Upcycling Old Christmas Cards - Tacky? Frugal? Creative?

I always feel sad when I toss old Christmas cards. I feel as if I am somehow tossing the person who sent it... or the sentiment (care, thoughtfulness) with which it was sent. I know I'm not. And yet I still feel vaguely sad and a touch guilty. As if the Christmas Card Police are going to break down my door and arrest me for not appreciating the season!

We've received some Christmas cards this season and already... I look at the cards and wonder... Will we toss? Not toss? Toss? It feels like such a waste of paper.

Some are easy. Like the one pictured here. It's from the paving company so there is zero emotional attachment. But it's also a card with "glitter" all over it which means it is most definitely NOT recyclable. So it is destined for the garbage. Which seems like such a waste.

And then I wonder... could we not reuse these cards? If nothing is written on the inside cover of the card... could we not cut it away from the back and then... glue it to some new card stock and make a brand new card?

Or is that considered tacky? And will Miss Manners now break down my door with a scandalized cry of "Sooooo tacky!!!" I don't think it's tacky. But that's me... I tend to think it's creative, eco-friendly, frugal, thrifty, and just makes good sense.

So I went to ChatGPT and asked if it was tacky... and the response was... it depends. On the recipient. While some people might appreciate the eco-conciousness behind the gesture, others would prefer new store-bought cards.

Ummmm... is it not the thought that counts? I know, I know... that's a loaded term. But... seriously? Some folks prefer new, store-bought cards? Well... that's not us. And if some of our card recipients are huddled under that umbrella... all I got to say is... tough noogies (basically... "too bad").

I am not going to buy cards based on the preferences of the recipients. And who even knows the preferences of their Christmas card recipients? It's not like my address book has a note that says "prefers new, store-bought card" or "do not send a card purchased in a Dollar Store or thrift shop".

Meh. I am in development with not living my life according to the opinions of others. And if others think less of us for receiving a re-used, upcycled Christmas card, then so be it. Maybe I'll put a little sticker on the back that says:

This card has been recycled, repurposed and upcycled.

Oh, and if anyone wants to send us an upcycled card... much appreciated!! And if it's a super crafty card... and you don't write on the inside front cover... we'll be happy to give it a second life next year and share it with someone else!

Look, I know some people go to town with their craft supplies... ribbons, sparkle, shaped hole punches... we don't have that. And I don't have the time for that. What I do have is a pair of scissors and a glue stick... let the cutting and pasting begin!

Orrrr... maybe it's just cutting? Why not just... cut off the front of the used Christmas card and turn it into a Christmas postcard?? No need for extra card stock. No need for glue sticks. No need for an envelope! Win, win, win!!!

Time will tell... but I'm eyeing these Christmas cards and weighing my options.

Time to Sell and Simplify?

 We've lived in our current house for 10 years. That is the longest that I have lived in any place, other than at home when I was a kid and teen. Our house has a basement suite that we've been renting out on Airbnb. And we have a large yard (8200 sq ft) which requires a lot of maintenance. With a partner that has a chronic health condition, a lot of the work for the yard, house maintenance and the Airbnb falls on me. While my partner and I had both hoped that the health condition might improve... it would appear (7 years into it) that that is not the case. I'm not getting any younger and I am tired. Tired of the yard maintenance. Tired of the never-ending house maintenance. Tired of everything that we put into the Airbnb.

And so... a few days ago (Feb 28, 2023)... we began to seriously consider selling the house. We could sell it and then buy a condo, for easy, simple living. No Airbnb. No yard. No roof maintenance. No gutters. No perimeter drain. Somewhere in walking distance of stores and coffee shops and hiking trails.

We scrolled through the Realtor.ca app and identified a few top contenders. We messaged our realtor and said... we are ready to pull the trigger. Her response "Cool! So you have decided life is too short and want low maintenance, inexpensive, easy living and time to travel?" YES!! That!! Exactly!

So, tomorrow we are going to look at some places.

Now... this might all seem ass-backwards. Shouldn't we be selling the house before we look for something? Or at least know what we can sell our house for? Probably! I'm sure our realtor will have all of that ready for us tomorrow.

