I found this used battery near the ocean in Pacifica, right across from our friend Rick’s Salada Beach Cafe. It has since been safely recycled, and kept from polluting our waterways.

Our oceans are already turning into acid. We have to start today to try to make things better. Keeping one more toxic battery or piece of plastic out of our oceans, collectively, will make a difference. Once you start looking, you may be really surprised just how many “disposable” batteries litter our streets and sewers. Next time you see one, pick it up; what you do matters.

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Like it or not, at least for the near future most of us are stuck with internal combustion engine powered cars. While a lot of hype is behind future cars and technology, from electric to hydrogen to everything in between, a lot of improvements can yet be made on the ICE engine.

To that end, the Department of Energy has awarded GM with $2.7 million to develop a working prototype of a Shape Memory Alloy engine. In theory, this engine could recycle the waste heat and turn it into electrical energy, perhaps one day even replacing alternators and improving fuel efficiency.

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Time: Wed, Oct 21, pm @ 2pm

Where: SF City Hall, Room 416

Rain barrels made from recycled food grade containers for water conservation.

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The new green-themed Reclaim made by Samsung is more than your standard phone with slick green branding — though there’s a bit of that too.

What’s green (or blue), smaller than a deck of cards and will remind you to unplug the charger from the wall after charging? The Reclaim, the new green-themed smart phone made by Samsung for Sprint, is loaded with a bunch of green content, a handful eco-conscious accessories and an attention to sustainable packaging that make it more “green” than most other phones out there.

But you can’t just slap a case made from forty percent corn plastic, dip it in green paint and call it green, can you? The folks at Sprint sent me the new Reclaim so I could answer those questions myself.

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When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it was deaccessioning part of its textile collection, artist Robert Fontenot was on the scene. He hit up three separate auctions and acquired 50 pieces, almost half of the items the museum was getting rid of. The resulting work is sometimes arty, sometimes functional, and all beautiful! He embroiders the accession number into each finished piece.

The project is still a work in progress, and I just love this quote from his artist’s statement: “Although each item has not yet been used, each item can have a use.” Yes! I think that can apply to materials in a much larger sense, and his work is a fantastic reminder that old pieces can take on a whole new life with just a little bit of love.

Want to get your upcycle on? Thrift stores and even the back of your closet are full of textiles that can take on a whole new life! Here are a few ideas to get you going:

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Some of these projects involve taking the tins apart, while others use the entire thing to create something fun and new. There are project ideas for a bunch of different skill levels, so don’t fret if you’ve never done any metal crafting before!

Ready to get reusing? Me, too!

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Scrap, which their pamphlet calls “a creative reuse center and workshop space” came about in 1976, way before recycling and Green became trendy, as a resource for artists and teachers. Scrap also set out to promote environmental awareness and creative reuse.

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What I like about this book:  It’s produced sustainably.  This fun story carries the message of reuse, which is the ultimate in recycling.  In the story, a box becomes a princess castle and an old blue towel becomes a superhero cape.  This delightful story entertains youngsters while giving them ideas for playtime and teaching a valuable lesson.

Our house is over-run with books because I fully believe in the value of reading.  I also believe that owning books (and reading them together) is vital to a child’s development.  (Disclaimer- Yes we do borrow a lot of books.  We also frequently purchase secondhand books).  If you are looking for a way to shed a few books (to make room for more, of course) or you want to start a service project with your children, check out EnviroMom’s suggestion for reusing old books.

If you own a few books which are beyond repair, here are some tips for reusing much of the book (remember to recycle whatever cannot be reused).

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Most people committed to going green have switched from using bottled water to reusable water bottles, but that’s not the only disposable product you can eliminate from your life. Earlier this month, Jennifer Chait posted a long list of ways to replace your disposables. Some of my favorites:

• Instead of store plastic produce bags use cloth produce bags.
• Instead of ice pops from the store choose reusable ice pop molds and make homemade ice pops.
• Instead of new bottles of shampoo, get a refillable bottle and buy shampoo in bulk at the co-op.
• Instead of paper coffee filters use a reusable coffee filter.
• Instead of disposable razors choose an electric razor.

