Archive for November, 2007

Dreaming of a green Christmas? The annual Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York is not only green in color, but green in concept. The lights that drape the 84-foot-tall Norway Spruce are energy-saving bulbs powered by solar panels.

The tree is covered with five miles of wire and 30,000 multi-colored LED lights! According to the Associated Press, the new lights are expected to reduce the energy consumption from 3,510 to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day!  For more information click here.

Don’t think you can throw that phonebook curbside!  It will NOT get picked up because the poor quality paper makes it impossible to recycle as new paper.

Instead, your phonebook will become insulation materials.  Hey, better that than having our hundreds of thousands of phonebooks in Raleigh (and the Triangle at large) act as anchors at the already filling dump.

I was saddened yesterday when I drove to Jaycee Park on Wade Ave to discover they no longer have phonebook bins (it wasn’t a wasted trip ~ I had paperboard galore to recycle as well, plus groceries from Wholefoods). 

After a bit of digging on the WakeGOV website, I found NOTHING for currently recycling your phonebooks except that the North Wake Landfill and South Wake Landfill both have recycling drop-offs also.  The rest of the locations listed are out-of-date as of MAY 2007!  What?!

Does that mean I have to make a special 30 minute drive to the nearest landfill or cart three phonebooks in my floorboard for the next few months?!  Preposterous!

I’m glad I spend time in Durham.  At least Durham has phonebook drop-off locations!

Electrical appliances still use power, even though they’re turned off?! I’ll be sure to unplug my cell phone charger when I’m not using it! To find 25 other ways to green your home click here. And if you have tips that you would like to share on how to make life a little greener, drop us a line!

Thinking about going green, but just don’t know how? TreeHugger.com has a whole list of ways to green your life, from How to Green your kids’ toys, to How to Green your wedding. Click here for more.

• Green Planet Catering