Cash For Caulkers
Yet another “Cash For…” program by the government has arose to help save consumers money by going a little more green. It all started with Cash for Clunkers and then came Cash for Refrigerators. This new proposal is called Cash for Caulkers. The idea behind this plan is to promote making buildings and homes more energy efficient.
Outside of a Home Depot in Alexandria, Va, the President spoke about how making our homes more energy efficient will not only save us money, but promote job growth. Obama said this about the proposal:
Here’s what’s sexy about it: saving money.
The entire speech by President Obama is show below.
In order to fund Cash for Clunkers, it could cost more than $150 billion, some of which would come from leftover money of the bailout money being repaid back. This money would go towards providing tax breaks to those who make their homes more energy efficient.
I think we all can agree that making our homes and commercial buildings more energy efficient can not only reduce our energy use, but help save us money. It’s something we all should consider regardless of whether this bill does in fact get passed.
GreenSmart Giveaway Winner
The winner of the GreenSmart NeoGreene lunch tote and wine carrier set is Sarah. Sarah will choose from one of their great lunch totes and wine carriers in one of 4 of their colors. Even if you didn’t win, be sure to check out all of GreenSmart products ranging NeoGreen products to a great selection of quality bags.
Thanks to everybody that participated in this contest. If you haven’t already, please sign up for my Email and RSS Subscription service to get all the latest articles, contests and news on my blog.
I Do 30 Campaign
Want to make a big difference simply by changing the way you wash close? The I Do 30 campaign is urging everybody to turn down the temperature on their washing machine to make a big impact.
Here’s a great video that gives a brief introduction of this movement:
Though this change may seem simple, the goal of this campaign is to get enough people to begin using colder temperatures to wash their close to make a big impact. They currently have over 12,000 supporters on Facebook and growing fast. It’s as simple as following their movement, changing your own habits and spreading the word. The more people that change their habits, the better.
What I love about this campaign is that it follows the same principal that Pays to Live Green does. Making small change change have a huge impact on both the environment and our wallets. My Shower Calculator shows just how much more energy heating water to higher temperatures can actually cost. By making the small change of using colder temperatures for our laundry, we can drastically cut our energy bills.
For great tips on how to properly clean your clothes at low temperatures, check out their website.
Reuse or Recycle Unwanted Boxes
Internet shopping has become more and more popular and people are still send gifts to their friends and families. This means that we gain a collection of cardboard boxes especially during this time of year. There are so many ways to prevent all those boxes from simply ending up in the garbage as so many do.
Cardboard boxes are versatile and can be used in so many different ways. Not only is using these boxes in other applications help be more eco-friendly, but it’s also more friendly on your pocket. Since you got the boxes for free, it only requires your time and possibly some inexpensive tools. Let’s get into some great ways cardboard can be reused.
Arts & Crafts
A really great way to get extra use out of those cardboard boxes is to use them in arts and crafts projects. There are a countless number of projects that cardboard can be used in that make it a perfect fit. Just to name a few of the craft projects that I can think of:
- Puppet Theatre: Martha Stewart goes through making an entire playhouse based heavily around the use of a cardboard box. This is a great idea to not only get your kids doing crafts but also provide them with a toy that can be lots of fun.
- Toys: There are a variety of toys that can be made using mostly cardboard including the theatre mentioned above. That’s not the only toy that can be made though. Every child loves to have their own little home and this can be the perfect way use those bigger boxes. Smaller boxes can be cut into blocks that you kids can decorate with numbers or letters.
- Supply Holder: Cardboard pieces can be formed together and decorated to make simple supply holders either for yourself or your kids.
Pets
Pet stores make a huge amount of money off of supplies for our pets that can often be made for a fraction of the cost. Many varieties of pet beds can be made by cutting a box for an opening and put blankets in there to give them a space they will love. My cat loves the pet home we made for her and she has uses it also as her scratching pad.
Storage
Using cardboard boxes for storage are one of the easiest ways to organize your stuff and are much more cost effective (well free) and eco-friendly than expensive plastic bins. To make the boxes easier to carry, you can simply cut holes in two sides of the box.
Moving
Moving boxes can be a huge expense that can so unnecessary. The best way to really prepare for a move is to try saving boxes whenever you receive a package. Sometimes it can be difficult to time a move or it’s too difficult to save enough boxes. You can always ask friends or go onto craigslist to find people with unwanted boxes.
