Treehugger recently highlighted the work of several artists working in a new medium- “eco-grafitti”. It’s cool stuff, read more here.

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You may not want that yellow 1950’s vinyl chair, but I am sure John and Linda knows who will love it. Portland locals, Linda Wary and John Meyers, located a few blocks form Eli Phant, are collectors extraordinaire. They hunt religiously for the yard sale items that will fit perfectly in their next project, even if they don’t know what that next project is.

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We were down in Florida last weekend to visit my Great-Aunt Marge, along with most of the Wilks clan. Todd, Marge’s son and our trip organizer, recommended a trip to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach. We didn’t know quite what to expect but were glad to get out-of-doors for a stroll.
The Wakadahatchee Wetlands are, [...]

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Grow Smart Maine is lobbying for improved Historic Tax Credits. To write your elected representative in support of LD 262, the Act to Amend the Credit for Rehabilitation of Historic Properties visit the Grow Smart Maine web site and follow the easy to use web form.
As tax credits go, this is a good one. There [...]

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The New York City Council voted today to approve new legislation that would hopefully start reducing the plastic waste that strangles New York City and most of the world. The basic intention of the law is to get New Yorkers to recycle plastic packing and bags. Next time you walk around New York City take [...]

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Pay up sucker – 5 cents soon for every bottle of water sold in the City. Mayor Daley and the City of Chicago have created a new “Tap Water Delivers” campaign starting in January to be rolled out with the new tax.
The program is aimed at getting people do drink tap water. In my opinion [...]

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Representative Ted Koffman, a Democrat and co-chairman of the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee has a mission, to decrease the amount of plastics used and disposed of in the State of Maine. Everything from plastic shopping bags to plastic diapers is up for debate.
Mr. Koffman, has a long up-hill battle, although Maine and is a rather [...]

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Plastic is a bad idea no matter what way you cut it, especially when it is filled with water and transported massive distances to reach your mouth. If you think it is a good idea to use 7 million barrels of oil each year to make having a drink more convenient – you are not [...]

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Our good friend Ted Rouse and his friends in Baltimore have created the first biodiesel option in the city. With help from the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance (CSBA), and the Baltimore BALLE network, the group of social entrepreneurs taught themselves the ins and outs of producing and selling biodiesel. The producing part did not go [...]

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The earth receives more energy from the sun in just ONE HOUR than the world uses in a whole year.

The Solar Decathlon was held last week on the Mall in Washington DC. The decathlon is both a physical and academic competition with 20 teams competing in 10 contests. The goal is to design, build, and [...]

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This seems like something you would find in the anarchist cookbook. When I was in high school my computer hacker and fanzine friends were always showing me ways to beat the system. Actually it was more like theft of service, but the tricks included reusing stamps by covering them with a glue so you could [...]

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Strout’s Point Wharf Company in Freeport, owned by Ted Wengren switched his marina from diesel fuel to B20 biodiesel last summer. He is among the leaders in Maine that are making the switch to a cleaner and possibly better fuel for engines. The new EPA low sulfur diesel additives are rumored to decrease engine performance [...]

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The recycling calculator is a flash animation created by the National Recycling Coalition a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to eliminate waste and promote sustainable economies. They focus on the management practices for raw materials in North America, and boy do we need some serious help.
Check Out The Calculator Here: www.nrc-recycle.org/theconversionator/shell.html

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No More Garbage, a blog and life-style experiment about living trash free in Toronto has been getting some press lately. Two Toronto based artists have been trying to rid themselves of the nightmare of packaging and consumer waste for the past couple of years. This on-again off-again experiment has created a pretty cool story and [...]

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As part of our meeting with Bio Regional, a sustainable development consultant based in the UK, we were provided a behind the scenes tour of the Croydon Tree Station, a wood chipping plant located on the outskirts of Croydon, a London suburb. The Tree Station was a business created by Bio Regional to provide its [...]

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Finding the hidden gems in neighborhoods where you have never been before is always very exciting. Sally and I ran across From Somewhere, somewhere in the Notting Hill neighborhood. We didn’t get two-steps past the display window before we were totally intrigued. Expressing excitement about our find to the young shopkeeper helped break the ice. [...]

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Another great example of recycled industrial waste is these 55-gallon drums that have been transformed into colorful bench / planter combos. The benches are 4×4 pieces of 1 inch plywood slid over a drum and supported by steel L-brackets screwed into the based of the drums. Every component of these drums can be found in [...]

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This week San Francisco opened the new “Organics Annex” where they will handle food scraps and yard trimmings destined for local compost facilities. Residents of San Francisco get these handy dandy green bins for compost (the black one is for trash, and the blue is for recycling). Food-related businesses and institutions also participate in the [...]

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TerraCycle, the much hyped and rightfully so, eco-capitalist company based in Trenton, New Jersey may have actually created the company most of the world only talks about. TerraCycle manufactures all-natural garden products by feeding organic waste to worms and bottling the resulting worm poop compost as ready-to use plant food in soda bottles collected by [...]

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Our friends at Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse are at it again. Believe it or not this space will soon be know as the Dynamo House, a grand hotel, restaurant and museum on the Providence waterfront. The “dynamo house” or power plant was built and operated by the Narragansett Electric Lighting Company on South Street [...]

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