How To Have A Green Christmas
Posted by Laird on Dec 8, 2008
Working towards a green Christmas is not difficult, but it requires some thinking. With careful planning and some common sense, you can celebrate a green Christmas this year too.
Try to avoid sending paper greeting cards. Send e-cards or direct people to your blog. Compile family photos of previous Christmas in a video, add some Christmas tunes and you have a fun way of sending your best wishes. It is also a way to remind old friends and families of how much fun you had last Christmas.
When shopping, bring your own tote bag and refuse paper or plastic bags from your store. Make sure you listed down everything you need, such as gifts, groceries and so forth, so as to avoid making returns to the store and wasting both time and gas. You can opt for online shopping too. This way, you can avoid driving and getting caught in traffic.
When giving gifts, consider gifts that do not turn into waste, such as concert or theater tickets. Suggest family and friends create wish lists to exchange, so no gifts given are wasted or left to sit on a shelf collecting dust (or worse, in a landfill).
Consider making gifts, many handmade and homemade gifts are easy to make. This also makes your gifts extra special as they are one of a kind and made with love. Give homemade gifts such as cookies in glass jars that your mother or aunt can easily reuse in her kitchen. For co-workers or teacher’s gifts, consider biodegradable candles made of natural ingredients like beeswax.
Use recycled wrapping paper or reusable materials such as scarves or bandanas. Use fabric ribbons instead of synthetics. Practical items such as seasonal cookie cutters or handmade ornaments can be used to accentuate your gifts.
As for decorations, use strings of LED lights. They are energy-efficient, helping you save on electricity bills. Consider putting the lights on a timer so there’s no chance you’ll forget to turn them off, wasting energy.
For Christmas tree, try to get a real tree, if possible. Live trees with the root bulb intact are best, as they can be planted after the holidays, but a real tree from a christmas tree farm is also a good alternative. Be sure to send it to be processed after Christmas for mulch. Make your own Christmas ornaments or pick pine cones and berries as pretty ornaments.
If throwing a party, keep the portions just enough for everyone. Keep leftovers such as turkey, chicken or even salads in the fridge for next day’s meals. After a big feast, compose food wastes in your backyard for earth-friendly, natural fertilizer.
If you are traveling this Christmas, consider going paperless. Use e-tickets whenever possible. Walk whenever you can, if the weather permits. If you are driving, check the condition of your car and make sure everything is working fine. This will also improve mileage, thus saving you money on gas. If you are going out of town and need to rent a car, ask for a hybrid.
Having a green Christmas can be achieved with these simple steps. Remember that every little things you do will affect the environment, whether you realize it or not. Always choose natural, environmentally friendly alternatives.
Tips on Getting Children Involved
Posted by Laird on Dec 1, 2008
Tips on Getting Your Children Involved In Your Earth-Friendly Lifestyle
There are many tips on getting your children involved in your earth-friendly lifestyle. If you are in the process of going “green”, it is important to know and understand that this is a lifestyle choice, a way of living that should involve every member of your family. Children of all ages can get in on the “green” epidemic by learning how to live in a manner that is healthy, and rewarding to themselves, as well as the environment. The secret is to ensure that your children enjoy what they are doing, and have fun doing it. If you make it resemble a “chore”, then they will likely lack interest. However, if you make it a fun task with a lot of initiative, then they will be excited about it! Here, you will be introduced to tips on getting your children involved in your earth-friendly lifestyle.
Water
While the earth is composed of 75% water, we are unable to use all of the water resources in the world. There are many water resources available for our use when it comes to cooking, cleaning, hygiene, and drinking, but even those are limited. It is important to teach your children that water is the single most valuable resource that we have on earth. This substance is important as it is the basis of all life on our planet. When teaching your children how to live “green” and save our planet’s water resources, there are many things that you can instruct them to do:
1. Teach them that when they are washing their hands, it is important to use hot water but they should not turn it on full blast. Instead, they should challenge themselves to create a small stream of water about the thickness of a pencil.
