Think-Inside-of-the-Box with Packaging

Lateral thinking or thinking out of the box might be great for solving puzzles and problems, but answers are not always outside the box. For eco-friendly packaging, the better answer might be in the box itself. One of the most popular and troublesome materials for packaging today is plastic. Plastic is cheap, convenient, and durable. [...]

Three Surprising Things You Can Do With Vegetables

Fresh produce vendors know that people judge the book by its cover, or at least the vegetable by its appearance. A bruised or pockmarked vegetable is a lot less likely to sell than its smooth-complexioned counterparts, even though their nutritional values are the same. Often underneath the blemished skin of a fruit or vegetable lies [...]

Shower Strategies

According to QuenchShowers.com, a whopping 20-30 liters of water is used in showers. That’s not per shower however, that’s actually water usage per minute. AllianceforWaterEfficiency.org states that showers account for 18% of the total indoor water use in a typical single family home. Given the significant water amount showers consume everyday, it might be wise [...]

Aluminum And The Environment

Aluminum is one of the handful of words in the English language ending in “-um.” I learned this the hard way when a strict language teacher asked our class to recite words ending in “-um.” I remember thinking “plum” as adequate answers ran out (thankfully I wasn’t called up to recite) but one classmate had [...]

Food Miles and Sustainability

A Season for Everything A luscious, sweet strawberry three months after the local harvest has been bought out in the market. An exotic, tropical mango grown and flown from thousands of miles away. Or simply a bowl of out-of-season leafy greens that only show up locally for a few weeks every year. Imported and exported [...]

Green Extreme Sports

Going green in sports mainly means upholding the color of the environment conservation movement. Green extreme sports are quite another thing. Extreme sports usually feature high risk competitions where a second of absent mindedness can equal a lifetime of regret. With green extreme sports however, the lesser the environmental impact of the sport, the more [...]

The Last Straw

The looks on costumers’ faces as they are told by the cashier it is the fast food restaurant’s first “Strawless Friday” are priceless. Some are taken aback as if doubting what they heard, some look around trying to spy out the straw dispenser, and some shrug their shoulders philosophically and move on. Most however, receive [...]

Going Green in Sports

Humans are probably the only creatures who play games for the sake of playing them. In the animal world most “games” are played for building social connections, bonding, or survival training. There has not been one documented case of any animal species training for years to perfect a golf swing. Maybe it’s our higher intellectual [...]

Laundry Detergent Alternatives

Back in pre-washing machine days, young maidens took out the dirty laundry and laid them on stony riverbeds to spend the day dancing on them, washing out dirt. Most of us today don’t have the leisure of time (and dancing skills) to do our laundry the same way. Instead, washing machines and detergents take care [...]

Yard Waste Recycling

Got leaves? A tree with a full crown of leaves is always a pleasant sight. The principle of abundance in nature is readily seen in its majestic mass of leaves. But at times we all get a little too much. Autumn season, strong winds, or simply maintenance and pruning can leave us with more leaves [...]