TerraCycle’s Upcycling Valentine’s Day Program

Once again TerraCycle is at the forefront of upcycling and reusing products for a brighter future for all of us. They are ready for Valentine’s Day with a few DIY upcycling ideas.

While cleaning up trash doesn’t seem like a romantic way to spend the day, you can celebrate the holiday and effect real-world change with special Valentine’s Day items, products and decorations in Trash Tycoon, Facebook’s first upcycling game from Guerillapps and TerraCycle. In the game, you can clean up trash and upcycle it to fun products like necklaces, Valentine’s Day cards and heart shaped wreaths to send to friends or to decorate your town. Players’ hearts will swell because Trash Tycoon creates positive social impact by donating 10% of in-game dollars to environmental projects sponsored by CarbonFund.org.

Next, love Mother Earth and your Valentine by making an upcycled necklace out of Kraft Cheese wrappers or chocolate wrappers, just like the necklace in Trash Tycoon! TerraCycle’s Design Junkies have brought the beaded necklace into the real world with simple, do-it-yourself instructions available for download here: bit.ly/ValentineBraceletDIY, these bracelets are sure to be a hit with children of all ages while also educating them on the importance of recycling and upcycling. You can also check out this video for step-by-step instructions:

Finally, Valentine’s Day and candy go together like peas and carrots, but the packaging can be a real heartbreaker. All those red and pink wrappers left over from sweet treats can be sent to TerraCycle through Mars’ Candy Wrapper Brigade to be recycled and earn money for charity. Signing up is free and easy at www.terracycle.com.

About TerraCycle:
TerraCycle, Inc. is an international upcycling and recycling company that takes difficult-to recycle-packaging and turns it into affordable, innovative products.  Founded in 2001, TerraCycle (www.terracycle.com) is the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste. TerraCycle works with more than 30 major brands in the U.S. and around the world to collect used packaging and products that would otherwise be destined for landfills. It repurposes that waste into new, innovative materials and products that are available online and through major retailers. The waste is collected through TerraCycle’s Brigade programs, which are free fundraisers that pay for every piece of waste collected and returned. For information on how to join a TerraCycle Brigade and on purchasing TerraCycle products please visit www.terracycle.com.

Guest Post: How a Smart Home Can Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

As we strive to reduce our carbon footprints, many of us look to simple ways to improve our homes with slight energy efficient updates. While adding weatherstripping to those doors and windows and putting better insulation in your walls and attic can definitely decrease the amount of energy you use, and therefore your overall utility bills, there are a few leading innovations that can turn your energy efficient home to one of the leading green homes on the block.

When most people think of green homes, they think of homes built entirely out of recyclable materials complete with water recycling systems and rain collection barrels. While these homes are phenomenal in terms of their lack of carbon footprint, they aren't always easy to construct in already developed suburban areas. But that doesn't mean you have to forgo a home that has a lowered emissions and energy consumption. For those living in more developed areas, a few simple renovations and updates can turn their home into a smart home – saving them both energy consumption and money.

Vivint, as well as a few other competitors in the home monitoring industry, have recently started to construct home monitoring systems that do so much more than keep your home free of burglars. These companies have begun striving to create smart homes that will reduce a home's carbon footprint as well as save the homeowner money on utilities.

These systems are much more evolved than simple Energy Star appliances. They basically serve as an alarm system that will also monitor your home's thermostat. You can set it specifically to meet you and your home's needs regardless of the weather conditions outside, so that your home is always at an energy saving temperature.

So not only does the Vivint system, and other like it, provide you with a discount on your homeowner's insurance, but it will also help you save on your utility bills. Even better is that you can control these system remotely. So if the temperature that day got hotter or colder than you expected, then you can control your thermostat accordingly to keep your energy efficiency at optimum levels.

You can even control your home's lighting with the feature so you don't have to worry about leaving your lights on the entire time your gone to make it look like someone is home. Instead, you can save energy while also being safe by controlling the lights remotely and only turning them on when necessary.

So if you are looking for a great way to further reduce your home's energy consumption, consider turning it into a smart home. Not only will the discounts and energy saving allow you to pay for the system itself, but it will make your home a much safer and more efficient place – two things any eco-conscious homeowner wants in their home.

Winner Announced for the Emerson Savannah Ceiling Fan Giveaway from Del Mar Designs

We have a winner of the Emerson Savannah Ceiling Fan Giveaway. The winner is:

Cheryl Malandrinos

She entered the giveaway and was chosen by me using random.org. Luckily for her 3 was chosen and she won!

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Guest Post: The Local Diet

Whilst lobby groups often do a wonderful job of pressuring politicians into taking a responsible stance on environmental issues, real and lasting change to the way in which the world is run also comes from the way in which ordinary people live their lives.

At the end of the day, rightly or wrongly, money is probably the biggest factor affecting the way the world’s resources are used. This means that one of the best ways you can bring about change is to be as environmentally conscious as possible as a consumer. Business is, after all, simply a case of supply and demand.

