In recycling news

Best Buy has always had an electronics recycling program, but I was pleased when I saw that they not only accept CD, DVDs, ink cartridges, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, CDs, PDAs/smart phones but gift cards at their recycling kiosks in-store. GIFT CARDS! I remember using up the balance on a gift card at a store which shall remain unnamed. I was giving the cashier the old card and they said they don't take it back. I incredulously asked if they don't recycle their gift cards and she said no.

I picked up a set of photo prints at Walgreens the other day, and saw a sign that they refill printer ink cartridges. The Philippines has always had such services, but this was the first one I saw here in the U. S. $10 for black ink, and $15 for color. So kudos to Walgreens. (Not available for Canon and Epson printers.)

Thank Secretary Vilsack

From Environment New York's Anna Aurilio:

"Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has finally heeded our call to protect our pristine national forests from imminent logging and roadbuilding.

Yesterday Vilsack issued a directive which requires his personal approval for any new logging, drilling, or roadbuilding in nearly 50 million acres of these treasured forests.

Of course, requiring the Secretary's approval for destructive logging is no ironclad guarantee that he will never give it.

Please take a moment urge Vilsack to personally keep chainsaws and backhoes out of our last pristine forests and to thank him for saying "the buck stops here."

What does this victory mean for our forests? For example, Vilsack's directive covers the 8.5 million acres of roadless areas in Alaska's Tongass National Forest -- the largest temperate rainforest in the world, which features cool, clear streams for spawning salmon and trout and is home to 300 types of birds. The Bush administration had stripped the Tongass of protection in 2005, and several timber projects have been nearing approval at the Forest Service. Now those chainsaws will never rip -- unless Vilsack himself says so.

Sign our message to Secretary Vilsack today -- saying thanks and asking him never to grant permission for destructive activities in our national forests:


Secretary Vilsack's action marks the first key step toward President Obama's pledge to restore permanent protection to all roadless areas in our national forests.

And that's another reason to email Vilsack today -- to make sure his temporary protection becomes permanent."

The truth about tampons

Last year, Lynn wrote this article about having a green period. To complement it, I share this eye-opening article from Seventh Generation about the dangers of using tampons, cleverly titled Tampontification.

"Tampons are typically made from a variety of materials including conventional cotton, rayon, or a blend of both fibers. Conventional cotton is one of the "dirtiest" crops in the modern world. According to the USDA, in 2003 U.S. cotton farmers applied an eye-popping 55 million pounds of pesticides to their fields. And global cotton production also uses high levels of pesticides.

Many of these agricultural toxins are classified as "extremely or highly hazardous" by the World Health Organization. In addition to polluting groundwater and soil, seven of the 15 most commonly-used cotton pesticides have been identified as possible human carcinogens by the EPA. (Others are known to damage the nervous system and are suspected of disrupting the body's hormonal system.)

When we buy tampons made with conventional cotton, we are contributing to these kinds of environmental pollution.

Rayon also needs further scrutiny. The wood pulp that forms a base material for most rayon is typically treated with chlorine-based bleach. This manufacturing process results in the creation of chlorinated toxins, which can accumulate in the environment over time.

Conventional tampons can also contain any number of other ingredients that women might not want to be intimate with. These include absorbency enhancers, synthetic deodorants, and artificial fragrances.

Add it all up and the term "feminine protection" becomes a bit of a misnomer. An alternative is to use 100% organic cotton tampons. These products are made from pure natural cotton that hasn't been grown in a soup of pesticides. They don't contain rayon or synthetic additives, and most have been manufactured using a chlorine-free process that doesn't create chlorinated toxins."

Share this story with the women in your life for healthier periods.

Fresh

It might not be the light and fluffy summer reading you're looking for, but why not bring a book on green living while you're lying on the beach somewhere? The new book from Queen of Green Sara Snow's Fresh Living is available now. Ms. Snow is the daughter of the founders of Eden Foods (I love their Genmaicha Organic brown rice green tea), American Soy Products and Blue Horizon Organic Seafood.

Come back from vacation refreshed and maybe just a bit greener.

Trash it!

I've always been kinda bummed that my last few apartments haven't had garbage disposals. Now comes confirmation that it's actually better to just dispose of your table scraps in the trash rather than running the disposal. Ideal Bite says that if you can't compost, stick to the ole garbage can, to save water and energy.

• (Car)tuning out water waste. Disposals use about 500,000 gallons of water per day in the United States (both in your sink and during sewage treatment).
• Stopping supernatural algae. If you pump your breakfast into the garbage disposal it goes to water treatment facilities, and may go from there into nature where it's at least three times more likely to disrupt ecosystems (via algal blooms) than it would if it went to a landfill.
• One less case for the waste peeps. Food scraps make up at least 10% of space in our landfills and off-gas methane, a greenhouse gas, but water treatment workers may fish out waste and send it to the landfill anyway.

