The holiday season is approaching again. While we all love holidays, it is also a time with huge waste of energy and materials.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, one million extra tons of garbage is generated each week in the U.S.

However, with a little green thinking and effort, we might be able to reduce that figure significantly.

1. Christmas tree

Plant a small potted tree and use it for Christmas each year.

Although artificial trees cost un-renewable energy to produce, if you can use it year after year, it shouldn’t be too bad.

If you must have a real cut tree, most cities have a program to recycle it into mulch and compost.

2. Lights

Switch to LED Christmas lights. They are 90% more efficient than traditional ones. They also last longer and emit little heat.

3. Gift wrap

Save wrap from previous years and reuse it.

Use newspaper, old calendars, posters, magzines, or catalogues as gift wrap (better yet, skip the wrapping).

Recycle any wrap that is no longer useful.

4. Other

Recycle greeting cards, gift tags, and especially cardboard or use them for crafts.  Avoid using disposable tableware. Save and reuse holiday decorations.

Hope we all have a greener holiday this year. For more green holiday ideas, click here.

We’ve known from scientific researches that many BPA and Phthalates containing products are potentially harmful to our health.

Canadian government has declared BPA toxic and banned on its use in baby bottles. The European Union also banned three phthalate compounds from toys and other children products.

It is important that we avoid BPA and phthalates containing products as much as possible in everyday life.

Here are some tips.

1. Minimize the use of canned food and drinks.

2. Use only BPA free plastic wrap, bottles or containers for water and food. Or use glass and stainless steel containers.

3. Avoid heating plastic containers in microwave oven. Warm food in ceramic or glass containers.

4. Make sure that children items are BPA free.

5. Use metal or wooden utensils and cutting boards to process food.

6. Look for “phthalate-free” personal care products.

7. Use fragrance-free detergents, cleaners, etc.

8. Avoid vinyl plastic products, especially labelled as No. 3.

See more, go here.

Scientific researches have shown evidence that several types of plastics contain endocrine disruptors, which alter hormonal function when taken into our bodies.

BPA is a common ingredient in plastic. It is found in many drinking containers, cans, food storage containers, toys, water pipes, etc.

BPA migrates from the plastic into food or water in the containers. Heat, acid, alkaline and repeated washing accelerate the process.

Animal research on BPA showed that it alters reproductive hormone cycles and causes problems ranging from reproductive abnormality in both males and females, cancer, overweight, to behavioral changes.

These changes in animals mimic many human health problems, including infertility, autism, obesity, breast and prostate cancer, and diabetes, etc.

Another endocrine disruptor is phthalates, which exist in many products, including toys, personal care products, air fresheners, vinyl products, coating on many pills, food packaging, etc.

Phthalates release into neighboring substances readily.

The main health concern about phthalates is reproductive toxicity, particularly for males.

These BPA and phthalates containing products not only increase health risks, the production of them also uses largely non-renewable resources. Use of these products contributes to increased waste and pollution production as well.

Read more, go here.

Motorola Moto W23 Renew

After having Solar Powered Cell Phone by Samsung, this week’s cool gadget comes from Motorola through The Motorola MOTO W233 Renew as their green steps. If Samsung makes their green steps by producing a solar powered cell phone, Motorola was able to beat them all out by producing a cell phone that is made from recycled plastic, 100% recyclable materials, comes with eco-friendly packaging, RoHS compliant, and comes with a postage-paid envelope so whenever you’re done with them you don’t have to worry about how are you going to recycle its 100% recyclable materials. You know what? YOU CAN SEND THEM BACK TO THE FACTORY TO BE RECYCLED! This is what you call a 100% green cell phone (it’s literally green, though).

This amazing gadget is available online at Amazon starting from $9.99

Happy Green Living!

5 Baby Steps to Go Green

1000 Green Steps understand that a lot of you felt that going green needs a process and there could be so much information about what you should be doing. With that much freaking-you-out information, it might seem simpler to just do nothing! But you can try these 5 baby steps to start going green.

1. Buy a reusable drinking bottle

Check out this cool I’m Not a Paper Cup drinking bottle and have your drink in style! Yes, I’m a Porcelain Cup with a Silicone Lid! Available online at Amazon for $15.99.

2. Stop littering

In case you don’t know how to do it, 1000 Green Steps will guide you with a step-by-step post on how to stop littering post

3. Turn your light and AC off when you leave your room

Remember, the more you do it, the more electricity bill you’ll save.

