Home Office Answers

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, by now, you know eliminating the use of plastic bags is one of my personal priorities.

Wal-Mart recently reviewed their policy on offering $1.00 reusable bags in their stores.
They are rightfully touting the impact they are having, but it could be SO MUCH MORE.
(A Snippet of the release is below)

I truly don’t understand why a company as big as Wal-Mart wants to charge for reusable bags.
The average customer is so much more likely to try using a reusable bag if it doesn’t cost extra.

Why don’t they just print Wal-Mart on the bag and chalk it up to advertising expense.

Think how many MORE shoppers would use and hopefully bring back a reusable bag if it was free. 

I think they could start today and adopt a policy that a year from now only reusable bags will be used in their stores.  During this year the bags are free and next year you have to pay the $1.00 if you don’t have your bag to use or bring it in for exchange if it is worn out.

Maybe we should email Wal-Mart and suggest they make the bags FREE for 1 year.

Do you think this is a good idea or have other thoughts on ways large retailers can help solve the plastic bag issue?

How about it Wal-Mart?? 

SNIPPET
Bag Facts

In October 2007, we began selling reusable bags in all of our Wal-Mart discount stores, Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets for $1

each. Selling reusable bags is good for our business because it reduces the number of plastic bags we need to produce. More importantly,

it benefits our customers. Not only can we pass these savings along to our customers, but by using a reusable bag, our customers can

reduce the amount of waste that they generate.

• Our initial estimates show that each reusable bag will eliminate the need for at least 150 plastic disposable bags over its lifetime. We

have sold enough bags to eliminate the need for at least 800 million disposable bags.

• Each of the black reusable bags are made with recycled polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) plastic generated from approximately four

soda or water bottles.

• About the size of a regular paper bag, the reusable bags are expected to hold approximately the same weight as two to three regular,

disposable plastic bags.

• When the bag wears out, customers can return it to their local Wal-Mart store for recycling. We will combine the worn bags with the rest

of the used plastic generated by our stores into our super sandwich balers, where it will be bundled and sent to a certified recycler for

processing. So far, we estimate that we’ve diverted more than 97 million pounds of plastic from landfills.

Is your desk covered in  hot pink and yellow Post-It notes pasted all around your computer, then it might be time for you to switch  to Postica. It’s a new application that creates virtual sticky notes that can be shared with friends.

You can create a sticky note, choose your color (one for each type of note works good), and drag it. Postica remembers the location of your sticky note so it will look the same on every computer.

It’s fairly simple to attach a file, change the color of a note, and e-mail it to another user.

You can even send notes to friends and family if they don’t have an account.

If you are still using paper post it’s, go virtual check out Postica.

Would you like to have your store receipts stored electronically? You may soon have the chance to do that without ever holding, or scanning a printed receipt. A new option for eliminating receipts at the checkout counters of major retailers may be around the corner.

An on-line service that will let consumers receive digital receipts after a counter purchase at big box stores, such as Best Buy and Target, is set to launch May 16.

AllEtronic is an add-in for digital cash registers running popular point of purchase applications. When it recognizes a customer as a sale is rung up, allEtronic blocks the receipt-printing process, triggering details to be sent to its servers instead.

As a consumer you can visit allEtronic’s Web site to view and export receipts to your personal accounting software. You can sign up for an count now, but the service is not active until later this week.

First you have to enter the first six and last four digits of a credit card number when you sign up for the program.

This may be a little inconvenient for people like me that use several credit cards to keep expenses separate.

Participating retailers will likely display an allEtronic decal near the usual lineup of credit card logos. Some shops may add allEtronic kiosks or tout the service in their TV commercials.

Retailers that still use paper receipts for internal records could continue to do so, but without printing a customer copy.

The company is seeking a stamp of approval from Trustwave, which would mark allEtronic as a secure service for storing partial credit card numbers.

