Reusable: Toilet Paper and Paper Towel Rolls

You do not have to be a crafter to repurpose your left over toilet paper rolls and prevent waste.

Here are a few ideas we collected:

1. Donate them to your local animal shelter. Small animals love playing in toilet paper rolls and chewing them up to make bedding.

2. Keep spare electrical cords tangle-free by fanfolding the cord and putting it through a toilet paper roll. You can even decorate the roll with colorful paper.

3. Store string around the outside of a roll to prevent tangles. You can create notches at each end to attach the string ends to.

4. Give to kids along with some markers or paint and see what crafts they come up with!

5. Roll your linens up in longer paper towel rolls to avoid creases caused by storage.

6. Use the rolls as seedling planters. Rather than purchase several small starter pots, use one tray, insert in several rolls cut in half horizontally and place soil and the plants in each roll.

7. Poke holes in the rolls and use them as toy building blocks. Kids can poke the ends of pencils into the rolls to build objects.

8. Create wall art! Take a look at these amazing designs by blogger Tali Schiffer Oren for inspiration. Here is one of Tara’s creations:

9. Prevent your kids’ artwork from sitting in boxes and wrinkling by rolling the pieces up and fitting them into paper towel tubes.

Use Reusable Bags Responsibly

While it is clear that reusable bags have reduced our reliance on and use of plastic shopping bags, earlier last week the Mother Nature Network discussed an interesting topic: “Are reusable bags doing the good we think they are?”

Most people are likely to own a few reusable bags. These bags may have been bought at a store, given away at a green event or offered as a goodie bag. The point of reusable bags is to help us all use less plastic and paper bags, but are these reusable bags ending up in landfills or collecting dust on a shelf?

Long gone are the days when reusable bags were isolated in the aisles of Whole Foods. Nowadays, you can purchase them at virtually any grocery store or Walmart.

The Bag Matters

Not all reusable bags are created equal because some reusable bags are not made with environmentally-friendly materials. Bags made from recycled plastic are much better than bags made with PVC and died with chemical color dyes. While PVC requires less petroleum than many other polymers because 57% of its mass is chlorine, and it is such a durable material that it is not biodegradable. PVC material will retain its form for decades, and even then, will only break down into smaller pieces.

When manufacturing PVC material, dioxin is created. Dioxin is a deadly poison and is considered a “cumulative toxin” because it stays in the body for a long time.

Solutions

Own a few reusable bags, keep them in your car and use them. If forgetting them is a problem, purchase the reusable bags that collapse and can be kept in a purse. Also, if you have plenty of reusable bags at home, stop accepting free bags if you know they won’t be used and give the excess reusable bags you current own to friends and family members who will put them to use.

Another way to limit packaging waste during grocery trips is to look beyond the bag and examine your purchase. Are you purchasing processed foods with a lot of packaging? Are they foods that could be purchased from bulk bins with reusable containers?

From a legislative standpoint, a few cities have started to enforce plastic bag bans. Among the most notable include the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto, and, of course, the entire country of Italy! Talk about great motivation for remembering your reusable bags!

I Recycle, Do You?

Today, November 15, 2010, is a day to remember the forests, oceans, animals, lakes, streams, trees, deserts and all of the earth’s natural environments. It is a day to appreciate the natural beauty in the world, and it is a day to work towards preserving it. Today, November 15, 2010, is Keep America Beautiful’s America Recycles Day.

On America Recycles Day, millions of people pledge to increase their recycling habits at work, at home and while on the go. Events designed to educate and inspire others to recycle are held throughout the month of November in celebration.

America Recycles Day is the only day dedicated specifically to recycling promotion in the United States.

Please do your part. Here are ten ways to incorporate the three Rs into your life.

1. Reduce and reuse. Recycling should be a last option. Focus on reducing the amount that you consume. This could mean buying food from bulk bins and reusing containers to minimize packaging waste. It could also mean shopping at thrift stores to reuse goods. Rather than recycling plastic water bottles, purchase a water filter and eliminate your need for plastic water bottles completely.

2. Be aware of the recycling rules for your community. Each city has its own specific guidelines, and it decreases efficiency if non-recyclable products are placed in recycling bins.

3. Compost your food waste – your plants will love it.

4. Give away old clothes, furniture, books and other products to friends or through online sites such as Craigslist.

5. Make an effort to purchase items made from recycled materials.

6. Print double sided on paper and reuse “scrap paper”.

7. In addition to reusable grocery bags at the checkout, also reuse produce bags or choose not to place your fruits and vegetables in bags at all.

8. Use your own coffee mug.

9. Wash and rinse zip lock bags to reuse them.

10. Find creative ways to use old clothes. T-shirts can be made into scarves or skirts and a variety of clothes can be used to make quilts.

