Green Eco Services

Homemade Gifts For Any Occasion

Welcome back!

I did not do this list, just thought it was great! Through out the year you will be attending events that you just gotta take something. Why not take some homemade and eco friendly gifts?

http://www.growingagreenfamily.com/50-homemade-green-holiday-gifts-that-rock/

Eco Friendly Hostess Gifts

• H SO sweet fabric flowers (shown above) – make with holiday colors for the perfect easy seasonal gift.
• A Gift You Can Make With Your Children~ Hot Chocolate Mix Jar
• Flower & Spice Table Topper
• Totally fun cookie pops that the kids can help decorate for friends and family.
• Grab a set of adorable vintage looking tea cups at a antique shop or thrift store and fill it with some homemade organic herbal tea.
• The cutest tiny Sake-Box Planters ever!
• Baked salt dough ornaments.
• Cinnamon Marshmallow Stars – not vegan but super cute.
• Scented sugars – I’ve never made these but they look great – use organic sugar!
• Lemon Bath Cookies – these look professional and amazing.
• Chocolate covered candied orange slices.
• Homemade Chai Mix.
• Cider spice sachets

Homemade Green Gifts for Kids

• Seriously amazing homemade baby blocks (shown above)! Use scrap wood or sustainable wood and non-toxic paint. Found here.
• A homemade sun jar is a great gift for adults as well as little ones, but kids will be especially amazed.
• Fun homemade Gingerbread Cookie Dough Puzzle! So unique.
• Build a Bubble-Powered Rocket – with recycled paper and film canisters. This rocket actually lifts off.
• Awesome collection of old-fashioned, handmade toys from Mother Earth News.
• The most adorable homemade memory game I’ve seen.
• Homemade natural and non-toxic playdough – add some little tools from a thrift store; like rolling pin and cookie cutters for optimal fun.
• Homemade Organic Paint Soap for Kids
• For baby learning make a soft book of colors.
• Really fun felt play brown bagged lunch.
• Nine DIY play kitchen options and  DIY Play Kitchen Food & Dishes
• Pumpkin Pie scented play dough – although if you’re crafty you could make lots of other scents.
• Christmas Elf Doll – use scrap and organic fabric.
• DIY Eco-Dollhouses
• Seriously amazing no-sew Midsummer Nights Dream Tutu with tulle. Your daughter will sigh with delight. If you really want a totally bling little girl gift add some homemade fairy wings to the tutu.
• Recycled Cardboard Playhouse that your tot can decorate all on her own.
• Recycled crayons – big and chunky – great stocking stuffer.
• Recycled Wallpaper Blocks – really cute!
• Homemade bath bombs – make sure you use gentle ingredients for kids.
• Recycled homemade pillowcase dress for your little lady.
• S’mores in a Jar for a little one. Cute and fun.
• Make a bug watching kid their own butterfly house.

Homemade Green Gifts for Adults

• A beautiful DIY wheatgrass centerpiece (shown above) – yeah it’s meant for weddings, but with red and white roses it would make a wonderful holiday gift too.
• Homemade Organic Lavender Vanilla Sugar Scrub and Cranberry Lip gloss
• Homemade reusable bag (with a garden theme, but you could design any theme)
• An amazing list of 50 edible holiday gifts – just make sure you use organic ingredients.
• Make a countertop greenhouse for under $20 – use reclaimed wood.
• Beautiful herbal sachets for keeping clothing fresh.
• Super neat idea – make homemade seed tape with your saved seeds!
• Lovely colored homemade bath salts.
• Golden Honey Granola – make with organics though.
• Scented soy candles.
• Yo Yo Necklace – sounds weird but very stylish and impressive.
• Nice little scrap fabric cloth napkins – look pro.
• Make a great little herb garden kit for a garden pal.
• Make some homemade paper, then bind it into a lovely journal with a beautiful scrap paper or fabric cover. To learn how to make a homemade journal watch one of the following videos – Junk Journal (a pop and his daughter make a journal out of recycled trash!) or Basic DIY Book Binding Demonstration.
• Cute country style wall hanging vine – good maybe for someone with a country kitchen.

The High Cost of Litter and Illegal Dumping

My weekly post about the high cost of litter with news blips about the costs of litter and illegal dumping from around the world. We, the taxpayers foot the bill to pick up trash, clean oceans and pollution from all over the world.

