Levi’s jeans are pretty sustainable. Don’t believe us? The company recently calculated just how much water it takes to produce its jeans. All in all, the water usage it takes to make a pair of the company’s jeans is rather low.

According to Levi’s “Life Cycle Assessment,” it only takes 2,835 liters of water to produce a pair of the company’s popular 501 jeans. The company has been able to curb its water usage in a number of ways:

The company works with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). BCI works to make “global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future.”

The company also has recently created “water saving and recycling processes to their manufacturing facilities.”

In addition to doing a lot of internal work to make its jeans more environmentally friendly, Levi’s is also urging its customers to consider water usage when caring for their jeans. The company urges its consumers to wash jeans after several wears and to use cold water when washing jeans. Levi’s also asks buyers to line dry their clothing rather than use a conventional dryer. The company came out with is “Life Cycle Assessment” before World Water Day (March 22).

As our readers know, watching your personal water usage is imperative to helping our world survive and thrive. I’m incredibly “eco-minded,” but am always finding new ways to limit my personal water usage.

Similar to many Levi’s consumers, I wash my jeans rarely. I also limit my water usage by washing everything on a cold rinse cycle, by taking incredibly short showers, and only washing my hair once or twice a week.

Do you know of any other companies who are as water usage savvy as Levi’s? How do you limit your water usage?

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Image: Michael Carian

The post Buy Levi’s 501 Jeans and Limit Your Water Usage appeared first on EcoSalon.

Reuse and recycle some of the most commonly thrown out items with these repurposing ideas for around your home.

You know the old saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, but it’s never truer than when referring to repurposing items destined for the landfill or recycling center into practical, functional or decorative objects. No matter what it is being thrown out–whether it’s an old bathtub used as a flower bed or old clothing turned into a patchwork quilt–there are repurposing ideas for all of them.

So, what are some of the most commonly thrown out items and clever repurposing ideas for each of them?

Repurposing Ideas

1. Glass Bottles – Whether it’s beer bottles or vinegar bottles, we all end up with lots of glass bottles in the recycling bin. Repurpose them into drinking glasses, vases and more.
2. Wine Cork Repurposing Ideas – Regular wine drinkers end up with a lot of corks, but what to do with them? They can be repurposed into coasters, cool wall art, planters and more.
3. Repurposing Ideas for Cans – Even if you are trying to reduce the amount of food you purchase in aluminum cans, you still seem to end up with them anyway. Turn those cans into planters, vases, utensil holders, candle holders, garden lights and more.
4. Cardboard Tube Projects – You may have sworn off using paper towels, but toilet paper and those leftover cardboard tubes are a part of our lives. They are actually quite useful and can be made into all kinds of cool decorative art projects from wall art to cardboard flowers. They also make useful cord storage holders.
5. Cardboard Boxes – We all know you can give a kid or a cat a cardboard box and they will be content for days, but there are some really fun ways to repurpose cardboard boxes–like a cardboard guitar, a kitty house, a ball maze and more.
6. Recycled Paper Projects – Whether old magazines, junk mail, wrapping paper, old work or school reports we all have so much paper that needs recycled. Repurposing ideas include making your own envelopes, garlands, cake toppers, coasters and door wreaths.
7. Egg Carton Ideas – Turn those egg cartons into biodegradable seed planters, flower lights, DIY fire starters and more.
8. Plastic Dishwasher Tab Container – If you use a dishwasher and use those dishwasher tabs, turn the plastic dishwasher tab container into a trash receptacle for your car.

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Image:  girlingearstudio

The post 8 Clever Repurposing Ideas for the Most Common Items That Get Trashed appeared first on EcoSalon.

Plastic waste is building up all around the world. And now, in some countries, it’s being used as a currency of sorts.

It’s a pretty brilliant concept: offer people useful services and products for plastic waste they collect from the streets and beaches in the developing world and bring into regional “plastic banks.”

The idea is the brainchild of Vancouver entrepreneur David Katz who created the organization Plastic Bank.

“If we can reveal the value in the things around us, then we can give people the opportunity to make a better life with that,” he told Fast Company.

Here’s how it’s going to work in Peru, where the first Plastic Bank is set to open this spring: Plastic waste “pickers” will be able to visit the Plastic Bank and trade in their collection of mixed plastics for food, shoes and other necessities. And, according to Fast Company, they can even use the bank’s 3D printing facilities to make items they may need. “Perhaps they’re working with waste from a gas station and the mechanics need components they can print on site. It gives them an opportunity to take the waste out of the environment and make something worth $5, $10, or $20,” Katz says.

