Has Nature Found the Cure to Cancer?

It looks like nature may have found the cure to cancer. Brazilian researchers were studying the Amblyomma cajennense tick and discovered an interesting protein in its spit. After some testing with this protein on rats with tumors, the results were becoming more conclusive that tick saliva may hold the key to cure cancers of the skin, liver and pancreas.

According to AFP, the Factor X active protein in the tick spit "shares some characteristics with a common anti-coagulant called TFPI (Tissue Factor Pathway Inhibitor), specifically a Kunitz-type inhibitor which also has been shown to interfere with cell growth." Essentially a cancer is a group of cells that are growing out of control, so obviously controlling the growth is extremley important. So the protein was tested on cultures of cancerous cells and "exceeded all expectations." The most interesting thing of the case study, was that it was able to target the cells with cancer, and did not kill normal cells.

The next step was testing on rats:
"If I treat every day for 14 days an animal's tumor, a small tumor, this tumor doesn't develop -- it even regresses. The tumor mass shrinks. If I treat for 42 days, you totally eliminate the tumor," the scientist said.

Obviously, the results of this case are in phase 1, there are always speed bumps, both minor and major that prevent something like this from becoming an extraordinary break through. And, if the time does come that this is turned into the cure for cancer, it took many years before it is in the form of a medicine, and a drug is made available to those with with cancer.

But, it is extremley evident to anyone who really does some research on this that these test results are extremely promising. And, it also goes to show you the extent of nautre's powers, and what we could be missing out on if we continue to destroy it.

CFL Bulb Created to Save Money; Why are People Not Buying

Greener Future:
CFL's are probably one of, if not the easiest way you can save energy and reduce your carbon footprint. Your walking through the garage in the dark, the light bulb burns out, you go to the local store and you buy a CFL to replace it. CFL stands for Compact Fluorescent Light bulb, they get as cheap is $2 now a days, they have been proven to last 7 times longer than regular bulbs, and they use LESS energy, which in turn SAVES you MORE money on your electric bill!

Oh, but we ALL know that! Than why are less people purchasing these CFL bulbs? I hardly ever feel so opionated over something but this one is just such a simple act to change; and to save not only energy, but for most people more importantly, save money. CFL sales are plummeting around the U.S., in certain states they are down as much as 50%. It is very puzzling to me, when I think about it, this is all no brainer information. The 2 main things I personally can come up with are that CFL bulbs warrant a slightly higher price tag, which you will save on in the long run on your electric bill, and the fact that people are extremely resistant to change. The second reason simply put, the mass market is unfamiliar with the product and its pros and cons, which can also put the companies to blame slightly because of the lack of marketing.

Green Inc. Reports :

"national sales of the bulbs have declined 25 percent from their peak in 2007, with sales in some regions such as Vermont and parts of Massachusetts declining 35 to 50 percent. Further, he noted, shipments of C.F.L.s ... down 49 percent in 2009 over 2007 levels."

These CFL makers, despite a decades long marketing push, are now worrying that without incentive programs of some sort, they could possibly lose even the small market share they've managed to get a hold of.

Okay so here is what boggles my mind, I completely understand not everyone wants to particpate in the green movement, that goes right along with people's reluctancy to change, but I know that the vast majority of people, if not EVERYOE, wants to save money. In the midst of recession, sales of these CFL bulbs are diving, just at a time when you would think MOST people would be doing anything and everything they could to save themselves some money. It's really unfortunate because it seems over time with everything we have just really abused the thought of instant gratification, other than purchasing something, rather investing into something that will save us money over the long run.

Online Consignment Meets Netflix -thredUP

Greener Future:
Statistics show that people don't wear 25% of their old clothing in their closets. This past week, an eco-friendly company was launched to help people rid themselves of this problem. thredUP is a service that allows you to exchange the old clothing that you were bored of, or don't wear for whatever reason, for new ones. In a nutshell, it is a fairly basic concept, out with the old you, in with the new you! You can swap everything from video games to text books on the internet, why not old clothing?

The company has a very basic 3 step process, to recycle your old clothing.

1. Tell thredUP exactly what you like. They shop other people's closets to find you hidden gems in your size that they think you'll love.
2. Let thredUP know the great items you're no longer wearing. They will find thredUP members who are interested in items like these.
3. thredUp manages the peer-to-peer exchange. You send and receive items using their pre-paid envelopes – no trips to the Post Office, ever!

For more information on thredUP, visit there website here.

Stimulus Checks for Energy Efficient Appliances

Green How To:
I guess they figured if the "cash for clunkers" helped consumers drive more fuel efficient vehicles, maybe it could put new energy efficient appliances into consumers households. So if you are sick of staring at that old energy wasting appliance, or maybe you were considering remodeling to a greener kitchen, now may be the perfect time to upgrade to a new energy efficient appliance. There will be a program starting this fall that will offer consumers cash to help buy new, Energy Star certified, home appliances.

