Since 2008, I’ve been leading a passionate reuse life by incorporating reuse solutions for my needs and wants whenever possible. I’ve also been connecting other people with reuse solutions, like my friends at EcoRI News. Our working relationship kicked off in 2017 when we made a series of EcoRI / STAY VOCAL Reuse T-Shirts. Most recently, they asked me to host a webinar as part of their Low Carbon Academy series. They wanted it to be about reducing home waste and promoting reuse, but the specifics were up to me. So, I got thinking about a question that I get asked a lot: "What's 1 easy way that I can reuse in my daily life to reduce waste?" So, I decided to share 33 easy ways that you can reuse to reduce waste in your daily life. And I wanted this webinar to be fun. Zero power points. Lots of props! Some of the ideas in the video might be no-brainers, some might be a little weird, and some might be perfect for you. I included a little something for everybody, as we can all reuse more. These are ways to still meet your needs and wants, but also help save money AND make less impact on the planet. I hope you get inspired by one or two. Here's the list of the 33 reuse solutions to avoid waste from the video. Let me know in the comments if you start incorporating any into your life or if you already do any of your own. KEY FOR BELOW (👤) Benefits the People - can still fit your interests and tastes, custom, personalized, fun (🌎) Benfits the Planet - save resources, keep items out of the landfill (💰) Benefits the Wallet - save money 1. French Press (👤 🌎💰) – great coffee, no disposable filters, regularly found at thrift stores 2. Coffee Mugs (👤 🌎💰) – so many unique mugs out there for every interest, most thrift store have dozens mugs of you’d like for at least 1/10th of the cost 3. Hot Water Kettle (👤 🌎💰) - example of a specific thing I wanted for The REUSE Box Truck and was able to find it pre-owned 4. “Paper Towels” (👤 🌎💰) – made from T-Shirt scraps and you can have it in preferred colors or patterns, easily added to your laundry 5. Coasters (👤 🌎💰) – can be made out out of so many things for little to no money and easily customizable 6. Desk (👤 🌎💰) – so many used desks at thrift stores, online marketplaces, yard sales, etc. And it just takes a bit of paint to give it a new custom life and you can save potentially hundreds. 7. Laptop (👤 🌎💰) – plenty of great refurbished ones out there for different needs, you can save thousands and even get a warrantee 8. Weekly Schedule (👤 🌎💰) – print personal things on the back of scrap paper, who sees it besides you? 9. Binders (👤 🌎💰) – one of most common things at thrift stores, available online in bulk 10. Cabinets (👤 🌎💰) – so much cool storage potential out there for many different tastes, just get a little creative, and again, paint works wonders 11. Oatmeal (👤 🌎💰) – reusing glass jars for food prep, easy to take on the go 12. Bulk Foods (👤 🌎💰) - get how much you need, avoid packaging, and it costs less 13. Pens (👤 🌎💰) – they're everywhere: thrift stores, estate sales, ebay 14. Cell Phone (👤 🌎💰) – plenty of great refurbished phones out there for different needs, you can save hundreds and even get a warrantee 15. Pants (👤 🌎💰) - so many pairs of pants hardly worn, can easily search for styles on eBay 16. Shirts (👤 🌎) – lots of people making great upcycled clothing for all different tastes 17. T-Shirt (👤 🌎) – can still make custom T-Shirts and merchandise, but do better for the planet 18. Car (👤 🌎💰) – beyond buying used, repair is a huge component and there are plenty of used parts out there 19. Travel Mug (👤 🌎💰) – can be a customized accessory, get discounts when used 20. Food Container (👤 🌎💰) – durable container, protects food better, great for businesses to allow, as they can save money too 21. Reuseable Shopping Bag (👤 🌎💰) – can be a customized accessory, so many that already exist, don’t need new ones 22. Shipping boxes (👤 🌎💰) – why buy new boxes ever, free boxes with the food you buy, packages you get, etc, shop with reuse packaging in mind 23. Cereal bags (👤 🌎💰) – bonus reuse supply in cereal box, small trash bag, dog poop, etc 24. Cookware (👤 🌎 ) – plenty of pre-owned options out there, also upcycled options like sets made from skateboard wood 25. Food Waste (👤 🌎💰) – so many stores discard food on a regular bases, ask your store if there are things that can’t sell (damaged, ripped, etc), team up with a local organization 26. Leftovers (👤 🌎💰) – the tastiest form of reuse, make enough for multiple meals 27. TVS (👤 🌎💰) – lots of pre-owned, open-box, refurbished TVs out there for different needs, you can save hundreds and get a warrantee 28. Art (👤 🌎💰) – why buy a new canvas, everything is a canvas, look in thrift stores, recycling, garbage, etc – scrap wood, mailing envelopes, vinyl records - save endless money 29. Shelves (👤 🌎💰) – scrap wood, can be customized to size and decorates, repurposed ideas like skateboards 30. Frames (👤 🌎💰) – there are so many out there at thrift stores, online marketplaces, yard sales, etc., Take the art out if there’s some in it, use paint to make them your own 31. Books (👤 🌎💰) – almost every book in the world is available used after a couple days, libraries are some of the oldest and best forms of reuse 32. Ironing Board table (👤 🌎💰) – repurposed to something more useful, from a regifting event 33. Custom Dad Pillow (👤 🌎) - way to honor and remember family members and get something useful I’ll reiterate what I said in the video, whenever you need or want ANYTHING, consider a used option. Do yourself a favor, do your wallet a favor and do the planet a favor. Here are some places to look: Family Friends Max Sold - local pick up auctions, almost anything, large lots ReStore - used building supplies, housewares Facebook Marketplace - local pick ups for almost anything depop - pre-owned clothing eBay – almost anything. Use the "Condition" filter and choose pre-owned, open-box, etc Gazelle - pre-owned, refurbished tech devices

How the Freedom and Fun of Skateboarding Planted a Mental Seed Nick Zaremba grew up in the town next to my hometown and through our mutual friend Tom, we became friends who bonded over skateboarding and music. And like Tom, Nick also ended up working at Goodwin Graphics, the screen printing shop that has been printing my shirts since 1998. After college, we ventured off in separate ways, but with both of us finding the value and fun in reusing, we reconnected in the late 2000s. We ended up collaborating on the STAY VOCAL "Castle Guard" T-Shirt, for anyone who remembers that. I was honored, as Nick has collaborated with the likes of Converse, Pepsi, and Vans! I've always admired his work and the smiles they bring to so many faces; certainly including my own. And after this interview, I realized we had a more similar back story and appreciation for reuse than I thought. 