The Boo-tacular Pumpkin Recycling
Happy Halloween!
A great Halloween tradition is carving pumpkins, but what to do with all of the un-jack-o-lantern by products? Here are a few ways to make sure that your pumpkin is looking just as good as its post-Halloween waste cycle.
1. Pumpkin Seeds
Need I say more? They are a delicious treat and if you save a few, you can even plant some pumpkins in your yard for next year. A quick How-To get those pumpkin seeds tasting delicious: First remove pumpkin seeds from your beloved, then rinse them thoroughly getting all of that pumpkin gunk off. Let them dry (or pat dry them if you are in a rush). Some people let them dry for days, others only a half hour. Then heat up your oven to around 300 degrees F/150 degrees C. Spread the pumpkin seeds out on a cookie sheet. Then sprinkle them with a little bit of olive oil or butter and top it with salt (sea salt is especially good). Toss the cookie sheet in the oven and give it a good stir every 10-15 minute or so. Typically, they cook for 30 – 45 minutes but just look for a few of them to start to brown on the outside. Then let them cool and Viola! Delicious pumpkin seeds.
2. Compost the ‘Innards’
If you have a home compost system, throw this nutrient-rich plant in there! This part is easy because there isn’t any wax residue to pick out prior to composting (unless it is beeswax, then you can leave it in). Some Cities are offering citywide composting, like San Francisco, and others have seasonal composting, so check with your local government and wast facilities to see if there is a composting center near you.
3. Recycle (compost) your Pumpkin at a Pumpkin Drive
Now that your fantastic Halloween costumes have been carefully stored and the candy nearly devoured, what to do with that Jack O Lantern out front? A growing number of churches, high schools, and other organizations have started ‘Pumpkin Drives’. Just load up your pumpkins and bring it on down, they have either a large dumpster-like bin or other facilities. You can also check with your City’s composting units, as with the innards, to see what their policy is for composting pumpkins. So keep your eyes open for Pumpkin Drive signs to keep that pumpkin out of the landfill, so we can give it and its nutrients back to good old Mother Earth.
Happy Pumpkin Composting!
Photo Credit: Natural Home Magazine
GE EcoMagination Tag Your Green
GE’s EcoMagination is introducing their new online movement called Tag Your Green. By sharing using popular social media outlets, GE is hoping that we can help spread the green word.
One of the best ways to really spread the word on how to living a green lifestyle is through video. That’s why GE teamed up with Howcast to help bring creative videos on the topic. Howcast was able to get some of the top video makers on Youtube produce videos on ways to live more green. Some of those include Wong Fu Productions, Barely Political, DeStorm, What the Buck and many more. They are taking suggestions from all their fans and producing videos on those topics.
Wong Fu Productions has some really great videos and I decided to share one of the videos they made.
Check out GE’s EcoMagination Tag the Green site to get a full list of all the participants and some of the videos they already produced. Share your favorite videos.
What is…Evapotranspiration?
Say that ten times fast! Evapotranspiration is going to be popping up in the news a lot so let’s get the run down.
Evapotranspiration (ET) – This term refers to the ‘transport of water into the atmosphere’. Specifically from surfaces including soil (hence the “evapo” for evaporation) and vegetation (transpiration).
Why is this important?
As you may have guessed, evapotranspiration is accelerating due to various factors including climate change in certain areas of the World. With temperatures rising, more water evaporates from surfaces, feeding it into the water cycle, which is now being inundated with more water than usual. Some scientists have found that evapotranspiration has completely ceased in other areas. Their current theory is that we have reached the limit of certain water tables, and the land is not able to ‘give up’ any more water to the system. This is most common in areas that are suffering severe drought and unusual weather patterns due to climate change.
Although this sounds very “sciency” it is an important concept to become aware of and monitor in your own communities. The areas suffering from severe drought tend to be in the Southern Hemisphere including Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia. Although these areas typically have wet and dry seasons, scientists are finding that the dry seasons are far exceeding their limits on the natural balance.
To learn more about evapotranspiration, check out the Encyclopedia of Earth.
Solar Power to Go Down in Price?
The solar company 1366 Technologies has finally received enough funds to bring their process of producing solar wafers at a fraction of their current cost into production. The Direct Wafer manufacturing process in which they developed could help bring the cost of producing solar panels by almost 80%.
The current process of producing solar wafers contains several steps. Not only is this a lengthy process, but a good portion of the original silicon is often wasted during the process. Both factors contribute to the higher cost. The Direct Wafer on the other hand avoids all these steps and converts silicon directly into the wafers. A wafer can then be produced in as little as seconds.
