grenade fishing

I’ve been evaluating gray water systems for a potential future install in my home. They’re complicated and confusing. They also require serious planning and installation requirements. Yesterday my friend Spench told me about this - I can’t believe this was not thought of and introduced before now. It is a no-brainer and an incredibly easy solution that will save tons of water!

The AQUS™ System captures water from the bathroom sink, then filters and disinfects it to provide reused water for toilet flushing.

ThisNext just launched their Earth Day Contest. Well, not so much a ‘contest’ but more an ‘encouragement’ to product lovers everywhere. For every green product recommended, they will plant 10 trees. Now… get to it, folks!

Tips for using ThisNext: 

The image above will land yo on the “recommend” page. The easiest way to recommend a product on ThisNext:

1. Open another browser (or tab) and pull up the product you want to recommend.
2. Copy the URL from that site.
3. Go to the ThisNext browser window.
4. Paste the URL into the empty field.
5. Click “find.”
   

This should pull up existing product name and images for the item you are recommending. If it does not pull up the image, you will need to copy the image to your computer and upload it on ThisNext (rare but does happen).

Leave it to Martha to come up with some of the most amazing ways to dye your eggs naturally. Look at these beautiful botanical eggs (pictured). Even I can’t be a cynic about Easter when looking at these. Makes me want to go out and try some myself (ah, yeah right…)

For step by step instructions on numerous ways to dye and decorate your eggs using only natural ingredients, visit MarthaStewart.com.

Click on image to view an animated video about RecycledBank’s shared cash incentive to recruit participation. Unfortunate for us, it’s in Philadelphia. I think we are seeing the first of many changes to happen soon. Our friend, and sometimes foe, Competition has decided it wants to be eco-friendly too.  The increasingly burdening competition between two recyclers has created the need for self-promotion, and there’s no better promotion than “cash back.” There’s something to be said about having a little competition. (I happen to like competition,

I find this extremely encouraging. [Sadly,] I do feel that mass change will most likely happen (or happen at a much faster pace) only when the individuals are rewarded at the individual level for their actions.

Stuart Haygarth designs the most amazing lamps from reclaimed material. Above is the Tide Chandelier (2004), created entirely from man-made debris washed ashore on the Kent coastline. I find the story behind the sphere and name very enchanting. Made from translucent plastic pieces, when lit the lamp represents the moon, which effects the tide, which washes up the debris, which then is made into the Tide Chandelier.

Below left to right: Alladin (2006) made from colored glass found in flea market, Disposable Chandelier (2005) made from disposable wine glasses, and Millennium Chandelier (2004) made from party poppers. 

RELATED POSTS:

Zip Tie Lamp
Bic Pens Chandelier

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what ten things would you take with you?

Make sure one is tea tree oil. I am so not kidding you. After months of research on how to deal with mites (yes, the dogs AND the garden), the same solution kept coming up over and over again. Tea tree oil. It is one of nature’s phenomenon (It may out-do vinegar and borax). Tea tree oil provides a shocking amount of healing benefits. From what I’ve experienced so far, it does work amazingly.

MEDICINAL BENEFITS

antibacterial    antiviral    antiseptic    antifungal    analgesic (pain)    anti-inflammatory    sinus congestion    cicatrizant (wound-healing)    dandruff    acne    skin spots    insect repellent    mites    demodex    chiggers    scapies    lice    fleas    anti-itch    bug bites    warts    boils    cold sores    ringworm   athletes foot   nail fungus    yeast infections   diaper rash   

A FEW NEGATIVES

It is poisonous to pets, even ingested in small amount. You can use tea tree oil on dogs for fleas and mites, but careful not to have them swallow the oil pure. It is also poisonous to people if ingested, so refrain from swallowing.

I’m not a fan of the eucalyptus/pine scent, and tea tree oil definitely has that same strong odor, as it is from the same family of plants. I did grow accustom to it, though it still reminds of my Grandmother’s tiger balm ointment (which I am now suspicious that it is tea tree oil).

WHERE TO BUY IT

The Body Shop has a great selection of nice tea tree oil body care. They also offer the essential oil (image at top)  Plus they donate a portion of proceeds to help the Aboriginal co-operative to provide training for farmers and to develop pride in their tea tree heritage. (Tea tree oil originates from Australia and is still mostly produced in Australia and New Zealand.)       

Paul Mitchell has a decent assortment of tea tree oil hair care and men’s grooming products. A good selection is also available at Amazon.