Jennifer lists a number of other good disposable-replacement ideas at Blisstree. Check it out today and list your own tip as a comment below!

Picture via Klearchos Kapoutsis.

The green parts

Built from 80 percent recyclable material with 40 percent of the phone casing made from corn-based bio-plastic. The Reclaim is 80 percent recyle-able material, not recycle-ed material. That is fairly normal. The bulk of material in most other cell phones can also be recycled and that’s why there is a market for used cell phones.

To Sprint’s credit, included in the box is a postage-paid cell phone recycling bag for you to drop your old phone in the mail to be scrapped for e-waste (which I filled three old phones sitting in a drawer I’ve been meaning to recycle).

Sprint has committed to recycle ninety percent of the phones they make by 2017. With current recycling rates at roughly one-third, Sprint admits they have a long way to go but are also quick to point out that they have collected roughly 18 million phones thus far and have increased recycling rates substantially over 2007.

I like the idea of the green content portals. Easily-accessed content from Planet Green including Best of Green, Five Simple Things, All Things Green and a Green Glossary from Planet Green. These shortcut keys access fast-loading pages of green content and info. Don’t expect links, images, flash, etc. These are fast-loading pages that provide quick access to basic green info, and for that purpose they are excellent.

I was also too-easily amused by the chirps, ribbits and other preloaded eco-sonic ringtones that keep with the Reclaim’s green theme.

Fortunately, the instruction manuals were not big, glossy tomes reprinted in seven languages. Only the “essentials” in manual literature were included in the package, but considering that several pages were filled with full-color images of people enjoying their new phone way too much, even that seemed a bit too much.

The paper that was included in the package was printed with soy inks on a paper stock that clearly had some percentage of recycled content in it, but nowhere on the package was that clearly labeled or otherwise discerned. Other than the plastic FedEx package the phone arrived in, the package itself has very little plastic, only two small bags.

Festooned with a litany of certification labels and brands, Sprint has clearly made some attempts to get the Reclaim some green cred — and most of it is deserved. Overall, I think Sprint has done more than pull of a green marketing coups. They have taken real steps towards cleaning up an industry that contributes an incredible amount of material into the global e-waste stream.

That is not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. Cutting back even more on printed materials and packaging waste and giving more attention to labeling and transparency would make the Reclaim even greener.

If this phone does anything, it helps show an industry that little steps can make a big difference when they are being manufactured at thousands of pieces at a time. Hopefully leading us to the day where a phone that pays attention to sutainability and cradle-to-cradle principles will become the norm, rather than the exception.

All photos except first one via Tim Hurst. Follow Tim on twitter.

Miami’s Metrozoo is recycling 1,400 pounds of elephant poop, 750 pounds of rhino dung, and 500 pounds of giraffe excrement per day.

In an innovative effort to save landfill space and reduce the zoo’s ecological footprint, the organic waste is used as fertilizer, and also to “decorate the zoo grounds.” In addition to the “big producers” - elephants, rhinos, and giraffes - other herbivores are regularly making their own contributions.

Metrozoo’s horticultural supervisor, Tom Trump, said that to recycle and reuse whatever they could “made sense.” Since starting the recycling project last year, the park has saved over $20,000.

Miami Metrozoo is home to over 1,000 animals, representing over 400 species - 48 of which are endangered species.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiswango/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

The green parts

Built from 80 percent recyclable material with 40 percent of the phone casing made from corn-based bio-plastic. The Reclaim is 80 percent recyle-able material, not recycle-ed material. That is fairly normal. The bulk of material in most other cell phones can also be recycled and that’s why there is a market for used cell phones.

To Sprint’s credit, included in the box is a postage-paid cell phone recycling bag for you to drop your old phone in the mail to be scrapped for e-waste (which I filled three old phones sitting in a drawer I’ve been meaning to recycle).

