Eco Green Tips

If you haven’t put up the tree yet, here are some fantastic ideas for Christmas decorations that will make being green during holidays a breeze:

Use recycled tree ornaments-you can get them from 3RLiving. Not only are they unique and one of a kind, they also look beautiful. You can also go to Branch to find recycled Felt Bird Ornaments made from 100 % eco-certified felted wool. These ornaments will brighten your house as well as serve as gifts for family and friends.

Natural animal ornaments-these are adorable ornaments in the shape of animals that can easily be used on anything, not only the tree. They could also serve as a great gift for kids. You can find these ornaments at Smith and Hawken’s and they are made with organic dyes and Buri sugar plant fibers.

Give someone an Earth ornament-available from Gaiam, theses beautiful ornaments are hand-painted with water-based colors and non-toxic finish and arrive in a craft box.

Switch to LED holiday lights-you can still keep up the tradition of lighting the holiday lights and save both energy and your hard-earned money by switching to energy-efficient LED Christmas lights and decorations.

Put up organic wreaths-for instance a Snowflake Wreath, available at Organic Style, which is made from organic shore pine from the Pacific Northwest and Douglas pinecones.

Bathrooms are one of the few places in your home, which may cause green havoc (not only in terms of waste but also in your wallet). However, not everyone can afford to buy a brand new eco-friendly toilet and such, especially in this economical climate. Thus, below you will find a few easy steps you can take to prevent waste and make your loo a much greener space.

1   Stop the run-make using a sink stopper a habit. Pour some water in the sink to wash your face and hands, turn the faucet off while brushing teeth and use a cup instead to rinse. And make sure that your sink stopper does not leak as it will lead to water waste. These few steps can save up to a gallon of water a minute!

2.   Change your shower experience-showers waste gallons of water unnecessarily. You can avoid the waste by simply taking shorter showers and turning the water off while lathering. If you want to do more, you can install a timer and replace your shower head with a Water-Sense or energy efficient one, which may save up to 3 gallons of water a minute! Take it even farther by keeping a bucket close by to catch the so-called gray water (water running while you’re waiting for it to warm up) to water the garden or lawn.

3.   Flush wisely-toilets consume 30% of all household water usage, which means that 44 000 gallons of good quality water is flushed away per house each year. A single flush in a conventional toilet uses anywhere from 3.5 to 7 gallons of water and replacing the unit with a high-efficiency or Water-Sense labeled one (which use on average only 1.3 gallons or less) is your best bet. However, if you cannot afford a brand new toilet, install an inexpensive toilet dam (available in most hardware stores) or put a filled water or soda bottle in a cistern to reduce the amount of water used in each flush. And last but not least, check for silent leaks, which can waste up to 200 gallons a day, by adding a few drops of food coloring to the tank. If the colored water finds its way into the toilet bowl after 15 minutes, it’s time to call the plumber.

4.   Change to a better toilet paper-most people are accustomed to using the two-ply paper, which has become more of a luxury than people realize. According to the data provided by the National Geographic “every ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 4,000 kilowatts of electricity, 3 cubic yards of landfill and 7,000 gallons of water” but the nice, soft toilet paper is made from either plantation-grown or native forest trees and only 2% of the available toilet paper is made from recycled paper. Switch to the greener variety that is recycled (if possible 100% recycled), chlorine-free and unbleached.

5.   Fan it-using the bathroom fan is important to avoid mold and other harmful pollutants but fans are still responsible for adding to the negative carbon footprint. Make sure that your fan is not connected to the light switch, which will ensure it will be turned on only for the exhaust purposes and not ever time you turn the light on. Moreover, install energy-saving and thermostatically controlled fan, which turns on when the temperature in the bathroom rises. And don’t forget to clean the filter once a month to make sure the fan runs efficiently.

Since the plastic production is becoming an issue for the future of our planet, many people turned to recycling. However, there is still too much plastic that either cannot be recycled or carelessly ends up in a regular household trash and eventually in landfills. There, as many already know, it takes up to a thousand years to degrade. And if you think about millions of tons of plastic produced every year around the world, the amounts are staggering.

Thus, many European supermarkets turned to bioplastic packaging to replace the conventional petroleum-based plastics. Bioplastic is derived from plant starch such as corn or peas or vegetable oils. Moreover, they degrade fairly quickly in both landfills or your own compost. A perfect solution to all our problems, it seems. However, bioplastics come with a variety of issues.

First of all, it’s not too environmentally sound to create bioplastic on a large scale since it’s derived from plants. Crops must be grown to provide material for the production of bioplastics thus contributing to deforestation and food shortages. Secondly, the bioplastic packaging is virtually identical to regular plastic packaging and therefore creates a fair amount of confusion for the customers who end up not knowing whether it’s safe to recycle or to throw away. Moreover, if bioplastic product is put in the plastic recycle container it contaminates the contents, making the plastic, which would otherwise be perfectly recyclable, non-recyclable. And thirdly, the production of bioplastic increases the amount of fossil fuels burnt, which simply defeats the purpose.

Therefore, it’s a simple conclusion that companies would be better off investing in educating the public about recycling the existing plastic instead of wasting precious resources on creating even more disposable plastic, even a kind that would biodegrade fairly quickly.

This is an interesting video discussion an easy way to transform your roof into a green living roof, which not only can save you money on electric bills but also help the planet breathe easier and provide an oasis for wild life.

photo credit: shlomp-a-plompa

While it’s true that recycling plastic is an enormous weight off the planet’s shoulders, there is still plenty of other types of plastic that simply cannot be recycled and too often end up in landfills adding to the pollution. Recently a new technology that can convert plastic back to synthetic oil has become available and it brings a fair amount of hope for the future.

A company named Solid Waste Transfer Station in Derwood, Maryland can now transfer plastic back into synthetic oil for less than $30.00 per ton (compared to other similar methods costing nearly $200.00 per ton). Similarly to crude oil, synthetic one can be used for both commercial fuels and production of various types of plastic.

The process entails converting all that plastic waste into oil in a generator by thermal cracking it in low temperature, which allows to remove the hydrocarbons (that any petroleum-based plastic contains) without using some kind of a catalyst. What is really promising is the fact that over 60% of plastic that goes into the generator is converted back into the synthetic oil.

The only hope that remains is the fact that mainstream manufactures will appreciate the possibilities this new technology offers and sooner rather than later, companies will begin using the this synthetic oil for both fuel (all these vehicles on the roads) and plastic production. Surely, it is a far better way than burning or throwing non-recyclable plastic away…