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Keep These Tips in Mind For Smart Recycling During DIY Home Improvements

May 14, 2018 1

When homeowners think of DIY home renovation projects, they usually think of the work involved with the process itself, not the aftermath that comes with disposing of old materials. But properly disposing of these materials is critical, lest they end up as a space-hogging eyesore in your garage, shed, or basement. Keeping your storage space clear and the Earth in mind after any DIY home improvement project isn’t difficult; it just takes a bit of planning and prior knowledge. Here are just a few tips for properly disposing of the materials for any home improvement project you’re considering tackling this season.

Paints

Once you’ve finished a project involving paint, the last thing you want to do is throw the entire can in the dumpster, especially if there’s still some paint remaining. What you can do is donate any leftover paint to a neighbor, local community theater, or Habitat for Humanity. On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, and $50 per ton to send it to a landfill, so do your best to make sure no unused paint ends up in the trash.

As for empty paint cans, most are made of steel, which is among one of four of the most common metals used within the construction industry. With this in mind, they can be recycled, along with some other types of steel waste, including pipes and plumbing. If you’re unsure, contact your local waste management center.

Unneeded (But Still Usable) Appliances, Cabinets, Doors, Etc.

There’s a huge list of common home renovation materials that can be recycled. But before you resort to recycling, the U.S. Green Building Council highly recommends doing your best to donate, reuse, or otherwise repurpose these materials, which include appliances, bathroom fixtures, doors, flooring, ceiling tiles, bricks, cabinets, lighting fixtures, windows, pipes, landscaping materials, and more. A quick Google search will also reveal a number of programs designated to sustainably recycling a number of these renovation materials. And if all else fails, simply snap a quick photo of whatever it is you no longer need and post it to Craigslist under the ‘free’ section.

In 2016, the U.S. construction market was worth approximately $1,162 billion, but what’s even more shocking is that an estimated 30% of landfill waste comprises home renovation project materials, according to HomeAdvisor. With these statistics in mind, it should come as no surprise that proper construction material disposal can seriously increase sustainability.

“Recycling debris from a home remodeling project is not only good for the environment, it’s also good for your renovation budget. What you recycle can constitute a tax write-off, and some companies will pay you for the materials. From shingles to bricks, approximately 85% of all construction waste can be recycled, which means those numbers can add up. There are many ecological and economic benefits of recycling, instead of trashing, renovation debris,” says HomeAdvisor.

While disposing of old materials properly is always a smart and sustainable initiative, don’t underestimate the impact that you can have by going full circle and purchasing products made with recycled materials for your next home improvement project. For example, today, more than one-third of new paper is made with recycled fiber. The bottom line is that by keeping the Earth in mind through each and every step of the way, any home remodeling project can be performed as efficiently and sustainably as possible.

How to Prevent Your Family From Getting Sick During the Transition to Spring

March 22, 2018 0

If you have a family, you probably know how important it is to make sure that everyone stays healthy throughout the year. When one person becomes sick in the family, things tend to spiral out of control. Your kids might have to miss school, you might have to miss work, or your whole family might have to miss out on major events.

The change from winter to spring can be rough on many people. Allergies are on the rise and sickness is in the air. To prevent your family from coming down with any illness this spring, there are many things that can be done.

Rose Medical Groups suggests making time for regular exercise. You might not like the idea of getting off the couch and heading to the gym, but exercise can really help maintain your health and prevent coming down with an illness.

Now, you don’t necessarily have to go to the gym in order to get your exercise in. If you have kids, take them to a trampoline park or rent a bounce house. A mere 10 minutes of jumping is a better cardiovascular workout than 30 minutes of running. It’s a really easy way to make getting out and getting active fun, without forcing your entire family through the doors of a health club.

Drinking plenty of water is another key to staying healthy during this time of year. Get your family in the habit of drinking eight to 10 eight-ounce glasses of water every day. The water can help get rid of your body’s bad toxins and can help prevent any cracks from developing on your skin. Children especially should be drinking plenty of water each day if they want to maintain their skin’s youthfulness.

Spring cleaning is one of the easiest things you can do to help prevent your family from getting sick when the seasons change. Go through your home and dust the corners that haven’t seen the light of day in about six months, get rid of any boxes you neglected to throw out after the holidays, and use steam to kill all germs and bacteria hiding in your carpets. Steam has been said to kill 99% of common household germs and bacteria like E.Coli, salmonella, and staph, as well as dust mites and bed bugs.

