Weekly Earthspiration

image courtesy of Earth Day Network

Infographic on the Effects of Plastic Bags

Boston's New Trash and Recycling Program

Starting on July 1, Boston will have different trash and recycling pickup days and will be serviced by a new collection company. Mayor Walsh announced the new program last week, saying

“I’m concerned for the environment and we have to do our part by protecting our City. This new contract has been implemented with the goal of encouraging more recycling and trash collection with keeping our current financial climate in mind.”

Below is a Listing of New Vendors, affected Districts, and Collection Days:

Back Bay will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Thursday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Thursday.

Bay Village will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Friday.

Beacon Hill will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Friday.

Chinatown will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Friday.

Downtown will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Friday.

Fenway will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Tuesday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Tuesday and Friday.

Financial District will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Friday.

Leather District will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Friday.

Mission Hill will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Tuesday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Tuesday and Friday.

North End will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Friday.

Roxbury will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Thursday, and recycling collection will take place on Monday and Thursday.

South End will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Tuesday and Friday, and recycling collection will take place on Tuesday and Friday.

West End will be serviced by Sunrise Scavenger. Trash collection will take place on Monday and Friday, and recycling collection will also take place on Monday and Friday.

5 Easy Green Lifestyle Tips for Spring

Image courtesy of Lets Go Ride A Bike

1. Forget driving, taking cabs, or even taking the T - bikes rule this time of year, and for good reason, they are a low carbon, quick way to get around the city.

2. No heat or air conditioning. Open up those windows and breath the fresh spring air!

3. Unplug your workout. Now that the weather is nice, there is no need to go to the gym and use energy-intensive machines. Instead, try jogging outside or taking a class.

4. In season, local foods. Strawberry season is right around the corner, so look for locally grown options. 

5. Air dry your laundry. This is one of the best ways to reduce energy use and save money. Plus, you'll be surprised how fast your clothing dries on a sunny day. 

Dust Yourself Off For Spring

source image courtesy of HealthyChild.org

Ah yes, spring cleaning continues. Dusting is a quick and easy step towards a clean and healthy home. Here are some dusting tips that reduce your exposure to toxins that may be in your household dust or in your usual cleaning supplies:

 Skip the feather duster. Interior household dust often includes tiny paint particles from slamming doors and opening and shutting windows. If you live in a building that was constructed before 1978, this paint most likely contains some amount of lead - which if inhaled through dust can decrease IQ and lead to serious developmental issues. So, instead of using a dry duster that irritates particles back into the air, use a wet rag instead. Using a rag is also more efficient because many brands of paper towels are made from virgin forests! Warm water is also the best method because it ensures that you aren't replacing household dust with toxic cleaning chemicals. If the dust is particularly hard to remove, try using vinegar and lemon juice on the rag as well. 

Happy cleaning! 

Kiehl's Collects Old Cosmetic Packaging for TerraCycle

People who purchase Kiehl’s products in Boston can help keep recyclables out of landfills by bringing their empty containers to the store at 112 Newbury Street!  As part of the Recycle & Be Rewarded program, Kiehl’s sends shipments of their collected product containers to TerraCycle on a weekly basis, where they are then recycled into new products. Since 2009, Kiehl’s has recycled more than 1.3 million bottles, tubes and other product containers. Kiehl’s is the only beauty brand to collect used consumer products year-round at retail and recycle them with TerraCycle. 

The Eco Way to Use a Keurig

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Keurigs are great. They give you great coffee/tea/hot chocolate in a matter of seconds. The problem, of course, is that the little disposable K-cups create a lot of waste compared to a traditional filter-less coffee machine. But if you already own a Keurig or your office has one, here are some tips for using it a greener way.

• Use a reusable K-cup.
• Use only organic, fair trade products to fill your reusable K-cups.
• Keep using the same mug - no need to put it in the dishwasher after everyyyyy use.
• Unplug the Keurig when no one is using it. 
• Encourage your friends in co-workers to do the same. 

Have any other ideas about greening your Keurig use? Please share! 

3 Fun Recycled Crayon Crafts

If you have kids, you probably have lots of broken Crayons. Instead of throwing away all those bits of colored wax, why not recycle them into a work of art or another useful creation? Here are three fun crafts you can do to recycle your broken Crayons:

1. Rainbow Crayon Hearts – An easy way to make your broken Crayons useful again is to melt them into new, fun shapes. Using a silicon mold, heart shaped for example, place the broken Crayon bits. Make sure all the paper is removed. The end product also looks better if the colors blend well, like blue and yellow for example. Melt in a 250 degree oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. Let cool before removing. The resulting heart crayons make for a fun Valentine’s Day gift! Try different mold shapes for different seasons or holidays. You can even make crayon cars, worms, butterflies, or other kid-friendly ideas.

