Empty Pockets? Recycle These Items for Cash

Nobody’s going to get rich collecting cans and turning them in for cash, but you can definitely get some pocket change, and who doesn’t want some more of that? EcoSalon has a great list of 15 items that you can recycle for cash, helping the environment and gaining some cash at the same time – and many of them are probably sitting in your garage right now.

From EcoSalon:

Printer Cartridges

Hang on to your empty printer cartridges and send them in to be recycled by eCycle Group or similar programs. While you’re at it, get your office in on the action, too. You can also bring them to a nearby Staples, but you’ll receive store credit instead of cash.

PCs and Laptops

Computers become obsolete quickly, and that means more outdated electronics in the landfill. But, it doesn’t have to be. Send in your old laptop or personal computer to Gazelle or search online for similar sites to get money back.

Cell Phones

My puppy recently mistook my cell phone for a chew toy. When I told a friend, she told me that I could send it in to Buy My Tronics for cash – even if it’s mangled beyond recognition.

That’s just three examples – head on over to EcoSalon.com for another 12!

Link [EcoSalon]
Photo credit: kennymatic

Swagtastic BlogHer Conference Disappoints Green Bloggers

Americans are addicted to free stuff. That’s a given. Wherever there is free swag handed out, there will be throngs of eager people mindlessly pushing each other and holding out their greedy little paws, regardless of whether they really even want the product itself. Sometimes, getting swag is a great chance to try out something new. But all too often, it ends up unused and thrown away.

At this year’s BlogHer conference in Chicago, some participants felt that not only was the swag totally out of control, with tons of cheap plastic junk unloaded on attendees, but it got in the way of what BlogHer is supposed to be about in the first place: community, camaraderie and empowerment.

A number of green bloggers, from Beth at Fake Plastic Fish to Diane at Big Green Purse, were really excited to attend the conference. It was a chance to meet their fellow bloggers in real life, build deeper connections, learn how to develop their blogging skills, share tips and have a lot of fun. Some had misgivings about the amount of waste that the conference would generate (there were 1400 attendees), but were pleased when BlogHer organizers asked them to participate in a ‘Green Team’ tasked with helping to make the conference as eco-friendly as possible.

And, BlogHer ’09 did have its green qualities as a result. Paperless conference guides, a recycling suite, carbon offsetting, water cisterns and free BPA-free reusable water bottles, and real dinnerware complete with cloth napkins were just a few of the commendable ways in which the conference sought to have a smaller impact on the earth.

Too bad all the swag and corporate sponsorship eclipsed these efforts. Green bloggers got to BlogHer only to find that ‘stuff’ had seemingly become more important than fostering connections between a diverse community of (mostly) female bloggers.

CV Harquail of Authentic Organizations noted some of the swag-related problems she saw at BlogHer:

• Efforts to acquire swag changed the participation patterns of many attendees. People went to exhibits instead of community keynotes to get the Walmart cookies or the Disney Ice Creams (which were, btw, very tasty).
• People went to and stayed at parties only until the swag bags were handed out.
• The minute it was announced that the swag was being distributed, the whole physical shape of the room would change, from clusters of women talking to a line of women waiting.
• The energy dynamic shifted from meeting & greeting other bloggers to getting & vetting the swag.

No kidding. One attendee, blogger Chef’s Widow, almost left just 6 hours into the conference because of the swag-crazed atmosphere.

I noticed a herd of women squeezing together so tight it looked like they were in an imaginary corral.  Jill and I were standing at the outskirts when we noticed the bags of swag on a table in front of corralled women.  It was hot and smelly.  Women were pushing and I immediately lost Jill in the madness.  I left the debauchery.  On my way out I ran into some chicks by the bar and we chatted about the insanity & greed of the women in front of us.  It was so odd.  All of these women were here for the conference however they were acting as though the $12 dildo in the swag bag would grant them eternal life.

Chef’s Widow was far from alone. Coming home from a conference where women practically bum-rushed each other to grab free crap, where corporate sponsors made them sit through 15-minute spiels before they could discuss what they went there to discuss, many environmental bloggers wrote about their disappointment.