Sprint has committed to recycle ninety percent of the phones they make by 2017. With current recycling rates at roughly one-third, Sprint admits they have a long way to go but are also quick to point out that they have collected roughly 18 million phones thus far and have increased recycling rates substantially over 2007.

I like the idea of the green content portals. Easily-accessed content from Planet Green including Best of Green, Five Simple Things, All Things Green and a Green Glossary from Planet Green. These shortcut keys access fast-loading pages of green content and info. Don’t expect links, images, flash, etc. These are fast-loading pages that provide quick access to basic green info, and for that purpose they are excellent.

I was also too-easily amused by the chirps, ribbits and other preloaded eco-sonic ringtones that keep with the Reclaim’s green theme.

Fortunately, the instruction manuals were not big, glossy tomes reprinted in seven languages. Only the “essentials” in manual literature were included in the package, but considering that several pages were filled with full-color images of people enjoying their new phone way too much, even that seemed a bit too much.

The paper that was included in the package was printed with soy inks on a paper stock that clearly had some percentage of recycled content in it, but nowhere on the package was that clearly labeled or otherwise discerned. Other than the plastic FedEx package the phone arrived in, the package itself has very little plastic, only two small bags.

Festooned with a litany of certification labels and brands, Sprint has clearly made some attempts to get the Reclaim some green cred — and most of it is deserved. Overall, I think Sprint has done more than pull of a green marketing coups. They have taken real steps towards cleaning up an industry that contributes an incredible amount of material into the global e-waste stream.

That is not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. Cutting back even more on printed materials and packaging waste and giving more attention to labeling and transparency would make the Reclaim even greener.

If this phone does anything, it helps show an industry that little steps can make a big difference when they are being manufactured at thousands of pieces at a time. Hopefully leading us to the day where a phone that pays attention to sutainability and cradle-to-cradle principles will become the norm, rather than the exception.

All photos except first one via Tim Hurst. Follow Tim on twitter.

And while we know that that aiming for zero waste is a fast, cheap and effective strategy for combating climate change, its not always easy to do. You can’t find the resources, it involves trips here and there, its expensive. There are all sorts of obstacles. However, these six companies (some are actually non-profit organizations and government agencies) make recycling easy.

1. Earth911.org is an excellent site with good recycling information.  Their recycling search tool makes it easy to locate waste collectors and drop-off sites.  It covers resources for paper, metal, hazardous waste, plastic, glass, electronics, automotive, household, garden, and construction waste. Two of my favorite resources are: 1) a great list of manufacturer and retail take-back e-waste programs and 2) an awesome free widget for your website that can not only give your customers access to the world’s largest database of over 100,000 recycling locations, but can pre-populate recyclable materials search to fit your readers. For example, a blog focused on car care can auto-populate the widget to search for locations that accept used motor oil or car batteries.

2. LampRecycling.com is a new online resource for facilities that need a simple and cost-effective way to recycle their fluorescent bulbs, CFLs, batteries, ballasts, and electronic waste. These guys make it super easy to recycle. You can order recycling containers for multiple types of waste and return them via pre-paid FedEx. Once the waste has been received for recycling, a recurring order is triggered and a new EasyPak container is shipped out automatically. You can view recycling reports that give totals of all waste you have recycled and every time waste is recycled with EasyPak, you are issued a certificate of recycling that verifies your recycling efforts and details exactly how much waste was recycled.

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Plants don’t ever care if they have a run in their stockings.

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You know we love a good glass bottle craft around these parts! We’ve featured a few awesome crafters who reuse glass bottles in their work. Of course, you won’t be surprised that we loved Re-Nests’ round up of great glass bottle craft ideas!

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1. They are not inferior in quality to new Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) products. (In fact, in 1997, the US EPA stated that remanufactured products are “as good as new.”)
2. Using a remanufactured or any cartridge other than that of the OEM will not in fact void the printer equipment warranty. (Not that manufacturers didn’t try.  They did but the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975 specifically states that a warranty may not be voided because of the use of aftermarket products.)
3. Buying them will typically save you money and selling spent cartridges will typically make you money.

