Green Minded Wallet

I mentioned previously that I have a number of patched denim bottoms (jeans and capris). I also have a pair of jeans that were never patched, but should have been. While I haven’t had a problem wearing them up until now, I’ve been feeling recently that they should be retired. Part of the reason for my decision rests with the fact that a number of the patches have started to come off, basically because the root cause of the problem is still there: the size of my upper legs and the upper leg section on denim jeans don’t match up the way I would like them too. Since this problem isn’t one that can be rectified by any modifications within my power whether to the jeans (or my legs), I think that it probably doesn’t make sense to continue fixing something which is just going to continue to break. Because the jeans can’t be given away (or at least shouldn’t be), I plan on removing the usable sections (including the patches) to be used as material for other projects. I’ve actually succeeded in using denim in a number of products including a chair and my dog’s bed, so it bodes well for re-use or recycling, whichever is the appropriate term.

However, there is another motivation for this decision; I’m starting to reach a point where a just don’t feel comfortable wearing beat-up clothes outside of the neighborhood. It’s great to keep beat-up clothes around, but I currently have more holey and patched jeans than not. I know that as an environmental science student I could wear them and no one would probably notice or mind, but I mind. Perhaps it’s that I’m getting older, or perhaps it’s that, I feel nice when I wear nice things. Sure some of it’s perception, but some of it’s just the biophysics of sitting on a cold surface with a hole in the back of your pants. Everyone has to draw a line of conservation and frugality somewhere, and I guess I’m finding that mine isn’t always going to stay in place. From a conservation stand-point, I’m not doing too poorly, but it’s going to cost my a bit of money to buy a few new pairs of jeans. Of course maybe one day, some designer somewhere out in Europe or California will discover that some women have these weird muscle-y things that can occur on their legs, and start adjusting their pants accordingly, so I can save a bit on both. Until then though, I guess I will have to keep shelling on money for new jeans every year or so when they break.

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I went to a local grocery store to recycle some bottles this evening. It was on my route and I really just wanted to get the containers out of my house. I had a collection of cans and bottles (15 total), bought from various places around town. Well turns out the store that I went to only recycles bottles and cans that they sell. While I can understand why they do this, it was still a frustrating experience as I was only able to recycle 5 of my 15 items and this is the only grocery store in town that takes deposit containers. When I went in to redeem my coupons I asked the lady at the customer service desk if there was someplace else I could take the containers. Turns out there is a bottle redemption place a few miles from my house, and hopefully I can get my containers redeemed there. I will probably try and take my containers to the bottle redemption center in the next week or two, however the problem is that they have very inconvenient hours. I truly support recycling, but I think that if it’s going to be effective, it needs to be convenient. There are some people that will make an effort no matter what, but there are others who won’t be bothered if it seems inconvenient. Plus if the recycling centers aren’t conveniently located then people will just end up wasting money on gas to get there.

Do you live in a bottle deposit state? If so, are the locations easily accessible and accommodating to most container types and brands?

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