Green4u’s Weblog

This is the season for garage sales (aka tag sales, also house sales and estate sales are a little different but still great places to find good items). Before people throw out good stuff they usually try to sell it. Fantastic items can be found some in great condition and others in need of some TLC.

Where to find them:

• Go to Craigslist http://www.craigslist.com
• Check the newspaper both the really local paper that comes out once a week and the daily paper (usually on Thursday, Friday and Saturday they have the listing of the upcoming sales)
• Signs on street corners
• Local websites and municipality websites (my town posts on their website all the registered garage sales for the up coming weekend)

What to bring:

• Cash
• Empty car
• Bungee cords (in case you cannot close your trunk)
• Friend (these are always more fun when you have someone with you)

Tips:

• Get up early, do not go to the sales before they start but do not think that the children’s toys will still be at a sale at 3:00 when it starts at 10:00.
• Do not haggle to much. There is a cost involved to having these sales and the people having them have to get up early and prepare…etc.

Tips if you are having a garage sale:

• Get a permit from the town. You do not want to get shut down by the police.
• Try and get as many of your neighbors to participate. It draws a larger crowd and reduces the total cost of advertising if you get everyone to chip in.
• Be realistic with your pricing, how much will people pay for it now… the hottest handbag 6 years ago that you spent $500 is not woth $250 now!
• Put everything out that you think you can live without. You never know what someone is looking for.
• Ask family members if they want to sell anything. They may not have enough stuff to have their own sale and will just bring their stuff to you.
• Get cash for change.
• Advertise as many places as you can that is cost effective.
• Call the Veteran’s or another non-profit to come and pick up what you do not sell.

Remember this is another form of recycling and it helps keep your junk out of a landfill.

Here are some “recipes” for homemade cleaning products using things you can easily get at the grocery store. Even the “green” products that are out there are not as green as they need to be here are some inexpensive, effective, and environmentally friendly cleaners.

Shopping List

• several lemons (for soap scum, shine brass and cooper, hard water stains)
• baking soda (use like ajax, natural odor absorber)
• white vinegar (for soap scum dirt, hard water, and fabric softener)
• rubbing alcohol (good for cleaning glass)
• Tea Tree Oil (may need to get this at a health food store, natural antiseptic good to get rid of mold and mildew)
• Spray bottles (at least 2)

Recipe for Regular Cleaner for countertops, sinks, bath tubs…etc.

• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup water
• Together in a spray bottle

Recipe for Paste to put on dirt bath tubs or other grimmy surfaces:

• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup water

Recipe for Window Cleaner:

• 1 cup alcohol
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon of vinegar
• put into a spray bottle (for really good cleaning of windows dry or wipe with newspaper)

Recipe for Furniture Polish:

• 1/2 cup of lemon juice
• 1 cup olive oil

Recipe for Bathroom Cleaner:

• 2 cups of water
• 2 teaspoons of tea tree oil
• put in a spray bottle

Other Uses for your Ingredients:

• For tough toilet stains use straight vinegar and clean with a brush.
• For fabric softener (especially if you have allergies) place 1/2 cup of vinegar in your rinse cycle.
• To substitute for Ajax or Soft Scrub just put baking soda on a damp sponge and scrub.
• Shine Brass and copper with lemon juice.
• Deodorize your carpet by sprinkling baking soda down and vacuuming.
• Put lemon rinds in your garbage disposal to make it smell nice (if you do not have one cut up the rinds and put your compost heap)
• Clean shower heads that have been clogged with mineral deposits with undiluted white vinegar. Place 1/4 to 1/2 cup vinegar in a plastic food storage bag, and secure the bag to the shower head with a rubber band. Let stand for 2 hours to overnight, then rinse and buff the fixture to a shiny finish.
• Slow drains add 1/2 to 3/4 cup baking soda into the drain, and dribbling just enough hot water to wash the solution down. Let stand for 2 hours to overnight, then flush thoroughly with hot water. The deodorizing effect is an added bonus! [Do not use this method on blocked drains.]

ALWAYS test these on a small inconspicuous spot in the area you are cleaning. There could be a build up of chemicals that you used to use that might interact so better to be safe than sorry.

NEVER drink or eat any of these mixtures. Tea Tree Oil and Alcohol should not be ingested. If you clean any children’s toys with these cleaners make sure the toys are dry before giving back to the children.

Print this out and put it on your fridge or on the inside of your medicine cabinet in your bathroom so you always know the proportions. Send it to your friends too… even if you find these are not strong enough for real dirty job they can work for the weekly touch ups and save you a ton of money.

