The green movement is making inroads even in the lil’ town of Garner. I was in the library last week, lamenting my near-illiteracy while I looked for the picture book section, when I saw Read the rest of this entry »

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During a recent trip to my friendly, local, down-home neighborhood Walmart, whilst perusing the sports section, what should catch my eye but a fahwnky green basketball. I snapped a precautionary picture before taking my chances and slowly approaching the strange, green orb.

I figured it’d be one of those gimmicky “Go Green!” products whose only claim to “greenness” is its actual color. Imagine, if you will, my surprise when I saw that 40% of its surface is made from recycled rubber. Now sure, that’s not 100%, but that’s almost half of the surface that’s made of recycled rubber! Crazy.

While it’s not quite as eco-friendly (or cheap) as buying a used basketball (or just finding one in a creek), it’s a good start. I hope to try one out soon; if it passes my reverse jam test, then it’s good enough for me.

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Note: Since it was a phone interview and I didn’t have a recorder, his answers (and my questions) are not exact quotes, but are pretty close to what was actually said.

A little while ago, I had the good fortune to talk with Aaron Vronko, the CEO of RapidRepair, and ask him a few questions. For your 411, RapidRepair buys your broken small electronics and uses their parts to repair other people’s gadgets. A prime example of a business that helps the environment while also making money. But let’s get on with this here entrevista…

Joe (Me): So, what does your company repair?
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In celebration o’ Earth Day (Fun Fact: Earth Day was started by someone named Gaylord), Swaptree is planting a tree for each trade completed today. “‘Old on a tic”, you might exclaim, “Just wot is this ‘Swaptree’ thing, anyway?”
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Disclaimer: I don’t kill bugs, unless they’re in my house and they’re too small to free outside.

Many moons ago, a company called EcoSmart sent me a sample of their organic ant and roach killer to test out. I finally got some ants inside my humble abode today, so I put the organic pesticide to the test.

Let me tell you, las hormigas didn’t stand a chance. They were dead within seconds, as a licorice scent filled the room. All I had to do then was wipe up the residue, which was easy to do.

So if you’re looking for an organic insecticide that’s non-toxic and safe around kids and pets (so they say), then check out EcoSmart. But you don’t have to take my word for it.

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To make a long story short, I won’t have internet at my house ’til Friday, so yesterday I went to Swift Creek Coffee House to leech off their wireless internet.

So as not to be a complete scrub Read the rest of this entry »

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If you’re like me, you probably have at least one really old pair of shoes lying around somewhere. They’re too old/holey/torn up to wear, and yet you cannot find it in your heart to throw them away, discarding all those hours of hard work from child labor in the Philippines. But hearken, there’s a way to recycle your old sneakers!

Good ol’ Nike has set up a shoe recycling program, wherein you turn in your old shoes and they ship them to a processing plant. At the plant, they separate the old shoes into 3 different materials (rubber, foam, and plastic) and grind them up. They’ve recycled more than 21 million pairs of shoes since 1990!

Once they’re ground up, they can be turned into running tracks, new shoes, basketball courts, or even new clothes. That’s a lot better than just throwing away your old shoes to just sit in a landfill for centuries. So take a look around your house, find some old sneakers, find the nearest dropoff location, and recycle your old shoes.

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