The Great Maryland Lawn Mower Event
This year we decided to redo the back yard. It had once been grass, that was then dug up an turned into a bicycle pump track. Unfortunately this led to a lot of mud. Combined with muddy paws and shoes all over my kitchen floor it was more than I could bare. So finally, after two years of filthy floors Mr. Jones agreed to convert back to a regular old lawn. We’ve decided we’d rather spend our time doing things that don’t involve constantly digging in the backyard anyway. So..back to mowing the lawn. We have an old hand-me-down gas mower that is a complete overkill for our small city yard. We’d consider switching to electric, but it’s been cost prohivitive given that our goal is reducing our debt, not increasing it. Luckily for us Baltimore City is again hosting to ‘The Great Maryland Lawn Mower Event’ on August 14. On Saturday morning Mr. Jones (who has already pre-registered here) will be trading in our old mower for a shiny new Neuton CE 6 battery-powered mower. Best yet, this mower which retails in the $400+ range is available at a substantial discount for only $175. (They also have the CE5 available for $135 if you don’t need the larger cutting deck). This is a great opportunity for all Maryland residents to put a dent in their pollution output without banging up their wallet.
More on the Neuton CE6:
Cut a 19″ path with our larger model. The Neuton CE6 Mower gives you the powerful performance of a gas mower with convenience of DURACELL® battery technology. There is no gas or oil to spill and no engine emissions to pollute the air. Neuton is the only mower powered by DURACELL®. With 360 watt-hours of battery energy, it has plenty of power to mow through even tall, wet grass. The Neuton CE6 mower is ideal for lawns up to 1/3 acre (about 15,000 sq. ft.) on a single charge. If you need more time, just drop in an optional spare battery and keep mowing!
Bio-couture: The Future of Fashion?
photographer Santiago Arribas Peña from the Science Museum
I stumbled upon a link to the BioCouture research project and was intrigued by what I found there. From what I’ve found by looking through the various photos on the website is that the goal is to radically change the clothing industry to address the ecological impact and the sustainability of fashion in the future. There have been a number of movements in the last few years to reduce the environmental impact of the immensely destructive chothing industry. Recycling and Refashioning have challenged the way that fabrics are viewed and used. Organic and Fair Trade seek to address the economic and ecological devastation visited upon developing countries. However, this BioCouture movement may just be the most radical yet. They have created and are using a new type of fiber, bacterial-cellulose combined with natural fruit, vegetable and spices to dye the material. Their website, which seems unfinished, does show some completed pieces including a “Veggie” Biker jacket decorated with and a “denim” shirt stained indigo with natural colorants. What I’m most surprised to see if that most of these materials are dated 2007.
Under the “links” section is the equivalent of an “About” page that lists information about the project team members. These include an author, Suzanne Lee, and a Dr. who serves as co-director of a Biotech firm funded by a grant from The Research Centre for Fashion, the Body and Material Cultures. You can purchase a copy of Ms. Lee’s book, published in 2005, on Amazon: Fashioning the Future
Curran by Cellucomp (UNITED KINGDOM) is a high-strength biofiber formulated from degraded carrots with a stiffness that rivals carbon fiber. The material is remarkable for its capacity to enhance sustainability in a wide range of applications where lightness, maximum performance, and durability are crucial, from consumer products to aeronautics.
In poking around the internet a bit more, I was able to locate the new, updated website for The Biocouture project website. An update on the homepage indicates that the new BioCouture jacket is on display at London’s Science Museum in the Wellcome Wing. The jacket will appear in a new exhibit titled, “‘Trash Fashion: designing out waste’” beginning June 2010 through February 2011.
I’ll continue to follow the exciting developments of the BioCouture project. I love the idea of growing fabric from bacteria using environmentally-friendly manufacturing practices. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to buy new clothes without damaging the earth. Until then though, I’ll just keep refashioning the clothes I recycle from Goodwill.
TerraCycle is working to make products from Trash: Join the Brigade
My mother called me last night to tell me about an interesting notice on the side of her Wheat Thins box. Apparently Wheat Thins has teamed up with Terracycle to recyle their packages. My mother proceeded to tell me a bit more about it and then sent me a link to read through today. Here’s what I found in their “About Us” page:
TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products available at major retailers like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage.You can be a part of our eco-revolution, just sign up for one of our FREE Brigades or look for TerraCycle products at your local retailer.
Founded in 2001 by a 19 year old Princeton University freshman named Tom Szaky, TerraCycle started as an organic fertilizer company and has grown into a multi-category, eco-friendly powerhouse. Tom’s dream was to find way a new, more responsible way of doing doing business that would be good for the planet, good for people and good for the bottom line! TerraCycle has won many awards and accolades for its environmentally responsible business model from Inc. Magazine, Red Herring, The Home Depot, The Environmental Business Journal, The Social Venture Network, Zerofootprint and many other highly regarded organizations.
