For those who tire of the usual bachelor parties and wish to get away from the pack, plan an eco-friendly party for the entourage. Cut the carbon footprint and promote a less lavish event. Explore environmental-friendly locations but do not cut out the fun factor. Find a way to travel responsibly to the venue of the stag party. Look for a door to door pick-up service so guests can leave their cars at home and cut gas consumption here are some great ideas for your stag weekends so relax and to help plan the stag party, here are three alternative but extremely fun ideas;

1. Eco-Camp

There is nothing more eco-friendly than having a stag party in an eco-camp. If it is a one-night event only, organize the party in a yurt and serve vegan and organic food. If there is no time constraint and the group has the whole weekend for the party, look for eco-camps that offer an interesting mix of outdoor and indoor activities. Ask about the camp facilities and see if they can adequately satisfy the group’s requirements.

A great eco-camp for the stag party should have a fully equipped outdoor fireplace or cooking area to provide warmth during colder nights. Look for interesting activities and workshops for the group like organic cooking, woodworking, guided nature tours, and others.

2. Organic Spa Treatment

Spa treatments are not just for hen parties anymore. Indulge in an organic spa and massage treatment before the wedding. Select an organic spa and massage center and request information about full treatment options. Inquire if the center has a group pampering package and make sure that the products used during treatment sessions are really organic and vegan.

Group packages are inclusive of two or more treatments and services. These may include services like manicures, pedicures, facials, and haircuts. Specialized massage methods may be included in the package as well. Some spa and massage therapy centers offer a combined stag and hen party package. This is a great way to organize a more intimate pampering session before the wedding.

3. Outdoor Adventure

Book an extreme outdoor adventure package for the group. Compare different outdoor adventure specialists in terms of price and range of activities. Outdoor activity companies and specialists offer land or water-based activity group packages, which can be tailored to fit the group’s preference. Land and water-based activities may be combined to create a more exciting and interesting itinerary.

Land-based outdoor activities may include camping, rock climbing, abseiling, mountain climbing, and hiking; or a whole day or half-day of paintball competition within a designated outdoor environment. Water-based outdoor recreational packages typically include activities like canoeing, kayaking, and white water rafting. Other specialists offer more subdued activities like fishing or camping.

An outdoor adventure themed stag-party provides more than a good and ethical bonding opportunity with friends. The adrenaline rush after a successfully climb or hike, and seeing the natural beauty of the surrounding environment offers an incomparable and rewarding experience.

This event is a free, family oriented event that will take place at the Levitt Pavilion/Founder’s Plaza in Downtown Arlington.

The primary goals of the event are to help build a sense of community, stimulate environmental awareness, and promote stewardship across North Texas.  There will be lots of  local businesses showcasing their green products and practical do-it-yourself solutions for home improvement and maintenance. They will be lined up on the festival streets surrounding Founder’s Plaza.

Ecofest planners are aiming for a zero-waste event. Recycling stations will be set up throughout the area and vendors are required to use materials that meet recycling and composting guidelines.

The event kicks off at 10 a.m. and the fun will continue until 10 pm. The day will be filled with entertainment from local musical talents performing at the Levitt Pavilion.

There will be classes on do-it-yourself projects to reduce consumption of natural resources as well as discussions to enlighten North Texans on different environmental issues and what we can do to help reduce, repair and prevent these problems in the future.

Demonstrations will be given throughout the day by vendors and others like The Critterman and the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center.

There will be fun, games and educational classes for the children to enjoy during this time and food and drinks will be available as well.

When and Where:

Eco Fest Arlington
Date: September 18, 2010, 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Location: Levitt Pavilion
100 W. Abram Street, Arlington

The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts is located in Founders Plaza, 100 W. Abram St., at the corner of Abram and Center streets, directly across the street from City Hall.

Ecofest Arlington 2010 - Event Map

Interactive Google Map:

View Larger Map

You can read more about Ecofest Arlington 2010 on the City of Arlington website here;
City of Arlington – Ecofest Arlington 2010

The Our Everyday Earth team will be going green this Earth Day by switching off all of our electricity consuming items at home for an hour and then eating an all organic meal made from locally grown produce.

We’ve seen an increase in local events to celebrate Earth Day and 2010 promises to be the best yet!

So leave us a comment telling us how you plan to celebrate the greenest day of the year, we’d love to hear from you… Have a happy Earth Day 2010!!!

The event took place on Wednesday the 10th of March and we went along with Mom, Sharen, to see the wonderful line up of organic clothing from a range of excellent designers.

