This Sunday, Nov. 15, is America Recycles Day, a nationwide initiative by Keep America Beautiful and the National Recycling Coalition. In its 12^th year, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to not only recycle, but buy recyclable products. There is more garbage going into landfills now than ever before. Recycling can not only slow climate change, but preserve and protect the environment around us. Everyone has the ability to do their part.

“The purpose of America Recycles Day is to continue to promote the social, environmental and economic benefits of recycling and encourage more people to join the movement toward creating a better natural environment,” states their website.

Last year the amount of energy saved from recycling aluminum and steel cans, plastic PET and glass containers, newsprint and corrugated packaging was equal to:

• The amount of electricity consumed by 17.8 million Americans in one year.
• 29 percent of nuclear electricity generation in the US in one year.
• 7.9 percent of electricity generation from fossil fuels in the US in one year.
• 11 percent of the energy produced by coal-fired power plants in the US.
• The energy supplied from 2.7 percent of imported barrels of crude oil into the US.
• The amount of gasoline used in almost 11 million passenger automobiles in one year.

It is easy to get confused on what can and cannot be recycled. There are quite a lot of items that are acceptable such as: steel cans, aluminum cans, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, plastic beverage bottles, milk jugs, glass bottles and jars, cereal boxes, other clean and dry cardboard boxes. Do not forget that your old electronics are also accepted at many retail stores including Best Buy. Stay away from items such as plastic grocery bags, Styrofoam, light bulbs, food-soiled paper, wax paper and ceramics because they cannot be recycled.

Take the pledge to not only recycle, but to tell others about the benefits.

There will be events held all over the country Sunday, find one near you.

If you already recycle at home, transfer that same philosophy at work or school. It is nice to have a day to remind us to recycle, but do not stop at one day, make it an everyday practice.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The mantra of “reduce, reuse and recycle” tends to play out in real life with an emphasis on “reduce” (be frugal) and “recycle.” That’s because “reuse” is a harder concept for we Americans to embrace. “Reuse”  makes us uncomfortable — it starts to sound a bit distasteful like “used” or, even worse, “second hand.”

Yech! Let’s not get all “Depressionary” just because we’re,well, living through a depression.

But “reuse” isn’t about looking like you’re so down on your luck you have to shop at swap meets. It’s about reclaiming things that haven’t exhausted their usefulness — or maybe have a new life through some alternative use.

And there are a couple of web sites that may help us all get past the stigma of acquiring “pre-owned” items. They both add a dash of new technology to make the acquisition of “previously enjoyed”  items seem more like an interactive  archeological hunt.  And they have the upside of slashing the amount of driving typically involved in shopping the yard sales– so what’s not to like?

SwapItGreen bills itself as an online yard sale that is giving people across the US the opportunity to “find great bargains, keep secondhand items out of landfills, and have fun at the same time.” The site is an online marketplace where people can buy and sell pretty much  anything, from toys and baby clothes, to computers, MP3 players, jewelry, DVDs, CDs, books and more.

After registering, users get the ability to earn trading points for each item they list and sell. They then use the trading points earned to get new items others have listed for sale. The users are able to barter with any seller to buy an item for fewer trading points.

Yard Sale Treasure Map displays Cragslist yard sales on a Google map.

Of course, there’s a fairly large online marketplace already out there called Craigslist — and Yard Sale Treasure Map helps you navigate it.   The site lets you search for sales by entering your starting address and the number of miles you want to search within. The result is a Google map that displays all of the yard sales in that area that are posted on Craigslist.

The Google map renders with “red pins” that mark the location of each yard sale. Click the pin and you’ll see each listing’s details, such as address, sale times and even items that are on sale. By “previewing” what’s available at the yard sales, you can eliminate some unnecessary trips.

So get out there and connect to your inner scavenger. No more excuses.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Photo: Nike

In just one year, 300 million pairs of shoes are thrown away. These shoes end up in landfills across the US. Not only do these shoes not easily break down, the glue that holds a shoe together is toxic. So instead of adding to the growing trash problem, give your shoes a new life. What’s old to you, could be a playground for someone else thanks to Nike.

Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program, in partnership with the National Recycling Coalition, takes used athletic shoes and transforms them into something new.  The program, which began in 1990, has collected and recycled over 24 million pairs of shoes. Old athletic shoes are converted into Nike Grind, material that is then used to make:

• Athletic facilities: tracks, basketball and tennis courts, playgrounds, and turf for soccer and football fields
• Clothing accessories: zipper pulls, snaps and buttons
• Shoes: Air Jordan XX3, Nike Trash Talk, Tiempo Super Ligera Soccer Shoe

With grinding facilities in Wilsonville, Ore., and Meerhout, Belgium, donated shoes are broken down into three parts:

• Nike Grind Rubber, made from the shoe’s outsole, is used in track surfaces, interlocking gym flooring tiles, playground surfacing and consumer products, such as new footwear outsoles and trim items like buttons and zipper pulls.
• Nike Grind Foam, made from the shoe’s midsole, is used as a cushion for outdoor basketball and tennis courts, as well as futsal fields.
• Nike Grind Upper, made from the shoe’s fabric upper, is used in the creation of cushioning pads for indoor basketball, volleyball courts and equestrian surfacing products.

Nike’s Belgium distribution center runs completely on wind power. “The facility produces enough power not only to provide energy for the distribution center but also puts energy back into the grid for the community to use,” said Kate Meyers with Nike.

Nike accepts any brand athletic shoe, no matter how worn out, excluding only cleats and spikes. There are over 300 drop off locations nationwide at Nike stores, and if there is not one near you, you can mail your shoes directly to Nike’s distribution facility. Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe also reaches Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Nike has been doing well by the environment for quite a while now. “We take our commitment to the environment very seriously.  We were the first US company to join the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Savers Program where we have reduced our CO2 emissions– 18 percent over what it was 10 years ago,” said Meyers.

But, if your shoes are not totally worn out, there is another option. Just because you don’t think your shoes are trendy anymore, doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t wear them. If your shoes are wearable, there are great charities that you can donate your shoes to such as Soles4Souls. This organization that is “Changing the World One Pair at a Time” gives gently worn shoes to people in need.

“There are an estimated 1.52 billion pairs in American closets that are no longer being worn,” stated Elizabeth Kirk, Public Relations and Marketing for Soles4Souls, Inc. Soles4Souls has distributed over four million pairs of shoes in 125 countries. They accept ALL types of shoes, even a single shoe will taken.  Soles4Souls gives you an opportunity to do good for the environment and for those less fortunate all at the same time.

Check here for a drop off location near you. “We have anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 retail locations that are currently collecting shoes.  We ask that the public clean out their closet, take their shoes to one of these participation locations and in most cases receive a discount on a new pair,” said Kirk.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

An opt-out program to stop the receipt of the Yellow Pages on your doorstop has recently become an option, but what about the white pages? Perhaps opting-in is a better solution for the environment.

(Photo: banthephonebook.org)

According to Banthephonebook.org, every year five million trees are used in the production of the white pages phone books. Then, it costs $17 million each year to recycle the phone books. And many phone books end up in landfills because people simply throw them away instead of recycling. The website also says that a Whitepages.com survey found that 80 percent of people would support an opt-in program, which theoretically would reduce phone book consumption because it would stop automatic deliveries of phone books.

Nowadays, many people use their cell phones or online sites to search for phone numbers, leaving doubts about whether physical copies are even necessary.

If you want to join the white pages opt-in movement, sign the petition to let the phone directory companies know. More than 16,000 people already have signed the petition. But until there is a white pages opt-in program in place, the best option you have is to opt-out with the Yellow Pages.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

New green homes can be awe-inspiring, both for their groundbreaking designs and their show of techno-muscle. Those tubular daylights, state-of-the-art solar panels, sleek recycled flooring, dehumidifying HVAC systems, complex gray water reclamation systems, louvered light “shelves” and heat-reflecting metal roofs can leave the common homeowner gaping — and wishing.

The truth is most of us won’t be building a brand new green castle, at least not anytime soon — and perhaps there’s something to be said for the alternative; let’s call it “greening in place”.

Almost any home can become more energy friendly, and this “in fill” project can occupy a very important spot in the urban landscape: your own lot!

We asked Anna Rosemann, owner of Eco/Consulting US in Los Angeles, to give us her list of things to consider when retrofitting your own precious casa.

First on Anna’s list is the Home Performance Test, which is where she and many other consultants start when asked to evaluate a property.  (This is similar to the energy audit conducted by HERS (Home Energy Rating Systems) experts, commonly used in the building industry.)

To Anna, who started Eco/Consulting US in 2006 after working several years in real estate development, this initial assessment is the equivalent of considering one’s location when buying a home. Her mantra, “Home Performance Test, Home Performance Test, Home Performance Test”, is a take on the Realtor’s maxim “Location, Location, Location”.

