Bling Bling

By surfing the web I’ve found numerous ideas and products that are eco-friendly. With the ease of finding these materials it makes me wonder why we are not using them more. Eco-friendly products don’t just have to be products that we need. I’m talking about the things we need like cleaning products or food. Both of these things we need.

Recently I heard of a couple that got engaged. Her ring is considered eco-friendly. Jewelry is a luxury item. I’m excited that even luxury items are becoming eco-friendly. Some cars have been eco-friendly for a while now but jewelry is the next step.

You might wonder how they do this. On way is through recycling gold. Here’s a quote from the website:

“While gold is valuable enough to provide an incentive to recycle, significant
amounts of gold sit idle, while mining continues at a pace of 2,500 tons a year.
In fact, there is enough gold above ground (already mined) to satisfy all
demands of the jewelry industry for the next 50 years. Much of it sits in bank
vaults and in the form of old and unused jewelry.”

You can even donate your old rings to help create new rings for you or for someone else.

School Ties

There are plenty of students who are proud of their college or university. I am extremely proud of Florida Gulf Coast University for being such an eco-friendly campus. There are four hundred acres of the main campus that are set aside for environmental preservation.

Not only do we save the land we try to build the campus up instead of out. From parking garages to the roof on most of our buildings we keep the environment in mind. Our bridges that connect the parking lots to the buildings, so that we don’t disrupt the wildlife and forest are made from natural wood that lasts a long time.

FGCU also has a Restoration Coordination Team that helps the Big Cypress Watersheds


In 2003 there were talks about a whole building dedicated to the environment. Talked about in this press release.

I know there are numerous other ideas that the University partakes in to help our campus be successful in making the environment here in Southwest Florida cleaner.

One issue that the university needs to work on is the students being environmentally savvy as well. One problem that I see and I know a few others notice too is that students love to hand out flyers and papers. For being an environmentally conscious university you would think students would know better than to waste paper. The event or point they are trying to get across can be done through email or perhaps a banner in a popular place on campus.

"Bee"-ing environmentally aware

I’m sure this post will appeal to the masses of people that use lip gloss. Serious lip gloss consumers know that Burt’s Bees is one of the best makers of chapstick/lipgloss around. In a recent article in the NY Times was the history of Burt’s Bees and where it is going today.
Burt’s Bees is now a part of the Clorox company. Yep. That’s right. Bleach! Apparently a lot of consumers of the lip balm are outraged at the thought of this. Clorox has been critized for a while now by environmentalists who claim that bleach harms the environment when it gets put down city sewers and etc. Clorox is saying that “95 to 98 percent of its bleach breaks into salt and water and that the remaining byproduct is safe for sewer systems” That was stated in the article linked above.

The article also states that Clorox is going to come out and develop some eco-friendly products as well.

It’s great to see that merging together two companies can be better for the evinronment. This relationship will be better for both parties. And all the Burt’s Bees lovers out there shouldn’t stop buying lip balm just because of the merge

If you’re at all interested go and read the article. The title is what caught my eye.

Paper or Plastic? Or should I say Pollution or..uh... Pollution?

That is a great question. The answer is neither says Oprah. (I promise I will quit promoting Oprah for a while after this post.) Ecobags are now in high style when it comes to grocery shopping. Instead of using paper or plastic you should bring your own bags that you can wash and reuse every time to go pick up some food.

Their bags are made from certified organic cotton, recycled cotton, hemp and hemp-cotton blends and natural untreated and unbleached cotton as well as other natural, renewable fiber products and sturdy reusable source goods. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I know other countries have started to use these eco-friendly shopping bags long before we had the idea to use them in the U.S. I believe one of the countries was Australia. The particular website above started their company in 1989. That seems like a very long time ago to me. I cannot believe we were starting this trend so long ago. What a shame it is that it is just becoming more widespread now because now we are really in trouble with our global warming, climate change, and everything else we are doing to destroy our planet.