Other countries are being targeted for Plastic Banks as well, including the Philippines, Colombia and Indonesia, where plastic is a problem, and an opportunity.

According to Katz, Plastic Banks will also be providing on-site training to the waste collectors so they can expand their skill sets and perhaps even start their own recycling facilities to boost their revenue and take some of the ick factor out of collecting waste.

There is so much plastic floating in our oceans right now that it’s the equivalent of thousands of giant blue whales, the largest creatures on the planet. And it’s not doing the oceanic ecosystems any good. So even as minuscule as collecting a trash bag’s worth of plastic bottles from a beach may seem, it’s no small effort. In fact, it may be way more important than many of us realize.

So, what happens with all the plastic delivered to the banks?

A “major corporation” is going to take the collected plastic waste and turn it into new products, Katz told Fast Company. “Knowing that the plastic came from a waterway and that it helps people out of poverty through its collection and reuse—that’s a strong story.”

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Plastic bottle image via Shutterstock

The post Plastic Waste Turns into Currency in Developing Countries appeared first on EcoSalon.

Thanksgiving is about counting our blessings and taking the time to be thankful for all that we have in our lives. However, we should all be careful not to take that sentiment too far, turning an appreciation for what we have into an unnecessary practice of gluttony, excess and, ultimately, waste.

Here is why food waste is a problem, especially during Thanksgiving, and what you should do to avoid becoming part of staggering food waste statistics.

Sure, Thanksgiving is a time to go little overboard with what you consume, but at some point there is a line that would be better not be crossed. Instead of preparing more food than you can actually eat, or tossing out leftovers, respect your actual hunger level and avoid filling yourself to the brim or creating more waste than necessary. Food waste has hit new levels of embarrassing and there are ways you can be part of the solution, not the problem.

Did you know that during Thanksgiving 2013, 204 million pounds of turkey were thrown out in the US? That’s an equivalent of $277 million, 100 billion gallons of water and 1 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent gas emissions.

While Thanksgiving exhibits a peak in food waste behavior, it represents nothing special in the grand scheme of America’s food waste habits. Each year, Americans throw out 40 percent of the food supply, an amount that tallies to approximately $165 billion – for a family of four, such food waste is equivalent to $2,275 per year. It’s no wonder food waste makes up most of the solid waste in U.S. landfills.

Imagine this: if we cut the losses in the U.S. food supply by a mere 15 percent, we would save enough food to feed 25 million Americans per year. The USDA estimates that 17.9 million households in the US are food insecure. Such a fact reflects poorly on our excessive habits (not just at Thanksgiving). When Thanksgiving rolls around and excessive food preparation and eating behaviors are for the most part celebrated, it’s important to use the opportunity to consider your own actions.

So many resources go into the production of the 204 million pounds of Turkey that never got consumed. The resources that went to raising these birds are equivalent to the amount of water it would require to supply New York City for 100 days and to the level of greenhouse gases used in 800,000 car trips between San Francisco and New York.

Knowing the effects of food waste and how our resources can better be appropriated, try to make shifts in your Thanksgiving menu. Make less, serve less and reuse all the leftovers. If it is clear that you have far too many leftovers to eat yourself or by your family over the next week, try donating some leftovers to nearby shelters or individuals who you know are in need.

As for eating leftovers yourself, there are many interesting and exciting ways to re-use them without getting bored. Get creative with sandwiches, soups, salads and casseroles, re-using turkey and vegetables in ways that accent and add more texture to new dishes. You don’t have to just heat up leftovers and eat them as they are. Whatever you do, avoid making trash out of perfectly good food.

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Photo Credit: tuchodi, Kristen Taylor

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Pivot TV’s new reality show about converting waste materials into new better quality stuff, is changing the definition of trash TV. The new half hour comedy show, “Human Resources,” premiers August 8. It’s based on the eccentric staff at New Jersey upcycling company Terra Cycle.

The world of reality TV has few, if any, boundaries. The era of weird people’s life on camera has included such Emmy worthy programs as “Vanilla Ice Goes Amish” and “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” And then there was the ever twisted reality show “The Swan,” which took women deemed “unattractive” and gave them extreme plastic surgery-laden makeovers. But that’s not quite the flow for “Human Resources.”

According to Terra Cycle CEO Tom Szaky, it’s all about eliminating the concept of waste by making things that were formerly unrecyclable, recyclable. They reuse, upcycle, and even recycle nearly everything that you could imagine. It’s a nutty crew in a nutty workspace with daily lunch yoga, rain dances on the front lawn, superhero sock day, and vegan lunches.

