Stream Green During Quarantine

Hello hello Greener Living readers!

I do apologize for my prolonged absence. I have no legitimate excuse, except to say that my life simply got in the way. However, due to the current COVID-19-induced climate of social distancing and self isolation, I am not only out of work, but out of a social life as well, leaving me with plenty of time to write.

I do not mean to underscore the severity of this pandemic, but merely to write on the matter from my perspective. Living and working in a resort town that has since come to a standstill, with restaurants, hotels, ski mountains, and just about every other business you can think of shutting down, my reality and the reality of those around me consists largely of being home without much to do.

On the one hand, the Coronavirus has had a surprisingly beneficial impact on the environment. With global travel coming to a standstill, many factories and industries shutting down, and economies being stalled, emissions and pollution levels have dropped substantially. Fossil fuel use has been curtailed as individuals work from or remain at home. With this stay-at home mentality, and in some instances, mandate, coupled with widespread unemployment and financial uncertainty, people aren’t going out to eat, shop, or consume like they used to. The situation, like most things, is nuanced with home energy usage increasing and the potential for emissions to skyrocket once economies rebound. However, for the time being we are living in a period of less travel, less consumption, and less environmental degradation.

To read more about how the Coronavirus is impacting the environment, I suggest checking out these articles courtesy of CNN and Scientific American.

In the meantime, if you’re stuck at home with nothing to consume but a dwindling supply of canned
goods and a slew of content available on various streaming services, I’d like to offer up the idea of watching environmental content to both educate and inspire in these troubling times.

Here are Greener Living’s top picks for “green” content to stream during quarantine:

1. Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
In a series of inspiring home makeovers, world-renowned tidying expert Marie Kondo helps clients declutter their homes and their lives!

Available on Netflix
1 season, 8 episodes (~30-40 minutes each episode)

This show speaks to the tenets of minimalism and less-is-more mentality. Who knows? It may even inspire you to do some tidying up during this quarantine.

2. Tiny House Nation
This series celebrates the "tiny house" movement. Hosts and renovation professionals John Weisbarth and Zack Giffin travel across America to show ingenious small dwellings and their creative inhabitants.

Available on Netflix and Hulu Live
2 seasons, 7 episodes each (~40 minutes each episode)

Both informative and inspiring, this series is a great introduction to the Tiny Living movement and the increased financial freedom and decreased environmental impact that often accompany and inform a family’s decision to live “tiny.”

3. Chasing Coral
In this Netflix original documentary, divers, scientists, and photographers around the world mount an epic underwater campaign to document the disappearance of coral reefs.

Available on Netflix
1h 29min

Self-labeled as controversial and investigative,  this film offers an opportunity to learn about one of the world’s most unique and threatened ecosystems.

4. Terra
This visually striking documentary explores our relationship to other living creatures as humanity becomes more isolated from nature.

Available on Netflix, YouTube
1h 37min

Provocative and inspiring, this documentary reminds us of the interconnectedness of all things while urging us to reconnect with nature.

5. Life Off Grid
Life Off Grid is a two-year journey exploring the lives of Canadians in every province and territory who have made the choice to disconnect. Life off Grid is a film about people who have chosen to build their lives around renewable energy, with beautiful, inspiring, and often challenging results.

Available on Amazon Prime
1h 25 min

A great option for those of us interested in learning more about alternative sources of renewable energy, off-grid living, and self-sufficiency.

6. Climate Warriors
This documentary showcases those advocating for rapid, systemic change in the face of the devastating effects of climate change. Specifically, these climate warriors are advocating for renewable energy as a way to save our planet and maintain our humanity and peace.

Available on Hulu
1h 26min

Emotionally-charged and politically provocative, this film will get you amped up and ready to join the revolution of activists demanding change in the name of our planet’s longevity and sustainability.

