In our search for eco-friendly wedding invitations, we came across this amazing stationary site. All of the stationary, whether it is an invitation, a favor, a birthday card, or a business card, are made out of seeds! When the paper is planted in moist soil, it will bloom into a flower. Instead of your invitation getting trapped in a storage box or in the trash, your guest will have a memory of you every time they look at their blooming flowers. The company that makes these wonderfully eco-friendly products is called Botanical Paperworks.

The wildflowers grow right out of the 100% post-consumer waste products. With these products, you get to recycle and plant a flower! What a great way to celebrate Earth Month! Their Earth Day deal is the following: Free shipping on stationary orders over $75 and a Free Plantable Earth Day Card.

Minimize waste, beautify the earth, one plantable card at a time.

Disney is doing a lot to celebrate Earth Day this year, and we would like to give you a sneak peek!

Disney is promoting its Plant a Billion Trees campaign at all of its Disney Stores. For every dollar donated to this campaign, Disney Stores will plant a tree! So far over 95,000 trees have been planted.

At every Disney Store, a campaign called Recyling is Magic will be featured on Earth Day. Each store will have bins for the recycling of plastic bottles, and they will be selling earth-friendly products (many made out of plastic bottles themselves). In exchange for three plastic botles, Disney Store will give you one magical t-shirt, which is made partially of recycled plastic bottles.

Starting April 13th, Disney will also be featuring Boys and Girls Club of America’s Earth Day Murals at all the Disney Stores.

Disney has some great educational resources too. Disney has a book called No Place Like Earth in which the Mickey Mouse Club celebrates Earth Day. Even Playhouse Disney has gone green for the month of April!

Perhaps one of the most exciting events Disney will have on Earth Day this year is the release of its new movie, Earth. This movie will be the story about 3 different animal families making their treck around the world! The previews look great. We cannot wait to see it!

Be a Kid! Celebrate Earth Day the Disney Way.

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At EcoYourself.com we encourage you to use reusable bags, but we understand that sometimes you do not have your reusable bag on you, or you may have built up a stack of paper bags around your house over time. Of course, you could immediately recycle the paper bags with the rest of your paper materials, or you could reuse them before you recycle, and save money doing so. Below are a list of creative ways to get the most use out of these bags.

• Reuse your paper bags at the store. Bring them with you when you go shopping so that you can use them again. Paper bags are easy to carry and contain a lot more space, just like reusable bags sold at stores.
• Don’t buy book covers, use paper bags. Whether you are a kid, or an adult, you can protect your books with paper bag book covers. For those that like to scribble, now you have a surface to scribble on that can easily be replaced. Don’t worry about spilling food or drinks on your books anymore, when you replace that book cover, you won’t feel the guilt.
• Use the paper bags as wrapping paper. Create a “natural” look by adding natural colors such as blue or green with ribbons or bows!
• Forget about going to the UPS, FedEX, or USPS store to buy shipping material. Use your paper bags as stuffing material, or tape, sew, or staple the bag to envelope the product! Think of the money you will save when you don’t have to buy overpriced packaging when you already have the material for free.
• Have a pet? Line the cage with paper bags. If there are no dyes on the bag, this is perfectly healthy.
• Use the paper bag to hold other recyclable materials. If you recycle your newspapers, place the newspapers in the bag. Just reuse and recycle.
• Keep them for kids to make arts and crafts with. They can be used as brown construction paper, they can be a great prop for masks, and they can be cut up to make chains of paper!

Then finally, when your  bag has been used to the point that it is no longer usable, put it in your paper recycling bin. Be creative. Reuse and recycle. Save money.

If you work in an office, or run your own business, I am sure you see how much paper is ordered and thrown away daily! Three things need to happen here: we need to use less paper, we need to use recycled paper, and we need to recycle used paper. Let’s see how to transform your office into an eco-friendly office just by changing the way you use paper.

1. Use less paper. If you need to print, print double-sided, and only print as many copies as you really need. Try to send your documents as PDFs via e-mail. PDF programs these days, such as Adobe Acrobat and Nuance PDF Converter, have many editing tools so you don’t need to print and mark up your documents. Simply use the mark up tools on the PDF reader/converter and send away!
2. Buy recycled paper for the documents you do need to print. For brochures, business cards, and other items you have printed, try using an on-line company called Printing For Less where you can have your marketing products printed with soy ink on recycled paper. This company has great service and professional marketing tools. For your day to day printing and paper use in the office, shop for green products at Staples , Office Depot, and Amazon.com for recycled paper and binders. If your customers see that you are a green company, you may score some points there! Think outside the box. Wherelse is paper used? Try recycled toilet paper or recycled paper towels too. Fore more information on eco-friendly toilet paper read our post!
3. Reuse, Reduce, & Recycle. If you have printed copies out that are to be thrown away, use the backsides for scrap paper to take notes and messages. If you no longer can use the paper product, recycle it. Go to Earth911.org to find out how to recycle in your area. Place bins around the office so that employees will remember to recycle. Have a contest to see which department is most efficient with paper use or recycles the most!

