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BY Rona Cherry
ILLUSTRATION Tracy Walker
Let's face it, moving is never fun. The prospect of sorting through belongings and packing box after box can raise anyone's stress levels. Then there's the stress on the environment: Tossing things makes for trash, and moving stuff from here to there uses up natural resources and energy. But if you'll be moving this summer—it's prime moving season—we've got tips to make the experience at least more eco-friendly. First, lessen your impact on landfills by donating to Goodwill Industries, the Salvation Army, or your neighborhood thrift store. Or recycle goods through freecycle.org or gigoit.org. You can also try hosting a yard sale or selling items on eBay or craigslist.
As for boxes, ask friends, coworkers, and local supermarkets for extras you can reuse. Treecycle.com sells recycled, unbleached boxes, while UsedCardboardBoxes. com rescues slightly used boxes from businesses and new but misprinted ones from box manufacturers. Rentacrate (rentacrate.com) and Southern California—based EarthFriendlyMoving (earthfriendlymoving.com) lease reusable plastic moving crates. To keep your items safely cushioned in transit, EarthFriendlyMoving also sells compostable RecoCubes, and U-Haul (store.uhaul.com) offers a biodegradable corn-and-potato-starch alternative to petroleum-based Styrofoam peanuts.
If you need help moving, consider hiring an eco-friendly moving company, such as California's Go Green Moving Solutions (gogreenmoving.com). If you're doing it yourself, it's cheaper and greener to hire a van for one trip than to employ your car for several.
JULY/AUGUST 2008 p. 16
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Plastic moving boxes are the way to go. I recently used them when I moved from San Francisco to Saratoga after being told about their existence from a friend who had moved 6 months earlier. Two things I really loved about them is that they were delivered to my door and that I was able to pack the moment they arrived (since they are delivered assembled with attached lids). Completely recommend them over using cardboard moving boxes. In case anyone lives is looking for moving boxes San Francisco, the company name is Zippgo.
http://www.zippgo.com
I too, have had the opportunity to work with plastic moving boxes over the course of many years. They are in my opinion an unmitigated disaster. Neither mover, cost nor environmentally friendly. If you would like to read an expanded discussion of these point and more please visit my recent blog post entitled;
The Worst of 2011: Plastic Moving Boxes @
www.citymove.wordpress.com