With the gift holidays officially open now is the time to reconsider gift giving, especially now with the current economic crisis!

• First, do you really need to spend so much on gifts? Be thoughtful, instead of spendful! It will make you feel so much more appreciated than stressing over credit-card bills for months.
• Can you make gifts? I used to like giving people jewelry, until one day I decided to start making simple items. Eventually I got good enough to sell my wares. Do you have a hobby that you can cash in on?
• Adopt a “Secret Santa” system. We used to give gifts to everyone in my home until we all got fed up with spending so much and not being able to really think about our gifts. A month before the holiday we all take a name out of a hat and set a price limit for the gift. When everyone gets together they are more excited to give than to receive their gift.

Keep in mind that holidays are supposed to be special. Instead of putting in extra money in gifts that will only add to your clutter, put the time into making the day special, the atmosphere and the company. If you do this you will find a much more meaningful holiday season for all!

The post Creative Gifts for Christmas appeared first on Green Prophet.

Going green is proving to be a profitable transformation for many companies. A green future is the way to go. Read on to find out why.

The Role of Business in a Green Future

Foreword

Environmental awareness has caused significant change to the way we do business. Global markets have had to adapt rapidly, and many companies are implementing green policies as the best solution. Whether it’s professional cleaning services, sustainable construction, or any field in general, going green has resulted in demonstrable change and positive outcomes for a wide range of industries.

Consumers place value on the adoption of eco-focused strategies. Demonstrating environmental responsibility is steadily becoming a critical component to success in any market. By providing new and effective ways of doing business, eco-initiatives allow forward-thinking companies to stay ahead of various social changes. We’ve put together the benefits of going green as well as current and potential obstacles to doing so.

Benefits

Innovations in socio-economic progress form the backbone of modern societal progression. These innovations prioritise environmental awareness as a driving factor in decision-making for long-term operational success. Many governments and regulatory bodies are now using eco-sustainability as a core factor in growth policies. Being able to focus on economic, social, and environmental issues allows businesses to stay ahead of these changes, consequently creating sustainable future markets.

Tax breaks

From emission allowances to tax incentives, governmental policy changes provide several benefits to those going green. Though some claim these changes are not enough, they nonetheless represent positive steps towards a large-scale solution. Some states already provide tax benefits for companies who can show prioritisation of nature over numbers. 

Florida has statewide initiatives for renewable energy; providing sales tax exemptions, grant incentives, and tax rebates. These initiatives provide genuine motivation for companies to remain eco-friendly and transparent. The IRS also offers various tax benefits to green companies. For example, the use of hybrid fleets can provide federal tax credit bonuses, and businesses that use renewable energy are able to receive tax breaks of up to 30%.

Waste reduction

Reducing waste production can cut expenses and studies have shown that operational costs decrease with optimised systems of operation. Conservation of other utilities also creates efficiency. Recycling can also recoup expenses, and upcycling ensures that materials are used with maximum efficiency and minimum waste.

A simple way to reduce waste is to optimise energy use. For example, office lights being turned off at night can significantly reduce utility bills. Similarly, water conservation can also free up some capital. These changes may seem small at first, but over time can add up to significant savings. Another example of waste reduction is paperless administration. Using cloud technology to coordinate tasks can replace the costly expense of pen-and-paper bookkeeping. 

Healthy HR

Due to the enforced adoption of remote work, many businesses have discovered the advantages of isolation. Despite this increased adoption being caused by necessity, many industries have made the decision to continue such practices post-lockdown. Workers save on travel costs and companies save on maintenance, supplies, and even office rental.

Apart from company-wide benefits, a green office improves health and wellness for employees. Eco-friendly office supplies can avoid aggravating costly health issues such as respiratory conditions, for example, and buildings with more natural lighting are even shown to improve general work ethic. Providing a sustainable environment allows for the maximisation of human resources – subsequently increasing productivity rates.

