How Long Would it Take to Weed Plastic Out of Your Life?

One of my friends in the Team EcoEtsy group, tanjasova, shared this CNN video about one woman’s quest to completely rid her life of plastic items. This is Jeanne Haegele’s story. She bakes her own bread, cooks her own yogurt and even mixes up her own toothpaste to avoid buying anything with plastic.

You will be surprised by where plastic is located, Jeanne certainly was when she started out on her journey to reduce plastic consumption.



Jeanne has certainly inspired me to open my mind to the potential benefits of reducing plastic consumption / use. How long do you think it would take you to completely eliminate plastic from your own home?

RubberForm Is Making A Positive Impact By Reducing Waste

If you had a chance to read yesterday’s post about the Washington Nationals Stadium and the environmental efforts they put in place while constructing it, you might have thought that was the only thing that caught my eye while I was away. Of course being the eyes-open Greenie I am almost nothing slips past me!

We spent a little time in a small park right near Dan’s house called Brookside Gardens. The grounds were impressive and filled with beautiful plants and cool appointments, like a small stone labyrinth. On the way back to the car we shortcut through the parking lot and I stepped over a wheel-stop barrier at the end of a parking space.

I looked down to see the barrier was not standard concrete color but black and it had an impression in it which read rubberform.com. Of course my brain immediately considered the possibility that these barriers were created out of old tires or something equally cool so I snapped the photo above in order to complete research once we were back home.

I was immediately impressed to learn that RubberForm not only creates these wheel-stop barriers out of recycled tires (among other eco materials) but they also produce sign bases and stands, speed bumps and humps, speed cushions and tables, vehicle bumpers, car stops, rooftop patio pavers, rubber bricks, spill containment berms, landscape mulch, pipe/hose/curb ramps, wheel chocks and more, plus they have plans to begin creating systems for drain management, storm water drainage, base weights, rubber retaining walls & water retention systems.

They are a US Green Building Council member, are based in the United States, and pride themselves on being an innovative business that puts their employees first.

In today’s market, thinking recycling and keeping an eye on the planet by reusing materials that were already created in order to produce an item of function is not only innovative but just good business sense.

I applaud RubberForm and will now keep my eye out for their recycled, functional, products all over town!

3M Command Hooks Get a Facelift

Recently while shopping for some home improvement items to help liven up our new-ish apartment we picked up some curtains. I had intended to make curtains from material I already have but as I was going through my stash it turns out that much of the large bulk fabric I had I already used for various other projects so in this instance it was essential to buy new.

As a side note, luckily I was able to reuse the curtains we had in our prior bedroom in our current bath as well as our living room panels in the living room here. The main issues of concern now were the bedroom and closets.

Our apartment is a modified railroad style, meaning it is in one long rectangle and the common length of hallway houses doors to each space. Here is the basic floor plan I drew up while acquiring items for the move:

The bedroom resides in a little nook just big enough for our bed and a couple of small tables but the doorway is a wide open archway measuring about 84” across. When we first moved in I had this idea to create a movie theater-esque design using heavy red velvet panels, a matching scalloped valance with gold trim and tie backs in the same gold with huge tassels. It seemed fitting for us.

So while shopping, when I came across some heavy, deep maroon, velvet curtains with already attached 2” wide nickel grommets I was in heaven! It looked as if the dream for a theater theme was coming to fruition. I knew it would be relatively simple to locate the cording, tassels and trim at my local craft shop but what to use for tie back hooks?

We checked out the home improvement section but nothing seemed right. We headed for the décor aisle and there they were; 3M Command Timeless removable hooks in brushed nickel.

I was impressed right away. I have long been a lover of these hooks because Matt and I move so much and they: 1. leave no holes in the wall and 2. always come with us to the next place. I have only ever used the white plastic version however as they tend to reside mostly in our kitchen for things like potholders and hand towels. I had no idea they came in metal!

I picked up two, one for each tieback, and fully intend to hit the craft store later this week to acquire the trim and tassels. Once I have created the final look and attached the hooks to do their thing for a while I will come back and post a proper review of their true usefulness. I am looking forward to completing this project this weekend!

Staples Finds it EcoEasy Being Green

Recently while perusing through the local Super Stop and Shop I remembered that I was in desperate need of Wite-Out (review to follow!) and I headed for the office supplies isle. Being a super Greenie sleuth just about anything Earth tone is generally going to catch my eye. Being a writer when the brown thing is a composition book there is no way I will not pick it up. When I flipped it over Staples won me over and this baby went straight into the cart!

Inside the front cover is a world of information on this innocent looking comp book. Not only is the book made from 80% waste, it is made from sugarcane, a more rapidly renewing resource than trees! Then to top it all off the inks used to print the covers and page lines are water or vegetable based.

Staples EcoEasy line offers over 3000 products including this comp book. They are also available online for purchase** and the prices are fairly competitive with the similar not so eco friendly versions. The cost of my comp book was $2.49 at the grocery store and online it is being offered for the same price. Not too bad!

