Green Bags and Eco Bags for shopping

A lot of supermarkets and retail outlets are taking the initiative to go green. It all started with bio- and oxo-degradeable bags that don't really decompose (or takes a very long time to decompose). Since a lot of people were thinking that the supposed "environment-friendly plastic bags" were a fluke, retailers started to offer more greener alternatives - that is the Green bags or the Eco bags.

Eco Bags are the Latest Fad

Gone were the days when we keep paper bags and nice thick plastic bags for bring our stuff to school or to the office. Having and using green bags is now a fashion statement. I don't know with you, but when I see someone using an eco bag, I smile. It makes my heart happy when someone uses buys an eco bag for their groceries or their shopping. It makes me smile more when I see people reuse their eco bags.

My Own Bag Wednesday at SM Supermarkets

I love the green initiative SM supermarkets. It's a marketing strategy for their green bags and at the same time it helps the environment.

When you shop at any SM supermarket during Wednesdays, you won't see any plastic bag being used, that's because there's an extra charge if you want to use plastic. Talk about marketing strategies eh? But still, kudos to SM Supermarkets for cooking this up.

I'd love to post a photo of my SM supermarket green bags, but one is already unfit for use, and the other's been given to someone else (it was used like a paper bag, when you return a borrowed item, you return the item with a bag that the person can keep). Those 2 were the old green bags. The first ones released (big and small bag). My new SM green bags were also given away :(

Toy Kingdom Orange Eco Bags

I frequent the huge Toy Kingdom outlet in SM Megamall. I love window shopping for toys and such. Last Christmas, I bought a lot of toys for my brother and god-children, and while I was waiting in line for the cashier, I fell in love with their orange-colored eco bag. It only comes in one size, which is EXTRA LARGE. I usually bring it with me when I plan to shop for a lot of things, or when I need to lug around a lot of stuff.

Pet Express Yellow Eco Bags

I think Pet Express is another branch of SM retailing (they ask for SM Advantage Cards). I usually buy my cat's pet food in Pet Express Cubao, and there was this time that I had an unplanned shopping spree for my pet care needs. I bought their Yellow Eco Bag along with the other pet supplies. I'll try to look for the Eco Bag. Chances are it's also given away already.

Rustans Supermarket Green bag

I rarely shop at Rustans cause it has this stereotype that it's for the rich. Late last year, I decided to check out the supermarket in Edsa Shangri-La and found that a lot of imported food are sold there. I bought a few snacks for the family and saw that they have this nice green bag. It's made of a thick cheese cloth with green prints on it. Their bag looks neat and a little mature. I like how it looks. I will post a pic as soon as I find my bag. As far as I remember, I put some change of clothes there. Have to find where I put it.

National Bookstore Red Eco Bag

It's a big red bag that's made of high quality materials. It's expensive though, compared to the common eco bags that are made of lightweight materials. I love how it looks and I often use it as a bag to carry groceries and other things, especially when I'm going for a trip. I love how National Bookstore designed this bag. It has a sturdy base and top, with a net for the body. It also has a zipper on top! Too bad they're not selling it anymore. They replaced it with the more common lightweight bag.

CVC Supermarket Green Bag

CVC Supermarket isn't as famous as the other supermarkets. It isn't as big either, but there's one near home so I usually frequent CVC supermarket. It's nice to see that despite the size of their supermarket, they still had the initiative to make an eco bag. It only comes in one small size but you can fit a lot in. I usually have one of their eco bags in my bag if ever I have to do spur of the moment shopping.

Freebie Eco Bags
When I was job hunting, I got a lot of freebies and freebie eco bags. I loved receiving Eco Bags and I usually used them to carry my books and my laptop. Eco Bags are so fab right now that even companies give out eco bags on seminars. Here are few of the ones I got from a recent Data Security Seminar.

Reuse Eco Bags

Buying and using eco bags is a great way to reduce the consumption of plastic, but we're wasting more resources if we don't reuse the bags. Sure it's okay to collect the different green bags from different stores, but do make sure that you reuse them when you're shopping. The problem is that we keep on buying new ones and not care about the old bags anymore. The eco bags are created to be reused, let's not waste the energy spent in creating an eco bag. Reuse it.

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Green School Tips for High School Students

Ah, so you're in high school now eh? It's great that at your young age, you're taking the initiative to make this world a better place to live in.

Making the world a greener place is a job that all of us must do. In our own little way, we can all be earth-friendly and save the world


As a high school student, you might feel like you don't have that much power to help save the earth, well you thought wrong. Actually, you can do more, since now you can choose which school materials you'll use in school.

