I've seen many articles and blogs which contain eco-friendly holiday gift ideas. I wanted to place some of them here to be of little help to some of the late shoppers who are trying to get something nice for themselves or their green friend. These suggestions are better than giving fruitcakes. However, I do hear that many fruitcakes have been reused and regifted, so I guess that is pretty eco-friendly.
Go Green this Christmas - gift ideas
Green holiday gifts can bring joy, save money
Joy of green giving: High-tech, environmentally friendly gifts
Inexpensive Christmas Gift Ideas: Save Money and Go Green with Cheap, Earth-Friendly Gifts
Christmas Gifts 2009: Do It Yourself!
Last minute Christmas gift ideas {green products and services}
Happy shopping and have a great holiday season!
Posted on
October 26, 2009 16:28
by
Clay Miller
Categories:
green living |
green |
recycle |
waste
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With Halloween around the corner I wanted to watch some horror movies (mostly bad) this week. One of these supposedly scary gems is Children of the Corn IV with Naomi Watts. I knew it was going to be a bad movie, but sometimes that is what makes these movie more enjoyable when you know that going in.
Anyway, in the movie a lot of bad things are happening at the hospital where Naomi Watt’s character is a nurse. I mean a lot of bad stuff. She then goes home and becomes very upset when her family isn’t recycling. That is a horror. In the scene she is seen stomping on newspaper in a box and starts to also put glass in another box. You go girl! Our sighing damsel then says the provocative line, “The word recycling mean anything to you?” to no one in particular (unless she’s taking to the ghosts). She takes the time to do this in the middle of unexplained bad things and horrific killings in town.
Play the below video clip to see Naomi Watts literally getting into recycling. Note: You probably want to stop the clip around 7:30 or so.
See? Sometimes bad movies, even bad horror movies, can give a great message for children out there. Although, don’t let children see this movie or any movie like it. I guess you’ll have to pass on the eco-friendly knowledge yourself.
Do you remember any movies or TV shows which show the characters doing ‘green’ things?
My tomato plants have done their job for the year. No more good
tomatoes or blooms are on the vine so today I picked off all of the respectable
tomatoes and heaved my tomato plants into my compost bin. Alas, colder
weather is near (in Kentucky anyway) and this is just one of the things to do to
get ready for autumn. My tomato plants won't be lonely, a lot of leaves
will be joining them very soon.
Don't fret, I made sure there were no bugs or diseased areas on the plants.
You don't want to spread disease into your compost bin. That just wouldn't
be good for your compost bin at all. Speaking of compost bin, mine has
seen better days. It has gotten pretty sad looking. I made it around 8 years ago out of wood.
It has done its job, but I plan
to get or make a new one for this coming spring.
Don't have a compost bin and don't know how to compost, and would like to?
Do It Yourself Composting At Home
Below are things to know when preparing your things for recycling. Your local recycler will thank you.
- checking to see what is able to be collected at curbside in your area; for most areas that means
plastic items with Plastic Identification Codes of #1 and #2. For more info:
Plastic Identification Codes
- sorting your plastic carefully; including removing caps from bottles (most caps cannot be recycled)
- attached labels are acceptable
- rinsing, cleaning and flattening plastic before it goes going curbside
So what can be usually recycled at curbside? Below is from http://www.recycleright.org:
Help to close the loop - buy products with recycled materials in them. Remember to reduce, reuse and recycle. For more information:
For more information: The Green Cycles: The green cycles: recycling, precycling, freecycling, upcycling, downcycling and e-cycling
I just saw the movie 'Away We Go' with John Krasinski (of "The Office") and Maya Rudolph (of "Saturday Night Live") are expectant parents who go in search of the perfect place to start their family in this low-key comedy from director/producer Sam Mendes ("American Beauty" & "Road to Perdition)". I thought it was a really good movie and I would recommend to every adult. It is rated R for a reason; especially the opening scene. You'll see what I mean. The cast also includes Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton. The story and the actors caught my eye, but also the Special Features of the DVD. It mentioned the eco-friendly things that Sam Mendes did on the set of the film.
