Guess what? It’s Earth Day, the anniversary of when Americans decided to wake up and notice the environment. Perhaps you feel celebrating Earth Day is daunting and/or pointless: “Big deal. I recycle. I buy local tomatoes and bring them home in trendy canvas bags. What more do you want from me, Earth? My soul?!” (Although … souls could be a great renewable energy source, riiiight?) You may even be threatening to screw in an incandescent bulb if you hear one more word about Earth Day. Well, before you clear-cut Yosemite, perhaps you’d like to take a look at what Autostraddle has to offer.
Earth Day Link Fix
Don’t Throw That Away
Feel like recycling some random household items into other random household items? It can be done!
++ Old magazines can be magically transformed into neat little envelopes using only the power of folding and glue. Ooooh. [@cut out + keep]
++ Empty cereal boxes make excellent magazine, comic book and stationery holders. I like to cover mine in duct tape. Is duct tape eco-friendly? I don’t know. [@replayground]
++ Save your tin cans! Turn them into vases or pencil/paintbrush/chopstick/anything containers. It’s low country chic — my favorite. [@design sponge]
++ Same goes for glass jars! If you’re throwing away glass jars, we can’t be friends. In addition to serving the same fun purposes as reused tin cans, jars also boast a uniquely minimalistic aesthetic and you can store things in them. [@queering domesticity] Susan Powter makes chocolate milk with hers!
Let’s Eat
Have you considered going vegan? That’s right, my little lamb kabobs — breeding animals for food has a tremendously negative affect on our environment. I’ll let Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson tell you all about it in his latest book, The Face On Your Plate: The Truth About Food. Ah soymilk, you’ve never tasted so good. [@indiebound] [reviewed here @chicagotribune]
Perhaps in your excitement to support local farmers, you purchased a few too many potatoes and lemons. No problem.
++ Before you throw anything away, check this list of 75 Tips for Leftovers and Ingredients. It’s even organized by category! [@the kitchn]
++ Another handy tool to keep in mind when you have an overabudance of a particular item is AllRecipes.com’s Ingredient Search. Just type in what you’ve got and see what you can make with it. Simple, Sally. [@all recipes]
Shop til You Drop [Your Pants]
Probably the most bright-eyed, optimistic, potentially world-changing thing you’ll ever see is a Really, Really Free Market – “Because there is enough for everyone”. It started as a protest to the G8 Summit and has grown into, in some cities, a monthly gathering of people giving away everything from haircuts to clothes and food. If you can find one, go. If you can’t find one, organize your own.
++ What’s better than getting new shoes? Getting new shoes and donating a pair to a needy child at the same time, that’s what! TOMS Shoes, you guys. Buy some.
Sexy organic panties – because your ass is too awesome for regular panties.
++ Urban Fox: Bamboo and organic cotton blends are dyed and sewn by hand in the midwest. You can’t get more patriotic than that.
++ Luva Huva: Joanna Ketterer makes super-feminine knickers using remnants and end of line fabrics that would otherwise go to waste. Sweet!
Don’t forget that Etsy makes it easy to find handmade items from local artists with their Shop Local search!
Drinks For Everyone
If your inanimate pet enjoys a good vodka tonic as much as Tinkerbell, you should encourage her to try Prairie Vodka. Since it’s distilled from certified organic corn grown by a co-op of over 900 Minnesota farmers, you and your pet will feel like real do-gooders. Cheers!
The masterminds behind Treetini are truly special. For every Treetini sold in April, a tree will be planted! I don’t know where they’re planting these trees, but I love this idea. Check the map to find participating resturaunts in your area. There are also recipes available using the Veev Acai Spirit, because drinks taste good even when no one plants a tree.
I Wanna Sex You Up
Even your sex life can go green!
++ Earth Erotics has an ample selection of pretty glass dildos that I can’t recommend enough. Glass production has a teeny tiny affect on the environment, so these toys are good for your G-spot and the planet.
++ Don’t forget the organic lubrication! Slippery! [@good vibes]
++ When you’re ready to part with your toxic, old sex toys [@bad vibes], send them off to be recycled with Dreamscapes’ Sex Toy Recycling Program. They do all the hard work for you. Just mail them your toys and rest easy, knowing you’re as green as you can possibly be. This topic also serves as an excellent ice-breaker at dinner parties. You’re welcome!
How will you be celebrating Earth Day? If you have any tips or ideas for being eco-friendly without being a tool, tell us in the comments!
yay earth!
yay vegan fun! we posted about the same book on the same day! that means our brains have melted together on a food level. ooooh, sexy.
The idea of glass dildos freaks me out a little bit.
I live in MINUTE and hadn’t heard of Prairie Vodka. Maybe I should visit, taste test and report back.
glass dildos freaked me out at first, too, but i promise they’re totally safe. you can even put them in hot or cold water before use for extra fun. easy to clean! la la laaa!
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you are officially in charge of taste testing Prairie Vodka.
Green is green.
suzanna has no pants!