(This information comes courtesy of Ecogreenoffice.com whose primer about the truth about remanufactered print cartridges contains lots of additional information.)

There are two sides to greening your ink and toner purchases: The Buy and the Sell.

The Sell. The act of selling ink and toner cartridges is one of the easiest ways to make money and be green at the same time. On the revenue side, cartridges are valuable (some are worth as much as $22). If cash isn’t what your looking for, retailers such Office Max, Office Depot and Staples have rewards programs that give up to $3 in store credit for each eligible cartridge and have drop boxes in stores. (Office Max also has a postage-paid shipping program for those who recycle high volumes of cartridges—up to 300 a month). In any event, selling spent cartridges is easy and sometimes even lucrative.

The Buy. Want to know the impact of all those cartridges you’re using? The folks at SB Office Supplies, an online office supply retailer with an extensive green catalog, have a nifty Remanufactured Cartridge Savings Calculator that tells how much oil is saved and how many cartridges stay out of land fills when you buy remanufactured cartridges.

Convinced? They are basically two routes to go.

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Re-nest suggests using tarps to kill weeds in your yard. Why not use an old liner place of the tarp? Just weigh it down with bricks over the problem area on a sunny day. The plastic liner will trap the heat from the sun. There’s a good chance you’ll kill any other plants underneath there, so this is probably best if you’re clearing an area to plant a garden bed.

But that’s just the beginning! Check out these other crafty ideas for that old plastic shower curtain or liner:

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Artist Erika Iris Simmons (aka iri5) takes reused cassettes to a whole new level. She specializes in turning trash into treasure, letting the materials dictate the final product. Here’s how she describes her Ghost in the Machine series:

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1. Free energy-efficiency information, resources, and technical advice—ENERGY STAR for Small Business provides free information, resources, and technical advice on hundreds of cost-savings practices. Includes a downloadable copy of the free ENERGY STAR for Small Business Guide, “Putting Energy into Profits” and information about ENERGY STAR–labeled products.
2. Free recycling and conservation signs—You can customize, download, and print free recycling and conservation signs at recyclereminders.com.
3. Free control of your IT—If you run a network, software from companies like LocalCooling.com allows the settings on computers to be controlled centrally so you can automatically turn those babies off when no one is using them.
4. Free Green IT for Dummies—HP sponsors a free, downloadable, condensed, limited edition of the Green IT for Dummies guide.
5. Free recycling bins—The Coca-Cola/NRC Recycling Bin Grant Program provides recycling bins to selected grant recipients for the collection of beverage container recyclables in public settings.
6. Free rideshare widget for websites— at GooseNetworks.com.

   Read more of this story »

   ]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/06/12/19-free-green-tools-for-small-buinesses/feed/ http://craftingagreenworld.com/2009/06/11/yearn-worthy-yarn-darn-good-yarn/ http://craftingagreenworld.com/2009/06/11/yearn-worthy-yarn-darn-good-yarn/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:30:32 +0000 Kelly Rand http://craftingagreenworld.com/2009/06/11/yearn-worthy-yarn-darn-good-yarn/ With a name like Darn Good Yarn, it’s hard not to like this yarn and their principals. This U.S. based company offers a small variety of yarn but specializes in recycled silk sari.

   

   The yarn is spun from the remnants of the production of silk saris in Nepal. Darn Good Yarn only works with co-ops in Nepal that offer fair trade pricing for the spinning of the yarn.

   Read more of this story »

   ]]> http://craftingagreenworld.com/2009/06/11/yearn-worthy-yarn-darn-good-yarn/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/06/10/by-mandate-of-the-mayor-san-francisco-board-passes-mandatory-recycling-and-compost-ordinance/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/06/10/by-mandate-of-the-mayor-san-francisco-board-passes-mandatory-recycling-and-compost-ordinance/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:50:48 +0000 Ruedigar Matthes http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/06/10/by-mandate-of-the-mayor-san-francisco-board-passes-mandatory-recycling-and-compost-ordinance/

   San Francisco, CA - Refuse collection has been mandatory in San Francisco since the 1930s, so perhaps it came as no surprise when the nation’s leader in recycling passed a mandatory recycling and compost ordinance on June 9, but San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom still commended the Board of Supervisors for its passage of the ordinance.

