Merry Christmas

From

Amber and Mac

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Its Christmas time, spend it with your family as much as you can. Make some memories and take lots of pictures.

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I know its not my most earth friendly habit but every 4-6 months I pick a new design for my Discover Card. About a month ago I noticed they had a new catagory, Biodegradable. Interesting. Well they had one with Polar Bears which I felt represented our Minnesota Winter so far (23 inches of snow  in December) so I got it. Then I started doing some research.

 Here are some interesting quotes I found from Discover on inhabitant.com

Discoverlaunched their biodegradable credit card “in response to greater consumer interest in green products, and we hope this will appeal to those interested in living a greener life,” Discover publicist Laura Ingiss wrote in an email.

“The biodegradable Discover Card is another way for environmentally conscious consumers to do their part to help protect our planet,” said Kelly Tufts, director of marketing planning and strategy at Discover. “The card itself is made of biodegradable PVC, which breaks down 99% in nine months to five years in soil, water, compost, or whatever microorganisms are present (e.g. landfills or composts). Plus, the card leaves no toxic effect on the environment,” she wrote in an email.

So sure based on reports and such it might just be green, however the more reports I read I realized a whole other side to credit cards. Something I’ve brought up before, the draw of consumerism. If we had to pay cash (or even debit card straight from the  checking account) would we buy _______ A lot of the little extra things, probably not. Humm time to re-evaluate how I use my credit card. We completely pay our bill every month however are we spending more than we need? Interesting thoughts as Christmas shopping wraps up.

So Biodegradable yes, green not really.

All images courtesy Discover Card.

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…Vodka could be green, but when I went to pick up some wine tonight guess what I found:

Image from Vodka 360 Oh and no I didn’t buy any so I don’t know how it tastes.

I won’t bore you with all of the ways they are eco-friendly, there are alot, but here are some of the highlights.

• The bottle is 85% recycled glass
• It has a swing-top cap that can be mailed back in a postage paid recycled envelope for reuse.
• For each recycled cap they donate $1.00 to Global Green USA
• In 2007, 167 tons of material was recycled from our day-to-day operations
• The following activities have been implemented to reduce paper consumption: document imaging, electronic invoicing, electronic order confirmation, desk-side paper recycling bins, office paper 30% pcw, double-side printing, tag outbound email with an environmental notification to consider the environment before printing, a multi media conference room designed for teleconference communications & projector accessibility to reduce handouts and conference materials. Efforts are underway to opt out of unwanted fax and junk mail.
• In 2007, the company purchased renewable energy certificates to offset electricity and natural gas consumption for three years at our Weston facility. In addition, biodiesel fuel is purchased for on-site maintenance equipment and shuttle truck operations.

Crazy huh? How about this one:

Photo and mat are from La Chanh Nguyen

• This bathroom rug is made of recycled latex foam mainly coming from vegetal sources.
• Each cell welcomes a piece of moss (forest moss).
• The humidity of the bathroom and the drops flowing from the body, water the mosses.
• This vegetation carpet procures a great feeling to your feet.

Last but certintly not least:

A dog fur coat

Not only is is weird that they exist but this is 1 of a whole series of pictures done byErwan Fichou. I guess people save the fur from their dogs when brushing and then get it spun into yarn (that can’t be cheap) in case your wondering how check out this book “Knitting with dog hair”

So what eco-friendly products have you seen that were just plain weird?

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