A Green Eyed View - green ideas and advice

Spring of Sustainability

I'm writing to let you know about a FREE online series of events that can inspire you to live a greener, healthier, more spacious life and transform any frustration you may feel about the state of our planet.

It’s called the Spring of Sustainability, and it features more than 100 pioneers of sustainability - Jane Goodall, Ed Begley Jr., Bill McKibben, Van Jones, Vandana Shiva, John Robbins, Hazel Henderson, to name a few - who will share the most cutting-edge insights and tools for creating a sustainable and thriving world.

Learn more at this link: http://springofsustainability.com

This 3-month series of virtual and live events starts on March 26th. Each weekday, you'll have the chance to listen in and learn from an inspiring sustainability leader via your phone line or computer, or access the replays at a time more convenient for you. There's still time to become a part of the Spring of Sustainability.

 

Clean the World and Save a Million Lives

There are so many things we take for granted here in the good ole USA. For instance, did you know that more than 5 million lives are lost from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease? The majority of those deaths are among children 5 years old and younger. The saddest part of that story is that most of those deaths could have been prevented with proper hand washing.

The areas most affected don’t have the resources to properly protect these vulnerable children. But that’s where Clean the World comes in. They have developed a relationship with major hotels all over North America to recycle the soap and shampoo that used to get thrown away. No longer headed for the landfill where it can potentially harm the ground water, the millions of bars of slightly used soap are now sanitized and recycled to be distributed to help save lives.

Here are some facts about Clean the World from their website www.cleantheworld.org.

Since inception, Clean the World has eliminated more than 1.2 million lbs. (600 tons) of hotel waste from polluting local landfills.

Clean the World collected and distributed more than 9 million bars of soap to more than 45 countries worldwide including Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Swaziland, Mali, Mongolia, Uganda, Honduras, and Romania.

Clean the World partners with major NGO’s - World Vision, World Food Program, and Harvest Time International.

Clean the World is a natural disaster First Responder. In January 2010, as part of our Haiti Earthquake Relief efforts, we collected and distributed over 150 tons of hygiene products, medical supplies, water, and other essentials to Haiti.

It’s easy to get involved and help Clean the World save lives:

• Volunteer
• Make a financial contribution. Donate NOW.
• Encourage hotels to participate in the Clean the World Hospitality program.
• Support our corporate partners
• Sponsor a Soap Drive!
• Share our message about our mission with others.

For more information about what Clean the World does and how you can help go to www.cleantheworld.org.

10 Ways to Go Green and Enjoy the Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone. It doesn’t matter which holidays you celebrate, there are lots of ways to make your celebrations greener. Here are 10 ways to go green and enjoy the holidays:

1. Use Recyclable Gift Bags
   I wonder how many gifts get thrown out with the mountain-high pile of wrapping paper that fills up the living room during the gift swap. Save resources and safe guard your gifts by opting for recyclable gift bags or a use the same bag every year. You can also wrap gifts in old newspapers, using the funnies section for kids. All in all, no one will really care what the outside of the gift looks like, just what's inside.
2. Buy a Real Tree
   As hard as this is for me to say, buying a real Christmas tree is more eco-friendly than buying an artificial one made with plastic, lead and other processed materials. Only buy one from a tree farm where only purchased trees get cut, and recycle it (DO NOT throw it away) after the holidays are over. Better yet buy a live tree and replant the tree after the holidays.
3. Use LED Lights
   LED lights offer a more eco-friendly and energy efficient option to regular lights, because they use only four watts per strand, whereas regular lights use about 34 watts per strand. LED lights can also last about 20 years or 100,000 hours, which means you won't be buying new lights for a long time.
4. Limit Light Time
   Holiday lights can use a lot of extra energy and tend to stay on longer than necessary. Adjusting the use of Christmas lights from dusk till bed time and turning them off during the day and when you're not home will be much more efficient and save you money in the end. If you’re like me and tend to forget, get a timer.
5. Send Gift Cards
   If you are sending gifts, opt for gift cards instead of big packages. You'll save time, stress and money not driving around to find and send big gifts. Also, it takes less fossil fuel to send gift cards than transporting boxes that contain packing peanuts, plastic and other items that will usually end up in the trash.
6. Cook Organic Foods
   Go green this holiday season by cooking with organic and locally-grown foods to support local farmers. You'll feel better knowing you served your guests food that was free of pesticides and chemicals, and supported a more eco-friendly way of farming.
7. Send Ecards and Evites
   This year, skip the paper cards and invitations and go with the instant electronic versions. Ecards and Evites are just as decorative and meaningful to receive and, best of all, no fossil fuels are used to send them.
8. Keep it Local
   Celebrate the holidays at your place or close to home to save money on expensive trips and avoid using gasoline or burning fossil fuels to travel across the country. It's safer and more convenient to celebrate at home and you can avoid being a statistic on the news when thousands of people are stranded in airports because of bad weather.
9. Give Green Gifts
   Green presents are the gifts that keep giving all year round. They can be as simple as battery chargers and rechargeable batteries and homemade toys, or as high-tech as E-readers. Consider the longevity of the product and how green it actually is. Recycled and upcycled gifts are easy to find and a lot of them are incredibly unique one-of-a-kind items.
10. Reuse Old Decorations
    Holiday decorations are something you can repeat year after year, and they rarely need to be replaced. For example, ornaments are timeless, nostalgic pieces that deserve to be reused every holiday season. If you have the urge to get a new wreath or star for the top of the tree, be crafty and make your own.

