This week, we’re focusing on the Three Rs: Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle. It can be tempting to feel good about purchases we make as long as the items or their packaging can be recycled. But, while 80% of what we get rid of could be recycled, our actual recycling rate is closer to 30%. Sometimes we forget to recycle or find it inconvenient. In addition, the recycling process requires energy, which may mean more greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

A far better plan is to only purchase things we actually need or Reduce – our first R. Most of us have more food in our kitchens than we can possibly eat before it spoils, clothes in our closets we’ve literally never worn, and lots of toys our kids have lost interest in.

Ask yourself… W.M.K.D.? (i.e., What Would Marie Kondo Do?). The first step to reducing is to make and stick to shopping lists – even for non-grocery items like clothes. Keep track of what needs to be replaced so you can be on the lookout for a high quality item at a good deal. Although you may spend more on the front end, better quality items will last longer meaning you won’t be adding so much junk to landfills and oceans. Higher quality items are often easier to repair (Look! Another R!) if they break or tear, meaning you get more life out of them usually without much more expense.

Re-use, the second R, means avoiding disposable, single-use items like we talked about last week, and not always replacing what we have for newer/bigger/better. Learning to re-use can be difficult if you’re used to the novelty of having new stuff. Many of us use shopping to cope with stress but this habit isn’t good for our earth or our wallets. If this is a challenge for you, consider reading up on minimalism.  Of course, you don’t have to subscribe 100% but you may be able to draw from this philosophy techniques for focusing on your needs instead of your wants. Probably that means don’t ever go to Target. Using what we already have until it’s no longer functional or repairable can be hard to get used to, especially for our kids, but you’ll likely find there are small ways you can adjust to this practice. Items in your home may eventually end up in a landfill but re-using significantly reduces how much we add. Re-using can also change how we acquire things in the first place. You’d be amazed at the cool stuff you can find at thrift stores and consignment sales and the hunt is half the fun. Your kid needs a costume for school? Borrow from a neighbor or buy secondhand. Get books, movies, and music from the library or go digital. Look for small ways to cut back on how often you acquire new things and save your splurges for the really special stuff.

Finally, we come to Recycle – probably the R with which we’re all most familiar. Most of us likely have curbside recycling available but there’s often a lot of confusion as to what we can recycle and how we should prepare items for recycling. Check out these general recycling tips and this page more specific to the Birmingham area. In general, it’s important to only put in your recycling bin items that you’re pretty sure can be recycled, otherwise you could risk spoiling the whole batch. Dump out and rinse out cans and bottles, but no need to dry them completely. Paper products that have been in contact with food unfortunately have to be tossed so they don’t contaminate other recyclables – a good reason to buy recycled paper products whenever possible or, better yet, to stick with reusable items. For those times when you forgot your canvas bags at stores, Publix and Target recycle plastic bags and a lot of the packaging for things like toilet paper can go in with those! Also, Target recycles glass and Publix recycles egg cartons and foam trays like you get from the meat department. If you want to take Recycling a step further, there are several programs for specific items and brands. A great source to check out is TerraCycle. You can request to join recycling programs for the brands you use most like Gillette, Burt’s Bees, and Garnier. Once you’re in the program, companies send you a prepaid shipping label and you mail off your empties. The Gimme 5 program we talked about last week for recycling #5 plastics has bins at participating Whole Foods stores, including the one in Hoover, or you can send in items by mail. As we just recently shared, Crayola works with schools to accept markers that would otherwise be bound for the trash through their ColorCycle Program.  You can send old crayons to Crazy Crayons.

If you need help getting motivated to put the 3 Rs into practice, spend some time googling words and phrases like, “Landfill,” “Garbage patch,” and “Ocean trash.” Keep these images in your mind before you shop so you can decide whether you really need the item you’re buying or have something already that will work just as well. For more ideas, check out this site. If you want to get your kids practicing the 3 Rs, visit NIEHS Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Next month, we’ll be taking a tour of the Southern Environmental Center on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College and learning all about our garbage problem. Stay tuned for more on that!