TerraCycle also runs free national collection programs that pay non-profits and schools TerraCycle has exclusive partnerships with major CPG companies such as Kraft Foods, Frito Lay (Pepsi), Stonyfield Farm, Mars Wrigley and many more. The partnerships create free collection programs that pay schools and non-profits nationwide to collect used packaging such as drink pouches, energy bar wrappers, yogurt cups, cookie wrappers, chip bags and more! The collected materials are upcycled into affordable, high quality products ranging from tote bags and purses to shower curtains and kites. In addition, TerraCycle works with these partners to find innovative uses for all of their waste streams and, by making products from these various waste streams, TerraCycle prevents 1000’s of tons of waste from going to landfills.
Intrigued I check out their products and noted that they are doing some of what I’ve seen on Etsy an other websites, just on a much larger scale. I signed up to be a member of the Brigade and have chosen to donate my earnings to the Nature Conservancy. I fully intend to volunteer clean-up after our pot-lucks at work and harass the poor women I work with to bring in their garbage so that I can get to work. Unfortunately you have to sign up for a Brigade and there must be open slots and so far the items that I collect most often, don’t have any openings. I’ll continue to look into this and let you know once I’m able to start recycling my garbage with Terracycle. This is a great idea though and I’m glad that we are beginning to see recyling and upcycling on a larger scale.
Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap
Boy am I sorry I didn’t see this sooner! I was posting a comment on the Baltimore Sun this morning and to the right saw and ad for the Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap. I had never even heard of this, but I was immediately excited. Woohoo, someone is organizing clothing swaps in my very own city! I love clothing swaps because you can shop for free and reducing your carbon footprint by reusing the clothes that someone else no longer wants. I love to swap out my closet at least twice a year and since I discovered clothing swaps I don’t have to feel bad about it anymore; It’s glorious. I clicked on the link and noted that they were having a swap this Saturday, May 1 from 10am – 6pm in Mt. Vernon. I’ll be out of town on Saturday celebrating my Dad’s birthday, so unfortunately I’ll have to miss this one. The good news? They are traveling all over the city (and have been since early April) through the middle of May. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next swap so that I can spruce up my wardrobe for Spring. The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap has it’s own website here where it says:
Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap:
Style & Sustainability Through Common Threads
April 18 – May 17, 2010All ages, genders and sizes are welcome to participate in a new kind of shopping experience that benefits the environment and the Baltimore community. Donate, trade or take clothing and accessories in an exciting, outdoor, store-like, money-free exchange. (Even if you do not donate, you may take up to three items!) The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap will travel to a variety of locations throughout Baltimore city for one month.
The swap is free and open to the general public.
Their mission is simple, “The Baltimore Clothing Stop & Swap’s mission is to raise awareness about recycling, focused on secondhand clothing and accessories, through an exciting and free service that benefits the environment and brings together the Baltimore community.” There are two very important differences from the little clothing swaps that I attend (usually put on by friends at my local bar/restaurant The Parkside):
1. You can only bring Ten (10) items to donate
2. You have to tag your items
Still, choosing only ten preloved items to donate may be the hardest part and if shopping for free means that you have to fill out some little paper tags I think it’s worth it.
Here are the remaining events; see you there!
Saturday, May 1
Mount Vernon Park, North Square
699 North Charles St
Baltimore, Maryland
10 am – 6 pm
JUST ADDED:
Sunday, May 2
Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar
Underneath the Jones Falls Expressway at Holliday & Saratoga streets
7 am – noon
Sunday, May 9
Patterson Park (specific address not yet determined)
10 am – 6 pm
Friday, May 14 – Monday, May 17
Maryland Institute College of Art, Mount Royal Station, Frost Plaza
1300 Mount Royal Ave
Baltimore, Maryland 21217
Fri: 11 am – 8 pm
Sat-Mon: 11 am – 5 pm
It’s Flip-Flop Time People!
I’m so excited; it’s my favorite time of year. I love, love, love wearing flip-flops. Unfortunately the pair I have on today were frequently abused by my daughter last year and now the rubber thong pops out while I’m walking which is annoying at best, and dangerous at worst. So..it’s flip-flop shopping time. I’ll relegate my previously loved DC flippers to the gardening or house-cleaning pile and get a new pair. I wanted to go eco-friendly though and I began surfing for some new flippy floppies and found these, adorable Roxy Eden Sandals:
Eden Sandals
The garden of Eden needs a little help and here’s a little way to start. This entire sandal is made from EcoFoam and rubber, giving the Earth a little break. Non toxic, recyclable, and decomposable. What could possibly be better? Imported.
