Spring is here and prom season is around the corner.  Ladies, if you’re in the mood to plow through your closets to do some spring cleaning, there’s a great way to recycle those gently used evening dresses that you’re vowing not to wear again.

The Las Vegas Prom Closet is a local program which collects gently used evening wear and gives them to high school girls who might otherwise miss their prom because they can’t afford to buy a dress.  The organization started about seven years ago and has since provided about 1000 dresses, with shoes and accessories - for free - to help girls feel like a princess for that special day thanks to generous donations from closets like yours!  If you’d like to donate your contemporary, gently used dresses and/or accessories - here’s a list of locations with some history of The Prom Closet.  A couple of other easy locations to drop off dresses are the Humana Guidance Centers on the east side, 215 & Green Valley Pkwy. (Smith’s shopping center) and on the west side, Charleston & Rampart (behind Claim Jumper).  Village East dry cleaners has generously donated dry cleaning services to spruce up the garments.

Volunteers staff, organize and run the closet each year.  This year’s event will be Saturday, March 27 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at UNLV’s Cox Pavillion, next to the Thomas and Mack, in the Practice Gym.  CCSD school I.D. will be required.  Parking is free.  And so is the evening wear!  If you know of a deserving student, pass along the info.  Who knew something as simple as reycyling and reusing could make someone’s dreams come true?

The Vancouver games are over, but it’s not just the medal-winners who are making history - it’s the medals themselves.  That’s because they are the first ever to be made from recycled e-waste!

The beautiful wavy gold, silver and bronze medallions for this year’s Winter Olympics and Paralympics were made with a conscience to reduce their carbon footprint.  Tech Resources Limited, out of Vancouver, British Coumbia, took used metal extracted from old cathode ray TV tubes, circuit boards and computers that would have otherwise wound up in the landfill and through a process called “smelting” combined it with precious metals of gold, silver and bronze.  While the amount of e-waste was very small in comparison to the real thing - only about 1 to 2% - it’s still a small leap in the green direction.

The medals are also the heaviest in history, weighing in at a little more than a pound a piece!  And the undulating form represents the moving ocean and the snowy mountains, while the design on the front is taken from an artist’s artwork of an Orca pod for the Olympics and a raven todem pole for the Paralympics.  The medals are just part of Vancouver’s initiative to have greener games this year by also doing things like recapturing waste heat, among other sustainable practices during and after the olympics.  I guess that makes the environment a true competitor for winning first place this year in the Winter Games!

The holidays are winding down and most of us are thinking “out with the old and in with the new.”  But before you toss out your old Christmas tree - think about the life your evergreen could have after the ornaments are all packed away again.  Recycle it!

The Las Vegas Springs Preserve is once again asking Southern Nevadans to bring their used holiday trees to any one of more than 20 drop-off sites located throughout the valley.  The trees will be chipped and made into mulch, where the pulpy mix will be placed in gardens and flowerbeds of city parks and used at the Springs Preserve.  The cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, & Henderson have set up sites at many local parks and other locations including the Nellis Recycling Center, UNLV’s Rebel Recycling Center on campus, and R.C. Willey in Summerlin.

 You can also drop off your tree at The Springs Preserve and see how the mulch will be used.  Annalisa Helm, Education Specialist for The Preserve, says the program is about 10 years old now and becoming very successful with thousands of trees turned in.  She says people realize the benefit of keeping the trees out of the landfill and putting them to use back into the ground, just in a different form.  The hope is that maybe even next year, you will be able to trade in your tree for mulch to take home and use in your own yard.

Many people think that re-using an artificial tree year after year is the best gift for the environment, but a live tree is actually more beneficial in many ways.  Forests are not cut down for Christmas trees.  Instead, Christmas tree farms (about 500,000 trees growing in the U.S. alone) absorb billions of pounds of harmful carbon dioxide and give off plenty of clean fresh oxygen for us to breathe in return.  They also provide habitat for wildlife.  And while fake trees will eventually be thrown into the landfill, real trees can be chipped and put back into the earth to complete the life cycle of the tree when they’re no longer wanted .

Trees must be free of all ornaments, garland and any other foreign materials.  Anything left on the tree - especially made of metal - could damage the chippers.  Flocked trees can NOT be accepted.  The program is absolutely free and runs until January 15th, with many sites open 24 hours.

If you can’t take your tree to a drop-off site yourself, there is a service which will come to your home and take down your tree for you.  They’ll even vacuum up all the pine needles before they leave.  The fee is $30.  Call 1-800-GOT JUNK.  The tree will be delivered to one of the recycling drop-off locations.  

Giving your tree a life after the holidays may be one of the best gifts you give this year!

Feasting with family and friends is a huge part of the holidays for most of us, but cleaning up is a messy job.  All of the cooking oil and grease left behind can be a big “pain in the drain.”  In fact, Thanksgiving and the day after are known as the two busiest days for plumber house calls because of backed-up drains and pipes. 

The Clark County Water Reclamation District is urging all of us to not pour our used cooking oil and gunky grease down the drain into our pipes and out into the sewer system.  Julie Chadburn, with Water Reclamation, says you may not see the problems that can be caused once that fat, oil, grease and grit (or F.O.G.G., as it’s called) goes down the drain, but clogged sewer lines often happen because people don’t think about what they’re putting in the sink.  Their “Don’t Be a Pain in The Drain” campaign is trying to bring attention to how Southern Nevadans to can help prevent it.

That’s why the county is once again offering a used cooking oil & grease recycling program.  So if you’re thinking of doing that deep-fried turkey this year and don’t know what to do with all that peanut oil after you’re done - you can can pour if off into a container and take it to any one of the county’s recycling drop-off locations starting Nov. 27.  The oil actually gets turned into biofuel, which is used to run fleet vehicles like buses and trucks.  (Remember the RTC’s french fry bus that runs on cooking oil?  It’s the same thing.)  Their website gives the locations and hours.  Republic Services transfer stations will take used oil yearround.  Their stations stations are on the list, too.

Greasy gravy and meat scaps on plates should go into the trash can - not the sink!  For the normal weekly bacon or fish fry, that cooled congealed grease can be scraped off into a can lined with newspaper.  When the can is full, simply pull out the paper and throw it in the trash.  Then line the can again and start over.  You can even get cute little cans through the county program or use a coffee or veggie can from home.  So however you do it - just Can It! when it comes to greasy, oily gunk and your drain.  Your sink will be happy and so will your plumber because he’ll get to finish his turkey and his football game on Thanksgiving!

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.