These gift ideas are literally full of crap. Really. But in a good way. The company Uncommongoods, scoops up elephant poo from the zoo, cleans and filters the waste and creates crafty, paperlike products from what remains. So if you have a friend that is a Delta (OO-OOP!) with an extensive collection of elephant stuff, this funky gift idea will amaze and surprise her! I found these at the botanical garden gift shop, which featured an extensive array of eco-friendly and fair trade products.
Across the street from one of my best clients is one the area's top rated thrift/vintage shops. Fortunately, I will have to make several calls on my client to keep them happy, which puts me in a great position to visit this fun establishment. Cool 70's soft rock, pop and R&B tunes drifted in the background and the employees had me cracking up during my entire lunch hour there. The gold purses pictured here, were all priced under $19 and the pearl necklaces were a steal! I nabbed two fine necklaces (one made in Japan) for under $8 each. I remember paying about $35 for these types of necklaces at Ann Taylor. It gets better. At the cash register, the wise cracking employee (previously a policewoman), reduced the prices further! Oh yeah, I'll be back.
Turn Your Restaurant Into an Eco-eatery This is a great story found on Black Enterprise online, about a young black man who is living his green dream. Going green has also helped him to keep overhead expenses low in these tough times. If you are in Maryland, you know have to show some eco-love to this brother.
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For those of you that are grieving loved ones on this day, my prayers are with you.
This morning, I marched with my fellow recycling committee members and every other interest group in the city, in the Memorial Day parade. We were greeted by great weather, occasional applause and cheering crowds from the neighborhood, often chanting "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". The positive reinforcement felt great. Although, I have lived in my community for 14 years, last year was the first time I ever participated in any community events, namely the parade and home days. Well, I found out that I have been missing out all of these years. You meet interesting new people, run into pals from high school, chat with neighbors you don't normally speak to and really feel part of something wonderfully old-fashioned (Kinda like Sesame Street meets Andy Griffith). I would encourage anyone, who has not participated in a community event to take the time out to do so this summer. Try it. You'll like it!
Okay ladies, having a hard time getting your men to reduce, reuse and recycle? Going green not manly enough? Well this week you have an unprecedented opportunity to green up your guy. How? Make sure he watches NBA basketball. Thanks to the efforts of the environmentally conscious guard, Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns, the NBA kicked off Green Week yesterday. The team hopes to set an example of eco-friendly living and working for its fans. Players from all teams will sport organic gear, use balls made with recycled materials and participate in tree planting and recycling events. The NBA even has a green oriented website. Click here to watch Steve Nash promote the benefits of having a green team. Be sure to share with your guy!
The bad news is that Atlanta was recently recognized as being one of the most wasteful American cities, the good news is that it has the highest percentage of citizens with plans to improve their eco-friendliness. Subscribing to Black and Into Green by email or RSS feed is a great way to start ATL! I will participate in a TalkBlack panel discussion in May, can't wait to meet you!
I guess we just saw too many Mr. Whiffle commercials in our youth. Americans can't seem to give up their fluffy bear bottom friendly toilet paper, though our rainforests and water supplies are at risk due to this need for softness down under. Recycled toilet paper constitutes only 2% of our toilet paper purhases compared to 20% in Europe. The economy may wipe out this disparity however, as fluffy toilet papers sales were down 7% in 2008. One problem I have with recycled toilet paper, though I use it 75% of the time, is that you seem to need more, which kind of defeats the purpose of buying recycled. After reading this article, I will continue to rough it out for the rainforest.
Still waiting on that W-2? Need cash now to buy some hot Valentines Day gifts or to pay your gas bill? Check out this article in Planet Green which features ways you can make money by going green. And you thought you only saved money by going green. Karma baby!
You Grow Girl™ - » Things You Can Compost That You Didn’t Think You Could If you are a vegan, you won't have much to throw away, once you start composting. If you are anything like me, you hate the chore of taking out the trash! Wouldn't it be great if you could reduce your trips to the garage, incinerator or tree lawn? This article points out a whole new range of items that can be turned from trash into black treasure for your garden. Gum, paper towels and cotton balls are just a few of the compostables mentioned. Compost on!
