12/23/10

Do you have a large jar of spare change in your home? Collecting coins to be eventually counted and converted into paper cash can actually have a negative impact on the environment. When you amass a collection of hundreds -- if not thousands -- of coins, it pulls them out of circulation and forces the U.S. Mint to manufacture more spare change. This change uses metal, mined out of the Earth, which translates to valuable resources and energy being used to make pennies, nickels and dimes.

12/22/10

Empty Altoid tins can easily be tossed in your curbside recycling, but before you do that, think about reusing them. The durable and handy tins can be repurposed into a mini first aid or sewing kit, or even hold spare change in your car.

12/21/10

Want to know how your favorite consumer products rank as an eco-friendly, healthy or ethical brand? It's easy now with The Good Guide (www.goodguide.com). The website's researchers looked at thousands of products ranging from household cleaners to toys and quantified rankings on their environmental, health and social impacts. There's even a Good Guide iPhone App that lets you scan a bar code for instant information, too.