New Green ThoughtsSaving the environment one word at a time

I received a media realise via email about a manure fiber-based pot from CowPots:

CowPots Inks Distribution Deal to Deliver Its Green Alternative for Starting Plants

(Broadheadsville, PA) – Matt Freund, inventor of CowPots™ manure fiber-based growing pots, has announced a distribution partnership with The Liquid Fence® Company of Brodheadsville, PA.

CowPots, along with Freund, have been featured on the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and on Larry King Live.

“CowPots will benefit significantly from The Liquid Fence Company’s extensive sales and marketing capabilities,” said Freund. “They’ve got a great reputation for producing effective, environmentally-friendly products.”

CowPots were an invention of necessity. Brothers Matt and Ben Freund, second generation dairy farmers in the northwest hills of Connecticut, wanted to find a use for the vast quantities of manure that covered their fields.

The Freunds have been leaders in developing technologies to help farmers produce milk in an environmentally sound manner. Since 1997, Freund’s Farm is one of only a handful of farms across the United States to have continuously run a methane digester.

Cow manure is heated by the methane gas collected from the digester, and liquid from the digested manure is applied to crops in a timely fashion to optimize crop nutrient uptake. The Freunds then use the excess material and the energy created by the process in the production of CowPots.

“We wanted the cows to provide everything from the feed stock to the energy for the production of CowPots,” declares Matt Freund. “Our goal is to be totally sustainable.”

CowPots are designed to be planted in the ground and are 100% biodegradable. The production process eliminates weed seeds as well as pathogens and offensive odors.

The biodegradable pots make it easier to plant trees and plant–just put them into the soil. There is no need to transplant the trees.

Tender, young roots easily penetrate the sides and bottoms of the pots, allowing them to get air and grow unrestricted. The manure attracts earthworms and is good for the garden overall. And unlike peat, which is mined from bog ecosystems, or plastic, which is derived from finite fossil sources, cow manure is a renewable resource.

CowPots can be bought from liquidfence.com.

Public transportation has had its share of issues as far as greenhouse gases today is concerned and apparently, Dublin has moved forward with the use of eco-cabs. The service and the usual things are there except the oil using engines which contribute largely towards how greenhouse gases and pollution are in play today.

Also, the seating capacity may not be that many as they have been limited to a 3-passenger capacity and if you are lucky enough to get some good advertisers, you can use that to pay for the cab driver’s daily salary.

Ecocabs can be found in Dublin, Ireland, and are a new-age bicycle rickshaw with a full tilt “ad-wrap” around the back that can’t be ignored. The clever part about Ecocabs is that the advertising pays for the vehicle and the driver’s salary, so the trip is entirely free to the passengers. Up to three passengers can fit in the back of an Ecocab, but the green transportation is only available in the most congested part of Dublin.

I guess another benefit is that the fit Ecocab drivers are probably a little more fun to look at than some of the New York City cabbies that I’ve risked my life with.

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Are you looking for new furniture? Well if you are, you don’t have to worry about cost and materials all the time. The trend today is to consider eco-friendly made furniture and apparently there are a lot of furniture companies who offer this in the market.

Global Surroundings will be offering such eco-friendly furniture made from woven resins and reclaimed teak furniture in Miami on September 17.

‘After our huge success introducing our products at the HD Expo in Las Vegas, we felt the HD Boutique was the perfect venue to display this unique collection to the southeastern US and all of the Caribbean islands,’ said JL Jackson, President of Global Surroundings. ‘Contract and commercial applications today are demanding the products going into the projects be eco-friendly and sustainable and our furniture delivers’.

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For the people who are crazy about burning files and movies, one thing that you should note is that the DVD does not have to be all that expensive. There are branded DVDs these days but if you think about it, any disc that can be read in the standard DVD players or components will do.

We see a lot of them today but if there is one thing that will surely be cheaper then DVDs made from recycled materials would be better. Flex-Lite Media has offered such a disc in the market and once it reaches key areas of the world, expect the demand for it to swell!

Unlike traditional DVD media, the new Flex-Lite disc is lightweight and flexible. ProAction Media designed this disc to be consumer friendly, offering unmatched durability. These discs are made to survive the rigors of shipping, and can withstand even the harshest treatment. This amazing new eco-friendly material is also so lightweight that shipping costs are dramatically reduced.

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If you mention the issue of growing trash problems, one thing you would have to wonder is where are the incinerators at? Sure they cost a lot but wouldn’t the investment in them pay off? We have a lot of tax-paying citizens and surely they are due to have some sort of comfort when it comes to addressing the waste problem.

Garbage woes are plaguing the world. We have heard of various solutions such as a recycling center and the incinerator. We are gearing towards recycling and minimizing waste, both natural responsibilities to which people can do on their own. But this cannot last forever. Sooner or later there will be a need for machinery and technology as far as waste management assistance is concerned.

