Office Upgrade

In our local Office Max, I found new packing materials friendly to the environment. Care Mail's biodegradable peanuts are made from recycled materials. They also have non-peanut packing made from 100% recycled paper, folded very small. That will do the trick; and it can be recycled again, with mixed paper. Other mailing cartons and wrappings are labeled with reminders that Corrugated cardboard can be recycled. Online, I found Office Max Biodegradable Packaging Peanuts. Made from corn starch, they will decompose in water when they can no longer be reused.

It's good to know that refilling ink cartridges for certain printers can now be done in their store. If your printer is a model they service, you can drop the cartridge off and pick it up later.

I am also pleased to find Office Max carrying paper towels, napkins, and bathroom paper made by Marcal, shown at left. It is made, "Paper from paper, not from trees," and is 100% recycled without chlorine bleaching. The price is right for their At Home & In The Office products, so I'll be taking some home.

Kids Outdoors

Not only is it nice to be outside in the fresh air, it's good for you! This according to Dr. Meg Houlihan, a Charlotte psychologist. "It's especially beneficial for children, who need to get connected with nature from a young age," she said.

For example, when a kid is outdoors without toys, his creativity is called into play. A pile of sand can spark his imagination, and a stick can be anything he wants. He is actively engaging the things in his environment. Nature can be your backyard or window box; small children can spend hours looking at rocks.

In another important benefit of being outdoors, unexpected inhabitants of a park can provide wonder and curiosity for little ones. Here is a low-tech, open-ended game to help them observe things more closely: “What do you see in the woods?" For older kids, their curiosity can lead to research. Ever wondered, what is that bug? Does it sting? Or turn into a butterfly? They can find out at What's That Bug? But they will have to look at their specimen carefully to make a positive identification.

Nature is beneficial for relieving stress. When you go for a walk, or just go outside, you can decrease anxiety. For small children, Houlihan recommends a book to help children understand their feelings: When Sophie Gets Really, Really Angry, by Molly Bang. Going outside and plunking around makes Sophie feel better. That’s what happens to me, too.

Further, a developmental goal for ages 4 to 7 is empathy, knowing how to treat animals and other people. Seeing wildlife in nature and in animal-rescue programs increases children's appreciation for the feelings of other beings. Hands-on caring for pets helps, too.

For exploring, families may enjoy Sharing Nature with Children: a parents' and teachers' nature-awareness guidebook, by Joseph Bharat Cornell. This book has delighted children and adults since it was first published in 1979.

Rainforest Acres

What can kids do to help the rain forests? In Fort Mill, South Carolina, Deborah Bustamante is educating high school students about the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica as they are working in a program to save it. Her students are fundraising for conservation of rainforest land in an Earth Foundation partnership with The Nature Conservancy.

The program provides a hands-on curriculum, covering history, language, science, social studies, art, and math. The catalog of shirts for sale also teaches about the flora and fauna of the land, and empowers students to make a difference. Proceeds from the sale of T-shirts directly benefit the rainforest, buying land for conservation. Through this group, the sale of 10 shirts ($14 each) adopts one acre of rainforest.

The 'Adopt an Acre' site of this year, the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, has a wide diversity of habitats and richness of species. They represent half of the species known to exist in Costa Rica, including jaguars, sloths, and the quetzal. The Nature Conservancy purchases the land, protects it, and educates the indigenous people in developing ways for sustainable coexistence. The Earth Foundation reports that an intact rainforest is worth $6820 per year if harvested in a sustainable manner; $1,000 if clear cut for commercial timber, and $148 if used for cattle pasture!

Bustamante's students raised enough save 58 acres last year. This year, they have accomplished sales to preserve over 50 acres, and hope to save more. We're really proud of them! If you'd like to help the teens reach their goals, you can order these great designs at bustamanted@fort-mill.k12.sc.us or call Fort Mill High School, (803) 835-0000.

Energy Active

The Get Energy Active website offers an interesting look at conserving electricity from The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies. They have an interactive house image with ways to save energy. Most we know about, but there are a few tips new to me. Like this one for a water heater: "Once a year, drain a bucket of water from the bottom of the water heater tank. This gets rid of sediment, which can waste energy by 'blocking' the water in the tank from the heating element." Worth a look to see if any are useful to you!

