Recycla is not going to lie — she really, really, really dislikes the heat. If she did not love her hometown in Virginia as much as she does, she’d be actively searching for a cooler climate in which to live. Summers in Virginia are hot and humid and the heat arrives in June and lingers until well past the autumnal equinox in September.

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Because of her aversion to heat, Recycla has numerous coping strategies to keep herself cool. Today, she wants to share two in particular with you:

First of all, want your home to be cooler during the dog days of summer?  Close your curtains.  Just by blocking out the light on the east and west sides of your house, you can keep the sun’s hot rays out and keep your house cooler.  Recycla angles the blinds on the east side of her house downward in the morning and opens them completely after lunch.  At the same time, she angles the blinds on the west side of her house until late in the day. If this sounds like a lot of work, it’s not.  It takes just a few minutes and Recycla’s house feels cooler, plus her air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard.

Next, when it’s hot out and you’re out and about in your car, park in the shade whenever possible, which not only helps your car stay cooler, it helps decrease fuel lost to evaporation. Gas evaporates quickly and even escapes from closed tanks, and this process is hastened by summer’s heat. Another way to help keep the interior of your car cool is to use one of those folding shades to cover your windshield when you’re not driving. Keeping your vehicle cooler also means that you’ll also run your air conditioner less, which also saves on fuel.

Just those two actions help make summer’s heat a teeny tiny bit more bearable for Recycla. (Okay, and making big batches of iced coffee too.)

Eco-Lassie loves to find new uses for household items, and when she was cleaning out a closet recently, she came across a can of hair spray. Now the last time Eco Lassie used hair spray was for her a wedding in 2005–when an updo needed to be tamed. But here was a perfectly good, almost full can of hair spray. Surely there had to be more uses for it.

Eco Lassie had heard it said by her southern neighbors that you can use good old-fashioned hair spray to remove chewing gum. Really. Spray it right on and harden a glob of that goo, then scrape it away with a knife from material or carpets.

This doesn’t happen often enough in Eco Lassie’s house, but when she does bother to shine her leather loafers, she just found out that a light coat of hair spray for the finishing touch will keep that shine lasting even longer.

And while you’ve got that rag and spray out, you can also use it on machine-washable fabrics to get out that lip gloss stain from your honey’s favorite white shirt after date night. Saturate the smudge with your handy dandy hair spray and rub it in, then machine wash to remove the last hint of color and extra spray.But that’s not all your stiff stuff will do: if you’ll bother to spritz the toes of freshly-washed pantyhose, you’ll add life to each pair because the polymers used in making hair spray will help to prevent the stockings from running.

The next time you clean out your closet, stop and do a bit of research before tossing that item you thought you had no use for — chances are, someone else has been there done that, and there are all sorts of ways to recycle common, everyday items you run across.

What if you could buy a lightbulb that would last for 20 years, so you would rarely ever have to replace bulbs in lamps and light fixtures?

Photo courtesy of Philips.

As it happens, such a lightbulb has just come on the market. It’s the new 20-year LED lightbulb developed by Philips and the winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s L Prize, which is an initiative to develop alternative sources of lighting.

According to Philips, the bulb will use only 10 watts of power and will save $8 per year if it’s used four hours a day. It’s expected to last 30,000 hours, which is 30x longer than incandescent bulbs.  (Not that it matters, since those are being phased out anyway.)

Compared to compact fluorescent bulbs, the energy savings are similar, but the Philips bulb will last three times longer than a CFL and gives off a more natural-looking light. It doesn’t contain the mercury vapor that’s inside CFL’s and which creates a toxic hazard when they break.

One thing that is problematic is that this new bulb will cost significantly more than CFL’s, which average around $5. The new bulb costs $60 but Philips is discounting it to $50 and looking for other ways to bring the price down, including making deals with electric companies. The eventual goal is to price the bulbs in the $20-30 range.

What do you think fellow Eco Warriors? Would you spend that much money on a lightbulb if it meant that it would last far longer?

