Packed full of unique designs, instructions and techniques, this is YOUR place to be SUPER creative, and find out new ideas to practice arts and crafts in a an eco-mindful way.
Use the search features to find new eco-crafting methods and supplies, be inspired by other artists and crafters around the world and learn how to make your crafts more eco-friendly.
Download one of our tried and tested Instructional PDF’s – available in different skills levels and share your news and projects by contacting us!
The Global IWD Women’s Arts Initiative celebrates the collective creative ability of women. 2011 sees 100 years since the first International Women’s Day was held so to mark this special Centenary the ‘100 Women, 100 Artworks‘ and ‘100 Women, 100 Stories‘ initiative was launched.
All the artworks (paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, drawings, sketches, collages …) and stories have been created by diverse women from around the world to inspire, challenge, entertain and provoke thought from a gender angle.
The impressive artworks celebrate the artistic grace of women. The stories are of celebration, hurt, triumph, shock, humour, anger, remembrance and question. Enjoy !
To contribute to the Global IWD Women’s Arts Initiative: - for 100 Women, 100 Artworks guidelines and requirements click here - for 100 Women, 100 Stories guidelines and requirements click here.
March 8 sees the highest level of global women’s activity ever witnessed as groups celebrate the International Women’s Day centenary.
The first International Women’s Day events were run in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland in 1911 and attended by over one million people. 100 years on, International Women’s Day (IWD) has become a global mainstream phenomena celebrated across many countries and is an official holiday in approximately 25 countries including Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zambia.
8 March sees extensive global women’s activity. Performer and social activist, Annie Lennox, will lead a mass march across London’s Millennium Bridge for charity. In Washington D.C. over a thousand people will descend on Capitol Hill demanding a better world for millions of marginalized women and girls around the globe. A major international businesswomen’s conference will be hosted in Sydney, Australia. Schools and governments around the world are participating in the day. Trade Unions and charities are campaigning. Global corporations are hosting conferences and distributing extensive resource packs. The United Nations Secretary-General delivers a formal message. The United States even designates the whole month of March as Women’s History Month as officially proclaimed by President Obama on February 28, 2011.
International Women’s Day is a global celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present, and future. However, activity has not always been on the increase. Australian entrepreneur and women’s campaigner Glenda Stone, who founded the www.internationalwomensday.com website, a global hub of events and information, said,”A decade ago International Women’s Day was disappearing. Activity in Europe, where International Women’s Day actually began, was very low. Providing a global online platform helped sustain and accelerate momentum for this important day. Holding only a handful of events ten years ago, the United Kingdom has now become the global leader for International Women’s Day activity, followed sharply by Canada, United States and Australia. 2011 will see thousands of events globally for the first time.”
More recently, social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube have also helped fuel International Women’s Day activity. Generally the day has moved away from its socialist Suffragette beginnings to become more mainstream in celebrating women’s achievements. Women’s rights campaigners, however, continue to remind that vigilance rather than complacency is essential in striving for women’s equality.
There are loads of creative reuses for these fun plastic containers, but before you rush out to buy them first try these other options for a squirt of lemon on your pancakes;
Option number 1 – Buy fresh lemons! Great fresh taste and environmentally the right option as you can compost the waste. If you have a freezer – save any excess in ice cube trays for future use.
Option number 2 – Buy lemon juice that comes in recyclable glass bottles.
Option number 3 – Buy a larger plastic container and check if it can be recycled. According to the plastic lemon shaped containers they can be recycled – but it doesn’t give the type of plastic – so not easy to know how to recycle it.
Option number 4 – Discover a re-created use for these fun plastic lemons.
These are some of the ideas offered over on Recycle This blog and more.
Keep and reuse as Christmas decorations next year – or as a quirky outdoor tree dressing feature – haven’t you always wanted a lemon tree?
Alternative water pistols for children (and big kids) – or brilliant bath toys
Collect them and use them in a decorative fruit bowl
Collect and fix onto LED fairy lights as a ‘fresh’ lighting feature in your kitchen. LED lights don’t get hot so these should be fine to use with plastic.
Cut a scoop off the top and use a row of them for growing herbs in the window sill – lemon balm perhaps. Don’t forget to pierce some holes for drainage!
Use in children’s imaginative shopping and house play. Collect them in a small mesh bag with a fake price label along with single-use cereal boxes stuffed with cardboard and wrapped with packaging tape for durability, egg cartons, milk jugs, and other packaging.