But in the meantime... in the last few days since Feb 28, I trotted down to the liquor store and came back with armfuls of liquor boxes. We have decided to send a message to the universe... We are ready to sell! So we have started by packing up nic-nacs and tchotchkes... all of the extras that clutter up the surfaces. We've packed up "extra" stuff... craft projects and supplies. We have packed up a bunch of books as we look to reduce the amount of furniture in some rooms.

We are looking at paint touch-ups. We had new door, window and floor trim installed a year ago (2 years ago?) and the brad-nail holes were spackled and sanded but need to be painted. The spare bedroom has a gazillion nail/thumbtack holes in the walls and needs a full paint job. Some closets had the rods taken out and extra plywood shelves put in for all of the craft stuff. So... clear out the stuff... take out the shelves... patch and paint the closets and... pack it full of boxes.

We may get a storage locker in March... we'll see how it goes. We need to hear back from our realtor...

And... yes... this might all be a lot of work for nothing. At the very least, we might be doing The Minimalists big declutter event... pack everything you own into boxes and, as you need things, open up a box and pull out that item. Maybe... after living without all of these "extras", we will decide that we like the open and clear house! Maybe we will be more inclined to let-go of things? Maybe.

And we have legitimately been decluttering as we pack up all of this stuff. The thought of schlepping it around to yet another living space is just too much. "I haven't used this in 20 years... it's time for it to go."

There is a freedom in all of this. And a fear as well! I hate moving. I hate the whole process. I hate the upheaval. I am scare of moving to somewhere new. I have had 10 years to put down roots in this house and a part of me just likes the old and familiar. But the other part of me wants less. Less house. Less responsibility. Less work. Less stress. Less complexity. I want more. More time. More free time. More walks. More simplicity.

Letting go of the old can be hard. It is warm and comfortable and familiar. Even if it is a lot of work. 

Sooo... as I write this on 3 March, 2023... I'm not sure what the future holds. This post is scheduled to come out in early September... that is a full 6 months away. Will next week's post have exciting news about a house sale and new condo? Or will we have reversed direction? Or maybe it will simply be an update on our progress... not sure... stay tuned!

Repurposing Old Blinds

Our neighbours are renovating their basement suite and taking all sorts of things to the landfill. One day, we saw them loading some old window blinds into their van. "Wait!" shouted my partner, "are those window blinds??"

Yep, they were... those old flimsy thin metal blinds that are so annoying. What the heck could we possibly want with them? Well... reduce... reuse... repurpose!

We had visited one of the community gardens in the spring for their plant sale. They produce a LOT of flower and veggie seedlings and all of those little pots need plant tags. What do they use? Old metal window blinds! Yep, they cup them into 4-6" pieces, and then stick the plant labels (printed out) on the blinds. They work perfectly!

Ever since then... we've been on the hunt for old window blinds. And we found them next door! We happily carted two sets of window blinds back to our place where they lay on the ground for several weeks. 

We only need one set as it will make tonnes and tonnes of plant tags for us. The other set... we thought we could take it to the community garden, because they are always looking for more window blinds.

After getting in the way of lawn mowing several times, I decided to just sit down and cut up our set of old blinds. They are so thin that a pair of sturdy scissors worked just fine.

The one set of blinds made hundreds of plant tags, more than enough to keep us going for quite a while!

And they work great in the little pots that we have planted up for sale. Right now, we are using a wax pencil on the tags but I think a Sharpie would work as well. 

This system works way better than going to Home Depot and buying some cheapo plastic plant tags. I love it when we find something that works so well! And when the plant tags reach the end of their days, we can take them to metal recycling and not throw them away. Win-win-win.

Our Carbon Footprint Could be Better... Needs to be Better!

After calculating our carbon footprint last week... I was pretty satisfied with it. 12 tonnes of CO2 per year per person isn't bad! It's certainly better than folks in Alberta who rely on coal powered electricity power plants. Right? Right.