In case you need some incentive to make some changes to your paper use, did you know that we could save more than a half million trees if every U.S. household replaced just one roll of virgin-fiber paper towels with a roll of 100% recycled ones? Now imagine how many trees could remain standing if everyone switched to cloth rags for spills and cleaning! Throw some cloth napkins into the mix for even just one or two dinners a week and you’re really saving trees.

Recycla hasn’t bought paper towels in a few years and her family hasn’t missed them. She has cloth rags stashed in various places around the house for quick clean ups and more intense cleaning sessions — they add little to her laundry load and she’s thrilled to know that she’s not using trees to wipe up messes. The savings to her household budget aren’t huge, but when you start calculating all the little changes — not buying paper towels, not buying as many paper napkins, not buying Clorox wipes and the like — then the savings start to add up.

So if you’re looking for one easy thing to do this week, this is it.

1.  Wool Sweaters–you can save the planet and some money by ignoring the “Dry Clean Only” labels, but you still need to wash them because dirty clothes attract bugs.  Hand wash in cold water with a gentle detergent, lay flat on a towel to dry.  Easy-peasy.   Your wool can then be folded and stored in a safe spot–with a cedar block if you’re concerned about moths doing damage.  (NO MOTH BALLS–they are very toxic!   For more specifics on clothing moths, click here. )

2.  Wool coats/blazers probably need a trip to the cleaners, but do not store them wrapped in that plastic bag from the drycleaners.  The plastic bag will retain moisture and eventually create more problems than you may have staved off by getting your stuff cleaned.  Remove from bag and hang up or store as you normally would.  Take those giant plastic bags, tie off the ends and repurpose them as garbage bags.

3.  Boots can get scrubbed with a soft brush and some laundry detergent–except for leather.  Enviro Girl makes sure the family’s boots are dry before stuffing them with old newspapers (to absorb any moisture/odors) and storing on a closet shelf.

4.  Leather boots need to be wiped down with leather cleaner–Enviro Girl likes old-fashioned Saddle Soap, and plenty of eco-friendly brands of leather cleaner can be found in stores and online.  She then stuffs boots with newspapers (to absorb moisture/odors) and stores them in a closet.

5.  Hats, mittens and scarves should get run through the wash and dried well before storing.  If you store dirty clothing, not only will you end up with a potentially funky smell, you increase the risk of pests. Enviro Girl gathers all of her family’s hats, mittens and scarves into an old pillowcase, adds a cedar block and shoves the whole works into a cupboard.

Where to store all of your winter things?  Someplace dry and well-ventilated.  Enviro Girl has a cedar chest in her bedroom for sweaters and such, but she hangs jackets and coats in a closet and sets the boots on a closet shelf.  Her family has enough closet space to use for all of their seasonal clothes, so Enviro Girl simply makes sure things are clean before hanging them up again.  If you’re pressed for closet space, storing clothes in airtight containers for the short term is okay, but she wouldn’t suggest it for longer than a year.  If you want to counteract musty smells when you unzip/unpack/unwrap your winter clothes next season, Enviro Girl recommends a bar of scented soap, a few sprigs of dry lavender or cedar blocks.  Lavender and cedar blocks help prevent pests, like moths, too.  You can stave off pests and preserve your wardrobe without resorting to chemicals if you take the time to store things right.

Part of a “Greener Consciousness” is having less stuff. A great way to achieve this end is by renting or borrowing. For minimal cost, you can enjoy all of the benefits of a rototiller, movie, party tables and chairs and even an RV. Since buying less stuff means a smaller carbon footprint, renting and borrowing is not only an economically sound choice, it’s environmentally beneficial as well. Many hardware stores offer a huge inventory of items to rent, and many cities have party warehouses where you can rent the necessities for any size of bash for any type of celebration. The concept of renting and borrowing has evolved far beyond video stores, time share condominiums in Florida and public libraries–you can even share ownership of a car through Flexcar and Zipcar.

