I think these Ecopods are the coolest things – if only they had a kitchen and/or bathroom. They’re a little rustic for me to use as a vacation home – a once a year camping trip yes, but probably not much more than that If you’re the type of person to enjoy the more rustic vacationing these are for you! – WAIT! there is a chance they do have some sort of kitchen or bathroom as I just read on their site something about a refrigerator and a composting toilet. It is possible there is a toilet but not a shower and a refrigerator but no stove. They’re $27,000 Canadian and can be put anywhere – so if you have a piece of property in a beautiful area and want something a little more substantial than a tent the Ecopod is perfect. The floors are made of recycled car tires and the one side of the shipping container folds down and becomes the deck. So – if you really could have a toilet and some kitchen amenities I really might enjoy it after all!
Category : Fun Things To Do, Household
I know they don't look so pretty in my re-used jars but who cares?!
The other night I made jam! I’ve been wanting to do this all summer and now that berries are just about done I had to do it now or wait until next year. I can’t believe how easy it was to make!
I save all of my jars from other food items that I purchase so I had plenty to use. They were already clean so I put them in a pot of boiling hot water to warm them up while I made the jam. I had purchased a box of pectin quite awhile ago so I already had that on hand. The box contained a bunch of different recipe ideas. I made a batch and a half with a mix of raspberries and blueberries. I used a ratio of 2:1 (raspberries to blueberries) so it is mostly raspberry but with a slight undertone of blueberry – I’m happy with the combination. When using blueberries it calls for fresh lemon juice. I used the juice of one lemon yet still needed a little more so I used an orange that I needed to use up as it was on its way to the bin.
Instead of sugar I used Agave Nectar. Agave Nectar looks like honey but is thinner and comes from a plant. It doesn’t spike your blood sugar the way sugar does so I try to use it as much as possible in place of sugar.
So, all you do is mash your berries, add the lemon juice, bring it to a boil add the pectin and pour it into your jars leaving 1/4 inch open at the top. Put the tops on and turn them upside down. I put them back in the hot water for a bit to make sure they were super warm and would seal and then I put them on the counter to cool. After an hour I flipped them and within another hour I pressed the seal on the top and it went down and didn’t pop back up – meaning they were sealed and safe to stay in the pantry.
I’m so excited to have discovered how easy it is to make jam – I’ll be making it a lot more now!
Category : Food & Beverages, Health
So apparently the oh so safe Sigg water bottles that I always rave about have BPA liners. They’ve always been marketed as a healthy and eco-friendly product and now we find out that they could be leaching BPA into our water. They said they’ve tested the liner repeatedly over the years and they have never found their liners to leach but most of us still don’t trust BPA and would prefer to not have our food or beverages in contact with BPA products. It isn’t that they said they didn’t have BPA in their liners, its that they never said anything about it. Keeping silent made consumers assume they were in the clear.
Luckily Sigg is allowing consumers to exchange their bottles for ones with new BPA free liners. The process is super easy. Some retailers are offering the program in store. I’ll be running to my Whole Foods this weekend to make the exchange. If you don’t have a convenient place to make the exchange you can very easily send it in to Sigg. You’ll just print the label, fill out the form, package it and send it (at your own cost – but it won’t be much and that’ll be the only cost you’ll incur). They say to keep the top as an extra for your new bottle - good thinking!
Category : Beauty, Fashion, Food & Beverages, Fun Things To Do
Last night I received a fabulous gift from a dear friend – the InStyle Weddings Book. It is gorgeous – definitely coffee table worthy for the next year as I plan for my big day. Although the book itself isn’t about “green weddings” the actual book was a green gift. Karen purchased the book for me from a used book store. I know that some may shun giving a used book as a gift, but for an environmentally conscious person it is a wonderful idea. It truly is gently used – you can barely tell it belonged to someone else – if she hadn’t pointed it out I would have just thought the little rip on the cover came from her transporting it from San Francisco to Chicago. The point is, don’t think twice about giving a gift that isn’t brand new. As long as it is in good condition it will still be appreciated and will be less of a burden on the environment. It is a pretty hefty book and probably took many trees to make, so I feel even better about having this particular book over a new one.
Category : Food & Beverages
Are you bringing your reusable mug with you to the coffee shop every day? You can make a huge impact on your waste by using a reusable mug. I even use mine for smoothies since it keeps drink cold as well!
Category : Food & Beverages
Category : Uncategorized
I recently received a newsletter from ReusableBags.com – an online store that I love and is a big supporter of the bag fee Seattle is pushing for. Modeled after the PlasTax in Ireland, it is a fabulous way to encourge people to use reusable bags over disposable bags. I thought it would be great to share their newsletter with you – this would be great if Seattle adops this tax – maybe it would encourage other US cities to follow!
