So when I heard a Louisville MOMs Group is having a Recycle, Repurpose, and Reuse theme at their next meeting, I knew my shop would fit the bill.   The Louisville Brightside organizer coming to speak on things to help in Louisville and they always prepare a packet to give to each mom. Since they might be interested in my products with Christmas coming up, and going green being such a hot topic, I am sending them my cards with vintage ribbon attached.  I have also donated these folk art postcard and magnets for a door prize.

Hope they have a great meeting and I certainly look forward to hearing from them.

On behalf of student Green Club President Alex Klimowicz:

For the whole month of October student green club volunteers are working with Trash-2-Treasure. The non-profit organization takes donations of reusable items that people are looking to get rid of without throwing away.

This month Trash-2-Treasure is throwing a green Halloween every Friday and Saturday. Green Halloween teaches kids to tap into their creative minds to make their Halloween costumes, while teaching kids and parents the importance of reusing and reducing the amount of junk we buy.

So far the event has been off to a great start, the kids love having the students around to help them put together the perfect mermaid, lady bud and farmer zombie! All are welcome - this event is open to family, friends and kids!

For more information on participating, volunteering, or donating, contact Nicole at nicoleamsing@gmail.com

Because You Have Too Much Stuff
1. 1.4 million Americans suffer from chronic hoarding & clutter.
2. People burn 55 minutes a day looking for things.
3. 80 percent of what we own we never use.
4. 1800GotJunk.com
Pay someone else to take out the (big, cumbersome) trash.
5. Publicstorage.com
Lock it up in more than 2,100 locations around the U.S.
6. redshield.org
Schedule a pickup with your local Salvation Army.
7. earth911.org
Find local recycling and reuse programs for all kinds of household items.

Because It's Fun
8.  127sale.com
Set up shop at the World's Longest Yard Sale, August 2-5, along 450 miles of Highway 127 in the southeastern U.S.
9. Or peddle your wares in your own front yard on National Garage Sale Day, August 10.
10. Swaporamarama.org
Attend nationwide clothing exchanges and do-it-yourself alteration workshops.
11. Wildzipper.com
Watch as a pile of your favorite old T-shirts is converted into a quilt.

12. Verizonwireless.com
Put a refurbished phone (of any brand) into the hands of a domestic violence victim.
13. Eco-cell.com
Or let its sale benefit an environmental charity.
14. Care.org
Send a phone to the field staff of a poverty-fighting mission.

Digital Cameras
15. Operationhomefront.net
Help keep service members in touch with their families.

All Technology
16. Rethink.Ebay.com
Work with charities to find homes for consumer electronics.
17. youthfortechnology.org
Put scanners, computers, and cameras in the hands of deserving, impoverished kids around the world.

Air Miles
18. Redcross.org
For Red Cross staff and volunteers
19. Heromiles.com
For deployed soldiers
20. Marrow.org
For transplant patients
21. Childrenscancerassociation.org
For terminally ill kids

Furniture & Appliances
22. excessaccess.org
Match your household items with a local non-profit's wish list.
23. help1up.org
Furnish homes for disaster victims.
24. dressforsuccess.org
Give interview and work clothing to disadvantaged women.
25. makingmemories.org
Donate a wedding gown to benefit breast-cancer patients.
26. www.operationfairydust.org
Send formal wear to teenage girls who need help getting to the prom.
27. onewarmcoat.org
A free coat to anyone who needs one.
28. boulderrunning.com
Ship shoes and sportswear to struggling athletes around the world.

Other
29. Suitcasesforkids.org
Supply children in foster care with luggage.
30. Uniteforsight.org & givethegiftofsight.org
Send eyewear to men and women in underdeveloped countries.
31. Savethechildren.org
Convert American Express credit card points to cash donations.
32. Cartalk.com
Donate a used vehicle to support your local public radio station.
33. Booksforafrica.org
Give everything from storybooks to encyclopedias.
34. Cap4pets.org
Send towels and newspapers to animal shelters.
35. Goodwill.org
Fund job training programs and social services.
36. Freecycle.org
Post donations for charities (and regular folks) to claim.
37. Habitat.org
Donate leftover building supplies to Habitat for Humanity's ReStores.