From Lynn at Organic Mania:

The notion of feting women bloggers, of celebrating their achievements, and of giving gifts to women who may not treat themselves to much in life (especially the Moms) – was heartwarming. But with so many extravagant parties and suites, the evening scene at BlogHer turned into a combination of Halloween trick-or-treating and Mardi Gras. And with so many sponsored bloggers  interrupting others conversations to give a product pitch, heck, at times BlogHer seemed like a crazy reality TV show that was interrupted by sponsored programming!  Don’t get me wrong…a lot of it was fun. Who doesn’t like parties? But somewhere, somehow, things seemed to become a bit…excessive.

From Beth at Fake Plastic Fish:

As bloggers, we have incredible power! We have a voice that people listen to. We have a platform. And the fact that so many big companies are willing to sponsor an event like BlogHer and court bloggers at such an event proves it. So why are we willing to give up this tremendous power that we have — power to help create a better world — to sell out for a few trinkets?

Why aren’t we using the power that we have to demand BETTER products for ourselves and our children? Why do we accept the PR pitches at face value? Why aren’t we questioning every single promotion we receive and challenging the status quo?

From Diane at Big Green Purse:

As a member of the team BlogHer put together to help green the conference, I felt a bit cheated. The Green Team worked hard to collaborate with conference organizers and develop a list of items that would have low eco-impact but still satisfy attendees and conference sponsors alike.

But I can’t help but wonder if the environmental gains we secured through Green Team negotiations were neutralized by all the free bags of Fritos, throwaway plastic pouches of applesauce, and other disposables that were dispensed over the course of the event.

No one forced attendees to take the junk being handed out there. And BlogHer evidently had no control over independent parties held in private suites to attract select conference goers.

However, I do take issue with the argument that because BlogHer09 was not a “green” conference, the conference sponsors did not have to adhere to principles of sustainability in what they offered to attendees.

“Green” is not a niche. It’s not even a lifestyle choice. It’s a matter of survival. We need to start treating it that way, including at events like BlogHer09.

There’s no question that sponsors are necessary to make BlogHer affordable for both the organizers and the attendees. But it seems that perhaps they’ve taken it a bit too far, over-commercializing a function that is supposed to be about human connection.

As Harquail eloquently summarized on her blog, “Sponsorship, and thus swag, makes the conference run. But too much swag perverts the conference purpose.”

And it makes for an awful lot of trash.

Link [Authentic Organizations] + [Fake Plastic Fish] + [Big Green Purse]
Photo credit: Flickr user Average Jane

Global Warming News from Citizen Journalists at Demotix

The internet has made it easier to access first-person accounts of events around the world – but you wouldn’t know it from most traditional media outlets. The Associated Press and Reuters don’t have a single staffer in 40% of the world’s countries, so what does that say for the freshness and accuracy of international news?

Some newspapers are wising up to that fact, and heading straight to the source – citizen journalists who are in the thick of things as they happen.

Demotix, a citizen journalism website and photo agency, takes user-generated content from freelancers and amateurs – including remarkably high-quality photographs – and markets them to the mainstream media. Recently, photos from the site were featured in a New York Times article about the conflict in Iran. Demotix was also recently awarded a ‘Notable Mention’ in this year’s Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism.

This is especially valuable for anyone interested in learning more about how global warming and other environmental problems are affecting every corner of the earth. In Nepal, the effects are alarmingly clear, as shown by Nepalese contributors to Demotix, who upload photos and firsthand accounts of how climate change is affecting the nation’s glaciers, and causing paddy seedlings to dry out.

Other environmental issues covered on the site include droughts in Kenya and Syria, rescuing elephants in India, the annual ‘Naked Bike Ride’ in London and the effects of non-native wolves in New Jersey.

This is definitely journalism for the 21st century.

Link[Demotix]

There, I Fixed It: Ingenious (And Sometimes Crazy) Ways to Keep Using Broken Stuff

We’ve got a big problem in America with thinking of virtually everything we own as being disposable. If something breaks, few of us bother to try to fix it – instead, we put it out by the curb and run to Wal-Mart to replace it. So, those people who manage to keep using stuff throughout its entire life cycle and way (way) beyond are to be commended – even if sometimes, their jury-rigged creations are a bit scary.

A website called “There, I Fixed It” is an awesome online gallery of unbelievable MacGuyvered objects, from a bed held up with a car jack to a Pringles can used to replace an intake tube in a car engine. Be warned, you will get sucked in and forget all about what you were supposed to be doing.

