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Archive for October, 2008

What does worm poop have in common with a pencil? Both are products made by an eco-company called Terracycle — and both are made from waste!

Terracycle’s a company that made its name with zero-waste eco-fertilizer, feeding organic waste to worms, then selling the resulting nutrient-rich fertilizer in used plastic bottles at mainstream stores nationwide. Now, Terracycle’s applied the same zero-waste philosophy to office products — and is bringing them to the general public through a partnership with OfficeMax!

Stop by your nearest store, and you’ll be able to find an abundance of eco office supplies, including:

>> Tree-free paper, made from 100 post-consumer banana peels, straw, or coffee leaves, which works with laser or ink-jet printers and copy machines.

>> Eco-pens, made from 100% recycled paper, 100% recycled plastic, or corn-based biodegradable plastic.

>> Used newspaper pencils and colored pencil packs made from 100% recycled newspaper.

>> Folders, binders, and index dividers, all made of 100% recycled materials (80% recycled steel for the metal part of the 3-ring binders).

>> Trashcans made of 100% recycled e-waste, like crushed computers and fax machines.

While we at Low Impact Living would love to see all-green office stores in every neighborhood, we’re happy that existing mainstream stores are helping to make green products readily available to the general public. You can find the OfficeMax nearest you via this store locator.

And don’t forget to give a read to our recommendations on 10 Ways To Green Your Office.

Written by Reenita Malhotra, courtesy of Eco Child’s Play.com

Even if you have not really thought about it yet, going green this Halloween is an easy and sustainable exercise. To make it even easier for you, I have put together this cheat sheet of Top 10 Green Halloween posts that were created in the last month. Have a wonderfully green holiday!

1. Eco-Libris: Book review of ‘Celebrate Green!’ (or: How to Green Halloween)

This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on October 27th.

2. How To Have A Green Halloween

This post was originally published on the Green Gorilla blog on October 27th.

3. Go Green This Halloween: 5 Spooky Kids’ Crafts

This post was originally published on Eco Child’s Play on October 20th.

4. Make this Year a Green Halloween

This post was originally published on Eco Child’s Play on September 22nd.

5. ChicoBag - Helping to Green Your Halloween

This post was originally published on Sustainablog on October 7th.

6. Have a Green Halloween : EcoLocalizer

This post was originally published in Ecolocalizer on October 7th.

7. Green Family Values: A Fair Trade, Alternative Halloween

This post was originally published on Green Options on October 24th.

8. Green Halloween Tips: Tricks to Make Your Halloween a Treat for Mother Nature

This post was published on About.com on October 29th.

9. The Green Halloween Edition

This post was published on Treehugger on October 21st.

10. Trick-or-treat For Good

This post was published on GreenHalloween.org on October 29th.

Editor’s Note: Low Impact Living also published a Green Halloween guide— How to Make Your Halloween Less Scary

Chalk olive stones up to the list of waste products that can be used as fuel. Researchers from the Universities of Jaén and Granada in Spain have discovered that olive stones—byproducts of processing olive oil and table olives—can be turned into bioethanol.

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Earlier today, Island Pilot LLC unveiled the first ever hybrid yacht. The 40 ft Island Pilot DSe Hybrid 12m combines solar, electric, and diesel power.

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Good news for governments looking to measure greenhouse gas emissions: a new sensor being developed by the VTT Technical Research Institute will be tiny (less than an inch), cost-effective, and twice as sensitive as current sensors.

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