Hi all,

One of my favorite building materials is free. Yes, I said free, and it is available literally by the ton just waiting for us to pick it up.

“But wait, there’s more!” The best part is the owners are usually thrilled to let us haul it off. It is affectionately called “urbanite” and is a mixture of broken up and discarded concrete pieces. From sidewalks to pool parts these concrete cast-offs make great flooring or, as I did here at the Urban Farm, stacked from pieces into a nice retaining wall.

In this week’s article, I explore a few different ways that you can create your own urbanite masterpiece.

On a separate note but just as planet-friendly, I have put together a fantastic deal on our RePEaT bamboo utensil set and holder. The cutlery is made from quickly renewable and natural bamboo. The holder is made from recycled pop bottles. Lunchtime has never been so green and our sets are a great complement to your stainless steel lunchbox.

Have a great green day!

Greg

Technorati Tags: concrete, construction, flooring, reclaiming, recycling, urbanite, walls

There’s a recent story in Forbes who makes a very nice living dumpster-diving for high-tech garbage and then reselling it.  

When he travels overseas, he is always sure to carry over a suitcase with a thousand or so British power cables (server manufacturers include both U.S. and U.K. cables with their products, so every data center regularly throws away the foreign leads). He sells them in London for a pound each, financing his round-trip airfare and hotel with his e-waste arbitrage. 

Click Here to read the Forbes article.

Technorati Tags: recycling

I found an article on Elephant Journal entitled

21 Things You’re Not Recycling

Except that most of those things we are: Things like appliances, batteries, and cardboard boxes.

The article does provide a way to recycle Tyvek envelopes, which I was not aware of.

You can always go to Earth911.com to find the nearest recycling center for almost anything.

Technorati Tags: recycling

The nation’s recycling industry has taken a sharp downturn, but Phoenix officials say the city and its residents are somewhat insulated from the worst effects.

Click Here to read the article

Technorati Tags: recycling

SEATTLE – Washington residents looking to safely get rid of old computers and TVs can do so for free when a new statewide recyclingprogram begins next year.

A state law that starts Jan. 1 allows consumers to bring unwanted computer monitors, laptops and TVs to 200 permanent collection sites at no charge.

Click Here to read the article

Technorati Tags: recycling