A few weeks ago at Covington’s Maifest, we discovered a retired engineer who had turned recycling into an art form. Shao Lin and Sompit Xia at The Can Do Planes booth transformed used aluminum cans into model airplanes, cars, boats, animals, and so much more.

It’s a pretty incredible idea for material reuse. Making a toy or gift is a great way to reduce the consumption of always buying newly made products. Do you have a crafty reuse idea to share? If so, contact us!

The paper versus plastic debate can be superseded when you utilize a reusable bag. Using small “stuffable” tote bags like the ChicoBag and Envirosax (both available at Park+Vine) makes it easier - just stuff one in your purse, bike bag, backpack, briefcase, or glove compartment so you’ll have it when you need it.

I gave my mom two spring colored ChicoBags for mothers’ day in May. A week after, she called me to share a story of her first public ChicoBag experience. With the clever little carabiner that is attached to the ChicoBag, she could clip them to her purse so she’d have them at the ready. After work she made a stop at the drug store to get a few of the things on her shopping list. When she made it to the checkout line, she told the cashier that she didn’t need a bag and proceeded to baffle and amaze both the cashier and everyone in line by unclipping, unstuffing, and right-side-outing her reusable shopping bag like magic. After a stalled pause and an awkward silence she added, “my daughter tells me that I need to reduce my environmental footprint.” Interestingly enough, that stirred nods of understanding from the cashier and the other moms in the checkout line. So the experience was memorable, but not traumatic. Happily for me, she enjoys saving a bag and will continue to use it.

Similarly, I remembered to bring a sackful of reusable bags to the grocery this week. I expected the mixture of bags from my gift with a subscription to Martha Stewart magazine, a Star Wars convention, a small corner store in Montreal, and a few other random places to be received with confusion. Not so!

To my surprise, the cashier at Kroger not only knew to use my bags without asking, she also immediately credited 5 cents per bag to my bill. I saved 30 cents from my food purchase and six bags worth of trees or petroleum. Not bad for one visit.

It just goes to show that local stores are getting used to people bringing their own bag. Two years ago when I brought my own bag to a store, it felt a lot less comfortable to use them and in some instances caused a few stares. Now at some places like Findlay Market, you hardly see anyone accepting a disposable plastic shopping bag from a vendor. Change is happening because of us, keep up the good work!

Today’s green tip is a guest post from an experienced blogger, local food expert, and Freecycler: Valerie Taylor. She has great advice to offer, please enjoy her 6 easy ways to have a great Freecycle experience.

Freecycle is a great way to help the environment. Members of local Freecycle groups all over the globe post offers for items they no longer need or requests for items they’re looking for and then freely exchange those items with no strings attached. Items you’re no longer using can instead of being sent to a landfill be given to someone who will use those items.

Items you’re in need of can be requested from other members, keeping you from contributing to wasteful overproduction of material goods. It’s a great idea, a win-win-win situation that is good for the giver, good for the recipient of the gift, and good for the environment.

I’ve been using Freecycle for nearly five years, and the number one complaint of most Freecycle members is NoShows – those irritating people who respond to your offer enthusiastically, agree on a time they’ll be there to pick up your item, and never show. Many never even bother to email to apologize or explain. It’s enough to put you off Freecycle if you let it.

The good news is it’s ridiculously easy to prevent 99% of NoShows with very little extra time or effort on your part. A few small changes in how you word your offer and choose your recipient can eliminate nearly all NoShows.

1. Post your offer only to your most local group first.

If you offer your item on multiple groups, you may be offering it to people who live an hour or more away. Unless your item is very valuable, many people may reconsider the inconvenience and cost of getting there and decide it isn’t worth it. If you post an offer and don’t get a response after a day or so, post it to your next most local group and so on.

2. Always put your location in your offer post.

With gas prices as they are, it doesn’t make sense to drive twenty miles for an item that cost three dollars new even to keep that item out of the landfill. If you let people know where the item is upfront, you’ll get fewer responses from people for whom the drive isn’t reasonable.

3. Always ask for their location in your offer email.

This does two things. First, it tells you how far they’d be traveling for your item. If the item you’re giving away is common or inexpensive and the responder is forty miles from you, you can assume they didn’t bother to figure out how far they’d be traveling and will probably be a NoShow. Second, if they don’t bother to tell you where they’re coming from, you can assume they didn’t bother to read your email carefully or don’t feel compelled to comply with your request. Either way, they’re probably not the most considerate person in the world. People who aren’t considerate are often likely to be NoShows.