Computers
38. Cristina.org
Technology and training for the disabled and disadvantaged.
39. Sharetechnology.org
Connecting donations with charities across the U.S.
40. Worldcomputerexchange.org
Send computers to more than 50 developing countries.

41. Nikereuseashoe.com
Recycled footwear materials become sports and playground surfaces.
42. Patagonia.com
Donated Capilene base layers become polyester fibers for new Capilene garments.
43. Pangea organics' packaging becomes an herb garden when planted in soil.
44. Cargo cosmetics' PlantLove lipstick tubes come in plantable boxes that sprout wildflowers.
45. Pencilthings.com
Old newspapers become colored pencils.
46. Vivaterra.com
Rubber tires become sleek purses...
47. Passchal.com
...or rugged iPod covers.
48. Gaiam.com
Plastic soda bottles become durable hammocks.
49. Recycline.com
Yogurt containers become colorful plates, flatware, toothbrushes, and razors.

Because It Will Make Your Life Better
50. Getting rid of clutter will reduce housework by 40 percent.
51. Erase a $10K credit card debt (with an average interest rate) 65 percent faster -- and pay 75 percent less total interest -- when you pay double the typical minimum monthly payment.
52. Download security software like Stopzilla to keep a lid on computer pop-ups.
53. Around 23 percent of people pay late fees on bills they cannot find.

54. Return six MAC Cosmetics containers to any MAC store and receive a free lipstick.
55. Trade in an old iPod and receive a 10 percent discount on a new one.
56. Coinstar.com
Easily convert spare change into "real" money.
57. Craigslist.org
Sell it to your neighbors.
58. ebay.com
Sell it to anyone.
59. giftcardbuyback.com.
Get cash for gift cards you'll never use.
60 Paperbackswap.com
Trade the books you have for the ones you want.
61. Peerflix.com
Trade the DVDs you've seen for the ones you haven't.
62. Spun.com
Clear off your CD shelves, and make money in the process.
63. Titletrader.com
The great entertainment exchange: books, music, movies, and games, all swapped in one place.

64. energystar.gov
Replacing old appliances with new, energy-efficient ones saves money and fuel.
65. Running shoes should be retired after 300 to 500 miles in order to prevent injuries.
66. Deep-six your toothbrush every three to four months.
67. Swap your pitcher's water filter every two months (or as directed).
68. Change out disposable air conditioner filters once a month during cooling season.
69 Replace the batteries in your smoke detector at least once a year.
70. foodsafety.gov
Find the USDA's recommended storage limits for refrigerated and frozen food.
71. Throw out mascara and moisturizer after three months.
72. Discard foundation and sunscreen after six months to a year.
73. Keep concealer, lipstick, eye- and lip liners, fragrances, powders, blushes, and shadows for only a year and a half to two years.
74.-76. Say goodbye to the dried-out remnants of your favorite no-longer-available lipstick, and check out threecustom.com, T.J.Maxx stores, or Lancome's beauty bye-bye program for replacements or duplicates of discontinued cosmetics.

Because You Don't Want to Suffer from "Stuck Song Syndrome"
77. And these five tunes are among the most persistent: Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" jingle, "We Will Rock You," the "Mission Impossible" theme, "YMCA," and "It's a Small World After All." (Tip: Try drowning them out with classical music, which is less likely to haunt you after it's turned off.)

Because the Last Thing You Need Is More Paper Lying Around
78. File your taxes through an authorized IRS e-file provider.
79. Eliminate paper statements by banking and paying bills online.
80. Call 1-888-567-8688 to stop unwanted credit card solicitations.
81. Opt out of mailing and telemarketing lists by logging on to dmaconsumers.org.

Because There's a Better Option
82. Search for phone numbers online instead of storing bulky Yellow and White Pages volumes.
83. Lose the road maps and get a GPS system to download up-to-date travel guides.
84. Read "Dating Up: Dump the Schlump and Find a Quality Man," by J. Courtney Sullivan (Warner Books, $14, 2007).

Because You Don't Want to End Up Like Them
85. Miss Havisham in "Great Expectations"
86. Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale in "Grey Gardens"
87. Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple"
88. The family in the documentary "Packrat" (packratthemovie.com)
89. The Bronx, New York, man who, in 2003, was trapped in his home under an avalanche of books and newspapers for two days before being rescued.

