Featured Article: 50+ Ways to Green Your Workday

Today's featured article is a great article about 50+ Ways to Green Your Workday. It includes tips on starting an office recycling program, ways to reduce workplace waste, ways to replace disposables, ways to declutter with crafts, use batteries sustainably, alternate transportation, greening up your coffee break, and many more tips and tricks to maximize your eco-impact, even at work.

We love this condensed source for so many helpful ideas! There are a lot of small and large changes listed depending on how willing your workplace is to transition. Don't forget- for your workplace organic waste companies like GreenRU are there to shrink your eco-footprint even more!

What do you think? Will you try to implement any of these methods?

Read the article here.

Tips to Make Your Halloween a Little More Green

Halloween is a lot of fun for everyone. Costumes, candy and decoration can be fun, but they can also result in a lot of waste. However, there are a lot of fun ways to cut down on that holiday waste and still have a blast.

1) Get Natural Decorations: Decorating with pumpkins, gourds, hay and other fall farm fare isn't just local farmer friendly- a lot of it is also compostable! If you scrape out your Jack-O-Lantern like most people, you can even make a tasty snack out of your seeds.

2) Homemade Costumes: If you've had children you know they come up with some crazy stuff for halloween costumes. However, most stores don't carry Tornado costumes. This is just one reason that homemade costumes are an attractive option. Often times you can make a much nicer (and often times reusable) costume at home, and it doesn't involve masks that aren't recyclable.

3) Use Reusable Bags: Reusable bags are durable, and frankly more suited to candy collecting, especially in large neighborhoods. It also means less plastic bags flying around in the weeks following Halloween. If you need a new reusable bag for Halloween, make sure to check out our list of great tutorials here.

4) Green your Halloween Party: When you're in that stage between being the age of a trick-or-treater and having children Halloween Parties are one of the best ways to celebrate. It's important to offer snacks and drinks in large bowls with the option of smaller dinnerware that isn't disposable, whether it's compostable or your own dishes you won't be sending it to a landfill on garbage day.

5) Consider a Candy Alternative: Although it's hard to imagine Halloween without Candy, there are plenty of fun things to give out that require less wrappers and may even be healthier (or not food at all). Plenty of stores stock Halloween themed pencils and crayons, which are great, useful gifts. Pre-packaged dried fruit and pretzels often have less packaging and are, admittedly, more filling than a fun-sized candy bar. They keep a few more wrappers from entering the waste stream and they're a little healthier for the kids.

Those are just a few great ways to green your Halloween this year! What are you doing to make your Halloween a little more green? Have any great stories about the tips we did give? Share in the comments!

Top 15 T-Shirt DIYs

With the seasons changing it is a lot easier to go through our closets and find items we no longer wear. Whether it's due to a change of taste or a change of fit, we eventually have to let go of old articles of clothing. While donating is also a great option, DIY with t-shirts is fun and can create some pretty cool things! We've compiled our top 15 t-shirt DIYs here for you!

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Making an old t-shirt into an iPod holder out of an old t-shirt is great for running or working out with your iPod, and it's easy to do with this simple tutorial! What a great way to encourage yourself to stay active during the winter months!

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Throw pillows are a great way to brighten up a room or throw some fun colors on a neutral colored couch. These throw pillows memorialize your old t-shirts while giving them a new purpose.

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 This cute and functional ruffle skirt looks dressy enough to be business casual, but since it's made out of your old t-shirt you know it will be very comfortable.

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 It can sometimes be hard to pack shoes, since you wear them on your feet they can often get dirty. This fun shoe travel bag looks cute, is machine washable and you can make it from your old t-shirts! How great!

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 If you simply adore an old t-shirt because of the print on it, and your home is lacking in decorations, then framing your old shirt might be the best option for you! It's a fun way to display the old shirt, and if you get a frame at the right time it can be very cheap!

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 This fun, cute vest is extremely simple to make and looks great on! What could be better?

Link to original

These t-shirt neck ties are great! The only bad thing is that the original article we found links to an esty account that you can send your shirt to for someone else to DIY a tie. However, there are a couple different images so we'd like to think that our crafty readers will be able to figure it out (if you can you should let us know)!

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Remember shag rugs? Super comfortable, shag carpeting was a staple in the 70s', but you can still find shag rugs at major stores. This tutorial shows you how to take your old t-shirts and make your own! How great is that?

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An old t-shirt can make a great apron, and this one even shows you how to make one with pockets!

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Washable diapers are coming back into popularity right now, and what better way to show Mom and Dad's style than by reusing one of your old t-shirts for the little one's diaper? This is a fun way to get a large variety of reusable diapers while still making to reuse some of your own wardrobe!

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 Summer tank tops are great, but if you have one that you're just not wearing anymore a new purse could be even better! This DIY takes an old tank top and makes a great new bag that you can use year round!

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 Scarves are great, whether they're just accessories or necessary for keeping warm. This DIY shows you how to create a fun, fashionable scarf from an old t-shirt. It's quick, and it's no-sew!