1. Over the years, you have dabbled in so many mediums, but one thing that has always been evident to me is fun. Why is that a core component of your art? Fun, whimsy, playfulness, connection, sweetness - these are all words viewers describe my art's vibe as for which I reply - exactly. It is a component of my art because my art is how I process my feelings and what bubbles to the top is the pureness of my essence. I want to look at things that are sweet and feel playful and make me, as the maker, smile. If others can see that come through then I'm happy to hear it. We have enough non-happy/fun/sweet things adnoseum saturating our psyches everyday and everywhere we look and I don't want to focus on that at all. A mural showcasing Nick's whimsical ways at Waypoint Academy in Sandwich, MA 2. Like me, you grew up in the skateboard scene on the South Shore in Massachusetts. How do you think our small group (and skateboarding in general) inspired you? Now at 44 years old and as a father as well, I find myself really reflecting on the past chapters of my life and what ingredients really stand out. Skateboarding is one such ingredient. I skated from about 9 to 21. At 21, I severely broke my right leg and had to have pins and plates in for me to resume walking. It took months and months of healing and physical therapy and quickly realized at 22 I couldn't even roll anymore because the vibrations and lack of fluidity in my lower leg joints were immediately triggered. So all that being said, skateboarding was freedom, no phone, no wallet, no keys clogging up my pockets. My shoes, tee, jeans, and board was all I needed to just be away, mentally and physically. I learned my basic trick portfolio and after that just approached it in a jazzy free form way. I loved it. My friends who I skated with are still my friends today and I am grateful for that. A lot of my personal ethos came from the culture of it as well. It was intertwined with my music and subsequent discovery of new types of it. As an artist, it also taught me a new visual perspective on texture, detail, field of vision as well as the obvious sticker, board, print ad, and video properties of it. An array of fun faces painted on vintage glass bottles. 3. Some of your pieces are made on found materials. What's your favorite used item to find and incorporate into art? Honestly, my main ingredient is paint. I would say about 95% of the paint I have ever used, since I was in my teens and still to this day is "oops paint": mistake paints from the paint department of any place that sells paint. It is mistake paint that the customers did not like so they returned it due to the color being off and then the store puts it out on a rack for a super, super low price. Every store that sells paint that I go into - I go straight to this section. The colors are always very interesting and I always score! The best part of this is that it's all by chance and since chance is random, I really love the base line of that to them be mixed up with intuition and spontaneity to create works. Nick's array of "oops paint" from various stores. 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? The most waste I see would have to be from the food industry. The food packaging even for take out food is ridiculous. The amount of napkins given out for a donut is ridiculous, for example, a sheet, bag, and 5 napkins. Of course there is also single use plastic water bottles is up there as well. Also one thing that really bothers me, is the use of styrofoam, how is this still being produced? One of my favorite collections from Nick. Like me, he was inspired by cereal boxes in a recycling bin. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? I am still concerned about the topic of recycling; sometimes skeptical. I say this because my trash pick up shows up with one truck and you separate out your garbage from recyclables and put them in separate containers. I watch them pick it up and both bags get thrown in the same truck and squished together. How is it that recycling takes place? I asked the guy once and he told me they separate it all at the plant. Well, I know business and there is no way they employ people just to separate it out. The man hours to do that would be way too much. Also, when I lived in NYC, I noticed one time, trash bins in public that had two holes in the top -one for recycling and one for garbage- and they both led to the same hole underneath? 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? I was reading recently that scientists discovered some sort of insects that feed and eat on plastics and this seemed like the future to me. I do think that incentivizing recycling is key to help. Where I live, alcohol nips are a huge source of refuse everywhere in nature. I saw recently that package stores were now offering incentives if you bring in found nips to recycle which I thought was a really great idea. Skateboard themed painted scrap wood assemblage 7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways? Funny you bring this up. When I lived in the city when I was younger, my mother started a city wide recycling program at the local transfer station. It was highly successful and she was even given recognition by the mayor at the time. I remember going with her and helping people transfer their recyclables to certain bins, etc, on my days off helping her. I also remember doing initiatives similarly when I was in Boy Scouts. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? Yes, I do. One of my best buys was the time I bought my best skateboard off an older skater in my school at the time. I didn't have much money and his board was just very scratched up. He offered it to me for a low price and when I bought it I was so happy. That board is the one I learned the most tricks on at the time and lasted a while. Nick riding one of the numerous used skateboards that he got in the early days. 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? In my own house, when I have plastic waste, it barely ever reaches my bin because I always come up with a way to reuse plastics. They are reused as paint trays and paint holders. Also, I am the green thumb and plant daddy of my house, so a lot of seed starters are made from small containers and such. My wife and I are big thrifters and so we are always buying up old cotton wares people discard due to stains and such and she upcycles them for her natural dye clothing company NortheastDyeworks.com. 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used why? Got a photo? Oh man, this is a really tough one to answer as a person who has always hunted at flea markets and thrift stores throughout my life. I have so many great valued items in my possession that are treasured but are totally used. I guess maybe my first used car. It was from a neighbor up the street when I was 16. It was such a big deal to me and the owners really made me feel good about it going to me after all they used it for and after they treated it so well in their possession. That car got me very far in life at the time, from finishing high school to commuting to college to being my refuge when I was feeling low to enjoying trips with friends. I miss that car! Nick's Ford Tempo. You can see Nick's crutches leaning on the car, as he was still in a cast from his broken leg. The skateboarder is Jesse Allen, another friend that we grew up skateboarding with. To learn more about Nick, his art, and maybe even hire him for a custom mural, head over to the World of Nick Zaremba here. To order a One of a Kind REUSE! T-Shirts like Nick is wearing in his profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL One of a Kind Gallery.