Here’s to the uber-creative people who risk their own safety to keep stuff out of landfills (even if their motivation is just being cheap)!

Link [There, I Fixed It]

How Can I Recycle This?

It happens nearly every day to environmentally conscious people: you’ve got some kind of object that has fulfilled its conventional use but that you just can’t bear to throw away. You think, ‘Is there some way I can recycle this?’ It can be hard to come up with creative, practical recycling/upcycling ideas on your own. That’s where a website called ‘How Can I Recycle This?’ comes in.

How Can I Recycle This was born when a pair of eco-minded Brits were done eating a bowl of pistachios and thought, is there something we can do with these aside from throwing them on the compost heap? Louisa Parry and John Leach realized that a lot of other people were probably wondering the same thing about thousands of everyday items.

So, what to do with an old bicycle helmet? Photographic slides? Spare buttons? Bowling balls? Even amazingly random items like orthopedic corsets are covered, and the commenters really came through on that one, suggesting that it be donated to a group like the SCA who could use it as ‘armor parts’ in one of their medieval re-enactments. Another helpful suggestion was to turn used up metal tubes of tomato paste into garden markers.

Once you put this stuff out there where recycling enthusiasts can read it, the possibilities are truly endless. You can submit your own ‘How Can I Recycle This?’ question to items@recyclethis.co.uk.

Link [How Can I Recycle This]

Organic Nation: Exploring America’s Sustainable Food Landscape

EarthFirst.com’s own managing editor, Dorothee Royal-Hedinger, is setting out on a tour of the Midwest and West Coast with her new project Organic Nation. Organic Nation is an exploration of the American sustainable food landscape focusing on the people, places and products that are shaping a new green economy and lifestyle.

From OrganicNation.tv:

We’ll be exploring such fundamental questions as: What does “organic” mean and how are products certified? What do scientists say about the risks of chemical pesticides and fertilizers on human health? What are the costs of switching to organic production and is it affordable for farmers and consumers? Is organic better than local or vice-versa? Can organic food production feed the nation and is it truly sustainable?

Check out the trailer below:

Organic Nation Trailer from OrganicNation on Vimeo.

Dorothee, who also runs Fresh Cut Media and regularly contributes to Change.org and BUST, will be traveling with writer and photographer Mark Andrew Boyer.

Tour itinerary:

May 10th-20th Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin
May 22nd – 24th Buffalo, New York
May 25th – 28th San Jose, California
May 29th – 31st San Francisco, California
June 1st-10th TBA

Support Organic Nation! O.N. will be accepting donations through June 10th to keep them on the road. You can also support Organic Nation by voting in the Organic Film Trailer Competition, following them on Twitter and reading the Organic Nation blog.

Link [OrganicNation.tv]

FactCheck.org Debunks 6 Common Eco Myths

When you want to check whether the rumors flying around about a politician or piece of legislation are true, what’s the first site you visit? Chances are, it’s FactCheck.org, which recently won a well-deserved ‘People’s Choice’ Webby award. In honor of their win, The Daily Green has compiled 6 eco myths recently debunked by FactCheck.org.

1. There’s enough wind power in the Atlantic to offset all the electricity we now get from coal.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made waves when he said the U.S. East Coast was so rich in wind that offshore wind farms could produce as much electricity as every U.S. coal-fired power plant. It sounds great. Coal, which produces roughly half our electricity, is a major source of pollution that causes smog, acid rain, mercury contamination and global warming; wind power causes none of these. Unfortunately, it’s just not true, according to Factcheck.org. “We calculate that converting wind to enough electricity to replace all U.S. coal-fired plants would require building 3,540 offshore wind farms as big as the world’s largest, which is off the coast of Denmark,” Factcheck.org reported. “So far the U.S. has built exactly zero offshore wind farms.”

2. Congress is outlawing your backyard organic garden.
A vast campaign, spread via e-mail, Facebook and elsewhere, has tried to convince people that a food safety bill being considered in Congress will wipe out organic farming as we know it, and even possibly make it illegal to have a garden in your backyard. According to Factcheck.org, though, there’s hardly anything to worry about. “We suppose in the grand realm of all that’s possible, or more likely a futuristic B movie, federal bureaucrats could decide that public safety calls for inspections of every backyard garden in the nation, leading everyday citizens to surreptitiously cultivate tomato plants in a closet with a sunlamp, lest they get busted by the cops,” Factcheck.org concluded. “But we kinda doubt it.”

