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Being green for us involves more than talking the talk. It also involves walking the walk, biking the bike and now, at least in London, cabbing the eco-friendly cab. Thanks to Climate Cars, you can now book a taxi from a fleet of Toyota Prius hybrids. Not only does the company offer you a low carbon emission ride, but because they take the most direct route and charge by the exact mileage, the pricing comes out less than a black cab.
And in what I believe to be a stroke of bloody genius, they offer bike racks on their cars, so if you’ve cycled into work but a change in weather, visibility or you (after those after work drinks with your mate) simply let Climate Cars know when you book and they’ll pick up and delivery both you and your bike safely. Needless to say, their number is on speed dial on my mobile phone.
To book, ring: 020-7350-5960 or visit them on line at www.climatecars.com

Okay, so by now, you’ve realized that recycling involves not only what you jettison, but you can actively recycle by choosing what you buy and use in your home.

Recently when we renovated our kitchen, we used what we’ve learned about recycling in creating our final design.

We specifically chose items that were environmentally friendly like low VOC (volatile organic compound) paints that would release fewer carbon emissions in the air. We also purchased cabinets from the Kitchen Cabinet Makers Association, Environmental Stewardship program that promise the cabinets we purchased, meet their 18 point certification criteria including verification that our cabinets were processed in a manner that adheres to their air quality, carbon emissions policies as well as using renewable resources.
But the biggest cost and planet saver, was the use of re-purposed free standing wood units that my husband stripped and refinished. Beyond simply avoiding the added expense of purchasing the pieces new, by removing old paint with an EPA friendly citrus solvent, sanding, and waxing the old pieces, there are now beautiful three free standing cupboards and shelving units and a kitchen table that expands to ten feet when the leaves are in, and three ladder back chairs with caned seats that aren’t going into a landfill.

And where can you find these diamonds in the rough?

TRASH! If you want to save the planet, you’ve gotta be willing to get your hands dirty. I’m not saying that you need to go dumpster diving necessarily, but if you take a bit of a walk the evening before your local trash pick up, you can find loads of things. If you don’t live in the poshest area in town, then take a walk to a better heeled area. In Philly, you may not find great items in areas that mainly house college students or section 8 housing, but if you take a walk to the streets surrounding Rittenhouse Square or the historic homes of Old City, you can get very lucky. As the economy tightens, it will become more difficult to find the holy grail, but there will always be people who are looking to rid themselves of pieces when they purchase replacements, or people who won’t have the time or inclination to post furniture on ebay or craig’s list. In South Philly, people simply cleaning out their Grandmother’s house and refusing to take that old table or chairs to their fab modern home in Jersey can be a gold mine. Of course courtesy of Total Wrecklamation, more people are discovering just how many old fixtures and furniture can be found, but there are still those who wouldn’t deign to take others formerly used things home. Let them think that way, while you restore the 1930s desk. Pros at this, also make sure to scan the paper for “contents of house” sales and then checking the trash the evening before the next scheduled trash pick up.

Free-cycle:
If you’re looking to get or to get rid of stuff, Free-cycle may be just the ticket.
You simply log on to www.freecycle.org and register. Once you’ve done that you can offer something you’d like to get rid of, or post things you want. If you’re looking for things, be ready to have transport to pick it up, but if you’re getting rid of things, simply note that they’re free to a good home and all they have to do is come and get it.

Craig’s List:
While many people will post items for a fee, there are loads of people offering furniture and the like for free as long as you’re willing to pick it up. For some people, Craig’s list is preferable because pictures are uploaded and you can get an idea of the materials and condition prior to making a trip to see the items in person.

The most important thing to remember in all of these instances is that you have to have vision. If you can see beyond a wonky table leg or a ghastly paint job, then you may be better off visiting second hand or antique shops that have pre-used furniture, that generally needs nothing but a dust off. But if you have vision and aren’t afraid of stripping, sanding, screw guns, gorilla glue and a couple of clamps, then you have the ability to really turn trash into treasure.

