The Green Life

Green Fashion Monday: Classic Rugged Tee

On Fashion Monday, we highlight a hip, green fashion item. Got a stylish eco-friendly product to recommend? Tell us about it and look for it in an upcoming blog post.

Need a gift for that rugged outdoorsman or woman in your life? How about this no-nonsense T-shirt from Mountain Khakis? The company known for making a great pair of pants now sells tees made from recycled cotton woven with recycled plastic from spent water bottles. And they offer just the kind of understated style that the hard-to-shop-for person appreciates. Available online. $25.

--Kyle Boelte

Weaning Off Paper Towels

The CDC recommends that you wash your hands after using a public restroom to prevent the spread of disease. But what about all that's wasted every time you use a paper towel? In fact, each person uses about 741 pounds of paper each year. That’s a lot of trees.

Recycled paper towels and electric hand dryers are great, but one company claims these solutions aren’t green enough. PeopleTowels claims that its organic-cotton hand towels produce no waste and reduce a user's carbon footprint. Also, they come in colorful designs.

The downside is that they can be pricey if you’re on a budget. And they're only available through the company’s Web site.

Green Your Holiday Meals: All Those Leftovers

Working up a menu for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or any of the other upcoming winter holidays? This week’s tips will help you be environmentally responsible while planning that feast.

Tip #3: Do Right With What’s Left

If there’s one thing synonymous with American holidays, it’s lots and lots of leftovers. So what to do with yours? If there’s a food bank or homeless shelter in your region that takes prepared foods, you can bring ‘em there. If not, you can turn your leftovers into other meals, including soup or sandwiches; mashed potatoes can become a breakfast hash.

Whatever becomes of your grub, you can also deal with those licked-clean dishes in responsible ways: A full load in the dishwasher is greener than washing them by hand, especially if you skip the drying cycle.

Tell us: How do you deal with leftovers and dirty dishes after a big holiday meal?

PLEASE NOTE: In observance of Thanksgiving, the Sierra Club’s offices will be closed for the rest of the week. We'll be back with new posts on Nov. 30. In the meantime, you can peruse our archives for a wealth of green-living tips.

A Rental Community to Keep it Green

With Black Friday this week and Christmas just around the corner, the holidays can bring out the worst in our overconsuming and wasteful habits. We buy and get gifts, like DVDs, that usually receive more shelf time in a week than actual use in a year. If one of your New Year’s resolutions will be to limit your eco-footprint, one company’s attempt to revolutionize the act of  renting can help reduce waste and save resources while earning you a little extra green.

Rentalic Inc. (pronounced like "metallic"), a company in San Mateo, California, runs a community rental service via an online marketplace. Users can rent out their stuff, allowing renters to avoid spending the full amount for an item they might only need temporarily. The idea is to save or make money while reusing and sharing.

Recyclops Takes Over The Office

Watch out office workers... Recyclops is on the loose! The character Dwight Schrute from NBC's The Office is part futuristic robot, part green crusader in tonight's green-themed episode. Fans of the show know that Dwight runs a small beet farm, so he's already scoring points when it comes to local foods. But tonight's episode takes it to a whole new level -- a level we don't recommend when you're trying to green your own office.

It's green week on NBC, part of its parent company Universal's "Green is Universal" campaign. Many of NBC's shows are getting out the green message, but we're not sure any of them can match the hilarity of Recyclops.

If you are looking to get your co-workers involved in green workplace solutions, check out our 10 ways to green your workplace and tips for getting your boss on board. 

--Kyle Boelte

Recycling: So Cool It Has Its Own Day!

Recycling continues to grow in popularity; at some point every day, odds are that you hear, see, or read about its importance. But to showcase the beauty of reusing resources and place it eternally in American folklore (at least for now), it has become its own nationally recognized day.

Sunday was the 12th annual America Recycles Day, which is dedicated to increasing awareness and encouraging Americans to recycle and buy recycled products. Keep America Beautiful and the National Recycling Coalition helped educate communities about the benefits of recycling. (The U.S. recycles 33 percent of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled in 15 years!)

Are you getting lax with your recycling habits? Do you have friends that throw recyclables in the trash? ARD's website provides the ability to make an e-pledge to improve your recycling practices and spread the word.

If you missed celebrating the national recognition day, you still can have an impact tomorrow! Check out some of the Green Life’s recycling tips and stories about e-waste, conserving paper, swapping books, or buying clothes made of recycled products. New to recycling? Watch this eco-film about garbage to see just how much we throw out.

--Michael Mullaley

Green Fashion Monday: Recycled Mittens

On Fashion Monday, we highlight a hip, green fashion item. Got a stylish eco-friendly product to recommend? Tell us about it and look for it in an upcoming blog post.

These thick, comfy mittens are perfect for winter days when the snow is falling, the wind is brisk, and all you want to do is bundle up. They’re handmade from recycled sweaters by a mother-daughter team, so each pair is unique. The fleece liner is luxuriously soft, and there's an array of styles to choose from for women and men. Available at Olive Green Apparel; $65 per pair.

--Kyle Boelte

Corporate Demand Grows for Green Hotels

Rarely are the terms “eco-friendly” and “business travel” mentioned in the same sentence. But now companies are urging their employees to seek green alternatives, especially when it comes to booking hotels. The motivation for such a shift has its perks; companies can say they are environmentally conscious, while hotels are rewarded for going green and earning LEED certification.

According to USA Today, the increased interest in green hotels has some companies checking lodging properties' green practices -- such as how much water and energy are conserved and how often towels are replaced -- before signing contracts. Helping this transition is the Green Hotels Association, a group of hotels that promote environmentally responsible ways of operating.

Of course, being picky about where you stay isn't the only way to green your business travel. You can also pack light, decline the napkin, and recycle. Consider taking public transportation to and from the airport, and for sightseeing purposes. Finally, flying can seriously deepen your carbon footprint, so look into carbon offsets. But as always, watch out for greenwashing, which is rampant in the travel industry.

--Michael Mullaley

Green Your Reading Habits: Swap Books

Curling up with a good book sounds like a great alternative to braving the cold, rainy weather this season. Since books and many publications are made of trees, this week's tips are about how to green your reading habits.

Tip #3: Trade Your Tomes

If you have lots of books lying around unused, start a book-swapping club. That way you won’t have to buy new books and you'll have a great group in which to discuss your favorite stories. At book-swapping sites such as Paperback Swap and BookMooch, you can trade books for free with other members as long as you pay the shipping costs. There's also BookSwim (the Netflix of books), which delivers book rentals to your home for a monthly fee.

Tell us: What do you do with your old books?

Green Your Reading Habits: E-Book Readers

Curling up with a good book sounds like a great alternative to braving cold, rainy weather. Since books are made of trees, this week's tips are about how to green your reading habits.

Tip #2: Use an E-Book Reader

Despite the initial cost of electronic book readers and the plastic used to create them, they leave a smaller eco-footprint than paper books. With an e-book reader, you can download books, newspapers, and magazines from anywhere so you won’t have to drive to the bookstore to pick up the paper versions. To increase your green points, you can recycle your reader when you're done with it.

Tell us: What do you think about e-book readers?