Borrowing can be beneficial too. Two of Enviro Girl’s neighbors borrow her family’s rototiller every spring, in turn one lends her use of his full-size pickup truck on the rare occasion she has something large to haul. Another neighbor lends his tractor for field work. Their neighborhood generously lends out books, cake pans, card tables and chairs, extra rakes and pitchforks and shovels, garden hoses, sprinklers, serving trays and lawn chairs as freely as most neighborhoods exchange recipes. In this spirit of generosity, everyone has what they need when they need it, and most items are returned with a plateful of fresh-baked cookies. Enviro Girl thinks there is no better payment for use of a rototiller than warm chocolate chip cookies.

Sometimes it’s worth the money and hassle to buy something to own it.  But the next time you’re considering purchasing an item that you’ll use only once or twice a year before finding space to store it, rent it or borrow it instead. Your wallet and your storage cupboards will thank you.

Tell the Eco Women:  what do you rent or borrow?

The cleaning industry has pushed consumers into using disposable cloths and towels–it’s a huge money-maker for them, but it’s also a huge burden on our planet. The production, packaging and final toss into a county landfill take human “convenience” to a perfectly loathsome level of wasteful and toxic behavior.  Rags are free, reusable after washing and most fabric fibers decompose over time when you finally do retire them to your compost pile or the local landfill. Reincarnating old clothes as rags is a step closer to Enlightenment–and a step away from further global devastation.

Love your planet–reuse your old clothes when tackling cleaning chores. Put that “Lakeville Youth Soccer” t-shirt back in the game–it’s got several seasons left in it playing a new position!

What do these items have in common? They all qualify as hazardous waste. Generally hazardous waste is anything labeled ,“FLAMMABLE,” “CORROSIVE,” “REACTIVE”, “POISON” and “COMBUSTIBLE.” These items MUST be disposed of properly or they can poison the soil, groundwater or even the air. Simply hiding them in your garbage dumpster and hoping nobody notices them on their way to your local landfill endangers sanitation workers–or even pets and small children who might get into your garbage before it leaves your curb.

Because hazardous waste is a harsh reality in a world full of harsh chemicals, most landfills are equipped to safely dispose of it. Check with your local landfill (by phone or online) and see when hazardous waste collections are held–most offer a spring and a fall “Clean Sweep” and many will collect it throughout the year on Saturdays. Proper disposal of hazardous waste takes a little time and effort, but it’s free, it’s easy to do and it makes our planet a safer place.

Enviro-Girl says: Do your spring cleaning, but safely dispose of your trash!

The Green Queen thinks this is an easy way to remember your goals for the year: simply set 12 goals for 2012.

Check out this list and pick out a few or make a few of your own.

Plastic
• Buy fewer items in plastic containers.
• At work, purchase a drink glass with a unique design (so you can easily tell which one is yours)
• Bring your own travel coffee mug to your local coffee shop and ask if you can leave it there – some smaller shops will let you do this.

Paper
• Only print documents from the web, if you need to keep them, otherwise hold down your control button and the “print screen” button at the same time. Then simply go to a Word/WordPerfect document and hit your control + the “v” button. This will give you a document you can save on your hard drive with no need to print it out.
• Print on both sides of the paper.
• Use the reverse side of documents such as scrap paper and notepads.

If you’re already recycling, simply step up your efforts. The list of reusable items – from coffee filters to sandwich bags – is growing every day.

The Green Queen uses plastic baggies to store food and then reuses the baggies for walks with the dog.

Recycling at Work:
*Create trash hubs so you make it easier for everyone to participate. Put recycling containers and trash cans in the same area.
*Clearly label all bins with decals/signage of what is acceptable recycling materials. This includes trash cans which should be labeled “trash only—no recyclables.”
*Use different colored bins. Recycling bins should look different from trash cans.
*Use disposable bags only when necessary. If a bin is only collecting clean paper, do not use plastic liners.
*Educate. Tell people exactly what to do and send periodic reminders.

Recycling at Home
*Keep a set place to store recyclables.
*Ask your local trash company if they recycle. Or, once a week take your recycling to the local recycling bank.
*Cancel unwanted mail deliveries and newspapers, or read news and magazines online.
*Reuse paper around the house as scrap paper or packing material. Envelopes can also be reused.

