Eco kiddos

Milk Carton Bird Feeder – Steps by Steps Instructions:

1) We started off by painting the juice carton. We found we needed to coats to make the colour nice and even. We used enamel paints (for flower pots etc), as these are waterproof. Acrylics are water based and won’t last as long. Though you could use acyrlics and then add a coat of waterproof varnish.

2) Once dry, using your stanly knife, cut out a “tummy and wings” into the bottom half of your juice or milk carton. I used the the tummy, to then cut a beak shape. As to the wings, don’t cut them all out, you want to keep the “flaps” attached. This keeps the seeds a little bit more sheltered and gives you those lovely owl wings!

3) Finally, take your juice carton and glue on your bottle top eyes. And done. I later punched a little hole and hung the bird feeder outside.

Hang and enjoy.

Carry your own containers for take-out food and leftovers

Request takeout places use your container instead of their disposable one. If they won’t do it, give them a Take Out Without card to help them understand why they should. Some examples of convenient containers are:

Stainless containers from Life Without Plastic, Eco Lunchbox, LunchBots, and others.

Stainless steel containers sold at some camping supply stores

Think bringing your own containers is too much of a hassle and won’t make a difference? Please check out my posts “Carrying Our Own Containers: Powerful Action or Pointless Inconvenience?“

Carry a stainless steel travel mug or water bottle at all times for coffee and other drinks while out in the world

(I use my travel mug for water instead of a water bottle.) Besides the plastic lid and plastic straw, paper cups are lined with a plastic coating. When I first began this project, I got in the habit of requesting “no lid and no straw” when ordering a drink in a disposable paper cup. But nowadays, if I’ve forgotten my mug, I simply do without until I can find a water fountain or sit-down cafe or restaurant with durable cups and glasses. This process helps me to remember my reusable mug next time.

Return containers for berries, cherry tomatoes, and other small fruits and vegetables to the farmers market to be reused

One reader asked what I do about cherry tomatoes or berries since they can get crushed in a reusable bag. I buy them at the farmer’s market in the green plastic basket and then return it to the farmer each week for a refill, so I never have to take new ones. Don’t have a farmers market nearby? Ask your local grocer to take them back. Or empty your berries into your own container before leaving the store and leave the plastic basket behind. If enough of us do this, perhaps merchants will take note.

Bring your own container for meat and prepared foods

I take my own containers with me to the butcher counter at Whole Foods or local butcher shop. (While the humans in our house don’t each much meat, the kitties do.) The butcher can weigh the container and deduct the weight, just as is done with bulk foods. The servers at the deli/prepared foods counter can do the same thing. Just ask.

Buy fresh bread that comes in either paper bags or no bags

At the farmers market or natural food stores, I can buy bread that comes in only paper. At the bakery down the street, I can have my bread placed in my own cloth bag and avoid all packaging. Bread keeps fresh when stored in the cloth bag inside an airtight tin. I reuse a popcorn tin that was sent to me as a gift several years ago. Often, thrift stores have more of these tins than they know what to do with. Fresh bread is a bit more expensive than its plastic-packaged cousins, but to me, it’s worth it. And since I buy so few new things, I can afford to spend more for quality, plastic-free food. See my post, Fresh Bread: Buy It, Store It, Keep It Fresh Without Plastic.

Choose milk in returnable glass bottles

Many areas have local dairies that provide milk in returnable glass bottles rather than plastic or plastic-coated cardboard (yes, all cardboard milk containers are coated inside and out with plastic, not wax.) In my area, I buy Straus milk, which is available in natural grocery stores. Unfortunately, the milk bottle does contain an unrecyclable plastic cap. But I would rather buy milk in a glass bottle capped with plastic than milk contained in plastic on all sides.