Ball point pen ink doesn’t bleed through at all so I could write front to back with no fear of illegibility. Of course I do not always use ball point so I tested a few other types of pens from thick Sharpie to fine Sharpie to a Rolling ball style. Both markers did show through some, but less than I had expected, and the liquid rolling ball was somewhat visible but better.

Based on my own writer’s test of this composition notebook, the Staples EcoEasy line as a whole and the company’s solid efforts to save trees and energy, I am granting this baby a Three and a Half Leaf Rating!

For all of my future office supply needs I will be sure to check out Staples EcoEasy line first! Keep up the great ideas folks! ♥love♥

**As a side note, OneCause will donate 1.5% of all purchases made at Staples online store so do not forget to set up a OneCause account and download the toolbar prior to shopping so the school of your choice (such as Adventure School in Tucson) can benefit as well. Being Green is Easy!

The One Bag At A Time Reusable Shopping Bag

Using a reusable shopping bag is not exactly a new concept; people have been taking advantage of cloth or canvas bags for decades. Prior to the recent surge of renewed interest in these bags, we of course had the two choices coined in the ever recognizable question “paper or plastic”. So what suddenly became wrong with paper and plastic that has everyone scrambling to spend the approximate $.99 on each reusable bag? A lot.

A few months ago I made a fairly large purchase for a client in a local hardware store called Tags. The store was offering one free reusable bag for every $50 spent in the store. By the time all was said and done I had enough Tags imprinted bags to accommodate for the entire purchase and when I got them home I noticed a tag hanging from the strap indicating these bags were created by a company called 1 Bag At A Time.

I flipped the tag over to read the information the company wanted to share regarding paper and plastic bag usage and was blown away by the statistics provided; and I write about this stuff all the time!

Based on the tag, 1 Bag At A Time indicates:

“Making a paper bag emits 70% more global warming gas than making a plastic bag.

380 billion plastic bags or wraps are thrown away in America each year.

14 plastic bags contain enough petroleum to drive a car a mile.”

There were a couple more statistics but my brain already began spinning figures. If we divide the 380 billion bags by the 14 bags, Americans alone could be driving approximately 27,142,857,143 more miles without touching another single drop of petroleum. That’s one heck of a road trip huh?

I held off on completing this article for a few months because I truly wanted to see how these bags held up under the wear and tear of not only weekly grocery shopping but toting anything I intended to shop for or travel with. The answer? Phenomenal.

We are tough on our stuff, especially when it comes to something like a bag so it would need to hold up to be worth it (read: so this bag doesn’t just end up as disposable in a landfill somewhere instead). So here are my estimated stats:

“I shop for groceries weekly and formerly acquired an average of 15 plastic bags per trip.

I have used these reusable bags each week for 12 weeks.”

Have you done the math yet? No? Well let me help you out -- that is approximately 180 bags saved so far and roughly translates into being able to drive 13 miles, which pretty much completely negates my trips to and from the grocery store (and then some!).

Other good things about these bags are that the straps are long enough that I can sling them over my shoulder, the capacity is large enough that I can hold much more in far fewer bags, they have a removable bottom stiffener (these are made from plastic) to provide extra bottom support and they can be machine washed on cold so even if my stuff leaks I can salvage the bag.

These bags are available for purchase in hundreds of stores throughout 43 of the 50 states and Washington DC (not available in Alaska, Mississippi, Nevada, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota or Wyoming but they are looking for suggestions of where to provide them in these areas so if you are local please check out the website contact information and give them a suggestion or two!). There are 65 locations in California alone.

Or order bags directly from their website! The company offers a variety of bags for purchase online -- jute, standard, wine bottle bags, small size, “Clean Air” design, a sampler pack and cooler bags (insulated) not to mention bottom stiffener replacements. They provide for the average consumer looking for a few good bags as well as to the wholesale market like companies who with to order in bulk with a logo.

At just under $.99 per bag the cost could not be better and considering the overall benefit to the environment I feel the definite need to award the 1 Bag At A Time reusable shopping bag a Four and A Half Leaf Rating!

I will now consider ordering a whole slew of your bags when I plan to sell at craft fairs or otherwise and hope you continue to provide custom sizes and styles as one or more of these might just get stuffed in everyone’s stocking for the holidays this year!
♥love♥

Ronnie Trash Wants Us to Put Our Trash in a Can

Sesame Street has long been a leader in teaching good lessons to everyone, kids and adults alike. Doing a quick search just on YouTube for 'Sesame Street environment' brought up hundreds of videos. This one, with a song sung to the tune of “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, is a fantastic lesson for everyone as it explains that we all need to take care of our planet because we all live here. Hope you enjoy feeling like a kid again watching this!

The Word is Spreading!

More and more concerned citizens are standing up to do their part for a better planet especially in the areas of proper disposal of electronics, reduction in consumption of fossil fuels and increased consumption of organically grown produce.

Keeping e-waste out of landfills is critically important in order to prevent leeching of harmful chemicals (primarily mercury) into the soil and proximate waterways. In an encouraging news story it seems that the National Center for Electronics Recycling has indicated a rise in collection of e-waste by seven percent over the numbers submitted in 2007. Every little bit helps!