I hope you all have a very happy holiday season this year and here’s to a rockin’ 2012.

How to Reduce Junk Mail Now

Every week I get a huge pile of junk flyers and coupons jammed into my mail box from businesses I don’t use and won’t use because of their junk mail. Every week as I pull this crap out of my mail box and drag it upstairs to my condo and throw it in the recycle bin, I get angry. The paper they use is slick and the whole pile mixes with my regular mail so I have to sort through it to make sure I don’t throw out a bill or some other piece of mail I actually want. Finally I took a minute after cursing the sender out, to see where this junk was coming from. Redplum is the offender. But to be fair, they do offer an opt-out feature that I could have used years ago and saved myself the frustration of dealing with this weekly mess. I’m embarrassed I was too stupid to figure this out long ago but I am very relieved to have found a solution.

So if you are tired of getting their crap, here’s the link to get removed from their mailing list:

Click the big blue button to go to Redplum's opt out page.

Now, if you want to get rid of unwanted catalogs and phone books and junk mail in general, check out Catalog Choice. They can help you reduce the mailbox clutter. Catalog Choice will work with you to get your junk mail under control. Here’s what they say about their operation – “We've expanded our service to help people control not only what arrives in their mailbox, but also to protect their privacy and personal information. Many companies work with us to make the opt-out process efficient and effective. Participating companies include catalog mailers, nonprofits, phone book publishers and other advertisers who use Catalog Choice to demonstrate best marketing practices and to honor consumer choice and privacy.”

Reduce the junk, help save environmental resources and eliminate the stress and frustration of dealing with all this unwanted clutter.

Up, Up and Atomic Attic

Atomic Attic has put the UP in upcycling. According to Wikipedia “Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.” That’s exactly what you’ll find at Atomic Attic, an Etsy store with style.

Miles and Aimee Harrison from Siletz, Oregon are the owners and craftspeople behind Atomic Attic. They bring us upcycled, vintage and handmade items that ooze cool. When I die, I want to come back as one of their cats. Their combined ingenuity and creative talent have converted vintage items into a refreshing and inspired home décor collection.

My favorite pieces are the swell pet beds and feeders. My lovely Lucca, the wonder cat, has a fetish for open suitcases. I can put a plush pillow right beside an old open suitcase and she’ll gracefully spring over the pillow right into the luggage. Well now I can offer her an upcycled vintage suitcase made into a bed just for her – cat heaven.

Go check out Atomic Attic and I can guarantee you’ll be amazed and delighted by the wonderful “new” products that have a better life because of Miles and Aimee. Vintage never looked so good.

There’s Always Room for “Jelly” Batteries

I have one laptop computer. I use it at work and at home. My back is killing me from carrying it back and forth. Why does it weigh so much? It’s mostly the battery that weighs me down.

That’s why I’m delighted to learn about a new discovery for what is being nicknamed “jelly” batteries. I  know, they don’t sound very reliable or beneficial. Well as it turns out they should make the heavy lithium batteries in our computers a thing of the past. Hopefully soon because not only is my computer too heavy but I fear it may burst into flames any minute because of the heat the lithium battery produces.

The quick science lesson about “jelly batteries”: The jelly is a novel material derived from a new polymer gel that is thinner and lighter and more stable than the liquid electrolyte technology used in a majority of lithium batteries in laptop computers and smart phones.  That reminds me I need a new battery for my cell phone. When the new polymer gel batteries become available, our cell phone batteries will last longer also.

Here’s a link to a Q&A with the Leeds research team about this new discovery. Oh, by the way, they are less expensive to produce than the current lithium batteries.

 I hope they hurry before my back gives out or my computer ignites!

A Sprout Watch I Can Call My Own

About a year ago I wrote about Sprout watches. They have created the coolest collection of inexpensive eco-friendly watches around. And finally, by a lucky fluke, I own one.

My bank has a rewards point system that they will be discontinuing soon. You know the drill – for every dollar spent using your ATM card you earn a point. Once you accumulate a massive number of points you can redeem them for a toaster  or a Wai Lana Pilates/Yoga Figure 8 Kit or a Fascinating Bling Stretch Bracelet, etc. The key to getting anything close to being interesting is to ignore your points and let them grow to a level where the rewards finally are worth looking at.

But they are doing away with the plan and I was forced to redeem my points or lose them. Much to my surprise I came across the Sprout watch I had written about and I had enough points to get it.

I am a watch-aholic. I’ve been forced to control my urges lately due to the economic situation with which we’re all dealing. So you can imagine my joy to be able to become a proud Sprout watch owner, without spending any extra money. 