7. Cowspiracy 
This hard hitting film follows the journey of Kip Andersen, an endearing, man-bun clad environmentalist inspired by Al Gore’s 2006 An Inconvenient Truth, who is hell-bent on getting answers as to why the environmentally destructive impacts of animal agriculture were being overlooked and under-emphasized by environmental advocacy groups.

Available on Netflix
1h 30 min

As detailed in my earlier post on Plant-Based Diets, this film promotes an anti-meat / anti-animal product platform, challenges individuals to reconsider their everyday habits and lifestyle choices, and uses an impressive array of statistics to back up their claims.

8. Love Your Garden
Similar to Extreme Makeover Home Edition, famed horticulturist Alan Titchmarsh hosts this uplifting show in which he and his team travel the U.K. planting dream gardens for deserving citizens.

Available on Netflix
1 season, 8 episodes (~ 45 minutes each episode)

Admittedly, environmental documentaries can be dark, depressing, and emotionally exhausting at times. However, this delightful show offers some heartfelt, feel-good viewing that will hopefully inspire you to make the most of your outdoor spaces and plant a garden come spring.

9. The Lorax
This adaptation of Dr. Suess’s beloved book delves into the story of the Lorax, once the gruff guardian of the forest, and the Once-ler, who let greed overtake his respect for nature.

Available on YouTube, iTunes, Amazon (for rent)
1h 35 min

This film is a particularly good choice for children. After all, it’s never too early to start cultivating respect and stewardship for our planet!

10. Minimalism 
This documentary showcases the lives of minimalists from all walks of life who have ultimately rejected the American ideal that things bring happiness.

Available on Netflix
1h 18 min

While it’s not the most riveting documentary on the market, it does offer insightful commentary and promotes important introspection on what we truly value and need in our lives. Perfect for those looking to reduce waste in their everyday lives!



I know you have a lot of choices when it comes to content to be streamed. And with our country and planet in various forms of lock-down and quarantine, you now might find yourself with an abundance of time in which to consume this content. It is my hope that with this compilation of suggested viewing you will take the time to focus on the environmental issues and triumphs facing our planet. The shows and films on this list were selected to be thought provoking, educational, and ultimately inspiring.

If you watch these shows/films and would like to offer your opinions and reviews, please feel free to do so in the comments section below. Likewise, if you have other films or shows you would recommend, let us know what they are and where we can find them!

In the meantime, I sincerely hope you all stay safe, sane, and strong out there. And as always, best of luck on your journey toward greener living.

~Sam

Zero Gifts = Zero Waste

I’ve talked previously on this blog about the wasteful nature of gift giving, offering tips ranging from using sustainable wrapping options, sending electronic gift-cards, gifting “green” products, and shopping locally. However, this week I take the gift-specific waste reduction to a whole new level by suggesting going gift free. Radical? Perhaps. Effective? You betcha!



I am not so sullied and disheartened by the manic grips of capitalism which shape our daily lives in overt and at times invisible ways as to suggest never giving or receiving a gift again. After all, environmentalism should be fun! I do, however, think it’s worthwhile to consider replacing one gift-giving occasion each year with an electronic fundraiser instead.

I had been pondering this idea for a while, when I finally decided to put it into action. Having recently celebrated my birthday, this year I started a birthday fundraiser on Facebook and asked for donations to a charity of my choice in lieu of gifts.

The process was incredibly easy and streamlined, and in less than 10 minutes, my Facebook fundraiser was ready to go. I simply navigated to the Fundraisers tab along the sidebar, clicked “select non-profit” and then set up a fundraiser to benefit Pollinator Partnership. Facebook even generates an informational call-to-action detailing the mission of your selected charity and allows you to customize it to explain why it’s important to you.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am passionate about pollinators. I studied populations of native pollinators while in school and dressed as a bumble bee for Halloween this year, handing out informational pamphlets to raise awareness about pollinator decline.

By utilizing a fundraiser in lieu of gifts, I was able to support a cause I care about, avoid accumulating more things, and remove waste from my daily life in terms of wrapping paper, bags, packaging, shipping emissions, receipts, and the multitude of waste that accompanies a modern purchased gift.

