Going Green Takes Flight!

Green Cleaners firmly believes in fully supporting companies and establishments who choose to put in efforts towards eco awareness. That having been said, we would like to share a brilliant step taken by Virgin Atlantic!

One of the world's leading airlines Virgin Atlantic is now using 100% recycled materials in its amenity packs.

Following six months of work on design and development, Virgin Atlantic has launched their kits, made entirely from eco-friendly materials, for passengers in Upper Class and Premium Economy seats.

The recycled Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material created from a workable yarn is produced from smashed, melted, polymerized and spun recycled plastic bottles.

Using this method, Virgin Atlantic believes around 4 million bottles each year could be recycled to use in the kits. As the fabric produced uses recycled materials instead of new ones, it produces a carbon footprint 90% lower than nylon.

Upper Class passengers are encouraged to take their kit with them after the flight as it can be used as a stylish tablet or e-reader case. Premium Economy kits can also be used as a travel wallet.

Any kits left behind are collected for re-use. The contents of open packs are recycled by MNH Sustainable Cabin Services.

Last year, MNH and Virgin Atlantic prevented almost 700 tonnes of cabin waste going to landfill sites by recycling various items such as amenity kits, pillows and headsets.

Recycling materials is just one way in which Virgin Atlantic's Change is in the Air sustainability programme is making a real difference. Although the main priority of Virgin Atlantic is fuel and carbon efficiency, it also concentrates on other eco-friendly practices, such using sustainable materials in its products.

Head of Product and Service for Virgin Atlantic, Paul Sands, says, "Our passengers love receiving their amenity kits and it's the little extra touches that make all the difference. At the same time, we are passionate as an airline about making sure everything we do is reviewed through a sustainability lens. These kits not only look great but also have better sustainability profile."

The new kits are dark grey and have a black cherry lining. They contain various items such as socks, eyeshades, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste.

For more information, you may visit http://www.earthtimes.org!

Staying Lean While Keeping It Green

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We really enjoyed sharing our DIY pampering recipes with you all last night, so tonight we’re carrying on the path to health and happiness. Did you know that your daily workout is another lifestyle area where you can make earth-friendly changes? There are countless eco-savvy ways to get in your daily dose of physical fitness. Here are some of our favorite tips for energizing your exercise with a green boost:

Take it outside whenever you can.
Instead of increasing your energy consumption via home and gym exercise machines, take advantage of hiking and biking trails in your area. One big advantage to the great outdoors - it’s 100% free and always interesting! If you don’t fancy going solo, invite a friend or two and take in some quality time as well.

Inspire a green makeover at your health club or gym.
If the great outdoors just aren’t for you, consider encouraging your gym to make some eco-friendly upgrades. Make sure your club offers recycling bins and energy efficient machines, and remind the staff to ask patrons to limit their towel usage.

Car pool to your local gym with a friend or neighbor.
Not only does carpooling cut down on your fuel costs and usage, but having a gym buddy is an instant incentive to keep up with your fitness goals and resolutions. For extra support, consider joining a soccer, volleyball, or kickball league in your neighborhood. No one to car pool with? Your bike is another great way to get where you’re going and warm up for your workout at the same time.

Dress the part.
Looking for some new workout clothing or gear? Organic cotton and bamboo threads are a great place to start for sweat-friendly green fabrics. For eco-conscious equipment choices, check the web or a local sporting goods shop for great deals on secondhand bikes and weights.

Give in to the bottle.
The water bottle that is! Move on from one-time use plastic water bottles. It’s time to commit to using refillable water bottles for workouts and everyday hydration. Using a refillable bottle means less waste in landfills and more money in your wallet.

Get creative with your workout routine.
It’s not always easy to find time to head to the gym or commit to an after-work jogging schedule. Try to throw in an extra walk or bike ride during your lunch break for a calorie-burning boost. Another great way to supplement your gym routine: Try knocking out some house or yard work by attacking the job with gusto! Shoveling snow, raking leaves, vacuuming and dusting can be great activities for burning off a greasy business lunch or the sins of the weekend roasts and barbecues. Do you have more ideas on how to stay lean and keep it green? We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, stay fit, happy and healthy the Green Cleaners way!

