Moving to a new home is usually stressful and expensive, but one in 5 Americans go through the ordeal each year (about 43 million moves per year), and the average American can expect to move about 12 times in his/her lifetime. However, while moving is rarely “smooth,” it can be “green.”
Katie Maynard, the Sustainability Coordinator at UCSB and the UC, CSU, CCC Sustainability Conference Organizer, provides the following suggestions for “moving green” locally:
- Use a “green” moving company. At least one moving firm in our area has begun to offer eco-friendly services that include the use of recyclable packing materials, wood-free crating, and equipment and trucks that run on biodiesel mixes.
- When discarding “junk,” contact a removal company that provides both removal and recycling services.
- Remember that it’s illegal to throw away electronics items, including batteries. Dispose of them via the services listed by the Santa Barbara County Electronics Recycling Program at http://www.lessismore.org/Programs/electronics.html.
- If you have useful items to give away, contact local Thrift Stores, consider specialized non-profit outlets such as Art from Scrap (http://www.artfromscrap.org/) which takes anything that could possibly turn in to an arts and crafts project, and, for building materials, contact “ReSource,” a California nonprofit building material reclamation and reuse, landfill diversion program (http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/reuse/Profiles/Resource.htm).
- Packaging material: Check out the cardboard dumpsters on campus or behind book stores and liquor stores. These are great places to get free, clean cardboard boxes and save lots of money. Some moving companies will also buy back cardboard boxes.
On a more somber note, the recent Tea Fire left over 200 local families without a home, full stop. Donations to help those who lost their homes can be made to United Way of Santa Barbara at ; donations to aid the burn victims can be given to “The Lance and Carla Burn Fund” ministered by Santa Barbara Bank and Trust; 1483 East Valley Road; Montecito, CA 93108-1248; and donations to the fire fighters who helped save an untold number of local homes can be made via the Red Cross at http://sbredcross.org/donate/. “There was a man who complained because he had no shoes, until he met a man who had no feet” (anon.).
