Tag: Go Green

Pull up a chair, grab some hot cocoa, and go green this holiday season with these simple tips and tricks!

Think Digital

Holiday eCards

Addressing 100’s of holiday cards for your family and friends can become quite a hassle and time consuming. Save your stamps and skip the drama this year by creating your own digital holiday eCard that can be sent to everyone on your list through email.

There are several websites that offer free electronic cards, but you can also find websites that offer animated eCards with personalization for a subscription fee.

Free eCard websites:

www.canva.com (Paid upgrade available)

www.postcards.history.org (for Colonial Williamsburg themed cards)

www.smilebox.com (downloadable eCard program for computers)

Subscription eCard websites:

www.hallmark.com

www.bluemountain.com (free trial available)

eGift Cards

You can also reduce waste by purchasing electronic gift cards. An electronic gift card can be immediately sent to the receiver once you pay. PayPal makes it convenient to purchase gift cards for many businesses, but you can also visit stores and restaurants online to see if they offer an eGift Card.

Think Recycled

Wrapping Paper

If you look closely on many wrapping paper brands, it will tell you if it is made out of recycled paper. Usually, this type of paper can be recycled again once all the gifts are unwrapped! Most wrapping paper, even if it is not already made out of recycled paper, is recyclable, but be careful. If there is ribbon or anything other than paper used to make the wrapping paper, it cannot be recycled.

Old or Broken Ornaments

Unfortunately, many glass ornaments cannot be recycled because they can harm sanitation workers. There are usually several chemicals used on glass ornaments to give them their shine, which also prohibits them from being recycled. But if you are feeling creative and are comfortable touching the broken ornaments’ edges, you can create several DIY projects that use old or broken ornaments to create a new holiday decoration.  Check out this upcycled ornament wreath or this broken ornament turned into a new ornament for more ideas!

Think LEDs

Holiday Lights

Most of us shudder at the thought of our electricity bills during the holiday season, but there are many stores that sell LED holiday lights to help you cut down on energy costs.

You can buy holiday LED lights at most home improvement or large grocery stores. Some of the common LED brands include:

• Home Accents Holiday (available at Home Depot)
• GE (available at Home Depot, Walmart, and Lowes)
• EcoSmart (available at Home Depot)
• Bright Star (available at Home Depot)
• LightShow (available at Home Depot, Walmart)
• Philips (available at Target)
• Holiday Time (available at Walmart)

Looking for more ways to go green? Search the “Go Green” tag in the search box at the top of the page.

We know how to recycle newspapers, plastics and glass, but what about the everyday odd items in the house? Items such as wire clothing hangers, plastic shopping bags, and even compact discs can be taking up room in your house, but don’t throw them away! All of these items can be recycled.

Wire Clothing Hangers

Consider donating wire hangers to your local dry cleaners or another local clothing store for reuse. Be sure to clean the hangers before donating. You can also recycle wire hangers at a scrap yard in your area.

Plastic Shopping Bags

Until you can find the closest place to recycle, you can reuse a plastic bag as liners for small trash bins. Remember not to throw the bag away though.

Several businesses will now accept plastic bags to recycle by having a bin outside the store. In Lackawanna County, you can recycle plastic bags at these locations:

• Best Buy
• Lowe’s
• Target
• Most Grocery Stores

Compact Discs (CDs, DVDs)

Fortunately, there are 2 places in Lackawanna County that will recycle compact discs and their cases.

• Best Buy (Dickson City)
• Embassy Vinyl (Scranton)

Rechargeable Batteries

Rechargeable batteries that contain Nicad or Lithium can be recycled at many locations in Lackawanna County.

• Best Buy
• Clarks Summit
• Home Depot
• Lowe’s
• Viewmont Mall

Old Pots and Pans

Earth 911 has several helpful articles about properly recycling pots and pans from the kitchen. Here are a few tips they give.

• If the pots and pans only have a few scratches, consider donating them to a local Salvation Army or Goodwill store.
• For cookware that has seen better days, you will need to find a center that will recycle “Scrap Metal.”
• Learn if your cookware is ferrous or nonferrous.
  • If your cookware attracts a magnet, it is ferrous.
  • Make sure to ask your local scrap metal recycling center if they accept only ferrous or nonferrous cookware

You can read more about how to properly recycle all of your cookware on Earth 911’s website.

You can also view Lackawanna County’s website to see a complete list of hard-to-recyclable items and where to send them.

To learn more about recycling, check out these titles at the Library or put them on hold with your library card.

• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
• Use Less Stuff by: Environmentalism for We Really Are by Robert M. Lilienfeld
• Garbage Warrior (DVD)
• Garbage and Recycling by Candice Mancini (Young Adult)

Read more articles about going green by searching “Go Green” in the search box at the top of the page.

