Green living today: the cost of free plastic bags, hemp homes and faux green foods to avoid

Green living news and features from around the web

You pay $88 a year for free plastic bags (Rodale): “According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, the energy used to make about nine plastic bags is equivalent to the energy it takes to drive a car more than half a mile. The group also points out that it costs about three to five cents to create a plastic bag, which retailers absorb by raising prices. And how's this for impractical? Researchers have found that when you add up cleanup costs, it comes out to about 17 cents a bag, meaning the average taxpayers pays about $88 extra a year to clean up plastic pollution.”

Living green: fall maintenance checklist for your home (Green Earth News): “Just like spring cleaning, you should get your house ready for the winter.  Here are a few projects that you will need to get done while the weather is still nice out (or if you are in the North, before the snow falls).  These projects will save energy, button up your house and prevent costly problems later on.”

Hemp homes are cutting edge of green building (USA Today): “a hemp home can be affordable, even though importing hemp makes it more expensive than other building materials, because skilled labor is unnecessary and hemp is so strong that less lumber is needed.  The hemp mixture — typically four parts ground-up hemp to one part lime and one part water — is placed inside 2-foot-by-4-foot wall forms.  Once it sets, the forms are removed. Although it hardens to a concrete-like form, wood framing is used for structural support. "This is like a living, breathing wall," Madera says. Hemp absorbs carbon dioxide and puts nitrogen into the soil, so it's good for the environment, he says.”

Greenwashing for dinner: 8 faux green foods to avoid (Huffington Post):  “There are a few reasons why organic TV dinners are not good for the planet. First, there is the packaging: plastic upon plastic, with a box outside, just for one meal! Second, even organic frozen TV dinners make use of loopholes in the USDA certification system to throw in preservatives and other unsavory fillers. As Michael Pollan famously pointed out, organic TV dinners can run to 31 ingredients, including natural chicken flavor, high-oleic safflower oil, guar and xanthan gum, soy lecithin, carrageenan, and “natural flavor.”

Living with green music (Care2): ” Guitar strings are a common sight in our trash. I was so excited to find these ingenious ideas for reusing guitar strings on the EcoMaker website. From hanging family photos to making a cheese slicer, guitar strings can be given new lives. EcoMaker also suggests donating strings to a charity such as, “The Second String Project that gives guitar strings to needy musicians all around the world.”

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