Books, books everywhere

Now that school's ending here in the U.S., here are some Ideal Bite recommended websites for recycling your school items.

• Bookbyte to get rid of books you'll probably never need again, or you don't want to ever see again.
• Gazelle for your electronic gadgets.
• Swaptree for CDs, DVDs, books and games.
• Rehash Clothes for apparel and accessories.
  

Wide Open Spaces

From Environment New York:

We are moving closer to restoring long overdue protections for America's most spectacular and beloved national forests.

Yet while George Bush is no longer president, his policies and his people still threaten our last wild forests.

As President Obama moves to put his own team in place at the Forest Service, Bush-era appointees are racing to let their friends in the timber, mining and coal industries into at least 90,000 acres of roadless forests in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Colorado.^{1, 2}

Join us in taking action now to stop their bulldozers and chainsaws from doing permanent damage to our forests.

Consider Alaska's Tongass. At 17 million acres, it is by far our largest national forest and the world's largest temperate rainforest. There's simply no place like it on Earth.³

We have perhaps a few months to stop miles of roads from being clear-cut into some of the most pristine enclaves within the Tongass, including nearly one-third of the amazing forest that still stands on Kupreanof Island.

Who can stop these attacks?

You, me and Tom Vilsack, the man that President Obama put in charge of the Department of Agriculture, which, strangely enough, oversees the Forest Service.

I'm working to arrange a meeting with Secretary Vilsack to personally urge him to declare our roadless forests off-limits to industry and to restore the Clinton-era Roadless Rule. With a few strokes of his pen, Secretary Vilsack has the power to make it happen. I'll have more power to persuade him if I have thousands of people like you standing with me.

Tell Secretary Vilsack to protect and preserve America's last wild forests. And, please, forward our appeal to your friends, neighbors and others. We need thousands of Americans to stand up for our last wild forests.

Elite's Nature Bottle

I'm not familiar with the Elite brand, but it looks like they're huge in the biking scene. The company just came out with the Nature Bottle, which is made from 100% biodegradable plastic. The bottle is said to decompose in one year.

Eco-friendly soap wanted!

jlynn89 over at Etsy posted this on the website:

I would like a soap that is somewhat eco-friendly. I am also looking for something that will not dry out my skin. My skin gets dry easily, and I kind of want something that will moisturize it as well as cleaning. I want something that will clean really well, too. Perhaps a nice invigorating scent to wake me up in the morning! Thanks!

The post intrigued me, so I tried to look up recipes for homemade eco-friendly soaps; you can't get more eco-friendly than that, I reckon. I found this news tidbit about soapmakers in Malaysia. Sounds green enough, but I'm not really sure I want to use a soap made out of used cooking oil on my face and body. Moving on...

The Soap Queen also has a recipe for an eco-chic soap, and Greeniacs has a pretty detailed recipe for eco-friendly soaps.

Bag alert: Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bag

I usually like my computer bags big, tough, and sturdy, but well, I suppose this one is pretty enough and looks nothing like a laptop bag. This bag is said to meet the design requirements of the Transportation Security Administration and it's also made using eco-friendly fabrics. I like its pretty and colorful look, but I wonder how sturdy it could possibly be?

Via Earthenact

The search for the greenest school in the Philippines has been extended!

The National Search for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Schools was launched earlier this year, with the competition open to all school levels, and has been extended up to May 15.

The criteria for this year's competition include environment-related aspects of school's policy, environment-friendly school operations and presence of environmental programs, environment-related features of the school curriculum, presence of vibrant eco-organizations in campus, and presence of partners and linkages in their environment to promote their ecological programs/projects.

That sounds interesting, and I'll definitely keep an ear out for the schools that win this competition. The only trouble is...wouldn't it have been better if they held this competition during the school year rather than during the summer months? That would certainly help the students learn more about eco-friendly practices in their school.

Green goes good with Blue

I was surprised and impressed to see this compost bin alongside the trash and plastic recycle bins at the new Yankee Stadium. The designers included environment friendly features like energy-efficient lighting (in fact during the game, some of the lights around the stadium were kept off), water-saving plumbing, waterless soap and hands-free faucets in the restrooms, and no air conditioning in the retail areas. There were a variety of foods available, even fruits and vegetable stands. And according to the press release, "Beverage cups in the Stadium are made of biodegradable material instead of petroleum-based plastics, and the Yankees are committed to purchasing paper products that are 100% recyclable. By composting and recycling cardboard, glass, metal, plastics and paper, approximately 40% of the Stadium's trash should be diverted away from landfills, resulting in fewer trash pickups."

