12 Green Days of Christmas

12 Tips to Have a Green Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas: Get that closet ready! Almost 100,000 tons of old clothes will be thrown away this Christmas, so if you know your getting a new wardrobe, be sure to get your closet ready by donating your old clothes to a local charity.

On the eleventh day of Christmas: Avoid buying gifts that require batteries! New gifts at Christmas often mean that households go through a lot of batteries. But remember, batteries contain toxic chemicals, are not biodegradable and are difficult to recycle. As an alternative, One Stop Green recommends using rechargeable batteries or better yet, try buying new USB rechargeable batteries! By opening the batteries cap and plugging it into a USB connector, you can recharge them pretty much anywhere and save them from otherwise being disposed!

On the tenth day of Christmas: Buy in bulk! Instead of purchasing cans of soda and individual small bags of chips, go ahead and stock up on bulk goods you know you’ll end up using to reduce packaging waste and save on trips to the grocery store.

On the ninth day of Christmas: Getting a new cell phone or electronic product for Christmas? Be sure to dispose of that old phone or electronic through an e-recycling program. Each year, approximately 130 million cell phones are thrown out that weigh over 65,000 tons. Recycle your old phone or electronic responsibly to prevent hazardous elements like mercury, cadmium and lead from leaking into our landfills.

On the eight day of Christmas: Buy a Real Christmas Tree and be sure to Recycle! Ninety-eight percent of Christmas trees were grown on farms, not in forests, so it's not as if you're cutting down an ancient tree. Each year, 10 million Christmas trees end up in the landfills and while your tree won't fit in the recycling bin, you can recycle it through various other methods, one of which is through programs offered by the city to turn your tree into mulch.

On the seventh day of Christmas: Add Organic and Local Foods to Your Holiday Feast! Support local farms that grow sustainable meat and produce. Not only does it taste better, but its more humane towards animals and you'll be doing your part for the planet too. Speaking of buying local foods...

On the sixth day of Christmas: Buy Local Gifts - The impact of transportation contributes significantly to greenhouse emissions and global warming so this Christmas, buy locally made and manufactured gifts from places such as fairs and artisan shops that reduce the added costs of transportation.

On the fifth day of Christmas: Christmas is expensive and that means lots of bills! This Christmas, be sure to sign up for paper free billing and pay all your bills online. Not only will this help you cut down on the amount of junk mail you receive but you'll save some trees as well!

On the fourth day of Christmas: Not all gifts have to be store-bought. Give more while spending less by making personal and unique gifts from scratch. Need some ideas? Check out how to make your own Green Terrarium! fwd4.me/0he8

On the third day of Christmas: Use LED Christmas lights to decorate your home! Save money, use less energy, and invest in long term LED energy saving Christmas lights that will give you all the festive cheer without the holiday electricity bill.

On the second day of Christmas: Re-use gift bags! Save your gift bag or wrapping paper and re-use them for other gifts to use less paper. Try also using the comic section of your daily newspaper to wrap gifts – it’s free, saves money, and helps the environment!

And on the first day of Christmas: Buy Green! This Christmas, consider giving the gift of green and give recycled and up-cycled gifts and ornaments! For more eco-friendly gift ideas and tips, visit OneStopGreen.com – your destination for green living! 

One Stop Green is looking towards a ‘greener’ future, sharing the latest and greatest ideas in green living and green technology with you through our staff written blogs. Going 'green' is no longer a choice, it's our responsibility, that's why it's so important to try and do the small things that can help change the outlook of the planet - and this is essentially the purpose of One Stop Green. We believe even the little things like recycling or using less water helps the environment out in a big way, and that's why our various solutions seek to nurture and edify your home or business in an eco-friendly manner.

Visit our website at www.onestopgreen.com or download the mobile app at http://fwd4.me/01gP

Repair vs. Replace: Repair to Extend the Life of your Appliance & Save the Environment

By Adria Saracino


Did you know that the U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country despite only having about 5% of the world's population? Surprisingly, appliances are a huge part of that waste. In 2009, there were 3.8 million tons of major appliances thrown away.


Some of this waste may be unnecessary. When an appliance breaks, many homeowners spend a lot of money either replacing the whole unit or hiring a repair man to diagnose the problem. While these professionals can offer valuable insight, oftentimes the most common appliance problems can be easily fixed by homeowners.


PartSelect Appliances created this interactive infographic highlighting some of the most common appliance problems in our homes. It shows each common issue and the parts required to correct the problem. It also compares the average cost of replacing the appliance to the cost of the parts required to fix the problem, with a scale showing the difficulty of the repair.