3. “Clean coal” is a reality, or at least a possibility.
During the presidential campaign and beyond, as the coal industry and the Waterkeeper Alliance (yay Gloria Reuben!) and other environmental groups have engaged in an epic advertising battle, Factcheck.org has been tamping down enthusiasm for clean coal, which is an expensive concept for removing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, not a reality. “There are no commercial ‘clean coal’ plants operating currently in the U.S.,” Factcheck.org reported. “The larger question posed by these dueling ad campaigns is implied rather than stated outright. Can coal can be ‘clean’ in the future? Is ‘clean coal’ a laudable, achievable goal as Obama and the coal miners and electric utilities would have us believe? Or is it a ridiculous oxymoron on par with ‘controlled chaos,’ as Gore and other environmental groups suggest?”

Get the other three myths – which include Congress outlawing second-hand clothing, the EPA taxing cows and a supposed giant oil reserve in the Western U.S. – over at The Daily Green.

Link [The Daily Green]

Who’s Who in Green: Siel Ju, Green LA Girl

If you want to know about eco-happenings in the LA area, Siel’s your girl. The Green LA Girl blogger has been writing about environmental topics online since 2005, helping Los Angelenos find the hottest green spots and events as well as providing green tips and news to the greater public.

Los Angeles isn’t exactly the greenest city in the U.S., despite its location in sunny Southern California – but that’s more due to the layout of the city, lack of great public transit and too many cars on the road than any lack of motivation among its residents. But, Siel helps LA-area greenies and the green-curious push beyond these limitations and be as eco-conscious as the can be, helping them with things like indoor apartment composting and finding the best local organic grub.

If you’re new to LA – or just new to being green in LA – be sure to check out Green LA Girl’s Guide to Los Angeles, which gives info on food & drinks, getting around, recycling, spending wisely and collaborating with other passionate green peeps.

In addition to her writing on Green LA Girl, Siel also writes at MNN.com, Lime.com and FilterforGood.com, and is a contributing editor at BlogHer.com. She previously headed up LATimes.com’s environmental blog, Emerald City, and was the editor for the L.A. section of WorldChanging. She also writes poetry and recently received her Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.

Siel heads up the Lifestyle Channel at MNN, where she blogs about everything from fashion-forward eco-friendly accessories to phthalate-free perfumes that won’t make you smell like a hippie. A lot of us good learn a thing or two from this very green bike-riding LA girl!

Siel Ju’s Green Score: 12,155

MNN Blogger Spars with Fox Host over Global Warming

An MNN.com green blogger experienced what, for many of us, would be a living nightmare when he spent five long minutes in a Fox News studio on Earth Day. Jim Motavalli, who is also a New York Times contributor and author of “Feeling the Heat”, was invited to discuss global warming with Fox host Neil Cavuto and was treated the way virtually all liberal guests are treated on Fox – interrupted, condescended to and talked over.

From MNN.com:

Fox had gotten hold of a report—accurate enough—that sea ice has been thickening in Antarctica.

Indeed it is, and there are many possible explanations, but the Antarctica information in isolation is not all that helpful. The Arctic and Greenland ice sheets have seen unprecedented melting. According to Joseph Romm, the former Energy Department leader who blogs at ClimateProgress.org, the rate of glacial loss is a century ahead of where we thought we’d be at this point.

All the inland glaciers on the planet are melting, and Glacier National Park in Montana is now predicted to be ice-free by 2020. This is the warmest decade on record, and 2005 was the warmest year on record (2007 and 1998 are tied for second). Sea level could rise five feet by the end of the century, according to the prestigious journal Nature.

Despite Cavuto repeatedly asking Motavalli a question and then proceeding to answer it himself  (stupidly) in the midst of Motavalli’s answer, the MNN blogger amazingly kept his cool. Cavuto displayed his ignorance about what global warming actually means and how it works, and Motavalli calmly laid out the facts.

Kudos to Jim Motavalli. I don’t think I could even walk on to a Fox News set without my head exploding.

