recycle-related stories
Uncanny swimsuits and other recycling facts
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
Healthy Home, Sustainable Community, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements
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
Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health
- 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.
Recycling your old yoga mat
Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health
- 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
What did you do with your old mat?
Don't trash that Luna wrapper
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.























