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During the Second World War, resources were hard to come by and Governments ran big recycling campaigns to ensure nothing was wasted. Waste was segregated for the following uses:

- Tins and metal were recycled for use weapons, tanks and aircraft.

- Left over food provided feed for chickens, pigs and goats.

- Rubber was collected to make tires.

- Boiled bones were used to make glue for aircraft, ground up to make fertilizer or made into glycerin for explosives.

People were also encouraged to mend belongings, such as clothes, rather than buy new. Campaigns such as ‘Make Do And Mend’ and ‘Sew And Save’ gave advice on how to recycle textiles and make clothes last longer. Knitting also soared in popularity during the Second World War.

Families had to plan meals carefully so as to minimize wastage. With no fridges or freezers, perishable food had to be purchased in small quantities and meals were made with some interesting substitutes. Meat fat was commonly saved to make pastry, and the cream from milk was collected in a jar and shaken to make butter and buttermilk.

It is sad that it took people so long to recognize the importance of recycling, and also that it took such unfortunate circumstances to draw it to our attention. These days, we realize the importance of recycling to preserve the Earth’s resources, save money, reduce pollution and help combat climate change.

However, we are still falling well below targets for diverting waste from landfill sites. The reasons for recycling may be different now from what they were during the War, but we can still look to our grandparents and the older generations for tips and inspiration.

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Ware 4 Recycling Bins Ltd have been promoting cost effective recycling bins, trolleys and waste containers for over 5 years.

Natural Cleaning Techniques: “But…how did they do it 100 years ago?”

This is a common question that I ask myself and my fellow community members here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a striving-to-be-sustainable community. How did they do this or that before electricity? Before mass production? Before everything came in plastic? More often than not we adopt the old way of doing things here: canning or root cellaring our food for preservation, heating our homes with wood, and making butter with a hand cranked, turn-of-the-century churn.

When it comes to cleaning, there are certainly many old fashioned ways of cleaning that one could easily choose to use. From baking soda to lemon juice, there may be simple ways to save yourself from adding too many products to your life. I know at least a few folks who believe that you can clean just about anything with white vinegar and newspaper or an old rag. And while we do employ a number of very simple cleaning techniques here at Dancing Rabbit, even we are not free of mass-produced cleaning products… but we stick to those that meet our standards for sustainability.

That’s why you’ll find a number of Seventh Generation products under our sinks. We’ve been known to use their various spray bottle bathroom cleaners and those squirty-topped dish soaps, because we know this company shares our vision of living more lightly on the Earth. Having replaced toilets with a simple humanure system, we don’t need to use any of their toilet cleaning products (though we do still use Seventh Generation toilet paper).

You will also find a number of citrus-based cleaners used for anything from mopping the floor to washing our clothes. Citric acid can, in almost all cases, be used in the same way as bleach. Mixed with salt, citrus becomes especially powerful. And just think of how much more pleasant the smell of lemon is compared to the smell of bleach!

Personally, I have, at one time or another used Dr Bronner’s Magic Soaps for just about everything. From its inception, Dr. Bronner’s has listed “eighteen-in-one” potential uses for their product on the bottle, and it can really be used for every one of them. Along with body wash and hand soap, Dr Bronner’s also makes great laundry soap, and is even safe to use on your pets!

I have no doubt that some people look at our way of life, and think that we’re trying to return to the 19^th century. With some specific practices, they’re right! But we don’t reject progress… we just want to see it achieved sustainably. These natural cleaning products allow us to enjoy a bit of convenience, while still maintaining our values.

Best of luck combining simplicity, sustainability, and practicality, and happy cleaning!

Mary Beth Bishop is a resident of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Northeastern Missouri, and a freelance writers currently under contract with long-running green blog sustainablog, which now features an eco-friendly shopping portal that carries a full range of cleaning brands, including Dr. Bronner’s.

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There has long been a conflict between living a sustainable and environmentally friendly lifestyle, and still indulging in life’s luxuries. We don’t want to pollute the atmosphere with CO2, but still want to take our holidays to Barbados every year and keep our houses warm and cozy in the winter. We don’t want to fill up landfill sites, but can’t resist those luxury biscuits that come in a tin and five layers of packaging inside. We don’t like to waste water, but a hot bath at the end of a long day just feels too good.

Thankfully we are starting to realize that we don’t have to give up on all of life’s luxuries in order to save the earth, and improvements in technology and innovation have allowed us to do more than ever whilst keeping a clear conscience. One such luxury that has not always been so ‘green’ is spa days. These intensive pampering sessions have received a lot of criticism over the years for their harmful impact on the environment, but now you can go on spa days that are a little kinder to mother nature. Here are 3 ways that health spas are going green:

Green Products.

