The Story of Stuff Project was created by Annie Leonard to leverage and extend the film’s impact. The project amplifies public discourse on a series of environmental, social and economic concerns and facilitate the growing Story of Stuff community’s involvement in strategic efforts to build a more sustainable and just world. The on-line community includes over 150,000 activists and SOS partners with hundreds of environmental and social justice organizations worldwide to create and distribute their films, curricula and other content.

It seems that we are told on a daily basis that our ideas of sustainability and our “needs” will change when we have kids. I believe these people. I truly do. But I also believe in children adapting to the environment they are raised in. If you don’t saturate your child’s life with toys and such, they will know no different. But the problem I hear is that OTHER people want to “bless” your child even more than you do. They give toys, clothes, books, etc. as if the child were there own. Inevitably the child will outgrow said toys, clothes, and books though. What then? There just doesn’t seem to be enough space for it all. How about the basement or attic? Is there space enough to pack up and store the toys? And even if there is, is that the right thing to do?

Rather than going the “hoarders” route or the “wasteful, throw it away” path, how about trying the recycle option? Are you aware that there are children who would love to play with your child’s discarded toys? Remember, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. And in the case of children, there is little discrimination when it comes to gifts. Your child’s old toys are another child’s new toys! Of course, this post is assuming your child’s toys are in good, playable condition; not broken. While these toys are used, they are also in a condition which will allow them to be used again. I am not referring to broken toys. Trucks with two wheels missing, dolls with limbs missing, or puzzles with pieces missing do not qualify!

First of all, share the experience with your child. Once you identify that your child no longer plays with a particular toy, why not take advantage of this occasion to encourage your child to be generous by donating the toy to a good cause? You might be pleasantly surprised to find that your child will be more than willing to part with an outgrown toy, knowing that other little girls and boys would be delighted to receive the toy. Your child might actually come to you on his own and let you know of other toys he’d like to share with other children. Not likely, but possible – especially if the child has seen mommy or daddy donate!

So, now that you have an outgrown toy (or better yet, a pile of outgrown toys!) where do you donate it/them?

Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Other Charity Stores

When you give to an organization like Goodwill or Salvation Army, you are almost giving twice! You not only get the satisfaction of knowing that your child’s toy is going to be enjoyed by another child, but you also get the satisfaction of knowing that the charity employs people to run the organization. You are also free to ask for a receipt that you can claim on your taxes as a charitable donation.

Library

Of course, the public library system is a great place for children to be exposed to books. Donating your child’s gently read books to your local library is a way for the library to expand its offerings as well as support local literacy. There are a lot of underfunded public and private libraries now that would love almost new copies of books; new and traditional! The same goes for your child’s magazines. I personally grew up reading ‘Ranger Rick‘ at the local library!

Hospital

A great way to recycle your child’s unwanted toys is to donate them to the children’s ward at your local hospital. When children are in the hospital for long or short stays, it’s always nice for them to have access to new (to them!) toys.

Charities

Places like Boys Town or Ronald McDonald Houses are great recipients of used toys. Because of the many children who reside in these places, it seems like they could always be in need of more toys.

Schools

Your child might enjoy giving his unwanted toys to his school. Classes for Special Needs children are often in need of developmental toys that can be used to teach different skills. And with all the budget cuts that school districts are experiencing, recycled toys would be greatly appreciated! Be sure to speak with the principle first and not the classroom teacher. You don’t want to risk breaking the rules or, even worse, the law!

Family Shelters and Battered Women’s Shelters

Homeless shelters are very worthy recipient of toys. Children living in shelters are already feeling the anguish associated with not having a home of their own. Your child’s unwanted toys could make a big difference to these children. Remember that your child’s old toys will be new toys to other children!

High School and College Day Cares

A lot of high schools and colleges have day care drop-offs for parents who are students. Donating your child’s unwanted toys to these day cares guarantees that your child’s toys will either be used at the day care or given to a child in need of toys.

Remember, the toy you are holding may be old to its current owner, but to another boy or girl it is a brand new toy or book. By recycling your children’s toys, clothes, and books, everyone wins! Your own child can experience the gift of giving and generosity while learning about recycling and upcycling. A boy or girl gets a new toy they may not otherwise have received. Your house stays clean and clear of clutter.