We have all heard the term hybrid vehicle and understand the definition to be “a vehicle which requires at least two sources of power to go”. In hybrid cars those sources are likely gas and electric or diesel and bio-fuel. In 2007 the number of hybrid cars sold increased by 38% over the prior year. As more manufacturers are looking for ways to bring revenues back, and more consumers are looking for ways to save money at the pump, the number of hybrid vehicles will surely increase even further.

As summer rolls around we begin to think of farmer’s markets and fresh, pesticide free produce but by eating organically grown produce the rest of the year we ensure chemical free farms are supported and possibly right in our own region of the country. Even big box stores not especially known for this type of product, such as Walmart, reported a growth in sales of organics over the past few years. Stores like this actually anticipate sales to hold steady or even increase in the next year. Don’t forget to take your reusable tote!

Although these efforts may appear more difficult to complete, or even costly, savvy environmentalists understand it is nothing more than a change in attitude. The more often the practice is put into place and the more people who do it, all those concerns quickly fade away. Spread the word about how easy it actually is to live a Greener lifestyle by sharing your stories about the little things you do!

Paper Water Bottles

Yes you read that title correctly! A few days ago one of my favorite foodie bloggers Karen sent me a link for Paper Water Bottles. I was completely intrigued as I had never heard of or seen anything like this before and I dove into researching this bold concept to see if it was even viable because my initial reaction (as I am sure many of yours) was ‘how can paper hold water?’. What I discovered is that the 306 Paper Water Bottle by Brand Image is an innovative and feasible product, but it is one I seriously question the need for.


Brand Image is a marketing company and as such wants to ensure their literal image is seen by as many people as possible. Since this concept is seemingly so impossible it will likely receive a lot of press which ensures a vast public viewing. The thing with consumers these days, especially those who are eco-conscious, is that they are savvy and no matter how “cool” the concept is, if it is not a solid contribution to the planet, they ain’t buyin’. The 360 has pros and cons.

When compared to a plastic water bottle the life span of the 360 is much shorter. The bottle is lined with a sugar based polyester (PLA film) which is fully biodegradable but will also break down quickly meaning each bottle will likely only get one go round. Some experts say a plastic water bottle should not be used more than once, however it is actually possible to do so without a breakdown of fibers. Also as a plastic bottle has a screw on cap, the 360 has a snap off top which is said to reseal but if the paper (or other natural fibers such as bamboo, etc) begins to break down, the cap will not secure tight enough for transport.

Both a plastic bottle and the 360 can be recycled which is definitely a pro but unlike a plastic bottle which is only partially (if even) created from recycled materials, the 360 is created from 100% renewable resources.

Where the 360 has plastic beat is in both its total design and reasoning behind its creation. It comes in six pack or larger and every bit of the packaging for transport is the same material as the bottle itself which ensures full recycling capability. The reasoning behind its creation is to ensure that the 86% of plastic bottles thrown into landfills each year is transformed into a biodegradable material instead. I must admire the innovation there.

Overall I am back and forth on this concept where on the one hand it would be great to find a use for all the paper we toss each year but on the other I question why we can’t just make use of a travel mug or aluminum bottle. Due to its innovative concept and environmental consciousness I am granting the 360 a Two Leaf Rating.

Thanks for thinking in the right direction Brand Image!

A Fun Day Trip to Connecticut

Yesterday Matt, Melissa (our very own talented GLR poster), and her three boys visited the Mystic, Connecticut Aquarium and Seaport. It was a great day full of exciting marine life sightings, toy boat construction and lots of laughs playing games in the car. In addition to the wonderful beluga whales, penguins, sharks and tall ships we had the joy of photographing, all three of us adult types were happy to see that there were separate recycle bins for plastic, cans and glass in both locations, but I was most impressed on the way out of the Aquarium when we came across this:

It was a simple little bin at the exit doors but the amount of paper, and everything associated with creating each map, it likely saves made it my favorite sighting of the day. Well, okay, maybe second favorite next to the sharks. We took full advantage of this and tossed our two maps inside before heading back to the car. Admittedly we are all eco-police types and would have no doubt recycled them at home but it was nice to see the option available right there for future visitor’s use. Thanks Mystic Aquarium for going that one step further toward saving the planet!

The Solution for Used Toner and Ink Cartridges

Quick -- raise your hand if you have used a Xerox copier, printer or fax machine? Now keep your hand up if you have ever been forced to throw away the empty ink or toner cartridge because you had no idea what else to do with it? Aha! Just as I suspected, many of us have. Well never again will I be doing this now that I have discovered the safe haven known as Cartridge World!

Yesterday I was helping my favorite Accountant reorganize her office and there was a stack of old, empty cartridges just hanging out in the corner. She told me she does not want to pitch them but did not know what else to do. I was convinced the town had a DPW station where they could be dropped so we did a quick Google search but came across Cartridge World instead.