Sprout embodies the “green” concept in all they do. This is from my post a year ago - Ashley Jones, spokes-person (and fellow watch-aholic) from Sprout explained the green concept behind these little beauties, “The Sprout collection was designed to reduce our environmental impact on the planet. The watch is approximately 86% bio-degradable by weight and constructed from earth friendly, sustainable materials: corn resin (case and buckle), bamboo (dial), mineral crystal (lens), organic cotton (strap) and contains a mercury free battery! Retail price for this affordable eco-collection is only $30! Also, the packaging (created from at least 80% post consumer materials) contains a grass card that can be watered to create your own mini grass garden for your desk or dresser!”

The only problem I can foresee, now that I finally own a Sprout watch, is resisting the urge to buy more. In case you want to check out what Sprout’s up to here is the link to their very swell website.

Green My Parents

My parents were light green out of necessity. You can read about them in an earlier post entitled It's Easy Being Green – Mom Was Right. But today young people all over the country are joining a movement that will reduce their family's impact on the planet and save their parents' some money. It's called Green My Parents.

I had the delightful privilege of meeting Natalie Calleja at our monthly gathering of a group of people passionate about all things green. Green Drinks meets once a month at a local bar or restaurant to socialize, support, and network.

Natalie is a Certified Green Consultant for Green Consulting Firm, LLC. One of her pet projects is the national movement Green My Parents. I confess I had not heard of this concept but am thrilled to know it is happening here in Florida as well as across the nation.

Green My Parents was launched this year on Earth Day. It's not just a feel good tree-hugging environmental group for young people. These kids mean business. The first hundred “Champions” were trained in methods that can reduce their family's wasteful use of energy, water, food and other finite resources. By teaching their parents how to be green, they ultimately save $100 or more per month. By sharing this savings with their children, the Champions are learning entrepreneurial skills.

Each of the original 100 Champions have embarked on the task of recruiting and teaching another 100 youth the same skills and methods. That scenario will be repeated as often as possible. Now get your calculators humming because what you'll be able to see that is going to happen is phenomenal. The goal for year one–  that's from Earth Day 2010 to Earth Day 2011 –  is for these remarkable young people to actually see a total savings of over $100 million dollars. Talk about your economic stimulus.

Go check out the Green My Parents website. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter and get your family involved.

As you can probably tell, I'm totally knocked out by these kids and what they are accomplishing. The planet thanks them, their parents thank them and I thank them. And I also thank Natalie for getting behind this very worthwhile movement and bringing it to our attention. Check out their very snappy video below.

 

 

WEWOOD, Would You?

What time is it? Well by my watch it's time to jump up and down. It's a bit of a challenge typing this while I'm jumping but I can't help it. I just came across another wonderful company with a beautiful line of products.

WEWOOD recycles the wood scraps from the flooring industry and creates gorgeous watches. Completely free of toxic materials and as their website says “the WEWOOD timepiece is as natural as your wrist.”

And if getting one of these beautiful watches isn't enough of a thrill, you can be  confident that you are also making a difference in the world. WEWOOD's environmental commitment is to plant one tree for every watch you purchase. They have partnered with American Forest, a well respected conservation organization. American Forest's Global ReLeaf Campaign will plant 4.8 million trees in 43 projects in 14 states and 10 countries this year.

You may remember a post I did a while back about Sprout Watches where I raved about how cool they are and how you should definitely shop with them with me in mind at Christmas and in June for my birthday. Well, definitely do that and then swing over to WEWOOD and think of me as you shop their impressive catalog. I think the WEWOOD Date Brown (pictured) is my favorite today. That's sure to change as time goes on…

 

Curbside Recycling Finally Comes to Saint Petersburg

The Saint Petersburg City Council voted unanimously to approve Waste Services of Florida Inc.'s bid for curbside recycling a couple of weeks ago. At least for folks who live in single family homes. Condo and apartment dwellers will have to wait a little longer but there is light at the end of the garbage can.                                                                      

It's a voluntary service so you'll need to call Waste Service's Clearwater office at (727) 572-6800 to sign up. They will be delivering 18 gallon containers to those customers who have the foresight to take advantage of this very affordable service. You'll be charged a yearly fee of $33.00 which works out to be $2.75 a month for weekly pick-ups.

The good news, at least I'm celebrating this, is that they will be recycling ALL numbered plastics from 1 through 7. That means all the #5 plastics which are ubiquitous in the food and grocery industries will finally get recycled instead of going to the trash burner.

They will also pick up steel and aluminum cans; all glass; all fibrous materials, (but cardboard boxes must be broken down); newspapers; office paper; junk mail; phone books; and magazines. I think that includes all the oversized political postcards we're getting flooded with this year. I was going to form a boycott of advertisers who used Valpak to advertise but now that I can see that annoyance will be  recycled I'll postpone that for a while.

If you decide you like to do it yourself, you can still do that. Remember the city recycling drop off centers only take plastics with the numbers 1 and 2.

You'll be hearing more about this new service soon. Watch for an insert in your utility bill. If you have any questions, need more information or just want to sign up, call (727)–572–6800.