Global Neighbours

Well... turns out, we're not the only ones on the planet. And our carbon footprint in Canada is not great. In fact, it's worse than pretty much any European country. I know why too... distance. We fly more. We drive more. We don't have super-fast trains that connect cities. Our wide-open skies and huge distances mean we do a LOT of travelling and... that's where we are racking up a lot of our CO2 emissions. Not to mention all of our food has to travel long distances, etc, etc. And let's not mention holidays... if we want to flit off to a Mexican vacation, we are talking thousands of kilometres of flight distance... whereas in Europe... those distances are often smaller... just flit down to Greece or Spain or Italy for a winter vacay.

Yeah... except... China has an average carbon footprint of 5 tonnes... and they are a big country too... We are in trouble.

Climate change isn't going to cut us any slack. A recent study confirmed that by 2050, Canadians are going to have to cut their emissions an average of 95%. Eerk... that would mean... an average of 0.6 tonnes of CO2 per year... Ummm... where's my chart??

Basically... we could heat our home, handle garbage and recycling and drive a tiny bit in our gasoline powered car, and eat a vegan diet... Remember... in my previous blog, this carbon footprint didn't include diet at all! 

Yep, it's official... we are in trouble.

2035 and 2050 Targets

Here's what it looks like... There we are at the top of the pack... and there's Brazil and India near the bottom. And we can see our targets as well. The 2035 target is 2.5 tonnes/person/year. But by 2050, we need to get that down to 0.7 tonnes/person/year.

Hot & Cool report on climate change - 1.5-Degree Lifestyles Report | Hot or Cool

Seriously... it seems impossible to go from 12 tonnes/year to 2.5 tonnes/year! And then down to 0.7? HOW???

Reducing Carbon Footprints

The Hot or Cool report offers the most bang for your buck suggestions. And for Canada, a high-income country... we are looking at the following...

Biggest Reduction - 0.5 to 1.5 Tonnes/year per option

• shift from gas-guzzlers to fuel-efficient vehicle
• shift from gasoline car to electric car
• car-free private travel (a vacay with no car??)
• reducing  international flights
• shift from meat-based diet to vegan or vegetarian diet
• shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy

Medium Reduction - 0.25 to 0.5 Tonnes/year per option

• living closer to the workplace
• car-free commuting with electric bikes, ride sharing
• smaller living space
• hybrid car
• car-free commuting with public transportation
• closer weekend leisure
• efficiency improvement of home appliances

Small Reduction - less than 0.25 tonnes/year per option

• food production efficiency improvement
• alternative dairy products
• renting a guest room
• telework
• efficiency improvement of buildings, heat pump or air conditioner for temperature control
• reduction of sweets and alcohol
• reduction of domestic flights
• household food loss reduction
• saving hot water
• lowering temperature at home
• supply side food loss reduction,

The Bottom Line

My sense is that a lot of us are focused on the Small Reduction section. We are trying to save hot water by showering less. We are lowering the thermostat and wearing sweaters. We are composting and trying to reduce food waste. We are installing a heat pump. But while all of these things are good... they aren't making a big difference.

For the biggest difference... we are going to have to address things like our car-culture... gasoline cars in particular. And our preference for individual transport over communal transport.

We are going to have to address our fixation with fossil fuels... whether it's natural gas for heating homes or coal-powered electrical generating plants. Those don't work anymore.

We are going to have to look at our addiction to air travel. In France and Austria, they have banned short-haul domestic flights under 2 hours. You'll need to take a train instead. And that works for them because they have the rail system to support that. Here... our rail system is pathetic. And we like our warm-weather winter vacations too... and flitting off to Arizona for the entire winter. Those things might be a relic of the past in a few years.

Carbon Budget

I wonder what would happen if we had a carbon budget for the year. And no... you can't borrow or trade carbon like you would money. This is a budget that can't be altered. You only have so much carbon money to spend. Once it's gone... that's it.

Of course we'd buy our heating and electricity first... and then want?

Things like garbage and recycling... but then travel? Transport? Diet?