Strong PR

Consumers are gravitating towards sustainable business solutions, and caring for the environment can give any organisation a competitive edge. Eco-friendly companies convey strong brand values and company culture, provided that eco-initiatives are well-planned and executed. 

Corporate culture and brand image are important tools that need to be cultivated carefully. Reputation and transparency can sustain a business in tough times, and create a strong platform for any prospective pioneer. Modern-day markets require a strong image, and long-term stability satisfies investors and stakeholders.

Optimal production

As previously mentioned, renewable energy-based systems such as lighting, heating, and cooling can potentially cut costs by a surprising margin. Sustainability can ease logistical expenses through ICT supply chain management. Analyses of global production chains have shown an increased need for centralised supply lines. Evidently, investing in green energy leads to a variety of cost-saving technologies.

The post The Role of Business in Green Future  appeared first on Green Prophet.

Every Easter in my life has included the après holiday hunt for the lone lost egg. After dying and decorating, hiding and hunting, one egg always gets left behind.  It takes a week before its rotten stink leads reveals its hiding place – stuck behind a cushion, tucked in a shoe, growing mold in a flowerpot.

It’s a family joke; a holiday tradition.  In a deodorized and sanitized first-world society, we’re mostly removed from the reality of natural decay.  The following stats come from the U.S. National Park Service on how long it takes your trash to decompose. 

• Paper towel – 2 weeks

• Banana peels – 3 weeks

• Paper bag – 1 month

• Newspaper – 1.5 months

• Apple core – 2 months

• Cardboard – 2 months

• Orange peels – 6 months

• Untreated plywood – 3 years

• Waxed milk cartons – 5 years

• Cigarette butts – 10 years

• Leather shoes – 35  years

• Tin can – 50 years

• Styrofoam cups – 50 years

• Plastic containers – 80 years

• Plastic bottles – 450 years

• Disposable diapers – 550 years

• Plastic bags – 1000 years

That list is notional, since materials decompose differently depending on temperature, oxygen levels, presence of water, and chemical recipe of surrounding matter.  And material degrades differently in the ocean.

It’s springtime, a time of renewal. But maybe spend a little time pondering the death of things. It may influence your product choices, and ensure that out longest lasting legacy isn’t the trash we generate.

The post How long does it take your garbage to decompose? appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s so easy to be tempted to get that take-away cup when you are on the run. But every time you feel terrible about the plastics in our waterways, rivers, seas and bodies, this about this infographic below. Because the cost of styrofoam cups adds up! Our advice.

Take a cup sitting down or standing at the bar like the Italians do. You will have a more interesting life meeting strangers in real life!

Via http://www.eco2greetings.com/

The post The price of take-away cups appeared first on Green Prophet.

“Food futurologists” at the London-based Robin Collective are developing the cups. Co-founder and creative director Brandy Wright described the construction: printable sugar paper will wrap a cup-shaped cookie lined with a layer of heat-resistant white chocolate – the hot drink will slowly melt the chocolate lining while you sip the brew.

There are also plans to imbue some cups with specialty aromas.  So skip that vanilla shot, and opt instead for scents such as coconut sun tan lotion, freshly cut grass and wild flowers.

Wright told The Telegraph, “These scents were used in our recipes as they have a natural ability to evoke the positive memories we associate with warm weather, sunshine and summer holidays.”  No word yet on if or when these cups will be available at KFCs outside the U.K.

In concept, edible fast-food containers could appeal to consumers on several levels. Branding expert Tracey Riese told USA Today, “It could fit with any number of brand positions from ‘fast’; to ‘green’ to ‘fun’.”  She sees the cups appealing to eco-minded Millennials, who want products and packaging technologies that are better for the environment.

Tasty, and eco-smart, as they will divert some single-use cups from the trash, but what about calories and nutritional value? The product announcement came this week but technical design details were scant. “The cups are still in the test and development stage under lock and key,” a KFC representative told Quartz.

America cooked up convenience food, which is now a staple daily of diets far beyond U.S. borders. Fast food isn’t exported is isolation – junk food comes with associated health problems. In Britain, where the Scoff-ee cups will be first released, 64% of adults are overweight or obese according to the BBC.

