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by Kade Agan

On the heels of the carbon footprint (pun quite possibly intended) as a way to measure energy usage, the water footprint has come along to do the same for water consumption. Introduced by professor Arjen Y. Hoekstra in 2002, the idea of a water footprint has taken hold as a means of measuring water consumption the world over. 

A water footprint represents both direct and indirect water use by consumers, and also measures the total volume of freshwater used to produce goods and services. The water use is measured in water volume consumed (evaporated) and/or polluted per unit of time.

The footprint is made up of three components which are blue, green and grey. A blue footprint measures the amount of water evaporated from a global source that is then used to provide a good or service to the community. The green component accounts for the use of green global water resources like rainwater stored as soil moisture. Grey water refers to the polluted water that must be diluted in order to make the final good or service acceptable to consumers. 

Professor Hoekstra’s organization, Water Footprint Network explains on its website that, "[T]he interest in the water footprint is rooted in the recognition that human impacts on freshwater systems can ultimately be linked to human consumption, and that issues like water shortages and pollution can be better understood and addressed by considering production and supply chains as a whole.”  With this in mind a look at the website proves educational as it allows visitors the chance to see just how much water goes into producing a liter of milk, a kilogram of rice or a cup of coffee.  If you run the numbers you’ll likely be surprised at how much water we really do use on a daily basis. 

Even more startling may be the results of your own water footprint calculations courtesy of the individual footprint calculator.  And if you’re set on changing your water usage habits remember that the greatest journey of all starts with a single step.  

About Eco Encore

Eco Encore raises finds for environmental causes around the Pacific Northwest through online reselling of donated used books, CDs, DVDs and software. Since 2002 Eco Encore has shipped over 26,000 items to 51 countries, diverting about 25 tons of paper and plastic from local landfills.

It's easy to join the Eco Encore mission by donating or buying used media through our online bookstore.

You can follow us online at our blog, Facebook and Twitter.

by Kade Agan

The recent earthquake in Haiti has left what was already the poorest nation in the Americas completely devastated. As the number of casualties and the mortally wounded climbs every day, people across the world have found it in their hearts to dig deep and aid in the recovery effort in a variety of ways. 

From a $10 American Red Cross text to 90999 with the keyword “Haiti” to local community fundraisers the opportunities to donate to this worthy cause abound. If you’re looking for a particularly green cause to which you or your fundraising group can contribute, you may want to consider Sol, Inc., a Florida-based company that specializes in renewable lighting. Their Earthquake Relief Matching Program will bring solar-powered lighting to Haiti to aid in relief and recovery efforts.

The Tropical Solar Light (TSL) System is designed especially for locations within 30 degrees of the equator and can withstand 170 mph winds. With a retail price of $1,200 the ultra-bright LED system is easy to install and can be up and running within 1 hour, making all the difference in areas where poor visibility and safety are issues. The most heartening thing about Sol’s campaign is that for every lamp purchased the company itself will donate another one to the Haitian relief effort. This sort of generosity will hopefully help to shine a light in a part of the world that needs it most.  
 

About Eco Encore

Eco Encore raises finds for environmental causes around the Pacific Northwest through online reselling of donated used books, CDs, DVDs and software. Since 2002 Eco Encore has shipped over 26,000 items to 51 countries, diverting about 25 tons of paper and plastic from local landfills.

It's easy to join the Eco Encore mission by donating or buying used media through our online bookstore.

You can follow us online at our blog, Facebook and Twitter.

by Kade Agan

We’re one week into the new year now, and to suggest that few of us may have already fudged on some of our well-intentioned resolutions probably isn’t too outlandish. But this is also a great time to sit down and consider what you’ve done in the past week and how you’d like to continue for the 51 that are to follow. Living greener can be distilled down to a series of simple choices that improve your life as well as the planet. Green resolutions are simple enough and can easily go from conscious choices to eco-friendly habits over time. Like any resolution, though, the goals you set have to be realistic and should ideally be measurable if you have any hope of really achieving them. Here are some steps to help you achieve your green resolutions.

