If you live in an apartment, how many times have you carried your trash bag to the garbage cans knowing it was full of recyclable bottles and newspaper?  Don’t you wish they’d put some recycle bins out there for you and your neighbors to live a little greener?

Well, SB 137 is one of the 150 new Nevada laws that went into effect October 1st, and it says that recycling bins will be made available for residents of apartments and condos in Clark County.  Haleluah, right?  Not exactly.  There are some challenges with the new law.

It will be easier for new apartments and condos to abide by it because SB 137 says ALL NEW construction of apartments and condo projects must have dedicated areas for recycling bins - separate from trash bins - worked into their building plans that must be approved by the county before ground is even broken.  But as you and I both know - the new apartment construction is at a slow drip now.

So where does that leave apatment complexes that have been around for years?  According to the new law, ALL aprartment and condo complexes must have recycling bins available - separate from trash - for recyclables.  That means your plastic bottles, cans and newspapers should have a place for them OUT of the garbage bins.  Because existing apartments have limited space, it may make it more challenging to make room for recycling.  But they will have to, according to the new state law.  And frankly, for many of those older complexes that have tried to provide bins in the past, it seems they oftentimes get contaminated with plain ol’ garbage being thrown into them.  So most of the residents have to be on board for it to work.

If you don’t have it in your complex, you can contact your apartment manager and ask for them.  You can contact your Clark County Commissioner.  And then if you still don’t get results, you can contact the Southern Nevada Health District and file a complaint.  They have a hotline just for complaints.  It’s 759-0600.  If apartments still don’t comply after a warning, then the fines kick in.  And they can run from $500 to $5000.  So I’d say, it really can pay to live green!

It’s Green Consumer Day and it may be a good time to reflect on our buying habits.  Many of us consider ourselves to be eco-conscious, but are we true eco-consumers?  Do you consider the resources used to make a product before you buy it,  and even if you knew - would it change your buying habits? 

A recent video called, “The Story of Stuff” shares a theory on how consumerism is stuffing our eco-awareness away in the closet, while we go do more shopping.  The video was produced by a group called, ”The Story of Stuff Project” and definitely has strong political views of how our buying of stuff has spun out of control.  Whether you agree with the point of view or not - just watching this video did make me think about how voracious our appetites for stuff has become and how readily available more and more stuff is all the time.   

And could we really change the cycle of the way stuff is produced, consumed and disposed of simply by demanding earth-friendly products from manufacturers and retailers and becoming more vigilant in reusing and recycling our own stuff?   I may not agree with everything in the video - but I sure wanted to clean out my garage after watching it!

Eco-products for our furry friends can be hard to find, but I managed to track some down at the SuperZoo pet convention this week at the Mandalay Bay.  If you ever doubt how people splurge on their pets - you should go to one of these pet product shows!

Grooming products are always in demand.  One company, called Earthbath, puts out bio-degradeable and chemical-free pet shampoos, lotions, potions and wipes.  The products are people-tested and cruelty-free (although having a poodle-doo can be cruel, ha ha.)

Natural shampoos with ingredients like tea-tree oil, eucaplytus and peppermint and tango mango help moisturize dry skin and give your pooch a nice shiny coat.  Their oatmeal flavor is the best for itchy or sensitive skin.  There’s even a conditioner and bubbly cleanser for kitties made from cherries.  Meowwww.

No time for a dunk in the tub, Earthbath has a variety of flavored spritzes to spruce up your pup’s fur and get the stink off until you get them in the bath.  All natural wipes are great between baths, too and super for the St. Bernard drooler in your house.  (You can even keep them around when your hubby’s watching the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders this weekend on TV)  ha ha!  They also have ear and eye wipes - cool.  They’re the same ones the San Francisco Zoo uses on their new baby gorilla. 

But maybe some of the best earth-friendly items I found at the show are made by a company called, West Paw Design, out of Bozeman, MT.  They have some cool eco-toys for dogs and cats that are made with various amounts of pre-consumer and post-product waste and are totally recyclable.  There’s the Tux, the Zisc, and the new Bumi (pronounced boomie) and when your dog is finished chewing and tearing them up - you can send them back to the company where they are ground up and used to make new toys!  Priced at $10 to $15.  Neat.  There are fluffy kitty toys, too, made from recycled plastic bottles.  Huh?  Purr-fectly safe for your pet.

The Renitz doggie sweater is made in the U.S. from 100% reclaimed cotton.  No pesticides, no dyes.  They’re adorable and the small runs $34.  And an awesome pet bed - called the Eco Nap - is made with a neat material called, “Intelliloft” that are fibers made from recycled plastic soda bottles.  The tags on each item tells you how many bottles were recycled to make the product.  Now that’s eco-cool.  And I LOVE their website.  Great pictures and explanations of products and shows pets <with> the products.  Plus they have prices on everything.  You’ll have to show some restraint in spending because you’ll want to buy it all.

