One tip I had read about recently is the fact that many staples end up in the garbage each day.   I don’t have any statistics on how many are thrown away, I just know what I have done to eliminate my staple waste.  Paperclips are reusable and do just as good of a job as staples if not better.   I actually have grown to prefer paperclips because I can easily change the order of the stack of papers; with staples I can’t.  They also make earth friendly staplers.  They perforate the pages and you would fold over a small cut-out which replaces the use of staples.  Give me your tips of reducing staple use in your home or work environment.

After some thought, we decided that our big green goal for this week on vacation is to get out and clean up the beach.  There are several things we could do to participate and become more active, but I think that as long as we commit to making small green decisions every day, in addition to cleaning up the beaches, we will have made some progress this week.  This week’s task is to spend some time cleaning the beach while we are on vacation.

After some discussions about various activities we could participate in or tours we could go on, I thought it appropriate to take our vacation and do nothing.  Since we are close to the beach and restaurants, I think we will not need to drive that much or really need to spend much in resources for our daily living.  I am sure we will do some driving and wasting, but it may be minimal.

I will try to keep you all updated on what is happening in these neck of the woods and will post some pictures of our environmentally friendly escapades.

One quick tip that we will do this vacation to help reduce our carbon foot print:  we will pack light.  When flying, each additional 10 pounds per traveler requires an added 350 million gallons of jet fuel per year.    I always tend to over pack, and not use several items that I take with me anyways.  This year we will audit what we normally bring and ask ourselves. “do we really need this?”  We will bring  smaller sized things, like toothpaste, shampoo and soaps (ones that we have gotten free from hotels anyways).  Since we will only bring one bag between the two of us, we will have less baggage charges and it will require less time for the ticket counter to process us.  It’s a win-win situation.  Feel free to leave us any of your own experiences traveling lighter.

Soon, we will be on vacation and although I know that we will create some additional waste on the trip, I still want to make sure to continue on my green quest.  This week’s green challenge is to find some green tasks to do while we are on vacation.  I think I know at least one thing we will while we are in San Diego… pick up garbage off of the beach.

We have been going to San Diego for several years to visit my parents and go on at least one walk a day.  I figured that we could take a bag on a few of our walks and pick up garbage to either put in the proper receptacle or recycle.  Although the Mission Beach area is a nice beach, I am sure there will be plenty of garbage to pick up.

Garbage on the beach might end up in the ocean or vice versa.  There is even a large area of garbage in the ocean that is called the great garbage patch.  This pile of garbage is the size of Texas.  Well, Ashley and I may not be able to clean up the entire ocean, but possibly we can take one small step to try and be part of the solution.

I am really looking forward to this trip and I hope that we can do a little to help with the environment also.  If you have any green activities you could suggest or interesting things in the San Diego area, please let me know in the comments area below.

A winner has been selected for our NatureMill giveaway competition.  Check your emails and if you got one from me saying that you are the winner… then you are the winner.  Funny how that works. Thank you everyone for entering and I hope you stick around to keep an eye on the going-ons at www.guygoesgreen.com and consider www.naturemill.com if you are ever in the market for a great composter.

It is a new week and we are one step further in our year long journey of going green.  This week’s green challenge is to look at eco friendly activities I can do while on vacation.  We are going to visit my mother in San Diego soon and want to make sure that we are continuing on our process of reducing our impact.  We are also spending a little time in LA.  I think it wise to admit to the waste that I know we are going to produce as a result of the trip. Today’s post is a pre-audit of the eco-unfriendly things we will do while on our trip.

The Plane Trip – The plane trip will emit CO2.  According to Terrapass, we will use about 3,160 lbs of CO2 just for the plane trip.  I pretty much have to fly there if I am going, so it is waste I will just have to put up with.

Car Rental – We will be renting a car while we are there.  Although it is only for a few days and an economy car, we will be driving more than we usually do.

Lack of recycling – Once we get to my mother’s house, we will be able to easily recycle, but I am not sure how easy it will be easy for us to recycle while in Los Angeles.  I know that CA is a bit more ecofriendly than many parts of the world, so who knows.  I am just guessing that I will throw away something that I would usually recycle.

I am not going to stop going on vacation to be environmentally friendly, but I can try to take stock of the waste I am creating and work to reduce it.  If you have any ideas that would be easy to implement, please let me know in the comment area below.

Now is the time of the year where you can get a whiff of the sugar beet plant in Moorhead.  If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s not a horrible smell but it’s something that you recognize.   There are six sites across North Dakota and Minnesota that processes sugar beets into something we enjoy: sugar.  American Crystal Sugar Company has a growing understanding that we need to protect our environment.  In 2008 they created a new process to take the tailings from sugar beets (waste product) and turn it into methane.

The University of Florida have been researching a new process of getting rid of sugar beet waste and turning it into something useful and contacted American Crystal to test this process.   The project received $1 million from the Xcel Energy Renewable Energy Development Fund. This process uses microorganisms to eat the beet tailings and will in turn produce methane which can be turned into electricity.

Early computations provided results as large as 125 billion British Thermal Units (BTUs) could be produced annually from tailings at the East Grand Forks site. And this is only one of the 6 sites.   Since I don’t understand what a BTU is here is a general definition: the term “BTU” is used to describe the heat value (energy content) of fuels, and also to describe the power of heating and cooling systems.

The benefits to using this new method is not only reducing the disposal costs associated with beet tailings, but also to create a usable byproduct from it.  This is also energy that is produced in America and it’s renewable.  Last, but not least, the environment will win because the carbon footprint of our factory could be reduced. I really enjoy reading about the new technology being created to reduce waste but to also fuel America.  I believe we should do whatever we can to reduce the amount of waste that is going into the landfill.  Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Hello all,

I was out of town yesterday catching fish and am going to keep it quick this fine day.  Here are some updates:

1.  Food Waste and Organic Meal week has ended.  I think I did fairly well on this week as we made several meals with garden grown or organic veggies.
2. NEW WEEK  – We are going on a trip to San Diego, CA soon and I want to find a green task to do while we are on vacation.
3. Contest ends this morning.  I will contact the winner soon.
4. HAVE A GREAT WEEK

I will be back tomorrow…. I went to catch my next organic meal.  Unfortunately, it will likely be the last ice fishing trip of the year and I am pretty sure I will not have enough of the stuff to last me until May.  sigh

One day left to enter and win a composter.  Sign up by going to the link to the right.

There are just a few short days to enter the Guy Goes Green NatureMill Giveaway and I suggest you enter today (link to the right).  We own two of these and they have really been great to have around.  Since we have had our NatureMill composters, our garbage output has gone down dramatically.  We are saving the compost for our garden this spring and really looking for it.

This is a great prize and you should visit www.naturemill.com to learn more for yourself.  I might sound a bit like a commercial, but I am always happy to stand behind a product that I believe in.  Not only is the NatureMill a green product in itself (made with recycled material I believe), but it helps us be green.  

Click the link to your right to enter to win your own!