Aluminum Water Bottle

This weekend at Target I was able to buy something I had my eye on during the week... It was on sale for $10 -- originally 12.98. It is a Gaiam aluminum water bottle. The first time I saw them in the store I thought, OK, these look cool but why do I need one? Here's what the label says:

Why Aluminum?

86% of plastic water bottles used in the United States end up in landfills, taking up to 1,000 years to biodegrade Transporting bottled water consumes approximately 1.5 million barrels of fossil fuel per year Americans are currently adding 30 million PET water bottles to our landfills every day When you use an aluminum bottle, your water remains free of unhealthy plastic residues

Sounds good to me! So other than the Earth-friendly ones, here are the me-friendly reasons I bought it:

• BPA Free - I know, it's aluminum but sometimes aluminum containers are lined with something containing BPA (supposedly, I've only read that once)
• Lots of really cute designs (couldn't find a manly enough looking one for Erik though...)
• Holds a lot more than my (recycled) plastic bottle
• Can hold hot or cold liquids -- not frozen or boiling
• And my favorite... you can put things other than water in it! Awesome!

Click to see all bottle designs

Happy Friday

Leela: We recycle everything. Robots are made from old beer cans.

Bender: Yeah! And this beer can is made outta old robots.

Leela: And that sandwich you're eating is made of old, discarded sandwiches. Nothing just gets "thrown away".

Fry: The future is disgusting!

Furtuama - A Big Piece of Garbage

Recycling #5 Plastic?

Well, I don't know if this is a problem where you live, but the city of Greensboro's recycling program only accepts #1 and #2 plastics. (thin, usually clear plastic. think Starbucks cold beverage cup.) So what they don't accept is #s 5, 6, or 7. Most things that I avoid buying end up being #5. Plastic cups, yogurt cups, (hard to avoid), detergent bottles, butter tubs, etc.

I knew that Preserve had a program where you can mail in your #5 plastic for recycling but they are based in New York and it just seems like a long way to mail something. But while on their website reading about it, I found a great site where you can search for a place near you that recycles whatever it is you have. Just type in the material and your location. Neat! I typed #5 plastic and my zip code. And voila! A place in Greensboro called Salvage America that recycles (and buys!) lots of things you would otherwise have to throw away.

Another great thing about Preserve worth mentioning, you can mail them your Brita water filters to be recycled. Pretty sweet.

As for me, I don't know yet which makes more sense, saving up #5s in a box and mailing it or making time to drive to the salvage place. (I'm always thinking about how my time = $ ... ) But both seem like great options compared to having to throw your #5s away.

Links to things mentioned:

Preserve Gimme 5 program - they also have drop of locations if you live near one

Earth911.com - search for a recycling location - I also added their widget at the bottom of the page

Salvage America - Greensboro recycling and buyback center

Happy Recycling!

Noah's Naturals

I'm always trying out new facial cleansers... I just can't seem to find one and stick to it. I mean, I never buy the same one twice in a row. The most recent one I bought was Noah's Naturals Facial Scrub. Now normally this isn't an item I go "natural" or "organic" on because they cost enough without having those two expensive words on them. But I was at Wal-Mart and saw this for -- I can't remember the exact price but I'm going to say around $5. So I had to give it a try...

So far I think it's just OK. Maybe my hopes for it were too high... It has a lot of good features, but it doesn't have an amazingly good smell or make my face feel awesomely clean. It does keep it from being too dry, but that's about the only thing I've noticed. It's mostly just a good basic cleanser. Even with that I think it was worth my 5 or so dollars.

features: no parabens, no sodium laruel sulfates, no propylene glycol (it's pretty hard to find personal care products without this last one, I've looked!)

On Wal-Mart.com

Noah's Naturals

Cameras + Plants = ?

I got this the email newsletter from Photojojo today. Since I have a collection of old cameras that there isn't much to do with - except admire - I thought this was a great idea! If you don't already own an old camera or broken lens, they are pretty easy to find at yard sales and flea markets and I've rarely paid over $5 for one. My favorite from the article is the twin lens reflex - I think I'll try that one first.

Turn your broken camera into a flowerpot