Have you ever heard of a “smencil?”  Me neither.  You can’t eat it, but wait ’til you smell one!  Cotton candy, root beer, cinnamon, and very berry, to name few flavors.  You can find them at a really cool earth-friendly website called, “Stubby Pencil Studio.” 

Kate Rosenthal started the site about 3 years ago, when her twin daughters were two years old.  She wanted to find safe, eco-alternatives for art supplies for her girls.  She started with adorable Color ‘n Kids note cards - printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and cholorine free!  And things took off from there.  Before she knew it - she found items like Beeswax crayons, Banana paper notebooks and monkey pencils.  What a wonderful menagerie of eviro-conscious creative stuff for kids!

There are things like O’Bon pencils, made from 100% recycled newspapers with rainbow and wildlife patterns.  Who knew you could roll old newspaper into pencils?  (Jeans into carpet was an eye-opener for me.)  But this is fantastic!  Then you take a great idea like that and make it even better by adding yummy smells like chocolate, watermelon or peppermint - and you have one gourmet-licious writing utensil.  They’re affordable, too; a set of five costs $5.95.  The peppermint Smart Smencils actually enhance your kids’ learning power by stimulating their concentration.  Seriously - research says peppermint is a great brain booster and kids who smell it - get better test scores!  That school tool gets an A+!

A must for little kids - is crayons, of course!  Don’t you have about a thousand of them all over the house and under the backseat of the car?  Well, Stubby Pencil Studio carries crayons so cool that I bet the kids will keep them in a safe place to use over and over again.  Soy crayons by Prang, don’t flake like regular petroleum wax color sticks and are made with pure soybean oil.  Eight crayons for just $1.00 - that’s very affordable.  And crayons made out of beeswax and vegetable oils with natural pigments for color?  What a honey of an idea.

Check out all the earth-friendly ideas for your budding artists - and YOU - at Stubby Pencil Studio.  (I didn’t even get to the Banana, Coffee and Tobacco fiber papers and notebooks.)  It’s a whole new world of green creative fun!  P.S. Kate says she can ship within 2-3 business days.  Yipee.  I can almost taste my grape smencil now!

You have to search store shelves and the web for eco-alternative school supplies - but they are out there!  Most of the time - but not always - they are a little more expensive.  Here’s what I found.

At office supply stores - like Office Depot and Office Max - I found laser printer paper made with 30% post-consumer waste, 100% recycled filler paper, and pencils made with 100% sustainable wood instead of wood harvested from rainforests.  Office Max also carries Fellowes brand mouse pads which are made from 100% recycled rubber.  Both carry the At-A-Glance notebook and desk calendars that are 100% recycled paper.  They carry EcoVue 3-ring binders that are made from 70% post-consumer waste and are 100% biodegradable.  And on their clearance shelf - I found pens made corn, recycled pencils and colored pencils and coffee paper - both stores carry Post-It notes with 30% to 100% recycled content.  At Office Depot, I also found Pentel RSVP pens made with about 60% recycled plastic.

I didn’t find much of anything really eco-smart at Target, except a nice contemporary 3-ring binder by The Greenroom.  It’s made from 100% recycled fiberboard and printed with soy-based ink.  Smart.

How about glue?  You can find washable, non-toxic glue by Elmer’s and other off-brands.  But it’s still far from enviro-friendly.  On treehugger.com, I found a totally natural paste and glue stick made in Italy by Coccoina.  It’s almond paste and tastes like marzipan - for those little paste-eaters in your house!  Only $3 for the glue stick.  That’s much cheaper than a visit to the emergency room!

You might think washing your car at home - instead of taking it to a car wash - saves both money and water.  But more professional car washes are turning green, so they not only save you time, but they also save water for everyone.

Terrible Herbst Car Washes have installed hi-tech water recycling equipment in almost half of their nearly 40 locations in Southern Nevada.  Water from the car wash tunnel is recovered and moved into 1500-gallon storage tanks below the cement driveway.  The mud and sediment is separated from the water, then the used water is sent back inside to the Pur Water recycling system where it’s cleaned and sent back to the tunnel to wash more cars.  The company estimates they use 20 to 30 gallons of water per car, while washing yours at home can use anywhere from 50 to 100 gallons - or more!   And that water goes into the gutter and the soapy suds get sent right out to Lake Mead.

The Terrible Herbst company also uses phosphate-free cleansers and polishes, which rinse easier during the wash process and also break down easily in the water stream.  Going green is Terrible’s way of being a better steward of the environment because their mainstay is one of our most precious resources: water!

The Southern Nevada Water Authority supports professional car wahses like Terrible Herbst because they focus on saving water and helping the environment.  Terrible’s is part of the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Water Smart Car Wash program.  You can get discount coupons for a variety of professional car washes in town.  So you can save yourself money and feel good saving water, too for all of us.

If you’re like most people, you have at least one pair of old prescription eyeglasses or forgotten sunglasses lying in drawers around the house.  You can help put those old glasses to good use by recycling them at your local eyecare office.