Yahoo! Free Stuff!

Yahoo! is celebrating Earth Day by encouraging people to become a part of the Freecycle movement, sharing usable goods and making our planet a greener place to live. These 'reuse' web groups help people give away and get things with others in their community.

In this promotion, Yahoo! is giving away prizes hidden in local group lists. The site explains, "We're offering a variety of green goods -- everything from concert tickets to solar chargers -- that hopefully won't add to your carbon footprint but will inspire you to keep active in your local reuse group." Yahoo! is posting Earth Day treasures in hundreds of randomly selected Freecycle groups from today to May 4, 2008. Members can look for posts offering a chance on prizes like this smart car, an eco-resort vacation, or local organic food delivery for a year.

If you're looking for something you need, you may find it on a reuse group. A used set of lawn chairs may be perfect for your backyard, and all you have to do is pick them up. It's also a great way to pass on something useful that no longer fits your needs; especially helpful with larger or unusual items that you can't easily donate to a charity. If you have items cluttering your garage or attic, offer them to the local Freecycle group. Someone may be really happy to make use of them. Keep watching the group for free earth-friendly prizes!

Celebrate Earth Day

In spring, it’s natural to get together with family, friends and neighbors - our communities - to celebrate our environment. Earth Day is officially April 22, but in the Carolinas, festivities will begin tomorrow. Here are some of the fun events held this weekend.

In Raleigh, the NC State Museum of Natural Sciences hosts its Planet Earth Celebration. Burt's Bees presents a festival with live bands, kid activities, the NC Sustainable Building Design Competition and Green Bazaar. Information: 919-733-7450, x379.

The Durham Earth Day Festival 2008 has great music, food, "green" activities, Eco Lounge, Sustainability and Water Expos, Public Art, story-teller, and many hands-on-projects. Information: 919-560-4355.

The Piedmont Environmental Alliance presents their third Piedmont Earth Day Fair in Winston-Salem, NC. Eco-Kids will have games, mini-solar car races, and more.

Earth Day Asheville is a concert event sponsored by the non-profit Quality Forward to raise funds for earth-friendly projects. A coordinated Earth Day at Biltmore Village includes bicycle rodeos and hybrid cars.

In Charlotte, at the Earth Day Celebration at the Reedy Creek Nature Center, take a guided hike, go on a scavenger hunt and more, for all ages. Charlotte Clean and Green continues, and Ray’s Splash Planet provides food, kids' activities, entertainment, moon bounces, a scavenger hunt and more. Information at 704-432-4RAY.

Charleston County SC Recycling hosts the Charleston County Earth Day Festival, focusing on interactivity and sustainability. See Go Green Charleston, for all the great offerings.

The SC State Museum in Columbia provides a day ranging from a “Trash to Treasures” make-and-take activity to a lawn mower exchange.

In North Augusta, SC, the seventh annual Kids Earth Day will have dozens of exhibitors to share activities and information about plants, animals and the environment.

The Anne Springs Close Greenway, in Fort Mill, SC, offers wagon rides, a petting zoo, horse show, pottery demonstrations, cow milking, a bluegrass band and more. Information at 803-548-7252 and their web site.

Have a great Earth Day week!

Water Watch

"About twenty people have recently begun their training as new Water Watchers," reported Steve Johnson. He is a member of the Lake Wylie Covekeepers, a group of trained volunteers who work under the Catawba River Foundation and patrol the lake regularly. Members come from York, Gaston and Mecklenburg counties.

The participants in the Water Watchers program care greatly about Lake Wylie and the Catawba River, but have limited time to give. They will aid in protecting the lake by reporting problems to the Covekeepers, who can take action. More assistance is needed. "We especially need people in the Steele Creek area of Mecklenburg County and the Belmont area of Gaston county. The Water Watchers can help fill the gaps - helping keep track of shorelines, feeder streams, and conditions in the surrounding areas," Johnson said.

Events in the neighborhoods are sometimes critical to the lake's health as well. The Water Watchers will look out for construction sites, sewage spills, road construction, and other events that may affect the waterways leading to the lake.

There will be three more training sessions, and there is still time to get involved. The volunteers will then work according to their schedules. For more information, see Lake Wylie Water Watchers. To get involved, contact Johnson at 803-389-3871 or Ellen Goff at eog9612@aol.com.