According to the Greenprint Buyer’s Guide provided on the site my new flip-flops will be made biodegradable, natural rubber and non-petroleum EVA foam and stuck together using water-based glue. These things are good because:
That’s pretty exciting, and with such a snazzy design I”m going to snap up two pair (1 for me and 1 for my daughter).
Target’s Eco-Friendly Page
I buy my household supplies at Target monthly and have always been satisfied with the number of eco-friendly products that they offer in terms of cleaning supplies, etc, but I always do my shopping in store. Today, when I received an email advertisement from Target I decided to check out their online deals. What I was really surprised to find what that they have a link to their eco-friendly products. Half-expecting to find a bunch of green-washed stuff for sale, I actually wasn’t disappointed by their offering. As always, it’s best to do without if you really want to help the environement by reducing your consumption of any raw materials, but I’m just not going to live that way because I live in reality land. So… if you are interested in learning more about some of Target’s eco-friendly alternatives you can find them here. Everything from reuseable bags and organic cotton bed sheets, to furniture “Made of 100% formaldehyde-free birch plywood with eco-friendly, 100% nontoxic, water-based stains and UV-curved finish to minimize greenhouse gases”. I was pretty impressed with the selection of seemingly lower environmental impact products. While I’m certain that the most hardcore of environmentalists may not agree with shopping at Target at all, those of us in the moderate, just-trying-to-do-our-part category, this may be a useful way to investigate greener options to the products were were going to buy anyway. Just remember to try to combine shopping trips and don’t buy more than you really need; for the environment and for your own well-being (to be read as fiscally responsible) curb your shopping a bit and try to stick to picking up your basics once a month. Oh! Don’t forget; another important service that Target offers is recycling your batteries and cell phonesand donating the proceeds to charity. Just take your stuff to their Guest Services desk and they’ll contribute to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
The Coming Water Crisis
While listening to NPR on my way back to Baltimore yesterday I listened to a very interesting story about the coming Water Crisis. Essentially the guest speaker, Steven Solomon, was discussing how global water usage is increasing at a leve that cannot be sustained. In fact, some of the hardest hit regions who will be facing water shortages soon are areas in which terrorism has taken, or is beginning to take hold. The global consumption of our limited water resources may even spark the next major conflict. You can read the article on NPR here and listen to the broadcast for more information, “Will the Next War be Fought Over Water?“.
Immediately after hearing this story I was reminded of an article I read while back on Treehugger, where it lists the amount of water needed to produce a single new tshirt or pair of jeans. Fortunately I found that article here, “How Many Gallons of Water Does It Take to Make…”
Here are the facts straight from the article:
Pair of Jeans
It takes around 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to produce just one pair of regular ol’ blue jeans. [2]
Cotton T-Shirt
Not as bad as jeans, it still takes a whopping 400 gallons of water to grow the cotton required for an ordinary cotton shirt.
Now, if you think that just because you make your own clothes by knitting, crocheting, or buying fabric in the store that you are helping to reduce your water consumption, just look at what the article says about your raw materials:
One Pound of . . .
Wool: 101 gallons of water
Cotton: 101 gallons
In short, one great way to avoid consuming more than your fair share of water and starting on the slippery slope that will lead to famine, death, terrorism, and finally war is to stop buying new clothes! There are thousands of vintage stores, second hand and thrift shops available where you can purchase used, or as I like to call them, previously loved clothing. There are so many great resources online that can show you how to sew, refashion, and remake clothes, If you prefer to knit, but can’t find a sweater that you really like, buy a used one and recycle the yarn. If you can’t bear to take up sewing or knitting, but still want to do your part, but don’t want to dig through thrift stores, then buy online. Online sellers like Etsy have tons of shops selling recycled couture, so you can still look good and do your part to slow the damage to our Earth. I’ll include more links below to help you do additional research on the size of the issue at hand as well as places to purchase used clothes and links to groups of folks who have pledged not to buy any new clothes to help reduce their footprint on the Earth.
The Water Crisis:
The Coming Crisis: Water, Not Oil
Failing Wheat Crop Causes Afghan Food Crisis
Obscured By War, Water Crisis Looms In Yemen
We Use How Much Water? Scary Water Fooprints, Country by Country
Groups Embracing the Stop Shopping or Nused Clothing Movement to Recycle, Upcycle or Refashion Clothing:
The Great American Apparel Diet
Great Places to Shop for Refashioned, Recycled, Vintage Clothing:
So, maybe you can make one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2010 to stop buying new clothes? So go on, get shopping, just make sure it’s been previously loved. Maybe you can even check off two resolutions, by using all of the money you will save not buying new clothes to pay off debt…not a sermon, just a thought 
WorldofGood.com
I occasionally pick up crafting items/fabric from Ebay because I can get a used tshirt with free shipping for less than at my local Goodwill (which can run in excess of $4.00). Today, while perusing the site I came across a new section of Ebay called World of Good. The “About” section says, “WorldofGood.com by eBay is the world’s first online marketplace to convene thousands of People Positive and Eco Positive sellers and products all in one place, empowering you to shop in ways that align with your personal values. Respected, independent organizations verify the positive impact every product has on people and the planet. Our goal is to ensure that every choice you make here is a good one”.
