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Alternative Energy

The Editors presents Home solar panels with little money down posted at Explore Home Power. This submission talks about leasing solar panels.

Crafts

SJ Budget Fashion presents Trends on a budget: DIY studded pocket jeans posted at Budget Fashion Scene. SJ Budget Fashion says, "Have an old studded belt lying around from your punk rocker days? Repurpose it into a unique pair of studded pocket jeans!"

Rose presents Starbucks Coffee Cup Cozy ~ Easy Craft For The Beach posted at Fine Craft Guild .com. Rose says, "Save the environment, one coffee cup sleeve at the time. Say NO to the Starbucks variety and use this free pattern with loads of sample ideas to make your own cuff. And, a handmade coffee cup cozy makes a great gift. Hop over to pick a favorite design..."

RecycleCindy presents Recycled Plastic Bag Shell Purse posted at My Recycled Bags.com. RecycleCindy says, "Crochet this fashionable purse using recycled plastic bags. The pattern is free and what a great way to reuse and upcycle some old plastic bags!"

Make it from Scratch presents Gift Tins posted at Make It From Scratch. These gift tins are "made from a recycled bread crumb container."

Frugality

Tyler presents Improve Your Water Heater Efficiency And Save $125 A Year posted at Frugally Green. Tyler says, "Don't let your electricity bill get you down. If you spend the next weekend implementing a few really simple changes to your water heater, you could improve its performance by 25% or more. That's cash in your pocket, bank account, or investment portfolio, not to mention less carbon in the atmosphere."

Gardening & Food

NtJS presents "Fresh" the Movie Review posted at not the jet set. NtJS says, "Even if you are not an "environmentalist" type the film teaches you without lecturing you about where your food really comes from."

00FF00 presents Compost Wars posted at ooffoo. 00FF00 says, "A member of the ooffoo community presents a disturbing review of the ways in which we continue to be wasteful and wonders whether there will be an end to unnecessary disposable items."

Free Organic News presents Organic Food and E.Coli posted at Free Organic News. Free Organic News says, "There's an abounding parable, latterly fed by a media scare, that organic produce inspires the expansion of E.coli because organic farmers use composts and fertilizer. Organic promoters have come out in hot defence by contrast claim."

Rose Hillbrand presents Community Supported Agriculture: A Win-Win-Win Concept posted at Newholisticliving's Blog.

Home & Family

Laurel presents Great Gift: Bambu Kitchen/Home Products posted at Green Thinking Blog. Laurel says, "Great gift idea: a bamboo spork made from 100% organic-grown bamboo."

Lisa Robbins presents New Eco Friendly Art posted at City Living Girl. Lisa writes about Print Pattern Paper, a company we worked with in the past for a giveaway. Unique art!

Internet & Technology

J Jill presents How to Go Green on Twitter to Help Save the Earth posted at FaithAllen. J Jill says, "This is how to use twitter to help save the earth and find eco info instantly."

News & Media

Mikkal Travvis presents Fascism On The Farm: H.R. 2749 - The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 posted at The Truth.

On July 30th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2749 - The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. This bill, the centerpiece of big agriculture's war on organic farming in the United States, gives the U.S. government such unprecedented control over independent and organic farmers that some are calling this proposed law "fascism on the farm".

DWSUWF presents Obama Administration Okays Major Mountaintop Removal Coal Project posted at HDW - mobile. Upsetting news.

Our Impact

Travis presents Vegetarianism posted at Personal Web Guide. Travis says, "Living a vegetarian lifestyle is THE single biggest method for protecting the environment and partaking in an ethical diet. Not only is more fuel wasted on the meat industry than any other industry, but a vegetarian diet is also one of the healthiest things you can do for your body too."

Steven Handel presents Thoughts On Vegetarianism and Animal Rights posted at The Emotion Machine. A small group of videos of famous people talking about vegetarianism and animal rights.

Personal

Olive Farmer presents Olive Farmer: You'll never get out alive posted at Olive Farmer. Olive Farmer describes this submission as a "blog about our organic olive farming adventure."

Pets & Animals

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Katie presents Monday Mission: Analyzing Aluminum FOIL in August posted at Kitchen Stewardship. Katie describes her submission as, "Some simple ideas to reduce our consumption of aluminum foil, a NON-renewable resource."

paystolivegreen presents Make Your Car Washing More Environmentally Friendly posted at Pays to Live Green.

Thank you for reading!

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of All Things Eco using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

© Focus Organic for 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments

You may have heard in October of last year about Starbucks wasting more than 6 million gallons of water per day. The employees at each store were instructed to leave a dipper well tap on at all times as a means of sanitizing utensils. In response to the criticism it received, the company introduced an "interim operational procedure," which meant, rather than having water running all day, the tap would be turned off and utensils would be washed after each use. Seems obvious, yes? Maybe all that caffeine reduces our common sense capabilities? Anyone up for a new study?

In an effort to become more environmentally friendly without the result of bad publicity, Starbucks announced last week the opening of its first roasting plant, which has been awarded LEED® Silver certification for New Construction by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The plant is located in Calhoun County in South Carolina.

Twenty percent of the building materials were made from recycled content and more than 75 percent of construction waste was recycled. The facility features efficient lighting and water fixtures and a drought tolerant landscape, and wind energy will be used to power a portion of the its operations.

Starbucks says that many of the green elements implemented in the design of this project are also being integrated into other roasting plants and retail stores, and the company has committed to LEED certification for all new company-operated stores by the end of 2010.

Starbucks opened its first LEED certified store in Hillsboro, OR, in fall of 2005.

Photo: camouflagedoors via Creative Commons license

© Focus Organic for 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments

While I enjoy personalized gifts, sometimes a gift card is better... especially when the gift giver never gets the gift quite right. I've got some relatives who enjoy buying the same thing for each niece/nephew/grandchild/etc. in different colors. In these cases, I'd prefer a gift card!

Usually the cashier at the store throws these cards away for you when they run out of funds. In 2006, 17 billion plastic cards were produced, most of which probably wound up in the landfills. Not only do these take up space that they don't need to, but they often contain PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which is a carcinogen. So, what can we do with them to avoid this? Earthworks offers a solution.

Earthworks launched a Retailer Gift Card Return Program in January, which allows retailers and consumers to send their used plastic gift cards (and membership cards, library cards, etc.) to be recycled. They have teamed up with Starbucks and the Gap, which means your gift cards from these companies are recycled and recyclable.

From Plenty Magazine:

Does the recycling process create any waste?

It absolutely does not create any waste. It’s a really simple process that involves securely destroying the material by chopping it up and then melting the plastic down. There’s no chemical waste because we don’t use any chemicals in the process, which a lot of post-consumer products need in order to clean the material. The other great thing is that recycling a card and making it into a new one saves about 80 percent of the energy that would be used to make a brand new card. That’s because our product is made from 100 percent recycled materials with no raw materials and no petroleum.

Stay tuned tomorrow for an interview with Tom Szaky, CEO of Terracycle, and a review on some of their green cleaning products.

© Focus Organic for 2008. | Permalink | 33 comments