Inspire others to recycle as well. Here are some daunting statistics that may motivate even the non-recycler.

Aluminum Recycling Facts

- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours.
- An aluminum can that’s thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now.
- An aluminum can may be recycled an unlimited amount of times.

Paper Recycling Facts

- If all newspapers in the United States were recycled, it could save 250,000,000 trees every year.
- The average household throws away 13,000 pieces of paper each year.

Plastic Recycling Facts

- Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

Glass Recycling Facts

- A modern glass bottle takes over 4,000 years to decompose.
- The mining and transportation of materials for glass produces approximately 385 pounds of waste for every ton of glass that is made. If recycled glass is substituted for just half of the raw materials, waste is cut by more than 80%.

The US produces the most trash in the world. This means that approximately 5% of the world’s population (Americans) create 40% of the world’s waste.

Source: Recycling Revolution

5 Tips For A Green Halloween

One of the most infamous holidays is just around the corner!  Halloween is full of traditions from costumes to candy, but very few of these childhood memories are often very green.  Here are 5 fun ideas to help green your Halloween this year!

1)      Take a trip to greenhalloween.org this year to prepare yourself and your family for a fantastic night of dress-up and community.  GreenHalloween offers fun tips for parents about costume planning, party hosting, green treats, and much more; it also has several resources covering a vast array of topics and issues to cover all of your Holliday needs.

2)      Decorate with reusable options instead of the usual streamers etc.  When you focus on decorations with longevity it saves you money and cuts down on resources.  Make sure to unplug fun lanterns and lights at the end of the night.  You could always be creative and recycle things artistically that would otherwise be waste.

3)      Common household candles used for jack-o-lanterns  use paraffin wax, which produces damaging chemicals while the candle burns.  This year, make the switch to natural soy candles; they’ll be less harmful on your lungs and better for Mother Earth.  You could double up your green efforts and buy your organic pumpkins from a local farmers market!

4)      Don’t be like the other folks around!  Halloween is a huge corporate holiday – any trip to Wal-Mart will clearly identify how much money can be made by the same mass-produced plastic costumes.  Be creative, save money, and stand out by designing your own costume – you’ll be surprised what kind of recycled gems are at your local thrift store.  Most store-bought costumes are made out of plastics and vinyl’s that can’t be recycled, and let’s be honest most people don’t really wear the same thing next year despite their good intentions.

5)      Trick-or-Treating is a great opportunity to be greener than you’ve been before.  Making your children their own unique carryall for their adventures saves on plastics and can be reused – they don’t take much space to store and can be fashioned from old pillowcases for those on a budget.  On the other end of things you can promote better life choices by not providing countless calories and teeth rotting candy to the families that come to your door – there are plenty of organic and environmentally friendly treats you can distribute (many in individual packages already)!

Have a fun, green, and safe Halloween this year!  Make sure to check out Organic Bug for some of your Halloween needs from sweet treats for your loved ones to jewelry for your great costume!

5 Fast Ways To Clean Up Your Act And Start Limiting Your Water Use

Western culture uses too much water – it’s just that simple.  We take advantage of this resource and often take it for granted, but little things can go a long way – make some changes in your life and make the world a better place.

1) The average toilet flush usually consumes about 5 liters of water.  Here is a simple way to reduce this volume AND to do a little bit of recycling: Take an empty plastic bottle, fill it with water, seal it tightly, and leave it in the tank of your toilet; this will decrease the amount of water that fills in your tank and lower each flush.

2) You might have some leaks between the tank and the bowl – these slow and steady problems can be huge water wasters.  Check your toilet by placing some food coloring in the tank of the toilet after a few hours of not flushing check the bowl out; if the food coloring has seeped into the bowl then you know there is a leak somewhere.

3) There may be a leak or a drip somewhere else in your house.  Set aside a 2 hour block where there won’t be ANY water used.  Check your water meter at the beginning and end – if it isn’t exactly the same… then you might have a problem to find.

4) Sure, showers feel SO good sometimes, but did you know that even a four minute shower uses somewhere in the ballpark of 30 gallons of water?  Using a timer in the shower to limit the amount of time and water used can change your water bill and help the planet!

5) Relying on your garbage disposal unit at the kitchen sink is a fairly common thing in most households.  These units require water to work properly.  Instead of dumping so much food waste down the sink you should start a compost pile; now you’re saving water and preparing better options for your gardening endeavors for the future.

5 Easy Steps Toward A Greener You

Whether you’re a bohemian and organic yogini or just a person wanting to be a little more green, there are a few things you can always do to make a difference. Even for the greenest of us, remembering some basics can help to reignite and remind us of simple things to make our lives a bit better.