Evalution

Start by making a list of all the areas where you think making a change for the environment could be plausible. Whether this involves evaluating what groceries you buy (or where you buy them), how often you take public transit, how frequently you use large appliances, etc. Making a note of things that you know you can change and then strategizing how to go about those changes is a great first step. If you want to calculate your carbon footprint there are a number of websites to help you, like The Nature Conservancy.

Execution

Ideas for how to become more eco-friendly take on various shades of ambition, and as with any resolution the key to success is choosing a goal that’s truly achievable. Some people might have it in them to start an organic vegetable garden in their back yard, or to join a Community Supported Agriculture cooperative. Others might want to consider shopping more locally, or simply reducing the amount of packaging they bring home from the store. The same goes for deciding whether or not you want to go the whole nine yards and ditch the car in favor of alternative transit, whereas maybe a more feasible solution would be public transit during the week and reserving use of the car for weekends and longer journeys. Each decision you make regarding greener habits is a personal one that requires contemplating just how far you feel you’re willing and able to take your resolution.

Assessment

This is probably the trickiest and most valuable part of achieving any goal. Sometimes we don’t like to admit to ourselves when we’ve come up short, but constant assessment allows us to make adjusts along the way. Going greener is measurable, and it can be done by re-visiting your carbon footprint, looking at how much money you spend on gas or comparing old utility bills to new ones.  While not every aspect of being green is always more economical, eschewing waste (in terms of wasted energy or tangible detritus) is a gradual money-saver. It’s worth taking stock of the situation on a quarterly basis to see how you’re doing, and with any luck by this time next year we’ll all be a little greener.
 

by Kade Agan

If you’ve put off getting your Christmas tree until now, don’t worry. Instead of coming across as a disorganized procrastinator or quasi-Grinch you may have the chance to appear as an eco-aware merrymaker thanks to the replantable, or “living” tree option.

Replantable trees have grown in popularity every year. The trees are exactly what the name suggests: a fir tree that isn’t chopped down for the holidays and then later disposed of, bypassing consumer dumping. The tree continues to live, producing oxygen and filtering carbon dioxide. Replantable trees simply have the root ball still attached, so after the holiday season they can be returned to the nursery, donated to a local park or planted on your property as a way of keeping holiday memories alive for years to come. 

If you’re in Seattle, check out Swanson’s Nursery for their living Christmas tree program which works to support local area salmon.  Swanson’s will allow you to return your living tree after the holidays are over so it can be replanted along the banks of streams in order to reduce surface water runoff and lower water temperature.

The Original Living Christmas Tree Company, in Portland, Oregon offers a comprehensive tree program that includes tree-pick up.  Unfortunately they’ve sold out of tannenbaums this year but web visitors should start planning for next year. Otherwise this outside Portland link has tips on how to source and plant a tree of your own without the aid of a pre-established living tree program. Regardless of where you get it from, a living tree is just one of many ways to make your holiday season a little greener. 
 

About Eco Encore

Eco Encore raises finds for environmental causes around the Pacific Northwest through online reselling of donated used books, CDs, DVDs and software. Since 2002 Eco Encore has shipped over 26,000 items to 51 countries, diverting about 25 tons of paper and plastic from local landfills.

It's easy to join the Eco Encore mission by donating or buying used media through our online bookstore.

You can follow us online at our blog, Facebook and Twitter.

by Kade Agan

If you’re still scrambling for holiday gift ideas, you’re certainly not alone. On the heels of my last post about gifts that don’t result in unwanted consumer waste I’d like to follow up with a holiday gift-guide of sorts. This particular installment focuses on charitable giving, an act that makes both the giver and recipient feel full of holiday spirit without the need to scour the house for tape, scissors and festive wrapping paper. 

Once again the Good Card gets a mention as a gift card that engenders good will toward men through any organization they choose. Whether it be Greenpeace, PETA, or Doctors Without Borders (to name a few) this little card can be used to add value to the meaning of “it’s better to give than to receive.”

Heifer International is an organization that provides both livestock and training to families in some of the poorest parts of the world.  The website explains that giving livestock can “help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways.” Furthermore, in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of the animal’s offspring to another family in need. It’s called Passing on the Gift. A $20 flock of chicks, for example, would be a great gift to give on behalf of a child who could learn about how their gift will grow into fowl whose eggs will help feed a family.

