Locker Clean-out

With the end of the school year rapidly approaching, it's locker clean-out time!

So this is just a list of a few recyclable items commonly found in lockers:

-Water bottles

-Random worksheets, tests, and home papers

-Unused looseleaf and binders

-locker shelves and organizers--they're durable and can probably be used again in the fall

-old textbooks

-highlights, pens, and pencils--if they haven't run out, save them for next school year

-extra clothes--don't just throw them out because you let rot in your locker for a year! One round in the washer and they'll be good as new.

Light the way to a GREENer Future

Hey readers!

Did you know that lighting accounts for nearly 20% of the average home's electric bill?

With Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs--more commonly known as CLFs--you can back some of that cost. CLFs last TEN times longer than incandescent lightbulbs, and pay for themselves in a little over six months.

PLUS, they're great for the environment because they uses 75% less energy which reduces the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere. In fact, ENERGY STAR qualified CLF bulbs release no mercury at all when they are in proper use!

So have your parents look into fluorescent bulbs. Save the planet, and your money too!

For more info, go to Energystar.gov

Go Green :)

Nature at its Best

Hey Readers,

So I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. last Sunday. The view was fantastically amazing. I have never been surrounded by so many gorgeous flowers at once. Everytime the wind rustled the branches the smell was intoxicating; pelts swirled from above, landing in my hair, fluttering down onto my lashes, tickling my nose and cheeks.

There were tulips too, bed after bed of tulips, in brilliantly vivid colors. And while I was frolicking--yes, frolicking--through these tulips, all I could think about was how wonderful nature is, and how if people would just look around they would realize that the planet they live on is radiant with beauty, natural beauty, the purest of pure.

We need to take care of our Earth.

It's our home, it's the only one we have.

So let's save it.

RECYCLE.
Save your planet, love your world :)

Seventeen Goes Green

Get this month’s issue of Seventeen Magazine. They have an entire section dedicated to Going Green!

Here’s a little preview:

Five New Ways to Recycle

1. Skip the drive-thru at fast food joints

2. Don't print ATM receipts

3. Buy handbags made from recycled materials (demin or organic totes are most common)

4.Recycle all junk mail

5. check out WorldofGood.com

Save your planet. It'll thank you later :)

Sources: Seventeen Mag

The Norm

Hey Readers.
I'm sorry to report that I don't have any fun, new recycling facts for you today. I have strep throat (Terrible, I know. It feels like someone ran a razor-blade over my vocal cords. Ugh.) so I've been down for the count since Sunday evening.

Anyway, I just wanted to hit you up with your regular weekly reminder to:

REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE :)

Another cool recycling website

Recycle Bank

I found another fantastic website. It rewards "Greenies" (people who recycle or have 'gone green').

Recycle Bank is a company that rewards households in over 12 states for recycling with a program that is similar to how airlines give you rewards miles. I strongly encourage all of you to check out their website to see if their service is offered in your area.

They have a running tab in the top right corner of how many trees and gallons of oil they have saved so far.

As of five minutes ago it was:
Trees saved: 1,320,866
Gallons of oil saved: 88,233,893

Oh the Plastic!

Okay readers, we're back on plastic. Bags to be specific. I was thinking about it the other day when I came home from Target. I was unloading groceries, and I decided I would count the number of plastic bags I had used on my trip.

Final Tally: 19

Nineteen. NINETEEN! For a week’s worth of groceries! If my mother gets the exact same number of items for the next year, that’s 988 bags a year.

Thinking about that many plastic bags sitting in landfills made my head hurt. And plastic bags aren’t even biodegradable. They photodegrade, meaning they break down slowly into smaller toxins. I don't want to be responsible for the release of 988 toxins!

How icky.

So we have to recycle them, peeps. Or at least re-use them.

Plastic bags serve many purposes, so get your full use out of them instead of just throwing them away.

On the side of the Target back alone you have ten suggestions:

1. Tiny Trash Can Liner
2. Doggy Duty
3. Water Balloon
4. Road Trip Rubbish
5. Soggy Laundry
6. Ice Pack
7. Toiletry Tote
8. Kitty Litter Liner
9. Tomorrow Lunch Bag
10. Care Package Padding

Save your planet. Be the change :)

The Story of Stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Coolest recycling website ever.
CHECK IT OUT!

A few fun "Did you know?"s to get you started...

-50% of our (America's) federal tax money goes to military funding.

-1/3 of the planet's natural resource space has already been consumed.

-40% of the U.S's waterways have become undrinkable.

-In the Amazon rain forests we lose about 2,000 trees a minute. 2000 A MINUTE!

-Food with the highest level of toxic contaminants:breast milk.

If this doesn't scare you green, I don't know what will.