Although I'm still not convinced NY needed a new stadium and its energy consumption is probably stratospheric (not to mention the sky-high ticket prices to watch a game), I suppose their greening efforts are laudable.

Hawaiian Airlines will soon offer eco-friendly meals

Airlines in the U.S. have begun charging for pretty much everything, from the use of headphones to the food. I find the idea of having to pay for meals on top of the airfare pretty unacceptable, so it's good to hear that there are at least some airlines who still refuse to charge for food. Hawaiian Airlines is one of those carriers, but if you're looking for a premium, eco-friendly meal during the flight, you'll have to shell out $10.

But coach passengers can also choose a "premium" meal for $10, and both kinds of meals come with packaging and cutlery that are biodegradable and made of recyclable materials. Both kinds of meals also include entrees made without preservatives and dessert, while the premium meals emphasize heart-healthy selections and include a bottled water (yet another biodegradable container.)

The four green U.S. airlines

Emily Goligoski over at Divine Caroline has answered our prayers by writing about four eco-friendly airlines in the U.S.: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Virgin America. She also names a couple of green international airlines to consider.

An eco-friendly Hummer: Possible?

The Hummer has been widely maligned far and wide for being a gas-guzzling monster, spawning criticism and even FUH2, a website containing pictures of people giving the "Hummer salute." After years and years of living with a horrible reputation and enduring tongue lashings, has the Hummer finally come to its senses? It certainly seems that way with the help of Raser Technologies.

Raser Technologies, Inc. unveiled a 100+ mpg Hummer H3 powered by Raser’s plug-in hybrid E-REV (Extended-Range Electric Vehicle) at the 2009 SAE International World Congress, Cobo Center, Detroit, MI.

Raser developed the 100+ mpg Electric H3 demonstration vehicle working closely with Hummer.

The development could help trucks and SUVs become greener, according to Raser CEO Brent M. Cook. Well yeah. I mean, 100 mpg? Seriously? Anybody would willingly jump into that. Let's see if a green Hummer will be widely embraced as the Prius.

Natural insecticide tip

Here's a household tip that all of you might find useful.
Make your own insecticide!
Get a jar of water. Add onions and garlic. Let it stand for a week. Then you can spray your plants with it.

Broadway goes Green

Broadway is getting its first newly built theatre in more than 20 years, and its first green one! The 1055 seat Henry Miller's Theater on 43rd st. between Avenue of the Americas and Broadway will open in September with a Roundabout revival of Bye Bye Birdie.

A New York Times article states that: Recycled materials were used in the wall panels and baseboard; waterless urinals are used in the men’s washroom to reduce consumption of potable water; and local materials were used in the marble flooring and countertops, among other touches.

Be a green photographer!

Cez is going full blast with her photography business and I've been tinkering with the idea for a while, so these tips from Nature Photographers on being a green photographer are really timely. Check out the tips to find out more about being kinder to the planet while you capture its many wonders!

Watch yourself

While waiting for my watch band to be replaced today, I walked around the jewelry store and saw that Citizen has a line of eco-friendly watches. Called Eco-Drive, they are powered by natural or artificial light. They won't need battery changes and can work up to 9 months in the dark if fully charged.

Review: ShiKai shampoo and conditioner

ShiKai Natural Everyday Shampoo
Ingredients: water, aloe vera gel (full strength, certified organic), ShiKai extract (acacia concinna - wildcrafted botanical, organically grown and sustainably harvested), olefin sulfonate, cocoamidopropyl hydroxy

ShiKai Natural Everyday Conditioner
Ingredients: Purified water, cetearyl alcohol (and) ceteareth-20, glycerin (vegetable), amla (amlica embilicus) seed oil, jojoba (simmondsia chinensis) seed oil, behentrimonium chloride, amodimethicone, panthenol, guar powder, diazolidinyl urea, natural fragrance

ShiKai has been around for 30+ years, but honestly, I never saw it in our grocery shelves. It turns out that it was in our neighborhood organic store. Now if you're looking for a shampoo and conditioner to try, how about ShiKai?

I decided to use this product for quite sometime before writing this review. Just to make sure how using it over time affects my hair. So what can I say about it?

It smells great. It lathers nicely. It cleans well. I don't even have to use a large amount, just the size of a quarter. Even my husband is using it. No complaints from him either. What's great is that it doesn't dry out the hair. I admit, I found some negative reviews elsewhere. The thing is, when trying out hair care products that are supposed to be eco-friendly, it pays not to expect the same performance that you used to get from your old shampoo and conditioner. The ingredients are different, so the experience will be different. But I was pleasantly surprised by ShiKai's shampoo and conditioner, so yes, I highly recommend these products.

By the way, I'll be testing ShiKai's COLOR REFLECT® natural shampoo and conditioner soon.