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!

Planet Green is Coming!

Just what I need. Another excuse for my DVR to run overtime and for me to spend too much time glued to the TV.

I can't wait!

A few weeks ago Discovery teased us with a preview of a new network they are launching. Planet Green. Cool beans!

The little ones and I watched a show (or three hours) on the Planet Green network preview. My favorite show is called Wa$ted.

Host Annabelle Gurwitch (haven't I seen her someplace else?) finds families who are wasteful and then breaks their lifestyle down for them to really see their impact. One months worth of trash dumped on the lawn perhaps? Then, the show maps the footprint that this one small family has made on the earth. This particular family's impact was something like 200 times their land mass.

Eventually perky Annabelle teaches the family how to make less impact. She follows up a few weeks later and SURPRISE the family has changed their ways.

Contrived? Yes. Interesting to a family like mine? Yes! Yes!

Looking on the Planet Green website there are lots of other new shows to pick from. Living With Ed is Back! Adrian Grenier has a show...I don't know what Adrian's show is about, but I guess that most any woman from the ages of 12 to 100 is sure to want to watch him weekly. Mean Green Machines should be a big hit with Hubby and Little Guy. Even Bill Nye has his own show on Planet Green.

Back when hubby and I visited Las Vegas we were asked to be lab rats for a show called Reverend Gadget. Flea (I think) from the Red Hot Chili Peppers brought his car into a shop run by an eclectic crew, including Reverend Gadget. The car (maybe vintage) was converted into an electric car. Apparently Flea is very environmentally conscious and has a solar system on his house. The sun collected on his roof would run his car. The show was a really interesting for people who like cars, music buffs and us gruppies. Fingers crossed that Reverend Gadget gets picked-up by Planet green too.

Because 900 channels just isn't enough anymore, today I called my cable representative to ask if I would be receiving Planet Green. The meanie told me that I will NOT be receiving planet Green. He would put in a request to corporate, but couldn't promise anything.

Five minutes later my now friendly cable representative called back to say that he checked into Planet Green and I WILL in fact be receiving the channel starting next week. Channel 113 to be exact for those of you in central Connecticut.

Hmmm? What do you think my carbon footprint will be if I watch planet Green all summer?