Save your planet. It'll thank you later :)

The Ins and Outs of 2009: Greening our World

In--
electronic e-vites

saving and then recycling catologs (that you don't want and won't use)

cameras with rechargable batteries

donating gently used and unabused clothing

shorter showers

reusable lunchboxes

monitoring your electronics and unplugging them when they're finished charging

edible birthday gifts

washable cutlery

Out--
paper invitations

tossing catologs in the TRASH as soon as you get them in the mail

cameras that run on Double or Triple A's. Give that energizer bunny a rest!

throwing away gently used or unabused clothing

wasting water on washing

paper lunchbags

leaving your wall charger plugged in after your electronic device is completely charged

inexpensive but poor-quality birthday gifts (that will most likely be tossed in the TRASH when they break)

plastic cutlery

**small but SHOCKING fact: 99% of the products purchased by Americans are thrown away within six months of their purchase.

Sources: The Story of Stuff, Mama's Rant

Vroom, Vroom!

I know now that we're at that driving age, we're all super eager to get behind the wheel. But we can't forget to conserve our fossil fuels! So a few ideas on how to cut back on gas:

1. Carpool--is cool.

Ride with a friend who lives in your area and go Dutch on the gas money.

2. Public transportation--

It's a beautiful thing. Buses and trains are cheaper than cars anyway and make plenty of stops.

3. You talk the Talk--Now walk the Walk

Use those legs! Walk when your destination is close enough. Excercise is good for you, great for your body and your health.

4. Multi-Task

Instead of making a dozen trips back adn forth, try and get as much done in one outing as possible.

5. Hang at home

Who needs cars anyway? If you're going to end up driving aimlessly, wasting precious gas and time, why not just chill at home?

Save your money, save your fossil fuels, save your planet :)

New Years Resolutions for 2009: Tinted GREEN

1. Don't run the water while you brush your teeth

2. Invest in a re-usable waterbottle

3. Use less paper and plastic cutlery

4. Shorten your showers

5. Unplug your cellphone/Ipod/laptop charger when it's charged to completion

6. Pick up trash you see in common areas (as long as it's not super grody)

7. Turn your computer off instead of putting it in sleep mode

8. Reuse aluminum foil when cooking

9. Recycle ALL paper--as always :)

Happy New Year--let it be an eco-friendly one!

Did you know?

(Some random facts about recycling that you might not yet know about recycling and why it's so a FAB-U-LOUS thing to do)

…About 40% of all the pure water in your house is flushed down the toilet.

…One aluminum can when recycled, can produce enough energy to run a TV set for three hours. That’s one Ugly Betty and two Grey’s Anatomys!

...Reusing a grocery bag for a shopping trip can save about 60,000 trees.

…Every day, more than 20,000,000 Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped. This involves 133 square miles of tinfoil, all of which is recyclable.

…If you walk a mile along the average highway in the United States you will see approximately 1457 pieces of litter.

…Each week’s Sunday paper is responsible for the loss of 500,000 trees.

…Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute!
That’s one hundred acres every sixty seconds!

…Americans use more than 67 million tons of paper per year--about 580 pounds per person.

Gooodness! That’s enough to make my head spin!
Please please please recycle.
Save your planet. It’ll thank you later :)


Sources: Recycling Revolution, Buzzle.com, Resourceful Schools

Paper or Plastic?

How about neither. You know how they say youth is wasted on the young? Well paper and plastic are wasted on the people. Here are some shocking facts that might make you think twice before reaching for that paper plate and plastic utensils.

2. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. Breaking that down, that's over one million per minute. Billions of those bags end up as litter each year.

3. Recycling one ton of paper saves about seventeen trees.

4. A plastic cup can take anywhere between fifty to eighty years to decompose.

5. Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR.

6. Eighty seven percent of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs. That's about 268 MILLION people. Two hundred and sixty eight people who could go green, but might not.

Save paper. Save plastic. Save the planet. It'll thank you later :)


Sources: Newly Green, The Paper Project, Earth 911, Greenfeet

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Hi Readers,
Here are five reasons for all you waterbottle drinkers to recycle the plastic bottles your water comes in:

1. Recycled plastic can be used to make things like trash cans, park benches, playground equipment, decks, and kayaks.

2. Today, Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 1 or 2 % of it.

3. Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR.

4. It takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture a year’s supply of bottled water. That’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.

5. Plastic bottles take 700 years before they BEGIN to decompose in a landfill.

Please, please, please recycle your water bottles. Your earth will thank you later :)

Source: Greenfeet; Earth 911

Meet our newest Column Writer Shannon

You can find Shannon here each and every Thursday. Her Column is going to be about greening the environment, going green, and how tweens and teens can recycle. Please welcome her and leave her your comments on her posts.

My name is Shannon . I put my pants on one leg at a time. I’m pro-recycling, incredibly sarcastic, and my favorite male celebrities are the Jonas Brothers. I like to jam to loud music behind closed doors. I enjoy collecting movies and current possess an extensive assortment of all my favorites. Writing is something I love to do.

Shannon