A Green, Ghoulish Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and we have everything you need from prep to clean up to ensure that your celebrations will be ghoulishly green!

Like many of our holidays, Halloween can be an expensive and wasteful experience. Don't let the commercialism take all the fun or eco-friendly opportunities out of it! Check out our simple tips to make sure you don't spook Mother Nature this October.

Green Halloween Costumes
Consider reusing or recycling costumes from previous years, or recycling old clothing into new costumes. Before you set out your paper recycling, set aside cardboard boxes and large pieces of paper that you can use to enhance ideas.

Green Halloween Treats
Instead of giving out high-sugar candy, consider giving pennies for UNICEF, pencils, erasers, or temporary tattoos. Besides reducing the waste of all the single-serving packaging, you’ll be providing a healthy alternative to candy. If your kids won’t let you give up food treats, consider small boxes of raisins or other semi sweet treats which have recyclable paper packaging.

Green Halloween Decorations
Halloween decorations can be natural and non-commercial, with gourds, pumpkins and Jack-o-Lanterns! Lower your emissions on Halloween by buying locally grown pumpkins, and then lower your waste by composting them after Halloween is over. Use recycled paper to make window decorations, and then send them on for another round of recycling after the holiday. Paper grocery bags can be cut and molded into spooky Halloween trees, masks, and painted white for ghostly effects.

Green Halloween Trick-or-Treating
Send your children trick-or-treating with reusable buckets, canvas bags or pillow cases. Lower emissions by trick-or-treating in your neighborhood and get to know your neighbors better by inviting them over for an old fashioned bobbing-for-apples competition at your house.

Green Halloween Party
Send electronic invitations instead of paper to lower waste. Instead of using plastic plates, cups and utensils, compostable silverware and party plates are now widely available. Go to your neighborhood store and purchase a pile of mismatched cloth napkins and then have guests toss them in a bin for washing and reusing at your next party. Be sure to recycle bottles and cans, and compost leftovers.

Green Halloween Cleanup
Once Halloween is over, recycle your pumpkins, the straw you used to build scarecrows and any other organic material by composting it. For inedible items, add them to your composting pile (or start composting now!) for great, nutrient rich soil in the spring.

If you have any further ideas to keep the festivities eco friendly, let us know! In the meantime, Trick or Treat!

5 reasons not to drink bottled water

In 2009 there was sold 73 million litres of bottled water in Singapore alone, which gives roughly150 mio plastic water bottles to dispose.

And why even buy bottled water in Singapore? With the tap water being as clean as water can be, there is no good excuse to buy the bottled version.

Here are 5 reasons why NOT to buy bottled water:

1) Bottled water isn't a good value
Branded bottled water is sold from vending machines at the same price as soft drinks. Branded bottled water is essentially filtered tap water, bottled close to their distribution point. Most municipal water costs less than 1 cent per 10 liters.

2) No healthier than tap water
While public safety groups correctly point out that many municipal water systems are aging and there remain hundreds of chemical contaminants for which no standards have been established, there's very little empirical evidence that suggests bottled water is any cleaner or better for you than its tap equivalent.

3) Bottled water means garbage
The plastic used to bottle beverages is of high quality and in demand by recyclers, However, over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.

That assumes empty bottles actually make it to a garbage can. Plastic waste is now at such a volume that vast eddies of current-bound plastic trash now spin endlessly in the world's major oceans. This represents a great risk to marine life, killing birds and fish which mistake our garbage for food.

Thanks to its slow decay rate, the vast majority of all plastics ever produced still exist — somewhere.

4) Bottled water means less attention to public systems
Many people drink bottled water because they don't like the taste of their local tap water, or because they question its safety.

