PlayGreen Secret Swag!

Good Afternoon PlayNetwork!!!

The swag has landed! Redmond Peeps should have all received your goody bag when you got to work this morning. If you didn't get one, please reach out to playgreen@playnetwork.com and give us hell for it. :)

These bags and the goodies in them were a long time coming. The original research done on bags for employees started back with Brina Smith and then Michelle Robles way before my time as a chair for PlayGreen. I am happy to say they have finally come to fruition and we couldn't be happier that you love them! 

Everyone at Play contributes to the green cause in one way or another. And long before PlayGreen even existed as a committee we were purchasing post consumer recycled paper for our copy machines. We have now progressed from just paper to a whole list of things. Enough for us to have qualified for the GBB's Platinum Certification! This work wouldn't have been done without each of you. 

The notepads have been a huge hit and one we hope to continue doing. Starting FY12 (and maybe sooner) the boxes for recycled paper will be back in the copy rooms next to the recycle bins for your single sided paper. Prior to all the moves, we were filling one box a month. The paper was then sent to the accounting office (then in Seattle) and they were reusing it for their internal check runs. They reached the point quickly where they no longer needed more paper from us and now they are totally self sufficient for their paper reusing operations. Special thank you to everyone in Accounting and HR for starting this amazing initiative and keeping it going! THANK YOU!!!

And as you can see from the photos, PlayGreen had a great time getting these all put together and delivering them!

Remember: Staples cannot be recycled, Paper Clips are rarely recycled and difficult to do so, Paper pads are for internal use only, Stress is bad for us and the environment, Plastic is forever and.....

PlayGreen loves you!

Ready for a Challenge? We triple-dog dare you.....

The folks over at Rodale.com have put it out there for us....well not for PlayNetwork specifically, but you know "us" as citizens of the world. If you don't know about Rodale, take a few minutes and check them out. They are the brainchild behind magazines like Prevention, Men's Health, Women's Health and Runner's World.

Their challenge? 

Give up plastic for the whole month of February; or at least try your very best to do so. Some of us still have to drive, and luckily (I suppose) they aren't asking "us" to give up all petroleum products entirely. Going plastic free or even consciously cutting down will reduce the use of our already mentioned underground buddy, petroleum and it's neighbor, natural gas. Both are great resources that most of us use everyday, but they are also both non-renewable. Boo. Worse, the process used to extract them from the earth pollutes our air and water.

If those are not good reasons to cut back, how about this: Plastic manufacturers add chemicals to certain types of plastics that can be highly toxic, like bisphenol A and phthalates. And although many companies are taking great strides not to add these chemicals, very few types of plastic are widely recycled. It's not even that they can't be recycled, they just often aren't. 

Here are the plastic-free ground rules: 

1. No buying or acquiring new plastic. 
2. No cooking with plastic or storing food in plastic. 
3. Minimize all other plastic use. 

Rodale invites "us" to share our experiances, tips, suggestions, questions and comments with them on their Facebook page. You can also get real-time description of their plastic-free trials and tribulations on their Twitter feed. 

They will be posting daily updates from those participating on their blog as well. 

So....if you think you can do it, and you're up for the challenge...PlayGreen will pay $50 at the end of the month to the first 5 people who complete this task. I know it's totally crazy. We're losing our marbles over here, just giving away the farm. So how do we know who's finished? What do you have to do to satisfy our desires?

We need a log of the following things at the end of the month:

1. A list of all plastics you were using prior to starting this process and what you were using them for. Both at work and at home. 
2. What were you able to substitute out? 
3. What was the most difficult to give up overall? Why?
4. What was the easiest to give up overall? Why?
5. What will you never ever go back to? Why? 
6. What will you for sure be going back to? Why? 

(Format for the above is totally up to you. So long as it's typed, not handwritten, and the answers to the above questions are clearly identifiable.)

In addition, every Friday, please email playgreen@playnetwork.com and tell us what has been easy and what has been really hard about the challenge this week. We are happy to create a distribution list and send out reminders to those of you that sign up. Just reach out and let us know youre participating. 

Start date: TODAY!

End Date: all completed submissions must be in by Friday, March 4th at 4pm. 

Please have fun with it! Send in pictures if you like! We'd love to see them! Also please remember all submissions are the property of PlayGreen and we can (and probably will) use them on this blog as well as feature your smiling plastic-free story and pictures in our newsletter. 

That's it! Are you ready? 

Set? 

GO!!!!!