So did I miss anything? Is there anyplace you regularly donate to? What are some other places or ways to breathe new life into that favorite, used toy, book or item of clothing? As always, if you like this post be sure to Tweet about it or Share it with your friends on Facebook!

The post below was originally published on The Good Human. Run by David, The Good Human aims to be a destination that encourages people to be better humans through working to clean up the environment, being active in political issues and being more aware of one’s life and surroundings. If you aren’t already reading him daily I strongly encourage you to. His posts are informative and easy reads.

—————————————–

We all end up with it in our house – old radios, televisions, computers, CFL’s, portable CD players, tape decks – but do you know what to do with it when you are ready to dispose of it? Many communities have made it illegal to dispose of e-waste in your regular trash because of the dangerous chemicals that can be found inside electronics, which include toxins like lead, cadmium, beryllium oxide, lithium, mercury, sulphur, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These items need to recycled carefully and safely, and luckily there are different options to look into to make sure it gets done that way:

• The US Postal Service will recycle, for free, inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players – without having to pay for postage. They have envelopes in the post office for sending these items.
• Staples will recycle computers, office technology products, ink and toner cartridges, cell phones and other personal electronics, and rechargeable batteries.
• Best Buy recycles e-waste from any manufacturer, and takes just about anything electronic, including TVs, DVD players, computer monitors, audio and video cables, cell phones, and more. Most things are recycled absolutely free, with a few restrictions.
• IKEA stores will recycle burnt out CFL lightbulbs
• Apple Computer will recycle your old computer and monitor for free – with the purchase of any qualifying Apple computer or monitor. However, they will also recycle your cell phone or iPod free of charge with no purchase necessary.
• Waste Management, the huge trash services company, will recycle fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, electronics, and other universal wastes with their recycling kits.
• Office Depot takes back recycling, but charges you for the small, medium or large box that you can fill to the brim with your stuff.
• Dell Computers recycles through a partnership with Staples. They also work hard to keep e-waste out of developing nations.

With all the different companies willing to recycle your e-waste free of charge, there really is no need to pay for recycling. If you don’t have access to any of the resources listed above and need to find an e-waste recycler in your area, check out websites like E-Cycling Central, Earth 911, the National Recycling Coalition, or Call 2 Recycle. Whatever you do, please don’t just throw e-waste in the trash – it ends up either being burned and the toxic gasses are released into the atmosphere, or it ends up sitting in a landfill where the toxins to slowly leach into our groundwater. Do the right thing and find an e-waste recycler!

And like that, the firestorm is over.

You may remember my Sun Chips trials. If not, you can find them here: Test 1, Test 2, and Test 3. In those trials I used the very claims of Frito-Lay to test the compostability of the *new* SunChips bags. My first trial received a lot of online attention to which I even got a call from the R&D and Marketing teams at Frito-Lay SunChips. They wanted to talk to me about my motives, my networking, and why I may not be getting the results they claim. In that conversation I also mentioned how clever I thought they were to introduce a new bag with a new look, feel, and sound, to convince consumers this was, indeed, a new technology.

The second test revealed no better results. The bag had not begun to compost and was still just as loud coming out of its funeral plot as it was going in. I began to be chided with this test though as comments came in from folks telling me they had composted the bag just fine. I asked each of them if they were running illegal composting centers in their yard. I was told they were not but that instead of just burying the bag in similar conditions they used $200 and $300 composting “machines” that they had purchased for personal use. Interesting, I thought. Does SunChips expect Joe Consumer to either drive each discarded chip bag to a commercial compost center (there are only 3 in Georgia) or better yet, buy a composting tumbler for home use?

As test three came around I full on expected to see something. I don’t know what but I thought surely this compostable bag would have at least started to get thin. WRONG!

So on that very day I decided not to be greenwashed any longer. I promised to never purchase a bag of compostable SunChips again until I heard otherwise in regards to their compostability. I then spent the afternoon watching YouTube videos of people crumpling the bag and comparing it to lawnmowers and living on an airstrip. It seems the bag was making more noise than anything.