This is like running around with a slow leak in your tire, topping it off every few days rather than taking it to be patched. Only the very affluent can afford to switch their water consumption to bottled sources. Once distanced from public systems, these consumers have little incentive to support bond issues and other methods of upgrading municipal water treatment.

5) The corporatization of water
Water is being called the "Blue Gold" of the 21st century. Thanks to increasing urbanization and population, shifting climates and industrial pollution, fresh water is becoming humanity's most precious resource.

Multinational corporations are stepping in to purchase groundwater and distribution rights wherever they can, and the bottled water industry is an important component in their drive to commoditize what many feel is a basic human right: the access to safe and affordable water.

What can you do?
There's a simple alternative to bottled water: buy a stainless steel thermos, and use it. Don't like the way your local tap water tastes? Inexpensive carbon filters will turn most tap water sparkling fresh at a fraction of bottled water's cost.

Will we ever learn? (Part 1)

So last night I went to Stereophonics concert, who decided to start one and a half hour later. Rockstars.

I guess age is catching up to me so I am getting abit more impatient. And plus their stage presence wasn't that great. I might as well pop in their dvd on a large screen and press play. So overall it was all just ok.

What disappointed me the most is that everyone is talking about recycling and going green but there was no recycling bin to be found at the concert venue, which was held at Fort Canning Park.

As the night progressed, more and more litter was collected on the grass instead of the bin. I only saw one bin on the left hand side of the park which was slowly being filled with mainly cans and plastic bottles. And guess what were the main leftover of these litter-friendly concert goers? Beer cans and plastic bottles, which could all be recycled. These events companies should provide a recycling bin at all events.

Placing it there is a huge statement on its own. It will make people think twice about just disposing recyclable materials in the regular bin or littering. But the saddest thing about whole thing is that these people are all of a matured crowd.... If we adults can't even be responsible enough to not litter, then what about the simplest act of recycling? When are we ever gonna grow up....

Eco friendly rebuilt for Cuba's disaster-hit homes

Hurricane Gustav slammed into the Cuban coastal town of Los Palacios in August, 2008, a dangerous category 4 storm.

It damaged 84 percent of the homes, many of them made of wood. Ten days later, Hurricane Ike tore across much of Cuba, dumping torrential rains on Los Palacios. And then in November, Paloma struck the island. The government put the combined damage at $10 billion. Now, a unique program helps victims re-build their lives and their homes. New houses have gone up all along the hurricane corridor in the western province of Pinar del Rio. Many of them are made entirely or partly of "eco-materials", local resources turned into construction materials at a low cost and all done in the community, which saves on their carbon footprint by transportation. After hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, CIDEM moves in quickly to set up mini-factories using its own low-tech machinery. In Los Palacios, CIDEM set up a mini-factory last year.

Five workers operate a simple contraption that uses vibrations to turn out blocks made from local gravel, sand and cement (sweet). The machine has the capacity to produce 1,200 blocks a day, that is equivalent to a house. In Cuba, the government works closely with CIDEM. They provide professionals to oversee the work and they guarantee hurricane victims paid leave from their jobs in order to rebuild houses. CIDEM has set up workshops in 18 countries in Latin America, five in Africa and most recently in Asia, with funding primarily from Switzerland and Canada.

The environment impact is about saving energy as little or no transportation is required to rebuild these houses, plus they recycle old materials :) Recycling is the way to go people!!!!!

Tip of the day: PLEASE SWITCH OFF you computer or laptop when you are done with it instead of leaving it idle or on sleep mode. You'll save lots of electricity and give your computer a rest too :) Peace.

Singapore Govt. pledges S$1b on green sustainable projects

S$1 billion has been earmarked for greening Singapore's infrastructure over the next five years. Experts said the real challenge lies not in new developments, but in retrofitting existing buildings. Lee Siew Eang, head, Energy Sustainability Unit, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, said: "That forms approximately about 80 per cent of our existing building stocks and these lots of buildings will be operating for a long time to come, perhaps for the next 20, 30 years... we really should look into making sure that they are more energy efficient, more sustainable."

