recycle2shop.com

Eco blog - Upcycling and 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. 10% of every purchase in our estore and at all our markets goes to Our Place Society in Victoria - a place of hope, food and shelter for people without a home.

Rubbish is a good thing, yes, really -  rubbish can be turned into a thing of beauty and continued usefulness with a little creativity and hard work.

Well, this puts us in our ‘place’ with an interactive scale of the universe tool at scaleofuniverse.com. Mind bending stuff.

Listening to Harper’s ministers spinning the Enbridge pipeline investigation is fascinating if not a wee bit scary. Money is talking and the ‘people’ are now “radicals”. Enbridge is spending vast amounts of $$$ on PR - I noticed that a local charity ride is sponsored by Enbridge. The Money has taken over American policies in the last 30 years, is that were Harper is taking Canadians? The new crime bill could mean “radicals” going to jail - Quakers among them, mind you, Quakers are well used to being carted off to jail for our beliefs.

Desmogblog is the ‘go to’ place for information on the latest government/oil spin.

Athabasca Oil Scar

OilSands image from the Athabasca River courtesy of David Dodge/Pembina Institute and OilSandsWatch

Good news - for 2012, 10% of  sales will go to Our Place in Victoria.  This includes all sales at local markets as well as in our estore. ‘ Think global, act local’ has been my ethos since going online in 2003 and this further grounds my connection with Victoria.  The Our Place Society helps those of us who are vulnerable and without a home. Our Place was guided by Reverend Al  evolving into a multi-use building/home in downtown Victoria.  Reverend Al has returned to the streets as The Dandelion Society to do what he loves - helping those who are the most vulnerable.

Moss Street Market starts again in May.  Government Street Market may be moving to Bastion Square - I will keep you posted on any location changes.

hot ecobear

Heard on CBC - an interview with an Occupy supporter who is building occupy.com to help focus the movement…should be interesting to watch “the people are coming”. 60’s protests revisited and about time.
Working on a new eco ‘hot’ bear - made from upcycled sweaters and fleece (made from recycled plastic bottles). Tucked inside each bear’s tummy is a bag of rice and flax. Microwave for 3 minutes and take to bed.

Hi Victorians, the Ancient Forest images by TJ Watt are available for sale at Ancient Forest Alliance store, 827 Broughton Street in Downtown Victoria…framed pictures, cards and postcards etc. The AFA shares space with Habitat Aquisition Trust (Quaker Fern Street Meeting House recently became part of HAT spaces).

Amazing images from TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance showing old growth Bigleaf Maple trees (aka Fanghorn Forest) and their hanging gardens of ferns and mosses, found in the Lake Cowichan area on Vancouver Island.

James Dyson didn’t just invent his Dyson cleaner, he established a foundation to encourage student inventors and he awards a prize of $10k to the best of the best every year. This year’s inventor is Eward Linacre from Australia with his water irrigation system.

youtube video is courtesy of Gizmag which, of course, features the latest ‘gizmos’.

Inside Harry's Bag

Nan's version

Harry's Bag

Nan loves ‘bling’.

Harry looks set for a day in town.

Moss Street Christmas Market takes place December 10 & 11 in Sir James Douglas School-Moss & Fairfield.

I am thrilled that I have finally found a local supplier of Bokashi Bran for my Bokashi Anaerobic Composter at the Good Planet store on Fort street in Victoria.

Bokashi Indoor Composter

This great little system allows you to compost everything from your kitchen, including bread, bones, cooked veggies, fat - everything but the kitchen sink.  Another great little find is the Pharmasave on Fort and Richmond-they have the most interesting and unusual array of organic food.  Their buyer must have the best contacts in the business.

This week’s eco tip - use vinegar to clean off your shower doors and in your washer as a conditioner.

recycled plastic chair

GreenCone Composter

Recycling your plastic bags is a good thing - recyclers can turn them back into many different kinds of products. But if there is even 1 biodegradable bag in the mix the product is useless, after all you don’t want your new recycled plastic chair to fall apart because there is a piece of composting plastic lurking somewhere. The moral of this story, put your biodegradables in the garbage when you are done reusing them so that they can happily decompose on that landfill in the open air (well sort of).

Furthermore, did you know that supposedly biodegradable compost bags will not decompose in your compost bin - these products need direct sunlight and a few years to fall apart. Meanwhile your poor bin is clogged with plastic - the oxygen for composting is reduced, the pile cannot heat up and the moisture is trapped - making for a very smelly, unappealing mess. If you already have a ‘bin full’, the only cure is to turn the pile and pull out all those bags (don’t shoot the messenger).