Green Daily

(Photo by The Sak)

One of the many ways we celebrated Earth Day here at GreenDaily was with a fantastic combination giveaway:

• The Sak Eco Harmony Dip Drawstring Bag -- made of 100% Bamboo and Recycled Cotton in hot caynne red
• The Unity Collection from Altru -- a collection of Altru home frangrance items, in the sensual Unity flavor
• Physicians Formula Organic wear® 100% Natural Origin Makeup-- a full collection of this new and incredible line of natural makeup!

There were loads of entries, but we could only pick one winner, Angie, who shared these Earth Day plans:

I have actually already started celebrating Earth Day! On Sunday, I attended Columbus, Ohio's Earth Day Celebration in Goodale Park by visiting all the many information tents and enjoying a vegan hot dog. Tomorrow, my hubby and I (he is taking the day off from work) are going to start the foundations of our new organic vegetable garden! I can't wait!

We hope she looks and feels awesome while working in her new garden and enjoying her eco-friendly prizes!

(Photo by Getty Images)

I have a "big" birthday coming up soon, so lately I've been thinking about parties. Gone are the days of buying loads of paper plates and matching plastic forks. No more throw away decorations, or gag gifts, and don't even think about mylar balloons!

All that doesn't mean we can't have fun festivities. We just have to be more thoughtful ...

Invitations
I love paper, but electronic invitations are the way to go. It's faster, easier for people to reply and you know it's less wasteful. Email or Evites!

Themes and Gifts
From kids to adults, more people are having a theme party to raise money for a beloved cause. Guests are asked to donate to a specific organization rather than bring a gift. It might raise traditional etiquette eyebrows, but imagine how good you'll feel saving the rainforests while dancing the Samba and drinking celebratory caipirnhas, or funding cancer research while enjoying pink grapefruit sorbet and rocking out to Pink?

Check out Echoage, an online service for kids parties that lets you organize the entire thing -- from invitations to donation -- online.

Cakes and Party Food
Food can be a great way to bring your theme to life. As always, pick food that is in season, grown locally and of course organic. Rather than buying a lot of packaged "party" foods, like chips and candies, roast up some spiced nuts (bought in bulk), or make your own sweet potato chips. How about a cake with edible flowers?

And remember, you can reuse those beeswax birthday candles!

Servingware
No, you can't buy that jumbo pack of plastic sporks at Costco. But that doesn't mean you'll have to do dishes for two days after your event.

Stalk Market plates are made of sugar cane, and are surprisingly sturdy. Even better, you can recycle or compost them. Pair them up with utensils made of corn or other vegetable starch, which are also compostable. Also compostable are cold cups made from corn -- especially good if your tipsy guests can't be trusted with the good crystal!

This way you can sweep leftovers, plates and utensils into a paper bag, and dump it all in your composting bin. When you clean up, you'll be helping your garden grow!

Decorations
What's a party without decorations? Before you hit the party superstore, check out Green Party Goods, an online party store with neat eco-friendly decorating options like garlands made of muslin flowers or biodegradeable paper butterflies.

Before you set up vases of cut flowers, consider festive potted plants, or arrangements of fruit. A bright bowl of oranges and limes smells as great as it looks, and you can always use them to garnish drinks!

And believe it or not, latex balloons are actually biodegradable and fairly earth-friendly. So you can have your balloon bouquet and still be green!

(Photo by The Sak)

We have an eco-tastic double giveaway for you this week, in honor of Earth Day. The prize pack includes an amazing eco-friendly bag from the Sak, filled with amazing natural treats for your home from Altru, and gorgeous organic goodies for you from Physicians Formula. Check it out:

• The Sak Eco Harmony Dip Drawstring Bag -- made of 100% Bamboo and Recycled Cotton in hot caynne red
• The Unity Collection from Altru -- a collection of Altru home frangrance items, in the sensual Unity flavor
• Physicians Formula Organic wear® 100% Natural Origin Makeup-- a full collection of this new and incredible line of natural makeup!

And best of all, we're giving away another whole set of these prizes at sister site, StyleList! So when you're done entering here, go and enter there, too, for a second chance to win.

To enter, visit the original post before 5pm EST today and tell us how you celebrated Earth Day. It's that easy!

In honor of Earth Day, we have a truly eco-fantastic giveaway this week. It's an amazing eco-friendly bag from the Sak, filled with amazing natural treats for your home from Altru, and gorgeous organic goodies for you from Physicians Formula. Everything in the prize is earth-friendly!

