I’m gonna recycle my baby…

In this part of Project Green Baby, we’ll talk about baby recycling.

… wait. No. I meant recycling for the baby, not… I know they’re often ugly and smell bad, I… you do NOT get a nickel for each one!

Anyway, this all started with the crib. Actually, it was the toddler’s bed. Actually, it was the crib and the toddler’s bed and the day bed and the twin bed – these new cribs are multi-taskers! They’re fantastic! And Vicky and I loved them… what? They’re made where? Out of what?

Poopie.

Between the crib, the stroller, and the changing table, it was clear we were going to have to spend a huge chunk of change just to get something we did not want: more pollution! If there’s one thing I don’t want to have to pay for, it’s more pollution! Either in the form of building materials that are harmful to the environment (and the baby) or have to be shipped in from far, far away, I don’t want to have to create another ton of pollution just to pimp my baby’s crib.

No, I mean the room… to furnish it.

Once Vicky agreed that we should continue to try and stay on the green path with our child, we diverged. Of course.

Vicky started looking at green retailers, with products made in the U.S. I’ll show you some of those another day – cause, you know, she’s so good at writing…

In the meantime, I went to reading. (Because drinking and smoking were out.)

Every source I kept reading (such as my new favorite, TreeHugger), was telling me to recycle. But, again, I didn’t know of a place that took babies. Then, it dawned on me, I could get the crib and the stroller and the changing table and much more – recycled!

There are two great ways of getting baby furniture that does far less damage to the environment. (And, no, one of them is not to get them to smoke so it stunts their growth.) The first method is what Vicky and I have decided to call “donations”. Do you have friends with babies? Then, you might have friends who want to get rid of baby stuff, especially if they have to move it out to make room for kids stuff. Vicky and I are surrounded by people with babies. Heck, I could get $.55 if I really wan – anyway, with so many babies, we’re sure to know someone who would much rather make a “donation” than spend money on you that they could save for themselves. Honestly, why but someone a table or a car seat when you’re going to dump your old one? We shouldn’t think of this as a bad thing. (Now, I’m talking about furniture here. Clothes and nappies and bedding is for another blog entry.)

But what if you don’t have people who want to “donate”? That’s when you go to method two: Consignment. The moment I thought of it, I was shocked that I hadn’t thought of it sooner. There are some wonderful consignment stores with very expensive things priced cheap because they were previously owned. We could probably afford better furniture this way than if we tried to buy it new.

Now, what good does this do? Well, no new trees are cut down and no new pollutants are created in making this furniture. No extensive shipping is required, either. Not only do you get to benefit from someone else’s purchase, you can extend the life of something that might otherwise just get thrown away, wasted.

Now, just as with our diapers, no single solution will work in every case. In our case, we’ll probably do a little of each: getting “donations”, buying from a consignment shop, and even buying something new. But we’ll save money while getting quality goods that cause less harm to the environment in the process.

The more I look into this, the more I’m thinking that this would make a great book. The First Time Parent’s Guide to Greening Your Baby, or something. Oh, but wait… I said I wouldn’t… dammit.