Globally Green Living

When the yellow pages delivered a big stack of new telephone directories to my building, not one resident picked up a copy. Why would they when people use the internet or services like Google SMS (if you’re not sure what this is - keep reading- it’s awesome!)

Here is one thing you can do to help save the earth!

http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/

Register to no longer have paper telephone books be sent to your
house. You know you use the internet to look up phone numbers anyway!
and help SAVE SOME TREES!

Now about Google SMS.. (more…)

This is a tough subject if your offices uses styrofoam, completely horrible for the environment cups and you feel helpless in making it change. I understand your grief.

Getting your coworkers to stop using styrofoam cups and bring in a coffee mug from home to use is like telling a smoker to quit smoking. No one’s going to change his or her habit until it becomes import then himself / herself. All I can really say is to change yourself and set a good example.

But while we’re talking about, here’s why using styrofoam cups is just so bad… (more…)

So everywhere keeps telling you to start a compost pile to help lead an environmental life, but how do you start a compost pile??

Want to know - read on… (more…)

If you’re planning to go on a picnic, use some of these tips for making your outing greener.

• Use recycled paper napkins or cloth rather than virgin paper napkins.

• Use reusable containers instead of plastic wrap or baggies.

Bring your own cups and plates from home. If you’re worried about breaking your good dishes, consider a set of recycled plastic plates from Preserve.

They’re tough, reusable, come in pretty colors and there are tumblers to match. The table wear pack includes 10 small plates, 8 large plates, and 8 knives forks and spoons. They come in cheerful pear green or berry red.

• Pick food that is grown locally to save on gas and support local farmers.

• Bring a thermos to store soups, coffee or tea from home and keep them warm.

For more ideas, see:

• Green Living’s Green Your Picnic Basket

• Have a green, litterless picnic, Cheryl Binning

• Color your picnic or barbecue green, Danny SEO

I had a request for more information on products made from recycled PET plastics. That’s short for Polyethylene terephthalate, a man made polymer commonly used for products like those plastic bags the stores push on us everywhere. It has the number 1 on the recycling symbol.

When PET is recycled, it’s usually made into fibers that are used for clothing and stuffing for pillows and sleeping bags. According to Waste Online, we used 20 times more plastic than we did 50 years ago and it is taking a toll by polluting the earth and hurting wildlife.

Some eco-fashion finds that use PET include this fluffy recycled plastic square bag from Hip and Zen. Crafters from South Africa scrunch up the plastic bags in this interesting design. Part of the proceeds goes to the Topsy Foundation helping children with AIDS.

If you need a new laptop bag, consider something like this recycled plastic laptop bag made from fused plastic bags. Every bag is unique so you will have a one of kind eco-friendly cover for your laptop.

Hip and Zen sell many other recycled, organic and fairly traded products such as clothing, jewelry and accessories.

Mens Clothes

Treehugger tipped me off to Bagir and their green line. The totally washable suit is a great idea for busy men and made from 50% Post Consumer Waste obtained from PET plastic bottles. Since you can wash it at home, you can bypass the chemicals used at the dry cleaners. The EcoGir™ Recycled Suit uses 100% PCW and helps reduce even more waste.

Plastic Bag Knitting

If you’re into knitting, you can create your own bags, doormats and clothing by knitting strips of bags together. They’re actually quite attractive and colorful. Here are a few good tutorials.

• Knit Plastic Bag: Instructables

• Plastic Bag Doormat Rug

• Plastic Bag Knitting Tutorial: Cocoknits

Thanks to Peggy from Junk Creation I came across a post about making art from recycled items such as this colorful gecko from old magazines. We have been celebrating Earth day since the weekend and our yard is going to be very clean but if we put all the stuff in the trash, it’s not helping the environment much.

At Bead For Life women in Uganda make beautiful beads from recycled paper. This not only helps the earth but also enables people to get out of poverty by giving them a fair wage for their work. I bought a few bracelets at Xmas and they’re only five dollars so you could collect all the colors for a very pretty effect. I would like to learn how to make the beads myself because we have pile ups of magazines around here.

At Ten Thousand Villages there are many creations made out of recycled paper and magazines. These coasters are made by women in a co-op from the Philippines and this coiled bowl is made from recycled paper by Vietnamese artisans.

DIY magazine project instructions and ideas

• Henrietta’s Handbags offers free instructions on how to make a purse out of recycled magazines.