Upon exploring their website we discovered that one of the company’s over 1600 international* locations was conveniently only about five minutes away. Their website said they took just about anything so even though some of her items were from printers that even the most seasoned Techie Geek has never heard of, we boxed them up and took a ride down there. She went in with a full box saying ‘wish me luck’ and came out empty handed with a smile. She said he even thanked her and it cost nothing to drop off! Score!

The stores are franchised locations (independently owned and operated) and in addition to recycling old empty cartridges they might just carry replacements for the toner cartridge that was just dropped off. Make sure to get a toner Recycling Collection Bin from your local store and start collecting not only yours but your friend’s and family’s, office’s or neighbor’s cartridges so everything can be recycled and kept out of landfills. Cartridge World is committed to a Greener Environment and they are proving it.

I have read every page of their website, and now have first hand experience with the convenience and eco-impact of this company, so although I have tried to find anything preventing it I have no choice but to grant Cartridge World the illustrious and well deserved Five Leaf Rating!

I am truly impressed by this amazing business model making a surge to employ local workers, encourage entrepreneurship and do their part to save this planet. Way to go, keep up the amazing work!

To find a location near you please visit their website or call 1-888-99-REFILL

* currently operating locations in the US and Canada.

The END of Ecologically Irresponsible Footwear

In an effort to get the ball rolling on getting back into shape, my best friend and I have begun a power walking routine twice a week. With the chilly temperatures, and the fact that she is pushing a stroller, we settled on the indoor sanctuary of the mall for the first few weeks. My friend advised me that I should get myself over to the New Balance store and pick up a pair of walking sneakers after a couple weeks of pounding the tile in the only sneakers I currently own which are not exactly walker friendly. I definitely need the support so I began searching for options, wondering if there was such a thing as an environmentally friendly sneaker and I was delighted to discover END Footwear.


END stands for Environmentally Neutral Design and these folks are really striving to be just as their name indicates.

Their company moral is to do more with less. For example, their shoe soles are created from a single mold as opposed to a different mold for each style, the plastic shank (arch) was removed (there is still support at the arch, just continuous material instead of a separate piece of plastic -- formed by yet another steel mold) and the manufacturing process only produces 1 - 5% waste (which they regrind and put back into their next product). Not to mention they are currently working to develop a 100% glue free shoe and have donated all of their test and development samples over the past two years to the Soles4Souls organization.

These shoes are just coming available in a variety of outdoor specialty shops (released for mass market beginning this past January 2009) and online. It was nice to see they are available at REI as I have a location somewhat close by so I can try them on before purchasing but I was curious what the cost might be for an environmentally responsible athletic shoe so I did some online research on the Women’s shoe line at Zappos.com. At first I was shocked to see the price hovering in the $85.00 range so I decided to do a cost comparison to the New Balance shoes my friend had recommended and I was delighted to learn their average cost for a similar style shoe was around $75.00. A ten dollar difference would be acceptable to me in order to make a better environmental selection.

The drawbacks I discovered while reading customer reviews about END are primarily associated with the look of the shoe (which of course is a personal preference because I thought quite a few of them were really attractive) as well as the fact that, although the company is based out of Portland, Oregon, the shoes are manufactured in China (this means overseas shipping creating emissions).

In the end the positive impact this company is putting out there far outweighs any drawbacks and I fully intend to try out these shoes this weekend. If they are comfortable I will likely acquire a pair. In the meantime, due to nothing more than what I have discovered online, I am granting END Footwear a Three Leaf Rating! After testing I will report back and who knows, their leaf rating might just tick up another branch.

What Impact Does the Phone Book have on the Planet?

As a prequel to this post I must say I love this world and the way things always seem to work out just the way they should. Most of the time the winds and waves of fate push us in the direction we are supposed to move so if we do not fight them we end up landing right where we should; carried by the natural way of things. When this type of thing happens it always makes me smile.

This morning I felt a strange need to go back over to read through the comments on Jason’s latest blog posting. It is truly rare that I do this on anyone’s blog, generally I leave my comment and go about my life until I see the next posting and then, repeat, but for some reason I felt compelled to be there today so I went with it and the end result, as referenced above, was a big smile.

One of the comments shared a couple links to the issue of the Yellow Pages and how the unsolicited delivery of them nation wide creates a huge draw on natural resources (sadly this person’s profile is set to private so I can not link back, sorry!). I had been considering what to write about today and bingo, there it was, a story I had forgotten about came rushing back. Here is what laura had to say:

“Arrrgh! Phone books came this week and I hung my head in shame. Not only did I get my shiny new set at work, but at home too. So now I feel like a complete drain on mother Earth. So I did a little searching online to see if this issue was being addressed by the sane.
EVERYONE please sign up to stop the madness! Go Paperless people! 540 million copies of these tree wasting bricks are delivered EVERY year in the US alone. The Google has it all kids!
Sign up to be removed from the mailing lists.
http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/
http://www.paperlesspetition.org/
I know that Jason's friends love the planet and thought they'd want to know. Heck, I might be the one catching up or should I say waking up.
Spread the love.”

