By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

Freecycle.org and I had a sort of love/hate relationship. I first heard about the website for getting and giving away free stuff a couple of years ago. The concept is a lot like Craigslist, except everything is free. Sounded like a genius idea, but after signing up, I was barraged with a million e-mails a day (and that’s only a slight exaggeration). So we broke up for a while.

Fast forward to the beginning of summer. I was moving and needed to give things away—fast. These were things I didn’t want to throw out, but couldn’t exactly sell or take to the thrift store like my half-used bag of Costco cat food, for example. It was then that I remembered my old friend Freecycle. I listed my items and within minutes got responses from people who picked up my unwanted goods same-day.

If you haven’t used Freecycle, I think it’s time you give it a shot. I opted out of the e-mails altogether and go directly to the site when I need to see what can be given away or what’s available. With this arrangment, I think it might be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Find a Freecycle group close to you here.

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

How about a scary story in honor of Halloween? What if I told you there are vampires in your house right now? They’re lurking on kitchen counters and bedside tables and hiding in your entertainment centers. These clandestine vampires suck away your home’s energy and needlessly cost the average homeowner two hundred bones per year. Creepy, right?

Energy vampires are appliances and other electronics that use energy when they’re plugged in—even when they’re turned off. Some of the most common offenders are electronics with standby capabilities (TVs and computer monitors, for example), anything with a digital clock display (microwaves), or remote control (DVD players and stereo systems).

It might not be practical to plug in your microwave and reset the clock every time you use it, but some energy vampires are more easily slayed than others. TVs, DVD players and computers can be easily unplugged, especially if you use a surge-protected power strip with an on/off switch. And a lot of those vampires can be warded off if you unplug everything  before you go on vacation, too.

Check out how much energy your appliances use here, and then let’s show those vampires who’s boss.

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

Bad news, my fellow Beehive-Staters: the honey bees aren’t doing too well right now. In the last three years, more than one-third of the honey bee colonies in the U.S. have disappeared. Scientists still aren’t sure what’s causing the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

So, why is this so important? Well, making honey is just a tiny part of what honey bees do for us. (In fact, the average worker bee will only product 1/12th teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.) The honey bee’s biggest contribution is pollination. Bees pollinate more than 100 crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. We rely on honey bees for one-third of our food supply. No honey bee equals no peaches, no melons, no avocados, no almonds, no honey.

Hopefully, scientists will figure out soon why the bees are dying and what we can do to save them. In the meantime, here are five ways to help:

1. Plant a bee-friendly garden. I know, I know, it’s autumn. But some things can be planted now. Find out how to attract bees to your garden here: www.nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens

2. If you discover a swarm of bees in your yard, don’t kill them. Instead, contact a local beekeeper through the Utah Beekeepers Association to come to the rescue (usually free of charge). www.utahbeekeepers.com

3. Buy a carton of Haagen Dazs ice cream (as if you needed the excuse, right?) They’re funding research to help save the bees. www.helpthehoneybees.com

4. Buy local Utah honey and hive products, such as Miller’s. www.millerhoney.com

5. Feeling extremely adventurous? Learn how to keep a hive and help it thrive. Two books I found are The Backyard Beekeeper and The Beekeeper’s Handbook.

*Image via helpthehoneybees.com

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

I love books. I have been known to give up eating lunch in order to buy a book and that’s saying a lot because the other thing I love is food. My books are like old friends—we’ve been together for a long time, I hang out with them a lot, we never get sick of each other, and I have no intention of ever getting rid of them.

But there are books on my shelf that I read once and never picked up again. Or the ones I never got around to reading at all and probably never will. Or the bestseller that was a sweet gift but just isn’t my cup of tea.

Meanwhile, somewhere out there, there’s someone who would love to have those books I’ve been neglecting.

Say hello to BookMooch. BookMooch recycles your books by giving them to the people who want them and you, in turn, get to pick up new reads from your fellow moochers. Here’s how it works: You sign up at BookMooch.com and list the books you’re willing to give away. Other moochers send requests for your books and you send them off to their new loving homes (you pay for shipping). You get points for every book you send. Then you search the database for the books you want and use your points to “buy” new reads from your moocher friends (they pay for shipping).