Because If They Said It, It's Probably True
90. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." -Leonardo da Vinci
91. "Less is more." -Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
92. "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." -William Morris
93. "You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative." -Johnny Mercer
94. "The joy of giving is indeed a pleasure, especially when you get rid of something you don't want." -Frank Butler and Frank Cavett, "Going My Way"

Or Just Because...
95. It has no value, sentimental or monetary.
96. It hasn't been used in over a year.
97. There is no logical place to keep it.
98. It doesn't work.
99. An ex gave it to you.
100. And what's the worst that can happen if you throw it out?

D'autant plus qu'il correspond aussi a une volonté de faire "revivre" des matières et objets dont l'obsolescence était programmée. Re-Use!

Voici un outil qui devrait plaire à tout nos amis créateurs et designers adeptes du crafty trendy.

Quarrybooks va éditer un recueil de 1000 idées de "creative reuse". Il sont donc à la recherche de ses mêmes idées.

Un ouvrage collaboratif (en papier recyclé je suppose) pour les visionnaires du crafting et design.

" We are  looking for the best examples of paper and book arts, jewelry, clothing, home and personal accessories, furniture, art, and miscellanea for possible publication".

le dead line pour les volontaires est le 5 Janvier 2K9

My idea of environmentalism is buying a pair of organic cotton jeans that will fit when I lose 10 pounds but I cannot comfortably wear right now, so I go to that place in the mall and buy two non-organic pairs of jeans that do fit right now. Being eco for me is buying recycled paper towels that I use to cover my prepackaged food when it goes into the microwave and recycling most of the packaging from the stuff I buy on amazon, unless it requires too much dismantling, whereby I just toss it in the dumpster.

I want to be a good environmentalist but my efforts don't come close to the true savers of the planet. Who are these modest but authentic Greenies?

The true eco practitioners among us are those ultra thrifty, super frugal types. The type that are so thrifty and so frugal that they make extra effort to reduce their use (so as not to spend more money) and reuse and reuse and resuse things that aren't meant to be reused (so as not to spend more money) and look for things to recycle (so as to make money). 

The three Rs of being eco should not be given equality on that little green triangle but should be graded in order of environmentalism. Reduce gets the most points followed by reuse, then recycle and a fourth one should be reinvest (my favorite).

True story:

 At the end of a party friend's mom saves the melting stick of butter that is barely wrapped in paper. She gives the melting butter to her daughter-in-law to take home but asks to have back the little plastic plate (a thin throw away party plate) the butter was on and collects all the plastic silverware to wash when she gets home. Now that's a serious environmentalist who wouldn't claim--or even want to claim--she is one!

True story:

We had all our ugly maroon colored gutters taken off our house, never to be put back on but instead replaced with new and prettier gutters. One morning a guy is digging in the construction dumpster in front of our house. The next thing I know Josh is helping the guy carry all the gutters to his truck. Josh also found some other metal junk in our shed to give him and the mirrored closet doors that no one else seemed to want to take. Awesome! I love living in the city!

True Story:

A friend in the neighborhood who is remodeling her house said that the meth addicts take her scrap metal if it is left out and recycle it for cash. At least it is getting recycled.

True Story:

Instead of throwing out plastic grocery bags if they have holes, a neighbor tapes the holes so she can use every single one for picking up dog poo. She also keeps a bag in the backyard and only tosses it once it is full. That is another super star Greenie. If I had a dog my green plan would be to train it to poo in the compost pile... actually, that smells like a bad idea.

Me?

I'll keep doing my part on the eco chain... "reinvesting". I'll keep buying products made from recycled products and buying new products that are eco. I don't rack up many eco points this way but I'm helping the economy, right?

Who knew that french doors are a hot item on Craig's List? Not me. 

I listed the french doors, the ones ripped out of our house recently, on CL for $125. Sure, inexpensive wood ones go for $1000 new but other french doors on CL were selling for between $60-$150. 

Who is the best CL marketer you know? Heck ya, it's me! 

We had a crazy freak'n bidding war on the doors and they sold for $300. Dang, I'm good! (If I eat a little more dairy I'll toot my horn a little louder.)

Josh put my skills to the test and had me list his old Bose Wave clock radio for $200. Although we didn't get into a bidding war we had lots of interest and did get $200 for it that night. 