2. Encourage your children to turn off the water while they are brushing their teeth when they are not using it to rinse their toothbrush.
3. When children are allowed to wash dishes in the home, encourage them to run a half sink full of soapy water, and then turn the water off. Tell them to wash as many dishes as they can, and set them in the empty sink. Once the empty sink has been filled with dishes, then inform them to turn on the water and rinse them with a small stream of water.
While there are hundreds upon hundreds of ways to save water, these are the most common and a good way to get kids into going into a lifestyle that is friendly to our planet.
Electricity
The next way to live “green” is to save on electricity usage. Children should be taught the importance of saving energy. If your child receives an allowance, you may use saving electricity as an initiative to that allowance. For example, if a child is caught turning off a light, or some other electrical device, then maybe you can give them a penny or a nickel. In the same respect, if they are caught leaving something on, then a penny or a nickel can be deducted and added to a special jar that goes towards something that helps save electricity, such as energy efficient light bulbs, outdoor solar lights, etc….
Conclusion
There are many ways to get children excited about living “green”. The two most important areas when it comes to this type of lifestyle are water preservation and limiting energy usage. By using the idea listed here, you are likely to excite your children about getting involved in your earth-friendly lifestyle!
Green Reasons/Ways to Borrow Instead of Buy
Posted by Laird on Dec 1, 2008
Green Reasons/Ways to Borrow Instead of Buy
The best way to cut down on the amount of materials it takes to make new things is stop buying so many. There are literally thousands of ways to borrow instead of buy if you just take the time to sit down and think about how easy it can be.
The library is a good place to start. They have books, Cds, and movies that you can borrow. You can go to the library and look at the latest magazines. Instead of having all this excess paper piling up in your home, take a trip to the library a couple of times a week and you will save your home from becoming littered with all the excess magazines and papers, not to mention the money you will save.
Newspapers are another way to save. Almost any newspaper today can be viewed online. This is another excellent way to keep from having so much extra paper in your home.
Rent your tools or borrow them instead of buying. Unless you do this for a living, the occasional tool for a project can be rented or borrowed and this keeps your home and garage free of many items that are only used occasionally.
Instead of having to make a trip to the grocery store for one item, borrow from a neighbor until your next regular time to go to the store then you can pay it back. If all you need are a couple of eggs for something you are making, instead of spending the gas to run to the store it would make much more sense to borrow.
Keep a small amount of cash on hand for anything that may come up. If you or your children or your husband need a few dollars for lunch or the boy who mows your lawn, it will be there, you will not have to run and cash a check and you can put back what you borrowed so it will be available for the next person who needs to borrow. This will not only save gas but it saves checks, especially if your bank charges per check.
If your home has become so cluttered you can hardly get through it, have a yard sale and get rid of things you no longer use. If you are keeping items because you may need them in the future, the time to get rid of them is now. If the occasion arises in the future when you need something you no longer have, find someone to borrow it from and then it will be returned and you will not have all the clutter in your home. This is one way you can limit your buying when it is something that you really do not use enough to justify the expenditure.
There are many ways you can utilize to save money by borrowing many things that are easier to borrow than to purchase. There are many items that are cost a lot to produce just for a one or two time use. The need to cut down on the overabundance of items being produced that end up being waste we have to dispose of is increasing. The best way to stop the waste is to cut down on what we purchase.
Save Water to Save Money
Posted by Laird on Nov 24, 2008
Save Water to Save Money
In the 1970s, water used to be free. Due to human beings’ negligence, water is no longer a free product as well as no longer pure and clean. People now buy drinking water unless they want to drink contaminated water. Measures must be taken to recycle resources and clean the water system before water becomes scarce.
For starters, people should reduce their usage of water by taking shorter showers, which will decrease their water and electric bills. Also, installing inexpensive low-flow showerheads and toilets will decrease water and electric bills. Furthermore, a faucet aerator, on all faucets in the household, is inexpensive, as well. These gadgets will reduce electric and water bills. But the water pressure will remain high.
