Archive for December, 2009

Greener Holiday Greeting Cards

Christmas is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year.  It is the season of giving and sharing.  Besides the tradition of gift giving, many people enjoy sending and receiving holiday greeting cards through the mail.  This makes greeting card business a very lucrative and successful business.  However, many people are getting more aware of the impact of buying and sending holiday greeting cards to the environment, especially if the greeting cards are made of paper direct from trees. There are a number of ways to eliminate or lessen the usage of paper greeting cards.  If you must send paper greeting cards, opt for those printed on recycled papers.  Nowadays, greeting cards printed on recycled paper are growing in popularity.  The recycled papers are typically made of at least 30 percent of post-consumer products.  There are also more recycled papers that are made of higher post-consumer products, which are even better.  You can also opt for your cards to be printed with soy or vegetable-based inks.  Ask your recycled paper manufacturer for recommendations of green printers, if you prefer personalizing your recycled holiday greetings.  Recycled greeting cards are as pretty and classy as the traditional paper greeting cards, if not ...

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How To Have A Green Christmas

Working towards a green Christmas is not difficult, but it requires some thinking.  With careful planning and some common sense, you can celebrate a green Christmas this year too. Try to avoid sending paper greeting cards.  Send e-cards or direct people to your blog.  Compile family photos of previous Christmas in a video, add some Christmas tunes and you have a fun way of sending your best wishes.  It is also a way to remind old friends and families of how much fun you had last Christmas. When shopping, bring your own tote bag and refuse paper or plastic bags from your store.  Make sure you listed down everything you need, such as gifts, groceries and so forth, so as to avoid making returns to the store and wasting both time and gas.  You can opt for online shopping too.  This way, you can avoid driving and getting caught in traffic. When giving gifts, consider gifts that do not turn into waste, such as concert or theater tickets.  Suggest family and friends create wish lists to exchange, so no gifts given are wasted or left to sit on a shelf collecting dust (or worse, in a landfill). Consider making gifts, many handmade and homemade ...

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Earning Green Dollars by Being Green-Minded

Many people still think that living and loving the green life costs money, plenty of it.  Well, nothing can be farther from the truth.  Of course, you will spend money when you replace your incandescent bulbs with fluorescent lights, when you install residential solar and wind power facilities and when you install low-flow faucets, to name a few examples, but all these inexpensive green investments will pay for themselves sooner than later. You can actually earn green dollars by living and loving the green side of things.  How's that for loving the environment and loving your pockets at the same time? Recycle and Resell This is by far the fastest and easiest, not to mention probably the most profitable, way to earn green dollars.  You just look through your attic, basement and garage to determine which of your junk items you can sell for profit over many venues.  Don't worry about not selling any of your junk for indeed the adage about one man's trash being another man's treasure is very, very true. * Recycle your old mobile phones through various independent recycling schemes on the Internet like Fonebank and Envirofone.  You can ...

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Vegan and Vegetarian Christmas Dinner Ideas

More and more people are going vegan or vegetarian.  If you are cooking a holiday meal this year and you know someone will be attending who is vegan or vegetarian, you might be feeling a little bit worried about what you are going to make for them.  Here are some no-hassle ideas for you that are sure to please: Let’s start off with the vegetarians, who may not be eat but for the most part can eat certain animal products as long as there is no meat involved.  If everyone is eating turkey this year, then take a look into the faux turkeys!  Everyone might scoff that the idea of a veggie turkey, but they are actually out there and they are actually quite delicious.  Try the Tofurkey roast, and enjoy it with all of the usual trimmings such as mashed potatoes, veggie gravy, and stuffing! For the vegans in the family, look into purchasing some sort of celebration roast.  This is a vegan dish that is made out of grain "meat."  These roasts are also made with a sausage-style stuffing that is made with squash, apples and mushrooms, and excellent choice for anyone who might be feeling a bit left out ...

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Checking Out Safe Cookware

Many of us are conscious about the quality of food that we put into our bodies to stay strong and healthy, but have you ever considered the potential dangers lurking in the cookware you use to prepare your food? For many people, the implements that they use to cook with don't get a second thought, but different types of cookware can actually leach toxins into our food. Here are some things to be aware of: Teflon, a common non-stick coating applied to cookware can easily, under normal cooking situations, exceed the temperature at which it starts to break down and emit toxic chemicals and gases. The chemical breakdown of Teflon has long been linked to pet bird deaths (Teflon toxicosis). Teflon's maker, Dupont, has also acknowledged that the fumes emitted from Teflon can cause an illness in humans called "polymer fume fever," although no further research has been done on its long term effects on humans. Dupont claims that if you cook with Teflon coated cookware at a low temperature and don’t burn the food in the pan, you will be safe. Several decades ago, researchers found a link between ...

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