Happy New Year!

Wow! 2008 flew by, didn't it? Lo and behold, 2009 is upon us...and already upon others in some parts of the world!

If you're like me with New Year's Eve still hours away, then read on. I'm listing some articles elsewhere with tips on how to green your New Year's Eve, instead of me reinventing the wheel, so to speak.

• Tips For a Green New Year's Eve from GreenDaily.com
• Plan a Green and Cheap New Year's Eve Party from TheDailyGreen.com
• Top Green New Year's Eve Party Tips from Planet Green
• Having a Green New Year's Eve (Ways to Party While not Wrecking the Planet) from Suite101.com
• Ten tips for a green New Year's Eve from Mother Nature Network

Have a safe New Year's Eve! Wishing you all a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Winterizing your home

Getting cabin fever with all the bad winter weather? The EPA said that the average home has 2-5 times more pollution than outside air. So to hunker down for the winter can be unhealthy for you. What to do? Some days, especially on warmer days, I turn off my heat and open the windows to let some fresh air in. I remove my shoes at the entrance and place them on a mat by the door to catch pollutants, especially from the salt and sand.

Seventh Generation offers more tips on winter housekeeping:

• Consider getting some houseplants to remove airborne chemicals. Particularly effective varieties include Boston fern, areca palm, lady palm, bamboo palm, rubber plant, English Ivy, ficus, and peace lily.

• Use a chlorine-free dishwasher detergent. Dishwashers vent about six liters of air into your home per minute during certain cycles, and the very hot water they use can turn as much as 100% of a detergent's chlorine into a vapor that's released as they work.

• Use warm rather than hot water when cleaning so that whatever you're removing from household floors and surfaces doesn't volatize into the air your family is breathing.

• Although winter may seem like a good time to do some annual maintenance cleaning, hold off until spring. Without open windows and an ability to clean things outdoors, you'll just be stirring back into the air a lot of the dirt and contaminants you're trying to banish.

• If you've stored clothing or other items in mothballs, air them out thoroughly then launder to remove toxic paradichlorobenzene residues. For the next season, use natural cedar to protect your vulnerable textiles instead. By the same token, let dry cleaned items air out in the garage before you bring them inside. They, too, can emit unhealthy fumes.

• During warmer months, don't use mildewcides or fungicides, poisons it will be hard to rinse out of your home during winter. Instead, get rid of mold and mildew with a solution of two tablespoons of tea tree oil in two cups of water. Spray on the affected area, let sit for half an hour, and then wipe clean.

• If air seems stale and it's too cold to open a window, resist the temptation to use commercial air fresheners, deodorizers, and other similar products. Instead make your own by adding 5-10 drops of your favorite essential oil to a spray bottle filled with two cups of water.

• During warmer months, don't use mildewcides or fungicides, poisons it will be hard to rinse out of your home during winter. Eliminate mold and mildew with a solution of two tablespoons of tea tree oil in two cups of water. Spray on the affected area, let sit for half an hour, and then wipe clean.

• Conventional cleaners create a barrage of chemical fumes and invisible aerosol particles when used, all of which can be easily inhaled. Only use cleaning products made from natural and non-toxic ingredients.

Low Carb Diet

Low-Carbon Diet that is. The book Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds---Be Part of the Global Warming Solution by David Gershon got good reviews for being easy, practical and most importantly, short.

Peter Facinelli samples Sodastream

His Twilight character, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, might have a taste for the red stuff, but Peter Facinelli has a taste for something green: eco-friendly sodas mixed up with Sodastream.

Sodastream staffers invited Peter and other celebs to mix their own fizzy potions with a machine that instantly turns water into soda -- with no wasteful bottles to dispose of! Blood was not a flavor option, so Pete put together Pete's Choice instead, which tasted a bit like Dr. Pepper.

_{News from DoSomething.org}

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas

Earth Easy offers the following tips for greening your Christmas.

• Use LED (light emitting diode) holiday lights.
• Turn off the holiday lights display when you go to bed.
  
• If you're artistically inclined, make your own personalized gifts.
  
• Do a Secret Santa instead of buying for everyone in your family.
  
• Re-gift!
  
• Buy locally-made items.
• Give toys that do not require batteries, even rechargeable ones.
• Buy cards or wrapping paper made from recycled materials, or reuse gift wrap. Don't use too much tape so the paper can be saved for reuse. Avoid shiny wrapping paper; they are harder to recycle.
  
• Use a live tree because artificial trees live in landfills forever. Real trees can be composted later on .
• Save the boxes, ribbons, bubble wrap and other packing material for next year.

Merry Christmas to all!

Lean, green fit machine

If you live in the Portland, Oregon area, and your New Year's resolutions include getting fit, the Green Microgym might be your ticket to good health. It is one of the first gyms in the world to generate a significant portion of its own electricity. It is a 2,800 sq. ft. facility with modern equipment and amenities like wireless internet, flatscreen LCD High Definition televisions and Sirius Satellite Radio.

