Stopping Unwanted Mail

I mentioned in my last post that my husband and I have recently purchased a house. We had been in our apartment for over 3 years before we moved into our new home, and we were still getting mail for the previous tenants. Now that we actually own a home, I am more determined than ever to stop all unwanted mail. Here's what I've been up to and/or plan to do soon:

• Catalog Choice - I signed up for this at the apartment and used it to stop a few catalogs. It seems to work, but I forgot about it after stopping some of the main nuisances. After the move, I started using it again, especially since they've expanded beyond catalogs to include junk from companies like Comcast, Geico, etc. Every time I get an unwanted catalog or other mail I set it aside until I have a moment to sit down and add it to Catalog Choice. Definitely a service worth exploring. Also, for an annual donation of $20, Catalog Choice offers the option to get yourself unlisted from those lists marketers use to find you and send you junk. I haven't done this yet, but will consider it if the offers become excessive.
  
• YellowPagesGoesGreen.org - This was mentioned in my one-a-day calendar (don't worry, I use the discarded pages as scrap paper before recycling them). I used it to find two local yellow page opt out options. I completed one but chose to avoid the other because it wasn't clear if I was also going to be signing up for some service at the same time. If we get any phone books, I will call and cancel them.
• OptOutPrescreen.com - I was hesitant to do this because it reminds me of the "Do Not Call" registry. I put myself on that a few apartments ago and immediately began getting tons of charity and political phone calls. I think I'm going to go ahead and give this a shot and see how it goes. OptOutPrescreen takes your name and contact info off the lists provided by Consumer Credit Report Agencies to companies offering credit and insurance offers. I will probably go through the effort of doing the permanent opt-out, which requires you to mail-in a form along with an electronic submission.
  
• DMAchoice.org - I learned about this one more recently and made a note to come back to it. I haven't completed it yet, since Catalog Choice seems to work for now, but I'll consider it for the future.
• USPS - The individual who lived in the house we recently purchased is now deceased. I've read on various random websites that I can go to the post office and set up something so that that his mail will no longer be delivered to us. I need to look into this in greater depth though. I don't want the post office to just toss the mail, I want the companies to stop sending it altogether. Until I know more, I will just be using Catalog Choice to stop this mail.
• Discover Card - Discover Card is on my evil list. It's my favorite credit card, but they have been sending more and more unnecessary offers, including reminders about some things I have already signed up for! I have searched their website for the option to stop them from sending this stuff, but no luck. I will have to give them a call.
  

I suspect that because we have different last names, my husband may have to sign up for some of these things as well. Catalog Choice allows you to add the name of any addressee, which is nice, but the others probably do not.

Anyone know of any other useful options for stopping mail? Or any more information about stopping mail through USPS for previous tenants?

I had no idea I could eat that!

My boyfriend and I are participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year. It's both wonderful and challenging. It's great because it's all so fresh and local. And we get more than just fruits and veggies - free range eggs, cheeses, potted herbs, cider, mushrooms, and more! But it's also a bit tricky for two people to eat all the food we get each week. I've resorted to giving away a few things, which my coworkers certainly don't mind. It can also be difficult to figure out things to make with everything we get.

Another interesting aspect of the CSA has been eating foods that I've never eaten before - kale, broccoli rabe, scapes, ramps, and more. This week we'll be receiving purslane, which I've weeded out of many gardens without ever realizing it is an edible and tasty treat (so they say - I've yet to try it). I don't know why, but the fact that such a common weed is edible is just crazy to me. I know we can eat dandelions, but they're so bitter that I wouldn't want to. This one is supposed to be quite good. We shall see.

Interesting Articles

I've read two very interesting articles recently, both of which were mentioned on the blog The Good Human (a green blog that's definitely worth subscribing to).

First is the article on California's new vehicle rating system which is to be displayed near the number plate of all new vehicles. Vehicles will be given both a "global warming score" and a "smog score," each ranging from 1 to 10 with 10 being the most environmentally friendly.

Another interesting article is from the NYT entitled Can Weeds Help Solve the Climate Crisis? While the article spends far less time discussing how weeds can help solve the crisis than it does discussing the adaptability of weeds, it is still highly interesting. According to experiments, weeds positively thrive (grow much larger, produce more pollen, etc) at higher temperatures and higher CO2 levels. The article suggests that the "weedy ancestors of our food crops... will cope far better with coming climatic changes than their domesticated descendants." Therefore, focusing on these ancestors in the future may become essential.

