Ok so it’s just two days till Christmas … that day we’ve all been working towards for weeks now. You’ve bought and wrapped presents … you’ve bought a tree and decorated it and now it’s time to sit back and wait for the big day to arrive.

Of course it is … what more could you be doing other than looking forward to having the family together and giving out all those great presents that are waiting under the tree?

Well you could be environmentally friendly and planning what you’re going to do with all the rubbish that’s left over after that big day and all the fun of the presents. It’s a bit strange really … right now there’s nothing that could be described as rubbish but by the end of Christmas day a lot of stuff that’s “good” now is going to be nothing but rubbish.

All the wrapping paper that’s been torn off the presents and discarded … you just know that there’s going to be a mountain of it. All that packaging and cardboard boxes that the presents come packed in … there’ll be another mountain of that stuff. What are you going to do with all that?

And then there’s the tree itself … what are you going to do with that once you’ve taken all the decorations down?

Are you planning on recycling all that rubbish and the unwanted tree? I certainly hope you are. I hope you’re planning on folding up all that old wrapping paper so that it won’t take up too much room in the recycling bin or crate.

I hope that you’re collapsing all those cardboard boxes and putting them into the recycling bin or crate too. Of course there’s so much to recycle that you’re probably going to run out of room in your bin or crate so I hope you’re planning on either hauling it in your car to the nearest recycling center or to the town dump or you’re going to store it in your garage and get rid of it in the recycling bin or crate over the coming weeks.

But that still leaves the tree … what are you going to do with the tree? Many local areas are offering residents the opportunity to have their tree fed through a chipper and turned into mulch and that’s a great way of recycling unwanted Christmas trees.

If your local authorities are offering that kind of service then be sure to take them up on the offer. These days there’s really no excuse for not being environmentally friendly and recycling just about everything that we don’t want after Christmas and you’ll be giving the planet a Christmas present if you do recycle.

With only four days to go till Christmas is upon us I hope you’ve got all your gift buying just about wrapped up and under the tree. No one in their right mind wants to tackle the crowds that will be filling the malls in the final few days before the big day.

But what about those gifts that you’re going to have to buy at other times throughout the year? There are always a few times through the year when you have to buy a gift and those are the times you should be looking for eco-friendly gifts and they’re not hard to find.

In fact these days you can do all your green gift buying right from the comfort of your own home and so you can save a few greenhouse gas emissions too. All you have to do is type ‘environmentally friendly gifts’ into Google and the first page Google shows you is going to give you plenty of ideas for everything from environmentally friendly gifts for a baby right through to patio furniture, environmentally friendly things you need around the home and even the office.

Right now I’m looking at several websites that are showing me everything from soy candles to handmade note paper, bags, beanies and even earrings made from environmentally friendly materials. And if you’re not sure what to give as a gift the sites even offer gift certificates printed on green paper just to reinforce the eco-friendly message.

I’m sure that in the year ahead more environmentally friendly gift shops will come online and there will be even more unique products for you to choose from so check them out and start setting a trend amongst your family and friends to give eco-friendly gifts that are not going to be a waste of scarce resources.

One of the most amazing things that has come about since people around the world began to understand the need to be environmentally friendly is the large number of purely organic products that have come to the market to try and replace those that are based on chemicals that will harm the environment and harm us too.

And none are perhaps more important than the products that we use on our body. Just recently researchers have begun to consider the possibility that the increase in allergies and asthma may be caused by the fact that we now wash our hands and other parts of our bodies far more frequently than our ancestors did.

Now neither I nor the researchers are suggesting that we need to stop washing our hands but we do need to think about the chemicals that we use in the soaps and other cleaning products that we use because it’s those chemicals that are actually damaging our skin and stripping away the layers that once protected our ancestors from the harmful germs that they came in contact with.

So we need to look for alternate products that are far more environmentally friendly … and friendly to us as well … than the products we currently use. Fortunately they are out there and one I’m looking at right now is some hair shampoo called ‘Jason’s Natural Sea Kelp Shampoo’.