I responded there to thank laura for the links and share a story about our own phone book delivery a while back. Matt and I were out front when the delivery person arrived. The books were not shrink-wrapped and he stacked them on the side of our front lobby. We, almost simultaneously, indicated we did not need one and thanks anyway but he could give it to someone else. He told us that he was not allowed to do that, he had to leave them or he would not get paid. We were stunned that trees were being chopped down for something we do not even need but at the time we had no idea what to do other than to take our copy back upstairs and recycle it with the paper later that week. We thought, who needs a phone book when there is Google or yellowpages.com these days? (The really important thing to note here is that I just went down to the lobby and there are still 32 various books just sitting there, taking up space and getting no use. Some have been there well over two months.)

Enter laura and the links so generously shared over at the Freshness Factor.

I immediately went to Yellow Pages Goes Green and began investigating. Turns out this grassroots movement is pretty alright! They indicate that 540 million yellow/white pages are printed each year (that is 1.79 books per every person in the United States) and their mission is to turn it around so these books are not simply left (unsolicited) but a consumer has to call to have one delivered if they want one, thus saving millions of tons of resources and emissions annually but still making the resource available to those who really want or need it. Clearly these folks felt the same as Matt and I about the advent of the Internet for providing information that meets our needs. After reading through all of the information on the website I was elated and signed up, hopeful it would make a difference.

Then it was time to visit the Paperless Petition link. I found this site to provide about the same information as the first and opted to use Matt’s information instead of my own so we would be doubly covered just in case. The cool thing about this site is they are able to support requests from Canada, the UK and Australia in addition to the US. International readers, this is the one for you!

I am not sure how effective signing up will be as we live in an apartment building and I do not know if this would be something my landlord would need to request but I figured it could not hurt to try anyway. Here is hoping that there will be at least one less book in all of the piles downstairs from now on. Please feel free to sign up if you no longer use the physical yellow pages. It takes just a minute and the planet will thank you.

As laura said “spread the love”.

UPDATE: Laura's profile is up but she does not have a blog so please don't spam her, thanks!

The Waterless Eagle

Yesterday my Aunt sent me an article from the Boston Globe about street sweeping in the city of Boston. The title of the article was related to the future of street sweeping and I was immediately curious if this wasteful yet somewhat necessary institution was about to be disbanded due to the recent economic downturn. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to read about a newly unveiled, waterless street sweeper proposed to the city of Boston called the Waterless Eagle.

The Waterless Eagle uses forceful suction and brushes to intake all the dirt and grime, as opposed to simply pushing it forward until it reaches a low point to fall into as a standard sweeper does. In a city demonstration the Eagle managed to suck up dirt that a standard sweeper missed and left the asphalt shiny clean. City officials were certainly impressed but there is one great downfall to the Eagle, the price tag. At $235,000 per unit, to replace all seven city machines during a time of proposed budgetary cuts would be a hit of over $1.6 million so there would need to be some very strong reasoning behind the change other than pretty roads.

During my research I discovered that street sweepers can have a tank with up to 420 gallons of water and as the article states, the seven trucks in operation in the city of Boston (not to mention all the privately owned trucks operating around town) are capable of using over 800 gallons of water per day, each. That is a hefty number especially when considering sweepers are out from spring to fall. In addition to the wasteful aspect of the machines, all that water has to go somewhere. As the machine sprays at the curb the large rotating brushes literally sweep away the dirt, grime and trash leaving this water free to run right into neighboring streams or sewers. Let us not forget all that rock salt or sand that was used over the winter that is now headed straight downstream, compromising waterways and nature in the process.

The Eagle runs on a powerful John Deere motor and can travel as fast as highway speed which means increased efficiency in the time it takes to complete an entire neighborhood. The hopper will hold up to four and a half cubic yards of waste and can sweep a swath of up to ten feet. The hopper and sweep path are comparable to that of a standard sweeper but the most excellent feature of all is the optional fuel systems. The Eagle can be fitted to run on either compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) meaning an immediate savings of fuel cost and emissions city wide.

I am hopeful that the city of Boston will see the benefit of such an efficient and Green machine and invest in at least one for this year as a test run toward greening up the city. Once they find the benefits of such technological advances far outweigh the cost it will only be a matter of time before residents start seeing big white trucks sucking up our grunge as opposed to the well used, once loved, yet completely outdated dirt stained yellow machines of yesterday.

There Are A Few Things I Simply Can Not Give Up

Green design, green products, green living, green this and green that -- the word Green has overtaken the general media! With the advent of so many fine things there will always be some things that just do not make the cut where safety, convenience, comfort, price, or a combination of all of the above, is concerned. As a self proclaimed Greenie I tend to give everything a try and if it works for me, fits into my lifestyle, then it will be here to stay. If not then I must revert to my old choices with no guilt and know there are so many other ways I can make a difference instead.

