to have a good day and make sure to recycle you manly green man.

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Posted in Manly and Green

Tags: green Manly and Green rambo recycle

40 million trees a year go straight from the paper mill to the land fill

October 30th, 2009

My second week in this adventure is drawing to a close and I must admit that I have been learning quite a bit this week. The challenge for the week is to stop junk mail from coming to our house. In this process, I have learned just how wasteful we are in regards to junk mail and also some things we can do to help reduce the problem.

This has now been repeated here several times, but over 100 million trees are cut down every year for junk mail. I can’t get over that. I cannot even begin to imagine what 100 million trees looks like. Beyond that, about 40% of junk mail goes into the trash unopened. Does that mean that 40 million trees go straight from the paper mill to the land fill? To me, it is one thing to be wasteful in the process of doing something, but this is a kind of collective wastefulness is just plain’ old wrong.

This is the kind of waste that I (as a person new to the green culture) just had no idea about. Well, the end of the line has come for this guy. I have already began the process of making sure I can reduce my impact on these rediculous statistics and hope that I will be able to stop or reuse as much junk mail as possible. What do you do with your junk mail?

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Posted in Week 2 Junk Mail

Tags: green junk mail recycle reuse tree waste

24 ways to stop or reuse junk mail

October 29th, 2009

I have learned that over 100 million trees are cut down every year to make junk mail. Another stat I found is that 44% of all junk mail ends up in the garbage unopened. To me, this means that 44 million trees are cut down every year for basically no reason at all. This waste serves no purpose and is such a waste. Not only is junk mail a waste, it is annoying. So, the following is a list of interesting things you can do to reuse, recycle and stop junk mail.

Put all of your junk mail in the recycling bin
Go to www.dmachoice.org and sign up to be taken off of mailing lists. This was fairly easy to do, but not sure on the overall effectiveness. This does not remove you from mailings with companies you have previously done business with.
As junk mail comes in, contact the individual companies to be taken off of their mailing lists
Via Bohemian revolution – using shredded junk mail as packing material
Via Bohemian revolution – Use it as Easter basket grass
Via Bohemian revolution– Add flour and water to use as paper mache
Via Bohemian revolution – Ask the local animal shelter if they can use it for bedding
Via Bohemian revolution – Give this paper to kids with water colors and glue for art projects
Go to OptOutPrescreen.com or call 888-567-8688 and stop getting junk mail from Credit Cards. Just a warning that they require you to give your SSN. I found several sources online indicated that this is a valid way to remove yourself from this list.
Stop getting the phone book. Holy crap, I don’t think I look up 2 numbers a year but get 6 phone books. What a waste. I have not done this yet, but will.
If they provide envelopes, remove/hide spam information and reuse the envelope.
Gift Wrap
Use the blank side of any pages for scratch paper
Use the envelopes for holding coupons, seeds, or other small items
Make your own Gift Bag… seriously.
Make a bookmark
Make a Christmas Ornament
Make your own artsy paper
When you sign up for anything, take more precaution to make sure you are not put on their lists.
Find, suggest and support do-not-mail legislation
Use it as mulch
Use it as kitty litter(only 30% though… see comments). Ok, I am not sure I can get on board with this one, but am very impressed someone is doing this.
Send junk mail back to senderif there is a pre-paid envelope. I even found some stories of adding as much weight as possible to the return envelope. This is a little vindictive I suppose, but kind of funny.
Make a junk mail pirate hat or a junk mail Speedo. I have no plans for either of these, but think they are good ideas anyhow.