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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“What’s the big deal about a programmable thermostat, anyhoo?”, I hear you ask. Well, I’ll let the good ol’ U.S. Department o’ Energy tell you:

[During winter], by turning your thermostat back 10°–15° for 8 hours, you can save about 5%–15% a year on your heating bill—a savings of as much as 1% for each degree if the setback period is eight hours long.

Gadzooks. If your average power bill is $70 a month during the 4 coldest months of the year, a programmable thermostat can save you between $14 and $42 during those 4 months! Not to mention the painless energy savings.

But it doesn’t only conserve energy and save money during the winter, oh no. During those hot months, you can set the temperature higher while you’re gone, and have it cool down more when you’re actually at your house. Voíla, even more energy and monetary savings!

Read instructions carefully when installing a programmable thermostat

Me and some friends tried to install my thermostat on one of the coldest days of the year. We wired everything up perfectly, but the heat wouldn’t come on. A day later, my friendly neighborhood electrician fixed the problem by reading the manual and figuring out that you had to tell the programmable thermostat that we had a heat pump. Dang, that one night without heat was a cold night
indeed, but I learnt a valuable lesson about reading instructions.

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If you answered “Heck yeah” to both these questions, then you’re in luck. Simply glide your mouse pointer over THIS LINK and click it with all your might.

Just remember, the sticker won’t help out the rainforests. All it does is show you care ’bout them; the rest is up to you, good sir/madam.

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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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Second, I just yesterday got back from mi luna de miel. What with that and helping with wedding planning, my life was purty dang busy.

Anyhoo, enough about me. What I bring to you today is a good video from TED Talks showing time lapse proof of extreme ice loss.

James Balog, a photographer, founded the Extreme Ice Survey to capture the changing glaciers by time-lapse photography and video. His goal is to show everyone visual proof of just how fast glaciers are melting.

Without any further ado, I bring to you his talk.

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Each sticker is 3″x5″, and reminds you to feel your boobies. I guess it’s for breast cancer prevention, but there are other good reasons to do this regularly.

So click THIS LINK ROTCH HUR to get a free “Feel Your Boobies” sticker now! Offer only valid this week.

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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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Anyhoo, some of you may be familiar with the Lorax, a fanciful creature who “speaks for the trees”, straight from the warped mind of Dr. Seuss, PhD. Here’s your chance to get a free PDF of an activity book featuring this true eco-hero.

Just CLICK ON THIS LINK to go and get your free copy of it! Go on, I won’t watch, honest I won’t.

Last, but not least, if you’ve got an attention span longer than mine, you may want to take a peek at this Lorax cartoon, which looks like it was made in the ’70s, based on my expert opinion.

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The man, the myth, the legend Michael Jackson has died. Although he did not really walk the “green” walk, he did talk the green talk, with such unforgettable songs such as the timeless “Heal the World” and “Earth Song.”

So now, a moment of silence please, whilst we listen to the haunting melodies of “Earth Song”, in remembrance of Michael Jackson, the former King of Pop.

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