Recycle, recycle, recycle -  It is as easy as taking the aluminum can and dropping it in the recycle bin.  Along with plastic bottles, newspapers, and glass bottles this is a simple and effective method.

Use Paint that does not contain VOC – Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are toxic chemicals found in furniture, tables, wallpaper, paint, and basically anything that is manmade or is sprayed with manmade chemicals.   One easy way is to avoid paints and wallpaper that contain VOC.  If you are not sure about the ingredients then definitely buy well known low toxic paints (like Ieko or Earthborn).

Buy Already Used – Craigslist is gold for great products.  Why spend $2000 on a sofa when you can buy it on craigslist for $300 AND avoid the fate of the landfill.  People are always moving in a rush, take advantage of that by buying great furniture products that don’t end up in the garbage and pollute the environment.

Buy Bamboo – Bamboo is a grass not a tree and so it grows quickly and is versatile. Bamboo can be used in flooring, window blinds, or just about any living room furniture.  The only downside to bamboo is that it uses a lot of water during reforestation, but takes little time to reforest compared to trees.

Stop with the Polystyrene Cups – You know it as Styrofoam from the Dow Chemicals Company but actually Styrofoam as a cup does not exist, it’s actually polystyrene .  You go to parties and they have Styrofoam cups and plates and it is terrible.

Take cloth bags to the grocery store – Those little plastic bags used by grocery stores are flimsy and not recycled by people.  Considering that large cities like San Francisco are charging consumers for plastic bags, start now and use nice cloth bags.  Even a backpack is great for filling up heavier items in it.

Stop with the bottle water -  Really? You NEED bottle water?  You’re incapable of putting a filter on your tab for 40 bucks and rather spend $1.20 per bottle every day?  More than 1.6 Billion bottles are not recycled in the UK each year.  Bottled water takes up space.  Bottled water is a waste.  Bottled water use plastics; which in turn use petroleum.   Instead use a hard plastic bottle, fill it with water, and take it to the gym, work, car.  If you are concerned about tap water not being clean, put a filter on.  Remember, just because it’s from a bottle doesn’t make it clean water either; the Perrier scandal taught a lesson there.

Article by Preeti Pradhan

Recycle Now has teamed up with the resourceful members of the Really Rubbish Orchestra and Hear Me Now to play some well-known Christmas carols and raise awareness of the opportunities and importance to recycle small electronic and electrical goods.

At The Thrifty Chicks we thought it wise to catalog SOME of our thrifted purchases to demystify thrift and get shopper over the silly notion that “if it’s not new, its ‘eww.’” We’ve assembled a slide show of 220 items thrifted from stores in the US, mainly in Denver, Colorado. And, as we get closer to the holidays, more items will be added.

To see this slide show, visit The Thrifty Chicks, www.thethriftychicks.blogspot.com, The Thrift Catalog is in the left column, double click on it. We recommend it be viewed full screen for the best display. But, hold on to your chair for you might fall out a few times when you see some of these gorgeous items purchased for pennies.

The most expensive product is an antique gilt mirror for $30. The vast majority of items range from $3-$9 and don’t compromise quality, most of them are originals. We assembled a selection of products that would appeal to most everyone from the brand new to the gently used to the antique, but all unique.

We understand that some people might have hangups with the idea of giving a used object as a gift. Funny to think that just a few generations ago, a used item would be accepted with gratitude, appreciation and grace; ahh – the days before planned obsolescence.

But consider this, thrift shopping is green shopping. How so? No additional energy is required to fill the consumer’s need for a gently used product. The fuel of long-haul transport, often from the other side of the earth, has already been burned. Reused products do not have the weight and waste of excessive packaging new products do. Finally, thrift-store shopping diverts reusable items from landfills.

Add in that thrift shopping is also a poetic gesture: The profits from the sale of repurposed products in charity-run thrift stores directly promote the repurposing of lives in need. Not only do we avoid product waste, through our contributions we help to avoid the waste of another human’s life.

There is much to the thrift store mystique that needs some clearing up. Once converted, most people rarely go back to conventional retail.

Please take a few minutes to visit The Thrifty Chicks and peruse their Thrift Catalog. We recommend it viewed full screen. Viewers are giving this show two thumbs up. One viewer called it “pure gold.”

