Making Quick Compost in Minutes

Making compost for your garden doesn't have to be a long drawn out process, you can make a quick compost mixture right from your kitchen using your blender in a matter of minutes.

Put fruits and vegetables peels into the blender, add water and process. Spread the resulting mixture around fruit trees, in flower pots and in your vegetable and herb gardens.

This is great idea for apartment dwellers who still want the benefit of composting but do not have the room to compost or who do not wish to worm compost. We love to hear from our fans, have you tried a quick composting method before? What do you think?

Ontario Industry Rolls Old Tires Into Green Products

 

It's been a while since we blogged at Think Green Live Green. However, while we were doing our vehicle service this week, we saw a brochure about a free tire-recycling program, which is a great blog topic.

The Ontario Tire Stewardship is an industry-funded organization that manages The Used Tires Program. This is a province-wide initiative in Ontario to collect and recycle used on-road and off-road tires. Ontarians can recycled up to 4 used tires each without charge or having to make a purchase, with Registered Collectors.

The program will divert scrap tires away from burning and landfill sites to the 3R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) for such uses as: hockey rinks, rubber automotive parts, rubber mats, rubber products made in playground equipment, rubber shingles, rubber mud flaps, rubberized asphalt and more. This will make it easier for Ontarians to recycle their used tires and will help to eliminate the illegal dumping of scrap tires.

Which tires are included in the Program?

• passenger tires, small RV and trailer tires, light truck tires and temporary spares
• motorcycle, golf cart
• small utility
• free rolling farm tires
• medium truck tires
• agricultural drive and logger skidder tires
• forklift and construction equipment tires
• small, medium, large and giant off the road tires

For more detailed information about The Used Tire Program, visit Ontario Tire Stewardship.

Handy Tips for Using Lemons Around Your Household

Lemons are not only delicious and healthy for you, they also offer a wide variety of alternative uses too! Let's explore how you can use lemons around your household:

Air freshener - Mix equal parts of lemon and water to an atomizer for a green clean and eco-friendly air freshener that does not contribute to GHG's. 

All purpose cleaner - Use an equal amount of lemon juice and water in a spray bottle as a kitchen and bathroom cleaner. Spot test first. Also, if you use a vinegar based cleaner, add a few drops of lemon juice to neutralize the scent.

Ant deterrent - Lemons apparently work as an ant deterrent. Simply pour lemon juice in areas frequented by ants and watch them leave!

Brass/Chrome/Copper - Lemon juice and baking soda made into a paste mixture is great for polishing brass, chrome or copper. Rub the lemon juice and baking soda paste mixture onto the item, rinse away the paste and them use a soft cloth to buff it up.

Chopping/Cutting boards - Rubbing lemon juice over your wooden cutting boards will help to kill and bacteria that may be lingering and neutralize any odours that remain lingering. Leave overnight and rinse in the morning.

Coffee Pots - Use a few lemon wedges, a couple of ice cubes and a spoonful of sea salt and swish it around in a coffee pot to clean out coffee stains and neutralize odours.

Cuts, stings and itches - Use a small amount of lemon juice and dab onto minor wounds to help stop bleeding as well as disinfect the wound. Lemons will cause the cut to sting once applied. Also, lemon juice apparently relieves discomfort caused by poison ivy rashes and wasp stings.  

Degreaser - Use lemon juice on it's own if you need a degreaser. 

Dishes - Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to your dish washing detergent to help boost grease cutting power.

Drains - Hot lemon juice mixed with baking soda is an excellent drain cleaner that is safe for septic systems.

Fridge/Freezer - Store a half of a lemon in your fridge to will help control and eliminate unpleasant smells.

Furniture - Make your own furniture polish using 2 parts of olive oil mixed with 1 part lemon juice.

Garbage Disposal System - Throw in some lemon peels from time to time while it's working to keep the garbage disposal smelling fresh.

Glass and mirrors - Make an effective window cleaner, using 4 tablespoons of lemon juice mixed with half a gallon of water. Great smelling and it's streak free!