Link [MNN]

Who’s Who in Green – Jill Fehrenbacher

If there’s an ‘elite’ set of green bloggers, Jill Fehrenbacher is definitely among them. Founder of one of the web’s most interesting green websites, Inhabitat, along with its sister site Inhabitots, Fehrenbacher is like the cool, stylish and slightly geeky chick at school that everybody wants to be friends with.

Educated at Brown University, where she received a B.A. in Art Semiotics, and Central St. Martins, where she received an M.A. in Design Studies, Fehrenbacher is also a freelance designer and green design consultant based in New York City. Her stunning photography and design work can be seen on her website, JillFehrenbacher.com.

And, every year, when all of those awesome green gadget concepts start popping up on the web – well, Fehrenbacher has a hand in that, too. She’s co-founder of the Greener Gadgets Conference, which holds an annual contest that spurs creative thinkers all over the world to submit their green designs that could help make the world a better place. Here’s a video clip of Fehrenbacher speaking to the editors of Metropolis magazine, TreeHugger.com and Core77.com at the 2007 Greener Gadgets Conference.

Inhabitat.com features the latest cutting-edge green design, architecture and other innovations, offering tons of gorgeous photos and top quality reporting.  Fehrenbacher was inspired to launch Inhabitots.com, which focuses on green design and products for children, when she was pregnant with her first child in 2008.

What can we expect from Fehrenbacher in the future? She told Sean Daily of Green Living Ideas that she’s thinking about rolling out a few more specific sites a la Inhabitots, perhaps in the areas of fashion and architecture. As great as Inhabitats and Inhabitots are – and as successful as Fehrenbacher has been in positioning herself as a top green expert – we’re sure any new sites will be top-notch.

Jill Fehrenbacher’s Green Score: 20,030

Photo credit: Inhabitat.com

10 Things NOT to do on Earth Day

We could yap to you all day about things you SHOULD do on Earth Day – like planting trees, attending an Earth Day Brainwashing Festival and cleaning up litter in your neighborhood– but you already know all that. Green consumer expert Diane MacEachern, founder and CEO of Big Green Purse, has a great list of 10 things to avoid doing today as you (hopefully) try to be a little more eco-conscious than usual.

1) Don’t drive like a teenager, speeding up and slowing down and weaving in and out of traffic. Such aggressive driving can lower fuel efficiency by 33%. Accelerate gently and stay with the traffic to save gas and money.

2) Don’t use cleansers and personal care products that contain triclosan or other antibacterial agents. Public health officials worry that antibacterials (in cleansers, window cleaners, and soaps are causing us to become resistant to antibiotics. Use simple soap (like Dr. Bronner’s castile soap) and hot water for cleaning, and body soaps and lotions that do not say “antibacterial” or “fights germs” on the label.

3) Don’t go shopping without a list! According to the U,S. Department of Agriculture, people waste about 30% of their household food budgets buying groceries that eventually expire and have to be thrown out. Know what you want to buy before you hit the store aisles – you’ll buy less, buy more of what you’re likely to use, and reduce the impact your shopping has on the planet. Then put your list on your refrigerator so you don’t forget what’s inside.

4) Don’t leave the lights on when you leave the room. You could save as much as $100 a year in electricity costs by turning off a 100-watt lightbulb when you’re not using the light.

5) Don’t leave the computer on if you’re going to be gone longer than two hours. Don’t leave the monitor on if you’re going to be gone longer than 20 minutes. If you plug your electronics into an energy-saving power strip, you can reduce the energy they use by as much as 40%.

6) Don’t leave the water running when you brush your teeth. Turning off the tap when you brush your teeth can save up to 8 gallons of water a day, 240 gallons a month, saving hundreds of dollars on your water bill each year.

7) Don’t buy “snack packs” that come wrapped in cardboard and plastic. Small individual packages use more energy and resources to manufacture and transfer, and are often twice as expensive as the same product sold in a larger bag or box.

Don’t use so much shampoo, soap, lotion, make-up, gel and perfume. More than 25% of all women and one of every hundred men use at least fifteen products daily, according to a survey of 2300 men and women, exposing people to hundreds of chemicals during the course of a day. Can you reduce the number of products you use by at least three?