Obviously its major ingredient is sea kelp but it also uses other environmentally friendly ingredients too such as Hawaiian ginger, orchid extract, kuku nut and plumeria. With all those very different ingredients you might think that this environmentally friendly shampoo may not foam up like normal shampoos do but from what I’ve heard you can washes just the same as other shampoos and it does leave your hair feeling very nice after you’ve used it.

You can buy it online from BigGreenSmile.com and you can learn more about it here

If there’s one thing that really bugs me about solar power it’s the fairly ugly solar panels that you’ve got to cover your roof with if you want to get some serious power from the sun to supply all your home’s energy needs.

Let’s face it, they may be effective but they really aren’t the prettiest things on the planet and I’m sure that their lack of aesthetic appeal is preventing more people from taking another step towards being environmentally friendly. But now, maybe the problem with aesthetics is about to be removed thanks to a company in Philadelphia and car bumpers.

Car bumpers? Yes car bumpers play a part in this story for these environmentally friendly roof tiles that work as solar panels are made from a high-performance polymer that’s often used in car bumpers.

The company that’s turning car bumpers into roof tiles is SRS Energy and there is no doubt that the roof tiles that they’re making are very aesthetically pleasing. Each tile is a solar panel but you see none of the technology that makes the tile a small power generator for it’s buried between the top and bottom skin of the tile.

By having each tile completely independent from the rest one broken tile does not mean that the entire system is compromised and on the other hand it when all the tiles are working it means that the entire roof area is a solar panel.

And just what do these solar tiles look like? Think of the clay tile roofs that you will see in typical Mission-styled homes in California or Italian villas and you’ll have a mental picture of what a roof made from these tiles might look like.

These tiles are still in the developmental stage but the technology has been tested and the tiles will be in available for purchase early in 2010.

A hat tip to Life Goggles for the link to this story

The summer holidays are all but a distant memory now but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be sitting in front of the fire planning our next vacation. And when you’re doing all that planning it’s time to start thinking about being environmentally friendly when we’re on holidays too.

So what should we be doing if we want to be environmentally friendly when we go on holiday? Well the very first thing you should be doing is looking for eco-friendly places to stay. Sadly you won’t find too many that advertise themselves as being eco-friendly but there are few out there and you’ll find that they are in some of the most beautiful parts of the country.

When you do find them fit them into your travel plans because we really do need to support every eco-friendly tourist venture that we can find.

Wherever you stay, think small. Try B&Bs instead of big hotels or motels. We always use B&Bs when we travel and we’ve always had a wonderful time and don’t be fooled by their name, bed and breakfast places aren’t just for single overnight stays … on our travels we’ve spend anything up to a week in one B&B and traveled out to explore the surround area.

Of course wherever you’re going to go for your holidays probably involves some traveling some distance from where you live so why not explore some environmentally friendly ways of getting there and back. Perhaps you might have to forego the convenience of taking your own car and take the bus or train instead but that might just add to the fun.

Don’t forget to think about what’s going on around your home while you’re away either. Make sure that you turn off all the appliances that you don’t need to keep running and unplug them from the socket. Stop your paper deliveries … if you still get them … so that the natural resources that go into the production of your paper aren’t wasted.

And don’t be surprised if you find that your environmentally friendly holiday costs a whole lot less than previous, less eco-friendly, holidays have cost you. For some more ideas on green holidays click here.

You only have to look at some garbage dumps to realize that we definitely have to learn to recycle more. Sure there are those of us who know exactly what should be recycled in our home or office trash and we make sure that it does get recycled but there are so many more people out there who either have no clue about what should be recycled or are way too lazy to bother with recycling.

I guess we can only tell people so many times that they should be recycling and why they should be recycling. Then if it doesn’t sink in perhaps we need to take some further action to actually MAKE them want to recycle.

In Massachusetts there are around 130 towns and cities that have now taken steps to make people want to recycle and the way they do that is to charge residents for every bag of trash they throw away while letting them recycle for free.