Article by Amy at The Thrifty Chicks
http://thethriftychicks.blogspot.com

Just over three years ago, the collaborative effort of the not-for-profit Voices for Global Change and a small group of women from a Ugandan IDP camp brought about Paper to Pearls, a micro-enterprise initiative that has transformed the lives of hundreds of women and their communities. The women beaders of Paper to Pearls handcraft beautiful, 100% green recycled paper bead jewelry. The income from the sale of these eco-chic necklaces, earrings, and bracelets has enabled the women to provide food and medicine for their families as well as schooling for their children.

It was our great delight when the Triennale Design Museum of Milan, Italy requested to display Paper to Pearls necklaces alongside the work of over 60 globally renowned jewelry artists as part of their Paper Jewellery exhibit.

Our beaders’ transformation of a very humble medium into a fashion statement epitomizes the thematic concepts of the show- the spirit of sustainability and the inherent value possible in everyday items.

The women of Uganda craft beautiful necklaces out of recycled paper as a creative and industrious response to the limitations of a post-conflict country. In our own environment, where access to desired resources is relatively easy and plentiful, our Ugandan beaders are a constant inspiration to incorporate ingenuity and resourcefulness into our daily lives. As the themes from the Milan exhibit and the stories of our women so perfectly capture, it is important to continually find resourceful, sustainable ways to turn an ordinary material into an extraordinary product.

www.papertopearls.org

Article by Hilary Hamlin

Crafters, or at least the crafters I know, are usually a thrifty bunch, making the most of their fabric and yarn stash, minimising on waste and re-using as much as they can.

Over the past couple of years I’ve been learning crafting skills with the aim to make more things for my wardrobe and our home. When I began I decided I wanted to make as little impact on the environment as I could. It would defeat the point of making my own things if I started buying materials that had wasted energy and caused lots of pollution in its production.

So here are 5 handy ways to craft green that I’ve picked up along the way:

1. Charity shops make good craft shops too

If you buy new fabric from the shops or market do you know what went into making it? Conventional cotton, for example, is extremely polluting and resource hungry so unless you buy organic then you can’t be sure that your pretty hand made item hasn’t contributed to putting all kinds of chemicals into the environment. That’s why charity shops make good craft shops.

You may not always be able to buy fabric on the roll or by the metre at your local charity shops but you can get great fabric from other items like curtains, sheets and duvet covers and turn them into other things like cushion covers, skirts and napkins.

If you’re lucky you might find yarn, embroidery threads, cottons and needles in charity shops too!

2. Look after the odds and ends

You’ve probably heard the saying “save the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”. Well a similar rule applies to the odds and ends in your fabric and yarn stash or leftover paint from the last time you decorated. Keep those little bits and pieces and when you put them together you can make something bigger. Saving the end of a ball of yarn could go towards a colorful knitting or crochet project like a blanket, fabric scraps could be used to stuff cushions or soft toys and paint could give a piece of furniture or picture frame a new lease of life.

3. Save the template

Save the backs of notepads or cereal boxes to make sturdy card templates for patterns. Drawing on the back of leftover wallpaper does the same job for larger projects like tops or bags.

4. Give to craft class

If like me you pick up second hand fabric from anywhere and everywhere you’ll probably soon come to the conclusion that you’ll never use it all. You could donate the pieces you don’t want to your local charity shop or you might find that nearby craft courses could use them for students to practice their sewing, embroidery, dyeing, anything. Think of it as spreading a little craft love.

5. Take it to your wardrobe

If you haven’t already guessed by now I’m a big fan of charity shopping. I’d always say donate your old clothes to charity shops first but only if they’re in good condition (the sort of condition you would expect to buy). If you have clothes that aren’t good enough for the charity shop, if they’re damaged and beyond repair see what you can salvage before you throw them away like zips, buttons and ribbons. It saves you buying these things from new for your next project. The leftover fabric could then go to a textile bank (some local councils have these at their recycling centres) where it will be cleaned, shredded and used again.

Check out Crafting a Green World for lots and lots more green crafting tips!

