Mission Recycling: Barbies

Well, I neglected the blog for another three months, but I suppose that is better than the six month rest I took before that. Here I go again.

I was a spoiled child. I had nearly countless dolls, stuffed animals, My Little Ponies, etc., etc., and of course, Barbies. Because I am also a sentimental packrat, all of my toys are now boxed up and still in my parents’ house. But I finally convinced myself to say goodbye to the Barbies.

The Barbies were really not in good enough shape to donate to a toy drive or anything like that. They were well-loved, and several of them had lost their heads (I’m still not quite sure what to do with the decapitated dolls). I first had to clean them up; I washed all of their clothes and bathed each of the dolls, focusing on controlling their out-of-control hair. I also sorted through their many accessories.

Before:

 

 

 

 

 

After:

Once they were cleaned up, I wanted to find a good home for them. I searched online for women and children’s shelters in my area, and I started to contact them to see if anyone could use the dolls. As it happens, the first shelter I contacted said they would be happy to take them from me.

I took the Barbies, along with all of their clothes and accessories and the Barbie Corvette and Limo, and dropped them off at the shelter downtown. The woman in charge gave me a tour of the new playroom for the kids. I’m so glad that a new generation will enjoy playing with my beloved Barbies.

Now I just need to tackle all the rest of the toys…

What: Well-loved Barbie dolls

Why: Barbies are mostly plastic, so they wouldn’t do well in a landfill. And besides their crazy hair, the dolls were in relatively good condition, and there are a lot of little girls out there who could give them a great new home.

How: I searched for women and children’s shelters in my area and contacted them. The shelter I picked was in the process of creating a new children’s activity center and was actively seeking toy donations.

Cost: None

Mission: Accomplished!

Mission Recycling: Shoes

I have some challenging items in my Mission Recycling pile, so it was nice to get an easy one out of the way.  I’ve actually dropped off shoes for recycling before, so I knew where to go.  Nike has drop-off locations for its Reuse-A-Shoe program at its stores, and there is a Nike store in downtown Seattle.  Unfortunately, there’s not much parking in the area – the first time I went, I had taken the bus into Seattle.  I kept intending to drop my shoes off some time before work, but I could never figure out how to make it work, so my shoes were just waiting in my car.

Then, last weekend I was shopping for new shoes at a Brooks outlet, and there was a shoe recycling box in the front of the store.  I didn’t note what organization the box was for, but I was excited to get rid of my old shoes.  And now I know that there is a drop-off location a lot closer to me – good information for next time.

What: Worn out athletic shoes

Why: The materials in athletic shoes can be broken down and reused for things like sports surfaces (tracks, basketball courts, tennis courts).  The Nike Reuse-A-Shoe Web site has a cool explanation of how the rubber, foam and fabric are separated and ground and turned into the playing surfaces.  Shoes that aren’t that far gone can be passed along to people in need through organizations like Soles 4 Souls and One World Running.

How: Shoes just need to be dropped off at one of the organizations’ drop-off sites.  Check out the Web sites for locations or the directory at RecycledRunners.com (although it doesn’t seem to be a complete resource – I searched my zip code and the two locations where I’ve dropped shoes off before didn’t even show up).

Cost: None

Mission: Accomplished!

One Woman’s Junk Is…

Very rarely is anything I post on this blog an original idea of my own.  I can’t claim that I found out about online swapping on my own – I’m pretty sure that, like most good things in my life, I found this one out from Real Simple.

There are a couple of good sites out there for swapping your books, music or DVDs for new (to you) ones.  The idea is that you post your old media that you are willing to get rid of, and you can search through other people’s lists for things you want.  These items are free*, as opposed to buying used items from craigslist or ebay.

*Both of the sites I discuss here require that you pay for shipping your items to the new owner, but you don’t have to pay for the items that come your way.  It equals out so that you essentially are paying a buck or two for each item you order.

I’ve been using paperbackswap.com for probably about six months now, and I have to say that I’m addicted.  In fact, I get a little impatient waiting for people to request books from me, even though I have plenty of to-be-read books in my possession.  PaperBackSwap has sister sites for CDs and DVDs; it would be nice if these were all integrated into one site, however, you can trade credits between the sites.

I just joined (today actually) swaptree.com, so I haven’t done any trades yet.  We’ll see how this one goes.  I mainly joined it in hoping that between the two sites, someone would want the CDs I am trying to get rid of.