9) Don’t buy anything new. Remember the 3 R’s of eco-friendly living? They begin with “reduce” (the other two are “re-use” and “recycle”). If you need to shop, start with EBay.com, Freecycle.org, the  neighbor’s yard sale, or the community vintage or thrift store.

10) Don’t sit at your computer all day. Get outdoors for at least an hour to remember why Mother Nature is worth protecting. Besides, if you’ve done all the other don’ts on this list, you deserve to take a break!

Diane is author of the book Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World, and was recently named an ‘Eco Hero’ by Glamour Magazine.

For a humorous list of 10 more things NOT to do on Earth Day, check out Olivia Zaleski’s 2008 Huffington Post article which includes such classics as #4, Feed a cow beans, and #7, buy a polar bear fur coat.

Link [Big Green Purse] + [Huffington Post]

Green Gigs Profiles Careers in Green

Ever wonder what an environmental scientist does? How about a health & safety officer? If you’re interested in jumping into a new, green career path but aren’t even sure what the various green job titles entail, Green Gigs has a new feature you’ll want to check out. “Profiles in Green Careers” interviews professionals who do the job every day to get the inside scoop on job duties, qualifications and what the day-to-day grind is like.

Here are a few examples of the interview questions, from Green Gigs’ Environmental Scientist profile:

Green Gigs: What are your job duties? What is your typical workday like?

Dave: Job duties at my level include managing field staff at various jobs, writing reports, managing financial aspects of various jobs and dealing with clients.

Green Gigs: Does your career lend itself to working from home, or is it mainly an office and/or field based career?

Dave: For entry level and junior staff, it is a field based career with limited office time. As you progress through the ranks, you will spend less time in the field. Although there are many aspects of the job that can be done from home, being in the office provides better access to the field staff, as well as the experience of coworkers.

Green Gigs: What advice would pass along to anyone looking to begin a career in environmental consulting?

Dave: Understand that you will need to “pay your dues” in the field. The first few years will be spent conducting field work. Field work is the foundation of everything else that we do.

Getting info like this from real eco-professionals is a great way to gauge whether a particular field is a match for you. Stop living a zombified existence at a job you hate – find your green dream job. Check out EarthFirst’s Green Jobs 101 and be sure to come back every Friday for our featured green job of the week.

Link [Green Gigs]
Photo credit: Canadian Water Network

Start Seedlings Indoors with Recycled DIY Grow Boxes

March is the month that many people start seedlings indoors to transplant into their outdoor gardens once it’s warm enough. Seed starting can be intimidating, especially when you consider the expense of purchasing special grow lights – but hey, guess what? You don’t need that pricey stuff! The Cheap Vegetable Gardener came up with 2 awesome ways to start seedlings indoors with stuff you might already have laying around.

If you’ve got a rubbermaid storage container and some leftover LED string lights from the holidays, you’re in business for this first project. You simply drill holes into the lid of the bin, insert the LED bulbs and hot glue as necessary. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener mixed red and white LEDs (Check out this post to learn how color spectrum affects plant growth).

When the plants get larger, you could follow The Cheap Vegetable Gardener’s example by turning an old PC case into a grow box. This is certainly an innovative way to recycle those old cases! All it takes is an extension cord, lamp timer and socket plug adapters.

Check out the full instructions over at The Cheap Vegetable Gardener.

Link [The Cheap Vegetable Gardener] via [The Huffington Post]

Team EcoEtsy: A Green Blog You Should be Reading

Etsy.com is a great place to find high quality handmade goods – and there are lots of Etsy sellers making eco-friendly items, from clothing to stationery. Navigating the Etsy site to find those sellers isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but luckily, they’ve banded together to form ‘Team EcoEtsy’, and have made finding these green products easy as can be.

Next time you’re shopping for some handmade green goods, check out EcoEtsy.com, which has tons of great items divided into categories including accessories, art, bags & purses, children, housewares, jewelry, paper goods and lots more. Simple!

And, the Team EcoEtsy Blog has proven to be an awesome source of green DIY craft tutorials, seller spotlights, eco tips and a tempting assortment of environmentally responsible products. The Eco How-To posts are helpful and creative, teaching you how to make things like recycled jewelry cases and gift boxes made of greeting cards.

Buy organic, fair trade, recycled – and handmade!