Growing up in Cornwall, UK, has meant I have always had easy access to the coast. I have always enjoyed the beach, but my mind gets a bit restless if I am doing nothing, so beachcombing was a natural transitional pastime for me to enjoy. I have always picked up and hoarded stuff, being one of those people preparing for something that hadn’t happened yet, not entirely sure what you would need old bits of pink sea glass or broken kinder surprise toys for, but if you did, you were prepared.

It was only when I was given a shell with some holes already naturally present that I thought it would make a cool necklace, so I then returned to my treasures to see what else would be a good pendant or charm.

That was 8 years ago now, and I now have The Beach Shack Project. I use primarily found objects in my work, but when I first started, to be perfectly honest recycling was not my first concern. I was simply intrigued by peoples reactions to my work, and what you could make using other peoples discarded waste.

My favourite work at the moment involves using reclaimed textiles like fishing nylon, acrylic boat rope, and other random pieces of material, At the moment I am making a cuff out of an old surfboard arm cuff, neon thread, fishing line and pottery for an exhibition about recycled jewellery in Cornwall. Huge matted balls of fishing nylon are now commonplace on beaches, usually having been lost or discarded by fishermen. These balls are not only non-biodegradable, but pose a threat to any wildlife unlucky to get caught up in it.

I collect these tangled balls of nylon and laboriously go about unravelling, unknotting and even reknotting the nylon until I am left with workable strands. These are then washed thoroughly in antibacterial soap so they are squeaky-clean.

I find it a very productive unrestricting way to work, as working with found objects does not limit your creativity but simply fuel it; it makes you think of new ways to do things as you are always working with something different.

Straws and lollipop sticks became beads, discarded balls of nylon became thread or a textile to weave with and sea glass and pottery became beautiful focal points. I like to think outside the box, and hope that people find my work exciting and creative.  As I have said on my website, I do not look upon things as rubbish, just an unfinished part of something else.

“Jewellery is always a treasure, and though it may not be made of gold and diamonds, it should still have that sentiment.”  Tom Binns.

Hannah Marshall – The Beach Shack Project
www.beachshackproject.co.uk

I stumbled across this wonderful blog in my attempt to find fresh new places to promote by new line of recycled jewellery. However, rather than being greeted with “place an ad here for £XXX per month”, I found I was being given the opportunity to actually share with people the reasons behind my creations and my enthusiasm for all things ‘green’. Suddenly, promoting my jewellery was almost second to this unexpected opportunity! I had to give it a go!

I have always had a passion for green issues and doing what I can to protect my little corner of the planet, but then I’m sure this is something you’ve all heard many times before. What I would really like to share with you is my enthusiasm for recycling – a concept so simple it never fails to amaze me that so many people find it so hard to do.

My husband and I have always recycled  – paper in one box, glass in another, everything washed out and put out every other week for the council to take away and send off to some unknown land where our rubbish is magically turned into new things. However, it was when searching for a 1st anniversary gift for my husband, which is traditionally paper, that I suddenly started to wonder what actually happens to all these clean jars and old newspapers we so meticulously put out week after week. Not being able to find a satisfactory answer to that question I felt inspired to find my own use for the everyday things we all throw away. What I found was not only an incredible outlet for my creativity but also the ability to turn the contents of my recycle box into beautiful things!

I began experimenting with paper, closely followed by anything and everything I had to hand – newspapers, wrapping paper, old buttons, jumpers, even bottle caps from hubby’s favourite tipple! The results amazed me. My first piece was a pair of recycled cufflinks for my husband – a successful 1st anniversary gift! I made them using old buttons and chain for the backs and recycled paper for the decorative fronts. He was impressed not only because I had taken the time to make them myself but also the fact that just a few days before he was reading the newspaper that had now been turned into beautiful gems for him to wear on his cuffs!

From there I began making things for friends and family for birthdays. I made necklaces, bracelets, earrings, all the while experimenting with a variety of materials for each piece. It was my loved one’s responses to my creations that encouraged me to go out and try to share them with the world. I launched Blackberry Winter in May of this year and it is my hope that my earth-friendly jewellery will be something people can enjoy and feel good about wearing.

It may only be a few small steps but they all add up to make a big difference.

www.blackberrywinter.co.uk
Article by Helen Brooks

Does your husband blast old Clapton in the car?  Are you a huge fan of John Mayer?  Does your daughter ‘live for’ Avril Levigne?  If so, give them the perfect gift – a piece of rock history on their wrists.

