Cradle to grave

My father created a prototype for a label that would go on our foods to show the environmental impacts of each food. I think it's a great idea and it really shows you just how much energy it takes to get something like a piece of steak from the cow to the plate. Take a look at it and if you like it, tell your friends. I think this should be something we NEED to be seeing when we go to pour ourselves a bowl of cereal.

Corn-based giftcards

So I got a new gift card in the mail from Target. On the back it says it's made from a corn based material that is completely bio-degradable! If I can find these in the stores I will be getting these from now on!
I think it's the same material they've been using to replace the plastic for plastic plates and cups. Hope to see these things in the store.

Juice and Soda bottles

Besides recycling your large plastic juice and soda bottles I decided to reuse them. I fill them with water and put them in my food storage. It's always a good idea to have bottled water available in case something happens and you are without running water.

Household batteries

My camera takes up a ton of batteries and I have never recycled them before. After doing a bit of research on it I realized it's not as difficult as it seems. I looked into rechargeable batteries to see if they were better for the environment and it turns out they have more heavy metals in them than regular batteries, BUT if you recycle them then it is worth it and does help the environment, if you don't, you aren't being as environmentally conscious as you thought. I found a great website that tells you where you can recycle your rechargeable batteries, you just enter your zip code. The places you can take them to be recycled are actually stores you already shop at like Best Buy, Target, or Sears! How easy is that? Click here to check it out.

Milk jugs

When I lived in New York, our elementary school sold milk in little bags. It's a great idea! (Although someone needs to at least explain to you that when you stab your straw into the bag to keep the other end covered by your finger or you'll shoot milk a few feet :))



Did you know if we switched our jugs to plastic bags like several countries we could reduce our waste by up to 75%!

Although the U.S. is probably not ready for the milk "bags", we WILL start to see a new design for milk jugs that are more cost efficient (meaning cheaper prices for us) and better for the environment. Click here to read about them and see a picture. So when buying milk, shop at stores that sell the new design.

Do you know..

...your carbon footprint? It's said that each of us would need to plant 4 trees every month to compensate for the amount of carbon dioxide we generate.

Green Dimes

For $20 you can sign up for green dimes, which will help you reduce your amount of junk mail, they will also plant 5 trees in your name with part of the one time fee. If you're too cheap to spend the twenty dollars, (like me) they have a free version. It's a little more work but still can drastically reduce all of that junk mail and possibly help reduce the amount of garbage you throw out and trees being cut down in waste. I definitely plan on getting the premium version in the future. What a great idea! Click here to look into it.