Are your current sandals falling apart, barely holding together, but your eco-conscience won’t let you throw them away and get some new sandals? Partner, you’re in luck, because Okabashi Brands just happens to make eco-friendly sandals from recycled shoes!

Who is Okabashi? Welp, they’re a small company in Buford, Georgia, that takes in old used sandals and shoes, and recycles/reuses them to make new sandals.

They found the kindness and pity in their hearts to send me a pair of brown Surf men’s sandals, and let me tell you, they seriously might be the most comfy pair of sandals I’ve ever wore. Not only are they soft and have some good arch support, but they’re anti-microbial and odor resistant (which I sadly need).

The best thing is, once your sandals have finally bit the big one, Okabashi will recycle them into, you guessed it, even more sandals. So if you have some old sandals or shoes, send them on in, and they can be reused to make some brand spankin’ new sandals.

We close with a short video explaining a bit more about this elusive company.

SPOILER ALERT: It turns out this guy’s favorite Okabashi sandals are the ones I got. What a coink-idink.

Update

After a few months of wearing my sandals around town, they suddenly broke (the little thong piece ripped in two). Devastated, I briefly considered ending it all, but instead remembered Okabashi’s two year guarantee.

Clinging to hope, I mailed in my ripped sandal, and about a week later I received, for FREE, a brand new pair of replacement sandals! Now that’s some high quality customer service, or my name ain’t EcoJoe.

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Luckily, there’s the collapsible Vapur water bottle. I was recently lucky enough to get me two o’ them, and was struck off the bat by how little packaging they used. Less packaging = less waste.

This nifty, reusable water bottle is made of strong, BPA-free plastic, and comes in a bunch o’ colors, or “colours”, for the Brits in da house. When you’re not using it, you can roll it up for easy transportation, and even lock it down with its included carabiner. Check it.

A wee downside is filling it up. I had to fill it up, then blow into it to expand it, then finish filling it up. All that extra hard work paid off when, to my surprise, I saw it could stand on its own once it’s filled with water. I took that time to scrawl me name in the handy, provided name-space.

Extra Bonus: Drinking from this reusable water bottle brings you back to the days of drinking Capri Suns during halftimes of soccer games, except this bad boy is reusable.

Mega-Extra Bonus: Invite a pal to drink from this, then squeeze the heck out o’ the Vapur bottle for a good laugh as they choke and splutter.

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Compost lasagna is not something you eat, believe it or not. It’s basically a really easy way to soup up your garden’s soil. It’s called “compost lasagna” because, like lasagna, it’s built up of layers.

Also called “sheet composting”, it’s a great way to reuse your kitchen waste instead of sending it to the landfill. It’s best prepared in fall or winter, so let’s get to making this compost lasagna, shall we?

Compost Lasagna Ingredients

• Compost – old vegetable waste, used paper towels, etc.
• Old Newspapers – previously perused papers
• Gumption – undefinable
• Garden – spot of ground where you want a garden

Alrighty, once you’ve gathered those ingredients, here’s whatchu gotta do:

Get a Garden

Any space will do. Speaking of a garden, here’s one now.

Layer 1: Newspapers

This layer should be cardboard or a few layers of newspaper. It’ll kill off grass and other plants that’d otherwise compete with your poor, defenseless garden.

Here’s Charlie Stray Cat helping with this step:

Layer 2: Compost

This layer provides lots o’ nutrients for your future plants. It’ll decompose into rich, dark dirt.
Get ready for some hardcore shovelin’ action!

Eventually, it’ll look something like this:

Layer 3: Leaves

Rake you some leaves up. Steal some from your neighbors. Whatever it takes to get those precious, precious leaves. This layer will rot and help hold everything down.

As you can see above, the compost lasagna may stick up a bit. Don’t fret though, by the time spring rolls around, it should’ve rotted nicely into some primo, loamy soil.

That’s it, just three easy steps. If you’ve got this far, wait ’til spring, plant your garden, and watch it take off like Jack’s beanstalk!

If you DO make compost lasagna, let me know how it goes!

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Earthship Video Uno

Earthship Video Dos

Earthship Video Tres

Dang, now wasn’t that informative? If you feel that your brain can handle yet MORE information about earthships, then head on over to Earthships 101.

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Do you feel like great waves of eco-shame wash over you every time you go to the grocery store and realize that you’re about to use disposable paper or plastic bags instead of a reusable bag? You want to be “green” and forgo disposable bags, but the lack of style in reusable bags makes you cringe?

I don’t feel like this, but if you do care about style and going green, its-laS-tik bags may be the way to go for you, my friend. I got one in the mail a few weeks ago, and have been testing the heck out of it.

Its-laS-tik bags are strong, stretchy, and made in the good ol’ U.S. of A. I opted for the manly camouflage bag, but they also have a bunch of different patterns and colors of bags available, including bling gold.

So if you’re trying to make the jump to using reusable bags and saying goodbye to disposable ones, its-laS-tik bags could be a good start for you. And that’s all I got to say about that.

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Holy moly, it doesn’t seem that long ago that I last hosted the Carnival of the Green, but it’s been almost a year! Truly, time waits for no man. Just last week, Eco New Mexico hosted the Carnival, and next week it is moving on to good ol’ Enviroblog.

