I sift through the material I find there, to look for things that I think deserve wider circulation. So this page is powered by Yahoo! Answers. — Zana)

What is the best country for green living and that has the most friendly environmental recycling place???

This article came from: I have a question about green living at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Product Description
The bestselling alternative energy reference book in North America, now in an updated edition.

Want to take advantage of solar power in your home? Whether you?re looking to save on your energy costs by adding a few solar components or you want to build a solar-powered house from the ground up, Solar Power For Dummies, 2nd Edition takes the mystery out of this energy source and shows you how to put it to work for you!

This new edition gives you hands-on tips and techniques for making your home more energy-efficient though solar power and helping the planet at the same time. Plus, you’ll get all the latest information on changes to federal, state, and local regulations, laws, and tax incentives that seek to make solar-power adoption more feasible.

• Expanded coverage of the technology that underpins full-scale solar-power systems for the home
• New small- and mid-sized solar products, projects, and applications
• Rik DeGunther is a design engineer who started his own energy consulting firm

Featuring ten of the easiest and cheapest DIY solar projects, Solar Power For Dummies, 2nd Edition is the fun and easy way to meet your energy needs with this clean power source!

Solar Power Your Home For Dummies

This article came from: Solar Power Your Home For Dummies at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Eco Friendly Products

By Ethan Le

The term biodegradable is associated with environmentally friendly products. What exactly does this mean? The meaning of biodegradation is breaking down of organic substances by the help of other living organisms such as bacteria and microbes. It helps out greatly in waste management and keeping the environment clean.

Now the trend of being eco-friendly is booming all over the world. Small and big companies are trying to contribute towards this cause. Going green is the new mantra. Eco-friendly products are becoming popular in the industrial as well as the corporate sector. These products not only help in promoting effective campaigns but also help in spreading the word about the company’s social awareness and values. There are lot more benefits attached to it!

Eco-friendly products provide the imprinted brand related message also; this in turn elevates the brand image and reflects a positive impression amongst existing and potential customers, along with the repeated exposure of your logo.

Going green does not make money for you; but it saves your wealth, that’s for sure. So it wouldn’t be a foolish decision at all. These biodegradable products are not only meeting high standards of quality, durability and beauty, but they are also cost effective. There are compostable products like compostable plates, straws, containers, hot cups, cold cups, soufflé cups, bowls, etc.

Biodegradable party supplies are those products which can be thrown in the regular garbage. The compostable plates, straws, containers, hot cups, cold cups, souffle cups, will naturally biodegrade over time. These biodegradable tableware products replace non-biodegradable plastic and Styrofoam products that will NOT biodegrade and will fill our landfills forever.

Biodegradable tableware is as affordable and safe as it is environmental friendly. When disposed off with a commercial compost facility, biodegradable tableware takes only 50 to 100 days to completely compost. Disposable tableware is made from sugarcane fiber leftover after juice extraction. Normally, this residue is burned after pulping, thus creating air pollution. But this sugarcane fiber can be re-used – by being made into disposable products normally made from plastic or virgin paper. The tableware has no plastic or wax lining applied to it and can be used for both hot and cold items. Though, the tableware is soak proof, hot items will cause moisture/precipitation to form at the bottom of the tableware.

The best thing is that biodegradable packaging can reduce the amount of litter. All around the world, biodegradable packaging is moving into the mainstream. Progress in bio-technology means that plant based starches, for example sugar cane and corn, can be used as a more environmentally friendly alternative to conventional, petroleum based plastics.

If you are concerned about the durability of biodegradable shipping supplies, do not be. These types of shipping supplies may be biodegradable, but that does not mean that they are of a lesser quality and construction than shipping supplies that are not biodegradable. Biodegradable packaging is packaging that after use simply biodegrades harmlessly back into the earth.

Ethan Le is the author of this article on Eco-friendly Products. Find more information about Biodegradable Party Supplies here.

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This article came from: Eco Friendly Party Supplies and Packaging at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

I go through the material I find there, looking for things that I think deserve wider distribution. So this page is powered by Yahoo! Answers. — Zana)

We’re poor, I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m married with a year-old son and a baby on the way. We’re on CalWORKS (call it welfare if you want to be a jerk), and I just can’t eat as healthy as I would like with food stamps – organic and vegetarian is just not an option for us. I can’t use canvas shopping bags unless I get them for free. I can recycle and conserve energy – but that’s about it.

But I want to DO MORE. Any tips?