With a bit of work they could be used as a mould for soap or a candle with some lemon scent.
Use as a container for a favourite lemony essential oil mix.
Fill them with paint, and use them to make Spin-Art or Jackson Pollock inspired painting.
Use them as ice blocks for your water jug in the summer. Fill them with water and freeze – leaving a little room for expansion.
World internet usage statistics show that the internet is still doubling in size in the U.S. and growing from 400 to 1000% a year, worldwide. In fact, the total electric bill to operate those servers and related infrastructure equipment was $2.7 billion in the United States and $7.2 billion worldwide. It is estimated that if energy consumption with web hosting keeps raising at the current rate by 2020 the industry will be more polluting than the airline industry. Source
What is Green Web Hosting? Green web hosting can be best described as an eco-friendly alternative to traditional means of hosting. More companies are currently taking the initiative to minimize the impact data centre emissions and other commonly used resources have on the environment. The typical hosting operation requires a great deal of energy to power web servers and other network equipment. Environmental and cooling controls, fire-suppression systems, electronic security mechanisms and internet connections all call for the use of energy. This is the setup in data centres all over the world, and you can image the negative affect the hosting industry has on the environment. Thankfully, the concept of green web hosting has really launched in the last several years, and more hosting firms are jumping onboard to make a difference and reduce the damage.
Offsetting Carbon Emissions The main intent of green web hosting is to offset the carbon emissions data centres release into the environment. Service providers take various approaches to make this happen, including the following methods:
� RECs – The most common action taken by green web hosting companies is the purchasing of RECs (Renewable Energy Credits). Often referred to as renewable certificates, these credits represent renewable energy sources that have been purchased from an electrical company. Although the host may not be directly utilizing the renewable energy, their efforts play a large role in reducing emissions and also greatly reduce their dependence on non-renewable power.
� Less Energy Consumption – Many green web hosting firms also take proactive measures by reducing the energy consumption in their daily business operations. This usually occurs in the office environment, where they use less computers and other hardware, or rely entirely on the machines to provide heat for the certain areas in the building. Some run their offices on solar power, enforce recycling policies and eliminate the use of paper. The latter can easily be achieved by several companies thanks to today’s fast paced e-business world. Other common measures include requiring that employees carpool to work to cut down on the harmful emissions that stem from day-to-day driving or asking them to cut down on energy use while at home. Green web hosting efforts in the data centre usually include using more efficient server hardware and running backup generators that rely on propane gas instead of diesel fuel. There are also a handful companies that are able to generate their own renewable energy to use for their IT operations.
Give Back to the Earth Another way green web hosting companies help to offset carbon emissions is by directly giving back to the environment. For example, many hosts in the industry plant a new tree with every package sold, providing the earth with the natural resources it needs to continuously thrive. While this may seem like a small commitment on the surface, a popular web host that handles high volumes of business can make a significant impact by planting its word. Source
This type of service is usually more costly than the traditional hosting plan, and unless you conduct thorough research, you will likely have no way of knowing how ‘green’ the service actually is.
At Re-creations we have done our homework and made sure our host is truly living up to its claims and not simply banking off a popular niche offering. Our host purchases wind energy credits to offset their energy consumption. The cloud infrastructure they use uses vastly less energy and has a far smaller carbon footprint than a comparable traditional shared hosting environment with the same customer base.
We will be on the lookout of other ways we can reduce the environmental impact of our website!
The majority of coffee imported into the UK arrives in 60-kilo jute sacks: over 4 million in 2006*. Although it is the contents of these sacks that carry the main value we believe that even an empty coffee sack has worth and definitely should not find its way into landfill! Elvis & Kresse have started an initiative in conjunction with Sainsbury’s to up-cycle these waste coffee sacks and turn them into the ultimate in environmentally friendly shopping bags. This waste is produced in the UK, we collect it in the UK, re-manufacture the shoppers in the UK and then sell them in the UK. What’s more, Jute (the raw material) is a completely natural fabric and ultimately biodegradable.
They are able to fully close the loop on this project by donating 10p from the sale of each shopper to coffee grower programmes in the developing countries where the coffee is grown, helping improve the quality of life of the coffee growers themselves.
The E&K shopper is a great size and due to the strength of the natural jute fibre can fit a deceptively large amount. The added advantage is that it looks great, so works fantastically well as a beach bag or a day-to-day utility bag.
