Baguio Country Club Christmas Village - Eco Friendly Christmas Decorations

Last weekend was a long one, with Bonifacio Day falling on a Friday, my family and I decided to go up to Baguio and have a vacation.

On of our itineraries was to visit the Baguio Country Club where we can buy the famous raisin bread that people keep raving about. We can buy this inside the Christmas Village that the Baguio Country Club created.

I was surprised with what I saw, a real delight! Most of their decorations were recycled! AWESOME! They were also very pretty! Something that you wouldn't mind displaying in your home, and you can proudly say it was recycled!

Most of the materials used were from plastic bottles and aluminum cans. It's either the top half, the bottom half of the can, the bottle caps, the bottoms of the bottle.

The way the decorations were used were really lovely. I heard my mom exclaim that she'll start collecting bottles so that we could have cheap decorations for Christmas!

 Lovely bells made from half bottle tops with caps on, painted white and gold, with a sprinkle of silver and golf glitters to make them sparkle

 A huge tree made from plastic bottles with red caps that have dyed (green) water inside. Leaves and flowers were made from huge, painted plastic bottles (1.5L-2L)

 A wonderful string of flowers made from plastic bottle (300mL-500mL) bottoms, painted and glittered. Angels were made from small lotion/soap squeeze bottles. Heads are made from bottle caps and the halo from the bottle cap rings. Painted white and glittered

 I'm not really sure what kind of decoration this is, but they sure are lovely. They are made from aluminum soda cans, i think you can make a top and a bottom from one can!

 Golf ball tree is made from halved golf balls which were bedazzled with glitters. Poinsettias made from plastic bottle tops and bottoms with plastic bottle caps. The glass bottle tree was made from glass (wine) bottles painted and bedazzled with glitters

 A very pretty star that is made from 2 large plastic bottle bottoms (1.5L-2L)

Another neat idea for stars. 5-6 500mL Gatorade bottles, painted and bedazzled with glitters

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Plastic Bottle Boat

Here's a pretty good use for plastic bottles:

Very useful in floods, especially the one now ravaging the Philippines.

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Plastic Bottle Trash Can

While Surfing on the Internet yesterday, I saw this cool idea for reusing plastic bottles.

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I saw this over instructables.com with instructions on how to do it. The instructions aren't very clear, but the concept of making it isn't very difficult (or so I think).

Now the next question, would I start collecting bottles just so I can make this? I don't drink soft drinks so it would be difficult for me to consume oodles of it jut to make a trashcan. I don't buy that much bottled drinks either. Being able to make this would be a matter of how often you consume bottled beverages, which is, bad for the environment. You could however still make this, let's say, you have the bottles up for recycling, or you had a party of some sort. It's a nice way to reuse plastic bottles nonetheless.

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What the Number Inside the Recycle Symbol Means

Have you ever wondered what the numbers inside the recycling symbol means? As a kid, I used to think that it meant the number of times the item was recycled, but how very wrong I was. It turns out the number inside the recycling symbol is the type of resin or plastic that was used in making the material.

It's important for us to know what these symbols mean so that we can properly recycle items and avoid items that are difficult to recycle. So when buying something, check the code and make sure that it's easily and readily recyclable

Number 1 Plastic

Chemical Compound: Polyethylene Terephthalate

Found In: Plastic drinking bottles and common food packaging

Characteristics: Lightweight, usually squeezable, thin

Readily Recycled: Yes

Recycled Into: Bottles, polyester fibers (used in carpets and other fabrics), furniture, bags

Health Risk: Low

Number 2 Plastic

Chemical Compound: High Density Polyethylene

Found In: Detergent bottles, bleach bottles, shampoo bottles, condiment bottles

Characteristics: Moderate weigh, rarely squeezable, thick

Readily Recycled: Yes

Recycled Into: Bottles, bags, pens, fence

Health Risk: Low

Number 3 Plastic

Chemical Compound: Polyvinyl Chloride or Vinyl

Found In: Electronic cables, pipes, toys, furniture, almost in everything
Characteristics: Elastic when thin, very tough when hard. Tough. Not easily weathered. Water- and flame resistant

Readily Recycled: No, very difficult to recycle because it contains heavy metals like lead and cadmium. Very few accept PVC in recycling because of it's environmental and health threats.

Recycled Into: Cables, paneling

Health Risk: Moderate. Do not put near food, especially when flamed.. Do not burn or incinerate. PVC contains Dioxine which is a man-made poison that can kill. It stays in the body for a long time and weakens the body.

Number 4 Plastic

Chemical Compound: Low Density Polyethylene

Found In: Wrappers, grocery bags, sandwich bags, sqeezable wrappers
Characteristics: Very thin, very lightweight. can be crumpled

Readily Recycled: No, very few recycling programs accept it as a recyclable. Probably due to its weak and lightweight characteristic

Recycled Into: Same items as it is found in
Health Risk: Low

Number 5 Plastics

Chemical Compound: Polypropylene

Found In: Condiment bottles, medicine bottles, yogurt tubs, rope, straws

Characteristics: mostly squeezable, heat intolerant

Readily Recycled: No but are slowly gaining acceptance in recycling programs

Recycled Into: Fibers, brooms, brushes, trays

Health Risk: Low

Number 6 Plastic

Chemical Compound: Polystyrene

Found In: Disposable plastic spoons, forks and cups, CD cases, egg cartons, foam food trays
Characteristics: Very lightweight, bulky. Also known as Styrofoam

Readily Recycled: No. Very difficult to decompose. Very few programs accept it

Recycled Into: Egg cartons, foam packin
Health Risk: Moderate to high. When ingested, can block the digestive system. Production is petroleum based and uses a carcinogenic called benzene

Number 7 Plastic

Chemical Compound: Combination of any or all of the above plastics/resins or other resins that don't fit into the above items.

