| In The News |
| Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder Contest 2008 - A poetry, essay, and photography contest "that best expresses the Sense of Wonder that you feel for the sea, the night sky, forests, birds, wildlife, and all that is beautiful to your eyes." We want you to share this love of nature with a child and others around you. Enter the contest. |
Cardinals to enlist homeless in recycling effort Starting with the season-opener against Colorado, the St. Louis Cardinals will join a relatively small number of professional sports teams that recycle debris left by fans. Homeless people will do the cleanup work as part of a job retraining effort. Read more.
Nothing is Everything - Ever dreamed of owning a completely self-sufficient home that produces its own energy, water, and is completely customizable? New York architect Scott Specht has the answer to all of our zero-energy prefab dreams with the new ZeroHouse™. This completely self-sustaining prefabricated house generates its own power, collects its own water, processes its own waste and is 100% automatic. Read more.
fyi - According to a 2007 study, approximately 10 percent of the petroleum used in the United States, 2 million barrels per day, is used to manufacture plastics. The increasing variety and quantity of plastic containers, films, and other products available for recovery can present a challenge for both the demand and supply side of recycling. For more info, visit www.parmc.org
Build Your Own PV Panel Workshop - Learn how to assemble your own Photovoltaic (PV) panel for producing electricity. Sign up for June 14th class.
Recycling Services Spring Projects – Organic Milk in Returnable Bottles - this is to empower folks (while getting them to eat better) Returnable bottled organic milk, is alive & well you just need to know where to find it & how to persuade your store to carry it. Read this & more ideas from Jim at RSI.
Recycling Symbols & the history of the 1st recycling symbol, read more. |
| Inspirational Quotes |
“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, And teach us, that the less we use our power The greater it will be.”- Thomas Jefferson
“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after the night and spring after the winter.”- Rachel Carson
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”- Sir Winston Churchill |
|
| Top Stories |
After Court Order, Bush releases Climate Change Report - Under pressure from a court order, the Bush administration put out a new report on climate change yesterday that comes to the conclusion that "most of the recent global warming is very likely due to human-generated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations." Read more. Read the full report.
USPS: Free Recycling Through the Mail - Free and green. Those are the goals of a pilot program launched by the U.S. Postal Service that allows customers to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges by mailing them free of charge, making it easier for customers to discard used or obsolete small electronics in an environmentally responsible way. Listen to more on this story on NPR.
Tire chips make playgrounds safe and aid in disposal - For many in southern West Virginia, disposing of old tires is a nuisance. It leads many to decorate — or litter — their front lawns with the unsightly circles of black rubber. Read more.
Heal your Home Center – Co-op America’s “Heal Your Home Center” is a one-stop shop for the articles they’ve written on nontoxic living over the past few years, from finding least-toxic paints and stains to making your own green cleaners to detoxing your entire bedroom. Read more. Also, read this.
Simple Prosperity - When we change a few key priorities, many of our material wants will cease to be obsessions. It’s not just that we won’t need the next generation of gadgets or clothes; we truly won’t even want them. Instead of fidgety, addictive consumption, our lives will be filled with the real wealth of sanity, health, hope, caring, connection, participation, and purpose. Read more.
CA Cows Start Passing Gas to the Grid - Poop-power is not a new phenomenon, as methane-powered generators have existed for a while, and even larger scale developments have used poo-power as a way to meet energy needs. But powering a state with poo? This is exactly what Californian utility PG&E has just started to do, by creating natural gas from a vat of liquid-cow poo, in what is probably the smelliest (but smartest) way ever to produce any form of renewable energy. Read more.
Floors Made From Peach Pips in South Africa - The floor consists of peach pips that are packed by hand onto a glued surface and filled with a silica sand and resin mixture, then sealed. The sharp edges of the pips are sanded off to expose the red hue of the pips and give the floor a natural wood feeling - making it warm, therapeutic and comfortable to walk on with bare feet. Read more.
Recycle Wooden Pallets: Wooden pallets are a massive drain on resources and a huge burden on the waste disposal system. read more. |
| |
| |
|
|
| Green Building & Gifts |
| We still need your help!! PA Senate bill 152 still has not budged an inch in over a year!Never go to a gas station again! Did you know that plug-in neighborhood electric vehicles are available NOW but are not legal to drive in PA? These vehicles have zero emissions, never having to stop for GAS, ever! To Pennsylvania residents -Please take a moment to contact (call, write, email) your Senator to pass Senate Bill 152. Read the details of SB152.Thank you for helping!======================= Please visit Close the Loop’s website for more information on our rubber mulch & tiles/pavers, timbers & plastic wood fencing, along with many, many nice gift ideas! View our 30 seconds of fame on the TODAY SHOW! |
| Videos |
Building a Green Economy with Van Jones - This lecture by Van Jones, leading the national movement for green collar job development. Getting people in on the ground floor of a growing industry. You may be a solar panel installer today, but tomorrow be a manager or owner…green pathway out of poverty leading to prosperity. “You don’t just count what you spend, you count what you save [in lives].” Where are all the clean, green jobs?
Garbage Warrior – The story of Michael Reynolds is one of heroism in faraway places and a brave sense of innovation. Reynolds has been working over the last 35 years to create buildings from recycled and reused materials; his work has even provided shelter for people on the edge of civilization. View the video from the Colbert Report. View the Sundance Channel video. Watch Garbage Warrior Movie Trailer.
Grindzilla, the Mobile Recycling Unit –Studies have shown that 65%-75% of waste by weight of a newly constructed single-family home is composed of wood, sheetrock, and corrugated cardboard. Why haul that waste to the landfill when you can take care of it on site AND provide a beneficial material that will not only help the environment, but leave the homeowner with a pile of usable wood mulch, instead of unusable boards. visit their website.
Recycling Meets Design – Superuse is a online community of designers, architects and everybody else who is interested in inventive ways of recycling. View Air Bear in NYC , see artistic items made from beer cans. |
|