   Mayor Newsom’s ordinance, co-sponsored by Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi and Chris Daly, which passed on its first reading with a vote of 9-2, requires residential and commercial business owners to sign up for recycling and composting services. The ordinance will require all residences and businesses to participate in the city’s recycling and composting services, making San Francisco the first city to require collection of compostable materials.

   “San Francisco has the best recycling and composting programs in the nation, and we’ve already attained an impressive, and first in the nation, 72 percent recycling rate because of them,” said Mayor Newsom. “I am pleased with the leadership the Board of Supervisors has demonstrated on this important legislation. By collaborating with all of our stakeholders, businesses, colleagues, and citizens, we can build on our success and continue to lead the nation in recycling.”

   The primary goal of the ordinance, according to Newsom, is to get recycling and composting happening in buildings that are not currently using the city’s recycling and composting services. “Many tenants want to recycle and compost,” said Newsom, “but the building does not offer the service. We’re going to change that.”

   Newsom estimates that if all recyclable and compostable materials, which currently slip through the city’s fingers, ending up in a landfill, were caught by the programs, San Francisco’s rate would soar from 70 percent to 90 percent.

   The ordinance specifies no fines. Newsom commented that cities with mandatory recycling and fines rarely assess such fines. The primary function of fines is to heighten public awareness and encourage compliance.

   The ordinance itself will be recycled again next week as it returns to the Board of Supervisors for a second reading and final vote.

   Photo Credit: Shawna Scott via flickr under Creative Commons License

   The green parts
   

   Built from 80 percent recyclable material with 40 percent of the phone casing made from corn-based bio-plastic. The Reclaim is 80 percent recyle-able material, not recycle-ed material. That is fairly normal. The bulk of material in most other cell phones can also be recycled and that’s why there is a market for used cell phones.

   To Sprint’s credit, included in the box is a postage-paid cell phone recycling bag for you to drop your old phone in the mail to be scrapped for e-waste (which I filled three old phones sitting in a drawer I’ve been meaning to recycle).

   Sprint has committed to recycle ninety percent of the phones they make by 2017. With current recycling rates at roughly one-third, Sprint admits they have a long way to go but are also quick to point out that they have collected roughly 18 million phones thus far and have increased recycling rates substantially over 2007.

   I like the idea of the green content portals. Easily-accessed content from Planet Green including Best of Green, Five Simple Things, All Things Green and a Green Glossary from Planet Green. These shortcut keys access fast-loading pages of green content and info. Don’t expect links, images, flash, etc. These are fast-loading pages that provide quick access to basic green info, and for that purpose they are excellent.

   I was also too-easily amused by the chirps, ribbits and other preloaded eco-sonic ringtones that keep with the Reclaim’s green theme.

   

   Fortunately, the instruction manuals were not big, glossy tomes reprinted in seven languages. Only the “essentials” in manual literature were included in the package, but considering that several pages were filled with full-color images of people enjoying their new phone way too much, even that seemed a bit too much.

   The paper that was included in the package was printed with soy inks on a paper stock that clearly had some percentage of recycled content in it, but nowhere on the package was that clearly labeled or otherwise discerned. Other than the plastic FedEx package the phone arrived in, the package itself has very little plastic, only two small bags.

   Festooned with a litany of certification labels and brands, Sprint has clearly made some attempts to get the Reclaim some green cred — and most of it is deserved. Overall, I think Sprint has done more than pull of a green marketing coups. They have taken real steps towards cleaning up an industry that contributes an incredible amount of material into the global e-waste stream.

   That is not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. Cutting back even more on printed materials and packaging waste and giving more attention to labeling and transparency would make the Reclaim even greener.