You can't reinvent the wheel, but you can reuse it! Today, I’m launching a new interview series. The goal is to show you how reusing is the more effective solution for our waste problem, by connecting you to people from all walks of life. The people I feature will vary, because I strongly believe that reusing is for everyone, and that we are all in this together. The short series of questions will give you a look at who that person is and learn some unique things about them. And the interviews will show people how reusing is effective, easy and fun. To kick off the series, here is my interview with Lyndsay Dean, AKA The Vegan Potter. Two summers ago, I brought The REUSE! Box Truck to Compassionfest in Hamden, Connecticut. The event organizer had told me that she put me near her friend Lyndsay because she thought we would get along because of a shared passion for bettering the planet. Well, "get along" turned out to be an understatement. Over the past couple of years, Lyndsay and I quickly become good friends and cohorts, doing numerous events around New England together. I even helped Lyndsay and her husband work on their house for a day. And recently, Lyndsay figured out a way that I could enjoy one of her handmade mugs, even though I don't buy "new" mugs. And that's one of the things you'll learn here. Enjoy! 1. In the age of mass produced, cheap kitchenware, you make some incredibly unique, durable items. How do you do this? Every piece I make is individually hand crafted from stoneware clay. Stoneware is a fairly durable clay body when crafted with longevity in mind and handled with a bit of care it can last generations. I’ve been making pottery for nearly 3 decades and many of my early customers comment that they still use their mug or bowl or serving piece that they bought before I was in a retail space and I was making work in my parents garage back in 2000. All of my work is intended to be used everyday and become part of the home. The worst thing I could hear someone say is “I’m too afraid to use it so I have it on the shelf.” I want my work to become part of the fabric of everyday life and I think having hand crafted things enhances our lives in so many ways. Connecting us, 2. What was your inspiration to get into pottery? I always loved 3D art and I never felt that I was good at drawing. I grew up the daughter of a fine furniture craftsman and I spent countless hours watching my Dad sketch custom furniture and then create it in his woodworking shop. I was fortunate enough to go to a really amazing high school called the Norwich Free Academy in the town where I grew up. They had a robust art program where I took everything from photography, airbrushing, and metalsmithing which I really latched onto (again because of it’s dimensionality). But when I decided to take a pottery class in my senior year, I dropped it the following week because I didn’t like “getting dirty." The instructor, who years later became a bit of a mentor to me, called my parents who were taking an evening pottery class with her and told them I dropped her class and encouraged them to get me to reconsider. Needless to say, I finally found my way to working with clay again about 4 years later in Montreal, where I went to college for English and Creative Writing. I believe strongly in “Divine Timing” or fate, or whatever you want to call it because once I took my first pottery class (I think it was around 1998), I was 100% invested before I could even figure out how to center clay! I knew I had found what I wanted to do with my life and the rest was just YEARS of practice and figuring out how to make a living at it and honestly I’m still doing both of those things! 3. I know that you've been able to involve reuse into your work in some unique ways. Can you tell me about that and how else reuse might be involved? I’ve always felt very strongly about reusing, as many things in my studio practice as possible. I ran a community pottery studio for 17 years and we went through hundreds of tons of clay in that time. Clay is a manufactured product that comes from mining materials out of the Earth, mixing them in various ways and mass producing potters clay in factories. I am driven to reuse as much clay as possible because it is not a renewable resource. From the plastic bags and elastic bands that the clay comes packaged in to the cardboard boxes right down to the clay itself, everything gets a new life in my studio, often many times over. When a pot cracks or dies in the making process, it begins the process of recycling which means I first dry it out completely in order to rehydrate it. The rehydration is done using water that I use for throwing so that is also being reused. Once the clay is a wet slurry I scoop it onto a plaster table where it sits to dry out for a few days and is then put through a machine called a pug mill that churns it into a useable material again. I can then throw or hand build with the recycled clay and I’ve done that for my entire career. It then gets stored in the reused plastic bags with reused elastic bands. A few years ago after having a discussion with you about how I could make something that you’d be willing to use that would be entirely recycled/reused products, I began keeping a separate bucket to wash out all of my glaze brushes, containers and palettes. That bucket has become ‘mystery glaze’ and at the end of the year, I sieve it and mix and it has become part of the 100% recycled clay and glaze mug collection. The reuse mug that Lyndsay made for me and the vintage toy bulldozer that I gave to her from my dad's collection. Here’s a partial list of other things I reuse in my studio: Dry Cleaner plastic: (I have people bring it to me because I don’t personally dry clean my clothes) used for covering pots after throwing them. This type of plastic is incredibly thin and flexible and makes the least amount of marks on the wet clay and for some reason provides the best “damp” environment for pots. Paint Brushes: I’ve collected so many watercolor and acrylic paint brushes over the years mostly from folks giving them to me when they no longer paint and I use them for glazing and painting my pots. Plastic jugs from vitamin powder to glaze containers: they