The test looks at a home’s energy systems, the insulation and the building envelope to identify potential leaks and inefficiencies. Most likely the house is not performing nearly as well as it could, says Rosemann, because “for a long time we were building houses as fast as we could and no one was really paying attention to how they were being built.”

In about 90 percent of the existing homes she’s evaluated, the house is insufficiently insulated. Using infrared equipment to check the walls, Eco/Consulting contractors typically find a wall cavity devoid of insulation. “It’s insane and crazy how many walls we see with zero insulation,” Rosemann says. In these cases, the fix might be a relatively affordable injection of eco-friendly cellulose insulation. But there are many other nips and tucks to consider within any given home.

Here is Rosemann’s list of factors to consider when contemplating a retrofit:

• Use recycled material whenever available. Increasingly there are companies that reclaim excess or used building materials that have wide reuse potential, such as doors and windows.

• The caulking gun. Rosemann calls it “the most high tech tool of this century” – meaning it can do powerful work.

• An on-demand tank-less water heater can serve as a backup to the solar hot water system in the coldest months.

• Recycled jean insulation. (For more info on insulation get advice from the Department of Energy.)
  

• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. The savings is real: CFLs have a much longer life than other bulbs, use less energy and produce less heat. Changing five of the most frequently used bulbs in your home can save you $100 per year on electric bills.

• Program your thermostat and when you are at home, keep the thermostat at 78 F or higher in the summer and 62 F or lower in the winter. Programmable thermostats allow you to program the systems to reduce output when they are not needed, like when no one is home during the day or at night when everyone is sleeping.

• Plug air leaks. This simple step can go a long way toward keeping your home at the temperature you desire, saving money on heating and air conditioning bills and more. Common leaks occur around windows, doors and other wall penetrations. Plugging those leaks with weather stripping and caulk can be a simple task for anyone.

• Tune up your heating and cooling (HVAC) system. Have a checkup for your HVAC system every two years to make sure it is running efficiently. Be sure to clean the filter monthly during times of peak usage; a dirty filter can significantly reduce the system’s efficiency.

• Choose ENERGY STAR® appliances. ENERGY STAR®-qualified products meet a high level of energy efficiency, which can translate into savings on electric bills. So when it’s time to replace that old refrigerator, microwave, clothes washer or other appliance, remember that even if an ENERGY STAR appliance costs more, you could reduce your energy bill by $50 yearly for each appliance. Also, check with your electric utility – some offer incentives for replacing old appliances with more efficient ones.

• Explore solar. Photovoltaics – solar power technology that uses solar cells or solar photovoltaic arrays to convert light from the sun directly into electricity or heat – are increasingly available for residential use. Solar power can be harnessed to create electricity for your home, to heat water, and to improve indoor lighting.

• Reduce water use. Inside, install faucet aerators – available for a few dollars at your local home supply store – and change to low-flow showerheads. Outside, landscape with native plants and minimize high-maintenance landscaping such as turf grass.

• Use low-VOC products. Switch to products that don’t give off volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Low- or no-VOC products greatly improve your indoor air quality and protect your health. Look for low-VOC paints and cleaning products, or you can make your own cleaning products using simple household materials like baking soda, vinegar and borax.

Many clients call wanting to look into solar panels, says Roseman. These callers envision glittering arrays on the roof that will help them cool down their energy costs. But she asks them to tick through a list of ground-level, and often more affordable changes, first. “People are quick to say, I want to be green, I want to put solar panels on my house, and that’s not the first thing I advise people to look at,” she says.

Rosemann, who’s taken green building courses offered by the US Green Building Council and is certified by California’s Build It Green, suggests many other solutions, from planting trees to shade a home to adding a water filtration system to remove the need for plastic water bottles or water services. Her Brentwood-based company handles commercial as well as residential projects from assessment to recommendations through project execution.

Hiring a consultant is sort of a luxury, she says, like hiring a designer. “But if you don’t have the time to research it all. We already have the knowledge and can tell you where you need to go.”

(Photo credits: Eco/Consulting, new home at 1309 Main St., Venice, Calif.; Anna Rosemann.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The City of Chicago says it will launch a partnership with RecycleBank, a rewards program that encourages households to adopt positive environmental behaviors. The program is designed to increase recycling participation and complement the city’s transition to the Blue Cart Program that is now in place in more than 241,000 households in Chicago.

RecycleBank projects the city will see about 600 tons of waste diversion and over $500,000 in local economic stimulus as a result of an initial six month field test program.