Oooo... I'm going to add "CL Sales Guru" to my current list of jobs.

Before we headed outside to give away 100 roses to folks walking by -- spreading the word of this practice of giving, by doing it! -- we held a Swap-Raffle.

Swap-Raffle is a term I just made up.  It's the best way I can explain this kind of swap, which ensures that only people who are interested in a particular item have the possibility of winning it.  Brilliant.  This prevents that experience a lot of us can relate with: winning something we don't want, and then thinking, "Now what am I going to do with this ______?"

HOW TO SWAP-RAFFLE

• Materials needed: Paper lunch bags (envelopes or small boxes would work, too), small paper (we used index cards) cut into small pieces--big enough to write a name, and pens.
• People attending the event are encouraged to bring things that they'd like to donate to the group raffle.  Could be new, used, tangible, intangible.  We had 40-50 items, including a harmonica, lots of books, photo albums, a hand-made scarf, free professional services like massages, a lollipop, and a head tingler.
• We lined the things along a wall, wrote the name of the thing on a paper lunch bag, then opened the bag and placed it behind the thing.
• People then "shopped" and placed slips of paper with their name on it, in the bags of the things they wanted.  This way, only people interested in that thing were entered in the raffle for it.
• Each item's winner was picked from the bag associated with it.
• Items that didn't have any "bidders" were raffled from a combining of all the non-winning bigs. 

What I really liked about the Swap-Raffle:

• It was an efficient and fun way to do a swap when it wasn't the main event (compared to my clothes swap), and with a diverse group of people, most of whom had never met each other before. 
• It ensured that things were matched with grateful recipients. 
• As with all swaps, it's a way of building community, in the activity of shopping around, and also when receivers get to meet givers, and vice versa.
• Whether the object or offering were used or new, there was less likelihood of waste.  Which as you know is an important aspect of Everyday Sustainable.

OK, I admit it.  I'm a shoe addict.  I don't know what it is about shoes, but I love them.  I admire them.  I drool over them.  I touch them.  I imagine shoes with baubles and bows, heels and no heels, boots and sandals.  I'm not too particular on style as long as they are fancy or soft or wild. 

After that big shoe rave, I'll share one more tidbit.  I generally only wear shoes that are comfortable.  In my mind there are two types of shoes, those I wear and those that are pieces of art.  It's not surprising that I occasionally include shoes in my art. 

Over the weekend I decided to make some crystal shoe charms.  I have a vintage encyclopedia that had a full color two page spread with shoes.  I've been waiting for the opportunity to use some of the illustrations. 

I took some mini dominoes and drilled holes in them.  I used mulberry paper as a background on some and recycled paper as a background on others.  I added shoe images to each ones.  I added a bit of doodahs and a crystal (mostly swarovski) and added a wire-wrapped bail.  I made matched pairs.  I have an crystal twin charm swap coming up and I thought I might use some of the shoe charms for that swap.  The others I can turn into earrings. 

They turned out better than I anticipated.  Now I have to figure out which and how many to swap.  Which ones to make into earrings...and which pair I plan on keeping. :-)

Breathing some additional life into read or unread dailies, British designer David Stovell has produced a line of furniture he calls Sunday papers. The line includes a chair, tables and stools of various sizes. (via Inhabitat)

When a stack of BestLife magazines, in a hand-me-down delivery from a relative, landed with a multi-volumed thud on my dining room table recently, my first reaction was, "Great, more media to consume." 

The mag -- a mix of GQ-esque style stuff and Men's Health advice, but with a mature, paternal tone -- arrived alongside unread copies of Forbes, Entrepreneur and Maxim (all publications that I've never cracked). 

But as I flipped through BestLIfe's pages, which featured a dapper Ewan McGregor on the cover, I gained respect for its reasonable and adult addition to the men's magazine world. 

Men's magazines often feature six-figure sports cars driven by perfectly unshaven studs with 6 foot Brazilian models in their laps.

So, BestLife's use of parental and marriage advice pages, without stooping to jokes about losing freedom to domestic life or how to stay indie-hip with a baby, is a welcome addition to the genre.

Best of all, they have the random piece of fiction -- the October issue featured a story by T.C. Boyle. 

In keeping with the m.o. of this blog, I feel that it's necessary to include some reuse ideas pertaining to magazines.

