Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Green Car Report

In the market for a new car? Here's a site that tells you all about eco-friendly cars. The Green Car Report talks about specific cars that are better for the environment and all the components of driving more green!

Here's a sample article:

Ding-Ding-Ding! Electric Cars Likely To Be Made Noisier By Law

December 20th, 2010

In one particularly hilarious scene in the TV show Weeds, Mary-Louise Parker’s soccer mom/drug dealer character inspires a scary drug lord to buy several Toyota Priuses after he successfully carries out a drive-by shooting while riding in hers.  The selling point? The quietness of the hybrid. “Good for sneaking up on mother******s,” he cackles. 

That might no longer be the case with a piece of legislation that recently passed the Senate and looks to be cleared for approval in the House. The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act would require electric cars and hybrids to make noise, and would fund the Department of Transportation to create a set of rules for automakers, who would be allowed some leeway in how they carry out the guidelines. Green cars like the Prius don’t make noise when running off their batteries. Whether you have an armed drug dealer as an enemy or (more likely) happen to cross the street without looking, hybrids are more likely to hit you than regular cars, especially when operating at low speeds when gas engines aren’t engaged, according to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. All-electric vehicles like the 2011 Nissan Leaf could be even more of a threat. Of particular concern was the potential danger to blind pedestrians. But researchers and writers have also challenged that study, saying the methodology was flawed. Read More....


Monday, December 6, 2010

So...Many...Catalogs...

OMfreakingG...Why does Macy's have to send SO many catalogs out? Seriously they send like 3 per week sometimes - clothes, casuals and home. Each one of these is like a novel in size and none of it is really anything I want to buy. Hell, I don't even look at them anymore because it's totally boring. Thus they go straight into the recycle. And when you combine Macy's with REI and Black&White and other random crap that I've never even bought from...that's a lot of waste. Ok yes, it does get recycled but that still takes resources and energy and creates some waste.

Today I discovered a site called Catalog Choice where you give your info and the info of the catalogs you no longer want and they'll make sure you stop getting them. Now will it work? I don't know yet, I plan to sign up for it tonight. If it does, however, I'll be the happiest girl in the world because it's near-impossible to contact the corporation/company and make it clear that you want no more catalogs...bastards....

Anyway, I'm thinking that all companies need to just switch to email ads and catalogs anyway. Those are great b/c i just label them and archive them so when I do want to check out sales/coupons I can just go into my folder and find what I need. Doesn't waste my time, nor does it waste paper or energy etc. Wave of the future, people, c'moN!! =)

The other option is for Macy's to get famous movie stars on their covers. For example, if this were Drew Barrymore I'd hang it on my wall and admire it always. (Ok, slight sarcasm, but it may work for some...).

Friday, December 3, 2010

Green Holiday Tips

IT'S CHRISTMASTIME! Ok, well, at least I'm trying to psyche myself up for the Holidays even though I'm guessing this year I'll probably get coal (getting older is a bitch) and only a couple people have RSVP'd to my White Elephant Gift party =(. However, what I'm still psyched about is being green and luckily, green is one of the colors of Christmas! So here are some tips courtesy of the Denver Zoo and modified by me. Did you know that the Zoo is doing it's part to be green this year by using all LED lights in their Zoo Lights display? LED lights use 1% of the energy of traditional lights and 10% of the energy of little lights.  Also, if you guys are local, definitely check this out...it's going to be AWESOME!

Denver Zoo Lights!

Go green this year for Christmas
Your Christmas Tree
  • After the holidays, don’t just throw your tree away- Recycle it! Denver Recycles offers free pick up of your Christmas tree.  Visit their website, www.recycleyourchristmastree.com, for specific rules and regulations regarding when and how to have your tree picked up.  They list tree pick up by county to make it easy for anyone in Colorado to recycle their tree. (out-of-staters check for something like this in your area!)
  • Instead of purchasing new ornaments this year for trimming your tree, try edible or compostable items like popcorn or cranberries on a string, gingerbread cookies or items made from recycled objects around your home.
  • Or...get a fake tree! Reuseable every year!


Your Holiday Decor

  • Purchase holiday lights made with energy-saving, light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. LEDs use only a fraction of the energy of conventional bulbs and are much better for the environment. LEDs use only about one percent of the power of standard (C7) holiday lights, and about 10 percent of the power in mini-lights. Try www.environmentallights.com
  • Get outdoor light strands that are wired in parallel. These have separate circuitry so that if one bulb blows out the rest will keep shining; all you have to do is replace the bulb rather than the entire strand of lights. Strands sold with series wiring stand or fall together, making it almost impossible to find and replace a single blown-out bulb.