But enough talk of time and such; let’s take a look-see at this week’s Carnival of the Green submissions:

Health

Surbhi brings the ruckus with this in-depth look at natural ways to stay healthy.

The venerable Fake Plastic Fish continues her one-woman war against plastic with a shocking exposé on a nasty chewing gum ingredient: plastic. After reading that, I think I’ll steer clear of gum for awhile and maybe check out Glee gum, made from natural chicle.

Gracy Queen wins the award for best blog post title, with her piece on vegan food choices entitled, I Can’t Has Cheezburger. I, myself, am not a vegan, but if you’re gonna be, here’s some good tips on what to eat.

Jourdan asks if being “green” makes you feel stressed out, and breaks it down to the basics to show that you can make some small, simple changes to be greener.

Climate Change

Dr. Kneidel exposes the plight of the noble trees, brought about by recent climate change.

Green Linguistics

Colin Doyle is trying to export a linguistic gem from Australia; calling fossil fuel energy “black energy“. It might make it a lil’ easier to have talks about green vs. black energy.

Beverly decides to make a New Year’s resolution to “grab a tiger by the tail” and go green. However, she then delves into what exactly this mysterious saying means.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The aptly named Mrs. Green contributes 11 ideas on how to reuse coffee grounds. I’ll be using some of her tips, since I do enjoy the occasional coffee.

Stuff With A Purpose has some good tips on how to reuse plastic bags. The best thing to do is avoid them altogether, but barring that, he has some good ways to reuse them.

A shorty named Renee that I met one day has some good tips for how to compost during these frigid winter months. Since my current compost bin is overflowing, I plan on using some of her advice to figure out what to do.

Do It Yourself

Emily Moser, of the strangely named Becoming A Radiologist website, has listed some good resources for making some homemade soap.

Around the House

Brenda Pike got herself a Kill-A-Watt (I got one of these a year ago and it’s great!) and ran around her house measuring how much electricity various appliances used. Very interesting, and it convinced me to fully turn off my Wii instead of putting it into standby with the Wiimote.

Stacey Doyle decides to look at some easy ways to live in a more eco-friendly way.

Case examines the pros and cons of compact fluorescent light bulbs, including examining just how green these CFLs are.

Mark Donovan show us some easy yet effective ways to reduce your home’s ecological footprint while also saving money. Sounds like my kind of post, if you know what I mean.

Pure Natural Diva has some general tips on how to go green for today’s on-the-go diva.

Transportation

Vihar tells the world of how St. Louis has opted for a tiny tax increase to help fund its public transportation system. Kudos to Vihar for breaking this story.

Phew! Welp, that about does it for this week’s Carnival of the Green. Hopefully we all laughed a little, cried a little, and, just maybe, learned a little. I leave you with the Top 5 EcoJoes Posts of 2009:

• How to Make Homemade Cat Litter from Newspaper
• Homemade Granola Recipe
• How to Clean Up Litter in Under Five Minutes
• How to Make Homemade Paper
• Art from Litter: Glass Creatures

Happy Carnival!

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Not only is cat litter not great fun to clean up (and buy), but most clay-based kitty litter is made from clay that is strip mined from the Earth, which is horrible for the environment. The U.S. Bureau of Mines estimates that in 1994 alone, approximately 1.5 million metric tons of clay was mined to make clay cat litter.

A good way to avoid clay litter, and to reuse, is to just use old newspapers as cat litter. Here’s how to make your cat(s) some homemade newspaper cat litter.

1) Sprinkle some baking soda on to the bottom of an empty litter box. This is optional, and helps absorb some of that atrocious cat pee smell.

2) Tear newspaper into narrow strips (less than an inch wide). Pro tip: It’s a lot easier to tear vertically than horizontally.

3) Use your hand muscles to tear those newspaper strips into pieces that are about half a foot long. Use a ruler if you want to, kitty will appreciate the extra precision.

4) Make it rain. Flutter, throw, or somehow get all that newspaper into the cat litter box. It should be over halfway full (it’ll flatten a lot when it gets wet).

Et voila, you are finished. It’s recommended to change the wet newspaper daily, or else it’ll stink up your house. Hopefully your cat will give the newspaper litter the ol’ thumbs up, and you’ll be on your way to a greener kitty litter box.

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I guess they used to just expect you to throw away the paper and rubber band (committing a major sin against Mother Earth), but they have seen the light and are now reusing them.

Anyhoo, it’ll be good to see more and more business start finding ways to both help the environment AND save money. A hearty kudos to the Garner Southeast Library.

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Remember, all these free tote bags don’t do any good unless you actually bring them to the store and use them instead of plastic bags, so get on that!

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1. Buy a Kraft Foods brand product from this list.

2. Scrawl your name and address on a 3×5 card. Sound out any big words.

3. Stuff that card and your original receipt (with the Kraft Foods brand item’s price circled) in an envelope.

4. Send that envelope to:
Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine
16 East 34th Street
14th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Attn: Kraft Foods Promotion

5. Twiddle thumbs and prepare for the imminent arrival of a free reusable tote bag that’ll allow you to quit using disposable plastic bags.

You can only get one free bag per household. Also, this offer is only valid during May, so don’t delay, act today!

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