Everyone wins: Your old books find new, loving homes and then you have room on your bookshelf for your next BFF. (Book Friends Forever.)

{Exchanging Words}

www.bookmooch.com

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

Ah, there’s nothing like those lovely blue Utah skies: snow-capped mountains looming in the distance, no clouds, fresh air.

But if you’ve experienced one day of inversion in the valley, you’ve seen it all too clearly: the dirty air hanging over the valley like a blanket, covering up the mountains and making you wheezy. And all you can do is hope for a storm to come and push the dirty air elsewhere. Pollution isn’t just a winter problem, though. We’ve recently spotted it lurking around the valley on a warm spring day, blocking those picturesque views.

Lucky for us, though, this problem is fixable. Governor Huntsman, Mayor Becker and Mayor Carroon have joined together to create the Clear the Air Challenge. The goal? To eliminate 300,000 car trips between now and July 10. Sound tough? Not really. Eliminating a trip can be as simple as running an errand on the way home from work instead of going home first. Piece of cake.

Sign up and get tips at www.cleartheairchallenge.org.

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

There are plenty of activities going on around the state (see here for some ideas) to celebrate the day, but you don’t have to go very far to show Mother Earth that you love her. Here are a few of our own ideas for celebrating Earth Day:

Ditch your car for a day—bike, take public transit, walk. Hey, it’s only for a day. And you may find that you actually like it. After all, can you read, knit, watch shows on your iPod while you’re driving? Not very safely. You can do all those things on the UTA bus or Trax, though. Walking and biking may take a little longer, but how long would you spend doing those things at the gym anyway? Multitasking is a beautiful thing, indeed.

Take a hike—and bring along a trash bag. Hit your favorite trail and pick up all the litter along the way. The kids will love this one, too.

Get dirty—and start composting! See how here.

Happy Earth Day!

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

Looking for ways to celebrate St. Patty’s day? It doesn’t take much to get your green on next time you’re planning a trip to the local grocer. Just add these five tips to your shopping list:

Paper or plastic? It’s a tough call. Plastic bags are made from fossil fuels. Paper bags are made from trees. Paper bag production creates 70% more air pollution than plastic, but plastic bags create four times more solid waste.

The best answer? Choose neither and bring your own bags to the store. Fabric totes not only better the earth, but we think they look classier, too. For more info on the plastic/paper debate, see here.

Organic or local? Organic farms often use less energy and produce less waste than traditional farms. But sometimes organic food travels more miles than non-organic to get to you. In addition, the organic industry is rigorously regulated, meaning that it’s sometimes too much work for small farms to get certified—even though many of them use the exact same methods as organic farms.

The bottom line? If you can find (and afford) organic, local product, that’s great. But if you have to choose one or the other, I would go for local. It’s fresh, doesn’t travel far to make it to your kitchen, and often comes from smaller family farms with better farming practices (read less pollution) than corporate farms. See both sides of the debate here.

Green cleaning and paper products. A lot of recognizable brands are starting to listen to consumers and are coming out with greener products that are also relatively cheap. Clorox, for example, now has a green line. And let’s talk about toilet paper for a minute. Recycled TP has come a long way—I can’t tell much of a difference in softness and texture.

DIY snack packs. Ever noticed how much excess packaging comes with everything? One of the biggest culprits are the pre-portioned 100-calorie snacks. You can still practice portion control while saving the earth! Buy a larger bag of your favorite snack and measure out a serving size into several reusable containers. Not only will you get rid of the extra packaging, but you’ll also save a lot of money.

Meat. One of the biggest impacts we can make at the grocery store is in the meat department. The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization said last year that the international meat industry emits more greenhouse gases than transportation at a whopping 18%. Even replacing one meat entree per week with a vegetarian one can have great benefits on the earth. See more here.

We’d love to hear your ideas on reducing your carbon footprint at the grocery store, so comment away!