4. Never never never just automatically give your item to the first person who responds.

There are any number of “vultures” on every Freecycle list who just sit at their computers all day pouncing on offer after offer without even thinking about whether they really can use the item or even have a way to pick it up. Especially for large or difficult-to-move items, wait a day and collect replies. Then read through all the replies and choose someone who seems like they’ve at least thought about why they want the item and how they’ll get it home. Bonus points to anyone who seems to be also thinking about your convenience instead of their own.

5. Don’t give your item to anyone who responds to your offer with, “I’ll take it. When can I get it?” or something similarly rude.

People who are rude in email are likely to be less-than-considerate in person, too. If you select someone who is polite in email, they are also likely to show up when they say they will or let you know if some conflict has arisen.

6. Don’t give your item to anyone who gives you a sob story about how desperate their need is.

Why? People who give you a hard luck story are trying to play on your sympathies to make themselves seem somehow more ‘deserving’ than others who might respond to your offer. People who try to manipulate you in this way, whether or not their story is true, are also likely to treat you inconsiderately in other ways.

Most members of Freecycle are kind, generous, considerate people.
Don’t have your Freecycle experience spoiled by those few who aren’t.

Valerie Taylor moderates the CinciEast Freecycle group and blogs at CincinnatiLocavore.

Renovating buildings rather than building new can be great for the environment and the community.

If you’ve ever worked on your own remodeling project, you know it can be a lot of work. Most major renovation projects take a lot more manpower hours than new construction. Putting the people to work on a major save to an historic building or doing some cosmetic fix-up on a house in the neighborhood is making an investment in the community. It creates work and improves the look and spirit of the neighborhood.

Renovating also saves resources. Any time you can salvage architectural aspects of the existing building over buying something new, you’re conserving materials and saving the energy used to manufacture new products.

If you’re working on your own renovation project, consider these local resources. There’s more where these came from on the Live Green Cincinnati resources pages.

Need help gathering or parting with building material or furniture?

• Building Value. An excellent place to pick up some unique and worthwhile products for your project. They will also arrange to take any building material donations you have to make during your deconstruction.
• Wooden Nickel. An amazing collection of antiques and architectural salvage.
• Cincinnati Freecycle. A give-and-take of useful seconds. Post any furniture or items you can no longer use or check out the listings to find the perfect chair you’ve been looking for.

Need skills or an extra hand with your project?

• Green City EcoStruction. Professional local service for green building and projects.
• UtiliKris. A skilled handyman located downtown who has experience choosing and working with environmentally friendly materials.

This year’s Hyde Park Blast run/walk/cycle event has a new theme: Go Hard, Go Green.

Some environmental aspects newly added to the event include:

• Event-wide recycling program.
• Recycled/reusable participant bags.
• Organic fruit from Biggs.
• Eliminating paper registration forms and using recycled paper for any print materials.
• Collection point for Crocs Soles United to recycle used Crocs and donate them to impoverished countries.

The event is Saturday, June 28th. To participate, register to volunteer on the Hyde Park Blast website.

This is an excellent public effort to minimize the environmental footprint of a very large event. Hopefully, it will set the bar for all citywide events to follow!

Have some recyclables you can share? Imago is looking for some materials to use in their summer camps this June. check out the details below:

Dear friends,

Imago Summer Nature Camps are fast approaching, and we are in need of a few recycled materials for our Art in Nature camp, which is the first week June 9-13th. We can use cans, milk cartons/jugs, egg cartons (cardboard and foam), rubber bands, cardboard, paper towel rolls, shoe boxes, jars, newspaper, and plastic bags. We are making instruments and doing various activities with these materials so we can use all different kinds. We especially need soup and vegetable cans specifically as well. You can drop these items off any time this week at Imago or we can come and pick them up.

If you can help, contact Shea Norris (camp coordinator) at (513)921-5124 or by email at this address: snorris[at]imagoearth.org.

Does your heart ache when you see usable stuff sitting on the curb on garbage night? If so, you might be a “dirty girl”.

This environmental take on wedding planning was originally run in the the Live Green Cincinnati column in the Pulse on May 13, 2008.

Weddings may be based on age-old traditions, but that doesn’t mean you can’t innovate and transform your ceremony into an environmentally friendly affair. Choose to have your personalized, time-honored commitment while keeping a small environmental footprint!