Photo: www.litter.vic.gov.au

• Zimbabwe- Major Health Hazard of Litter - Harare — ZIMBABWE is sitting on an environmental time bomb as the rate of litter generation has surpassed disposal. Environmentalists have cited a sharp increase in imported non-biodegradable material and failure by local authorities to adopt proper waste management techniques as contributory factors. Waste management is the collection, transportation, processing, recycling or disposal and monitoring of waste mater
• Hume-(Australia)  HUME Council will double its spending on litter to crack down on rubbish dumping. It follows a cost of almost $1 million to remove litter and dumped rubbish last financial year. From 2010/11 the council will increase spending from $48,500 a year to more than $100,000 a year for the next three years, as detailed in the Litter Management Strategy and Action Plan 2009-2013. It will include installation of surveillance cameras at illegal dumping hot spots, giving landfill passes to home renovators to reduce dumping of construction waste and paying more attention to busy roads, sporting grounds and leisure centres.
• Northfield, Minnesota: Townships Can’t Stop Roadside Trash and Illegal Dumping - Enough is enough, say township officials who have trash on their minds — and their roadsides. There’s nothing new about illegal dumping along sparsely populated or trafficked rural roads, but as townships aim to keep their budgets lean and taxes low, they’d rather not have to pay to remove appliances, mattresses, tires and scrap machinery from their ditches.

Optical WebBlog and Business

The Horrible Effects of Litter And Trash In The Ocean

I saw this video and just about cried. These are actual pictures, no posing, no staging, it’s just about the harmful effects of litter, trash and garbage in the ocean. What happens, litter runs into the storm drains, goes into the ocean and this is the result. Not counting people littering on beaches, people throwing trash and garbage overboard. Think of this as your kid and what your kids are eating.

Are Motorized Bikes More Eco-Friendly?

My blog buddy Recycle Bill, asked me to do a post on motorized bikes. While I think motorized bikes are a much better alternative to cars, I personally have a dislike of motorized bikes and Segways. My dislike is not about the vehicle, more about some of the people who drive them. For some reason people drive scooters and mopeds in the streets but the minute they get on a motorized bike or Segway, they think sidewalks and boardwalks are OK to drive on and it’s OK to let a 6 year old loose in public areas with a motorized vehicles.   Living on the beach with a boardwalk, people rent this vehicles and ride on the boardwalk with absolutely no concern for pedestrians.

That said, motorized bikes about been around since the 1890’s, and not only are cheaper to run and maintain than cars. The added benefit 1.) Use less gas, reducing our addiction to oil 2.) Reduce energy needs 3.) Reduce pollution 4.) Reduce traffic and the need for parking lots 5.) Can improve employee productivity and morale if not stuck on freeways 6.) Save taxpayer taxes, no more city bonds to build, no more taxes to fix roads…

ezmotorbike.com

A grass root effort for motorized bikes is http://www.ezmotorbike.com , a North

Carolina based company with dealers all over the USA. Recycle Bill was so impressed

with EZM that he just bought 4 kits and became Greensboro, North Carolina’s EZM dealer http://www.ezgreensboro.com

Motorized bicycles are legal in all 50 states though some states do require registration. They’re not much for long trips but around town they’re even better than mopeds and scooters. While most scooters weigh 300+ pounds, the Motored Bike weighing in at 100 pounds would be

much heavier than usual. Apartment dwellers can carry a motored bicycle up stairs– try that with a moped.

Also, here’s a partial list of EZ Motorbike Dealers

• http://www.ezgreensboro
• http://cyclonetics.com/
• http://www.simpsonmotorbikes.com/
• http://ezmfountainhills.blogspot.com/
• http://ezmlebanon.blogspot.com/
• http://ezmotorbikesales.com/
• More dealers can be found here: http://www.ezmotorbike.com/wholedealerpage.html

This is what I think- it’s better for the environment and your pocketbook, just drive safely and consider the rules of the road.

Old City Green Will Take Back Your Old Christmas Trees!

Old City Green in Washington DC has volunteered to help you get rid of your Christmas Trees after the Season. You can return them and they in turn will compost. Here is the email I received:

Just wanted to let you know that if one bought a Christmas tree
(A farmed tree) from us they can return it and we will turn it into compost.
It is better than sending a tree to a land fill.
We have 4 composting bins at OLD CITY green
www.oldcitygreen.com
Thanks,
Frank
Owner of OLD CITY green

Cereal Boxes Used For Wrapping Gifts

I normally don’t give gifts at Christmas, but over the past several years I have been making quilts from batiks I bought in Indonesia and giving them to my family. I always keep boxes and have been recycling wrapping paper and bows, use last years cards for this years ‘To and From’ cards. I finally ran out of recycled wrapping paper! Being the cheap, frugal and eco friendly person that I am, I decided to use cereal boxes which were the hit of Xmas!

