Recycle Your Flip Flops with TerraCycle at Old Navy

As a true Floridian, I LIVE in my flip flops. From about March – October, there is no other shoe for me. Can you relate? But, like all good things, flip flops don’t last forever. Some pairs are worn into the ground, others meet Jimmy Buffet’s problem, “Blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top.” (It’s a real problem, look it up.)

But I can’t throw things away! I hate making garbage, so I actually have (at least) 3 pairs of busted flip flops sitting in the bottom of my closet (taking up valuable space). I have been searching for a way to recycle these plastic/rubber wonders and recently found a solution that sends the flops to Kenya to be upcycled into art. I planned to write about that today, until I caught up on Ellen who shared this awesome info on her show last week. (I’ll pick up the Kenya story later this summer, but for now I have a FREE option for you to recycle your flops.)

I ❤ Ellen, I ❤ Old Navy, I ❤ TerraCycle and I am SO excited to tell you about this, I am giddy!

Old Navy has teamed up with TerraCycle to recycle old flip flops! The Flip Flop Replay program started on Earth Day and will run through May 21. In each Old Navy location, you will find a Flip Flop Replay collection box like this:

TerraCycle will then recycle your flip flops into playgrounds. Yes, playgrounds. And at the end of the campaign, four deserving schools will be given these recycled playgrounds. How amazing! My junk will make for play time for kids for years to come!

Rubber, leather and cloth flip flops are acceptable for this campaign, but no other sandals or other forms of shoes.

I’ll be headed to Old Navy this weekend to recycle my flip flops!!!

I am a Pillow & Mattress Killer

It is true. I don’t know how I do it, but I go through pillows more than any one person should. In fact, I Googled it. According to those who apparently know, you should be able to get two-three years out of a synthetic pillow (more for down), but in my bed I don’t think I even make it a year before the pillow bites the dust. And I don’t think the dip in my mattress where I sleep is normal since my husband (who is bigger) has a smaller dip than I do!

I don’t think I am an unreasonable pillow user. I like a modest pillow, a little fluffy and a little firm. Not so soft my head floats to the bottom, but not so firm as to cause a crick in my neck. I buy reasonably priced pillows. Nothing fancy, after all I have never seen one that lasts, but I try to go with name brands on sale. But they just don’t last.

Of course, I have no idea what type of mattress we have. It is comfy and pillow top, and we bought it when we moved into the house 5 1/2 years ago. I am sure it is not a fancy matress like a ComforPedic mattress or Simmons Beautyrest Black, but it does the job. Except now I have a dent… (Which part of me wants to blame on pregnancy (2 1/2 years ago), maybe the extra belly weight combined with terrible nightsweats killed it. I don’t know, but even that doesn’t answer my 2x a year pillow replacement.)

Do I secrete some strange pillow/matress killing oil? Or do I abuse pillows by sleeping mainly on the corners? I choose synthetic vs down because of allergies, and for the same reason have a special dust mite cover on my pillows and still… they go kaput. I thought perhaps the special cover would help, but alas… the same results as not having a cover. (Although I have noticed my allergies might be a bit better with the cover…)

So I have killed another pillow, and I back on the hunt for a replacement. To me the worst part about replacing the pillow is the waste of throwing away an old pillow… It makes me sad. I did read a suggestion about making old pillows into dog beds to donate to a local dog shelter, so I might look into that.

What about you, how long do your pillows last? And do you have any suggestions of what to do with old pillows?

CMP.ly/3

The Trash Picker Strikes Again

Yep, I did it again, and this time I got caught red-handed. It’s ok though because I was caught by a friend who would have done the same thing if she had seen it first. This morning there were 2 pink Pottery Barn Anywhere Chairs out with the trash across the street. WHAT!?! Who throws this kind of thing away? Of course, I had to save these from the landfill, so I hopped in the golf cart pulled up, piled them in and took them home. While I was there, I also found two orange throw pillows!

Don’t get me wrong, these chairs have been loved. But the covers are washable, so with a little stain remover I plopped those suckers into the wash. EVERY mark came off! And since they were not monogrammed, they are perfect. Check out the before and after pics of my find!