AllEtronic publicizes its product as green for helping to save the trees felled for some 600,000 tons of thermal receipt paper used by stores each year. It takes 15 trees, 19,000 gallons of water, and 390 gallons of oil to make a ton of paper, according to the company, which is based in Fullerton, Calif.

I am all eliminating the paper printed receipts. Overall it should save me time. And save paper. I also think it may help me to be more organized. One draw back may be a mis-rung item at the checkout, but I am willing to pay extra attention as the items are rung up so I don’t have to deal with all the little tiny receipts.

Do you think this idea will catch on?

When my Flip and Tumble reusable bags arrived in my mailbox I was surprised, all 7 bags I ordered were neatly packed into one envelope. I didn’t realize they were so small. When the bag is in the attached pouch it’s a tad smaller than a baseball. It reminds me a lot of the hacky sacks my son used to play with when he was younger.

Now that I have had a chance to do some shopping with the bags here’s my review.

What I like about the bag

1) Colors- I love the color choices, so many eco-friendly bags are boring green.
Raspberry is my favorite.

2) It is ultra light weight; I don’t even know it’s in my purse. I can easily toss 5 in my small purse.

3) The bag stretches to hold all types and sizes of objects.

4) The shoulder strap makes it much easier to carry than a traditional plastic bag.

5) It’s effortless - putting in back in the pouch is sorta fun and that makes it easy to remember to toss it back in the purse for the next time.

What I didn’t like

1) The bag is wrinkled when it comes out of the pouch, no big deal.

2) The price seems to be a little on the high side, but I think it’s worth paying a little extra to have a bag I like, because I will use it.

If you don’t have a reusable bag I recommend ordering a flip and tumble.

Junk mail is a real issue irritation for me.

There are ways to try to reduce junk mail. but they take time, and lots of it.
So while you are waiting for your www.greendimes.com service to reduce your junk mail, why not try and find ways to use all that paper instead of throwing it into the landfill.

I shred most of my junk mail and save it for packing items that have to be shipped.

I dream about using the shreds to make my own beautiful homemade paper, but doubt I’ll ever take the time to do that.
If you do make your own paper I would love to hear and learn about it.

This article on using the paper to mulch is very interesting. Frugality in Practice: Turn Your Junk Mail into Garden Mulch

If you have used paper for mulching or have another idea on how to use junk mail please share it.

  When I was getting my information for taxes together, I realized I needed a copy of a closing statement from a real estate transaction that had occurred during the year.  I contacted the realtor that handled the transaction and asked if I could get an electronic copy.  They said they could not send it electronically for security reasons but they could overnight it to me.  I thought that was a prosperous waste of money and told them I would pick it up when I would be near their office on other business.  Now I was able to do that because they are only about 15 miles away and I did have to meet someone near there for other business.  If I had been across the country or even across the state they would have overnighted the papers to me.  I started thinking about the tremendous amount of wasted resources we spend everyday on this ridiculous overnight and shipped paperwork. 

Until today I didn’t have a real solution to offer then I ran across this press release.

(Accellion press release snippet) Accellion, Inc. (http://www.accellion.com/) has introduced a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional shipping. The Accellion Green Digital Logistics Solution enables corporations to eliminate the traditional costs, time delays, security issues, and environmental concerns associated with physical delivery. Accellion Green provides corporate users with digital delivery at digital speeds, reduced costs and reduced CO2 emissions. 

“If you can make it digital, you can ship it via Accellion Green,” said Yorgen Edholm, president and CEO of Accellion.(end)

I checked out their web site and this service looks like an excellent choice for many industries like financial intuitions, health care, insurance and really any company that now uses a traditional courier for papers. Digital shipping is good for the bottom line and good for the environment.

I am definitely keeping this web site bookmarked, the next time I need paperwork I will have a resource to recommend.

If you try their service please tell me what you think?

For Earth Day here’s an easy to implement tip to get you started saving paper.
Print this page for your receipt.

I think those are the infamous words I read every time I make an on-line purchase.