Cereal Box Wrapping

One of the quilts/ cereal boxes I gave away was actually wrapped with a recycled bow, but I figured these were for my nephews and they could care less about the presentation! I will also say, the wrapping was the hit of xmas and when you stacked all the cereal boxes together, it made a nice little presentation and after xmas, they went right in the recycling bin.

Tags: Events, Recycle
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Top Ten Tips To Have A Green Christmas Day

Happy Holidays and an eco-friendly  reminder to have a greener, leaner year.

Recycled Aluminum Can Christmas Tree

Top 10 Tips for a Green Christmas Day

1.) Recycle Your Christmas Tree

2.) Recycle Your burnt out light bulbs and batteries

3.) Recycle your Christmas Waste or better yet, fold up neatly and reuse for other presents and gifts in the upcoming year. Best yet wrap presents in reusable bags.

4.) Don’t throwaway food leftovers, give away, freeze or remake into delicious soups.

5.) Carpool or use mass transportation as much as you can.

6.) Drink organic wines and beverages and best yet drink tap water (FREE)

7.) Conserve energy, remember to turn off all lights at the end of the evening.

8.) It’s not too late to give the give of a donation to your favorite charity.

9.) Don’t like your gift, consider donating or re-gifting. Just don’t throw it away.

10.) Take reusable bags if you are going to another home, or need to deliver presents.

Surfers Against Sewage Start Return To Offender Program

Photo:www.surfertoday.com

Surfers against Sewage sent a message of anti-marine sewage back to manufacturers  by wrapping trash collected on the beaches of the UK wrapped in holiday wrapping paper.

While the marine litter is not the manufacturers fault, the message was to urge companies to improve their anti-littering messages, reduce packaging, invest in biodegradable materials and support anti-litter campaigns.

All SAS and anti-litter supporters can participates in the Return to Offend Campaign. Just download the Return to Offender letter on  www.sas.org.uk,

Litter and Trash Taxpayer Cost In The UK

Photo:www.iowgreengym.blogspot.com/

LITTERBUGS spoiling Sutton town centre are to be shown the error of their ways thanks to some new devices.

Environmental wardens have been on hand to re-educate shoppers about litter disposal. The project, which continues until Christmas, has seen special pocket-sized bins given out to smokers to help them collect, rather than discard, their cigarette ends.

The plan is that multiple butts can be disposed of in one go when there is a larger bin nearby.

The cleaning up of individual ends flicked on the floor costs Birmingham City Council millions of pounds a year.

In total, the authority can spend up to £17.5m on street cleaning each year, with cigarettes and chewing gum – which can take up to five years to totally biodegrade – being the biggest blights. To support the anti-litter message, special wrappers to collect spat-out gum have been given to chewers.

Isle of Wight Green Gym – Official Blog.: Wed 19th Aug 2009 …

By Bob the Blog

We were also visited by a photographer from the County Press, as the Chairman of the CPRE (Council for the Protection of Rural England) presented our group with a certificate and a cheque for £100, for our work on their Anti-Litter …

Save Money/ Save Environment With Computer Auto Shut Down

I am learning to shut down my computer if I leave it for more than 30 minutes. Sometimes you just get distracted like yesterday, where I completely forgot to turn off my computer. One day for one person is not significant, but what about the 1,000’s of people who never shut down their computer and the offices that never do as well. That’s alot of wasted energy and CO2! Billions of dollars are spent each year simply by not turning off your computer. Personally speaking, I could use some of those billions in my pocketbook!

I Just Gotta Tell Ya:

• 50% of Americans leave their computer on when they leave for the nite.
• If 10 employees activted a power management program a company would save $500 in energy costs per year.
• It is estimated that companies waste $3 Billion/ year powering 100 Million unused computers.

There are economical solutions to employee forgetfullness. One company Enviprot, (ipowersaving.com,)offers a Auto Shutdown Manager for any type of computers. UC Berkeley just chose their Auto Shutdown Manager as a solution to their employee PC issues.  Read about it and the results at: http://greensoda.cs.berkeley.edu/wiki/index.php/Desktop.

Is it worth it? Try plugging in your usage on their ROI Calculator and check out the results. It could be well worth the investment!