Cleantech Blog

This blog:
http://www.cleantechblog.com/

has some very insightful posts on environmental issues. The author seems to have a level headed approach to the subject as well as a wealth of knowledge. You will find some very interesting and useful information here.

If you have any sites that you would recommend, please let me know. I will post the ones I find esp. helpful.

"Green" Product Test, stage 2

Remember These?


In my last post about the "green" floor care products, we looked at the "green" floor products effectiveness in the initial use, the actual stripping and refinishing. As you recall, I was impressed with their performance. I was excited, but the shine has to last, that is the ultimate test. "Did the "green" product hold up over time?" I was unable to get to these floors to buff them on their normal schedule...every other week; these floors didn't see a buffer for over a month. I will leave it to you...did the eco-friendly finish retain it's shine?

A "Green" Road Trip.

View Larger Map
You can slide the map around to see the whole trip, simply click and drag,


This is where Jeni and I will be May 15-31, 2009. This is the trip I referred to in my second post. When I was talking to a friend about the trip and mentioning that I wanted to take an environmentally friendly road trip, I asked him how he thought I could make it "green". He said, "Don't drive" I understand what he meant, but this is the whole point of this blog. I want people to realize that you don't have to stop living your normal life in order to take care of this planet. I believe it is possible to take a road trip, yes, in a car, and still be eco-friendly. Obviously, a hybrid or something along those lines would be a natural first step. So if you have a Prius lying around, look me up.

I'm looking for ways to be "green" on this trip, any ideas?

You want to re-use those?

No, I'm not suggesting that we use previously used medical instruments. These items were never used. The item on the left is a mouth guard for pulminary testing. The one on the right is a dropper. One of the ladies at the doctor's office where I do some work is a fan of re-using and recycling. When the office has an excess of a certain item, they usually throw the excess away, but since she and I have talked about this blog and are both more conscious of what we send to the landfill, she has left the excess items for me. A consistant example are the ice packs I mentioned in a previous post. Last week, she was in the office when I got there and pointed me to a rather large box filled with those mouth guards. She suggested that an artist might like to create a masterpiece of modern art or maybe someone could find a use for the filter in the middle of the device. She was convincing, so I now have a box of pulminary testing mouth guards in the back of my van.

Now what? Well, my youngest, Laura is in the art department at NGU, so she took one back to school with her the other day. I haven't heard anything back yet, but we shall see.

What I love about this is that I am challenged to rethink how I view the world around me. I don't just see the obvious, but look for the hidden or obscure. An empty 5 gallon wax bucket is no longer an old wax carrier, instead I see a flower pot, or traffic cone, or tool box. The empty 16oz plastic water bottles are not simply recycling bin fodder, but become incorporated into a flourescent light fixture curtesy of a design show on Bravo TV. Cardboard boxes relieved of their intial burden no longer seem destined for a trash bin, but thoughts of movers and Ebay fill my head. This is a great way to view the world. I encourage everyone to do this.

Let's start with the items I posted a picture of above. What can you see these being used as? Give me your ideas, no matter how outrageous they seem.

Then start suggesting other items and let's see if we can come up with alternate or second uses for them.

Let's challenge ourselves to switch from a disposable society to a re-usable society.

I did it!

I had victory over my environmental Achilles heel...



reusable shopping bags.

Ok, you can stop laughing.

Three weeks ago, while shopping at Wal-Mart, I decided to purchase a reusable shopping bag. I patted myself on the back as I unloaded my few groceries from the landfill-saving bag. I neatly folded the bag and placed it in a spot by the door, so I would remember to take it with me on my next trip to the store.

A week later, as I was placing my groceries on the counter for the cashier to ring up, it dawned on me that my wonderful "green" bag was resting serenely near my front door. I bought another one and resolved to work harder to use these bags.

Once I unloaded the groceries, I put the bag in my van on the dash. Now, there would be no way that I would forget to use my alternative to "Paper or Plastic"

Three days later , it was time to go to the store again and as I drove from my job, I glanced over and saw my bag and smiled. When I pushed my cart to the check out line, my reusable bag was laughing at me from the dash of my van. Once again, I paid to "Save the Planet" this time with a pink bag, a breast cancer research fund one in honor of my mother and her 2 years of cancer free living.

Today, I summoned all my resolve and determined that those memory blocking pieces of cloth would not get the best of me. I collected all of them and laid them on the passanger seat in the van. A quick job and I was on my way to get some groceries. As I drove, I thought through the wording of this post. I was pushing my cart down the main aisle, when I passed a rack of reusable bags and realized that my growing family of environmentally friendly grocery bags were still in the van...ARRRGGGHHH.

But, I went out and got them and as the picture shows, I won. I used them.

I said you can stop laughing.