   If this phone does anything, it helps show an industry that little steps can make a big difference when they are being manufactured at thousands of pieces at a time. Hopefully leading us to the day where a phone that pays attention to sutainability and cradle-to-cradle principles will become the norm, rather than the exception.

   All photos except first one via Tim Hurst. Follow Tim on twitter.

   ]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/06/10/by-mandate-of-the-mayor-san-francisco-board-passes-mandatory-recycling-and-compost-ordinance/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/06/03/cyclecide-reinvents-the-bicycle/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/06/03/cyclecide-reinvents-the-bicycle/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:01:07 +0000 Rhonda Winter http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/06/03/cyclecide-reinvents-the-bicycle/ Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo is a consortium of inventors, bike mechanics, artists, musicians and visionaries who love bikes and building stuff. Their wild imaginations having created all manner of beautiful recycled bike art machines- everything from a wacky two-wheeled Chupacabra to a complete bicycle-powered carnival. Bicycles are seen not only as a vehicle, but also as a medium for creative expression and fun. Cyclecide member Jarico Reesce explains, “Historically, when you think about bicycles, there is no other machine that is more democratic and versatile than the bicycle itself.”

   This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

   Cyclecide will be displaying their brilliant bicycle monstrosities in San Francisco this Saturday, June 6th, during the Bayview Artfest. This free event is taking place on Third Street and Fairfax (one block from Evans) from 11am to 5pm.

   The green parts
   

   Built from 80 percent recyclable material with 40 percent of the phone casing made from corn-based bio-plastic. The Reclaim is 80 percent recyle-able material, not recycle-ed material. That is fairly normal. The bulk of material in most other cell phones can also be recycled and that’s why there is a market for used cell phones.

   To Sprint’s credit, included in the box is a postage-paid cell phone recycling bag for you to drop your old phone in the mail to be scrapped for e-waste (which I filled three old phones sitting in a drawer I’ve been meaning to recycle).

   Sprint has committed to recycle ninety percent of the phones they make by 2017. With current recycling rates at roughly one-third, Sprint admits they have a long way to go but are also quick to point out that they have collected roughly 18 million phones thus far and have increased recycling rates substantially over 2007.

   I like the idea of the green content portals. Easily-accessed content from Planet Green including Best of Green, Five Simple Things, All Things Green and a Green Glossary from Planet Green. These shortcut keys access fast-loading pages of green content and info. Don’t expect links, images, flash, etc. These are fast-loading pages that provide quick access to basic green info, and for that purpose they are excellent.

   I was also too-easily amused by the chirps, ribbits and other preloaded eco-sonic ringtones that keep with the Reclaim’s green theme.

   

   Fortunately, the instruction manuals were not big, glossy tomes reprinted in seven languages. Only the “essentials” in manual literature were included in the package, but considering that several pages were filled with full-color images of people enjoying their new phone way too much, even that seemed a bit too much.

   The paper that was included in the package was printed with soy inks on a paper stock that clearly had some percentage of recycled content in it, but nowhere on the package was that clearly labeled or otherwise discerned. Other than the plastic FedEx package the phone arrived in, the package itself has very little plastic, only two small bags.

   Festooned with a litany of certification labels and brands, Sprint has clearly made some attempts to get the Reclaim some green cred — and most of it is deserved. Overall, I think Sprint has done more than pull of a green marketing coups. They have taken real steps towards cleaning up an industry that contributes an incredible amount of material into the global e-waste stream.

   That is not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. Cutting back even more on printed materials and packaging waste and giving more attention to labeling and transparency would make the Reclaim even greener.

   If this phone does anything, it helps show an industry that little steps can make a big difference when they are being manufactured at thousands of pieces at a time. Hopefully leading us to the day where a phone that pays attention to sutainability and cradle-to-cradle principles will become the norm, rather than the exception.

   All photos except first one via Tim Hurst. Follow Tim on twitter.

   ]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/06/03/cyclecide-reinvents-the-bicycle/feed/