What do they do: You have all probably heard about TerraPass or some other organization like that where you can offset your carbon emission from the purchase of a plane ticket. Eco-Libris does the same thing but for your purchase of books. Even if you did take my advice from a previous post about going to the library for your reading needs you may be in school or you may want to purchase a book for reference (I recently purchased a book on gardening that I have referred to three times in the last week). Eco-Libris plants trees to replace the trees used for the books you purchased.

Their Mission: “We strive for a world where reading books doesn’t have adverse effects on the environment, and therefore our mission is to make reading much more sustainable than it is today. We are committed to doing our best for this to happen as quickly as possible. This is why we decided to aim high and to set a challenging goal for ourselves: we want to balance out half a million books by the end of 2008.”

How they do it (fascinating facts, this is unedited from their website):

You decide how many books you want to balance out with Eco-Libris
About 20 Million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the U.S. alone. That’s definitely a problem - trees are one of the most valuable natural resources we have. They literally form the foundations of many natural systems and provide us with numerous benefits (carbon dioxide absorption, soil and water conservation, avalanche control, desertification prevention to name a few).

Eco-Libris is providing you now with a simple and affordable way to do something about it. All you have to do is to choose how many books you want to balance out with Eco-Libris, pay for it online, and a tree will be planted for each of these books.

Eco-Libris works with its planting partners to plant your trees in developing countries
Our planting partners are organizations that work in developing countries. Their planting and conservation activities are an integral part of their efforts to help local communities in these countries move towards a sustainable future. We make sure that your trees will be planted where they provide significant value for both the environment and the local communities, who are very much involved and play an important part in the planting projects.

You receive an Eco-Libris sticker for every book you balance out
The Eco-Libris sticker, which is made from recycled paper, is designed for you to put on the cover of the books you balance out, to show your commitment to sustainability and responsible use of natural resources. We hope you show off these books and inspire your family, friends and colleagues to take responsibility for their books as well.

Planting trees is the first step towards sustainable reading. We encourage you to explore a few more.
We would like to see more (and eventually all) books printed in an environmental friendly manner on recycled paper. If virgin paper is being used, then it should only be from certified forests. You can help make this happen by writing publishers and encouraging them to do the right thing. Also, you can help by spreading the word – tell your family and friends about Eco-Libris and about the way books should be produced.

Their Website: http://www.ecolibris.net

I thought this was a good company to talk about because we have talked about trees so much in the last few posts.

(edited: per comment… they are a green company, they are not a non-profit)

In response to AngryAfrican’s question when should you plant a tree? I have found various answers so I will share them will you. There is more than one right time to plant a tree and the actual month will vary depending on where you live but here is what I found.

Plant all trees and shrubs —
The soil is still warm, which encourages root growth, but the
cooler daytime and nighttime temperatures do not “shock” the plants into stress.

TREE-PLANTING TIP
When planting a tree or shrub, dig a wide hole that is at least three times the circumference of the container or root ball, but make sure that the hole is not deeper than the container or root ball. This will ensure that the tree or shrub is not sitting in a hole collecting water at the roots. Till or break up the soil as much as possible, place the plant in the hole, and replace the existing dirt. Research shows that adding amendments to the native soil does not help the plants to grow—
it actually can inhibit the plant’s roots from reaching out to the surrounding soil.

Source: Mary Kay Woodworth

When to Plant Trees

Climate plays a deciding role when determining the appropriate planting time.  Newly planted trees do best when exposed to moderate temperature and rainfall and they need time to root and acclimatize before the onset of intense heat and dryness of summer or the freezing temperatures of winter. Spring and early fall, therefore, are generally the best planting seasons (depending on your location) with spring preferred over fall in the more northerly latitudes.  In the southern United States, however, which do not experience an intense winter, planting can take place during the winter months.

Source: http://www.tree-planting.com/tree-planting-3.htm

I hope this is helpful… sorry for the delay in response… I had a busy weekend, but some of it was collecting information for the blog!!

Arbor Day was founded by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska in 1872, National Arbor Day is celebrated each year on the last Friday in April. Morton started Arbor Day because there were not alot of trees in Nebraska and he went to the State Board of Agriculture and proposed the tree planting holiday with prizes offered to the counties and individuals that planted the most trees that day. Estimates say one million trees were planted on the first Arbor Day.

The popularity of the day has grow beyond the United States and many countries celebrate it though not all on this day. Even some states offically celebrate Arbor Day on different days based on when it is best to plant trees in that climate.

The Arbor Day Foundations website (http://www.arborday.org) has lots of great ideas of ways to celebrate. They also have a great section on giving trees as gifts. People can give tree saplings out as wedding favors through their website with personalized labels on them.

Think about a place that you can plant a tree in your yard or give someone you a know a tree to plant if they have the room.

