What’s your cell phone radiation level? Is it safe?

Look it up with this tool: http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone
My phone (Treo 650) has high radiation. In fact, among the Top 10 Worst PDA/Smartphones!  (The super-popular iPhone 3G is not among the top 10, but it’s a high-radiator, too.)
What to do? Should I toss out my phone, even though it still works fine? Or should I hang on to [...]

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could you wear the same dress for one year?

Sheena Matheiken is! 1 dress. 365 days. But then she has a strong creative sense of fashion, and an apparently bottomless collection of accessories in her closet to make it work.
Not only is this a creative experiment and inspiration, The Uniform Project is also a good-cause fundraiser.
Starting May 2009, I have pledged to wear one [...]

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tetra pak: good or bad?

Every time I finish a box of soymilk, I sigh. Because I have to put it in the landfill-bound trash.
But, according to this analysis of the sustainability of tetra pak,
All in all, Tetra Pak figures that its packaging has a smaller carbon footprint than polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE) or glass. A 32-ounce [...]

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kids after my creative-reuse heart

Alexandra Lehrer, 5, and her classmates at Beginnings Nursery School in New York are my kind of people!
“I like building stuff,” she said. “If you throw everything away, there will be just a big pile of garbage, and you won’t have anything to make collages with.” (From the New York Times, Where One Man’s Trash [...]

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got old Crocs? recycle them!

Just got new Crocs. The info sheet included their recycling program!

Wear your Crocs until they’re all worn out.
Drop them at a participating retail shop, which you can find on their site. (I found 11 places within 25 miles of my home). Or mail them in if you’re really committed!
Crocs will clean them, crush them up, [...]

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Everyday Sustainable in India

I’ve just returned from a 3-week visit to India, where I kept my eyes/ears/nose open to the Everyday Sustainable there. This was a personal visit, which included travel in the North on the tourist-triangle of Delhi-Jaipur-Agra, and tourism with family/friends visit in the South–mostly Kerala and a few days in Bangalore.
In posts to come, I’ll [...]

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Recycle everyday, and “officially” this week

Why isn’t everyday recycling day? It is for me, and many others.
But did you know that today begins National Recycling Day (Nov 8 – 16, 2008)? It’s an Australian initiative. I wonder if those down under have greater stamina when it comes to recycling…
because in the U.S. it’s officially just one day. November 15th is [...]

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HOW TO: swap-raffle

Yesterday, I had a great “Everyday Sustainable” day, with two swap events.  The first was a clothes swap which I organize every few months with friends.  And the second happened at a meeting for members of 29Gifts, a global network of people doing a daily practice around giving. 
Before we headed outside to give away 100 [...]

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stop phone books: YellowPagesGoesGreen.org

Every time a phone book shows up in front of my door, my first thoughts are, “Not again.  Now how am I going to recycle this?”
I have used a paper phone book maybe five times in the last ten years.  What a waste.  All that paper and energy to manufacture and deliver over 500 million phone books annually.  And then [...]

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take back the (Brita) filter

San Francisco water is pretty good, but I do like it better after it goes through the Brita filter.  I carry around my own water bottle filled up from the filter when I go out.  So that’s all good.  But then there’s the problem of the filter. 
Unfortunately, the Brita filter is not recyclable. 
I did a [...]

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