We are all about recycling and being green. Some may call it junk, but it can certainly be reused, recycled or upcycled! With so much upcycling inspiration around here, we thought Pinterest would be a great place to showcase some of our discoveries!

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, think of it as a place to create virtual inspiration boards. If you see a craft project, a recipe, or anything else that inspires you, you can “pin it” on your Pinterest account to find later (and to show-off to the world!).

We use ecyler’s Pinterest board to bookmark and share awesome, eco-friendly, upcycled stuff that we stumble across. We want to create a pinboard that’s got green crafty inspiration for home decor, clothing and accessories and any other awesome upcycled or revamped craft projects we stumble upon in our travels. We also post some interesting images of recycling of materials from aluminum cans to wine bottle corks.

Want to keep up with the eco-friendly, upcycle action on Pinterest? Follow the ecycler Pinterest board! We’d also love to connect with other green pinners out there. Do you have a Pinterest account? Tell us who you are in the comments!

Time is running out to wrap up holiday shopping, and if you still don’t know what to get for people, turn to the environment. Everyone can feel good about receiving a gift that’s green.

Uncommon Goods, a web-based retailer and catalog, has a whole section of green gifts that are more unusual and thoughtful than the standard fare of knickknacks made from recycled glass bottles.

For the fashion plate on your list who doesn’t want to be caught wearing the same thing as someone else, consider a skirt made from recycled sweaters – no two are alike. There are also scarves made from t-shirts and belts made from spent fire hoses.

For the techie who has every device, the retailer sells iPad cases made from old mail sacks and pouches made from the same material that can keep cords and chargers organized, as well as other items. A company called ATP Electronics makes the EarthDrive, a USB drive made from biodegradable polyester that’s derived from renewable resources, such as corn. Another company called Devotec recently came out with a portable stereo speaker system that can play music wirelessly via Bluetooth while charging its battery from an integrated solar panel. The system can play continuously when in the sun, even if the battery has no charge.

The home decorator might enjoy vases made from recycled fire extinguishers, picture frames made from recycled ceiling tins or bookends fashioned from old vinyl records (if they even know what a record is), also available from Uncommon Goods.

And don’t forget about kids- they can be green, too.

Plum caters to parents who don’t want to keep buying new clothes for their fast-growing babies and toddlers.

People can sign up to receive a set number of outfits each month and then return them a month later for all new clothes. All items are washed before they’re sent out, and outfits that come back stained are donated or recycled. A perfect gift for the new parents on your list.

Bigger kids might like the Wild Science Worm Farm, a fun way for them to learn about the ecosystem.

Happy Thanksgiving!

‘Tis the season of consumption. But there are ways to enjoy the kick-off to the holiday season and also be green.

Give thanks and try these ten ways to give back this Thanksgiving:

Stay home – Tell your aunt Sally that you can’t fly out to see her or drive to grandmother’s house. Your relatives will understand that traveling takes its toll on the environment – won’t they?

Carpool or use mass transit – If you really must leave your house, travel with a group in one car or take public transportation, if possible.

Buy natural and local – Buy free range turkey and organic produce for your Thanksgiving feast and get your fixings from local suppliers, like a farmer’s market.

Waste not – Roast your turkey in a reusable roasting pan. If you must use a foil pan, be sure to recycle it.

Light candles – It sets an intimate mood for your meal and saves electricity. Use beeswax or soy-based candles, rather than paraffin candles, which are made from petroleum.

Bring out the china and good silver – Even though the last thing you want to do after a food-induced coma is wash dishes, avoid using paper plates and plastic cutlery. Also, use cloth napkins instead of paper.

Get creative – Play a game with the family by awarding an extra piece of pumpkin pie to the relative who comes up with the best ways to be green this holiday season.

Recycle – Toss all cans and bottles used during dinner into the recycling bin.

Compost – Don’t throw the scraps in the trash – compost them!

Re-use – The best part of Thanksgiving are the days after. Use those leftovers again and again to save on trips to the grocery store.

This and all the Crush that Can episode may be viewed here: CrushthatCan.com. Crush that Can is a series of videos–short, humorous videos to demonstrate different ways to decrease the size of aluminum cans in order to prepare them for recycling in non-bottle bill states.

Happy Thanksgiving from ecycler.com!

