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Posts with tag recycle

Uncanny swimsuits and other recycling facts

Posted: May 26th 2008 9:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Sustainable Community

You might feel pretty accomplished in your efforts to go green. You're using reusable supermarket bags, composting your food and yard trash, and forgoing plastic bottles. You're in good company. Check out these noble recycling efforts from around the globe.

  • Got your body in tip-top shape for swimsuit season? Think you "can" dress like this: In 2007, the Brits had svelte models strut down Brighton beach wearing swimsuits made from steel cans. Take a look at these sporty suits here.

  • Next time you're pounding the surface on a tennis court or sprinting around a running track, look down – you might be bouncing around on someone's old shoes. Nike collects old athletic shoes and turns them into raw material for sports surfaces.

  • Before you tie your hair back for your next athletic endeavor, you might want to check out you elastic hair band. Last year, Chinese hair salons controversially and unlawfully began recycling used condoms -- most likely gathered from area nightclubs -- and making them into hair ties. Are your bands "Made in China"? I hope not.

For 17 more remarkable recycling efforts, check out this Discover magazine article.

Composting: Reuse, recycle, and nourish

Posted: Mar 27th 2008 8:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Food and Nutrition, Healthy Habits, Healthy Home, Organic, Sustainable Community

My grandma always had a compost pile. We grandkids never knew exactly why she went to all the work of gathering a bunch of trash and dumping it in a bin in her backyard. She had her reasons, though, and while we didn't grasp them way back when, we understand her intentions now.

Successful gardening -- my grandma loved gardening -- starts with feeding with soil. The best way to nourish the soil comes from an unlikely but nutrient-rich source -- the home and yard.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that food scraps and yard trimmings account for about 25 percent of all the waste generated in the United States. Composting cuts down on this percentage. Just reuse and recycle the garbage you create right at home and you'll benefit the planet. And your garden too.

Here's how you can get started.

  • Start in the Spring.

  • Find some scraps and find a place to put them. Make a big pile in an out-of-the-way outdoor spot or buy bins to contain your compost and protect it from the elements.

  • Grab a pitchfork or shovel so you can turn your pile and incorporate oxygen.

  • Gather fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, shredded white paper, newspaper (nothing shiny, just newsprint), torn-up toilet paper, paper towel tubes, and plant and yard trimmings.

  • Do not use meat, oil, and dairy products. They won't break down properly, will smell badly, and will attract pests. Avoid weeds too. They will only produce more weeds.

  • Go heavier on "brown" materials -- leaves, straw, wood -- than the "green" items from your kitchen.

  • Compost should be kept as moist as a wrung-out sponge.

  • Compost is finished when it smells good, looks good, and feels like dark, rich, crumbly earth. Your original ingredients should be unrecognizable. If you do nothing but add scraps to your pile, it may take up to one year before you realize your final product. If you actively work your pile -- turning it, monitoring your green/brown ratio, checking on moisture -- then it could take as little as one month.

  • When ready, sprinkle your compost on the soil surface. Then start planting.

  • If your compost begins to stink, bury your kitchen scraps in the material from the yard.

Halloween: A great chance to recycle old clothes

Posted: Oct 15th 2007 10:07AM by Martha Edwards
Filed under: Healthy Habits, Sustainable Community

Halloween is one occasion where we can get away with wearing bizarre items that have been sitting in the back of the closet for the past few decades. In fact, come to think of it, halloween is a great time for recycling any old thing you don't wear any more -- you can incorporate it into your kids' costume, or even your own! The DIY Diva at the Green Guide has some great suggestions:
  • Paint yellow stripes on an old black turtle neck for a bumble bee costume.
  • Stuff old newspaper in back stockings for spider legs.
  • Cat ears can be made from a head band and some old material, or felt from the hobby store.
  • For a mask, consider a paper mache one or one made from a paper plate.
In my house, we always had recycled costumes, and though I'm past my dressing up days, I'm at the point where I wouldn't consider buying one of those tacky department-store costumes. What do you think?

Recycling your old yoga mat

Posted: Jul 18th 2007 10:07AM by Martha Edwards
Filed under: Healthy Habits, Sustainable Community

The folks over at the super cool, brand-new Weblogs Inc. Blog, DIY Life, have asked the following question: What do you do with an old yoga mat? Throwing it out seems to go against all yogi principals. Wouldn't it be better to recycle or re-use it? Luckily you can -- here are some suggestions:
  • Use it to sit on at sporting events, and save yourself the hassle of carrying folding chairs
  • Cut it up, tape it together and use it to kneel on while gardening
  • Use it as packing material
If you have an old yoga mat lying around, and you're wondering what to do with it, check out this site for lots of inspiration. There's no excuse to be wasteful!

What did you do with your old mat?

Don't trash that Luna wrapper

Posted: Jul 19th 2006 6:40PM by Nicole Weston
Filed under: Healthy Habits

Nutrition and sports bars are great for people on the go, but unfortunately the wrappers end up going places, too -- like onto sidewalks, into gutters and all around parks and beaches. Luna Bar wrappers don't meet that fate. Or, at least, they don't have to. Ecoist.com carries purses that are made from recycled candy wrappers and they have an entire line made from the wrappers of Luna Bars. These eco-friendly purses range in size from tiny coin pouches to huge totes, so there will surely be one for every possible use and, thanks to the wide variety of colored wrappers that are available, the bags are all attractive and original. Handmade, durable and waterproof, the bags are backed with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so both your mind and your eco-conscience can rest easily. The Luna bag pictured is the Everything/Anything bag, a best seller. They're $38 each and -- wouldn't you know it -- just the right size for your wallet and a Luna Bar.



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