The Organic In The City Fashion Show - Dallas, Texas

After sampling some delicious appetizers courtesy of the Blue Mesa catering group we moved into a fabulous runway room and experienced a cutting edge sustainable and organic couture fashion show. This was the Texas Discovery Gardens’ second annual Organic in the City Fashion Show and Auction and it shows signs of growing into a huge event.

Organic Clothing Galore!

We enjoyed an evening of fashion and the event was opened by WFAA’s Gloria Campos, it was a treat to say hello to her in person at the pre-show appetizer mingle too! The shows iconic symbol is an elegant lady with butterfly wings and the show included the icon herself striking a pose almost identical to the logo, let’s just say the whole production had been very well rehearsed!

The Iconic Butterfly Model

The hour long show featured several organic designers which included the talented Ross Bennett with a new collection that made green fashion elegant and fun, and Lindsay Weatherread with a look at her exciting new collection described as “origami for the body.”

Ross Bennett - Featured Organic Designer

At the end of the show there was a really neat live auction where everyone was invited to bid on the clothes we had just seen on the runway. The proceeds benefited the Texas Discovery Gardens’ new hands-on educational initiative. Throughout 2010, the Texas Discover Gardens’ educational initiative will teach sustainability and organic principles in part by assisting area organizations to start their own butterfly gardens, and also by continuing to develop their 7.5 acres of gardens into educational butterfly gardens and native habitat examples.

Butterflies are beneficial insects and vital pollinators that indicate a healthy, holistic ecosystem and the show featured designs by the El Centro College’s Fashion Design students, their beautiful silk screen printed designs sold very quickly and for high dollar amounts, it was really exciting auction and the students were nearby to experience the thrill.

The Butterfly Designs Were Auctioned for Charity

Guest speaker Susanne Taylor (of Susanne Taylor & Associates) talked about the latest in organic clothing and how important it is to incorporate sustainable thinking in all aspects of our lives and we are looking forward to next years Organic In the City fashion show already!

You can read more about the wonderful event at the links below;

http://www.texasdiscoverygardens.org/fashion_show.html

Ross Bennett Facebook Page – Lots of Design Images

Lindsay Weatherread Facebook Page

http://feeds.oureverydayearth.com/OurEverydayEarth-EcoNewsFeed

So what are you waiting for? Get hooked into our feed and always be one click away from our latest articles;

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

The AbitibiBowater "Arlington Recycling Operation" Building

I arrived at around 12PM on a sunny Friday afternoon to the AbitibiBowater “Arlington Recycling Operation” building and was immediately impressed with the high level of activity surrounding the recycling center. Trucks were constantly loading and unloading at the centers numerous loading bays.

I had always wanted to see how both domestic and commercial recyclables are processed and my tour of the Arlington facility gave me a fascinating insight into how the recycling process works;

1/ COLLECTING THE RECYCLABLES:

The first stage for any recycled materials is collection. Their are several types of vehicles which perform the recycling collections;

Various Recycling Collection Vehicles

There are three main types of collection vehicles, the Front End Loading (FEL), the Rear End Loading (REL) and the Roll Off type vehicle (RO). You might recognize one or all three types of collection vehicle, try to spot them the next time you take a road trip!

The EcoRewards section of the business supplies local companies with various sizes of curbside containers including compactors, open top containers and hard top containers.

EcoRewards Supply Local Businesses with Recycling Containers

The curbside containers shown above can hold about 8 cubic yards of material and are collected by the Front End Loading vehicles. An example of a larger curbside container is shown below, these are great for municipal drop off sites where it rains and a company needs to keep the recyclables dry until collection day;

A Larger Hard Top Curbside Container

2/ UNLOADING THE RECYCLABLES:

The various recycling collection vehicles make their collection calls and head back to the Arlington recycling center to unload the recyclables. A collection vehicle will make their drop off straight into the tip area. The tip area is the staging area for all incoming recyclable materials.

Recyclables Being Unloaded in the Tip Area

3/ MOVING RECYCLABLES TO THE SORTING AREA:

Once the recyclables have been unloaded a large wheeled bucket loader pushes them from the tipping floor into the in-feed conveyor, where it is processed into the drum feeder.

Moving the Recyclables to the Sorting Area

4/ SORTING THE RECYCLABLES:

Once the recyclable material has been pushed towards the in-feed conveyor they are loaded onto an inclined conveyor. The incline conveyor takes the recyclable materials up to the raised pre-sort station’s sorting conveyor from the drum feeder.

Recyclables Loaded Onto an Inclined Conveyor

At the top of the inclined conveyor is a “pre-sorting” area which starts to group the materials by type of recyclable. The extended pre-sort area allows more sorters to work the material, improving the run-ability of the equipment downstream as well as productivity.