Consider these options to green your wedding:

Rethink your registry. Consider registering with a local store or an environmentally minded store like Park + Vine. Recommend that your guests wrap gifts in recyclable newsprint or a reusable canvas bag so there’s no wrapping to throw in the trash. You can also forgo the obligatory toaster and waffle-maker purchases by asking your guests to make a donation in your honor to the local park system or even to a Web site that allows you to choose which charity or socially conscious project you want to receive your gifted funds, for example GlobalGiving.com.

Give eco-friendly favors. Consider using small potted plants, recyclable paper origami doves, or a bowl of fruit stamped with your name and wedding date as ideas for guest favors. Giving something living or edible will allow your guests to enjoy their favors without adding any waste to the landfill.

Light up your life. Choose to have your wedding and reception during the day so that you and your guests can enjoy the great outdoors and save energy by taking advantage of natural daylight.

Use vintage class. Finding your wedding formalwear in a vintage shop is a thrifty way to find an amazing and unique look. Using a gown or tux that has been passed down in the family is an even better way to reuse, and it can create a very intimate family bond on your big day.

Give your decorations a longer life. If you can reuse flowers from a wedding earlier that day or decorations you inherited from a parent or grandparent, you can conserve natural resources. If you buy or make your own flowers and decorations, consider donating them to an assisted living facility or your community center so that they can be enjoyed by someone else as well.

Send green invitations. Consider paper with post-consumer recycled content when printing your invitations. You can also find seeded paper, which can be planted after it’s used. If your guests are connected, try sending a digital invitation to use no paper at all. There are even online RSVP services so that your guests can confirm attendance with a call or Web site visit instead of using self-addressed, stamped reply cards.

Serve local fare with flare. Select a caterer or chef who will prepare your party food using locally grown and raised food. Nothing beats the taste of fresh, in-season tomatoes and corn grown right here in Ohio. You can also ask that the tableware be reusable and not disposable to minimize waste. If you want to go all out, add the food scraps to your compost pile and use it to help grow a backyard garden with foods you can eat while you celebrate each month you’ve been married.

Consider this: Location, location, location. Choose a location that is near the majority of your guests. Destination weddings may be dreamy, but whisk her away alone on the honeymoon instead of transporting the guests the extra miles. Getting hitched in your local church or community center can make carpooling or even walking more convenient for your guests. Having the wedding and reception at the same venue in the center of your community or at a hotel saves gas and travel time, all the while reducing the chances of any of your guests driving after the champagne.

If you’re up for the challenge, put together your something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue in an environmental theme. You’ll open up a new level of creativity in the event planning, and you may even save a few bucks in the process!

Live Green Cincinnati received a question from a local reader recently, and we need your help to find an answer.

Jessica from Pleasant Ridge asks:
“I was wondering if there is anywhere to recycle those #5 plastic containers (yogurt, margarine, etc.). I get so many of them and I hate throwing them away. “

Rumpke does not currently collect #5 plastics. Does anyone know of a local group/school which can use them - or a DIY projects that makes use of these containers?

Please leave a comment on this post if you have any ideas. I’m sure someone out there in green Cincinnati has an ingenious reuse idea for yogurt and margarine containers!

This weekend offers a lot of opportunity for those looking to pitch in or start going green.

The Great American Cleanup, a nationwide effort led locally by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is set for this Saturday, April 26. Check the Keep Cincinnati Beautiful website for the neighborhood cleanup nearest you, or come join Live Green Cincinnati with the Downtown Residents Council sprucing things up near the Purple People Bridge.

This weekend also brings thinkGREEN at Marvin’s Organic Gardens. An educational day for the entire family including music, food, activities, door prizes, lectures, art, vendors and resources - all with one common goal - to educate our community on the environment and learning to live “green”. This event is free and open to the public. Bring the whole family – there will be something for everyone!

Next on the agenda is Concert Earth at Miami Whitewater Forest. Come listen and let your roots rock, soul shake, funk fly, blues bounce, and rhythm roll with some of the area’s finest musicians and SOL Record recording artists. Various speakers will present environmental topics throughout the day. This event is free and open to the public.

Don’t forget the opening for Nonsense to Greensense at Park+Vine, Nicholas Gallery, and Artworks!

For more details on these and lots more fun green events, check out the Live Green Cincinnati events page.