I've been really diligent recycling as much as possible. While cleaning the house, I always run across items that I want to donate but if I don't set it aside immediately, the items wind up collecting dust in a pile somewhere.  So I have three bins set up next to each other in my kitchen: a traditional garbage container, a recycling container and a large donation bin.  Ever since I've set aside the donation bin, I have accumulated and identified a lot more items to donate and give away.  Once the donation bin is close to being filled, I bring it to the local preschool that uses the gently used clothes as emergency clothes for kids and appreciate the gently used functional toys.  I have also found that items that wind up in the donation bin get additional mileage out of them as well.  My kids rediscover the joy of playing with these items and some items wind up back into circulation in my house, which I am okay with, as long as the items are being used.

My child won third place in the Unique category at the Rain Gutter Regatta (cub scout competition in which the scouts design sailboats and race it down a rain gutter using their own breath as a source of wind).  We used a recycled nail polish container as the boat, a straw as the mast and two plastic cups as the sail.  We were very excited to see the interest level in using recycled materials and hope that future cub scout events will leverage and recycle materials as well.  Our cub scout pack already supports eco-friendly efforts by collecting gently used uniforms and books from previous cub scouts and distributing them to the  next group of scouts.  It is exciting to see my children embrace recycling efforts.

Another school year, another round of PTA activities...  The following are some easy and effective eco-friendly ideas to make PTA efforts less costly and better for the overall environment.

- Eliminate all paper based communications (only supply paper communications to parents who do not have any internet access.  For the few paper based communications, use only white paper.
- Perform fundraising efforts online (in addition to Scholastic Book Clubs and Target, a number of your local restaurants and community organizations have their own website presence and can easily offer a percent of their sales to schools as part of their overall advertising and marketing efforts).  Great establishments to approach include your local pizza and fast food chain restaurants, local arts/crafts stores, sporting good stores, etc.)
- Organize recycled clothing drives (where the older children can donate their out-growned clothes to younger elementary school children.
- As you approach the end of the school year, organize a school supply donation project where PTA members and teachers collect binders, scissors, rulers and other non-perishable school supplies to be used for next year students.
- When organizing fundraising events such as outdoor festivals, instead of visiting the local dollar stores to buy toys/prizes, visit the local goodwill/thrift shop for such items.
- For all signage, remove any reference to the event date and year so that you can reuse the signage for many more years to come.

As the summer draws to a close, I wanted to share with you some eco-friendly ideas on how you can start off the new school year.
- Have your children reuse their existing schoolbags.  You can add a custom patch (retail costs of about $4 or less) and sew it on to their schoolbags so that they feel like it is more personalized and you can continue this "add a patch" a year tradition.
- Participate in a clothing exchange/donation with your local church and/or community center.
- Re-use existing school supplies (e.g. pencil cases and pencil sharpeners) and be selective on what you need to re-stock.
- Vow to either borrow or rent all sports related equipment for any upcoming children's sports activities.
- For children who are in fourth grade or above, you can provide them with a set school supply budget and let them know they can keep the savings or use any savings that they have left over.  
- Teach children how to do their own laundry.  Children as young as third grade can handle loading the washer and dryer.  This cuts the need to have a new outfit each day.
- Repair/mend any good items that have not been outgrown (e.g. pants, buttons on jackets).
-Invest in an eco-friendly water/drink bottle for your children and remember to bring them to all afterschool activities.
-Invest in a snack cooler that you can leave in your car trunk (fill them up with economy/family  size snacks for the week and have the children share their snacks as opposed to giving each child individual snack bags).
-Invest in two dozen kitchen wash cloths and have the children use them to dry their hands instead of paper towels (washing wash cloths can easily be part of your laundry routine).
-Ask the students' teachers to allow them to finish using any old composition notebooks that still have alot of unused pages, this applies to other school supplies as well.
-Clear out any existing clothes that your children have outgrown and donate them.
-Clear out any existing school supplies that your children have outgrown (e.g. most fifth graders no longer use gluesticks) and donate them to the schools.  Many parents think that they can only donate new school supplies to schools.  Most elementary schools welcome and accept all gently used school supplies (ranging from scissors, glue bottles, pencils, etc.).
-Join the PTA and lobby the PTA to limit all communications to email and internet postings (we are in the digital world) or at least provide each parent the option to opt out of the direct mail (flyers) that are included in children's folders.  This saves a ton of trees and PTA money!! Volunteer to send the weekly PTA email blasts.
-Ask the school teachers to provide an opt out option for school related printed communication.
-Start collecting empty tissue paper boxes and toilet/paper towel rolls; donate them to pre-K and kindergarten classes for their art projects.