Mayor Richard M. Daley and 19th Ward Alderman Virginia Rugai made the announcement Saturday. Chicago will be the first city in Illinois to deploy the RecycleBank program.

RecycleBank motivates households to recycle by rewarding each household for the amount they recycle. The organization measures the amount of material recycled and then converts that amount into RecycleBank Points that can be redeemed for rewards, gift cards, groceries, and products through more than 1,900 local and national RecycleBank Reward Partners.

Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Target.com, Ruby Tuesday’s and CVS are among the national retailers that participate in the program. Locally participating Chicago businesses include Leona’s, Moo and Oink, ‘city sponsor’ Carson Pirie Scott, County Fair, Treasure Island, the Chicago White Sox and the Children’s Museum.

There also is an option to donate your RecycleBank Points to local school environmental programs, charities and non-profits.

“Chicago is a beautiful place to live, work and raise a family,” Mayor Daley said in a statement. “Working with RecycleBank will enable us to meet our recycling goals while giving something back to our residents. During these rough economic times, saving money on groceries, clothing, at the pharmacy, or even on free movie tickets is of significant value.”

The City of Chicago selected 10,000 households in wards 5, 8 and 19 for Phase 1 of the RecycleBank rewards program. City officials will evaluate the increase in recycling to determine the expansion of the service. RecycleBank says these areas have the longest data collection from the Blue Cart recycling program and they have a good mix of single family homes and multi-unit buildings. They also selected routes within those areas that produced lesser quantities of recyclables.

Active RecycleBank members can redeem their RecycleBank Points online, where they also can learn about their personal environmental footprint through recycling. Residents can access their account information by calling the toll free RecycleBank Customer Care Center at 1(888)727-2978.

One or two of the seven dwarfs would enjoy these houses, but certainly not all of them, and forget about Snow White. In Peter Pan, the lost boys made such a house for Wendy. And when Alice landed in Wonderland, she too experienced the tiny house phenomenon.

So, now in 2009, what’s the appeal of a home that ranges 100 to 800 square feet? Is there a market for them? Are people really downsizing to this level?

The economy may be one factor, but most folks who are attracted to these miniature homes are seeking a simpler, scaled down lifestyle –one that is kinder to the environment. Such a home uses less energy and takes advantage of renewable resources.

Simon Hare, a designer/builder in the Boston area, has resurrected an 150-year-old former gunsmith workshop and is now living in a very efficient 750-square-foot home in the dense urban setting of Roxbury, Mass. Dubbed the Pratt House project, the house is being constructed by Placetailor Inc.,  a design/build company that renovates city environments. Hare is one of five associates who work at Placetailor. The house, says Hare, “is named after Henry Pratt, the 19th century gunsmith who used it as his workshop when Roxbury was still mostly a rural settlement on the outskirts of Boston.”

Through the Looking Glass

“We just moved in this summer,” says Hare, who lives here with his engineer wife and one-year-old child. “In fact, the house isn’t finished yet. We live on the top floor, while the downstairs is being completed. We like small spaces — we’ve lived in studios before. It’s good for the environment, it’s easier to control and it’s good financially.”

Placetailor has managed to eliminate a traditional heating system (see picture right), amazing for anyone who has experienced a New England winter. “We keep the heat from a hot shower and the heat emitted by a refrigerator, by having great insulation. We also seal the building to make it airtight and situate the openings to best take advantage of the sun. By putting windows on the correct sides of the building, we minimize the amount of heat that is lost. We use no oil or gas, in fact, the house is designed to consume no energy.”

“Our walls,” says Hare, “are made of 12-1/4″ thick Styrofoam sandwiched between two layers of plywood. This is one of the many construction details we used to make the most of our house, both energy wise and otherwise.

“We don’t have a lot of appliances,” says Hare. Their washer-dryer is one unit and contains a condensing dryer, which is very efficient. It fits beneath the counter, similar to a dishwasher. “The clothes go in dirty and come out dry and clean,” says Hare. The unit does not emit exhaust like a typical dryer, so no heat is lost. As for cooking, the Hares use a convection microwave oven and a small cook top range, designed for a sailboat. Their fridge is measures 10 cubic feet.

The plumbing system consists of an electric tank less and instantaneous hot water heater located in a special wall cavity between the bathroom and kitchen, which are back to back. There are three lines, one goes to the lavatory, says Hare; the others go to the shower and the kitchen sink. There is no traditional water heater, “so we avoid having water standing around,” says Hare.

