Try to say NO to new things and YES to old or used things.

Toxic waste is still a problem with recycling computers and other technologies. View or read about the 60 Minutes report that aired Sunday, November 9, 2008. We will be thinking twice about getting any new technology items in the future or research computer recycling programs first because of the waste problem. Find safe and responsible resources to recycle your old techie stuff at the Basel Action Network (BAN) that was featured on 60 minutes as well. Unfortunately, there are currently no recyclers in Iowa on their list. Iowans would have to go to Illinois, Nebraska, or Minnesota to go to one of BAN'S approved technology recyclers. Maybe we can encourage recycling companies in Iowa that recycle technology to seek BAN approval.

We are in the minority of our 30-something peers who have all the gadgets. Many of them may still be paying for them on their credit cards. Even older people have these big flat screen TVs that we are not buying into.We never had Nintendo as kids, X box, MP3 players, i pods, or i phones. Some of these things look so neat but we do not need them.

Our claim to fame is our very used big TV(that works great) donated to Gavin in 1997 from an elderly person who lived in the retirement community next to the college we went to in Issaqua, WA. We got our first cellphones when our daughter was born in 2007. Although Gavin did have one for work in Chicago that was like a leash. We were on our second computer when Gavin was in Seminary in 2001. It was having problems a few years ago and could not keep up the pace.That is the problem with updating technology. The old has to go somewhere. We are still debating about how/where to recycle it safely. We do have a newer laptop from 2007. We did get a digital camera in 2003 just before we went on vacation sailing in the San Juan Islands, WA with my in laws. We purchased a used record/cassette player a few years ago from a garage sale when our town had their annual clean-up week. We are so thankful that we got it then so we can listen to our old kids records with our daughter. She loves The Muppet Show! We have mostly used clothes and many toddler items that are used. We can go on and on about this one another time. Maybe for holiday gift giving ideas sometime.