get new life when I mix up new small batches of glaze or colored slip 5 gallon buckets: All of the drywall compound buckets from an initial studio build back in 2006 are still in rotation for larger batches of glaze Glass jars from vitamins or other foods: these become storage for small tools like alphabet stamps Old Kitchen tools: from rolling pins to cookie cutters, spatulas to whisks they ALL become part of the making process in the studio Lyndsay in her studio and retail shop, Glaze Handmade, in Stonington, CT 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? Growing up, my Dad was always a stickler about shutting off lights and turning off the water and I’ve very much become that way throughout my life. Water usage is by far the biggest waste I see on a daily basis. I’m always disgusted when I see people watering their grass and although we don’t live in an area of the country where we have water bans on a regular basis, I think the ways in which we waste water are outrageous. Garbage collection day is always a very telling visual. Every week as I drive to work and pass each house with it’s garbage can, recycling bin and most recently compost bin on the sidewalk, it’s really alarming to consider just on one little neighborhood block the vast amount of waste that is created in just 7 days. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? I think ‘recycling’ became the tag word to end the worlds waste problems back in the 80’s but all that did was give us a false sense of security that we were doing our parts to rectify the damage we’d done. In reality I know only a small percentage of the recycling that is actually put out on the curb actually gets recycled and the REAL issue is our consumption but ALSO companies continuing to ‘over-package’ products which just creates more waste. For instance a glass jar of vitamins might come in a small cardboard branded box, WHY do we need that extra layer of waste? My biggest pet peeve is the organic section in the grocery store. Most often, it has small bundles of produce packaged on foam plastic trays wrapped in plastic wrap! I cannot resist expressing my disgust to the folks who work in the produce aisle anytime I see this and I refuse to buy overpackaged products like this whenever possible. It really feels like we are moving backwards in many instances. I also think the greenwashing comes in the form of language like when I was a kid we called it the town Dump, but now they are called "Transfer Stations." I think this type of language can be incredibly powerful in manipulating people’s minds when they picture the garbage situation in their very own town. 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? This is the kind of question I really don’t have answers to, as I have not done the research nor do I have the knowledge of how things already work. I try to consume as little news and politics as possible because I feel it’s just as bad for my mind as consuming animal products is for my body and spirit. Suffice to say, I do think that real change happens from a grassroots efforts and consumer demand FIRST. We as consumers need to make good choices with our dollars and if we all switched away from plastic wrap , plastic bags and paper towel usage for instance, what would happen to those manufacturing companies? Making changes in our own homes and businesses can be just as powerful in my opinion. 7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways? My Dad is the King of saving things for reusing or repurposing years later. From nuts, bolts and screws to wood scraps, fittings, electrical wire and everything in between, if you need something, you ask my Dad FIRST. More often than not, he has something that will work OR he can figure out a way to manipulate it to make it work for the intended purpose. He learned this from his Grandfather who lived to be 103 in his own house in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. My Great Grandfather filled his garage with well organized stacks of magazines, buckets of tennis balls (the strays that would roll across the street from the neighboring tennis courts) containers of used nails, screws, and an endless array of parts and pieces for anything you could imagine. He prided himself on not buying new, but reusing what he had saved and my Dad is exactly that way. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? The very first pottery wheel that I ever owned, I bought used from a woman who had saved it because it belonged to a potter friend of hers. It was a motorized kick wheel which is a manual version of the modern day electric wheels and it had a huge tractor seat and you had to kick a heavy metal disc to make the pottery wheel spin and then you could engage a foot pedal to keep the wheel going at a single speed. I had that wheel for the first two years I was making pots in my parents garage. Years later a friend of mine was offloading his home studio equipment and I was able to get a really large electric kiln, a potters wheel and stool and a large heavy duty slab roller for rolling out flat pieces of clay as a package deal. I never would have been able to afford any one of the items new and I estimated that I saved myself well over $10,000. I resold the wheel recouping some cost but the kiln worked great for me for nearly a decade and the slab roller is still in use in my studio today nearly 2 decades later. 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? My husband and I make it a point to peer into any dumpster that’s on a job site or road side to see if there's anything worth salvaging. I’ve certainly acquired the odd outdoor patio chair or coffee table from folks who put free signs on things outside their house over the years. 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? The kiln I purchased used was by far the best thing as it helped me make more money in my business over the decade of using it. Lyndsay with her reuse kiln before it fell out of commission. To learn more about Lyndsay, her pottery, and maybe even visit her retail shop, head over to The Vegan Potter website here. To order the "I Seed Change" T-Shirt that Lyndsay is wearing in her profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL Shop.

