Bartering is a great way to re-use and recycle. In this Guest Post Squidoo Lensmaster Karentbten tells us about how bartering is part of her local community life and she spotlights a page that has some great bartering ideas.
Back to Bartering
The laundry room at my apartment building holds more than washing machines. One table — and the area around it — is devoted to give away items, ranging from half empty bottles of shampoo to wood dinette sets. In fact, the first thing the maintenance person did when I moved in was show me where I could get some ’starter items’ of furniture; he had whisked some away into the work room adjacent to the laundry for just such a purpose.
The reason those items were there? People in the University District of Seattle, like in many other communities, lead transient lives. They can’t afford to take their housewares and their furniture with them.
I think there is more reuse in my building than there is many communities in my country. It can be harder for people who live spread out, who don’t have 100 people stacked above and below them, to give away items that they don’t need when they move, or to find them when they set up housekeeping again. Many of us wonder, though, how long we as a world community can afford to keep buying so much that’s new or discarding so much that’s still serviceable. Our wallets shrink, even as our landfills grow.
Thankfully there’s the internet, and a variety of creative platforms from eBay to Craiglist to the lesser known BookMooch book trading site. Squidoo lensmaster Tipi has an idea which she describes on Bartering Goods and Local Services. She has links to a number of bartering sites on the lens, as well some thought provoking questions: What about featuring items for barter on Squidoo lenses? What about starting a bartering group? Many of us have large networks. How about using our internet connections to trade objects and services, too?
Karentbten has published a page about reused and recycled Easter Baskets
My newest Squidoo lens is Green Cupcakes, but it is not just about how to make green cupcakes, it is also about eco friendly baking using equipment made from recycled or sustainable materials.
I came across some great bamboo kitchen tools as well as some very colorful recycled plastic mixing bowls, and in the process I learned that:
- Over 100 million tonnes of plastic is discarded each year
- Bamboo is one of the most sustainable crops, that not only regenerates itself quickly when harvested, but it also benefits the environment, absorbing more CO2 than an equivalent stand of trees
For more information about green and natural products, visit my collection of Going Green Ideas pages.
Just recently I have been so busy with various projects that I could really do with some help to keep Going Green Ideas fresh and updated regularly. Do you write about “green” topics?
Do you have a Green blog? Green lenses on Squidoo? Do you write Green articles on Hubpages, Associated Content, Qondio….anywhere?
I am looking for some writers who share a genuine interest for Going Green and Natural, either to submit occasional Guest posts or if you want to contribute on a regular basis, I can set you up as a Blog Author. Links to your content definitely allowed 
Just leave a note in the Guestbook, together with some links to your writing and I will be in touch.
A lot of businesses are finding that not only is Going Green good for business but it can save money too. Lakeerieartists makes this point in her Squidoo Lens: Green is Not Just Earth Friendly, It’s Good Business, where she features two large corporations who have gone green: Shaklee and The Blue Bag.There’s also links to some very good Green Reading.
Working from home, my “home office” has a recycling box right next to the waste bin, which is next to where I sit. We also have a shredder for confidential documents, that are then bagged up and taken to the local refuse site and put in the paper recycling container. (Our local authority does not collect shredded paper because of problems with littering.)
All used printer cartridges are put into a bag, with old mobile phones and every so often they are sent to a recycling company. Friends also donate their cartridges and phones. We are actually PAID for these cartridges and phones, which raises funds towards production costs for a musical theatre group that we run.
Any printed sheets of paper that are not used go into a box to be reused for those draft documents that need printing out for checking. Then they are added to the paper recycling.
If any PCs are replaced we donate the old ones (after completely wiping the hard drive) to members of our local Freecycle Group who renovate them and then give them away to people who cannot afford to buy a PC. It was through this group that I aquired a FREE replacement monitor for one that was faulty.
So how are you going green in your office?
Lavender Green Business Card by exquisitephoto
How do you remove grease from carpets naturally? Use salt and rubbing alcohol, which in the UK is called surgical spirit.
Use salt to clean grease from carpet
We all do it don’t we? We get a new carpet and we say “no food” other than at the table. Then the kids pester because you are late with the dinner and it clashes with their favourite TV programme and before you know it, there they are the little darlings, sitiing on the sofa with a tray on their laps…..
You can clean up greasy spots on your carpet simply by mixing 1 part salt to 4 parts rubbing alcohol.
Caution: Rubbing alcohol is flammable and ALWAYS test a tiny spot on the carpet for colour fastness before you go dabbing away with a solution you have not used before
Following a massive revamp (I hope you like the new theme), I am reviving Going Green Ideas, which has lain dormant since before Christmas.
Although the blog may have gone “quiet” I have been off learning a lot of new things. Not just about blogging but also about Going Green and Natural.
I have collected a lot of recipes for home made skincare and household cleaning products, which I will be sharing on the blog and I have also been sourcing suppliers to make it easy for you to try them out. However, I will also be recommending plants you can grow yourself, so that you can supply your own ingredients too.
The first step to going green and natural is often the hardest one to take. However, I hope this blog will inspire you to do some things differently and set you off on an enjoyable journey.
Over the last couple of weeks I have had fun and frustrations setting up my new Zazzle store: AJ and Family. It has taken quite a lot of time organising the store and setting up categories and I must admit I have been quite shy about promoting it, to the extent that I have not even made a Squidoo lens about it yet!
Some of the artwork I have seen on Zazzle is awesome (and I don’t use that word very often) and I don’t know how on earth we can compete. But I guess it is all about creating your own style and niche.
One of my categories is Going Green and within that category I have a section called Sustainable Products, where I will only showcase the products made on organic or sustainable materials. The range of sustainable products that Zazzle makes available is limited but I am hoping that this will increase.
I am continuing to develop my theme of Going Green Ideas in my new Zazzle store. It is taking awhile to bring all my “Going Green Ideas” together in a series of blogs, articles and lenses but I am finally making progress.
So far I have:
My next task is to design an image that hopefully people will use to link any lenses or blogs that I feature to the posts on here and then I guess I ought to make more Green lenses. Oh AND a Zazzle lens of course!!
Twelve Days of a Green and Ethical Christmas was first published in November 2008 as I wanted to promote having an eco-friendly Christmas. I was utterly gob-smacked (one of my quaint English phrases) when on 01 December it was awarded Lens of the Day. Wow o Wow!!
Recently thanks to feedback from some Squidoo Giants, I have completely restyled the lens. And just in the last 24 hours Squidoo has released a couple of new seasonal templates that suit it very well.
The lens is full of information as to why we should make more eco-friendly choices when doing our Christmas shopping and there’s links to my favourite Fair trade Christmas present suppliers both in the US (Gifts with Humanity) and the UK (Ethical Superstore), where you can buy your environmentally friendly Christmas gifts.
If we all just make a few changes and some different choices we can all make valuable steps towards a more sustainable enviroment. So what will you be doing to have a Green Christmas?
All this blogging about going green on Squidoo and finally I realised that I have enough “green” lenses for a Lensography and Going Green Ideas was the result.
Going Green Ideas will be a place where I can organise my eco-friendly lenses. I have not made many Lensographies but they will become increasingly important in helping me manage my lenses as the number increases – 63 to date.
I often wonder how Lensmasters with over 100 lenses keep track!
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AJ