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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how to get extra life from a printer toner cartridge: black tape

Don’t you hate having to replace the toner cartridge, especially when the printing seems to be fine? Surely, there must be more life in the toner.
Well, here’s a workaround in the spirit of responsible consumption: use up what you have fully to reduce waste, and, in this case, save money.
The tip is from a forum [...]

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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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Food, Inc. movie opens Friday (watch trailer)

Food, Inc., a new documentary about the US food supply opens today in NY, SF and LA. I wonder if it has anything new to say to those of us who have already read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Fast Food Nation and are committed to sustainable (as possible) eating?
I guess there’s only one way to [...]

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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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when was the last time you vacuumed your refrigerator?

NEVER, probably.
At least that was true for me until recently, when I cleaned the heat-exchange condenser coils, which are what cool your refrigerator by releasing heat. If the coils are covered in a blanket of dust, the refrigerator has to work harder. You’ll hear the motor kicking on often and for a long time.
Refrigerators [...]

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Yoplait and other no-no snacks

How bad can Yoplait be? Sure it’s way too sweet for me these days, thanks to tons of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS),  but hey, it’s yogurt.
Apparently, HFCS is not the only problem. According to Good Guide’s Five Snacks Your Kids Should Avoid some mercury was detected in the HFCS in Yoplait. Bad news. Read [...]

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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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water audit

Take shorter showers!

That’s the big take-away for today’s Water Wise House Call. The Ssnta Clara Valley Water District offers it free as part of their water conservation program. I signed up a few weeks ago as part of my own effort to maximize energy/resource efficiency in my new rental house.
Some things the surveyor did:

Calculated our [...]

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fill your fridge, save energy and money

Two climate change-fighting volunteers from Green@Home came by for a housecall today. I learned, among other things, that my refrigerator is too empty.
Why is this a problem? Because –here comes my simplified explanation–an empty(ish) fridge has little to “hold” the cold when the door is open and closed. Which means that all that warm air [...]

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