Hair - To lighten hair, dampen it with lemon juice and sit out in the sun for an hour. Rinse out the lemon juice. My nana used to do this when my sister and I were kids, it really worked!

Hands - Remove unwanted smells on your hands by rubbing a piece of lemon between your fingers or you could also dip in juice and rub hands together.

Laundry - A teaspoon of lemon juice added to your washing can help your clothes smell fresher. Use lemon juice as a bleaching agent, add 1/2 cup of lemon juice to your washing machine's rinse cycle and then hang clothes outside to dry. I would only recommend using the bleaching agent on white's unless you want to spot test your fabrics first.

Lime scale - Use a half cut lemon to clean the lime scale off sinks/faucets/toilets, etc and rinse well.

Microwave - Heat a bowl of water with lemon slices inside your microwave for 1 minute; then wipe out the oven. Stains will be easier to remove with the hot water and old food odors will be neutralized by the lemons.

Pots and Pans - Half a lemon sprinkled with salt on top can be used to scrub dirty pots and pans. the salt works as an abrasive to remove stuck on particles and the lemon removes and unwanted odours.

Toilet - Mix 1/2 cup of borax and 1 cup of lemon juice for a powerful, effective toilet cleaner that will leave it smelling extra clean and is septic safe too!

These are the applications that I've tried using lemon juice for, however, people are creative and come up with fantastic ideas for alternate uses. I would love to hear from our readers. What do you think? Have you tried any of these lemon remedies? Do you have any other uses for lemons?

Terracycle, Get Involved and Save the Planet One Piece of Garbage at a Time!

In this day and age of one-time-use, disposable convenience products, we need to explore green ways to keep these items from ending up in our landfill sites and waterways.

TerraCycle provides free waste collection programs for hard to recycle materials, so we can begin to outsmart our growing waste! TerraCycle then turns the returned waste into affordable green products. 


How does it work?


TerraCycle offers national programs, called Brigades to collect previously non-recyclable or hard to recycle waste. While some programs may have a cost, most of the Brigade programs offer free shipping as well as a donation for each piece of garbage that you collect.

How do you get started?

Sign up to collect one or more of the waste streams listed, or find out more about how the Brigade programs work. They accept items such as chocolate bar wrapper, yogurt cups, cereal bags, beauty product containers and more.

What do they make?

Tote bags, jewellery, garden pavers, benches, coolers, watering cans, waste receptacles, chairs, bags and more. They have some pretty interesting tote bag designs made from upcycled candy wrappers.


Here's some statistics from the TerraCycle program:

• People collecting trash: 670,525
• Waste units collected: 1,626,827
• Products from waste: 46
• Money for charity: $32,793.98

Thank you TerraCycle and partners for offering such a great environmentally friendly project for people worldwide to participate in!

Click here to learn more about TerraCycle

Recycle Your Brita Pitcher Filter - For FREE!

Brita's Filter for Change has been campaigning for Canadians to give up the single use bottles of water for a Brita Water Filter and Pitcher. As an incentive to switch they've offered a $5 money saving coupons to ease the cost off a Brita Pitcher.

Now, Brita will even recycle your Brita Pitcher Filter Cartridges for FREE! They pay for the shipping costs* too and arrange for the cartridges to be recycled through Preserve! Learn more about this unique recycling initiative. * Only valid for Brita® pitcher filters returned within Canada.

Talk about a win-win! Preserve will recycle the Brita plastic pitcher filter casings received into Preserve’s eco-friendly, 100 percent recycled products such as toothbrushes, cups and cutting boards. The filter ingredients, activated carbon will be regenerated for alternative use or converted into energy.

If you'd like to learn more about Preserve, click here. Plus as a Brita consumer, you can also take advantage of saving 15% when you buy at Preserve Products online, simply enter the code "Brita" at checkout.

Thanks to ms t for sharing this wonderful green tip at FDR's forum.

The Great Diaper Debate, Cloth? or Disposable?

New parents have lots of information to process and factor in when planning for the arrival of baby. Many are now considering their eco-footprint and the baby's eco-footprint too. One of the biggest ways that baby contributes to GHG's (greenhouse gases) is through the accumulation of disposable diaper waste. So many new parents are going back to reusable diapers.