Here are some tips from the Arbor Day Foundation on how to plant the right tree in the right place:

1. Height. Will the tree bump into anything when it is fully grown? [sizing guide]
2. Canopy spread. How wide will the tree grow?
3. Is the tree deciduous or coniferous? (Will it lose its leaves in the winter?)
4. Form or shape. A columnar tree will grow in less space. Round and V-Shaped species provide the most shade. [shape guide]
5. Growth rate. How long will it take for your tree to reach its full height? Slow growing species typically live longer than fast growing species.
6. Soil, sun, and moisture requirements.
7. Fruit. No one wants messy droppings on busy sidewalks.
8. Hardiness zone indicates the temperature extremes in which a tree can be expected to grow. For the purposes of this quiz hardiness zone considerations have been disregarded. Check with your community’s tree board or forestry department or a local county cooperative extension agent for a list of trees suitable for planting in your specific hardiness zone. (Arborday.org hardiness zones lookup.)

I think Arbor Day is a great example of how eventhough Earth Day and Environmentalism is perceived a new idea used to address global warming the reality is people have been concerned about the environment alot longer than that.

Here are some important facts about solar power:

• 100 square miles of solar panels harvesting just 10% of the sun’s energy could produce enough energy for the entire United States.
• Currently, .05% of US power comes from solar power (yes, you read that percentage right)

Here is a very basic description of how solar power works (without the physics lesson):

Solar cells are made of semiconductors, which are usually made from silicon, because they hold on to their power until it reaches the desired level also called “band gap energy.” Once it reaches the correct level it kicks the energy out through the appropriate channels to meet up with its opposite energy to create an electrical current.

Solar power cost vary by region meaning it could cost $21,000 to put a system in home in Nova Scotia or Phoenix, AZ but in Phoenix more energy (or kilowatt hours) will be created because of the suns intensity therefore reducing the overall cost of the system. Since the sun obviously does not shine all day nor is as strong in every part of the country the use and true cost of solar power is variable.

Current limitations of Solar Energy:

• Storage of the energy harnessed by the sun needs to be tackled by the industry. Currently, it falls more in a use it or lose it scenario. There are devices that can store the energy but they are not cost effective at this time.
• There is a growing shortage of crystaline silicon which is used to make current solar panels because they have to use large quanities of it to make the panels thick enough to keep the energy. Industry leaders say that there needs to be a thinner panels developed so that they get better results using less resources.

I will post in a few days some of the companies that are leading the way in solar power and what they do.   

There has been a lot of buzz this week about the cover of Time Magazine. I will start off by saying that I have not read the article, this post is purely about the cover.

First, global warming, environmentalism, “green” anything is not a war… it is never going to end (many could argue that some wars never end but that is for a different kind of blog). We cannot recycle for a few years and then “withdraw” or “win” and go back to our old ways.

What is going on right now is a lifestyle change for the good. People die in wars and other horrible things happen but for the most part, good things will come out of this change for a better a planet. People are not going to start dying from organic food, walking more, or many of the other environmental changes that are available or will be available.  The cotton gin, printing press, computers have all brought about lifestyle (and business) changes and it was hardly a war that brought them into our lives.

It is just as bad to call this a fad as it is to call it war. We need to realize that doing the right thing does not need have a label. Some people do not want to jump on the bandwagon…etc. We do not need to make people feel like having a compost pile in their backyard or driving a Prius is some sort of label. Many people can do many different things to help the environment and as this issue continues to percolate in this country we need to work hard to make this not about a definition/label or war, but the right thing to do.

I felt this topic was important to bring up on this blog because the things I suggest and talk about here are changes we are choosing to make in our lives and there may never be a time that we will be able to go back to the way things were. I do not think that this is hardship most of the time, it is a way to live on Earth understanding that there are not infinite resources.

How do you feel about the cover?

Alot of you might already do this but I think it is worth mentioning… Pay your bills on-line. You save paper by not needing to write a check or use an envelope, you reduce emissions by not having to mail the letter so it does not need to travel anywhere, and it saves you money (no stamps!!).

You can take this a step farther by getting your statements online. Every credit card company is offering a token $5 or so for you to get your statements emailed to you rather than mailed. For the bills that you do not really need to keep for any reason I suggest signing up for that. I do recommend that you still get your credit card bills mailed to you if you need them for your taxes or expense reimbursements for work, you should save these for a few year (then shred and recycle).

Alot of banks will let you get your statements on-line for free. ING Direct makes you specifically sign up for paper statements, the default is paperless (which is one of the many things that helps them give you a good interest rate).

Go on your banks web-site and sign up for on-line bill payment today… I promise it will make your life easier in addition to helping the environment.