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This is another t-shirt turned skirt, but it's a little more casual and simple than the other skirt we have on here. It also allows a lot more room for imagination. The original poster embellished her finished skirt with some cute buttons to dress it up a little bit more.

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 This fun scarf offers another method of reusing the shirts without losing the images you loved from the original shirts. It would be easy to make a themed scarf from old shirts to keep warm and cozy while still remembering why you love your old shirts.

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 Finally, a t-shirt quilt. This is another idea that makes it easy to keep the memory of the old shirt alive while creating something new and functional. They're also very cozy, so it's great to keep warm once the winter months set in.

Do you have any other favorite t-shirt DIYs? Leave them and your thoughts on these ones in the comments!

How to be green when back to school shopping

Last weekend Iowa had their annual tax free weekend, where shopping centers state-wide are filled with back to school shoppers. Between pencils, backpacks, and new clothes it's hard to remember to be sustainable when dealing with crowds and children who want the folder with the newest fad on the front. Here's our 5 tips for having a greener back to school experience. 

1) Try to reuse: When you get that back to school shopping list it's a lot easier to just shop there. Most stores carry the lists for you, so you pick it up and buy everything on it while you're their. It is better to start with your list at home. Cross off those scissors, pencils, and protractors that you still have from last year and save a little money as well. 

2) If possible, buy refillable: Refillable pens and pencils are initially a little more expensive than the disposable ones, but they are definitely more sustainable, and they usually last longer than their disposable counterpoints as well. 

3) Look for recycled products: Notebooks, planners, pencils, pens, and computer paper made from recycled materials are all available from mainstream shops now. Recycled paper works great for anything a student would need it for, and it's the more earth friend option than virgin paper. Using recycled plastic or wood in your pencils and pens are also no different than the non-recycled ones, but they make a much smaller impact.

4) Reusable bottles and lunch bags: Purchasing reusable lunch bags can save another brown bag from going in a landfill, and reusable bottles can be filled with whatever your child's favorite drink it, be it chocolate milk or juice, without having to buy individual milk cartons or juice boxes. 

5) Spring for high quality: When buying long term items like backpacks and lunch boxes, spending a little bit more can end up saving you money in the long run. When buying a backpack try to lead your children away from the superheros and television or movie characters that they may like this year, often times those interests are short lived. Instead buy a plain, good quality backpack. If they still want their character on the bag, just buy a patch or a pin for them to clip to the outside. Then they can change interest every year and you can keep the same backpack.

With these tips you'll be sure to have a more sustainable and possibly a cheaper back to school shopping experience. 

Featured Article: Generating your own electricity at work.

Today we're doing another article feature on an unconventional eco-friendly product. This desk creates electricity from the person sitting at it.

The desk, shown above, could provide a great start for a more eco-friendly workplace. Many companies are hard at work trying to lower their carbon footprint, and this desk might actually help them in that area. Like the last featured article we covered, we were a bit skeptical at first. A desk that creates energy? While the current version might pose the challenge of hiding wires, we are impressed with the fairly simple and pleasing appearance. 

The desk looks as though it was made for most current work cultures, the chair and rug collect energy while in use, whether you get up to stretch and think by pacing on your rug a bit, or you're seated and hard at work you'll be generating electricity! 

What do you think? Is this a viable options for office life? 

Read the full article here and let us know what you think! 

Summer DIY: Creating a nature-friendly bug repellant

It's summer time, which means we're all spending a lot more time outdoors. It also means that bugs are out in full force. The problem with commercial bug sprays is that most are made up of harmful chemicals. Making your own eco-friendly, homemade bug spray is easy, and you'll have your choice of ingredients!

The first thing you need to know about making your own bug spray is that most bugs have an aversion to many natural things. Heres a quick cheat sheet as to what certain pests dislike:

• Mosquitoes- Cinnamon Oil, Castor Oil, Lemon Eucalyptus/Eucalyptus Oil, Citronella Oil, Peppermint Oil, Lemongrass Oil
• Ticks and Lice- Lemon Eucalyptus/Eucalyptus Oil, Rose Geranium Oil
• Biting Flies- Citronella Oil
• Fleas- Orange Oil
• Stinging Insects- Lavender Oil

There are a lot of other natural oils that repel insects, but these are a few of the most effective ones.

You can also choose one of the following as a base for your natural repellant:

• Olive Oil
• Sunflower Oil
• Cooking Oil 
• Witch Hazel
• Alcohol

Be careful using the cooking oils if you are going to be in direct sunlight. Many have found the Witch Hazel to work the best as a base. 

Once you choose your ingredients, mix 10-25 drops of the essential oil(s) of your choice with 2 tbsp of your base liquid. Feel free to make a double batch or larger if you need more spray than this. Then put this mixture in a spray bottle of your choice, and voila! Homemade, nature-friendly bug repellant!