An organization called, “One Sight” offers free eye clinics around the globe to help improve vision for people of all ages.  They team up with organizations like the Lion’s Club to collect used prescription glasses, including bi-focals, and non-prescription sunglasses.  Eye exams are given at no charge and the gently used glasses are given to patients who could otherwise not afford them.  1.2 million eyeglasses are needed to perform the 20 annual global clinics.  Look for the yellow Lion’s Club collection boxes at Lenscrafters, Sunglass Hut stores, and Sears Optical stores.  Anyone can see there’s a great need to recycle your old glasses.

Those naysayers who think the trash can is the only option for wine corks can just - well, put a cork in it!  A sustainable green materials company, Yemm and Hart will take post-consumer vino corks and turn them into wall and floor tiles and other products.  You have to pay for the shipping to get them there, but considering a cork weighs about a tenth of an ounce - you could send quite a load and still not be out that much at the post office.  For the love of vino - just send them your corks.  Someday you may be walking on them in your kitchen!  Salute.

More people are wearing their recycling thinking caps, so you may be looking at everyday items around your home or office and wonder - “Can I recycle that?”  Some are more obvious than others but here are some items we use in our daily lives that can definitely have an afterlife - if we pass them on.

Just about everyone has at least one pair of old sneakers stuffed in a closet or sitting in the garage.  If they’re in good enough condition - you can always donate them to be worn again.  But if they’re just too tattered, Nike has a fabulous recycling program for your old kicks;  it’s their Reuse a Shoe program.   The shoes are ground up and the material is used to make the spongy surfaces of playgrounds and running tracks.  It’s also used for cusioning indoor basketball, volleyball and tennis courts.  And the outer sole material is recycled to make the soles of new shoes!  So take your old treads to any Nike Factory store or Nike Town in the outlet mall and look for the drop-off box.   Just do it. 

How about that parade of packing peanuts that pop out of a box arriving in the mail or special delivery?   They’re made of polystyrene and can’t be put in the recycle bin, so you can either save them and use them again yourself - OR - take them to a packing and shipping store where they will take them and use them again for their customers.  The Plastic Loose Fill Council actually has a peanut hotline to find participating businesses in our area.  I found that all PostNet stores - mostly found inside Smith’s grocery stores - will gladly take peanuts and other packing supplies for reuse.  Who knows - the next time you open a package, those peanuts could have traveled around the world a few times or more!

Recycling plastic bottles and newspapers at home is pretty simple and just takes a little effort.  But what about larger items - liked a konked out vacuum or a dead dishwasher that needs disposing of?  Don’t be afraid to ask - “Can I recycle that?”  Oftentimes the answer is yes!

With so many foreclosures in the valley, we’re seeing more piles of junk and larger household items sitting at the curb in neighborhoods.  You may be surprised to learn that Republic Services will pick up many large household items - such as air conditioners, mattresses and even tires!  But there are many items that must be taken to recycling centers - like refrigerators, lawn mowers and propane tanks. 

Earth-911.com has a list of recyclers and salvage yards in the Las Vegas area and details of the items they specialize in taking from the public.  It pays to do your legwork on the phone first to find the right recycler.  Some will give cash for items and some will charge you for taking it off your hands. 

I had a hard time finding a recycler for vacuum cleaners.  I called a few vac repair shops and I got a mixed response.  Some said they would take it off my hands to possibly use for parts, a few others didn’t seem very enthusiastic.  And no one offered any cash for it.  One even admitted that if they didn’t need it - they’d toss it in their dumpster.  Nice.  I think the best use for a used vacuum is donating it to a charity where they might find a new life for it.  In fact, that seems to be the best way to recycle most everything in your home and garage.

Here’s an item more than 250 million Americans have and use daily.  84% of us use cell phones and because wireless technology improves so rapidly - they are practically disposable.  The average life of a cell phone is 18 months - even shorter if you want a newer, faster, cooler phone.  But what do you do with the old one?  There are a lot more options than you may think. 

Many major cell phone compaies have joined with the EPA in the E-Cycling pledge to recycle e-waste responsibly.  And thanks to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, there is a program called, “Wireless - the New Recyclable.”  Just about every wireless provider or manufacturer will take back your old phone - either in their retail store - or by mail.  Most offer free mailing labels on their websites so it costs you nothing to send it in.  You can turn in PDAs, batteries, chargers and other accessories, too.

Oftentimes, these phones are refurbished and given to charities who can use them.  And you can even sell your cell for cash!  There are websites which you can enter the model info and condition of your phone, and they will give you a quote right there as to what your phone is worth.  At CollectiveGood.com you can sell, trade or donate the value of your phone to a charity!  So many great reasons to NOT let your old phone sit in the drawer anymore. 

It’s also very important that you clean out the data from your phone to help protect your identity and keep your friends and family contact information private!  Here are some good guidelines for protecting your personal info before you pass on your phone.  You sure don’t want your Mom getting a bunch of calls from strangers!