A great way to save the good parts of magazines before they head off to the recycling bin is to cut out your favorite articles - for me it's often the fiction and photo essays from the New Yorker -  and paste them into older, random books -- themselves saved from the landfill.

My wife and I use this cut and paste method not only to save design ideas for later use on our home and at work, but also to create memory books that serve to de-clutter our lives. 

In the end, it's best to reuse as much of the paper waste whenever possible. 

Here are two links for media reuse ideas (they're a little more creative and crafty than those listed above): Hyyge House and Craftster.

Bob Carper over at the Angsulong blog asks, "Do you really need the newspaper if you don't read it as soon as it comes in?"

He suggests canceling all unnecessary magazines subscriptions in his list of ways to improve at-home recycling. 

Recently, my subscription to the New Yorker ran out and I decided not to renew it - somewhat due to economic reasons, but mainly because of the amazing internet and the existence of super blogs like Antidisingenuousmentarianism. 

This local (Athens) blog - in extended edition title format -  loves giving the highlights on each week's New Yorker, as well as a lot of other well written posts.  A gatekeeper like that makes it easy to pick and choose the good reads online. 

A slightly off subject venture into sarcasm land: an issue of Country Home snuck into the stack of man magazines that weekend and guess who was inside the cozy, quilty pages - Danny Seo, America's green design guru.

Seo offers such amazing green ideas as: "For just $100 more, you can request the eco-friendly version of this classic wingback sofa ($2,350)."

Or you could just not buy the sofa and make do and update the one you already have.

It's so easy being green, especially when you don't have to stop consuming.

The top photo comes from the kind project blog that has a great post about magazines.

Here's more T.C. Boyle links: one and two.

His last two New Yorker stories were wonderful.

You've seen them on campus.
Now show your support and rock your very own!

NOW ON SALE AT THE AiFL BOOKSTORE - $12

Part of the proceeds will be donated to The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale's "Green is Growing" campaign for employees and students.

Shirts are made of 50% recycled plastic bottles and 50% recycled cotton and were printed by AiFL student Cory Gershberg (threadwarrior@yahoo.com).

Be sure to get yours before they're gone!

I'm standing on the subway platform anxiously waiting for the C train to arrive for at least 30 minutes, and my legs start to give. Tired after a long day and a late night out, I just can't do it anymore. But the already sparse seats are taken. I look around at my options: squat against a gum-covered pole, or sit on the dirty ground that countless shoes have trampled across. Despite my best instincts, I choose the ground. Sometimes I sit on my bag, more often than not I expose my body to all of the germs and diseases that may attach themselves to me. I know it's gross, but I do it all the time. And you know what? It feels good.

I've seen others do it, too, and I think a lot about how great it would be if there were more seats. Not just for me, but for children, the elderly, pregnant women, marathon runners, the anemic—you name it. All of us could benefit from a little more respite while waiting for the train. There are over five million riders on the NYC subway every day. We have music and performers to make our experience more pleasant; why can't we have more places to rest our weary bottoms on?

So I was happy to see that somebody is doing something about this. Well, actually, a lot of people are. The Take a Seat Project is a public initiative started by a "dude" named Jason Eppink with the ultimate aim of making transit more comfortable. It's not affiliated with the MTA, so there's no funding nor fancy outreach materials. The basic idea is that we all chip in by salvaging chairs from trash piles, cleaning them up and reusing them in one of the hundreds of stations across the city. So simple, right? There's also a Found Art aspect to this, which I love. I always see IKEA swivel chairs sitting on the curb sides; now I know they can serve a grander purpose.

Critics say that the seats would take up more space on an already crowded platform. While I agree that certain hours, days and stations are busier than others, I don't think it's like the West Indian Day parade down there all of the time. There's definitely room. Skeptics also point out the potential for bedbugs and other such creatures. I've had my fair share of experiences with creepy crawlers, and I'll chance another encounter for a shot at comfort any day. But that's just me. What do you think?

So, I hauled all my precious shirts over to Arkansas where Kristin could help me put together this quilt (And when I say 'help me', I mean she did most of the work).  Well, its now been over 8 years since I have graduated college, 4 or 5 years ago since the quilt was created, and I have now accumulated a few more t-shirts I LOVE and that mean a lot to me.  Also, I have gotten married since then, and my husband has a couple of drawers full of t-shirts that mean a lot to him.