This article came from: Living green and eating healthy on a MAJOR budget? at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

When I got to this one, I didn’t have to ponder it for even a minute. This Rodale reference book is  extremely useful. I have relied on this book (and earlier incarnations of it) myself, both in libraries when helping people and in my own gardens. Its subtitle is deserved: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals. – Zana
~~~~~~~~~~~
End your worries about garden problems with safe, effective solutions from The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control!

* Easy-to-use problem-solving encyclopedia covers more than 200 vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, trees, and shrubs
* Complete directions on how, when, and where to use preventive methods, insect traps and barriers, biocontrols, homemade remedies, botanical insecticides, and more
* More than 350 color photos for quick identification of insect pests, beneficial insects, and plant diseases

Newly revised with the latest, safest organic controls.

A New York Times Best Gardening Book

The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals

This article came from: The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

One of the world’s most influential environmentalists reveals a worldwide grassroots movement of hope and humanity

Blessed Unrest tells the story of a worldwide movement that is largely unseen by politicians or the media. Hawken, an environmentalist and author, has spent more than a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person causes, these organizations collectively comprise the largest movement on earth. This is a movement that has no name, leader, or location, but is in every city, town, and culture. It is organizing from the bottom up and is emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide.

Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of this movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and centuries-old history. The culmination of Hawken’s many years of leadership in these fields, it will inspire, surprise, and delight anyone who is worried about the direction the modern world is headed. Blessed Unrest is a description of humanity’s collective genius and the unstoppable movement to re-imagine our relationship to the environment and one another. Like Hawken’s previous books, Blessed Unrest will become a classic in its field— a touchstone for anyone concerned about our future.

To find out more about this hope-filled yet realistic book, click on the image:

This article came from: Blessed Unrest at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

I go through the material I find there, to look for things that I think deserve wider dissemination. So this page is powered by Yahoo! Answers. — Zana)

to teach to preschool age and toddlers?

This article came from: What are some good living green or environmental ideas? at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

• ISBN13: 9781603580298
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher.

Product Description
The first edition of Gaia’s Garden, sparked the imagination of America’s home gardeners, introducing permaculture’s central message: Working with Nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.

Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening—which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants—can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it’s fun and easy to create a “backyard ecosystem” by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions, including:

• Building and maintaining soil fertility and structure
• Catching and conserving water in the landscape
• Providing habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals
• Growing an edible “forest” that yields seasonal fruits, nuts, and other foods

This revised and updated edition also features a new chapter on urban permaculture, designed especially for people in cities and suburbs who have very limited growing space. Whatever size yard or garden you have to work with, you can apply basic permaculture principles to make it more diverse, more natural, more productive, and more beautiful. Best of all, once it’s established, an ecological garden will reduce or eliminate most of the backbreaking work that’s needed to maintain the typical lawn and garden.

Gaia’s Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture

This article came from: Gaia’s Garden: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Hanging by a Shoestring – How to Survive on Next to Nothing

By Jennifer Carpenter

An estimated 47% of American households live paycheck to paycheck or very close. It doesn’t look like statistic will get any better soon; in fact it’s likely to get worse as the unemployment numbers rise. Not having much of a disposable income doesn’t mean you have to feel deprived, it just means you have to learn to survive on less fancy foods, repaired clothing, homemade old-fashioned household and beauty products and simple forms of entertainment. If you can learn how to and commit to doing at least these things, living n a shoestring budget won’t seem so much like deprivation.

Cut Your Food Bill

There are many different ways to save money at the supermarket. My favorites are shopping the sales and buying generic. Shopping the sales takes a bit of time and effort but it can really be worth it in the end, especially if you live in a relatively small area like I do. I keep a close eye on the sales flyers and when I see a good deal on something I normally use, I put it on my list and plan to stop by that store. Thankfully due to the area I live in, I am within a twenty minute drive to all the grocery stores I buy from. While this method takes more time than just shopping at one store, I have experienced huge savings because of it. For my family of five -two adults and three children – I spend from $325 to $375 a month on groceries.

Buying generic brands is another way I save money when food shopping. Many generic or store brands are produced by the same companies that make the name brands. But with store brands you aren’t paying for the “name” and the pretty packaging. Furthermore the majority of the time you can’t really taste much of a difference. I’ll admit some generic products aren’t as good as a name brand (I’m particularly picky about my spaghetti sauce) but by watching for sales, stocking up when on sale and buying mostly generic you have the wiggle room to buy a brand name or two.