The plan is to start making silicon wafers in 2012, start selling them to a major Chinese solar manufacturer. They could then make their way to the US approximately a year after that.
Let’s hear Frank van Mierlo, CEO of 1366 technologies explain this process.
This sounds like a really promising process that could help bring the cost down so that using solar energy can compete with cheaper sources of energy.
Got Milk? Got Hormones?
Who wants the unruly hormones of a teenager? How about a big dose of them in your glass of milk? For quite a few years now rbGH, or genetically modified bovine growth hormones have been slipped in your milk without even a notice. When dairy farmers found out, they tried to label their milk as “rbGH-free”. A term that Monsanto, a genetic engineering and agriculture company, almost got banned. They tried to make it unlawful for companies to put that label on their milk. Why? Because it could cost them their bloated market share of profits from rbGH milk.
What are Bovine Growth Hormones?
When companies focus on profits, not their product, their is room for error and maltreatment of not only animals but the end product. RbGH and its genetic counterparts were created to trigger the hormones in a cow that occur after they have given birth. Why? So they produce an excessive amount of milk. Simple business economics then step in. More milk from one cow means more profits, more profits mean cheaper prices, which mean a larger market share, meaning higher profits. If only the reality of that circle was accurate.
What is the risk associated with rbGH ingestion?
While still under-researched due to great efforts by Monsanto, the risks are starting to become exposed. The highest? Cancer. If you are at risk for any sort of hereditary cancer, immediately switch to milk labeled as either ” Certified Organic” or “rbGH Free”. Associations including the American Public Health Association and the American Nurses Association have publicly demoted the hormone-induced milk as a cancer risk. There are several other potential health risks associated with this milk. This is not to mention the risks of drinking milk from cows living in unhealthy conditions. Many cows who are fed hormones repeatedly are unable to stand on their own because their udders have become so swollen from the excessive milk production. Companies have designed ways to force them to stand, ways to re-strap their udders, and other less than pleasant solutions to something whose real solution is to get rid of hormones all together.
So get educated, and buy certified organic or hormone-free milk. These farmers care more for your health and the welfare of their animals than the large corporations such as Monsanto who have quantified in place of qualified their products.
Bottoms up on this wholesome treat, hormone free I hope.
Photo Credits:
The FTC Cracks Down on Eco-Labels
Fall is in the air, and the FTC is back at it again. The oversaturated “green” market is getting a little bit of a kick from the FTC again after the Bamboo Scandal in February of 2010. The Federal Trade Commission has decided to regulate the terms many big brands have started to use in promoting their products as a green as can be.
Why the Crack Down?
This regulatory body’s efforts to reinforce meaning in the green marketplace has come after a sea of over 300 third-party certifications have been created and big brands can’t market anything without a little eco-twist. The FTC has said that their interest comes from their responsibility to hold companies responsible for the claims that they make on their packaging. A lesson learned by several retailers after the FTC exposed them as selling Rayon in place of Bamboo.
Is it Good or Bad for Consumers?
It is too early to say. As for now, it should be a good transformation from random claims and strategic names of “The Eco Window 2000″ which has nothing to do with being eco-friendly outside of its name. As for the 300+ third-party certifiers, this information may come a little too late. Since the United States government has failed to regulate many products and claims the same way other developed nations have over the past 20 years, third party certifiers emerged as a solution to a growing problem in the US. They provided information and security in eco-claims. Now, the new FTC guidelines may make some of these certifications irrelevant, or they may even conflict with the new guidelines.
Where are these Mysterious Guidelines?
They are listed on the FTC’s website as: Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Campaigns found here. Check them out for yourself.
So the good news is that the US government has belatedly started to regulate environmental claims, and hopefully as third party certifiers with worthy certifications come to understand the new rules, they will work together to solve the discrepancies. It looks as though this may be the first significant step they will make in stopping the greenwashing game through regulation.
What is…Slow Food?
We are starting a new series of “What is…” to help fill out our collective eco-friendly vocabulary. Today we are taking a look at Slow Food, the opposite or counter revolution to Fast Food.
The Slow Food movement is typically accredited to starting in Italy. Italians love their food, and when they heard McDonalds was coming to encroach on their traditions, a Slow Food revolution started in 1989. It is about embracing your food, where it comes from, and the rich culture that surrounds food.
They believe that:
Everyone has a fundamental right to the pleasure of good food and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible.
To date the non-profit organization has over 100,000 members worldwide and growing. If you would like to learn more check out the Slow Food International’s website.