Here are sure-fire ways for you to go green in school

Simple ways to go green in high school

1. Use both front and back sides of your notebook and pad paper. Although writing on just one side makes writing neater, you're teacher will surely understand if you use both sides of your paper, and won't mark it against you.
2. Bring packed snacks and lunch in reusable containers. Although it is easier if you just throw away the wrapper of your snack and your lunch, it's not really helping the environment. You're adding litter to our already garbage-filled world. You should use reusable containers most especially when you're school does not segregate trash.
3. Bring a water tumbler to school. Sure you have water fountains at school, but imagine how much water is wasted when drinking in the water fountain? While you're sipping and swallowing, most of the water is just falling down the drain. You're lucky if you have water dispensers at school, but make sure you bring a water tumbler too, so as not to use too much plastic/paper cups
4. Follow segregation rules. Most schools already segregate; the only problem is that students don't follow it. Follow the rules even if no one else is following. Also, it doesn't hurt to tell your friends to do the same.

Semi easy ways to go green in high school

1. Write smaller. If you write smaller, you can use more paper
2. Fold your notebook pages in half. Most of the time, we waste the right side of the page because were just taking down notes or outlines. To maximize the space of you notebook, use steno notebooks or fold the pages in half
3. Buy notebooks that are made out of recycled materials. They look a little "oldish", it's usually brown paper, when I was in high school, I loved the vintage look on my notebooks.
4. Carpool, ride a bus or commute. If you're parents or the family driver is bringing you to school, tell your parents to put you in a schoolbus/carpool or just commute. It saves on carbon emissions from the car. Also, if you can walk or ride your bike to school, the better.

So there you have it! Now go and go green!

 

If you have more ideas on how to go green in school, hit the comment box below and tell us all about it :)

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Green Office Tips For an Employee

There are a lot of tips on the Internet about how to keep your office greener, but most of the tips out there need you to be in a strategic or decision-making position.

How do you set the printer on both pages if you're not the IT person who manages the printers?
How can you choose green office materials and furniture if you're not in charge of buying these items?

Fret not. Here are tips on how you can be a

Green Employee

Green Computer Use

The computer is the most used office tool, unfortunately they're power hoggers themselves. So we have to take steps on how to minimize the power consumption of your computer

1. Set your screen to time-out after being idle. Instead of having a screen saver, just turn-off the display. The monitor will use less energy since the display is off.
2. Use battery power if you're issued a laptop. Aside from saving your battery from being incapacitated early, you're also saving by not drawing power from the outlets. Just make sure that the charging unit is also unplugged as well.
3. Use black backgrounds since black backgrounds just turn off the pixel on the screen. As a trivia, the hex value of black is #000000. In IT and electronics, 0 means off.
4. If you're not dealing with time-critical work, then set power options to "power saver" mode.
5. Don't keep your monitor too bright. If you're comfortable in working with a little dim monitor, then it's better, since less energy is spent to light up the pixels

Green Paper Use

1. Don't print everything. Before printing, think. "What will I do with this paper after I print it?". If you'll just look at it and read it once, then don't print it anymore. You're just wasting ink and paper. You can just view it on your computer
2. Instead of printing memos and other documents that needs to be read by other employees, just send an email.
3. Before printing something that you really have to print, read or check the document first and make sure that everything is correct. This is to remove the "wrong print" scenario. A lot of paper is wasted just because employees find an incorrect grammar or missing titles in the documents.

Energy Efficiency

1. Get more work done. Instead of idling in the office, pretending to work, get more work done. Although the office will still open and consume power every workday, getting more work done actually benefits the environment since less energy is wasted on useless things
2. Don't turn on the fan if the AC is on. Although there are times that you feel you need the extra cool breeze, don't. Just sit and relax. Your body will adjust to the temperature of the office and you won't feel hot anymore.
3. Do not overcharge your gadgets. Not only does overcharging incapacitates your battery, it also consumes energy that could have been used for more productive activities

Coffee Breaks

Breaks are an employees "me time". Employees can do what they want with this extra hour or quarter of an hour. Remember these tips to keep your break green.

1. Bring your own mug and/or tumbler. Instead of using the paper, plastic and styro cups (especially the latter) provided in the pantry, bring your own. It is a little tedious to wash your own mug and tumbler but it greatly reduces our carbon footprint by purchasing less cups.
2. Opt to dine-in on fast foods than to take the food out. Dine-in customers get the washable flat- and silverware. Washing the dishes costs less than using paper boxes/bowls, plastic spoon and forks, plastic/paper bags for the take-out food.
3. Bring your own silverware. If ever you need to take out food, refuse the plastic spoon and fork. Just use your own. It's cleaner and earth-friendlier
4. Reuse your teabag. There's nothing wrong with reusing tea bags. It'll save you on tea expenses (since tea isn't usually given for free in the office) I reuse mine thrice on my 500 mg tumbler.

