Earth Day 2008 – The pilot launch of Sustainlane's "Gorilla in the Greenhouse"
“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, teaches kids about environmental issues regarding plastic trash in the ocean. This animated episode is a fun and entertaining way to relay an impacting message to our youth about plastic trash in the ocean. Enjoy sharing and learning with all the kids you know!

- Get involved with Oregon Green Schools . OGS provides schools with the information they need to set up and maintain successful waste reduction programs and to recognize schools for their waste reduction efforts.

- If you have a desire to mentor kids to become our future environmentalists, join MadeByKids - Empowering the Creativity of Youth - Build their Future Guided by Mentors.

- Show every young person you know “The Story of Stuff”, a 20-minute animation of the consumerist society by Annie Leonard.

- Here in Eugene, you can volunteer at BRING Recycling to help with the environmental education program.

"You never change the existing reality by fighting it. Instead create a new model that makes the old one obsolete." Buckminster Fuller – MadeByKids

Earth Day was founded to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. The good news is that many people now continue this awareness throughout the year - and not just on April 22.

A company here in Oregon contacted me to share that they had won an Earth Day Challenge Award from Lane Transit District (LTD) for their dedication to sustainability throughout the year. The company is SOLARC - they are a high performance sustainable building design company. They have offices in Eugene, OR and Portland, OR.

Below are some of the reasons why SOLARC won this award:

Of SOLARC’s 24 member staff, 15 commute to work by biking, walking, riding the bus, or carpooling at least 3 days every week. The SOLARC office is earth-friendly, with composting bin, recycling containers, energy efficient lighting, and low-flow toilets. Outside are a worm composter, easily accessible bike racks, and solar panels on the roof.

To celebrate Earth Day, SOLARC is encouraging all staff members to consider making “Earth Day Resolutions” that will help improve the overall health of our planet. Click here for a complete list of SOLARC’s Earth Day Resolutions. For more information about SOLARC Architecture and Engineering, Inc., please contact Jodi Sommers at 349-0966 or jodi@solarc-ae.net.

And let us know what you and/or your company/employer is doing this year to draw more attention to Earth Day. We’re also interested in your suggestions. We here at OsoEco implement a new eco office challenge every month and would love some new ideas…

Master Recycler Program

“The Lane County Master Recycler Program strives to bridge the gap between awareness and action by providing waste prevention, recycling education and volunteer opportunities to citizens concerned about resource management and consumption.” MRP

As a graduate Master Recycler through Lane County Waste Management, I am so glad I participated in the Program that I want to encourage you to take the course yourself. I signed up for the training classes for the very reason they offer them: to learn waste reduction options, to conserve our precious, finite natural resources, influence others to change their habits too, and to make a difference in our community.

Once graduated, you will commit to 30 hours of “pay back” by volunteering you time as a Master Recycler through activities they bring to your awareness, or you can develop your own independent volunteer project that fits within the guidelines. The opportunities are endless, because the needs are so great. You could possibly find employment through the ongoing networking opportunities that continue after graduation.

For more information, contact Master Recycler Program Coordinator Kelly Bell at (541) 682-2059 or e-mail Kelly.

Book Recommendation from the Master Recycler Program Library

To preface what I am going to share, I’d like to explain why I selected this particular book. It affirms my action to become a Master Recycler, and why I am an eco-conscious consumer. An AFFIRMATION is a statement of a desirable intention or condition of the world or the mind deliberately meditated on.

A desirable intention that many of us are acting upon is to change the condition of our world through environmentally responsibility; acts that also simplifying our lives by the eco-choices we make.

As we rethink our footprint, eliminate or reduce our consumption of goods and services that exhaust our natural resources, extend the life of our stuff and other people’s stuff by reusing them, and recycling as much as we can, it brings healthy outcomes that naturally simplify our lives and bring restoration to a planet in distress.

The Earth is the only home we have been give in this life to rest our hearts, and hang our hats. As we live an eco-conscious lifestyle, sharing our knowledge and experiences with others so they too will consider the impact of their own footprint, the condition of the world will change for the better by one person’s desired intention at a time.