2. Crayon Monograms – A great gift for Teacher’s Appreciation Day, you can make a large initial monogram by simply gluing broken Crayon parts creatively. Invest in a nice frame and you have a great gift for your child’s teacher. Or make one with your child’s initials for a fun addition to their room’s wall art. 

 

3. Crayon Drip Décor – Last but not least, melting crayons make for all kinds of fun décor. The most basic use is done by gluing a new box of crayons to the top of a large paper or poster and then melting them and allowing the drips to make a rainbow. While attractive, it does not work as well with broken crayons. However you can use broken crayons to make a similar effect on three dimensional objects like pumpkins. Using a white pumpkin and melting crayons, paper free, with a hair dryer you can have an awesome rainbow effect for your decorating needs. Don’t limit yourself just to pumpkins; this fun craft can have all sorts of uses throughout the seasons. 

These three fun crafts really make you take a second look at what you throw away. Even broken items can find new uses. Help your kids to understand what it means to reduce, reuse and recycle!

Author: Nancy Parker is a regular contributor to www.enannysource.com and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting, nanny background check tips etc. You can reach her at nancy.parker015@gmail.com

Spotlight: Junkluggers Expand Service to Boston

The Junkluggers is a NYC-based junk removal company that is rapidly expanding across the northeast. Founder & CEO Josh Cohen is planning to bring his green trucks, and eco-friendly green business model, to the land of the Green Monster!

The Junkluggers is planning to open 2 to 3 locations in Boston by the end of 2015, and 10-15 in the state of Massachusetts. The company currently has 5 locations throughout Connecticut, New York City, Long Island, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Each location typically adds 5-10 jobs and the company partners with local charities and donation centers to make sure that the “junk” they remove can potentially find a home with someone who really needs it.

The Junkluggers will remove almost any unwanted item and find it a new home. They avoid sending items to landfills and believe that recycling is a form of passive philanthropy.

iRecycle App Makes Recycling Easier Than Ever

Earth 911's iRecycle App is awesome. It uses your location to tell you how to best recycle different types of materials. This is a total game changer, because recycling systems are different from municipality to municipality. The app. allows you to quickly and easily learn the closest, proper way to responsibly dispose of almost any item! No more confusion about what items go in what bins!

Spotlight: Second Time Around

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STA made thrifting cool years before the Macklemore song did! In fact, the STA chain of consignment shops has been around for 35+ years. They now boast 40 locations across 12 states, including 11 in Massachusetts. We know that purchasing clothing second hand is a greener way to shop, and STA makes it easy for fashionistas by carefully curating their stock. STA is perfect for people that are new to thrifting, or are wary of anything pre-owned. Early spring is the begining of gala season, so do the earth, and your wallet a favor by considering purchasing a dress from STA! 

DIY Map Wrapping Paper

map wrapping ideas via Be Still, Life

mixing maps and grocery bag

map oragami

Lets face it, in the days of iphones and computers, maps are basically an obsolete technology. Put that old map drawer to good use by using it to spice up your next gift-giving opportunity!

Green Gardening Solutions

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Not all gardens are ‘green’due to the use of chemical insecticides, wildlife-unfriendly paving, and water use. If you want to make your garden more environmentally friendly or if you’re interested in turning an urban space into a haven for wildlife, look no further than these top tips.

Put Down the Pesticides 
Attract bug-eating birds to your garden with a bird bath and a hanging feeder with nuts. Birds love to eat leftover crusts of bread too, so don’t throw these in the bin. To deter slugs and snails, you can make barriers of grit or crushed eggshells around plants. If you must use slug pellets, choose those that are not harmful to children or wildlife. Think about which insects you want to attract to your garden. Instead of using pesticides filled with chemicals that can upset the fragile balance of your garden’s ecosystem, why not plant some bright flowers like sunflowers or marigolds to attract ladybirds and lacewings. These insects eat crop-destroying aphids, including the dreaded blackfly.

Save Water
Install a rain catcher to reuse rainwater and cut down on your water bills. There’s plenty of rainfall during the year, and this can be utilized in your garden at no cost. Try to water your plants either very early in the morning or late in the evening so the water doesn’t evaporate quickly.

Start Composting

Composting is putting back into the garden what you take out when you cut flowers and pull weeds or vegetables. You can cheaply buy or build a compost bin for the garden and fill it with raw kitchen waste and old newspapers. Make sure you keep a balance between brown and green waste; brown waste includes cardboard and leaves and green waste is old vegetables. If you do this correctly, your compost heap won’t smell or attract vermin and will provide rich new compost to benefit flowers and vegetables. Compost makes a great mulching material and holds much-needed moisture around the roots of plants. 