This used to be my routine, print the receipt page, lay it on my desk, find the receipt about 3 weeks later, while looking for a completely different paper and put it in a file in my desk drawer in case I need it later.

I can honestly say I don’t think I have EVER needed that paper for anything.

Since committing to making my home office green I have started looking for ways NOT to print things.  A receipt from an on-line purchase has turned out to be one the easier things to not print for me. 

Once you have a system in place, saving your on-line receipts in your computer is easy.

Step 1

Find a PDF Printer you like.

Let me explain.

The word printer here is likely to cause confusion.  If you are like me, when you see the word printer you automatically think printing on paper; however when you see “print to PDF” (Portable Document Format) there is no paper or ink involved. 
Printing to PDF is geek speak for saving your document in a PDF format.  I know that sounds complicated, but trust me it is not.  
The best way to understand it is to try it.

Find a PDF Printer you like.

There are plenty of free ones available.

I use Green Print, a couple other popular ones are CutePDF and DoPDF. 

Follow the download and install instructions on the site you have chosen.  Once the software is installed you are ready to start digitally saving your receipts.

When the “print this receipt” box appears, select print like you have done in the past.  When this box pops up select your PDF Printer.

Now click ok. 

You should set up a digital filing system that works best for you and save your receipt in a folder that you will be able to locate easily should you ever need it.

Give this system a try and let me know what you think.

   Bring your own bag

Whole Foods Markets will stop using disposable plastic grocery bags on Earth Day, April 22, 2008.

I think that is a step in the right direction and hope other large companies take a similar action soon.  Banning plastic bags is undoubtedly good for the environment. 

Do you have your reusable bag with you when you need it?

If the paper bag option is easily available I don’t think most people will make the effort to remember their bag.

I do not see anything wrong with ONLY using cardboard boxes that stock came to the store in for shoppers who have forgotten their bags.

I hope Whole Foods and others will ad BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) campaigns to all their marketing efforts.

Hint to Whole Foods- A million dollar prize seems to motivate us to eat a lot of fast food burgers, I wonder if it wouldn’t do the same for the use of reusable bags.

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 When do you remember your reusable shopping bag?  I think about mine just about the time the clerk says paper or plastic?  UGH!  I think the only answer is to have at least a couple of bags in my purse, but until now I hadn’t seen the right bag.  I think I finally found the reusable bag that will work for me.

What I like about the flip & tumble bag

• 1) It looks nice. Let’s face it I want to be green friendly, not dirt ugly
• 2) It fits in my purse. A stretchy pouch makes it a cinch to go from a full size bag to small ball in seconds flat. Stash one in your messenger bag or purse, ready to go, 24-7.
• 3) It has a nice shoulder strap making it easy to carry when it’s full.

Never be without your reusable shopping bag again, order your flip & tumble bags today.

   Do paper phone books keep appearing at your door step uninvited?    I used to take mine right from the door step to the recycling bin mumbling to myself all the way.  Now there is a better way.  If you don’t want your “fingers to do the walking” sign up for this eco-friendly service and STOP receiving paper phone books. 

According to Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org over 500 Million phone directories are printed each year.

The resources needed to produce these books is tremendous

19 million trees need to be harvested 

1.6 billion pounds of paper are wasted

7.2 million barrels of oil are misspent in their processing (not including the wasted gas used for their delivery to your doorstep)

268,000 cubic yards of landfill are taken up

3.2 billion kilowatts of energy are squandered

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org is an organization working to educate consumers and promote the green movement to eliminate the unsolicited delivery of Yellow and White Pages books. This site is aimed at starting a national movement to solicit the White/Yellow Pages industry to proactively stop the delivery of books or to begin moving legislation to mandate the stoppage of this activity. This movement should be similar to the National No-Call Registry that have stopped and/or decreased the number of unwanted solicitations telephone calls to consumers.

Make your home office eco-friendly green, save some trees and stop receiving unsolicited phone directories.