Zero Waste Living

Why You Should Be Creating Fall Leaf Mulch This Season

For this week’s Greener Living Tips, I want to discuss one of the ways that I save money around my year this later season of the year, and this is by making my own mulch! I invested in a blower/mulching device, and the mulch you see is mulched leaves, bark, and sticks found around my yard earlier this month, and it looks just like the bark mulch shreds previously purchased at Lowe’s!

I saved $60.00 by making my own mulch for just 1/4 of my flower beds in the front of my home! So, by using just these two methods I save more than $120.00 around my yard annually, and that money can be channeled back into other projects, such as my Indoor Greenhouse system!

Using leaf mulch helps your lawn to be able to:

Mulching leaves enhance landscape aesthetics during Fall.
Organic mulch improves soil fertility as it decomposes, reducing the need for fertilizers.
Leaf mulch help maintain soil moisture by reducing evaporation so less supplemental irrigation is needed.
Leaf mulch inhibits weed germination and growth, reducing the need for herbicides.
Leaf mulch buffers soil temperatures over the winter, keeping soils warmer in the winter.

And the best part? Leaf mulch can be made by simply mowing over leaves, and raking up the debris and using the newly made mulch around all of your flower beds, potted plants, and trees in your yard. This same process would be an awesome “brown” layer to compost bins. I also use this mulch as an aromatic layer for my outdoor patio chimineas, fire pits, and smoker. If you don’t have a shredder, don’t worry. Leaves can be shredded using the lawn mower. Just be sure to avoid “volcano mulching.” When mulch is piled against the base of a tree, it holds moisture, encouraging rot in the trunk. Mulch piled against the trunks of young trees may also create a habitat for rodents that chew the tender bark and can ultimately kill the trees.

This is an awesome way to save this holiday season! So friends, if you have any tips for reducing your end-of-season yard waste at home, I’d love to hear about it below!

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Save $20.00 Annually By Selling Back Your Aluminum Cans!

Good morning, savvy savers! For this week’s Greener Living Tip post, I want to discuss a rather old, but novel way of making-aback a few dollars annually, by selling your aluminum cans to your local recycling center! Sure this may not seem like a great or vast way to make money, on average you would get back $0.02 per can, and according to the EPA, the average American family throws away 400 cans a year, that could be a savings of $20.00 annually! This may not sound like a lot of money, but think if the cans were not thrown out you would earn $20.00, which equates to six 12-packs of soda.

Also, selling-back to recycling centers can help in other ways such as:

1) Recycling can help minimize aluminum mining. As aluminum doesn’t occur naturally in the earth’s crust, it has to be extracted from its ore, bauxite, in a costly, energy-intensive process that can be detrimental to the surrounding environment.

2) Recycling can help the rainforests. Mining bauxite disrupts rain forests, results in the loss of habitat for plant and animal species, erodes the soil and severely affects the water retention capability of the soil; noting that the degradation of Jamaica’s delicate coral reefs along its south coast is as a result of alumina spilling during ship loading, over the past half-century.

3) Mining can be carcinogenic. Caustic soda is used to extract alumina from raw bauxite, can leach into waterways and cause respiratory issues, and increased instances of cancer in select communities.

4) Recycling cans can cost manufacturers 1/3 less in production cost, which is passed down to consumers.

5) Recycling aluminum requires only 5% of the energy and produces only 5% of the CO2 emissions, as compared with primary production, according to the EPA; this is enough energy to run a television for three hours.

6) A recycled can, that is both easy to recycle and easy to reconstitute, cans appear on the shelf just six weeks after recycling!

So, by selling back your cans, you can save money, save on product cost, save on air and water quality in your community, and save the planet at the same time! To find out ways to buy back cans in your area, contact your local recycling center, public water works station, or your city managers office for more information! And if you have any information on aluminum recycling in your area you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about it below!

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Save $48.00 Annually By Running Laundry Through The Spin Cycle Twice!