This past Thursday night was the latest Bennetts Brook Green Group (BBGG) meeting. It was small, only seven of us, but once again we touched on many fantastic topics and I was the lucky recipient of two lovely items that evening! One of the members picked up reusable shopping bags for everyone at Walgreens (I love this store) and at the end of the night I also won a door prize. I had the option of choosing between a bar of soap and a box of tissues. I eyed both but decided to go with the tissues because I had never used any of this company’s products before and was rightfully curious.

The brand is Seventh Generation, a well known name just about everywhere these days. The box is eye catching with little green leaves on a white background and on one side details of the product are given. These hypo-allergenic tissues are made from 100% recycled paper, have no dyes or bleach and are two ply. The bottom of the box indicates that if all households using tissues were to purchase a recycled product we would keep 17,000 pounds of chlorinated pollution from water ways and save:

☼ 283,000 trees
☼ 730,000 cubic feet of landfill space
☼ 102 million gallons of water

Yes this is wonderful and yes I am excited to feel good about making a difference. But am I literally looking down my nose at this gift? Well, sort of. No, they are not soft and no I do not believe I could use them if I had a cold as my nose would be raw after just one day. I am certainly happy to have the opportunity to try them out but I am a firm believer that anything we use has got to be the right thing for each of us personally or it will end up in a landfill before its intended life cycle is complete.

I will leave these tissues in the holder on the back of the toilet because we do not get sick often in this household and may only ever use one tissue a day. For that purpose they will be just fine and it will make me feel good knowing I am doing something more environmentally friendly but when this box runs out I will not replace it with another. Instead I will donate to plant a tree and use that as the trade off for the box of Puffs Plus with lotion that will make its way into my cart.

Shaving Waste From A Landfill with a Razor Sharpener?

Here in the United States there are several large companies that provide tools for hair removal through a blade of some sort -- Gillette, Norelco, Bic and Schick are some of the best known to provide disposable or electric shaving implements. Electric razors are a good environmental choice as they help reduce waste from landfills since the heads or foils will be used many more times than a disposable blade but they are also a draw on electricity as they recharge through a base unit. Since the base can be unplugged while not in use however a moderate offset can be achieved. As a gal who prefers to take care of this particular activity while showering, an electric solution is not feasible for me so I have been interested to find something that would extend the life of the razors I do use if at all possible.

While watching television I was introduced to a product called Save A Blade which claims to resharpen the blades of disposable style razors, therefore extending their life to approximately 200 shaves from a single blade. I was intrigued and decided to look into reviews of users who had tried the product to see if others think it is as great as it claims to be.

The first place I went was Amazon because I have never found the reviews to be held back -- if a user loves or hates the item they share their opinion freely. Save A Blade received nine reviews for a mix of two with five stars, one with two stars but six with one star. The most commonly stated fact was that the unit will destroy the blades, not sharpen them and that it will actually cause more cuts than before it was used. Ouch!

While doing my research however I came across some information for a way to extend the life of a blade that was so simple I almost yelled “well, duh”! Dry off the blade after use. The blade of a razor will oxidize and rust when introduced to moisture for lengthy periods of time which causes pitting, the main offender for killing a blade. Simply drying it off with a towel by patting lightly or using a hair dryer is said to lengthen the life by 122%. But be cautious of using a hair dryer only if it is already in use as otherwise it is a definite waste of electricity. Nothing like a free solution to saving a little money and the environment as well as a few band-aids since there will be far fewer nicks or cuts to heal.

After the Holiday Comes the Clean Up and Clear Out of Toys

In my house we live by the ‘one out one in’ rule. If I purchase something new it is generally due to the fact that something else has completely worn out, broken, or become outdated to a point where it is no longer functional and has already made its way to a recycling center or charity. Since it is just my husband and I there are far fewer family members to determine the supposed need for the item in question. Even though we do not have children we do own some board games, stuffed animals of sentimental value and other items that are deemed “kid”. These items are a small portion of our overall possessions but for those with children it becomes necessary to locate an alternate solution for all of the toys the children in question no longer find appealing.

A friend of mine collects all of these toys and other items her children outgrow in a given year and sells them on craigslist to families who are looking for a toy in that growth stage at a reduced cost. She collects this money over the course of the year and uses it to completely finance their summer vacation. In the past few years she, her two sons and a friend have been taking tours of all the major league baseball parks in the country, seeing games and touring the cities they are located in. The trips are a lot of fun for everyone and they are making far greater memories by selling these items instead of placing them in boxes in the attic.

Not all people have the desire to spend their time uploading photos and descriptions of items onto an internet selling or auction site but there are many additional ways to recycle without going through all of those steps. Why not check in with local preschools, public schools, churches, hospitals or other charitable organizations to see if they would be able to utilize the toy in question. Another great way to recycle a toy is to check with local community organizations to see if there are families who have fallen on hard times and are in need of assistance. For new families in the neighborhood why not put together a gift basket of formerly loved toys that are still in great shape. This will help the family save a great deal of money and introduce the child to something they may not have had the opportunity to acquire otherwise.

