Eco-Insanity - supposedly new eco products that have existed for centuries or that people just don't need

Peopletowels!  Get this. They are reusable cloth towels!  Machine washable and they last for years!  As if we hadn't had such a thing for centuries.  And they began with a  design contest at inhabitat.com!

What are PeopleTowels?

People Towels are the newest concept in sustainability, and the latest in eco-chic fashion. An on-the-go, sustainable alternative to paper towels in public facilities, these reusable personal hand towels are made of a patent-pending fabric that’s 100% certified organic Fair Trade cotton.  The light-weight fabric is absorbent, yet dries quickly.

PeopleTowels are printed with eco-friendly dyes, and come in a variety of designs to appeal to different tastes and styles.  Convenient hangtags even allow you to clip or loop your PeopleTowels to your backpack, belt buckle or purse.

PeopleTowels are machine washable and will last for years. The towels will soften and fade slightly after repeated washings.  You may see slight variations in the towels.  

Reusable PeopleTowels are a small sustainable lifestyle change that everyonecan do to reduce their carbon footprint. Read more about the environmental benefits of PeopleTowels here.

Their mission statement: PeopleTowels’ mission is to empower ordinary people and socially responsible companies to contribute to a sustainable environment by replacing paper towels with reusable PeopleTowels.
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Is this a joke?  People buy these?  I have more reusable cloth towels than I can use and they are all hand me downs or resale.  And they all last for years.  That's eco-chic. 

My Garden--Eating Well Can Be Cheap

Filled with greens, onions and herbs.  And right now, strawberries, but they will be moved soon to make room for leeks.  Soon, I'll have to post a picture of my verticle Strawberry planter sitting in one of the few other tiny patches of sunlight.

It's a small raised bed at the very edge of my front yard, the only spot that gets enough sun year round in my home that faces entirely the wrong directions at angles to the sun. That's the neighbor's driveway. Built this past October with the help from Transition Houston in a program they call a Permablitz--the group spends one day doing various permaculture and sustainable projects around your home.

A raised bed garden like this can be trouble free for years if you follow a few simple tips. You don't even have to remove sod. Just put down many layers of newspaper or one layer of corrugated cardboard right on top of your lawn.    Then put down your cinder blocks, timbers or whatever you are going to use. Fill with good soil. Plant. Run a soaker or drip hose around your plants.

Many food producing plants are quite attractive and there's no reason not to include them in your landscape.  Greens, sweet potatoes, pea and bean vines and blueberry bushes are some examples of truly lovely plants. Tomatoes can be made more atractive if you use nice trellises to support them. Put flowers here and there to pretty up the space.  Marigolds repel many pests. Nasturtiums are edible.

I've yet to eat much from this garden though, as I get more fruits, greens and other veggies than I can eat for free each week in exchange for 2 hours volunteer work at a community supported farming and organic coop.

New post in my Diet for Clear Skin Blog

On Anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle habits and how chronic inflammation is the root cause of most of the diseases people suffer from today. And it's aging and a major factor in acne formation:

http://dietforclearskin.blogspot.com/

Collecting Ambient Energy

Ambient Energy Generator Technology -  A few more of the many ways to produce electricity without burning things.  The planet and universe is full of them.

Single Use Plastic Bags Banned in Hawaii

http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/how-hawaii-plastic-bag-ban-came-about.html?campaign=sailthru

Here in Houston, they are 'studying' a ban on plastic bags, giving all the plastic manufacturers time to fight it.  I believe that imposing a charge on the bags would be a much better way to go in this town.  I'm sure there's be an uproar about jobs, rights, the Constitution and socialism if they were to outright ban them.

Buildings from Rubble

Ancient technique of Gabion baskets filled with loose stone or rubble used to build Earthquake resistant homes out of the rubble in Haiti.

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5782/53/

Builders in the U.S. are pretty good at making concrete rubble.  It should be put to use.

Germany Sets New Renewable Energy Record

Germany Sets New Renewable Energy Record:
Producing 20.8 percent of it's energy from renewables. And Germany is not a particularly sunny or windy place.
"So how Germany did it? In one word: Policy. In a report published earlier this year, Deutsche Bank provided some of the ingredients of the German successful recipe: Setting ambitious but attainable binding renewable energy and climate targets, integrating these targets into energy policies and linking the targets to comprehensive energy policy targets, creating incentives (feed-in tariffs for example) to minimize investor risks and drive costs down, and balancing constructive regulatory policy with flexibility by introducing policy incentives that can also be adjusted to reflect changing market conditions (for example, reducing solar feed-in tariff when solar costs are going down). It’s not surprising that the verdict of Deutsche Bank was: “We believe that Germany exhibits best in class climate and renewable energy policy structures.”

Germany’s push for renewable energy was motivated by a desire among politicians to act against climate change and reduce the country’s carbon footprint. Then, the growth of the renewable sector brought other incentives like energy security and job creation. Renewable energy garnered widespread political and public support." http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/09/generating-gloomy-news-germany-setting-new-record-renewable-energy-usage/?dhiti=1