• At Craftzine, learn how to make these recycled magazine boxes. They’re very cheerful looking and could be used to store pictures, buttons, crafts, crayons and more.

• At A Little Hut, Patricia shows us step by step how she made her bowl from old magazines and glue.

• At PattyWack.com there’s a craft project called fun magazine roll ups that shows us how to decorate containers with rolled up magazines.

• To learn how to make your own beautiful beads, see Paper Bead Crafts, Paper University’s paper beads tutorial, and the easy shiny paper beads from Kaboose.

I liked the idea of recycling old aluminum lawn chairs by reweaving them with seatbelts. You can find seatbelts in various colors, make several, and have some colorful practical lawn chairs. See Wastelands of Suburbia for more on the seatbelt lawn chair.

• At Trendhunter there’s an eco-friendly lawn couch that requires you to fill the frame with soil and grow grass on it to shape it out. This would be a lot of fun for the family because they could help maintain it with ongoing watering. It would require some trimming though if you wanted it to maintain it’s shape.

• Eco Street has a post with several DIY lawn chair projects. There’s a video showing you how to make a chair out of an old shopping cart, a tractor seat chair and an octopus chair made from some stuffed old jeans. Although stealing shopping carts is not advised, it’s is a wonderful way to recycle old ones that were heading to the landfill anyway.

How about a hammock? Here’s the Ultimate Hammock from the lifestyle company Gaiam. It’s made out of recycled plastic bottles.

Gaiam also sells these fun wine barrel chairs made out of recycled wine barrels. I love the rustic simple design.

If you want something a little more comfortable, there’s a recycled wrought iron chair with a cushion.

It would go great along with a recycled iron bistro table. These chairs would be easy to fold and store as well. That’s a bonus, especially if you need a bunch of chairs only occasionally.

I’m getting better with recycling but Eddie House has me beat. He says he has no need to toss trash on garbage day but he has been sued by the city because of it.

I’m guessing it’s a bit of a neighbor’s feud. Eddie admits to complaining to the city about the apartment beside him because of litter and parking issues. Neighbors have called on him for burning something foul smelling but Eddie says he was just burning wood.

• ” The lawsuit, filed by San Carlos Deputy City Attorney Linda Noeske in San Mateo Superior Court on Jan. 22, seeks a permanent injunction forcing House to maintain garbage service. City officials are also seeking to recoup from House the costs of the lawsuit.”(City Sues Man for Canceling Trash Service, Tamara Barak Aparton, Jan.29, 2008)

It will be interesting to see what becomes of it anyway. It sounds as though there are two sides to this story. Besides the burning bit Eddie could probably teach us how to recycle more thoroughly.

Recycling Resources

Want to learn more about recycling? Check out some of these educational resources.

• Recycling.org.uk has some excellent guides, tips and facts. One is that 50% of waste can be composted.

• How Can I Recycle This has all sorts of ideas on how to recycle items you may never thought of recycling.

• Recycle Now shares advice and the many benefits of recycling.

• Earth Odyssey has a great general guide on how to recycle.

• The Daily Green advises us on how to recycle our electronics.

• The Lighter Footstep shares 5 Ways to Recycle a CFL.

• Earth Care has some interesting Canadian recycling facts and FAQs.

• How to Green Your Recycling on Tree Hugger is also worth a read.

If you have more ideas on sites that help teach us how to recycle, feel free to add to the list.

Ruby the resourceress from Second Hand Saints turns trash into art, designing each piece of jewelry with personality and fun.

A resourceress can apparently kick ass in a pretty pink dress but this one also creates wonderful bottle cap jewelry. She gets her bottle caps from bars, delis and pizza joints.

I have seen jewelry made from beer bottle caps but never dressed up quite as nice as these ones. Sparkles, beads and foil add pizazz to pieces of trash.

Besides the fact that Second Hand Saints recycle, they also work for social change and help support artists, women, disabled people and those recovering from addictions and abuse.

I had such fun browsing their junk mall and here’s a few of my favorite finds but check it out yourself. They have buttons, zipper pulls, belts and magnets if you don’t want any jewelry.

Second Hand Saints do custom orders if there’s a certain image you want on the bottle caps that’s not available. I adore this pirate girl bracelet and think it would look good as an anklet but I’m weird.

