Earth Day - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle 2

Earth Day is April 22nd this year.  I remember participating in the first Earth Day, 40 years ago, by helping to clean up a vacant lot in Saratoga Springs.  I was aware of Earth Day because my Dad was a water and sewer engineer who was very 'into' ecology before most other people even knew what it was.  If you are a Girl Scout Leader, Earth Day and simple ways to reduce, reuse and recycle are perfect meeting topics.

It seems that we are bombarded by paper these days, although we were once promised that computers would make paper obsolete!  Handouts, junk mail, inserts; the number of sheets of paper that are printed on only one side will really surprise you if you start saving them up.  And cardboard packaging - with online purchases, the number of boxes that arrive at the door can be staggering!

So I save those blank or nearly blank pieces of paper and sturdy cardboard rectangles, add a binder clip or two, and make memo pads.  Full, half and quarter sheets are stacked on cardboard and held together with binder clips. Full size - great for taking notes or for planning - the one above has notes for a lesson plan for fourth graders.  Half size - good for keeping by the phone or in the kitchen - note the phone doodles on mine.  The quarter sheet size fits in my purse - great for grocery lists, writing things down for people, measurements when shopping, etc.  If the backs get beaten up, there's always another box to cut up (the red one is a bakery box....)  Organization is easier when there's always a pad of paper to hand!