The Middle East boasts some of the fattest populations on the planet. It’s a hungry market for fast food, gobbling up Western fat-enablers such as “all-you-can-eat” restaurants and home delivery services.

The simple tradition of coffee drinking is an essential ingredient of Middle Eastern hospitality. Tricking it out with sugary candy/cookie cups and regional aromas (sheesha and cigarette smoke? fresh-baked pita? diesel fumes?) would be a sure-win marketing campaign for a new demographic.

Considering our region’s skyrocketing rates of diabetes and heart disease, we can only hope that a health-minded cleric calls a fatwa on this foolishness.  Let’s pull Dame Julie Andrews out of retirement for an ironic Mary Poppins redux, this time singing, “A spoonful of sugar (and fat) makes the landfills go down”.

The post 100% edible coffee cups; tasty, eco-friendly, and straight to your hips appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s not realistic to imagine that all holiday gifts come in biodegradable packaging, or that all the wonderful menus you cook will get eaten up with no leftovers. So here are some tips to tread lighter.

1. Wrap your gifts in attractive fabric remnants. Wrap gifts in new kitchen towels to make 2 gifts in 1.
2.  Forget disposables and use real tableware, dishes, napkins and tablecloths for parties.
3.  Store used tissue paper,  shipping peanuts, and bubble wrap away; reuse next time you need to ship something.  Likewise, store pretty gift boxes and bags that survived the holiday in good shape, as well as  wrapping paper and ribbons.
4.  When shopping, examine labels and choose products made from recycled materials.
5. Make a New Year’s resolution to learn how to compost your kitchen scraps – then do it.
6.  If you plan to make handcrafted gifts, buy your materials in bulk.
7.  Plan post-holiday menus based on the inevitable leftovers, and then make sure you keep to the plans.
8. Freeze leftovers that you just can’t face anymore – but don’t wait until they’ve gotten old in the fridge, freeze them as soon as the meal is over.
9. For last-minute hostess gifts, remember that anything looks cool in a mason jar. And of course, the jar is the ultimate recyclable package. Fill a big one with a festive drink and attach a note reading ” Sangria (or Lemonade, or  Martinis) – Just Pour And Add Ice.” Or fill smaller jars with fair-trade chocolates, bath salts, dried mushrooms, sewing items for quick repairs, a manicure set,  – anything useful or delicious.  How about a mason jar filled with personal hygiene or cosmetic items, with a note suggesting that the recipient stash it in the car for travel emergencies?
10.  Donate items you won’t use up. Anything from food to gift clothes you’ll never wear to books and magazine  you’ve finished. Needy people will appreciate them.

More on reducing waste on Green Prophet:

• 20 Goofy Ingredients You Can Actually Compost
• Young Egyptian Designers Use Fashion To Change Our Plastic Habits
• Sol Chip’s Everlasting Solar Battery

Photos of  holiday shoppers via Shutterstock.

The post 10 Ways To Reduce Holiday Waste appeared first on Green Prophet.

Superior repair skills in developing nations mean that broken electronics can be mended and reused – a much greener alternative to recycling

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the death of my laptop and my predicament over what to do with it. I had become wary of sending broken electronics to developing countries after news emerged that they were being pulled apart by poor children in unsafe conditions.  As such, recycling appeared to be my only option.

However, one reader got in touch to point out that poorer nations tend to have superior skills in mending electronics so rather than just recycling them, they would be able to repair them which is the more eco thing to do. He also noted that the image of poor children working with toxic electronics was unrepresentative of many professional and skilled repair workers in the developing world who are helping divert electronics away from landfills.

For example, Cairo has a thriving repair industry that is helping fix electronics and provide cheaper computers for the locals. Kyle Weins, the CEO of iFixit which provides free online repair manuals and guides, is currently touring Africa and Asia speaking to those repairing broken hardware as part of a documentary on fixers. He was recently filming in Cairo where he encountered some highly skilled mobile phone repairers and mechanics.