There are many great options to enable your business across facebook and twitter in what we, ecycler, call second tier social media channels. A couple of obvious examples are YouTube, TwitPic and Flickr. We would also include del.icio.us in this group. One way we’ve found to go beyond the standards is to engage our community with these great services.

One of our favorites is a site called foursquare.com––it is a geo-centric check-in service. It is a friend-finder, a social city guide and a game that challenges users to experience new things, and rewards them for doing so. Foursquare lets users “check in” to a place when they’re there, tell friends where they are and track the history of where they’ve been and who they’ve been there with…

In addition to monitoring the commodities market (aluminum, cardboard, paper) via special websites, we find going to (or calling) our local recycling center for “on-the-ground” reality an important aspect of ecycler.com. If you’re following ecycler on foursquare, you’ll see our occasional check-in to various recycling centers.

We also foursquare any of the green events ecycler attends. For example, in late May we attended an event at St. Pascal School in Chicago to show support of the rally’s mission of raising awareness among students about the importance of recycling. St. Pascal won PepsiCo’s Dream Machine Recycle Rally Dream Green School Makeover contest, a $100,000 prize that it will use to make green improvements at the school including a new energy efficient computer lab powered by solar energy.

Naturally, we check-in to ecycler HQ regularly to update our followers on upcoming site features or to send out random messages.

Follow us on foursquare! We are foursquare.com/ecycler

Decking the halls with boughs and holly isn’t the only way to be green during the holidays.

Here are ten ways to make your holiday festivities environmentally friendly:

1. Use an artificial Christmas tree, so long as it’s not made with PVC, or polyvinyl chloride.
2. If you can’t resist the smell of fresh pine, buy a potted tree and plant it outside afterward or mulch your tree after the holidays (many cities will collect trees and mulch them for residents).
3. Wrap gifts in newspaper or other papers already around the house.
4. Set your holiday lights to a timer so that you don’t accidentally leave them on all night.
5. Buy LED holiday lights.
6. Compost your holiday meal scraps.
7. In lieu of giving traditional gifts, make a donation to your favorite environmental organization in the recipient’s name.
8. Buy holiday cards made with recycled paper.
9. Use cranberries, fruits, nuts and popcorn to trim trees and decorate the mantel — then eat them after the holidays.
10. Make your own menorah out of just about any household item and use organic beeswax candles.

Happy Holidays from ecycler.com!

Thanks to http://eco2o.com/ for the use of their image.

Are you dreaming of a green Christmas? Holiday shopping can be festive and environmentally friendly, with these ten green gift ideas:

1. Keep someone warm with a Patagonia fleece jacket, made with recycled soda bottles.
2. For the budding environmentalist on your list, Garnet Hill sells an “eco-lover’s” dollhouse, complete with a recycling bin, solar panels, wind turbines and a garden fertilized by compost.
3. Purchase a service on Amazon or iTunes to let someone download movies or episodes of their favorite TV shows – this eliminates the shipping and packaging associated with movies and boxed DVD sets.
4. For the cook in your family, buy Cuisinart’s line of “Greenware” pots and pans made with a non-stick ceramic surface instead of Teflon.
5. For the dog-lover among you, Olive Super Poop Bags are a way to clean up after Spot without the guilt. Made from vegetable oil and corn starch, the bags are biodegradable.
6. Home decorators might like the flip-flop doormat that Gaiam sells, made from repurposed sandals.
7. If you’re handy, make your own gifts using household items.
8. Purchase an animal, such as a goat or llama, for a family that could use its milk or fur, through Heifer International.
9. Bake treats for friends and family.
10. When in doubt, regift!

Happy Holidays from ecycler.com!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We all have a lot to celebrate–even with today’s economy. We, at ecycler, have put together ten ways to be green and giveback to the environment.

Don’t travel– Instead of driving or flying somewhere this Thanksgiving, stay close to home. Not only will forgoing travel save your sanity, it will also save some carbon.

Carpool or use mass transit – If you’re not hosting dinner and you have to get to someone else’s home, ride with friends or relatives or take public transportation.

Buy natural and local – Buy free range turkey and organic produce for your Thanksgiving feast. If you can buy ingredients from a farmer’s market or a turkey from a local farm, even better – the fewer miles products travel to your table, the better.