Elvis & Kresse collect waste sacks from Costa Coffee, Matthew Algie, Bettys and Taylors, Union Hand Roasted Coffee and Drury Tea & Coffee.
*According to International Coffee Organization figures
Elvis & Kresse creates stunning life-style accessories by re-engineering seemingly useless wastes. The innovative and pioneering Fire-Hose range is made exclusively from genuine de-commissioned British fire brigade hoses which, after a distinguished career fighting fires and saving lives, were otherwise destined for landfill. 50% of profits from the fire-hose line are donated to the Fire Fighters Charity.
Join us in our search for eco-friendly craft products! Did you know? The original Sellotape is made with cellophane and therefore decomposes! No need to buy cheap plastic tape again! Read on to find out more…
Sellotape is a European brand of transparent, cellulose-based, pressure sensitive adhesive tape, and is the leading brand of clear, pressure sensitive tape in the United Kingdom. Sellotape is generally used for joining, sealing, attaching and mending. The term has become a genericised trademark in Britain, and is used much in the same way that cellophane and scotch tape came to be used in America, referring to any brand of clear adhesive tape.[1]
The name ‘Sellotape’ was coined in 1937 by Colin Kininmonth and George Gray, who made the product by applying rubber resin to cellophane film. The name was derived from "Sellophane", which itself was derived from Cellophane, at that time a trademarked name, with the "C" changed to "S" so that the new name could be trademarked.[2]
Sellotape Original is made using cellulose film derived from wood pulp. The cellulose film decomposes naturally in soil, and is naturally easy tear and non-static.
Sellotape is widely available in the UK. Although it may be slightly more expensive than the plastic stuff – the good news is – you don’t need to use as much! Check out the Re-creations blog to find out ways of crafting in a greener way and find alternatives for greener crafting.
Bioadhesives and environmentally friendly glue,earth friendly glue,eco glue,environmentally friendly glue
The types of glue we use and their impact on the environment probably isn’t up all that high on our going green checklists, but I thought I’d delve into the world of adhesives commonly used around the home to see what’s what. After all, if there are some big environmental issues in our lives we aren’t ready to tackle, there’s lots of little ones where we can make headway in the meantime! What is in glue? The composition of glue varies widely according to application, but these days for anything more heavy duty than gluing paper for kids craft projects and paper mache, they are often based on petrochemical products, meaning they have their roots in crude oil. Some of the compounds used are polyvinyl acetate (PVA), epoxy, polyurethane and cyanoacrylate polymers. Aside the crude oil link, these substances have their own additional environmental impact. Additionally, the substances are often dissolved in a solvent. As the solvent evaporates during the drying process, it can generate volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which may include greenhouse gases, ozone depleting substances, chemicals involved in the creation of smog and other gases hazardous to human health. Environmentally friendly glue I think the important thing to bear in mind with "green" glue products, also known as bioadhesives, is to not expect a product so non-toxic you could eat it (although some do exist); rather something that has less impact than mainstream products. Home made glue If you want to know exactly what is in the glue you use; you can make your own. You can always use the kindergarten teacher’s favourite – flour and water; but that’s not going to cut it for jobs such as mending frames or gluing fabric. Here’s a few recipes for home-made glue you may like to try for various applications including paper, fabric, leather, ceramics, wood, glass and cardboard. Just a note for those on the road to veganism: some of the recipes contain gelatin, which is an animal product. Commercial "green" glue I wasn’t able to find recipes for metal plastics glue and not everyone has the time or inclination to make their own glue, so it’s good to see commercial bioadhesive products now available. I’m not going to recommend any specific products as I haven’t used any as yet, but they can be easily found via your favorite search engine using search terms such as:
green glue earth friendly glue eco glue environmentally friendly glue
However, don’t be fooled by a flashy site and be wary of greenwashing. Things to look for in an earth friendly glue include - Low or no VOC - Petrochemical free - Water based - Recycled or recyclable packaging - Look for an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) so you can determine what is actually in it.
March 8 sees the highest level of global women’s activity ever witnessed as groups celebrate the International Women’s Day centenary.
World internet usage statistics show that the internet is still doubling in size in the U.S. and growing from 400 to 1000% a year, worldwide. In fact, the total electric bill to operate those servers and related infrastructure equipment was $2.7 billion in the United States and $7.2 billion worldwide. It is estimated that if energy consumption with web hosting keeps raising at the current rate by 2020 the industry will be more polluting than the airline industry. 