We made the switch to a primarily vegan/vegetarian diet three years ago. Beans... tofu... tempeh... and a bit of salmon here and there for the Omega-3s. It works. It's actually quite yummy. Do we miss milk? Nope. Do we miss cheese? Sometimes. We do dabble in yogurt and butter but minimally. But if we had a carbon budget... and had to cut something... yogurt and butter would be the first to go. But what about eating local? What if we ate some local bison? Makes no difference. Meat whether it is next door, or across the country still has a high carbon footprint.

I'd probably be cutting my daily drives to Starbucks. In favour of walking or biking to another coffee shop. I'd make sure that all of my errands are tied together like a daisy chain. They generally are... but sometimes we make that run to the grocery store for a packet of basil because we need it for the recipe we are cooking. Maybe that's a place to start... track our annual kilometres and make an effort to reduce our daily car use.

As for travel... when my mother immigrated to Canada in the mid-1950s... there were no international flights. Heck there weren't even domestic flights. She took a passenger ship from Bremen to Quebec City. She then boarded a train that travelled all the way across Canada. Took days and days. She remembers a time when there were no cheap and easy flights. They are a luxury. And one that we can ill afford the way it stands.

It's enough to make one's head ache. And yet... it's all pretty obvious.

• Buy local - farmer's markets
• Buy seasonal - don't buy raspberries in January
• Eat more vegetables - including dried legumes... best bang for your buck
• Eat less meat - beef is bad... fish is better
• Walk or Bike more - time for an e-bike?
• Drive less - plan your errands... vacation locally

Right now... we still have some free will and choice in all of this. We can choose to do better. There may come a day when we don't get that choice. When it's gotten so desperate that we have carbon rationing... or a ban on international flights or... who knows. I can't see the future but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the writing on the wall. 

Books, Books and More Books

I love books. I'm not going to call myself an addict but... I really, really love books.

My love affair with books started when I was a kid. For the longest time, I kept one of my favourites... I am a Bunny by Ole Risom with illustrations by Richard Scarry.

It was quite tattered and apparently 3-year-old-me thought Nicholas the Bunny needed glasses because on each page, I drew a set of glasses on him. Not sure why... since no one in my family wore glasses, least of all me! But there you go... don't give a kid a book and a pen...

When I entered grade school, I was introduced to the wonderful world of Scholastic Book Services.

Favourite horse stories

Oh my goodness... the flyers and order forms would get handed out at school in the fall and spring and I would peruse all the offerings and make my selections - usually animal stories... particularly horse stories. I still have three of my favourites: Old Bones: the Wonder Horse, Blitz and Blanco: The Legend of the White Stallion.

But Scholastic Book Services cost money and so my Mom introduced me to the public library. Whoa... soooo many books! At the time, our public library had a super cool kids section. It was a big room that was almost two stories high. A set of stairs led to an upper level which was a balcony that ran around three sides of the room. There were books up top and... the area underneath the balcony was made of up of several shallow cave-like chambers. The ceiling was so low that adults had to duck down to get into each chamber. There were book shelves on three sides of each chamber and... it was the coolest thing ever for a kid... an Aladdin's cave of undiscovered treasure.

I would usually totter out of the library with a massive stack of books and gobble them up over the next week or two. Loved the library.

At the same time... I was a relatively easy kid when it came to Christmas and birthdays... just buy me books: Hardy Boys, Fury of Broken Wheel Ranch, anything by Rutherford Montgomery, The Black Stallion...

Library card catalogue - how times have changed

As I moved through the education system, I dabbled in the school libraries... also good, but not as memorable... and then came university.

I loved the twisting rabbit-warrens of UBC's Main Library stacks but the university library didn't really stock a lot of fiction (unless it was 100+ years old!).

While attending UBC, I never got connected with the the Vancouver Public Library system. I think I went there once and requested a library card. Turns out that people living in UBC dorms were not considered Vancouver tax-payers sooo... no pay taxes, no get library card.

It became a bit of a moot point because I started earning some money and was able to feed my book appetite. Science fiction... westerns... mysteries... history novels... I acquired my own library at home.

