Trashion= Trash + Fashion... FABULOUS!

So living in New England, with the weather changing every other day, it just cannot wait for the Spring to come to have sunlight and decide whether or not I need to wear layers! After reading this blog by Kim Preloving- Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion, I decided to do the same thing!

Here is what I decided to do, Kim is in the search for second-hand clothes to create her own wardrobe by searching clothes in ebay and other second-hand clothing stores. Personally, I find this to be such a great, unique and creative idea. Also, it's a step towards being green. Here you will be recycling, in other words, clothes that someone else doesn't want! I recommend everyone to look into this trend of second-hand fashion/ recyclable fashion! You can also create handbags and many other cool things! you just need your imagination and drive to create it!

Here are some pictures I found about this topic. I hope they give you some inspiration!

 Maternity Top from Men's Button Shirt

 

 

 Upcycling BDUS

Grow to be Green is Carbon Neutral!

The purpose of Grow to be Green is to take simple steps for a greener lifestyle and being Carbon Neutral is a great step!! I found out about a program called "My Blog is Carbon Neutral" which will plant a tree to offset the carbon emissions of this blog.

According to the website:

“My blog is carbon neutral” is an initiative, originally started in Germany by the “Make it green” program, that has the goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We plant a tree for your blog and thereby neutralize your blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years! Everyone can make a small contribution to the environment. Every tree counts!"

I am very proud of being part of this great initiative and found out about it through another awesome blog! Here is the link for the blog I found out this program and I personally met a person working for this awesome, fashionable, vegan and eco-friendly clothing! Ecolissa.

Wanna watch me?

So there are many resources about sustainability and my favorite ones are documentaries. Being a visual learner, I have to see it to believe it and eventually put it into practice. Therefore, I will like to share you everyone trailers from great documentaries based on sustainability, food safety and much more.

* Food INC- Simply my favorite documentary EVER! First off, I have seen it a couple of times and I tear up all the time! It's an eye opener and I recommend when you watch this documentary and any other one to watch it with an open mind.

*Fresh The Movie

* DIRT! The Movie

* Botany of Desire

These are great documentaries that I recommend you to look into them. I want to let you know that when I first saw Food Inc. I felt overwhelm with all the information I saw. I am not trying to scare you, but I just want to let you know that these are real issues happening right now and many people feel like they have to join and change the world. I believe the same but you also have to be REALISTIC of what you can do, how you can do it and when. Everyone is unique and they bring to this world their own ideas, persona and great outcomes. I want to encourage you if you get this feeling after watching these and/or learning more about this topic to embrace it with all you got! Remember to bring your own flavor to great changes!!

Taking out the trash!

So after walking down the streets of Boston and seeing a good amount of trash on the floor, I said to myself, why is there so much trash? It almost the same amount as the snow/ice on the floor! Not only that, but I saw a lot of materials that can be recycled! But what can you do? you may ask. Make sure that what you throw away are materials that cannot be recycled. Here is a list of things that are recyclable.

THINGS YOU CAN PUT IN A RECYCLE BIN:

• Newspaper
• White paper
• Green, brown and clear glass
• Corrugated cardboard
• Paperboard such as cereal boxes, shoeboxes
• Plastic bottles
• Aseptic juice boxes
• Gable-top paper cartons such as milk cartons
• Metal food cans
• Aluminum beverage cans
• Aluminum foil (no food residue)
• Six-pack rings
• Magazines
• Junk mail and catalogs 

THINGS YOU CAN’T PUT IN A RECYCLE BIN:

• Yogurt cups
• Margarine containers
• Frozen food trays
• Plastic wrap
• Plastic bags
• Styrofoam
• Phone books
• Stamps and stickers in junk mail
• Pizza boxes
• Plastic bottles that contain oil or hazardous substances 

"What Items Can and Can't Be Recycled?"

The hardest thing about recycling is finding out a facility or a company that can pick up or accept deliveries from people. My first recommendation is to save all the bottles and cans and try to sell them! Get some extra money in your pocket. I know chain supermarkets have machines that you can recycle the bottles and cans. They also provide a bin for recycling plastic bags.
Look into your neighboring supermarket and/or recycling facilities. If these is too much for you, let me know and I can help you find a location!

Electronic Recycling AKA Ecycling

 

Electronic Waste Facility in China

A picture is worth a 1,000 words...waste, unhealthy, trash, say what??, etc.  All of these electronics present in the picture are mostly from countries far from China, like the US, that take their trash and let China deal with it! I say why not recycle it! helps the community of China to have less electronics just sitting there and cause more problems to them! I know that some cellphone companies also have a box in their stores for people to drop off old cellphones and recycle them, so I encourage you to look into recycling the electronics that you have and do not want anymore!!

Here are some links of Recycling centers for electronics.

* Ecycling Central- Learn about Ecycling!

* Electronic Recyclers Inc.- Serves 7 states including MA

* Desktop Disposal- Serves Different States

* Gold Circuit Ecycling- Ludlow,MA

I hope this was helpful!

Fashionable Reusable Bags

Most or every store such as supermarkets, pharmacies, retail stores are selling their own reusable bags. These are now the hot deal for becoming green. Of course the main benefit for these are to eventually stop using plastic bags, but I personally find reusable bags just great. They are very spacious and now there are very fashionable!! Here are great pictures and links of fashionable reusable bags:

Baggu Bag

She's a Betty Reusable Bags

Lily Pad Baby Reusable Totes

3 Simple Tips Pt. 1

When you want to make any changes in your life, you have to start step by step and most of all be realistic with yourself.  Being green is a big step and many people do it differently because of their believes, cultures, religions, etc. These tips are what I am currently doing and what I am researching as well. Making a change takes time and when it becomes a habit, then you can add more!

3 Simple Tips =D
1. Do not leave plug in your cellphone charger when you are not charging your cellphone. This is wasting energy and therefore wasting your electricity.

2. turn off the lights when you leave a room. electricity wasted=higher bill. I recommend to have a LED nightlight or any nightlight in a room if you want to have it with a light for safety; to not pump into something when you come in.

These are the first tips that I will encourage all to start trying. I will be posting more. Remember step by step!

Please feel free to write any tips that you know/have heard off.

3. Have www.blackle.com as you internet home page. Here is an explanation of blackle.com:
"Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002