6 Eco-friendly Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day, people share wonderful moments together and make them more meaningful with a special Valentine present. This year, carry on the tradition with a bit of twist: give green Valentine gifts. Here are some ideas.


1. Tree-friendly Valentine Cards
Next to Christmas, Valentine's Day is the largest card-sending holiday of the year. In fact, 25 percent of all seasonal cards annually are Valentine cards. According to American Greetings Corporation, around a billion valentine cards are sent each year around the world.


Make a difference by choosing cards that are made from recycled or tree-free paper. Card makers usually indicate this at the back of every card. Homemade cards are also a good choice. Make cards out of recycled materials such as thick cardboards, used fabric, old buttons, etc. Creativity and resourcefulness are green virtues.


2. E-books

E-books do not consume paper and do not use up fuel upon delivery. Purchase an e-book that will be of good use to the recipient. For example, a mother who loves to cook might enjoy an e-book of recipes. A dog lover would love an e-book about dog breeds, while a female teenager might appreciate a romance novel.


3. Organic Chocolates

Over 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold each year. It's not bad to be part of the statistic but, for a change, try something different. Organically grown chocolates contain cacao products that were grown without the aid of harmful pesticides. Buying produce from local fair traders helps support sustainable farming and reduce carbon footprint.


Organic chocolates are also good for one's health. When eaten in moderation, they can help improve heart health, control blood sugar, and suppress chronic cough.


4. Locally Grown Organic Flowers

Valentine’s Day is the holiday when most fresh flower purchases are made. Try to add more meaning to the tradition by choosing locally grown organic flowers. Organic flowers are pesticide-free and just as beautiful as the ones grown using conventional gardening. Buying locally grown organic flowers also helps support local growers who advocate environmentally friendly flower farming. Organically grown flowers are usually sold at a fair trade or from flower shops.


Here are a few reasons why locally grown organic flowers are the best choice this Valentine season:


Organic flower farming provides healthier conditions for workers, supports sustainable organic farming practices, and avoids harmful toxic products (artificial pesticides that are often used in conventional flower farming)
Locally grown flowers provide jobs to people within the community, are fresher when bought at nearby flower shops, and use less fuel upon transport or delivery.
A 1997 report found that commercially grown roses contain 1,000 times the amount of cancer-causing pesticides when compared with food products. *
5. Potted Plant
How about giving a potted plant as gift? Potted plants have longer life than freshly cut flowers, which means that they will add to clean air for some time. Giving plants as gifts also encourages people to appreciate flora and give them as gifts too.


6. Jewelry
About 10 percent of engagements happen on Valentine’s day. Hence, the number of jewelry purchases during this occasion is relatively high. Consider purchasing pre-owned jewelry from jewel makers who are certified to be sourcing gemstones and precious metals in an ecologically and socially responsible manner. Buying pre-owned jewelry also helps reduce production rate and consequently, added waste. Another option would be to purchase something offbeat like jewelry made of beads, wood, or other materials.






Read more at Suite101: Green Valentine Gifts: 6 Eco-friendly Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day http://natural-products.suite101.com/article.cfm/green-valentine-gifts#ixzz0fNzFVf6I

Home Decoration Planning Bathrooms

Bathrooms and toilets have always been mused as the intellectuals to spend some time alone and do some thinking and be with peace with oneself. An ideal bath retreat at home may not have a spa, a luxurious Jacuzzi or a whirlpool but is still a place that soothes one’s eyes and mind at once and make the person feel comfortable. It is efficient and beautiful at the same time and should be able to make the day for you. Planning and designing a new bathroom or remodeling the one that is already existing needs a careful execution to minimize spending more than your budget and get what you desired originally.

Whether you will be making just a few cosmetic changes or completely tear down the old bath and replace it with a new one depends on the time, space available and your budget. There can be two ways of execution plans you can adopt:

1. Step-by-step plan, and
2. Finishing the complete project at once.

While undertaking the latter approach is of course efficient and cheaper, it may become inconvenient as you may require a spare bathroom to use in the meanwhile, do or manage many things at once including framing, plumbing, light and faucet fittings, tiling and painting and it can be real taxing on your pocket. So, it may be more suitable for only the new bathrooms while you can adopt the former approach for the remodeling projects.

While designing a bath for homes, it is important to take the following into consideration beforehand:

• Other bathrooms that you can use in your home or your friend’s
  temporarily,
• Make the budget carefully and include the costs of faucets,
  fixtures and light fittings; lumber, cabinets and finishing
  materials; pipes and fittings; curtains, flooring and accessories
  such as towels, spas and warmers and fireplaces.
• You may want to keep some of the existing features or items, may
  recycle some of the architectural and other items available very
  inexpensively at thrift stores and do a good research into the
  options available to you before buying expensive items.
• Architectural drafting with detailed drawings and some of the
  computer applications can help you to visualize the features and
  design and décor elements you desire in your finished
  bathroom.
• Be sure to know the requirements and established codes of the
  building, society and locality you live in and the permissions and
  authority letters that you may require before making the changes and
  stick to the rules and regulations to avoid inconveniences later.