The only problem was... I moved a lot... on average once every year... and after a while, packing up all those books became a chore. Not to mention I was running out of bookshelf space. And so I'd regularly declutter my books. I don't have my Cadfael books anymore. Nor my Dick Francis, Sharpe, Ramage, Pern, Star Trek, Stainless Steel Rat, Anne Perry or Louis L'Amour books. I still bought and read a lot of books... I just didn't keep them for very long. Kind of... errr... disposable convenience... ***cough*** (The irony of this is not lost on me...).

After a while, my book-buying habit became a bit expensive. Books aren't exactly cheap... a novel nowadays costs around $20. I used to travel a lot and passing through an airport was dangerous for me. I'd wander through the Virgin or Relay bookstores behind security and easily see a dozen books that looked super interesting. Even though I had at least two or three books with me, I would usually end up buying another one or two.

Somewhere along the way, I had forgotten about libraries... but not really. I completed online applications for a library card in Prince George and, later, in Calgary... but I never set foot in the actual buildings and definitely never borrowed a book. I had gotten out of the library habit and established a book-buying habit. Which was fine when I had enough disposable cash to satisfy my book cravings... but not so fine when we went on a year-long sabbatical and found ourselves on a budget.

One of MANY Bookie Monsters out there

My book-buying was cut off and I went into serious book-withdrawal. I became the Cookie Monster of books - The Bookie Monster. [Believe it or not... I thought I had come up with something new and cool with that little rhyme but... Bookie Monster is already a "thing"!]

I bought an e-book reader, figuring that e-books were easier to schlep around and less expensive but... honestly... reading an e-book is not the same as a real book. And e-books, even though they are cheaper than real books, are not exactly "cheap".

I discovered AbeBooks - an online bookstore where I could buy second-hand books from all over the world. Better, but still not great... not for someone with as voracious an appetite as myself.

During our sabbatical, we moved to the Island and... at that point... I rediscovered the public library. A whole new world opened up. I was amazed to discover that libraries have come a loonnnnggg way since the days of card catalogues and microfiche.

Everything is online... even inter-library loans... It's super-convenient and utterly magical. Our library system is even more magical because it's a regional library. We have three physical libraries in our city, but they are not the be all and end all. There are three dozen libraries in other communities that feed our regional library. That's a lot of books. And it's so easy... go online, search for the book I'm interested in and request it be delivered to my local branch. Bing. Done. The book gets delivered... sometimes within a few days... other times... a few months.

Cover - Atomic Habits
by James Clear

That's the only thing... getting books via the library requires patience. This is not going to feed the instant gratification monster within me. Because even though we have 36+ library branches... other people have discovered the library too and the hold lists can be long. Particularly if the book is new and hot.

For example, I put a hold on Atomic Habits (James Clear) a few weeks/months back. I had seen it in an airport bookstore and took a picture of the cover (my new habit) and then added it to my "To Read" list. When I got home, I requested it via the library. Except our library system "only" has 12 copies... and there are 119 holds... of which I am #37... sigh... Patience, Young Grasshopper, patience.

On the other hand, receiving an email from the library informing me that a book I've been waiting for is ready to be picked up... ooohhh... it's like Christmas!! I can't wait to scamper to the library and bring the book home and start reading.

I use the hold system with gusto... I currently have nine books on hold. The only thing is... sometimes a bunch of them come in at around the same time and I find myself dealing with an over-abundance of riches. I generally tend to have more than one book on the go at any one time but... even I can get overwhelmed by the pressure of reading four or five books in three weeks. I am learning to rein in my book ordering bug...

There is one more thing that I like about the library... I know that getting a book through the library means it's going to be a well-used book. It's going to be read by more than one set of eyes (mine). When I buy a book from the bookstore... I will often only read it once and then let it go by donating it to a thrift store. It might get read again... or maybe not. Thrift store bookshelves do NOT use the Dewey Decimal system... and trying to find a specific book is like hunting for the proverbial needle in a haystack... with no guarantee that the needle you are seeking is even IN the haystack! Given how many books get donated to thrift stores... it's only understandable that at some point... books end up going to the landfill.

