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.

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!

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.

Green Birthday Party

Gifts

1000 Green Steps think that it’s nice to apply gift exchange in a birthday party. That is even better if every child brings a ‘green’ friend of them (plants, soil, or even animals!) and in the end they will go home with their own new ‘green’ friend.

Garnish

For the party supplies, try IKEA dinnerwares which are recycled plastics. If your child demands characters decorations such as Spiderman or Princesses, try drawing (or tracing) favourite characters or items on kraft paper to make a tablecloth. Even better, let the kids do it at the party. As for balloons, it might be easiest to go cold turkey. That may sound outrageous, but there are plenty of reasons. Fancy mylar balloons are not biodegradable. Even normal latex balloons, which do eventually break down, can cause problems.

Goodies

While kids are thrilled to rip open these sacks of treasure, the pleasure is usually short-lived. There is a reason that these items were inexpensive – they are poorly made, mass-produced, and definitely not sustainable. Use a small cloth bag or a recycled cardboard instead, or if you are on a budget, you can go back to number 1 where goodies bags are no longer needed to be provided by the host.

Happy Green Living (or Partying)!

Hey folks! 1000 Green Steps had found some new types of cell phone and 1000 Green Steps really understand if you want to change yours with a new one. With that coming, do you know what is going to happen with your old cell phone that doesn’t even sell? Well, there are green steps you can do with your old ancient cell phone:

Fist, you can reuse it and tell the (blog) world why you have done that on Kept. It’s a sweet little web site that urges people to “keep the stuff you’ve already got. To use it. To wear it. To celebrate it!”

OR, if you can’t even stand its existance , you can go SMARTLY donate it to some good will company.

Lifeline for Africa collects used phones and sends them to Africa. Some phones will be refurbished, and donated directly to charitable groups in Africa. Others will be refurbished and sold to make money for the charities.

Woodland Trust will receive a donation for every phone it receives. The money will be used for protecting forests.

~Happy Green Living!~

Hey, it’s the beginning of August again! Which means it’s the official time to start getting the kids ready for school. There is this tingling feeling all over me when it comes to buying new school supplies at the beginning of a new school year. It’s just it has to be brand new to live up the year right? There’s nothing better than to buy your children some new eco friendly school supplies!

First of all, recycled paper and binders might make a good option for your kids. After all of those green stuff you bought, don’t forget to aim for a waste-free lunch to top it all sweetly.

Happy Green Living!

San Franciscans… Make yourself proud! All of us can give them congratulations now, because starting from July 2011, San Franciscans will have to pay for not recycling non-organic matters.

How much?

For those ‘criminals’ the fine would be $500 (such a waste!). Well, in case you need more actions of The San Francisco Board of Supervisors to prove their eco-friendliness, I will tell you something. Maybe you can find some other cities that make their citizens doing the recycling part, but not COMPOSTING.

How will that work?

Well, the garbage collector simply will put tags on containers that haven’t been sorted correctly. So re-open your books about how to separate organic and non-organic matters again fellas!

1000 Green Steps hope other countries in this world start to realize how important these kinds of regulations are for our environment. Next time we won’t see cities or counties, but COUNTRIES

Happy Green Living!

1000 green Steps know that almost every woman knows that recycling in their kitchen would be a good idea. The problem is that green steps are not always easy or convenient! Who really wants to lug a bag full of aluminum cans out to the recycling bin (especially during the cold winter months?) No one. Luckily, this aluminum can crusher makes your green steps much less daunting! Simply crush all empty cans and store them until enough have accumulated for a single trip out to the bin.

Happy Green Living!

Green Printing Service

Whoa whoa wait! 1000 Green Steps is 100% sure that you all have heard (or at least read) that printing is not that eco friendly and you should just either save it in your computer or print it on a recycled paper. However, if you are talking about brochures, newsletter, postcards, or even photos, you can’t really print it on a recycled paper, can you? Well 1000 Green Steps had thought of that possibility, so we find you a solution! Greenerprinter.com gives you the tools you need to grow your business. More than a printer, they offer comprehensive tools for spreading your message and cultivating new customers so your business can thrive. They make it easy, affordable, and green by using 100% post customer recycled paper and soy or vegetable based ink with eco friendly practices and green steps.

Happy Green Living!