Before

After

Bonus pillows

Here’s to being green and reusing!!!

School Supplies Made From Recycled Materials

This year, send your students to school with supplies that have been reincarnated. That’s right ”green” your back-to-school shopping with products made from recycled plastics using “green” manufacturing processes. Once limited to smaller, more expensive brands, name brands are jumping on the bandwagon and offering your favorite supplies made from recycled materials. Check out these green supplies I found while shopping for supplies this year:

Crayola Markers – Crayola has created markers made out of recycled plastics – bottle caps, I understand. These special markers are available in the traditional markers and in washable! Note, these markers have a black body vs the traditional white. Also, only the body is made out of recycled materials – not the cap.

Crayola Crayons – While these aren’t made out of recycled wax, they are created using solar energy!

Fiskars – Fiskars now offers several products made from recycled plastic. I first noticed the kids’ 5″ safety scissors, both in blunt and pointed, but they also make 7″ student scissors, a pencil sharpener, a ruler and a protractor.

Post-It – Post-it® Greener Notes are made from 100% recycled materials and a plant-based adhesive.

Of course, there are others, but these are the ones I came across so I’ve gotta say well done. Let’s encourage others to follow suit by supporting these and other eco-friendly brands.

ChicoBag for Produce Review & Giveaway

I am a huge advocate for carrying reusable bags. I carry them everywhere — the grocery store, Target, the mall, the outlets – any time I shop I have a shopping bag with me. It is such an easy thing to do, I talk about it all the time in hope that others will adopt the idea too. Trust me, when I first started, it was hard to remember, but now we have tons of bags and it is just habit to grab a few and go. Plus I have others that I keep in the car for shopping “emergencies.”

The one area I still use plastic bags is the produce section. Until now I had not found an adequate solution to replace produce bags. Apparently ChicoBags felt the same way because they have just introduced into the market a line of reusable bags for produces.

The produce bag collection includes three different reusable produce bags. Each produce bag is constructed from a different fabric designed to optimize freshness when paired with the right produce. The Hemp-Cotton blend bag is designed for leafy greens and green beans. The rePETe™ bag is great for squash, broccoli, carrots and celery because it restricts airflow and locks in moisture. The Mesh rePETe™ is ideal for apples, oranges, potatoes, onions and allows ethylene gas, nature’s ripening agent, to escape. Plus the mesh bags are made of 99 percent recycled content, and all three bags are machine washable.

You can buy each of the bags separately or you can get the started kit that includes one of each and a cute little apple bag holder for all of your produce bags, complete with a carabineer to clip to your other bags so you don’t forget it.

I am so excited to try these bags out. I can clip the little apple bag to one of my grocery bags and I’ll be ready to go. We don’t normally store our produce in bags one we get them home, so I am interested to see if the bags also help keep the fruit fresh and healthy. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to the grocery store since the arrival of the bags to try that out. But I am so excited to have reusable bags for my produce, the other would just be an added bonus.

Buy it – You can buy your own produce bags by ChicoBag online.

Win it - One lucky TheSuburbanMom reader will win their own Produce Bag Starter Kit – like the one pictured above.

Mandatory Entry – Head over to ChicoBag and tell me what other ChicoBag you would love to have. (There are some cute bags!)

Additional entries:

• Sign up for my newsletter. (You must confirm your subscription – thanks.)
• Follow TheSuburbanMom on Twitter (@SuburbanMomClub) and tweet about this give away. “Enter to #win resuable produce bags from ChicoBag and TheSuburbanMom @SuburbanMomClub #giveaway at http://wp.me/pQHaE-F9”
• Become a fan of TheSuburbanMom on Facebook. (Already a fan, that counts too, just leave a comment.)
• Subscribe to TheSuburbanMom’s RSS Feed
• Leave a comment on any other post on my blog, including entering another giveaway! (1 entry)

Contest ends June 11, 2010 at 5 pm. Open to U.S. residents in the continental U.S. only. Winning comment will be chosen at random by Random.org and contacted for shipping information. Winner will have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Discloser – I was provided the ChicoBag Produce Bag Starter Kit mentioned for this post and another one  has been provided to giveaway to TheSuburbanMom readers, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own. No other compensation was received.