Link [Team EcoEtsy]

One LA Guy’s Almost-Zero-Waste Year

Dave Chameides of Los Angeles set out to create as little trash as possible in 2008, but he wasn’t about to stop drinking beer or eating potato chips. Since the waste from those items would undoubtedly add up, he found ways around the problem so he could still enjoy those items without having a lot of trash piling up. Chameides saved his trash for all of 2008 and his final total was less than the average American family throws away in a week.sav

From Green LA Girl, via ENN:

“I didn’t want to change the way that I was living my life,” Dave says. “If I wanted to drink beer, I wasn’t going to say, well, I can’t find a way to drink beer without creating packaging, so therefore I’m not going to. Instead, what I’m going to do is look at the packaging in beer and pick the most ‘eco-friendly’ way to do it.”

The idea behind Dave’s project was to focus on things people could do without drastically changing their entire lifestyle. “There are definitely people out there who have done similar things where they’ve cut everything out of their life,” Dave says. “A lot of people who are really really hardcore have emailed me and said, “You know, you can just not eat potato chips.’ Well, yeah, but I wanna eat potato chips!”

So Dave opted for bigger bags of chips versus the more wasteful one-serving bags — and cut out packaging wherever he could. Buying used items on Craigslist, composting food and paper scraps in his worm bin, and shopping at the farmers’ market — where he could even take back his egg cartons to a farmer for reuse — helped downsize Dave’s trash pile.

Dave’s total non-recyclable trash accumulation was just 30.5 pounds – and he kept his recyclables for a year, too, to prove that “recycling isn’t the answer”. Dave points out that the recycling process uses energy and resources, so it’s not a great way out of our trash dilemma.

You can read all about Dave’s journey at his website, Sustainable Dave.

Link [ENN] + [Green LA Girl] + [Sustainable Dave]

Smaller Houses are in for 2009

2009 will be the year of downsizing, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Small is productive and beautiful, especially when we’re talking about homes. They’re easy to heat and cool, low maintenance, have a small footprint and force you to buy less junk out of necessity. A web magazine called Small House Style, devoted to everything small-house-related, puts the spotlight on some of the best small house designs.

Small House Style also has a directory of small house plans and builders (including prefabs and kits) and a shop full of books on small house design, architecture, décor & furnishings.

Here’s what Small House Style has to say about why they’re so in love with petite residences:

Clearly there is an issue here on Earth. We are not going to be able to continue succesfully at the current pace without disrupting the ability for life to exist as we know it. Big deal, right? Change is the only constant. But there is something to the fact that we are conscious about it and therefore able to change our behaviour. So is it possible to maintain our current lifestyle in a more sustainable way? It is possible but the only way to find out is by making change. But where? There are so many options. Small House Style strives to inspire those who can change our built environment.

Small House Style is definitely a fantastic source of inspiration for anyone who’s wondering if they could manage moving their family to a smaller home.

Link [Small House Style]

Why Lower Gas Prices are Bad for Us

The Good Human is reminding us all why these low-by-last-year’s-standards gas prices aren’t a good thing. People around the country have been breathing a sigh of relief as gas prices have slid from highs above $4 a gallon to less than $1.50, and it’s easy to understand why. After all, the economy is in the toilet and people are losing their jobs left and right – it’s one less thing to worry about.

But when gas prices were high, there was a lot more motivation to find a cleaner, renewable solution. There was a mad rush to trade in SUVs for smaller, more efficient vehicles and a huge increase in public transit patronage. Now, people are going back to their old habits.

From The Good Human:

I do realize that when gas shot up to $5 a gallon in major cities that people stopped buying oversized school buses to commute alone to work in. I also realize that more people started taking public transportation, too. I get that, it’s a good thing, and it was about time. While the rest of the world has been downsizing their automobiles, riding Vespas, and investing in high-speed efficient rail travel, we were on a binge for what Doug Fine calls “ROAT’s” – Ridiculously Oversized American Trucks. (If you have not read Fine’s book Farewell, My Subaru, you are missing out big time – here is my review.) We could not get enough of these vehicles, and they kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger – until they became a joke unto themselves. I will never forget the time I was in France at an outdoor cafe and a Hummer drove by on those little skinny streets they have. The people at the table next to me (about 3 inches away – this is France we are talking about here) started pointing and laughing at the driver, making fun of the truck. I laughed along too, as I think they are dumb…but a lot of people don’t and found themselves with these behemoths sitting still in their driveway because they could not afford the gasoline to run them anymore. And while the gas prices were hurting my wallet as well, I could not help but be happy that the prices were going to make people think long-term about the cars and trucks they buy; but then gas prices started falling.