But most importantly, the show is shining a light on a really cool company whose mission is to create waste collection programs called Brigades for things that are traditionally difficult to recycle. The waste is transformed into brand new products from recycled park benches to upcycled backpacks.

Terra Cycle is trying to fix a big problem, considering that 90 percent of the stuff we buy will be in the dump within the year. But by changing our perspective, nothing needs to be trash because one system’s trash is another system’s food–just like in nature. Either way, it’s certainly an upgrade from “My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé”, “I Cloned My Pet”, or “Living Lohan.”

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Image: Sabrina Dalman

The post Upcycling in the Spotlight: Terra Cycle Gets a Reality Show appeared first on EcoSalon.

Earth Hour 2014 happens Saturday, March 29th. Here’s how the world will celebrate.

This March 29th marks the eighth annual celebration of Earth Hour, an international event started by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The event asks people (and increasingly, companies and local governments) to extinguish their lights for one hour at 8:30 pm local time as a symbolic gesture of concern about the environment.

No, turning off our lights for an hour won’t save the planet or stop climate change–not even if millions of us do it. However, the event is about more than 60 minutes in the dark. It’s a time when concerned and creative citizens pledge to take action for our world.

Interested in learning how people like you are celebrating Earth Hour this year? Check out the 12 impressive events below.

1. 17 million trees in Kazakhstan – This year, the Sustainable Development Earth Fund, the Forestry Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources of the Kazakh Republic partnered with 50,000 volunteers to plant a whopping 17 million saplings across 14 regions of the country.

2. Earth Hour in Antarctica –  Headed by Robert Swan, the Antarctic Youth Ambassador Programme is specifically focused on transforming young people into a new generation of climate leaders. Young people are selected from applications submitted from around the world to participate program which takes place in one of the most remote and threatened areas on the planet.

3. Building a massive Earth Hour logo in Iran – In the city of Isfahan an Earth Hour celebration will be held in front of Khaju Bridge to raise awareness about the plight of the famous Zayanderud River that has had no continuous water flow for the past few years due to climate change and inadequate water management. In the dried out river bed, the people of Isfahan have made the biggest Earth Hour logo to date, measuring around 2,800 square meters. 

4. 3,404 kilometre ‘Walk to Mali’ – In January 2014, 12 Earth Hour Champions from Nigeria embarked on a 3,404km road trip from Nigeria to Mali. They arrived at their destination nearly two months later. The walk was meant to promote the culture of peace and create awareness on environmental sustainability across West Africa. Activities during the walk will included advocacy visits, community vulnerability mapping, community outreach, and capacity building. On March 29th, the Walk To Mali documentary will be screened at various locations in the country.

5. Trashy tickets in Tahiti – Earth Hour 2014’s closing ceremonies will be in Tahiti, French Polynesia. The focus on this year’s beyond-the-hour activities is waste management. So instead of tickets, attendees to this year’s ceremony are required to bring recyclable waste in order to gain access to the acoustic concert. Upon entering, audience members will go through the red carpet to be photographed sorting the waste materials they brought along.

6. “40 Bands – 40 Living Rooms” in Belgium – Launched by WWF-Belgium, this is a unique competition that makes it possible for those hosting Earth Hour parties in their home to potentially get a visit (and private concert!) from their favorite band on March 29th.

7. Pro-Earth App in India – WWF-India has launched an android application for Earth Hour. Called PRO-EARTH, the application will teach citizens how to become more energy-efficient, and also explore healthier and greener ways of living. WWF-India also has a crowdfunding project on Earth Hour Blue: Donations help to install solar lights in the forest fringe in Sundarbans, the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world and home of the famous Bengali tiger. These big cats love to prowl at night, but not a single tiger incident has been reported where solar lights have been installed.

8. ‘I Heart the Reef’ in Australia – Although it’s one of the most beautiful and ecologically important places on Earth, the Great Barrier Reef is under attack from pollution, overfishing, and the coal industry. Earth Hour Australia has circulated a report, “Lights Out for the Reef,” that highlights the latest scientific findings about climate change impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. During this year’s Earth Hour, a new documentary “Lights Out for the Reef” will be shown all over the country. Other activities include a 10,000 candle installation on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra spelling out “Lights Out for the Reef” and a candle activation at Manly Beach with 2,000 people.