Women for Women International, a charity that “provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies.” Their Gifts that Give Back program ends on December 16th and is full of simple items that can make a real difference for a woman in need. Twenty-five dollars, for example, buys carpentry tools and training for a woman in need of a skill and resources to put that skill to use. Fifty dollars provides private tutoring for a woman who wishes to learn to read. Gifts start for little as $15. If you miss the December 16th deadline don’t fret – Women for Women International offers a year-round sponsorship program that would also make a great present for this holiday season. 

Lastly, perhaps one of the simplest gifts a person can give is also the most necessary: the gift of water. Charity: Water is a non-profit organization that recognizes that one in eight people doesn’t have access to clean drinking water, and aims to fix that by bringing clean water to the developing world. Charity: Water has a holiday gift section that ranges from $24 for a Little Black Box containing a rubber, Livestrong-style bracelet that signifies the donation of clean water to a person in a developing nation for 20 years. A $5,000 option sponsors the building of a well, the GPS coordinates of which are sent upon the well’s completion 12-18 months later. Like Women for Women International these gifts do have shipping deadlines, but Charity:Water gladly accepts donations anytime. 

Obviously there are lots of ways to express love and kindness during the holiday season, and when giving gifts it never hurts to think outside the box, so to speak.  These are just a few ideas of the things that money can buy this season as a way of saving the earth as well as the people who share it. 
 

About Eco Encore

Eco Encore raises finds for environmental causes around the Pacific Northwest through online reselling of donated used books, CDs, DVDs and software. Since 2002 Eco Encore has shipped over 26,000 items to 51 countries, diverting about 25 tons of paper and plastic from local landfills.

It's easy to join the Eco Encore mission by donating or buying used media through our online bookstore.

You can follow us online at our blog, Facebook and Twitter.

While we didn’t quite get a ton of donations, our November media donation drive was a great success. In total, we counted 30 boxes of donations, more than 550 items (which we could sure use help listing, volunteers-to-be out there).

With this great outpour of support, and the COP15 talks yet over, we are sending the below letter to those who have a say in what the United States does in creating a better environment for our future.

We appreciate the support from everybody who donated in November, and hope you’ll remember the Eco Encore online store for the holidays.   

by Alex Russell

Today and tomorrow, Dec. 4, EPA chief Lisa P. Jackson is making her first official appearances in the Northwest at two Seattle events. Today she held a press conference at Pier 66 to discuss American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for clean diesel investments. Tomorrow, Jackson will sit with Gov. Gregoire, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and others at a Clean Energy and Economy Forum at McKinstry Innovation Center in Georgetown.

Along with the forum, Jackson will take a tour of McKinstry's Innovation Center, scheduled for completion in spring 2010. The Center was conceived as a way to bring together emerging companies to foster innovation in clean energy and conservation technologies.

“We are on the forefront of creating some of the most innovative solutions to eliminate energy waste in the built environment,” McKinstry CEO Dean  Allen told the Seattle Chamber of Commerce in November. “Now with the Innovation Center we will have the opportunity to quickly advance new technologies that are working toward that goal, as well as partnering with innovative entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market.”

In January, McKinstry won a US Department of Energy contract worth $5 billion through prior US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman's Transformational Energy Action Management initiative. The contract, one of 16 awarded to service companies across the country, is part of an effort to save $80 billion for federally-owned buildings through renewable energy and water conservation projects. 

Lisa P. Jackson was unanimously confirmed by the Senate soon after President Obama nominated her to lead the EPA. Before then Jackson had served as Chief of Staff for New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and was Commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection. Jackson is also a 16-year employee of the EPA.

Tomorrow's forum takes place at 11:45 in the McKinstry Innovation Center at 5005 Third Ave. South in Seattle.

About Eco Encore

Eco Encore raises finds for environmental causes around the Pacific Northwest through online reselling of donated used books, CDs, DVDs and software. Since 2002 Eco Encore has shipped over 26,000 items to 51 countries, diverting about 25 tons of paper and plastic from local landfills.

It's easy to join the Eco Encore mission by donating or buying used media through our online bookstore.

