Green4u’s Weblog

Get what you need to start collecting the items you can recycle in your town.

Here are some of the items you might need:

• Paper lawn bags for your lawn waste
• Twine to tie up your magazines and newspapers
• Different containers for both indoors and out.

Be realistic when you are shopping for your items. If you tend to read your magazines in bed put a roll of twine in your nightstand so that when the pile gets big enough you will wrap it up.

Measure your spaces. If you are going to get containers for the kitchen, mudroom…etc. make sure you know what size will fit behind the door or in a cabinet. All the containers will start to look the same when you go to the store.

Organize and think about where everything should go and what is most convenient. If it is not easy you will not do it so make purchases that will help you reduce your likely-hood of not doing this.

Be willing to make the investment… do not go crazy and go buy super expensive items but be sensible about what you are doing and how important it is. Get what you need to make this something your whole family can do.

Things to do in order to use little to no energy during Earth Hour.

• Unplug all your appliances (except your refrigerator)
• Unplug all surge protectors
• Shut off and unplug all computers
• Make sure all device chargers are unplugged
• Unplug the TV and of it’s equipment
• Make sure your outdoor lighting is shutoff
• Unplug your washer and dryer

Once you have gone around unplugging things enjoy the hour to do whatever it is you planned and think about all the energy that you have saved…. when the hour is over do not rush to plug everything back in even if you do not need it, wait till you do your next load of laundry to plug in the washer…etc. that will make Earth Hour last that much longer.

Let face it this is another no brainer, we all know it is better to bring our own bag to the grocery store or any other store and help the planet.  If you have even started to try to do this your have probably gone to the grocery store and left the bags at home or in your car.

Here are some tips on how to remember (or make it easier) to follow this environmentally friendly tip:

• Get one that is small enough to fit into your purse (sorry guys).
• Leave some in all of your cars (I tried leaving them in just my car but sometimes my husband’s car is at the end of the driveway so I just take that car)
• Leave some in the mudroom, by the front door or wherever you go before you leave the house to go on these errands.
• Make it the kids job to remember… if you bring your kids shopping with you they might like to have some responsibility and you can leave it to them to remember.

To take it a step further use the bags not just at the supermarket/grocery store use them at the drug store, department store, farmers market…etc. You get bags alot of places.

Economic impact: It will help lower cost for stores that could eventually be passed on the customer.

Environmental impact: Decrease in the use of energy resources needed to make the bags. It also reduces emissions because trucks will not be delivering bags to the stores and it will reduce landfill space since we will not be throwing out our bags.

Personal Financial Impact: Other than getting a few bags at the store if you do not already have some canvas bags there is very little impact. Good canvas bags are washable and should last for years so in the long term it should basically have no cost (especially if your grocery store gives you a credit for every-time you use them).

The very first thing you have to do in order to recycle is find out what your local rules and regulations are. Every municipality has different rules regarding how and when they will collect various recyclables.

Go to your towns website or call them and ask them about their regulations. Here is what you want to ask about:

• What days are the pick ups? For example: Plastic may be every other Monday but newspapers are ever week on Tuesday.
• How do the items need to be separated? For example: Can plastic and glass be in the same container? I lived in a town where you had separate your glass by color (one can for clear, green…etc.)
• How does it need to be packaged? For example: Does newspaper have to be tied with string or can it be in a grocery bag? Can leaves be in plastic bags or do they need to be in paper bags, maybe they should not even be in bags at all just in a pile on the street?

Put a calendar of all these days up in your kitchen or by the back/side door. Wherever you are going to see it and it reminds you of what you need to do.

Once you know the rules and when you can recycle you will be ready for Step Two… see a future post in a few days.

Finding a Farmers Market is much harder than you would think. I personally know of at least two in a 5 mile radius from my home but you cannot find out about them through any one central source. I found out about both of them through word of mouth. One is a long established farmers market in an area that can easily support it but it only runs a few months of the year and I am currently desperately trying to find out when it starts again. The other one is extremely small, has the worst parking ever and on a weekday. As the interest in farmers markets grow I expect that it will move to a better location with more vendors. But to be perfectly honest finding about either of them is next to impossible.