Lastly, I will be leaving for a trip to China tomorrow and will not return until July 24th, so I won't be writing any new posts for a while. :)

Plants that Absorb Formaldehyde

I love houseplants, and I have a lot of them. I am forever reading about all the benefits of various types of plants, particularly in relation to removing toxins from the air. Toxins like formaldehyde. But I never really felt I had a good grasp on whether or not these toxins really were things commonly found in the home until I read this article from The Daily Green.

Turns out formaldehyde commonly leaches out over time from things like plywood, particleboard, and fiberboard, often coming from the glue that holds the pieces together.

What plants are good for removing formaldehyde from the air (see the chart here and read this for more information)?

1. Spider plants
2. Corn plants
3. Heart leaf philodendron
4. Golden Pathos
5. Madag Dragon Tree
6. Waneckii
7. Chrysanthemum
8. Peace Lily

Incidentally, some of these plants are also extremely hardy and hard to kill, mainly spider plant, corn plant, heart leaf philodendron, and golden pathos. Interestingly, I have 7 out of the 8 plants listed (no Chrysanthemum), 2 of which came in a basket from a funeral home. Perhaps I need to spread them around my apartment more to up my formaldehyde protection in all areas.

What I do for the environment

Since I recently posted about what I see that harms the environment, I thought I'd list off some of the things I do to help the environment. Most of these are very easy to do.

1. Recycle - For me, this is ingrained. Growing up, my family always recycled. We had so many garbage cans that guests were often very confused - recycling, regular, burnables (okay, this may not be as environmentally friendly), and a bucket for veggie and fruit scraps. If curbside pickup is available, I can't imagine why someone wouldn't recycle. It's so easy!
2. Reusable bags - I've already posted about this. I have tons of bags and use them as often as I can remember to do so.
3. Walk (or bike) to work (and to the store) - Admittedly, I only do this when the weather is nice, but I have been walking to work as much as possible. Of course, walking to work is only an option for those who live relatively close - in my case, a little over a mile.
4. Carpool - In the winter or in bad weather, I carpool with my boyfriend. I'm not sure it's a huge savings, because there is a shorter route he could take to work. I think it's better than taking two cars though.
5. Reuse - My sugar jar is a former spaghetti sauce jar. We mix our own balsamic vinaigrette and our current jar used to be a jelly jar. Most of my furniture is second- (or third- or forth-) hand. I am a scrap paper fiend, even collecting it from the unclaimed printouts at work. Reusing is easy - and cheap!
6. Compost - I have just begun composting and will write more about this in a future post.
7. Grow your own vegetables - Another topic on which I have already posted.
8. CFLs - When bulbs burns out, we switch them to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
9. Thermostat - To reduce our energy use, we set the thermostat to 67 in the winter (which is difficult for a freeze baby like me) and 80 in the summer. I'd love a programmable thermostat but we are in an apartment.
10. Reusable Water Bottles - I have very rarely bought bottled water. It just seems like such a waste and completely unnecessary. Tap water is monitored. I carry around a reusable water bottle, which is especially handy at work.

If you have any suggestions of things you do, let me know! I am always looking for more things that I should be doing, particularly if they are cheap and easy. :)

Grow Your Own Food

This spring marks my first attempt at growing vegetables. I grew up in a family of gardeners, and my grandparents always had a very large garden next to their house. Still do, in fact. I've done my fair share of weeding but never have I been fully responsible for planting, weeding, watering, staking, and harvesting. So far it's going reasonably well.

Container Gardening
Because I was unsure of the amount of sun I would have available in various yard locations, and because I do not know much about the soil at the apartment, I opted for container gardening. A picture of the most elaborate container structure is here. In that one, I have peas, lettuce, and green beans. The lettuce is probably at or very near the edible point, but I have yet to pick any. The peas are just now blooming, and the green beans, planted much more recently, have quite a ways to go. I also have containers for 2 tomato plants, which are happily producing tomatoes, although none have ripened yet. And cucumber, zucchini, and a second round of lettuce. Then I have small pots of parsley (the only thing I have eaten thus far), basil, oregano, cilantro, coriander, and nasturtium.