Starter Pots

I've been starting a lot of seeds for the garden, and ran out of pots. So I searched out a number of ways to make starter pots made from newspaper. Some probably work fine, but it helps if you're an origami expert. At the twelfth fold, I'm thinking it's going to take me a long time to make a few pots.

Willi Galloway's method is the quickest and easiest. She is the West Coast Editor of Organic Gardening magazine, and the Organic Gardening Expert of EHow. You can make these seed planting pots by rolling newspaper around a glass or jar. Her video, How to Create Seed-Starting Pots From Newspapers, has the simplest directions to follow. You can pause it and follow along until you get the hang of it; even better than written directions. From my experiments, I found that a smaller mouth glass works better than a larger one, and they need a tray to support them. I really want to be growing plants now, and this trick helps me get back to the garden quickly.

Home, Green Home

We have to share this just because it's fun. The Home and Garden Television network, HGTV, is sponsoring a Green Home Giveaway now through May 9, 2008. Built in Tradition Hilton Head, SC, the home is designed to be eco-friendly and efficient inside and out. It has solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and lots of other great features worth a look, while you're dreaming. They include a Yukon Hybrid to make it sweeter. Hope a Carolina family wins it!

Solar Cooking

Beautiful day, time to get outside. Wait! Before you fire up the charcoal grill, try letting the sun cook for you. This solar cooker, CooKit, is a good starter model. Surprisingly simple, it is convenient, affordable and effective. And you can build it yourself. Materials you will need: Cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, and preferably a kid to assist you. Plans for the CooKit are free at Foldable Solar Panel Cooker. Or you can order it already made.

Ready to cook? You will need a dark, covered pot and a plastic bag (or oven cooking bag). And food - maybe soup or beans - the sort of thing you would put in a crock pot. Set the pot, in its bag, in the bottom of the cooker, to catch all the sun's rays. In a few hours of sunshine, you can make a tasty meal, cooked at gentle temperatures that preserve nutrients. Prepare your dish early in the day and then relax.

After a great meal, fold your portable CooKit for storage. It will be about the size of a large notebook. Easy to take along on a camping trip, handy for cooking and even for pasteurizing water.
There are many plans at The Solar Cooking Archive, even for a cob oven, like the photo at left. Here are recipes and cooking tips; recipes for solar ovens can usually be adapted for the Cookit. Solar cooking is extremely flexible. With a little effort and experimentation, you can build or buy an appropriate solar cooker and enjoy free and delicious cooking.

Fresh Local Foods

Spring is here, and it's time to get fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables at the farmers' market! Produce grown in your own area is fresher, so it tastes better. When you buy it at a farmer's market, it's in season, probably picked within the last day or two, so it still contains vital nutrients. And buying food grown locally supports farm families in your community.

The Buy Appalachian Local Food Guide promotes fresh foods from the mountains of Western North Carolina, "Thousands of miles fresher!" Green leafy products are available now, as in the picture at left. Almost three dozen local farmers present tailgate markets in the area.

Markets like these provide a direct connection between the farmer and the customer, as well as fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables. Other large North Carolina farmers' markets are shown at NC Farm Fresh Markets, by name of market and by county. South Carolina manages three large regional farmers' markets, in Columbia, Greenville, and Florence. 

You can sometimes find fresh food on your way home, at a roadside market. The SC Roadside Market Directory lists many of them. NC Farms includes roadside markets and also farms where you can 'Pick Your Own.' That's as fresh as you can get!

An Hour's Savings

It was still light, but too cool and wet to enjoy being outside watching the night fall. So we played musical instruments and backgammon by candlelight on Saturday, March 29, 2008. Together with millions of people around the world, we turned out our lights for one hour—Earth Hour—from 8 to 9 p.m. While the lights were out, the Earth Hour group encouraged people to replace their energy-wasting light bulbs with new, energy-saving ones, and think about saving energy at home, in their neighborhood and city, and at their workplace.

Some speculated that the action would not make a noticeable effect. However, in Earth Hour Chicago, the city and Northern Illinois reduced their electricity consumption by 7 percent (or 818 megawatt hours)! That's equal to eliminating 1.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions; saving 72,000 gallons of gasoline; planting 158 acres of trees; or taking more than 1 million cars off the road for an hour (courtesy of ComEd). That's amazing; and really encouraging, that this small effort can make such an impact.