You can follow us online at our blog, Facebook and Twitter.

by Alex Russell

Leading up to Thanksgiving this year, all the best websites have a flood of information on how to green your celebration. So often, green living seems like it’s not only more expensive but grounded in deprivation. Fortunately this isn’t necessarily so. With that in mind I’ve gathered some of the best ideas I could find on the Web, at least a couple of which will probably hold through Christmas.

First, square away your green basics. The consensus about how to green your holiday seems to surround the basics of everyday eco-friendly living. Think about the waste a Thanksgiving meal can create. Gloria Campos from About My Planet recommends cooking less to minimize frige waste, and considering biodegradable dishes to save on labor after the meal.

Colleen Vanderlinden from Planet Green writes that the most important thing to do around the whole holiday season is to just relax. She recommends taking the extra time to think about cooking foods you really love rather than a spread that takes all the time and fun out of the day. She also suggests focusing on spending time with the people we care about rather than fulfilling all the “requirements” of a happy holiday tradition. This all seems obvious, but it’s easy to get caught up in what needs to be done rather than what everybody would really enjoy.

Every website I’ve come across recommends either tanking the turkey all together for a vegan option, or going with the more expensive Heritage turkey rather than the broad-breasted white turkeys of the Butterball variety. There’s good reason, too, if you have the time and will to see just how they're raised. If you’ve heeded the calls to go with the Heritage organic turkeys, raised in wide-open spaces and treated humanely, you probably also paid ten times as much for it. Then again, how realistic is it that a 15-pound turkey should really sell for less than $6?

Heritage turkeys no matter where you buy them will cost a lot more than that. There’s good reason, too. The turkey I’ve got roasting in my oven was raised by George and Elko Vojkovich at Skagit River Ranch. They pasture all their animals, feed them well and treat them as living creatures. This also means a 15-pound turkey, if you order one early enough in the year or get lucky at market day, will cost over $80. For peace of mind, and the fortune to be able to afford such a luxury bird, the cost might be justified.

by Alex Russell

California is the first state to adopt strict energy efficiency standards for televisions, estimating a 10-year savings of $8.1 billion in energy costs. According to these new regulations, most televisions will have to consume 49 percent less energy by 2013.

New energy regulations anywhere in the country should make all of us think about the true costs of every kind of energy we use. The California Energy Commission estimated that televisions account for about ten percent of household energy costs. Of course, in Washington we don’t watch as much television as they do in California, but we do enjoy our high-powered desktops and notebooks. We all, in our own ways, can do better, but looking at the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the idea of exactly what we need to look at changes quite a bit.

Reducing the amount of energy we consume in the home is important, but we have to keep a realistic context if our purposes reach into reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A 2006 study by the Washington State Department of Community, Trade & Economic Development found that of the 88.3 million metric tons of the state’s CO2-equivalent emissions, 45 percent came from transportation. Residential and commercial energy-use emissions combined contributed only 7.9 percent, while in-state electricity generation contributed 13.8 percent. These numbers show that we can cut our household power bill all we want, buy the most efficient appliances on the market, and still have percentage-wise only a tiny bit of greenhouse gas emissions to reduce. Everything we can do individually does make a difference, but it does not eliminate our responsibility to think about the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions—transportation.

The California legislation to reduce television energy consumption is in this respect a kind of token step forward, but it has still come with a hint of the industry backlash any level of government may face when initiating better environmental policies. A scientist with the National Resources Defense Council said, “By simply establishing minimum energy efficiency standards for new TVs, we can cut the state’s electricity use by almost 1 percent,” and, “The newly adopted California TV standards will be the most advanced in the world. If history repeats itself, we expect many policy makers around the world to establish similar standards in the not too distant future.”

Meanwhile, the Consumer Electronics Association is not as happy about California’s decision. They said, “Simply put, this is bad policy—dangerous for the California economy, dangerous for technology innovation and dangerous for consumer freedom. Instead of allowing customers to choose the products they want, the Commission has decided to impose arbitrary standards that will hamper innovation and limit consumer choice.”

These kinds of free-market arguments are familiar, and have come up with every kind of regulation even recently, from energy to healthcare. Considering all the legislation that’s really needed to solve the problem of climate change—much more serious and intrusive legislation at that—there is surely plenty more of this kind of talk on the way.  