To those few dedicated family and friends who got me a gift anyway, I appreciate your generosity! However, overall I feel I was successful in reducing waste by giving to a cause rather than receiving.

Facebook has a readily-supplied list of charities from which to choose. However, I recommend researching your charity of choice using Charity Navigator or similar sites to evaluate the effectiveness and transparency of charities before creating a fundraiser on their behalf.

The fundraiser you choose will receive donations either directly from Facebook or through Network for Good or Paypal Giving Fund depending on where/how the organization has enrolled to receive payments. You can read more about the logistics behind the process on the Facebook Help Center’s page on Fundraisers and Donations.

I set a goal of raising $200 for Pollinator Partnership, and surpassed that by $35. I raised money for an environmental non-profit while furthering my mission to reduce waste in my daily life. A win-win!

If you are averse to the idea of creating an electronic fundraiser via Facebook, or if you do not have Facebook, you can still donate to a charity in other ways, including via check, collecting supplies such as food and clothing, or in donating your time by volunteering for the organization yourself or with others. Check out 7 Ways You Can Make a Donation to Charity for other ideas and tips.

Birthdays, or really any gift-giving occasion, are a great time to try this zero-gift / zero-waste challenge. Added bonus if the charity of your choice champions an environmental cause.

What are your thoughts on the zero-gift / zero-waste challenge? What charity would you champion in your fundraiser? As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, and best of luck on your journey toward greener living!

~Sam

Recharge, Reuse, Recycle: Why Rechargeable Batteries are the Greener Option

Greetings, and thanks for tuning back in for another installment of Greener Living. With the hullabaloo of the holidays followed by a bout of flu, it has been some time since my last post. However, I am back this week and ready to preach the environmental benefits of using rechargeable batteries over traditional, single-use alkaline alternatives.

With so many gadgets and technological devices on the market and in our homes, we are using more batteries than ever before. In fact, roughly 3 billion batteries are sold in the US every year, comprising a $50 billion market, according to battery statistics found online, albeit somewhat outdated ones. A mere 11% of those batteries sold are rechargeable batteries.

It may seem like a harmless enough process to exchange your dead batteries for new ones, a simple and convenient task we often do without even thinking, but in reality those single-use batteries that we so readily replace and throw away are creating serious amounts of hazardous waste.

According to the EPA, Americans throw away more than 3 billion batteries every year, amounting to 180,000 tons of battery waste. 86,000 tons of this waste consist of single-use alkaline batteries. In every state aside from California, it is legal to simply throw away these alkaline batteries with your regular trash. As detailed on Everyday Green’s post on battery statistics, when a battery enters a landfill the casing can be crushed or degraded to the point that it allows toxins to leach into the environment, potentially contaminating air and waterways. The heavy metals found in batteries, including nickel, cadmium, cobalt, and lead, in addition to the corrosive acids in batteries, can further contaminate our environment, posing health risks to us and our planet.

Am I suggesting that we do away with batteries altogether? No, of course not! I for one have a plethora of battery-powered devices that I use with extreme regularity. In fact, it was my use of these devices that first inspired me to cut down my battery waste by making the switch to rechargeable batteries.

With my alarm clock, lantern, and headlamp being used on the daily, I invested in some rechargeable triple-A batteries. After some research and reconnaissance of online reviews, I decided to purchase the Energizer Recharge Power Plus batteries, as they claimed to have the longest lifespan and were made with 4% recycled batteries. In an exciting turn of events, I already had a battery charger at home from a previous dalliance into the world of rechargeables. However, in an unfortunate turn of events, this charger, which was well over ten years old, was no longer functional. The batteries cost around $15 for a 4-pack, and the charger, which came with two double-A rechargeable batteries, cost $12 in my local grocery store. (Remember, shopping locally is the greener option as compared to ordering online).

