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Phone book fatigue: Petition pushes opt-in plan

September 30th, 2009 · No Comments

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

An opt-out program to stop the receipt of phone books on your doorstop has recently become an option, but perhaps opting-in is a better solution for the environment.

[caption id="attachment_5388" align="alignright" width="178" caption="(Photo: banthephonebook.org)"](Photo: banthephonebook.org)[/caption]

According to Banthephonebook.org, every year five million trees are used in the production of the white pages phone book. 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 80 percent of people would support an opt-in program, according to a survey done by Whitepages.com.

Nowadays, the many people use their cell phones or online sites to search for phone numbers. So there is the question of whether physical copies are even necessary.

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Baltimore garden in just one day with Orange Thumb

August 26th, 2009 · No Comments

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

Fiskars Project Orange Thumb, the Home Depot Foundation, and the City of Baltimore are teaming to make over an area in a local Baltimore neighborhood in just one day. This Thursday, 80 members from all three groups and people from around the community will build a new garden in the Oliver neighborhood. They will break ground at 8 a.m. and complete the project just in time for the ribbon cutting that will take place at 4:30 that afternoon.

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Ten great, green, blooming and fragrant gifts for Mother’s Day

April 26th, 2009 · No Comments

By Laura Elizabeth May
Green Right Now

When getting ready for Mother’s Day, don’t forget about Mother Earth. We have gathered eight ideas that your mother will love and won’t hurt the earth.

A Gift That Blooms

1. Flowers are always right for Mom’s Day. If you are leaning in that direction, consider buying local blooms from a local florist. Picking out flowers that are grown locally cuts down on the amount of gas used to bring you that flower, and you will be supporting your neighborhood economy. If cut flowers aren’t easily found, look for a perennial or shrub in a pot.

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Slideshow: Trees that can help cut your energy costs

February 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Estimates differ regarding how money you can save by planting well-placed trees. The California Energy Commission’s Consumer Energy Center says the right type of tree, planted in the right spot, can reduce your summer cooling costs by 20 to 40 percent. The United States Department of Energy says that shading an air-conditioning unit can save [...]

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Money from trees — save on utility bills and heal the atmosphere

February 16th, 2009 · No Comments

By Diane Porter
Green Right Now

Wouldn’t you just love to pick your house up, turn it this way and that way on the lot, and figure out where it really makes the most sense? The spot where it catches the prevailing breeze, has shade in the summer, sun in the winter, and energy savings year-round?

That’s how houses were placed before air-conditioning, when a family’s comfort inside depended on how well the house functioned. But today, we live in tidy rows on uniform blocks that line up in a way that makes more sense for real estate than anything else. The decision as to which way our doors and windows face was most likely made by a developer putting down dozens of homes at once; the placement of our driveways and patios followed suit.

And if the sun bakes us in the summer, or if our living room is freezing in the winter, we tend to focus on things we can do inside the house to mitigate the problem. We turn the thermostat up or down; we dig out the blankets in winter or the fans in summer.

And we pay for all of it, in comfort and utility bills.

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A shady venture with a big pay off: New York City’s Plant A Million Trees program

January 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

Plant a tree. A simple environmental concept. Trees absorb many of the toxins produced by today’s global warming. They add beauty to the landscape.

In the Big Apple, Mayor Bloomberg’s parks department has teamed with Bette Midler’s nonprofit New York Restoration Project to create MillionTreesNYC. (Midler founded the NYRP in 1995.)

MillionTreesNYC, which began in the fall of 2007, pledges to plant a million trees in New York City by 2017. The initiative will help New York City increase its trees by 20 percent. This includes street trees, park trees as well as trees located on public, private and commercial land.

Director Cristiana Fragola says the concept was a simultaneous effort by both the city and the Midler group. The plan is to have the city plant 60 percent of the trees in parks and public spaces. Private community groups will plant the rest.

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Gardens atop landfills ease greenhouse gas emissions

December 12th, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

Despite efforts to increase recycling, landfills aren’t going away any time soon. But a process called “phytocapping” might drastically reduce their impact on the environment, according to a paper published in the first 2009 issue of the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management. (The full paper can only be seen if purchased, but it is summarized here.)

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Shade trees slash power bills

November 19th, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

Everyone knows that shade from the sun keeps you cooler, but a new study has quantified the benefit in a way homeowners might want to note. The right kind of shade, it turns out, can easily shave ten percent off your summertime electric bill.

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Green goods: the treegator

October 24th, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

PVC isn’t looked upon kindly by many environmentalists, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t without its uses — like a beautifully simple watering device that could do a lot of good for struggling plants.

The natural tendency, when you’ve planted a tree and are concerned about helping it survive, is to set a sprinkler system on heavy rotation or go out every day to water it. But sprinklers spread water far beyond where it’s needed, and a heavy one-time watering can lose a lot to evaporation and runoff.

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Houston launches Recycle Ike program for hurricane debris

October 20th, 2008 · No Comments

By Julie Bonnin

Attention all recycling innovators: they city of Houston has launched a nationwide contest designed to create new markets for recycled tree limbs and make use of the mountains of woody vegetation left in Hurricane Ike’s wake.

With enough tree trunks, branches and other tree remnants to fill Houston’s Astrodome nearly four times, the debris- 5.6 million cubic yards — far surpasses what can be used locally for mulch.

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Paperless Receipts: Cutting Business Expenses, Not Trees

September 10th, 2008 · No Comments

By Catherine Colbert

We all know the drill: “Paper or plastic?” But when it comes to receipts there hasn’t been a choice — until now. allEtronic, a Fullerton, Calif., company knows that paper receipts are a nuisance and wants to rid the retail experience of those paper tag-a-longs that billow out of your purse, bulge inside your wallet, and languish in Rubbermaid containers in your closet.

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Grow Your Own House? It May Just Be Doable

September 10th, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

The idea of training plants to grow into odd, useful forms isn’t a new one. It’s been done for ages, has been the subject of enthusiast-penned books, and in recent years has attracted the interest of fine artists and architects.

Now two professors at Tel Aviv University hope to move eco-architecture into the commercial realm, designing products that can be sold and grown around the world.

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