ECOSiZE Me

Teens for Jeans

Clothing chain, Aeropostale engages teens to help clothe the homeless and inadvertently promotes waste reduction with the 5th Annual Teens for Jeans clothing drive campaign. Groups or individuals can donate slightly worn, usable jeans to Aeropostale stores now through February 12th. Jeans will in turn be donated to homeless youths in need of clothing. Additional information on how to participate can be found by following this link www.dosomething.org/teensforjeans/take-action.

The teens for jeans campaign allows us to help those in need while helping our planet at the same time. Remember...reduce, reuse then recycle.

Up for a Challenge: Weekend Without Oil

Feeling competitive this weekend? Try this challenge on for size...a weekend without oil. On August 21st and 22nd, can you, will you commit to 11 actions that reduce U.S. oil consumption? According to weekendwithoutoil.org, even though the U.S. is the largest consumer of oil, few of us really realize just how much oil the activities we engage in and the products we buy and use require.

Here is what we can do to make a difference this weekend or on any given day:

• Walk or ride your bike
• Enjoy the outdoors
• Use reusable bags (avoid plastic)
• Be conscious about your diet
• Avoid buying new make-up (that is petroleum-based) and do research on the brands
• Get back to the tap
• Make your electronics last
• Avoid buying new dvd's
• Skip the new clothes (borrow or shop vintage)
• Visit the library and read online
• Talk to your friends. Share your knowledge. Spread the word.

For more information and to take the pledge, visit www.weekendwithoutoil.org.

Air Drying Laundry: International Clothesline Week

Promoting sustainable living, International Clothesline Week encourages people to lower their carbon footprint, by air-drying laundry instead of using an electric or gas-powered dryer.

Appliances account for 17% of a household's energy consumption. At the top of that list are refrigerators, clothes washers and clothes dryers. Dryers alone cost nearly $100 per year to operate unless you choose a nearly-free alternative: air-drying!

Did you know that...

More than 90% of single family homes in America have clothes dryers compared to less than 4% of Italian households?

By washing your jeans in cold water and letting them air-dry, you can reduce their full lifecycle carbon footprint by nearly 50%?

For more information and statistics, visit Project Laundry List.

So, why do you air-dry your laundry? To be green and lower your carbon footrprint? To save money? Out of necessity? For the fresh scent of laundry dried outside? No matter the reason, it's a good thing to do.

BP Oil Spill: "Trust Us" Is Getting Old

The following is a guest post from Barbara O'Brien, advocacy blogger and owner of The Mahablog. You can contact her at barbaraobrien@maacenter.org

 

 

When British Petroleum (BP) applied for a permit to build the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and begin drilling, it claimed to have the technology and know-how to handle any oil spill.

 

But in the face of an actual spill, BP is much less confident. “This scares everybody: the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far,” BP CEO Doug Suttles said. “Many of the things we’re ­trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 ft.”

 

They’ve never been tried at 5,000 feet. Drilling for oil this deeply under the ocean is a relatively new enterprise for our species. Oil has been drilled offshore in shallow water for more than a century. But deepwater drilling is much more expensive than shallow-water drilling. For a long time drilling in deep water wasn’t tried, because it would have cost more to extract a barrel of oil than a barrel of oil was worth on world markets. It took the spikes in oil prices in recent years to make deepwater drilling profitable.

 

Politicians and oil executives assured us that offshore oil drilling was safe. Those tree huggers who worry about environmental disasters are nuts, they said. Yes, there have been oil rig disasters in the past, but (big wink) we know what we’re doing now. Trust us.

 

The laws of physics work differently nearly a mile underwater than they do on land, or shallow water, however. By now, it is obvious BP is still trying to invent a procedure that might stop the oil leak, maybe, if we’re lucky. No one appears to have been ready for the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

 

Really, this “trust us” business is getting old. How many times have we been told to “trust” some new thing, and then when the dangers surface we find out the “trusted” ones hadn’t told us the whole truth?

 

In the mid-20^th century we humans went into overdrive digging asbestos out of the earth to use in countless structures and products. There is asbestos in navy ships, asbestos in our homes and schools, asbestos in old car parts, asbestos in landfills. And eventually, years after medical science had determined asbestos exposure causes terrible disease, industry executives and politicians reluctantly agreed to shut down asbestos production, or at least most of it. And now the cost of asbestos abatement and mesothelioma treatment is an ongoing problem for individuals, taxpayers, and businesses.

 

And do we want to talk about Vioxx? Tanning beds? And now there are questions being asked about Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in just about every plastic bottle you’ve ever touched. It may be dangerous, it may not. Opinions vary. Just note that the same political and business leaders who deny BPA could be dangerous are the same ones who like to yell “drill, baby, drill.”

