TheGoGreenBlog.com

Like soup? What about all those cans? Keep those tin cans out of the landfill by reusing.

Here are the top 5 ways to reuse tin cans:
1- Pots for Plants: Punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage and fill with dirt & a small plant.

2- Tealight Candles Holders: Punch some holes in the sides & place a small soy candle at the bottom. This works best with smaller cans.

3- Pen, Pencil, Marker Holder: Decorate your can holders to match any office or studio decor.

4- Workshop Organizer: Drop all your extra nuts, bolts & screws in different cans and label them for easy finding.

5- Telephone: Punch a hole at the bottom of 2 cans, string together with string & presto! You got yourself a telephone toy.

The mkSolaire, pictured here, is an awesome prefab home from Michelle Kaufmann Designs and is part of the Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit that opened May 8, 2008 at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (MSI).

“The mkSolaire has been designed to bring healthy living to the city. This open, spacious, loft-like home has been designed to offer healthy, clean and green city living and is perfect for an urban-infill lot, or anywhere a family might enjoy the luminous, loft-like feeling of this home. Through the use of strategically designed roofs and windows, the mkSolaire addresses the challenges of the standard row house by sculpting light and air into the center of the home.” - www.mkd-arc.com

I recommend checking it out if you are in the Chicago area. The mkSolaire is a full scale home that is fully functional and explores new directions in sustainable living and eco-friendly technology. The mkSolaire showcases the latest & greatest in eco-friendly technology including the following features:

• the most current eco-friendly materials
• high performance, energy efficient building systems
• a living roof
• a solar electric generation system
• a rain catchment system
• plus the latest innovations in home technology available

I don’t know about you…but I receive a new telephone book that is about 4 pounds every couple of months. I never asked for the books & never use them. I just wish I could just stop the waste.

Well now you can!

Yellow Pages Goes Green is this awesome new service that allows consumers to “opt out” of receiving the unsolicited telephone books. The organization will contact the publishers and inform them to stop delivering books to your address. They do this by working with state and local governments on ordinances concerning the delivery of unsolicited telephone books. And best of all…their service is FREE for all consumers.

When defrosting frozen foods, either plan ahead by placing frozen items in the refrigerator overnight or defrost them in the microwave rather then running them under warm water. By doing this, you have the potential to save 50 to 150 gallons of water per month.

Greenify your family’s dinner by planning ahead!

When it comes to watering your gardens, flowers or veggies, the eco-gardener choses to use a drip hose over a traditional sprinkler.

Drip hoses work by allowing water to slowly seep out of small holes that target the roots of the plants, where they actually need the water, as opposed to the leaves, flowers, sidewalk, and all passing cars on the street.

Make that green thumb a bit greener this year by using a drip hose to irrigate your gardens instead of those water wasting sprinklers.

Traditional dry cleaning of clothes is neither earth-friendly nor human-friendly because it uses a solvent called perchloroethylene, or perc. Perc is such a nasty chemical, it has even been linked to cancer, liver and nervous system damage, infertility, and hormonal disruption.

A safer alternative to perc is carbon dioxide dry cleaning. CO2 dry cleaning is so eco-friendly that it is even endorsed by Greenpeace and the EPA. And on top of all that, Consumer Reports says that CO2 dry cleaning actually cleans clothes better than using solvents like perc.

Of course, it’s best not to dry clean at all, but if you must, go green by using an eco-friendly dry cleaners that uses CO2 instead of perc.

Greenify your family’s dinners by turning the oven off 10 - 15 minutes before the baking time runs out. By doing this, the food will continue to cook in the already warm oven without using wasting any extra electricity.

Most families go through at least one gallon of milk a week. Even if you recycle each container, that’s still a lot of waste! Keep those plastic milk jugs out of the landfill by reusing.

Here are 5 ways to reuse plastic gallon & 1/2 gallon milk jugs:

1- Painting: Cut the front, top quarter off, keeping the bottom and handle in tact. Fill with paint for a portable, easy to hold bucket.

2- Piggy Bank: Cut a 1/4 inch slit near the top of the milk jug & drop all your extra spare change into the jug. Before you know it, it will be full and time to go to the bank to cash in. You can also decorate your new penny saver to match any decor.

3- Scoop: This works best with a 1/2 gallon jug, having the handle as the top of your scoop. Cut diagonally around the jug until you have a nice scoop shape. For a bit of a lip to your scoop, keep a little bit of the bottom of the jug intact. This is super useful for things like birdseed, fertilizer, dog food and potting soil.

4- Lantern: Cut of the top of the gallon jug, fill the container with sand and a votive candle. If you have several, you can line a walkway or driveway to welcome guests.

5- Plant Markers: Cut the jug into strips, write plant varieties in permanent marker, and stick it in the dirt for easy reference.

A simple way to go green now is by turning off the water while you’re brushing your teeth or shaving.

On average people brush their teeth for 2 minutes twice a day. If you leave the water running during this time you are wasting about 3 gallons in 2 minutes. By turning off the water you can help save an average of 6 gallons per day. That’s 2,184 gallons of water a year!

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global climate change initiative, calling individuals and businesses around the world, to turn off their lights for one hour on Saturday, March 29, 2008 from 8 to 9 p.m local time.

The campaign ran by WWF (World Wildlife Fund), is designed to express that individual action on a mass scale can help change our planet. It’s not just about cutting back for one hour. It’s about taking a stand and thinking ahead about what you can do to slow climate change.

“One person can make a difference. Cities, working together, can change the world.” - WWF & Earth Hour