Recycling ideas you can recycle
The green movement must really be making a headway. These days, some “green-minded” shoppers are bringing their green bags whenever they do their groceries. Well, they just “green and bear it.” Green bags are disappearing fast in supermarket chains like Rustan’s Fresh, Shopwise, and SM Supermarkets. While helping do away with plastic bags and saving the environment from the mounting problem of litter and waste disposal, these green bags are really chic enough to tote around town. Why not get one or two for yourself — and do your bit for the environment — next time you do your grocery shopping?
Speaking of recycling (or the fourth “r” that even kids ought to learn, along with reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic), Christmas is just around the proverbial corner. And you and I know that ’tis the season when litter becomes an even bigger problem. We all can take a few tips on how to reduce (not your waist but your wastes), reuse, recycle.
Tons and tons of plastic packaging end up in the waste bins, according to the Rethink Rubbish Christmas Recycling Campaign — roughly the equivalent of more than 50,000 polar bears! Now, that’s bear-y scary!
Thus, Rethink Rubbish has come up with some bright recycling ideas. Like: Avoid items that are excessively packaged. (And certainly, do not use excessive packaging when you wrap your Christmas gifts.) Use a string to tie up your parcels (some use lots of tape as if they own National Book Store) so the gift wrapper can be reused. Set aside a box to collect the reusable ribbons, bows, and other package decorations. Recycle gift boxes that can’t be reused. After carelessly tearing up a wrapper to open a gift, see if there’s an uncrumpled part left and use this for wrapping smaller gifts in the future. And yes, if someone gives you a present you don’t really want or your children get toys that are discarded after a while, don’t throw them but give them away to your favorite charity. Remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Writer/recycling expert Sherri Osborn shares some crafty tips online. For one, she uses used Christmas cards to make a Christmas card candle holder. All you need are a baby food jar, rubber band, salt (to make the jar glisten) and, of course, used Christmas cards. Sherri’s also come up with her pine cone freshener and festive Pringles containers, which you can use as containers for your Christmas giveaway cookies and other goodies.
What else can you do with Christmas cards? While most people now send e-cards, some people still like to do it the good old-fashioned way. First of all, buy recycled cards if you can. If you did get your fair share of Christmas cards from assorted friends/acquaintances last year, you can always reuse these old cards by making gift tags or decorations out of them. Or if you have a recycling collection, put these old cards in with your old newspapers and magazines that you can sell next time the neighborhood bote/dyaryo guy comes around.
Still a favorite Christmas item to recycle is the good old reliable fruitcake. Fact is, it gets passed around too much that it sometimes ends up in the hands of the original giver. So, if you must recycle a gift, take note of the original giver. Remember, too, that some gifts may carry some “incriminating evidence.” I have a friend who recycled a set of cuff links to give to his boss one Christmas. He told his boss it was a very special gift. The boss opened the gift and told him it was indeed so special that the cuff links even carried his (my friend’s) initials. And then there was this recycled gift that had the original card of the original giver. The one who recycled it forgot to remove the card. I’m sure you can think of more stories to add to our recycling story collection.
But of course, to recycle an old but wise saying, “It’s the thought that counts.”
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Breastfeeding prevents cancer
Yes, nothing beats breastfeeding. And now, the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research recommends breastfeeding, among other things, to prevent cancer. Happy, nay, ecstatic to share this good news is Alexis Rodrigo, breastfeeding mom and communications assistant of UNICEF Philippines.
The other recommendations of the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research are:
• Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight.
• Be physically active as part of everyday life.
• Limit consumption of energy-dense foods. Avoid sugary drinks.
• Eat mostly foods of plant origin.
• Limit intake of red meat and avoid processed meat.
• Limit alcoholic drinks.
• Limit consumption of salt. Avoid moldy cereals (grains) or pulses (legumes).
• Aim to meet nutritional needs through diet alone.
Zeroing in on breastfeeding, the report says: “The evidence that lactation protects the mother against breast cancer at all ages is convincing. There is limited evidence suggesting that lactation protects the mother against cancer of the ovary. Having been breastfed probably protects children against overweight and obesity, and therefore those cancers for which weight gain, overweight, and obesity are a cause.”
Alexis notes, “Overweight and obesity in children tend to track into adult life. Thus, the report recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, and thereafter, continued breastfeeding with complementary food. The report explicitly states that it supports the UN Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding.”
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