The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name. However it has also come to be synonymous with any kind of heavy duty cleaning or organizing enterprise. A person who gets their affairs in order before an audit or inspection could be said to be doing some spring cleaning.

Green cleaning is a term that describes a growing trend in favor of using cleaning methods with environmentally-friendly ingredients and chemicals to preserve human health and environmental quality. Green cleaning techniques and products avoid the use of chemically-reactive and toxic cleaning products which contain various toxic chemicals, some of which emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) causing respiratory and dermatological problems among other adverse effects. Green cleaning can also describe the way residential and industrial cleaning products are manufactured, packaged and distributed. If the manufacturing process is environmentally-friendly and the products are biodegradable, then the term “green” or “eco-friendly” may apply.

Harmful chemicals are prevalent not only in general consumer cleaning products but also in foods, cosmetics, home construction, clothing and many industries. In the average American home, around 63 synthetic chemical products can be found. This equates to approximately 10 gallons of hazardous chemicals.  By using more ecologically-friendly products, including green cleaning formulations and products, consumers may be able to reduce human health risks by reducing exposure to these and other harmful chemicals.
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So when you are working on your Green Spring Cleaning, you may want to donate your excess to charity.  There is a website called excessaccess.com that matches you to local charities that will come and pick up your donations and the website will give you a receipt that can be used at tax time.  Also if you go on to the EPA.gov website and click on ecycling they will advise you on how to recycle those old computers and cell phones.

For Green Spring Cleaning your home office,  think paperless and go to Billeo.com that will let you download a software tool that stores all your passwords and connects you to your vendors that you pay online. 

If you have baby clothes or baby items that you want to trade or give away to others who need them, go to zwaggle.com where you can join a “swapmeet” where you get points for your trade to use for other things you need.

Here on Green Earth Friend we have a recycling widget where you plug in your item and zip code and it will tell you where you can bring your item to be recycled.  Check it out at the end of the far right column on this website.

Good luck to everyone with your Green Spring Cleaning and I hope all these tips help everyone to keep their spring cleaning eco-friendly and green.

In many countries where agriculture is difficult due to regional climate and other factors, fish is often a main staple in the diet of that region. Here in the USA, although we typically eat around 20 kilograms of fish a year, that is still not a major component of our diet. Most of the fish consumed in the US either comes from the ocean or commercial fish farms. But we have a vast and relatively untapped resource of fish in our freshwater lakes and rivers that can help supplement our diets and make up some of the shortfall in food. But to tap this resource, we need to do it in a much more eco-friendly manner than we have with other resources in the past.

To fish in a more eco-friendly manner, I propose we take a five-step approach to eco-fishing.

1. Pack out everything you pack in, and more… trash that is. Trash, specifically plastic or Styrofoam trash is clogging our lakes. It doesn’t take long to find a Styrofoam cooler lid that flew off someone else’s cooler while they were motoring along… or bait can lid, or a wrapper of some kind. So the number one rule of eco-fishing is to take out at least one piece of trash that wasn’t yours. It’s not hard and you’ll leave the lake, or ocean a better place for it.

2. Only keep fish from invasive or overpopulated species. Many lakes in the USA are overpopulated by certain types of fish which causes the stunting of growth of all species of fish. Most commonly this will be Bluegill. Also invasive species of fish such as regular Carp, Drum, or that new Asian Silver Carp. These fish have no natural predators in the area and consume so much of the waterway’s food that native fish are often displaced.

3. Use every part of the fish you keep. This doesn’t mean you have to learn how to make sewing needles out of the bones, but if you’re not going to eat it, bury it in the garden. Decomposing fish give off vital nutrients that plants just love, so unless you have dogs in the area, don’t even worry about burying them more than a foot deep. You want them to be shallow enough for the plant roots of whatever is planted over them to reach the remains. Then you won’t have to worry about amending the soil they are buried under with nutrients for about 5 years.

4. If you use a boat make sure it’s properly maintained so that you’re not dumping any gas or oil overboard.

5. Use 100% lead-free tackle.

If we are all mindful enough to remember these five steps then we’ll leave our waterways healthier, we’ll have some delicious extra food, and we’ll have fun with the whole family.

When constructing the HGTV Green Home, the walls were made from ICFs lego like walls. ICF stands for Insulated Concrete Forms and is a good energy saving product that makes the walls 6 inch thick  in reinforced concrete.  It has an R-value of 32 which is the insulation’s effectiveness.  The “R” stands for “resistance” to heat-flow, or cool airflow.

Part of the roof is a Green “Living” roof with special ground mats under the soil that both retains water and drains water as needed.  It makes a good eco-friendly use of a space that you can plant vegetables and herbs on for your use.  There is alsoa rainbarrel to collect the water to use on your plants.

