Photo Friday | Updates to Lafayette's Recycling Service

I love when my community has positive recycling/environmental news to share - it's great for the city and it's great for blog content.

This week, Lafayette City-Parish Councilwoman Liz Webb Hebert made an announcement on her Facebook page that made me look like these GIFs:




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Green Business Spotlight | Busy Beaver Button Co.


Last year, when we were packing for Hawaii, I repurposed a button holder to accommodate one of my few Eco Cajun branded stickers, and toted it throughout our vacation. It worked well for the most part, although the button holder came undone a few times, causing me to almost lose the sticker. Y'all know I could not bear the thought of creating any litter!


Earlier this year, I contemplated other ideas besides stickers to print my logo on. Iron-on patches weren't cost-effective at all, so I looked at having real buttons made. In keeping with my own brand and my personal style goals of shopping sustainably, I looked for a company that has eco-friendly values.
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Photo Friday | Bayou Teche Trash Bash and Boogie

Now that fall is officially here, it's a great time to get outdoors! Getting out on the area waterways is a popular weekend activity - especially kayaking on Lake Martin, Bayou Vermilion or Bayou Teche.

This weekend, if you have a hankering to get on the water, you can do so while helping to clean up!

Tomorrow morning, the TECHE Project is hosting its regular Trash Bash and Boogie event, starting at 9am in Port Barre.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1884236958563490/


It is that time of year again as we get the Bayou Teche ready for the hundreds of paddlers from around the country to come and explore our beautiful water way. We are happy to announce our annual Trash Bash and Boogie, to be held at the start of the Bayou Teche in Port Barre on September 23.

As usual, the TECHE Project will have everything you need to have a successful cleanup. Bags, gloves, pickers, and boats! What would a TECHE Project event be without food, music, and beer (also other drinks for the youngsters)

The Trash Bash and Boogie is a family friendly event. If you have a group or organization interested in helping we would love to have you. We hope that you join us to make our Bayou Teche a cleaner, healthier place for people to work and play! 

Volunteers at previous Trash Bash events have helped to clean up hundreds of pounds of trash out of Bayou Teche, the only waterway in Louisiana to be designated by the National Park Service as a National Waterway Trail.

https://www.facebook.com/bayou.teche.1/photos/a.1603832079749823.1073741828.1603815503084814/1904961772970184/?type=3
Photo courtesy TECHE Project

Photo courtesy TECHE Project

TECHE Project has been a great ally to Eco Cajun over the past few years - I always love visiting with volunteer Dane Thibodeaux at the Vermilionville Earth Day events, and I'm working with him now to go on a bayou cruise and see firsthand some of the work TECHE Project does.

Photo courtesy TECHE Project

The event tomorrow is sure to be an enjoyable time - round up the family and head on out to Port Barre to help clean up Bayou Teche!

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Green Business Spotlight | Mow Green Lawn Service

Gardening and yard work can be equated with living a nature-loving, eco-friendly lifestyle, but sometimes, the tools used for them are anything but eco-friendly.

Most lawnmowers, weed eaters and leaf blowers require gasoline and oil to run, and depending on the size of your yard, it can get expensive to fuel, especially during the summer when it seems like mowing is required every other day.

However, there are eco-friendly alternatives to lawn care equipment.

Photo courtesy Mow Green Lawn Service

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Photo Friday | Inspiration

One of my goals for the blog this year was to write a lot of new content for y'all, and behind the scenes, I've been working on a schedule for the rest of the year. I'm so excited about what's coming up!

But I also would love to hear from y'all - is there a topic you're interested in learning more about? How to recycle certain items, more about reducing waste/minimalism, more sustainable style or home goods?

Comment on this post with your thoughts or questions, and I'll be happy to answer you and add some requested topics to my schedule!


Hope you all have a great September weekend! If you're out and about in Lafayette today, visit Downtown Lafayette to see all the great parklets, and enjoy the season's first Downtown Alive! Don't forget your reusable DTA cup!

http://www.ecocajun.com/2015/04/sustainable-downtown-alive.html

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All About Parklets

A few weeks back, I wrote about the upcoming PARK(ing) Day events in Lafayette.

PARK(ing) day is an annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into public “PARK(ing)” spaces. A handful of Downtown Lafayette metered parking spaces will be transformed into interesting, vibrant public spaces. 

But what exactly are parklets and what is their goal?

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Photo Friday | A Hint of Fall

On the heels of Harvey, and as we watch Irma make its way closer to Florida, a cool front came to the Gulf Coast region, giving us a much-welcomed break in the heat, humidity and rain.

The timing of it couldn't be better, especially now that Labor Day has passed. I'm pretty sure the entire region went fall-crazy this week, myself included. Who cares if the crisp evenings and mornings are only here until next Wednesday? The wreath on my front door now has mums instead of daisies, the autumn-scented candles are out, and my decorative pumpkins are on full display.


This week, I had a lunch meeting, and it coincidentally was at a restaurant with outdoor seating. Best lunch meeting I've had in a long time, for sure. The breeze was perfect, the food was great, and the waitress did not bring me a plastic straw!

I regularly get comments on social media asking where my straws are from. The particular set I have is from Amazon, and came with six straws and a cleaning brush. They've been one of the best investments I've made all year (read my original blog post on my straw switch), and my husband even gets in on avoiding plastic straws when we dine out. I always have more than one straw in my purse so we're covered when we need.

And I've only almost forgotten my straw at a restaurant once so far!


This week, I also jumped right in to drinking pumpkin spice coffee, but in an almost zero-waste way. Instead of hitting the coffee shop drive thru, I brew a couple cups at home and bring my coffee to work in my reusable mug. Although it's cliche, the flavor has really hit the spot.

The picture above is from last fall, when I did visit a coffee shop for a pumpkin spice fix, but I had them use my reusable mug instead of a disposable cup. I think it was actually hotter that day than it's been this week! Check out that original blog post.

How are you spending this first weekend of pre-autumn?

And to all my friends in Florida and along the East Coast, please, please, please stay safe this weekend as Irma gets closer!
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How You Can Reuse Glass Containers at Home or the Office

A few weeks back, my column in the Times of Acadiana looked at creative ways to reuse glass containers...in "honor" of the fact that Lafayette no longer takes glass in curbside recycling.

It's always important to try to reuse items as much as possible before throwing them out. Especially with glass jars or containers, they can withstand being reused for a long time before they need to be discarded.

Recycled and painted bottle vase at Taco Sisters Freetown

Most of the glass containers found in homes come from pasta sauce jars, spice jars, baby food jars, candles, mason jars, and beer, wine and oil bottles. Forget buying new glass jars for storage purposes — reuse what you’ve probably already got!

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Photo Friday | Kicking Off September

This Photo Friday will be a little bit of a recap of the past week.

To start off, I'm continuing to update my list of ways to help Harvey victims. If you're in the Acadiana area, United Way of Acadiana is holding their Flood the Love donation drive through tomorrow. Go here to see what items they are accepting.


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