Posted by fasteddy77 on Jan 28, 2010 in
Uncategorized Okay, So last year some time I made a post about the horror’s of the Capri Sun Juice bag and I was trying to figure out what I could do with the bags to recycle them… (http://www.edcharles.com/WordPress/?p=635)
Well, Over the camping season, I collected as many of them as I could in onion bags and I came out of the wild wonderful camping season of 2009 with over 400 juice bags! Hmmm, 400 bags didn’t seem like too many considering my girls can drink these down faster than Dad can drink a draft under a dare at the bar.
While we are experiencing our winter “down time” before the camping ‘kraze’ hits us, I decided to get all of these juice bags out and start to clean them up and make a reflective blanket out of them to put under each side of our camper beds to keep the heat in and the cold out. Here are a couple of pictures of the progress…
Capri Sun juice bags soaking in the sink...
The Capri Sun Juice bags being sewn together...
I’ll keep everyone updated on the final project soon!
Tags: capri sun, capri sun juice bags, recycle, terracycle, upcycling
Posted by fasteddy77 on Mar 29, 2009 in
Uncategorized As I sit in Pennsylvania, listening to the joy of pure silence while everyone else in the house is in a deep temporary coma from the days events, I lied awake tossing and turning thinking about my life events over the past couple of months and how things have changed and are continuing to change. I never really set out two months ago to make a total life makeover, and maybe that’s why up to this point its working so well, but in fact, I just wanted to do some spring cleaning of my own habits. With the results being even more than I could have imagined, I continue to push the envelope with new ‘projects’ and additional cleansing items of the soul and mind which seem to keep me still focused and dedicated on the current tasks at hand while picking up some new-found clarity in the mind and increased energy for more of what I want to do. As two of you have read in my earlier blog entries… (Thanks Sara!) I have my crazier projects at hand now of building my ‘worm box’ and collecting enough mylar Capri-Sun bags to cover an entire floor of a hotel room. But my latest fun has been encompassed in reading and anticipating the practice of the items I have discovered in ‘The Foxfire Book’ series.
While I know my Dad had two of the eleven books at the house and I vaguely remember him reading parts of them for projects we may have been working on at the camp or around the old house (something about creating a water source and the chimney section come to mind), I was really excited to read about the old traditions and pure common ways that items were handled many years ago. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’ll be practicing any proper steps on how to slaughter a Hog or the section entitled ‘Moonshining as a fine art’ (Ummm, well,…. No comment) But the section in the first book I picked up regarding Planting by the Signs might just be some practical backwoods data I will store up in my noggin for the next couple of months.
So, lot’s of things going on in the crazy mind of Ed, but.. They all are in place (at least in my mind… lol) Sure, have some people called me a new-born tree hugger.. Sure.. Hmm.. Maybe I am? Maybe my soul really woke up at the end of January 09 and realized let’s change me and by changing me, we’ll also change everyone else in the world. This could be.. I’m really not sure.. Or maybe, this will be a brief moment in my life like those diets that never really stick around or those nicotine habits that keep rearing their head.. For some reason, this time seems a lot different. Like the ‘Planting by the Signs’ section of the Foxfire book states, maybe it all depends on moon phases and zodiac signs to enable the things that you plant and nuture to flourish. Maybe this time, I planted my life changing seeds right at the exact time.
Tags: capri sun, foxfire, garden, vermicomposting, wood, worms
Posted by fasteddy77 on Mar 23, 2009 in
Uncategorized Okay,
So I’m getting on this kick to try and have less than one 13 gallon trash bag a week produced by our fam of four. Since we finally have “single stream” recycling and I can pretty much recycle everything, and we’re saving all of the scraps from veggies, etc for the most anticipated “worm box”, we only have a little bit of ‘schtuff’ left.
One of the things that really bothered me this last camping trip is the damn Mylar / “space age” / crazy aluminum foil bags called Capri Sun Juice Bags. I’m going to directly pick on Capri Sun but there are a lot of other vendors out there that are using them and WHO KNOW WHO YOU ARE! (Oh yeah! I’m the Kool-Aid man! Oh Yeah!)
I knew that they were not “directly” recyclable (I must say ‘directly’ because I’m sure I’ll get an email from someone in their PR department reminding me that a company called terracycle has initiated a campaign at schools and businesses across the nation to have people ’recycle’ them and get .02 per bag for their school/cause.) The program is located here –> http://www.terracycle.net/dpb/dpb.htm Now, don’t get me wrong, this is awesome, because at least these bags are not heading directly to the landfill. (They have at least one more stop..) Oh wait, I’m sorry, the PR people have stepped in again and called this ‘upcycling’.
Wiki says that ‘upcycling‘ — “is a component of sustainability in which waste materials are used to provide new products. It is generally a reinvestment in the environment. “Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value.” This process allows for the reduction of waste and virgin material use.”
So, in other words, the juice bags will have at least a couple of additional years before they are thrown into the landfill when the purses and other items they are creating out of these resources are not ‘couture’ anymore and tossed.
I know, I know, Mr. Negative, but seriously, how about just scrap the whole idea of wrapping a liquid in a product that never decomposes and try something else?
Anyhow, let me get off of my soap box and actually talk about what my project is for ‘upcycling’ juice bags.
I have noticed on a couple of blogs that people that camp in the extreme temperatures use a reflective material that you can get a home improvement stores to block heat loss / heat absorption. With this said, I’m going to start collecting these juice bags and make my own ‘reflective blanket’ to put under each of our pull-outs on our trailer to keep the heat in when needed… This will definitely be a work in progress for a while, cause it’ll take a lot of juice bags to cover just one king size pullout.
So, if you want to contribute, let me know!!
Tags: capri sun, recycling, terracycle, upcycling, vermicomposting, worms