I’ve used Nature’s Gate Tea Tree Oil Conditioner,  and I liked it fine. I have to use a lot of it to benefit from the conditioning part. This was available at Farmer Joe’s in my neighborhood, which is the equivalent of Wholefoods.

Plantlife 100% Pure Tea Tree Oil is available at some health or drug stores. It is potent, so be careful using too much. It will peel skin, but not too badly. Eyes will sting like mad though.

One of my favorite new discoveries in the tea oil area. This shampoo lathers nicely and does not smell like tea tree oil. Note it is not all natural, but it is good stuff. $21 from Bumble and Bumble.

For the puppies, I use Earthbath Tea Tree Shampoo, which is all natural and biodegradable. It is available at most large pet supply stores or smaller natural pet supply shops, such as Paws & Claws in Oakland.

RESOURCES

Wikipedia  Definition and medicinal qualities.

Natural Life Magazine    History of tree oil and benefits.

Berkeley Parents Network   Discussion board for nail fungus remedy.

Tea Tree Oil Uses   Comprehensive list of benefits.      

Treehugger    The author’s personal dependency on tree oil and how he benefits from it.

ABC News Online    Tea tree oil used for scabies.

The Herbs Place   How to use tea tree oil for various ailments.
Molly’s Herbals  Natural care for pets and people.

Learn about Tea Tree Oil Phenomenon  Make your household tasks safer, simpler and healthier.
In the Shade of the Tea Tree Blog    It’s all about using Tea Tree Oil for a multitude of problems.

Tea Tree Oil Exposed    Medical uses for tea tree oil.

The headline got me all worked up.

Wal-Mart charged with selling nonorganic food as organic

The first paragraph, too, got me all worked up.

The Cornucopia Institute, an U.S-based organic farming watchdog, has filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA asking them to investigate allegations of illegal “organic” food distribution by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Cornucopia has documented cases of nonorganic food products being sold as organic in Wal-Mart’s grocery departments.

I thought to myself, Walmart cannot be that stupid. Knowing they’re always under scrutiny, why would they cheat about organic food, of all things. Then I read the allegations.

“We first noticed that Wal-Mart was using in-store signage to misidentify conventional, nonorganic food as organic in their upscale-market test store in Plano, Texas,” said Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute. Subsequently, Cornucopia staff visited a number of other Wal-Mart stores in the Midwest and documented similar improprieties in both produce and dairy sections.

I’m shaking my head at this. So the store staff at Walmart stores wrongly stocked non-organic food under the organic “signage” in the produce section. Okay, this is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous because they used up their one card on a weak case, in my eyes. How many times have you frequented the produce section at Safeway, or any other grocery store, and find parsley misplaced under cilantro? And can you, yourself, identify organic lettuce from non-organic lettuce? Think now how one of Walmart’s stock staff would be able to do that.

If this is all they were able to come up with, I’m assuming they’ve examined every packaged items for non-organic content and came up with zilch. And traced every order to find out they’re from legit farms. So they went ahead used this store-level error to file charge.

It’s unfortunate because this looks too much like a witch hunt to me. I’m not defending Walmart, and I’m not accusing Walmart. I’m taking the “Walmart” characteristic aside and looking at this objectively. Unless they have a memo from corporate headquarters directing the store staff to intentionally place non-organic foods under organic signage… I’m having a hard time feeling ill-will towards Walmart right now.

Full article at ProcessingFood.com

At first I didn’t get it. What’s the difference between this Ecopod and a regular compactor? After a week or so, I realized it’s about space and efficiency. To dual use your compactor would require lots of moving dirty garbage in and out of its bin. If you have to store your recycling separately anyway, I suppose you might as well use something decent looking and conveniently functional as well. It’s a bit hefty at $328. If it encourages you to improve your recycling habits, price is not too relevant, right? Available at ecopod.com or Williams Sonoma in December 2006.

_{via inhabitat} 

Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century is a groundbreaking compendium of the most innovative solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future.

From consumer consciousness to a new vision for industry; non-toxic homes to refugee shelters; microfinance to effective philanthropy; socially responsible investing to starting a green business; citizen media to human rights; ecological economics to climate change, this is the most comprehensive, cutting-edge overview to date of what’s possible in the near future — if we decide to make it so.

If you’re in Los Angeles on December 2, join Good Magazine as they host the launch. There are two events for San Francisco, as well as events for New York and Denver. More information available at WorldChanging.com.

