Articles tagged “Plastic”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Change Out Your Car's Disposable Air Filter with a Lifetime Filter By Collin Dunn IN Tech & Transport Jan 24 2008 As we learned from Lloyd yesterday, keeping your car tuned up is a great way to save some cash and maintenance over the long haul. The lifetime filters need only be inspected every year or so; when they appear dirty, follow the manufacturers' instructions for cleaning and care, and revel in the fact that you'll never... + READ MORE

Test Your Plastic I.Q. By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Jan 24 2008 Another day, another quiz: This time, inquiring minds wish to know how well you know your plastics. If you need to bone up on your plastic facts before you put yourself to the test, check out our previous post on deciphering those recycling numbers. ::Mother Earth Living Difficulty level: Easy + READ MORE

Sell, Trade Your Gift Cards By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Jan 23 2008 If you received a tidy stack of gift cards over the holidays that you have little use for, consider trading them in for gift cards to stores you actually frequent, or better yet, sell them to other folk for cold, hard cash, which is always handy, no matter what the occasion. Plastic Jungle will pay up to 65 percent of... + READ MORE

Turn Your Old Skis into a Sled By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Jan 22 2008 Instead of spending over a hundred bucks on a manufactured sled, consider building your own with that old pair of skis gathering dust in the garage. Just one downside: You can n't make any turns, although Out Your Backdoor suspects that angling the skis slightly inward could do the trick.Okay, so you willn't be... + READ MORE

Ask Why Before You Buy By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Jan 22 2008 The best way to win the war with clutter? How tied are my present job and lifestyle to installment payments, maintenance and repair costs, and the expectations of others? + READ MORE

Bring Your Own: Workplace Essentials By Collin Dunn IN Work & Connect Jan 18 2008 Unless your commute just requires going across the hall to the home office, going to work every day requires a commute (by bike, if you can). Don't forget a plate (for easy reheating later) and some real flatware, so you don't have to partake of the disposable plastic your favorite take-out place always piles on you. + READ MORE

Help Provide Food for the World by Purchasing a FEED 1 Bag By Collin Dunn IN Work & Connect Jan 18 2008 Bringing your own bag is a great way to help cut back on disposables and stem the tide of plastic flooding our waste stream. Founded by Lauren Bush (niece of President George W. Bush) and Ellen Gustafson (a former WFP Communications Officer), FEED 1 bags are reversible, for ultimate utility, and made from sustainable... + READ MORE

Tend to Your Garden in Winter By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Jan 16 2008 Although many of the perennials grown in the garden slumber through the winter months, the gardener is far from inactive, according to Stephen and Val Bradley, authors of Fragrant Gardening (2003, Laurel Glen). Remove any dead flower heads, yellowing leaves, and other plant debris before mold starts to form, to cut the + READ MORE

Detox Your Home: Unhand That Cling Wrap By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Jan 15 2008 Cling wrap makes keeping food fresh a cinch, but it could also serve up a boatload of poisons into our chow. Traces of these chemical nasties have been known to migrate into food, an issue consumers became widely aware of in 1998 when Consumer Reports discovered that cheddar cheese packaged in PVC film contained high... + READ MORE

Reuse Unwanted Jewel Cases: Top 14 Ways By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Jan 7 2008 Packing your pre-iTunes CDs into a zippered wallet is a clever space-saving trick, except that it leaves you with a towering pile of empty plastic jewel cases, which are usually made from molded polystyrene and not easily recyclable. While options on that front are few and far between, GreenDisk will accept your... + READ MORE

Kick the Plastic Bottle Habit By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Food & Health Jan 3 2008 If there's one fad that needs to be given the old heave-ho this year, make it our addiction to bottled water. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets higher standards for the quality of tap water than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does for bottled water.Lend the environment a hand,... + READ MORE

Know your Numbers for Recycling By Lloyd Alter IN Home & Garden Dec 31 2007 Jasmin covered the issues with various types of plastics in baby bottles, but there are also issues to be aware of when recycling. Rather than using returned soda bottles to make new soda bottles, "down-cycling" refers to their use in making lower-grade plastic products such as park benches, milk crates, and plastic... + READ MORE

Throw a Green New Year's Eve Party By Collin Dunn IN Home & Garden Dec 28 2007 The decade is just about in the books, and many a champagne flute will be raised in celebration of the end of 2009. From renting glasses to sipping organic wine, here's a quick list of how to keep the party sustainable. + READ MORE

Detox Your Home: Keep it PVC Free By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 27 2007 From shower curtains to sippy cups, products made from polyvinyl chloride, also known as vinyl or PVC, are ubiquitous. Over the decades, dozens of vinyl fabricators have succumbed to the exceedingly rare angiosarcoma of the liver.The dioxin exposure of the average American far exceeds the usual standard for acceptable... + READ MORE

Reuse, Recycle Your Aluminum Foil By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 21 2007 If you happen to use aluminum foil in your kitchen, consider giving those shiny crinkles a good scrub with some soap and water, so you can draw out a second use out of them. Plus, recycling aluminum takes as little as 5 percent of the energy you'd need to manufacture virgin aluminum, says the U.S. Department of State's + READ MORE

Cook with Cast Iron Instead of Nonstick By Collin Dunn IN Food & Health Dec 20 2007 We've all seen examples or heard stories about Grandma's cast iron cookware that's been in regular use since the Eisenhower administration or before. Don't store your pan with its lid on, as cast iron needs to breathe, and condensing moisture inside of it can counteract all your hard work seasoning the pan. + READ MORE

Choose Baby-Safe Bottles, Formula By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 20 2007 Breast milk is the golden standard of infant nutrition, but if your tot will be chugging down pumped breast milk or supplementary formula, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a laundry list of what to look for when you're shopping for feeding bottles: 1. Use filtered tap water: If your water is fluoridated, use a + READ MORE

Green Delights of Junk Mail Gift Wrap: Go Wild with Ribbons By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Dec 19 2007 This is the third of five green tips where we look at ways to transform "useless" junk mail into stylish and free gift wrap.To make the curled ribbon below, rip or cut it into strips, and then curl each strip with a straight edge, like a ruler or scissor edge. + READ MORE

Join the Garbage Revolution By Lloyd Alter IN Home & Garden Dec 17 2007 Garbage! They cost more to buy but save you 10 times the original cost and not get thrown in the trash. + READ MORE

Get Rid of Old Styrofoam Peanuts By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 10 2007 Expanded polystyrene peanuts, trademarked by Dow Chemical as Styrofoam, have long been an environmental blight. Besides stemming the tide Styrofoam peanuts by using alternative packing fillers, you can also help reduce virgin polystyrene demand by dropping off your used packing peanuts at a local business for reuse. + READ MORE