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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 'waste'
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...
Wal-Mart giving away 1 million reuseable bags on Earth Day
Earth Day is this Saturday, April 19th. In response, Wal-Mart is giving away a stunning one million reuseable shopping bags at their stores. If you want one, show up at 8am at your local store. But if...
Make "stuff" commual to reduce consumption
The Good Human shares with us a breakthrough he had: "While we cannot share a roll of paper towels, a television or our couches, there are some major purchases that can be shared amongst neighborhood ...
Seattle to impose disposable bag sin tax
A little over a year ago, San Francisco made headlines by banning plastic bags and styrofoam containers from restaurants, grocery stores, and pharmacies. This week, Seattle proposed that they similarl...
Washington Ecology Dept. funds several biowaste-to-fuel research projects
The Washington Department of Ecology announced that it will grant over $600,000 to several research projects focused on conversion of organic wastes to ethanol, biodiesel, and organic fertilizer. We a...
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 manufacture...
We Love Jam is the first US company to use biodegradable plastic food packaging
We Love Jam sells delicious jams and jellies in limited quantities produced from fruit from their organic trees. A self-proclaimed green company, they have now gone a step further and changed their pa...
In Canada, Milk comes in Bags.
Did you know that in Canada, milk comes in bags? I found an entire website devoted to how this crazy idea works. Some people state that this is more environmentally friendly because the bags are biode...
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 replace...
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 kitc...
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," yo...
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......
Repeat after me: "No more plastic bottles"
This is article 2 in a series. Read the other articles in the beverage series. It’s Environment 101: don’t buy plastic bottles. Practically, it’s so difficult to do sometimes. I go to the gym an...
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 ins...
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 w...
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 c...
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 ...
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 ho...
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 web...
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...
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, ...
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...
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...
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 whe...
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 ...
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...
The Waste Audit
After the relatively straightforward energy and water audits, figuring out how to do a waste audit was a pretty big challenge. Living in a condo, we don’t even keep a large trash can in the garage t...