The Materials are Pre Sorted into Recyclable Groups

As the recyclables move onto their next stage they pass over filter screens. Passing over these fine screens removes broken glass and small material. The recyclables then drop into one of three ONP (Old Newspaper) screens to separate the newspaper from the recyclable containers. The Arlington, TX facility is the only system in the world to run three ONP screens on a single line!

Filter Screens Remove Small Particles and Glass Fragments

5/ RECYCLING THE PAPER PRODUCTS:

The first stage after the pre sorting line is to separate any recyclable paper products. All materials sorted out by the three Old Newspaper screens go to the two paper sort lines, where the sorting teams remove plastic bags and any other non-recyclables as well as any cardboard missed at the pre-sort line.

The Recyclable Paper Sort Line

6/ RECYCLING PLASTIC PRODUCTS:

After the paper products have been removed from the recyclables the second stage is to sort out the plastic recyclables. A sophisticated PolyEthylene (PET) optical sorter separates the PET bottles (clear drink bottles such as water and soda bottles) into a PET bunker.

An Optical PET Sorter Finds Clear Plastic Containers

The optical sorter does an amazing job of separating the PET bottles which can be seen below in the PET bunker;

The PET Plastics Bunker Full of Clear Plastic!

The rest of the recyclable containers flow down the container line, and the colored plastic High Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE) bottles, such as laundry detergent and soap bottles, and the natural plastic HDPE bottles get sorted out by hand into the appropriate bunkers.

The HDPE Plastics Bunker

7/ RECYCLING THE STEEL AND ALUMINUM:

Once all the paper and plastic has been removed from the sorting line all that is remaining is steel and aluminum cans and a small amount of non-recyclables. The steel cans are removed by a magnetic belt, and aluminum is removed by an eddy current. Any remaining material is sent to the trash conveyor and trash compactors.

The Steel and Aluminum Recyclables

8/ BALING THE RECYCLABLES FOR SHIPPING:

Once all the recyclables have been sorted into the paper, cardboard, plastics and metals categories they are ready to be taken from their bunkers and compacted into large cubes of recyclable material. An automatic tie-off baler fastens the bales with aluminum ties, preparing the bales for shipment.

Baling the Recyclables for Shipping

9/ THE RECYCLABLES ARE READY TO BE SHIPPED:

After all the sorting by man and machine, and once the categorized recyclables have been baled into large cubes the finished product is ready for shipping. The finished product might be shipped off to an AbitibiBowater mill or another end user and become your next recycled material purchase! The Arlington Recycling Facility can pack up the baled recyclables and transport them in large containers by road or by rail. In fact, the train tracks run right up to a loading bay at the back of the facility!

The Finished Recyclables are Transported by Road or Rail

Q. So how much recyclable material does the Abitibi Bowater / EcoRewards facility in Arlington, Texas process?

A. They process a staggering 350 – 400 tons of recyclables a day!

That is equivalent to over 300 tons of CO2 greenhouse gases prevented everyday, or permanently removing around 50 cars from the roads per day!

One the Many AbitibiBowater Sorters Working Hard Everyday

Q. If I live in the Dallas / Ft Worth area, how can I help the AbitibiBowater recycling facility?

A. The people at AbitibiBowater and EcoRewards are working hard everyday to recycle as much of our residential and commercial waste as possible, here are a few things you can do to help;

The following items can and should be recycled:

Paper Items

• newspapers
• magazines
• phone books
• junk mail and envelopes
• office paper
• flattened cereal boxes
• flattened cardboard that will fit in bin
• paper bags

Glass

• clear, brown and green glass jars & bottles
• remove lids and discard
• lightly rinse
• labels can be left on

Plastic

• plastic jugs and bottles
• remove lids and discard
• lightly rinse
• labels can be left on

Steel, Tin & Aluminum Cans

• lightly rinse
• labels can be left on

DO NOT put the following items in your recycling bin:

• medical waste (needles, syringes, lancets)
• Styrofoam
• pizza boxes
• plastic grocery bags (you can return these to a local grocery store for recycling)
• aluminum foil
• plastic toys, dishes & bowls
• light bulbs, windows, mirrors
• pesticide / chemical containers
• motor oil / antifreeze containers

For more information about the EcoRewards program and how to get your business linked into an amazing recycling program you can contact;

EcoRewards Recycling program

AbitibiBowater

Help us pick the best of the bunch by taking our Top 10 Halloween Pumpkin Carving poll… First, let’s check out the entries…

Spooky Pumpkin Carving #1

Our first pick is a spooky pumpkin with a very “Day of the Dead” feel to it, we loved the intricate carving and details in this one!

