Archive for January, 2011
« Previous EntriesTaco Bell “beef”
Monday, January 31st, 2011I was surprised to hear about the taco bell beef bruhaha last week - you know, the lawsuit that maintains that after laboratory testing, the ground beef in taco bell products is only 35% actual meat, and the rest is 65% filler? My surprise, though, wasn’t so much that the meat in taco bell products [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Tear out the Plastic Window!
Saturday, January 29th, 2011This easy peasy tip comes to us from a friend, who recently told Karina in passing that her husband does this really cool thing: he always takes the time to tear the plastic windows out of envelopes before recycling them. How great! it’s a tiny action that takes just an extra couple of seconds, and [...]
Happy Eco-News Fridays!
Friday, January 28th, 2011How We Made Our Car Run on Grease [VIDEO] (gosh, how we love grease cars here at TC HQ!) World Energy Use Could Be Reduced 73% By Energy Efficiency Alone Massive Seed Swap Keeps Biodiversity Growing Farming with Horses Inspires a New Generation (Video) There’s no place like … the 7 train: A Manhattan apartment [...]
I Love Tofu
Thursday, January 27th, 2011I know lots of people think that tofu is gross, or find its flavorlessness offense, but I’ll tell you right now that I love the stuff. Love it! I love it enough to eat it plain out of the container, though I do love it more baked or grilled or scrambled or tossed into a [...]
Eco-Friendly Snow Removal (and I don’t mean Spring…)
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011We have been enjoying a really lovely, really snowy winter here in the northeast USA. It’s been snowing every week, it seems, and it’s been really cold to boot - so the snow is piling up and staying put! Our house includes a very very long driveway - I tell people it’s about 150 ft. [...]
Harder To Be Green in Smaller Living Spaces?
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011I found this article on Grist.org to be really interesting: the author has lived in small spaces with her family of four, and outlines ways in which smaller living spaces can actually make it more difficult to live in an environmentally-friendly way. This idea is the antithesis of what the green movement usually touts, which [...]
Looking back on eco-living
Monday, January 24th, 2011A friend sent me this neat article - published in October, it is by the Realist Idealist, a regular contributor to the LA Times and is titled “After two years of eco-living, what works and what doesn’t.” The author discusses a number of the decisions she’d made over the last two years and implemented at [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Drink Temperate Things
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011It’s either high winter or high summer, depending on where you’re reading this post from, and as the temperatures become more extreme here is an idea: instead of regulating your climate to make yourself more comfortable, do all that you can to regulate your body to be more comfortable in your climate! This can be [...]
Happy Eco-News Fridays!
Friday, January 21st, 2011Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic 12 cool urban bicycles ready to replace your car Building Bike Lanes Creates Twice As Many Jobs As Fixing Roads Toronto’s new green roof law a first for North America Plucky Daisy Outgrows the Endangered Species List National Swap Day: Join people all over the country on Jan. 22 [...]
Cold Hands = Awesome Fingerless Gloves
Thursday, January 20th, 2011Are ya’ll feeling it? It’s already a long, cold winter, and it’s only mid-January! We here at Team Tiny Choices have written a whole bunch about how we’re handling the unpleasant temperatures, from drinking lots of tea to insulating the attic and replacing a drafty front door. In addition to Karina’s seemingly radical suggestion of [...]
Glass Jars to the rescue!
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011I have another post that fits under the category of “things other people have told you so, and are actually the best thing ever, and why did you ever not do it right away?” And it has to do with Glass Jars! Y’all know that I am a happy canner, and as such, I have [...]
Gorgeous Scrapwood Floor
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011See that pic there on the left? It’s of a fantastic floor I recently walked on. The wood is beautiful and swirly-patterned, and the different colors and textures make for a pretty sight. But in addition to that, I love this floor because it’s made of scraps. And isn’t it fantastic that something made of [...]
Greening Gym Exercise
Monday, January 17th, 2011With the new year, there are, in general, lots and lots of resolutions to get in shape and exercise more. I confess: I hate to go to the gym during the month of January! (I also confess: that is not why I haven’t been all this month.) There are so many new people there, and [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Use some elbow grease!
Saturday, January 15th, 2011Sometimes the easiest way to do something isn’t the greenest. We know, it’s the secret ugly side of environmentalism, right? Well, maybe not! Pitch in and get thing done the old fashioned way - mend your clothes, shovel some snow! clean with soap and water and… use elbow grease. Even if it may seem simpler [...]
Happy Eco-News Friday!
Friday, January 14th, 2011The year ahead in bikes Farmer-scientist group wants to ‘hack society’ through open-source technology An experiment in encouraging in-transit conversation Dark Sky Tourism on Rise as More People Seek Out The Stars Fight Winter Skin and Hair With 10 Simple Homemade Spa Treatments ‘Trash is cash,’ rap Kenyan kids [VIDEO] Ethical Consumerism Bucks Recession & [...]
Tiny Choices Q&A: Chemical-Laden Cleaning Supplies?
Thursday, January 13th, 2011Welcome to Tiny Choices Q&A, where we open the floor for discussion on questions which y’all have submitted. Reader Alyssa submitted the following question- please read on, and submit your thoughts in the comments, below: —————————- What is the best way to deal with chemical-infested cleaning supplies and beauty products? I’ve been trying to use [...]
Uncool Organic Food and the Quantity of it that we Eat
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011There’s a serious dichotomy out there among many environmentally minded people: how can we get more people to live gently on the earth without expecting them to all be able to afford bourgeois luxuries like hybrid cars, carbon offsets, and organic food? I think about this often, and of course I wonder how to reconcile [...]
Chickens In The Backyard
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011Well, not in my backyard, but they do live in many city backyards all over America, and I think this is so cool. While I’m sure there have always been urban areas which have counted chicken populations in their census, up until recently NYC wasn’t really one of them. I think they flew (hah!) under [...]
The fabulous front door
Monday, January 10th, 2011We’ve had a giant step in home warmth this week - and it’s all due to one thing: the measly front door. No kidding! Our old front door was very poorly fitted into place and you could actually see through the edges of the door and into the outside. It’s pretty embarrassing, but yes: this [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Brush your hair (or don’t!)
Saturday, January 8th, 2011If you’re still shampooing and conditioning your hair - especially with conventional products - one way to be a little gentler to the environment is to stretch out the time between shampoos. You can do this gradually by slowly skipping a day here and there until you find yourself not shampooing much at all, or [...]
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