Here is my advice on how to find them:

• Call you local townships offices, all of these markets need to have permits in the towns they are in so you are most likely to find out about them through this source. They may not know the dates and time though so you need to get the name of the group that obtained the permit and contact them (also note some towns run them so you might be calling the organizer).
• Once you know the organization running the market email or call them to find out when it starts… I did that 2 days ago and am waiting for a response.
• Google or use another search engine to search “farmers markets” and your town or state. You may get linked to the website of the group organizing a farmers market, a farm selling at particular farmers markets, or non-profit groups that have booths at markets.
• Read your local paper or search for a blog about your area that might mention the farmers market.
• Ask your neighbors, maybe they know of one… sometimes there are really close to your home but in a more remote area that you do not drive by to know about. 

This is the best site I have found so far on how to find one on the internet. One of the farmers markets in my area is listed but they have not updated their information since 2003. http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/

Most importantly once you find one tell people about it and if you had a hard time finding it let the organizers know because they want people to come too.

If you find any good resources on finding a farmers market I encourage you to post it here for people to see.

Energy Star was created in 1992 as a joint venture of the EPA and Department of Energy in a effort to give Americans information on energy efficient computers it have obviously grown to encompass many consumer products and even new homes can get an Energy Star ratings but what is.

It started out as a voluntary labeling program for computer equipment, so basically if a company created a product that met the standards set by Energy Star they could put their logo on their products as a kind of seal of approval.  Since then they have done extensive research and shared it with companies and consumers on how average everyday products can become more energy efficient. As Energy Star develops more research more products can have an Energy Star rating.

What does a product need to be in order to get an Energy Star rating?

Energy Star products are the same or better than standard products, only they use less energy. To earn the Energy Star rating, they must meet strict energy efficiency criteria. Since they use less energy, these products save you money on your electricity bill and help protect the environment by causing fewer harmful emissions from power plants. And you get the features and quality you expect.

Some examples:

• Qualified refrigerators are at least 15% more efficient than the minimum federal efficiency standard.
• Qualified TVs consume 3 watts or less when switched off, compared to a standard TV, which consumes almost 6 watts on average.
• Office equipment that qualifies automatically enters a low-power “sleep” mode after a period of inactivity.
• Qualified light bulbs (CFLs) use two-thirds less energy than a standard incandescent bulb and must meet additional operating and reliability guidelines.
• Qualified furnaces offer a rating of 90% AFUE or greater, which is about 15% more efficient than the minimum federal efficiency standard.

Now just because something has an Energy Star rating it does not mean it is exactly the same as other thing in the same category. For example, I bought a refrigerator a year ago and I bought one with an Energy Star rating but I still had to look at the yellow tag on the refrigerators at the store to see which one would cost less per year to operate. When searching for a new appliance it is not just good enough it has an Energy Star sticker you need to see which one of the many Energy Star rated appliances cost the least to operate each year. The cheaper to operate per year usually means it is more expensive to purchase so weigh the options of the increase in price over the energy cost per year for the life of the appliance.

Economic impact: Energy Star changed the way businesses approach the market place by seeing the importance of meeting their guidelines to be able to use their logo to attract customers.

Environmental impact:Decrease in the use of energy on average appliances, household items, and commerical items therefore decreasing the use of oil, nuclear energy, and other energy sources which helps in reduce the effects of global warming.

Personal Financial Impact: Items may be more expensive but it is generally easy to see what the savings will be on your energy bill.

 For more information about Energy Star and products with that rating go to: http://www.energystar.gov

There are ton of fun things that you can do for the hour the lights are out. Here are just a few:

Have your friends over for a barbecue. Cooler full of drinks and a grill to cook the food, who needs electricity.

For those of us in the north light a fire in the fireplace, make smores and just enjoy the company of the ones you are with.