Although I have just begun using the batteries, they can be recharged up to 1500 times and last up to 5-years under typical usage patterns. This has staggering ramifications from a waste-reduction standpoint. If I had a device that required three triple-A batteries, and I was replacing those batteries every month, I would be generating 36 batteries worth of waste every year. Instead, I will now be able to power the same hypothetical device using a mere three batteries, recharging as needed, for the next five years (as opposed to the 180 non-rechargeable batteries I would have otherwise used over a five-year span). In spite of the higher initial costs, the capacity to reuse rechargeable batteries has significant cost-saving ramifications as well.

Although charging times can take from 6-13 hours, these batteries retain their charge for up to 12 months and come pre-charged and ready to use! So, with a little forethought and planning ahead, they are just as convenient as the traditional single-use alkaline batteries currently inundating our landfills and polluting our planet.

However, switching to rechargeable batteries is just one facet of greener battery use. It’s important that we also commit to disposing of our used up, single-use, alkaline batteries in a responsible manner. Although these batteries can technically be disposed of in our traditional trash stream, from an environmental standpoint it’s best to seek an option to recycle your old batteries. These options include:
1. Calling your solid waste district to find out if your community has a collection program or upcoming event
2. Searching for areas that accept and recycle single-use alkaline batteries using Earth 911’s Recycling Search
3. Finding a mail-in recycling program such as Battery Solutions or Call2Recycle

At the end of their long lives, rechargeable batteries should also be disposed of responsibly, i.e. recycled.

Overall, a product that can be reused thousands of times as opposed to being continually discarded and replaced is a far more sustainable option. It is with this mindset that I encourage you to make the switch to rechargeable batteries as you continue your journey toward greener living. As always, let me know how it goes and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

~Sam

Out with the Old and in with the New: What Should You Do with Your Pesky Old Shoes?

As the new year fast approaches, we look to make resolutions—letting go of that which no longer serves us, and ushering in new practices, people, and beliefs to better ourselves and the world around us. This year, I urge you to adopt some greener living practices to carry with you throughout 2020 and the rest of your life!

Reduce, reuse, recycle is a perhaps hackneyed environmental mantra, but with the classic 3 Rs in mind we can do a lot to eliminate sources of waste in our everyday life.

This week, as we prepare to welcome in the new year in just a few short weeks, I encourage you to take the “out with the old, in with the new” mentality that often accompanies the new year and apply it to one specific facet of your life: Your old shoes!

In the consumerist, capitalism-driven, fast-changing world in which we live, it is all too easy to accumulate lots of stuff. Among this plethora of accumulation you’ll likely find a multitude of old, worn-out, outdated, or unwanted footwear.

According to a surprisingly riveting article, Insights from the Frontline of Footwear, the global shoe market has boomed in recent years thanks to strong demand from younger generations fueled by the cultural phenomenon of footwear as a luxury status symbol.  Euromonitor, which conducts market research and statistics, estimated the US shoe market to be worth a staggering $76 billion in 2018.

Whether you purchase sneakers at staggering price tags annually, love to indulge in the latest styles, or simply wear your shoes until they are falling apart like I do, chances are you’ll eventually end up with shoes you’re ready to do away with.

With those 3 Rs in mind, here’s what you can do with old or unwanted shoes as an alternative to throwing them away:

1. Donate old shoes to charity:
If your shoes are wearable and in good condition, donating them to a charity shop like Goodwill can help provide shoes to individuals in need while simultaneously keeping materials out of the landfill, where it can take a pair of sneakers, for example, up to 1,000 years to break down.
You can also donate through the national shoe recycling program Shoes 4 Souls  or through Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe Program where they re-purpose old shoes to create courts, fields, tracks, playgrounds, and even new products.

2. Upcycle your shoes to give them a new lease on life:
Adding a new pair of laces, sewing on patches, and dying or decorating your old shoes can help you get more out of your shoes before you’re ultimately ready to part ways.

