Sierra Club Green Home

At this point, I have many reusable bags that I carry with me to and from the grocery store and keep in the car. Sometimes though, I want a reusable bag that I can take anywhere. So, assuming I’m not alone in this, I found some stylish new prints, new materials, and environmentally friendly designs that Sierra Club Green Home readers can use on an everyday basis outside of grocery shopping. (Courtesy of Pansy Maiden)

Dog waste disposal poses a dilemma to the environmentally friendly pet owner. Leaving the waste on the ground is hazardous, as it may carry E. coli, salmonella, or giardia, and the rain can wash it into rivers, streams, and oceans. Beaches and rivers have been closed to the public due to such contamination. So we need to pick it up. However, instead of taking this organic matter that would eventually degrade on its own, encasing it in plastic bag, and throwing it into an airless landfill where nothing decomposes, you can compost it. (Photos by Jim’s Photos1, Flickr)

Electronics go out of style faster than clothes these days. Americans throw out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers every day, according to Time Magazine. E-waste piles up and often gets shipped to poor countries where it causes serious environmental and health problems. Fortunately, there are companies like 2nd Solutions which use smelting to extract recyclable elements from electronics. In this video, Michael Pittman from 2nd Solutions shows Sierra Club Green Home how it works. (Photo by JohnMuk, Flickr)

From cameras and cell phones to watches and eggbeaters, we use batteries every day in all sorts of household products. It’s hard to imagine life without them, but can the environment live with them? (Photo by EvelynGiggles, Flickr)

Never assume that it is safe or legal to dispose of household chemicals down the drain, in a storm sewer, or with general household trash. The local waste systems may drain in waterways or treatment facilities, which cannot process chemical waste. Your household chemical waste can create much bigger environmental problems for your community and local ecosystems and wildlife habitats. (Photo by Mzacha, Stock Xchng)

It takes 17 million barrels of oil to produce the amount of bottled water Americans buy each year. Coca-Cola’s brands Dasani and Odwalla, claim to have a solution: plastic made from plants. Sierra Club Green Home decided to find out how these PlantBottles compare to conventional plastics. (Photo by Leonardo Bonanni, Flickr)

More than a quarter of landfill area is attributed to paper. While large printing and publishing companies are slowly makeing changes to reduce this number, Sierra Club Green Home readers can do their part by printing sustainably. Here are the basics: buy consciously, recycle properly, and reduce paper use. (Photo sourced from FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

One culprit is causing nearly a third of the waste in our national parks. It’s something you might grab for a long hike, or camping, or washing down a meal cooked over the campfire. It comes in a convenient yet remarkably wasteful package, and it’s become an unlikely source of controversy. (Photo by Zanus Tungare, Flickr)

Plastic is a large expense in the beverage industry. The global price of oil directly affects the type of plastic being produced. In 2008, when the price of oil soared to more than $100 per barrel, companies began scrambling to find alternatives to plastics. Several companies have created bottles made from plant-based materials. (Photo courtesy of BioCor)

For more than a year, filmmakers have been laying the groundwork for Racing to Zero, a documentary on how Americans can reduce their waste to almost nothing. With initial fund-raising going well, production is set to start in January. The film will focus on solutions and involve supporters of the film throughout production. (Photo courtesy of Diana Fuller)