Basically, it’s a big house condensed into a smaller one, he says. “We’ve cut out a lot of things. And it’s taken a lot of trips to the local thrift shop to donate what we don’t use. There’s no room for storage.”

The second floor has two areas for sleeping, but no partitions. “The house is good for our small family, but would also work for empty nesters,” says Hare. In addition, he says, “we’ve found that people put out heat themselves and now with the addition of our baby, that helps…

“Of course,” he says, “there are other reasons for having kids!”

Dell and Goodwill Industries International announced they are expanding Reconnect, a free drop-off program for consumers who want to responsibly recycle any brand of unwanted computer equipment.
The program is adding 451 new donation sites in seven states — Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and West Virginia. The program also will expand in Wisconsin to the Southeastern and South Central parts of the state.

Reconnect is now available in 18 states, plus the District of Columbia.

Goodwill said it will have 1,400 stores participating in Reconnect nationwide. Goodwill, focused on creating job opportunities for individuals with disabilities or others having a hard time finding employment, plans to hire additional staff to oversee the expanded recycling program.

Consumers can drop off any brand of used equipment at participating Goodwill donation centers in their area and request a donation receipt for tax purposes. You can find a list of participating Goodwill locations across the U.S. at www.reconnectpartnership.com.

Finally, those paper juice cartons that seem to fit somewhere in your recycling — but you never know quite where because they don’t fit with either the plastic milk jugs or the catalogs and newspapers — will have ordained passage to a recycling facility.

Waste Management in conjunction with Tropicana has announced that it will be taking in juice, milk, soy milk and other paper cartons in for recycling. Just throw them in your mixed-collection bin or together with your sorted bottles for recycling and they’ll sort them out at the plant.

So if you have WMI service, go fish those Tropicana cartons out of the garbage. If you have another service, carton recycling may still be available. To find out if your local collection service accepts them, see the Carton Council’s “We Recycle Cartons” handy online locator.

Tropicana, a division of Pepsico, issued a statement saying it is “dedicated to minimizing its impact on the earth and making it easier for consumers to do their part through recycling and waste reduction initiatives.”

WM reported that the carton collection initiative is part of its effort to more than double the recycling it collects, raising it from 8 million tons today to 20 million by 2020.

Juice and milk cartons can be reused through a process called “hydropulping”, which recovers paper fibers that can be re-processed and turned into tissue, paper towels and other paper products. (So look for recycled paper towels and tissues!)

(Image: The Carton Council.)

Learning not to waste – whether it’s food, electricity or water – is not only good in these economic times, but even more important, it’s beneficial for the environment.

The Nalgene Least Wasteful City Study, released this week, ranks the country’s 25 largest metropolitan areas on wasteful behavior. San Francisco led the group with the least wasteful habits, while Atlanta ranked at the bottom.

The survey of 3,750 people, commissioned by Nalgene (the maker of reusable water bottles), looked at 23 waste-focused habits of city dwellers ranging from recycling and use of public transportation to shutting off lights and eating leftovers. The results were weighted, says Eric Hansen, senior business manager of Nalgene-Outdoor. “We gave more credit to behaviors that had an immediate and significant impact on the planet, such as reduced driving and recycling trash.”

One conclusion of the study is that the easier and more convenient an action, the more frequently it’s practiced. Convenience trumped prudence, the report says. Shutting off lights was easier to do than hanging clothes on a clothesline.

“This study highlights habits that our society has adopted out of convenience, but on a whole can have a huge impact on the sustainability of the planet,” says Hansen.

The survey also notes that despite the economy, saving money is not the main reason urbanites are changing their wasteful ways. More than half of those surveyed said it is their responsibility to ensure the health of the planet for future generations. “Being frugal and helping the planet, these behaviors tend to go hand in hand,” says Hansen.

The top five least wasteful cities were San Francisco; New York City; Portland, Or.; Seattle and Los Angeles. The five most wasteful major cities were Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis, Houston and St. Louis.

The good news, according to the study, is that urban Americans are increasingly taking everyday steps to cut waste. The top five areas where most people comply: saving leftover food to eat again; shutting off lights when not in the room; turning off water when brushing teeth; using energy efficient light bulbs; and recycling glass, metal, plastics on regular basis.

The areas where people are less likely to be concerned with wasteful ways: avoiding drying clothes in a dryer, using a rain barrel, composting, taking public transportation and not driving a car for trips that are less than two miles from home.