The Green Queen is hoping this list will inspire you to pick one of two goals or maybe you’ll be able to do 12 in 12.

If you have a few ideas, please post them in the comments section to help inspire others.

It was, as you can imagine, a difficult situation, made all the worse by the fact that this happened when she was sleepily making morning coffee and really looking forward to that first cup right then.

The entire coffee maker didn’t break, just the glass pot, which was both good and bad. (Okay, at that moment, it was all bad.) A quick online search to the coffee maker’s manufacturer showed that Recycla could easily order a replacement glass pot. Unfortunately, the cost of that pot + shipping was going to be more than just buying a whole new coffee maker.

Recycla dithered for hours. Should she spend more money and get just the glass pot or should she buy something new for less money? This normally would be an easy decision — she’d just get the replacement coffee pot and keep the set-up she already had — but Recycla has had a few experiences with appliance parts breaking and then she has been unable to order a replacement part because it has been discontinued. Should she buy something that could easily break again? And what if the next time she couldn’t get a replacement part?

At the same time, Recycla started wondering what the most environmentally friendly coffee maker option would be.These days, traditional coffee makers are mostly made of plastic with either glass or metal coffee pots. Recycla really didn’t want to buy another piece of plastic. And, not only are many coffee makers made with plastic, they also require paper filters. While it is possible to buy filters made from recycled paper and then compost the filter and grounds afterward, Recycla is guessing that most people do not. And even if everyone did, the fact is, making those paper filters takes resources and chemicals.

So let’s look at other options…

What about a French press? Most do not have much or any plastic pieces. They also do not require paper filters. All you do is boil water in a kettle or the microwave, then pour it into the French press.

Recycla has had a French press and it was a simple, low fuss way to make coffee. Unfortunately, there is the glass component and Recycla’s joined the pantheon of small appliances in her life that eventually shattered. So she decided not to get another French press.

Recycla also considered good old fashioned metal percolators. You pour water into the pot, scoop the coffee into the metal basket, and set the whole shebang on the stove top to heat up. From start to finish, you can have coffee in about 10 minutes and you don’t need paper filters, nor are there any glass parts.

She also has very happy memories associated with these from when she was growing up and would visit her grandparents for overnight visits. Every morning at 5:00, even after they retired, her grandparents would start the day off with coffee brewed in their percolator. In her mind, Recycla could still smell the coffee wafting through the house and hear the sound of the coffee percolating while her grandparents talked quietly.

That sealed the deal. Recycla got a new metal percolator and has been happily brewing coffee in the weeks since. She buys organic free-trade coffee, knowing that the extra expense means better working conditions for the coffee bean growers.

(Recycla packaged up the coffee maker and filters, stuck in a note about where to find the replacement pot, and donated it to a local thrift shop.)

There are a few gaps in Recycla’s coffee considerations. First of all, she did not consider instant coffee because that’s not her particular preference. However, she does keep some Starbucks Via single serving instant coffee packets for those occasions when she’s in a huge hurry and needs to brew up some coffee in 90 seconds or less. They are not a daily habit for her because: 1) the coffee packets are expensive and 2) they are wasteful. So this is not a good long-term coffee solution for Eco Warriors.

Recycla also knows quite a few people who absolutely love their Keurig coffee makers with the K-Cup flavored packs. She also does not consider this to be a reasonable eco option, for two reasons: 1) Again, those packets are served up in little plastic containers that add a lot of waste to landfills, and 2) while you can get organic coffee packets, many others are not only not organic, they contain other chemically-derived ingredients. If Recycla wants to add flavor to her coffee, she’ll add the real thing. (She can attest that a few chocolate chips stirred in add a delightful touch of cocoa to coffee.)

So that’s Recycla’s coffee report. What say you, fellow Eco Warriors? Are you coffee drinkers? If so, what’s your java of choice?

Disclaimer: The Eco Women are not employees of any of the companies mentioned, nor were they asked to review any products. Photo credits: Amazon.