About Eco Encore

Eco Encore raises finds for environmental causes around the Pacific Northwest through online reselling of donated used books, CDs, DVDs and software. Since 2002 Eco Encore has shipped over 26,000 items to 51 countries, diverting about 25 tons of paper and plastic from local landfills.

It's easy to join the Eco Encore mission by donating or buying used media through our online bookstore.

You can follow us online at our blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Eco Encore need your help! 

We've kicked off our November Ton of Books used media drive to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) on December 7. Eco Encore’s goal is to get a ton—2,000 pounds—of book, CD, DVD and software donations by November 30 from everybody in and out of Seattle who wants to show real support for action on climate change.

by Alex Russell

350.

It’s a number that environmental activists around the world today hoped to inject into the minds of people in all nations for the International Day of Climate Action. At more than 5,200 events in 181 countries the message was clear—350. It’s a goal for all of us to remember, to keep in mind as we make all the small decisions that lead us into a future measured both in degrees and the will to take ownership as stewards of our planet.

Right now, the concentration of carbon in Earth’s atmosphere is 387 parts per million (ppm). This is not sustainable, and is resulting in the kind of climate change we ourselves are observing more drastically as the years progress, from the melting of arctic glaciers to the progressively more severe winters I did not expect when I moved to Seattle. The proof of climate change is all around us, and will be harder and harder to trivialize and argue away as Republican Tennessee Representative Marsha Blackburn did for Tavis Smiley on his Oct. 2 radio show.

The number 350 represents the ppm figure that climate scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. This doesn’t mean we’re lost since we’re past it and the number is still climbing. It means we have time and opportunity to steer things back in the right direction before the game is over. We’ve seen it before, with activism around the hole in Earth’s ozone layer during the Reagan 80s. While the hole in the ozone layer has not been closed, it’s in much better shape than it was before the 1987 Montreal Protocol stopped the use of chlorofluorocarbons in appliances and aerosols that cause the problem. This is an example of public pressure forcing government policy, and back then it helped us step away from much bigger problems. Now if we could just ratify the Kyoto…

The Christian Science Monitor reported also today, as part of its coverage of the 350 rallies around the world, that a Pew survey found fewer Americans believe there is solid evidence that the earth is warming. Is this really possible? It’s hard to imagine, given the mainstreaming of sustainability and green living—and you know something is well into the mainstream if major companies who really could care less are using it to sell their products (hence greenwashing). Maybe Pew missed the boat. Maybe they’re right. It makes no difference. We still have to make daily decisions that create a better world for ourselves.

by Kade Agan

With the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) being held in under two months the US has taken it upon itself to review its current climate change goals before arriving in Denmark for the conference’s Dec. 7 start date. 

United States Senators Barbara Boxer, D-CA and John Kerry, D-MA will be introducing a new climate change bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act into legislative hearings starting Oct. 27, having already been reviewed by the EPA. The first page of the 821-page document states that the goal of the proposed legislation is “To create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.”

The tenets of the bill are ambitious, no doubt meant to show other COP15 attendee nations that the US means business when it comes to decreasing harmful emissions and a dedication to cleaner energy sources – along with a workforce capable of upholding those ideals.

Perhaps the greatest ambition of all those set out in the bill is the one that aims for a carbon pollution reduction of 20 percent by the year 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 of 2005 levels. These levels are, according to the document, “[T]he minimum scientists judge necessary to avert climate disaster."

The need to invest in new and renewable resources is not lost on the bill’s authors. In addition to provisions for more funding for nuclear power research and incentives for natural gas expansion, it is recognized that solar and wind energy are critical to growing the nation’s economy, as are new, greener standards for the building of vehicles and structures alike. These guidelines also take into consideration the breadth of jobs that will be created in the US, stating, “From researchers to roofers, the economic benefits will be broad and widespread,” and that when running the numbers alone stakeholders are asked to consider “every dollar spent on clean energy creates nearly four times as many jobs as an equal investment in oil and gas."

The proposed legislation demonstrates the economic as well as environmental benefits of cutting carbon emissions in favor of clean energy. One can only hope that if this bill passes the US will be ahead of the game in Denmark this December.

For more information, see an overview of the bill online.  

by Kevin Bridges

The element vanadium may be closing a lot of "clean coal" spokespersons' mouths soon, as it central to a new battery design that may solve renewable energy's biggest problem: consistency.

