Did you Participate in Earth Hour 2009?

Our monthly poll question for April is up. You can vote on the sidebar to the right.

Did you participate in Earth Hour 2009? If you did, please leave a comment below detailing your experience!

“Green Store and More is a family run business that strives to offer green products of all kinds at fair prices.”

Check out the April specials at GreenStoreAndMore.com.

The items listed below will be shipped FREE for for the entire month of April! Our March specials were popular and we expect this month to be the same.

SPECIAL ONE:

Hybrio 30-Minute Multi-Voltage NiMH/NiCd Speed Charger
Cost: $37.99
Shipping: FREE

30 Minute Speed Charger

UltraLast rechargeable batteries offer consumers savings up to $700 per battery when compared to disposable alkaline batteries. All UltraLast rechargeable batteries and chargers are backed by UltraLast’s unsurpassed quality guarantee.

Features:
* Charges up to 4 AA/AAA NiMH or NiCd batteries in 30 minutes
* Ready for use just as disposable battery, but rechargeable
* Includes four 2100mAh AA NiMH HYBRIO batteries

Click here for more information about the Hybrio 30 Minute Charger

SPECIAL TWO:

4 Piece Quilted Reusable Shopping Bag Set
Cost: $49.99 (This item’s MSRP is $80.95!)
Shipping: FREE

4 Piece Quilted Reusable Shopping Bag Set

This set includes: 1 lime green, 1 orange, 1 pink, and 1 aqua blue vibrantly colored reusable shopping tote. Each tote features toggle closure, one exterior pocket on each side and padded shoulder straps. Every bag is 100% cotton. Handwashing is recommended.

Click here for more information about the 4 piece quilted reusable shopping bag set

SPECIAL THREE: Brand New Manufacturer to our site (Citizen)

Citizen Women’s Lobella Eco-Drive Solar Watch With Black Strap
Cost: $109.99 (MSRP is $235)
Shipping: FREE

Lobella Eco-Drive Solar Watch

Stricken with elegance and a bold design, this is a solar-powered Citizen watch equipped with a solar cell in the watch dial that converts light energy into electrical energy to power the watch.

Click here for more information about this Citizen Watch

Global Free Hugs April 4th

Did you ever hear of  Global Free Hug Day?  I never did, but I read about it in the Chicago Tribune this morning so I thought I would look further into it.  It seems that on October 19th, 2008 was the first Global Hug Day and it will be held every 6 months.  The intention is to get as many people around the world hugging and to spread positive stories about people coming together. It sounds like they have good intentions, to find out more about Hug Day and to post pictures check out the site GlobalFreehugs.ning.com.  Let me know what you think. 

Hugs on the 4th!

Hugs in Chicago

Dallas During Earth Hour 2009

I was going to spend a couple of hours today looking for the best Earth Hour 2009 pictures I could find and writing a blog about it, but after looking at Boston.com’s worldwide photo collage I gave up, figuring that our readers would be better served to just go check out their site.

Boston.com has a series of photographs from 17 different location showing the difference that Earth Hour made.

Earth Hour 2009 Pictures – Go check it out, come back and share what you think!

With the start of Spring last week (even though it snowed in Chicago this weekend), I began to think about gardening.  Since the start of the GreenStoreAndMore I have tried to do things that are Eco Friendly, so I am determined to start a compost bin.   I have no idea where to begin, so I searched the web and came up with a great site I would like to share.

It is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s site, and it gives step by step directions to Create Your Own Compost .  Did you know compost is made up of 3 different ingredients: Brown(dead leaves, plants, twigs…) , Green (grass clippings, vegetables wastes, fruit scraps…) and water?  Meat and by-products should not be put into a compost pile – it  will attract mice and other outdoor animals if you do.  Compost should be used on outdoor gardens and grass but not for indoor plants, because of the presence of seeds and weeds.  I learned all of the above from the site I mentioned.  I encourage you to take a look at it.

You can do an outside bin or an inside container.  I am going to try the outside one.  I will let you know how it works out.  Let me know if  you have any compost tips.  Happy Gardening!!!

This is really, really dark for Chicago

Just a friendly reminder that this Saturday is Earth Hour 2009. All over the world cities will be voluntarily shutting off their lights off for one hour. This year, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. So show your support for the planet, and VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour.

Check here to see if your city has made the pledge to support the planet.

Just Joking, Bill Nye Doesn't Really Smoke Crack

Bill Nye is great. He makes science fun and easy to understand. The same can be said about his newest show Stuff Happens. Stuff Happens airs on Planet Green Tuesdays at 9 PM.

