Clean Conscience Blog - Eco Friendly And Reusable Bags

Goodness gracious how time flies!  Thanksgiving, family, kids, grandkids, life, etc.  We're still around hustling and bustling and getting all excited around the holidays.

Here are our holiday shopping tips:
1. Buy recycled products and help close the recycling loop.  There many choices that are fashion friendly and kinder to the earth.
2. Shop online - reduces stress, prevents impulse buying and lowers your carbon use.  Take advantage of on-line deals and free shipping offers.
3. Regifting is the new trend, or donate unusable (or unwanted) gifts to charity.
4. Reduce the amount of packaging waste.  Save and reuse old wrappers, avoid styro fillers, and say NO to plastic bags and wraps.  Remember plastic is made from petroleum so think of your carbon footprint.
5.  Be a prudent gifter.  Everyone knows how hard the economy is.  A phone call, a visit or having a meal together are wholesome gifts that everyone will cherish. 

We don't want to be a party downer, so if you can't resist the christmas shopping, take a large shopping bag when you go to the mall and avoid bringing home more paper and plastic bag waste.  Our Rodeo Drive Tote is perfect for serious department store shopping!

Cheers!http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Green America Business Conference was again held in beautiful San Francisco.  This year Green America even got a cleaner conscience .... using Clean Conscience reusable conference bags made from 100% recycled plastic water bottles.  These printed logo bags helped divert about 1,500 post-consumer PETE water bottles from ending up in our waste stream, and made in USA with a much lower carbon footprint!  Our US factories thank you and the Bay Area thanks you for repurposing waste.  
And we just learned that the Green Festival will be back in April - just in time for Earth Day celebrations!  See you next year!http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Pre-Holiday Sale - Be Green, Promote Green, Give Green!

Eco-friendly reusable tote bags are the new "it" give-away.  Print your logo on these recycled cotton bags and get more exposure for your marketing dollars.  We offer free printing for a minimum order of 250 bags. 

Contact us at:  trade@cleanconsciencegoods.com, or call us at 1-800-518-0740. 
Offer good while supplies last.


http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Clean Conscience Goods.com Shop

Shop our online store for eco friendly, clean and green reusable bags, totes and sacks.  Pay only a flat $3.99 shipping anywhere in the continental USA with NO minimum order required.  Choose from a number of fashionable and functional styles, colors and features.  Made from repurposed and recycled cotton or post-consumer PETE plastic soda and water bottles.  Clean Conscience bags are ideal for shopping, grocery, produce, school, books, laundry, gym, yoga, beach, resort, golf, travel pack or baby gear.  We offer custom logo printing for corporate promotions, fundraising, tradeshows or events.  Our recycled fabric is durable and washable with little shrinkage.  Clean Conscience bags help conserve the use of natural resources and reduce waste going into landfills, ocean and the waste stream.

Shop early for your holiday eco-gift giving!   http://www.cleanconsciencegoods.com/http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

I was recently talking to a few parents and realized that we all share the same predicament lately.  We have college-graduated children who have been displaced from their jobs and who are having difficulty finding employment out there.  It is a hard position for both parents and children to go through this period and very emotionally taxing on families.  Despite the new jobs brought in by the green economy, the number of applicants far outnumber the available jobs when you have hundreds, if not thousands of applicants, for every position listed.  According to the latest report, the nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.8% in September, showing an increase from prior periods.  Some analysts predict that we may even hit 10% in the coming months. 

Read article:       September Non-Farm Payrolls Plunge 263,000

We aim to use this blog in a way that will better serve our readers by focusing on the important issues facing us. There are certainly a number of important environmental issues that we can continue to blog about, but right now, we believe that it is about helping the unemployed find jobs. 

We want to help.  We will start gathering and compiling job sites and job listings and we will be posting these in our blog as fresh as we can get them.  With all the communication means and technological gadgets that we have out there, we hope to help gather and distribute information as quickly and to as many people possible.

If you are a company that has a job opening, please send us the info at ccinfo@cleanconsciencegoods.com with your information and link.  We will post it in our blogsite and feed it to all our webaccounts.

If you are looking for a job, check our blogfeeds regularly for the latest job feed, and pass this on to your friends.