We've been hearing about wind power and solar power for decades, but we're still lighting most of our houses with power from coal. There is a reason for this. Any energy generated by the moods of Mother Nature is subject to her mood swings and these can, if too heavily relied upon, cut off your lights and TV in the middle of Conan O'Brien. What large-scale renewable energy needs is a long-lasting battery to store energy in times of plenty, and discharge it smoothly and reliably in times of lack. The Vanadiam Redox Battery (VRB) might be the best candidate for this.

The VRB is a "flow battery," and has a leg up on the kinds of batteries you are used to. Unlike the re-chargable in your five-year-old cell phone (or is that just me?) there is no memory effect to gradually reduce the battery's capacity over a number of charges. The VRB can be recharged thousands of times, because of its fundamentally different design. Also, the VRB is able to give energy on-demand, and recharges quickly.

With this technology in place, as it will hopefully soon be, our children may eventually see the wind and the sun as standard energy sources, instead of energy that's just out of reach.

Unlike coal plants and nuclear reactors, the VRB battery is very scalable, working well built large or small, and this raises a more exciting possibility. A personal, household battery, hooked up to a wind turbine in the back yard and maybe some solar panels on the roof. In the same spirit as growing your own free tomatoes, you may harvest your own free power (two words that don't often get to shake hands) and be able to warn the power company not to let the door hit it in the butt on the way out.

If this really is the technology that pulls renewable energy into the mainstream, and if large companies with large interests don't get in the way, it will be a big (BIG) bite out of our collective carbon footprint. And, if you ask a strip-mined mountain, and its destroyed ecosystem, it's a leap in the right direction.

For more information, visit Discover Magazine or The Energy Blog.

By Kade Agan

When out trick-or-treating with her children a few years ago Colwell-Lipson realized how much she appreciated the houses that thought “outside the conventional candy box” when distributing goodies to children.   The mother of two promised herself she’d remember those houses for next year, but alas, by the end of the night she had no idea who had given what.  

The Fall Friends of the Seattle Public Library Book Sale starts today and runs through Sept. 27. All three days of the Friends of the Seattle Public Library Book Sale will have people lined up around the old hangar at Magnusson Park, waiting to get at the more than 200,000 books for sale. Most are priced at $1, and many are the kinds of gems you would love to have in your personal library. Plus, if you were thinking about contributing to Eco Encore, spending a few extra dollars on books for donation could raise a lot more than that for our recipient partners when we resell them. 

The bi-annual Friends of the Seattle Public Library Book Sale is an event every Seattleite has to see at least once. I'd never seen so many librophiles in one place before, and they far outnumbered the booksellers with their towering shopping carts, and more recently the day laborers paid to walk the aisles with their electronic book scanners. It really comes down to this: 200,000 books is a lot of books, so many that some of the boxes don't get opened or put on tables until even the last day. So on Sunday when the lot has been pretty well picked through and everything's half price, there are still great finds to be had. For example, I've found on the last day in sales past:

• Almost two full boxes of Booker Prize-winning The Life of Pi in pristine, unread paperback
• The Old Man and the Sea paperback in new condition
• Selected Poems of Carl Sandburg 1926  hardcover edition with original woodcut design dust jacket
• The Toughest Indian in the World, Sherman Alexie (my favorite collection of his)
• Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman, 1940 edition with pristine pages and color illustrations
• Chinese Love Poems, 1942 stunningly beautiful hardcover edition, pristine inside its corner-worn original box (which revealed that Chinese poets did not share the romantic idealism about love with their American counterparts."

And there are others.

So get out there this weekend and find some gems, those for your own library as well as some for the Eco Encore shelves. Maybe I'll see you there.

Recycling is one way to reduce how much trash goes to local landfills, but there’s still more you can do. Ever thought about composting? Living in the city is no excuse anymore to throw those food scraps in the trash. There are options out there, and all of them actually are good rather than just not bad.

For as little as $3.60 a month, the city of Seattle will pick up your compostables and even provide the bin. From the curb it goes to Cedar Grove Composting in Everett, where the finished compost products are sold for around $20/cubic yard.