You would think that people would have learned a lesson from super high gas prices and realize that another price increase is inevitable. Some people did, and some didn’t, but one thing’s for sure: this isn’t going to last. Reality is going to hit again, and soon.

Link [The Good Human]
Photo credit: Flickr user scottfeldstein

Lighter Footstep Dissects the ‘GreenWashBall’

If you’re going to name your product ‘GreenWashBall’, you’d better make damn sure that it’s not, um, greenwashed. You’d think that the makers of this laundry detergent replacement product would have thought of that, but it seems they didn’t. Lighter Footstep had the opportunity to test the product out and found that it lives up to its name, and not in a good way.

The GreenWashBall claims that it can help you wash your laundry without detergent. It’s a green plastic ball filled with a handful of small round and cylindrical ‘powerful ceramics’ that supposedly “break water into smaller pieces increasing its speed and penetration factor.” According to the product website,

The powerful remote infrared rays emitted by GREENWASHBALL ceramics break the hydrogen molecules of water to increase molecular movement. This gives water a high penetration capacity and improves its washing properties.

The GREENWASHBALL emits negative ions which weaken the adherence of dirt on fabric so that it is easily removed without the use of detergent.

So, did it work? Lighter Footstep’s Chris Baskind chose some particularly gnarly laundry to put the GreenWashBall to the test, and was surprised to find that when the load was dry, everything was clean, smelled fresh, and was even light and fluffy. Then he started wondering whether it was really the GreenWashBall that did the trick.

My testing was unscientific, so I’m not saying that GreenWashBall doesn’t work. But I can think of at least one reason my clothes came out clean: I washed them. In detergent.

While we generally think of detergents in terms of the stuff we buy at the store, any compound used for cleaning is a detergent. That includes water — it suspends dirt until it can be rinsed away. Warm water introduces a surfactant effect, dissolving dirt and oils. We’re strongly conditioned by advertising to believe laundry cannot be cleaned except through the introduction of soaps and foaming agents.

Just for fun, I did a final load of laundry similar to that of the first batch. Using nothing but warm water, the results seemed identical to those with the GreenWashBall. Lesson learned. We can probably save money and turn out better quality laundry by reducing the amount of detergents we use.

After posting about it on Twitter, Lighter Footstep began receiving questions about the product like what kind of plastic it’s made from, what’s inside, and how does it really work. Those questions aren’t really answered on the product website or literature. And, the company even claims the GreenWashBall has anti-bacterial action, which they back up with a vague statement about “remote infared rays emitted by GreenWashBall”. Sounds fishy.

So it works the same as plain water, and it costs a whopping $39.99. That takes some greenwashing balls.

Link [Lighter Footstep]

34 Stunning LEED Platinum Projects from Jetson Green

Leave it to green architecture blog Jetson Green to come up with a list of incredible LEED Platinum projects from around the world. The 34 residential and commercial buildings on the list include the twin eco towers planned for Abu Dhabi, the world’s first LEED platinum museum and Justin Timberlake’s golf course buildings. The list is comprised of all the LEED platinum buildings Jetson Green has covered throughout 2008, underscoring the fantastic growth we’ve seen in green building despite economic uncertainty.

From Jetson Green:

There’s so much innovation in the green building space, it’s pretty hard to keep up with it all.  I mean, check out these articles below.  In the past year alone, we’ve discussed at least thirty-four different LEED Platinum projects — some are done, some are under way, and some are still on the boards.  Wow, what an incredible year in green building news!  Innovation at the highest rung of the USGBC’s LEED system continues.  And so you know, we plan to pay more attention to the greenest of green projects over the next year.

Check out the four pictured here and see the rest over at Jetson Green!

Top: Platinum Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach

Swaner EcoCenter, the Greenest Building in Utah

Hawaii Center a Fascinating Display of Solar Potential

Independence Station Chasing Highest Scoring LEED Platinum

Link [Jetson Green]

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