How it works:

1. You head to ecosystem and choose a book type – ecosystem Advisor, ecosystem Architect, ecosystem Artist, or ecosystem Author.
2. You choose a cover style.
3. You choose a size.
4. You choose the color. Current colors available include the ones shown below.
5. You customize your book with a variety of insets from calendars to grids to lists and more.
6. You get to see a picture of the finished product and if it’s perfect you purchase it.

All ecosystem books are made with 100% post consumer waste paper and the following environmental savings are achieved by ecosystem products.

ecosystem is great option if you like to create your own perfect planner or journal.

[images via ecosystem]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

The Love Bottle is a reusable glass water bottle made with partially recycled glass and a ceramic swing top lid that creates a water-tight seal, although you can get a non-toxic silicone lid as well. Basics about the bottle include:

• The bottles have a cute shape and fun designs BUT they’re not too flashy, which I like.
• You can dress it up with stickers or write and draw on printed areas of the bottle.
• The bottle comes in 500 ml and 1000 ml sizes. It’s noted that the smaller size fits most car water holders.
• They offer a nice reusable non-toxic silicone funnel, which is a great idea for limiting water waste.
• Made in China (not great) but the company claims that they’re made responsibly, although I don’t think they’re a member of a Fair Trade group. They also state that their current goal is to move production to the U.S.
• You can design your own.

Obviously there are huge eco-benefits to glass water bottles. They won’t leech anything into your water, they won’t taint the taste, and they’re recyclable. Downsides – glass is heavy, breakable, sweats, and not a good natural insulator like stainless steel water bottles.

To keep your water cold, Love Bottle offers neoprene bottle carriers in pink or black for both sizes with drawstring closure and adjustable strap. BUT keep in mind that neoprene is not an eco-friendly product. I’d skip this water bottle carrier and go with a greener option like…

• NeoGreene Insulated Bottle Tote
• Hemp water bottle sling
• Earthlust Insulated Hemp Water Bottle Holder

Overall, this is one nice alternative if you’re looking for a glass water bottle. What do you think? Would you use a glass water bottle instead of plastic or stainless steel?

Visit Love Bottle to learn more.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

San Francisco already covets the highest recycling rate in the nation but city officials think that the city could do better than a 72% recycling rate.

I can see the pros here, I mean, obviously I want people to recycle, but personally, I’m thinking the cons may outweigh the pros of hitting that 75% recycling rate. I’m of the mindset that you can’t force things, green or otherwise on people (barring the serious stuff – yeah, please don’t shoot people). Once you impose fines on recycling what’s next? Fines for not carrying a reusable grocery bag or fines if you can’t afford solar panels on your house? What about fines for feeding your kids non-organics. I mean, it gets pretty sticky.

I also don’t like that recycling is being singled out in this way, as if recycling is the most important green act you could do. It seems to take importance off other issues. Lastly, when green gets pushy, green doesn’t make friends. I’ve seen it a million times. Once green folks say “YOU HAVE TO DO THIS” we loose people in the cause because forcible green is one, not cool, and two, not as effective as people going green on their own.

On the flip side, we do fine folks for things like littering, and not recycling is one of the most littering thing you can do.

I don’t know. My whole deal with green is helping folks to realize that small green steps can build up until you naturally succeeds at a higher level of green living on your own terms. That’s a green lifestyle that lasts. Forcing recycling… it means well, but it may be too much.

What do you think?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

1. Donate – many schools, community centers, homeless shelters, and other organizations would be happy to take your magazines. Don’t forget about your pals and family members too.
2. Make a nice full color cookbook on the cheap.
3. Help your kiddos to make a super cool DIY dollhouse.
4. Make some amazing coasters or bowls for your own home or to give as holiday gifts.
5. Grab a piece of recycled plywood, the pile of mags and make a chair or make a cool table.
6. Save them up and during the holidays choose festive pages to wrap gifts with.
7. Make homemade stickers for the kids.
8. Make beautiful homemade jewelry – it looks great I promise.
9. Save them, shred them, and use as packing material for a move or holiday gift sending – the benefit over newspaper is no stains on items. You can also simply crumple the pages for packing material.
10. Make the coolest garbage can you’ve ever seen – ironic because you’re keeping mags out of the trash by making it!