Did you know cleaning your dryer’s air duct twice a year will save 200 lbs of carbon a month (or $3 a month on your energy bill)? Easy instructions are available at TerraBlog.

Since we’re on the laundry topic, I can’t help it but add this fabo washer/dryer to this post. It is one of my favorite products in the market today. What a great looking product. Believe it or not, it is highly functional as well. Designed to hold a good load of laundry and be energy efficient as well. I am almost tempted to get rid of my existing ones so I can buy these (but that is not good sustainable practice, so I’ll wait until my machines go kapoot first).

I wouldn’t mind growing these in the backyard. How amazing is this?

Glowing Mushrooms

via NationalGeographic.com

 By Josh Rothenberg 

In the state of California, as of 2/8/06, it is illegal for anyone - now including private households - to dispose of batteries in the trash (I think it’s a good law - batteries contain lots of heavy metals that can cause birth defects and other problems!).

Some options:
   
House Hold Batteries: If you live in San Francisco, you can take used household batteries to Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco and all Walgreen’s stores. See this list from the Sf Environment  of places that accept batteries for recycling. For a nation-wide list of recycling centers, check out Earth911.org for listings, information and helpful links to resources.

Rechargeable batteries: Can be taken to any Radio Shack, and many Office Depot or Verizon Wireless Stores. For a complete list of places that accept rechargeable batteries, see the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation or call 1-800-8-BATTERY.

Car batteries can be recycled for free at Kragen Auto Parts.

Releasing November 12th is Rhythms Del Mundo, a compilation of latin’ized music by the likes of Coldplay, U2, Franz Ferdinand, and Dido & Faithless to raise money and awareness for natural disaster relief and climate change awareness. This project is brought to you by APE (Artist Project Earth). (Click links or image to listen to sampler.)

via Grist 

If you haven’t visited this website yet, you must check it out. It is so well designed and so thought provoking. Such a heavy message, yet you somehow feel enlightened. A few examples below.

Miniature-Earth.com

The statistics have been updated based on specialized publications, and mainly reports on the World’s population provided by The UN, PRB and others.

The Miniature Earth website was first published in 2001, since than it has been seen by more than 2 million people and linked by more than 20.000 websites.

Go, go, go. Check it out. The flash presentation is super. Miniature-Earth.com.

permalink

Bring your old shoes to the nearest Nike drop-off location, and your worthless junk becomes some children’s valuable rubber playground. I’ve had my issues with Nike in the past, but I’ll give them thumbs up for this effort. They are executing some great ideas around sustainability. They didn’t jump on the eco bandwagon, as they’ve been focusing on this for a while now. Read more about their Reuse-A-Shoe a program and also check out their location locator for the nearest drop-off station. Read more about Nike’s sustainability efforts.

Drop-off locations:

Oakland: Transports | 6022 College Ave, Oakland | 510.655.4809
San Francisco: Fleet Feet | 2086 CHESTNUT ST | 415.921.7188
San francisco: Lombardi Sports | 1600 JACKSON ST | 415.771.0600

 BMW 7 Series 7 Hydrogen Saloon will be introduced this April, but only for loan to selected high-influencing customers (a.k.a. celebrities, politicians and alternative energy leaders). The car can switch between gasoline and hydrogen, making it the first commercial vehicle with this technology. Here’s what I like. It comes with a V12 engine, therefore maintaining that BMW muscle customers expect. Total cruising range is 425 miles; 125 in the hydrogen mode and another 300 miles in the gasoline mode.

The problem? Currently, there are only two hydrogen filling stations, one outside of L.A. and the other in Washington, D.C. BMW is hoping their word-of-mouth marketing strategy will help push demand and supply of hydrogen as an alternative fuel. I don’t think I’ll hold my breath on this one. With how sophisticated electric cars are becoming, I’m not sure how quickly people will adapt to hydrogen-powered cars. We [people] can only adapt to so many changes at one time.

As I wrote in my previous article about the electric car, I’m anxiously waiting for a green SUV-equivalent to the X5 (perforamance and style).

 That would be a big fat YES. (Okay, not a real apples to apples comparison, I agree. But still, impressive, huh?). Watch video.

Between this and the Tesla, the ugly connotations linked to electric cars should go away soon. I’m glad. I’m looking forward to an electric SUV or a vehicle that can carry two extra large dogs (but needs to be attractive and handles like a BMW.) (Sorry. Am I asking for too much??)