Found In: bullet-proof materials, 5-gallon water bottles,

Characteristics: Very thick, heavy duty

Readily Recycled: No. Very difficult to recycle because of the diversity of plastics in it

Recycled Into:  plastic lumber,

Health Risk: Low to moderate. Depends on the type of plastic

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the recycle symbol and any of its variants. A watermark is placed in the images to protect my intellectual property right of making the image based on the symbol and it's variants. The watermark is not intended to own the symbol or imply any meeting related to owning the recycle symbol.

Sources:

1. http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/187/1/Recycling-by-the-numbers.html
2. http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321

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Green Bags and Eco Bags for shopping

A lot of supermarkets and retail outlets are taking the initiative to go green. It all started with bio- and oxo-degradeable bags that don't really decompose (or takes a very long time to decompose). Since a lot of people were thinking that the supposed "environment-friendly plastic bags" were a fluke, retailers started to offer more greener alternatives - that is the Green bags or the Eco bags.

Eco Bags are the Latest Fad

Gone were the days when we keep paper bags and nice thick plastic bags for bring our stuff to school or to the office. Having and using green bags is now a fashion statement. I don't know with you, but when I see someone using an eco bag, I smile. It makes my heart happy when someone uses buys an eco bag for their groceries or their shopping. It makes me smile more when I see people reuse their eco bags.

My Own Bag Wednesday at SM Supermarkets

I love the green initiative SM supermarkets. It's a marketing strategy for their green bags and at the same time it helps the environment.

When you shop at any SM supermarket during Wednesdays, you won't see any plastic bag being used, that's because there's an extra charge if you want to use plastic. Talk about marketing strategies eh? But still, kudos to SM Supermarkets for cooking this up.

I'd love to post a photo of my SM supermarket green bags, but one is already unfit for use, and the other's been given to someone else (it was used like a paper bag, when you return a borrowed item, you return the item with a bag that the person can keep). Those 2 were the old green bags. The first ones released (big and small bag). My new SM green bags were also given away :(

Toy Kingdom Orange Eco Bags

I frequent the huge Toy Kingdom outlet in SM Megamall. I love window shopping for toys and such. Last Christmas, I bought a lot of toys for my brother and god-children, and while I was waiting in line for the cashier, I fell in love with their orange-colored eco bag. It only comes in one size, which is EXTRA LARGE. I usually bring it with me when I plan to shop for a lot of things, or when I need to lug around a lot of stuff.

Pet Express Yellow Eco Bags

I think Pet Express is another branch of SM retailing (they ask for SM Advantage Cards). I usually buy my cat's pet food in Pet Express Cubao, and there was this time that I had an unplanned shopping spree for my pet care needs. I bought their Yellow Eco Bag along with the other pet supplies. I'll try to look for the Eco Bag. Chances are it's also given away already.

Rustans Supermarket Green bag

I rarely shop at Rustans cause it has this stereotype that it's for the rich. Late last year, I decided to check out the supermarket in Edsa Shangri-La and found that a lot of imported food are sold there. I bought a few snacks for the family and saw that they have this nice green bag. It's made of a thick cheese cloth with green prints on it. Their bag looks neat and a little mature. I like how it looks. I will post a pic as soon as I find my bag. As far as I remember, I put some change of clothes there. Have to find where I put it.

National Bookstore Red Eco Bag

It's a big red bag that's made of high quality materials. It's expensive though, compared to the common eco bags that are made of lightweight materials. I love how it looks and I often use it as a bag to carry groceries and other things, especially when I'm going for a trip. I love how National Bookstore designed this bag. It has a sturdy base and top, with a net for the body. It also has a zipper on top! Too bad they're not selling it anymore. They replaced it with the more common lightweight bag.

CVC Supermarket Green Bag

CVC Supermarket isn't as famous as the other supermarkets. It isn't as big either, but there's one near home so I usually frequent CVC supermarket. It's nice to see that despite the size of their supermarket, they still had the initiative to make an eco bag. It only comes in one small size but you can fit a lot in. I usually have one of their eco bags in my bag if ever I have to do spur of the moment shopping.

Freebie Eco Bags
When I was job hunting, I got a lot of freebies and freebie eco bags. I loved receiving Eco Bags and I usually used them to carry my books and my laptop. Eco Bags are so fab right now that even companies give out eco bags on seminars. Here are few of the ones I got from a recent Data Security Seminar.

Reuse Eco Bags

Buying and using eco bags is a great way to reduce the consumption of plastic, but we're wasting more resources if we don't reuse the bags. Sure it's okay to collect the different green bags from different stores, but do make sure that you reuse them when you're shopping. The problem is that we keep on buying new ones and not care about the old bags anymore. The eco bags are created to be reused, let's not waste the energy spent in creating an eco bag. Reuse it.

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