Going Going Green | Saving the World One Post At A Time

Not So Clueless.

greengirl2lane — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:14:16 +0000

Some people may not know that the “Clueless” star Alicia Silverstone is going green. Besides being a vegan and a huge supporter of animal groups like PETA, she has an extremely eco-cocios home. She told InStyle Magazine she “loves living like this” and “It is so satifing and inspiring.” She has done many things to make her home greener save the environment, and she’s found inventive ways to be green-conscious at home, whether it’s using energy-saving appliances, putting solar panels on the roof, or even recycling the flooring from an old bowling alley to make her table top. In one interview she said “‘We all sit around talking about things we want to change, but unless you change, it ain’t going to happen,” says Alicia Silverstone. “I used to say, ‘What can I do? I’m just one person.’ It’s a lovely excuse but it’s a bunch of BS. Once I made the change I saw how powerful one person is.’” She is right. One person can change the world but everyone is just sitting on theit lazy butts waiting for someone else to do something. Also she says to the interviewer “At home, old scripts make perfect paper for her printer and fax machine, while she reuses glass bottles, opts for cloth over paper towels and napkins and filters her water to avoid buying plastic bottles. ‘Every time you buy something, just think, ‘Where does this go?’ she says. ‘It’s not difficult.’” Another thing she does to be green is she drives a Prius. I’m sure many people look up to this amazing actress, but maybe some more should follow her example and live a greener and healthier life.

Going Green & Christmas Wrapping Paper

greengirl2lane — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:53:16 +0000

It is estimated that over Christmas as much as 83 square km of wrapping paper will end up in UK rubbish bins. Wouldn’t it be great if you could go green this Christmas? I have some tips for you if you do want to go green. One thing you could do is creat your own wrapping paper. It could be something as simple as wrapping your gits with brown paper bags you get from the grocory store. You can even do something creative with them like decorate them with stickers or something. Then after you finish opening your wonderful gifts you can recycle them. Materials also work for gift wrap and they are reusable. Also it is cheaper to make paper bags then plastic or cloth ones. Another idea is giving a gift in a gift. If you are going to give someone a coffee cup and some coffee, don’t wrap it. Put the coffee in the coffee cup and give it to them like that. Too add some shine to your gifts you can use recycled aluminum foil for wrapping paper. If you absolutly have to have wrapping paper you can always buy recycled wrapping paper. If you want to see some, you can visit this website… http://www.fishlipspaperdesigns.com/. For the all important bow on your gift, use something like a flower or colorful hairband that can be reused. For mailing gifts, you can use popcorn instead of packing peanuts and tell the person recieving the gift to feed the popcorn to the birds. It will be a merry christmas for the birds too! For mailing again, use brown mailing paper because it is recyclabele. Again like the paper bags, you can decorate it. Let the kids draw a picture for grandma or something fun. I hope everone has a merry and green Christmas!

Want Not, Waste Not

greengirl2lane — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:10:09 +0000

Global solid waste experts focus on latest technology conference to highlight innovation

Source: Business Wire
Published Sep. 8, 2008

Nearly 500 experts on the best waste management techniques around the world are meeting here September 7-10 for the largest conference of its kind ever held in the United States.

Co-sponsored by the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) and Penton Media, Inc., the Global Waste Management Symposium conference will focus on such key issues as:

Making waste management more sustainable
Reducing emissions and climate change impact
Increasing generation of renewable energy from solid waste
Improving landfill monitoring and assessment
More than 90 peer-reviewed presentations will highlight the latest technologies and best practices.

Symposium presenters and participants represent leading academics, government officials, non-governmental organization leaders and solid waste industry representatives from North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Gregory C. Cekander, Waste Management, Inc.’s Vice President of the Environmental Management Group and Symposium Chair, described the conference as the biggest meeting of this type in the United States. “We are thrilled to have a diverse group of professionals from so many different areas of solid waste engineering and management participating. The scientific knowledge and real-world experiences shared at this conference will advance environmental stewardship by tackling tough issues with sound science and proven practices.”

NSWMA President and CEO Bruce J. Parker stated, “This event demonstrates the commitment of solid waste professionals to thoughtful, innovative and environmentally-responsive management of waste materials. Protecting the environment and public health is the very reason for our existence.”

The Symposium is owned and managed by Penton Media, Inc. The National Solid Wastes Management Association is a strategic partner in planning the event with other organizations, including the US Environmental Protection Agency, the World Bank and the Chicago Climate Exchange.

The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) – a sub-association of the Environmental Industry Associations – represents for-profit companies in North America that provide solid, hazardous and medical waste collection, recycling and disposal services, and companies that provide professional and consulting services to the waste services industry. NSWMA members conduct business in all 50 states. For more information, visit www.nswma.org.

Penton Media, Inc. is the largest independent business-to-business media company in the U.S., serving more than six million business professionals every month. The company’s market-leading brands are focused on 30 industries and include 113 trade magazines, 145 Web sites, 150 industry trade shows and conferences, and more than 500 information data products. Headquartered in New York City, the privately held company is owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP, and its co-investors.