Here’s the primary difference between the two sites.  PaperBackSwap involves one-way transactions.  I have a list of books that I am willing to send away; person A requests one of my books and I mail it to her.  I get a credit on the site that I can use to request a book from any of the members.  SwapTree instead involves two-way transactions.  I send an item to Person A and Person A sends an item to me.  The advantage of the PaperBackSwap system is that I don’t have to order something from Person A’s inventory.  SwapTree does, however, have a system that will tell me when a person both has an item I want as well as wants an item I have.  The advantage I see in the SwapTree system is that the trades can be for any kind of media; I can trade a book for a CD, a CD for a DVD, etc.

I still love Half Price Books and most any used bookstore.  But usually when you sell something to those stores, you get a few cents for your books and then still have to pay three or four dollars for a used book.  It’s a great way to recycle your unwanted books, but you don’t get much in return.  I’m loving that swapping my stuff online means that for every unwanted book I get rid of, I get a new and wanted book in return!

Craftiness part two

My desire to do crafts has become a little bit of a problem, and I’m having to limit myself to certain days and times, so that I can still do the other important things in my life.  But here are some of the fun craft projects I wanted to write about in my last crafty post:

I’m making a t-shirt quilt out of my old softball shirts.  This has been a project I have wanted to do for years.  I’ve never made a quilt before, and I’m still not sure how the actual quilting part is going to go, but I am loving the piecing so far.  It’s a good new use for my old shirts, because most of them were too ratty to be donated (or had my name on them).  After cutting the square out of the shirt, I’m cutting the rest of the shirt into strips for future rag rugs.

I wrote in my last post about my new love of crocheting.  There are so many different yarns out there, and there are some neat, earth-friendly types of yarn.  I’m attempting to buy those kinds of yarn for my projects (although I’m also using yarn from my mom’s giant stockpile).  There is organic cotton yarn, bamboo yarn, recycled cotton (made from scraps from manufacturing clothing), and recycled polyester (made from plastic bottles).  So far I’ve found the recycled polyester to be the most economic, but even that is still a little expensive, so I always use a 40% coupon from Jo-Ann’s – which fortunately I can get every week.

One of the cutest things I’ve ever made was a grocery bag for a friend of mine who was headed off to college.  I’m not the most patient person in the world, so I don’t always do well in making things look nice in sewing, but I tried really hard on this one.  Besides being handmade and being a reusable bag, there wasn’t really anything in the making of the bag itself that is particularly sustainable.  However, I love the pattern, so maybe next time I make one, I’ll find some ways to use earth-friendly materials.

The inspiration for my linen pinboard came from two different places.  First, the idea to even have one came from a Real Simple idea for organizing jewelry.  But the pinboards that Real Simple bought at Pottery Barn are ridiculously expensive, so I found a site with DIY instructions. (There are actually a ton of tutorials out there that say essentially the same thing – search “linen pinboard” and choose the one you like best.)  My pinboard consists of a bulletin board I got for $2 or $3 at Value Village, a linen-looking napkin for $1 at VV, and a bracket for wall-mounting for a couple of bucks at the fabric store.  I think the most expensive thing was actually the pretty pins that are used to hang the necklaces.  And by the way, most of the instructions say to use a staple gun, but I don’t have one and found that a regular stapler worked just fine in the cork.

There is a Web site called Crafting a Greener World that I haven’t had a chance to explore much yet, but it seems to be along the lines of the things I’ve posted above.  I’m not sure how I got linked to it – probably off of etsy.  Cool place to check out for more sustainable craft ideas!

Mission Recycling: Foot Molds

No, that’s not moldy feet…that would be both disgusting and difficult to recycle.  These are molds of my feet – one set of plaster and one set of wood – from having orthotics made.  And apparently I’m not the only one out there wondering what can be done with these.  Here’s the deal:

• What: Plaster and wood feet, essentially
• Why: Well, mostly, it just seems silly to throw five pounds of plaster in the trash.  As far as I can tell, plaster (calcium sulfate hemihydrate) itself isn’t really a hazardous substance – although as a powder, it can be a lung irritant – but it does have to be mined and processed, so reusing the plaster would help avoid having to process more.  As for the wood ones, well, I always advocate for recycling wood!
• How: Still not sure on this one.  If I was a whittler, I could carve something neat out of the wood ones…but I’m not.  Apparently, plaster can be heated (see the comments in the Recycle This post for that and other suggestions) or smashed and reused.  But I don’t really have any desire to make anything else out of my plaster.  At my podiatrist appointment, I asked the receptionist if she knew of anything I could do with the molds.  She suggested using them as door stoppers or making art – about the same as any other suggestion I’ve found.
• Cost: None yet
• Mission: In jeopardy…