recycle2shop.com

Eco blog - Recycling news and views from Victoria, BC, Canada. Recycle2shop is all about saving our earth by decreasing landfill the eco friendly way - ‘Trash 2 Treasure’.  We will bring you recycling facts and recycled products for great gifts.    Everything we sell and promote is made from recycled materials. 

new life for old boots

Recycle2shop is an information site and market place for all eco warriors, students of the earth, designers, craftspeople, artisans and small businesses who are making a difference - aka eco commerce with a conscience.

Rubbish is a good thing, yes, really - smelly dirty rubbish can be miraculously turned into a thing of beauty.

Another great weekend at Moss Street and Government Street markets.  Here’s Leona, smiling in spite of the weather.

Government Street in the rain

Amazing how many people still don’t know that fleece can be made from plastic bottles and that virgin fleece is made from oil by-products and that includes anti-freeze.

We have been working on building up our library of recycling FAQ.  So far, the plastic info is coming along nicely, still to come: (more) plastic; paper; wood; metal; rubber tire; textiles.

Victoria’s Quakers’ Eco Group are making water the focus for 2011 with particular interest in ongoing creek revivals, such as Bowker Creek.  Uvic is hosting ‘creek walk talks’ about our local bogs, viaduct flats and Witty’s Lagoon in October at the University.  The talks are free and the walks start in February 2011.  Phone 250 472 4747 to register.

Recycle2shop is not at any market this weekend as Leona is off to Saskatchewan for a family wedding. And howcum it’s raining there?? - should be good for at least one thunderstorm, which in Saskatchewan are awe inspiring.  So far, in humyns earth adventure, nature is in charge, not us.

I love taking Recycle2shop to our local craft markets…anything can happen.

Moss Street Market on Saturday was a bit wet, in fact the rain was unrelenting and we needed wellies.  The hardy Fairfield folk still came to buy their weekly locally grown veggies and  to meet the newbie recycling stall. 

Sunday at the Government Street Market was the opposite weather - typical of our coastal climate - warm sunshine all day.  Lots of out of town visitors talking recycling and buying our great goods.  One couple from Washington reminding me of the water purification project in a small village in Tanzania using recycled plastic water bottles, as I showed them our fleece products made from plastic bottles.

I am writing this overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of Vancouver Island…I will share the view with you as soon as I can download the images (have to wait for someone else’s camera as mine is having a holiday - or nervous breakdown, not sure which!)  Tofino is lovely and sunny - very boring compared to this view which is totally atmospheric with a pea-souper fog.

Recycle2shop debuts at Moss Street Market on Saturday - 7th August.

Can hardly wait to talk ‘recycling’ to a new neighborhood.  You will be able to find us next to Edie, the ‘Apron Lady’ at James Douglas Elementary school at the corner of Moss st and Fairfield.

See you early Saturday morning.

Good news for the world’s oceans - Electrolux has just announced that they will be ‘mining’ plastic bags from various oceans to make vacuum cleaners.  Trust the Swedes to do the right thing and make sustainable vacuum cleaners. 

Here’s what we do with coloured plastic bags ………eco-chic earrings.

Recycle2shop at the Market nearly got blown away again last  Sunday - gusts of wind wreck havoc with our displays, but we carried on regardless.  We are at the Government Street Market in Victoria every Sunday, no matter what the weather is doing and as we are so close to the harbour, the winds are unpredictable.  Living in ‘paradise’ has to have it’s downside.

Guy Dauncey and  BCSustainable Energy Association  a.k.a  BCSEA (he also writes EcoNews in Victoria, BC) is successfully developing the province-wide SolarBC program, to accelerate solar hot water use; the Green Landlords Project to tackle energy inefficient buildings that house low income people and advocating for better government climate action policies.  Visit BCSEA’s website for some eco success stories.

Canada still has not comprehensively addressed car recycling; only 45% , according to Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC), are “de-polluted” (polluting fuels and fluids removed and recycled) by registered members; 75% of a car, which is mostly metal, is recycled but not all  - plastics, glass, foam etc. goes to landfill.  There is a product possible for every part of a car as long as we are willing to invest long term and close the recycling loop.

Some towns, cities and regions are successfully recycling all car recyclates…look to Edmonton as the world leader in recycled materials reclamation.  Edmonton is aiming for 90% recovery of waste by 2013.  As a recycling obssessive, Edmonton is nirvana.  Those of us who live in places that keep filling up landfill, we just have to keep advocating government to ‘clean up’ - or we can support people like Guy Dauncey and BCSEA who advocate for us.

After two wild and windy market weeks, we finally had a calm and dry day at Government Street Market at the Victoria Chinatown Gates.  The sun even came out behind some pretty heavy duty clouds later in the afternoon.  We had visitors from as far away as Germany, Wisconsin, Florida (90 degrees there so they were glad to be cooler), and Castlegar (wet we hear)…and all supportive of our recycling ethos.

Oceans Day Society hosted a blue jean event here in Victoria, to raise environmental awareness - blue jean art using 1,500 pairs of recycled blue jeans.  My question to the organizers is what happens to those jeans after the event?  Recycle2shop can upcycle every last pair into loved objects that extends blue jean life indefinitely (well, until the denim completely wears out at which point the shredded material can be composted with the zippers and metal buttons going straight to metal recycling).

Blue jeans (any colour) are my favorite things…the building material in Recycle2shop’s GreenJean collection of upcycled products.

So there is a Care to Air Challenge contest to highlight the eco friendly way to dry clothes and win yourself $10,000 -  sponsored by Levi Strauss & Co.

Dryers use up too much energy whereas a clothesline is a green marvel…did you know that some municipalities ‘outlaw’ clotheslines - yes, even here in Victoria, BC - one of the wealthiest neighborhoods considers them unlawful - yowzers!  That could have been acceptable thinking back in the ‘dark’ ages of abundant electricity, but is an anachronism now.  So eco congrats to Levi’s for encouraging airdrying - the epitome of cool.

Our day at the market was a complete washout - literally - at least the rain was coming straight down not sideways.  We still had some intrepid green shoppers and stall holder humour was out in force.  With Trader solidarity and a supply of fudge from Thea (our incredibly supportive market organizer) and coffee on tap from Simon we managed to have a fun damp day.

Recycle2shop will not be at the Government Street Market this Sunday -30 June.  I am off to Kamloops for an Al-Anon conference (Al-Anon is an organization dedicated to helping friends and relatives of people with a drinking problem). Looking forward to a weekend of fun and friendship as well as fact finding and decisions.  

We will back to the market next Sunday, June 6. 

In the meantime, Sun Dog Graphics is working on our website upgrade and shop.

News update - we have started work on our webstore.  At the moment we link to our ebay store - UniquelyEco in order to sell at distance. In the meantime,  email  leona@recycle2shop.com and we will send you images and prices for anything you see on site or at the market.

To recycle Brita cartridges in Canada  mail to:

Brita Canada Corporation
PO Box 140 STN LCD Malton
Mississauga, ON
L4T 9Z9

The cartridges have to be drained and left to dry for 3 days before packaging , all packing materials will be recycled as well.