Good morning, savvy savers! For this weeks Greener Living Tip, I wanted to share with you a tip I recently learned about. According to the National Energy Council, homeowners can save, on average, $4.00 monthly, and $48.00 annually by spinning their clothes twice in the spin cycle before placing them in the dryer, even HD models! According to reports, this will reduce overall clothes drying times by a third, and save you $48.00 a year!

What an easy way to save money, energy, and time!

Here’s to greener living!

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Wednesday Ways To Save: Save $100.00 A Year By Recycling!

Good morning, savvy savers! For this weeks Wednesday Ways To Save, I wanted to discuss recycling, and the various ways that this simple act can save you money! Check this out:

1) If you arent currently recycling, you may want to look into your city or town’s system. Some areas actually give you vouchers for recycling. These vouchers can be used at local restaurants, even stores in your area; your city managers office would be the best place to contact!

2) Some states issue a deposit on recyclable bottles and cans, upwards of $0.10 a bottle.

3) According to the EPA, 80-90% of the average households trash contains recyclable, or donation-worth items. If you recycled these items, consider the cost you will save on trash bags alone, you could save upwards of $40.00 a year!

4) Some states will give you state tax credits on your annual tax return; the average state has an allotance of over $60.00 a year!
With all of these advantages, why would you not recycle?

In my home, we recycle most items; as you can see above we are serious about our collections! We also donate goods, upcycle items, and compost our vegetable scraps. We have done this for three years, and by doing so I save over $110.00 a year!

Here’s to the environment!

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Wednesday Ways To Save: Freecycle.org!

Hello again, savvy savers! Today’s Wednesday’s Ways To Save is about one of my favorite sites on the internet, Freecycle.org! I love Freecycle. When I say I love Freecycle, I mean it, truly! Freecycle.org is a website, run through Yahoo, that connects people looking to get rid of household items, with people who need certain items; this method helps keep belongings out of landfills, and puts it in the hands of those who truly need, or want, the items! One great bit of advice I give friends is that if they are looking for furniture, craft materials, building materials, toys, clothing, uniforms, or some other needs, try Freecycle first! I thought I’d share some tips on Freecycle etiquette that I’ve picked up in my time using five freecycle groups in three cities here in my area. Most people use Freecycle to give stuff away because it gives them the warm fuzzies, but for me it’s about helping out my community, home, and planet.

1) Start a Freeycle.org account; sign-up for an account, find the group closest to your town, and once your account is approved by a group moderator, make sure that the organizations emails are secured as safe-senders in your email accounts.

2) Post an offer. With any free site, its always best to start terms off with your best foot forward, and this case its by posting an offer to give away a free item you can part with; with Spring cleaning on the near horizon this should not be a hard endeavor!

3) Ask for an item. Once you have given an item away, or made arrangement to do so, be sure to post a group note stating it has been taken, and while on the site post your first request! When requesting items, be sensible and respectful. Always be friendly.

4) If someone offers you an item, be prompt in making arrangements to pick the item up, and after doing so always remember to shoot the sender a thank you email, as well as to return to the site and list the item as haven been received!

5) Keep up with Freecycle.org emails. Be sure to check back often, and if you are able to do so, offer items to wanted ads, and never be too proud to ask for items from others! You will never receive a blessing with a closed hand, or mind!

With all of this stated, I wanted to give you all an example of one set of items I received recently. There is a lady in my local group. She and I have exchanged items several times, and as she knows that I coupon and upcycle furniture, she often writes me to take things off her hands. This past weekend she wrote and offered me a pair of perfectly fine, white rocking chairs! Why was she getting rid of them? She felt that my husband and I, as a young couple, should have a place to sit and converse with one another! Is that not amazing? In addition to this, over the past year I have received antique mason jars, fabric, buttons, end tables, trunks, and other fun items!

I highly recommend this site, and hope you will use it soon!

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