Posted by Candice on December 15, 2009 at 23:44 pm
Green Holiday Season with LED Lights
The appearance of Christmas lights around the neighborhood is one of my favorite things about the weekend of Thanksgiving. Evening drives to see what how our community neighbors have decorated are so much fun and then there are the famous neighborhood where every house goes all out. In our attempt to be more eco-friendly we’ve been wondering whether we should make the switch to LED lighting. We looked at LEDs last season but there was a very limited selection of very basic lights. It seems like there are more choices this season but how much of a difference does using LEDs really make?
LED lights use 90% less electricity than traditional tungsten bulbs which lowers your energy consumption and be extension reduces your carbon footprint. Not to mention the saving on a reduced electricity bill. Another way LED Christmas lights save you money is that they last much longer than traditional Christmas lights – about 100,000 hours – and you don’t have to throw away a whole strand if one bulb burns out. LEDs also burn brighter so you don’t need as many to get the same effect. They also don’t get as hot which can be a benefit if you have children around the house who might touch tree lights.
So it looks like LEDs are the eco-friendly choice when it comes to Christmas lights. Seems the Whitehouse is on board with LEDs and there are talks of making LEDs mandatory in certain cities and states. If you make the switch – how do you responsibly dispose of your old lights so they don’t end up in a landfill? Don’t throw them away, recycle them! Send us your old Christmas lights to Environmental LED and they will recycle them … and send you a coupon for 15% off new LED lights.
Posted by Candice on December 4, 2009 at 13:52 pm
Friday
The Good Human, a website founded by a guy called David, encourages people to be better humans through working to clean up the environment, being active in political issues and being more aware of one’s life and surroundings. David says “there are so many ways that we can all contribute to our existence here on Earth, and I found over time that mine was talking about environmentalism and sustainability issues.”
David covers a wide range of topics from solar energy to environmental impact of the fashion industry. There is lots to read about recycling, green washing, energy efficiency and other advice on how to “go green”. Of interest to us are the topics on natural cleaning. David has a comprehensive list of ways to use homemade cleaning products to tackle just about every cleaning task in your house. Many of them we’ve blogged about in our Green Cleaning Pantry series.
There is a series called ‘Greenwash of the Week’ and one example calls out SC Johnson on the Nature’s Source line which they claim to be simple, biodegradable, plant-based cleaner, however, David points out that they still contain non-natural ingredients including fragrances, dyes, stabilizers and preservatives.
The Good Human is definitely worth adding to your RSS reader or a quick browse now and then when you have the time.
Posted by Candice on December 2, 2009 at 23:41 pm
Green and Clean Holiday Season - The Tree
This is the first in our holiday season series about how to have a green and clean holiday season. In this first post we look at the tree!
For those celebrating Christmas, the tree aside from Santa and the Nativity is the most recognizable icon. When it comes to the Christmas Tree is seems the debate centers around real or fake/artificial. Just in the past two days I have seen people sharing their opinions on Facebook and Twitter and it seems people have strong feelings on the topic but there is no consensus.
Read More
BidMyCleaning.com