While Seattle set a city record in 2008 with its milestone 50-percent recycling rate, local non-profit Eco Encore is one example that recycling encompasses more than just the paper and plastic trash we divert from landfills. Since 2002 Eco Encore has resold donated books, CDs, DVDs and software, diverting an estimated 25 tons of paper and plastic from local landfills while raising money for 14 Seattle-area environmental organizations that do good for the environment.

Eco Encore is all about recycling, but it’s important to remember just why this is so important.

The numbers, in a way, are encouraging and surely came with great effort. Overall, in 2007 Americans sent 137.2 million tons of waste to landfills. Thanks to the steady climb in recycling since the 1980s, this overall figure hasn’t changed much in the past two decades even with the 70 million people we’ve added to the population since then.  In 2007 we recycled more than half of the 83 million tons of paper and cardboard thrown away. Unfortunately, 37.8 million tons, a ridiculous amount, was still sent to landfills. Imagine the number of trees cut down only to end up buried.

Seattle, WA—July 1, 2009—Candidates contending for the open King County Executive seat debated environmental issues at Seattle Town Hall last evening.

“As a candidate it’s always nice to have people who are actually interested in what we say,” said Jarrett, helping set the overall lighthearted mood of the debate.

Monday is a game of catch-up from weekend sales and other business. Eco Encore functions like two organizations—it’s an online retailer and a nonprofit, and carries the responsibilities of both.

Traffic streams by on the Alaska Way Viaduct across the street while Alex, operations assistant, lists books and CDs by ISBN and UPC code. He’s got boxes still to go. This morning he completed a mail run of 60 items, which is more than double recent runs after a computer glitch in the sales system was fixed. Mia, operations manager, is on the website updating new staff profiles and posting a blog entry about the new partnership with 41pounds.org.

The business of Eco Encore is in large part getting book and other media donations, and that’s what intern Isabella’s been at the past week. She sent mass emails to academic departments around the UW and got an exciting response from somebody in the Psychology department with boxes of texts and other books to donate, hoping for pickup arrangements. The end of the school year could mean an avalanche of valuable textbooks and Isabella’s pounding the pavement to get them.

By one o’clock Mia’s the only one left in the office; Alex has finished his day and Isabella’s off to class. Across the street behind chainlink fences, backhoes and tractors move gravel across the flat dirt construction site. The progress they make is clear every day.   

Save time! Save trees! Save the planet!

Did you know that more than 100 million trees are destroyed each year for junk mail?  Plus 28 billion gallons of water and enough energy to power more than 9 million cars?!  When we stop junk mail and catalogs, we keep trees in the forests doing what they do best – providing oxygen for us to breathe and absorbing C02 to keep our planet cool and healthy.

That’s why we’re partnering with 41pounds.org to stop junk mail and raise money for Eco Encore. For $41 (just $8.20 a year, or 2 cents a day), the 41pounds.org service does all the leg-work to reduce your junk mail and catalogs by 80-95% for five years -- and donates $15 to Eco Encore.

When you sign up, 41pounds.org will contact 20-35 direct mail companies to remove your name from their distribution lists. This includes almost all credit card applications, coupon mailers and magazine offers, plus any catalogs you specify.

It’s that simple!  I hope you’ll sign up at www.41pounds.org to stop your junk mail  or call 866-417-4141 right away!

Eco Encore would like to send a special thank to you all the volunteers, board members, and community partners who assisted with our big move a few weeks go! We moved a whopping 2 floors down!

Please note our new address is: 900 1st  Ave S Suite 205-B. Seattle, WA 98134

We are always in need of volunteers, so if you would like to stop by and check out our gorgeous new space email Operations Manager-Mia Reyes- mia@ecoencore.org

On this momentous day, what better way to start looking forward to what President Obama calls "a new era or responsibility" than by starting a few new habits that will have less of an impact on the environment.

Over at Earth911 Lori Brown lays out eight ways to "Green Your Inauguration." While some of the tips apply specifically to today's celebrations, many can be carried over into everyday activities. From the simple act of making your memories digital (versus printing photos or purchasing tchotchkes that will eventually end up in landfills), to getting educated about eco-friendly and economical ways to invest your tax refund by using Green and Saves ROI calculator, you can start the new year fresh and on the right foot.