A Sea of Garbage

greengirl2lane — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:01:03 +0000

This press release has some great information in it about how the landfills are overflowing into the ocean. We can not risk damaging our eco-system anymore than we already have. The City of Toronto is encouraging people to put their money where their mouth is by charging for plastic bags, in hopes of minimizing the landfill waste, by provoking people to purchase shopping bags they can re-use instead.

A Sea of Garbage

from: Globe-net

Dec. 9, 2008

Many businesses are up in arms over the decision of the City of Toronto that merchants must charge consumers five cents for each plastic shopping bag as of June 1st, 2009. The measure is designed to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in city landfills. It would be nice to remind everyone that plastics do not just end up in landfills or pollute city streets. They also twirl inside massive ocean gyres that draw in debris from the coasts without leaving any chance of escape.

The most well-known is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that floats inside the North Pacific Gyre between San Francisco and Japan. This massive trash vortex, roughly the size of Texas, consists of an estimated 100 million tons of plastic debris continuously powered by currents in a clockwise fashion.

Toothbrushes, umbrella handles, toys and soda bottles make up some of the material floating on the surface of the water. Most of the pollution is made up, however, of tiny pieces of plastic resting just below the surface, too tough for consumption by bacteria. Greenpeace estimates that there are one million items floating inside each square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The result is a sea of trash that harms marine life.

‘It’s a dispersed congregation of our debris from civilization, mostly plastic,’ explains Charles Moore, founder of the Agalita Marine Research Foundation during an interview on National Public Radio. ‘It’s not a sheet so much as a bunch of little bits sprinkled over the surface of the water.’

These bits get into the food chain. Plastic polymers, it turns out, are sponges for DDT, PCBs and other oily pollutants. When sea organisms ingest the toxins and fish eat them in turn, the pollutants eventually end up on dinner plates at fine dining establishments.

Debris also causes death to marine life by drowning, suffocation, strangulation, and starvation when digestive tracts are blocked by say, a bottle cap. Even discarded fishing nets can continue to trap and catch fish even when they are no longer in use, says Greenpeace. Each year, trash at sea kills an estimated 100,000 marine mammals in the North Pacific.

Most plastics are not biodegradable. Instead, sunlight breaks them down into tiny pieces that either float on the surface or are dragged by underwater currents toward the ocean gyres. It takes up to one year for plastics from Japan to reach the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and up to five years for debris from the United States, says Charles Moore.

And debris found at sea grows exponentially. Near Japan, the amount of plastic garbage expands by a factor of 10 every two to five years. ‘The consequences of putting that much stuff shading the surface of the ocean is unknown,’ says Moore in his NPR interview. ‘We don’t know how it’s going to effect the sequestration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.’

Scientists estimate that 80 percent of marine debris originates from land sources and the remaining 20 percent come from ships that throw goods overboard. A number of international and national initiatives have been put in place to reduce those figures. One is the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from ships (MARPOL) meant to stop ships from dumping garbage and plastics at sea. It has had little effect since its introduction in 1988.

Some have argued that ships could sail with massive nets to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but the scale of the pollution is so massive that an entire navy fleet could not clean up a mess that has grown tenfold every decade since the 1950s. And let us not forget that most of these plastics originate in wealthy countries. When less developed nations become wealthy themselves, their consumers also will dump their plastics into the oceans.

It seems that the sea can only be protected by encouraging the public to reduce its own consumption. The decision by Toronto’s city council to charge for the use of plastic bags in stores is a step in the right direction.

If a five-cent a bag charge modifies consumer behavior, even in a small way, the world’s oceans will be better off.

Original Source

Hollywood’s Sexiest Green Activist Actors

greengirl2lane — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:20:25 +0000

As a Green Girl, I appreciate beauty in every color, shape and size. I love the three actors listed below, not only for their exquisite, good looks, but I love them for all of the work they have done to help the environment!

____________________________________________________________________

#1 Leonardo DiCaprio

Ok, so he had a few cheesy one-liner’s in Titanic, but he had tons of other truly great films throughout his career. And aside from his red-hot and stellar list of top billing films, Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the sexiest Activists taking a lead for the green initiative.

Sexy Leonardo DiCaprio Saves the Earth

__________________________________________________________________

#2 Angelina Jolie

She has enough children to fill a tribe, once a carried a vile of her lover’s blood around her neck; however, she is gorgeous and one of the world’s most generous benefactors. She is also probably one of the most recognized representatives of UNICEF and a huge children’s advocate (with the exception of Audrey Hepburn maybe). Angelina Jolie has donated her time and money supporting environmental initiatives and much more. Going, Going Green appreciates and recognizes her amazing contributions to the world.