(Photo by The Sak)

The Sak Eco Harmony Dip Drawstring Bag -- You'll love the look of this fabulous and fashionable bag, which is made of 100% Bamboo and Recycled Cotton. As always, you can count on the functional SAK interior, with two pockets and a zippered pocket. It also has some eco-cool bling: a hand carved and painted mandala made of sono-wood, a sustainable wood from Indonesia, attached with traditional Indonesian prayer beads.

The Unity Collection from Altru -- Make your home an oasis with this collection of Altru home frangrance items, in the sensual Unity flavor, a combination of burmese woods and honey. The collection includes a soy blend wax candle in hammered copper, interior fragrance oil with diffusing reeds, and rich exotic incense sticks.

Altru, which was created by Manuela Testolini, is commited to social responsibility through it's support of Perfect World, a non-profit organization that she also created, to help children become "compassionate, socially conscious and responsible leaders."

(Photo by Altru)

Physicians Formula Organic wear® 100% Natural Origin Makeup -- this is an incredible line of natural makeup available at drugstore prices. It's 100% free of harsh chemicals, synthetic preservatives or parabens, comes in eco-conscious packaging, and contains 100% certified organic ingredients. The prize includes a huge set of Organic wear® products, including the yummy Superfruit lipgloss and the mascara with the green leaf applicactor that everyone is talking about!

And even better? We're giving away another whole set of these prizes at sister site, StyleList! So when you're done entering here, you can go and enter there, too, for a second chance to win.

Are you ready to celebrate Earth Day with all of this schwag? Then let's get this giveaway rolling!

Here at GreenDaily, we sure love animals. It makes sense -- caring for the environment and caring about animals seems to go hand in hand. Erm, paw.

Anyway, when we're not getting the scoop on the latest, greatest green news for you, we're reading up on animal news, and we have a new favorite place to get it -- our new sister site, Paw Nation!

Paw Nation just launched, and already it's full of great photos and information. You'll find tips on training, the scoop on the newest pet products, as well as photos of ridiculously cute (and occasionally crazy-looking) animals. Trust us -- if you're looking for an excuse to put off finishing your work (and you're already up to date with us here at GreenDaily), you won't be disappointed in Paw Nation!

(And hey! If you have pets, make sure you enter our Terracycle Green Pet Products Giveaway!)

We all try to keep our environmental footprint light, and ideally our pets would benefit from that, too. But sometimes accidents happen, and that's when you need the products -- and occasionally a hazmat suit -- to clean them up.

Terracycle, the company that practically invented zero footprint, has partnered up with PETCO to create a new line of natural and nontoxic pet products. Even better, this is the world's first line of pet products packaged in repurposed plastic bottles.

Now you can have a fresh and clean home, a healthy and happy pet, and be environmentally responsible!

To help green one lucky "pet parent", we're giving away a "basket" of the Terracycle pet line, including:

• Yard Odor Remover
• Stain & Odor Remover
• Trash Can Protector Spray
• Skunk Odor Remover -- the pet equivalent of a fire extinguisher – hopefully you never have to use it!
• Bird Feeder
  

Could you use these great -- and earth-friendly -- pet products? Then enter now!

On Sunday I was reading the paper about a couple who did an amazing green remodel to their home. It was their third renovation, so they have loads of experience. I envy the whole project, but one choice in particular jumped out at me -- they're using insulation made from old blue jeans.

This reminded me of a story a good friend told me, that the new California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park is also insulated with blue jeans, using material donated from San Francisco-based, legendary jeans company Levi Strauss.

What a cool idea! You can replace a toxic material (fiberglass) in your home and upcycle another material (the jeans) that is safe enough for your kids to be near. And get great results. Plus, the eco-cool factor is high!

UltraTouch from Bonded Logic seems to be the insulation of choice. If you're planning a renovation, or just thinking about planning a renovation someday, you can learn more about it at Building Green.

Last week, Green Daily brought you the news that there was a strange video floating around that featured a car-shaped object under an Ikea car cover. At first, there was speculation that Ikea was perhaps going to start designing cute little eco-cars, then it seemed like a clever but all-too-obvious April Fool's prank (since the unveiling is set for April 1st). Alas, it was neither.

"Leko," the mysterious word that glared at us from the Ikea car cover, actually refers to a new online car-sharing program that's kicking off on April 1st. Apparently, Ikea has entered into a deal to offer car-sharing services at its 26 locations in France. That's what the viral video campaign was all about ... and it has nothing to do with April Fools' Day at all. How lame is that?

Sorry the news is somewhat less climactic than anticipated (especially for any readers not located in France), but that's life. C'est la vie.