Whilst the skin care and beauty products used by health spas are often very good, they are not always good to the earth. Synthetic ingredients, harmful bi-products and animal testing are just a few of the ways products can be harmful, but thankfully there are good alternatives these days. Producers of all-natural skin care and beauty products have upped their game recently, and largely due to increased public demand, there is a far greater range and level of quality for health spa products.

Green Energy.

Most health spas often encompass a scary number of energy-consuming devises and environments. Saunas, Jacuzzis, swimming pools, steam rooms etc, they are burning large amounts of fuel and don’t do any good for the planet’s CO2 levels. More health spas though are now waking up to green energy, both creating it from renewable sources and improving the efficiency of its use. Here are some examples of how health spas are reducing energy usage/loss:

• Solar panels on roofs

• Recycling of hot air from pools, steam rooms etc

• Better insulation in spa areas

• Movement sensor switches on lights

Green Waste.

Health spas are notorious for producing large amounts of waste. Water is wasted at an incredible rate via ‘back-washing’ the pools to remove sentiment and also via constant laundry washing. Much of this waste water can actually be reused if put through the proper filters and many spas can make their money back within a couple of years by saving on water costs. The other big wastage is the packaging and containers that beauty products and are delivered in. Some spas are recycling these by handing them back to the suppliers after each delivery and asking them to be reused, saving both money and unnecessary landfill.

So with all these green initiates that many health spas are signing up to, you can still enjoy your massage, without feeling guilty about your impact on the planet.

Duncan is a green enthusiast and a blogger for a London health spa who are doing their bit for the environment.

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Below are some of the environmental and money saving benefits of recycling paper…

Saves Trees – The most obvious reason to recycle paper is for saving trees which provide vital oxygen for the planet. Just 1 ton of recycled paper saves at least 16 of them.

Wildlife Preservation – More often than not, the wildlife that lives in the trees that are cut down to make ‘new’ paper, die quickly because they cannot adapt to living anywhere else. Recycling paper means that they can die natural deaths instead of forced ones.

Cheaper Paper – Recycled paper is often cheap to purchase. Buying cheaper, recycled goods encourages more recycled goods to be manufactured, sustaining the recycling industry.

Less Water Consumption – 1 ton of recycled paper can save over 6500 gallons of water.

Saves Electricity – Producing electricity seriously damages the environment, but more than 400 kilowatt hours are saved by recycling 1 ton of paper.

Reduces Oil Dependence – Oil production has some horrific effects on the environment and any chance to reduce oil consumption should be taken. Saving 2 barrels per ton of recycled paper really makes a difference in the long term.

Less Pollution – Burning paper in waste incinerators pumps masses of pollution into the air. That means that we are unnecessarily causing the air that we all breathe to be of a lower quality.

Creates Jobs – Think about all the people who work within the paper recycling industry. Collectors, sorters and machine operators being just a few of them. The more that we recycle, the more of these jobs there will be created.

Paper Logs – Many people are now turning to paper logs as a supplementary fuel source. Consisting of tightly compressed briquettes of paper, these logs can be thrown on a fire or used in a wood burner to provide heat for free.

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This article is provided by http://www.paperlogmaker.org.uk/, a website dedicated to paper log makers and paper recycling.

Each and every year thousands upon thousands of tons of trash is poured into landfills. While we are in no danger of running short on landfill space, this is expensive in terms of space, time, and energy invested, along with the sheer waste of materials that will not ever be used again.

With that in mind, consider these reasons to keep your aluminum and steel cans out of the landfill by recycling them instead.

– Aluminum which has been recycled is back in use again within 2 months. In contrast, it would take over 200 years for that metal to break down naturally if were just thrown away.

- Metal cans can be recycled for cash at many places. Various states offer five cents for each can given to them, and some recycling centers pay anywhere between a dollar and two dollars per pound of cans recycled.

- There are can crushing machines available that can be used to make the job easier, and you can even make a home-made one for free. Therefore, it is no excuse to say that recycling cans takes up too much space.

– Recycled steel and aluminum are have exactly the same composition as ‘new’ aluminum and steel. Recycled metals are just melted down and then forged into new products, which can then be recycled again when they are finished being used.

– The United States currently uses steel that is more than 65% recycled. This is a good start, but it could definitely be higher. Significant further progress would be made if more people were aware that they can recycle their steel cans.

– The 100,000,000 ‘new’ steel cans produced every day consist of 25% recycled materials. That equates to 25 million reclaimed cans vs. 75 million completely new cans. If people recycled more frequently, that number would soon jump to 50-50 and a great deal of energy and resources would be saved.

