GUEST POST FROM WENDY BRAWER AND AARON REISS OF GREENMAP.ORG For those of us who enjoy thrifting, yard-sales, and even harvesting treasures from the curb, the joy of a great secondhand find is almost addictive. But beyond just shopping at thrift stores and religiously recycling, Read More

We’re all entitled to a pet peeve or two. Mine is disposable ballpoint pens. No Small Problem According to the EPA, Americans throw away 1.6 billion disposable pens every year. Add the rest of the world, multiply by over 50 years of writing with disposable pens, and that’s a lot Read More

It was one of those cold afternoons in early winter when it gets dark early.  Six p.m. and already pitch black.  The produce seller who stakes out the corner of 68th Street and First Avenue was just finishing up for the day as I was walking past on my way home. He had a bunch of Read More

I’m one waste-hater who can’t bear to throw away those annoying little packets of duck sauce, soy sauce, sugar, ketchup and the like that come with take-out food. But just tossing them into a bag in the pantry thinking I’ll use them one day never really does the trick. Getting Read More

In my house, we ‘shop’ for back to school supplies in June, not September. I’m a grade school teacher. Every June when my students do “locker clean-out”, it’s sickening to see all the school supplies they throw away. Barely-used binders, pencils, Read More

Being a Swede and an ardent Wastehater, I often am asked “Why are Swedes so conscious about waste”? My best answer hits at the heart of what it is to be a Swede: the so-called “Law of Jante”. This law is embodied in the essence of Volvo and Ikea, two well-known Swedish brands. Read More

Where do you store the myriad of things left over from home improvement projects? You know, the kinds of stuff that you’re certain will come in handy one day even as a nifty arts and crafts project — but can overrun your garage or workroom in short order?  I decided Read More

Our family tradition of wrapping presents in fabric gift bags began as little brown paper bags. When my parents were first married in 1942, they lived in a basement apartment, the ceiling crisscrossed with pipes. For one of Mom’s birthdays, when Pop couldn’t afford Read More

Being a Swede and an ardent Wastehater, I often am asked “Why are Swedes so conscious about waste”? My best answer hits at the heart of what it is to be a Swede: the so-called “Law of Jante”. This law is embodied in the essence of Volvo and Ikea, two well-known Swedish brands. Read More

As a native New Yorker, I wear my city’s quirks like a demented badge of honor. While others bemoan the size of an average New York City home (1,300 square feet, or half the national average), I revel in all 220 square feet of my studio, having hammered, stitched and glued my way Read More