3. Recycle your old shoes:
This could be as simple as depositing your shoes at your local recycling center or textile recycling drop box.  Certain thrift shops or clothing stores may also accept shoes, either to re-sell or to recycle alongside other non-reusable clothing/textile donations.

Additional resources and ideas on how to refurbish, recycle, and re-purpose your shoes can be found here with 12 Things to do with Your Old Shoes.

The inspiration for this week’s topic came about earlier in the year as I was packing up some things to move from Maine back to Vermont. I encountered a pair of intensely worn out sneakers and some water shoes that had been thoroughly destroyed after getting stuck in a mudflat. As I had no need or use for this now-dilapidated footwear, I fought against the temptation to simply throw them away, instead asking myself: what is the most environmentally friendly option for disposing of these?

Needless to say, the shoes traveled back with me and subsequently made their way to my town’s recycling center. I not only brought the aforementioned shoes, but scoured my house for shoes both to donate (those that were in good condition) and to recycle (those that, like the aforementioned nearly destroyed shoes, were no longer viable footwear).

The process of donating the usable shoes went off without a hitch. However, my town's recycling center did not have the means to recycle the worn out shoes, informing me that such shoes would simply be thrown away. Disappointed, I continued my search for a viable recycling option. Via Goodwill's website, I found that Goodwill accepts worn out shoes for recycling. I called my local Goodwill for more details and found out that any shoes in unusable condition that are donated are collected by a third party recycler and sent over seas. I was less than thrilled with the prospect of my worn out footwear making the journey over seas to be dumped and dealt with in someone else's backyard. However, the fact of the matter is that the majority of footwear is, in fact, manufactured over seas (often in inhumane conditions, as is the case with a lot of our clothing). It would make sense then, that old shoes were being sent to the source to be recycled and re-purposed.

This raises another interesting point in that, when it comes to footwear and fashion choices in general, it is more environmentally friendly to buy products produced and sourced locally and ethically. Check out The Good Trade's list of 14 Fair Trade Shoe Brands for Every Occasion and Vetta's 9 Ethical Shoe Brands You Need to Know  for a good place to start learning more about ethically-sourced footwear.

I further looked into North Face's Clothes the Loop recycling program, which purports to accept shoes in any condition at numerous drop off locations to then pass on to their partnering organization, Shoes 4 Souls. However, Shoes 4 Souls very clearly only accepts shoes in gently used conditions, leaving me dubious as to the efficacy of recycling worn out shoes through this program. This left Nike's Reuse a Shoe Program as the most viable option for me. To take advantage of this program, you can drop off old shoes at a Nike or Converse store with a collection bin. You can also mail your shoes to Nike's recycling center in Belgium, but you incur the shipping expenses. As explained on Nike's website, they accept any brand of athletic shoe, but are unable to recycle sandals, dress shoes, boots, or shoes with metal such as cleats. Using their Find a Store Locator, I was dismayed to find that the nearest store was over 2 hours away. Similarly, a search for participating Converse Stores Near Me yielded no nearby results. However, if you live near any Nike or Converse stores, recycling your worn out athletic footwear at one of these locations is a great option. I would, however, call first to double check that the store participates in the Reuse a Shoe Program.

Asics, my running shoe of choice, also partners with recycling company I:CO to recycle worn out footwear into new products, such as the soles of new shoes. Again, there were no participating store locations near me, but if you live near a participating location, this a great option for you. The store even offers a coupon toward your next purchase to incentivize folks to utilize their recycling service.

In the midst of my research, I also came across numerous local shoe shops that had partnered with organizations like Rerun Shoes to redistribute gently used shoes of all kinds to those in need, so be sure to check out local, smaller-scale recycling venues in addition to the footwear giants of Nike, Asics, and the like.

After a deep dive into the numerous recycling options for my worn out shoes, I decided that the most viable option would be to donate my shoes to Goodwill, where they would eventually make their way (in a bulk shipment) over seas to be recycled into new footwear and other products. As explained on their webiste, at Goodwill such textiles are sold on the international market to provide funding for programs while ultimately diverting millions of pounds of waste from the landfill.