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This article has been provided by Can Crusher, a site dedicated to information on crushing cans and recycling.

It is a fact that companies who take a clean and green approach to the way that they operate are more trusted by customers, and the public in general, and also incur fewer costs. What then can be done to become an environmentally friendly company?

Reduce Waste Where Possible – Assess your company processes to see where waste could be reduced. For example, can invoices be sent electronically and goods ordered in bulk to reduce packaging waste? Waste reduction should be the top priority of any waste management scheme as this is where the most cost effective and positive and environmental changes can be achieved.

Buy Recycled Paper – Producing one tonne of recycled paper saves 3000 liters of water and 78% energy use. Air emissions of gases such as CO2 are cut by 95% and there is less pollution because recycled paper is not bleached with chlorine. As for purchasing recycled paper, it is no more expensive than virgin paper, and nowadays the quality is as good.

Re-Use Plastic Cups – Plastics are harmful to the environment both when they are produced (various chemicals are emitted) and when they are disposed of (taking hundreds of years to decompose). Therefore, it really is inexcusable to not re-use the same plastic cup throughout the day, or to even do away with plastic cups altogether and just use mugs instead.

Recycle Printer Cartridges – Around 2 million printer cartridges are discarded every year. Recycling cartridges is easy as many suppliers offer a return scheme for used cartridges. Using recycled toner cartridges reduces demand for raw materials and they can be purchased for as little as half the price of non-recycled cartridges.

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Ware 4 Recycling Bins Ltd have been promoting cost effective bins, trolleys and waste containers for over 5 years. For more info, visit Ware 4 Ltd.

By the time you read this, 56 pagers in 45 countries will have published a front-page editorial guided by the Guardian of London. The editorial will call global climate change a “profound emergency” with requires immediate action. It claims there are no replays regarding climate change: “Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security.”

I took a master’s level college course on the environment back in the early 90’s, and I remember the main theme of our textbook was that our environment is such a complicated system that it is not only more complex than we know, it’s more complex than we can ever know. That has stuck with me ever since.

The science behind global warming and climate change is extremely complex. Arguments abound about how, and even if, it is really a crisis at all. But, if you look at the data behind this gargantuan topic, it is extremely difficult to explain away what is happening before our very eyes, and even all that is not visible to the naked eye. Temperatures are rising, glaciers and ice fields are melting, the oceans are warming, the weather is changing in many locales, species of animals and plant life are disappearing or being profoundly altered. Gigantic clouds of methane gas are potentially being released from below thawing ice on a scale that is just now beginning to be measured. One thing is certain: 11 of the last 14 years have been the warmest on record.

In my neck of the woods, the mountain southwest, the aspen tree is undergoing SAD: Sudden Aspen Decline. While there are many factors that enter into this phenomenon, the long-continuing drought that is plaguing the American Southwest has left the aspen and other tree species unable to protect themselves from wood-boring insects, for starters.

The havoc that global warming is already causing is hard to calculate because it is so vast. And, what the future holds is even more astounding. Rising sea levels could, and almost certainly will, devastate coastal countries and cities more than we can imagine. It’s the domino effect on a spectacular scale.

The pressure mounts on The United States to become an active member in the staving off of planetary destruction after years of obstructionist environmental policy, particularly from the George W. Bush reign. This should not be a battle between the rich world and the poor world. This is a shared responsibility. We are all in this together. We can unite as ONE PEOPLE of the entire globe and work to solve this immense catastrophe, or we can do what we do best: nothing. It requires shared sacrifice, but the Super Powers must surely take the lead. There is no doubt that rich countries have contributed far more to this dilemma than poor countries. Yet, we all bear responsibility. There is no time to waste playing “the blame game.”

There is huge economic opportunity in turning the world into a much greener and sustainable environment. But, attitudes, concrete policy changes, and hardcore action must become the rule of the day. If “What goes on in the Copenhagen Climate Summit, stays in Copenhagen” is the prevailing mood, we all lose. The very survival of the human species, and the Earth as we know it, depends upon a drastic shift in global consciousness beginning today!

Grant Brad Gerver is an entrepreneur and creative consultant for Filibi, a classified and online coupon advertising site and home business. He’s also a YouTube Channel blues singer-songwriter and guitar player with The Buzzard Brothers. Additionally, Grant writes political humor, thousands of bumper stickers, and humorous movie reviews. He has also worked with various companies as a product-naming specialist. He’s a retired elementary school teacher and published children’s author who works in the health care field.

OK, so the Bamboo PC it was a gimmick. The laptop version of the bamboo PC launched last March at a computer fair in Hanover. It featured a laminated bamboo casing which was around a standard laptop, meaning that no less plastic was needed in making it.