What other ideas do you have for old magazines? Really the possibilities are endless. I’ve got a lot of other ideas in my head right now – tell me yours…

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Aveda has a brand new Caps Recycling Program. Aveda is working with their network of salons and stores, in partnership with community schools, to build a program that recycles those pesky caps we keep tossing out.

How it works: Plastic bottle caps will be collected at stores and schools and then sent by Aveda to a recycling company so that the caps can be made into new caps and containers.

What type of caps does Aveda collect?: The program will take caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic. This is also known as sometimes called plastic #5. In fact, if you’re lucky you can spot a 5 marked on said plastic – but not always. You can also tell if a cap is #5 because it’ll twist onto a bottle with a threaded neck. Examples: “Caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.”

NOT recyclable are things like non-rigid plastic lids yogurt lids, tub lids (margarine, cottage cheese), and screw on lids that are not rigid) and pharmaceutical lids.

To get involved:

• Take your lids to an Aveda near you.
• Parents can learn more here.
• Teachers can learn more here.
• Contact capcollection@aveda.com if you’d like to enroll your school in the program.

Also note that Whole Foods + Preserve offer a cap recycling program as well.

[image via Aveda]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

I show up at school to pick Cedar up yesterday and he immediately grabs a toilet paper tube that he’s made into a “Weapon” – great. He sliced the edges all ragged and says, “You sure could get rid of a dangerous person with this.” Perfect. Not sure who he needs to get rid of, but at least he’s recycling, so trying to be supportive, I say, “Wow, what a great TP roll weapon!… You sure do love TP rolls.” To which he replies, “Not as much as I love you.”

Thank god for small favors right? The boy likes me more than his rolls. Nice. In case you’ve missed our other toilet paper roll adventures, here’s a little recap:

Sometimes Recycling is an Emergency! - Cedar trying to give me a heart attack, about what else, a toilet paper tube. This story was actually featured in a great green book you should check out, Celebrate Green.

How to reuse toilet paper tubes – handy reuse tips for kids, criminals, and more – just what the title says.

Two Weeks Worth of Reuse – tips included for recycling all sorts of household goods, including, yes, toilet paper tubes.

And just in case your kiddo is not so into recycling as Cedar, read, One Small Step: Make Recycling Easy for Kids.

What sort of recycling is your child obsessed with? And more importantly, does he like you more still?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Today’s green question appeared on the post, 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies; a reader asked, “I have some old floor cleaners, wax, ect.. what’s the best way to get rid of it with out hurting the environment?”

First of all you’ll need to know which household cleaners are worth keeping, and which should be tossed. You can read the following post; How many cleaning supplies are under your sink that your child could safely drink? to sort out your chemicals.

Secondly, you don’t want to toss them in the sink. Cleaners can be just as toxic to the environment as paint or other hazardous materials so allowing them into the groundwater system is no good. You need to dispose of them correctly.

WHERE TO DISPOSE OF YOUR ICKY CLEANERS:

Apartment Therapy has a nice informative post up for people who live in large urban areas (i.e. NY, San Fran, etc) – Where to Rid of Your Toxic Household Cleaners but this won’t help if you live elsewhere.

Some other ideas…

• Earth 911 lets you search for recycling centers and household cleaners are included.
• Check with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Their household toxic waste disposal page lists tips for proper use and disposal of waste (like cleaners) and offers ideas about where to drop off these items in your community.
• Your local recycling center is a good place to start. Even if your general recycling center won’t accept old cleaners, they’ll be able to tell you who will.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

ABOUT THE NEW MOVIE:

I recently posted about Disneynature’s Earth – but in case you missed it, here’s a quick recap. Disneynature’s Earth is a brand new Disney flick premiering on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. As noted previously, this flick is narrated by James Earl Jones and follows three families of animals through their daily lives – whales, polar bears, and elephants. This movie is just one of the great ways you and your family can celebrate Earth Day this year. See the movie trailer!