My recent stock from Supply Bulk Foods going into the box truck. When I came back to Massachusetts in the 2010s after living in Northern California, I found shopping for bulk foods not as easy, especially where I'm from on the South Shore. I was able to find a few places though, like Whole Foods, where I could fill my jars with some staples like coffee, peanut butter, and oatmeal. After the pandemic, many of these places unfortunately stopped letting me bring in my own jars. Luckily, I travel a lot and stock up at places with hundreds of bulk options like Honest Weight, in Albany, New York. But it certainly would be great if there was an option around the South Shore. Well, there actually is. A couple of years ago, I got an email from a woman wanting to make sustainable T-Shirts for her business; a dry bulk foods delivery service! While she was a friend of a friend, I had no idea that Supply Bulk Foods existed and was I excited to learn more. Alys Myers and I connected, we learned more about each other's work, and we got her reuse shirts made. Alys with her first batch of Supply / STAY VOCAL reuse T-Shirts. With the lack of bulk food shopping in Massachusetts, it was great to see that Supply delivers to various locations around the eastern part of the state. So, you don't have to worry about driving to a distant location every time. For me, it's fortunate that one of the delivery spots is my friend Julia's shop: Four Corners Supply Co. in Marshfield. One of the many great things I see about this is that two small local businesses are working together for a common good. Julia Traggorth, owner of Four Corners Supply Co., with my order from Supply. So, why is buying bulk foods a better option? 👤 Buying bulk foods is better for people. We've all heard by now about the increasing studies finding microplastics in human bodies. That is some seriously.... scary... stuff! We don't want that. And that's one thing bulk foods are all about preventing. With Supply, for example, all orders are individually packaged in compostable/recyclable packages and tin tie paper bags with a biodegradable liner. ZERO PLASTIC! These items aren't manufactured in a factory somewhere and kept in plastic for who knows how long. Some of my recent order from Supply. 🌎 Buying bulk foods is better for our planet. Cutting down on packaging also helps save resources and eliminates plastic waste. Plus, the more the local the food is, the less fossil fuels and carbon emissions there are. And that surely makes less of an impact on the planet creating less pollution and eventual climate change. 💰 Buying bulk foods is better for our wallets. With minimal packaging, the costs for the business are down and those costs can be carried over to the customer. You're also less likely to overbuy, as you can just get what you need. You're not stuck with one big package of something. Personally, I only have so much room for food storage in The Reuse Box Truck. The dry goods shelf in The Reuse Box Truck Tiny House. As an added bonus, Supply is also one of the bulk foods companies that takes SNAP/EBT. This is an important part of the brand model to help those facing food insecurity. And buying bulk foods doesn't just benefit customers wallets. By supporting local, small businesses, we're putting more money into our communities. And that's one of the easiest and most impactful ways that we can support our community. If we truly care about our community, we should want to put the money into our community's pockets, right? That being said, I used go to Whole Foods a lot, like I mentioned above. But as of earlier this year, I'm no longer going there. I don't need to give their billionaire more of my hard earned money. (Amazon owns Whole Foods if you did not know.) There are smaller, local grocery stores and bulk foods options like Supply that I can support. With every dollar that I spend, I get to vote for the kind of world I want to live in. And by supporting a small business, I'm choosing to support community and people I actually know. Since I know many of you are not in Eastern Massachusetts, there are plenty of options around the U.S. for buying bulk foods. Here's a great zero waste grocery guide by Litterless. The Dill Pickle Peanuts were not in the assortment on the shelf because they simply didn't make it that far on the way home.

Today, I'd like to announce one of our new partners: The Vegan Potter. Located in Southeastern Connecticut, Lyndsay Dean (AKA The Vegan Potter) has been combining her passion for pottery, animals, and the planet for over 3 decades. She creates ethical stoneware pottery that is made to last. And with her slogans and designs, her pieces serve as a vessel and a voice for positive change. Lyndsay has quite the resume too, including working for The Jane Goodall Institute in Canada. And Lyndsay doesn't just make pottery, she also teaches classes for all ages at her studio & retail shop, Glaze Handmade in Stonington, CT. Lyndsay at work in her studio and retail shop, Glaze Handmade, in Stonington, CT Over the past few years, I became good friends with Lyndsay and her incredibly talented drummer of a husband, Matt. She and I have been vendors at numerous events around New England together and she has become a big supporter of my work with reuse. As I grew to love her unique pottery creations, I asked her if there was any way to make pottery with used materials. I always thought you could somehow melt down broken pieces or something, but that was not the case. Lyndsay was determined to figure something out for my reuse lifestyle, though, as we both wanted me drinking coffee out of one of her mugs. And she did! She made a special collection of mugs with discarded clay from pieces that she collected over time in a bucket. And the glaze is a mystery color that came to be with all of the excess glaze from her brushes and containers. With all of our connections and collaborations, it really was time to make this relationship official! 🚚 🤝 ☕ The Vegan Potter logo will be featured on the movie screen side of the box truck and will be seen by the thousands of people that tour the truck this year. Deek and I with our official mugs for The REUSE! Box Truck; custom designs by me, everything else by The Vegan Potter. To really make our partnership official, I visited Lyndsay's studio a few weeks ago and helped design a whole new batch of the mugs. And this Friday, I will be stopping by Lyndsay's studio with the box truck for an event to launch the mugs! Check out the event details and learn more about Lyndsay's work here. 🤝🤝🤝 If you or your organization is interested in partnering with the Escape The Waste team, we've got some spots left. Email me here.

