"Cotton, from blue to green."

 The Gap and Cotton have recently launched an amazing program that converts old denim into insulation. Everyone has had that favorite pair of jeans in their life that they just cant bear to part with, holes and all. Now, saying goodbye to those jeans can be a little easier knowing that they will be helping to keep people warm. 

The process of converting denim to insulation consists of ten steps, starting with the the cotton seed. Cotton is planted from February to May and harvested from September through December. Next, the cotton goes to a spinning mill where it is cleaned, blended and straightened into what is called a sliver. The spinning process reduces the weight of the sliver and twists it into a yarn that is then sent to a weaving mill. The yarns are then combined into a rope and dyed in indigo baths. After the ropes have been dyed, they are separated back into yarns and are ready to be put on a loom for weaving. After weaving, the denim is sent to apparel manufacturers and then eventually to retailers. After a few years or so when it is time to update your denim wardrobe, the denim can be converted into insulation. 

The first step in converting the denim into insulation is removing all zippers, buttons and all other non denim parts.  Next, denim is returned to its natural cotton fiber state. The cotton fiber is then treated to make it flame retardant and resistant to mold and mildew. The final step is compacting the fibers into sheets of insulation and cutting them to size. The sheets of insulation are then shipped all over the country to be used as insulation in residential and commercial buildings. Pretty cool huh? 

So next time you are forced to part with your favorite pair of jeans don't just throw them away, recycle them so they can be put to work keeping people warm!

Electric Cars: No gas, Less Pollution!

Mercedes BlueZero

Electric cars came on the scene a few years ago as a green alternative to gasoline powered cars. Electric cars get their energy from a controller, the amount of power it puts out is controlled by how much pressure the driver puts on the accelerator. Electric cars are also know as Electric Vehicles or EV's for short. An electric car's energy is stored in a rechargeable battery which you can charge with your household electricity. There are all different types of batteries available. As with most things you get what you pay for, the cheapest batteries store the least amount of energy and will need to be charged often.

When it comes to EV's versus gasoline vehicles, there are five major differences. The first is that EV's don't produce the tailpipe emissions that gasoline vehicles do. Secondly, gasoline powered cars rely on OPEC for their supply of energy and electric cars rely on a utility company. Mileage is also a major difference, gasoline powered cars get about 300+ miles per full tank where as electric cars only get about 100 per fully charged battery. Another issue that some view as inconvenient is the time it takes to recharge an EV's battery. You can fill up your gasoline powered car in a few minutes, however an electric car can take hours to recharge. The final major difference is cost per mile, EV's only cost about two cents per mile and gasoline cars cost about 12 cents per mile.

Electric cars are a good choice for a number of reasons, including  reducing harmful emissions, reducing our dependency on oil and they are overall cheaper to operate. EV's haven't been widely accepted yet mainly due to the need to be recharged, long recharging times and limited availability. However this will hopefully be changing soon as scientists and engineers are working to increase energy storage for batteries and reduce costs.  Here are some pics of upcoming electric cars.

Chevy Volt

  

BMW Megacity

Wind Energy and Utililies

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of generating new, clean energy. It is also one of the fastest growing sources of new electricity. Recently, 40% of all the newly generated electricity in the United States was created by wind energy project,s and more and more electric utility companies are adding wind energy as a source of clean, renewable electricity.

There are many benefits of using wind energy for utilities. One reason, the reason that this information is going on my blog, is that it reduces the risk of environmental harm (it's green!!). Wind energy doesn't create any carbon dioxide or pollution to the air. It doesn't require water, drilling, mining, transportation, or fuel; and doesn't produce any harmful waste products.

Another benefit of generating electricity from wind energy is it's good for the business's bottom line. Wind energy projects can be built and put into action very quickly. Also if you own the wind, additional rate based and tax related benefits are added to the utility as well. A third benefit of wind energy is stable pricing. turbine costs have recently increased, but that is only a short term thing. Long term price decrease are expected which will enable wind energy to compete with the costs of other forms of utility generation.

Those are just some of the major benefits; other benefits include regulatory treatment (utility regulators look kindly on wind energy), economic development/job creation, and customer satisfaction with green pricing options.

What you can do with recycled glass!

Like I said before, there are millions of "green" options out there today and recycled glass products are one of them. There are many products available on the market today that are made from recycled glass. One of which is countertops. I visited a Smart Home in Chicago in early November and one of its green features was its countertop made from recycled glass oven doors. Not only are these countertops green, they are also very beautiful, as you can see in the picture below.

Another product they are using recycled glass for is tile. recycled glass tiles come in all shapes and sizes and can be used in a multitude of ways. Once company that makes recycled glass tile is Fireclay Tile. Fireclay Tile prides itself in its sustainable manufacturing process. This process involves using mostly recycled materials for all their products and then incorporating any waste products back into their products. To see a video about Fireclay's sustainable manufacturing process, click here!

A third thing that can be done with recycled glass is crafting. A daughter of one of my mom's friends uses pieces of broken glass to make mirrors, bird baths, stepping stones and much more! We have many of her beautiful products right here in our home. Below, I have posted some pictures of the different kinds of things you can make from broken glass.

As you can see there are many things you can do with old glass, I encourage you to check some of these things out. Nothing is too small to make a difference!