You see... books are incredibly hard to recycle due to the glue in the binding. Our city's recycling system accepts magazines, catalogues and phone books (ummm... glue in binding?) but not paperbacks or hardcovers. I know that some cities accept paperback books for recycling but not if they have ever gotten wet or if the paper has turned brown. This is a bit of a problem... and so I am trying to emphasize the Reduce and Reuse aspects of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle".

I still buy the occasional new physical book but only when I absolutely CANNOT wait for it and expect to use it long-term. I do buy e-books a bit more frequently and I still get some second-hand books via AbeBooks. If I'm going to buy books though, most of them come via thrift stores or garage sales. They are cheap and I don't feel bad about reading them and letting them go again, back into the pool of second-hand books from whence they came. But... ultimately... the library is my biggest source of reading material.

The 2018 value of our library cards

The Board of our regional library has an annual report in which, amongst other things, they report on the "value of a library card".

In 2018, based on the number of users and the value of materials borrowed... the average value of a library card was $661.

That number intrigued me and I once counted up the number of books I borrowed in a year and my value was well over $800. That's $800 that stayed in my pocket!

In many ways... getting books from the library ticks a bunch of boxes.

• It's good for me and my finances (more books available to read; less money spent on books, less square footage devoted to book storage, less hassle moving, teaches me patience).
• It's good for the environment (more reads/book).
• It's good for my community (more library patrons=bigger budget=more books).
• It might, however, not be so good for authors (less books sold).

I haven't even touched on all the other services offered through our local library: DVDs, CDs, audio books, magazines, podcasts, online language courses, research services, internet access, study space etc, etc... Heck, our library even has a puzzle table where there is always a 1000 piece puzzle on the go... cool! And it's all... FREE!***

For me, reconnecting with the pubic library system is one small step in living sustainably. It might not be as convenient as ordering a book via Amazon Prime but... I'll trade that for sustainable living... in this instance at least!


***Well... as long as you are a resident of the city in which the library is located. Which means somewhere along the line you are paying property taxes which then go toward supporting your local library. So not really "free" but... why not max out as much value from property taxes as possible by wringing out as much use from the library as possible!

Disposable Convenience

You already know about my Starbucks hot chocolate addiction... so I might as well make another confession. My morning routine of yore was to go to Starbucks with my laptop, order my hot chocolate, find a table with a nearby electrical outlet and work for several hours.

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Except... I always ordered my hot chocolate in a disposable cup. Even when they specifically asked me if I wanted it in a mug. Worse... they would sometimes ask... "is that for here, or to go"... and I would blatantly LIE and say... "uh... to go". Just so I could get a disposable cup. Despite the fact that I could save $0.10 if I got my hot chocolate in a porcelain mug. Why so attached to the disposable cup?

Because my hot chocolate stayed hotter longer in a disposable cup than in a porcelain mug. That's it... I like my hot chocolate hot... not cold. So I lied...

But I wasn't fooling anyone... The Starbucks baristas aren't dumb... they know me... they know that I never just "go"... I always stay and sit. My chronic lying nibbled away at my conscience...

Travel mug

I tried to bring my own travel mug... but the first few I tried were the wrong size for a Grande beverage (16 oz). All of the travel mugs in our cupboard were for a Tall beverage (12 oz). Obviously, there was no way I could downsize to a Tall Hot Chocolate. I mean... it's marginally cheaper but not 25% cheaper... and it's 25% smaller. Hmph! I also wasn't going to buy a new Grande travel mug from Starbucks because... well... they are expensive.

I know this is illogical and oxymoron-ish but... that's the convoluted twistings of my guilty sugar-addled brain trying to justify itself!

Sooo... I continually lied or fudged or... whatever... and kept ordering my hot chocolate in a disposable cup. Until... one day at a thrift store... I found a Grande sized travel mug (Starbucks branded no less). Hallelujah! My guilty conscience was assuaged. I proudly trotted to Starbucks the next morning with my mug tucked into my backpack. Clear conscience... hot Hot chocolate! Win-win! Yay!