Obviously it won’t take long for people to realize that if they can reduce the amount of trash they put out to be collected each week by recycling then they’re actually going to save money.

The idea of charging for trash but recycling for free has proven quite successful in Massachusetts and not just from a residents’ point of view. The amount of rubbish going into landfills and the amount of pollution being spewed out by incinerators has been reduced and now State officials want to extend the scheme to even more communities.

And there’s something that we can do for the environment and encourage others to be more environmentally friendly. We can start encouraging our State officials to get behind a move to start charging for trash that’s headed for landfill. I don’t think it would be all that hard to get the State governments interested in a scheme like this … they’re always looking for ways of raising revenue.

Over the years that I’ve been on the planet there has been quite a revolution in home building and the traditional family home now looks quite different to the way it looked when I was growing up. The materials that homes are made out of have changed over the years too.

While brick and timber still currently predominate there’s a strong move going on to take those basics of home construction right out of the equation. In some parts of the world the wooden framework that once held every house up and together is now disappearing in favor of steel framework and that’s not such a bad thing at all.

Brick is also beginning to disappear and when you consider the amount of resources that go into producing a brick you may well want to see them disappear entirely. So if brick houses are beginning to disappear what is taking is place?

Well in some places mud is being used for the walls of houses. Actually mud has been around for thousands of years but it’s really only in the last 25 years or so that people in the western world have considered using mud for their homes.

Even today mud is still only used by the true environmentally friendly people who want do much of the construction work themselves. But now there’s something new on the scene that may become popular with more than just the very eco-friendly crowd.

This new product is called the HIB System and some people describe it as being like Lego. The German manufacturers of the system suggest that it’s so easy to use that just about anyone can build their own home and when it’s completed the home will be soundproof, insulated and energy efficient.

It sounds very interesting and you should follow this link if you want to read more about it.

I was having a discussion with a friend the other day who wanted me to believe that it was possible to have absolutely no impact on the environment if you were careful about the way you lived. Despite the discussion going on for several hours he couldn’t convince me that he was right … and the more I think about it the more I’m sure that there is simply no way for a human being in today’s world to have absolutely no impact on the environment.

We can certainly reduce the impact we have and become far more environmentally friendly than what we currently are … but to become so totally eco-friendly that we have no impact? No, that’s simply not possible anymore.

Instead what we have to do is accept the fact that if you want to be environmentally friendly and still survive you’re going to have to compromise. There are going to be trade-offs and if you aren’t prepared to accept them then you’re doomed to failure and frustration.

Take for example the situation with a washing machine. Now we all know that the current thinking is that if you want to be environmentally friendly when it comes to washing machines then you’re going to have to buy a front-loader and the sooner you buy it the better … or at least that’s what some experts think.

Your old top-loading washer wastes water … wastes electricity and so it’s bad for the environment. So off you go to the department store to buy a new front-loading washing machine. You find one that’s looks as though it will really do the job and you buy it.

So where is the compromise in that? Well just wait till it arrives packed in all that plastic wrapping, foam supports, maybe even a small wooden pallet and of course there’s all that cardboard too.

How much extra energy and how many resources went into making that shiny new washing machine and all the packing that comes with it? And how many years of use was left in that old washing machine? Was buying a new environmentally friendly washing machine really the right thing to do?

You’ll find the story of another family here who needed a dishwasher but couldn’t bring themselves to buy one when they thought of the packing that would come with a new one.

As I write this there are just 54 shopping days left till Christmas and if you’ve really been striving to be environmentally friendly around the home now, in the lead up to the holiday season, is the time when you can undo a lot of the good that you’ve been doing throughout the year.

Christmas is a time of increased consumption in just about everything from food to packaging, greetings cards to fuel and so much of it turns into waste on December 26. Now I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t buy any gifts this year … or send any greetings cards … or even go on a diet … I’m not suggesting that you should become a scrooge this holiday season at all.

What I am suggesting is that you look for the eco-friendly options in everything you do and here are some suggestions on what some of those options might be.

