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YesY 3-D Printing Design Comp - 1st prize $1000 - Deadline Feb 1. YesY
See Open source sustainability 3-D printing design competition.

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Intellectual property internship
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You can have a Green Christmas.
You can have a Green Christmas. Often the best time of year for catching up with family and friends, it's also the biggest time of spending - on presents, food, alcohol, parties and holidays. Unfortunately, all of our spending and consumption results in significant environmental damage and carbon pollution. However, you don't have to be a scrooge to reduce your carbon footprint at Christmas. Here are tips for a more sustainable festive season.

Buy a service, not a product: To reduce embodied carbon pollution and water consumption, think about buying someone a service - say a voucher for a massage, rather than a massaging appliance. Vouchers for other services, (such as gardening or housecleaning) or film and theatre tickets are also good. Beware gifts that will increase the recipient's motor travel.

Buy gift vouchers: Gift vouchers are a good thing for the environment. People use them to get exactly what they want. And they can use its value for a purchase in the store at any time after christmas. Make sure the validity is at least 6 months or a year, so that recipient will not forget to use it before it expires. (more tips follow)

Ecological dry toilets at Pedregal

Ecological dry toilets at Pedregal, a Permaculture Demonstration Center in Oaxaca, Mexico.

AudenLibraryOfCongress.jpg
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.
W. H. Auden
Planted cattails at Millcreek greywater
Greywater, sometimes also spelled as graywater, grey water or gray water, is all of the effluent water from a household, such as water discharged from lavatories (bathroom sinks), bathtubs, showers, clothes washers, and laundry trays. Greywater is not wastewater from a sink used for food preparation, or water closet (toilet) wastewater.

The water leaving our homes carries nutrients and value. It may also contain pathogens, and/or harsh chemicals and care should be taken with it. However, it is not a great risk compared to blackwater (sewage).

Redirecting the water we use for tasks such as showering allows us to reclaim some of that value to grow plants and recharge the water table. It may be necessary to choose our soaps and detergents more carefully, if we use the greywater for watering and fertilizing plants.

Main portal: Water
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