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| Frugal $ense: Save the planet and
some money |
| By Sheyna
Steiner • Bankrate.com |
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Little things do add up. Just like
a sustained effort toward saving money can one day
build a fortune, incremental efforts at reducing
plastic consumption can save some fossil fuels and
reduce the amount of trash dumped in landfills.
Statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency
show that plastics accounted for 11.1 percent of
the total municipal solid waste generated in 2003,
totaling around 26.7 million tons. In an effort
to reuse some of that plastic, Jessica Cartledge,
the Frugal $ense winner for April, combines her
love of gardening and money into one tidy earth-friendly
package. Congratulations, Jessica!
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| April's Frugal $ense winner: Jessica Cartledge |
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Jessica Cartledge
of LaGrange, Ill., won $100 for submitting
the following tip:
Garden
recycling
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Bankrate: What kind of
plants do you grow?
Jessica: A lot of herbs -- basil and
rosemary and tons and tons of tomatoes. It's been so expensive buying
pots that I figured I'd get the plastic jugs instead and just start
them out from seeds, because I always end up throwing those little
things away that you have to buy. Bankrate:
It's a good way to reuse plastic containers.
Jessica: I'm trying to recycle; I'm
kind of crazy about that. I recycle everything. And I just feel
like I throw away so much garbage that I thought I might as well
use it for something. There's a new fertilizer that uses old pop
bottles and they put a compost tea in it and sell it for $15 and
that's great, they're helping the environment. But, I thought, hey,
I could do that and put plants in the jugs, and it's worked out
really well.
Bankrate: Do you have
any more earth-friendly frugal tips?
Jessica: I grow a lot of stuff from
seeds instead of going out and buying the started plants, so that
does save a bit. If you start plants from seeds, you have a little
pride in it as well. Plus, I get so many of them that I give the
plants away to family and friends. A lot of times, with gardening,
if you have perennial plants, if you grow one it'll sometimes blossom
into a few more or you'll have little seedlings. So, I have a gardening
club where people exchange plants with me and I give them my plants.
You end up having so many more plants that you don't have to buy
them.
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