Deek, Rally the Catamount, and Alex at UVM Like every Earth Month, this April is my busiest time of the year for events and travels. And to kick off the month, Deek and I headed to Vermont in The REUSE! Box Truck for three events with three very different age groups and communities. It was a really cool experience to see the different kinds of reactions to our unique reuse solutions in and out of the tiny house. Some people want to live in the REUSE! Box Truck, some want it for a clubhouse, some want to travel in it when they retire, and some people just want to bring some specific reuse ideas into their own house. And these have been the exact goals of the truck since we started the project 10 years ago. Rally and Alex at UVM Our tour of Vermont began at UVM on April 8th, where we showcased the truck for the second time. We were parked outside of the always-busy Davis Center, the main student center on campus. And this is where their coffee shop is, so it was perfect for us! Throughout the day, we had hundreds of students and staff pass by, take a tour, or just do double-takes at what they were seeing. Students were definitely impressed with the potential of an inexpensive home of their own and many thought the 98-square foot house was even bigger than their dorm room! A UVM student takes home one of STAY VOCAL's special edition Vermont sweatshirts created by sewist Carly Carte. Rally was impressed with Deek's art... or crushing on that cat. On April 9th, we were in Randolph for Vermont's first-ever Reuse Conference: ReuseApalooza. I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the event. In addition to my personal story with reuse, my talk was focused on reusers collaborating and working together. I wanted people to leave the event with at least one idea for a collaboration. Alex speaking at the Reuse Vermont Conference I'm quite happy to report that it worked! Not only was I seeing others connecting and planning at the event, but I have been too. Since the event, I've connected with Birdie Blue to donate some of my rescued shirts and I'm going to speaking at a summer camp at UVM in June. For the first reuse conference in Vermont, it was a great turnout and we met a lot of people doing a lot of great things around the state. Our exhibitor neighbors included Jamie from Rise Up Refill, a zero-waste refill shop in Waterbury and Kate from The Bunny Bin, a unique company that restores secondhand toys and involves emotional storytelling. Vermont Senator Peter Welch also showed up at the event and spoke about his passion for the planet and The Right To Repair. Deek spoke at the Reuse Vermont Conference about building with used materials. Senator Welch speaking to the crowd at the Reuse Vermont Conference. Attendees of the Reuse Vermont Conference standing outside The REUSE Box Truck tiny house. On April 10th, we were in Barre at the Barre City Elementary and Middle School. After parking the truck and settling in with coffee, we were visited class by class by class. Students and staff toured the truck for the entire school day and everyone left with their own own reuse ideas; the goal of the truck for sure. Not surprisingly, the small bathroom was completely intriguing to the young kids! They had a lot of fun outside the truck, seeing the work that Deek does with his scrap art and that I do with my STAY VOCAL reuse shirts. As a bonus, we were parked by an area where some old broken school equipment that was being discarded. Deek incorporated some ideas into his talks on some ideas on what to do with it. Maybe that unique table is going to happen... Deek speaking to students and staff about creating art with discarded materials. Alex was in the principal's office, but was not getting a detention. Big thanks to Corey Berman from the UVM Office of Sustainability, Susan Alexander from ReuseVT and John Jose from Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District for this great mini tour of Vermont. Visiting Vermont is always a good time. That's why we'll be back in July for the Reuse Retreat! 🤝

When it comes to your daily life, what would you prefer your friends and family do: show off or show up? I can guess that you said "show up." As individuals, we can do the same thing for our friends, our family, and our communities. We don't have to live in a show-off society. We can (and need) to live in a show-up society. The future of our children, our grandchildren, and our planet depend on us. So, how are you going to show up today?

Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved doing jigsaw puzzles. I think it really kicked off in second grade when I would do them in the back of the classroom after I finished my work. According to my mom, the work wasn't challenging and I'd finish early, so I needed something to focus on. A recent regifted puzzle that I left with my mom. So, for anyone out there who has ever done a puzzle, I have a question. When you open the box, what is your goal? Do you look at the problematic pile of pieces, get annoyed, put it away and do something else? No. You focus on the solution and you put the puzzle together to see the complete picture. Maybe it's a result of my "puzzling" childhood, but this problem solving concept has carried over for me until adulthood. When I found out how much water it takes to make 1 new T-Shirt (713 gallons of water for those taking notes), I didn't get annoyed and keep producing new shirts. I came up with a solution to that problem in the form of reusing T-Shirts for STAY VOCAL. When I set out to make the REUSE! Documentary, I watched a whole slew of documentaries and videos in advance. The running theme was the problems with our planet and the waste that we make. I decided that we had enough doom and glom and I chose to focus on the reuse solutions for waste that are out there. And in my personal life, I look at each day like I look at a table with a puzzle on it. What piece can I put in next to make this picture better? That's how I live my daily life and that's what I teach with my reuse edutainment and events. And just like doing a puzzle, solutions to our problems can be fun too. A combined passion for problem solving with this puzzle themed STAY VOCAL T-Shirt. 🧩 🤝 🧩 P.S. I know I've been quiet for a while, but this happens every September. You can read about why I escape to the annual Tiny House Summer Camp here.

