The Green Life

Trashy Totes

What would you do if you lived on a landfill? In Manila, the Philippine capital, the women of Smokey Mountain, once the world's biggest open garbage dump, are making the most of it. With help from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who funded microloans, and a nearby Catholic parish that manages the money, the women started an enterprise using newspaper strips to craft colorful handbags, the sales of which support their families. The handwoven purses, ranging from $46 to $72, translate well on U.S. streets and are available from Banyan Paper.

--Avital Binshtock

Greenpeace Video Points at Shoemakers' Role in Amazon Deforestation

For the past three years, Greenpeace has been investigating the cattle industry in Brazil, which is not only the chief source of carbon dioxide emissions in that country—and responsible for 80 percent of deforestation in the Amazon—it is also the largest single driver of deforestation anywhere in the world.

The Greenpeace investigation exposed the Brazilian government's complicity in bankrolling the companies responsible for deforestation in the Amazon, as well as several top-name shoe brands—including Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and Timberland—whose demand for leather may be supporting cattle ranches that are illegally de-treeing the Amazon.

Green Your Garbage: Renew and Reuse

Let's talk trash: Americans generate around 250 million tons of it annually. This week, we'll provide tips for reducing, reusing, and recycling your garbage.

Tip #4: Give Old Things New Life

Dumpster divers can attest that a lot of perfectly usable stuff gets thrown away. Sometimes a simple fix-up job is in order: A fresh coat of low-VOC paint can make tired furniture look new; creative stitching can give clothes a fashion fix. But when your possessions truly wear out their welcome, consider donating or trading them. Find new homes for castoffs on Freecycle, organize a clothing swap with friends, or give to your local Goodwill and Salvation Army stores.

Share your tips: What are your favorite resources for trading in or donating household items?

Green Your Shopping Habits: Clothes

Shopping is an activity so ingrained in our society that we often do it thoughtlessly, automatically, or hurriedly. By paying more attention to how we shop and what we buy, however, we can make a difference for the planet. This week we’re sharing tips about how to green your shopping habits.

Tip #1: Green Your Clothes-Shopping Habits

When it comes to buying clothes, the greenest – and often hippest – purchases are vintage. For great finds, shop at used-clothes boutiques, online stores, or at prominent antique shows like Massachusetts’s Brimfield, Manhattan Vintage, or California’s Vintage Fashion Expo.

If you have to buy new, look for eco-friendly materials like organic cotton, hemp, or recycled anything. Buy classic styles (not trends!) so that your purchase doesn’t, in a year, end up in the landfill. And make sure your choices are well-made and durable so they don't fall apart after only a few months of wear.

Tell us: How do you green your clothes-buying habits?

Tip #2: Green Your Gift-Buying Habits
Tip #3: Green Your Food-Buying Habits
Tip #4: Green Your Purchases For Your Home

From Trash to Fashion: Recycled Accessories

Green style is in, and trash has never looked better. Seven Ply's Lynn Weiler turns broken skateboard decks into earrings, bracelets, and necklaces (pictured here). The company's name comes from the deck's seven layers. If you're a skateboarder wondering what to do with a busted board, Weiler also accepts donations.

Complement your green style with these hip recycled accessories for eco-fashionistas:

• Smart Glass recycles glass (including Coke bottles) into distinctive jewelry.
• Teamwork makes bags from salvaged sails and tire tubes.
• Sasja Saptenno designs unique necklaces from bike tires.

Want more? Find the latest "trashion" treasures on Etsy's Trashion blog.

--Della Watson

Image: courtesy of Seven Ply

Thanks to Green Life reader Pete Sauer.

Green Your Wardrobe: Clothes Makeover!

There’s nothing more in style right now than flaunting that you’re good to the earth. Freshening up your wardrobe for spring?  This week’s green fashion tips will help you keep up with what’s hip.

Tip #4: Make Over Your Wardrobe

Almost everyone loves a makeover. That’s why we go shopping, right? To get a sense of renewal. While it might feel good in the moment to come home with a brand-new outfit, we forget the long-term effects of that purchase: the emissions caused by mass production, the energy it took to transport, and the waste it’ll create when it’s ultimately dumped.