About Kristen:

Kristen is a local Mom to three, ages 12, 9 and almost 6. She’s the author of our Parenting with a PhD series who also happens to have a passion for educating others about the benefits of living a greener life. She hopes that leading by example will encourage others to try some alternate ways of shopping, and incorporating small changes that can make a big impact on our future.

It’s time to discuss another reason why homeschooling might be easier than you think! My goal is always to encourage those who are interested in homeschooling. And I hope that so far, I have been successful.

One reason I hear a lot of families being hesitant to try homeschooling is the cost. And they’re right, homeschooling can get expensive. Especially, if you consider it means living on mostly one income, because some one has to stay home and actually do the schooling.

I’ve found a few ways to help alleviate the some of the expense in my few years of homeschooling. And if you know of anymore or think of something that I missed don’t hesitate to share that with us!

First, there is the option to just do public school at home. Most school districts offer some form of this and will include the books and supplies need for your student for free. Check with your local school board for details for what’s offered in your area.

Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool. Free, is always a good deal! And I feel like it’s especially a good deal considering the quality of this curriculum. If the all online aspect is something you’re not crazy about, you can purchase workbook versions of the curriculum on Easy Peasy’s Amazon store. I am currently using the math workbook for my first grader and the Fourth Grade Reader for my fourth grader. I am pleased with the classics my daughter has read this year, and at a really awesome price.

Curriculum Consignment sales are another great way to purchase quality books and save some money. Just the same as kids clothing consignment, you can find some awesome deals. The Faith Community Christian School in Trussville usually hosts a curriculum consignment sale at the end of the school year, around June. There is also Heritage Academy that has a consignment curriculum store in Birmingham as well as on EBay.

The Birmingham Homeschool Fair also offers a used curriculum sale. This year the dates are April 25, 2019, for sale volunteers and April 27, 2019, for the public. I’m personally looking forward to checking this sale out for the first time this year.

ThriftBooks.com is one of my favorite apps/websites and they have curriculum if you know what you’re searching for. Facebook also has homeschool groups just for the purpose of buying, selling, and trading curriculum.

And there’s always just borrowing and trading among other homeschool families. Most of us are happy to help other homeschooling families. We love to share! I know that my Kindergartener is using some quality Math U see curriculum this year because a friend just passed it down once her children were finished with  it.

I hope these ideas are helpful and help you see that you don’t have to have a money tree in your back yard to afford homeschool.

If you want to learn more about getting started in the Home School process, make sure to check out our last couple of articles, Is Homeschooling for You and to get some tips on socializing your Home Schooler, you can see those tips here.

The Target Car Seat Trade In is back for 2019!

Guests who trade in their old car seats will receive a 20 percent off coupon toward a new car seat, car seat base, travel system, stroller or select baby home gear, such as playards, high chairs, swings, rockers and bouncers.

Car seats can only be traded in at a Target store, however, the coupons picked up from Guest Services can be applied to both in-store and online purchases. The coupon is eligible through Saturday, May 11, 2019.

Target will accept and recycle all types of car seats, including infant seats, convertible seats, car seat bases, harness or booster car seats and car seats that are expired or damaged. Materials from the old car seats will be recycled by Target’s partner, Waste Management.

Target introduced its first car seat trade-in program in April 2016. Since the program launched, Target has recycled half a million car seats, and counting. To date, through trade-in programs, Target has recycled more than 7.4 million pounds of materials, and counting!

