Delaware Children's Museum (DCM) and ECO-HOUSE

Last Summer, I brought the family to the newly opened Delaware Children's Museum in Wilmington, DE. The last time (last year - see post about Please Touch Museum) we went to a children's museum, the kids and including me and my wife had lots of fun. Visiting DCM also provided lots of fun and learning experience. Even though DCM is not as big as Please Touch Museum, there were a lot of activities for the kids (and adults) to enjoy. The kids had a blast and they are looking forward to going back at DCM.

So, similar to what I did when we visited Please Touch Museum, I started looking for what they are doing for recycling. And just what I expected, the museum also recycles and you will see several recycling bins around the museum. Their recycling bins are shown below.

I thought I was done for the day, until I saw the Eco House. The Eco House is a very informative area in DCM and has details on ways of helping save our planet. It shows what can be done in a house to make it more Eco-friendly. 

The first thing I saw was the living roof. You can see plants on the roof of the Eco House.

The Eco House also has posters like this that explains how it helps the environment and the benefits. As you can see on the poster, there can be two types of living roofs and It's Alive!

Here's a picture of another part of the Eco House which shows the roof structure made of branches/twigs.

Inside the Eco House, there are several items you can use around your house that can be powered by the sun.

These are the items that are solar-powered. You don't need to pay for electricity since the sun's energy is free.

The Eco House also suggests Eco-Friendly building materials for your home: siding made from wood that's environmentally certified; insulation made from recycled newspapers and bricks. Using Eco-friendly materials for your house helps save the Earth's resources.

Another material that can be used in a house is Bamboo. I never knew that Bamboo can be rapidly renewed. I learned at the Eco House that Bamboo can grow 48 inches per day to as much as 39 inches in an hour. Bamboo can be used as hardwood flooring and furniture.

Here is another thing I learned. I also never knew that Linoleum is Eco-Friendly and can be rapidly renewed. I thought that Linoleum was some sort of a plastic product.

Using Rapidly Renewable Resources is a big help in preserving our planet. It uses less space, produces less waste and we don't have to wait a long time for it to grow back (like trees).

The Eco House also has information about using Geothermal for Heating and Cooling. I heard from my co-worker that the initial cost is expensive to have it installed in a home but if you're planning to stay for a while, it will be worth it. You don't have to worry about the electricity to cool the house in the summer months and fluctuating price of natural gas, oil or propane to heat up the house during winter time.

Also around the Eco House, there are several items made from recycled products. Aside from helping save the environment, these items can also make your Eco House beautiful.

This bird feeder was made from recycled plastic bottles.

This wonderful art piece used to be glass bottles and electrical wires.

The fishes and other parts of this beautiful art piece used to be soda cans.

This clock was once a bumper of a car.

This bowl was created from paper labels.

Another bowl but this one was a vinyl record once.

A "laughter" sign made from tin cans and scrap wood.

I hope you have learned something from the Eco House. I really did learn a lot and it would be nice to see these materials/items being used more and more so we can do our part in saving our precious resources.

TerraCycle Brigades (CapriSun, etc.) - 10/6 update

Apologies for not being able to post for a while, here's an update regarding the TerraCycle recycling program. Aside from the CapriSun/Drink Pouch Brigade, our team added new brigades to the program. We have added the following: Chip Bag Brigade, Writing Instruments Brigade, and Elmers Glue Clue Brigade.

The picture below, there were about 12 bags that contains drink pouches, chip bags, writing instruments, glue containers and glue sticks.

This is one of the 5 containers of the Drink Pouches. The collection that we received was huge and I didn't

These 2 packages are drink pouches and these were the 1st shipment that I've sent out.

This is the 3rd box for the Drink Pouch Brigade

The 3rd Drink Pouch package ready for shipment

The 4th and 5th Drink Pouch packages on the left (Office Depot and Yellow boxes)

Close up of the 5th Drink Pouch Package (apologies for the blurry picture)

The glue sticks are visible on the right

Another picture of the glue sticks for the Elmer's Glue Crew Brigade

Here are the items that will be sent for the Writing Instruments Brigade

Here's the package for the Chip Bag brigade.

These items was the toughest one to do because of the volume and the number of items. It's a good thing though that these waste will be recycled and reused a something else.

CapriSun Drink Pouch Brigade - 5/18 update

Here are another set of CapriSun pouches for shipping. From the picture below, you will see a big Lay's chips bag. I just found out that the school also signed up for the Chip Bag Brigade. While sorting out the pouches, I also saw pens and glue sticks. These are for the Writing Instruments Brigade and Elmer's Glue-Crew Brigade. There were around 15 bags that I have to go through.

I started putting the pouches in the box. I separated the other items into a different box. I'll take some pictures of them when I'm ready to send those items.

I was able to fill out 2 boxes. Brought the boxes to a nearby UPS store for shipping. One weighed 19.2 pounds while the other is 12.1 pounds.

Earth Hour on March 27, 2010

Another year has passed and Earth Hour is here again. All you have to do is turn off your lights at 8:30pm (local time zone) for 1 hour on March 27, 2010.

To find out more about Earth Hour, visit the Earth Hour website.

CapriSun Drink Pouch Brigade - 3/10 update

I have shipped the remaining 2 boxes of the CapriSun pouches. The 1st box is weighed about 12 pounds while the 2nd box is a little more than 17 pounds.

1st box (red) shipped (weight: 12 lbs).

I've positioned the 2nd box this way so the remaining juices will drip down.

2nd box shipped (weight: 17 lbs)

Kohl's Cares for Kids and the environment

We went to Kohl's last Saturday and I noticed that they also have a Plastic Bag recycling bin at the store. The bin looks like this in case you want to bring your plastic bags for recycling while you're there shopping for good deals.

Plastic bag recycling bin

On top of the recycling bin, I found a flier about Kohl's commitment in helping to keep our environment clean. The flier also suggests a few things a customer can do in order to help.

While at the store, I also found an interesting book (see link below) at the Kohl's Cares for Kids area. It is one of their items for their Kohl's Cares for Kids program and I bought one. I just glanced at a few pages of the book but haven't read it entirely. I got it for only 5 dollars, which is a steal and I am hopping I may learn some other ways on helping to save our environment. But the other reason why I bought the book is that the Kohl's Cares for Kids program donates 100% of the net profit to support children's health and education initiatives nationwide. Ah, I just shot two birds with one stone... just a figure of speech. (No birds or animals were harmed while writing this post.) 


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CapriSun Drink Pouch Brigade - 2/11 update

Last month, I got another set of bags of drink pouches from my kids' school for our CapriSun Pouch brigade. I received 12 bags and worked on putting the pouches into the boxes so I can send them to Terracycle.

12 bags of CapriSun pouches

We used a copy paper box just like before to hold the pouches

Here is the 1st box filled with CapriSun pouches.

Filled 2 boxes on the left (white). I need some more pouches to fill the 3rd box (red).

Closer look on the 3rd box.

These 2 boxes are ready to be shipped.

Covered the boxes and attached the pre-paid UPS shipping labels.

I have dropped the two boxes to a nearby UPS store.

Just like what I said before, Terracycle pays for the shipping and they also pay the charity 2 cents per pouch.

Terracycle already received the 2 boxes above. I am currently working on finishing up the 3rd box (red). I'll post a couple more pictures once I'm done.