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.

If you are building a home, or it’s time to replace the old siding on your house, consider using fiber-cement siding.

Fiber-cement siding has been around for a while, although their benefits just started drawing attention from builders and homeowners.

Fiber-cement siding is composed of cement, sand and wood fiber (often from recycled wood fiber). It comes in a wide range of colors, finish and styles that resemble conventional siding products.

Fiber-cement siding is a great green building material not only because of its  composition, but also its durability and longevity. It often outlasts conventional materials for decades.

Fiber-cement siding resists many common hazards, including fire, wind, rain and insects. It won’t rot in humid areas. No termites can undermine it.  And it is virtually fire-proof. Fiber-cement won’t release toxic chemicals like other materials do.

In addition to its durability, fiber-cement holds paint much better than other materials. It doesn’t need to be re-painted for about 25 years! All these contribute to its low-maintenance and low cost in the long run. 

Because fiber-cement is made of inert materials, even if it eventually ends up in a landfill, it does not endanger the environment.

To learn more, click here.

Dell has announced plans to simplify and revolutionize its computer packaging and make it as their green steps. The company estimates that over the next four years, these new green packaging intiatives will save more than $8.1 million and about 20 million pounds of packaging material.

By 2012, Dell wants to:

• Reduce desktop and laptop packaging materials by approximately 10 percent worldwide.
• Increase sustainable content in cushioning and corrugate packaging by 40 percent.
• Ensure that 75 percent of packaging components are curbside recyclable.

Read more »

Don’t tell 1000 Green Steps you haven’t heard about the fun way to reuse rubber and car tires

Well, 1000 Green Steps found the way and we are about to share it to you readers! The good news is that the fun way can add up your style. Yes, Simple Shoes convert those non-organic materials into something useful through a simple innovation called eco-friendly shoes.

Wonder what have they reused so far?

· Car tires

· Bamboo

· Rubber

· Hemp

· 100% post-consumer recycled paper

· Carpet padding

· Silk

· Plastics

· Organic cotton

· Eco-certified leather and suede

· Coconut

· Wool

· Inner tubes

· Natural Crepe Rubber

· Cork

They have made so many shoes addressed for men, women and kids through their ecoSNEAKS and Green Toe collection. However if you still worried for not finding matching bags for your shoes, 1000 Green Steps have good news for you. They also make eco-friendly bags with a lot of different styles. So 1000 Green Steps guess it’s time for a green shopping spree!

Happy Green Living!

Compost is the result of decomposition of organic matters by micro-organisms. Well constructed compost is the best organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.

While compost is available commercially, it is quite easy to make it in your backyard.

To start, pick a spot close to the garden or kichen to build a frame or to put a compost bin.

For the micro-organisms to work, you have to provide them food.

Composable materials fall into two categories: soft “green” with Nitrogen (kichen wastes, grass clippings, manure, etc) and woody “brown” with Carbon (dry leaves, twigs, straw, hay, coffee ground, etc).

Now layer materials into the compost bin like a sandwich: one part of “brown”, three parts of “green” and a thin layer of soil which contains millions of micro-organisms. Water the pile and keep layering.

In a few days, the pile will begin to heat up when the bacteria start working. After 2-3 weeks, the pile will shrink.

To facilitate the process of composting, turn the pile from time to time to mix the content and provide air. Add water when it looks dry.

Your compost will be finished in a few months. By making your own compost, you reduce kitchen, garden, and yard wastes and save the energy used to transport and package commercial compost.

For an excellent video about composting, click here.

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!

Last week, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that its Plug-In to eCycling partners collected and recycled more than 66.5 million pounds of used electronics in 2008 as their green steps.

That’s nearly a 30 percent increase from 2007.

And it’s equivalent to preventing the release of greenhouse gases equal to the annual emissions from approximately 15,500 cars.

Read more »

Use Recycled Paper

You have no idea on how much that will help Mother Earth. This will even cost you lower than those plain papers. 1000 Green Steps already use it at home for years and 1000 Green Steps don’t regret it. Don’t forget to take note on BOTH sides of the paper, too.

Use Bike or Walk instead of Car

If you don’t live in a developing country, I’m sure your school has a comfortable pedestrian access. However if you don’t have, try to save up your fuel money by riding a bike. This will save up your money a lot and most importantly your environment.

Don’t use a Plastic Bag!

Who doesn’t know I’m not a Plastic Bag tote bag? Everyone has got to use it. Remind yourself, your family, or even your neighbor to use a tote bag instead of plastic bags which are mostly only going to be used once. You can get in style AND save your earth at the same time.

Very easy. 1000 Green Steps have been doing that for years until now, and now it’s your turn to influence the people around you to give some love for Mother Earth.

Happy Green Living!

ReBagz Eco-friendly Clutch by Half the Sky Designs

This silver pouch looks ordinary and commonly seen at the department store you visit. But not after you hear what 1000 Green Steps have to say about this purse. This is HAND-WOVEN, and made of cleaned or recycled plastic fruit juice packs you always poke a straw into!

These kinds of bags and clutches are made under ReBagz Company, where rice sack graphics totes and hand-woven purses are combined into one.

This clutch is available online at $29, and purchase it now to be more eco-friendly and be chic!

Happy Green Living!

Everything is just really going eco-friendly lately! Just look at this beautiful designed lamp. Who says that eco-friendly lamp can’t have a sophisticated design? These lamps are made of rotomolding, in a mix of low density plastic with crushed electronic waste plastic. Its base is even produced with smelted aluminum of beer and drink tins! It is very cool 1000 Green Steps even wanted one for ourselves.

The name of the lamp is N+EW Light which is an abbreviation for No More Electronic Waste. So it is clear now that the main goal of this project is to reduce electronic waste in our environment.

If that is not enough, you can match your N+EW Light with N+EW Handmade Stool! Yes, it is handmade and made of electronic waste, epoxic resin and melted aluminum. These stools are one of a kind and only made through special orders.

Who’s behind this? Actually this project is made by Rodrigo Alonso, a graphic designer with recognized experience in the world of publicity. He has a noticeable academic of different universities and workshops in Chile and Latin America. He has worked in the image of large international brands as Renault, Lucky Strike, Warner Bros, and Sony. He is the one who created of the studio-laboratory Müsuc.