And then today I woke up only to see USA Today and its article that read Frito-Lay sends noisy, ‘green’, SunChips bag to the dump by Bruce Horovitz.

I felt strongly that this day was coming. When Frito-Lay launched the new bag roughly 18 months ago their claim that the bag made from plant material was 100% compostable seemed so far-fetched. If it had been true and proven, why was no other company racing them to market? Why did industry giants like Doritos and Ruffles not move in the same direction? A number of reasons, I am sure.

Granted the company is removing these bags from the shelf because of the noise (anyone else feel like this is a bogus reason?) and returning to the quieter, non-recyclable bags, is noise really worth shelving a technology based on plant molecular structure?

Frito-Lay has also announced that they are going back to the drawing board and will, in fact, have a new bag on the market by next fiscal year. What do you think?

Are they burying the bags due to noise or is something a little dirtier going on here?

For whatever reason, Pan and I have talked about soda multiple times the past few days. We really don’t drink it. Yes, when we have the occasional movie date we have the occasional Cherry Coke (something about fountain drinks, I think). Of course that is ONLY to wash down the occasional swedish fish and reeses pieces. But the fact remains, we just don’t buy it; not at the grocery store, the convenience store, or out of a machine.

What about you? Have you ever looked at your grocery bill to see how much you spend on soda or diet soda each trip (assuming you drink the acidic treat)? Take a look and then multiply that number by the number of times you shop each month. Now take that amount and multiply it by 12 to give you a ball park figure of how much you spend on soda/diet soda each year. Are you surprised by the number? Are there options to save you some money?

Some estimates suggest a family of 4 that drinks soda could save over $500 a year by switching to water; good, clean, filtered, tap water (NOT the bottled kind). So if your family is selecting soda or diet soda as a drink of choice, here are some ideas to help you save money simply by focusing on the soda/diet soda on your grocery list.

• You can save the most money by drinking tap water instead of soda especially if you drink diet soda like water. This provides nutritional and health benefits as well as saving you money. If you think your tap water is dirty or poor in taste, try a faucet filter from a company like Brita.
• If cutting soda out completely isn’t going to happen, try taking a first step and cutting consumption in half by cutting your serving size in half. Most sodas now sell 8oz. cans in the grocery. Who needs more than 8 oz?
• If you still want to include carbonated beverages into your meal planning, learn to become brand disloyal. Many times if Coke products are on sale then Pepsi products are not. Instead of stocking up on your favorite when they are on sale, which encourages the soda habit, try buying what is on sale, even if it is not your favorite. If there are no sales, commit to drinking water for that week.
• Individual serving cans or bottles are typically more expensive then 2-liter bottles. Avoid purchasing individual serving containers and select only the 2-liters if they are on sale. If you think the 2-liters go flat too quickly then perhaps you will be less likely to drink the whole bottle. Wasteful in the pocket but eventually you will get the point you are giving yourself.
• Drink store brands or off-brands.

Of course, drinking water and giving up soda and diet soda all together is the best money saving and nutritional tip I can think of. When I first ditched soda and started drinking coffee, tea, water, and even some milk, I lost nearly 7 pounds within a week. Why? Because our body stores up the sugar from the soda and keeps it as unused calories or pure liquid bloat. The real point though is that any small steps you take to cut back will save money and hopefully lead to drinking more water thereby increasing your overall health.

So, how much money do you estimate you would save in a month if you gave up soda and diet soda altogether?

Did I ever tell you about the time I bought a loud bag of chips from the camp store in Panama City, Florida, primarily on the premise that for a few cents more the bag was 100% compostable and environmentally friendly? No? Well, let me tell you about it.

It all started in May when Pan and I went camping in Panama City, FL and found a bag of SunChips in the camp store. Colored in a very social media ‘esque’ and environmentally sound orange and green and earthy neutral, the bag was noticeably louder to the touch and appeared to be a new package all around for the Frito-Lay brand.

On June 7, I decided to try out the compostable claims and cut the bag into three portions, burying each portion in the same conditions. Granted my middle Georgia land is no commercial composting facility, it is a a very dry, hot heat providing soil with fine iron and sulphur properties. And perhaps this was my problem all along. Perhaps the bag was designed ONLY to compost in commercial composting facilities (of which there are only 8 in the state of Georgia.) Whatever the case, I proceeded in an effort to find out how compostable, recyclable, bio-degradable this bag may be.