When all else fails…
Send those unused boxes to recycling. Let’s not continue to clog our landfills with something that can easily be recycled into a useful product.
Please share ways you use unwanted boxes laying around your house.
Green Paper Towels Not So Good?
According to a recent study done by Consumer Reports, paper towels made mostly from recycled paper only performed fairly compared to other paper towel brands that use virgin paper.
The study conducted a test on 21 different types of paper towels and performed a number of tests on them. The main test done to determine this rating was to determine how strong each paper towels hold up when scrubbing both dry and wet.
I’ve used a few of the green paper towels available on the market and they perform as I would expect them to. There is just no reason that paper towels need to be used in most situations when a reusable towel could be used in it’s place. That’s why paper towels in general should be avoided, even when they are made from recycled paper.
After watching the video above, I became really frustrated. It’s great that the major brands of paper towels can hold up against such tough conditions, but do you really need a paper towel to be able to do that? It’s bad enough that those brands use virgin paper when constructing their toilet paper, but most people don’t even use paper towels in the way they are testing.
I think the real question we need to be asking is do we need to even be using paper towels at all?
GreenSmart Neogreene Giveaway
It’s time to ditch Neoprene and get a more environmentally friendly product like GreenSmart’s Neogreene. This new product provides the same great stretchy material that neoprene provides, without all the dangerous chemicals. What’s even better is that GreenSmart is offering a set of their products to one of my readers.
GreenSmart’s primary goal with all of their products and materials is to use what they call eco-process, striving to be as close to eco-friendly as possible. It started with the use of their rPET material, a plastic that is constructed of recycled PET plastic. The introduction of Neogreene came just earlier this year in hopes to replace the not so environmentally friendly neoprene. Instead of using adhesives that contain dangerous chemicals, their product uses water based solvents. Not only is 25% less energy and petroleum need to product neogreene, but it also contains no VOCs. It doesn’t stop there though, EcoSmart also donates 10% of their profits to several environmental organizations including the World Wildlife Fund.
Contest
GreenSmart started this past summer by making laptop and water bottle sleeves using neogreene. They haven’t stopped there. They just released their line of food and beverage neogreene products it makes it easy to carry your lunch or those ever so fragile wine bottles. Now it’s your chance to win your choice of a a neogreene wine carrier and lunch bag valued at approximately $50. Both come in 4 great colors: Licorice, Blue Ice, Tangerine and Eggplant.
Lunch Bags
The winner will get a choice of one of their 3 lunch bags:
Wine Carrier
The winner will also get one of their wine carriers in one of their four great colors:
How to Win
There are many opportunities to win this contest. You must leave a separate comment for each entry. Here’s all the ways to increase your chances to win:
- Comment ( 1 entry ): Visit GreenSmart and tell us which of their products you like the most whether it be in rPET or neogreene or include which lunch bag and color you like the most.
- Subscribe to my subscription services ( up to 2 entries ): Follow my daily articles by simply subscribing to to my email subscription service and/or RSS feed. This will give you a great chance to win and give you all the latest updates to my blog. A win-win situation. You get 1 entry for each subscription.
- Spread the Word ( 2 entries ): You can get a better advantage by publicizing this giveaway on your blog. All you have to do is give a brief description of this contest and a link to it. Be sure to include a link to the post in a comment.
- Twitter ( 1 entry ): Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this contest including a brief description of this contest and a link to it. Include a link to your Twitter account in the comment.
- StumbleUpon ( 1 entry ): Stumble this contest or one of my popular tools and leave a review.
When is it over?
This giveaway will end December 15th, 2009 at 11:59pm. I will randomly select an winner from the list of all entries and announce the winner the following day. This contest is only to U.S. residents 18 years or older.
Good luck to everybody!
Reactions to California’s TV Energy Efficiency Standards
Since I last posted the article on California’s Energy Efficiency Standards on televisions, there have been reactions for all sides of the issue, the state of California, television manufacturers and electronics stores. Here is a great video that goes into the reactions by all parties.
There seems to be such a mixed reaction over this regulation. I mentioned this in the prior article that we as consumers need to make better decisions and not continue to buy bigger televisions. No matter how much regulation is put into place and how energy efficient electronics become, huge electronics like televisions use tons of energy.