9. Plastic-free in the Galapagos – Litter can be found in just about every corner of the ocean, including the Galapagos, long considered one of the natural wonders of the world. This year, the Galapagos Government Council, the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park and WWF-Galapagos have joined forces to reduce and eventually ban plastic shopping bags, along with disposable cups and straws. The crowdsourcing campaign calls on participants from all over the world to sign a petition that will ban these plastics as a way to protect the variety of wildlife both on land and in the waters of the Galapagos.

10. Moments of darkness in Canada – Canada’s campaign enlisted the help of some well-known celebrities to encourage the public to reflect and discuss what they will be thinking about while the lights are out during Earth Hour. A series of videos gives Canadian celebrities like Jason Priestly, William Shatner, Chris Hadfield, and Amy Jo Johnson a chance to tell the world what they’ll be thinking about during 60 minutes of darkness.

11. LightsOFF, AmazON in Colombia – Often referred to as the “world’s lungs,” the Amazon is under attack from mining and ranching activities that kill wildlife and create pollution. This year when the whole world switches its lights off for Earth Hour, WWF-Colombia will switch the AmazON! The crowdfunding project allows the public to invest in the largest ecosystem and air, water and life producer on the planet, protecting it for future generations.

12. Spider-Man in Singapore – This country is the original home of Earth Hour, so it’s only fitting that it gets a visit from a web-slinging superhero. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and director Marc Webb will be on hand to flip the switch that extinguishes the lights across Singapore’s signature Marina Bay skyline. The event sends the message that anyone can be a superhero for the planet. WWF-Singapore also joined Earth Hour Blue with their crowdfunding campaign, “Stop The Killing,” which aims to expose and end the illegal sale of target wildlife species within Singapore.

How will you celebrate Earth Hour 2014? Tell us in the comments!

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Images via WWF/EarthHour.org

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Clothing giant Esprit recently launched a recycled clothing collection which achieved the newly popular R Cert status, a certification system that guarantees a minimal percentage of reused fiber. Other large brands, like Puma and H&M and indy labels, like Jane Bowler, are finding all kinds of uses for recycled fabrics.

Textile technologies have advanced to the point where new fabrics can be make by recycling old ones or from other materials, but it can be hard to know if they are legitimate. R Cert is an accreditation system that applies mainly in the Asian market and is issued by the Hong Kong based Redress (the same group behind the 365 challenge). Basically, the R Cert means that a particular item of clothing is made up of at least 20% recycled fibers and allows customers to track the item’s journey from factory to store on a dedicated website. To celebrate this achievement and the move toward greater transparency and accountability, we round up three more examples of innovative recycled clothing.

Jane Bowler Raincoat

UK designer Jane Bowler uses recycled plastics for her avant garde inspired raincoats. She uses reappropriated plastics (including from shower curtains) to create unique designs to reflect her belief that recycled materials can be luxurious, innovative and desirable.

PUMA Track Jacket

The PUMA ‘Track Jacket’ which is part of its InCycle Recycled products collection, is made from polyester deriving from recycled PET bottles. Even the zippers are made from recycled polyester. Interestingly, the jacket can be turned back into polyester granulate and serve as a secondary raw material for other exciting products at the end of its life.

H&M Cycle Wear

The successful Swedish retailer teamed up with Brick Lane Bikes in the UK to launch an 11 piece menswear collection of casual pieces for cycling (a more eco friendly way to get around!). The collection itself uses recycled cotton, recycled wool and recycled polyester.

Images: Jane Bowler, PUMA, H&M

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The post Recycled Clothing Gains Popularity with 3 Big European Brands and Certification appeared first on EcoSalon.

New York City has a big problem with trash, especially food waste. An innovative new program aims to up composting rates by allowing families to exchange food waste for locally grown produce.

As the most populous city in America, it’s no surprise that New York City produces a lot of trash. Just walk down any street in Manhattan after dark, and you’ll see much of it, stacked in miniature mountains up and down the sidewalk. Of the 12,000 tons of trash produced every day in the Big Apple, more than 35 percent is organic waste–vegetable peelings, eggshells, and other once-edible food that’s perfect for composting.

The problem is, almost no one in NYC composts. Although the city is launching a composting program this fall, it will only be voluntary. And if New York’s abysmal recycling rates are any indication, the vast majority will ignore it.

The key to getting people to compost (or any environmentally-responsible behavior for that matter) is providing the right incentive. When around 46 percent of a population is living near the poverty line, however, it better be a pretty darn good incentive. For those struggling to feed their families, what happens to an orange peel is not high on the priority list.

Luke Keller and Aly Blenkin, two students at Parson’s School of Deisgn, may have found the perfect way to address both the food waste and food poverty issuesin New York. The pair recently founded Hello Compost, a service that will work with Project EATS (a New York-based nonprofit focused on urban agriculture) to allow low-income families to trade their food scraps for locally-grown fresh food.

