Turn It Green to Win $5,000!

Thanks to REPREVE for sponsoring today’s discussion.

In this day and age, everyone’s talking about being green – and you can’t blame them.  There’s too many reasons to count, or to name here.  As Abbie grows up, I want her to understand not only that it’s important, but easy ways to do it.

In elementary school, we’re taught to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  I try to make sure we do all of those, and here’s just a few ways we do it!

Reduce: I’m CONSTANTLY turning the lights off in the house (Chris has a bad habit of leaving too many on!)  Instead of buying bottled water, we use a Brita pitcher.  We recently got a Sodastream, and I know that’ll cut down on the amount of sodas we buy.  Our thermostat is set to use as little energy as possible during the day while we’re at work.  And of course, we’ve also drastically reduced the amount of waste we produce by using cloth diapers – probably one of the best decisions of my life.

Reuse:  This is one I’m always trying to get better at.  I try to find new uses for things.  I repurpose leftovers into new meals.  I buy used clothes for Abbie, and I plan to sell or donate all our clothes once we’re done having kids.  Once Abbie’s bigger, so many things are going to become art supplies… an empty toilet paper roll has endless uses!

Recycle:  Recycling is the easiest one for us – and we recycle as much as we can.  Most of the time, we have more recycling to put out than trash!  Even Abbie gets in on the act!

As easy as it is (since clearly, my one year old can do it), it’s sad that the U.S. plastic bottle recycling rate is less than 30 percent!  That means that less than one-third of all plastic bottles get recycled.  Remember those Repreve fibers I mentioned a little while ago?  They’re on a mission to get the word out to recycle more, and raise awareness on the cool things made with Repreve fibers, including the beanie they sent me, which Abbie wore while recycling her report from daycare for the day!

In addition, Repreve is taking recycling to new heights with a special green event at the 2014 Winter X Games in Aspen from January 23-26.

Professional snowboarder Elena Hight, Repreve’s brand ambassador, will compete in the Women’s Superpipe in a bright green Volcom jacket made with Repreve (from 50 recycled plastic bottles). Repreve will hand out free beanies (6 recycled plastic bottles) to fans at the Women’s Final Superpipe event, to wear and line the pipe with Repreve green.

It’s not just about free swag, though. This is an event with a serious mission: to show the world that we have to get everybody involved in recycling—to create a reprieve for the planet.

So I’m sure now you’re wondering….what about this $5,000 you mentioned?

Well, to celebrate the X Games, Repreve invites participants to share how they “turn it green”, or how they live a more sustainable life by recycling or reusing materials.  All you have to do is share an image or video on Twitter, Instagram or Vine with the #TurnItGreen hashtag.

Once you share the image or video with the hashtag, you will be entered into a sweepstakes where five entries will be randomly selected as the top five. Those five will be voted on by visitors to Repreve.com, where the image or video with the most votes will win a $5,000 cash prize. The other four video entries will receive a Repreve Jacket and a Go-Pro camera (retail valued at over $350).

Sound good?  You know it does!  I know I’d like to win $5,000!  Make sure you get your videos and pictures up – I can’t wait to see what you all are doing to live greener and teach your families to do the same!