Sending Your Holiday Cards

  • Send E-Cards and you will not waste a single tree.
  • Send cards made of 100 percent recycled paper or tree-free cards made by environmental organizations. In addition to "tree free" cards, you can get cards made of old subway maps, cards made of recycled junk mail, and cards that you can plant which are imbedded with a seed mixture that will grow in the spring.
  • Glue pictures from old cards onto homemade or store-bought recycled paper to create new cards.Yay crafty!
  • Glue pretty paper on the inside of old cards to cover previous writing--and send them again.
  • Avoid cards with glossy, shiny or gold foil coatings since these cannot be recycled. Look for the PCF label on cards (Processed Chlorine Free) -- they're printed on unbleached paper.
 
What to Buy During Your Holiday Shopping

  • Try making something for those that you love.  People love to get homemade cookies, fudge, bread, or jam
  • Other gifts that will create little to no waste include things like concert or movie tickets, a gift certificate for dinner, or an IOU for services such as a massage, cooking a meal, or baby sitting.
  • Planting a tree is great because you can do it together.
  • Make it a contest for your kids to see how many old toys they can come up with to donate to a local charity; and then the one who collects the most wins a prize.
  • Give someone a gift that keeps on giving, such as a live plant or a donation to Denver Zoo or other local charity to support worldwide conservation projects or the construction of the Asian Tropics exhibit for endangered Asian elephants. 
  • Gifts that don’t require batteries are a great alternative and don’t create as much waste when having to dispose of and replace these batteries.  Try also to look for gifts that are made from recycled materials.
  • Best of all, adopt an animal at Denver Zoo or give a Denver Zoo Membership (or your local zoo)  in someone's name.  Your friends and family will think of you every time they visit!
  • Also, shop on Ebay. There's a lower chance of the toys and stuff being "new in box" which will cut down on all the plastic waste that cannot be recycled.

Wrapping Your Gift

  • Try using colorful pages torn from magazines or last year's calendar pictures to wrap small gifts, and old maps, posters or the Sunday comics for larger boxes.
  • Use crayons or sponge paint to decorate brown grocery bags and wrap with natural raffia ribbon.
  • Reusable cloth ribbons can be used in place of plastic bows or you can save bows and reuse year after year. I swear, my mom has bows from when I was like 5!!
  • Avoid using paper entirely by using reusable decorative tins, baskets or boxes, fabric bags (canvas grocery bags are great!)or give a gift in a gift.
  • Un-wrap gifts carefully and save wrappings for reuse next year.
  • Use old scraps of wrapping paper or cut up old cards to make gift tags.
  • If you do buy wrapping paper, look for ones made of recycled paper. Avoid conventional wrapping paper with metallic colors. Such paper is often produced in an environmentally unfriendly manner.
  • If you have wrapping paper left over from last year and want to have different paper for this year’s presents exchange it with a friend, co-worker or family member’s paper from last year and you will both have “new” paper.<-- I like this idea a lot b/c I get bored of things easily!

Gift mailing

  • You can re-use packing peanuts. Call the peanut hotline at (800) 828-2214, for locations of mailing centers that reuse the packing peanuts or go to www.loosefillpackaging.com. If there is no location in your community, check with local gift or craft shops, artists galleries or elementary school art programs for reuse opportunities.Great idea! I didn't know this but will try for the future.
  • Use corrugated boxes. More than 70% of corrugated cardboard is recovered and recycled into new boxes and paper products. The fibers from one corrugated box can have up to seven or eight lives. Breakdown and flatten your boxes for easier transporting before taking them to your local recycling center. If you do not have a center available, check with a local grocer or department store to see if they will bale your cardboard in their in-house recycling program.
  • Shred your old catalogs to make great packing material when mailing gift packages. 
  • Reuse tissue paper from clothing store purchases as packing material or gift paper.

Holiday Parties

  • Use "real" dishes, cups, and utensils that you can wash and reuse year after year.
  • Switch to cloth napkins.
  • Make it easy for your guests to recycle bottles and cans.
  • If you must use disposables, buy napkins and plates made from recycled material. Try www.biodegradablestore.com
  • Get corn-made cups and utensils which can be composted afterward. And if you don't have compost, at least if you throw them away, they'll break down faster than plastic!
  • Serve sustainable seafood and fish.  Check out Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch page, www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp, for consumer guides and more.
  • Serving local organic food at your parties will help to protect the environment because organic products don’t require pesticides and local food doesn’t have to travel far, creating more carbon emissions, to get to your table.
  • You can make a difference just by being aware of the ingredients you are using in preparing holiday foods.  For instance, palm oil or palmitate is included in many of the foods that we eat and the harvesting of palm oil in Indonesia contributes to the destruction of critical habitat for endangered orangutans and Asian elephants.