The federal government has set aside about $300 million, part of the economic stimulus plan, for the program. Unlike the “cash for clunkers” program though, you do not need to trade in your old clunker appliance. These rebate checks issued can be used to cover everything from refrigerators and dishwashers to furnaces and air conditioners. The Department of Energy hopes to encourage conservation by getting people to replace old, wasteful appliances, with new, more efficient Energy Star certified machines. Surely, the appliance industry which has been hit hard by the recent recession, is hoping these energy efficient appliance rebates will give them a boost in sales.

Household refrigerators consume more energy than anything except heating and hot water. So if you are looking to save energy, the refrigerator would be #1 in my book, and Energy Star is no joke. An Energy Star refrigerator requires half as much energy as a 10 year old unit, that's enough energy to light an average household for over 3 months and save 300 pounds of pollution. As you can see, there is a significant difference in upgrading to an energy efficient appliance.

Consumers should check with their state's energy department for details on when the appliance rebates will be available. Links to information about stimulus projects by state can be found on the Energy Department's Recovery Act website.

Starbucks Starts its Own Recycling Program

Well, it looks likes Starbucks is finally jumping on board as well with their latest announcement. It seems that each and every year, there are approximately three million coffee cups going straight to the landfill. We are talking 654,000 tons heading straight to the landfill. That is a lot of waste! Seeing that Starbucks sells nearly 4 million cups of coffee a day in the US alone, it would be a safe bet to say that a good portion of these cups could be coming from Starbuck's customers. Not to say Starbucks is doing anything wrong, hats off to them, they are perhaps the most popular coffee place in the world.

Starbucks announced that would be starting its very own recycling program. Starbucks has teamed up with Green Global USA's Coalition for Resource Recovery, to start this new project into seven Starbucks locations in Manhattan with hopes to expand the progam. The basic goal here is going to be collecting these coffee cups which will then be combined with old corrugated cardboard meant for recycling. Corrugated cardboard can be recycled because it is not covered with wax or chemicals and once recycled, it is used in shipping boxes, and well...cardboard boxes!

By November, Starbucks will re-evaluate this project for its results and effect.

Recycle Your Old Ipod and Get CASH

In my journey to find everything and everyone doing good for the environment, I find really cool things everyday. Some I bookmark and come back to later, and some I just have to share immediately. Well this is one of those stories I came across that I could not contain myself, I thought, if only people knew they could turn all of their old electronic gadgets into cash!

A company called Gazelle does just that. This company is spectacular. Not only are they green for the environment, they are green for your wallet, which is always a plus! So here is how it works.

1. You login to Gazelle's website and answer a few questions about the device then Gazelle will automatically determine how much it will pay you based on the quick questions you asked! (BTW there is never a charge, so even if you have just a piece of junk electronic device, Gazelle will recycle it for FREE!)

2. The company pays for shipping and will send customers a box for most orders.

3.One of Gazelle's 75 employees hand-inspects each device to insure the customer rating is accurate, and erases any user files -- from documents to photos to MP3s.

4. If the item is deemed to be in good enough condition to resell to secondary retailers, wholesalers or refurbishers, the owner gets a check. If not, Gazelle recycles it at no cost to the owner.

It's that simple! Gazelle takes 15+ categories: cell phones, laptops, cameras, & more with customers netting an average of $100 per device. That's right, the customer, YOU, sending them the old gadgets, gets paid! The company promises one thing to each customer which I thought was extremely valuable to know.
Gazelle promises that no item will ever up in a landfill.

To learn more about Gazelle and their recycle how to program, visit there website HERE

EPA has No Love for Nature's Prairie Dogs

Rozul and Kaput-D are two blood-thinning poisons that are being used to exterminate the prairie dogs. The poisons cause the little dogs to slowly bleed to death, thus weakening them and making it easier for other animals to catch them and eat them. Enter the domino effect, these drugs can stay in the dogs bodies and even their dead carcasses for weeks, which you guessed it, causes anything that comes along to eat them also receive this "gift" of the EPA's. The animals coming along to eat these dogs include several endangered species; bald eagles, ferruginous hawks, American badgers, swift foxes, and black footed ferrets.

All this noise definitely caught the attention of a lot of unhappy people to say the least. Defenders of Wildlife and Audubon of Kansas have filed a lawsuit with the EPA to get them to stop using these blood-thinning pesticides on prairie dogs. Also in the mix, The Fish and Wildlife Service, who have repeatedly requested that there be some agreement with the EPA on how to better regulate the use of these poisons. Of course as with all these heart breaking stories, nothing has been done to date.

One or both of these chemicals are allowed to be used in the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.