The Environmental Cost of Food

The question of supply and demand is especially relevant to our diets. In order to fulfil our desire for a range of foods from around the globe, some rather illogical trends have emerged in the way food is produced and supplied. In some instances a consumer will find themselves purchasing fruit that has be flown halfway across the world, despite the fact that it is in season and growing locally just a few miles away.

According to research by MIT, the average American has a carbon footprint of almost 20 metric tones of CO2 a year (which, as a side point, is more than double the global per capita average). When you consider Mellon University’s findings that the average US household’s food consumption accounts for 8.1 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions every year, almost half the total figure per person, it becomes obvious that our eating habits are one of the major factors determining our contribution to climate change.

Look Closer to Home

So, what can we do about it? Well one of the best things we can do is to eat local produce whenever possible. The problem comes when you cannot figure out in which country an item has been produced when shopping at your local supermarket and this is a great reason to try and get your food from other, more eco friendly sources.

For instance, at your local farmers’ market you can rest assured that, in all likelihood, none of the goods available have travelled more than 50-80km. Shopping in such a manner is not only good for the world in terms of climate change, but it may have a real impact on the economy in your region as the money you hand over will go to a nearby producer, rather than a company that may not even be based in the country, let alone your little corner of it.

It needn’t cost the Earth

You may be thinking that eating in a more sustainable way will be more expensive, but this isn’t necessarily the case; fruit and vegetables are often cheaper at farmers’ markets than they are in large chain retailers.

Of course, high quality luxury items, such a specialist cheeses will be cheaper at a supermarket, but when it comes to staple foods that you are always going to want, you’ll find supermarkets not only neglect to put such items on offer, they are not even competitively priced.

It is cheaper still to grow your own vegetables rather than to buy imported goods, or even those supplied by farmers in your own country. Just think, for the price of a single carrot, you can buy 400 seeds. Obviously, they won’t all be harvested, but you only need to get a fraction of that number on your table and you’ve saved money and, more importantly, emissions.

Ethical Imports

Eating a local diet does of course mean that you will have to adapt to only eating some items, particularly fruit and veg, in season. Many will find this to be a great way of adding variety to what you eat throughout the year, but others will find it very hard to avoid imported goods altogether. What’s important is that, when we do buy from overseas, we try and do so responsibly.

The whole reason so much food is imported is because stores can profit from the cheap labor available in foreign countries to get produce for a very low price, and this often leads to an exploitative situation.

For example, some producers of goods like coffee and bananas receive a shockingly small cut of the price we pay for them. But, by insisting on buying Fair Trade goods, you can help ensure that the environmental damage caused by importing products is not motivated simply by a suppliers’ desire to profit from poor working conditions in the 3rd world.

Eating locally is not the complete answer to reducing your impact on the world but it’s a very good start and one that many will find easy to manage in some form or another. If, however, you want more tips on how to live a more sustainable life and leave a working planet behind for your grandchildren then you can follow this author’s blog over at GreenSteve.

Guest Post: Go Green On Your Utilities Costs This Winter

Many people are in for a shock when they open their gas or electric bill after the first cold spell of winter. They take a look at the sky-high heating costs and wonder to themselves: How can I bring these expenses down? How can I keep my house warm this winter without paying exorbitantly to do so?

Perhaps the best way to address these questions is by becoming more environmentally-friendly when it comes to your utilities. Going green, after call, is a great way to help the planet while saving yourself some money in the process. So how can you go green this winter? Here are a few tips:

Get Energy Efficient Bulbs

Although more expensive upfront, energy-efficient light bulbs can help you more than recoup those costs after a winter’s worth of use. They also use less energy to emit the same amount of light, thereby allowing you to consume sufficient electricity in a green-friendly manner.

Dim the Lights

Some people will go a step further on the lighting front by regularly dimming the lights in their home. This can, over time, help save on your bills and your energy consumption. If you don’t like the idea of having rooms that are less well-lit, you may want to consider chinese lanterns or other types of lights that go well with a dimmer ambiance.

Insulate Your Home

Insulating your home can drastically improve your energy efficiency during the winter, especially if you live in an older house. You can do this by sealing your windows and by adding insulation to the attic. Since a disproportionate amount of heat will leave your home through the roof, adding even a cheap bed of insulation on your attic floor can be an easy way to boost efficiency.

Get a Smart Thermostat

Worlds apart from the traditional variety, a “smart” thermostat is capable of constantly adjusting your home’s temperature in order to provide the maximum comfort at the most cost and energy-efficient level. It does this by sensing motion in the home and learning habitation patterns. While a smart thermostat will cost you more up front, like an energy efficient light bulb it should insure that you recoup those expenses over the course of the winter season.

These are just a few of the many ways you can work to go green on your utilities bill this winter. Doing so is not simply a great way to reduce your carbon footprint – it also, as demonstrated above, can help save you money in the process.