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

Let’s face it. Gift-wrap isn’t the most earth-friendly thing out there. Sure, you can buy recycled papers, but around here, we prefer to do things a little more on the creative side. You’ve got birthdays around the corner, thank-you gifts to deliver, bridal showers to attend … all year long. Here are some of our favorite alternatives to your basic rolls o’ paper for this year’s gift wrapping:

For the adventurer/traveler/cartographer: Wrap gifts in outdated maps.

For the music lover: Use old sheet music.

For the reader/writer: Use pages of print from a book that’s seen the end of its days, or text from a magazine or newspaper.

For the grandparents: Put those piles of your kid’s artwork to god use.

For the seamstress: Wrap gifts in scraps from your sewing basket, or cut up some of your old clothes like an ill-fitting but cute blouse or a dress with a whimsical pattern.

For the artist: Make a collage by gluing paper scraps to a brown paper bag.

For the vintage lover: Use pages from old, ’50s- and ’60s-era magazines like Family Circle or Life.

For the food aficionado: Try a chocolate box or tin, or hide a smaller gift inside a jar filled with beans, grains or hard candies.

But if you must buy something,  reusable sacks from wrapsacks.com are pretty cool. And that’s a wrap, unless you have an idea or two you’d like to share below….

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

Lets talk about Local First. It’s a non-profit that connects the local community with Utah business owners. While it might not be realistic to shop all-local, all the time, there are myriad reasons why you should consult the Local First business directory before heading straight to the chain store.

First, shopping locally is fun. (Think The Store, Pace’s Dairy Ann, Glaus French Pastry and Elemente). More importantly, buying locally is smart because it boosts the economy where you live and can also be good for the environment. For example, take Wal-mart vs. the King’s English (1511 S. 1500 East, Salt Lake City). On one hand, you have an unsightly big-box store that covers acres of undeveloped land. On the other, you have a local bookstore set in a charming urban neighborhood. Locally-owned stores like King’s English are often located in preexisting neighborhoods rather than sprawling subdivisions. Why is this important? It means they take up fewer natural resources and help rejuvenate ailing cities. And the money you spend in local stores has a better chance of being “recycled” into the local economy instead of, say, being shipped off to the Walton family in Oklahoma.

In the spirit of supporting local businesses (something we’re continually striving to promote here at YHO), there are two items we want to tell you about. First, it’s not too late to sign up for a CSA share at Bell Organic Gardens in Draper, where you’ll get weekly deliveries of local, organic produce all summer long. Second, mark your calendars for the Live Green-Downtown Sustainability Festival on May 9 at Library Square in Salt Lake City. We’ll fill you in on the details as the date closes in but if you’re a local vendor, you should consider filling out an application now to sell your own green goods at the fest. Get more info here.

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

Oh, bottled water. Why do we love you so much? Maybe it’s because you’re convenient or because you’re a healthier alternative to soda. Or perhaps it’s because you sometimes taste a little better than tap water. Whatever it is, here are just a few reasons why you are too good to be true. (For even more reasons, go to www.slcgreen.com.)

• Bottled water is expensive. At $2.50 a liter ($9.50 per gallon), it costs way more than premium gasoline.
• Plastic water bottles require 1.5 million barrels of oil per year. That’s enough to generate electricity for 250,000 homes or fuel about 100,000 cars for a year.
• More than 40% of bottled water comes from municipal tap water. Don’t believe us? Just look at the label on your Aquafina.
• Tap water is energy efficient. Bottled water, on the other hand, must travel many miles from the source, burning huge amounts of fossil fuels and releasing CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

If you just can’t live without the taste of bottled water, consider buying it in large quantities. Or better yet, invest in a filter.

We think reusable water bottles are pretty sexy. Just make sure yours is BPA (bisphenol A) free. BPA is a potentially hazardous chemical compound used to make hard plastics. A lot of water bottles have stopped using BPA, like Nalgene.

A couple of our favorites? Sigg, found at www.mysigg.com, and Klean Kanteen, at www.kleankanteen.com.

