Written on
March 9, 2009 by
SusanC
To many of us, poaching is an unfamiliar term and practice. It happens on African savannahs and involves clandestine ivory sales.
Unfortunately, the face of poaching is a very real and ugly one in more places than we care to think about.
I recently joined a viral action network whose goal is to raise awareness and ignite action to stop a little known poaching practice that is occurring right now- bear bile farming. Posing as buyers and suppliers in the illegal wildlife trade, eco-warriors have taken hidden cameras where some of the most heinous crimes against nature are taking place: on bear bile farms in China.
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Written on
March 6, 2009 by
SusanC
Here are some of our favorite posts from around the greenosphere this week, to help start your weekend a bit greener.
Monday No Impact Man posted a sobering but important article about “the toxic mess left behind when Texaco withdrew from the Ecuadorian Amazon in the 1990s,” inspired by Joe Berlinger’s new documentary Crude.
Monday Earth 911 covered green office remodeling; thinking your office could use a green spacelift? Learn how to get started!
Tuesday Northwest Mom Finds featured adorable playhouse scavenger hunt cards from Blynken & Nod. Need a game to get your little runs outside? Northwest Mom Finds can probably help!
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Written on
March 5, 2009 by
SusanC
Reduce, reuse and recycle. We all understand the importance of the three “R’s” of being environmentally responsible. I believe there is another part of the circle that is often overlooked, and I think it is the most important part.
I am referring to supporting the market for your carefully recycled cast-offs.
When you buy something, look for items made from a high percentage of post-consumer recycled materials. It doesn’t matter how many plastic bottles, newspapers, cardboard boxes and tin cans we throw in the recycle bin. If there is no market for these materials, the recycling industry will disappear.
In west Texas, for example, it is very difficult to recycle glass.
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Written on
March 3, 2009 by
SusanC
Post title from The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Water is really, really important stuff. It’s that clear liquid that quenches your thirst, cleans your body (and clothes and kitchens and loved ones too!) and accounts for about 55-70% of your body weight. Clean water is essential to life, and if you don’t agree, just ask anyone who doesn’t have access to it.
So, if you’re anything like I was, you realize that there’s a problem, but you’re not really sure what you can do. You use water all the time, and everything that you use seems to be cleaned or manufactured with water–but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to know where to start to make a difference.
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Written on
March 2, 2009 by
SusanC
It’s that time of year again to go through our homes, clean out the cobwebs, and freshen up things for spring. I don’t know about you, but this has never been one of my favorite tasks! Nonetheless it needs to be done, so, what better time could there be to start introducing some green cleaning and de-cluttering ideas into our homes? Moreover, why not have some company along the way?
Here are some of my favorite sites and blogs that are taking on this challenge throughout the month of March and the rest of the year:
FlyLady.net– It can’t get more simple than FlyLady!
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Written on
March 2, 2009 by
SusanC
As Bummas graciously offered to give away two sets of their super absorbent and eco-friendly clothes for baby bums the world ’round, we have two! winners for this particular giveaway.
The first winner is… (imaginary drumroll, please): Commenter #12, Danielle!
And the second winner? Commenter #135, Amy H.!
Congratulations! ladies.
And a big thanks to everyone for entering!
Be sure to check back later this week as we’ll be featuring another great green giveaway for you to win!
An original 5 Minutes For Going Green post.
Have a great green product you would like to see featured on the site? Email me at 5minutesforgoinggreen(at)gmail.com.
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Written on
February 27, 2009 by
SusanC
After a reading a few comments on my post called Saving Green by Going Green, I thought that the topic of clothes drying could use a little more attention. So, this week I am going to focus in on a few different issues about living green and drying our clothes that I believe everyone can benefit from.
First of all, it was brought to my attention that the dryer balls I referred to in my original post were, indeed, made of PVC, which is obviously not a green material. With that said, I was assured by distributors of these balls that they are made with safe practices, but let’s face it, any way we can avoid PVC (especially heating it) is probably a good idea.
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Written on
February 26, 2009 by
SusanC
Until I met my husband I didn’t like coffee. I was a tea person and maybe the occasional whipped cream topped, syrup flavored something, but even that was rare. Now, I’ll go through three or four cups in the morning and I almost always have another pot brewing by afternoon.
Have you really looked at all the “green” factors that can go into a truly green cup of coffee? I’m not going to throw facts and figures at you and try to scare you. That’s just not my style; I like to blog about what I learn and how I understand it.
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Written on
February 25, 2009 by
SusanC
Surprisingly, many of us don’t.
The tuna you had on the salad last night may have been from waters off the coast of India. Your farmed raised tilapia may have been raised on a farm in Indonesia. At the end of the day, what safe fish options do we actually have?
I know there are many of you that do not eat any kind flesh, including fish, but many of us enjoy the bounty of the seas.
So what is a greeny to do?
There are quite a few things we can easily do, the most obvious of which is reading labels.
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Most curbside recycling programs and collection centers accept a very specific and somewhat limited set of items. The usual suspects are #1 and #2 plastics, paper of all kinds, and aluminum cans. Sometimes corrugated cardboard, metal food cans, and glass containers are accepted as well. But in our over-packaged society, there’s always a lot of waste left behind after the recycling bins have been carried out.
Over the last few years, I’ve stumbled onto a few less-conventional avenues for recycling and reusing some things that our curbside recycling won’t take. By making a few calls around town, you might be able to find places to offload your extra odds and ends.
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