It’s super convenient and pretty reasonable to buy your kids fairtrade and organic clothes these days. M&S have a great range that are available online, delivered to your door.  Easy peasy?  Oh yes.  Ethical?  Of course.

Clothing manufacturers are quick to sew “Dry clean only” labels into their creations, but is this always necessary?  Apparently not.  I’m not suggesting that you bung your precious threads into the washing machine.  Not at all.  But some “dry clean only” garments can safely have their stains removed and be hand-washed at home.  Saving a LOAD of money in the process.  Oh, and by the way, it’s way greener not to dry clean too.

Here are some tried and tested methods for getting stains out:

1. Cold Water

Top tip here.  Before you try anything else, try a little cold water.  Cotton wool and water, worked gently from the outside to the inside of the stain, on top of a folded towel.  The sooner you do this the better, and it won’t work on all stains, but it’s a good first port of call.

2.  To remove butter stains

Sprinkle on Fullers Earth, leave for an hour, then brush off well.

3.  To remove curry stains

Sponge with white vinegar (distilled) or a 50:50 lemon juice/water solution.  Then sponge with cold water.

4. To remove grass stains

To remove grass stains for wool or silk garments, dab with brandy on cotton wool (to save on the brandy, first soak cotton wool in water and squeeze out before applying brandy).

5. For washable fabrics

If you’re going to be putting your garment into the washing machine, E:Stain is an eco-friendly way of removing the stain.

Or if you decide that you’ll have to take your item of clothing to the cleaners, make sure that you take it to the green cleaners.

This would be amazing to see in the UK.  Cycling is the best form of transport next to walking for your health and that of the planet.  But in the UK, you still have to buy your own bike helmets.

There’s not much I prefer to sitting in my garden after the sun has set, with a balmy breeze blowing, sipping some lovely local ale and eating a meal prepared from my home-grown fresh produce.  Of course this is even better with good company, and with some pretty garden lighting.

You can make your own atmospheric lighting by reusing or recycling stuff you already have at home.  Check out this video for how to make gorgeous garden lanterns from a pierced-tin cans, or turn saved brown paper bags into “luminarias” by filling half-way with sand and then putting a candle in them.

If you’re looking to buy some pretty lighting for your garden, please consider the environment and choose an option that will save energy, like these solar lanterns from John Lewis (pictured above).  Perfect for on an outside table or placed elsewhere in the garden.  The lantern has an LED light bulb and needs to be charged in full daylight before use.

For the greener gadget lovers amongst us, here are some excellent green gadgets that will lighten the load on the planet and on your pocket.

USBcell rechargeable batteries

These revolutionary NiMH AA rechargeable batteries are only £5 from Robert Dyas and can be recharged from your computer’s USB port. You can recharge them up to 500 times and each battery saves 7kg CO2 and 3kg of toxic waste. Cool.

Water Powered Digital Clock

This little digital clock doesn’t need any batteries.  No electricity either.  Just add water.   It incorporates dependable water powered technology with conventional digital technology to allow you the freedom of not having to buy batteries again! £8.99 from allthingsgreen.

Water Powered Calculator

A basic calculator that runs on the same technology as the Water Powered Clock.  £9.99 from allthingsgreen.

Eco-Button

Eco-Button is a computer power saving device that can save you £££’s off your electricity bills and shave tonnes off your carbon footprint every year.  The Eco-Button acts as a strong visual reminder for you to save electricity each time your computer is left idle. £13.90 from GadgetPages.

Dryer Balls

Not exactly the most glamorous eco-gadget, but an important one if you’re a tumble-dryer user.   This will reduce the time that your clothes spend in the dryer by 25%, and cut out the need for a fabric softener. £8.99 from Amazon.

It’s all good and well that new homes are being built to greener standards, but what about the millions of old houses that are as leaky as sieves when it comes to keeping the heat in (or out in the middle of summer).  So there’s a new campaign, headed up by Grand Design’s Kevin McCloud that’s going to be having a go at persuading the government to help home-owners green up their currently un-energy saving houses and flats, countrywide.

It’s called the Great British Refurb campaign and you can support the campaign by signing a petition asking the government “to offer households new ways to pay for green refurbishment, which would significantly reduce upfront costs and instead spread them over a longer period of time.  It also asks for better financial incentives for householders to refurbish their homes to make them greener and more energy efficient, through substantial government grants, subsidies or tax rebates. Its final demand is to ensure installers are qualified and approved to undertake the work.” [edie]

In the meantime, there are plenty of smaller things that we can do to improve our energy efficiency.  Find out how to run a greener fridge, choose an energy efficient washing machine, or put together your own DIY energy efficiency kit for your home.

So, we all know that we should be buying energy saving appliances these days to replace the old energy vampire ones that we had before (once they’ve shuffled off their electric coils of course).  But what do with with the old appliances once they’re no longer needed?  You could take them down to your local municipal waste drop-off to be recycled.  On the other hand, you could start a band and use them as the instruments.  Don’t believe me?  Check this out.

[via: greenUPGRADER]

Around 20 to 25% of our household energy bills are spent on lighting.  So it stands to reason that by cutting our energy use for lighting we’ll be saving a whole lot of money.  Here are some ideas for cutting back on energy used for lighting in your home.

1. Replace all incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs.

2. Switch off lights when you leave the room.

3. Open curtains and use daylight during the day.

4. Use solar lights where possible.

5. Make your own lamp out of an empty bottle like this:

We all need a little reminder from time to time.  Why is it that you decided to turn your life around and go green in the first place?  This might help you remember.

If you need more reminding, or want to convince someone else why they should be going green too, get yourself a copy of The Inconvenient Truth on DVD and watch it.

Photo credit: johnrobertshepherd

Beachcombers don’t bother, there’s no treasure to be had on British beaches, just a load of trash.  This is the message in Reuters story about how our beaches have deteriorated into rubbish dumps over the last 15 years.  That’s right, the state of British beaches is the worst ever.

A survey by the MSC revealed an average of 2,195 items of litter per kilometer of beach.  Over 5,000 volunteers cleaned and surveyed 374 beaches for the survey, finding 385,659 items of litter.  A third of this litter was made up of food packaging and cigarette butts, and discarded fishing equipment made up another 15%.

All this rubbish not only detracts from the beauty of the beaches, it’s also very dangerous for the wildlife who live on and around them.  Birds and marine animals often accidentally eat litter or plastic, causing infections or death.  They also become entangled in fishing lines and nets that have been discarded.  There’s also the possibility that the plastic eaten by marine animals could end up in the human food chain.  And then there’s cost to taxpayers of cleaning up the awful mess.

Environment minister Huw Irranca-Davies said it was up to the public to take responsibility for the state of the beaches.

“Litter goes in our bins, not on our beaches — and ultimately this is an issue of personal responsibility,” he added.

“This is a problem caused by a minority who spoil things for everyone else, and campaigns against this behaviour can help us to make this unacceptable to everyone.”

So take your litter home with you, and make sure that you recycle all recyclable packaging.  It’s up to you whether our beaches stay beautiful.