Okay my blackberry did something weird and subbed the word “minute” when I typed in the abbreviation for Minnesota. I’d love to live in the “MINUTE”but am generally too filled with existential angst for that.
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My ESL students wrote adorable promises on leaves about how they would help for Earth Day. We hung them on the bulletin board of the Adult Learning Center.
As for me, I’m going to buy an offset thing. My money is either going to windmills or alternate fuel research.
sometimes i wish i had a large, school-sized bulletin board in my house, complete w/ holiday-specific border & laminated cartoon children. livin’ the dream!
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that was almost completely unrelated to what you said. i love windmills!
I’ve never heard of a Really Really Free Market before, it sounds amazing. I don’t think they have reached Australia yet, hopefully it will soon. Or I could start one.
Crystal, pretty sure I heard something about a Really, Really Free Market in Melbourne a month or so ago. And I know that the Melb Uni Student Housing Action Collective (SHAC) hosted one about four months back – before they were evicted. So the idea has reached our shores and is definitely in progress.
omg what?! ohhh am i living under a rock again? damnit. hopefully there’ll be another one soon.
Thanks for letting me know! It’s great to hear. I didn’t consider universities, I might need to ask around at some of the campuses in Sydney.
I feel like ingredient search could change my life, i feel like there must be more than one thing to do with pasta and butter.
add some sliced fresh tomato, a little olive oil, and some parmesan. heat in a skillet w/ a lid.
it’s pretty decent.
ps – green is smokin’
Green is vegan? Great news, check out this awesome shop:
http://www.herbivoreclothing.com/
Adios xx
have to clear this up: i am not vegan. i’ve been an on & off vegetarian for 16 years, w/ a strong aversion to eggs bought in grocery stores & red meat, especially.
i think it’s important to know where your food comes from and what impact its production has on the planet & its inhabitants. but i don’t want to lead anyone on — i occasionally eat sharp cheddar & bacon.
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having said that, thank you for the link! love their stuff. seeing The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook was particularly great. i grew up in a neighboring city and can say, without a doubt, The Farm is home to some of the best people on earth. if you ever find yourself interested in its history, or just needing some hippie nostalgia, i recommend reading Voices From The Farm [http://www.cc6582.hostcentric.com/public_html/bpc/products/voices-farm].
So I sat here and I decided to test the ‘make your own envelope’ idea. I am proud to report back that it’s super easy, and looks cool. Not only does it help the earth, but it makes me look super crafty. So yay for that.
Also I love the ingredient search. I randomly pick a bunch of ingredients and every time got blown away with the results. So yay again!!!
oooh, i hadn’t thought about entering random ingredients into the search… it could be a game! like, stump AllRecipes.com! you’re a genius, autumn.
Well I think I won the game then, because it didn’t have a recipe for Bologna, cheese, olives, and Spinach. This is probably good, because I can’t think of one good thing that can come from those ingredients.
an addition, if i may…
bikes are green and fun! if you have a bike but are a little weary of jumping in and riding with traffic (or you just want to go meet some hot messenger/hipster ladies) check out Critical Mass in your town. Critical Mass is a big group bike ride that takes place in just about every major city on the last friday of the month (ps – that’s tomorrow). It’s a leisurely, safe ride that covers about 10-15 miles, and it’s pretty fun. If you’re at all interested, you should check it out.
I’ll be at the one in Boston tomorrow. Meet up is at 5:30 at Copley. Come say ‘hi’ – I don’t know anyone in this town yet.
yes! bikes! i don’t have a bike :( sometimes i think i’m the only person left on earth w/out a bike.
but enough about my bitterness! Critical Mass sounds like fun! totally unrelated – i NEED that Domo Arigato karaoke beer to be a reality.
i agree. domo arigato beer would make the world a better place.
and thanks. :)
I like the first idea a lot! I’ve already kinda got a problem where I don’t throw anything away because I’m so sure I’m going to use that 12×12 piece of decorative paper.
yes, crafters tend to keep a lot of seemingly useless things. you never know when you might need them!!
a great organic wine label is Frog’s Leap Vineyard in Napa. i’ve had their cab and sauv blanc. both were excellent.
the winery installed photovoltaic panels and is completely run by solar power. have also built a LEED certified hospitality center. it’s very cool.
Organic Vintners is supposed to be another decent (and more reasonably priced) label. Can’t vouch personally.
thanks for the tip! i was wondering about organic wines — there are more available than i can sift through.
If I adopt a cute little boy, will you be his Earth mother?
Local tomatoes from Holland?! Ridiculous, there isn’t even enough sun in this little country. We have a lot of bikes though, we are born on a bike…
Thanks for sharing with us more ways to be green living Green!!!
The wifey takes the plastic grocery bags, cuts, ties and then makes “plarn” to crochet into new bags! She helps to keep 50-80 bags out of landfills per 1 bag she makes. We get lots of compliments on them and we gift and have sold a few in our etsy shop! She loves making them!!!!
Got to go Green!!!