Angelina Jolie: Sexiest Activist in the World

__________________________________________________________________

#3 Demi Moore

Demi Moore is a beautiful actress with a stellar career and great family. Over the years she has contributed millions of dollars to help protect the environment. She is definitely a woman with beauty and purpose.

Demi Moore is a Hot Activist

Recycling and Environmental Education

greengirl2lane — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:22:19 +0000

Video from the E.D.G.E. (Early Development of Global Education) about starting eco-friendly or green curriculums in preschools nationwide. It focuses on educating kids about global warming and other environmental issues that are harming the earth and how to stop them.

We can not stop spreading the truth about what is truly happening with our environment. We must continue to conserve our resources and minimize waste and pollution! Don’t stop paying it forward! Going, Going Green! Let’s all save the world for ourselves and the future of our children!

Fill Metal Water Bottles, Not Landfills!

greengirl2lane — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:01:57 +0000

I’m a huge advocate for going green. I love this company’s new initiative to minimize the waste constantly being sent to landfills. More people should use metal water bottles, instead of constantly buying bottled water.

Check out this press release from Nalgene Stainless:

Nalgene® Launches Refill Not Landfill
Campaign helps thwart America’s dependence on bottled water and its impact on our planet

Earth Day & Environment

ROCHESTER , N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–This Earth Day, Nalgene® Outdoor Products, a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, sets out to curb America’s dependence on bottled water through Refill Not Landfill, a campaign to reduce disposable water bottle waste. The heart of the campaign includes an online pledge (www.refillnotlandfill.org) asking people to give up the bottled water habit for a week, a month or a year to help save millions of plastic water bottles from reaching a landfill or the side of the road.

The everyday convenience of bottled water is quickly becoming outweighed by its negative impact on the environment. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 8 out of 10 plastic water bottles are either sent to landfills or end up polluting neighborhoods. In addition, enough oil is used in the production of disposable water bottles annually to fuel 100,000 cars for a full year (Earth Policy Institute).

As part of the campaign, Nalgene Outdoor Products will dedicate all proceeds from the sale of its commemorative Refill Not Landfill water bottle to purchasing carbon offsets from NativeEnergy, an organization that helps to build Native American, farmer-owned, community based renewable energy projects that create social, economic, and environmental benefits. www.nativeenergy.com

“Refill Not Landfill is a cause we’re passionate about. Refilling a reusable water bottle is a small lifestyle change that can really make a big difference towards a healthier planet,” said Eric Hansen, marketing manager, Nalgene Outdoor Products. “This idea has essentially been in existence for more than 30 years, when outdoor enthusiasts first started refilling and reusing our bottles for water and food storage. The only difference with Refill Not Landfill is that we want to encourage people’s commitment to drink from any type of reusable container.”
What Can People Do?

On average, one person uses 166 disposable plastic water bottles each year. To decrease that number, consumers can take an online pledge ( www.refillnotlandfill.org) to reduce their bottled water consumption by drinking from a reusable container for one week, one month or one year.

To put this in perspective, if everyone in New York City were to use a reusable container, millions of bottles would be saved from cluttering landfills, roadsides and streams.

One week pledge = 24 million bottles saved

One month pledge = 112 million bottles saved

One year pledge = 1.328 billion bottles saved

“A simple change such as using a refillable container rather than a disposable plastic bottle, over time, can have a profound impact on reducing one’s carbon footprint,” said Tom Stoddard, Vice President of NativeEnergy. “We greatly appreciate Nalgene and others who are creating awareness programs to promote the importance of renewable energy and easy ways to help lessen our burden on the environment.”
About NALGENE Outdoor

NALGENE ® Outdoor Products, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, is based in Rochester, New York. Founded in 1949 as a manufacturer of the first plastic pipette holder, the company soon expanded its product line to include state-of-the-art polyethylene labware under the NALGENE brand. By the 1970s, outdoor enthusiasts had discovered the taste- and odor-resistant, leakproof and rugged properties of NALGENE’s large selection of plastic containers. In response to this emerging demand, the NALGENE Consumer Products Division was formed. For more information, contact NALGENE Consumer Products or visit our website at www.nalgene-outdoor.com.

Nalgene Consumer Products is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science.
About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) is the world leader in serving science, enabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. With annual sales of more than $9 billion, we employ 30,000 people and serve over 350,000 customers within pharmaceutical and biotech companies, hospitals and clinical diagnostic labs, universities, research institutions, government agencies as well as environmental and industrial process control settings. Serving customers through two premier brands, Thermo Scientific and Fisher Scientific, we help solve analytical challenges from routine testing to complex research and discovery. Thermo Scientific offers customers a complete range of high-end analytical instruments as well as laboratory equipment, software, services, consumables and reagents to enable integrated laboratory workflow solutions. Fisher Scientific provides a complete portfolio of laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies and services used in healthcare, scientific research, safety and education. Together, we offer the most convenient purchasing options to customers and continuously advance our technologies to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, enhance value for customers and fuel growth for shareholders and employees alike. Visit www.thermofisher.com.

Original Source