Gujarat Univ converts banana plant waste into useful products

Ahmedabad: In what will be music to the ears of banana cultivators, a Gujarat-based agriculture university has successfully converted those parts of the fruit's plant which are usually thrown away as waste into highly useful products, including an edible candy with nutritional values.

Under a project 'A value chain on utilisation of banana pseudostem for fibre and other value added products', Navsari Agriculture University (NAU) professors have developededible candy high in fibre and nutrition made out of central core of plant pseudostem.

The other products include fibre for textile and paper industry and organic liquid fertiliser, which have been developed under the project which aims for efficient use of each and every component of banana plant.

"We have been working on the project for a year and developed a number of products using the banana plant, including edible candy," NAU professor BN Kolambe told PTI.

"This candy is made from the central core of the banana plant pseudostem, which is a nutrition-rich part. The candy has been developed on experimental basis and we are in the
process of standardising the product," he said.

If parts of the banana plant like leaves and pseudostem are used to develop value added products, farmers would be the ultimate beneficiaries as banana is grown in large quantity in Gujarat, Kolambe said. "A sample of the candy has been sent for certification to
the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore. It is still in the initial stage and once we get the certification we would try and find partners for commercial production," Kolambe said.

The professor said that they have been working for the last one year on the project, which aims at developing technology or processes for utilisation of different parts of banana plant which are thrown away. According to Kolambe, banana is cultivated throughout the year in over 55,000 hectares in the state.

And also looking at the demand for banana in the international market and with new technologies evolved for better yield, farmers have shown interest in its cultivation in state mainly in districts of south Gujarat, he said.

"The per hectare yield of banana crop is about 34 tonnes in the state. As a result, in addition to fruit production, huge quantity of biomass (pseduostem, leaves) is generated
which is discarded as waste," Kolambe said.

In the past, some researchers have successfullydemonstrated use of banana pseudostem and leaves for extraction of fibres on a small scale, he said.

"What we are developing is a technology for extracting fibre and pulp out of banana pseudostem for commercial purpose which could be used in textile and paper industry. Presently, banana fibre in India is mainly used for handicrafts and rope, as major problem of non-adoption of fibre extraction technology is low recovery of fibres leading to high transport cost, Kolambe said.

The professor said that during fibre extraction, waste and sap (a watery solution of sugars, salts and minerals obtained from banana pseudostem) are obtained as by-products, which are used for preparing enriched vermi-compost and as liquid fertiliser respectively.

"We have completed the first phase of developing technology or process. In the next stage we will standardise the process for industrial and commercial use," Kolambe said.

"In the final stage we plan to develop an effective marketing network of banana pseudostem based products and attempts will be made to popularise the developed technologies among the entrepreneurs and other stakeholders through awareness programmes," he said.

With the use of technology developed out of this project, the net profit of banana growers is expected to increase by 15-20% as pseudostem fibres will be an additional
source of raw material for textile and paper industries, Kolambe said.

"Not only this, use of pseudostem based vermi-compost and sap will curtail fertiliser expenses by about 20-25% along with advantage of sustaining soil health," he added.

5 Deadliest Effects of Global Warming

Green house gases stay can stay in the atmosphere for an amount of years ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years. No matter what we do, global warming is going to have some effect on Earth. Here are the 5 deadliest effects of global warming.

5. Spread of disease

As northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease with them. Indeed some scientists believe that in some countries thanks to global warming, malaria has not been fully eradicated.

4. Warmer waters and more hurricanes

As the temperature of oceans rises, so will the probability of more frequent and stronger hurricanes. We saw in this in 2004 and 2005.

3. Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves
Although some areas of Earth will become wetter due to global warming, other areas will suffer serious droughts and heat waves. Africa will receive the worst of it, with more severe droughts also expected in Europe. Water is already a dangerously rare commodity in Africa, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming will exacerbate the conditions and could lead to conflicts and war.

2. Economic consequences
Most of the effects of anthropogenic global warming won’t be good. And these effects spell one thing for the countries of the world: economic consequences. Hurricanes cause do billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these.

1. Polar ice caps melting
The ice caps melting is a four-pronged danger.

First, it will raise sea levels. There are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, if all glaciers melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet. Luckily, that’s not going to happen all in one go! But sea levels will rise.

Second, melting ice caps will throw the global ecosystem out of balance. The ice caps are fresh water, and when they melt they will desalinate the ocean, or in plain English – make it less salty. The desalinization of the gulf current will “screw up” ocean currents, which regulate temperatures. The stream shutdown or irregularity would cool the area around north-east America and Western Europe. Luckily, that will slow some of the other effects of global warming in that area!

Third, temperature rises and changing landscapes in the artic circle will endanger several species of animals. Only the most adaptable will survive.

Fourth, global warming could snowball with the ice caps gone. Ice caps are white, and reflect sunlight, much of which is relected back into space, further cooling Earth. If the ice caps melt, the only reflector is the ocean. Darker colors absorb sunlight, further warming the Earth.