Would you like to join our email list to receive occasional bulletins about Green Team activities? Just type your email address in the box, click join button, and make sure the box is checked by Sanibel Green Team.

John Sibley, Tylor Compton, Ada Shissler, and Rusty Farst

Sanibel School Green Team tours Periwinkle Partnership Native Garden. Click on image to watch video by Rusty Farst.

The Sanibel School Organic Garden is bearing fruit. We have been having fabulous organic salads for lunch at The Sanibel School thanks to Mrs. Compton and the Green Team Gardeners. The cucumbers are ready for salad, as are the herbs in the garden. Our tomato vines are doing well, but no ripe fruit yet. Thanks to a grant from Ding Darling the chef's supplement the salads with additional organically grown vegetables and fruits from our Green Partner, Bailey's General Store.

Organic tomatoes, carrots, onions, and oranges are added to make a variety of salads with dressing, and we are having them for lunch in The Sanibel School Cafetorium. We are all delighted to share the tasty salad that we grew ourselves. Everyone is learning, get in early for lunch to get a tasty treat !

Tylor Compton and Beth Hight

Reducing Holiday Consumption

Gift Wrapping and Cards

If every family reused 2 feet of holiday ribbon the amount saved would equal 38,000 miles of ribbon – enough to tie a bow around the entire planet Earth.

An estimated 2.65 billion holiday cards are sold each year in the United States, enough to fill a football field 10 stories high. If each family sent one less card each year it would save the equivalent of 50,000 cubic yards of paper.

Ø Send an electronic holiday card. Try http://www.bluemountain.com/ for a nice variety.
Ø Drop off extra packing material and Styrofoam peanuts at local mailing centers. Contact the Peanut Hotline (1-800-828-2214) for a convenient location.
Ø Use old Sunday comics (especially good for children’s gifts) then recycle the paper.
Ø Use brown paper grocery bags decorated with stamps, drawings, etc., then recycle the bag.
Ø Buy brown Kraft paper (available at craft stores) to wrap, then recycle the paper. Traditional gift wrap, ribbon, etc., is not recyclable in our curbside program.
Ø Write your message on a post-it note inside your greeting card – the card can then be reused.
Ø Cut the front off cards sent to you last year and use these for tags for gifts or as holiday postcards sent in lieu of cards with envelopes.
Ø Use gift bags or baskets that can be reused by the recipient.
Ø Send homemade greetings on recycled paper in envelopes made from old magazines.

Holiday Entertaining
Each year 28 billion pounds of edible food is wasted in the United States.

If each family reduced their holiday gas consumption by one gallon, then one million fewer tons of greenhouse gases would be emitted to the atmosphere.

Ø Plan holiday meal portions carefully. Visit this web site for information on planning appropriate amounts: www.use-less-stuff.com
Ø Invite guests to bring their own unique mug or cup.
Ø Walk or carpool to holiday party events.
Ø Provide containers for recycling aluminum and glass beverage bottles
Ø Wash and reuse plastic plates, forks, spoons, etc., as they cannot be recycled even if a #1 or #2 is indicated.
Ø Consider purchasing sets of glassware and dishes from a thrift store to use for parties, or rent supplies (see yellow pages).
Ø Purchase napkins, or other disposable products, made with recycled content.
Ø Consider a live tree for the holidays, then plant it outside.
Ø Christmas trees will be picked up curbside on the normal horticulture day, to be recycled (remove all decorations and tinsel, do not put the tree in a bag).

Gift Giving

Twenty-five percent more trash in produced in the United States between
Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the equivalent of 25 million tons of garbage, or
one million extra tons each week.

Ø Consider gifts that support your community and create minimal waste such as theatre tickets (Theatre Conspiracy, Arcade Theatre, Barbara B. Mann, Pirate Playhouse), movie tickets, or gift certificates for your services (gardening, car washing, tutoring, babysitting).

Ø Gift a gift membership. Some recommendations:

Ø Audubon Society of Southwest Florida, Post Office Box 61041, Fort Myers, FL 33906
(239) 339-8046

Ø CROW (Care and Rehabilitation of Wildlife), Post Office Box 150, Sanibel, FL 33957
(239) 472-3644

Ø Nature Conservancy of Florida, 222 S. Westmonte Drive, Suite 300, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714, (407) 472-3644
Ø ECHO (Education Concerns for Hunger Organization) http://www.echonet.org/

Ø Select gift items from “eco-friendly” businesses. Some recommendations:

Ø Home & Planet: http://homeandplanet.com/
Home & Planet is packed with earth-friendly furnishings from around the world: stylish, new products from recycled materials, organic cotton, found objects. Furniture for your home, one-of-a-kind gifts, accessories for you.

Ø Global Gift Guide www.worldconcern.org

Give gifts that help people around the world.
Ø Alternative Gifts International www.altgifts.org

Global Mission - send authentic life-giving gifts to a needy world. Provides gift options in categories ranging from hunger relief, shelter, development, peace and justice, and child survival.
Ø Habitat for Humanity www.habitat.org

Honor your loved ones while helping to eliminate poverty housing with a Habitat for Humanity Gift from the Heart.

Ø Additional web-sites for shopping:
www.ecomall.com, www.greenshopping.com, www.realgoods.com

Ø Consider these eco-items available at your local hardware store, nursery or grocery.
Ø Backyard composter made from recycled plastic, compact fluorescent light bulbs, native plants and trees in decorative pots, bird feeders and bird seed, and gift baskets of specialty foods, homemade or store bought.