Tip Of The Month

OCTOBER TIP

Here are some tips to help make your Halloween Green:

1. E-mail party invites rather than snail-mail them. There are some great ghoulish Free e-mail greetings online.
2. Make your own costume or buy one at a second-hand shop. An old sheet still makes a great ghost.

3. Trick or Treat with a reusable bag.

4. Walk instead of driving. If you must drive try car-pooling.

5. Look for locally grown pumpkins for carving & apples for bobbing and other seasonal fruits and veggies

6. If you don’t already compost, Halloween is a great time to start. You can add post-Halloween jack-o-lanterns to your compost bin, along with fallen leaves, food scraps, and other organic, biodegradable yard and household waste. Compost creates excellent soil for your garden

7. Teach your children to keep candy wrappers in their re-usable trick-or-treat bags until they return home, or to dispose of them in trash cans along their route. Preventing candy wrappers from becoming Halloween litter on the street is the right way to treat the environment. Take along an extra bag when you take the kids out treat-or-treating, and pick up litter along the way to help clean up the neighborhood.

8. Make use of all pumpkin parts. After carving a pumpkin, make sure to save the seeds. Bake them and serve them to party guests or feed them to our fine feathered friends, the birds.

9. Candy…No Halloween is complete without CANDY! There are plenty of healthy candy bars on the market these days. From organic chocolate to organic lollipops—available online and from local organic groceries, health food stores, or consumer cooperatives. Try honey sticks or fruit leather at health food stores or tea shops. These organic candies can satisfy your sweet tooth without compromising your health, and they are produced using methods that don’t damage the environment. Choose treats that use little or no packaging . Whenever possible, buy locally produced treats from local merchants.

10. Experience nature. Visit a pumpkin farm. Pick fresh apples. Talk a long walk outside. Look up at the sky. Notice the moon. Enjoy your planet.

Living an Eco-friendly lifestyle and reducing waste and pollution should be a daily event, not a special occasion. With a little thought, you can apply the strategies you use to have a green Halloween to the way you live every day.

Happy Halloween~~Tiffany

SEPTEMBER TIP

Keepin’ it clean

Removing a stain can be tough. Especially tough on natural fibers. Off the shelf stain remover products can harm natural fibers; some synthetic stain removers are flammable; and many people are allergic or sensitive to their harsh ingredients.

There are 4 basic principles to treating any stain. Of course, the sooner you treat the stain the better:

1. Think twice before just throwing stained clothing in the laundry. The heat of the water and dryer can
set many stains.

2. Scrape, blot or remove as much of the stain as you can. NEVER rub.

3. Determine what the stain is and choose the correct treatment for removal

4. I had always been told to use HOT water to remove a stain. Not the case warm or cool water is the
safest for stain removal. Hot water can set the stain.

Below is a list of some of the most common stains and how to remove them naturally and effectively. Please remember to always test a small area of the fabric before treating the entire garment.

Berry stains Dab the stain with lemon juice or vinegar, leave for an hour, then wash as usual. Chocolat Soak in detergent and launder. If stain remains, soak in an enzyme-based stain remover (Health food stores sell prepared enzyme stain remover products made from “natural” enzymes that have been custom-made for removing certain types of stains.) The enzymes will eat up the dairy products in the chocolate. If you still have a stain after trying enzymes, try soaking the spot in 3 percent hydrogen peroxide. Crayons and Candle Wax Freeze the stain, remove the residue, and pull off the wax. Next, heat an iron, cover the wax stain with an absorbent cloth, and melt the wax onto the cloth. Fruit Juice Lemon Juice or vinegar. Dab on the stain. Grass Dampen the area with water, sprinkle with sugar. Roll up and leave for an hour, then wash as usual. Alternatively, rub with eucalyptus oil. Grease Blot the stain and soak in a bucket of water with 1 tablespoon of washing soda and 1 teaspoon of eucalyptus oil. Also, try cornstarch or citrus solvent.