Reasons why parents are switching back to cloth diapers and wipes:

Reduce the load on landfill sites.
Reduce the cost of buying disposable diapers and diaper wipes week after week.
Many babies suffer less from diaper rash when using cloth diapers opposed to disposable. This could be in part to the chemicals that are needed to make disposables and can also convert into more savings by using less diaper rash creams.
Cloth diapers are more stylish now then they ever were and pins aren't needed anymore.
New cloth diaper designs even come in eco-friendly fabrics such as bamboo and hemp.
Cloth diapers may encourage babies to potty train faster than disposables, because with disposable diapers, the babies seldom feel any wetness or discomfort.

Making a Cloth Diaper Starter Kit

• Roughly 12-18 cloth diapers, a newborn baby is changed an average of 6-8 times a day.
• 24-30 cloth wipes rather than using disposable wipes. These cloth wipes can be added into the soiled diapers and laundered the same way as the cloth diapers.
• 6-8 diaper inserts to double up absorbency in pocket diapers for overnight or nap time.
• Several micro fleece diaper liners to protect baby's bottom and the diaper when using creams.
• At least three diaper covers if you plan to take your baby out for extended periods of time.
• Small tote bag or wet bag for carrying dirty diapers.
• Dry and wet diaper pails.

The average cost of disposable diapers each year for baby will vary widely from family to family and store to store. Also families must factor whether they use coupons for their disposable diapers. But using cloth diapers can reduce a family's cost each year by almost 50%. That's a huge savings to put back into your wallet!

At the end of the day, it's the parents ultimate choice of a diapering style that is best suited to their routine, finances and environmental concerns. Some parents choose to use both depending on their activity. We'd love to hear from our readers with your experiences using cloth diapers. Is it worth the savings?

DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Household Cleaners - Making Environmentally and Family Friendly Cleaning Solutions

Do-it-yourself cleaning products are safer and more natural with less harmful ingredients for your family's health and the environment. We all need to keep clean but at what expense. Commercially made household cleaners are not only costly and hard on the pocket-book, they are also hard on your health. More and more Canadians and North Americans are looking for alternate ways to clean their homes, businesses, cars, etc, without the harmful ingredients that can trigger asthma, allergies or other respiratory problems.

You can easily make your own cleaners using less-toxic ingredients such as:

baking soda
borax
hydrogen peroxide
lemon juice
vinegar

Plus hot water is a great, harmless cleaner as well!

Simple Natural Homemade Glass Cleaner

1/4 Cup White Vinegar
2 Cups Water

Another Simple Homemade Glass Cleaner

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 Cups Water

All-Purpose Cleaning Solution
1/2 cup Borax (in the laundry aisle of your grocery store)
1 gallon of hot water

TIP: If you want to have scented cleaners, add some lemon juice or a few drops of essential oil to your cleaning solution mixture. Lemon juice cuts grease, tea tree oil is an effective mold killer and lavender oil is a natural disinfectant.

Only you can prevent the chemicals that you use from swirling down the drain and into the eco-system where they end up in our waterways. A few simple changes can save you money and can save damage to our precious envoironment.

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Disposing of E-waste Safely and Responsibly

Have you ever given any thought to what happens to your E-Waste (electronic waste) once they're in the trash?

"Electronic waste" may be defined as all secondary computers, entertainment device electronics, mobile phones, and other items such as television sets and refrigerators.

Rapid changes in technology, changes in media, falling prices, and planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe.

Benefits of Recycling Electronic Waste

Recycling raw materials from end-of-life electronics is likely the most effective solution to the growing e-waste problem. Most of the electronic devices on the market contain a variety of materials, including metals (such as copper, gold and lead) that can be recovered for future uses. By dismantling and providing  possibilities of reusing materials, intact natural resources are conserved, as well as air and water pollution caused by hazardous disposal is avoided. Additionally, recycling reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the manufacturing of new replacement products.

It simply makes good, logical sense to recycle end of life e-waste and do our part to keep the environment green.

