Green Daily

I had to laugh while scouring the internet today. I found a sincere post from Cheryl in Alabama, on Homesteading Today, who had started experiementing with letting her foul go free range. "The ducks, the geese and the chickens so far are reasonably mannered ... But the TURKEYS," she writes, " they get on the cars."

Apparently she tries to shoo them away with a broom but it does little to keep them off her automobile. I found this all very amusing as I have never raised turkeys. What struck me as even funnier than that was the fact that this is a common problem.

Not sure how to reuse those odds and ends around the house? Happen to have a furry friend? Well, you're in luck. Here are a few items that can be turned into toys for your buddy.

• Turn an old sock and some string into a cat "mouse." Simply cut the sock in half, sew it up in a mouse shape, and leave a small opening. Stuff one half into the other half, and attach the string tail with a few more stitches, and voila.
• Old shoelaces - especially the rawhide ones - make for hours of kitty fun. You can also tie them to a plastic wiffle ball and tie the other end to a doorknob, if you're lazy.
  
• If you buy milk with a plastic cap, remove the circle of plastic that attaches the cap to the bottle, toss it onto the floor, and watch your cats explode with happiness. (It's the cheapest toys that provide the most entertainment value...)
• If that throw rug gets old and ratty, or you get your carpets replaced, cut up some scraps and staple them with a staple gun to a old wooden board. Bingo: instant scratching post.
• An old box or paper bag can be a great hideout. Or use your ripped blankets or sheets atop a stiff cardboard box for a window perch.

In this case, eating "greener" refers to both the food itself (healthier, nutrient-rich foods) and the path it took to get to your table (organically, locally grown).

Eat.Drink.Better offers many tips, including (big surprise): STOP EATING MEAT; only buy in bulk if you'll actually eat it; use tons of coupons, and grow your own food.

I like the author's emphasis on not wasting food. It's something many people don't think about, but buying tons of organic food, letting it go bad, and throwing it away is just as bad as not buying organic in the first place. The food still sits on the landfill for awhile and takes up space.

Now that we've learned how to correctly spell Compact Fluorescent Light bulb, let's discuss what is dangerous about these bulbs.

They've got mercury in them. A teaspoon of mercury destroys Superman and all of his comic book friends. Dorothy and Toto get obliterated. The Lion can't save them. Mercury doesn't go in landfills--at least not when the landfill police are watching--and it doesn't go in the recycling bin. It's unsafe for both.

"Where oh where can the mercury go," you and your little friend Toto ask.

Just click your heels three times, Dorothy, and you'll find yourself in one of two places: The local hazardous material disposal station or at lightbulbrecycling.com.

Don't forget, the latest Bond villain isn't an evil communist with his heart set on world domination -- he's a greenwasher. That's right: mislead the public about your environmental intentions and 007 will kill you.

So, in keeping with that eco-friendly spirit -- even though he's not technically James Bond anymore (but he always will be in our hearts!) -- Pierce Brosnan is offering a series of easy-to-implement tips for green living that you can incorporate at home.


Check out the gallery for our five favorite tips, or visit Pierce's (somewhat over-the-top) personal website to read the full list.

[via ecorazzi]

The nail polish in your collection might be outdated or perhaps you've decided that you no longer want to wear the stuff. Whatever the reason, instead of just throwing it in the trash, keep it around the house for some quick fixes and when the clear bottle is empty, recycle that bad boy.

Here are five ways that nail polish can save your life (or at least be re-purposed)!

1. Keys. Use nail polish to mark the keys on your key ring different colors so you can tell them apart in a jiffy.
2. Frayed ends. Every woman knows that nail polish will stop a run in her pantyhose, but did you know that it will end shoe lace fraying? Just dip the ends into a bottle of polish and allow to dry.
3. Carpentry. Painting nail polish on the threads of a screw before inserting will provide you with a tight finish.
4. Wart remover. I won't vouch for whether this is a good idea for your health, but supposedly painting nail polish over a wart will cause it to go away in a week's time.
5. Fill. Nail polish can be used to fill in small chips or cracks in ceramics, wood floors and plastics. However, for holes in your walls, reach for the toothpaste.

One of our readers recently posted a reply to Plastic Recycling by the Numbers. She'd heard that plastics labeled 3, 6 and 7 were not only toxic but bad for the environment if you recycled them. We've posted a couple of times on plastics and their numbers. Let's go over what we know.

If you throw your #3s and 4s and 5s into your recycling bin, and your city doesn't recycle them, you jeopardize the whole lot of plastics. If a group of plastics has too many types that can't be recycled as #1 and #2 can then there is a chance that plastic will be landfilled or shipped overseas. It's a matter of sorting. You'll also sabotage your own recycling efforts if you don't remove labels, caps and food matter. Your plastic water bottle may be a #1 but the cap is not. Throw it away.

That said, while some of these other plastics can release toxins like phthalates and Bisphenol A, that doesn't mean

I watch a lot of home improvement shows and nearly every episode includes a bathroom demo and rebuild. Sometimes I watch in horror as beautiful sixty-year-old tiles are pried from walls and rain in clumps onto the tub and bathroom floor. The tiles are then shoveled out to a dumpster. It always strikes me as a big wast of potential. This is what sparked today's "five ways."