T-shirt bags

I saw this on the Today show this morning: how to make a bag from your old t-shirts the no-sew or low-sew way. Just duct tape! Like MacGyver!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A Green Birthday

If you're buying for that green birthday celebrant in your life , consider Fair Trade, locally-made or organic products. Donate to that person's favorite charity. If you're crafty, you can even make your own presents or birthday cards. Or look for greeting cards made from recycled materials. Use recycled gift wrapping paper. If you're not against re-gifting, you can even give them a used book, CD or DVD that they like, instead of buying new ones.

Happy Birthday Lynn!

Twelve Sites for Christmas

If you're still scrambling to buy holiday gifts, check out the following sites for gifts that keep on giving. And you don't even have to drive to the mall, find a parking spot and stand in line to check-out.

• Changing the Present
  

• Green with Envy

• Toms Shoes
  

• Global Giving
  

• Global Exchange, A GreaterGift

• World of Good

• Whole Planet Foundation

• Ten Thousand Villages

• Peacekeeper
  

• Laptop.org

• Goodshop
  

• Mary Fisher: She is an HIV-positive artist working with other HIV-positive women in Africa to make bracelets and help them earn a living.
  

Ticked off

Want to avoid using pesticides in your home? Seventh Generation offers the following tips:

• For ants, sprinkle boric acid or ground cloves along baseboards, in the back of cabinets, and other "edge" areas. Or spray a solution of two teaspoons of peppermint oil in two cups of water in the same areas.
• Cockroaches can be kept away by a powder of one part natural pyrethrins (made from chrysanthemums) and two parts diatomaceous earth, which is algae. (Note: keep pyrethrins away from cats.)
• Flies will avoid areas scented with basil, tansy, pine oil, or cloves. You can also make fly strips of kraft paper coated with a gooey mix of corn syrup and sugar. Fruit flies will avoid areas sprayed with a solution of basil oil and water.
• Fight moths with oils of lavender, cloves, rosemary, camphor, or cedar. Make scented sachets with whole herbs or spray solutions of two teaspoons of oil in two cups of water in problem areas.
• Termites can be chased away with boric acid, diatomaceous earth, and/or pyrethrin powder sprinkled in problem areas.
• Ticks are repelled by essential oils of rose geranium or palmerosa. Make a solution of two teaspoons oil in two cups of water and spray. A half-and-half mix of rosemary and myrrh oils can also be used.
• Fleas are repelled by herbs like lavender, rosemary, catmint, eucalyptus, and camphor. Citrus oils will also help. (Don't use citrus oils and products around cats.) For dog and cat infestations combine one to two drops each of eucalyptus, citronella, tea tree and pennyroyal oils in 2 cups of witch hazel extract (omit citronella for cat use). Test on the animal first. If it's tolerated, rub a teaspoon on the collar and a half teaspoon or so into the fur. Store the remainder.
• Use traps for bees and wasps. Buy commercial traps and bait them with a protein (dog food, ham, fish and meat scraps, etc.) in the spring and sugars (corn syrup, spoiled fruit, jelly, etc.) in the summer and fall. Get rid of ground nests by covering their entrance with an upside down bowl.

Nautica Oceans

If this perfume were available sooner, this would be the perfect Christmas gift for the eco-friendly males in your life. Nautica is releasing Nautica Oceans in March 2009, a new water-based fragrance that comes in biodegradable packaging.

Hybrid Limos

Stepping out for the holidays? If you're in LA, NY, San Francisco or Boston, Ozocar can get you to that holiday party in an environmentally conscious fashion. The hybrid cars feature wireless Internet access, an Apple iBook and Sirius satellite radio stations.

For more information, click here.

Czechs to have eco-friendly Christmas trees

FSC-certified Christmas trees will soon be available to the residents of Olomouc and Brno. It's a huge step for the country, hopefully one that other towns and cities will be able to take pretty soon. Christmas trees in the country are generally "grown on special farms or imported from various countries such as Denmark," according to this article.

The 360 Paper Bottle

We're particularly fond of water bottles over here at Green Unlimited and we're always thrilled to find out about how other people make them better and more eco-friendly. The latest water bottle we've stumbled upon is the 360 Paper Bottle, a water bottle with a totally unique look and one quality that makes it stand out from all the other water bottles out there: It's a paper container made out of 100% renewable resources. The bottle's look makes me think that it's something you can carry with you on long treks through a scorching desert, but apart from its eyecatching appearance, this is definitely a good alternative to plastic.

Flashy car for superheroes is pretty green, too

Superheroes like Batman are always zipping around in some pretty sexy and hardcore vehicles, but how eco-friendly are they? Matus Prochaczka has come up with a concept car for The Toon Studio of Beverly Hills, and this car will be featured along with their superhero characters. The car is a hybrid, powered both by electricity and pumpkin seed oil. I still say Superman travels in the most eco-friendly manner, but for ground-bound superheroes, this car looks like a very good option.

