Prevent and Treat Mosquito Bites Using Everyday Items

We all have makeshift solutions and homemade remedies that are better for the environment (and often less expensive) than many products on the market.

Visit http://www.altuse.com/ to share your ideas with the green community, and learn other ways you can use everyday products around your home and garden. AltUse is giving away GoGreenMugs as prizes every day this week, so we encourage you all to participate by simply entering your ideas!

Here are just a few examples of how you can prevent and treat mosquito bites this summer:

• Rub a fabric softener sheet on your clothing to repel mosquitoes. Great for working outside or when on a camping trip.


• If you've already been bitten, try breaking open an aspirin and rubbing it on the bite to reduce the itch.

We hope you find their site useful and informative, and that you take a bit of time to share your ideas with the community!

Protecting our coastlines - the Marine Life Protection Act and what you can do

At GoGreenMug.com, we're committed to minimizing negative effects on the environment, by promoting the reduction of waste we, as a society, generate.

We wanted to use this week's blog to remind you all of some simple actions you can take to reduce your waste. Some of these things will not only be helpful to the environment, but may also save you some money:

• Reduce paper waste by paying your bills online and signing up for e-statements. You'll be less likely to make a late payment, save yourself and the billing company a few envelopes, and save yourself some postage (which is scheduled to increase May 11, 2009).
  
• Bring reusable containers to restaurants to carry your leftovers home. Your containers are most likely much sturdier than what the restaurants give you; plus, theirs are almost always made of styrofoam.


• Bring your own bags to the supermarkets. We are seeing lots of people starting to adopt this action, and the markets are definitely taking notice. Some places such as Target reduce your bill by five cents for every bag you save them; other markets like Trader Joe's enter you into a weekly raffle. So gather up some old bags (or buy some), and throw a few into your car so you'll always have them on hand when you're out shopping.


• Remember - your GoGreenMug can be used for any kind of beverage, including water or soda. No need to waste single-use cups at the office for water/coffee, and some restaurants let you fill up your mug at their soda fountain instead of using their throwaway cups.
  

In addition to minimizing negative effects on the environment, there are some simple steps you can take to promote positive change. The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) of California was passed in 1999 (yes, this was a while ago, but it is scheduled to be fully implemented by late 2010-2011). This law is intended to provide various levels of protection to specific areas along the coastal waters, by controlling what types of activities are allowed. By strategically placing these safe-havens (Marine Protected Areas - MPA's), marine life can prosper and may flow from one MPA to another. For more information on the MLPA, please visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/

If you feel any particular areas along the California coast would benefit by being designated an MPA, please complete a survey the Surfrider Foundation has published at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=jweijd4I8d5vtscSSwjSHw_3d_3d

Last week, we visited the Portfolio Coffeehouse in Long Beach, CA. It's a fairly large shop, with lots of seating areas, including comfy couches, and plenty of places to plug a laptop into. This shop offers ten cents off for customers who bring in their own mugs (the discount only applies to coffee orders though). The baristas said they make an effort to recycle as much as they can, are conscious of the types of material used in their disposable utensils, and offer ceramic mugs to customers intending to enjoy their beverage in the coffeehouse.

Thank you for your efforts to reduce the waste, and have a great week!

Deforestation and Coffee Cups

How many trees are cut down every year to create single use disposable coffee cups?


According to Sustainability Is Sexy more than 6.5 million trees were cut down in 2006 to create the 16 billion paper cups thrown away. Coffee shop paper cups are not made from recycled paper because of FDA regulation and the fact that recycled paper is not strong enough to hold the liquid and prevent hot coffee leaks and spills. Therefore most paper cups are made from 100% virgin paperwood.


Deforestation is the process by which trees in a forest are cut down. The reasons for deforestation are numerous, including logging (to make paper products), increasing farmland, mining and population expansion. This deforestion creates wastelands and deserts, but in our opinion there is a far more environmentally important result.

Trees are like Carbon Dioxide sponges. They remove carbon from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis and release small amounts of Oxygen back into the atmosphere. Only an actively growing tree can perform this function. The Carbon absorbed by the trees is also compacted into the soil where after millions of years it creates the fossil fuels we use abundantly today. Cutting down trees, exposes this soil and allows this carbon stored in the soil to be realeased back into the atmosphere.


Therefore by chopping down trees we remove the planets natural Carbon Dioxide filter and also release more carbon into the atmosphere from the soil. And as we all know increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a major cause of our global warming environmental problem.



To add to this increased carbon dioxide from deforestation, the creation and then disposable of all these coffee cups, creates even more carbon dioxide. Creating the paper requires large machines that belch out carbon dioxide and burning of non -recycleable used coffee cups also increases carbon emmissions.

Of course planting trees is an excellent way to reduce some of the damage caused by deforestation, but we must also commit to reducing our waste and to reusing our own personal coffee mugs.

With all this in mind I took my Go Green Mug to Seattles Best coffee shop in the Borders bookshop in the District in Tustin, CA. Seattles Best offered me a 10 cent discount for using my reusable mug and as I intended to read a magazine at the shop I was pleased that once again the barrista filled up my 16 oz. mug and I only paid for a small 12 oz.

Remember to take your reusable travel mug into all the coffee shops you visit and ask them for a discount. Let us know where you went and the discount offered. If you can get a pic then please send it to us at support@gogreenmug.com and we will post it in next weeks blog. Alternatively just comment on the blog and tell us about your visit.

Also if you have not done it already join our cause on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?m=fa5edc14&recruiter_id=35111682 or on the Starbucks V2V at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug

Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and you can get free shipping and a 15% discount with the coupon code: luvday until Valentines Day February 14th for your personalized re-usable travel mug. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.