Although the bamboo computers won’t make a huge difference to the environment, it did prove how versatile material really is.

Bamboo must be the only plant on the planet that is a source of food, works as building materials and woven fabrics. One of the early light bulbs created by Edison used bamboo. Because the material is so string, resiliant and cheap to use, it is used widely in building throughout Asia. The fibres within bamboo poles have both high tension strength, as well as high compression strength. It’s compressive strength works out around twice that of concrete, bamboo also has the same tensile strength to weight ratio as steel. Now there’s even a bamboo laptop!

Bamboo will please anyone whose buying eco-friendly home furnishings. For a start, bamboo is an extremely sustainable material. Some bamboo species are able to grow more than one metre every day. Local people are able to cut down as much bamboo as they need for carving or weaving and still have the same amount growing as they did before they cut some down. As for the global warming problem, because bamboo is a plant, all products made out of the sustainable material contains a large amount of atmospheric carbon. The plastic equivalent of a bamboo product is worse for the environment as it actually adds to the levels of carbon in the atmosphere!

Another point is that because bamboo is a plant source, there are many variations between two plants, these variations make it a difficult material to use in a mass production process. What this means is that you can be almost positive that a skilled craftsman has built the bamboo product you buy. If you go to a reputable source you’ll also know that the craftsman got a fair wage for his or her work, and that no one was exploited by western buying power. The final thing is that you’ll be sure that the item you bought hasn’t gathered any air miles during its creation.

With eco credentials this strong, it’s a surprise bamboo built products are so beautiful. Just picture a hand crafted bamboo box, layered 15 times with natural shellac. Both stylish and natural. Only the other day, I bought an amazingly crafted bamboo knife block and am seriously considering following suit with other bamboo kitchen accessories such as salad bowls. Stylish and ethical. Win.

Despite the still parlous state of the world and the UK economy in particular, the pressure on business to be “seen to be greener” will continue to grow.Climate change policies and carbon taxes will inevitably become more significant mechanisms to raise revenues and be seen to be addressing global warming.  Part of that trend will be an increasing emphasis on enforcing regulations governing the collection, treatment and recycling of all sorts of waste, especially electrical and electronic equipment as specified by the WEEE directive.

Despite (or maybe because of) the recession, companies need to forge ahead with energy-saving measures and invest in the latest inventory management software, not least because of imminent UK mandatory carbon reduction commitments, and still have to prove their green credentials to consumers and clients who are increasingly demanding that  environmental  component of virtually every product or service.

Doing all this will create a significant cost for business, unless they get their fixed asset register in order.The days have gone when a simple aspirational statement about green strategies from procurement and recycling would suffice.Organisations now have to show their commitment to green issues through information transparency and fully auditable policies.At the core of this approach has to be detailed information about the life cycle of all their fixed assets, from country of origin and maintenance schedules to final disposal details.

That requires an investment in fixed asset software to replace antiquated spreadsheet models in an attempt to accurately identify the location of equipment, especially that relevant to WEEE regulations, confirm when those items were purchased, from whom they were purchased, and how or where they were disposed of at the end of their lives.By using a comprehensive asset accounting software package that links the asset register to a document management system, companies can create the required audit trail so that they can adapt effectively to the demands of the green economy.

The whole fashion industry is buzzing right now, as London Fashion Week gears up for its largest show in history. The event will run over 4 days (1 extra day for the men’s collection) and will profile not only the most established and respected names in the industry, but also some of the freshest up and coming designers around. In total there will be over 150 exhibitors showing at Somerset House in The Strand, from Ada Zanditon & London Spa to Zoe & Morgan, and they will be competing for the attention of the top buying houses and high street fashion scouts.

The collections on show will be the Spring/Summer 2010 ranges, but this year there will be a different focus to the previous fashion weeks. With all the buzz surrounding eco friendliness at the moment, the ‘estethica’ portion of the show has been pushed to the forefront and has taken a leap forwards in popularity.

This will be the seventh season that estethica has had a place at the fashion week, and it sees a further 15 labels taking part. The BFC first came up with the idea of having a eco friendly section of the fashion week, to give those environmentally-conscious UK designers a chance to play with the big boys of fashion, but since its conception the show has won over even the most profit-driven of fashion companies.

There will be many elements of fashion displayed at the shows, including accessories, shoes and bags. However, in another move forward for the fashion week, there will also be beauty products and make-up shows taking place across the 4 days. Whilst some may consider this not relevant to fashion, the organizers argue that anything that influences appearance comes under the fashion umbrella, be this eye liner or pedicure products. Depending on how well this section of the show is received, it could become a permanent feature of the world famous London fashion week.