There are countries who have adopted and invested in incinerators. But the fact of the matter is, where does the rest of the world fall in? Surely it is a hefty investment, but rather than see the world filled with waste, the price to pay for getting one is surely worth every penny if taken analytically.

We have seen through the months a lot of uniquely designed USB storage devices and the MemoTrek is another one of these devices but applies a twist with its woody bamboo casing. Tagged as the Woody Bamboo, this customized USB design from MemoTrekk Techonologies Ltd. is exclusively made out of hardened and extremely durable bamboo and blends traditional Eastern influences with modern technology.

It is encapsulated in a solid and beautifully carved wooden bamboo casing, a high-speed NAND flash memory from Hynix is ready to conceive important corporate data. A definite must have for the people on the go with the need to access data for most parts of their work.

The “Woody Bamboo” is available in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB versions and is sold at minimum quantities of 100 units. For more information on availability and customizations of this unique and eco-friendly promotional USB flash drive visit the MemoTrek corporate website and see the full specifications of the the at Eco-friendly USB Flash Drive Woody Bamboo.

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Care for our bodies is important and for most people, turning to the usual herbal and body wash products available in the market is common practice. Surely, among the needs to be identified today is how green or eco-friendly they are as far as production and materials use is concerned. Fortunately, actor Brad Pitt has taken the initiative to co-sponsor such efforts by introducing an eco-friendly body wash called the Aloe Vera Biodegradable Liquid Body Cleanser.

The cleanser is the first complete 100 percent eco-friendly product from the beauty company. One hundred of the net profits from its sales will benefit JPF Eco Systems, a foundation by Kiehl’s and Brad supporting global environmental initiatives. It will retail for $16.50 per bottle and is expected to raise at least $1 million for charity.

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So for the people looking for something good for the body which is also for a good cause, watch out for this liquid body cleanser. It is something you will surely appreciate and aid your body in getting much needed relaxation and cleansing.

We have seen the evolution of the standard urinals towards the much publicized waterless urinals. Especially focused on the commercial places, men can go to the comfort room without worrying about flushing it and contracting germs in the process. If you will notice it normally says that “This Urinals save 60,000 gallons of water” and so forth. Quite impressive if you talk about conserving water through constant flushing of toilets.

And now the drawback. How about the women? How will they experience the waterless urinal technology if they don’t have one especially made for the female population? This is perhaps one thing waterless urinals failed to consider. Just like men, women go to the urinals as well so how are they to conserve water if they use the standard toilets that have to be flushed to avoid the stinking smell of personal waste?

In all, it seems that this is a critical drawback as far as catering to water conservation for all. Women cannot experience the intent of conserving water with this limitation. In fact, how can the developers do it while at the same time making sure that unwanted odors do not smell while conserving water at the same time?

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For some people, perks or rewards are perhaps the best way to entice them to comply with certain standards these days. Emphasizing on eco-friendly practices is certainly something that many people can do and to reward the folks who have really taken the call for recycling by heart, here is something interesting you may find totally rewarding:

Recycling may be getting easier each year, but let’s face it: People are lazy. That’s why bottles get thrown into trash bins when recycling bins are a foot away. It’s also why technology ends up in landfills, when it could be deconstructed for its perfectly good parts. Four programs are trying to change that by offering armchair environmentalists cold, hard cash to recycle their stuff.

You can check out these four programs where you can convert trash to cash. For sure this is something that will get the attention of people, especially in these trying times of financial crisis.

(Source) Yahoo Finance

For countries that want to bolster their exposure, adding the eco-friendly tag is something that we are slowly seeing. Using alternative sources of energy, lines and design, there will always be something green that attractions will try to emphasize on to draw in a crowd.

One thing you have to note is the true intent. Are they really doing it to showcase their contribution towards eco-friendliness against global warming or are they just claiming it to get new customers from the globe. In fact it has occurred to me, how sure are we that these eco-friendly practices were not there before and it just so happened that they are just looking for something in the current line of operations to boast as eco-friendly.

Depending on your approach green audits should be made. Some have taken in eco-friendly certification (seems similar to ISO certification), to silence all detractors. But what about other establishments who merely claim they are eco-friendly? It is easy to do that. It is being certified that is the hard part.

The reason why I have been pointing at this aspect is that to go eco-friendly, you need to invest on it. At the rate that people today are apprehensive at spending on green technology, a marketing aspect of it is to ignite it all with a psychological way of branding expectations. Tourism spots such as beaches are easy to brand eco-friendly. But comparing it to how international beaches are handled, one person will never know unless they actually go there and give it the thumbs up.

Reviews on places to go may be a good way to assess the level of eco-friendliness. But just the same, let us hope that their stay is not offset by acknowledging the much ballyhooed green compliance of these places. So on whether these green standards are truly met is anyone’s guess; unless you have actually been there to see why they claim green.