I believe that this would be a great way to clean out our closet as well as have something that we can utilize often and pass down as an heirloom.

Now, do I know how to quilt...not really. Mostly no.  But there are plenty of websites and library books out there that can assist me in this project.  And, if you have any advice or tips for me I would GLADLY accept it! So in about a month, be watching for updates on my quilting adventure!

Maybe I would have done a better job keeping up with it if more listeners had given me feedback when I was actually doing the show?

I've had some other good reasons not to be around. I've caught Portland Volunteerism Fever. I've been spending a lot of my time here:

Free Geek is a community technology center that reduces the impact of ewaste by taking donations of used electronics, mashing them together into usable computers which they give away (or sell in the thrift store if they can't) and recycling the broken/unusable components. They'll give a computer to anyone who volunteers there for 24 hours. And they'll also teach you how to build computers.

One of the many jobs you can do there is tear apart printers for recycling. As an ex art student who had to print photos with crappy inkjets on a regular basis, this provides a certain therapeutic pleasure.

I also volunteer weekly at SCRAP. From the scrap website:

SCRAP--The School and Community Reuse Action Project--is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our mission is to inspire creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing educational programs and affordable materials to the community.

When my daughter was little she was a bunny (pink sleeper PJ) a cat (almost any colored pants and shirt) a pirate (black and white pants and shirt) a robot (cardboard box and tin foil).  Add a little of your own makeup to your child's face, a stuffed tail or eye patch and ears on a headband and you have a great custom.  A couple of years ago my husband, daughter and myself went to a party as a herd of cows.  Total cost, zero.  I used things that we had around the house, a needle and thread and less than two hours of my time.

My point is, you can do this.  There is no need to spend money on a custom for one night of the year.  My custom this year, frumpy PJ lady.  Halloween is on a Friday and I'm wearing my PJ's to work.  I'll stick a couple of curlers in my hair and put some thick eyeliner under my eyes and I'm done.  No cash spent.

The first is called A Greener Christmas, a perfect buy for getting started on Christmas decorations and gifts.  It's a hefty hardcover book with beautiful photos and instructions for any number of projects (some of which don't necessarily have to be used during the holiday season) from ornaments to food gifts to garlands to plants.  And, as the name suggests, all items focus on the use of natural or recycled items for a beautiful Christmas that's good for the environment, too.

If you're a big craft blog reader, you've probably seen many links to the new Handmade Nation book, recently released.  Focusing on professional craftsters and their work, it's a great book to inspire any creative person and, like A Greener Christmas, has lovely full-page photos.

Next up is Home Sewn for those of you who, unlike me, know how to do more than turn a sewing machine on.  Actually, I'm not even sure I can do that.  Still, it made me wish I knew a little bit more about it and it placed some urgency on those sewing lessons Fnur promised me.  Check it out for some fun projects for around the home.

While all those books nearly made me salivate with their crafty goodness, the book I settled on was Remake, Restyle, Reuse by Sonia Lucano.  It has absolutely gorgeous around-the-home projects that involve restyling items you already have.  From updated sheet and towel designs to glass etching, dish painting, and monogramming - this book has so many options.  And they all look easy and relatively inexpensive!  She even includes stencils (and they are truly stunning, modern designs).  I knew I had to take it home when I realized I wanted to do 90% of the projects listed. 

I haven't started any of the projects yet (how to decide where to begin?) but I'll be sure to update The Neatery with my progress.

Bismillaah (In The Name of Allaah)

Dear Reader,

At present Unpackaged can offer certified organic products, fair trade where possible and products which are definately not airfreighted. 

They live by three simple words reduce, reuse and recycle.

This organisation shows us just how easy it is to make a difference...

Reduce your impact on the environment and minimise your contribution to landfill by getting unpackaged, saving money, and reducing waste and pollution. 

Get down to Unpackaged and pick up anything from organic beer to porridge oats...

After all, the object that, via the Internet, can provide you with more information on how to lead an environmentally sound life can also be one of the things that contributes to the very same problem.