According to NBC 2, spring cleaning is also the perfect excuse to get rid of any expired or unwanted medication you have in your home, and to do so properly. You can even bring the medications to a take-back program to properly dispose of the unwanted pills. They also suggest using your spring cleaning time as a period of making sure your home’s first aid kit is up-to-date and that all of your emergency contacts are updated in your cell phone.

Taking any of the steps listed in this article can help prevent your family and household from coming down with any springtime illnesses.

Spring is Almost Here! Turn your Garden into a Magical Eco-Friendly Haven!

March 20, 2018 0

NOTE FROM SWEET GREENS: Thank you supporting the companies that keep Sweet Greens in business.
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A beautiful, well-kept garden can be the best part of any home. It’s a perfect spot to get close to nature, watching butterflies and bees hover around flowers. It’s also an ideal location to relax after a busy day at work or looking after the children. A garden can be at its most magical in the evening, but too many people head indoors as the sun sets. Here are three ways to enjoy your garden in the evening, turning it into a central feature of your home right round the clock.

Install Night Time Landscape Lighting

It’s hard to enjoy the beautiful sights of your garden in darkness, but you can give nature a hand with the latest technology by installing landscape lighting from factory direct companies, which can help reduce landscape design project costs. When planning your lighting project consider path lights, well lights, or lights that are positioned in trees, so you can have evening lighting that’s subtle or strong to suit your taste. After your project is complete, you’ll be able to enjoy your garden’s beautiful light, when nature’s lights go off. This is especially useful on warm summer nights, and evening illumination can create a truly magical feel.

To learn more about night time lighting projects, visit: https://www.voltlighting.com/

It’s not always easy to appreciate your garden’s beauty after sunset, but the right lighting can change that. With custom landscape lighting, you can showcase the best features of your outdoor space while creating a warm, inviting atmosphere that reflects your personal style. Thoughtfully placed path lights, uplighting for trees, or accent lights around key elements can transform your yard into a stunning nighttime retreat. Whether you prefer a soft, ambient glow or more dramatic illumination, custom lighting lets you set the perfect mood. It’s especially ideal for warm summer evenings, turning your garden into a magical, relaxing space you can enjoy long after daylight fades.

Warming Up Those Cooler Nights

Even with the perfect garden lighting in place, you still may prefer to relax indoors at certain times of the year when evening temperatures start to dip. This problem can be fixed with the addition of strategically placed patio heaters. These can be placed next to the popular spots in your yard, such as, a garden bench, table, or garden building, and they make sitting outside a pleasure despite the cooler temperatures. The latest models of heaters are also designed to be environmentally friendly, which can help you “green” your garden even more!

I know what you’re thinking – running lights and heaters outside uses electricity. There’s got to be a more eco-friendly way! You know I wouldn’t let you down. Check out these VERY affordable solar panel kits! Just charge up your batteries during the day, and you’ll have enough power to keep you warm and glowing all evening long.

A Perfect Place To Entertain

Do you like to host dinner parties in your home? One of the most enjoyable parts of a dinner party is when guests gather together to share entertaining stories. Guests often gather in the living room or in the dining area itself, but your guests will be even more impressed if they gather in your garden. With lighting and heating in place, a garden room or gazebo is an ideal place to meet and greet guests or to entertain them before dining. Gazebos and garden rooms come in all sizes, and as they are an attractive garden feature while also adding value to your property as a whole.

As a bonus, you can install rollaway screens around your gazebo, so you can keep insects at bay without having to resort to zappers or chemical-laden sprays. You’ll get all the benefits of outdoor dining, while sharing it peacefully with the wildlife around you.  

These three features can each add evening magic to your garden, but when added together they create a spellbinding place to sit back and watch the world float by. With subtle lighting and a source of heat nearby, you can relax by your gazebo and gaze up at the stars in the night sky. The only way to improve this experience is to have the person you love by your side and your favorite drink in your hand.

Contrary to Popular Belief, There Is Good Environmental News

February 28, 2018 0

It seems like every day brings more bad news about the environment. We have global warming running amok, rising sea levels, pollution everywhere the eye can see, and polar bears set adrift. Well, enough with the bad news. This article will take a look at some of the tricky situations we are facing in the natural world, and give some examples of what is being done, right now, to help the environment.

Plastic Pollution

America is home to a great many things. From the mountains to the prairies, deserts, deciduous rainforests, concrete jungles, volcanoes, and canyons, the United States plays host to just about every type of environment imaginable. In fact, the U.S. and its territories have 95,471 miles of shoreline.

