Junk mail is annoying and harmful.

No, I’m not talking about the spam in your inbox, but the actual physical paper junk that jams our mailboxes each and every day.

Some 100 billion pieces of junk mail are received by Americans each year and the paper used to create this gob-smacking pile typically comes from endangered forests.

Everything related to junk mail is harmful to the environment: the paper production causes deforestation; it’s costly to print and distribute; even its recycling results in megatons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Before you convert your mailbox to a bird house, consider the ForestEthics Do Not Mail campaign at DoNotMail.org and sign the petition to stop junk mail for good.  Also, call the marketing companies who are sending it and have them remove you from their list permanently.

Stop junk mail and click here to learn more options for sorting out the junk.

Photo by PhotoInference.

Word of the day: upcycling.

What does it mean for the way we think about our trash?

Originally coined by Michael Braungart and William McDonough, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, upcycling is the liberation of discarded materials to create something completely new and beneficial.  It differs from recycling in that the material doesn’t need to go through any extra steps to begin it’s new life as something else.

Take a sheet of hard industrial plastic, for example.  To recycle it, the type of plastic must be identified, sorted, cleaned, and reformed using a slew of chemical processes.  The same sheet can instead be upcycled and used with little or no modification to become the surface of a picnic table or other useful permanent object.  Upcycling gives meaning to the hands-on reuse of materials in their original state without the mystery of the hands-off method of recycling.

For some ways to try upcycling for yourself, check out these links!

Upcycle Art

Upcycling Old Clothes

Upcycled Furniture

Photo by Enno de Kroon.

With a third of our country’s waste problem completely avoidable, it’s interesting to follow the progress of a developing market that hinges on it’s removal and recycling.

Ed Gildea, CEO of Converted Organics, shared a few moments with us to discuss the process and ethos of turning food waste into organic fertilizers.  Ed’s background in law and finance coupled with the sustainable business policies formulated by his brother, Bill Gildea, set him up as one of the leading visionaries in the restructuring of American waste stream management.

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Did you happen to notice the energy efficiency of mom’s kitchen appliances this past Mother’s Day? While most gatherings in the home inevitably end up in the kitchen, what could be eating you out of house and home may not be your relatives but your appliances!

Major kitchen machines require a daily expenditure of energy whether it be gas, water, or electricity, and some even require power 24 hours a day. Outdated and improperly installed units could be releasing extremely harmful levels carbon monoxide into the air you and your family breathe.

Don Swift, Technical Director of Conservation Services Group, part of Home Performance with Energy Star.

It’s likely unnecessary for you to have to purchase an entirely new set of kitchen appliances if they’re in good working order and purchased within the last 15 years. If you do need to ditch the dishwasher or fridge, most manufacturers now offer take-back programs where they’ll organize a pickup from your house, retrieve, and recycle the parts that are still good.