Hey we may have another thing in common! Really. We both have been paying bills and receiving a few paper statements that still make their way to our mailbox despite our green efforts.

You can log on to your account and go paperless. And, it is easier than ever. Every utility company, credit card, or other service I interact with now offers this as a convenient option. That is a magic word for humans right? “Convenient.”

This is not necessarily something folks didn’t know, but have you acted on it yet? I have taken advantage of it in the past and recently. Some offer automatic billing and/or they will email you an e-copy of your bill with plenty of lead time before it is due. There are often many options from which you can select. I love it.

Some companies like AT&T will even plant a tree in your honor for going paperless.

Try it…you’ll like it.

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The business of reclaiming wood from a number of sources is not a new concept. It is really gaining popularity as folks start to realize how beautiful reclaimed wood can be.

Bonus: Using reclaimed wood reduces waste and conserves natural resources.

The most common wood in the reclaiming process originated from “old-growth” forests that were likely several centuries old at the time of their harvest. Although it varies by species, the older reclaimed woods often have a rich color and strength (tighter growth rings) that you can’t find with newer woods taken from younger forests. That is a huge benefit to many people looking to use wood as building material or decoration.

Reclaimed woods have a number of obvious uses including support beams, flooring, siding or shingles. People also use reclaimed wood to make walls, doors, furniture, and countertops. We can reclaim wood from a number of sources. Popular salvage comes from old barns and buildings, old docks, and even old logs found submerged in lakes and rivers. It is a great opportunity to reuse hundreds of different species of soft and hard woods especially those that are extinct or near extinct like the American Chestnut and Longleaf Heart Pine.

What a fantastic way to extend the life of a tree that had life taken away from it prematurely.

Check the internet for a lumber company that specializes in reclaimed woods. I recommend one that sources 100% of their product from the reclaiming process.

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To bag, in this sense of the word, is to keep. It is amazing how many uses you can find for something. In this entry I wanted to share 10 ways you can reuse a paper bag and extend its usable life-cycle. That is, until you recycle it and start the process over again.

So here it goes……

1.  Take it with you the next time you get take out. I have been guilty of watching employees of my favorite food establishments filling a paper bag (yes and sometimes plastic) with a to-go meal for the family, or just me. Now, I take a medium-sized paper bag with a handle on it. It works great.  Of course, plan ahead if you picking up food for a large group. Hey, it works great for other shopping runs too.

2.  Protect your paperbacks (and other books too). Some do it only to protect their borrowed school books from damage. Others do it to show off their artistic creativity or both.  Reusing a paper bag to cover a book is a great way of extending its reusable life-cycle before being recycled again.

3. Wrap a present in style. Cut holes in it like Swiss cheese, paint it, draw on it, or leave it plain. There are many possibilities. I made a pirate map on a paper bag, crumpled it up to give it an aged look, included a birthday wish on the paper, and wrapped the gift with it. You save money on paper, a card, and resources too.

4. The grocery/shopping bag that keeps on giving. Well, this one is obvious and helps my list get to 10. Reusing and recycling a paper bag can eliminate the possibility of it ending up in landfills that already receive a ridiculous amount of paper. According to Environmental Paper Network: “Approximately 40% of the municipal waste stream is paper and paper products.”

5. Countless craft projects. Make a kite, cut out snowflakes, a hat, and puppets, create holiday decorations, or use it as bark for that tree you are making for your school play. What have you seen done?

6.  Contain your recycled paper. On trash/recycling day I see, and pick up, a lot of paper that gets blown out of recycle bins. An easy solution, use a paper bag to hold smaller pieces of recycled paper products so they don’t become an eyesore and make it to the recycling center.

7. Protect your floor or counter. This reuse and then recycle trick works best with dry spills. You can cut open a bag and place it on the counter or use as a doormat.  The paper can catch the loose stuff and can then be easily disposed of properly with little cleanup.

8.  Enjoy fruit faster. Is your local farmers market, or grocery store, out of fruit that is at the peak of your preferred ripeness?  A few fruits that ripen faster in a paper bag include plums, pears, bananas, nectarines, and peaches to name a few.

9.  Lists that last. Do you buy the same items at the grocery each time? Well, even if you don’t you can cut the bag into smaller pieces. Use the scraps as shopping lists (and reuse them) or write notes to family or friends.

10. Make your sales stand out. Many of you do a great job using old garage/yard sale signs for other events. Why paint over the old wording. A few paper grocery bags and some tape can recover the old sign for use again. Lemonade 25¢, Yard Sale this Sunday, Welcome Home, Happy Birthday, Go Cubs!!  — o.k. I think you get the point.

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Did you know: It is the largest of all wild “horses” (i.e., in the horse or horse family). A newborn zebra will “imprint” on nearly any living thing. That’s why you may see a momma zebra being so mean to others while her baby discovers their real momma.

Check out Planet U’s featured species of the month here.

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O.K. I don’t have over one hundred myths about paper. But, you may be surprised by this one.

I had a whole bunch of old utility and credit card bill stubs I had been saving. The reason, I was worried about recycling them with personal information on it and I was being a pack rat and keeping stuff unnecessarily. So, I bought a paper shredder for just such a thing.

Before I made the investment in protecting my privacy I did some research. I found that, on the first of each month, a town near me not only accepts shredded paper documents (the traditional strips all the way to the confetti kind) they also recycle it!

So, I felt a bit of relief knowing that my shredded paper could still go to future iterations of paper products rather than a blob taking up landfill space.

Why you will make a difference: Expanding your thinking with what you can recycle is huge and can save a lot of trees from being destroyed.
Even envelopes with the little plastic windows can still be placed in the recycle bin. Yes, paper with staples too (if you forget to remove them). Foreign material like plastic and metal gets removed when the paper is converted back into pulp, goes through a de-inking process, and is then screened for unwanted stuff.

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