Shopping
You know, you can spend a lot of time and waste a lot of gas during the holiday season as you drive backwards and forwards to the mall looking for those important gifts. One way to cut down on the amount of fuel you’ll use and save time as well is to shop online.

There aren’t many gift items these days that you can’t buy online and there are plenty of places online that sell those gift items that you’re looking for. If you’re worried about the security of your credit card then shop at the big online stores … although the little guys can also supply what you want and your credit card details will be safe with whoever handles their online card processing.

So save time and money and do all your shopping from the comfort of your own home.

Packaging
If your garbage bins are anything like ours are on December 26 then they’re going to be stuffed full of packaging. It seems that regardless of what you might give or receive as gifts there’s always going to be plenty of packaging that becomes waste the moment you’ve unboxed your gifts.

If it’s recyclable cardboard, paper or plastic then make sure it goes in the recycle crate and if you can’t fit it all in the crate then put the surplus to one side in your garage and put it out for recycling over a period of weeks.

Don’t just throw the surplus in with your general garbage simply because the recycle bin or crate is full. Be prepared to store some of your recyclable waste until there’s room in the crate.

And while you’re thinking about packaging think about buying gifts that come with a minimal amount of packaging. That can be a tall order these days but always look for the item with the smallest amount of packaging before opting for something that comes with a whole lot more.

Seasonal cards and wrapping
I would hate to guess just how many greeting cards are purchased, sent, read once and then discarded during these coming holidays. On a world-wide scale it would have to be at least many thousands of tons.

If you want to be eco-friendly when it comes to greetings cards look for ones that are made from recycled paper and make sure that you recycle the cards that are sent to you this holiday season. Heck even put a little note in with the ards you send out that might encourage the people who get them to recycle them when the holiday season is over.

All that bright and colorful wrapping looks really neat on the gifts as they sit under the tree don’t they? Unfortunately all that bright wrapping paper is produced using harmful chemicals for the inks so look for some less colorful and more environmentally friendly wrapping paper. It’s out there and the environment will thank you if you take the time to find it.

Decorative lights
Man these can chew up an incredible amount of power so put them on an automatic timer that will switch them off at a set time each night. Leaving them on all night is simply a waste of our limited resources and it certainly does add to the harmful greenhouse gases that power generating stations are releasing into the air every day.

You should also take a moment to look at the decorative lights that you are putting up and/or replacing. Ordinary globes … even little ones that run on 12 volts DC … can consume large amounts of electricity so look for a more eco-friendly option such as decorative lighting that is made using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). Lights that use LEDs consume much less power, last many times longer and they don’t give off any heat either.

And there you have just a few suggestions that will help you make this holiday season a genuinely green one and isn’t it time that we gave the environment a gift at this happy time of year?

We all love our pets … they bring joy to our lives and keep us company through lonely times. I know that when my first marriage fell apart it was my cat, deciding to sit on my head in one of the darkest times I experienced, that pulled me through.

I mean, it was hard not to laugh when the cat carefully picked his way along the back of the sofa and then settled down right on top of my head. He had never done it before and he never did it again but I guess that at that point in time he sensed that he had to do something very different to pull me out of the dark pit that I was slipping into.

So I definitely understand how people feel about their pets but are they really environmentally friendly? Well some researchers in New Zealand seem to think that dogs and cats are less eco-friendly than a large SUV.

They claim that the average cat’s eco-footprint is only slightly less than that of a VW Golf and ten-times that of a hamster. But a German Shepherd uses up more resources than your average jeep.

To arrive at these conclusions the researchers looked at the amount of food a dog or cat would consume in a year and the amount of land that would need to be used to produce common brands of dog and cat food and compared that to the amount of land that is needed to construct and drive a jeep for a year.

For the record it seems that your average German Shepherd consumes around 362lbs of meat and 209lbs of cereal every year and the ecological footprint for a hamster? Well that’s very similar to around the same as a plasma TV.

After working their way through all those figures I’m sure that the researchers aren’t suggesting that you get rid of your dog or cat but they are suggesting that you include them and their requirements when you’re trying to balance your family’s ecological footprint.