 When most people think of “recycling”, they think of it only as it applies to the disposal of refuse. But recycling is so much more. Recycling also encompasses reusing and repurposing items. So for the next few days, I’m going to give you a few ideas on how to recycle things that don’t involve throwing anything into that blue bin and will prevent tons of still useable items from being dropped into landfills.   EBAY. Although more retailers are using ebay to supplement sales in their physical stores, it’s still a great place to sell your gear.  It’s not a perfect solution as it takes time load the  listing and there are fees for posting the your items, but if you have specific items that you’d like to unload, like designer clothing or a stack of CDs it can be the way to go. If you’re selling multiple items you may be better off selling them as a lot. For lots, group like items together, e.g in books,  a lot of novels, or biographies; CDs by the same artist or musical genre, or two pairs of women’s slacks. For best results list them as a seven day auction and in a weeks time you may be able to clear out unused goods while earning a few bucks. The site www.ebay.com, offers information on how to post online a table of fees, so I won’t go into that here, but here are few tips from my own experiences. ü     Take time to write a good title for your listing. Use words or descriptions in your title that will help ebayers locate your item. Your terminology should be very specific if you’re selling a collectible by a certain artist, like Thomas Kincade or more general  like Vampire novel if you’re selling Michele Bardsley’s “Don’t Talk Back to your Vampire”, as you may know the author, but ebayers may not. It’s also important to use reference point that may trigger recognition for the potential purchase.  For example I was selling a DVD of the British Comedy Pulling!, and no one was bidding. But when I changed it to read “Pulling! BritCom as seen on Sundance Channel” I sold it.  ü     Offer free shipping. When you calculate a price to charge for your item, you may want to weigh it (with the packaging you’re planning on using) and then add that to your asking price. I usually send first class mail with delivery confirmation which, on a DVD runs about $3, so instead o scaring potential buyers with additional  shipping charges, I just raise the starting bid from $6 to $9 and indicate “Free shipping” in the title  to grab more attention. Be sure to note any promotions that ebay is offering as I recently received a lower posting charge for offering free shipping.  ü     Make sure to be specific about everything in your description. If you’re doing multiple listings, make it consistent so you can use it for every listing. I’m very careful to list my return policy ( I don’t accept returns), methods of payment and how failure to adhere to my payment time frame (four days after end of auction) will result in negative feedback. It is important to clarify all of this from the outset to avoid as many problems as possible. ü     Schedule your listing to end on the weekend. More people trawl ebay when they’ve time over the weekend and their own studies have found that listings that closed between 7 and 9 pm on Sunday do particularly well.  Resale/Vintage and Consignment Shops Used book shopsI have a passion for old cookbooks, so I just love used book stores but did you know many are willing to purchase your old books. Check your local newspaper, yellow pages or simply or make a few calls to see if your local shops are interested. While purchase depend upon condition of the book as well as rarity, its another good option and unlike ebay with it’s fees, only costs the price of a phone call. Consignment and vintage shopsWhen it comes to clothing, especially if your items were pricey to begin with, you may wish to take them to a consignment shop.  While you won’t receive any money until the item sells, at least it’s out of your space and in the line of sight of potential buyers. When dealing with consignment shops, make sure your items are in pristine condition as soiled or torn items will be rejected. Also be sure to familiarize yourself with the stock of the consignment shop that you’re targeting  o you don’t try and peddle your goth gear in a shop that prefers twin sets and pearls. Check your local yellow pages for listings or visit www.consignmentshops.com  for a list of shops, sorted by state in US. Buffalo ExchangeWhether you’re looking to purchase vintage, turn old clothing into cash or donate to a worthy cause, Buffalo Exchange does it all. The stores accept quality used clothing for cash or you can donate the proceeds to a number of worthy causes they support including City Harvest and The Humane Society. And if you’ve inherited a fur you wouldn’t dream of wearing and can’t bear the idea of making money off the suffering of animals, from November –April 09 Buffalo Exchange is participating in the Humane Society’s “Coats for Cubs” campaign where real fur, regardless of condition, is used to create bedding for orphaned animals. Aww!! So why not return the fur to the critters who need it most. Visit www.buffaloexchange.com for locations.  Donate! Not everything is about money. If you need to unload a bunch of stuff and don’t have the time or inclination to resell it, then donating to a charitable organization, especially any of those that run stores is a great way to divest yourself of an over abundance of worldly goods while doing a good deed. And giving to charity is  always good for keeping positive karma floating around the universe.       

Recently I had a discussion with a coworker regarding the costs of going green. She complained that while she’d like to do more to eat organic and to purchase green items, in this economy, she wasn’t prepared to pay the higher price for the moral/ecological high-ground. So here are my tips to help curb costs while staying as green as possible.