These latter five areas are what the top cities had in common. For instance, San Francisco residents were not only good about turning off water, but also excelled at not using their car for short trips. The cities that did not score well, were not energy efficient with even the simple things such as recycling. In Atlanta, residents threw out more than two bags of trash each week and didn’t use as many energy efficient light bulbs.

The study, which was compiled over two months by the independent research firm Greenfield Online, also had several recommendations for folks – urban or not – on reducing waste:

• Small changes such as reusable containers and water bottles (not surprising, since that is what Nalgene manufactures) or walking instead of driving.
• Compost yard trimmings and food leftovers. The EPA estimates that 24 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream is made up of yard trimming and food leftovers. Composting avoids filling the landfills and is environmentally beneficial.
• Rain barrels. Even in the city, rain barrels can be installed in a building. They save money on water that can be used to water the yard.
• Bikes. Help the environment and get some exercise by skipping the car.
• Public transportation. Even if using public transportation a few times a week, this has an impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
• Buy used or Freecycle. Thrift stores, libraries, used book stores are all good ways not to waste and to support local businesses. And if there’s a Freecycle group in your zipcode, that’s another good way to avoid waste.

Related story:

• See the full list of America’s least wasteful cities

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Meredith Henderson was on a mission, she wanted to make composting available where she lived. But she is among of the one-third of Americans who do not own their own homes.

“I do feel that apartment dwellers are often left out of the green movement because of the fact that their options are limited by their landlord’s willingness to create those options within their buildings,” said 25 year-old Henderson.

While living in Forest Hill in Los Angeles, Henderson attempted to gather signatures on a petition for her landlord to make composting available and got only one signature from her fellow residents. Disappointed with the lack of support, she left that apartment complex and started the Facebook group “Apartment Dwellers Go Green!!”

Henderson, who now lives in Culver City, says that she prefers to use a hand washer for her clothes and then line dry them. She drives a Prius and goes “dumpster diving” for treasures to reduce the build up in the land fills. She stimulates the local economy by purchasing food at the local food market, which cuts down on gas used to drive foods.

From her experiences she has learned that education for apartment dwellers is “just as important as when you are a landowner with more control.”

Shannon Erb is doing her share from her apartment in downtown Whitewater, Wisconsin. She wakes up early to take advantage of natural light and burns candles in the evening. In order to achieve a chemical free environment, she uses green cleaning products and grows indoor plants to purify the air.

“Everything counts to the movement,” said Erb.

Greenpeace, guardian of oceans and forests, has reissued its Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide to help people make the switch to recycled paper.

The newly updated pocket guide endorses brands such as Green Forest, Earth Friendly, Natural Value and Seventh Generation, which are made of recycled paper.

It recommends that shoppers avoid products such as Kleenex, Cottonelle, Charmin, Angel Soft, Bounty, Brawny and the Target and Wal-Mart house brands because they are not made from recycled wood products.

Using recycled personal paper products can make an impressive impact in curbing global warming, according to Greenpeace, among others — far greater than one might suspect from contemplating the lowly roll of toilet paper.

Greenpeace reports that Americans could save 400,000 trees if every family replaced just one regular roll of TP with a recycled one. Imagine if more people switched over completely to recycled brands. Untold acres of carbon-absorbing, life-sustaining forests could be saved.

Even if Greenpeace’s calculations are off-the-mark, consumers could still wield impressive sway in saving forests by ditching conventional paper products.

Mainstream paper companies have responded to deforestation concerns by turning to wood from sustainably managed forests, which require them to harvest according to guidelines that preserve the forest and provide for replanting.

Advocates, though, worry that even these sustainable practices still winnow trees for throwaway paper products.

Greenpeace’s position is that paper companies should get their wood fibers from post-consumer wood or paper waste, or failing that, from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forests and tree farms. Companies should not use wood from old-growth forests, a practice that’s slowing, but has not stopped.

For its guide, Greenpeace eschewed paper products that were made from virgin wood fibers, and gave improved rankings based on how much of the product came from post-consumer waste. It also looked at whether the paper was bleached using chlorine, a process that pollutes groundwater, lakes and streams. It suggested that consumers look for products that are made of 100 percent overall recycled content, a minimum of which is 50 percent post-consumer recycled content.

It’s an attainable goal: Green Forest, the top TP pick, is made from 100 percent recycled fibers, 90 percent of which are post-consumer waste, meaning this paper is truly on its second incarnation. By contrast, several TPs in the “avoid” category contain no recycled or post-consumer content. In other words, they might be Angel Soft, but they’re not green.