Conserve water by using xeric gardens. Plants in xeric gardens are native to the area and do not require much water. In order to water them, it is recommended to use gray water. This gray water is the water from the kitchen, bathrooms, sinks, showers, tubs, laundry, washing machines, and dishwasher. Only biodegradable soaps are used in order to create this gray water. Recycle this gray water by watering gardens, plants, and lawn.
Use the machine washer/dryer and dishwasher after seven in the afternoon. Wash most of your clothes in cold water because hot weather uses up a lot of energy. When drying clothes, only place big and thick pieces, like towels, sheets, jeans, sweats, blankets, robes and pajamas in the dryer with dryer balls in order to reduce the length of drying. Try to lay out smaller pieces of clothing as well as the delicate and gentle garments to air dry. Recycle the gray water from the washing machine and dishwasher for watering the plants. Do not flush the toilet too many times during the daytime in order to decrease water bill.
As people learn to reduce their water usage, they should also take appropriate measures to religiously practice the three R’s on a daily and ongoing basis. The three R’s include reducing, recycling and reusing so that valuable natural resources do not become scarce. Important products that need to be recycled include aluminum, steel and tin cans, glass bottles and jars, and paper and plastic products. Old electronics should be recycled since they contain lead and mercury, which can taint the soil and water. Thereby, poisoning drinking water as well as vegetation. Car fluids, parts, batteries and accessories as well as auto bodies and tires should be recycled. Recycling old compost to create your own fertilizer will assist in the growth of nutrient-enriched plants and garden. Furthermore, be sure to buy merchandise in bulk or large boxes to save on packaging. Such bulk shopping can be found in warehouse stores, such as Costco.
Other products to watch out for when recycling include using VOCs and petrochemicals. Cotton and linen products do not emit VOCs in the air; and thereby, improving air quality. Organic cotton is a lot better because it does not use up petrochemicals. Also, using cleaning products that do not have harsh chemicals and that are not scented will recycle better. Do not use foam products, such as cups, bowls, plates, and clamshell boxes, because they use up petrochemicals and they do not recycle well.
Therefore, the secret to saving water requires reducing your water usage, recycling products, and reusing old products. But people need to remember that some products give out harsh chemicals, such as lead, mercury, petrochemicals, and VOCs, and can contaminate drinking water. To be safe, they should not buy such products that are scented or have chemicals. As people practice the three R’s, their water and electric bills start to decrease, their environment is cleaner, and they are saving the planet in the process.
Conservation of the Scottish Highlands
Posted by Laird on Nov 19, 2008
Conservation of natural forest and wilderness in Scotland
Scotland is universally known as one of Europe’s last remaining wilderness areas. Unfortunately, like most of the natural unspoiled wilderness areas left in the world, Scotland’s wilderness areas are under threat.
The planting of commercial forests mainly composed of Scandinavian pine rather than the native Scots pine, further threatens this ecology.
In nature, the mixture of trees, undergrowth and brush as well as open land forms an eco-system that enables a diverse range of animals and birds to live.
The mono-culture approach of the commercial logging companies destroys these eco-systems with their diverse flora and fauna as well as the natural beauty of the environment.
Cutting great swathes of land as the trees become commercially viable further hurts the eco-system. Mixed forests with trees of different ages and different species encourage a much wider range of insects, animals and birds – all evolved for their own ecological niche.
Natural pathways, fallen trees, brush and undergrowth are removed in favour of efficient pathways for machine access between trees of the same type planted in ordered rows.
Even these pathways are often blocked with machinery or piles of logs awaiting further processing in the factory forest.
Like an organism, nature has the ability to regulate itself, and return any damaged parts to a healthy condition. Unfortunately, this self-healing process of nature is being prevented in most places by the scale and intensity of human exploitation.
Ecological restoration seeks to allow the natural regeneration of ecosystems to take place again, and, where appropriate, to assist and accelerate it.