So how can we get that new feeling without buying anything new? One idea is to reimagine the clothes you don't wear anymore: Cut tees into tanks, make jeans into shorts (or capris or a skirt), sew patterned clothes into purses, unravel an old sweater and knit it into a new style, cover stains creatively, or turn any item a different color (with planet-friendly dye, of course).

Another great solution is to host or attend a clothes swap with friends. Have everyone bring fashions and accessories that are still in decent shape and pick out pieces that are new to you.

Green Your Wardrobe: Long-Lived Clothing

There’s nothing more in style right now than flaunting that you’re good to the earth. Freshening up your wardrobe for spring? This week’s green fashion tips will help you keep up with what’s hip.

Tip #3: Care for What You’ve Got

A great way to conserve resources is to preserve the clothing you already own. Wash like colors together in cold water to prevent bleeding and fading. Sew up holes and tears. If you’ve gotten too big or small for an item, have it taken out or in.

Worried that someone will notice that you’ve worn the same thing multiple times? Remind yourself that their new duds not only cost them money but also cost the earth: One cotton polo shirt travels more than 14,000 miles, causes 27 pounds of carbon emissions, expends 33 kilowatt hours of energy, and produces its weight in waste. That’s pretty shabby, no matter how spiffy it may look.

If you have to buy new apparel, evaluate for durability and consider paying more for pieces that’ll take longer to land in the landfill. Buy classic styles, not trendy ones, to ensure timelessness.

Please share: What are your tricks and tips to make clothes last longer?

Green Your Wardrobe: Sustainable Materials

There's nothing more in style right now than flaunting that you’re good to the earth. Freshening up your wardrobe for spring?  This week’s green fashion tips will help you keep up with what’s hip.

Tip #2: Buy Clothes Made of Sustainable Materials

Buying used is greener, but if you do buy new clothes, at least make sure they're made of sustainable material. Bamboo and hemp (much more comfy than they sound) are planet-friendly because both plants quickly regenerate and are easily grown without pesticides (hemp's downside is that it must be imported since it’s illegal to grow in the U.S.). Organic cotton is another decent option; though cotton is a water-intensive crop, the organic variety at least forgoes the polluting chemicals. There have been developments in fabrics made of recycled stuff, including plastic bottles (Revenge Is is super soft) and other fibers (try Gramicci). Buying clothes from companies that donate to environmental charities and manufacturers that offset are other ways to vote green with your wallet. What to avoid? Synthetic fibers (polyester, vinyl, nylon), animal products (leather, suede), and cellulose materials (rayon). For more, check out Lucky's April issue.

Green Your Wardrobe: Buy Vintage

There’s nothing more in style right now than flaunting that you’re good to the earth. Freshening up your wardrobe for spring? This week’s green fashion tips will help you keep up with what’s hip.

Tip #1: Get Used

It was cool in the ‘90s and it’s cool again. Buying used is the ultimate way to keep your closet’s carbon footprint small. But stepping out of a Goodwill or a used-jeans store doesn’t mean that you’ll have to dress in some grungy plaid or frumpy floral. If you’re intent on maintaining your fashionista rep or hipster clout, scour flea markets and vintage boutiques for designer labels and edgy pieces that fit in with your personal style. For those who’d rather not drive to the store, there are plenty of online shops where you find your dream green outfit.

Tip #2: Sustainable Materials

Tip #3: Long-Lived Clothing

Tip #4: Clothes Makeover!

Natural Products Expo West Roundup

This year's Natural Products Expo West, a massive annual trade show at the Anaheim Convention Center, just concluded. I attended for two days and was almost overwhelmed by the amount of new and existing products catering to people seeking a natural lifestyle.

In addition to all the food, which probably dominated about 80 percent of the products on display, there was a vast array of beauty and health products; sports supplements; and a surprising amount of stuff from other countries, especially Japan, Malaysia, and Israel.

Amidst roaming buyers, exhibitors, and media types, I shuffled quickly past the colon cleanser displays (ew), checked out the filter-equipped water bottles, felt the compostable doggie-doo bags, and kept musing about how many calories had to be under this one roof.