July 20th found me digging up the first bag. You can read my results. NOTHING. The portion of the bag looked as it did the day I buried it save a few dirt spots and some dustiness. The odd part of the first dig though was that within hours of posting my results I received personal emails from the R&D team at Frito-Lay as well as the public relations team at SunChips. They essentially wanted to know all about my experiment and how I had arrived at the results I had. I was happy to speak with them and they promised they would get back to me as my experiment progressed. I must admit though that I have not heard back from them. Nonetheless the second dig took place on August 16, 2010.

Again, no change in the bag. Light passed through it the same way it did several months previous. It even looked identical to the first portion unearthed weeks before. I had been greenwashed and I was beginning to feel the SunChips claim were bogus, at best. I kept going back to the “commercial composting conditions” claim. I was convinced this was my problem. I HAD to take the bag to a commercial composting facility in order for it to pull a David Copperfield. But that didn’t please me.

If Joe Smith eats a bag of SunChips and then discards the bag out the window thinking to himself, “Oh, it’s one of those tree-hugger bags. It’ll just disappear like the bag shows,” and the bag claim is bogus, then isn’t the compostable bag just another piece of trash? It is for at least the 14 weeks it sits idle on standard soil under standard conditions.

So last week I went back to my burial ground, shovel in hand, ready to unearth the third portion. I have to admit I expected SOMETHING. I expected it to at least be thinner in appearance. But it wasn’t. In fact, it strongly resembled every other piece. After being buried in the hot, middle-Georgia soil (composted and ag. extension tested soil, mind you) for right at 3 months, nothing had happened; no sign of composting.

I have nothing left to say to SunChips. I am disappointed and if we must go to a commercial composting facility to allow for proper composition of our bags, then I consider their experiment to be one of marketing proportions rather than environmental ones. I am sorry Frito-Lay. You fail.

This weekend seemed a bit excessive. We took the car out 6 times and 4 of those were to the grocery store. We ended up having a bit of a canning-palooza and found ourselves needing more supplies than we could remember when we even wrote our list. So what did we do to offset those trips as much as possible? Well, considering we were only picking up 1 or 2 items at a time, we opted to “Just Say No” to the bag(s). Even though the less-than-excited check out guy tried to put our pickling salt in a bag and then our white vinegar in a separate bag, I quickly spoke up saying, “You know what? We’re cool. We don’t need the bag.” He asked if were were sure and we shook our heads.

So my little tip for the day is to “Just Say No” the next time you are in the store without your reusable bags. Is two or three items really too hard to handle?

All good things come to those who wait we are told. Patience is a virtue. Time heals everything.

No matter what adage you apply to the situation SunChips compostable bags are just not that impressive.

You may remember my initial dealing with Frito-Lay and their SunChips promise. If not, you can read it all here. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

So this week brought about the digging up of the second piece. I should have done it weeks ago according to the marketing of the compostable bag. But after the results I had received from the first dig I thought I had better wait and give it a few more weeks to really begin its disappearing act.

As I dug the words of Frito-Lay and SunChips themselves echoed in my head; “commercial composting facility.” Through emails and other research I have become well aware that for this particular bag to really compost I need to drive it nearly two hours north to another city where there is a commercial composting facility (yes, that is the closest) where all the temperatures and heat measurements are in place for such a process. But then I kept remembering the commercial I first saw some weeks ago. I don’t remember a commercial composting site in that encouraging little piece.

In fact, what I gather from the commercial and even the advertising most prevalent on the bag itself is that I can drop the bag into the soil and let is disappear eventually augmenting the soil enough for a plant to grow right in the very spot. Now I know advertising relies heavily on suspension of disbelief. But c’mon? At least tell us at the beginning of the commercial that all factors in the composting of the bag were controlled and precisely measured.

But what happened, you ask. What was the result of this dig. I’ll leave that to you. Take a look at the third picture of the series below. You can see Week 3 identified on the left and then this most recent dig on the right.