Pumpkin Eating a Pumpkin! #2

A popular trend in 2009 is the “pumpkin eating a pumpkin” design and we especially liked this one, there is even some pumpkin pie in the background!

A Pair of Carved Pumpkins #3

This pair of carved pumpkins shows how a family can take on different levels of carving, the spider was fairly simple but has lots of impact whereas the face is more detailed and subtle.

Pirate Pumpkin #4

Everyone likes pirates, right? This pirate skeleton is ready to set sail…

Wild Eyed Pumpkin! #5

We loved this wild eyed pumpkin design, he is smiling big but with a very sinister twist!

Starry Eyed Pumpkin #6

Another big smile but this time with some very detailed starry eyes… We can’t even imagine how long this took.

LED Symbol Pumpkin #7

This is definitely a pumpkin for all of us nerds out there! It represents the electrical symbol for a Light Emitting Diode and instead of a candle it uses, you guessed it, and LED!

Wordpress Pumpkin Design #8

We just had to include this one! Blogging is such a great pass time and this pumpkin celebrates the “WordPress” blogging software…

I Want My Mummy Pumpkin! #9

We loved how clean and crisp this mummy looks, I might try this one myself.

Celebrity Pumpkin #10

Our final entry, can you guess who it is? Doh!

Step 1: Fill in your destination and use the “Get Directions” option to add your start address, for example, my wife and I recently went to Fredericksburg (which is a great little town) and here are our directions by car;

Google Walking Maps - Step 1

Step 2: Pick the “Walking” option from the drop down list and click “Get Directions” again;

Selecting the Google Walking Maps Directions

There are a few things to note, the first thing is that this is still in development and there is a note to use caution as the route may be missing some sidewalks or pedestrian paths. The second thing to note is that it would have taken us about 3 days and 1 hour to get to Fredericksburg if we had walked, but we would have saved all our gas money and been the greenest visitors around!

New IESI MRF Recycling Center in McKinney

The McKinney recycling center building is fully LEED certified which means the building itself was built to the strictest eco friendly standards;
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of green commercial structures.
The new recycling center also houses a second-floor community room and observation deck overlooking the recycling operations area.

The New IESI MRF Recycling Center, McKinney TX

They will be recycling;

• Glass
• Plastic
• Paper
• Aluminum
• Tin
• Cardboard

The facility incorporates sustainable features such as certified wood, building materials containing recycled content, low-emitting materials, water-conserving fixtures and features to reduce the heat-island effect.

Inside the New Recycling Center, McKinney

The Recyclables Being Sorted Inside the MRF Building

Green October - Our Top Five Tips

Switch Off the Air Conditioning in your Car or Truck

• This tip only applies to the milder states in the USA but as you can see, last year almost half the states in the US enjoyed below normal temps for the month of October.
• In October we are all going to switch the AC off whilst driving to and from work saving gas and money!


Last Years Temps Were Below Average

Start a Compost Heap!

• Did you know that the leaves falling on your yard in October will make amazing compost for your yard next spring?
• You can read more about home composting here;
• Home Compost Bins and Home Composting


Green October Leaves

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timailius/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Get Involved With a Local Green Event…

• There are always lots of green festivals and events that take place in October, try searching for green events in your area.
• We found some great local green events after a quick search on Eventful.com such as the Eco Adventures canoe tours in McKinney, TX;
• Eco Adventures Canoe Tours

Buy Locally Grown Seasonal Produce

• Local farmer’s markets are becoming more and more popular and if you buy locally grown seasonal produce you will be doing the environment a huge favor. Locally grown seasonal fruit and vegetables will have been grown with less chemicals / pesticides and will have used far less gas to reach your table!
• To get a good idea of seasonal fruit and vegetables check out the wonderful guides on PickYourOwn.org
• For example some October Texas seasonal fruits and vegetables include Apples, Beets, Broccoli, Pumpkins, Raspberries, Squash, Sweet Corn and Tomatoes


Cook With Seaonal Fruits and Veggies!

Celebrate a Green Halloween!

• Make your own fun costumes from recycled materials!
• We searched for costumes made from recycled materials and below is one of our favorites! It’s a monster costume made from recycled egg crates!!!


Recycled Egg Crates Monster Costume!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmtorrone/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

So there you have it, that’s our run down of the top five ways to have yourself a Green October, we hope you enjoyed them?

Why not take our poll? We’d love to hear your feedback on which ideas you will try this green October;