I recently was at an event with STAY VOCAL and got into a conversation about movies with another vendor. He was telling me how he doesn't stream any movies, but instead goes to one of the only remaining videos stores in the Boston area called The Vu. Hearing his passion for the store got me thinking about something that I am reminded of a lot: I really miss video stores! Alex looking through movies while filming the REUSE! Documentary in Portland, Maine. Sure, streaming is cheaper, convenient, and it offers endless choices, but video stores brought way more value. The weekend would come and you'd go out with your family or friend to the store after dinner. You'd walk around talking about movies, laughing at funny covers, flip potential winners over and read what they're all about. Then you'd decide upon a few and maybe grab some snacks. Depending on the person working, you might have a great conversation about the movies you rented, upcoming releases, life, etc. And how about that excitement at the counter when the new release that was out of stock was in the "Just Returned" section? These days, it's just click and watch. We gain convenience, but we lose connection, communication and community. And honestly, with more choices and more streaming services, it just adds more confusion. How many times have you endlessly scrolled trying to find something and you just end up watching your favorite show or movie again? It's OK for us to admit that not every innovation will be better. I've felt this way for a while, which is why a video store was one of the places that I had to film for REUSE. Because You Can't Recycle The Planet. The image above is from when I was filming at Videoport in Portland, Maine. Rental is a major component of reuse. In addition to the ones I listed above, the benefits of rental include less resources used when items are shared and businesses can be created around rentals. In the future, I'd like to see video stores make a comeback. Maybe they don't have to have all of the current movies, as streaming does prevent a lot of waste and packaging. But like many public libraries already do, they could be a place to share all of the millions of DVDs, videos, laser discs, and coordinating players that are already in existence; keeping those items and films alive for future generations. What was your favorite thing about a video store? Got a favorite memory?

One of the many groups of students at the YES! Youth Environmental Summit in Delaware Wow. I can't believe that it's been a month already since I was in Delaware. I guess dealing with the preparing and aftermath of a giant snowstorm will make time go a bit quicker. But the amazing experience I had there was one that I talk about regularly. Well, what can I say? It was an honor to be a keynote speaker at the YES! Youth Environmental Summit in Wilmington. I was surrounded by hundreds of high school students who share hope, vision, and a passion for the future of the planet. I was so glad that my words resonated with not only the students, but exhibitors, teachers and others as well. And seeing dozens and dozens of people walking around literally wearing my REUSE! message and taking instant action, was so rewarding. Cleon Cauley, from New Castle County, speaks at the Youth Environmental Summit in Delaware. Before my morning talk, I listened to Cleon Cauley, the Public Works General Manager for New Castle County in Delaware. His talk set the day off on a great tone for me with his shared beliefs of community, working together to make a bigger impact, and even his similar experience of growing up with a very supportive and involved mother. And like me, he knows that having fun can be a part of your work. My keynote talk to the students about reuse and responsibility definitely resonated with this group. After my introductory talk, the event was filled with so many other great speakers that I was happy to share the bill with: Heidi Pan, Founder of the 1.5 Degrees Podcast, Congresswoman Sarah McBride, the sole member of Congress from Delaware, Secretary Greg Patterson from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), and numerous student leaders from around the state. After our talks, Cleon and I shared some quick fun stories at my table. Logan Scott, a student leader for the YES! conference, was a huge help from start to finish. In addition to speaking at the event, I was also an exhibitor and my brand made the event shirts. By collaborating with STAY VOCAL to print their event shirts on rescued garments, the Youth Environmental Summit saved 108,376 gallons of water. That's enough water for 590 people to drink for an entire YEAR! Pam Bargren was slinging our collaboration T-Shirts at the Plastic Free Delaware booth. One of my favorites from the batch of REUSE! Delaware T-Shirts. Having worked with Nancy Downes from Oceana Massachusetts quite a bit, I had to introduce myself to John Weber. I guess this was before I added my stick figure themed signature to the sign. While behind my booth or walking around visiting exhibitors, I was able to have so many great conversations and learn about so much good happening in Delaware when it comes to our shared planet. And yes, I already started making tentative plans for a return visit. I'd like to send a big thank you to Dee Durham, Sherri Evans-Stanton and Logan Scott for making my visit a great one. Thank you for the invitation and I look forward to being involved in the YES! Conference again in the future! And a special thanks to Sam Wilson for the many great photos! The YES! team, student leaders, volunteers, and the conference's keynote speakers. When the event was over, my time wasn't done with my work in Delaware. On Saturday morning before I left, I teamed up with Plastic Free Delaware to launch my new Escape The Waste Pop-Up series. Anyone who brought a reusable mug got their coffee for free, on me. It was a great time and I have more planned for sure. Big thanks to Mike and the Brew Ha Ha! team for hosting the test run! If you own a coffee shop or work for an organization around New England (or beyond) that wants to team up, let's talk. The flyer for my first FREE Coffee event. Some of the people who I treated to coffee for avoiding single use cups.

8 Distracting (But Positively Impacting) Things to do on Voting Day, Instead of Hitting Refresh Put your phone away. Get a drink at a local cafe in a reusable cup and go for a walk. Walk in your neighborhood and collect trash and recyclables. Talk to a neighbor and see if there’s anything you can barter. Find something in a recycling bin to make a craft project with. Buy a used record from a local shop and listen to it. Go through your wardrobe and donate some used clothing. Buy a used movie at a thrift store and watch it.

