[caption id="attachment_8122" align="alignnone" width="360" caption="U-Haul's Reuse Centers provide a redistribution network for gently used household items. (Photo: U-Haul)"]
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From Green Right Now Reports
If seeing your discarded household goods, furniture, etc., headed out to the nearest landfill doesn’t make you feel so good about yourself, U-Haul offers an alternative solution.
Don’t want that old couch? A U-Haul customer or employee might. The U-Haul Reuse Program is a national initiative that provides a redistribution network for gently used household items, furniture, sporting equipment and clothing — all kinds of items that might otherwise come to a less environmentally-friendly end.
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Buy Nothing Day? How about Buy Responsibly Month?
I’d be a hypocrite if I advocated for Buy Nothing Day (this Friday in the US and Saturday internationally). For one, I just got done compiling and editing some green gift lists.
Granted, this consumer boycott being advocated by AdBusters has its appeal. It says no to what has become an embarassing grab-fest of shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
I like the concept of the boycott: Send a message to those corporations that want to hijack your wallet this holiday season. Refuse to shop. We really do need to cool it on the consumerism to help re-chill our warming planet. It’s painfully obvious now that our rabid consumption of limited natural resources coupled with our willingness to trash stuff is destroying our planet. Here in the U.S., we’ve got a TV or computer in every room in many households, and they’ll be in the landfill soon because tech wizards come up with the next gen of electronics about 28 minutes after we’ve purchased the very latest “thing”. We’ve got food, and clothing and large houses enough to sustain multiple families. And it’s not just us. Asia’s got a taste for luxury. Sharks are being killed for their fins. Really?
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Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, Fair Trade, green shopping, No Shopping Day, organic, re-gifting, Recycle & Reuse, responsible shopping, reusing, sustainable shopping
What goes around gets broken; fix it affordably at a bike co-op
By Chris Reinolds
Green Right Now
Isn’t it great when you can save green and go green at the same time?
[caption id="attachment_5826" align="alignright" width="284" caption="Sopo Bike Shop"]
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For serious and recreational bicyclists, bike cooperatives across the country are meeting that need. They offer tools to fix your bike, volunteers to teach you how and the support to keep riding. Cooperatives are located in nearly every major city and supported by volunteers, grants and donations.
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Tags: · bicycles for commuting, bike cooperatives, Biking, DIY bike repair, green community groups, International Bicycle Fund, Recycle & Reuse, reusing, saving money by biking, Sopo Bicycle Cooperative
Harris Poll finds many Americans are actively green, others have not signed up
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
The latest Harris Poll on green behavior in America is a good news/bad news story.
The good news: Most people have done something that’s green, by recycling a computer or cell phone; switching to tap water from bottled; made their home more energy efficient in some way.
The bad news: Only a tiny fraction of US residents (2 percent) own hybrid cars and vast numbers of people have not “engaged” in most of the green activities the survey asked about, like for example composting (only 17 percent do), walking or biking to work (15 percent), or even getting a low flow shower head (17 percent).
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Tags: · appliances, buying local, buying organic, carpooling, CFL lightbulbs, Composting, energy efficient appliances, energy improvements, green actions, green Americans, Harris Poll, hybrid cars, low flow showerheads, online bills, Recycle & Reuse, reusing, Tap Water
