Sorry about that… Apparently there was a mix up in BCAT’s Master Control as to when the show featuring Green in BKLYN would air.

I’ve been told that it will be on today (Wednesday, July 22) at 2:30pm & tonight at 10:30pm. You can watch on television or streaming live at: http://www.bricartsmedia.org/bcat/pguide/whatson.asp (choose Launch BCAT 3).

Thank you for your patience!

TONIGHT at  9:30 PM, Green in BKLYN is featured on Brooklyn Cable Access Television (BCAT).

In February, BCAT did a story on Green in BKLYN in which they introduced the shop, discussed the Power UP! Business Plan Competition & our plans for opening.

Tonight’s show – called “Is Green Bringing in the Green?” – follows up where the February story left off.  You can see it at 9:30PM:

– On Cablevision at Channel 69.

– On Time Warner at Channel 56

– On RCN at Channel 84

If you’re interested in eco-friendly businesses, building a business or the business of where we started from, tune into the show.  And enjoy!

Bozzio Catching Some Zzzzzs

One of the great joys of being in the shop is our visitors – four footed friends included.

In homage to those who love us unconditionally, Green in BKLYN’s Myrtle Mutts photo album has been established.  Myrtle Mutts is now available for viewing on our website’s Photo Gallery page.

If you’ve got a beast, either mutt or fancy-like, drop us a line & a photo.  We’ll try to include your beast with the dawgs of the ‘hood.

(Snooze on, little Bozzio…)

For those of you who are new to our blog, frequently we add new Green Tips to our blog… as well as update our Green Tips page.

Today’s tips address ways & places to recycle all kinds of stuff in the ever continuing quest to reduce, reuse & (of course) recycle!  Enjoy…

• Swapthing.com: Lets you trade something you don’t need for something you do (i.e., comic books for vinyl or electronics for antiques).

• Freecycle.org: With over 3 million members around the world, there’s a lot of free stuff for exchanging & it’s all, well, free.

• Sharingisgiving.com: And another freecycling site for exchanging free stuff for free.

• Kaboo.com: This online site is a place where you  can sell or give away items that are unwanted, yet still useful to someone (else).

• Collectivegood.com: Here you can recycle your old monitors, laptops, desktop computers, gaming consoles, digital cameras, printers, MP3 players & phones for cash… Then, pick from their charity list to donate that cash or  keep it for yourself.

• Phonesforcharity.com: This one’s a national program designed to remove & recycle used cell phones while working with & directly benefiting charitable organizations.

• Electronicsrecycling.org: This site has everything in one place… How & why to recycle electronics (e-cycle), where to find a local e-cycler, how to choose an e-cycler & national manufacturer programs.

• Letmeplay.com/reuseashoe: Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program, which takes your worn-out kicks and turns them into Nike Grind, a material used in sports surfaces, playgrounds & new Nike products.

• Thrift Stores: Donating your old clothes, furniture & appliances to places such as Goodwill, the Salvation Army & women’s shelters helps put resources into the hands & bellies of folks in need.  And, finally…

• Libraries: Your old books are always welcome as donations at your local library.  They love to receive them & folks with library cards love to read them.  Freecycling as perfected across generations & perfect for everyone involved!

In February, Brooklyn’s Cable Access Television channel introduced Green in BKLYN in its very early stages.

We hadn’t started our build out yet & were gearing up to do so.  I’d just been awarded the PowerUP! Business Plan Competition prize & was deep in the process of preparing for an Earth Day opening (April 22).

The story about Green in BKLYN was presented on Sector B: The Business of Brooklyn.  It discussed the Power UP! competition, Green in BKLYN’s business plan & our plans for opening the shop.

Next week, BCAT follows up with another story on Sector B: The Business of Brooklyn:  “Is Green Bringing in the Green?” The story runs on Tuesday, July 21st at 9:30pm.

– On Cablevision, that’s Channel 69.

– On Time Warner, it’s Channel 56

– On RCN, it’s Channel 84

If you’re interested in green, building a business or seeing where we started from, tune into the show.  And enjoy!