Location, location, location! 

Where you shop makes an enormous difference in price. As the green movement expands, more and more supermarket chains are introducing their own organic brands of food, like Acme’s new Wild Harvest line. When it comes to earthy friendly biodegradable cleansers though, supermarkets generally can’t offer them at a price that would be competitive to traditional cleaners. So when you want to go earth friendly in cleaners and bath and body products, it is worth it to visit Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods (both with locations in Center City Philly) as their bulk buying power will give you a competitive price and several options for one cleaner (e.g. Method, Ecover) instead of searching supermarket aisles only to find one bottle of Sun and Earth cleaner costing $2 more than the conventional option.

Make your own.

Before commercial cleanser were so prevalent, powdered cleansers like Bon Amiwere de rigeur as were simple solutions like washing windows with vinegar and newspaper. As we’ve evolved we’ve become obsessed with antibacterial, spray and go cleansers that don’t require any elbow grease and deodorize with harsh chemicals often at the risk of triggering asthma attacks and olfactory overload. But a cheaper and healthier solution can be whipped up by using basic kitchen ingredients like a lemon, kosher salt, vinegar and Borax washing crystals.  For more information on how to make your own cleansers visit: http://earthnotes.tripod.com/clnrecipes.htm#musty or http://greenlivingideas.com/housecleaning/natural-cleaning-recipes.html for easy to make low cost cleaners.

Think local

Organic isn’t always the answer. While some of my friends won’t touch any meat that’s not certified organic, I’m not one of them. Why? Well, the fact that my husband is a butcher plays a major part in that, but although organic is preferred, sometimes the cost, not just in dollars, but in the expenditure of fossil fuels consumed by shipping (a.k.a. food miles) is higher. Yup, that cow who once roamed freely on an organic ranch in Texas, can create more carbon emissions getting to Whole Foods, than one that was reared closer to home. I do what my Grandmother did and visit my butcher and fish monger and purchase what’s fresh and local.

I know all too well how lucky I am to live in the heart of the Italian Market with fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish available virtually on my doorstep, but a little research on the net will provide you with a list of local farmers markets that you can patronize. If you have to drive from Jersey to get to the market, that may not be the same savings (you have to calculate in petrol costs) but when you can buy local and especially when local is within walking distance, either from home, or if you commute in Monday through Friday, at work  I encourage you to shop that way. The Italian Market (closed Mondays) and Reading Terminal (closed Sunday) market are open year round and if you work down town you can combine your shopping errands with a lunchtime power walk. If the distance is a bit far to walk, especially with full bags of groceries in tow, remember the Reading Terminal Market sits directly behind the Market East Station and if you’re in the Italian Market 47 or 47M picks up every fifteen minutes (traffic permitting) and drives directly through the market towards Market Street where again you can link up with the subway and Regional Rail lines at Market East Station.

Eat in Season

In a global market, you can pretty much buy what you want year round. But just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Eating seasonally will depend are where you are located but generally during the winter months potatoes, winter squash, carrots, cabbage, onions, beets, garlic, apples, and pears are in season as well as  celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, and kohlrabi. If you base you meals around what is seasonally available, not only will you eat fresher (as you’re not reliant on veg that has to be shipped in and has been sitting around before you buy it) but as they’re in season, the cost is generally lower than your out of season strawberry that’s coming to you by way of Chile. For more information visit The Sustainable Table which provides info by state as to what’s in season in your neck of the woods. http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/ 

For those of you in the UK, visit Eat the Seasons:www.eattheseasons.co.uk

I really hadn’t expected to say much about the election.

It happened.
Obama won.

Unlike Oprah, I didn’t feel the need to analyze it over the course of several shows. But friends and family keep asking, what I think, so here goes.

It was one only the second time that my presidential choice won. I voted for, but wasn’t initially too impressed with Clinton, and his sax blowing antics on Arsenio to prove he was down with the people. I can honestly say I’m very pleased about the outcome.

I do find it a bit condescending that certain segments of the population think that because I am black, voted for Obama, natch!

Nothing could be further from the truth. Being of a mixed familial lineage, I truly buy into Martin Luther King’s speech about being judged not by the color of your skin but the content of your character. I take offense at the suggestion that I would vote along racial lines, in the same way I took offense that my support of Hillary Rodham Clinton was only because we shared the same sex. That’s an attempt to cheapen the deep reasoning and examination of candidates’ policies I did before casting my vote.