That’s why it’s certainly a shame that plastic bags comprise 10% of coastline debris. The amount of plastic bags used every year is well into the billions, and very few of them ever get recycled. In fact, for all plastic products produced, we only recover 5%.

This is a big problem which will likely require a large cultural shift toward renewable materials and better recycling habits.

What is being done right now?

There are some initiatives in American supermarkets that incentivize buying a reusable shopping bag by charging for plastic ones. The general phasing out of plastic bags might take a long time still, but progress is being made.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Theresa May proposed an incremental removal of plastic packaging from supermarkets.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

We all know about cars and fossil fuels and what we need to do to stop it, but one thing is left largely unsaid, and it is because we don’t have a solution yet.

Flights contribute 5% of all global warming causing emissions.

This is no small amount. And although commercial airlines make up the lion’s share of aviation emissions, they are not the true efficiency problem. In fact, catching a full 747 from New York to Los Angeles would most likely generate less green gas emissions per person than driving would. This is because most people drive alone in fuel inefficient cars, and while planes are less fuel efficient, the amount of people they carry makes up for their thirstiness.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States accounts for 49.7% of the total private jet market, and Europe takes a close second place with 20.8%.

What is being done right now?

All major airlines now offer the ability to buy a carbon offset. This is a certified tree planting program that customers can opt into for a negligible fee by donating the amount it would cost to plant the necessary number of trees to cancel out your flight’s carbon footprint.

Even though the environment has been taking a beating lately, it’s good to see that there are initiatives to take on global warming and pollution and overcome our fossil fuel addiction.

How Eco Artwork Can Improve Your Room Design

February 26, 2018 0

NOTE FROM SWEET GREENS: Thank you supporting the companies that keep Sweet Greens in business.
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Artwork is definitely an important element of any room design.  You can easily add interest to plain walls with fun and unique pieces of art.  Artwork can also bring together different elements of a room by providing color inspiration, a focal point or even by being a harmonizer.  Artwork often makes or breaks a new space. Incorporating a work of art is also a simple way to update your space in an eco-friendly way. By hanging a photograph or painting, you will refresh your walls without perpetuating the use of toxic paints or non-recyclable wallpaper. In this post, we’re looking at some of the main ways in which artwork can help improve a room’s design.

Artwork Adds Movement
In most spaces, you can use artwork to help create movement.  In the art world, movement is used by artists to help direct the viewer’s eye.  In interior design, it will also influence perceptions of the size of the room.  Using a piece of art that easily conveys a lot of movement will help create a rhythm between the chosen furniture your new wall décor.  Overall, this is how a room can evoke a certain emotion or convey a specific feeling.

Wall Art Provides Color
If you’re a little stuck when it comes to the color scheme you want to use in your new living space, artwork can help dictate or even enhance a color palette.  Firstly, try selecting a piece of artwork that matches the space and then create a new color palette influenced by the artwork. You can then narrow down accent colors from the work to help enhance it. If you’re bored with your wall colors, adding a piece of artwork is a great way to liven things up without worrying about the environmental consequences of repainting all the time.

Online sites like Fine Art America offer hundreds of thousands of artist’s works, so you can easily browse their expansive collection and find something that catches your eye.

Balance Texture and Scale in Your Room Design
Depending on the type of building you are furnishing, you’ll need to consider how art can help balance scale and textures.  For example, if you prefer sleek, low furniture with a modern design but your space has high ceilings, investing in a bold piece of wall art will immediately make the room feel more balanced as the eye will be drawn upward to the painting. An investment piece of artwork will also last you a lifetime and can be passed down to future generations, making it both eco-friendly and sentimental.

You can also use art to create a more dynamic room design. Textures, patterns and colors can all be pulled together with the right wall art.

Create a Rotating Gallery
If you’re the kind of person who easily changes their mind or gets bored with your space and you’re itching to switch up your décor, introducing a rotating gallery of artwork can be a quick and easy way to keep your walls feeling fresh.  Different pieces of art will help to highlight different furniture or other elements in your space. Since there is always a market for artwork, you don’t have to worry about being wasteful by replacing your pictures and paintings regularly. Instead, donate them to a used art retailer or make a little extra cash by selling them online. Either way, you know your art won’t end up in a landfill; there is always someone who will appreciate a painting or photograph you’re tired of.

Make a Statement with Your Art
Your artwork doesn’t always have the be the main focal point in a room.  You can also use art in subtler ways to add an element of sophistication to your room design.

The main thing you should take away is don’t be afraid to experiment with different art mediums.  Art is always a great investment that will help inspire new room designs.

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