Green in BKLYN now takes…

– American Express

– Master Card

– Visa

That’s it.  Just wanted to let you know!

Green in BKLYN was started with the intention of making a green (or greener) lifestyle convenient, easy & fun.  As a one-stop shop for a greener home & life, each of our products is natural, organic, sustainable or recycled.  So, if there’s something you like in our shop & you take it home with you, you’ve already made a positive, eco-friendly change.  Easy!

Implementing small changes where & when you can makes a big difference in moving toward & living a greener lifestyle.  If you decide what your priorities are & think about where it would be easiest for you to begin, starting there can make it easier to work up to bigger & more difficult issues.

With that idea in mind, here are a few more easy steps to living greener…

1) For instance, you can start by replacing your light bulbs as they burn out with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) & replacing your cleaning supplies as they run out with environmentally friendly ones.  CFLs use 75% less energy & last up to seven years.  Simple & significant.

2) Another easy-to-implement strategy is to buy items with less packaging.  Consider what would happen if you bought toilet paper in double rolls, which contain twice as much as a regular size roll.  The number of cardboard tubes inside the rolls is reduced by half as is the amount of plastic used to wrap the packages.  If you recycle the cardboard tube that remains & open the plastic wrap at the top of the package & reuse the wrap as a trash bag, even better.  And, finally, if you buy recycled toilet paper, that’s even more eco-friendly!  And easy, too.

3) And finally, support your local community both socially & economically.  It can be done simply by buying your food, gifts, crafts & home items from local producers & businesses.  It reduces the distance traveled & resources used in the transportation of those products as well as keeps other resources close to where they came from – strengthening the community & making it easier to get what you need close to home.  Convenient & easy & a lot more fun than traveling all over the place to get your stuff done!

For all of you who’ve wondered how to recycle or compost assorted items, here’s a list to post on the fridge & share with friends.  Enjoy!

1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances (www.goodwill.org) or contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them (800-YES-I-CAN / www.recycle-steel.org).

2. Batteries: For rechargeable & single use batteries, as well, contact Battery Solutions (734-467-9110 / www.batteryrecycling.com).

3. Cardboard Boxes: Contact local nonprofits & women’s shelters to see if they can use them.  Or offer them up at your local Freecycle.org listserv or on Craigslist.org.  And, if your workplace collects at least 100 boxes or more each month, UsedCardboardBoxes.com accepts them for resale.

4. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, Dvds & PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTexch for refinishing & they’ll work like new (888-454-3223 / www.auraltech.com).  For recycling, see “Technotrash.”

5. Clothes: Wearable clothes can go to your local Goodwill outlet or women’s shelter.  Donate wearable women’s business clothing to Dress for Success, which gives them to low-income women as they search for jobs (212-532-1922 / www.dressforsuccess.org).  Offer unwearable clothes & towels to local animal boarding & shelter facilities, which often use them as pet bedding.

6. Compact Fluorescent Bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling (www.ikea.com).  Or, order a Sylvania Recycle Pak for $15, which is a special lined box large enough for eight average CFLs.  Your fee covers shipping to & recycling at Veolia Environmental Systems.  We’re working on getting them in Green in BKLYN.  In the meantime, order them at www.sylvania.com.

7. Compostable Bio-Plastics: You’ll need to take them to a municipal composter.  Find one at www.findacomposter.com.

8. Computers & Electronics: Find responsible recyclers, local & national, at www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html.

9. Exercise Videos: Swap them with others at www.videofitness.com.  Also see “Technotrash.”

10. Eyeglasses: Your local Lion’s Club or eye care chain may collect these.  Lenses are reground & given to people in need.  Sometimes, eyeglass stores will also take your old specs & forward them on to charities that reuse glasses.

11. Foam Packing Peanuts: Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept these for reuse.  Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site (800-828-2214).  For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers ( 410-451-8340 / www.epspackaging.org/info.html).

12. Ink/Toner Cartridges: Recycleplace.com pays $1 each.  Some office supply shops (like Staples & Office Max) sometimes have buy-back &/or recycling programs, too.