Ecological Restoration in Scotland
Scotland is a prime candidate for ecological restoration work, as it is one of the countries which has suffered most from environmental degradation in the past. The Highlands in particular have been described as a ‘wet desert’ as a result of the centuries of exploitation which have reduced them to their present impoverished and barren condition.
Become a Scottish Laird or Lady and help conserve the Highlands
Since being established in 1983, South Angus Survival has acquired tracts of land in the Scottish Highlands and it is their intention to acquire more land in these areas which are in danger of being changed into blocks of identical Scandinavian pine-forest
As a necessary part of our ongoing conservation, restoration and regeneration program, South Angus Survival are currently replanting these areas with many native species of deciduous trees; including, Rowan, Alder, Willow, Hornbeam etc,
This will help to create a natural mixed woodland where local flora and fauna can survive and live in safety in a diverse eco-system encouraging a .native animals and birds before they become endangered species or worse still, join the growing list of extinct species that we and our children will never see again.
In the past, Scottish forests were home to many species of wildlife no longer seen or endangered – the European beaver, wild boar, lynx, moose, brown bear and the wolf.
As a “Laird of Glencairn” or “Lady of Glencairn” you will help these natural areas to survive. It’s a small beginning - but it’s a beginning. This could be the last chance to preserve one of the most strikingly beautiful landscapes in Great Britain (perhaps even in the world) for future generations.
Can You Recycle Your Toothbrush?
Posted by Laird on Nov 3, 2008
Can You Recycle Your Toothbrush?
A Toothbrush has its own lifespan and we usually change one after just a couple of months, at the most. But what happens to the toothbrushes we keep on discarding? And if we strictly follow our dentist’s advice, we would have been tossing toothbrushes every quarter! In America alone, each year, around fifty million pounds of used toothbrushes end up in landfills!
But the good news is that, the Green stores and some with online availability option have come up with the eco-friendly versions of toothbrushes. Eco-Dent has come of with their Terradent variety of toothbrushes with replaceable heads. The beauty of this product is that, the head with frayed bristles could be changed for a fresh head, thus retaining the handle part, leading to bare minimum waste. Again, planned by the dentists, the Recycline Preserve one’s handle portion is manufactured from Polypropylene Plastic recycled from the second-hand cups of Stonyfield Yogurt! And after such a toothbrush completes its life, one has the option of either putting it back to Recycline or put it with other ecologically reprocess-able plastic items, into the blue bin. The polypropylene plastic toothbrush, so finds its application in the manufacture of long lasting durables as outdoor tables and deck. If you are not that keen on mailing back your discarded toothbrush, Carol Duvall, the Craft guru from HGTV has an idea! And the idea is that of curving bracelet for the young ones, rather than leading the old toothbrushes to landfills. Following Carol’s idea, you may try this idea as well. The steps involved sounds simple. Just one minute boiling (and removing the bristles) the toothbrush could be enfolded around a mini jar and let it cool down to the desired shape. Meanwhile, nature’s own product cellulose is also getting used in the making of recyclable as well as chic toothbrushes from the Radius stable. Radius has also come up with battery driven “Intelligent Toothbrush”, to reduce environmental hazards by using replaceable heads. They are even open to taking back the toothbrush after eighteen months, once is the battery goes off completely. But definitely, many of us don’t just want to shift from our regular mass-market toothbrushes. We all have our choices and preferences. So, here lays the solution to follow our heart while caring for the environment and recycling. Toothbrush Express, the online website designed towards retailing, has an approach much alike the Recycline, towards toothbrush recycle. You can get new toothbrushes delivered at desired intervals (may be monthly to even half yearly). And after use, you can post back your old toothbrush for recycling, through a pre-paid mailer. But off course, Toothbrush Express charges for this additional service.