 

Barbara O’ Brien

June 2, 2010

Lend, Borrow and Get in the Thingloop

Reduce, reuse, recycle...then lend and borrow and get into the Thingloop. Thingloop is a new social tool that's all about saving money, saving the planet and reducing our carbon footprint through the lending and borrowing items with friends instead of buying new.

The uniqueness of Thingloop is that it takes it a step beyond the everyday lending of items between friends and neighbors. For example, we own scaffolding...2 sections, 2 platforms, 5x7 with casters. This is not a topic our everyday conversations and not something that most of our friends would even know. However, by us listing it on our Thingloop profile as an item we are willing to lend, now all our friends and groups know that it's available should they have a need for such.

It's really very simple and fun as well. Go to Thingloop. Join. Invte friends to join, create groups. List stuff that you're willing to share. The bonus is that Thingloop keeps track of who has your stuff, so you don't need to. It also tracks the monetary value of the items your willing to share so you get a sense of the potential savings with lending and borrowing instead of buying new. Now, if Thingloop would just track the resources saved by lending/borrowing items...we would really begin to understand the extent of our lifestyles on the planet.

In a society of overconsumption, Thingloop is a refreshing tool to help curb our purchases and our impact on the planet. Thingloop provides us with access to the things we need by promoting lending and borrowing, and it creates the opportunity for reducing our carbon footprint, reducing waste and conserving precious natural resources.

Where is away when we throw it: waste to energy incineration

Where is "away" when you throw it? How many of us are really aware of the final destination of the garbage we set out at the curb? Because of the MRC Conference, I had the opportunity today to take a tour of GDRRA's incinerator. The Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority's facility is more accurately a waste-to-energy incinerator, meaning that garbage is burned in order to produce energy. This energy is then sold to DTE and is used to power homes within the city.

About 50% of the 3,000 tons of garbage dumped daily at GDRRA's Detroit facility is generated within the city itself. The rest comes from private waste haulers, suburbs and Canada.

Each of us should have the opportunity to tour an incinerator and a landfill. The lasting impression it would leave on you just may be the catalyst we need for significant changes in our choices.

Nat Geo: Wet All Over Water Issue

Nat Geo's current (April) issue is a great green read. Water: Our Thirsty World is full of important insight and information. It's worth the trip to your local newsstand to pick up this special issue.

Ziploc Evolve: 25% Less Plastic But Still 75% Wrong

Have you heard of Ziploc Evolve plastic storage bags? They claim to be better for the environment.

• Made with a new resin blend, Ziploc Evolve uses 25% less plastic. (But remember 100% of plastic still comes from limited, finite and non-renewable resources (petroleum).
• Made using approximately 50% wind energy (for Ziploc Evolve manufacturing facility).
• Packaged in 100% recycled paperboard, using 35% post-consumer content.

Ziploc's efforts are 25% in the right direction but still fall 75% short on the environment. 

Why is it that Ziploc only makes the "Evolve" line "better" for the environment. Can we therefore say that their other products are "worse" for the environment? "Evolve" bags may be "better"...until they hit the landfill. Then they are the same as any other plastic storage bag. If Ziploc is truly concerned about the environment, wouldn't they make all of their products using the new, "better" for the environment formula?

Want a better choice all together? Then choose to reuse and ditch the disposable. Reusable food storage containers and reusable snack and sandwich bags are the eco-friendly way to go.

Missed Opportunity

I saw a Wal-Mart commercial on television this past weekend. It was an advertisement of how you could save money by shopping at their store and then packing your lunch instead of eating out on a daily basis.

Displayed in the commercial were a variety of items that they would have you use to pack a lunch. What was truly significant about the footage was that it contained a paper lunch bag (instead of a reusable lunch container) as well as a bottle of water (instead of a reusable drinking container). While I applaud the idea of packing your lunch instead of eating out, Wal-Mart misses the boat, economically and environmentally. Purchasing individual (disposable) bottled water and (disposable) paper lunch bags are not ways in which to be economical. Nor are they ways in which to be green.

What a missed environmental opportunity! Wal-Mart’s PR and advertising gurus fail to gain the respect of “green” shoppers. Their commercial silently and subtly speaks volumes about the company’s true commitment, or lack thereof, to our environment.

 

The Wal-Mart commercial is an indicator that environmental stewardship is not truly at the forefront of our society. That convenience and disposability take precedence over waste reduction and sustainability. This is truly an unfortunate circumstance. One that needs to be reversed.

 

 

 

Cash for Clunker (Refrigerators)

Take the time to read this article. Kudos to the State of MI and Michigan utility companies for taking a proactive approach in reducing energy consumption and moving toward energy efficiency.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090812/BUSINESS06/908120326/Clunker-refrigerator-rebate-program-hot