How about a choker/bootlet? This particular choker was created recycling foil from left over chocolate wrappers. It’s a very colorful festive effect.

The belts are awesome and if you really want to make a statement try a belly dancing belt or a jingle belt made with junk jewels (recycled foil).

Ruby is a wonderful writer with a great sense of humor so even if you don’t buy anything, it’s worth visiting her site for the smiles she brings.

Today I was checking out some “green” stuff for St. Patrick’s Day. We have a full house so could always use another bag. I found a cute reusable canvas bag with a shamrock on it at Cafe Press.

How about some funky recycled glassware from Inhabitat? Independent artisans make this recycled line from Guatemala. These fair trade products are created from recycled wine and beer glasses. The designs are brilliant and bring new life and class to old glass.

Eco-Artware (Gifts from recycled natural materials)

I love these fern green sachets made by graphic designer Lotta Helleberg. She used non-toxic paint on the back of leaves to create the design and the natural linen is colored with eco-friendly dyes. The sachets are then filled with fragrant organic lavender.

Have a musician friend or family member? Even though I can’t play guitars, I adore these necklaces at Eco-artware. The lucky picks come from Fender and Dunlap guitars.

Artist Susan “Sass” Brown has been creating art out of found objects since she was six. She also designs jewelry out of old pottery and game pieces. The charm is a nice touch and I think the same thing would make a great pair of earrings or even a bracelet.

• If you want to check out some Irish books, blessings and signs, here’s one of my favorite sites: Irish Jokes and Irish Blessings

“May brooks and trees and singing hills
Join in the chorus too,
And every gentle wind that blows
Send happiness to you.”

I have been having fun searching for fabric today to create my own reusable shopping bag. I have several but they are all sort of generic looking and I wanted a personalized tote bag.

It will be fun making my daughter her own bag as well. She’s not into pink at the moment but likes the strange combination of black, hearts and skulls. Gothic I guess you would call it. I looked at several sites selling organic fabric but here are a few of my favorite discoveries.

PM Organics began with an organic fabric co-op consisting mostly of WAHMs who made baby clothes and cloth diapers.

Pei and Marie realized what a large demand there was for organic fabrics so decided to invest as much as they could and launched PM Organics. The fabric prices are reasonable, there’s a large selection and the site is easy to navigate.

• My initial source for a listing of online stores carrying organic fabrics was Victoria Everman’s eco-links for green yarn and fabrics. Victoria is a writer, model and environmentalist and she has a lot of wonderful green crafty ideas and instructions.

• Victoria also led me to Uhandbag. I got lost there for a long time because there are so many fun projects and ideas. The free instructions are wonderful and I think I will try the handy tote bag.

Check out Lisa Lam’s U-Handbag blog if you want to get lost too. She’s the owner of the online shop and I appreciate all her detailed instructions since I’m not an experienced seamstress. After spending enough time there I will at least know how to make a decent reuseable bag.

HP announced they plan to use twice as much recycled plastic in their cartridges this year.

Last year they used 5 million pounds of recycled plastic to manufacture cartridges. They use both water bottles and old cartridges to manufacture new ones.

“By developing the technology to use recycled plastics in Original HP inkjet print cartridges, we have the opportunity to reduce the environmental impact HP products have on the planet,” said Michael Hoffmann, senior vice president, Supplies, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “HP’s considerable investments in building a recycling infrastructure made this achievement possible, and this is just the beginning of what we hope to accomplish.”(Palo Alto, CA, Jan.30, 2008, World-Wire)

This is in line with their Design for Environment Program that is working on reducing the impact they are making with packaging and cartridges. Epson also uses recycled plastic in their printing cartridges and I’m sure there are others hopping on board.

Refilling Cartridges and Toxic Ink

What about the ink though? Refilling makes the cartridge last longer. Have you ever used one of those kits? What a mess! It’s definitely cheaper but it’s also most inconvenient.

Some cartridges are easier than others are but I happen to have a harder one right now. It requires a tool to pull the whole top off the thing, which is bad enough. Then you have to somehow keep the ink from spilling all over your fingers, cartridge and what you have underneath to catch spills.

There are companies that manage to refill gracefully. Maybe they don’t because they do it in secret but I’m sure they have better tools than I do. It’s a good way to recycle anyway and make your cartridges last longer.