Consider the following: A standard-issue PC, left on all the time (a not-uncommon situation) consumes 746 kilowatts per hour a year, according to estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By comparison, a refrigerator uses about 500 kilowatts a year. Surely there are things that users can do to reduce their computer's environmental footprint. Read on to learn ways to run your PC more efficiently, make environmentally intelligent purchasing decisions and to dispose of an old computer properly.

Power Corrupts

The first piece of advice is the simplest: Don't leave your computer on all the time. Shutting it down at night should reduce its power consumption by around 500 kilowatts annually. In addition, your computer should be set to go to sleep after periods of inactivity. Different parts of your system can be set to sleep at different times: Setting your energy -saving preferences to put your hard drive to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity is a good benchmark; your entire computer (which takes more time to wake up) should be set to go to sleep after 30 minutes.

And ditch your screensaver. Screensavers can use your hard drive to power up and photo screensavers require the extra use of a graphics card, which means you'll have the hard drive, graphics card and monitor all in use.

Screensavers are "a throwback from the days of really old-school CRT monitors," Barbara Grimes, spokeswoman for the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, said of cathode-ray tubes. "It's never been an energy-saving feature."

There's also the issue of "phantom" or "vampire" power: Just because your computer or laptop is shut down doesn't mean it's not using energy. Almost every piece of electronics uses power even when it is turned off. For example, your television turns on instantly because it is actually a little bit on already. In the case of your desktop, your computer stays in standby mode so it can keep data in its memory, its clock accurate and other functions. This means the average desktop PC wastes half its power.

To combat the vampires, take your computer (and peripherals) and plug it into a master power strip like the Smart Strip Power Strip, which can sense which devices have been turned off and then cuts all power to them.

Finally, download a free power-management tool. These applications will show you how much energy you can save by adjusting various settings and will make those adjustments for you in one click. Google's Energy Saver will, in addition, show you the collective energy savings of all users of the product; it also integrates into the Google's own Desktop application. Verdiem's Edison software, released in August, shows users estimated annual savings in terms of money, energy and carbon dioxide emissions. Edison's power management tool lets users choose how aggressive they want their energy savings to be by letting them slide the bar towards or away from the "save more" or "save less" tabs.

Out with the Old?

If you do decide to purchase a new computer, make sure that you choose both a computer and monitor that are Energy Star compliant. Energy Star computers must meet energy-use guidelines established by the environmental agency in three areas: standby, active and sleep modes.

The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, or Epeat, is another environmental certification that evaluates electronic products according to 51 environmental criteria. To qualify for Epeat registration, the product must meet all 51.

In general, laptops are greener than desktops because they have been designed with power sensitivity in mind, so they tend to use less power when plugged in than desktops. But desktops are easier to upgrade, and therefore may last longer.

Newer computers tend to be more energy-efficient than older models. For example, Energy Star-qualified computers starting from July 2007 come with power management pre-enabled.

As for whether Macs are greener than PCs? "It's system by system," said Grimes, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative spokeswoman. "Apple is one manufacturer and when you say PC, there are dozens. They're all using Intel processors or AMD processors. Apple is not using a proprietary processor anymore so they're getting a lot more similar at the hardware level."

One place where there is a difference is in how certain manufacturers' products are made. Apple, for example, has said it will "completely eliminate the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in its products, and arsenic in the glass of flat-panel displays by the end of 2008." Unfortunately, that effort has not spread as quickly across the industry as some would like.

"I wish I could say that a lot of companies have eliminated their chemicals or had made some significant improvements, but that's just not where the industry is," said Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics Take Back Coalition.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

When it comes to recycling your computer, picking the right program is key. If done right, recyclers should reuse the parts they can and manage waste responsibly, which means making sure that parts don't go to countries with poor eco-track records, like China, and that items that do get exported (like circuit boards and leaded glass) go to green-friendly sites.

In 2005, used or unwanted electronics amounted to about 1.9 million to 2.2 million tons of waste. Of that number, about 1.7 million tons were disposed of in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled, according to the environmental agency.

The problem is that it's hard to figure out who's dumping and who's not. "There's no such certification program," said Kyle, which would help promote responsible recycling and green design in the electronics industry. Her organization, Computer Take Back, conducts initial screenings. Will people know 100 percent? No, but it's a start. For Computer Take Back's list of recyclers, go to tinyurl.com/5yrb9k.

