TheGoGreenBlog.com

Earth Day is this week, April 22 to be exact, which is a perfect time to learn about our planet & how to take care of it. Creating a compost pile in your garden is a great activity for Earth Day.

Composting is basically mixing raw food scraps from your kitchen with leaves & other yard waste, plus water. This will not only reduce your trash sent to the landfill but it will also create one killer fertilizer for all those home grown veggies.

If you don’t already compost at home, go green and start this Tuesday - Earth Day!

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.

Fleece is not a natural fiber but it is still eco-friendly because it can be made from recycled materials like plastic soda bottles. It takes about 25 plastic bottles to make an adult sized fleece garment.

Fleece is the ideal alternative to wool, and is a great cozy layer to wear outdoors or indoors instead of raising the thermostat on those cold days.

Instead of using poly-styrene packing peanuts try making your own packing material. The easiest way to do this is to take paper from your recycling bin and throw it through a shredder. Presto! You have an instant free alternative to plastic packing products & it covers two of the three R’s - Reduce and Reuse.

As the holidays come to an end, and the clean up begins, the big question is how to dispose of your Christmas tree. Natural Christmas trees have a few eco-friendly afterlife options…

1- Compost
Real trees are 100 percent biodegradable, and can be added to your compost pile. There is a tad bit of work included here as you can’t just throw a whole Christmas tree onto a compost heap. You will need to reduce the tree into compost-friendly shavings, either by hand or with a shredder.

2- Mulch
You can recycle your tree into mulch for hiking trails in gardens or parks. Most communities offer a program where you either drop off your tree to a designated drop-off site or some cities offer curbside pick up. Check with local resources for more information.

3- Shelter
Real tress can also be converted into shelters for birds, chipmunks and other small wildlife by placing it in your backyard and adding a few snacks like breadcrumbs or birdseed.

4- Erosion Prevention
In some cities they have recycled Christmas trees into barriers for shoreline stabilization and beach front erosion prevention. Check with local resources for more information.

5- Fuel
If you have fireplace or a wood burning stove consider chopping up your tree to use as firewood to heat your home.

For more information:
To find out more information on your community Christmas tree recycling program, you can contact either the local parks and recreation department, public works department, the mayor’s office, National Christmas Tree Association, or Earth 911.

Want to go green, but don’t know where to start? Well, every little bit helps so here are the top 10 easy ways to go green ASAP.

10 Ways to Go Green Now!
1- Unplug appliances & battery chargers while not in use
2- Use compact fluorescent light bulbs
3- Ride a bike or take public transportation, if you must drive think about using a car sharing program
4- Use reusable shopping bags at the grocery store
5- Compost your kitchen scraps
6- Conserve water by turning it off while brushing teeth
7- Use natural cleaning products
8- Stop using disposable stuff like diapers, napkins, plates, cups, razors, etc.
9- Recycle things like glass, plastics, newspapers, etc.
10- Eat organic, local or fair trade foods

I don’t know about you, but I have a back pile of plastic shopping bags. Either from the grocery store or the mall, even last nights take out…I have a ton. But I don’t just trash them. I reuse them.

Here are the top 5 ways to reuse plastic shopping bags:
1- tiny trash liner for the bathroom, office, or car
2- doggy duty or a kitty litter liner
3- ice pack for those bumps and bruises
4- tomorrow’s lunch bag
5- package padding for all those holiday & birthday gifts

Littlearth is this way cool company that makes purses & fashion accessories using recycled license plates, rubber and bottle caps. Founded in 1993, by Rob Brandegee & Ava DeMarco on the the idea to design & produce fashionable, unique and trendsetting purses & belts by reusing and recycling materials that would otherwise be overlooked or thrown away. Nowadays known as…ecofashion. They try to incorporate reused and recycled parts into their products as much as possible, and aim for an average of at least 50% recycled content in their product line.

Littlearth products are made from authentic recycled plates that they get from a large dealer, junkyards, & donations from all over the country, so small nicks & scratches are inherent in the plates. The imperfections are minor though, adding to their history and giving them a little character.

Their bottle caps are a combination of vintage, no longer manufactured caps, new caps and used beer caps collected from bars in Pittsburgh (Littlearth’s home) and other cities.

The company uses used tires that are ground up and reconstituted along with binding materials into rubber sheeting that are about 40% post-consumer recycled for all their purse straps & belts. The material is very soft and supple with a suede-like finish, and with use, it will burnish to a low gloss. The one down side of using this material is that it emits a very faint rubber smell which you may notice when you first take your product out of the box. But for the most part you can not smell the rubber, and over time it fades.

All of Littlearth’s products are way cool and make awesome unique holiday gifts that are green for that perfect someone this season. Check them out…

What is Chicago doing to become a greener city?

RiverWired gives the inside scoop in this video. Check out Chicago’s City Hall roof, it’s municipal vehicles, the accessible recycling programs, and the new Center for Green Technology which was built on a former industrial waste site.

C2C Holdings, Inc is a way cool company that was inspired by the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy and their overall goal is to eliminate the concept of waste. They do this by designing products so that their material value can be harnessed again and again in future products instead of ending up in a landfill.

Their first product line is ReProduct greeting cards and envelopes, which can also be customized to include invitations, announcements and other stationery items. ReProducts cards are made from a plastic material called OPP (oriented polypropylene) and are printed with healthy UV cured inks. Both the card material and the ink formulation have been certified to contain no toxins. This means that there are no human health risks associated with any materials in the cards. The cards are then sent to the recipient in a unique 2-way envelope (similar to Netflix) that provides pre-paid return postage back to the manufacture, Shaw Industries. When the recipient is finished with the card, they simply put the card into the return envelope and drop it in the mail. Shaw Industries then uses 100% of the cards and envelopes to create carpet backing in new carpet tiles.

Show your family & friends that you are thinking about them while still thinking about the environment - Go green & use ReProduct Cards.