North Goes Green

Archive for the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ Category

We are awaiting to hear who we will have as teachers here at the Gillies house! We can’t wait to receive our post-cards! Once we know and are done with our postcards- don’t forget to recycle them!

Gearing up for school can be daunting but for us we are pretty much all set. Lunchboxes – we are re-using the ones we had last year. Ours washed up nice and are ready for lunch! Stainless steel water bottles are being re-used as well. Backpacks- are going into their 1st, 2nd, and 4th year of use (incoming K, incoming 1st grader and incoming 3rd grader in the house).

School clothes are a mix of hand-me downs (thank you friends- and older brother) and a few new pieces so they feel excited about “new” school clothes. Pencils we have collected at various birthday parties are all sharpened up for homework and crayons are collected from what we have and everyone has their batch of colors.

Snack planning has commenced as well as what to pack for lunch for my picky youngest child. We have tupperware reusable sandwich containers which is great to save from using ziploc bags. Natural Wax paper bags are a great resource for sending in snacks and worrying a little less about the trash that results. I also send in reusable plastic silverware for the kids and may opt to send in cloth napkins as well ( I just need to find little ones).

Be sure to recycle as much as you can for this coming school year. If you have multiple kids you can sometimes repurpose one child’s backpack for the other child is you jazz it up. Glitter glue, and a glue gun can make a huge transformation or invest in a high quality backpack in K that is NOT a toddler sized one and it will last until 5th grade. It may seem like a lot to invest $30 or more for a backpack now but far better than $15/year for one that will easily rip and be replaced year after year.

Please volunteer to help North Go Green and we look forward to meeting all the new families at Back to School Night on 9/27!!!

- Thank you,

Allie Gillies

President, North Elementary PTO and GREEN lady @ North

Reading night is a great event at North Elementary every year! It’s also a GREEN event! It allows students to reuse their books and reduce their impact on the environment. Children get to swap books- their old ones for “new” ones for them to read. For every book you bring you can take another gently used book. Don’t throw those old books away- bring them to Reading Night- April 14th 6-8-pm at North and recycle your gently used books!

Did you know you can make your own crayons from old ones? Rip off the papers off your old, short and broken crayons (be sure to recycle all those papers in your paper bin) and then follow these simple instructions!  You’ll need old broken crayons, candy molds, tin cans (soup cans will do) and some popsicle sticks. Click on the link for full intructions!

Got Crayons? Make New Ones!

If you are not up for making your own here is a great site to get some crayons made from recycled ones that are made into really cool shapes!  Crazy Crayons

Do you love to have Birthday Parties for your child? As a kid- don’t you love to have friends over to celebrate and eat cake and ice cream? There are great ways to celebrate without adding to the waste stream. Here are some tips to Reduce your impact on the environment while have a super fun time!

Supplies: Use Preserve plates, cups & silverware for years of use at parties! They are made of recycled plastic right here in the USA ! Check out Preserve products here: Preserve the Party!

Decorations: Use items with low impact to the environment. Reduce, Re-use and Recycle as much as you can. Check out Green decorations and more here: Fun GREEN Party!

Food: Use organic ingredients to have the least impact. Organic cake mixes are easy to find these days and here are some great options! GOOD CAKE , YUMMO GREEN Cakes!, Save the Earth and EAT CAKE!

Gifts: If you child is of older age (8 and above) you may want to put a twist on gift giving. Request donations instead of gifts. Perhaps a birthday party to benefit the local food pantry or animal shelter? In lieu of a gift party goers bring cans of food as a donation. Reducing the waste of all the cardboard, paper and plastics used in making toys and packaging them. Most of us don’t need any more stuff so why not help others at your next Birthday party?

Green Party Ideas- check them out! And try and celebrate with family and friends for your Birthday and leave the refuse and all the rest of the “stuff” we really don’t need.

Help your child make a neat pillow out of one of their old T-shirts! Reduce, REUSE, Recycle !

Make your T-shirt now!

Did you know that we all make much more trash than necessary at Christmas time. All that wrapping paper and bows and ribbons!

I have a friend from Michigan who was ahead of her time. She always exchanged gifts with her family wrapped in pillow cases! Why? Maybe they were early recyclers or last minute shoppers but either way its not a bad idea! Tie with a rope or twine and poof gift is hidden and “wrapped!”

Why not use the kids artwork for them to wrap their gifts? Art paper is recyclable so you can use it and recycle it next! Remember to recycle ALL cardboard contained in toy wrappers. There is a lot you can do to reduce your waste stream even at Christmas.

Re-use your old Christmas cards for tags on gifts. Recycle all gift wrap (except that super shiny stuff), and save all the bows and gift bags to re-use next year! Send email photo cards or photo videos and save postage and paper waste! Take your Christmas card photos and make a great photo collage for your wall so you’ll see friends and family each and every day!

