Nonprofits You Should Know About - Ecocycle

If you've ever felt a twinge of guilt when you were cleaning out your closet and found all those old mixed tapes or dead batteries or unused gadgets and thought 'I can't just throw these out' but didn't know what to do so you snuck out to the dumpster after dark to shove them under the other trash...

then I've got a great resource for you. Ecocycle is located here in Boulder, CO but their website is an excellent resource for anyone in N. America who wants to help keep stuff out of landfills and contribute to recycling and reuse (and I'm not just saying that because I work for them now). There is a pull-down list of hard to recycle materials which gives you options for recycling like mail-in recycling or manufacturer "take-back" programs. Which, by the way, you should all promote and consider when choosing which brand to buy - when a company purposely makes a product out of toxic, non-renewable or non-recyclable parts YOU end up paying the cost by paying for trash hauling, landfill dumping or even recycling. If companies have to absorb the materials they produce when they've reached the end of their lifecycle it will make them think much more carefully about what goes into the products in the first place. A small but apt example is in Europe where bottled drink makers take back their bottles and reuse/recycle them, much more efficient then recycling aluminum or plastic containers!

So next time you've got something weird to dump, don't trash it, check out www.ecocycle.org or earth911.org to find out where you can recycle it. My personal favorites are the building material resource yards, you can find some cool junk in there!

Nonprofits You Should Know About - Fringe

Fringe benefits? Well yes there are those but Fringe Festival is what I meant. Here in Boulder we have a toddler-age festival (3 years next week). and by volunteering you get passes to shows, meet new people and learn some new skills. Volunteers do everything from loading shows in/out, sell tickets and spread promo stuff around town (ie visit lots of coffee shops). I'll be managing the Laughing Goat venue which pretty much means keep everyone in line and know what to do if it all goes horribly wrong...which it won't with me in charge, right?

Don't know what a fringe festival is? Check out Wikipedia and we'll see you in Edinburgh next year!

Nonprofits You Should Know About

Since writing and reading about my life all the time could become a tad boring I've decided to add a few posts that are all about YOU! When people think of volunteering or nonprofits they usually think of feeding starving people or helping the homeless. These are important issues of course but not necessarily pertinent to YOU. If you dig around in your community you are likely to find a few organizations that are there for you, the better-than-average Jill/Joe. A great example here in Boulder is Community Cycles whose mission is to "educate and advocate the safe use of refurbished bicycles as an affordable and sustainable means of transportation and personal enjoyment." Basically they refurbish donated bikes and distributes them locally and internationally through different programs. The one I liked was "Earn-a-Bike" where someone like YOU who wants to start riding to work can volunteer in the bike shop, learn more about bike maintenance and finish up by customizing your own ride. So you don't live in Colorado, Google "bike coop" "bike collective" or "community bike/bicycle" and you'll probably find something nearby. If YOU discover something wonderful in your neighborhood, post a comment and let everyone know.