Easy Things You Can Do To Help Stop Global Warming
Posted by Laird on Nov 2, 2008
Easy Things You Can Do To Help Stop Global Warming
You may not realize it, but there are many easy things you can do to help stop global warming. In recent years, it has been discovered that temperatures have risen approximately 1°F higher than the average. Over the next decade, we could see temperature increases up to 6 degrees higher. Small increases in the Earth’s temperature could result in a drastic change in the climate. This has the potential to impact the sea level in the oceans of the world, changes in the productivity of crops, changes in the air that we depend on, and the water we drink may also experience a change. In addition to this, our overall health and the standard economy will be drastically affected. This is why it is essential to know and understand that there are easy things you can do to help stop global warming.
1. One of the first things that you can do to contribute to preventing global warming is to start with your own home. Take a look at the lighting. Are you still using those standard bulbs? If so, it is time to pull them out and replace them! Go to the store and buy energy efficient bulbs and put them in all of your sockets. It has been estimated that for each bulb that you replace to the energy efficient type, you are saving approximately one hundred pounds of one of the major contributors to global warming – carbon!
2. The next thing that you can do is not only easy, but fun as well! Go to your local garden store and pick out a nice tree that will grow to be large and strong. Then, take it home and plant it! Trees help provide oxygen, and they also work to absorb all those nasty carbon dioxides that are in the air. In turn, they use it to convert into a source of energy. If you plant the tree near the home, you will find that it will eventually provide shade. As a result, you will save money on the costs to cool your home!
3. Next, you should focus on reusing the products that you purchase as much as possible. For example, if you have a bottle of bleach, and it is getting low, add some water and keep using it! It may not be as strong, but it will be just as effective! You should also focus on purchasing products that are recycled from other products in order to save money and reduce the amount of carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere.
If you work to follow these simple steps, you will be ensuring that the atmosphere receives as little pollution as possible from fossil fuels and other materials that are used to provide electricity, water, and the items that you purchase at the store. The important thing is to remember that you can make a difference in the world. This is especially true when it comes to global warming. These are just a few of the many easy things you can do to help stop global warming.
Green Web Hosting
Posted by Laird on Sep 8, 2008
Green Web Hosting You Can Feel Good About
Solar Energy Hosting is the conscious solution for green web hosting in an age of global warming and climate change. By using a green Energy Host your website is hosted using solar energy- the energy powering your site comes directly from the sun! This is better than “Carbon Neutral” because it does not involve the purchasing of Carbon Credits. By hosting your website with a Solar Energy Host, you are making a real difference in reducing climate change.
Here are two links to solar powered green hosters.
Green hosting 1
Plastic Soup
Posted by Laird on Aug 23, 2008
PLASTIC
Durable, versatile, lightweight, hygienic, cheap and strong: synthetic plastic is arguably one of the most useful inventions of the last century.
It is essential in medical equipment, technology and thousands of devices which have increased our standard of living. But those very same attributes of durability and cheapness make plastic one of the most pervasive forms of waste on the planet.
Evidence of our failure to deal with plastic rubbish is everywhere, from bulging landfill sites and countryside litter in the UK to a toxic plastic “soup” swilling around the middle of the North Pacific, thousands of miles from continental land.
Island groups such as Hawaii and Midway which, by their location in the Pacific should be pristine, instead are awash with plastic, killing seabirds, turtles and other marine life.
The UN Environment Programme estimates that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter in every square mile of ocean on Earth. Some marine scientists believe that microscopic plastic fragments in the ocean can soak up pollutants which may then get passed up the food chain into fish and, ultimately, humans.
Nationally we throw away 58 billion items - 1.5 million tonnes - of household plastic packaging a year, according to the government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) and it’s growing annually by 2-5%. Considering that most plastics are lightweight, that’s a mind-boggling volume of rubbish, especially as it does not include non-packaging plastic waste (as government figures do not exist for this). In theory, most household plastics can be recycled but in practice, most local authorities only offer the facility to collect and recycle plastic bottles. A handful do collect all plastics but they are few and far between. Unless you’re very, very disciplined - and most of us frankly aren’t - then you’re quite likely to end up by throwing more [food] away.