Be Daring. Encourage Others

If you are bold enough to make a suggestion to management, then why not? Tell your boss the benefits of being green. Most companies now are looking for more ways to be green, so why not start it in your office as well? Start small. Start with your team. Look for ways on how your team can minimize your carbon footprint.

1. Use email for memos. 'nuf said
2. Digitize your forms. You do fill out most of the inter-office or inter-department forms on your computer, so why do you need to print it?
3. Use digital signatures. Digital signatures can be anything, whether it be just the email signature, or a confirm button if you're using a software, use digital signatures instead of signing forms that will just be forgotten after they all sign it.
4. Dedicated a hard drive for documentation. Gone are the days when you need to "file" documents. Since you create the documents on the computer, there's no sense of printing it at all. Just dedicate a computer or a hard drive where your team will put all the documentations in.

Remember, there are more ways to be green, all we have to do is to change our attitude of "me-me-me" into "earth-friendly - earth-friendly - earth-friendly"!

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Easy Tips for a Green Home

Congratulations! This is a huge step into living green. If you're reading this then you are taking the initiative to GO GREEN. So give your self a pat on the back for being earth-friendly.

Now, sit back and read on for easy tips for a Green Home

Conserve Water

It's something that we're taught ever since we were kids. Always conserve water, but how do we actually conserve water? Simple! Just turn off the tap when not in use.

1. When washing your hands
• Turn off the tap when your soaping your hands. 
2. When brushing your teeth
• Turn off the tap while your putting toothpaste on your tooth brush
• Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. 
• Instead of scooping running water from the tap, use a glass and fill it with water, use the glass for gargling.
3. When washing the dishes
• Turn off the tap when your soaping your dishes
• If possible, recycle the water you used for rinsing the soaped dishes for cleaning other stuff
4. When washing clothes
• Use soaps that have the 1 rinse technologies
• Don't keep water running while your washing clothes
5. Use lower shower heads
• Lower shower heads needs less water pressure
6. Don't open the tap full out. 
• Just let enough water flow. It may be slower but it saves more water

Save Electricity

Aside from saving a lot of money because of a lower electricity bill, you're helping save the earth by reducing the amount of energy or electricity that needs to be produced

1. Unplug anything that you're not using
• Appliances that doesn't need to be plugged in 24x7 (air conditioner, electric fan, oven toaster, microwave, bread toaster, television. radio, laptop, cell phone chargers, computer, computer AVRs)
2. Do not over-charge your gadgets
• Aside from lessening the battery life of your gadgets, you won't consume too much electricity if you unplug the chargers
3. Switch off the lights
• Lights are "appliances" that you can't unplug, so just switch them off when you're not using it
• If it's still bright outside, just use the natural light from the sun
4. Use energy efficient light bulbs such as LED bulbs or fluorescent lights. You'll also discover that these lights aren't hot on the skin
5. Use rechargeable batteries
1. Instead of buying and disposing batteries, just buy rechargeable ones. You'll save a lot.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle + Repurpose

Yeah, yeah, you've heard of the 3 Rs in school loads of times, but let's add another R in the equation. Repurpose or more known now as upcycling. Now, let's get down and dirty on those 4.

Reduce

Reduce waste. Use less of everything. We have to change our mindset that new stuff is good stuff.

1. Reduce plastic consumption
• User your own bag when shopping
• Refuse plastic bags if you can carry the items by hand or put it in your bag
• Don't use drinking straws
2. Reduce paper consumption
• Use your own bag when shopping
• Refuse paper bags if you can carry the items by hand or put it in your bag
• Print on both pages of papers
• Use scrap paper for writing down small notes
• Don't scribble unnecessarily (oops! I'm guilty of this!)
3. Reduce water and electric consumption

Reuse

Most things around us are not for single use. Again, this requires that we change our mindset that new is good, or new is better, or that new is the only way to go.

1. Reuse plastic (or glass) bottles
• Reuse bottles from vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, water, juice and softdrinks. Use them as water pitchers or juice bottles
2. Reuse plastic/styro cups and bowls
• When in a party or convention, you can reuse the cups that you got for drinking water or coffee
3. Reuse plastic bags/paper bags that you got from shopping either by
• Using them the next time you shop
• Carrying your things when going somewhere
• Using it as a gift bag
• Using it to segregate your trash/ trash bin covers

Recycle

You can recycle almost anything now. From the conventional way of recycling, to earning you a few bucks.