In an era where eco-friendly fashion and accessories are becoming more important than ever, famed musicians from around the world are donating their used guitar strings (yes they’ve been plucked and played!) to wearyourmusic.org, a jewelry design company that turns authentic used guitar strings into high-end fashionable bracelets for charity.

Jewelry designer Hannah Garrison receives dozens of authentic guitar strings each week from musical luminaries like Carlos Santana, Keith Richards, Ziggy Marley, Eric Clapton, Bob Weir and many more.  Garrison recycles the strings into a bracelet, complete with a 100% recycled silver clasp with the artist’s initials and then packages it into a recycled DVD case.

“We have always supported eco-friendly fashion and design, but these days it’s more important than ever,” says Garrison.

Each bracelet comes with a certificate of authenticity, and a portion of all proceeds goes directly to the musician’s choice of charity.  Santana’s Milagro Foundation, UNICEF, Rock the Vote and many others have all received donations from Wear Your Music.

So the next time you’re struggling on what to get your hippie uncle, scope out www.wearyourmusic.org and you may just nab Bob Weir’s strings!

Article by Lauren Busch

Update Aug 09 – The HOTmilk campaign has now finished but Knickers4Africa still need your help. If you have underwear that you would like to donate please contact Emma at emma@knickers4africa.org.uk. Visit www.knickers4africa.org.uk to find out more.

The other day my mum told me about a scheme which helps protect women and girls from sexual abuse by donating underwear.

This scheme was set up by Zimbabwe ex-pat Morag Roy who, on a return trip there, was told by a friend that sexual abuse and rape of young girls was rife. A local priest explained however that having underwear could help prevent this. He said that underwear is expensive and owning these items gives a woman prestige and shows they have money. Women with underwear are considered to be more independent and assertive, so men are less likely to assault them.

Morag and her colleague Corrie Peterson had previously set up a course for sexual assault victims and when she told Corrie what she’d learned they decided to ask women to donate their bras.

I’ve looked this scheme up online and found various references to it (some of which are listed at the bottom of this article). One article says that bras are needed primarily and preferably in dark colours for modesty reasons but another says that knickers and other underwear is wanted too.

I’ve also seen some disparaging comments online saying it is patronising and unhygienic to expect these women to take hand-me-down underwear. I personally feel strongly about the value of second-hand. Surely it is a positive thing if the underwear is clean and if the women are not offended and most importantly if this plays a role in helping them. Rather than throw away your perfectly good undies, recycle them and potentially keep a girl or woman safe from abuse.

Maternity lingerie company HOTmilk and their regular freight company Express Logistics are participating in the scheme and have taken thousands of pairs of underwear to Zimbabwe. If you’d like to join HOTmilk and help too then you can see a list of outlets in various countries who will pass on your underwear donation to the next “Knickers for Africa” shipment.

I shall be dropping off my mum’s, my sisters’ and my donations to the Nottingham outlet next week.

References & Resources:
HOTmilk – ‘Knickers for Africa‘
Hotmilk – Find participating Knickers for Africa outlets near you
Yahoo Lifestyle – ‘Your Bra can Make a Difference‘
Townsville Bulletin – ‘Black Bra Day helps women‘

Every year my resolution is to get organised. Really organised. I mean super organised. I will know what I’m supposed to be doing at every moment of the day and what’s more, I will be doing it!

Credit: matsuyuki

In my mind, there was only one thing holding me back from this heightened state of organisation: the perfect personal organiser (PPO).

In the past, freebie diaries generously donated by companies I’d never heard of had conspired to distract me from my PPO search, and childhood memories of colourful PPOs with cartoon stickers only compounded my confusion.

But this year I was determined. I would find my PPO. I could forgo the cartoon stickers. I did, however, have one other small criterion to be fulfilled (on top of its genius organisational properties) – it must be an environmentally-happy shade of green.

Not much to ask in these eco-enlightened times, I thought, as I began to google. And within seconds I had recycled leather personal organisers, plus a couple ingeniously crafted from recycled circuit boards.

Excellent! I thought. Job done. And of course, a recycled personal organiser will have recycled paper inserts, won’t it?