Computer manufacturers like Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Sony offer recycling programs, but Dell goes even further: It will recycle any Dell brand product -- no matter when it was bought -- free (including pickup). Dell will also pick up other product brands for free if the consumer purchases a new Dell. Concerning manufacturer recycling programs, Kyle added that with a number of manufacturers, "you have to either pay them or you have to buy a new computer to get them to take your old PC back for free. There's a huge disconnect between what people want to do and what they can do, and that's where the manufacturers need to step up."

But aha! Through some research, I’ve realized that there are more than 3 parts to what’s called the waste hierarchy. A few nice papers I’ve found do a good job of explaining this. (See sources below or interspersed throughout this post. Or just skip that and read what I’ve written here.)

The waste hierarchy was first developed by the environmental movement back in the 70s. The hierarchy has 6 parts that follow along a continuum, instead of just the 3 I originally thought it had. In order of least impactful to the environment to most, they are: Prevention, Minimization, Reusing, Recycling/Composting, Energy Recovery, and Disposal. To quote a great sentence in a discussion paper by Gertsakis and Lewis, (1) “The essence of these approaches is characterized by a need to avoid, eliminate, prevent or significantly reduce the causes of environmental problems, as opposed to managing the impacts, wastes and emissions arising further down the product or service life cycle.” Basically, following the waste hierarchy in the proper order has two goals: 1) keeping things from making any sort of impact in the first place and 2) reducing the impact of things if an impact is not avoidable.

This new hierarchy introduces a few ideas that are new to me (and maybe you, too!). The top of the hierarchy, Prevention and Minimization, are actually 2 separate types of actions that should replace Reuse in the familiar saying most people are used to. But I guess Prevention, Minimization, Reuse, Recycle doesn’t have a catchy ring to it. :D Also, Composting goes hand in hand with Recycling. Energy recovery. . . I’m not so sure about. But a little more research lead to me another great paper. (2) (I recommended you take a look at this one. The first page is a picture of the continuum and the paper is much easier to read than the others mentioned!) Energy recovery is defined as: “energy from waste is the recovery of energy value from waste by burning the waste directly or by burning a fuel produced from the waste.” Um, suuure. I get the feeling that this is the kind of stuff I see on Dirty Jobs.

To see if there’s any evidence that this actually works, I was able to find an abstract of a paper proving that the hierarchy works if followed in order. (3) Of course, this paper studied solid waste in New York City, but I am willing to consider that things working on a large scale will also work on a small scale, such as our humble abodes. (By the way, abstract is just a fancy way of saying summary of a research paper.)

So where to go from here? I can think of 2 paths. (Of course, let me know if you think of others.) I could dig deeper into “the causes of environmental problems” as mentioned by Gertsakis and Lewis. In an effort to be as non-political as possible, I’m going to avoid that. Basically, I’ve heard 2 purposed reasons for the state of the world, human activity and geological cycles. I can’t do anything about the second reason, so I guess I’ll stick to trying to do something about the first. So I’ll go the second path and start making my way down the continuum.

Next post: the start of Prevention. I'm taking suggestions on where to begin so post your comments below.

Sources (yes I'm being lazy about it):

1. Click on Download publication as PDF file at this website. http://www.cfd.rmit.edu.au/programs/sustainable_products_and_packaging/sustainability_and_the_waste_management_hierarchy

2. This link is to pull up the PDf file, but of course, you can always use Google to to find it as an HTML document. http://www.sepa.org.uk/pdf/nws/promotion/wastehierarchy.pdf

3. Schall (1992) http://www.yale.edu/pswp/#schall

I was going to save this doll for submission to a publication, but I couldn't bare to send her away.  You see I worked on the design of this doll for a couple of years.  I moved around parts so many times that I probably could have put together 100 art or dada dolls in the time it took me to do just one.  She had been in design for so long that she became my own personal treasure. 

I had the metal parts for her body and the body of a few others.  I knew I was going to make a doll out of them from the very beginning.  When I started rummaging through the garage and found a box full of vintage finials, I knew I had a head for my very first articulated doll.  Painting her features was the easy the part.

I started a video for her in the Spring.  I recently decided I needed to self-promote my art as I finish and not worry about magazine submissions.  I updated the video with a close up view of her face, added some music and uploaded it to youtube.  Here's the video.