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I recently read a wonderful book that will affirm your eco-choices: The following excerpts are from the book Voluntary Simplicity Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, by Duane Elgin. I checked this book out from our Master Recyclers Program library, and now have my own copy to reread. I highly recommend your read it too. The following statements and bulleted points that stand out to me as important concepts that affirm actions many of us are already taking. I am confident these thoughts and perspectives will encourage you on your journey to share your growing knowledge and experiences with individuals that are also seeking to live a simpler, environmentally responsible life:

1. The objective of voluntary simplicity is not to dogmatically live with less…living a life that is characterized by poverty, antagonism to progress, rural living, and the denial of beauty. Poverty is involuntary and debilitating, whereas simplicity is voluntary and enabling.

2. Ecological living does not imply turning away from economic progress; rather it seeks to discover which technologies are most appropriate and helpful in moving toward a sustainable future. It is not a path of “no growth”, but a path of “new growth”….

3. The romanticized image of rural living does not fit the modern reality, as the majority of us choosing a life of conscious simplicity do not live in the backwoods or rural settings; we live in cities and suburbs. Instead of a “back to the land” movement, it is more accurate to describe this as a “make the most of wherever we are” movement.

4. Simplicity is a relative matter depending on: Climate, Customs, Culture, and the Character of the individual…each of us needs to find out and pursue our own way.

5. Gandhi said, “As long as we derive inner help and comfort from anything, we should keep it. If we were to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a stern sense of duty, we would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied want would make trouble for us. Only give up a thing when we want some other condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction to us.”

6. Simplicity has a much to do with our purpose in living as it does with our standard of living, so it follows that there is no “right and true” way to live more ecologically and compassionately. However, there is a general pattern of behavior and attitudes often associated with this approach to living a simpler life. Fill in or check the bulleted circles for those tendencies that already apply to you:

Those choosing to live a simpler life:

o Tend to invest time and energy freed up by simpler living in activities with our partner, children, friends, or volunteering to help others, or get involved in civic affairs to improve the life of our community.

o Tend to work on developing the full spectrum of our potentials: physical, emotional, and spiritual.

o Tend to invest time and energy freed up by simpler living in activities with our partner, children, friends, or volunteering to help others, or get involved in civic affairs to improve the life of our community.

o Tend to work on developing the full spectrum of our potentials: physical, emotional, and spiritual.

o Tend to feel an intimate connection with the earth and a reverential concern for nature…acting in ways that express great care for the earth’s well being.

o Tend to feel a compassionate concern for the world’s poor; a simpler life fosters a sense of kinship with people around the world, a concern for social justice and equity in using the world’s resources.

o Tend to lower our overall level of personal consumption – buy less clothing, accessories, and cosmetic products with more attention to functionality, durability, and aesthetics, and observe holidays in a less commercialized manner.

o Tend to alter our patterns of consumption in favor of products that are durable, easy to repair, non-polluting in their manufacture and use, energy-efficient, functional, and aesthetic.

o Tend to shift diet away from highly processed foods, meat, and sugar towards foods that are more natural, healthy, simple, and appropriate for sustaining the inhabitants of a small, finite planet.

o Tend to reduce clutter and complexity in our personal lives by giving away or selling those possessions that are seldom used and could be used productively by others (clothing, books, furniture, appliances, tools, etc).

o Tend to use consumption politically by boycotting goods and services or companies whose actions or policies we consider unethical.

o Tend to recycle metal, glass, and paper to cut back on consumption of items that are wasteful of nonrenewable resources.

o Tend to pursue a livelihood that directly contributes to the well-being of the world and enables us to use more of our creative capacities in ways that are fulfilling.

o Tend to develop personal skills that contribute to greater self-reliance and reduce dependence upon experts to handle life’s ordinary demands (i.e. basic carpentry, plumbing, appliances, repair, gardening, crafts, etc.).

o Tend to prefer small-scale, more human-sized living and working environments that foster a sense of community, face-to-face contact, and mutual care.

o Tend to alter male-female roles in favor of nonsexist patterns of relationships.

o Tend to participate in holistic health-care practices that emphasis preventative medicine and the healing powers of the body when assisted by the mind.

o Tend to involve ourselves with compassionate causes, such as the environment, poverty and saving animals from extinction…and tend to use nonviolent means in our efforts.

o Tend to change transportation modes in favor of public transit, car pooling, smaller and more fuel efficient autos, living closer to work, riding a bike, and walking.