Buying in bulk is another way many people, myself included, save some cash. If you live close to a food warehouse like Sam’s Club, BJs or Costco, you can purchase large quantities of foods at a discount. This is especially good for meats that you can buy in big packages and then split up for meals. Bulk buying is also good for dry food like flour, sugar, coffee, and canned goods like tuna fish, vegetables and fruits.

Finally there are coupons. Not a favorite of mine (probably because I buy so my generic) many other people swear by them. Generally my advice is to give them a shot, take advantage of any really good deals and read more from someone else who knows the secret of coupons that I have never picked up. I think the coupon rules must be stricter when I live because I read these stories where people get two or three coupons applied to a product or a purchase and the store in my area just don’t go for that. I hope you have better luck with coupons that I do but I am living proof that you can save lots of money on groceries without using coupons.

Make Clothes Last

There is an old New England expression that I have always found sums up the attitude we need to embrace when living on a budget. “Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do or Do Without” Mending clothes is an activity that seemed to disappear with the onset of mass retail production. While I don’t yet make my family’s clothing, I do patch, hem and darn whatever I can to make what we have last as long as possible. A couple of simple stitches are all that is needed to fix most rips and tears.

At first they won’t look pretty so it’s always a good idea to use thread that matches the fabric’s color as closely as possible. The first couple of times that you stitch something up, it may not last long but as you repair more you will get better. With sewing, like with so many things, practice makes perfect. When a basic article of clothing, like denim jeans, gets to a point where they can’t be repaired or handed down further, keep them on hand for future patches to save even more money.

Make Your Own Cleaners

Making homemade household cleaners and beauty treatments is surprisingly easy and cheap. With the basics of baking soda, vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice you can make a cleaner for about any surface from wood to silver. Baking soda is a good substitute for bleach in scrubbing cleansers for sinks, countertops and appliances. White distilled vinegar works well as an all-purpose antibacterial property to any homemade cleaning solution and olive oil keeps wood looking well-managed and polished.

There are many books and blogs dedicated to providing recipes for DIY cleaners. With the exception of olive oil, the majority of the ingredients you’ll need will be easy to find and easy on the pocketbook. Beauty treatments involve more ingredients but most of them are just as inexpensive. Tea bags, honey, and oatmeal are just three of the materials you would need for homemade beauty products. Oatmeal is good to use during the winter since it protects against dry skin. Honey will gently exfoliate your skin and leave it glowing. Tea bags can be used to reduce puffiness in the eye area.

Not only are homemade products cheaper, they are better for you and the environment. While it may take some time, a little experimenting and a bit of research but in the long run making your own cleaning and beauty products is well worth the trouble.

Enjoy Simpler Entertainment

Nowadays going to the movies costs about $20 or $25 a couple. If you add popcorn, drinks, and candy and you’re looking at close to fifty dollars for one night of entertainment. Renting movies is cheaper but can still put a crimp in your budget when you don’t have any wiggle room already. Clubs are off limits when drinks are 4 and 5 bucks a pop and even a couple of games pool will set you back a ten-spot.

To save money, you’ll need to flash back to a simpler time when playing card and board games were the entertainment of choice. Odds are you have a stack of board games stored away somewhere. Dust them off and prepare for some family bonding. If you don’t happen to have any board games on hand, you can pick up a deck of cards for about a dollar at a discount store. There are websites where you can learn hundreds of different card games to play. If games aren’t your thing, you can borrow books and movies from the local library at no cost to you at all.

Outside there are nature walks, hiking, biking, and picnicking at a local park and, if you’re anything like me and like the pathetically corny, scavenger hunts. Simply write a list or pick a letter and find as many things that fit the category as possible. Above all it is most important to remember that money isn’t everything. As long as there a rook over your head, clothes on your back and food in your stomach you are a success.

Jennifer Carpenter is a work at home mother of three, two teens and a preschooler. She is a writer and Internet marketer who is currently working towards financial freedom through working online. Read more about her incredible journey at http://www.livingmybigdream.com

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This article came from: Hanging by a Shoestring – How to Survive on Next to Nothing at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Product Description
When Peter Walsh, organizational guru of TLC’s hit show Clean Sweep and a regular contributor to The Oprah Winfrey Show, appeared on national television shows and told people how they could reclaim their lives from the suffocating burden of their clutter, the response was overwhelming. People flooded Peter’s website (www.peterwalshdesign.com) with success stories about how his book had changed their lives.

Peter’s unique approach helped people everywhere learn to let go of the emotional and psychological clutter that was literally and figuratively choking the life out of their homes.

With his good humor and reassuring advice, Peter shows you how to face the really big question: What is the vision for the life you want to live? He then offers simple techniques and a step-by-step plan to assess the state of your home, prioritize your possessions, and let go of the clutter you have been holding on to that has kept you from living the life you imagine. The result is freed-up space, less stress, and more energy for living a happier, richer life every day.

It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life With Less Stuff

This article came from: It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life With Less Stuff at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.