By Monica Ewing, Sunset senior designer

3 things you should never do:
1. Never dispose of mercury-containing items, such as fluorescent light bulbs, lamps, and tubes, in the garbage. It’s actually illegal to do so.
2. Never pour fats, oil, grease, or pharmaceuticals down drains. Contact a recycling center to find out where to recycle these items.
3. Never recycle pottery, ceramics, or porcelain. If pieces of pottery get mixed in with glass, the entire batch can be ruined.

These are just three things I learned from Wendy Hediger from the City of Palo Alto Recycling Program. We asked her to speak to my church’s women’s group last week. She answered our nagging questions: Should you wash empty food containers before recycling? (A quick rinse is usually sufficient.) Can you recycle cardboard milk cartons? (Not curbside in Palo Alto. They can only be recycled by placing them in the designated bin at the recycling center.)

The 4 Rs Wendy talked about the four Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and buy Recycled-content products. Think twice about whether you really need to buy something. Reduce your junk mail by doing it yourself or by hiring a service such as Green Dimes. Buy in larger quantities to reduce packaging. And support companies that are making recycled-content merchandise. If we don’t buy them, they won’t make them. I recently found this great list of recycled-paper manufacturers.

Paper or plastic? Neither. Both have a negative impact on the environment. Wendy recommended using reusable shopping bags. In 2004, the City of Palo Alto Recycling Center collected 35,920 pounds of film plastic (mostly plastic bags) for recycling. That’s just one city and one year.

We bought canvas shopping bags from Dharma Trading Company and decorated them with stencils and fabric markers. Some of us bought several to give as gifts. And Sarah holds the record for decorating nine bags in one evening.

Tip #1 The key to a freehand design, such as the tree I drew (top photo), is drawing it first with an erasable fabric marker, then trace it with the permanent markers.

Two other great reusable bags are the Baggu Bag and the ChicoBag. Both can be folded compact. And who doesn’t love LLBean's Boat and Tote?

Some grocery stores that give bag reuse discounts (local stores vary):
Albertsons - $.05
Andronico’s - $.05
Mollie Stones - $.05
Safeway - $.03
Whole Foods Market - $.05
Draeger's - $.05

80/20 rule Finally, Wendy encouraged us to follow her 80/20 rule: Do your conscientious best for the environment 80% of the time, and give yourself a break the other 20%.

Thanks, Wendy. For more ideas on going green, check out Living More Green.

Next week: A ribbon wreath.