Hazardous Components That Can Be Found in Many E-Waste Items

There are a number of different hazardous components found in electronic waste that we want to avoid getting into our landfill sites and potentially contaminating our water supply, including:

americium
beryllium oxide
cadmium
lead
mercury
pbb's (polybrominated biphenyls)
pcb's (polychlorinated biphenyls)
polyvinyl chloride
solder
sulphur

How can you do your part with e-waste?

1. Don't upgrade devices so frequently. Take good care of your electronic devices, so they last a long time. For example: Can you replace one or two components of your computer rather than the entire computer?
2. Bring e-waste to e-waste recycling facilities. Do not throw into your regular household or business trash.
3. Buy used devices or refurbished devices.

Some companies and cities are offering FREE E-Waste drop-off for the convenience of patrons and residents. Check with your local municipality to see if they offer recycling of e-waste.

IMPORTANT RECYCLE TIP: When donating your cell phone or other personal hand-held devices, clear all your personal information from the component's memory. If you need help, contact the manufacturer for instructions on how to reset the device so that any information you had stored is permanently destroyed.

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More Green Terminology Defined!!

Curious what that green term means? Previously we discussed environmental lingo and what it means. There are so many eco friendly words and phrases out there, that we're adding more green terminology definitions to a growing list.

AFFORESTATION is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where the preceding vegetation or land use was not forest.

BIOMASS, a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms,such as wood, waste, (hydrogen) gas, and alcohol fuels.

CHLOROFLUOROCARBON (CFC) is an organic compound that contains carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as a volatile derivative of methane and ethane.

DOWNCYCLING is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of lesser quality and reduced functionality.

ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (EMS) refers to the management of an organization's environmental programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth.

GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG)  is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range.

HOLISTIC INTERIOR DESIGN is about making the most of your home using an integrated approach to health, wellbeing and the environment.

HYBRID VEHICLE, is a vehicle using more than one power source.

ORGANIC  is a term that emcompasses a wide variety of topics, but centers around the main idea of living as close to nature as possible.

POST-CONSUMER MATERIAL is an end product that has completed its life cycle as a consumer item and would otherwise have been disposed of as a solid waste.

RENEWABLE ENERGY is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished).

SIMPLE LIVING encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want.

WASTE REDUCTION is the process and the policy of reducing the amount of waste produced by a person or a society. It involves efforts to minimize resources and energy used during manufacture.

Join the Scrambled Eco-Friendly Words Game for a chance to win $5 each and every week, plus learn more terms and lingo that relate to being environmentally friendly and green.

Recycle an Old Cell Phone or Similar Device - Get a FREE Slice of Pizza in April 2011!

Pizza Pizza to Give Away Free Slices All of April
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 1, 2011) - Throughout the month of April, Pizza Pizza will give out free slices to anyone who performs a good deed: cell phone and handheld device recycling. The company's program, Cells for Slices, is celebrating its seventh year and has resulted in the collection of more than 5,100 devices. All of the proceeds from the recycling and refurbishing of used cell phones and handheld devices go to benefit Food Banks Canada and the food bank network as part of its Phones for Food program.

"A good deed never goes out of fashion and, quite frankly, neither does the promise of a free slice," said Pat Finelli, chief marketing officer for Pizza Pizza. "Participating is easy. Almost every household has at least one used cell phone, PDA or other gadget that it can donate."

The program seeks to re-direct previously used cell phones and handheld devices from landfills and encourage recycling of these instruments which, if not disposed of properly, can be hazardous to the environment. All devices are collected and processed for parts by GEEP (Global Electic Electronic Processing), with some sold to the refurbishment industry.

The average consumer will upgrade their cell phone or handheld device every two years. Ninety-six per cent of the materials in the average device are recyclable, and a recycled or refurbished device can yield between $2 and $5 for Food Banks Canada.

"Food banks rely on generous donations from Canadians as well as contributions from local businesses" said Katharine Schmidt, Executive Director at Food Banks Canada. "Cells for Slices is another way for people to get involved and help us support the 870,000 individuals that access a food bank each month."