Have friends over and play board games by candlelight (or flashlight).

Camp out in the backyard.

If there is a planetarium near your home contact them. Many around the country are doing special star gazing events or go to for more information: http://stardate.org/nightsky/ or http://skymaps.com/downloads.html

Try and organize a neighborhood wide block party or barbecue and get everyone to shut off their lights. It would be a good way to get to know your neighbors right!

You could use the time to change all the light-bulbs if you have not done so already or make other energy efficient changes in your home.  

If you have kids let them have a sleep over and do fun things with the kids by candle light to help them learn more about the environment. The EPA has a great website for kid activities http://www.epa.gov/kids/index.htm

Please post your good ideas of things to do during Earth Hour.

On March 29th from 8 to 9 pm is Earth Hour… the hour that everyone in the world is being asked to shut off their lights, unplug everything in their house and use no energy.

Last year 2.2 Million people (and 2,100 businesses) in Sydney, Australia turned out their lights. Even landmarks like the Opera House shut off their lights. 

The concept has come the US and the rest of the world and that is the creation of Earth Hour. At the time of the writing of this post over 43,400 people in the US have signed up to shut off their lights and use no power for that hour.

From the Earth Hour website (www.earthhour.org ) what you can do everyday at home:

I encourge you all to sign up and get your friends and family to do it as well. Sign up at http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up

Tomorrows post will talk about fun things you can do during that hour.

Just about a year ago dogs were mysteriously getting sick. Many of the dogs died and I believe even more died than we think because it was an expensive test that was needed to diagnose illness from the chemicals in pet food.

My dog which is a large breed dog got sick and eventually refused the commerical dog food I was feeding him. I was feeding him a food that had the word “natural” in the title and was sold nationally at all pet stores. I decided to switch him to an organic dog food because I did not want him to be sick or die needlessly because of his food. I can get his food at any of my local pet stores.

In my research I found that the following chemicals are not recommended by some vets and other professionals to be in dog food:

• Sodium Pentobarbital
• BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
• BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene)
• Ethoxyquin and Propylene Glycol
• Lead
• By-products

Since I changed my dog to organic dog food this has been the economic impact on me:

• Cost of old food: $24 (20lb bag)
• Cost of new food: $32 (20lb bag)
• Total increase for year: $112
• Cost of one vet visit when he was sick: $221

Many online retailers will sell you fantastic organic dog food by mail. I do not recommend this because organic food has less of shelf life and the environmental impact of you having the food delivered would be pretty terrible. You will also pay a ton to ship a 40lb bag of food to your house.

Support your local pet store and get your food from them… if they do not carry what you want I am willing to bet they will order it for you.

Remember always talk to your vet about changing food and change it slowly by mixing small amounts of the new food with the old food with every meal until the transition is complete.

Apple is a company that has both positively affected musicians and negatively affected the music industry. All of that aside for moment think about the last time you bought a CD? Even if you did buy one recently I have to think you are buying less of them now.

Why Apple products are Green: 

The Ipods, Iphones, and Itouch’s are all rechargeable so there are no batteries to replace.

Apple communicates completely by email. You can go buy your Ianything at an Apple store and they could email you your receipt and you can continue on for years without getting a single piece of paper from them.

There was an article posted today on AOL (http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/report-says-apple-talking-with-record/n20080319112109990002 ) that talks about the growing use of Itunes and the possible changes they are going to make to their business model by offering unlimited downloads for a flat monthly or annual fee.

Overall, they offer the consumer a greener way to enjoy music.

Economic impact: Changing the business landscape for the music industry by making CD’s not the primary way consumers get their music.

Environmental impact: no CD’s or jewel cases to be made or disposed of.

Personal Financial Impact: downloading songs are cheaper than cd’s were.

If you are interested in investing in Apple their ticker symbol is: AAPL

Please note nothing in this or any other posts should  substitute for your own research in investments and discussions with an investment professional. I am not a licensed financial professional and my posts should not be considered financial advice.