13. Miscellaneous: Get your unwanted items into the hands of people who can use them.  Offer them up on your local Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org listserv.  Or, try giving them away at Throwplace.com.  Or giving or selling them at iReuse.com.  iReuse.com will also help you find a recycler, if possible, when your items have reached the end of their useful lifecycle.

14. Oil: Find Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state (202-682-8000 / www.recycleoil.org).

15. Phones: Donate cell phones: Collective Good will refurbish your phone & sell it to people in developing countries (770-856-9021 / www.collectivegood.com).  Call to Protect reprograms cell phones to dial 911 & gives them to domestic violence victims (www.donateaphone.com).  Recycle single-lines at Reclamere (814-386-2927 / www.reclamere.com).

16. Sports Equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet (800-476-9249 . www.playitagain-sports.com).

17. “Technotrash”: Easily recycle all of your CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio & video tapes, cell phones, pagers, rechargeable & single-use batteries, PDAs & ink/toner cartridges with GreenDisk’s Technotrash program.  For a small fee, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in shich you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above items.  Your fee covers the box as well as shipping & recyvling fees (800-305-GREENDISK / www.greendisk.com).

18. Tennis Shoes: One World Running will send still-wearable shoes to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America & Haiti (www.oneworldrunning.com).  Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe program turns olds shoes into playground & athletic flooring (www.nikereuseashoe.com).

19. Toothbrushes & Razors: Buy a recycled plastic Recycline toothbrush or razor (from Green in BKLYN) & the company will take them back to be recycled again into plastic lumber.  Recycline toothbrushes & razors are made from used Stonyfield Farms’ yogrut cups (888-354-7296 / www.recycline.com)

20. Tyvek Envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond VA 23234.  Quantities larger than 25, call 866-33-TYVEK.

21. Stuff You Just Can’t Recycle: When practical, send it back to the company & tell them they need to close the waste loop.

Courtesy of LOHAS Journal / Spring 2008

As an eco-friendly home goods store, all of our products are made with materials that are natural, organic, recycled or sustainable.  They save energy & are economical, eco-friendly, healthy alternatives…  And, if we’re really lucky, they’re locally owned, developed & created.

The very first products in our shop were those that were from local vendors.  The closer to Brooklyn, the better.

For making their home here in our ‘hood & for making such amazing, earth friendly contributions, I’d like to pay homage to our local folk… Those fabulous lines & products at Green in BKLYN that are provided by our neighbors.

1.  Priti Polish: From across the River in the East Village, Priti polishes are made without Toluene, DBP & Formaldehyde, which are known carcinogens.  Priti products are non-toxic, contain no petroleum & are safe for moms-to-be.  We love Time’s Rose, Voodoo Pelargonium & Priti’s amazing Soy Polish Remover, which  moisturizes & smells great, too.

2. Seltzer Goods: Based in LIC & serious about humor, Seltzer creates greeting cards & stationery on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with veggie-based inks.  Our favorites include both the Super Fly & Owl on a Pogo Stick pins as well as their Pugs & Kisses greeting cards & Pimp My Stroller baby cards.  Clever & cute. A perfect combo!

3. Baggu: With their studio in Brooklyn, Baggu is one of our more local locals.  Their goal of making “products that fill lots of uses… so you can own less stuff,” is sheer green brilliance.  Plus, using one Baggu Bag for a year replaces 300 to 700 disposable bags.  Tres green.  As well as fuschia, peacock, saffron, caper, chocolate & a host of other fabulous colors.

4. Qassa Soy: Jimi Hendrix, Biggie, Tupac, Janis Joplin & the Dalai Lama all take the G train from Queens to Green in BKLYN.  Veronica, their lovely creator, hand delivers votives with their mugs along with Buddah, Ganesh & the Virgen de Guadalupe.  They make a colorful & inspirational collection.  Om mani rock & rap!

5. Robbie Dawg: Another Brooklyn-based business, Robbie Dawg uses only the finest, freshest organic ingredients for great pet treats.  Using free-range poultry, organic meats & dairy products from hormone- & antibiotic-free animals, their biscuits are good enough… well… to eat.  At least that’s what our four footed friends woof & mew.  We love their Biscuit Tins!