That worked for... ohhhh... one day...

You see... when you get home, you need to remember to take your mug out of your backpack and then wash it. And then you need to remember to pack it up the next morning and... that didn't happen. My attempts at "bring your own mug" were not a success. And my illicit affair with the disposable cup continued. It was convenient. Bring my own mug was inconvenient. And convenience won, every time.

Starbucks recycle system

I could easily try justifying myself...

"Those disposable cups get recycled. See, Starbucks has a recycling system."
Not. Have you ever seen customers put things in those convenient holes in the Starbucks blue bin? Most people either can't read or are moving too fast to stop long enough to figure out what goes where. And... have you ever seen the baristas take those bags to a recycle dumpster? I hang around long enough at Starbucks to see what goes on. No... those clear bags of "recyclables" get taken to the garbage dumpster. There is no recycle dumpster - just garbage... and cardboard.

"Maybe they get sorted at the dump."
Seriously?! And even if they did... disposable cups are lined with a thin film of plastic. Very difficult to recycle.

"Everybody else is doing it."
Very true. But just because everybody is into harming the environment, doesn't mean I have to be.

Starbucks sign - Save the Turtles

One of the Starbucks I frequent has a staff member who is a committed environmentalist. They have chalkboard signs up all over the place encouraging the use of "for here" mugs or BYO travel mug. Back in my disposable cup era... I would walk by these signs saying "Save the turtles. Get a for-here mug".

And I would walk by these signs... ignore the beseeching eyes of the turtle... and STILL order my hot chocolate in a disposable cup.

But all is not lost. When I ditched the hot chocolate habit a year ago... I also ditched the disposable cup habit. I'm not such a rabid chai tea aficionado that I really care if my tea stays hot or cold. In fact, it's kind of good for it to cool quickly cause their hot water dispenser is scorching!

I do wonder though... I have gone to a local coffee shop where the default is a porcelain mug. You specifically have to request a "to go" cup. At Starbucks, if they don't ask you... the default is disposable cups. What if the default was not disposable? Interesting idea...

Vintage refillable lighter

And so, I sit here, sipping my tea out of a porcelain mug, proud of this one Small Step in reducing wasteful consumption. I look at the world differently though... I view things through a different lens, a lens that sees the fusing of convenience and disposability. Here's a quick list of items which feature disposable convenience... is there a solution?

• Kleenex - cloth handkerchiefs?
• disposable diapers - cloth diapers? I still have the diaper pail my Mom used!
• BIC lighters - anyone remember refillable metal lighters?
• paper towels - rags?
• paper plates - regular plates? Melmac plates?
• plastic cutlery - regular cutlery? bamboo cutlery?
• Keurig pods - I'm not a coffee drinker but... regular drip coffee maker? French press?
• plastic water bottles - bring your own metal water bottle? There are a tonne at thrift stores...
• WetWipes - regular toilet paper? I know that TP is convenient and disposable but even I have a line... trust me, leaves don't work very well... And I'm not sure using rags would work... but who knows.
• plastic bags - oooohhhh.... that's a can of worms - let's just say... those reusable grocery bags that rip after less than a year of use are not the best solution (more in another blog post)
• fast food - is there a solution? A&W at least offers chilled glass mugs if you eat-in...

And there's probably a tonne more. And yes... some of these will require more from us: more washing up... more laundry... more cooking... more work... more planning... more thought.

As I stare at this list... of which I am a serial offender... I realize I face multiple choice points in a day. Every time I reach for a Kleenex or paper towel... I make a choice. A choice for convenience. I could argue that Kleenex and paper towel are compostable... but that doesn't negate the fact that trees were cut down to make these paper products... and bleached to make them super white. I also know that regular cotton production is extremely hard on the environment.

Starbucks porcelain mug

Are there alternatives? Organic cotton? Bamboo? Hemp? Linen? A quick Google reveals that... goodness... there are options out there! Who knew there were hemp hankies?

More research required... this blog is already long enough.

I leave you with a picture of a Starbucks porcelain mug... my one Small Step towards making a difference...