The process of donating my gently used shoes was simple, and although finding a place for my worn out shoes proved to be slightly more difficult, the processes of both donating and recycling shoes is undeniably worthwhile from an environmental standpoint. As cited on The Chic Ecologist, 300 million pairs of shoes end up in landfills every year! The shoes that I donated and recycled will not be a part of that statistic, and I hope that you will now feel empowered, enabled, and encouraged to keep all of your future unwanted shoes out of the landfill as well by means of donation and textile recycling. Reducing, reusing, and recycling our waste is a key step on our journey toward greener living, and I can think of no better way to take a step in the right direction than by responsibly disposing of our superfluous footwear.

Are you feeling inspired to round up and recycle / donate old shoes in your life? What are your thoughts on the at times absurdly wasteful and ever-influential juggernaut of the fashion industry? Do you have other tips for reusing, refurbishing, and re-purposing your footwear? As always, feel free to chime in in the comments section below.

~Sam

Shop Small! This Saturday and Every Day...

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, and with it comes a barrage of incredible deals from big-box stores, impersonal internet giants, and technological empires. In recent years, the holiday of Thanksgiving and its gratitude-centric aims (albeit ones that often cloud the deeply troubling roots of a holiday steeped in the mistreatment of native peoples whose oppression continues to this day) have been overshadowed by capitalistic, consumer-driven bargain shoppers manically sussing out the best deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. However, in between Friday and Monday, there is Saturday (as well as Sunday, but for the purposes of this post, we will focus on Saturday).

And on this Saturday, as an alternative to stampeding humans to death in the quest for cheap goods and staring bleary-eyed at a screen while you max out your credit card, my hope—and the hope of small businesses everywhere—is that you’ll get out and shop small instead.

Shopping small may not have the same mega-advertised savings and benefits as these other shopping-focused days of the holiday season, however, it does have the often undervalued and immensely impactful benefit of supporting small businesses to help communities thrive.

According the the U.S. Small Business Administration, as of 2018, 99.9% of US businesses are small businesses, which currently employ more than 47.5% of the private workforce in the U.S. and account for 1.9 million new jobs annually. Thus, small businesses are an integral part of the economic landscape.

As explained on SmallBusiness.com, Small Business Saturday was created in 2010 under the sponsorship of American Express in response to Black Friday. Since then it has grown into a national movement, garnering celebrity endorsements from the likes of Karlie Kloss and Hamilton creator Lin Manuel-Miranda (of whom I am a huge fan, by the way).

It’s celebrated in the U.S. on the last Saturday in November, and has gained serious momentum since its inception nearly a decade ago, with participation rates rising from 44% of the population in 2010 to a projected 77% in 2019.

Shopping small, of course, has an environmental benefit by reducing fossil fuel use in transportation to/from stores (both for the consumers and the goods they are consuming). Small businesses are often accessible to their local customer base by means of walking, biking, and public transit, generally offer a larger amount of locally sourced items, belong to the community and therefore act in the best interest of the local community (both environmentally and otherwise), utilize land less destructively than big-box stores, and sell higher quality products that tend to be more durable and therefore last longer. 

In addition to being more environmentally friendly and sustainable, shopping locally offers a multitude of other benefits, according to Forbes’ 5 Benefits of Shopping Locally on Small Business Saturday: 
-Shopping locally can revitalize communities as local businesses reinvest a higher percentage of their income into their communities than chains —nearly twice as much. You can learn more about this so-called "Multiplier Effect" courtesy of the American Independent Business Alliance.
-Supporting local businesses can also help create more local jobs.
-Local offerings can be diverse and are often unique from the routinely and uniformly stocked products available at chain stores.
-It can also strengthen local networks and provide services perfectly tailored to your unique cultural, social, and environmental geography.
-When local businesses are vibrant and thriving, it can increase real estate values in the area.