Ponds

Ponds are a popular choice for gardens because they offer an important wetland habitat for insects, fish, birds and mammals. Badgers, foxes and common birds like to drink and bathe in ponds and they are favored by frogs and toads. Amphibians are great for your garden because they eat all sorts of unwelcome pests that attack plants. If your pond is in a shady site it will attract different wildlife to if it is dug in a sunny spot. Make sure that your pond stays clean to attract as much wildlife as possible. All Pond Solutions offers a large selection of pond filters. 

Author: Tom of All Pond Solutions

Spotlight: Bootstrap Compost

Last week we discussed Harvest Power, and its mission to turn food waste into the next generation of renewable energy. But what about small scale composting and residential compost collection? This is where another great local company, Bootstrap Compost, comes into play. Bootstrap Compost provides participants with a 5 gallon bin and comes by to collect the compost on either a weekly or biweekly basis. The cost of residential collection is about $8/week. Participants also have the option of getting back their compost in the form of 5 lbs rich gardening soil every 15 weeks. If participants don't want their compost back, it is donated to a local gardening project!

Simple Tips for Better Heat Circulation

source image courtesy of Savor Home

Cold temps are headed back to Boston, so here are a few ways to increase heat flow in your home without turning up the thermostat:

1. Locate your heaters in each room and move away any furniture or clutter that could be blocking it. Pull all couches and other furniture out at least a foot. 

2. Turn on ceiling fans for about 5 minutes every few hours in order to recirculate heat. 

3. Weatherize all windows with clear coating to prevent heat from escaping. 

4. If you have a working fireplace or wood burning stove, use it!

5. Leave your oven door open for a few minutes after you finish cooking meals. (WARNING: make sure your oven is off!)

6. Leave bathroom door open when showering. 

7. Turn your thermostat down 4-5 degrees each night or when leaving your home for an extended period of time. 

For more ideas, check out these 26 tips for home heating. 

Pencil it in: Sustainable Fashion Collaborative Clothing Swap

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WHEN: January 12, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

WHERE: Bella Luna Restaurant, 284 Amory Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

WHY: Join the Sustainable Fashion Collaborative of Boston  for a night out of pizza and clothes swapping! Bring 5-10 gently worn pieces (clothing/accessories). You have the night to shop through other "pre-loved" items, have a drink and grab a bite. You'll leave the event with "new-to-you" pieces, revitalizing your wardrobe without spending money on new clothes! Register here. 

Ways to Reduce Your Waste

image courtesy of Wired

Its a new year, and time to clean up our acts, so to speak. One of my goals for a better lifestyle is to reduce the amount of trash I make. The North End has trash collection for residents 3x/week - which is ridiculous considering how tiny all of our apartments are. How can we possibly be creating this much trash?! In solving this problem, here are a few things to consider:

• Watch your consumption. This one is obvious, but we constantly have to remind ourselves to bring resuable shopping bags, coffee mugs, and other waste-savers.

• Start composting. 2014 marks the beginning of Boston's food waste ban for businesses, which means composting will become the norm over the next year or so. Join the trend and start your own composting bin and look for collection opportunities with Bootstrap Compost.

• Take care of your stuff. Learn to sew, be tidy, and use your belongings properly. Even though not everything is meant to last forever, give your belongings the longest life possible.

• Give up soda, bottled water, and other single-serving beverages.
  
• Have a Keurig? Get a reusable filter.

• Use cloths and rags instead of paper towels and paper napkins.

Any more ideas? Please share!

New Perspectives: Tips for Selecting Great Used Boots

Men's fashion should be two things: simple and functional. Any "look" (try to avoid "looks", by the way) that deviates too far from these two qualities is unlikely to be around for long (looking at you deep v-neck t-shirts).

As far as I can tell, all fashion trends experience a regression to the mean - that is to say, there's a great chance that the clothes men will wear 20 years in the future will closely resemble the clothes worn 40 years in the past. This is especially the case with boots.

That's good news too, considering how easy it is to find used boots from thrift shops and online that look just as dapper on you when you're hanging out with your lady as when you're treating a client to lunch. And we've failed to mention the sustainability angle of re-owning leather footwear. I mean, I'm no vegan, but surely wearing fewer dead cows on your feet is better than wearing more, right?

Then there's the matter of style and quality. If a store is selling boots several decades older than the employees working there, there must be a demand for the shoe, and the shoes must be well-made to have held up for that long. Trends come and go, but boots that stick around for generations are usually solid.

Here are some qualities to look for when buying used boots and some tips for caring for them.