1. Make a compost, even if you're not planning to put up a garden now, you'll never know when the urge hits you, or when you'll need rich soul. Use biodegradable material for your compost
2. Use the soapy water you used for rinsing clothes for cleaning your car, the garage, or anything else that needs cleaning
3. Segregate
• Segregate your trash and sell paper, glass bottles, plastic bottles and plastic bottle caps to a junk shop or a nearby recycling facility

Repurpose

Upcycling

is now a fashionable trend. Gone were the days when people who use trash for decoration were considered weird. Now, upcycling things is so fab that a lot of people are doing it and sharing tips from one another. A lot of people even sell their upcycled crafts, and people buy it. Being green is now a fashion statement.

1. Old magazines, papers, newspapers
• Coasters
• Beads
• Jewelry
• Pictures/Picture frames
•  Fireplace logs
2. Tissue Rolls
• Napkin ring holder
• Wall art
• Scrap book art
3. Plastic Bottles
• Lamps
• Flowers
• Scoop
• Spritz bottle

I hope you find these tips useful and more importantly, doable. All the small things that we do matter, especially if we are greater in number, so do share this.

Do you have any more tips or suggestions? Do tell us what you think.

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Will try to go 'No Poo' this weekend

It's not what you think. I will of course make my bowels moves over the weekend. No Poo means not using the regular, store-bought-chemically-induced shampoos available in the market today. No Poo means not using shampoos and use another more environment-friendly (and possibly more healthful) alternative for cleaning your hair.



I ran into this article in the web about No Poo. It's an interesting read and I really do want to try it. I'll try the recipes on that site for my hair.



Hair conscious

I've been hair conscious for the past months. I've paid a lot of attention to my appearance lately (because I want to look beautiful for my ever-dashing bf *wink*), especially my hair. I love getting my head massaged by my boyfriend that I became so conscious about the luster, the smell and the softness of my hair. I used to just shampoo my hair everyday not minding about conditioners (since the shampoo has conditioner in it already). I just dab some shampoo on my hair, massage my scalp until it's all bubbly let it sit for a while and then rinse it off. Now I use shampoo with conditioner and a separate conditioner to boot.



Now when I shampoo I make it a point to scrub every part of my scalp. Make sure every millimeter of my hair has shampoo. After shampooing, If I'm in the mood, (usually everyother day or during weekends) I condition my hair as well. Making sure that there's conditioner from the roots to the tips of my hair. I'm glad to say that my hair is considerably softer now.



Change in perspective

Since I always want to reduce my carbon footprint, when I learned about this alternative, I wanted to give it a try. Since I have thick hair, and we are more than 10 people living in one house, we use a lot of shampoo. Imagine all the tossed out shampoo bottles? We do try to limit out carbon footprint by buying a large bottle and just buying shampoo refills when available or when our bottle looks gross already. But If I could lessen our carbon footprint more, then why not? I'll try the no-poo method over the weekend and see how it goes.



A little scared

I'm a little scared to try this since I'm so afraid that my hair gets uglier than it is. The worst thing I had done to my hair is to color it. I haven't had my hair rebonded or relaxed. The only treatment I had for it is hot-oil. I was a little reluctant to even think of trying it, but reading a few articles made me think "what the heck! if it is for the environment then why not give it a shot?"



I'll post about my No-Poo weekend and tell you how it went. :)

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Paper's Not Really Saving The World

Local Effort
Working in Ortigas Center has it's perks. Everything's near. Malls, fast food, restaurants and hospitals. Another perk is that you get to experience what Pasig City's boasting about. It's the "Green City" of Metro Manila.

Pasig city is now prohibiting QSRs (quick service restaurants and/or fast food chains) to use plastic bags for dry goods, and regulating the use of plastic bags for wet goods. Pasig made the shift from plastic to paper gradual. I'm glad to say that all of the QSRs I have dined-in here in Ortigas is complying. They're now using paper bags for take-out. Styro food containers are replaced by waxed paper bowls and boxes.

Why Paper?
Paper is an abundant material that is recyclable and biodegradable. A lot of paper mills and paper recycling plants are operating because the demand for paper is steadily increasing. Using paper in lieu of plastic will drastically reduce our carbon footprint as like I mentioned, it's recyclable and biodegradable. Our need for paper can be easily replenished, landfills won't have that much plastic bags and stryofoams that won't decompose.

If we use paper, we can throw it away and it will decompose by itself. You can add it to your compost pit if you want to. You can recycle it and use it for a project. The possibilities are endless.

