Thursday, August 7, 2008

Upcycling

In the past I have written about my love for the new television network, Planet Green. Not only is the channel great viewing for people like me who get easily jazzed by watching others save a little chunk of the earth, it is great family viewing during this time of violent television.

The kids and I caught a recent episode of Renovation Nation. The show visited TerraCycle, Inc. As my family uses the company's worm poop on our lawn and gardens (while snickering of course), the show caught my eye.

Besides harvesting worm castings, the friendly people at TerraCycle, Inc. have been collecting old juice pouches from local schools and upcycling the pouches into bags.

I have two feelings on the upcycling of juice pouches; On one hand, I feel that it is a great use of trash. Instead of vanquishing the trash to the landfill, the pouches are given a second life. On the other hand, I absolutely detest the bags. By using the bags we are giving environmentally uncaring companies free publicity. Also, we are promoting the consumption of these unhealthy, sugar-laden drinks to young kids.

Maybe that's what today's environmentalism is about. Good work, but you have to take a little bad with you good.

After the show aired, Girlie slept over a buddy's house. The buddy's friendly mummy served the same juice pouches that were featured on the show. My Girlie rounded-up the empty containers, punched holes in them, added string and drew pictures on the plain side of the package. Viola! Girlie created her own upcycled purses.

Gosh she makes a mummy proud...

Oh yeah. Then she decided to paint the nails of the very expensive American Girl doll her grandma bought for her. Just like saving the earth...my Girlie isn't perfect. She mixes a little bad with a lot of good.

After a long day of playing Cinderella, I finally unearthed the purse for it's close-up. Whew!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on giving your girlie the tools to make great environmental decisions.


Dagny
www.onnotextiles.com
bamboo and organic clothing

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Planet Green, and "Wasted" is my favorite show. When my kids spy Capri Sun at a party, they run for 'em, like I'm depriving them or something? I HATE juice boxes, capri sun, etc.! That rocks that your daughter rounded up trash to make a cool craft with. Good job with her! THAT is why we are green, for our present and our FUTURE! Great blog...JenK