Living a life of voluntary simplicity reflects external, and most importantly, internal changes that lead to a satisfying and purposeful life.

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The opportunity to model a life of Voluntary Simplicity, as we live out our daily lives in harmony with our natural world, advocating and educating others to reduce, reuse and recycle, are all life-affirming, satisfying solutions that collectively have a great impact our local community and a world in crisis.

I can hardly believe it! Clearly, I was inundated with unsolicited catalogs and junk mail, like most of us, but I was stunned when my catalog tally crept to over one hundred. As of today, using CatalogChoice.org, I have unsubscribed to 128 catalogs. A few continue to trickle in, but they do tell you it can take several months before a catalog will stop completely.


I’m calling March “Green Box” month at my house. Every day during the month of March, I am going to make a concerted effort to clean up the last bit of unsolicited junk mail coming to my mailbox by using ProQuo.com‘s online service. Recently, they have added a catalog decline feature. Another way I attempt to stop junk mail is to simply send mailings back to the sender in their own postage paid envelop, writing across one of the pages “Remove me from your mailing list”. Care to join me?

If you need a little more motivation to stop the deluge of catalogs and junk mail coming to your home or business, consider what your inadvertent contribution is to your local paper waste stream. I will use Oregon, where I live, as an example. These recycling and disposal are from the state of Oregon in 2002: Total recyclable paper generated: 990,223 tons, cardboard and brown bags generated: 452,279 tons, newspaper and magazines generated: 288,536 tons, Hi-grade paper generated: 86,920 tons, Low-grade recyclable paper generated: 162,089 tons, non-recyclable paper combined, generated: 129,825 tons. This totals 1,120,048 tons of paper products generated of which 440,077 tons of paper were disposed of, and 679,971 tons of paper were recovered (60.7%). Lane County has a goal of recycling 54% of our overall waste stream by 2009.

In order to reduce the amount of paper waste heading for recycling and landfills, we have to rethink and reduce our consumption of paper products at home and at the office. It takes the cooperation of all of us, as consumers, to use our buying power and choices politically, to send messages to manufacturers and businesses that we are conscientious about the choices, green choices, we are making. Declining unsolicited catalogs, reducing the number of magazines we subscribe to, and bringing a halt to junk mail solicitation are giant steps forward, as we collectively send a message to sellers of products and services that we don’t want more trees cut down, nor our natural resources exhausted to fill our mailboxes with their advertising and promotional materials.

Here are a few more things we can do to reduce the paper waste stream in our area:

(1) Buy recycled paper for home and office use.

(2) Make two-sided copies when printing.

(3) When we are finished reading magazines, recycle them at a local transfer station, give them to our library or non-profits like St. Vincent de Paul and the Assistance League; drop them by our doctors’ offices for patients to peruse, or offer them to schools for current event reporting and craft projects.

(4) Use cloth shopping bags instead of paper or plastic. Many retailers and grocers now want to be part of the solution by selling cloth bags for a nominal fee.

Ingredients: 3 cups water
1 cup whole milk (alternatives: rice, soy or hemp)
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup steel-cut oats
¼ tsp sea salt (or table salt)

1. In a large saucepan, over medium heat, bring the water and milk to a simmer.

2. Heat butter until it begins to foam in a medium-sized skillet over medium-low heat. Add the steel-cut oats, and with a wooden spoon, toast until golden (1.5 to 2 minutes).

3. Reduce the simmering liquid by changing the heat to medium-low. Slowly stir the toasted oats into the liquid and simmer gently, until the mixture thickens to a gravy-like consistency (approx. 20 minutes). Stir in the salt, and continue to occasionally stir while simmering, until almost all the liquid is absorbed, and the oatmeal is thick and creamy as pudding (about 7-10 minutes). Turn off the heat, and let the oatmeal stand uncovered 5 minutes before serving. Serve hot, adding your favorite toppings.