Visit www.pizzapizza.ca to find a location near you to participate in Pizza Pizza's Cells for Slices program.

About Phones for Food

Phones for Food is an award winning handheld device recycling program launched by Food Banks Canada, the national charitable organization representing the food bank community across Canada. Since its launch in 2003, Phones for Food has generated over $600,000 and diverted approximately 400,000 wireless devices from landfills. Funds from this program support Food Banks Canada and the food bank community, to meet the short term need for food and find long term solutions to hunger. For more information, visit www.phonesforfood.com.

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Don't Throw That Away!! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Throw-away society. Each Canadian throws away approximately half a kilogram of packaging daily. In fact, half of our cities' solid waste by volume and one-third by weight is made up of paackaging.

What can you do about this?

Shop carefully and avoid buying products that are over packaged.

Buy in bulk where possible and use reusable containers when buying bulk. Avoid single serving items that are over-packaged.

Contact companies you purchase from and encourage less packaging or produce environmentally friendly packaging.

Talk to your friends, family, colleagues about reducing excess packaging.

Reuse packing materials for shipping parcels, wrapping gifts, moving, etc.

Bring your own bag when you shop.

Make it from scratch, such as pasta sauces, breads, etc. These are made from real ingredients that are NOT packaged, therefore there's no waste. Well maybe there's some organic waste but that's the helpful type of waste which can easily be recycled and reused into healthy rich soil.

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Getting Married? Go Green with a Low Carbon Wedding Plan!

Tying the knot but looking to host an eco-friendly wedding? This article will help new-to-be brides plan a low-carbon wedding or carbon neutral, when possible. There are many strategies and tips to get you started with planning a low carbon or carbon neutral wedding day, including:

 1. Skip the limo for something more individual and less polluting. How about an electric car, rickshaw or even a white horse, North Indian style?
2. Use local flowers - you could even plant a special crop when you get engaged to use at the wedding. Organic is the way to go!
3. Email your invites to save on paper - or use your social networking site of choice. For guests who haven't ventured onto the internet, you can use 100% post recycled invitations.
4. Consider wearing a second-hand, inherited or hired dress.
5. Have the wedding outdoors and in summer to minimize the need for heating or air conditioning. (June is particularly auspicious, according to the Romans)
6. Ask any friends who beat you to the alter if you could borrow their wedding paraphernalia. Buying less new stuff saves emissions.
7. Buy carbon offsets for your travelling wedding guests.
8. Rather than new gold wedding bands, try recycled gold bands instead.
9. Take an adventure at your local U-brew and make your own beer and wine for the big day. If that's not your thing though, there are plenty of options for organic or local wines as well.
10. Eco-friendly wedding music. As traditional music equipment draws lots of power and is heavy to lug from venue to venue, ask friends and family members who are musically inclined to play for your guests. Or if you don't have any musical talent at your fingertips, try a band that is unplugged and uses just the instruments for a true romantic sound.
11. Eco-friendly photography. Ask photographers what types of green products they offer. Do they offer enviro-friendly wedding albums, prints using vegetable-based dyes, etc.
12. Green gift ideas. Send an e-card with a note of an environmental or wildlife donation. This will mean a lot to the tree-hugging couple.
13. Sit down dinners are less wasteful than buffet dinners, so make sure you plan to use real cutlery and plates rather than disposable which is easily on Mother Earth!

With all of the items on the bride and grooms to-do list, this is a great starting place for green friendly wedding tips.

Environmental Lingo Explored

Over the past few weeks, I've been hosting a game at FDR called Scrambled Eco Words where players jumble up the letters of environmentally friendly words and phrases for another player to solve. Each week a winner is randomly drawn to win a $5 gift card.

With all this green lingo being shared, I thought it would be good to break them down and explain what they mean! Here are the first 20 explained:

RENEWABLE ENERGY is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished).

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY (also eco-friendly, nature friendly, and green) are synonyms used to refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies considered to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment.

RECYCLING is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.

REUSE is to use an item more than once. This includes conventional reuse where the item is used again for the same function, and new-life reuse where it is used for a new function.