Blood Soak in cold salt water or just cold water; use a hydrogen peroxide soak for stubborn stains. Cosmetics Make a solution of 1 part cloudy ammonia (ammonia with a bit of soap added) and 3 parts water. Dab on the stain Gum Put in freezer for a few hours; once cold, peel off gum. Ink Soak in milk, vinegar, or Citrus solvent. Oil Glycerin Perfume and Essential Oils Vinegar or baking soda. Perspiration Enzyme based spot remover or soak item in salt water. Lay clothing in the sun for a few hours. Tomato Sauce Vinegar. Vomit Scoop up any solid parts. Enzyme-based stain remover. Alternating between vinegar and baking soda. Wine Immediately apply soda water. Pour boiling water from a height of 3 feet; may be more effective if you apply salt to the stain first.

Please vote for us on StartUp Nation,
the contest ends on Sept. 30th.

AUGUST TIP!

Easy Eco-Friendly Tips For the Office

Turn Off the Computer

Save energy and wear and tear on your hardware by shutting down your computer at night. You’ll save an average of $90 of electricity a year. The Department of Energy recommends shutting off your monitor if you aren’t going to use it for more than 20 minutes, and the whole system if you’re not going to use it for more than two hours.

Carpool

If your drive to work is 25 miles each way and at least half is in typical stop-and-go traffic, you’ll save almost 10 percent of your monthly carbon emissions by carpooling. Not to mention the gas dollars you’ll save

Pay Bills online

Save natural resources – as well as late fees – by enrolling in online bill-paying options. Paperless billing not only saves trees; it also eliminates the fossil fuel needed to get all those billing envelopes from them to you and back again. Plus, you’ll save money on stamps.

Cut down on paper use when you can, and choose greener paper supplies, from cups to envelopes.

Print on two-sidesConsider this: the U.S. alone uses 4 million tons of copy paper annually, about 27 pounds per person.

Bag your lunch

Skip the fast food and B.Y.O.B….bagged lunch that is. Pack it in reusable containers, fresh fruit, veggies and your favorite wrap. Better yet organize a weekly or monthly potluck in the office and share favorite recipes.

Get some excercise and do some good for you & the community

Use your lunch hour to take a stroll and pick up trash in your community. Hit the parking lot, the parks, the empty lots. Organize a group and enjoy the weather. You will be pleasantly surprised how good you feel physically and mentally

Looking for more Eco-tips. Find these and others like them at http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/ and http://www.idealbite.com/

Don’t Forget! Join us this Thursday August 6th @ 6:00 PM for our “Summer Sale Event” Live and in person. Click for directions and event information. http://weartheearth.wordpress.com/

June Tip of the Month….Earn Money Recycling!!!!

That’s right….Earn money for your recyclables.  Who couldn’t use a few extra dollars nowadays.

I have found some websites that will actually pay you for various items that you would normally toss or donate.   This is a great thing for kids to do to earn some vacation spending money!

Check these out:

*Not all areas offer the programs listed below.*

TerraCycle.Net Miscellaneous items change often.

RecycleBank.com Trash & recyclable materials.

GreenPhone.com Old Cellular phones.

NextWorth.com Old electronic devices “E” waste.

YouRenew.com “E” waste, games, DVD’s

Cash4Cartridgesusa.com Ink toner cartridges

Sell Old Software Old/Obsolete computer software

BuffaloExchange.com Clothing.  Men & Women

Children’sOrchard.com Children’s clothing, furniture, childcare items.

Earth911.com All things recycled search engine.

Local Used book stores are great for those old paperbacks.  They will usually either pay you in credit or cash depending on their policy. Check Your Local Listings

Know the benefits of recycling cans. Some states pay five to ten cents per can. These states will be listed on the cans to check the cans out. If there is no listing for your state don’t worry. Almost every state pays per lb. for the cans. Although every state is different, the average pay is 35 cents per lb. To get paid for recycling your cans Search Your Local Listings