WorldofGood.com breaks products down into four categories: People Positive, Eco Positive, Animal Friendly and Supports a Cause. People Positive ensures that “producers get great new opportunities”, or fair-trade practices. Eco Positive, are “good products for the planet” or what you think of as “green” items (ie, recycled, refashioned, use conservation-based raw materials and/or production methods. Animal Friendly and Supports a Cause are pretty self-evident in their product descriptions.
This new method of buying and selling is intriguing and I’m going to look into becoming a seller and I hope that this categorization helps people to more easily make informed decisions about the products they buy and how they affect the world around them.
Here is a link to the press release issued on September 3, 2008, “eBay Launches New Online Marketplace for Ethically Sourced and Eco-Friendly Products”.
Environmentally-Focused Christmas Shopping
Maybe you had planned to handmake your Christmas presents, but they didn’t turn out, or you just didn’t have the time to finish them (both of these have already happened to me). Even more likely, you just don’t have the time, energy or urge to make your own gifts, but you still want to buy something cool for your loved ones, but want to buy something recycled or refashioned to cut down on your enivronmental impact. With expedited shpping in most cases you can still purchase up to a few days before Christmas, but always check your estimated arrival dates and read the shipper’s policies before you purchase. If your items don’t arrive you can always print a photo and description of the item frome the website and give to your relatvies in a pretty card and let them know that they’ll receive it soon (again, I’ve had to do this more than once). I’ve scoured the innertubes (ie, the internet) and come up with a few really cool items and here they are in no particular order.
Warning: Shamless self promotion plug – buy something from me You can always request a custom item as well from my Etsy shop.
“SerendipiT sources fabrics from clothing purchased from thrift stores like Goodwill (and occasionally my own closet) and recycles the fabric into new, fun and practical items. Recycling these textiles ensures that they don’t end up in landfills and by purchasing repurposed, upcycled and refashioned goods you can reduce the harmful chemicals used in the production of new items. So reduce your carbon footprint, do something good for the Earth and your wallet by purcashing something fun or funky from SerendipiT.”
Here are some of my favorite Etsy items:
Upcycled Vinyl Record HEAVY Guitar Picks Free Shipping
Custom Vintage Silverware Garden Marker
Recycled DEF LEPPARD cassette wallet / iPod Nano case / business card holder
Antique Silver Spoon Ring, Avon Pattern.. Any Size… Free Shipping
UPCYCLED Blue Grey VINTAGE Train Case with RADIOHEAD Quote Black Star and Skeleton Keys
Try putting “recyled” in the search box and find thousands of goodies to suit your taste.
Amazon has lots of great recycled items too like:
terrasoles Women’s Tuckerman Clog,Charcoal,8 M
Nahui Ollin Itsy Bitsy Wristlet,Hearts,one size
terrasoles Men’s Snowmass Slip On,Charcoal,7 M
ROGUE Mingo Knee Boot,Honey,6 M
Nahui Ollin Large Cutie Pie Purse,Zig Zag,one size
There are so many online stores offering recycled and upcycled gifts that a simple search will reveal more websites than one can sift through in a day, but here are a few that caught my eye:
Eco-Artware.com
So hopefully, among your search for presents you’ll find something interesting, unique and sustainably crafted to give this year. Nothing says I love you like passing on a healthy planet to our future generations. Happy Shopping!
Rich Hippie: Organic, wildcrafted perfume that sounds yummy
I love finding new earth-friendly products to try and review. The health and beauty industry is practically bursting with new, organic alternatives to mass-produced synthetics that can contain nasty things like petrochemicals and “hormone disruptors”; yikes! Today I found a very intriguing product online, Rich Hippie perfume. They make yummy perfumes from all natural ingredients extracted from flowers and plants combined with wine alcohol distilled from grapes with exciting names like “Brown Sugar”, “Maharishi”, “Rock Star”. While these are sold in a limited number of retail stores worldwide you can purchase their organic perfume right on the website. Best yet, you can order samples of each fragrance if you like to mix it up (like I do) or try it before you commit to just one. So take note friends and family, this is a bit out of my budget, but it would make a lovely gift. 