Unfortunately the ink is usually toxic in most printers. A printer does exist that prints with non-toxic ink. Xerox offers a non- toxic solid ink printer. It uses solid sticks that are good for the environment and is less messy to boot. Another bonus is that it will print on just about any type of paper and of course does not use cartridges.

I was just hanging out at Ten Thousand Villages to do some Valentine gift shopping so thought I would share a few of my finds.

This handmade recycled angel pin from Kenya is so cute. It’s made out of recycled metal and brass. They are created by disabled artisans in Bombolulu and supported by Bombolulu Jewelry Workshop.

Their mission is “To enable persons with physical disabilities to overcome their limitations by empowering them economically and socially so that they become fully integrated members of their communities.”

At Ten Thousand Villages I also found this handmade heart shaped bead choker from India. The beads are made out of glass and the group who makes them are artisans called Archana Handicrafts.

Archana means “a thing of truth and beauty” and they help artisans all over India. The choker shown is only 8 dollars.

On to the embracing couple statue, a beautiful work of art carved out of stone by Haitian artisans. The group responsible for these are the Comite Artisanal Haitien or Haitian Committee of Artisans. They help promote and market Haitian crafts for fair wages.

Supporting Ten Thousand Villages is a wonderful way to spread the love this Valentines day not just to your loved ones but to people around the world.

• Want to try a fun earth friendly Valentines craft? Check out Soy Silk Valentines Cards.

One of Green Glass Company’s featured recycled products is the Shades Bud Vase. This bud vase is simple yet elegant and colorful. It uses four bottle tops attached to a glass pane. The glue makes the vase waterproof but they also suggest that it would make a wonderful candle holder using tapered candles.

Continuing on with my vase/candle holder kick, shown here is a vase from the Cobalt Collection. It was created from the upper portion of an East Coast wine bottle. The glass vase can also be used as a candle holder Green Glass Company cautions you to add a little water before inserting a tealight.

Recycled Goblets and Tumblers

The glasses are frosted with the more environmentally friendly method of sandblasting as opposed to etching. This is a goblet created from their Topaz Collection. It was made from the upper portion of a recycled Californian Chardonnay bottle.

The Royal Collection is quite striking with bright blue colored glass. The glass goblets, tumblers and candle holders were all created with reclaimed Bordeaux bottles.

If you’re looking for a more casual tumbler, consider these Cactus Tumblers created from the bottoms of Mexican Sol beer bottles. They would work for an outdoor picnic or barbecue.

Green Glass Company will do custom orders if you have specific bottles you want glasses created out of and they also purchase certain bottles that they’re in need of. Check out their website for more wonderful colorful glass creations and colors.

• Getting back to my vase kick, if you want to know how to keep those flowers fresh once home, Susan Walsh at Earthly Garden shares tips with us on how to do that.

My kids were making fun of me today for drinking out of a pickle jar. I told them that’s how we do it in the hood. It’s seriously a great way to recycle though and they are the culprits who have broken our proper glasses.

I was pleased to see plenty of other people doing the same thing. At “Dreaming of a Daughter”, she shares on her “Family and its Footprint” post ways that her family is going green. They also gave up paper towels. I never got into them myself but I certainly tire of running up and down the stairs washing rags.

She also uses vinegar, baking soda and tea tree oil for cleaning. I use vinegar a lot but not sold on baking soda. Vinegar will eat through just about anything including mold and lime. Vinegar has a zillion uses so believe that deserves a post of it’s own.

Oh yeah, the pickle jar. She uses them to store leftovers in the fridge as well. Good call and I thank her for the tip.

• At Tom Ischys Recycled Glass Art, he made simple useful glass bowls out of the bottoms of pickle jars. He also created glasses out of beer bottles. Unfortunately he’s not making any more at this time because of health problems but it appears that he’s still selling some of them.

• Tammie at “Toto, I Have a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” uses her pickle jars for drinking glasses as she mentions on her adventures with “The Flying Pickle Jar.”

• You can also use a pickle jar for a candle holder! I blogged about this star jar candle holder previously on Craft Gossip. You can find the full instructions on Craftbits.com.

If you want to use those pickle jars but are having a hard time getting rid of that pickle smell, Readers Digest shares their idea on using a bit of dry mustard and water to banish the smell on Extraordinary Uses for Spices.

• If you would like some drink recipes to serve to your guests in your glasses or pickle jars, Shelly has some delicious recipes at Earthly Eating on her Pleasing Holiday Guests post.