Indeed what Wiens found went beyond the stereotype of young African children stripped electronics to their core (and toxic) materials: “I’ve definitely seen children mining e-waste for raw metals…but the repair industry isn’t like that at all. Fixing things is a skill, and it takes time to get good. Conditions are quite safe because people need a predictable, safe working environment to do repairs.”

Yet over the last couple of years, shock reports looking into the dangers of toxic electronics shipped to developing nations has encouraged nations to embrace a total ban on e-waste exports. Weins however, is critical of whether this would actually help. “Mechanics in Cairo are some of the most imaginative people in the world. They need raw material to work with, and attempts to cut them off from their supply chain will harm the Egyptian economy in the long run.”

Weins also explained that laws banning the trade of electronics across international borders haven’t been particularly effective in stemming the tide. He insists that the root of the problem is the West’s throwaway culture and that must be tackled as part of the solution. “The crux of the issue is that we’re manufacturing devices that we only use for a few years. What we need to do is reduce consumption and extend the lifespan of devices. It’s a critical and often overlooked component of environmental sustainability.”

: For more information on Weins’ short documentary, ‘Fixers- A Film About Repair’ go to their website ifixit.org.

: Top image via Swamibu/flickr.

For more on e-waste issues in the Middle East see:

Mountains of Toxi E-Waste In Pakistan Are A Goldmine

The (Imminent) Death of My Laptop: E-Waste and The Middle East

Turksih Government Gets Ready To Deal With Electronic Waste

The post Cairo’s Fixers: Repairers That Are Helping Heal The Planet appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s easier to get Israelis excited about blondes than about composting, but if you get their eco-attention using a blonde?  That’s a different story.  Atar Friedman, a beautiful young Israeli blonde with a mission, has been trying to get Israelis more conscious about waste and composting.  Now the face of a new garbage sorting campaign, Friedman says that she’s “very proud to be the dumb blonde who models garbage.”  Blending glamour with garbage, maybe Friedman has got what it takes to improve the country’s increasing trash problem.This is not the first time that Friedman has been in the public’s green eye.  A couple years ago she participated in a documentary television program called “Tzomet Drachim” (Hebrew for “Crossroads”) that showed how three people (Friedman included) reached a crossroads in their lives in terms of green living.

During “Tzomet Drachim”, Friedman participated in a composting course given by Tammy Zori at Tel Aviv’s City Tree, a green housing project that teaches urban sustainability methods.

She said that the composting course was a turning point for her.  “As part of the course, we were asked to bring in garbage from our home, and so it happened that in one moment I understood what bothered me about everything I had done until that point, including the effort focused on biology.  It was the moment when I realized how alienated and superficial the way we live and work is.  The proximity to the compost made me look inward, not just deep into the waste, but also deep into my lifestyle.”

Friedman added that “the moment I understood compost I understood everything, mostly how crazy it is to ignore the terrible damage we are creating.  Suddenly everything fell into place like a giant puzzle, because I also saw myself, my health, within this great system.  How?  Whoever deals with compost and looks at it no longer wants to bring packaging into his home and understands why food whose leftovers cannot be thrown into the composter is also food that no one wants to and should not place in his body.”

: Image via: NRG
:: Haaretz

Read more about waste and composting in Israel::
From Capitalistic Pig to Living in a City Tree
Going on a Picnic to Tel Aviv’s Garbage Mountain
Organic Waste Collection and Composting in the Works for Israeli Municipalities

The post Blondes Have More Fun Composting appeared first on Green Prophet.

Despite its posh upcycled art installation, a quick visit to Israel’s Hiria dump demonstrates the extent to which materials that could be recycled, and should be recycled, are instead buried. There are cages available in some neighborhoods where people can stash their plastic bags and bottles, and sometimes batteries, and Koala Recycling Solutions recently started an aluminum recycling program, but mostly, Israel’s recycling system needs serious help. That could change if the Knesset approves a new law that puts the onus of recycling on the manufacturers’ shoulder.The Environment Protection Ministry will require local and international manufacturers to ensure the packaging used for their products is collected and recycled. It does not matter whether the packaging is reused, burned for energy, or recycled. It only matters that it does not land in the dump.