Shapeshifter
Paper is made from leaves, from trees, from natural resources. Increasing the demand for paper will increase the demand for the destruction of our forests. Shifting containers from plastic to paper just changed the problem, but it's still there. We lessened our carbon footprint, yeah, but we lessened the plants that absorb the carbon we're emitting, the plants that keep our air clean, our earth cool. We're lessening the habitats of the other animals that we are living with in this earth. The problem didn't go away, it just changed it's face.

Imagine a world without plastic, that's great, but there's also a chance that that world would also be without trees. I'm not saying that we should revert back to using plastic, no. I have a better idea, which I know a lot of people are already doing it.

What needs to be done
I agree that paper is a great substitute for plastic, and until we come up with a material that can sustain itself that doesn't deplete much of our plant resources, we'll be using paper, but like plastic, we should use it as sparingly as we can.

Here are few things we can do to reduce our "paper footprint"

1. Refuse paper bags if you can carry the product. You have two hands that can carry it, why now use it. I know it's "too" much of an effort but think of how much paper you can save by doing it? It's not really a big effort right? You just don't want to go out of your comfort zone.
   
2. If you can't think of a purpose for the paper bag, other than to carry your food back to your destination, then refuse to use it. Same as with #1, just carry what you bought if you'll throw away the bag after using anyway
3. Bring your own bag. Now's the perfect time to use those stowed away plastic bags that you were saving, or better yet, use the eco bags that you keep on buying for your groceries
4. Dine in. In actuality, dining in will still leave a footprint cause dining in means using water to clean up, but still, it's a way to reduce paper
5. If you have the guts, bring your own container. I wish QSRs would be more accommodating to this idea, Imagine if everyone brings their own boxes for their food, it will reduce the consumption of waxed boxes, which really are paper hogs, since the box needs to be really steady and sturdy

There you have it, 5 ideas to really save the world

Let's help in keeping a sustainable earth. Let's all do our part in saving the world

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Saving the Earth and Keeping My Weight in Check - STAIRS

I've never been a fan of elevators. Escalators, sure, but not elevators. Something about enclosed spaces, being inches apart from people you don't know, and being buoyed up and down by some rope is scary for me; but since I started working, I've been using the elevator constantly. It still makes me light headed, but then I can relax for a few seconds, so it's great. I usually use the elevator in the morning since my I'm still brain dead and all I can think about is sleeping, and when going home, I ride the elevator down the ground floor. Sometimes when I go out for my a.m. and p.m. breaks, I use the elevator back to the office.

So all in all, I use the elevator at least twice, maximum of 4 times. I usually use the stairs when going down, since it's easier. Last week and this week though, I decided to skip the elevator in the morning, and just use the stairs. Since I arrive really early at the office because of carpooling with my family (I usually arrive 45 minutes early. Office is still closed when I get there), I should just walk up the stairs. It's good exercise and an effective way to wake up my sleeping brain.

So for the past week and this week, I've been using the stairs in the morning, except last Friday cause I was wearing heels). Though when I finally arrive at the 5th floor, I'm panting and all sweaty, it's okay. It's a cardio workout for me.

I'm planning to extend my stair-usage into fridays as well, also to include going up in the office when I decide to buy something from 7-11 during my snack breaks.

Here's to healthy and eco-friendly living! *cheers*

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Going Green

I've always though of myself as being an environmentalist. I love nature and I do my part in helping preserve it. I feel that it's one of my missions in life. To help the earth sustain itself longer.

How I've helped
For years now, I've been helping in my own way, for a more sustainable environment. I've joined Earth Hour for 3 years already. I make it a point not to use plastic straws for my drinks, yes even for takeouts. Even if I'll drink the bevy during a car ride. No straws for me. As much as possible, I buy green eco bags when shopping, sometimes bring my own bag. When buying food (or anything actually), when I can carry the stuff with my hands or put it in my own bag, I don't let the baggers bag my purchase. I also tell my friends to do the same. Most of the time it works too :)

To the next level
This post however is not meant to highlight what I already am doing for the earth. This post is more of an introduction of what I'm planning to for this blog. I think it's about time that I take going green to next level. It's not enough that I just live a green life. It's not enough that I encourage my friend s to go green as well. I think it's about time I reach a wider audience and go greener. In this blog, I'll post helpful stuff about going green. My going green escapades. In my next posts I aim to have the following:

• Simple Going Green ways
• Going Green recipes
• Green News
• Green stuff that I've been doing
  

So let this post be my "contract" to being green.

This is to a better, sustainable environment! *cheers*

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