I’m not saying that there weren’t people that voted for him just because he’s black. There were. But for many who remember clearly being prohibited from voting, they never thought they’d see the opportunity to vote for a black president in their lifetime. That is their issue not mine.

I voted for him because I really think he’s forward thinking on many issues that America has been handling ass backwards. If my fellow Delawarean, and my homey, Joe Biden, had those same ideas and the full backing from the Democratic party, I would have voted for him too. Had it been just another black man who had a high profile, say Al Sharpton, I wouldn’t have cast a ballot for him, unless he was voting for best impersonation of a James Brown do at a hair show.

Judging by the kudos received from world leaders, it is our own citizens who will have to get over the race issue. My brothers and sisters on the other side of the pond gladly proclaim him as “bi-racial”; which the US all but ignores. The UK is generally more accepting of it’s bi-racial citizens. That’s a direct result of the influx of Her Majesty’s Afro Caribbean subjects in the mid 50s and the church’s attempt to create harmony by suggesting “Please cooperate and amalgamate”. But here in the US, that biracial shit don’t cut it. This is American dammit and you are what you appear to be, or in many cases, what we say you are, which has caused more than a spot of bother for Tiger Woods, Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys who simply wanted to be themselves. That’s our legacy from the “one drop of black blood makes you black” policy.

Either way, Obama is black and it won’t be, and perhaps shouldn’t be ignored. After all, if you explain what Martin Luther King or Stephen Douglas accomplished, without addressing their color, then you miss the importance of their contribution and achievement. President is great, but the first black president raises the stakes.

And should we all be so giddy from his win that we’re tempted to hum a few bars of “I’d like to teach the world to Sing”; let’s have a wee reality check.
Obama won because those of us who wanted him to win, were active and got out the vote. Make no mistake, racism still cuts a wide swathe across this country and there are those who not only despise the idea of his presidency, but there are at least a few nutters who wish to do him harm. But if we have learned anything from history, we know progress doesn’t come easily. In the end, I think he’ll be a sterling president because Obama’s got the three wells: well-educated, well-turned out and well spoken.
And that works for anyone, bar none.

I’m a black woman of Native American descent. All of my predecessors had to fight for the right to vote. Ironically, it was the part of my family who were here before anyone “discovered” America, that were the last to be granted the right to vote. So it hurts me deeply when I see women, minorities and, well frankly, anyone that doesn’t take the time to educate themselves on the issues, register and vote.

There are the cynics who believe that all politicians are liars and crooks and they may be but there are also issues that require the benefit of referendum. On a national issue, I’d rather spend billions on schools and education (where a bit of good citizenship wouldn’t go amiss) and on a local issue, I’m all for charging extra for refuse disposal if it’ll help encourage people to recycle.

If those issues aren’t of import, surely there are others that are, so make sure you vote.

Besides, there aren’t many things the government freely provides to you.

Take advantage of the one that matters!

Vote! 

Part of me still lives in the 80s. I idolized Adam Ant especially in this Prince Charming frills. My first studio flat was swathed in black netting with silver crosses sparkling in the gaps and in the hopes to distract guests from noticing the incredible lack of  furniture, I always kept the at least two bottles of  cheap bubbly in the fridge. I had a penchant for vintage 50s glamour, late nights and boys with eyeliner.

But we all grow up and suddenly I’m over forty, with a bedtime earlier than most teenagers and no man I know wears eyeliner. But could a new high street trend change that? Recently mascara and eyeliner and false eyelashes all geared for men have been launched for the metrosexual, who wants to draw attention to his dreamy eyes.  @  $11 (available at Harrods) while Gaultier has introduced Monsieur eyeliner in black @ $14 (available at Sephora).

The question is are we ready for it? There’s no doubt that on a lithe rock/goth type male, these eye accouterments can be easily carried off, but on Joe six-pack (and I’m referring the the drinks and not the abs) do we really want to see this trend revisited. As a girl I know how excruciatingly difficulty it is to keep keep mascara and eyeliner actually on the desired surface and not turning into an impersonation of a raccoon. The mind reels at just how hideous the wrong sort of guy could look trying to pull this off. 

Remember Marco Pirroni from Adam and the Ants? Enough said.