Erm, no. ‘Fraid not. EcoCentric, The Green Stationery Company – they could give me the recycled organiser but not the recycled paper inserts to go with it.

Discussion forums confirmed it – apparently Filofax (the ‘Hoover’ to the ‘vacuum cleaner’ of the personal organiser world) had tried recycled paper, but it didn’t work out, sorry, end of story.

No, no, no. This paper trail does not end here. I had come this far; the good folk at Filofax would have the answer. So I dropped them a (paper-free of course) email to find out why recycled paper inserts were no longer a part of their range.

I didn’t have to wait long for a response…

Filofax is a premium brand and consistency of quality of product is absolutely paramount across all of our white and cream paper ranges. The recycled paper products we used to market were more expensive than the standard range but looked inferior. Sales were poor and our retailers didn’t want to stock the product.

It is difficult for us to offer an environmental paper product in one or two particular sizes or layouts within a range of sixty diaries and planners in the UK and many more worldwide without offering it across the whole range and this is impractical from a retail space and cost point of view. It would mean doubling up our offering and inevitably mean some small production runs in some formats which would increase the cost for the consumer.

Rather than focus on the environmental marketing direction for Filofax which is not easy to accommodate logically within our global range, we have focussed on the charity direction where we saw that we could provide a real direct and tangible benefit to a great cause, The Breast Cancer Campaign. Since 2005 we have generated over £400,000 for the charity and are very proud to have been in the top ten list of fund generators over the last five years.

Our other group company, Letts, is an FSC approved supplier and is able to produce bespoke FSC accredited product ranges for customers where the volume justifies it. Likewise, Letts has produced recycled case bound diaries in theme ranges and on A4 and A5 office diaries. The Letts offering in this area is expanding for 2010.

I have to say I found this reply quite worrying – and promptly told them so. It seemed to me as if Filofax had tried recycled paper once and because it was not a success straight away had abandoned it – despite the significant (and ongoing) improvement in the quality of recycled paper and the lower price that comes with greater demand.

Instead, Filofax donates a proportion of its profits from a particular diary to charity. This is great, of course, but is not the same as pursuing a more sustainable business model.

They were soon back in touch to clear up my confusion…

I would like to clarify that Filofax is not adverse to considering recycled paper products. We undertake an annual range review and development process that starts each year in March. During this process we review latest developments, trends, environmental issues etc., and decide the structure and content of the following year’s range.

It certainly isn’t the case that we will not consider reintroducing recycled papers based on our previous range and sales of such products. The company understands that development has moved forward in this area and the quality of recycled paper is much improved.

My previous email sought to explain the reason we dropped earlier recycled paper products – essentially because the perceived quality was not acceptable to the retail trade and therefore consumers did not have access to it.

I was also hoping to explain the difficulties facing us if we introduced a recycled version of all our diaries and refills, as well as the inevitable disappointment we would cause some consumers if we only offered recycled products in a minority of formats. Things have moved on as you point out in terms of the quality of paper and our own distribution channels therefore it would be remiss of us not to consider recycled paper again.

They directed me to their environmental policy online, which they are still in the process of developing: www.filofax.co.uk/aboutus/environment.asp

This was better, but it sounded as if they might need a bit of a push from the shopping public to go wholesale down the recycled route. So I asked how us Green Girls could make our feelings known to the big bosses.

Regarding any future developments in recycled products, probably the best way to register an interest is either via our focus groups (our VIPs who we run ideas past) or via our opt in facility to receive newsletters and promotions. Both these can be subscribed to via our website. I would say though that at present there is no filtering of interests, so for instance we could not register anyone to only receive information on recycled products.

The upshot is though that they meet next month to decide their future plans – so it’s probably best just to email them through their Customer Services contact as I did to let them know that you want the future for Filofax to be a green one.

In the meantime, I’m using my freebie diary. Waste not, want not!

Katie

There was a postscript to this correspondence. Filofax got in touch to say that they’d found some stock of their old recycled notepaper packs and wondered if we wanted them – a couple of thousand of them.

They weren’t sure how we’d distribute them but said we’re welcome to use them as we see fit. They are Filofax personal size packs of plain white notepaper.

What do you make of this? And do you want some?!