Image courtesy of mynjgarden.com
If you’ve ever used a mail order or internet service to purchase perishable items, you’ve probably been the recipient of a lovely Styrofoam box which held your steaks, cheeses, gourmet chocolate …whatever. So what do you do with it after it has served its original purpose?
If you’re lucky (?) enough to live near a facility that recycles Styrofoam then that’s an option. But the process of breaking down polystyrene releases a lot of nasty chemicals and many industry professionals claim that recycling it is actually more harmful than good. The trash is always an option, but we all know how bad Styrofoam is for the environment. Besides, we’re not talking about a flimsy convenience store model here. These coolers have walls 2 ½ to 3 inches thick and they’re sturdy enough to hold some serious weight. So how can we put these Styrofoam superstructures to good use?
Now, I know some of the more committed ‘greenies’ out there are wagging their fingers at me because 1, we shouldn’t be purchasing from companies that use Styrofoam for packing and shipping, and 2, we should be buying our food locally. True enough. The fact remains that there are some readers who either received one of these boxes as a gift or who actually made the eco-faux pas of purchasing one themselves. To help these poor misguided souls atone for their sins I have come up with some creative ways to repurpose the evil Styrofoam cooler.
- Keep it in the trunk of your car for shopping trips. Put your frozen and refrigerated items in it on the ride home. It can keep your ice cream from turning into a soupy milkshake on a hot day, or buy you a few extra minutes to run another errand before that salmon you bought starts taking it’s stinky revenge.
- Use it as a container to store your other recyclables. These coolers are approximately the same size as an 18 gallon recycling bin, so they’re easy to transport and hold quite a bit of material. If you have a curbside service that requires you to provide your own bins they work great for that too. Just make sure you label them so the hauler doesn’t take your Styrofoam box along with its contents!
- Decorate it and use it for a toy box for a kid’s room. Let your kids have fun coloring or painting it. You can even use some colored duct tape to make a fabric hinge to keep the lid on.
- My step-mother used one to send me a bunch of perennials for my flower garden for Mother’s Day. The plants arrived at my home in great shape after a five day journey via the postal system. They were well hydrated and fresh. No wilting!
- This one is my personal favorite…Heavy duty Styrofoam coolers make great outdoor housing for your small pets. I live in a northern climate with cold winters. I had a kitty that lacked the house manners to be allowed to live indoors, so to make myself feel better about banishing her to the outdoors I took one of these coolers and made her a house. I cut a small hole for a door, stocked the inside with old towels and sealed the top of the cooler onto the bottom with duct tape. My cat took to it right away, even using it in the summer. If you want to get really fancy you can add a pet heating pad (make sure you use one specifically designed for pets with low wattage or you may roast your pet). They work great for other outdoor pets like rabbits or chickens as well.
- Vermicomposters can use it to make a worm bin to get rid of kitchen scraps. Fishermen can use it to make a worm farm for their own supply of high quality bait, or use it for a tackle box that also keeps the bait alive.
- Use it to store your off season clothes like sweaters and woolens. They’ll stay fresh and moth-free.
- For college kids or those on a tight budget you can cover or decorate them and use them as cheap end tables, coffee tables or ottomans. Pluse they’ve got built-in storage!
- Ask your kids for ideas. They come up with great ways to repurpose almost anything!
- Of course, if all else fails, you can always use it as a cooler!
Have other ideas for how to repurpose a Styrofoam cooler? Feel free to post your ideas in the comments section.
Many floor cleaners contain compounds such as acids, solvents, pthalates, ammonia, bleach, aerosols and formaldehyde. Now think about your children and pets crawling around on floors that contain these residues. Does it make you a little nervous? Here are some ways to get your floors clean without these harmful chemicals.
Linoleum can be preserved by adding a capful of baby oil to the wash water. Add shine to linoleum without polishing by adding sour milk to the rinse water.
Make a solution of oil and vinegar in a 1 to 1 ration and apply a thin coat to the floor. Rub in well. You can also use a damp mop with a vegetable oil soap such as Murphy’s Oil Soap, but make sure to dry immediately after cleaning.
Spot clean with a mixture of 1 quart water, 1 teaspoon mild liquid soap or trisodium phosphate, 1 teaspoon borax, and a splash of either vinegar or lemon juice. Apply with a damp sponge. Blot with a clean cloth to remove the stain.