COMPOST is plant matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming. At its most essential, the process of composting requires simply piling up waste outdoors and waiting a year or more.

SUSTAINABILITY is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems.

BIODEGRADABLE is a type of waste, typically originating from plant or animal sources, which may be degraded by other living organisms. Waste that cannot be broken down by other living organisms are called non-biodegradable.

DUMPSTER DIVING is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but which may be useful to the dumpster diver.

RAIN BARREL is a water tank which is used to collect and store rain water runoff, typically from rooftops via rain gutters. Rain barrels are devices for collecting and maintaining harvested rain.

CLIMATE CHANGE is a long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in the average weather conditions or a change in the distribution of weather events with respect to an average, for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events. Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.

EFFICIENT ENERGY USE, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal to expend less energy in the performance of tasks.

BIODIESEL refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl (methyl, propyl or ethyl) esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids (e.g., vegetable oil, animal fat (tallow) with an alcohol. Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines. Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petrodiesel. Biodiesel can also be used as a low carbon alternative to heating oil.

CARBON FOOTPRINT is "the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person". Greenhouse gases can be emitted through transport, land clearance, and the production and consumption of food, fuels, manufactured goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings, and services.

SOLAR PANEL (photovoltaic module or photovoltaic panel) is a packaged interconnected assembly of solar cells, also known as photovoltaic cells. The solar panel can be used as a component of a larger photovoltaic system to generate and supply electricity in commercial and residential applications.

VERMICOMPOSTING is the product of composting utilizing various species of worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and earthworms to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast. Vermicast, also known as worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by species of earthworm.

UPCYCLING is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

CONSERVATION is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world: its, fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity.

CARBON RATIONING or Personal carbon trading is a general term referring to a number of proposed emissions trading schemes under which emissions credits are allocated to adult individuals on a (broadly) equal per capita basis, within national carbon budgets. Individuals then surrender these credits when buying fuel or electricity.

POLLUTION PREVENTION (P2) describes activities that reduce the amount of pollution generated by a process, whether it is consumer consumption, driving, or industrial production.

ZERO WASTE is a philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. Any trash sent to landfills is minimal. The process recommended is one similar to the way that resources are reused in nature.



As we progress through the game, I'll share the words/phrases and what they mean. This is a great way to learn about different environmental terms plus keep your mind sharp deciphering the anagrams! And of course, you can WIN too!

Experience WWOOF-ing, Experience Organic

Go WWOOF-ing. ...living, learning, sharing organic lifestyles

Willing Workers on Organic Farms, or Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, has been around since the 1970's. It's a great way to travel, work and learn about organic farms in a hands-on way.

More about WWOOF:

WWOOF is a world wide network of organizations.  WWOOF was founded in 1971 in the UK.  From there WWOOF spread to Australia, New Zealand, then Canada in 1985, and now exists in 100 countries (and growing) around the world.  WWOOF links volunteers with organic growers, and helps people share more sustainable ways of living.

WWOOF is an exchange - In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.

Learn more about WWOOF-ing in Canada at: http://www.wwoof.ca

Learn more about WWOOF-ing in the United States at: http://www.wwoofusa.org/

Learn more about Worldwide WWOOF-ing at: http://www.wwoof.org

Free Battery and Light Bulb Recycling in Canada

Several companies are offering recycling programs for free to return CFL lightbulbs plus alkaline batteries to prevent dumping in landfill sites. Throwing CFL's and batteries in the trash is harmful to the environment. It's great that companies are being socially responsible and offering free solutions that help save our planet!

IKEA Canada is a great example! They offer FREE recycling services for expired compact flourescent lightbulbs (CFL's) and FREE recycling of expired batteries. IKEA ensures that these harmful products are disposed of in a responsible manner.

HOME DEPOT Canada is another environmentally responsible company offering a National Recycling Initiative program of CFL lightbulbs.

RONA Canada offers CFL bulb recycling at select locations. Check with your local store for more info.

TORONTO HYDRO has a CFL Recyling Drop Off Program, with 2 dropoff locations

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