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

What’s better than non-toxic cleaners that are gentle on the earth? Homemade cleaners that are gentle on your wallet so you can save your pennies for more exciting things.

You’ll only need five ingredients for these recipes and you probably have most of them in your kitchen already: baking soda, Castile or other liquid soap (I recommend Dr. Bronner’s), lemon, white vinegar and oil. If you want to make them smell nice, try adding essential oils to these concoctions. Lavendar, eucalyptus and tea tree are particularly good choices not only because of their fragrance, but because they are natural disinfectants and antifungals.

Natural All-Purpose Scrub:

1/2 c. baking soda
Plant-based liquid soap
1/2 of a lemon

Directions: Pour baking soda into a bowl. Add just enough liquid saop to make a creamy paste. Spread mixtrue on the flat side of lemon and scrub. The lemon acts as a sponge and leaves a natural citrus scent. Use a damp rag or sponge to wipe away excess residue. The paste will stay moist for a few hours.

Furniture Polish:

1/4 c. distilled white vinegar
A few drops olive oil

Directions: Pour vinegar and olive oil into spray bottle and shake. Spray onto furniture and wipe clean.

Window Cleaner:

1/2 teaspoon liquid soap
3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 cups water

Directions: Pour all ingredients into a spray bottle and shake. Spray onto window and wipe clean.

Floor Cleaner:

1/8 cup liquid soap
1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
1 gallon water
10 drops essential oil (scent of your choice)

Directions: Mix all ingredients in a bucket and mop as usual. For ceramic and stone floors, eliminate soap (which leaves a film) and use 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1 gallon of water. Don’t use water on unsealed wood floors. Instead, combine 2 cups of vinegar with 1 tablespoon of olive or jojoba oil in a bucket. Spread a thin coat over the floor with a mop or soft cloth. Let it soak in for 20 minutes; dry mop to absorb excess liquid. Open windows to air out the vinegar smell.

Mold & Mildew Spray:

2 cups distilled white vinegar

Directions: Pour vinegar into a spray bottle and spray on infected area. The smell will dissipate in a few hours (open a window to speed up the process). For areas with persistent mold problems, use tea tree oil instead of vinegar, combining 2 drops of tea tree oil with 1 cup of water in a spray bottle.

Recipes from marthastewart.com

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

We love good old-fashioned mail. There’s nothing like opening the mailbox to find an unexpected note from a dear friend, a card from Grandma, or a homemade invite.

These days, however, it’s easy for those great little paper treasures to get lost among all the mail we hate: annoying credit card offers, unrequested catalogs and other junk mail. Here’s a statistic for you: An average of 41 pounds of junk mail are sent to each person in the U.S. per year. That’s a lot of wasted paper (not to mention time wasted sorting through it all).

So, this week, we went on a quest to green our mailbox. And it took only a few minutes, so you might like to do the same. Two helpful websites for putting a stop to junk mail are greendimes.com and dmachoice.org. Green Dimes will plant a tree in your behalf, or give you a dollar if you’re one of the first five million people to sign up. And aside from being one dollar richer, your mailbox will look spiffy in no time.

{You’ve Got Mail}

www.greendimes.com
www.dmachoice.org

By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

About one-fourth of the world’s population needs eyeglasses but either doesn’t have access to them or can’t afford them. If you’re anything like me, you have a drawer full of old frames and lenses ranging from when you were eight to when you were twenty-eight.

So, you have glasses and they need glasses. What to do?

Here’s an idea: Many vision centers and non-profit organizations take old spectacles and recycle them. They clean them up, repair them if necessary, determine the prescription and then ship them off to be distributed to people who need them around the world.

We think the match is brilliant: You get rid of your old stuff without adding to the landfill, and the newly bespectacled gets to see the leaves on the trees for maybe the first time (and if you have anything less than 20/20, you know what a beautiful thing that is). Improved vision can also help others find jobs and learn to read.

What’s that you say, Eagle Eyes? You don’t have a prescription? No problemo. Most places can also make good with old sunglasses (prescription or non). Find a donation center near you here.

{Make A Spectacle of Yourself}

www.givethegiftofsight.com