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Brave New Leaf
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A green newbie trying to assess her impact and transform her lifestyle to be more sustainable. Covers green projects and products.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'recycling'
Target & Archer Farms reinvent cereal box packaging
A Minneapolis-based Target in conjunction with Archer Farms (an organic line) is trying to reinvent cereal packaging. The new packaging removes the need for the inner plastic bag to hold the cereal in. It also features a snug-fitting lid to......
Mr. Ellie Pooh's Elephant Dung Paper
When we first walked by this booth, we thought this might be a joke: a clever skewering of recycling extremes. But, it turns out that this stuff is legit. There is actually paper that is made out of 75% elephant......
Plastic Bag Monster
One of the first people that we ran into at the Festival was the Plastic Bag Monster. He was pouting because he's been kicked out of San Francisco, and he's worried that Seattle is not far behind. He was looking......
First rubber roads, now rubber sidewalks?
Last month, we discussed how oil-heavy street asphalt contributes to our nation's carbon footprint, and how a new development in road technology using recycled tires is making our roads quieter, more durable, and more environmentally-friendly. My hom...
Gorgeous furniture made from reclaimed wood
Brazilian designer Carlos Motta was an avid surfer who noticed that there were gorgeous pieces of wood washing up on the beaches he frequented. This realization started him down a path to build furniture with a reduced environmental impact by......
Nordstroms transitioning to eco-friendly boxes and bags
Seattle company Nordstrom has announced that they are introducing environmentally-friendly packaging options for customers. Nordstrom's is famous for their trademark silver gift boxes, which cannot be recycled because of the foil coating. Starting in...
A new way to recycle your tennis shoes
Nike has been catching the green bug lately. First, they've launched the Reuse-A-Shoe initiative where they accept all used athletic shoes (of ANY brand!) and downcycle them to become integrated into the surfaces of sports facilities. There's just so...
The Search for Green Electronics
In the search to find the greenest electronics out there, Greenpeace performed a survey amongst major electronics manufacturers. The results were extremely interesting. 37 products from 14 manufacturers were evaluated from the likes of Sony, Nokia, D...
A peek inside a Recycling Sorting Facility
This video offers a very quick look into all of the work that happens at a recycling sorting facility. That's right - when your city moves away from having you sort your recycling, somebody at a plant gets to do......
What do I do with: Printer Cartridges
My inkjet printer stopped printing colors the other day. This was pretty inconvenient since we were trying to print boarding passes at the time, and nothing came out looking right. We bought a replacement cartridge (man, those are expensive!) to......
Reader Letter: Greening Kitty Litter
Dear Brave New Leaf, Up until very recently, I always got plastic bags when I shopped so that I could scoop kitty litter into them. Now that I'm using reusable bags, I find myself turning to Glad kitchen trash bags......
The Story of Stuff
If you have 20 minutes to spare today, I firmly recommend you head over to http://www.storyofstuff.com and watch the interactive movie. It's a really nice, entertaining look at the broad lifecycle of the things we buy, and how they impact......
Seattle sets Recycling Record
Seattle businesses and consumers are recycling more than ever before. Congratulations Seattle! In 2006, 47.5% of your waste went to the recycling facility instead of the landfills. Just who do we thank for this increase? Businesses are doing more of....
How does recycling translate into energy?
One of the lessons we try to teach regularly at Brave New Leaf is that recycling is important for more reasons than full landfills. One of the big reasons to recycle is that it saves energy. "Meh," you say. "How......
Is it recyclable: Cell Phones
I have a cell phone which I no longer use. In a classically klutzy move, I dropped it one day. It still works (sort of), but the LED screen on the top and the main one are cracked, so I......
Seattle ups the ante on recycling
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced a number of improvements to Seattle's recycling program yesterday. As much as I was hoping it would be more people in costumes of recyclable items, the changes instead are extremely practical. Among the changes ar...
Which is greener: shopping at the mall or online?
I needed new underwear. So, without really thinking, I put in an order to Victoria's Secret online for a dozen pairs or so. All told, I ended up with four packages shipped to me: one box and three bags, 4......
Ocean Waves, Plastic Graves
For whatever reasons: shipwreck, storm, or accident, strange things that have been dropped in the ocean. And when those strange things get dropped in, they usually then go on an epic tour around the world. Often, the things in question......
Make your own Plastic Bag Dryer
While we're trying to reduce plastic bags in our household, sometimes they are an inevitability. Going to the airport, for example, requires us to break out a few ziplocks. Not just for the security check, but to make sure our......
Junk Mail Project Update
About 10 weeks ago, I started a trial of a couple of services claiming to reduce my junk mail. Good news is, I have seen a noticeable change in the number of catalogs I receive. Some rather insistent catalogs still......
A greener way to brush your teeth
When it was time to throw away my toothbrush, I stopped to consider what to do with my failing brush. I am a vicious, unrelenting brusher. Always have been. So a toothbrush life span is short in my household. I......
Is it recyclable: Toothbrushes?
The bristles started falling out of my toothbrush this week, so it's time to switch. It is definitely made of plastic, but it's completely unclear whether I can recycle my toothbrush. My recycling website doesn't mention toothbrushes anywhere. Appare...
7 Ways to Reuse Wire Hangers
Yesterday, I asked you what to do with my ginormous stack of wire hangers, accumulated from years of dry cleaning runs. Turns out wire hangers aren't exactly the hideous scourge I thought they were. They are, after all, made of......
Is it recyclable: Wire Hangers
Every so often, my husband and I will start to throw something away and then fall into a state of absolute paralysis. Flummoxed, we'll stand thinking, feet rooted to the spot. "Umm...honey?" we'll ask, "Do you think this is recyclable?"......
A trip to the grocery store
At the risk of infuriating my audience, here’s what a typical grocery shopping trip looks like for me today. I realize that this is not ideal. That’s why I have this blog and am trying to change, so try to......
When you can't recycle, try freecycle
Two weeks ago, I pushed our computer back further behind the desk to make the workspace under the desk more aesthetically pleasing. The unintended consequence was that the mouse and keyboard cables no longer stretched fully over to the workspace.......
A handy guide for recycling Christmas materials
You'd really like to play with all of your new toys, but your entire house is neck deep in the discarded holiday wrapping remnants. Need a quick guide to get rid of your waste quickly, but in the most eco-friendly......
Waste Project: Reduce your Junk Snail Mail
Junk snail mail stinks. Most respectable websites practice disclosure policies when subscribing and unsubscribing you to an email list, but those same companies won't provide you the same courtesy when it comes to shoving an enormous wasteful catalog...
Waste Project: How to set up a Home Recycling System
If you followed my garbage audit, you realize that I am not a prolific recycler. But I am committed to changing my habits. Better late than never, right? I recently outlined the reasons for why I’m just starting to recycle......
Why should we recycle?
I know that this is a mundane question for many people; the benefits so obvious that they want to laugh at anybody silly enough to ask it. Truth is though, 23% of Americans don’t recycle anything. A full third of......