Mark your calendar!! The trade in event will be from April 22nd – May 4th, 2019 at the following Birmingham Area Targets:

Homewood – 531 Brookwood Village, Homewood, AL 35209

Highway 280 – 4616 Highway 280, Birmingham, AL 35242

Fultondale – 3489 Lowery Pkwy, Fultondale, AL 35068

Hoover West – 5561 Grove Blvd, Birmingham, AL 35226

Trussville – 1654 Gadsden Hwy, Birmingham, AL 35235

Bessemer – 4889 Promenade Pkwy, Bessemer, AL 35022

Alabaster – 250 S Colonial Dr, Alabaster, AL

For more information or locations throughout Alabama, you can visit the Target Website

We here at Birmingham Mommy want to help make the world a cleaner, safer place for our children and yours. That’s why we’re taking the opportunity this Earth Month to share ideas with you for how you and your family can be more earth-friendly, and how you can help others in your communities to do the same. Reading the science on climate change can be scary and overwhelming, but there are many ways individuals can have an impact on improving our world and preserving it for future generations. Join us in this five-part series was we talk about fairly simple ways we can all be part of the solution.

An environmental cause that has gotten lots of recent attention is the banning of plastic straws. Let’s be real – banning plastic straws is not going to save the world. And paper straws are kind of meh. But, the idea behind moving away from plastic straws is a good one. It takes energy to produce those straws, which means more heat-trapping gas released into the atmosphere. Also, once created, a plastic straw will take 500 years to fully decompose. In other words, virtually every plastic straw ever created still exists on this earth in some form or another. Unfortunately, only about 2% of plastic gets recycled and 14 billion (billion with a B) pounds of plastic ends up in the ocean every year leading to sad stories like this one. Straws are convenient and make life easier BUT they aren’t required for getting liquids into our bodies. So substituting metal or bamboo straws for disposable plastic straws, or cutting out straws all together, is a good starting point to talk about our reliance on throwaway materials – especially single-use plastics. For Lent this year, I’ve given up single-use plastics for meals and it’s been an interesting but very doable experience so far.

Giving up single-use plastics means relying less on the places you go to provide you with what you need and, instead, having a system for bringing those things yourself. I keep the following items in a cloth bag every day: A re-usable cup with lid and straw, a reusable recycled plastic to-go container, a porcelain to-go coffee cup, and a neoprene case that holds silverware. It sounds like a lot, I know, but the system really only takes a few minutes a day to maintain. When I go to a restaurant, I decline plastic silverware and use my utensil kit; pretty easy and no one even looks at me sideways. You can buy wipes to clean the silverware in between meals and, of course, I put them in the dishwasher every night. As for plastic cups, I order my drink but let the restaurant know I have my own cup and don’t need one. No place has refused to let me use my own cup and three times I’ve been given my drink for free since I wasn’t using their cup. Win! If I have leftovers, I put them in my reusable to-go container, which you can find here.

Once you’ve tackled single-use plastics, by far the biggest contributor to plastic pollution, look around the house for other ways to reduce your plastic use. The bathroom is a great place to start. Using bar soap for washing your face, hands, and body is an easy switch – especially when the soap comes wrapped only in paper or “naked.” Using shampoo and conditioner bars like these from Lush and Nourish are a great way to have clean, great smelling hair without adding to our plastic problem. You can even find solids (i.e., no plastic bottle) for shaving and moisturizing. When you can’t cut out plastic entirely, look for brands that use recycled plastic like Love Beauty and Planet. If you have to buy products in regular old plastic bottles, check the Recycling number on the bottom that looks like this  —–>

before you buy. #1 and #2 plastics can be recycled curbside and many kinds of #5 plastics can be recycled through the Gimme 5 Program, available by mail or at many Whole Foods locations.

We’d love to hear about ways you and your family are reducing your reliance on plastics! From taking cute fabric bags when you shop to packing kids’ lunches in reusable containers, every little bit helps. Want more ideas? Next time you grocery shop, notice how much of the produce is encased in unnecessary plastic. Oranges already have peels – do they really need to be in a plastic bag, too?

Check out this creative solution and then message your favorite grocery stores to ask them how they plan to reduce plastic packaging.

For even more ideas, and some tips on saving some green while going green check out this article!

About Kristen:

Kristen is a local Mom to three, ages 12, 9 and almost 6. She’s the author of our Parenting with a PhD series who also happens to have a passion for educating others about the benefits of living a greener life. She hopes that leading by example will encourage others to try some alternate ways of shopping, and incorporating small changes that can make a big impact on our future.