You Grow Girl™ - » The Fantastic Craptastic Compost Bin Since I started composting last winter, the amount of trash that makes it to the curb has dramatically declined. Not being one to spend much money on anything that doesn't involve clothes, shoes, home decor items, plants or chocolate, I couldn't bring myself to pay much for a compost bin. So what did I do? I converted an old plastic trash can that had the bottom eaten out by raccoons to my version of a compost bin. Using the KISS (keep it simple stupid) method, I just dump my food and plant waste into the trash can, mix it up with a big branch from the garden, cover it up with a big sheet and head back in the house. Sometimes, I will collect the compostable waste in a brown paper bag, fold it and throw it right in the bin. The brown bag acts as the brown material that needs to be mixed with green material. This article has photos of crude, but effective compost bins or piles that show you just how easy composting can be. Not enough room for a full blown compost bin? Check out this link for tips on how to create a bin for small spaces.
I came across this cool photo of a Cleveland business doing its part for the environment as I checked out Blogger's Blogs of Note. Was pleasantly surprised to see this Cleveland Daily Photo blog featured. This picture will be my inspiration for putting together talking points this weekend for a presentation to senior management at the bank to discuss implementing a sustainability program.
"One man's trash is another man's treasure." There is a program in Cleveland, Ohio that lives that statement. ZeroLandfill NE Ohio, works with companies to provide materials originally headed for the dumpster, to artists in need of supplies. The company primarily works with architectural and interior design firms to transfer items such as carpet, fabric and tile samples, wallcovering books and three ring binders to artists and educators. More than 100,000 pounds of materials have been diverted from the landfill and tens of thousands of dollars in waste management costs and fuel costs have been saved by the design businesses participating in this initiative.
I love how Mike Dungan one of the creators of the program, was able to take something as mundane as a carpet sample and re-envision it as contributing to a beautiful piece of art. I remember as a child in Los Angeles, spending hours playing with discarded wallcovering samples (makes great paper dolls) and telephone wire (colorful jewelry). It is great to know that these kinds of materials are being used on a wider scale for the benefit of young artists today.
Keep up the great work Mike!
This morning I marched with our community recycling committee at the Memorial Day Parade. I almost didn't go because it was threatening to rain and I just spent an hour the night before grooming my hair with new products, and it was looking right! The other sister that is on the committee and I were debating if we should go because, generally, our people don't want to be walking around in bad weather and sisters don't want to mess up their hair needlessly. But, the Lord had other plans for us and we went anyway toting an umbrella and hats as a backup. Turned out to be a beautiful sunny, breezy day and our committee, now a diverse group of women, men and people of color marched and passed out goodies and Freecycle flyers. Our banner promoted the Three R's of Environmentalism "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle". We were welcomed by the crowd and often heard proud shouts from the crowd of "I recycle!" The children were especially responsive. I guess they intuitively know that they have the most at risk if we don't live consciously.
So now, I'm back home, getting ready to make some potato salad and other goodies and then work on the two posts that I promised for the weekend on cheap green graduate gifts and the black and green economy.
My prayers to the families with soldiers at war, fallen soldiers and to the veterans everywhere.
God Bless.
Found this article that promotes reusing over recycling. Click here to learn the difference.
For those of you wondering about where all of our trash goes and wanting to learn to create less and recycle more, but don't have the time to read a bunch of articles-have I got some trash talk for you! Click on this link and listen to a series of special trashy programs developed by National Public Radio. There is some good information about the amount of e-trash or electronic trash that is increasingly showing up in our landfills.The audio feature is great because you can listen and learn while doing some other cool stuff. Remember to turn up the volume so you can hopefully influence family and friends to be kinder and gentler to the environment.
If you live in the United Kingdom and need stuff or have some things to giveaway (aka recycle), check out the website Recycle. The services are comparable to Freecyle, an organization committed to reducing landfills by encouraging others to donate items to individuals or organizations in need for such items.
I have been eagerly waiting for this day with the hope of starting down the path of organizing my green lifestyle. Today the Unclutterer site featured a post titled "Environmentally Friendly Uncluttering". I thought the post that was going to help us manage some of the issues that arise from recycling and reusing. While the article provides some great macro ideas that support and outline the benefits of going green from an efficiency perspective, there are not a lot of micro level, specific ideas that address some issues faced by those of us living an eco-friendly lifestyle. Some unique green organizing issues that could be explored:
I guess I was seeking something like Lifehacker meets B. Smith, Martha Stewart or Danny Seo. Unclutterer does plan to do more later this spring around the issue of organizing for greenies, so let's hope that there are more specific ideas provided. In the meantime, it would be nice to hear from you what works to keep you streamlined and green.