One area to target is air conditioning systems, which consume about 60 per cent of energy in most buildings. For buildings that are inefficient, this number can go up to 80 per cent.A government subsidy for landlords to become more energy efficient will certainly help to reduce the nation's carbon footprint.

Other initiatives to consider include more solar-powered public lighting, or motion sensor lights that remain off when no one is around. But one problem that Singapore faces in the implementation of clean or renewable energy projects is the lack of local expertise. Many of these projects currently rely on foreign consultants. But the government hopes to change that by subsidising professional conversion courses, so that a mechanical engineer retrenched in the manufacturing sector, for example, can undergo training, and then play a part in greening Singapore.

The Building and Construction Authority plans to train at least 8,000 specialists in areas like sustainable building design and energy management, over the next five years.

2009 Academy Awards Go Green with Dry Cleaning Swag Bag

A splash of green will adorn the red carpet at this year's Academy Awards with the announcement that a reusable dry cleaning garment bag from Chicago-based Dry Greening™ will debut as the official "swag bag" for the 10th Annual Billboard Magazine/Children Uniting Nations Oscar After-Party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Feb. 22.

The reusable Dry Greening bag can be used as both a dry cleaning garment bag and a tote bag.
It marks the first time ever that a dry cleaning accessory will be featured in the gifting lounge at one of the premier after parties for the Academy Awards.

Launched in December 2008, by Chicagoan Ann Foley, Dry Greening™ offers a reusable dry cleaning bag that is both a tote for dirty clothing being brought to the cleaners and a hanging garment bag for clean clothes being picked up from the cleaners. Dry Greening's™ water-repellant non-woven design is made from 100 percent recycled content.

After the hurricane, New Orleans is going green....

The city known more for French Quarter trash than recycling or renewable energy is going green. In rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina, homes are being fitted with solar panels, organic farming is catching on and the city's got a new fleet of hybrid buses.

On the flanks of those buses, a catch phrase — Cleaner, Smarter — could be the anthem for the movement by institutions and individuals to slowly turn the city's environmentally-unfriendly image around.

Maybe the filthy water that flooded 80 percent of the city after the catastrophe in August 2005 made residents rethink the way to rebuild. Or maybe it's the tax credits or energy price spikes. Whatever the reason, the hurricane created a testing ground for ideas and initiatives.

Singapore condos and private apartments urged to install recycling receptacles

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has urged condominiums and private apartments to provide receptacles for recycling in their estates. Mandatory provision of such receptacles came into effect on November 1 2008 and the new ruling was announced earlier last year.

NEA advises condominiums and private apartments to comply with the recent ruling as many residents living in there have asked for recycling receptacles to be provided in their estates. Presently only 38% of households in condominiums and private apartments have receptacles for recycling in their estates.

NEA sent out letters in October 2008 to the management councils of all condominiums to notify them of the new requirement and to encourage them to start preparation work to provide their residents with receptacles for recycling.

The agency also sent Notices this month to 400 condominium estates with more than 50 units each and they have been given six months to comply with the requirement. NEA would be sending Notices to the other condominiums in phases over the next few months.

Prior to the decision to mandate provision of recycling receptacles, NEA had consulted stakeholders such as management councils, managing agents, waste collectors, and relevant associations. The feedbacks were generally positive, and the main concern was to be given enough time to comply with the requirement. Hence, the NEA has given early notice of the new requirement since Fepuary 2008 and is implementing the requirement in phases.

Another feedback that NEA received is to give some flexibility to the management council in the implementation. Hence, NEA would let the Management Council decide on the type of recycling receptacle suitable for their estate, such as size and type of recycling bins, providing recycling bags instead of bins, or providing separate chute for recyclables.

Commenting on the new ruling, Mr Lee Yuen Hee, CEO of NEA said, 'Apart from businesses, households are an important part of NEA's efforts to increase the national recycling rate from the current 54% to 60% by 2012.'

For more information about NEA, visit www.nea.gov.sg