Here’s how it would work: Families put food waste into freezable, odor-blocking collection bags. The bags are designed by local students, made from canvas and feature bright colors. The bags are then delivered to Project EATS, where they are weighed and assigned a value that translates into credits for fresh produce, grown by local farmers. “Project EATS uses an iPad app to track progress–and appeal to the human drive to compete, similar to the gaming psychology that makes the Nike FuelBand so successful.”

The idea is brilliant in its simplicity. There’s no outdoor composter to build or stinky indoor compost to content with. The rewards are instantaneous and meet a real need for many New York City families. Once engaged, it’s hard to see why New Yorker’s wouldn’t want to trade their trash for edible treasure, but it’s getting them engaged that will be the challenge.

“We need to re-imagine the role of food waste from being a smelly, unattractive side effect of eating to an attractive resource for residents to positively impact their community and to help put fresh food on the table,” Blenkin told Fast Co. Design.

Pending approval from the New York City Housing Authority, Project EATS will launch the Hello Compost service this fall. Find out how you can participate or support the project by liking their Facebook page.

Related Reading:

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Images: Hello Compost/Project EATS & Fast Co. Design

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Have you got the blue jean blues?  A new competition aims to turn your denim trash into treasure.

When Levi Strauss created the first pair of blue jeans in 1873, little did he know that there would one day be more pairs of denim jeans on the planet than people. The irony is that the iconic durable workwear item originally designed for gold rush miners (the denim fabric was dyed blue to reportedly hide stains) is now owned in designer multiples by women (and men) everywhere.

If you have a drawer or two full of jeans that you can’t bear to throw away – and have an inkling to show off your crafty skills as a denim visionary, check out Jake & Maya Collective’s latest competition, The Upcycled Denim Challenge. The British sustainable line for children has launched a competition appealing to budding textile designers and creators to submit their own innovative upcycling ideas. One lucky winner each month will score vouchers along with the chance to join the team as a celebrated upcycling designer.

For more details about how to enter, click here.  Take a look at some our favorite ideas so far and get inspired to make your own:

Wall Mounted Fabric Deer Head.

Wallet.

Ruffle Vest.

Drawstring Duffle Bag.

 Images courtesy of Jake & Maya

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Leslie Oschmann gives vintage oil paintings a new life on your shoulder.

Some deem fashion a form of art in itself, but fashion and art blend in the most seamless way when it comes to Leslie Oschmann’s Swarm handbags. She uses vintage oil paintings to create exquisite and colorful bag designs that are full of personality and bits of nostalgia, offering unique arm candy that is given another chance to prove its worth and beauty.

Leslie began experimenting with the re-purposing of oil paintings upon moving to Holland after 8 years as the visual director of Anthropologie.  She first applied the vintage oil paintings scavenged at antique markets for decorating chairs and other furniture such reclaimed dressers and lampshades.

Through handling the versatile canvas material she began to explore the idea of making up a handbag from a painting, and the first try manifested in a fantastic prototype that turned into the successful Swarm line that has been coveted around the world.

Working from her home studio in Amsterdam, Oschmann sources the paintings she uses from markets in Central Europe as well as auctioneers that she works with. She uses every bit of an acquired painting, although often a deconstructed work of art can end up in many different Swarm creations.

The body of the tote and shoulder bags is made from the canvas of an oil painting, while the leather handles are re-purposed from French market baskets, vintage belts or purchased directly from a supplier in the south of Holland. Leslie also makes a clutch version that doubles perfectly as a wallet or letter holder, a Still Life iPad case, and tote and shoulder bags that are a colorful and lively change from your average leather holdall.

Although Leslie’s bags have gained more attention recently, she has been making them for a few years now, allowing her to perfect the art of re-crafting works of art. Increased interest in the bags has brought Leslie to hire on a helper who is proficient with an industrial machine – a necessary tool for sewing the heavy canvas covered in layers of oil-based paint.

Leslie’s bags can be shipped worldwide and are available directly from her site www.swarmhome.com/blog,through Anthropologie’s online shop and from The Shop Floor Project. Although not taking customers’ personal paintings under her transformational wing since she needs to test all her paintings for durability, Leslie is open to crafting custom bags. She will take into consideration a client’s preferred coloring or subject by sending them images of different paintings to choose from.

Just like a bottle of vintage wine, Leslie’s Swarm bags just get better with age, gracefully taking on their new lives as useful, moldable and durable everyday objects.

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