The Other Ice Cream Man

I first began blogging as a teen. I was an obsessive story teller and poetry writer (and performer) and accumulated many many notebooks and loose papers over my high school career. 

At one point, not fully understanding the ways to the world wide web, I printed my favorite posts, comments and all, incase somehow my digital diary disappeared. Cute, I know.

Last Thanksgiving I packed a suitcase full of teenage dribblings about “love” and other drama and brought it all back to my apartment in Brooklyn where it all awaits a paper shredder to eventually be recycled. (At first I felt sentimental about them, but once in my apartment that is already lacking in storage space, I knew they would have to go).

Some reading this may be giggling, knowing just how anxious I am about waste today.I learned from my father that one person’strash is another person’s treasure, specifically my trash was his treasure (he never let me throw anything away). So I often give away my clothes or shred them up for rags, I make my own house-hold cleaners, I bring my old electronics to recycling centers, I donate food scraps for composting, we support wind power through Con Ed Solutions… the list goes on. I even bought Oyster Man a soda maker for Christmas ‘cause I couldn’t stand the sight of the plastic bottles piling up in the recycling bin; the man loves his soda and I loathe plastic. The really cool thing about it is that the cans the C02 comes in are re-usable, you just bring ‘em to a retailer that sells them and you pay a discounted price for the refill!

In return, Oyster Man hooked me up with a paper-saver for x-mas: my iPad! Instant sustainable gratification came with the ability to download text books and assigned readings as PDFs, I even bought a wireless keyboard for ultimate note-taking ability.

I inevitably have to print things, which is a bummer, but I don’t feel so bad about it because I make up for non-consumption in most other areas of my life. Even in printing though, I’ve found found a way: http://www.castleink.com/. Sure, there are plenty of options for recycled paper, but what about nasty plastic ink cartridges? Instead of giving me an ulcer by throwing another thing in your trash you can:

a) buy printer ink refills

OR b) recycle your cartridges in exchange for cash or a donation to the charity of your choice.

Whats not to love? The only other option is to steal used coffee grinds from the compost scraps I just know you have and do this. Yeah, I thought so.

I still have a “thing” for notebooks, but my curated collection has been neglected since my eco-geekyness has lead me to greener horizons.