The kitchen is home to some of the largest energy-consuming appliances.  As the cooler months draw near, we’ll be using our ovens and stoves more often. It’s no surprise then that the kitchen accounts for 27% of all household energy use.

Project Envolve, a website sponsored by PPL and dedicated to saving energy in the home, provides tools and tips for making your kitchen energy efficient.

Here is a list of energy-saving tips for the kitchen provided by Project Envolve:
• Use a slow-cooker or crock pot instead of a traditional oven to cut down on energy used
• Keep the inside of a microwave and oven clean to improve efficiency
• Use a dishwasher only when it is full
• Use the air-dry option if available on your dishwasher. Unlike heat, air does use as much energy to dry your dishes.
• Cover any foods in your refrigerator either in foil or in a container. This prevents moisture from the food to release, causing the compressor to work harder in your fridge and use more energy

To see more energy-saving tools for your home, visit Project Envolve’s website here: www.projectenvolve.com

Looking for slow cooker recipes or how to create a green kitchen?  Check out these titles from the Library today.

1. 200 Slow Cooker Recipes & How to Get the Best from Your Machine by Catherine Atkinson
2. Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger & Julie Kaufmann
3. Taste of Home Slow Cooker by Catherine Cassidy, editor of Taste of Home magazine
4. The Smart Kitchen: how to create a safe, energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly workspace by David Goldbeck and Merle Cosgrove
5. True Green Home by Kim McKay

To read more green posts like this, search “Go Green”in the search box at the top of the page.

Last month, we celebrated Earth Day by learning what kinds of plants are native to our area. This month, we’ll break down the best natural fertilizers to use on your gardens to keep them healthy all year.

Planet Natural’s website has a helpful guide to different types of natural fertilizers. There are three main kinds that they discuss: slow release (dry), starters, and liquid fertilizers.

Slow Release (dry) fertilizers are suited for broad area coverage. They release nutrients slowly and work best when you use water to get them started.

Starter Fertilizers are suited for new plants and seedlings. They have balanced amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from natural sources. They also include probiotics and mycorrhizae.

Liquid fertilizers are used for established plants in pots and gardens. They work immediately to replenish lost nutrients in the soil.

The Farmers’ Almanac lists everyday items that can be used as a natural fertilizer for your gardens. A few items they list include banana peels, grass clippings, weeds, compost, manure, tree leaves, coffee grounds, and egg shells (for their calcium).

Besides being a natural ice melt, Alfalfa Meal also makes a good fertilizer. You can find bags of alfalfa meal at many gardening stores.

Have you ever wondered if tea bags can be used as fertilizer? Gardening Know How puts the question to rest. According to their website, Tea bags can be used for fertilizer, but you need to watch the kind of bag the tea is in. If it is slippery to the touch, then the bag will not be able to decompose in the ground. You can make a slit in the tea bag and toss the insides into your dirt surrounding the plants. Unfortunately, the tea bag will have to be thrown away, but the good news is that many teas are made with decomposable bags now.

You can also visit your local gardening stores to know which fertilizers to use in your garden. The library has many books to help you start and maintain your garden. Here are a few books you can check out today:

Organic Gardening by Geoff Hamilton and Nick Hamilton

Organic Kitchen Gardening: a guide to growing produce in small urban areas by Barbara Segall

How to Make Your Garden Grow by Toby and Lisa Buckland, Howard Rice

Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

Winter has certainly arrived, but now is a great time to know how well your home or business is energy efficient. Energy calculators can help you measure how much energy and money you spend on different areas of your home.

The Albright Memorial Library currently has a Thermal Leak Reader and a Kill A Watt Detector available for patrons to borrow and use in their homes or businesses. These items can be borrowed for one week using your Lackawanna County Library System library card.

Energy.gov breaks down their list of calculators into seven categories: Commercial Heating and Cooling, Residential Heating and Cooling, IT and Electronics, Lighting, Appliances, Food Service, and Other. Under each category, you will find several calculators.

For example, you can see how much energy your heater uses by downloading the Electric and Gas Water Heaters calculator under the Residential Heating and Cooling category. When you click on the link for the calculator, it will open up a form that allows you to add in details about your heater such as how many heaters you have in your home and how long you run it.

Once you fill out all the information, the calculator will give you an estimate of how much energy and money you spend. Energy.gov calculators also allow you to see the money you can save with energy efficient appliances.

UGI has energy calculators that can fill in missing information based off of the average statistics for where you live. Their Home Energy Saver calculator will fill in the average amounts based on your zip code for any questions you cannot answer.

You can access all of these websites through the computers in the reference department. All you need is a library card.

To read more “Go Green” posts, type “Go Green” in the search box at the top of the page.