[via AutoblogGreen]

Thanks to the toughest dish detergent regulations in the nation, residents in Spokane, Washington are now heading across state lines to get their illegal suds. No joke. In order to protect water quality, the Washington legislature passed a law back in 2006 which banned dishwasher detergents that contained polluting phosphates.

As the phosphate ban is slowly being phased in this year, many consumers are in open revolt as they realize that green detergents like Seventh Generation, Ecover, and Trader Joe's aren't quite up to snuff. In fact, it appears that many law-abiding Washingtonians have become quite addicted to their squeaky clean dishes. Many are crossing into Idaho to buy Cascade. In fact, there may even be an emerging black market for suds. Says real estate agent Patti Marcotte:

"Yes, I am a smuggler ... I'm taking my chances because dirty dishes I cannot live with."

Supporters of the ban are blaming hard water as the reason green detergents are leaving dishes crusty with yesterday's spaghetti.

For some of us, a shower is kinda like a magical time warp that takes us to a land where the weathers warm and all our troubles just wash away down the drain. Unfortunately, along with your worries goes a ton of water -- a resource that many are predicting will be more precious than gold in the coming years. To help us keep track of how long we escape reality in the shower, inventor Trevor Murphy has developed the Aqualim.

Now that you cleaned up your dishwasher, it's time to tackle the fridge. In the past, I'd use some type of spray cleaner or bleach and wipe everything down but this year, I'm going a bit more natural thanks to some tips from Eco Localizer.

You're going to need white vinegar, baking soda, some rags and your vacuum cleaner with hose attachment. First things first, you're going to want to pull everything out of the fridge so you can clean shelves and drawers easily. Make sure you throw stuff that needs to be kept cold into a cooler.

Then, start with the traditional, pull the fridge away from the wall, unplug it and vacuum the coils on the back. This is a good way to gain back some efficiency in your fridge. Once that is done, it's on to the scrubbing.

Using your vinegar you want to spritz down and clean all the surfaces in the fridge. If you come across a particularly gunky bit, use a paste of baking soda and water to get some extra scrubbing power.

Once everything is clean, make sure you wipe it down well to get rid of extra moisture and start adding things back into the fridge. Check expiration dates and make sure to toss out things that have been sitting around for too long.

Step back and enjoy your sparkling clean, nicely organized fridge.

If you're like me, you tend to zone out whenever somebody starts telling you about how they're like, totally into this new eastern philosophy thingie. However, dejunkifying your house, whether you think of it as an ancient art form or not, does actually produce some measurable results in your quality of life. For example, living clutter-free helps you keep things organized so you buy less junk and know exactly what you have, which is kinda green.

As CFLs continue on the path towards mass adoption (or bridging the gap until LED bulbs become more affordable) prices are going down, bulbs are being mass-produced, and consumer groups are complaining that the quality standards are deteriorating rapidly. Has the aggressive push to make CFLs more affordable hurt quality and therefore damaged some of the CFL's hard-earned reputation?

Yes, it's my favorite all natural soap, lotion and good smelling stuff brand, Sweet Grass Farm.

I've talked before about many of their fantastic products, including the great liquid dish soap. Now there is even more to love in their homecare line!

Laundry concentrate, fabric softener, laundry sachets, linen spray, furniture wax and more. Check out the Sweet Grass Farm site to see the range of products, which are all natural, amazing smelling and very effective.

I had a bag of the laundry detergent in my kitchen for a day, the the lavender fragrance is so spring time -- strong but clean and fresh. The detergent is biodegradable and it takes just an 1/8 cup to do each load.
It totally made me want to do a load of laundry, just to get that fragrance on my sheets and towels!

With the luck I've had using the brand, I wasn't surprised to love the detergent, too. If you haven't sampled Sweet Grass Farm yet, it's time to try them out!

Is McMansion culture finally coming to an end? Current data about new homes in the US seems to indicate that the economy -- and possibly an increase in energy and environmental awareness -- is affecting the tendency to fixate on a home's square-footage above all else. From the second to fourth quarter in 2008, average new home square footage in the US plummeted from 2,629 to 2343.

While it took a major mortgage and economic meltdown to reverse the bigger is better trend, there's some real hope out there that the change will leave a lasting impression. According to VP of the National Association of Home Builders Gopal Ahluwalia: "this will remain a trend. I don't expect this (home size) to come back up ... family size has been declining for the past 35 years." Is the economy forcing us to realize what we've already knew about energy-efficiency, maintenance, and sustainability? KB Homes, one of the nation's largest builders, has watched its average home size shrink from 2,400 sq-ft to just 1,600 over the last two years. In Houston, they've started selling an 880 sq-ft house for $63,995.

[via TreeHugger]