So before you spend a lot of money on a new appliance or handyman services, determine if you can easily fix the problem yourself. Repairing vs. replacing is an environmentally-friendly way to extend the life of your appliance!

One Stop Green is looking towards a ‘greener’ future, sharing the latest and greatest ideas in green living and green technology with you through our staff written blogs. Going 'green' is no longer a choice, it's our responsibility, that's why it's so important to try and do the small things that can help change the outlook of the planet - and this is essentially the purpose of One Stop Green. We believe even the little things like recycling or using less water helps the environment out in a big way, and that's why our various solutions seek to nurture and edify your home or business in an eco-friendly manner. 

Visit our website at www.onestopgreen.com or download the mobile app at http://fwd4.me/01gP

About the Author:Adria Saracino is the Head of Outreach at Distilled.net. When she's not talking to interesting people on the web, you can find her writing about Seattle style on her personal fashion blog, The Emerald Closet.

Keystone XL Pipeline - Why it Matters

When the Numbers just don’t add up…

The two main arguments for proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,700-mile stretch of pipe and pumps that would link a gargantuan oil patch in Alberta to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast is that it will create jobs, thus improving the economy, and that it will secure America's future energy resources. Both arguments are refuted in the second of two articles by Tom Zeller at the Huffington Post about the controversy surrounding the development of the oil pipeline. The first installment can be found here, but in summary, the number of jobs and the amount of money the XL pipeline is expected to generate has been greatly over exaggerated. Furthermore, the risks entailed to the environment with a pipeline of this sort far outweigh the proposed benefits that TransCanada, the company behind the project claims. This resistance has in many ways taken on a symbolic tone, putting supporters of clean energy against those who are not and may just be one of the most important decisions the Obama administration makes in its first term.

How does the XL Oil Pipeline effect the environment?

While the estimates on how bad this pipeline will actually be for the environment vary, what we do know is that it will undoubtedly have a negative impact on it. Estimates of the increase in carbon footprint have ranged anywhere from 5 to more than 30 percent depending on who you are asking and the potential for disaster that is a result of a spill or crack in the pipeline makes risks to the environment that much more substantial.

All About Jobs

Perhaps the biggest argument for proponents of the pipeline is that it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and invest billions into the American economy.  These figures, claimed by TransCanada, which sometimes cites "numerous studies" as its source, have been highly refuted causing TransCanada to adjust their original claims. In the end, the pipeline will undeniably create jobs, just how many and where is the question. Independent studies claim that the impact on the U.S. economy would be at the most 2.3 billion, a far cry from the 7 billion that TransCanada originally declared. A sizable percentage of materials for the pipeline would be obtained from foreign markets, while the direct construction and manufacturing jobs would be only be temporary, with pipeline builders being imported to camps along the planned route. If the jobs argument is not there, is this pipeline really worth risking the preservation of our environment?

But what about Energy Security?

Finally, changing up how America imports its oil is unlikely to provide much security. Oil is a global commodity and thus responds to complex and often unpredictable global events. Last year, an analysis commissioned by the Department of Energy noted that securing America’s energy would have little to do with the Keystone XL. The global nature of the oil market makes it difficult to answer even the most simplest of questions in what will the Keystone XL do for me in terms of reduced gas prices? Perhaps most surprisingly, analyst have suggested that Keystone XL would actually drive up gas prices by 10 or 20 cents a gallon in the Midwest, where tar sands crude is currently bottlenecked. Not only are we failing to secure our country’s energy future but we are also further burdening our economy by asking driver’s to pay for it at the pump.

What do we do now?

It's time for us as a country to think about long-term solutions to our energy crisis and the Keystone XL Pipeline is simply not it. If it weren't for the controversy that has erupted since the announcement of the proposed pipeline in the forms of mass demonstrations and protests, this pipeline would have already been approved and we would have set our country upon yet another doomed path. We need to learn from our past mistakes and quit thinking in terms of how to satisfy our next quick fix and instead, concentrate more on sustainable solutions taking into consideration the long-term impact it will have on our country.

One Stop Green is looking towards a ‘greener’ future, sharing the latest and greatest ideas in green living and green technology with you through our staff written blogs. Going 'green' is no longer a choice, it's our responsibility, that's why it's so important to try and do the small things that can help change the outlook of the planet - and this is essentially the purpose of One Stop Green. We believe even the little things like recycling or using less water helps the environment out in a big way, and that's why our various solutions seek to nurture and edify your home or business in an eco-friendly manner.

Visit our website at www.onestopgreen.com or download the mobile app at http://fwd4.me/01gP