These make up a third of household plastic packaging waste so even if every single bottle was recycled (currently 35% are), the majority of our plastic rubbish would still be destined for landfill or incineration.
It’s something that annoys consumers admits Paul Davidson, plastics sector manager at Wrap. “Plastics packaging waste in particular is a very visible part of the waste stream and it’s also growing.
“Ironically as we become more successful at recycling generally, what’s left in the bin tends to be just the plastic. So more and more people are looking in their bins and saying there’s just bits of plastic here why can’t I recycle them?”
The situation will improve in the next three to five years, he adds, as UK recycling plants are developed which can handle trays, tubs, pots and punnets as well as bottles. Under-packaging - worse?
Everyone has their favourite over-packaging bugbear be it the infamous shrink-wrapped coconut or bananas packaged singly on polystyrene trays. But the other extreme leads to food waste, which has a far greater environmental impact than excess plastic according to Dick Searle, chief executive of the UK Packaging Federation.
Identifying types of plastic “A lot of packaging is designed to lengthen the shelf-life of the products that are being sold so if you take it out of the packaging there’s a good chance that it will actually not last as long. “And unless you’re very, very disciplined - and most of us frankly aren’t - then you’re quite likely to end up by throwing more [food] away.”
Meat is a prime example, he says, with so-called “modified atmosphere packaging” - gas-filled supermarket packs which delay deterioration - meaning that packaged cuts last as much as two weeks longer than the same product bought from a butcher.
Plastic-free wagon
And yet we used to manage without all this plastic. In the 1950s, less than five million tonnes of plastic was produced worldwide, today it is close to 100 million tonnes. The clink of glass milk bottles on the doorstep has been replaced by the purchase of two-litre plastic bottles at the supermarket. Chocolate bars were once packaged in foil and paper; packed lunches used to consist of a homemade sarnie in some greaseproof and an apple.
But our lifestyles have changed too - we no longer shop for groceries every day, many more women go out to work and fewer meals are eaten or prepared at home. If plastic in general, and plastic packaging in particular, is all about facilitating our current way of living, will we have to return to the labour-intensive shopping patterns of previous decades.
When solarwind blog contacted a random selection of household named companies
the two stock answers we received from their customer care Depts.
1.Our large packaging gives us a larger shelf presents.
2. Our large packaging make our product harder for shop lifters to conceal
and steel our products.
Go figure!!
Our Water Footprint
Posted by Laird on Aug 21, 2008
OUR WATER FOOTPRINT
TO MAKE YOUR SELF JUST 1 CUP OF COFFEE USES
140 LITRE’S OF WATER!
(246 PINTS OR 30.75 GALLONS)
No that’s just not possible is it ???
Yes! It is if you take into account the water used in
a, water used in the growing of our coffee.
b, water used in the 1st processing from berry to coffee bean.
c, water used in the wholesale transport, labelling & packaging.
d, water used in the 2nd processing from the beans to ground or instant coffee.
e, water used in the re-packaging and labelling into the shopping product we all buy.
f, lets not forget that ¼ pint of hot water we add to convert the raw product into our morning get up & go beverage.
If you think that’s surprising! How about the fact it takes from the grass eaten to
Produce an end product of a 16oz prime steak on our plate.
A total of 8,000 litre’s of water (14,084 pints or 1,760 gallons) of fresh water,
The relation between consumption and water use
The water footprint of a nation shows the total volume of water that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the nation. Since not all goods consumed in one particular country are produced in that country, the water footprint consists of two parts: use of domestic water resources and use of water outside the borders of the country. The water footprint includes both the water withdrawn from surface and groundwater and the use of soil water (in agricultural production). Water footprint
People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, etc. The water footprint of an individual, business or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation.
The USA water footprint is 2,500 cubic meter per year per person..
This really is quite scary stuff
We have here two “Water footprint” calculators for you to use.
These are a must to add to your Favorites list.
Individual water footprint - The quick calculator
And
Individual water footprint - The in depth calculator
