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.

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.

David Suzuki is resigning from the board of the Suzuki Foundation due entirely to Harper and his cronies attacking charities with their latest change of law. But they cannot silence one of our most important environmental campaigners and he will continue to speak his mind without hurting the Foundation.

After watching Pete Seeger on PBS last night, I am reminded that we can change the government’s course by joining hands/tweets. Harper’s lot are determined to squash oil sands and pipeline protests to keep corporations and big money happy. I am afraid the government has outsmarted the people who care about the environment and our children’s future. Too bad we don’t have their kind of money to hire ‘thinktanks’ and PR gurus to tell us how to get the message to Canadians. We have spent too many years thinking that the TRUTH will make a difference. How about TRUTH with a bit of ’spin’. Or in Pete Seeger’s words - how about TRUTH in song?

Victoria CRD will ban kitchen scraps from Hartland Landfill by Jan1, 2015 so at last we will all be able to compost non organic kitchen waste, waste that can be turned into life giving compost. The scraps, including meat, bones, grains, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, fruits and soiled paper products will be collected at curbside.  This will prolong the life of the landfill, the cost of collection being offset by the cost of having to prepare a new landfill in the near future. CRD estimates that 30% of landfill at the moment is kitchen scrap waste. In the meantime I will continue to use my Bokashi.

Good news for recycling in Victoria, CRD is now collecting milk cartons and tetra paks at curbside. Now we can quit piling them up in the corner to be taken to reFuse . ReFuse will accept all our plastics, foam and chip bags(plastic lined with foil) for a small fee. reFuse is a social enterprise that welcomes our support.

Cudos to The Ancient Forest Alliance for naming their latest old growth discovery after our BC Premier, in the hopes that she can’t let her namesake be destroyed to make ’stuff’. Photos by TJ Watt courtesy of The Ancient Forest Alliance taken near Port Renfrew on unprotected land in the Gordon River Valley. Gnarly Clark is a Red Cedar and the Douglas Fir is over 31 feet in diameter - one of the largest on Vancouver Island.

Fluorescent light bulbs can be recycled at various stores in Victoria - London Drugs on Yates and Home Hardware on Oak Bay avenue and others
BCHydro has promised that all other light bulbs will soon be added to the recyclables list in 2012 - that’s this year already.
ECO TIP - Furniture Polish:

• 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup lemon juice
• store in a squirt or glass bottle and use liberally on a cloth
• smells lovely without poisoning you

Markets are starting up in a month or two. Recycle2shop will be at Moss Street and Bastion Square in the summer.

Congratulations once more to the Ancient Forest Alliance of Victoria, BC. There is a 6 month moratorium on logging the ancient woods of Cortes Island. Got to Wildstands to help Cortes Island Community Alliance save their old growth for the rest of BC.

To see more fabulous images

Ancient Forest Alliance saved Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island, now we need to protect Fangorn.

Yes, ‘dirt’ is good for us, so ‘trash’ those antibacterial products (use them up first). Leave some bacteria in our world so that we can build up our own natural defense systems and besides, who wants to support a multinational brainwashing ad campaign?? Try some alternative cleaning products that you can make yourself.
Dishwashing soap:
• ½ cup Castile liquid soap (available at Pharmasave, in Victoria at the corner of Richmond and Fort)
• 1-2 cups water
• 20 drops essential oil (orange, lemon, bergamot or lavender)

All-Purpose Cleaner
• 1t Borax
• 2T liquid Castile soap
• 2T white vinegar
• 1 pint hot tap water
• 5 drops essential oil (tea tree, lavender, bergamot, lemon, grapefruit etc)
Mix together and put in a spray bottle.

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