Earn rewards for donating old furniture to ReStores

If you're planning to make a donation of furniture to a Habitat ReStore in the Charlotte area, take time first to learn about a new donor rewards program.
On the second Saturday of each month, ReStore furniture donors can earn credits, called Positive Impact Points, for making sure their items did not go to a landfill.
The PIP Rewards program is open to ReStore customers through the Edenton-based Sustainable Furnishings Council's new Sustainable Saturdays program.
The council has a goal of diverting 10 tons of furniture from landfills in 2014. Those nearly 10 million tons of furniture are dumped at landfills each year, the council reports, citing EPA data.
Formed in High Point in 2006, the council is an education and marketing organization that promotes “green” practices and products in the furniture industry.
Donors can use PIP rewards points for “positive impact” goods and services.
This might include products that are considered healthy or responsibly produced. The points also can be used to support projects aimed at protecting the environment, fighting poverty or doing good in other areas.
The rewards program is the first of many Sustainable Saturday programs the council expects to launch, says executive director Susan Inglis.
Sign up for PIP rewards at https://pipsrewards.com. Get updates on Twitter using the hashtag #SustainableSaturdays.

Karen’s blog: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com; on Twitter @sullivan_kms

How can we get people to recycle more?

There were plenty of interesting comments on the Observer's Facebook page for the story that said Charlotteans toss an estimated 40 million cardboard tubes annually from bathroom tissue rolls.
One commenter suggested reusable tubes that we could use with the new tubeless toilet paper rolls that have hit the market. Great idea, but it turns out our recycling problem is much bigger. I learned that from an email that arrived after last week’s column was published.
Recycling at single-family homes declined locally in 2013 (to about 147 pounds per person annually) compared to 1999 (155 pounds), according to Sustain Charlotte’s 2014 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Sustainability Report Card.
Residents of apartments and condominiums hardly recycle at all, said Shannon Binns, executive director of Sustain Charlotte.
So we’re spending more than $10 million a year to send about 364,000 tons of residential waste to a landfill. “That doesn’t include the much larger costs – collection and transportation,” Binns said.
About half of that waste could be recycled for savings of $29 per ton in landfill fees, Binns said. Recycling the waste could generate almost $20 per ton.
Sustain Charlotte has offered two suggestions for boosting recycling: Make it a requirement and impose fines for those who don’t. Or we could adopt a pay-as-you-throw system. Either would surely be better than throwing money away.

Karen’s blog: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com; on Twitter @sullivan_kms

Charlotteans toss out 40 million bathroom tissue tubes yearly

We're pretty disciplined about recycling at my house, but now I realize we've ignored one item. The cardboard tube inside each roll of bathroom tissue gets tossed every time.
That happens in a lot of homes – more than 40 million tubes get tossed every year, according to one estimate. That's just in Charlotte.
The national toll is more than 17 billion tubes yearly, with more than 150 tubes per household being thrown out on average. Imagine the amount of waste we’ve created over 100 years, which is how long the tubes have been around, according to a rep for Scott-brand products, which is now making tubeless rolls.
Yes, that’s how we’ve come by all of this information. The data arrived at my desk with samples of the tubeless swirls. (The centers aren’t open as much as in the picture above.)
It will take time to find out whether consumers see these as an acceptable alternative to what they’re buying now, but it’s a start. The tissue is not made from recycled material, which could make it less appealing in some households. Comments on the Scott website are mixed and it sounds like the paper hangs awkwardly when you reach the end of the roll.
Prices might be a factor. A four-pack of Scott Naturals Tube-Free sells for $2.97 at Walmart stores, according to the rep. She offered a comparison price that was less exacting: $3.40 “average retail price” for Scott Extra Soft, a premium product. Store location unknown.

Karen’s blog: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com; on Twitter @sullivan_kms