Wow. These people in San Francisco built an entire house using nothing but trash. They got all their material from junk yards or scrap yards, and ended up spending less than $3,000 on the whole house! Take a look at the video, it’s pretty impressive (and cool). It makes you think about all the stuff that we are constantly throwing away instead of finding a way to reuse.

Be sure to check out their site, especially their page on green building. All in all, I’m thinking these people are some eco-heroes.

How many razors do you go through in a year? Probably a lot. The deadly combination of debris in the blades and moisture causes the razor blades to dull. But here is how to only use one razor per year! This is the secret to making your razor immortal (or close to it).

Get a Good Razor

Remember, you will be using this razor for a year (or maybe even more). I went ahead and splurged on a Mach 3 Turbo, and if I can get it to last for years, it will have more than paid for itself.

Clean Your Razor

After you’re done shaving (I recommend shaving while taking a navy shower), clean out yo’ razor. Use an old toothbrush to scrub out any mess stuck between the blades, then let some water run over it for a second or two. And now, the big secret to turning your razor immortal…

Dry Your Razor

I use a towel to do this, but you can also use a hair dryer. Get it as dry as you can. When you put up your razor, don’t put one of those little plastic caps on it. Those hold moisture in. Put your razor somewhere where it will stay pretty dry until the next time you use it.

That’s all there is to it. I’ve been doing this since New Year’s day, ever since I learned about it through one o’ my co-workers. So far, so good. Hopefully when next year rolls around, I’ll still be using my same razor, thereby saving plastic, metal, and some o’ my money.

Update on the Immortal Razor (May)

Death of the Immortal Razor – not so immortal after all (July)

It’s weird that so many students pack their lunches almost every day, but when they grow up and enter the good ol’ workforce, they pretty much stop packing their lunch. Most people do this because they say it’s more convenient than packing their own lunch. But if they stop and think about it, there are several great reasons to bring your lunch to work with you.

Bag Lunches Are Healthier

Many restaurants offer lunches with tons of meat and grease. There is nothing wrong with this occasionally. But when fast food starts becoming your normal lunch, your health will take a hurting. When you pack your own lunch, you can put in tons of vegetables, fruits, and other such healthy mess. Remember: packing your own lunch = getting your own six-pack.

Save Money

Unless you want to “take all of your money [and] give it up to charity”, you probably want more money. Packing your lunch is a great way to save money. Instead of spending $6-$10 on lunch, you can spend way less than that by packing yourself a sandwich and some fruit and vegetables. Plus, you will be saving money on gas, which brings means that you can also

Help the Environment

That’s right folks, by bringing a bag lunch, you will not only be getting healthier and saving money, you will be helping out Mother Earth. Less driving = less gas = less pollution. Plus, if you pack your lunch in a reusable bag, you’ll be cutting down on your waste.

So there you have it. If you want to save money, help Captain Planet, AND stay healthy, just pack yourself a bag lunch and bah-bam, you are achieving all three of those goals. So go home tonight and try it, and you’ll thank yourself tomorrow at lunchtime (unless you made a really bad lunch).

Just last night me and me woman put up our Christmas tree. As I was hanging up the millionth ornament, I started thinking about Christmas in terms of environmental impact. Just think of all the packaging thrown away every year. All the trees cut down, screaming their silent tree screams that only Captain Planet and other eco-heroes can hear. As I started to silently weep, I clenched my fist with the determination that I would find a way to “greenify” this savage winter holiday.

Eco-Friendly Christmas Tree

• Most natural Christmas trees come from tree farms, so there is only temporary deforestation from their harvest. Plus, recent studies from my alma mater have shown that if Christmas tree farmers choose their pesticides wisely (or use organic methods), they can have a negligible environmental impact. Of course, once Christmas is done, most trees are just thrown out on the curb to be taken to the landfill.
• Plastic Christmas trees have a higher embodied energy; basically all of them are made from polyvinyl chloride. But they do last forever, so they can be reused all the way until the Earth finally blows up.
• I’d recommend looking around the inside of your house for a tree (real or fake) that you already have, and just decorating that.

Green Christmas Presents

• Skimp on the packaging. If you must wrap a present, do so by reusing some magazine or newspaper pages. ‘Tis the present that counts, not the packaging.
• Give non-material presents. Perhaps coupons for a massage, yard work, or the gift of friendship, if you’re really cheap.
• Make some food for them. “Wrap” it in tupperware or a metal tin that they can reuse.
• Give a green present. Perchance a low-flow shower head, a solar roll, or a nice compost bin.

Green Traveling During Christmas

• Carpool if you’re going long distances. This will cut your gas price, and give you some company on that long holiday drive.
• Ride a bike. Throw on your coat and hop on your bike if you’re just going a short distance.
• Sled or ski. If there is snow on the ground and you only have to go downhill, this is the tip for you.
• Ride a moped. Save money, use less gas, and spread holiday cheer as people laugh at with you.
• Hitchhike. Maybe Santa Claus will pick you up in his sleigh. What a story that’d be!