The big cities of New York, San Francisco, and more were also participants. The lights went out in Georgia, including 400 buildings in Atlanta that participated (the photos at left were taken before and during Earth Hour). Valdosta also participated in a big way, saving 4 percent of their usage, and they plan to make it 10 percent next year! We will join in this effort for next year also (let's make the Carolinas stand out on their map). But the next step is to reduce our energy usage every day—to make Earth Hour the beginning, not the end—and to help others find ways to join in.

Litter Skimmer

A “trash trap” created to clean up local waterways uses a cost-efficient and kid-friendly technique. Called a Litter Skimmer, it floats on the water's surface and filters out trash being carried downstream. It's made of recycled materials: milk gallons, plastic fencing, rope, and zip ties. Some of the items that may have polluted waterways and filled landfills are made into tools that clean them instead. In 2005, volunteers in eastern Tennessee collected 1,500 bags of trash caught by the skimmers, according to the The Izaak Walton League of America, which encourages local community groups to identify litter trash spots and install a skimmer.

Charlotte homeschooling parent Julie Shrader brought this interesting project from her family in Maryland. Their Friends of Sligo Creek clean the trash from the water, and land surrounding the waterway, and have installed litter skimmers there. Her family and other homeschoolers installed this pilot project in a creek in Union County. The creek is cleaned by pulling the skimmer back to one bank and retrieving items caught in it. Now the weather is warmer, the kids are ready to jump in the creek and measure the results of their efforts.

They want interested people to join them this month to wade in the creek and help bag the litter, and dispose of it properly. They will study, weigh and document the litter, to record the results of the skimmer's effectiveness. If you'd like to join in, contact Julie Shrader at (704) 366-4859, or jvshrader@bellsouth.net.

Clean and Green

Charlotte Clean and Green April 18-21 is a community-wide event designed to inspire, educate, and help you practice living more green
in your everyday life.

April 18, 19, and 21

Main Campus, Central Piedmont Community College.

EXHIBITS - Friday, Saturday and Monday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

See hybrid cars and bus, solar displays. And don’t miss the Hands-On Green exhibit of green building technology!

Friday - USGBC workshops and classes

Saturday – EDUCATION FESTIVAL
Classes, presentations, lunch, live music (3 bands)

Classes are organized in 4 Tracks, each offering sessions for novices to professionals, kid stuff, too. Free but you must register.

Bargain lunch of locally grown, organic food - register.

Monday - 7:30 pm - Free screening of movie, KILOWATT OURS

See Charlotte Clean and Green for more information.

New CFL Look

It's the easiest thing we can do at home, to save money and help save the planet. The next time a light bulb burns out, replace it with an energy-efficient CFL bulb.

A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) costs a bit more than a conventional bulb, between $2 and $4 in Carolina stores. But you will save money over the long run. On average, replacing a single conventional bulb with a CFL will save $30 in electricity over the life of the bulb.

Today's CFL is small enough to use in table lamps, ceiling-mounted fixtures and ceiling fans. CFLs are available in a variety of u-shaped and circular styles, as well as spirals, many of them designed to look identical to standard bulbs, and work in more fixtures than before. You can even get them for dimmers or three-way bulbs. All CFLs are best in settings where the light is not turned off and on often.

Look for a chart like this in your store, to help you choose the best CFL for a specific fixture. And check the bulb packaging for the exchange rate. For example, you could replace a 40W incandescent bulb with a 9W CFL to get the same amount of light.

CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury within the glass tubing, about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. Older thermometers contained about 100 times as much. No mercury is released when the bulb is intact or in use. Always screw and unscrew the bulb by its base, not by the glass. The Environmental Protection Agency provides clean-up guidelines, in case a CFL bulb breaks in your home.

Used CFL bulbs should be recycled or disposed of properly. Find your closest recycling or disposal facility at these NC locations or SC locations. To dispose of a used or broken CFL bulb in your regular garbage collection, seal it in 2 plastic bags and put it into the trash container.

You won't have to replace them very often. CFLs last at least 3 years, many up to 9 years. If every home replaced one standard light bulb with a CFL, we would save more than $600 million per year in energy costs. That's a lot of savings!