If passed, the law will ensure that Israel no longer wastes nearly $300 million dollars worth of raw materials each year, according to the Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan.

“Instead of burying raw materials worth a billion shekels in the ground every year, the packaging will be collected from citizens’ homes and recycled. Implementing the law will add thousands of new jobs,” he told Haaretz.

Companies will be responsible for collecting and recycling paper, glass, plastic, and metal, but local citizens will have to step up to the plate as well. Even if the Environment Ministry provides the tools to sort and recycle waste, some kind of measures will be necessary to educate the public about the merits of recycling. Judging by Friday morning shopping excursions, where everyone and their grandmother troop around the souqs with armfuls of plastic bags, this will be no easy feat.

This law could also create a regulatory nightmare if local citizens don’t fulfill their end of the bargain, by sorting their waste into provided receptacles, and companies have to foot the bill for their apathy.

Still, it’s an important step, because manufacturers will be forced to become more innovative with their packaging. Perhaps biodegradable cartons will become more mainstream, or perhaps companies will use less.

To begin with, companies will have to account for 60% of the packaging they generate, and by 2020, the goal is to recycle 100% of all packaging so that literally nothing goes to waste. Failure to do so could cost nearly $700 per ton of waste.

A mighty impressive step in the right direction if it passes, and if everyone plays fair.

:: Haaretz

More on the Hadera dump and recycling in Israel:

Hiria: A Garbage Dump Turned Recycling Dream

Spend Summer Nights at Hiria, Central Israel’s Garbage Dump

Brigitte Cartier and Hiria Searching for Volunteer Upcycling Arts

image via kevingessner

The post Israel To Fine Manufacturers $700 Per Ton Of Non-Recycled Packaging appeared first on Green Prophet.

Hey, are you gonna use that? Israeli residents may soon be able to put their banana peels to good use.

Organic waste – such as vegetable and fruit peels, egg shells, pits, etc. – constitutes a significant part of any household garbage bin, but it doesn’t have to. These materials are valuable stuff, which could easily be composted and transformed into fertilizer that helps plants and trees grow (instead of filling up a landfill).  But composting requires space and knowledge, and in an urban environment many people may not be inclined towards taking the time and effort to do it.

But what if it were all set up for you? What if all you had to do was separate your organic waste from the rest of your trash and your municipality would take care of the rest?

Hopefully, in Israel, that may soon be an option. The Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry is now pushing a Packaging Bill that would provide a sustainable solution for all types of discarded consumer packaging. Simultaneously, it is offering NIS 200 million of assistance (about $50,000) to local authorities to move towards “separation at the source” within the next three years.

Separation at the source means that the different types of waste (such as organic and recyclable) would be separated on the household level, in different receptacles. In order to enforce this, local authorities would need to distribute different collection bins for organic and non-organic waste.

While obviously more environmentally friendly, moving to separation at the source and using organic waste would also save the country money. Six million tons of waste are now generated in Israel each year, 75 percent of which is interred in landfills. Each ton of dumped garbage costs NIS 185 (about $40) – and a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

Michaela Polansky, the Environmental Projects Coordinator at Urbanics, said that “what has happened over the last two years is that the local authorities have realized that something has to change. Primarily because of the landfill levy.”

Soon enough, hopefully, garbage will be put to better (and cheaper) use.

::Jerusalem Post

Read more about organic waste and composting:
NatureMill’s Urban Compost Device for Composting in Cities and Apartments
Meet Your Garden’s Best Friend, the Earthworm
Organic Waste Converter “Hands-free Food Waste System” May Work Better Than Composting

Image via: James Kamo

The post Organic Waste Collection And Composting In The Works For Israeli Municipalities appeared first on Green Prophet.