Let us all work together to make America $$green again!  Good luck and be well.
http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Great video - talks about green products being cost-effective in the long run.

http://www.ktvu.com/video/19510920/index.htmlhttp://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Franchises Can Win Customers by Going Green Posted using ShareThis

 
Mainstream businesses are now realizing that eco-awareness has caught on with many consumers.  In order to compete in business, going green plays a strong role in customer attraction and retention.  As a consumer and shopper, we will always choose an eco-conscious merchant that gears their business towards sustainability, conservation, waste reduction and a lower carbon footprint - over one that is not.  The green-mindset is catching on and it is definitely here to stay!
http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Link to article:        Mystery Surrounds New Whole Foods Reusable Bag

From Sustainableisgood.com


Whole Foods' The Better Bag- certainly a fashion friendly bag. But what makes it a better bag? The colors? Good looking bags that are 100% from recycled bottles are available and made in the USA. Do we need to always buy from overseas companies when we have factories and companies that can be sourced domestically? The fact that these bags used waste materials that did not come from America's landfill -doesn't help our waste problems. Bags made by companies outside of the USA, does not help our domestic workforce and contributes to a higher carbon footprint. Factories that do not pay into the American tax system does not help our economy. So why is this a better bag? We have companies that are going out of business in North Carolina because of the flood of imported products (Bloomsburg Mills) Is this what Fair Trade is all about? I hope Whole Foods, which I have a lot of respect for, can give domestic businesses a chance to market their products more. A made in USA bag that supports our economy and takes trash from our own waste stream, to me, is the Better Bag!http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Shared via AddThis
Google Earth launches climate layer | MNN - Mother Nature Network

For those of you who haven't seen the article the link is above. This is so awesome! Leave it to Google to be the major lead for spreading more knowledge and information to everyone on this planet. They have partnered with the Danish government and the United Nations Environment Programme to create this application with the goal of taking our climate challenge database to the next level, just in time for the upcoming Climate Change summit.

How many times can I say awesome?

Thank you, Google!http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

In February 2009, Dr. Ewa Z. of EZ-Rehab/Mill Valley joined a team of volunteers from the Friends of Ruwenzori for their mission trip to Uganda, providing free medical services at the KIDA HIV/AIDS Clinic. Here we see our Ewa with her Clean Conscience logo-printed reusable bag, as she tours the area with some locals. Keep up the good work - we love you Ewa!http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Here's a plastic bag that was blown around on the freeway and ends up getting caught on the Benz' emblem.  Couldn't pick it up since we were travelling on freeway speed.  Arrgh!

http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Thank you to the large group of volunteers who headed this weekend's Coastal Clean-Up Day.  It is with this dedicated group that we are so grateful for helping keep America clean and litter-free.  Without a doubt, plastic bags and other plastic debris remain the most problematic litter along our coastline.  Save The Bay, a local San Francisco group, reports that they have identified 10 hot spots along our coastline that are of most concern. 

Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment
Posted using ShareThis

SAVE THE BAY NAMES TEN BAY TRASH HOT SPOTS BLIGHTED BY PLASTIC BAGS

Save The Bay Urges Bay Area Cities to Pass Legislation to End the Distribution of "Free" Plastic Bags to Protect the Bay and Wildlife

OAKLAND, CA - September 15, 2009 - Save The Bay's 4th annual list of Bay Trash Hot Spots underscores the pervasive and growing problem of plastic trash in our waterways. The 2009 Hot Spots are ten San Francisco Bay shorelines and creeks where volunteers removed the most plastic bags on Coastal Cleanup Day in 2008. On this day alone, volunteers picked up nearly 15,000 plastic bags from these locations - a shocking number given that only a small portion of the Bay shoreline and its tributaries were cleaned up. Save The Bay estimates that more than one million plastic bags wind up in San Francisco Bay each year where they smother wetlands, degrade water quality and harm animals. (A map showcasing the ten hot spots can be found at: www.saveSFbay.org/baytrash)
Go to article...
http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

This year's 3rd Annual Marin Green Business Forum will be held on Wednesday, Sep 23 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Mill Valley Community Center, Mill Valley, CA.