From the FilmInFocus website:
Away We Go’s achievements can be broken down into four main areas: energy, transportation, catering/craft/water, and waste. Specific achievements include:
* For energy, biodiesel fuel was integrated into generators, using blends ranging from B-5 to B-99, resulting in substantial emissions reductions at point of combustion as well as through life-cycle analysis.
* For transportation, hybrid vehicles were driven 45% of the total miles driven during the production, and also reduced carbon emissions through their reduced idling policy and charter flight avoidance policy.
* For catering/craft/water, the production shifted its sourcing to local and organic sources for more than 50% of their meals and craft services, and eliminated plastic water bottles from their set.
* For waste, the production redirected 49% of its waste from landfills into recycling and composting.
Other achievements included consolidating shooting locations so as to reduce travel miles, adopting sustainable habits in the production office, and eliminating all those wasteful little plastic water bottles. The production switched to branded reusable bottles and, when it came to dinnerware, served with corn and sugar-based utensils.
Filmmaking while being eco-friendly is possible. Let's hope that other directors and producers get onboard and become more eco-friendly. With all of the movies that are made these days, that could make a huge impact. If you don't see this movie, I urge you to see a movie soon. Movies are a great 2 hour escape. And don't we all need escapes?
Wikipedia defines litter as "waste that people unlawfully dispose of out of doors. It can be packaging or other unwanted items. Litter can be vandalism, carelessness, or inadvertence. Litter is a form of visual pollution. It can harm health, safety, and welfare. It adversely affects wildlife and environmental quality." That’s a pretty darn good definition.
A couple of times on the Ways2GoGreen twitter account I have posted this little phrase about littering:
Don't litter. Ever. I mean it. I will find you and rub your nose in it. Seriously.
Note: In the above quote, I’m only half kidding.
I usually get a lot of re-tweets from this post which tells me there are many others who feel like I feel about littering. I think that littering is the ultimate in laziness and is such as selfish act. However, some people seem to feel that everywhere is their personal wastebasket. I can't tell you how many times I've found trash in my front yard from passer-bys who throw what they just finished eating or drinking from their vehicles.
Not littering is about as easy of a green activity to get in the habit of doing as there is in this world. If you are a habitual litterer: Stop littering! Put your trash in the proper trash receptacle. If you do litter, remember the above quote. We are watching.
I recently went to my local Half Price Books and sold some of my old books and bought a couple of recent novels for half price. I was new to the store and wasn’t informed on the eco-friendliness of the store. For instance, Half Price Books was named in the EPA’s Top 10 Green Power Retailers. I did a little research and I thought I would share.
Half Price Books began in 1972 and now has many locations in 16 states across the Unites States. For the nearest store near you, go here. If you like to own books, not just borrow from a library, this is the place. They carry best sellers, used books as well as classics. And that is just the books. They also have CDs, LPs, text books, DVDs and more. Most of these sell for half price or less. If there is a location near you, I urge you to visit a store and see for yourself. I will definitely be returning soon.
From the Half Price Books website:
Things we believe no one should waste: paper, knowledge, trees, words, time, and money. Half Price Books is the book recycler. We buy books you've already enjoyed. So if you have more books than shelves, bring yours to us today. We pay the most for recent best sellers and collectibles. But we're also interested in your children's books, mysteries, music, movies and games. We donate all our overstock inventory to nonprofit agencies around the world.
So let's work together and help save our Mother Earth. When you visit Half Price Books, you'll save trees, books, and of course, money. We are committed to the community and preserving our environment. We operate every day based on the convictions of our founders to waste not and read a lot. Every day is earth day at Half Price Books.
Half Price Books has a website called b(eco)me, which details their green effort, has green tips as well as b(eco)ming bagless.
