We live in a throw away consumerist society. Once something that was made for a certain purpose comes to the end of it’s (usually short) life span as ‘something useful’, more often then not it is thrown away. It joins the forgotten others in the forever growing pile of waste that will exist in disregard.

The waste hierarchy refers to the 3Rs of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability, and are meant to be a hierarchy in order of importance.

What is Upcycling?

A new term I have stumbled across, that isn’t even in my Oxford American Dictionary is ‘Upcycling’ which Wikipedia defines as

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. The goal of upcycling is to prevent wasting potentially useful materials by making use of existing ones. Read More & Comment →

We have come across something that ticks every box (with a bold marker pen!) in the quest for the ultimate sustainable, chemical free, affordable and effective laundry and multi-purpose cleaner. People in Asia, India and Indonesia have already been using it for centuries in Ayurveda and as an effective clothing and multipurpose cleaner.

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I never thought an internet map could be so beautiful! Image by Matt Britt

Although us greenies are all about connecting with nature, we still like technology and sometimes it is necessary to be connected to the internet, whether it is to meet like-minded individuals or to share our involvement in the ‘eco – revolution’.

Every time we go online we are faced with the hypocritical dilemma of using web servers (computers that can store and serve content over the internet). They are housed in data centres that are up to 40 times more energy intensive than standard office buildings, running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and consuming gross amounts of energy which is mostly generated by coal fired power plants. Read More & Comment →