1) Reduce

Let’s face it: even in tough economic times most people live in somewhat of a state of abundance, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. We also could all use for a little reduction in how we buy and how we consume. Use less paper, print things less often, open the windows, don’t make as much food, actually eat your leftovers, put a timer in your shower, don’t leave the water running while you brush your teeth, etc. Look at your life and find at least 3 ways today to reduce your use.

2) Reuse

The best part of reusing anything is in the creative opportunities that can be found. Not only can you get in touch with your inner artisan, but there are also real-life practical ways to reuse household items. Use your old socks as cleaning rags, make a blanket or quilt out of old t-shirts, old bills and junk mail can become crap paper for notes, jars can become flower vases, and more. Next time you go to throw things away, take a moment and get creative before you toss that junk in the garbage

3) Recycle

Many communities offer a diverse recycling program that can keep many things out of our landfills. I recently learned about a service in my community that will even take away old appliances AND provide you with a credit off a utilities bill if a new energy efficient appliance is purchased. Electronics are also in high demand right now for recycling. Check out EPA.gov for more information about local recycling electronics efforts.

4) Shop smarter – Shop greener

Shopping greener doesn’t necessarily mean buying organic goods from your local mega supermarket. So many day-to-day products now offer eco-friendly, safe, and (often) organic alternatives; sometimes these alternatives may be a bit more pricey, but the positive difference they make over heavy chemical brothers and sisters. You can also find green alternative products that have been recognized and approved by various organizations like Green Seal.

5) Power down

Most everybody has fallen asleep with the TV on, or left a light on in the bathroom while leaving the house in a hurry. Mistakes happen, but being conscious and powering down really DO make a difference. Beyond being aware of simple things, there are several little things that we often overlook: don’t leave things on the charger after they have finished, turn off your computer when you are done, take advantage of cooler days and turn off the AC, etc.

There are so many ways to be more green for beginners and veterans! Organic Bug offers tools, goods, gifts, and more to help make your life be a little more green!

2,000 Re-Uses for Beer Boxes!

This morning, a friend sent me a link to what might be the cleverest uses of beer boxes I have ever seen.

Earlier this summer, German architecture students at the University of Applied Science in Detmold designed (website in German), realized, and constructed BOXEL.  The pavilion is constructed in one week by students out of over 2,000 beer boxes that have each been in use for over 10 years donated from a local brewery; the boxes will be recycled when the pavilion is disassembled.

Boxel was conceptualized by Henri Schweynoch in his response to an impromptu competition from Prof. Marco Hemmerling.  The building shape is based on a minimal surface and is organized along free form geometry.  The structure is held together by a series of slats and screws with the additional support of bracings in some of the upper areas.  The three base points of the structure also are concrete lined boxes as load-bearing points.

These students have demonstrated (even unintentionally) great ways to reuse common items.  Organic Bug supports reusing and recycling objects in useful ways.  After 10 years of use, these beer boxes were given one last task before they find themselves recycled – what a great example of being green.

Green Your Clutter

Who ever thought that gutting out your space could make you greener? It seems that simplifying your life and clearing out the clutter can be a greening experience. By implementing simple lifestyle changes such as saying no to junk mail, using the library more for reading vs. buying books and simplifying grocery shopping to reduce waste are all great ideas.

Once you get in your home and see now what needs to be cleared out can be a daunting experience. Here are some simple ways to keep you focused for your road to liberation.

Get your boxes ready

Make sure that you have plenty of space to put the things that you are ready to get rid of. Go to your local grocery or liquor store and get their old boxes. They usually have them sitting outside or go to a clerk and ask them if they have anything in the back that you can use for your new liberation.

Recycle, donate, keep

When you are clearing out the crap make sure that you are prepared with your piles and make sure not to confuse any of them! Separate your piles into the recycle or toss pile, donation pile and your keep pile. This allows for you to just throw your items where they belong and to move on. For the recycling pile, not everything can be recycled. What you can move on to a recycling bin is preferred, but what you absolutely cant toss it!

Move on!

As hard as it may be parting with some of your items, know that not only are you doing well for yourself and your mind, but you are also doing well for your planet. By cutting the clutter and donating what is not used you are allowing for new space, new things, new ideas. But more importantly you are living hopefully a simpler life. By living this way you actually are reducing your carbon footprint in the fact that you are taking up less space (reduce), letting others use what you don’t need (reuse) and moving on the parts that you don’t need to better places (recycle)

Cookin’ on the Road—Diamond Lil—a Sustainable and Convenient Restaurant

Take a beaten down, old 1957 Greyhound bus, hundreds of pounds of food and restaurateur Kai Schoenhals and what do you get? Diamond Lil—the refurbished and shaped up moving restaurant. Diamond Lil is a tasty moving eatery that will travel around the region to its guests granting them savory pleasure and convenient locations.