Today’s episode of Stuff Happens titled Garage asks questions such as:

• Is corn based ethanol really green?
• Are any biofuels really green (i.e. sugar based, algae based, or switchgrass based)
• What happened to the electric cars that 10 years ago people were claiming would be the next big thing?
• What is the world’s most efficient form of transportation?

Some of the answers the show gives might be surprising. For example, Bill Nye seems to be very against corn based ethanol. He also mentions an amusing University of Pennsylvania study that claims people who ride bicycles on a regular basis were actually harming the environment. This is because bicyclists live longer, and by doing so they are around to consume more and produce more waste.

Stuff Happens is probably my favorite show on Green Planet, and this was one of its better episodes. So if you are lucky enough to have a cable company that carries Green Planet, I highly recommend checking this episode out.

Fun Facts Mentioned in the Episode:

• We have used about 1/2 of world’s oil in 150 years
• The energy required to make 1 gallon of corn ethanol is equal to burning 65 gallons of gasoline
• Corn erodes soil 18x faster than it can regenerate
• By 2020 there will be over 1,000,000,000 cars on Earth
• There are 15,000,000 skateboarders in the U.S.
• Skateboards are largely recyclable

Remember to Properly Dispose of Your Batteries!

Whether we are talking about AA, AAA, C, D, car batteries, watch batteries, or anything in between proper battery disposal is very important. Batteries contain environmentally harmful substances such as mercury, lead, nickel, cadmium, and other metals. When introduced into landfills these substances can leak slowly into the surrounding land and groundwater. The best way to dispose of batteries is to find somewhere that will recycle them. Depending on where you live it may not always be possible to find a location to take non-rechargeable batteries, but because of The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation there is somewhere close to you that will accept all rechargeable batteries. You can find a location near you here: rbrc.org.

Unless you live in California, you may have trouble finding somewhere to properly dispose of normal non-rechargeable alkaline batteries (i.e. common AA, AAA, C, D batteries). In fact, Duracell even claims that “Our alkaline batteries are composed primarily of common metals — steel, zinc and manganese — and do not pose a health or environmental risk during normal use or disposal.” Well… that’s a little misleading to say the least. In fact, the state of California states that “All batteries are considered hazardous waste in California when they are discarded.” But generally speaking, if you don’t live in California there isn’t a lot you can do to safely dispose of alkaline batteries, but that’s just one more reason to switch to rechargeables.

Standard lead-acid car batteries are very environmentally unfriendly, but on the bright side over 97% of lead-acid car batteries are recycled. There are many reasons for this. For starters, 39 states require that lead-acid batteries be recycled. To see what the law is in you state click here. Used cars batteries are also very valuable. Without much effort you should be able to find a metal recycler that will pay for your used battery. The relatively high value of car batteries has a lot to do with the extremely high recycling rate, because otherwise worthless cars will almost always be stripped of their batteries before disposal.

Mobile phone batteries are commonly made of nickel metal-hydride, lithium-ion, lithium polymer, or other relatively environmentally benign materials. But that doesn’t mean that you should throw your old cell phone battery in the trash if it can be avoided. The same location that will take you rechargeable household batteries (find that location here) will also take your old phone battery.

Green Store And More has added some great new items over the last couple of weeks including a great collection of Citizen Eco-Drive Solar Watches. These high quality watches are available at up to $200 below MSRP, and make great gifts.

Citizen has staked out a new position as the leader in Ecologically Friendly timekeeping with its Eco-Drive collection of light powered watches. With models ranging from dress to sport to professional dive watches, Citizen Eco-Drive runs continuously in any kind of natural or artificial light for a lifetime of use. Fueled by light, it never needs a battery. With the introduction of Skyhawk A-T radio controlled atomic-timekeeping flight chronographs, Citizen reaffirmes its position as a leader in timekeeping technology.

UPDATE: I didn’t make it very clear in the original post, but these watches are ‘Green’, because they are solar powered. Standard watch batteries are almost always not rechargeable, so even though they are very small they impact the environment negatively. In addition to this, many old watch batteries are made with mercury, which is very harmful to the environment. Though not as popular as they once were, these mercury batteries are still available in some places and should be avoided at all costs.

Can Deep Sea Currents Be The Energy Source of the Future?

Discover Magazine has an article in their March issue touting the use of deep sea currents to generate a renewable, cheap alternative energy. The whole idea is to use the movement of the water to vibrate metal rods, and then use this physical energy to create electricity. It is a really interesting idea.

What do you think of the possibilities? Leave your comments below!