Social media

I'm a social media geek and I use and explore all those fab social media sites for up to date information.

Twitter is my new drug and such a great source of information. Every minute, every day you can keep yourself updated with news, sports, fashion, politics, food, environment, health, economy, weather etc etc. You can interact with you favourite popstar, follow the race between Obama and Romney, watch Greenpeace trying to stop Gazprom or look at Anna Dello Russos beautiful outfits. What can possibly be better?

Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Google +, Flicker, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc etc. For inspiration, keeping up with friends, share ideas, getting hired, share your photos, share your stories -  you name it, they've got it!

A great way to be more environmentally friendly than buying newspapers that are outdated the minute they are distributed. And you get the news faster, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than newspapers and magazines with all that paper, ink and emissions during transportation.

Just perfect!

Plastic is not so fantastic in LA

Today Los Angeles is the 14th city in California and the largest city in the US to ban disposable plastic bags at the check-out counters in grocery stores. The ban will take effect later this year after an environmental impact report. The city has 7500 grocery stores, and they will all have to comply with this. The larger ones within six months and the smaller ones within a year.

Three billions of plastic bags goes to waste each year in L.A alone so undoubtedly this will have a huge impact on the environment. Altogether California uses over 12 billions of plastic bags every year and only 5 percent is being recycled.

From the beginning the ban also included paperbags, but this was not a part of the deciscion this time. Instead customers will be charged 10 cents per paper bag at the store. In two years the city will conduct a study to determine if the ban should also include paperbags.

There has been a lot of discussions about the loss of jobs for people that produces those plastic bags. This is a great example on how to move forward; Projectgreenbag. Environmentally friendly and keeping employment within California as well.

More information about plastic waste can be found at the Plastic Pollution Coalitions website.

Books

I love books! I've been reading a lot since I was a kid, and I continue to read and discover new authors all the time. Right now I'm not allowing myself to buy any new books until I've finished the ones I have. I've also been thinking about all the paper and transport needed to produce these books.

I've been buying all my books for years from Adlibris. It's such a fantastic website, and you really can find everything there. They have books in a lot of different languages, they get delivered quickly (you can choose to have them delivered in a carbon neutral way) and my favourite thing - they have a great wish list. My wish-list is over a hundred books long at the moment (see why I need to stop myself?). This wish list is also available on their App (of course I've got it) and you can email it to your family for tips on birthday- or christmas gifts.

So how do I get more books and being nice to the enivironment at the same time? I've  never been one to throw away books so my bookshelves keeps filling up. I love to give books as gifts as well so friends and families bookshelves are also getting full.

This is what I've decided;
Give away the books that I've read and no longer need. I save my favourite ones and those from my favourite authors, but the rest has to go. It's time to get a library card and get books from there instead. Saves money as well as paper. The broken ones goes to the recycle bin. For beeing such a nerd for gadgets, it's really a shame that I haven't tried downloading books yet. I promise I'll start after I get myself an Ipad. There are also some books marked FSC, and it feels better to choose these when possible.

Today I read an article about book-exchange in Sweden. For the fourth year in a row there will be a possibility to exchange your used books towards other ones. This event takes place on the 25th of may in a lot of different places in Sweden. Read more and find the place closest to you at Storabokbytardagen.

Yellow Pages

There are 6000 tons of Yellow Pages distributed in Sweden alone each year. Just the distribution itself takes its toll on the enviroment and frankly most of the younger generations uses their computers or smart-phones instead. Even though Yellow Pages in Sweden consists of about 30% recycled paper, and the rest is from Holmen forestry who are certified through FSC and PEFC, we could help lessen this impact on our forests by simply say no to Yellow Pages. In Sweden this is very simple. Whether you live in a house or in an apartment you can simply put a sign on your mailbox saying no to promotional offers. And you will get rid of all the other unwanted offers as well.

Read more on Eniro.
In the US you can get rid of Yellow Pages here; Yellowpagesoptout