Every Earth Day there are lots of events focused around things to do to save the Earth. These include planting trees, community cleanups, marathons, fundraisers, etc. These are great events, many of which do make valuable contributions to the environment.
Toilet bowls, soap scum and mildew. These are typical bathroom cleaning challenges which require something stronger than mere soap and water. The big concern in the bathroom is killing germs and bacteria which may be spread by…well…the activities typically undertaken in the bathroom. This fear of pathogens often leads us to use the harshest chemicals in our bathrooms. While we aren’t likely to ingest those chemicals, they can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Many of these products can kill off the natural bacteria in spetic systems and wastewater treatment plants as well.
There are hundreds of products available to clean your house. Most of the ones on the grocery store shelf contain harmful chemicals and toxic compounds, and some of the most dangerous are made for the kitchen and the bath. When it comes to the kitchen, most items can be cleaned with vinegar, baking soda, salt and lemon juice without the potential health risks of commercial alternatives. Here are some earth-friendly ways to tackle your kitchen clean-up jobs.
Research on recycling bins says they cause wasteful habits
The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, is based on two field experiments in which waste production was compared in situations with and without recycle bins present. In the first experiment test groups were provided with a ream of paper and asked to try out a pair of scissors. The groups without recycle bins cut up much less paper than the groups that were provided with one. In the second experiment a recycle bin was provided for paper hand towels in a men’s bathroom that previously had only trash receptacles. Paper towel use increased by 50% after the bin’s introduction.
The results of this study indicate that people feel better about consuming goods if they can recycle them, thereby decreasing recycling’s positive effect on conserving natural resources. The ability to recycle provides a convenient excuse to consume more, particularly when it comes to disposable goods, whereas the lack of a recycling option induces people to use less since they feel guilty about producing more waste which ends up in the landfill.
While I agree with the authors’ findings on this subject, we need to be careful about the message we take away from this study. I think most of us feel better about the waste we produce if we are able to recycle it and keep it out of the landfill. That would seem to be a given. It is equally true that without a recycling option people will always opt for the trash. In the US at least, the lack of a viable recycling option is not preventing us from consuming huge quantities of disposable goods. Those states that have strong recycling programs, like those in the northeast and on the west coast, are able to divert more of the waste stream, while states that lack those programs, such as those in the south, continue to landfill huge volumes of refuse.
Instead of identifying the presence of recycling bins as a detriment and cause of wastefulness, we should be focusing on other factors that work with recycling to maximize the environmental benefit that can be achieved. Specifically, we need to focus on education and outreach that promotes not only recycling, but re-use and reduction as well, and we need to work towards a national extended producer responsibility policy that would force manufacturers to be responsible for the waste resulting from their products.
Education and outreach is key to the success of any residential recycling program, and it is also key to changing consumption habits. Using a combination of outreach programs, community based social marketing, educational programs and community events, we can spread the word about the importance of reducing the amount of waste we produce in the first place. Lest we forget the ‘Three R’s’ of waste reduction are Reduce, reuse and recycle. A great deal of marketing emphasis has been put on recycling. More of that effort must be directed at reducing consumption. Recycling, after all, uses natural resources, including electricity and water. It should not be seen as a free pass to engage in unfettered consumerism.
Beyond personal buying habits, extended producer responsibility (EPR) has the capacity to significantly change the way goods are marketed and manufactured in the US. EPR forces manufacturers to be responsible for the end-life of their products. Bottle bills are one example. The core charge on automotive batteries is another. These programs require producers to take back their product when the end-user is finished with it. This leads to reduced packaging and increased of use of materials that may be reclaimed rather than landfilled. No corporation wants to be saddled with the costs of disposing all of their used-up goods, so they alter their processes to reduce the amount of waste that results. In Europe EPR is the law, and the result is that virtually every consumable good is recyclable.
Providing adequate recycling options is necessary for a sustainable environment. After all, we are never going to live in a society where no one buys anything and nothing is ever thrown away. But we do need to work at changing consumption habits to reduce the overall amount of waste we produce. Recycling is not without its problems, but let’s keep the recycle bins and work on promoting policies that will further us towards the end goal of a zero waste society.
What do you think?