Presented by the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce and MarinLink. This year's line-up of speakers include renowned environmental activist, author and educator Hunter Lovins, President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions to talk about Green Business Leadership in Marin — Taking Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal.


Learn more and get tickets at http://www.maringreenbusinessforum.org/


Clean Conscience is providing its clean and green tote bags for the event, of course.http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

Posted using ShareThis

The Consumer Product Safety Commission advised consumers to immediately stop using the recalled items..

Follow this link to read more...
LOS ANGELES COMPANY RECALLS LEAD-LACED MASKS, PENDANTS..http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

This is a great guide sponsored by Yahoo! Green.  Find a Reuse Group near you.  Follow the link below for a free guide to other people looking to get rid of items or needing items.  Just think about how much trash we can all reduce from entering the waste stream - if we just all reuse!

http://green.yahoo.com/earth-day/find-a-group.htmlhttp://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

3 Suspect Plastics to Avoid in Baby Bottles, Water Bottles, More

Posted using ShareThishttp://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

I know this question is old and overused and so it still surprises me that some folks still do not get why we need to be more eco-sensitive in our living habits - even in simple things like grocery bags.  Here's an older article that I have linked that explains the pros and cons of paper or plastic, as choices. Obviously, both options present an environmental impact in terms of depletion of our natural resources and the energy consumed to make them.  In the end, having your own durable reusable bag that did not travel far to get here is still the best choice.
Paper or plastic?  How about a Clean Conscience reusable bag instead?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/10/03/GR2007100301385.htmlhttp://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

We are very proud to provide the custom logo bags for The Marine Mammal Center located at the Marin Headlands. Located in Sausalito, California, The Marine Mammal Center is a non-profit group whose work is dedicated to rescuing and treating stranded or injured marine mammals.  Seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, whales and sea otters are their regular patients.  They cover the 600 mile stretch of coastline  from Mendocino County through San Luis Obispo County.  A number of programs and activities are available for families at their facility.  Find out more at:  http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

We received a few emails about washing reusable bags and the news circulating around regarding the risk of unhealthy bacterial growth in reusable bags.  If the bags are used for food and grocery shopping, it is highly recommended that they are washed regularly - this is the best way to prevent any food debris from rotting and developing into an unsanitary condition.  If there are any meat drippings, the bags must be washed immediately. 

Wash bags with laundry soap either by hand or machine in cold water. For our bags, we recommend air drying only.  Spot clean any stubborn stains.  For shoppers who use 100% cotton canvas bags - expect a bit of shrinkage after washing.  If you own a cotton canvas bag with pretty prints and designs, we recommend saving those for non-grocery shopping trips since cotton canvas tends to lose its shape and size after washing.  A few bags we tested shrank by about a third and looked like rags afterwards.


For a food shopping reusable bag, we recommend our Suburban Shopper - this is our grocery shopping workhorse.  Our woven fabric made from 100% recycled plastic bottles is durable and can be washed with very minimal shrinkage.  This bag was made using approximately 7 post-consumer recycled plastic bottles diverted from entering our waste stream.
Visit our online store to view our line of smarter, cleaner and greener reusable bags, casual day totes, shopping bags, shoe bags, laundry bags, and produce bags.  We can also custom print your logo for your promotional or corporate event.  Our product line focuses on repurposing trash and making them here in America.  When looking for reusable bags remember - all bags are not created equal(tm).

For more details contact us at:  ccinfo@CleanConscienceGoods.com
http://www.cleanconsciencegoods.com/http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com

According to a report published in the Grandforksherald.com, as of 2008, the USA leads the world in generating wind power.   The top five countries based on their rankings of wind power total capacity are (in megawatts):

U.S. - 25,369
Germany - 23,933
Spain - 16,453
China - 12,121
India - 9,655

This is an impressive accomplishment for America. As our population grows our need for power generation also grows.  We need to really work hard to ensure that our future energy needs are met not only for our generation but also for our children's and their children's generation. Wind power is just one of nature's gifts that we can harvest as an alternative energy source.  I personally think that we should invest in more wind power sources since wind is free and the technology is here - what more can we ask for?
http://www.CleanConscienceGoods.Blogspot.com