Teach your kids to recycle and mulch your live Christmas tree or better yet- haven’t bought one yet? Get a LIVE potted tree and plant it after the holidays!

Keep in mind you can recycle a ton at Christmas and all year round! It’s a GREEN thing!

Dear North Goes Green Family- There are hundreds of ways to Green your holiday. Do you still have older lights? There are trade in sites where you can go and trade in your old string lights for new LED lights. Check out- HOME DEPOT TRADE IN to see how!

You can purchase a potable Christmas tree- although expensive- better for the environment because you can re-plant it in your own yard and thus have a lush green Christmas tree all year round! Great for putting outdoor LED lights on next year!

Please remember the less fortunate this year. Donate your old lightly worn coats to the North Elementary Coat drive and donate new mittens and hats as well. Invest in a good sweater and keep your heating bills low by lowering your thermostat by a few degrees. Save money and save heat!

Reduce your waste. At the holidays remember to recycle the packaging. All that cardboard around toys- you can put it in your paper/cardboard bin. Take all those plastic bits and put them in your recycle bin too. Keep in mind all cardboard must be 3×3 feet or smaller but take a few moments and you too will reduce your waste this holiday season.

Use a crock pot- it uses less energy and it makes cost effective meals. You can purchase lesser cuts of meat, cheaper chicken (thighs are great in a crock pot) and cook it on low for hours for a savory meal. Share with your neighbors. My neighbors give me deer meat (he is a hunter) and we make lovely stews and other tasty treats. I share my veggies they share their deer meat and we all eat well and save money at the same time. Saving our resources and sharing with others is a great gift for all this holiday season.

Re-use old gifts. Re-gift. Receive a gift that you don’t like- don’t throw it away or toss it in your closet. Donate it- or re-gift it to someone who actually wants it. Got a gift for yourself or your kid last year and used it once? Swap it with your friends who did the same thing. A new toy to your child is as good as a brand new one and less costly and less wasteful. Share and do a toy-swap. Its a good thing!

Let us know your tips on saving time and energy this holiday season and we’ll post them for you!

Happiest Green Holiday Wishes to all of you at North Elementary!

It’s not too early to be thinking of Halloween and if you have kids like I do – they love costumes.

Chances are you have a few extra costumes in a “dress up” bin. Why not shake things up this year and rather than buy NEW costumes why not re-use and re-purpose some of your old ones. My daughter this year wants to wear her brother’s old Spider Man Costume with a twist of course. She wants to be “Spider Girl” so poof- same costume with an old tu-tu her Gramma gave her and voila her costume is all set. The boys want to be Aliens and we are taking bits of old witches costumes and wizard capes and different ghoulish masks and they are set too.

Now what for Mom and Dad for the Fall Costume Dance? Hmm…well I just found some old silk pajamas from my Grampa (my mother taught me long ago to reduce and reuse everything which is probably why I am the way I am.) Anyway- these pajamas are polka dotted! Imagine ! So if I can convince my shy husband to wear them with an old clown wig we have poof Dad will be a clown. Fingers crossed he’ll agree with me on this one. Me? Not sure yet- perhaps I’ll cover myself in recycled materials and be the “Green Girl?” But either way I think I’ll find something in my house that I already have and re-purpose it for Halloween. I hope this inspires you and your kids to do the same!

September 20, 2010

Dear Parents,

North Elementary is involved in the Funding Factory Recycling program! This fundraiser is FREE and simple because there is nothing to sell, no paperwork to fill out and no deadline. The program runs year-round, accumulating constant income for our efforts.  But we won’t get very far without your support.

Simply drop off your empty ink cartridges and cell phones in the bin outside of the Office and North Elementary will get all funds from this fundraiser. The monies will be used to help us fund Green Initiatives at North. It’s good for the Earth, and it benefits our school. Another great way to go GREEN brought to you by parent and PTO member, Diana Mosher. Thank you Diana for your efforts!

Be sure to go to: www.fundingfactory.com to make sure they accept your brand of cartridge and cell phones. Simply click on “Qualifying Lists” in the tab on the upper right hand corner of their site. We thank you for your support!

There are some great products on the market that are made of recycled plastic, are BPA free and are made here in the USA. Please check out: Preserve’s website to learn more!  There products are all made of recycled #5 plastic and are all also recyclable in turn. There is even a list of Recycling retailers in MA and RI where you can drop off your #5 plastics to be recycled.

Please do your part. Use a re-usable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. Reduce the waste in our landfills. Re-use containers until you can recycle them. Recycle any and all trash that you can to limit your contribution to the landfill. Start a compost pile and eliminate food waste from the trash stream. Do a little bit at a time and soon you’ll be GREEN too!