Garbage and other Updates

I just read this great article about a man who saved all of his family's trash, and by doing so, was able to reduce how much trash he throws away. I know, it sounds weird, but I think the purpose was to see how much we choose to "not deal with" and what really ends up in a landfill. He reduced purchasing products with plastics and other materials that don't break down. He also recycled and/or composted all the rest. Its pretty amazing how much he saved in money, resources, and waste. Check it out here: "A Rubbish Life"

In other news, I've pretty much finished the website. I started donating to companies like Kiva.org and Plant a Tree USA. When you go to Kiva you pick a entrepreneur in a 3rd world country to donate $25 (or more) too. Two years ago I donated to a man in the Congo that needed $700 to buy shelter and more goats for his family business...which was selling animals to local families for survival. He has repaid 71% of the loan---interest free! The best part is, the money comes back to you, so you can decide to redonate, or cash out.
I started selling product for Novica. A website created by National Geographic that supports Fair Trade and 3rd world economy. Its pretty great! I'm not a big jewelry person, but I think some of the pieces are really elegant. If you dont know what Fair Trade is and why its so important to support...check it out here!

Live healthy!
Racheal

Website coming along!

Wow! This has been a very tiring week. I've been working on my website during any spare time (which amounts to about none) just so that I could having something to link too.

Its very rough around the edges, has verbiage that needs to be fixed, links that should go places but dont, and overall, needs a lot more work done. I'm up for it though. I really get a lot of satisfaction from creating this.

Yesterday I received my first order of NaturOli Soap Nuts, which come from a tree that grows nuts that are SOAP, how cool is that? The nuts have no smell, are really weird looking, but overall, are very small and extremely eco-friendly, organic, and well worth the cost. They only cost about $0.14 a load. Anyway, if you're interested, you can check them out here at my store:
http://rachealsmarket.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=3544357

or here on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/NaturOli-Nuts-Soap-Hand-Sorted-Detergent/dp/B001DUBYKQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=A339X1NBVIMANL&s=generic&qid=1228967989&sr=1-2

My hopes are that the store will eventually have more product in it! Finding "green" items is a lot harder than I thought.

Ecofriendly Store

So I finally found a free ecommerce store, its not the greatest, but beggars cant be choosers!
I love free stuff, and this really was the best solution I could find.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
http://www.rachealsmarket.ecrater.com/

Thinking of what to do...

I'm pretty focused on getting this eco-friendly business going strong, it takes a lot more time than I considered. Day and night, you have to be devoted to it. Like a toddler who is sick. Its pretty thrilling though, watching it become something more than what you pictured. I honestly can say I_Love_it! Wish me luck! Next week, my goal is to figure out what Tree company I want to go with, finding new vendors that carry products, and working on getting my actual website up!