The wood floor is an eco-friendly floor by Shaw Floors.  It is an innovative floor that uses 50% recycled content which means that every part of the tree is used. Also the area rugs are recyclable and the tiles are made from 40% recycled material and they are made in the USA.

Energy Star appliances are used throughout the home with an efficient washer and dryer. Also there is a re-circulating water system and an aerator used by the faucets which pumps air through them to use less water.

This is a wonderful green home in the Port St. Lucie area of Florida. Check out the full project on HGTV Green Home and don’t forget to register to win on this site or directly on HGTV.  You can register once a day until June 5, 2009.  Good Luck to all our weblog readers at Green Earth Friend!

Websites

There’s no secret to getting people to go green: make it easy, make it fun, and best of all, make it free. Beginning Earth Day (April 22nd), one company is doing just that. TerraCabs, a fleet of small, teardrop-shaped vehicles are hitting the streets with a mission: to get you where you need to go without emitting pollution, congesting traffic, or costing you a dime. They are launching in Seattle, Washington (TerraCab headquarters), with plans to expand nationally.

How exactly do TerraCabs work? They are pedal-powered by trained drivers and contain a rechargeable battery to power front headlights, back signal lights, as well as assist on hills. They use no gas and emit no pollution, which makes them completely emission-free. Forward-thinking companies sponsor them and even provide riders with free samples or coupons just for hopping on!

TerraCabs will be cruising the streets Wednesdays through Sundays beginning April 22nd until after Labor Day weekend, so if you see one, give your feet a break and jump on! Your conscious will thank you – not to mention your wallet.

Want to learn more? Visit TerraCab.com to learn about company sponsorships or how to adopt a TerraCab fleet and bring green to your scene!

This article was written and submitted to Green Earth Friend by Jamie Hall.

Surrounding the roof is a glass canopy with a decorative band of 60,000 photovoltaic cells, providing 213,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year, preventing the release of 405,000 pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  The skylights in the roof open and close automatically to maintain a perfect temperature inside the building.  There are special humps on the roof which create a natural cool breeze that is diverted into the building. 

It cost half a billion dollars to complete this project .  The museum also contains it’s own rain forest and several aquariums.  They also have an albino gator in captivity and a living coral reef in a huge aquarium along with 4,000 fish.  Ocean water is pumped in from 2 and a half miles away.  It is filtered and warmed and pumped into the aquariums. There are hundreds of other energy saving systems in the building. 

Below are  some videos so you can see for yourself.

Kron 4 Newscast on the Museum:>

California Academy Of Sciences:>

California Academy Of Sciences Virtual Tour:>

The additive does not require any modifications to the engines which makes it even better.  The two hour test flight went off without a hitch.  There was no difference in how the engines ran and there was no distinguishable difference at any level to using kerosene, which is jet fuel.

Today’s test does not mean that we will instantly be using Jatropha world wide on every flight.  It does mean that an airline opened there minds to helping the planet and that if it goes well for them, other airlines will follow suit.  Jatropha still is not being grown in large enough quantities to facilitate the airline industry but through planning and growing demand to purchase this wondrous fuel, we are sure that farmers will also follow suit.

This video brings to light the advantages of a union between Jatropha and the airline industry.

Electric toilets work differently.  There is a company out there that is using cutting edge poop technology.  You place a bowl liner in the toilet and when your done, the liner and the poop, drop down into an incineration chamber where your poop is blasted in seconds. The electric toilet is more versatile as to placement because as long as you have power, you can place this toilet anywhere you want.  With the composting toilet, you have to have a separate treatment container.  If you have a basement it can be placed there, otherwise it would have to go outside.

Both of these toilets are a good durable way to help the environment and your wallet, not having to pay per flush.  Well thats the scoop on the poop.  Here are some informative videos: one is a video of the electric/incinerator toilet.  The other is about an eco rest area and the eco toilet system they are using in Sweden which is quite incredible.

View the Electric/incinerator toilet here:>

View the Eco Toilet System they are using in Sweden here:>

1. There are a few green companies out there that make a line of cards and gift wrap made from recycled materials and soy and vegetable-based inks that are really lovely.

2. How about reusing the cartoon pages of a newspaper. It is fun, colorful and recyclable.

3. Use your local newspaper. You can wrap it as neat as you would any expensive wrapping. Then use a piece of string, made from recyclable material, and tie a bow with it. The gift looks really cute and more original!

4. Re-use gift bags that you have kept throughout the year. Make sure you remove any tags on them that have been previously addressed to someone.

5. Look around your house for trinket boxes or other metal boxes you no longer use and recycle them as gift boxes.

6. Use plain paper and get your child to draw pictures on it. It’s a good choice for doting relatives.

If you have any other great Green Gift Wrapping ideas that you would like to share, then just post it on the comments section of this post.  Happy Green Gift Wrapping!