JD : To me, surrounding yourself with things that you love, that you want to keep and use, that is the basis of sustainability. The effort to re-think our belongings or space, can begin a thoughtful process which leads to more purposeful living. On a more tangible level, I recommend low VOC paints, try to source vintage/antique items and have recommended recycled and reclaimed materials. Focus on keeping the things that you use and love. MORE

If we cannot engineer a cultural shift, we risk consuming our planet until it literally cannot sustain us. State of the World 2010” will illustrate the growth of this new culture of sustainability, and the people cultivating it, and in the process, hopefully inspire many more to become pioneers themselves. SUIs are the “single-use items” that have insinuated themselves into the daily fabric of American life. MORE

Plastics are cheap, durable and versatile, and that has made them highly useful in product manufacturing and development. billion metric tons of plastic [1] have entered the world’s business and consumer supply chains, mostly in the form of single-use items destined for disposal. Plastics currently represent about 10 percent of the total waste generated by human activity across the planet [2]. MORE

JD : To me, surrounding yourself with things that you love, that you want to keep and use, that is the basis of sustainability. The effort to re-think our belongings or space, can begin a thoughtful process which leads to more purposeful living. On a more tangible level, I recommend low VOC paints, try to source vintage/antique items and have recommended recycled and reclaimed materials. Focus on keeping the things that you use and love. MORE

Stories of people making these changes in their lives: "In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed. A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. 99 percent of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport… is trashed within 6 months." The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one! MORE

by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Upcycling is, in general, the process where (at least) some of the shape and properties of the original waste product are retained – though not always, and we will come to that later – and where another useful product is produced from it. Though at times it might also (just) be a decorative item or a piece of art. Ideally, however, upcycling should be about turning an item of waste into a useful item and product rather than a work of “art”. MORE

by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Recycling is a fraud, a sham, a scam, perpetrated by big business on the citizens and municipalities to make us all feel good about single use packaging. It won't save the planet. It is a misleading assumption, however, to think that tossing more items in the recycling bin and fewer in the trash can make that much of a difference in dealing with the catastrophic level of plastic contamination that our planet currently faces. MORE

We need to return to principles of nature, where nothing goes to waste, where every bit of used material becomes a resource for a new cause. For example, the price of aluminum reaches up to $1,600 per ton [5] , and the value of precious metals used in electronics can be as high as $20 billion a year [6]. To manufacture plastic water bottles, 17 million barrels of oil are used each year. The scale of the resource extraction to produce daily used items is tremendous. MORE

What materials do you use for your ECO friendly products? Almost of all the materials used are %100 upcycled- once headed to the trash, now turned into wearable art! The process of rethinking bicycle frames and wheels into ride-able bikes lent itself naturally to creating other useful items from the same materials. Getting to the point where I had multiple lines of saleable creations has been a slow but very rewarding process. MORE

Reversing the trend of accelerating garbage accumulation is essential to the planet’s future, and reducing, reusing and recycling offers a comprehensive answer to an increasingly perplexing problem. Some popular strategies for reducing waste production include [2] : Buying fresh food instead of packaged and processed food—or even better, starting your own garden to grow your own food. Making homemade personal care and cleaning products, without using potentially toxic chemicals. MORE

Reduce : Just use and buy less. When it comes to food and food waste use everything and leftovers are used the next day. Oh, and guess what, reusable cutlery, plates, cups and such are meant to be washed after use and used again. Reuse also must include not just continued use of what we have but reusing and repurposing items of waste such as glass jars and much more. Though at times it might also be a decorative item or a piece of art. MORE

But since then, we have crossed the threshold of the sustainable resource management, and began using more resources than one planet Earth can possibly provide. planet Earths available to sustain our needs. This means that we all are living with the growing ecological debt to our planet. “We We are using resources as if we had two planets, not one. There can be no ‘plan B’ because there is no ‘planet B.’”. MORE

Every day, we use resources that forests provide to us, such as timber, firewood, medicinal and edible plants. Yet if we continue to lose our forests at the current rate, in 80 years from now there will be no forest left on our “green” planet [2]. Deforestation is happening everywhere on the planet for many different reasons that vary from region to region. Use less paper. Use recycled products. 2 Use less paper. Reduce your paper use when you can. MORE

This has upset many people who are uncomfortable using items that contain animal byproducts. We demand that you cease to use animal products in the production of currency that we have to use.” According to Innovia Films, the company that manufactures the polymer used for banknotes in 23 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Singapore, and Canada, there are minute traces of tallow added to make the notes more “anti-static.” MORE