Don’t forget to save energy and money this winter by following these simple tips.

After thinking up these ideas, my eco-tears finally stopped, and I was able to resume hanging ornaments on our tree. Merry Christmas to everybody, and please give a hoot, don’t pollute.

Wow, this seems like such a great way to reuse plastic bottles. Risha Sowa, an Englishman (and official EcoJoes Eco Hero), moved to Mexico back in the ’90s and built his own private island using around 250,000 plastic bottles and sand from local beaches. He had his own solar cooker, composting toilet, and lots of pets running around. Unfortunately, Spiral Island was beached during a hurricane, but Sowa is now building a new and improved version. Here’s a video of the original Spiral Island:

Bonus Fun Fact: The host of that video is none other than good ol’ Dave Lister (Craig Charles) from Red Dwarf, a great show if I do say so myself.For more information on Rishi’s past and present islands, I heartily suggest you check out his website: Spiral Islanders.

If you like the fun of having pets, but hate all the time and money it takes to take care of them, then have I got the solution for you! It’s called the Lil’ World in a Jar©®, and it combines the fun of pet ownership with the omnipotence of playing God to your tiny world. It has the added benefit of being able to teach you a thing or two about eco-systems, and all the interactions that take place in them. Here is how to make your very own Lil’ World in a Jar.

Get yourself a smooth-sided glass jar. Pickle-jar-size will do. You want smooth sides so that dirt doesn’t settle on the ridges of the inside of the jar.

Grab your jar and go find a swamp or pond or lake. Look for a lot of plants in shallow water; there will be a lot of plants and animals in areas like that.

Using a cup, scoop some of the pond mud into your jar. Add water and swamp mess until your jar is almost full. Be sure to leave some room for air.

Seal up the jar, and bring it back to your house. Put it in a good, sunny window. The sunnier, the better.

What Will Happen?

Over the next couple days, you will hopefully be able to see tiny creatures swimming back and forth. Some plants might even begin to grow. As time goes on, you might observe strange creatures and their habits, or you might see plants grow to dominate this lil’ world. There are many different variations as to what you could see, so the only way to know for sure is to go out and do this experiment.

As for my world in a jar, I came home one day to find that one of my cats had murderously knocked it off the windowsill and onto the floor. Everything in it was in abject chaos. After waterboarding the cat to punish it, I set the lil’ world in a jar back up, but all that has grown since that disaster has been algae. Hopefully you’ll have better luck with this. Good luck to anyone trying this out; it should turn out pretty cool.

Welp, today I finally took the plunge and actually managed to have a cloth bag in my car when I went to the grocery store. As I entered the store with my reusable cloth bag in hand, little did I know the amazing experience that I was about to have…

No Shopping Cart, No Problem

I passed rotch by the shopping carts, and just went straight to filling my cloth bag with some groceries. This was good, since I just could go straight to the food. Of course, I wasn’t getting too much stuff, but if you are, you might want to use that shopping cart.

Durability

After buying the groceries, I stuffed most of the food inside the reusable cloth bag. I didn’t have to worry about it ripping (like a plastic or even paper bag might have), so I just stuffed food into it until it couldn’t hold no more. Luckily, the tote bag held quite a bit, mainly because it had

More Room than a Plastic or Paper Bag

I was downright dumbfounded when I dared to discern the depth of the dapper cloth bag. I fit pretty much all the groceries I bought into it, making it easier to carry them all to the car and into mi casa. The only groceries I didn’t put into the bag were the ones that already came in a bag (a bag o’ apples). So the reusable cloth bag’s big volume was a definite advantage over plastic or paper bags.

Lack o’ Clutter

I would’ve used two or three plastic or paper bags today, but instead I just used one reusable cloth bag. The paper or plastic bags would’ve ended up taking up more room inside my house, but Mr. Cloth Bag just sits in the car, awaiting another mission to the grocery store.

Ecological Impact

This is what causes most people to choose reusable cloth bags over flimsy, disposable paper or plastic bags. Yes, it took some ink (and chemicals) to make my cloth bag, but now that I am reusing it again and again, that can be a sunk cost. If I was to continue to use paper and plastic bags, each one would have a double environmental impact; the considerable chemicals used in their production, plus the impact of their disposal, whether it’s in a landfill, or disposed by burning it.

Using a reusable cloth bag seems to be the way to go. It’s a tiny difference that everyone can easily make, and instead of being a sacrifice they have to make, it’ll actually give them the same benefits that I enjoyed today. So be cool, and use (and reuse) that cloth bag with pride.

Oh yeah, I got my reusable cloth bag for free. So they’re not too expensive.