Happy New Year!

Stadium Place and Pillar Properties, we join you in caring about the impact we have on the environment. Our New Year’s resolution is to become even more environmentally friendly, and we have some information to share that will help you do the same.

Our timing is good because the City of Seattle is enforcing a new garbage law starting January 1, requiring all Seattle residents to compost and recycle. You can read more about that here.

Many of us associate being ‘green’ with recycling. But there are actually three steps: reduce, reuse and then recycle.

1. Reduce:

Reducing the impact you have on the environment can be very simple, by just changing some small things in your daily life. Here are some easy ideas you can adopt:

• Look for products with compostable packaging (such as Cedar Grove) or suggest that your local stores use compostable products.
• Reduce the number of disposable items in your household (see #2 for ideas.)
• Donate your unwanted items to your local Goodwill, rather than throwing them away.
• Compost as much as you can. Here are some helpful tips:
  • Obtain a compost bucket and bags to compost food scraps at home.
  • Ask one of our team members for a compost bucket and where to dispose of your compost when your bucket is full.
  • The image below shows you what can be composted, for a list of compostable items, click here.
    

    Source: U.S. Department of Energy

2. Reuse:

Reusing may require you to think outside of the box. Sometimes you may have to go the extra mile, but it will pay off by saving you money and energy. Here are some ideas on how to reuse your items:

• Instead of throwing it away, reuse it. Here are five things we should never throw away and how to reuse them.
• Save over 544,000 trees by replacing your virgin fiber paper towels with 100% recycled ones.
• Even better, here are three ways to replace disposable products in your kitchen. Tip: if you can’t live without disposable paper towels or napkins, be sure to compost them.
• Tired of paying for your grocery bags at the store? Do you have unwanted old t-shirts laying around? Here is a tutorial on how to make your own reusable, no-sew t-shirt tote bags. Tip: put your reusable bags in the car so you never forget them.
• Purchase a reusable water bottle, instead of bottled water.
  

  Source: DailyTech.com

3. Recycle:

Recycling is the most common practice of all three steps for many, but the reality is, there is more to recycling than throwing an aluminum can in the recycling bin. Here is how you can do more:

• When possible, purchase items made of recycled materials by looking for the recycle sign on packaging.
• Purchase items with little to no packaging.
• Bring your own mug for coffee/tea to reduce paper cup waste.
• There are many household items that can be recycled that we aren’t aware of. Here is a list of ten things you didn’t know you could recycle.
  

  Source: Flckr / CC by 2.0