6-8. Go Baby Organics – Farmer Kid Organics – AngelRox: Maybe it’s not fair to lump these three together but all three of them are local, they make the cutest baby onesies & only use organic cotton.  They’re like family: We love them all & couldn’t pick just one – not when we first opened & not now.  But do check out Go Baby’s 100% Organic onesies, Farmer Kid’s Peace & Organic Kid caps & AngelRox’s Angel Wing onesies.

9. skinnyskinny: Another Brooklyn based biz, skinnyskinny uses certified organic ingredients in all of their products & makes everything in small batches to maintain their “fanatically high standards.”  We love their groovy soap combos like Basil & Mint (originally made as a shave soap, now doing double duty for shaving & sudsing) & Lavender & Black Pepper.

10. Loop: Yet another shout out to Brooklyn.  This time for stellar organic sheets & towels in gorgeous sea foam, yummy chocolate & cool white.  Durable, long lasting & low impact as well as beautiful, comfortable & soooo luxurious.  Especially loving the Birch Accent Pillows & Ivory Woven Blankets right now.  Gorgeous & comfy.

Brooklyn, Queens & Manhattan rock it green!  And we love them for it!

Since I’m updating our Green Tips page, I’ve added our original tips here to make space for new ones there…  Let me know if you’ve got any favorites to include on our next green-go-round!

• War on Junk Mail: More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail – the equivalent of clear cutting the entire Rocky Mt. National Park every four months.

• Houseplants Clean House: Common houseplants can rid the air in your home of organic chemicals, pollutants, toxins & carbon dioxide from paint, cleaning supplies & synthetic rugs & fabrics.  Rock the green at home!

• Turn It Down: Turning down your thermostat by one degree can cut 8% off your fuel bill.  What’s one degree between you & your sweater?

• Lite Lights: Compact flourescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75% less energy than regular light bulbs & last up to seven years.  If a quarter of the US households replaced just one incandescent with a CFL, it would save as much CO2 as planting 257,215 acres of forest.

• Cold Wash Clothes: Heating the water in your washing machine uses 90% of the machine’s power consumption.  I guess that explains why washing your clothes in cold water reduces energy usage & saves money.

• Bad Lint Bunnies: While we’re talking laundry – a full lint filter will cause your dryer to use 30% more energy.  Use lint to start fires in your fireplace, not your dryer!

• Star Power: More on the laundry front: An energy efficient washing machine will use a third less electricity for each wash, which could save you more that the cost of the appliance.  Who knew laundry could be so interesting?

• Change Your Filters: Studies show that regularly changing the filter on your car can save the equivalent of 28 cents per gallon.

• Slow Down & Enjoy the View: Speaking of cars… Keeping your speed at 65 mph instead of 55 mph increases fuel consumption by 15%.  Slowing down saves money & the environment.

• Love Your Wheels: Properly inflated tires can increase fuel efficiency by 3.3%, routine maintenance can up fuel efficiency by 4% & fixing serious car problems can improve efficiency up to 40%.

• Idle Waste: Idling for just 30 seconds burns more fuel than turning off the car & restarting it.  Turning the ignition off at long stoplights & other lengthy hold-ups saves gas & air.

• “Micro-wave Safe”: “Micro-wave safe” plastic containers & plastic wrap only guarantee that the plastic won’t melt or crack in the microwave but don’t guarantee they won’t leach chemicals into the food… The greenest & safest way to contain your food for microwave heating & cooking is to use oven-safe glass cookware.  Think Pyrex.

• Glass is Good: The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.  Recycling that bottle also causes 20% less air pollution & 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.

• Airplanes & Television: Every three months, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the nation’s commercial air fleet.  Recycling one aluminum can will operate a television for three hours.

• The 411 on TP: If every household replaced one roll of regular toilet paper with one recycled post-consumer waste roll, then 424,000 trees would be saved.

• Trees & America: It takes 75,000 trees to print a Sunday Edition of the New York Times.  Recycling the Sunday papers alone would save a million trees a week.