What to Look For

Fit:  A good cobbler can do many things, but making a pair of boots fit your foot isn't one of them.

Too Small is Too Small: I bought a pair of cowboy boots once that were a half-size too small because I thought they looked great and wanted to wear them for a gig I was playing. That was a huge mistake.

The Heel: Heels made from wood or leather are far better quality than those made of plastic or rubber, and thus far easier for a cobbler to work with.

The Last: Look for hand lasting over machine lasting. This is important for quality and fit.

Red Flags: If the boot exhibits any of these qualities, think twice about buying.

• Sole pulling away from the shoe.

• Tears in the leather away from the seam.

• The lining is cracked, flaky, falling apart.

• The boots are far cheaper than you expected.

Care

Clean Them: Jerry Seinfeld has a bit about leather ideally being about to withstand all of nature's forces, just like the cow it came from. Unfortunately this isn't the case. It's important to brush dirt and residue off boots because they lessen the boot's water repellence.

Oil Them: Like human skin, leather dries out over time. To keep leather strong and durable, it needs to be oiled. Synthetic and natural compounds work equally well, although natural compounds darken the shade of the leather whereas synthetics do not.

Find A Cobbler: If there's a downside to buying vintage boots, it's that they come with miles on them. Find a cobbler who can do occasional repairs and give you maintenance tips.

Old, But New

There are many pairs of vintage men's boots looking for a home. The most important thing to remember when buying them is that while you can re-sole a boot, you want the boot to be well made. Look for full-grain leather, wooden or leather soles instead of straight rubber or plastic, and, of course, look for a boot that looks timeless.

Author: Seth Sosebee is an eBay.com community contributor, where he muses about vintage footwear and a wide variety of other men's fashion and lifestyle topics.

Add More Recycling Bins

source image courtesy of ideastream

According to the L.A. Times, $14 Million worth of recyclables end up in U.S. landfills each year. This means, not only are we wasting environmental resources, we are wasting a decent amount of capital as well. One of the easiest solutions to this problem is to place a recycling receptacle next to every single waste basket in your home and office. This will reduce the urge to be lazy and through recyclables where they don't belong. This is a great new years resolution - so add it to your list!

New Perspectives: Decorating Your Christmas Tree the Green Way

source image courtesy of Green House Eco-Cleaning

For many of us the Christmas season is a time of lights and decorations. However many of these decorations are not exactly eco-friendly. From wasteful lights to harmful plastic to chemical additions there are all kinds of ways to make your Christmas tree less than green. However there are great ways to easily change this mindset. Here are some fun and festive decorating tips for your tree:

1. Real is best – Having a real tree instead of an artificial one can seem counterintuitive. I mean you are killing a tree for your personal use. However Christmas trees are always replanted and the demand for trees actually keeps more real trees growing in the long run. Not to mention that it is much better for the environment to have a real tree produced instead of a plastic one.

2. Natural décor – Using natural elements like trimmed pine branches, pine cones, holly sprigs and mistletoe is a great way to bring green indoors figuratively and literally. The vibrancy of real plants cannot be matched. Even plants that are toxic, like poinsettias, make for beautiful living decorations if you are careful to keep them out of the reach of children and pets.

3. Homemade ornaments – Decorating the tree the natural way is easy with homemade ornaments. You can make edible ornaments in the shape of gingerbread men, sugar cookies, candy canes, and so on. These edible ornaments can not only be a great visual appeal on your tree but can also be part of the gifts. The children can pick and choose one snack to have every day until Christmas, leaving less to toss after the holidays and increasing their enjoyment.

4. Stringing garland – Another great old fashioned idea in tree decorating is garland stringing. A needle and thread can be a great asset as your family joins in Christmas cheer to create strands of popcorn or cranberries to wind around the tree.

5. LED lights –Speaking of flammable, the hot lights that usually mark the Christmas season are very wasteful and older models can even be a fire hazard. Instead, try to use new LED lights. These lights produce little heat and are very energy efficient. They also last a very long time so you do not have to keep replacing them every year. No more frustration with burnt out lights or worrying about fires!

6. Recycing tree –Last but not least, after the holidays make sure to dispose of your tree properly. There are many areas that will take your tree for recycling into mulch or other useful things. Or you can cut the tree up and use it as part of your own gardening compost. As you can see it is easy to decorate your Christmas tree in an eco-friendly way. Stay green, have fun and enjoy time with your family this holiday season!

Author: Rachel is an ex-babysitting pro as well as a professional writer and blogger. She is a graduate from Iowa State University and currently writes for www.babysitting.net. She welcomes questions/comments which can be sent to rachelthomas.author@gmail.com.