ABOUT THE PRIZE:

One Tree Hugging Family is going to win an amazing prize package courtesy of Disneynature. This Earth-branded prize pack is valued at $60, and includes a canvas tote, a reusable grocery bag, a biodegradable tumbler, a tree seedling, and more!

HOW TO WIN:

Leave a comment on this post telling me how you and your family are celebrating Earth Day this year.

RULES:

1. If you don’t follow the ONE how to enter rule above I’ll delete your comment. Yup, comments that say something lame like, “Hey, enter me” will be deleted.
2. Anyone (minus yours truly) can enter once starting… NOW.
3. Comment entries must be posted by April 17, 2009 – midnight my time (west coast).

I’ll randomly draw a winner on April 18th, post the winner here, and send the winner an email with more details.

Good luck!

[images courtesy of Disneynature’s Earth]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

The best thing to do with plastic jugs?….

Leave them on the shelf – don’t buy them unless you’re dedicated to recycling them. They will never biodegrade. They’ll just sit in that old landfill forever.

That said, there are other options for plastic jug reuse.

Cutting the top off at an angle you can make a toilet brush holder.

Cutting the bottom off allows you to make a pretend megaphone for the kiddos, a scooper for legos, rocks, soil, dog doo, or anything else you fancy scooping up. Great kid shovel too.

Cutting off the bottom and saving it gives you a nice square seed starter (punch small holes for drainage), or you can use the bottoms as kid paint tray; because they’re semi-flat your little can mix colors in the tray easily.

You can fill it with water and place it in your toilet (older models only) for water savings.

Cut just a little of the top off (leave the handle) and use it for picking berries in the summer.

Wash em, and use them for mixing up other drinks. Good for camping too – take beverages or water along.

For the truly ambitious:

• Create a milk jug solar heating system.
• Build a bridge that can support 36,000 pounds- oh, yes you can.

What other good reuses do plastic milk jugs have at your house?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

First of all, containers aside, milk is one of the foods that should be on your ONLY buy organic list. Organic milk (and all dairy products made with organic milk) won’t contain antibiotics, pesticides, or synthetic hormones, among other junk you don’t need in your body. Of course some folks think that organic milk doesn’t win out over conventional; that’s a choice you need to make on your own. However, no matter the milk you buy, the packaging does matter.

Glass or biodegradable packaging is best: Sadly, these are the least likely types of milk packaging you’ll see at stores. However, if your store sells milk in glass, it’s a good option (if you recycle). One UK company is making biodegradable milk cartons now (with cardboard and corn starch) and hopefully more companies will follow suit.

Plastic Jugs: Plastic milk jugs aren’t the best option, mainly because while they can be recycled, very few families are doing so religiously. Plastics overall, according to the EPA are seriously under recycled. Bad news considering that all you have to do is toss the jug into your bin.

Waxed paper milk cartons: Because of the mixed quality of these cartons it might seem like you can’t recycle them but you can. The catch is that you have to live in an area that has milk carton recycling. It’s not a universal practice. Check and see if you can recycle them in your community. If so, go for it, but if not, avoid buying them.

Shape matters: The shape of milk container you buy does matter. Shape can affect shipping costs, amount of gas used, and recycling rates. To learn about one remade milk jug, and the benefits (plus a few handling cons) read this New York Times piece; Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth.

The final deal: Mainly there is no perfect milk container (minus the cow) that’s universally used. If everyone made and purchased biodegradable containers it’d be one thing, but that’s not a reality. What the sustainable milk carton comes down to for most of us, is what you do with it once it’s empty; which of course means you need to recycle it.

To learn more about organic milk choices read the Dairy Scorecard.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family