The Story of Stuff: A Must See on Consumerism

I was chatting with some folks over on Greenwala.com about consumerism, quality, and our intense desire to buy a lot of stuff. So that made me thing of The Story of Stuff, which has been around for a while now. I thought it was worth linking to since it really gets to the heart of what we are doing here at Recycle Me.

We are kind of a throw back if you will, to the good old days before consumerism, before WWII, when people grew crops without pesticides and synthetic fertilizers; when people sold and purchased high quality goods (that means goods that lasted); when people manufactured products in the USA.

If you haven't seen it already, please watch The Story of Stuff.

eco kids, sisters, and fans of Recycle Me

More images from around Chicagoland from fans of RECYCLE ME.



Here are three sisters, who love each other and their Mom enough to all wear eco kid at the same time!



What a great way to spend a long weekend, at the beach, collecting rocks and giving your toes a little sand massage.



Thank you for supporting Organic Cotton, grown and sewn in the USA!

Thank You Chicago Green Fest!

Our awesome friend Jason from Scream to be Green

Thank you Chicago Green Fest attendees! This was our first fest we did a second time (our one year anniversary was April 20, 2009), and we were so well received! We had repeat customers, had many friends stop by that we met throughout the year, picked up a lot of new wholesale orders and sold a bunch of shirts!

Me with the coolest dude in town, Josh Arnold, from 360Green.

I love that people appreciate our quality as well as environmental responsibility, and have come back for more.

Me with Sierra Club's Polar Bear and my funny husband giving me rabbit ears.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

And see you at Chicago Green Fest next year.

Why Recycle Me is a Bagless Company

When RECYCLE ME first started in April 2008, we made a commitment to be a green company in every aspect. Not using plastic bags was one of them.

I did look for recycled paper bags. But, the ones I found were made in China. That didn't make sense for us either since we do everything in the U.S.A.: our organic cotton is grown and spun here and the shirts are sewn, printed and dyes here as well.

At most events people have their own bags or back packs and other companies frequently give bags away as promotional items. We count on that. However, we recently had a friend tell us they get recycled paper bags from a store in Skokie, IL, so we are going to check that out.

Still, I like the idea of being a bagless company.

Please click on the above link to find out the effects of plastic bags on the environment. Use your own reuseable bag and make a difference in the world!

RECYCLE ME at Chicago's Green Festival this Weekend

Please join us at Navy Pier this weekend, Saturday from 10am to 7pm and Sunday from 11am to 6pm for Chicago's third annual Green Festival! We will be among 300 exhibitors who are educating Chicagoans about how to live a green life!



RECYCLE ME will have some new shirts just in that are not online yet as well as items you can only find at our events. You can also meet the four friends who founded this company one year ago to create clothing you can feel good about putting on yourself and your loved ones. You can find sizes from infant to adult with a woman's slim cut for a fashionable fit. For more information on RECYCLE ME's clothing line visit www.recyclemeorganictees.com.



Hope to see you there!

Offset your Carbon by Giving up Meat for One Day.

I've read many statistics on the environmental impacts of eating meat. I just came across this article and thought it was worth sharing as so many people are now concerned about their carbon footprint....

The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day

Sometimes, solutions to the world's biggest problems are right in front of us. The following statistics are eye-opening, to say the least.----

I've written extensively on the consequences of eating meat -- on our health, our sense of "right living", and on the environment. It is one of those daily practices that has such a broad and deep effect that I think it merits looking at over and over again, from all the different perspectives. Sometimes, solutions to the world's biggest problems are right in front of us. The following statistics are eye-opening, to say the least.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

> 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

>1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

>70 million gallons of gas -- enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

>3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;

> 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:

> Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;

> 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;

> 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;

> Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

My favorite statistic is this: According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads. See how easy it is to make an impact?

Other points:

Globally, we feed 756 million tons of grain to farmed animals. As Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer notes in his new book, if we fed that grain to the 1.4 billion people who are living in abject poverty, each of them would be provided more than half a ton of grain, or about 3 pounds of grain/day -- that's twice the grain they would need to survive. And that doesn't even include the 225 million tons of soy that are produced every year, almost all of which is fed to farmed animals. He writes, "The world is not running out of food. The problem is that we -- the relatively affluent -- have found a way to consume four or five times as much food as would be possible, if we were to eat the crops we grow directly."

A recent United Nations report titled Livestock's Long Shadow concluded that the meat industry causes almost 40% more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's transportation systems -- that's all the cars, trucks, SUVs, planes and ships in the world combined. The report also concluded that factory farming is one of the biggest contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every level -- local and global.

Researchers at the University of Chicago concluded that switching from standard American diet to a vegan diet is more effective in the fight against global warming than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid.

In its report, the U.N. found that the meat industry causes local and global environmental problems even beyond global warming. It said that the meat industry should be a main focus in every discussion of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortages and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Unattributed statistics were calculated from scientific reports by Noam Mohr, a physicist with the New York University Polytechnic Institute.

This was directly copied from
http://norfolk.va.mycitytalk.us/article/News/Opinion/The_Startling_Effects_of_Going_Vegetarian_for_Just_One_Day/23277

Eco Vampire: Recycle Me's Hot New Shirt at Chicago Green Festival May 2009

Do you like to turn the lights down low? Unplug your electronics when not in use? Better yet, live off the grid? Maybe you have a soft spot in your heart for Edward, the steamy "eco friendly" vampire. If any of these apply, "eco vampire" is the shirt for you.

Jet black with blood red water based ink, eco vampire is an eye catching shirt that will make you want to unplug. Like Recycle Me's other eco responsible statement shirts, eco vampire is made from 100% USA grown and sewn organic cotton with water based dyes and inks. Kimberly Fong, designer of this latest shirt, and Partner at Recycle Me, is a huge Twilight fan and admits the shirt has a dual meaning.

"Recycle Me brand shirts are positive, environmentally inspired lifestyle shirts intended to educate and inspire," states Kimberly. "Originally, I was inspired by Edward and his coven of ecologically minded vampires," she says, "but once I got online the duality of this shirt hit me. Vampiring of electronics is a huge and timely issue and I hope this shirt helps bring it to light."

Kimberly and Recycle Me's other three partners will be at Chicago's Green Festival May 16th and 17th selling eco vampire along with their other shirts. You can also find them at climate Cycle's fund raising event at Soldier Field May 9th as well as online at www.recyclemeorganictees.com. Good Hunting!

EAT ME! I'M ORGANIC FAN

As promised, I am posting pictures of fans of Recycle Me brand clothing. I know you are out there! Please send me your pictures, tell me what you love about our shirts, and I will post it!

This is Shelia Smith's son. She gave him an EAT ME! I'M ORGANIC tee for his birthday. I met Shelia at a Green Event. She sells these beautiful hand made, fair trade, hair clips, at The Designer Comb.

Being green can be fun and easy! There are many ways to do it. I hope you've learned some new ways on our blog site. Stay tunned for more!