Mommy Goes Green

Call2Recycle has launched a nationwide campaign encouraging consumers to recycle batteries.  By October 1, they are hoping to divert 1 million pounds of batteries from going to landfills.

They accept rechargeable batteries from cordless electronic products like cell phones, baby monitors,  flashlights, remote control cars, laptops, cameras and cordless power tools.

All of the rechargeable batteries collected through the Call2Recycle program are recycled and used to create other types of materials, including new batteries, stainless steel products and more. None of the material broken down from the recycling of rechargeable batteries and cell phones makes its ways into the landfills.

There are over 30,000 recycling drop off bins in the U.S., you can find a local location here by entering you zip code or you can call 877.273.2925.

If you’re creative, enter their video contest to win prizes.  You can also follow the campaign on Facebook or Twitter.

I don’t know how I ever survived without my iPhone   iPhone apps are the coolest thing to happen to mobile technology.  There are tens of thousands of apps out there already and more created everyday.   Here are 10 of the greenest iPhone apps for moms :

1. What’s on My Food – search for specific foods to find out what kind of pesticides are on them and what chemicals are the most dangerous.  Compare organic to conventional foods.

2.  iRecycle- iRecycle makes it easy to find recycling locations anywhere in the U.S. Find places to drop-off your old cell phone (or water bottle or motor oil, etc.), get directions and find out what else they accept. And new to this version, iRecycle also now hosts information on local green events in your area and the newest stories and features on Earth911.com.

3.  GreenMeter – computes your vehicle’s power and fuel usage characteristics and evaluates your driving to increase efficiency, reduce fuel consumption and cost, and lower your environmental impact. Results are displayed in real time, while driving, to give instantaneous feedback – amazing!

4.  Whole Foods Market Recipes- find healthy recipes from Whole Foods with ingredients, directions, a store locator, and other handy features.

5.  Seventh Generation Label Reading Guide- ever at the store looking through all the ‘eco-friendly’ products but have no idea what is REALLY eco-friendly?  Use this label reading guide to decipher all the label ingredients and take the fear out of buying a new safe product.

6.  Kindle - read more than 400,000 Kindle books on your iPhone.

7.  CouponSherpa, Yowza and GroceryIQ- eliminate all the wasted paper of coupon clipping and the TIME spent doing it!  These apps let you search for your product,  show the check out person the coupon on your phone, scan the coupon and done!

8.  Good Guide – scan the bar code of any product to find detailed ratings for health, environmental and social responsibility.  Over 50,000 food, toys, personal care and household products.

9.  Reqall- instead of making your to do lists on paper (and then leaving it at home!), use Reqall to jot down your notes on the go.

10.  EWG Sunscreen Guide – I have this app downloaded and it makes it so easy to choose a safe sunscreen when I’m at the store.

If you have a favorite iPhone app (green or not!), share it with us here by leaving a comment!

When you aren’t actively using your computer, what does it do?  Stay on?  Hibernate?  At the end of the day, do you shut down or just log off?

With one simple change, Ford Motor is saving over $1 million annually – just by managing the power settings on company laptops and desktop systems.  It also reduced its carbon footprint by an estimated 16,000 to 25,000 metric tons annually.

You can make this simple change at home or at the office to have an impact on your energy use.

• Enable power management settings on computers and monitors so they go into “sleep mode” when away or not in use. At the minimum, set computers to enter system standby or hibernate after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity. To save even more, set monitors to enter sleep mode after 5 to 20 minutes of inactivity. The lower the setting, the more energy you save.  On laptops, be sure to activate these settings in the AC power profile — not just the DC (battery power) profile.
• At the end of the day make sure to unplug your desktop or laptop – else, it will draw phantom power.

Additional ways to lower your computer’s energy consumption:

• Choose a laptop – laptop computers ( 15-45 watts ) use a fraction of energy compared to desktop ( 60-250 watts )
• Choose a LCD monitor – LCD monitors ( 35 watts ) use less energy than CRT monitors ( 80 watts )
• Purchase Energy Star qualified monitors and computers
• Plug all your computer peripherals into a Smartstrip so when your computer gets turned off – so do the peripherals.  Again – saving phantom power draws.

Curious how much energy you are using?  Wonder what tips would save you even energy (and money)?  Download Edison, a free energy monitoring software application.