There are many ways to green an office, but I believe that handling paper in an eco-friendly way is the first big step every office should take. Present this to your manager, or start your own recycling plan with the paperwork at your desk. Every step counts!

We currently wrote a post on how to recycle your used cell phones in How To Recycle Used Cell Phones and Other Devices. Now we are going to take a look at how to recycle your Apple Products: from iPods and iPhones to your Apple computer and monitor.

iPods and iPhones are constantly being replaced with the newest, greatest version on the market, whether the older version is fully functional or not. There are several ways to recycle these products. First, try seeing if any of your friends who have not bought into the craze would like your iPod or iPhone. If it still works, it might as well be used. If this is not the situation, you can go to this Apple link, enter your information, print a delivery label (paid by Apple), and drop your iPod or iPhone off at your local USPS store.  Please make sure your product is packaged safely, but try to use recycled materials to do so. This process is free, and new purchases are not neccessary.

As for your other Apple products, when you purchase a new computer or monitor, you have the option to enroll in Apple’s Recycling program. If you choose to do so, Apple will send you an e-mail with information on how to recycle your used product. Follow the guidelines in the e-mail, use the pre-paid delivery label (paid by Apple), package your product safely with  recycled material (if you can), and bring your package to your local FedEx store.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a PC or Mac user, everbody can recycle.

Believe it or not, there are tons of organizations that will help you recycle your used cell phones, computers, and rechargable batteries.  Your used devices can be reused by various charities, or recycled to make new parts. Since we cannot list every single one, we have compiled a list of convenient ways to recycle.
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Reading green is important, and the reason why is obvious: paper, paper, paper, and the processes needed to make paper and ink.

We have three great solutions for you:

1) Read used books. Borrow from a friend, go to a used book store, or shop for used books at Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. If shopping on-line, buy in bulk and save on packaging and gas!

2) Join the Read Green Initiative and read your favorite magazines on-line. With the help of Zinio (free to use), you can get a free subscription to one of your favorite magazines, and affordable access to many more! Zinio keeps the magazines in your library so you can access them whenever you want. No trees needed here. Read your favorite magazines digitally!

3) Switch to ebooks. Read our article Switch to eBooks about the Kindle

and how reading ebooks will save on more than just paper, but also electricity.

Don’t know what to do with all of your old books? Go to GotBooks.com to donate your books for great causes! Schedule a free-pick up or find the closest drop-off location in your community.

What makes a certain computer “hybrid” is well over my head, but I know that if it is using less material, and uses less power, that it surely is green!

Dell has come out with a Studio Hybrid Computer that is 80% smaller than most desktop towers (much less material), and uses 70% less power than most (meets Energy Star 4.0 Standards). The packaging for this computer is made of 95% recycled materials, and comes with a recycling kit.

Besides just being greener than most computers, it has some other great features. The tower is designed so that it can stand vertically or horizontally, depending on your work space, and it has all of the ports you would need in one panel. You can pick from a variety of six different colors, or even choose a bamboo sleeve. The desktop comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, to help keep your workspace the way you want it. All sold right now for prices ranging from $449 at it’s simplest to $799 with a monitor.

Purchasing other Dell products? When you are customizing your product, Dell will offer several options such as recycling your old computer for free, the option to have Dell plant a tree for a couple of dollars, or the option to have Dell plant a tree and send you a recycling kit for $6.

Know of other companies that are creating greener/hybrid products? Let us know!

Check out Amazon.com and compare prices!

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Making the switch from plastic bags to reuseable bags leaves us with one problem. What do we do with the numerous plastic bags that we have built up over the year? Hopefully, you do not just throw them away! We have found a website that, with the entry of your zip code, will locate the various retail stores and recycling centers in your area that accept plastic bags. Check out PlasticBagRecycling.org for locations and learn what products will be made out of your recycled bags.

Finally get rid of those plastic bags! What are you holding on to them for? Break the habit, recycle, and make the change to reuseable. Check out our post How To Be Greener Today for info on reuseable bags.

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There are several reasons for why styrofoam is not eco-friendly: styrofoam is not biodegradable and will sit forever in landfills, not many communities offer recycling programs for styrofoam, and although less harmful to the ozone layer than it used to be, there are still some greenhouse gases in styrofoam.  Often we are told to use paper instead of styrofoam. However, using paper that is not made of recycled material still requires an extensive production process using chemicals and exerting greenhouse gases.

What is the best solution to living without styrofoam? Use recycled plastics or papers if you need to use a disposable product. Make sure to recycle these when you are done. The best solution is to use reusable containers for your food and beverages. Check out our posts  on Klean Kanteen water bottles and TerraCycle’s recycled products. Pay attention to how you package items that you are shipping. Protect your items with recycled material instead of sytrofoam peanuts. Also, be aware when ordering food or going to fast food chains. Many companies are still using sytrofoam. See if paper or plastic containers can be used instead, so you can recycle them when you get home.

Say no to styrofoam. Say yes to reuseable materials.