When I was growing up, our wee-bit Irish family topped our oatmeal with a dollop of butter, brown sugar or maple syrup, and milk. However, as a wee-bit Irish adult, I’ve enjoyed oatmeal with dried fruits and nuts, honey or agave, and fruit juice.

[Note: To double this recipe, use a larger skillet to toast the oats, and once the salt has been added, increase the cooking time to 10-15 minutes.]

[Disclaimer: if you are a shopaholic, don’t read this.]

I’m all about STUFF…rethinking my STUFF…recycling my STUFF. I’m giving it away, finding ways to resale it for reuse. It’s actually a great feeling to cut loose of possessions that only a year ago I wouldn’t have considered parting with them…not NOW anyway.

I can’t keep track of how many times I’ve moved since my childhood; and each time it’s involved a garage sale, yard sale or moving sale. They’re all the same: there’s the pain of selling perfectly good STUFF for a pittance of their original price, as well as the joy of someone taking STUFF off my hands that I never wanted in the first place, and for a price! The adage one man’s trash is another man’s treasure is true for me. I’ve scored many an unwanted treasure, all the while comingling my junk with my neighbors, calling the event an “estate sale”. We want top dollar for our STUFF and low-ball our neighbor for their STUFF…or work out an amiable trade. Bartering and bargaining comes as natural to some as hunting and gathering to others. Most of us have a story or two about finding the deal-of-the-century. I have a really good story of my own.

Life is one big Acquisition and Exchange of money, property, resources, ideas, beliefs, personal skills and talents. And, we consume; we consume a lot, albeit some more than others. We dance this dance everyday of our lives, often unconsciously, not seeing the big picture – the impact our decisions and consumption have on the environment. Even as green consumers, we can fall back into old habits of conventional consumerism – wanting the latest eco-friendly technologies, trendiest green fashions – the new STUFF of the late 20th and 21st centuries. Daily, in the news we read reports that disclaim the value of what we considered to be some of the best eco-products on the market today made from sources like bamboo and corn. It turns out that some of these products are actually doing more damage to our environment that what they were designed to replace. Some of the concerns are transport-miles, energy, waste and over-consumption of natural resources, and land-use. It’s a lot to think about, so…

…having said all this, would you agree that restoring, remanufacturing, and reusing our STUFF and other people’s STUFF needs to be the #1 eco-friendly decision we, as consumers, should make? Now, before I shop, I’m asking myself “Do I need this or want this?” If that fails, I’ll go ahead and add the item to my wish list, or carry it around the store with me until the impulse to buy fades and my want is no longer a need. My heightened consciousness as a consumer is knocking the STUFFings out of my lifestyle. I’m actually enjoying the challenge, as I prepare to move…yet again. I see it as a blessing, an opportunity to reuse, reduce and recycle my wonderful and not so wonderful STUFF.

Over the years, I’ve collected and been gifted with a lovely array of beautiful fine jewelry and an eclectic assortment of costume jewelry. Recently, I’ve been going through this collection of mine, and thoughtfully recycling/gifting certain pieces to family and friends that I know will enjoy reusing them. Perhaps this Valentine’s Day, rather than shop retail for personal gifts to give your loved ones and friends, you can recycle some of your jewelry as green gifts of love.

Green is Gold! For eco-minded, frugal fashionistas with expensive taste and a gala to attend, BlingYourself.com is the ticket. You can fashionably Reuse and Recycle jewelry and accessories for a fraction of their retail value. Men and women alike can window shop collections, categories, and brands right from home or office to rent lavish gold and stunning gems that will arrive at the door via FedEx with convenient door-to-door delivery and return service. To Bling Yourself, you either pay $10 a month or $100 a year for their rental service membership, plus the rental fee, or you shop as a guest, but pay a higher rental fee. There is a refundable security deposit based on the value of the rental. Shipping is a flat $10 fee. King or Queen for a Day: renting a fine jewelry is another fun way to surprise your loved one as you “dress to the nines” for a chauffeured night on the town….