Green Diapers are Love at First Flush

Green How To:
I am so glad people are starting to address the issue of diapers. It is unfortunate because we need diapers but they are extremely detrimental to our environment. 80% of diapers used in the nation are done with disposables which comes to nearly 18 billion per year. These 18 billion diapers add up to 82,000 tons of plastic a year and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp -- 250,000 trees. After a few hours of active service these materials are trucked away, primarily to landfills, where they sit, neatly wrapped for hundreds of years. Well one company says they have the solution to this problem.

G diapers is a flushable, plastic free diaper. You have a few different options of disposal with these diapers.

1. Flush- You can flush, compost the wet ones. Everything that goes into making their flushable diapers gets reabsorbed by the planet in a neutral or beneficial way.

2. Compost- They say your garden soil will love you for sharing the contents of your eco-friendly G Diaper, breaking down in 50-150 days. BUT...please keep in mind, you can only compost the wet ones, not the ones containing the #2 ingredient.

3. Trash Em- You can toss these in the trash because the diaper refills are plastic-free, they will break down unlike disposables, which are made of plastic. They do ask that you attempt to flush the #2 ingredients though!

Visit gDiaper for more info.

Cash For Clunkers Numbers are HERE

Finally! They are here, the results for the recent Cash For Clunkers program. These have been highly anticipated for me!

As most of you know, a program called CARS(Car Allowance Rebate System) or more commonly referred to "Cash For Clunkers" was put into action a few months back. The program offered an incentive for customers to trade in their old gas hogging vehicle(Clunker) for a newer, more fuel efficient vehicle. There may have been a bit of an underlying reason to give the auto manufacturers a very needed slight boost, but that's okay! Anyway, the program was considered a huge success, at least in the short term, and the official numbers of what vehicles were sold just recently came in. Drum roll please......

TOP SELLERS

1. Toyota Corolla 29,488

2. Honda Civic 28,456

3. Toyota Camry 27,137

4. Ford Focus 22,388

5. Ford Escape 21,894

6. Honda CR-V 20,106

7. Hyundai Elantra 19,797

8. Chevrolet Silverado 16,330

9. Nissan Versa 16,300

10. Ford F150 16,263

11. Honda Accord 15,922

12. Nissan Altima 15,426

13. Toyota RAV4 15,255

14. Toyota Prius 15,013

15. Ford Fusion 13,415

16. Chevrolet Cobalt 13,335

17. Honda Fit 12,361

18. Nissan Sentra 12,158

19. Chevrolet Aveo 11,557

20. Toyota Tacoma 10,692

Source: Department of Transportation, CARS.gov

The numbers speak for themselves, and as you can see, Toyota cleaned house at the very top, and Honda was not too far behind. Ford did surprisingly well themselves with 3 of the top 10 selling vehicles as well.

Schools Going Green

Greener Future:
Looks like people are FINALLY starting to get it. Even schools are jumping on board, which is a great thing! It's nice to see people are also saving money while going solar!

The picture is from a school in Brockton, MA, that is an area that has really been focusing on transforming the school district into a earth friendly carbon fighting machine. More schools are going green this year as educators adopt earth-friendly projects and try to pinch pennies while saving the planet. Brockton, Bridgewater-Raynham, Carver, Rockland and Southeastern Voc-Tech are among the local school districts in the Massachusetts area finding ways to make green changes and raise student awareness of environmental issues. Even some of the local colleges in the Massachusetts are going green too! At Massasoit Community College in Brockton, a new fall course on designing solar electricity arrays filled up quickly, a college official said.

“One of the nice things is that you can go green and save money at the same time,” said Rockland school Superintendent John Retchless, whose district has benefited from grant money for schools that make environmentally sound changes.

Sometimes the small, simple changes are the most important. Last year in one reported instance, teachers were told to shut off the lights each time they left the room, turn off computers at night and use natural light whenever possible. The effort saved that areas schools 15 percent on its energy bills. Proving once again, it pays to go green!

Chat with Your Friends in Eco-Friendly Fashion

Green How To:
All I can say is WOW! That is one beautiful phone. And it's not just good looking either, it serves a purpose. Introducing the eco-friendly Samsung Reclaim M560. It has recently been launched in America and is set to launch in Canada. Samsung has teamed up with Bell mobility to build this awesome phone, and it being presented by Bell as being “eco-friendly without sacrificing technology”.

This "Earth Green" phone is designed with environmentally-responsible components, a bio-plastic casing and fully recyclable packaging. It also comes with an Energy Star-approved charger. Samsung Reclaim cellphone is free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, and almost free of brominated flame retardants (BFRs): three materials commonly targeted electronic guidelines on green. The outer carton and the phone in the drawer box are made from 70 percent recycled material. The images and text on the box and warranty information of the phone are printed with inks based on soybean.

And all of this is available for under 50 bucks from Sprint. Technology never seizes to amaze me. I absolutely love green innovation.