The first Earth Day was celebrated by 20 million Americans marching in their local areas about the importance of protecting our environment. Here we are over 30 years later with the problem getting worse. Here are some Earth Day specific things you can do to show you care.

If you want to help the environment by being a consumer you can:

• Buy your coffee at Starbucks with your gift card and they will donate $.05 to Conservation International. For every $1 raised a tree can be planted in Chilapas, Mexico.

Did you know that more than 20% of all carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning and clearing of forests? That’s more than from all of the world’s cars, trucks, SUVs, and trains combined. Starbucks’ investment in and support for local coffee growers and the communities that help keep forests intact ensures that every cup of coffee they brew produces tangible benefits for both local and global communities.

• Macy’s has several events: Ford Escape Hybrid sweepstakes, sapling giveaway at stores today, free natural cotton totes for the first 150 customers (available for purchase for $3.95 with $1 going to the National Parks Foundation), shopping event on April 26-27 (buy a 20%-10% off coupon for $5) to benefit the National Parks Foundation, kids get a free activity book called Kid Power, and they have an entire section of their website of eco-friendly products.

Macy’s is also in the process of installing solar panels on the roof tops of 24 their stores in California making them one of the leaders in the retail industry to address the global warming and energy issues.

• Spend $50 at Vitamin Shoppe and get a free re-usable tote bag.
• Home Depot has 10% off Energy Star rated appliances ($299 or more) or buy an n:vision 4 pack of compact florescent bulbs and be entered to win 4 times a $5,000 Home Depot gift card.
• Banana Republic will donate 1% of their sales from April 22-27th (up to $100,000) to conserving green city spaces.
• The Body Shop is not offering anything special on Earth Day but they have been at the forefront of environmental business practices for decades.

If you just want to make a commitment today to do something you cannot normally do on a regular basis to help the environment you can do the following:

• Do not drive at all today. Use public transportation or walk.
• Do not use any electricity today at home (we all probably have to go to work). Leave your fridge plugged in but no computer, TV, or lights.
• Take the shortest shower you possibly can, and continue to try to conserve water as much as you can all day.

If alot of these things are to hard to do at least pack your lunch in a canvas bag and run less errands than normal today. Be sure to talk to your kids about the importance of the symbolism of the day.

Here is a great blog that I read that reminds us why Earth Day is important http://mirrorcracked.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/play-your-part/

Living “green,” being “green,” and pretty much anything else you could remotely associate with the environment was promoted this weekend. I had already planned to do some more “green” things but the world out there was pushing everyone else to do more.

1. I started off by planting some of my garden. I planted my flowers in a new flower bed we made at the front of our house. I also worked on separating a my seedlings for my vegetable garden. We are hoping to grow the following items in a huge garden we created in the back of our yard: 5 different kinds of lettuce (I did not know which would grow the best, they are all doing well, lots of salad!), eggplant, edanamme, onions, tomato’s, lots of different kinds of peppers, spaghetti squash, raspberries, and lots of herbs (parsley, mint, oregano, basil, and rosemary).
2. I went and got some very nice inexpensive planters at Ikea so I could share some of the good seedlings I started with friends.
3. I got a set of cleaning cloths. These are cloths that are specially designed to be used either dry or with cleaner to clean common items. You can throw them in the washer and dryer and keep re-using. I got those for $3 at set of 4 (windows, furniture polishing, dusting, and bathroom cleaning).
4. Got two empty spray bottles so I can make my own cleaner with vinegar. I will share the recipe for that once I find it again online.
5. I purchased two organic cotton t-shirts at Target. They are extremely soft, I think we all forget that most of our clothes are not 100% cotton and how wonderful it can be wear cotton clothing.
6. When I walked into Ikea I got a free bush to plant for Earth Day (bonus).

FYI Ikea only sells bags now, the plastic bags are 5 cents and the big blue tarp like bags are 60 cents.

So on top of all of this green stuff I was still bombarded with emails from every online vendor pushing their green things of the week… Vitamin Shoppe offered me a free reusable bag if I spent $50 there on Earth Day, Bed Bath and Beyond listed their green items in an email including recycling bins and the book Organic Living… I could go on but I won’t. I then turned on the TV, FOX had changed their logo to a green color and changed the O to a planet earth, they had some commercials that used clips from the Simpson’s talking about the environment, Dateline NBC tried to a do a green episode which I tried to watch and just could not, then I switched to the Weather Channel which was running one of their many green shows (they were not selling out just for this week) which was fascinating but then my husband wanted to watch the Mets game. While I commend all the efforts of the companies and channels listed above they were pretty token efforts I hope that they continue to recognize the need to continue.