Earth911 is a website dedicated to discussing the benefits to recycling just about anything from toys to bicycles to eyeglasses. They provide great tips for recycling parts of children’s toys like batteries or electronic components. As the world of technology improves, toys can become outdated faster but throwing them away leads to tons of e-waste being placed in landfills. Recycling these toys will help keep over half of all toxic waste out of landfills and stop potential pollution of waterways. In addition it will ensure less air pollution as emissions are not being released to construct something new.

Now that the holidays are winding down families are attempting to find space to store all of the new items that have come into their home and one of the easiest ways to do it is to recycle the old. What may seem boring to one child might just be the best gift ever to another.

Can Plastic Grocery Store Bags Be Useful?

From time to time I am asked certain questions when it comes to living a green lifestyle. People become concerned about their eco habits and wonder if the things they are doing will have a positive or negative environmental impact. Yesterday I received a fantastic question from Linda at the Cozy Craft Corner concerning plastic shopping bags and I wanted to share her question as well as my response because I think everyone can benefit from the communication. Also hooray to Linda for pulling out the reusable shopping bags! Here is to many more uses in the future!

Today I remembered (the first time) to take my grocery bags with me to the store so I would use less plastic. My question is what do you do with your little garbage cans? Do you not put plastic bags in them? I use my grocery bags for that, car garbage and to use for a tote bag now and then.

Linda

Hey Linda!

Great question! The most important thing is reuse in this case. Although you are using the plastic bag in the garbage can it has now been used twice, extending its life further than the original intention so immediately that cuts the impact right there. How about further extending? When we use plastic bags in our bathroom trash can we tend to just dump the trash into our big kitchen can to take it out & leave the plastic bag behind, using it multiple times until it perhaps rips or becomes damaged. Same can work in the car! Most important thing is to continue to reuse as long as possible and not beat yourself up for the choices you make but to just be conscious of the ways you are [currently] & can [in the future] make a difference :)

Glad you're enjoying reading & thanks for asking!

Jenn

The important lesson in this case is reuse. The longer we can extend the life of any item, the less of them will end up in landfills and that will have a serious, positive, environmental impact starting right now.

Do you have a question regarding to your living or working habits? Concerned you might not be as eco-awesome as you want to be? Feel free to pass your question along via email!

Uncle Traveling Matt: Episode II -- In the Workshop

Although he was not sending postcards to Fraggle Rock, there were a lot of picture messages sent to me from the cave-like workshop where Matt is working on our free entertainment center. He has had to slightly modify the materials in order to ensure the unit will be structurally sound and will not warp as the temperature and humidity levels here in New England rise and fall, however in keeping with the original basis of a completely free piece of furniture, he is utilizing “scrap” wood from friends and family in addition to his neatly cut pallet planks.


Here is Part II of Matt’s entertainment center construction journey.

March of the Pallets: Part 2 (Reality Strikes!)

Having obtained a large sum of free pallet lumber, I was faced with the challenge of turning the raw materials into something useable. If any of you have ever seen pallet lumber, it's a little...well....ugly. There are splits, nail holes, and the surface of the wood is usually filthy. Just below the surface, however, lies some of the most attractive wood you will ever see. And it's all available for free!

My first step in renewing the wood was to cut the end 2-3" off of each piece. This removes most of the splits, and 4 out of the 6 nail holes. I then squared up each side of the wood on a table saw, cutting off about 1/4" on each side. At this point, I started to get a preview of the color and graining of the wood. The filth and wear that pallet wood exhibits barely sinks below the surface, so once you cut just a small amount off, you can see the true beauty of the wood. Then comes the real show! I ran each piece through a planer/joiner removing about 1/4" from both faces of the lumber, and that revealed the full glory of new-old wood. Each side was now showing as if it was fresh, new lumber....except for two small nail holes in each piece.

After the work to square up and clean up the lumber, I took some time to cut it to length to build the frame of the entertainment center according to my ever changing plan. Enter my friend, B. B has been doing woodworking for as long as I can remember. He has a better equipped wood shop than most professionals, and probably as much experience in fine woodworking as anyone I know....except for maybe my Father-in-law....who IS a professional woodworker. B had a few comments that made me take a step back from the project and re-evaluate how I was going about it. Sometimes reality sucks, but it's better than the alternative.

Pallet lumber is a solid hardwood. Solid hardwoods expand and contract rather substantially with changes in humidity, temperature, and other environmental factors. If I had continued to build the entire entertainment center out of just the pallet lumber alone, B pointed out that our 100+lb TV would have most likely ended up on the floor the first day with relatively low humidity. As the wood contracts in dry weather, all of my fancy wood joints would have either cracked or pulled apart, and our TV would have landed in our downstairs neighbor's apartment. His suggestion was to use the pallet lumber as a non-structural coating to dress up a plywood case.

B also pointed out that re-using pallet lumber may only be a mild savings to the environment, as the amount of energy used to re-cut and re-plane each piece of wood is probably more than a lumber mill uses to cut it originally. Additionally, the wear and tear on blades to rework the lumber may be a factor, as the creation of the metal used to manufacture a replacement blade would have an adverse environmental impact. The upside, however, is that less trees need to suffer for our need for a practical storage solution.