View Samsung Reclaim at Sprint's Website Here

Revolutionizing Green Education

Green How To:
In my quest to help educate not only others, but myself in recycle how to and eco-friendly practices, I continue to come across some of the best tools available.

The internet seems to literally have infinite information on pretty much any given topic. Recently I came across a website that is still very small, but hopefully with some support from the general public and green community can grow because the mission is great!

The site is called Go Green Tube! Very similar to Google's YouTube but only hosts videos that involve some type of green activity or education as well as recycle how to information. Their mission: "We're here to create a green focused hub of such activity, educating the world on how to live a greener, healthier, fun life, in a way that's lighter on the planet."

Click here to visit Go Green Tube

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Green How To:
This company is an absolutely incredible "recycle how to" website. They have definitely grown significantly in the past few years, but after suggesting that my girlfriend use them, and she replied with "Who?", I decided that I would love to present them.

Welcome Terracycle, a company with a hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage. So here is the just of what these guys do. You send them old trash, things like cookie wrappers, drink pouches, chip bags, etc. after you have already eaten the goods. THEY PAY YOU for sending them your trash. Once they receive your trash they recycle in the most incredible ways. They will actually assemble handbags, backpacks, cleaning products, etc. out of the trash you send them. After they transform your old waste, they resell the novelties in stores such as Target, Wal Mart, etc.

These guys really have set a new standard for recycling and defined what being green truly is all about. I love what they do and what they stand for.

Visit their website for more info:
Recycle How To: Terracycle.net

California to Ban High Energy Televisions

Recycle How To: California has 35 million television sets — one for nearly every man, woman and child. Television use here in California accounts for nearly 10 percent of our electric bills. Alarmed that state energy consumption would spike as consumers switch from the old cathode-ray-tube sets to the new, energy-gobbling flat screen liquid-crystal display (LCD) or plasma televisions, the state's regulatory mavens have formally proposed regulations that would force the industry to make more energy-efficient models

California would be the first in the nation to start these tv efficiency policies, and it would go into effect in January 2011. It would require televisions sold in California to use 50% less energy by January 2013. Strict-target limits on greenhouse gas emissions for 2020 are propelling policymakers to cut consumption of energy and increase renewable generation.

Nissan Joins the "Green Party" with Electric Vehicle

Nissan is joining the "green party" with other auto manufacturers as it sets to release the Nissan Leaf. This will be Nissan's first attempt at an electric car which seems to be the way a lot of the auto manufacturers are going.

Designed as a four-to-five seat, front-drive C-segment hatchback, Nissan says the Leaf is not just for use as a specialty urban runabout, but rather, it was designed as an everyday vehicle – a "real car".

The company is now saying that its new electric car, the Leaf, will get an astonishing 367 miles per gallon... even though it's a 100 percent electric , and runs on absolutely no fuel. Eclipsing the new Chevy Volt, another electric vehicle, which is claiming 230 miles to the gallon, Nissan is set to launch this vehicle in 2011. A well equipped C-class vehilce runs in the $28,000 to $35,000 range, without the $7500 tax credit the car will be expected to enjoy. If they are factoring that in, consider $35,500 to $42,500.

Ban on plastic bags in Laguna Beach

Recycle How To: "Laguna Beach city council voted unanimously yesterday to move ahead with its process to ban plastic bags. The council will hear an ordinance to ban plastic bags as soon as an environmental review is completed."
Committee summary of proposed ordinance:

 Prohibit the distribution of single-use, plastic carryout bags from all retail establishments, except as used for take-out food to be eaten off the premises.

 Prohibit the distribution of single-use, plastic carryout bags from city facilities, concessions and events.

 Establish progressive enforcement procedures:

1. First violation, written warning;

2. Second violation, $100 administrative citation;

3. Third violation, $200 administrative citation;

4. Ongoing violations, $550 each.

 Provide hardship exceptions.

  Require that grocery stores and pharmacies provide customers with only reusable or paper bags, which would have to be 100% recycled material with a minimum of 40% post-consumer recycled content.

 Require that grocery stores and pharmacies providing paper carryout bags must charge a “green fee” and indicate on the transaction receipt the number of paper bags provided and the amount of green fee charged to the customer.

Introduction and Background- Green How To

Hello my name is Ian.

Green How To: I work for a company called Green Junk Machine. We are an eco-friendly junk removal service focused on giving back to the community.

http://www.greenjunkmachine.com/

Working with this company the past year has opened my mind up so much to the green movement and I want to do everything I can to help contribute.

So I decided to start this blog. I will update this blog on a regular basis with tips, information, recycle how to, local recycling centers, etc. Anything that will help for a greener tomorrow. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do! I absolutely love to hear feedback so feel free anytime to leave comments. If you have any of your own recycle how to information, I would love to read it!