CD’s…you remember what they look like? There gets to a point in a CD’s life where it’s been replaced by the iPod or it’s cracked and scratched and won’t play anymore. Most of the time, we just throw them away. Well instead of throwing them away, why not try one of these cool and unique ideas for those old and broken CDs. Cover one side in felt and turn them into coasters. You can hang them in your vegetable garden or fruit trees to keep birds and squirrels out. Turn them into walkway lights. Put a string of clear bulbs through the center and attach them to sticks then line the walkway or make wall art out of them. Use your imagination and re-use them creatively!

Is your pillow not giving you sweet dreams any more? Based on changing  a pillow once a year, hundreds of millions of pillows will head to landfills in North America. Because they are often filled with synthetic fibers such as polyester they are not recyclable. So here a few ways re-use pillows;

- Use the stuffing to make a new throw cushion for your couch or chairs.
- Donate them to your local animal shelter for bedding or use them to  make a bed for your own pets.
- Save the stuffing to be used as packing material for your next move
- Use as stuffing in toys

Mother’s Day is this weekend, so why not honor both your Mom and Mother Earth. Instead of heading out at the last minute to buy a plastic box of chocolates plan ahead for your eco-conscious mother. Get her a gift that creates beautiful memories and at the same time shows respect for the environment. Make her a handmade card like you used to when you were a kid. Buy her a plant, tree or shrub that will live on past this weekend rather than a bouquet of flowers. Or an experience gift like dance, art or pottery classes, a day at an eco friendly spa, or some services that you could offer like painting the house, cleaning the yard, get creative. Happy Mothers Day!

We’ve been watching for days the tragedy unfold in the Gulf of Mexico after the oil well explosion. As of last Saturday 2,100,000 gallons of oil has been spilt. The U.S. Coast Guard has been actively working to contain the spill by taking drastic action such as setting it on fire. A company in San Francisco, Matter of Trust, has a GREENER solution. They collect materials that we already have and re-route them to the cleanup of the Gulf oil spill. They have been collecting from all around the world thousands of pounds pantyhose, human hair and even pet hair to make oil sucking mats and brooms. They are non-profit organization and if you’d like to donate your old pantyhose or even pet hair you can go to www.matteroftrust.org

Need some new mixing spoons or a cutting board? Go Bamboo in the kitchen. It will help reduce your day to day contact with potentially harmful plastics and it’s all-natural. Bamboo is harder than maple, lighter than oak and has anti-bacterial properties that make it an ideal material for cutting boards and cooking utensils. Bamboo is renewable and is the fastest growing plant in the world, shooting up 30 cm to 100 cm in a single day. There are over 80 species of bamboo and cutting it down does not kill the plant as chopping down a tree does. Bamboo is also able to regenerate itself making it the most environmentally friendly wood.

Want to be eco chic in your home. Have the park in your bathroom! This moss carpet is a miniature lawn that thrives in humid conditions. It’s designed to be used in the bathroom as a bathmat, and gives you the feel of walking barefoot in the park as you step out of the tub. The base of this vegetable carpet is made of a decay-free foam plastazote. Each cell includes a piece of moss: ball moss, island moss and forest moss. The Swiss designer said it’s another way to get plants into you home.  http://designyoutrust.com/2010/03/09/moss-bath-mat-by-nguyen-la-chanh/

The warm weather is coming and so are the bugs! Many commercial repellents contain DEET, which is a toxic chemical. Your skin absorbs everything you put on it and carries it to the rest of your body, so if you choose to buy mosquito repellent, check the ingredients and go natural. Or you can make your own!

2 ½ teaspoons of any mixture of the following essential oils: basil, catnip, cedarwood, citronella, juniper, lemon, lemongrass, myrrh, pine, rose geranium or rosemary.
½ cup of 190-proof grain alcohol (such as high quality vodka)
½ cup filtered water

Put this mixture in a small spray bottle, shake it up and you’re set.

Bamboo or Oak? A question that may be plaguing you if you’re about to put down some new floors in your home. Which is GREENER? Bamboo flooring is a sustainable resource. We’ve all heard this, but what does it mean to be a sustainable material or renewable resource? A resource is considered renewable if it is replaced by natural processes at a rate comparable or faster than its rate of consumption. Bamboo can grow anywhere from 24 inches to 48 inches per day, and in some extreme conditions, it can grow 39 inches in one hour, for short periods of time! Oak, in comparison, can grow up to 24 inches in one year. That means bamboo grows 365 times as fast as oak!

No fliers please, save our trees. Junk mail…we each receive over 500 pieces of it per year. Junk mail and flyers use valuable natural resources like trees and water. Every year 100 million trees are used
to make flyers. If you’re a business owner why not turn your company GREEN by having paperless flyers. You can post you store digital flyers on www.flyerland.ca www.smartflyer.ca and www.smartcanucks.ca. Then the savvy shoppers can hit their laptop or cellphone before they hit the grocery store and see where are the specials are.

Earth Month is a perfect opportunity to teach your children the importance of taking care of our planet and learning to be responsible for our environment. It’s also a wonderful way to spend time together. A great eco activity to engage your children in is to start a compost heap. Composting is nature’s way of recycling. It’s also a terrific way to teach children about the natural life cycle. You can purchase a compost bin at a local garden centre, or create your own by piling uncooked organic leftovers such as potato peelings, apples cores, eggshells and coffee grounds in corner in your garden.
Start a vegetable garden and teach them the benefits of organic produce. There are so many ways you can teach your children to care for the planet and make it fun family activity.