The operation was inspired by the Napa Wine Train, a two engine 3 kitchen fitted train that serves a 25 mile stretch in Napa Valley. They provide convenience, a seasonal menu and a nationally known executive chef, Kelly Macdonald on board.

San Francisco residents Schoenhals and partner Daniel Isberg run a sustainable operation on the road. Although this moving food venture may seem pricey and anything but sustainable, Diamond Lil cuts her own costs and carbon footprint by using left over cooking oil used in her gasoline tank—allowing her to cook her way across the country. The bus, named after a great aunt of Schoenhals is refit entirely with recycled materials, a recyclable herself and not to mention is the house for a warm and delicious menu.

Local Californians that are lucky enough to dine on Diamond Lil can look forward to not only a wonderful menu but a responsible outfit that has considered its customers and the environment.

Make Love. Not Landfill.

If you’re cleaning out your house and find yourself not too sure about what to do with those items covered with dust, we have created a list of some odd household items that you may have never thought to recycle. There are tons of agencies, organizations and programs who would be more than happy to take those unwanted items out of your possession. When in doubt, do some research and find out how you can help people and organizations in need. Here are some items you can and should recycle!

It’s something that we wear everyday, well some of us anyway, but what do you do when it doesn’t fit anymore? Yeah I am talking about your Bra. Yes, I am telling you that you can recycle your Bra! If it doesn’t fit, recycle it! A bra Recycling program called The Bosom Buddy Program is more than willing to take your old bras. The Bosom Buddy Program, started up by a textile recycling company in Arizona gives donated bras to women who need them, through shelters or other programs that help women gain self-sufficiency. So ladies, and perhaps gentlemen who enjoy wearing bras, go clean out your bra drawer and donate them to a good cause!

Enjoy your wine but recycle the rest. Recycled wine corks can be made into flooring tiles, building insulation footwear, bulletin boards, packaging materials, and sports equipment. Natural corks, which are made from the bark of a cork tree, are ideal for recycling because they are renewable, natural, sustainable and energy-efficient. However, synthetic corks are made from petroleum- based products are not accepted for recycling. Companies like Yemm & Hart produce recycled building materials, are are devoted in turning used corks into floor and wall tiles.

It’s about time you clean out that closet, and when you do, make sure to send your gently used items such as board games to people who may enjoy using them. Adult appropriate items can be sent overseas to our U.S. Soldiers through programs such as AnySoldier.com. AnySoldier has a list of items that may be of value to the men and women serving our country. Visit their website and they will tell you what to send and how to send it.

As long as they don’t stink, go through your old shoes and donate your gently used athletic shoes to a good cause. Through the organization Shoe4Africa, your old athletic shoes will be forwarded to athletes in developing countries. A little bit goes a long way and this kind of donation means more than you know.

You probably have an old iPod that you don’t feel comfortable throwing away (which you shouldn’t)! Apple‘s commitment to responsible environmental citizenship, includes ensuring that an iPod is properly disposed of at the end of its life. Apple’s Recycling Program covers your iPod or any cell phone regardless if the manufacturer or model. Not to mention you get a 10% discount from your next purchase. Not a bad gig, eh?

It always seems like a good idea at the time to spend a large amount on a formal dress that you know you will probably only wear once. It’s time to clean out those closets and donate those beautiful gowns so someone else can look pretty in them too. Charities such as Glass Slipper Project are more than willing to take those old prom dresses off your hands and out of your closet (making room for your new dresses). The Glass Slipper Project will provide young high school students new formal dresses that they would not have been able to afford otherwise.

Remember back in the day when we used phone books? It’s a hazy memory but I am sure you remember what those are, because they are probably taking up so much space in your kitchen drawers. When you finally get around to cleaning out those drawers, don’t throw those big books away, recycle them! You can go to yellowpages.com/recycle to find out how to dispose of them appropriately.

It’s hard to let go of the past but if you think your ready, we ask you to take out those old trophies, dust them off, kiss them farewell, and send them on their way. Send them to Art Inc. this company will gladly take your old, valuable award and make new art to give to children groups or other causes like the Special Olympics. Don’t worry, you still are #1 even if you don’t have a trophy to prove it

Last but not least ( but maybe the most surprising) is human hair. Yes, the hair on your head. Well, you can’t recycle the hair still on your head but the hair that comes from your head, you can! Did you know that human hair can be composted? It can also be recycled into dense mats for soaking up oil. Matter of Trust is a public charity started because the Hair for Oil Spills Program in 2000. Very interesting and definitely worth checking out!

If you need more assistance in finding out what to recycle and how visit Earth911