One of my favorites...check it out!

Green Tips for the Holidays....

You wanna really add some green to your Christmas? Incorporate a few of these eco-friendly holiday activities...

• Buy a pesticide free tree. Many tree farmers add colorants and use up to 40 different pesticides on their trees. I have look online for local farms to purchase from but with no luck...if anyone knows of any in the Wilmington area please post a comment and let us know!
  



• Recycle your christmas tree. 10 million Christmas trees make it to a landfill.
  City of Wilmington Christmas Tree Curbside Program: 910.341.4340 New Hanover County Christmas Tree Drop Off Event ( 5 locations): 910.341.4340
  


• Support our local economy and buy items for your holiday feast from local farms. We have plenty of them in our area!
  



• Make your own wrapping paper. The sunday comics are always a favorite of mine! If you don't make your own, encourage friends and family members to reuse the bags and paper that the gifts are in.

Happy Holidays Noble Family! Enjoy the upcoming break it is well deserved and much needed.

For additional holiday greening tips check out http://www.mambosprouts.com/enewsletter/hen/dec07/

Face Scrubs and Exfoliants

Everyone loves the feel of a freshly scrubbed face. Those little beady things feel soooooo good! But unfortunatley most of these little "beads" or "microscrubbers" are made out of plastic. As we know plastic is not biodegradable (it doesn't break down) and marine animals are ingesting these little things.

So what? They're just little beads...

Actually, the smaller the plastic product the more it absorbs harmful chemicals and toxins. When marine animals such as sea turtles and smaller invertabrates ingest these beads they ingest the harmful chemicals as well. Many marine animals have been dying off at a rapid pace over the years and the increased amount of plastic trash in the ocean is major a contributing factor.

If you really want to exfoliate...

Buy products without the word "polyethylene". Try finding products that use all natural exfoliants such as crushed seeds (St. Ives Apricot Scrub is a great one; see picture above).

We sometimes lose sight of the impact we, as individuals, have on the environment. For the complete story: http://www.themanitoban.com/features/scrubbing-out-marine-life

"Pledge 2 Save 5"

On average New Hanover County residents use approximately 138 gallons of water per person per day and 80 gallons of wasterwater per person per day.

In addition the energy it takes to treat all the wastewater at a wastewater facility in a year is enough energy to power 5 million homes!!!

We need to do our best to conserve what little drinking water we have (less than 1% of all the Earth's water).

You and your family can "Pledge 2 Save 5" check out the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and join other residents of New Hanover County to use 5 gallons less a day.

Cell Phones: What do we do with them?

• 4 out of 5 Americans own a cell phone



• People tend to replace their cell phones every 18 months



• 1.2 billion phones were sold worldwide in the year 2007



• Cell phone contain toxic chemicals and materials that can leach into our soil when thrown away and sent to a landfill



• 165 million cell phones were thrown away last year

Greenphone.com is a company who will pay you for your own cell phones. They also plant a tree for every phone they buy.

Collective Good takes your donated cell phones and turns them over to charitable organizations or are provided in a global secondhand market.

Noble Middle School is currently collecting old cell phones for recycling. For every cell phone and/or accessory recycled a small portion of the money goes to Keep America Beautiful for New Hanover County.

Turn off the Tap Water

If you turn off the water when brushing your teeth it will save as much as 10 gallons of water a day per person.

For a family of 4 that can add up to 14,400 gallons a year!

Pack a Waste Free Lunch

It is possible to throw away nothing from your lunch everyday. Other than fruit peels.


Check out how to do it at: Global Stewards