Of course, all of these benefits hold true not only on Small Business Saturday, but on every day of the year. If you’re in the practice of ordering countless items online or buying exclusively from big-box stores and chains, let this Small Business Saturday be a trial run of a more sustainable, community-driven, and intentional pattern of purchasing going forward that will benefit you, your community, and the environment.

For those of you rolling your eyes and scoffing at the idea of regressing in the midst of an ever-evolving digital age, you can of course utilize technology in your efforts to shop small. For example, some sellers on Amazon are small-business people. Amazon Handmade, in particular, offers a platform for artisans to sell their handcrafted wares. Likewise, you can search by location on Etsy to purchase items made by someone in your community. You can also utilize Google’s shopping feature to search for products available nearby.

Whether you find local products online or on the streets, shopping locally is just one of the many steps on our journey toward greener living. So, next Saturday head to your local cafe, peruse your local bookstore, and shop at your local grocers and boutiques. Source your goods and the gifts you’re buying for others locally. And, as always, let me know how it goes in the comments section below.

~Sam

Greener Living's Holiday Gift Guide

It’s officially that time of year again: snow is falling, Hallmark and Lifetime are showing 24/7 Holiday movies, and Thanksgiving is nearly upon us.  With the colder weather, the cozier clothes, and the impending Holiday season, comes the seemingly inevitable capitalism-driven consumerist, gift-centric expectations and traditions. A dark underbelly of the holidays, of sorts, this year I encourage you to put your dollars to greener uses by giving the gift of sustainability.

First and foremost, by shopping at thrift stores, Habitat ReStores, or Play-it-again sporting good stores, you can help reduce the environmental impact of gift-giving and give clothes, cabinets, and equipment a second life.

Furthermore, be sure to revisit my previous post ‘Tis the Season… for tips on sustainable gift wrapping and other best-practices to combat the excessive waste of the holidays.

Within my multitude of blog posts, I have highlighted numerous sustainable products that individuals can utilize and  incorporate to eliminate waste in their daily lives. However, many of these products would also make a great gift! I write today to highlight these products and to generate a list of ideas for sustainable gift giving.

If you know someone who washes their clothes, consider gifting them a Cora Ball and revisit my post on Greening Your Laundry Routine to learn more.

Consider gifting someone a compost tumbler or other collection system with some resources and options outlined in my post on Household Composting.

When giving a gift card, consider sending an electronic copy to avoid the plastic waste.

For those of you looking for a practical gift, reusable dishcloths, handkerchiefs, or cloth napkins can add some festive flair and much-needed ecological upgrades to everyday routines.

As featured in my four-part plastics purge series, there are numerous products that make great gifts that can help eliminate sources of disposable, single-use plastics in our life. These include reusable straws, reusable shopping bags / non-plastic produce bag alternatives, reusable water bottles, reusable food storage containers and ziploc bags, and reusable cutlery sets.

For the warm-beverage consumers in your life, consider gifting them a reusable coffee cup / travel mug, and do your part to help combat the Coffee Cup Crisis. If someone you know uses a Keurig on the daily, consider gifting them reusable k-cups (an eco-friendly alternative to the disposable single-use options).

Additionally, you can seek out “green” gifts that speak to the specific interests and hobbies of the people in your life. For example, does someone you know love to bake? Reusable silicone baking cups are an inexpensive, fun, and thoughtful gift idea.

The possibilities are endless! If you’ve already been journeying down the path toward greener living, there is no better time than the holidays to invite others to journey along with you!

Do you have other sustainable gift ideas? Tips for reducing waste during the holidays? Please share in the comments section below! As always, best of luck on your journey toward greener living, and I hope you have a happy, sustainable, holiday season!