Thanks to ResuableBags.com for helping to publicize this issue! Please check them out online – they’re a great company – as of 2009, they’ve donated over $140,000 to environmental organizations. Together, we are making a difference!
In the six years this company has been around, Seattle’s proposed bag fee is the most important piece of legislation we’ve seen to help reduce the consumption of “use-and-toss” bags. It’s the first bag fee of its kind in the U.S. and is based on Ireland’s PlasTax, a proven solution to the plastic bag problem.
“We’re following the lead of Ireland… not just for Seattle, but to provide a model for other cities as well.” – Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Listen to his voicemail to our founder.
A Call for Help
When Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels called us for help in supporting the Seattle bag fee, we jumped on board, donating $5,000 to the Seattle Green Bag Campaign. Check out their eye-opening video in our sidebar. The fee is a simple, proven, market-based solution to over consumption, encouraging consumers to change their habits by reducing and reusing. If the bag fee passes, there’s great potential for this model to take hold in the U.S. It’s important for all of us to help make it happen!
What You Can Do
- 1. Visit the campaign’s site for more information and donate directly to the campaign.2. Spread the word. If you’re a blogger or reporter, cover the story.3. Help support our efforts so we can continue to support causes like this. Your purchases count!
About the Fee
Based on Ireland’s extremely successful PlasTax, which reduced plastic bag consumption by more than 90%, Seattle’s bag fee is a smart way to reduce consumption of “use-and-toss” bags. Last year, the American Chemistry Council poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a coalition to stop the fee, which was originally supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1. The measure is now up for vote in August – an urgent opportunity to stand up to big industry.
Quick facts:
- $0.20 charge per disposable plastic or paper bag handed out at grocery, drug and convenience store checkout lines.
- Stores with profits under $1 million keep 100% of the money generated by the fee. Stores with larger profits must return 75% of fee revenue.
- 80% of fee revenue will go toward waste prevention, recycling programs and environmental education programs. The remainder will go toward subsidizing reusable bags.
The fee will dramatically reduce the number of resource-consuming bags that would harm wildlife, litter the city or spend eternity in landfills. Just look at the PlasTax, which reduced plastic bag consumption -from 1.2 billion to 230 million- in just one year. We’re talking serious change.
Expected results:
- Dramatic reduction in plastic bag consumption by more than 90%
- Less unsightly, unhealthy litter
- Saves millions of liters of oil used in the production of plastic bags
- High-quality reusable shopping bags will become the socially-acceptable option (New York Times)
To learn more, check out our no-nonsense rebuttals to 10 common PlasTax myths.
Category : Household
I wanted to follow-up on my earlier post and let you all know that I’m loving my new GreenWashBall! Check out how it works. I’m saving money on detergent and my clothes are clean and fresh. They say you don’t necessarily need to use fabric softener as it also softens clothing but I like things extra soft so I’m still using it. It is a great feeling to know that I’m not wasting all of that plastic on detergent containers nor contributing to carbon emissions from the shipping of heavy detergent from factories to warehouses and then to stores. By reusing this little ball I’m even saving water since a great deal of detergent is actually water!
Also, one of my favorite sites EcoStiletto has a connection with them to get you 20% off if you enter “ecostiletto” at checkout.
I just ran across this awesome organization that uses hair clippings from salons and dog groomers to make mats that soak up oil from oil spills. It is super easy to donate – please encourage your salon or groomer to participate. The only cost to them is shipping the clippings which I’m sure wouldn’t be that much at all and would be well worth it in exchange for the difference the clippings will make in cleaning oil spills!
Category : Food & Beverages, Household
Due to the toxins in plastics I try to purchase as many food items in glass jars vs. plastic as possible. Rather than tossing them directly in the recycle after they’re empty I peel the label and wash them to reuse later. Mostly I use them for left overs. They’re a much better option than plastic baggies and if you’re really too lazy to bring them home and reuse them again just recycle them at work(providing your office offers recycling) – at least this way you’ve saved one disposable container and made use of the jar one more time than originally intended!
I’ve gotten quite creative and use the jars for anything that comes in a plastic bag that once opened doesn’t close tightly enough to keep the product fresh. I now have jars of flax seed, arrowroot and other baking products. I have some on my bathroom shelves with bobby pins and hair ties.
I also reuse candle jars. Often these are slightly decorative and are without a top. I have a nice glass one in the bathroom which holds all of my make-up brushes – they also make fabulous little flower vases. It may seem difficult at first to clean out the container, but you can either try soaking it in very hot water or even putting it in the microwave in short increments of time until it is soft enough to pry out with a butter knife. Then just use a scrubby and maybe even a more abrasive cleaner like Bon-Ami or even just baking soda and vinegar.