4. Don’t let your water faucet drips

1000 Green Steps have mentioned this step too much and we know it will be so much trouble if you let it drips and see your house is filled with water (and dripping water bills, too).

5. When you travel, consider having an eco-tourism

See Eco-tourism guide in my previous article entitled Step 55: Eco-tourism, a Green Way to Travel. We hope you have a nice journey

So simple, so doable. Take baby steps now, and get back when you’re ready to follow 1000 Green Steps guide through Step 52: 3 Steps to Turn Your Business Green and Step 53: 3 Green Steps at Home.

Happy Green Living!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

To my surprise, last posting on 3 steps to turn your business green had gained many visitors’ attention. That encourages us to write more implemented 3R steps to be done. This time, 1000 Green Steps will show you just how easy to apply that exact same 3R at your very own home. Continue reading

Reduce

Reduce paper towels usage, and use cloth towels instead. To make things simpler, just avoid using anything disposable. That will just increases your unnecessary waste.

Try to buy everything you need ONLY IF it is packaged with eco-friendly packaging. Example: Choose card board-packaged eggs instead of Styrofoam-packaged eggs.

Reuse

Conduct a small (or big) garage sale for goods you don’t need anymore. This is 1000 Green Steps favorite step since it could make us money and being eco-friendly all at once.

Maybe you can choose old books from your shelf to be donated to your local library and see if they could use them.

If none of those works, I still have a back-up plan. In my upcoming post, I will show you how to make some Do-It-Yourself things you’ll like. Try to do that, and reuse your old stuff.

Recycle

Bundle up all non-organic stuff inside your house and give them to your local recycling center to get it recycled.

Buy goods from shops that allow you to return its bottles whenever you’re done with it. They are the producers, and believe us, they know how to recycle those packaging better than we all do.

Happy Green Living!

We all know that one of the main causes of Global Warming is CFC gas inside our hairspray. However any woman on earth knows that it is almost impossible to avoid using hairspray. 1000 Green Steps feel terribly sorry because most of the people don’t know that an eco-friendly hairspray does actually exist.

Try MOP C-System Organic Firm Finish Hairspray! Have you ever wondered what does MOP stand for? It is for Modern Organic Products. So, yes, unlike any other bottle of hairspray this is an aerosol finishing spray for those customers seeking an environmentally friendly option. The eco-aerosol features a zero impact propellant and contains no chlorine (CFC’s) and is not a volatile compound. The fruit extract inside is made from certified organic fruits.

So try it out and make your beauty shine without guilty feeling stands on your way! MOP C-System Organic Firm Finish Hairspray is available online for £11.45.

Happy Green Living!

San Fransico-based Method Products, Inc announced last week that it has received Cradle to Cradle (C2C) product certification on more than 15 of its eco-friendly cleaning products as their green steps.

These products include Method’s liquid dish soap, hand wash, and foaming hand wash. The company is in the process of certifying another 20  products.

C2C certification involves a thorough evaluation of a product’s ingredients, manufacturing, and packaging. Key components of C2C certification include the use of: healthy and environmentally safe materials,renewable energy, and corporate practices that promote social responsibility.

“Method is committed to making products and packaging that are green to the core, like our business,” says Adam Lowry, Method co-founder and chief greenskeeper.“Obtaining third party verification from the people who literally wrote the book on cradle to cradle design reinforces the work that we’re doing, and it tells consumers that in a category filled with green noise, Method is a company they can trust.”

For more details about the explained green steps and the company’s overall sustainability platform, visit their website.

“Method welcomes investigation and scrutiny of our products and our business practices,” Lowry concludes. “We encourage consumers to examine not only what a company puts on the shelf, but what it does behind closed doors. At Method, we believe a green product can only come from a truly green company.”

In a nod to the up-and-coming field of green packaging, the Kellogg Co. is testing a new cereal box that uses 8% less material, reports Ad Age as their green steps program.

The new box:

• uses 8% less material
• packages the same amount of cereal
• saves space on store shelves and home pantries
• could help Kellogg cut costs and reduce its carbon footprint

The company will be testing the new box design in the Detroit area over the next six months.

More green packaging news is available here.

Is your company taking green steps? Let 1000GreenSteps.org help you spread the word. Please leave a comment below, or contact us at: 1000GreenSteps@gmail.com Thank you!

The Coca Cola Co. has awarded $400,000 to Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources to help establish a “think tank” for green packaging as their green steps.

The new Center for Packaging Innovation and Sustainability will be located at the MSU School of Packaging, and researchers there will study ways to measure and reduce the environmental impact of how products are packaged.

Read more »