This rotted out boat in front of a house gets decorated for each holiday. Halloween is my favorite. I love this time of year in New England. The colors of trees are changing. It's a little cooler. Hot coffee seems to taste better. And I really like Halloween decorations. But what I don't like is the mass amount of new plastic and disposable decorations that I see. For example, those ginormous plastic skeletons look cool, but they also take a ginormous amount of resources to make, ship, etc. And at their end of life (pun intended), they'll be looking not cool in the landfill for years to come, as plastic recycling unfortunately doesn't work. I'm also amazed at how much money people spend on decorating their house for a few weeks at a time, especially with an economy like we have now. So, as I was going through various neighborhoods recently, I felt inspired to write about some ways to celebrate Halloween with reuse solutions. But I also wanted to hear what some of my creative reuse and Halloween-loving friends had to say. That said, here are 13 different ways to have a killer Halloween, save a lot of resources and save a lot of money. I hope you get inspired by one or two. And let me know in the comments if you have any ideas of your own. KEY FOR BELOW (👤) Benefits the People - can still fit your interests and tastes, custom, personalized, fun (🌎) Benfits the Planet - save resources, keep items out of the landfill (💰) Benefits the Wallet - save money 1. Pet Semetary (👤 🌎 💰) from Jeff at Give Up Trash Bag Cycling Club in Pittsburgh, PA "The Pet Sematary sign is an old saw horse that I let sit outside behind the house all year every year so it stays good and dirty looking. The big black coffin is made from leftover / unused / reclaimed wood. The Cujo headstone is a repainted plastic headstone I've had since I was like 6." Jeff's DIY Pet Semtary decorations 2. Bloody Sheets (👤 🌎 💰) - Grab some old sheets from your house or a thrift store and use paint, ketchup, tomato sauce to make some bloody sheets. Here's a good tutorial that I found. 3. Bottle Decorations (👤 🌎 💰) - from Julia at Four Corners Supply Co. in Marshfield, MA "A few years ago, we painted a bunch of bottles with leftover black chalk paint and then modge podged silly labels on them. Use for decorations or candles." Julia's son painting used glass bottles and one of the finished pieces at her shop. 4. Buckets of Blood (👤 🌎 💰) - Collect rain water in buckets, add red food coloring and make "buckets of blood." This is something that I've thought about for a while, but never tried. I think this is the year. 5. Color ANYTHING Orange and Black (👤 🌎 💰) - With a specific color scheme for Halloween, it's easy to create all sorts of decorations with cardboard, scrap paper, wood and any coloring utensils or paint. You can also just buy used orange or black sheets, T-Shirts, etc and make things. 6. Costume Creation (👤 🌎 💰) - from Chris at The Capable Carpeneter in Taylorsville, NC "A rocket and spaceman! The space man is an old snow suit that is spray painted, a broken bucket for a helmet, and a cardboard backpack with 2 liter jets! The rocket man is a leftover round concrete form from my house build. The rest is just cardboard." Chris' sons as a Spaceman and a Rocket 7. Costume Swap (👤 🌎 💰) - from Yasemin at Reboot Eco in Middletown, CT Clothing swaps are always a great idea and this time of year is perfect. Someone might have that perfect "1990s Mom" look that you're going for. An ad for Reboot Eco's Halloween Swap Party Here's an example of a temporary clothing swap that I did with my brother. A few years ago, we decided to mess with our family and dress up as each other for a Halloween party. Fortunately, we're roughly the same size and simply borrowed each other's clothes. My brother as me and me as my brother. 8. Custom T-Shirts (👤 🌎 💰) - I find a lot of Halloween shirts at thrift stores, because people buy them new for 1 day. You could save some money and make your own with pre-owned black or orange shirts. You can also find plenty of used Halloween shirts like I do at thrift stores, or online outlets. With my clothing brand STAY VOCAL, I offer an entire series of Halloween themed 1 of a Kind Reuse T-Shirts, so you can clearly celebrate Halloween and the planet. Plus, you'll have a shirt that nobody else in the world has. An ad for the STAY VOCAL Halloween themed 1 of a Kind T-Shirts 9. Eyeballs (👤 🌎 💰) - Draw / paint eyeballs on golf balls and put them in random locations around the house. Here's an example of some. 10. Movies (👤 🌎 💰) - Your favorite Halloween themed movies are not only fun to watch, but can make for fun decorations too. My minimal Halloween decoration in The REUSE! Box Truck Tiny House 12.Pumpkins (👤 🌎 💰) - from artist Derek Diedricksen in Stoughton, MA Instead of spending money year after year on pumpkins, he makes completely unique pumpkins out of scrap wood. Deek's Halloween decorations made with pieces of scrap wood. 12. Tombstones (👤 🌎 💰) - Tombstones are an easy shape that can be cut out from wood, cardboard, paper, etc. They're easy to customize too. Here's a collection of tombstones that I made with broken skateboard decks. They're a perfect fit for The REUSE! Box Truck Tiny House. The skateboard graveyard on the back of The REUSE! Box Truck 13. Trick or Treat Bag (👤 🌎 💰) - And lastly, one of the most classic reuse ideas at Halloween. Instead of buying a new Trick or Treat bag or container, just grab an old pillow case or any bag from around the house. We all know that it's what's IN the bag that's most important. If you want it more "on theme," you can decorate the bag or find something like an orange pillow case at a thrift store. My friend Gage in 1989 ready to fill up his duffle bag. COMMENT SECTION BELOW