~Sam

Save the Birds!: How to Prevent Window Strikes

It began like any other morning. I was bundled up in some cozy pajamas enjoying a mug of tea in my kitchen, when all of a sudden I heard a sickening thud. A bird had flown straight into the window. The sudden and unexpected sound set my heart racing. As I cautiously peered out the window to assess the damage, I fully expected to see the dead body of the small, fragile bird crushed upon impact. The bird was there, but appeared to be alive. Breathing heavily and staying where it was below the window, it was likely in shock. When I checked back later, the bird had flown away. However, some decidedly morbid research on the internet informed me that the bird would likely die from internal bleeding.

This bird, sadly, is just one of the up to one billion birds that die annually in the United States from striking glass windows, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

While this is one of the most costly threats to bird populations, the American Bird Conservancy also notes that it is a relatively easy problem to solve. Their site lists a variety of relatively inexpensive homeowner products that can prevent bird strikes. For the more frugal and less formal among us, myself included, there exist some simple DIY prevention methods, as outlined in Bird Watcher’s Digest. These methods include suspending tree branches in front of frequently struck windows, applying window decals, stickers, or tape, and suspending something unusual and bright like a pie pan, aluminum foil, or holiday decorations in front of the window. The general premise behind these strike prevention methods is to break up the reflective ability of large expanses of glass.

Generally speaking, windows readily reflect their surroundings, thereby creating the false impression of continued forests or open skies, which birds unknowingly seek to fly into.

While not technically a form of waste in our daily lives, I was inspired by this unfortunate encounter to educate others on ways to prevent window strikes and hopefully save more birds from meeting a similar fate. After all, living more harmoniously with the natural world is undoubtedly a facet of greener living.

And so, after researching bird strikes and common methods of prevention, I opted for the DIY route, fashioning some seasonally-appropriate snowflake window decals. I thought that paper snowflakes would be an easy and quick fix to my newfound bird problem. However, it turns out that despite my many winters in grade school crafting these delightful paper snowflakes, I simply could not remember how to make one. Admittedly humbled, I looked up a YouTube tutorial and had to follow it step by step, ultimately producing several lackluster albeit acceptable snowflakes. I then taped these up to the windows in question, spacing them apart in a way that would break up seemingly expansive reflections.

The goal with the decals is to disrupt the reflected portion of the window, so that the spaces available seem unappealingly claustrophobic or too small to fly through.
Although initially infuriating, the snowflake crafting was actually fun and nostalgic. I used recycled paper from discarded print-outs (reduce, reuse recycle!), thereby turning waste into tasteful and functional crafts.

If there is a window at your home that is prone to bird strikes, I highly recommend crafting decals for all the seasons, be it snowflakes in the Winter, flowers in the Spring, leaves in the Fall, and perhaps suns or some other seasonally-themed idea for the Summer. You can also craft bird silhouette cut outs as an added deterrent (birds feel threatened by other birds).

The Humane Society of the United States lists some of the aforementioned prevention methods in addition to more ideas such as using window screens, external shutters, and interior shades or curtains to prevent bird strikes. 

Birding is one of the most popular and fastest-growing outdoor hobbies. Many individuals enjoy simply watching birds from their windows. Even if you don’t birdwatch yourself, you’d probably prefer not to have birds crashing into your windows and littering the perimeter of your house with their corpses.

Regardless of your affinity for birdwatching, bird-proofing your windows can offer low-cost, high-impact options to exist less destructively in our world. It is with this goal in mind, that I encourage you to get your craft on and help conserve the population of birds currently losing their lives to preventable window strikes.

Additionally, it is always encouraged to convene more regularly with the natural world, so if you or someone you know would like to get more involved in bird watching, check out Audubon’s tips for How to Start Birding. Audubon’s website is also a great resource for learning more about birds in general.

Have you had a bird strike your window before? Are you excited about the prospect of crafting or installing deterrents? Do you love birding / observing wildlife? Whatever your stance, I hope this post encourages you to take preventative measures before the bird strikes occur. As always, feel free to share your thoughts, concerns, questions, and progress in the comments section below. Best of luck on your journey toward greener living.

~Sam