Saving Money?
I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I'm saving money. Between the containers, the seeds, and all the organic potting soil, I probably won't even break even. However, it feels good to play in the dirt, and to know exactly how my vegetables have been grown. Next year I will probably do better. First of all, I will be using the containers a second time. Secondly, I am currently composting kitchen scraps (more about this in a future post), which I will be able to use next year to cut down on the amount of soil I buy. Plus it's a hobby I really enjoy, so when you factor in the money I could be spending on some other hobby (okay, I'm reaching, I know), I'm really doing quite well.

For those of you who think it is beyond your abilities/patience
Deciding to grow your own vegetables can very quickly become overwhelming - what should you grow; where should you grow it; what do different plants require in terms of soil, maintenance, staking, sun, water, etc... the questions can go on forever. The best piece of advice I can give you is one I found in a book recommended by a coworker called You Grow Girl - best title ever, of course. Start small, do as little as you want, and don't get upset if things don't go as expected. An example from my experience:

On April 11, I bought a tomato plant called a Black Ethiopian at a student plant sale here on campus. Tomato plants are wimpy and cannot be placed outdoors until the weather is quite warm - late May in my area. This tomato plant grew at an alarming rate. Between April 11 and late May, it grew about 4 feet (apparently this variety gets as tall as 6 feet - who knew?) in the south-facing window in my bedroom. The plant is now outside and has approximately 3 feet in the middle where it looks utterly pathetic - all dead leaves. But - it's started to produce tomatoes. It may not produce very many, but that's okay. I tried, and I won't be buying a Black Ethiopian again. Patio tomatoes are much easier. :)

You Grow Girl also mentions that just about any vegetable can be grown in a container. Plus, many herbs can be brought indoors for use all winter long. So go ahead, give it a try.

Environmentally Unfriendly

I walk through a rather affluent area on my way to work. I love to look at the beautiful yards (far preferring ones where I know the tenants/homeowners manage the yards themselves), but I am forever noticing things that make me sad for the environment. Now, I recognize that there is always more I myself can do, but some of the things I see that disappoint me are:

1. This morning I saw a truck dropping bottled water off at a private residence. There are two things that bother me about this. First of all, there's the truck that's delivering this to someone's home - using gas, polluting, etc., all so someone can have bottled water delivered to his/her front door. Secondly, it's bottled water! All that wasted plastic! I hope it at least gets recycled. Tap water and a reusable bottle is so much better.

2. Endless garbage on trash day. What single residence (unless they have 20 kids) needs to produce 8+ huge garbage bags of trash? Weekly! And I can see through those bags - aluminum cans, plastic bottles, corrugated cardboard. It's so easy to recycle here - why don't they do it? Almost everything (and certainly the three I just listed) are all curbside pickup!

3. Yards with signs that say they've recently been treated with chemicals. Give me clover and crab grass any day, or at least go for organic treatments.

4. All the lawn care trucks. Yards aren't that big around here. I should think many of these people can do it themselves. Perhaps even with human-powered mowers (I really need to find out the technical term for those things), although admittedly those don't do the best job when you have lots of crab grass and clover....

There are probably more that I cannot think of right now. And perhaps I need to stop complaining and come up with some solutions - at the minimum, teach my upstairs neighbors (from another country where they perhaps do not recycle?) about recycling.

Reusable Bags

You've probably noticed those reusable cloth bags starting to crop up at grocery stores in your area. I know the Giant Eagles around here have them. While I'm not sure I would recommend buying them, I do recommend collecting some reusable cloth bags and bringing them to the stores with you. So far, I've managed to collect quite a few cloth bags from various library events and conferences I have attended. They work wonderfully as grocery bags. Some stores even give you a discount or a chance to enter a contest (e.g. Trader Joe's) if you bring your own bags.

Also, if you don't have cloth bags (or if you forget your cloth bags occasionally, as I do), remember to recycle plastic bags. Giant Eagle has bins for recycling plastic bags, and I bet other grocery stores do as well. You can also reuse plastic bags yourself. They are great for vacations - dirty clothes, wet swimsuits; for cleaning out litter boxes; for carting around dirty shoes; and much more.

Some countries are starting to take the effect of plastic bags on the environment very seriously. Back in January, China announced it would be banning stores from giving out free plastic bags as well as banning the production of ultra thin plastic bags (see the BBC article for more info) starting June of 2008. The ban has since gone into effect with varied response. While I can't speak to the ramifications for businesses or for customers who choose to purchase plastic bags, it seems like a step in the right direction. There are several other countries and cities who have banned plastic bags in some form or other. For a list see this Planet Ark article.