Textile Recycling

I don't want to throw old clothes out! But, if you can't / don't want to make rags out of them, what do you do?

The only thing I have found close to being able to recycle clothing and textiles is ALA Recycling. (www.alarecycling.com) But it isn't apparent on their website if you can drop off smal quantities of stuff to them - they may only operate in big markets....

Will find out more soon.... it's worth looking in to!

Movie Review: Garbage Warrior

We just finished watching a very exciting documentary about Michael Reynolds - creator of the Earthship style of home. These homes are ingenious in how they are self sustaining living spaces, where water, food, heat, electricity and even sewage treatment are taken care of by the house.

The movie follows his 40 year journey into the world of experimental building, using recycled materials, earth and passive solar rays to create houses that are a living part of the landscape. We also see his battle with the government to legalize experimental building and also how he and his team helped to teach people in several different countries to build earthships as housing after the devastating tsunami and hurricane Rita.

It is a very inspirational story of how one person has not only made a difference, but taught others to do so as well.

Check out more about the Earthships at www.earthship.net

Green Glasses

While Recycling is definitely a great thing, it's easy to forget the order of the three R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They are in this specific order for a very good reason - the less you use, the less waste and energy it takes to create something. Reusing an item allows that energy to be more efficient. Recycling an item that has lost its usefulness ensures that it can be useful again.

So... onto our kitchen cabinet. Our glasses collection is a combination of novelty glasses (Bull and Bush Pub in Colorado, Freddie Flintstone from a fast food chain) , some regular glasses, and our reused glasses.

From left to right --

- Curious George makes pancakes on a jelly jar.

- POM pomegranate juice came in this modern, tall glass.

-Another type of jam, Queenie the Cow goes skiing and builds a snowman.

-A mini mason jar from Green Mountain Gringo Salsa (of Vermont). Mmmm... I will collect more of those!

So next time you break a glass or need more for guests coming over, have fun collecting your own personalized set of glasses. Drink up!

Pedal Power!

Even before we took our honeymoon trip to Peru, my husband was reading the Peruvian times to get a sense of what things are going on there. he found a very interesting article the other day - bicycle powered streetlights in Lima! It really is a perfect idea, free stationary bikes for folks who don't like being inside a gym and the power stores in batteries to run the streetlights at night!

Pedal power: Lima parks to be illuminated with stationary bike-produced energy

Environment - Posted on July, 17 at 12:34 am

Lima’s district of San Borja has launched a “pedal-a-watt” program, which aims to power street and park lights with ecological and renewable energy produced by stationary bicycles capable of creating electricity from human effort.

“The idea is to start lighting up our parks with renewable energy, as well as taking advantage of the fact that San Borja has a sports and parks circuit,” the Manager of San Borja’s Environmental Office, Hernán García, told official state news agency Andina.

The specially adapted bicycles to be installed in San Borja’s parks will keep users aerobically fit, while creating power stored in a battery and then tapped after dark, to power street and park lights.

“We afford to lag behind,” added García. “They are already using this type of technology in European parks. Our aim is to teach people that renewable energy is beneficial.”

Go with the FLOW

Another must see movie! If you drink, bathe, cook and wash with water (and I know you do) go out and rent "FLOW" - For Love Of Water.

One of the most important issues in the world today hardly gets any press - water rights, the privatization of water and the lack of clean drinking water for a large portion of the population. Without water, we have no life.

Living in New England, especially after the most rainy spring in decades, it is easy to take water for granted. Only for a short while in high summer do droughts occasionally occur, and towns limit lawn watering to every other day. Someone living in Arizona or California should naturally have a bit more respect for water - although the way they build golf courses out there, it is not always the case.

But no matter how rainy or dry it is where you live, everyone should have a very healthy respect for water. Funny enough, the night I watched the movie our tap water turned brown due to the town flushing out the pipes. Instantly, we did not want to drink or bathe in the light brown water, and happened to have two bottles of water in the fridge we could drink in the meantime. But this is where the problem lies - for although your area may be rich in water, many companies are bottling water, common tap water, and selling it all over the world at very high prices. Folks in Minnesota noticed their streams, creeks and ground water levels decline when Nestle Waters moved in and started pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons a day. In essence, Nestle is taking water for free that should belong to the people, and selling it back to them at exorbitant prices.

But that is not even close to the worst case- multinational companies that privatize water systems are actually depriving people of water around the world, selling substandard water back to people who can't afford to pay for it. These people must then resort to using polluted water, and many of them die from water bourne bacteria. In Bolivia there were riots for many years against the water privitazation that was forced upon them by the world bank - just a few years ago the people won and were given back the right to control their own water.

In Peru, strikes against the privatization of water have been frequent - in fact, on our honeymoon my husband and I saw one in the square in Cusco. Many farmers and peasants, a lot of them looking quite nervous, marched in the Plaza de Armas. Police and soldiers lined the edges of the Plaza, keeping an eye on the march. The people put rocks in the road on the way to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu to stop tourists from getting to the site and draw attention to their cause. Thankfully (for us), the strike was only one day long and we were able to travel to Olantaytambo and start our Inka Trail adventure the next day. We did see the remnants of the rocks in the street however, and out bus driver really had to be careful and swerve around debris still in the road. Hopefully, the power of the people can stop the impending destruction that one of these water companies would cause.

Water is such an important part of every human being's life, and should be free and clean for all as nature intended. See FLOW and you will be reminded of what is most important in life - and makes up 70% of YOU!

Poo to the rescue

Holy Moly! I have a question for you. What kind of car would smell worse than a gasoline or deisel engine car? A Urine powered car of course!

Ha ha, just kidding, it probably won't smell at all. Just because a car battery, or any other types of battery could be powered by pee doesn't mean it would smell does it?

Chekc out the lastest in eco-science- finally a ues for that annoying waste product we call Number One. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31805166/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

Of course, then you ask, well if Number One is so special, how about Number Two? Eh?

Don't worry, in the same vein as pee power, soon instead of dropping the kids off at the pool, they will be working for the man, creating energy. http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20041002234802data_trunc_sys.shtml

"Oh, no! That is gross." you say? Well, if you've got a better idea about what to do with all of your waste, let me know! And yes, if you have and use a composting toilet, you already get 100 points.

Food Inc.

We have a joke in our house. When I offer my husband some organic whole wheat bread or organic pop tarts, or he washes up with the soap made right here in Massachusetts by bicycle power, he often asks, "Why is everything in this house gay?"

Of course what he means by gay is hippie. Or eco friendly, whatever. My response is always the same: "Because you're gay." And the discussion ends with a lot of laughing.

But we just went to see an amazing movie - one that finally puts together all of the peices about the food industry and why it is a system that is collapsing in on itself. If you eat food, you should see this movie: Food, Inc. http://www.foodincmovie.com/ And I am going to guess that, yes, you eat food.

This isn't a movie that preaches about being a vegetarian or vegan, they don't even mention the fact that going veggie is a great eco friendly move. Properly raised meat has it's place ina healthy ecosystem, too. They simply present the facts - the extremely disturbing facts - about where our food comes from and how it gets to the table. Factory farmed meats are the most controversial and disgusting part of the picture, but of course the movie also touches on the evils of giant corporations patenting genetically modified seeds, and suing small farmers for keeping their own no modified seeds instead of buying from them.

But instead of never eating ever again, following the green rules will help to create healthier planet with healthier people - buying local, buying organic, and demanding better laws protecting our food sources. www.takepart.com/foodinc is a great place to start!