Devil's Advocate

Just because I am a huge follower of this Oprah phenomenon of making the world a better place to live doesn’t mean I don’t disagree with some of the ideas on the show. I really disagree with http://www.greendimes.com/. Matt Damon, a movie star, was the one who came on the Oprah show to promote the website. I do believe that stopping junk mail and planting trees, which is what the website is about will help our planet but I do not think we should pay for it.

To start, the cost is $20. Not that I am against paying a little bit of money for our environment but I feel like we shouldn’t have to pay for this service type of service. There are plenty of websites that you can go to and click on that will planet a tree for free. This website will planet 500 sq. feet free in your name for registering for free.

Another issue I have is stopping the junk mail. I discontinued getting bank statements in the mail and I now receive them electronically. This saves a lot of trees and it costs me nothing. The email statements also save the company money and it was so simple. I use Bank of America and I know they do this service for Debit cards, Credit Cards, and my Savings Account.So if you want to start simple I would suggest going through your electronic billing for credit cards or banks and see if they offer to stop mailing you statements and for you to receive them electronically. I bet you’ll feel better if you know you’re helping our environment.

Light Up My Life!

There are a few more ideas on that Oprah show that I wanted to share. The GE energy efficient light bulbs will not only help save the environment but they will help your wallet as well. Here’s a description from Oprah’s website:

"GE Energy Smart lightbulbsGE Energy Smart bulbs use 70 to 75 percent less energy than incandescent lightbulbs and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. For example, by using a 26-watt compact fluorescent lightbulb—equivalent to a 100-watt incandescent lightbulb—users can save up to $59 on energy costs over the life of the bulb. Saving energy saves money and is better for the environment."

For a complete list of energy saving and eco-friendly idea’s go here.

Just changing one single light bulb will help. This almost seems unreal. I do not understand why everyone is not going out and buying at least one. It benefits everyone and the environment. My mother just told me that Lowe’s was doing a sale on these light bulbs and that they were selling them for 98 cents! That is ridiculous. This light bulb idea seems like a good idea to me. If you are unsure you should just try it. I need to save a few dollars on my electricity bill so I’m definitely going to try it too.

"O"

There are numerous people out there, mostly women, who look to one higher power for advice in love, life, money, health, and almost everything else there is to imagine in life. That higher power would be Oprah. She is definitely a leader and has millions of followers. So, being the follower that I am, watched her show on Going Green and decided to go green myself.



The show introduced a whole new world of cleaning products for me to use that would make my house clean. Interestingly enough every single one of these products has no scent. Scent doesn’t mean clean. The smell of nothing means clean. This interested me. For all of my 21 years of living, 18 of those under my parent’s roof, I’ve come accustomed to smelling a fresh scent of Pine Sol or Mr. clean and mentally becoming satisfied living in a “clean” area. Now I realize that the “clean” scent isn’t very clean anymore!

I’m tempted to try an organic cleaning product. I would also like to try some rewashable towels or cleaning tools as well. One’s that I can reuse over and over again and not have to throw away like I do with paper towels when I am cleaning the mirrors.

I hope Oprah has made a few more followers than just me. Somehow I believe she has.

Help...

…is what planet earth is saying to her residents. As consumers and almost infesters of this planet we are not doing a very good job at keeping it clean. We now actually have to deal with the issue of climate change.

Here is an article that was just recently posted on the Voice Of America (VOA) website from the Red Cross. Who wouldn’t know more about the effects of climate change then the Red Cross? The Red Cross are the ones actually going and helping people who suffered from the natural disasters that climate change caused.

Here’s a great quote from the article:
“…changes in temperature and rainfall are expected to seriously damage agriculture in future years. And, increased temperatures, he says, are resulting in the appearance of diseases like dengue and malaria in new areas…” says Red Cross Secretary-General, Markku Niskala.
I understand what is going on with the climate and can see the results of climate change here in Southwest Florida. The weatherman on our TV’s cannot stop commenting on how warm it is here for January. So I suppose a question to pose here would be: What is making the climate change so much? And also, what can we do to help this situation? These will be issues I am more than willing to address in upcoming posts.

The Color is Green

Green is my favorite color. It is also the color of the grass, trees, plants, and insects. Green is the color of life and I'd like to keep it that way.