I’ve often been frustrated when yet another phone directory is plonked onto my front porch. I don’t really use them any more – this computer here does a good job of finding things. Not only that, but there are multiple companies putting out yellow page type books, so volume after volume gets delivered, making me feel such sadness at the waste. This nonprofit org is working on changing all of this – even though there is no current mandatory opt out list available (like the National Do not Call list), they are advocating for making Yellow Page delivery optional: ‘I’ll order one if I want it’. This would be a huge step towards cutting the enormous waste in resources from making, shipping, and delivering these huge books that people might just be throwing away.
Here’s a link that helps you to opt out of Yellow page delivery if you so desire:
http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/
Times are tough and beds can be expensive. I found a couple of cute links for making pet beds out of things you might have lying around the house. Save money and recycle household items that might otherwise be landfilled.
Check out this link for how to make a cat bed out of an old sweater.
This is a very simple bed to make. It would be a perfect cover for an old bed pillow of your own that you’ve retired.
This link is for making a chew resistant dog bed out of old jeans
Check out this collection of links with other clever ideas such as using old suitcases and even an office chair turned into cat furniture.
Here’s a nifty You Tube video about how to make a simple pillow out of jeans legs
Here’s a dog bed with a bolster back
This is a great link to a site that illustrates the importance of cutting back the use of plastic bags globally. Great photos and quick facts – worth sharing this link with others! Portland is currently considering a measure banning or requiring a charge for plastic bags. If people are so intent on cutting our dependence on oil, they should support the ban on plastic shopping bags – according to this piece, China will save 37 million barrels of oil this year due to their ban of free plastic bags. When you visit the link, the scroll bar is alongside the pictures. Pass it along!
I just took a flight out to the east coast to visit friends and my folks. I was fairly shocked to realize that none of the 3 airlines I was on recycled their aluminum cans. It may seem like a little thing to worry about, but according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, about 780 million people took a flight in 2007. In looking around the plane, it seemed that about 75% of passengers used an aluminum can. When they come around to collect trash, it would be super easy to have two bags instead of one. The end result would be the same volume of refuse, but the can bags could be easily sent to recycling. The key to this equation, I believe, is that the airlines could be making money from this practice. I know that there are plenty of recycling companies that buy aluminum in large quantities, and will even pick them up. In these days of collapsing airlines due to financial constraints, wouldn’t it just make sense to be looking for ways to stretch their dollar? Couldn’t they also be using this practice as a PR move, showing us they’re getting in on the Green movement? (more…)
If you have pets that come in contact with your lawn, Beneficial Nematodes are an excellent weapon to use against fleas and their larvae. These Nematodes are microscopic and live below the soil surface. They like a moist environment, so our warm wet springs are a perfect time to apply them. As flea larvae emerge, they are eaten by hungry nematodes. Nematodes do not harm worms, birds, plants or the environment, in fact they are part of the environment and are found the world over.
Beneficial Nematodes are sold live on sponges that can be stored under refrigeration for a week or two before use. A few gallons of water is used as a carrying agent. This concentrate can be applied through a pump sprayer or with the use of a watering can. (more…)
Whoops! I’m coming in a bit late on this one, but there’s still time! From March 16th through Saturday March 22nd, The Tap Project (a UNICEF-founded project that started in NYC and now has spread to other cities across the nation) invites people to dine out at participating restaurants and donate as little as $1 for their glass of water. Money raised goes to providing safe drinking water to children in developing nations. Check out the website for the Tap Project and click on “restaurants” to see the cities and their participating restaurants. You can also donate on that website. One great thing to do even if you don’t plan on dining out: get this website into the hands of your favorite restaurant, and encourage them to participate next year.
For every dollar raised a child will have 40 days of safe drinking water. Having just done a posting on our country’s bottled water habit, I feel like this could be a bit of a way to make up for our wasteful ways. Being conscious of wastefulness when other people don’t have the luxury of being wasteful with their resources is a big step in the right direction for creating a sustainable lifestyle, don’t you agree?
It’s beginning to be outrageous to me that people are drinking so much bottled water without realizing its tremendous environmental impact. Though the nutritionally aware part of me is glad that people are drinking water instead of soda, the sheer volume of bottled water consumed has created a product with enormous impact. Though many other beverages also travel a great distance to consumer, these beverages do not flow from your home faucet nearly for free.
Things to consider:
You’re paying a huge amount of money for something that may or may not be as good for you as your tap water (and up to 40% of bottled water is simply tap water, bottled). If you’re worried about quality, you can buy a great faucet filter for not much money- if you add up what you’re paying per gallon of bottled water in a year ($1-$2 per bottle, vs. .0015 cents per gallon of tap water), you might be surprised at the total – what else could you have purchased with that money?
I love this quote from this fantastic article from Fastcompany.com : “In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It’s so good the EPA doesn’t require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.” (more…)
It’s amazing how much we as a society have come to rely on stronger and stronger chemicals to get our cleaning done, and how much the simple remedies have gotten lost over time. One of the very best cleaners around is simple vinegar mixed with water. Try it on your windows or your kitchen floor. So many pets are suffering from itchy, rashy hotspot-plagued skin issues. Many people automatically assume that food is to blame (of course poor quality fats and proteins can cause nasty skin issues), but we forget that the chemicals we use to clean our floors, carpets, clothing, etc can really add up for the pets that live in such close contact with these surfaces. Check out this link that lists some of the many household uses for vinegar. Here’s another one!
*Raw Apple Cider Vinegar has many many uses for pets, both inside and out. Here’s a great link that discusses the benefits for skin and coat especially, and for combatting yeast.
I love this link – I practice Bikram yoga regularly and I really love it. (I started practicing 3 years ago, and I’ve lost 25 pounds, gone from a size 10 to a size 4, and I’m 3/4″ taller). But with all that sweating, I felt like I needed to replace my yoga mat. I put it in the closet, as I’m so loathe to throw things away if they can be reused, and I thought I must be able to find something useful to do with it. Check out this link, that shares 50 great ideas for ways to reuse your old yoga mat. A couple of good pet suggestions are to line your crate with it when transporting animals to the vet, so that they don’t slip all around. They also suggest using pieces of it under water and food bowls. I think it might also be great to put under crates at home to protect the hardwoods from being scratched. There are many other interesting ideas for kids and home uses. Brilliant!
I’m typing this on my new laptop computer while Mike works on the store’s main computer, the ipod is shuffling away through the stereo, and my cell phone is charging in the next room. All of these gadgets have improved our lives in ways we never could have imagined, and now we can’t live without them. Unfortunately, the life spans of these devices are fairly short, as new and better versions become available all the time. This leads to an incredible disposal problem, and not just because of the amount of space that all of this electronic refuse consumes (according to the recycling company E-Waste Solutions, individuals and organizations worldwide will replace more than 400 million computers in the next 3 years). Did you know that as much as 25% of a monitor’s weight is lead? (more…)