Cook green – Roast your turkey in a reusable roasting pan. If you must use a foil pan, be sure to recycle it.

Dine by candlelight – It sets an intimate mood for your meal and saves electricity. And you can even use beeswax or soy-based candles, rather than paraffin candles, which are made from petroleum.

Use the good china – As tempting as it may be to use paper plates and plastic cutlery in order to avoid doing dishes, Thanksgiving is the time to bring out the china. And use cloth napkins rather than paper.

Give thanks – While you’re going around the table discussing what you’re thankful for this holiday, have each family member mention what he or she can do to be green.

Recycle – Toss all cans and bottles used during dinner into the recycling bin. Then give them away on ecycler.com!

Compost – Don’t throw the scraps in the trash – compost them!

Re-use – Remember that the best part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers! Making turkey sandwiches and soup for the next few days saves on grocery bills and trips to the store.

This and all the Crush that Can episode may be viewed here: CrushthatCan.com. Crush that Can is a series of videos–short, humorous videos to demonstrate different ways to decrease the size of aluminum cans in order to prepare them for recycling in non-bottle bill states.

Happy Thanksgiving from ecycler.com!

When you’re celebrating Halloween today, remember the three R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle.

Here are some tricks to making your Halloween a treat for the environment:

When you’re done enjoying your caramel apples and jack-o-lanterns, add the apple cores and pumpkins to your compost pile. Some cities will pick up pumpkins on yard waste collection days (check with yours to see if they compost). If you compost it yourself, remove candles before cutting up the pumpkin and mixing it into the pile.

Use a reusable shopping bag to collect your Halloween candy.

Get in the spirit of the night and reduce the amount of lights in your house, using candles or only minimal lighting.

Buy candy that comes in the least amount of packaging – or, instead of candy, give away items that are fully consumable, such as apples.

Remember to check labels to see if your candy wrappers can be recycled.

Pack up your decorations and reuse them again next year.

There’s a new green monster in town and his name is Big Green Head! He’s an eco-friendly monster on a mission to change your perception about going green. It doesn’t have to be difficult, time consuming or costly; but you may wonder “where do I start?”

Where Do I Start Going Green?

This is the very same question Kate and Karen asked themselves. They’re the two moms who created Big Green Head with the purpose of leading their families and others down an easy green path. Their website, BigGreenHead.com, takes everyday tasks and provides a less wasteful, healthier and many times less expensive alternative.

BigGreenHead.com

Not only will you find Kate and Karen’s friendly, approachable, monster on their website, but a positive attitude and a little fun and humor. They have created a platform for themselves and others to share their green trials and tribulations on the Big Green Blog. The site also reports on green current events and interesting stories, and introduces businesses, products and organizations that can help you on your green journey while keeping in mind a busy lifestyle on a budget.

Simple and Positive

“Taking baby steps and keeping a positive attitude is how real change happens”, says Karen. “The benefits we reap will be worth the efforts we put forth: a healthy family, community and planet”.

It’s Not Just for Treehuggers Anymore!

Check out Big Green Head on Twitter, Facebook and on his website www.BigGreenHead.com.

People who want to sell their recyclables can find out where to take them by going to RecycleBills.com, a site started by co-owners of Salvage America, a recycling center.

The co-owners noticed that search engines weren’t directing people to the right sites. For example, people searching on Google were taken to directories that left the impression that Salvage America sold used auto parts, when in fact that was not the case.

RecycleBills.com allows people to type in their location and find a listing of recycling centers and a list of the type of recyclables they purchase. For example, if you type Chicago, IL, into the site’s search box, you’ll find that a company called Universal Scrap Metals buys scrap metals, aluminum and junk cars while J & S Metals buys aluminum, brass, copper wire and scrap steel.

The site also features RecycleBill’s RecycleBlog — http://recyclebills.squarespace.com/recycleblog — which includes postings on green topics and urban farming. There’s a new and exciting posting (or two) every day, so visit often!

And, if you need a diversion from your day of collecting cans, don’t miss The Adventures of The Vegetable Stalker. Currently at over 80 excerpts from the biography of Veggie Head Stalker, green superhero and champion of the war to save the world from invasive and life threatening Genetically Modified Foods.