In the spirit of creating this entertainment center with little to no additional "virgin" lumber, B had some scrap plywood from prior projects that he offered to the cause. It was a little smaller than I had designed the entertainment center around, but with a slight rework, I was able to utilize the scrap plywood with virtually no waste.

Keep tuned to The Green Leaf Reviewer to see the progress of the pallet/scrap wood entertainment center.

For those still keeping track:

Time Spent to Date: 24 Hours
$ Spent to Date: $4 (all transportation related)

Movie Spotlight: Idiocracy

An Army Librarian (Luke Wilson) addicted to television, and a Prostitute (Maya Rudolph) who calls herself an artist, are dubbed as the two most average people on the planet and chosen to participate in a top secret governmental experiment where they would be placed in hibernation chambers for a full year. Through a series of ludicrous twists that only Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space) could conceive, the Colonel in charge of the experiment is arrested, the military base is demolished (with the chambers still inside of course) and the debris from the deconstruction taken away so a Fuddruckers can be built on the site.

Through narration we are taught that being smart is not exactly a requirement for procreation and a series of graphs points out how the birth of morons begins outpacing the intelligent, essentially creating a completely dumbed down society. Fast forward 500 years into the future to the year 2505 when the great garbage avalanche takes place, bringing the hibernation chambers with it and the main characters are reintroduced into society. By a miracle of chance, they are now the smartest people on the planet.

This is where my environmental brain kicked into high gear. The garbage was piled so high it created mountains taller than the Alps and I sensed it might not be too far off from reality if something were not done now to offset it. Additionally the world had become one big advertising campaign where everything was sponsored by something and that something was not always the right choice. For example, the entire planet drank nothing but a liquid containing electrolytes which took over many of the government agencies and began claiming it was the best solution for everything, including watering plants.

The outcome of the movie is of course very predictable and it is typical Mike Judge fashion -- a cult style classic comedy but sadly not speaking to the mainstream. I will challenge that association however by giving this movie a Three Leaf Rating, reminding ourselves how important it is to take care of our environments -- the planet, local businesses and our free thinking minds -- so we do not become the type of society that begins naming our children after popular products like corn chips or luxury cars. Oh wait, that has already begun.

Amazon Takes On Part One of the Three R Mantra

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We have all heard it over and over throughout our lives, the mantra for the Greenie in all of us. We all attempt it in our daily lives and as individuals we can make a great difference. But what about companies? Are larger corporations able to grab onto reduce, reuse, recycle and put it into practice? Well Amazon.com is proving that they are ready, willing and able to jump on the green band wagon by starting with the first r -- reduce.

My brother in law pointed me in the direction of a link on the Amazon homepage titled Avoid Wrap Rage. Their little blurb associated says “Get Amazon Frustration-Free™ Packaging”. Well that sounds fantastic to me, especially with the holidays and excessive shipping needs upcoming so I tore right into the link and began reading. What I discovered through my research is that Amazon is the Wizard that needs to come out from behind the curtain because they are not just green but turning into the Emerald City!

So what exactly is wrap rage? Well according to Amazon it is the flare of emotions we all get when attempting to open packages these days. For example, we go into a local electronics store to purchase a small technology item only to discover it is molded into an almost impenetrable plastic package. Ever tried to shuck a clam? Exactly. They do not call this packaging clamshell for nothing. And it does not stop there -- extra twist ties, security stickers, cardboard, plastic…the list of superfluous material on our packages goes on and on. Retail shops use this for anti-theft and it does help keep shrink low but what about in locations where there are no browsing shoppers who can touch the merchandise?

Back on November 3 Amazon decided that shoplifting in the online world was not really an issue but that over use of material was so they launched the Frustration Free™ Packaging effort with top manufacturers such as Fisher Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend. Their initiatives include: easy to open and recyclable cardboard boxes, reduction of: cardboard inserts, PVC, plastic coated steel wire twist ties, plastic fasteners and ABS molded styrene. So far there are nineteen products taking advantage of this initiative and they are gearing up to provide every product they stock in this manner. A bold plan to be sure but one that will lead the charge as other large companies follow suit.

To read the letter sent to consumers by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos describing the early effort please visit this link.

Digging even more deeply into the Greenness of Amazon it pleased me to discover they are contributing to environmental efforts worldwide. As a consumer, and one who shops on Amazon from time to time, it is encouraging to read that they:

☼ Reduce packaging waste by choosing the correct size box for each shipped item.
☼ Decrease transportation as more will then fit on less trucks.
☼ Use corrugated cardboard for shipping which contains 43-50% recycled material.
☼ Developed a program called Earth Kaizens to reduce energy in their facilities globally.
☼ Constructed their new Seattle Corporate HQ to meet LEED Certifications.
☼ Launched AmazonGreen providing Earth friendly alternatives for many products.

With such solid efforts toward a more eco-friendly existence I must bestow Amazon with a Four Green Leaf Rating! As a large corporation they are a solid model to follow as they lead the charge for all companies to adopt the Three R mantra and beyond. Hooray!