Ecofont

Can your font selection really make a difference in the amount of ink you use? It sure looks like it. After all, thicker, bolder, more solid fonts can use up more ink when you print out documents using these fonts. The team behind Ecofont has come up with a font that's more eco-friendly. The font itself is actually full of holes when you look at it, but when it's printed out, it looks more like a lighter form of Arial. Not a bad idea at all if you simply need to print out documents.

Samsonite introduces Terrea

I adore luggage and would probably buy even more if I had the money, never mind that I already have quite a lot of 'em already. So it's quite pleasing to hear about eco-friendly luggage lines every now and then. The latest to come out is Samsonite's Terrea, which consists of products made mostly out of recycled items.

The bags in this Terrea collection contain a minimum of 86% of recycled materials with some bags containing as much as 95%, one of the highest available rates.

To begin, all fabrics used in the bags are 100% recycled. Other unique and environmentally-friendly features include: recycled foam padding throughout all back panels, handles, and shoulder straps, recycled buckles and clips, recycled wheel housings, studs, pull handles with injected wood, use of natural coconut fiber in shoulder straps, backpack straps cut directly out of the back panels to use even less material.

Wonder when other luggage manufacturers will follow suit? This just shows that green luggage really IS doable.

Sri Lanka looking into manufacturing solar cars

Not long ago, news that India has developed a solar-electric rickshaw came out, and this month, there's word that Sri Lanka is developing solar cars.

This will be a passenger car with a solar powered panel fixed on top of the car and this solar panel will generate power to the car. This electronic car needs to be charged six to eight hours per day. It will cost only Rs. 20 to Rs. 25 per kilometre.

A fully charged car could run 120 kms and solar panels will generate additional energy on the way during sunny weather where it enables the car to run an additional 30 kms without any cost.

In average, a car runs less than 50 miles per day and this is an ideal passenger car for people who focus on the environmental impact and fuel cost.

Eco-friendly dry cleaning?

Is there even such a thing? Everyone knows it's a hard concept to swallow, plus it's hell on one's budget, but this rather confusing article provides examples of organic, eco-friendly dry cleaning, like dry cleaning that uses hydrocarbon solvents, but which the EPA says ISN'T green at all. Then there's also "wet cleaning," which I think kind of contradicts the whole "dry cleaning concept."

The article concludes with this:

James Kohm with the Federal Trade Commission say the best advice for consumers is to ask.

"If you're not sure what organic dry cleaning means, go to your drycleaner and ask exactly what they mean," he says.

Again, entirely unhelpful, because dry cleaners will have their own idea what eco-friendliness means, and what they think might be an eco-friendly option might not be as green as they think. This article from Lighter Footstep can help guide you in your search for greener dry cleaning, and Totally Her has a short list of green dry cleaners in different states.

Configuring your toilet paper for minimum waste output

Eco-can has an interesting diagram that shows how putting your toilet paper on the roll correctly can help you save more toilet paper in the long run. I've personally never given a thought to how its position can affect waste and all, but it's interesting all the same. Thoughts, anyone? Do you agree with the findings of the diagram?

Travel+Leisure's top green landmarks in America

In case you didn't know, last month, Travel+Leisure magazine came up with a list of the top green American landmarks. Check out which buildings made the list and be inspired!

Recycle your phone and run!

Tomorrow, there's a scheduled event in Bonifacio Global City entitled "Recycle Your Phone and Run!" Basically, there are 3K or 5K fun runs you can join to support the campaign for phone recycling. For every kilo of raw materials generated by the donations, mobile phone giant Nokia will donate money for the protection of the La Mesa Watershed, which is Metro Manila's main water supply.

Green printers are on their way!

You know how we're all reminded to use both sides of the paper whenever we print stuff, and how it can be a little cumbersome to print on one side then turn it over, especially if you're printing a pretty large document.

I suppose we can all find it easier to do this once manufacturers start realizing that they NEED to address this matter. Two printers that can make the job a snap are coming out this month, courtesy of Brother.

Brother on Tuesday announced the release of two new laser printers, the HL-4040CDN and the MFC-9450CDN all-in-one. Both use an automatic duplex printing feature for reduced paper use that will print on both sides of a page. The HL-4040CDN directly replaces Brother's existing HL-4040CN, sharing many of its features, including 21ppm print speeds for black and white and color pages as well as maximum print quality of 2400x600dpi. What it adds is the duplex printing feature.

Tom's my Maine Man

I've taken to using Tom's of Maine mouthwash, fluoride-free toothpaste and deodorant. (They don't have antiperspirant. This way you don't clog up your pores and let toxins out of your body.) I just found their soap the other day. Their products are all-natural, mostly vegan and paraben-free.