1. Pieces of broken tile can be placed in the bottom of flower pots to improve drainage.
2. You can also put then on top of the soil in your planters to create "pot toppings," giving your greenery a "finished look."
3. Glue a piece of cork to the back for a new coaster.
4. It will be difficult to get the grout off in most cases to tile another bathroom. However, the tiles can be pressed into fresh cement to dress up pavers and sidewalks.
5. Chunks of slate tile can make fun mini chalkboards.

Other ideas can be found over at Ellen's post, "Five ways to reuse: Broken dishes."

Yesterday a commenter asked about whether Ziploc bags could be recycled. I know that aren't recycled in my city and I'm going to take a stab and say that one of the reasons why is because they are made from more than one type of plastic which would make separation of the actual bag from the "ziploc" difficult and expensive. These bags also fall under plastic type number 4 which in general, is rarely recycled.

Fortunately there are not only plenty of alternatives to Ziploc and other sandwich bags but there are several ways to reuse them.

1. Sandwich bags can easily be washed to hold foods once again. You can even make your own drying rack. If you are uncomfortable reusing them to contain foods, they are great for containing your marble collection, toenail clippings or dryer lint.
2. By cutting a small hole in the corner of a baggie, you have an instant icing bag. I've done this before with great results.
3. You can clean them and save them up to make a wreath ... if you're into that sort of thing.
4. Cut the baggies into strips and crochet them into ocean critters.
5. Place a recipe card inside them while cooking to protect the paper from any splatters.

I've owned my home for over five years and I still get mail addressed to several previous occupants as this house was once a rental. It's rather annoying inscribing, "return to sender," on every piece of mail and if the sender didn't pay for first class postage, they will never know about the bad address.

There are ways, however, to stop the mail from even crossing your threshold. We've covered how to stop excessive junk mail addressed to you, but there are special steps that need to be taken to end service for previous occupants.

The other day I returned from the convenience store, put my newly purchased items away and headed to the back of the house to add two fresh plastic bags to the collection. It was then that it hit me that I had not one, but TWO contraband plastic bags in my hand. I turned my husband, let out an explicative and declared myself a failure early in the challenge.

Last week I invited everyone to join me in using reusable bags exclusively for purchases and saying, "goodbye" to the plastic bag. It's a habit that I have yet to acquire and I'm working hard to do so.

The water calculator is a great way to see, on average, how much water you use per year in comparison to the rest of the country.

A few caveats, though:

a) The "quick" calculator option is fairly limiting and could have a high margin of error. For instance, because I entered "female" and "vegetarian" (no vegan option) into the system, the calculator assumed that, because I don't eat meat, I eat a comparatively higher amount of dairy and "cereal" (I think they mean carbs in general), which isn't true. Best to go with the "extended" version.

b)The site only allows you to enter your food consumption in kilograms, so if you're like me and don't know offhand how many kilograms of fruit you eat per week, convert it to pounds.

Again, as a warning, I'm not sure how accurate this is - but I'm somehow confident that our readers will be sure to let us know! The site does have some interesting stats and studies, which are worth checking out.

• The painfully obvious: a pet toy (if you don't have a pet, donate them to local shelters)
  
• Cut them in half, and...and use them as jar openers
• ...hold a hot lightbulb as you change it
• ...slip it under chair legs to eliminate smudges and noise, or under a walker
• ...stick it on top of your tow bar (the bar on the back of a vehicle used to tow a trailer) to prevent rust and keep your clothes grease-free
  

When you yank your clothes out of the dryer, don't toss the used dryer sheet. It's perfect for plenty of household tasks.

• Run it over electronics, mirrors, venetian blinds and hard surfaces to remove lint and dust
• Clean your iron by running the sheet over the iron's surface at medium heat.
• Stick them into suitcases before you travel to keep clothes and shoes fresh
• Run your needle through it so your thread won't tangle as you sew
• Place them at the bottom of your new trash bags to soak up liquids and prevent gross odors

Keep in mind, it's not a great idea to use sheets on your animals, or keep scented sheets near family members with allergies. There are tons more uses for your used sheets...add your suggestions in the comments section, and keep reading GD for more tips in the future.

Sure you are probably familiar with the "3 Rs;" reduce, reuse, recycle. Did you know that there are actually 8? Me neither. Here are the five that I was missing.

1. Respect the earth. Look at your life like a camping trip and leave the earth cleaner than how you found it.
   
2. Responsibility for protecting the earth and its resources fall onto us.
3. Rethink the way that you have always been doing things and change for the better.
4. Refuse your wants and focus on your needs. New technology and fashion turn us into major consumers. Learn how to settle for last year's model.
   
5. Repair before buying new. Though it may be more expensive to pay someone to repair your electronics, the internet is full of "how to" sites that can direct you in how to make simple fixes. This will give you a great amount of satisfaction and save the world.