Creating new bags is an simple way to recycle used materials destined for the landfill and create a unique fashion accessory. Here are eight bags you can easily make for next to nothing, on your own, without special materials, although a few projects do recommend a sewing machine.

1. Handbag knit purse from plastic shopping bags.

You’ve probably seen similar projects to this one: maybe a rug braided from plastic grocery bags. This Instructables project takes a slightly different approach: spinning the bags into a "yarn" that you then knit using an incredibly simple pattern to make a durable bag. I think you could easily make cute stripes with blue and white bags.

2. Yoga mat bag made from old pants

This project from personal fave ReadyMade magazine reuses "grandpa pants" (sorry Max!), but you can use any old pants, including denim, to make a very cute tote for your yoga mat. Can’t wait to try this one as soon as I "borrow" my mother-in-law’s sewing machine.

3. Tote bag made from old t-shirt

If there’s one thing I have a ton of, it’s old t-shirts. My storied (ha!) athletic career (and teaching career) left me with more t-shirts than I know what to do with. Most have sentimental value and I hate to throw them out, but I never wear half of them, and I’m not a fan of those t-shirt quilts. This project from Instructables is super-simple and, with a little work, could be the easy way to make all those reusable grocery bags you’ve been meaning to buy.

4. Insulated lunch bag remake.

Okay, this one is kind of cheating: it’s more of a makeover than a reuse, but if you happen to come across one of those cheap insulated lunch bags, Instructables recommends remaking it to be less hideous. Well, I’d make a cuter applique than the shifty-eyed donut, but that’s just personal taste

5. Customized reusable shopping bag

I can’t wait to try this, since I have a plethora of reusable bags I’ve gathered over the years. This Instructables project creates inner pockets in your reusable grocery bags to hold "produce bags you’re reusing at the store, a bottle of wine, or fresh baguette." Oh yes, I want to carry television-style grocery bags with a loaf of bread and leafy carrots sticking out of the top. Now I can make the myth a reality.

6. Handbag sewn from plastic shopping bags

Although the ReadyMade project on the right looks more complicated than the other projects here, the end result looks seriously stylish, and the only materials needed are grocery bags, thread, bobby pins, scissors, and a sewing machine.

7. Messenger bag from trash bags

Here’s some MacGyver bag-making: Make has a hip messenger bag, suitable for men and women, made from old trash bags using an iron to melt the plastic together. And you can watch it being made via their online video. If that’s not your bag (I couldn’t resist!), download the PDF instructions.

8. Handbags from old sweaters

If you’ve got old sweaters, Cosby or otherwise, lying around (maybe with your grandpa pants?), WhipUp’s got a pattern to turn them into one-of-a-kind totes.

A friend came to me and asked about making greener choices when shopping for clothing. A new eco-clothing boutique just opened down the street from our workplace, and it was filled with cute, stylish clothing that I would wear to work or outside of work. Unfortunately, most of the clothes weren’t fitting into my teacher-salary budget. When it comes to buying greener clothing, most people have two options: buy used or buy eco-sensitive. I love thrifting, and I get a lot of my clothes that way. Sometimes, though, particularly when buying professional clothes, I can’t find what I need, and it’s time-consuming (although fun!) When I need something new, I don’t have a problem finding clothes I love that are made more sustainably. My problem is finding affordable wardrobe solutions.

Yeah, yeah, I know that cheap clothing is cheap for a reason (or several): exploitative labor practices and environmentally-destructive materials, to name a few. And I support paying a premium for items that are ethically made, just like when I grocery shop. It’s still hard for me to plunk down my hard-earned cash for upscale sustainable goods; I just don’t have that disposable income, and, frankly, clothes aren’t so important to me that even if I did have the cash to spare, I’d probably use it for something else. But a girl needs to feel good in her clothes, and I do have to exercise a modicum of professional dress when I’m teaching kids about renewable energy. So I set off on a quest to find five places where I could make better clothing choices without breaking the bank.

Disclaimer: "affordable" is a weighted word. What some people see as a bargain, others would and/or could never pay. My idea of affordable can best be described as middle-class: I’m a teacher, my husband is a teacher, we don’t come from money, and we have bills to pay. I’m not really looking for high-fashion here, but mostly basic pieces I can use in a variety of ways with my existing wardrobe.

I’ve loved American Apparel for a long time. I’m a t-shirt and jeans kind of woman, so AA clothing fits my style, and their t-shirts fit like a dream. Almost all of their entire line is cotton, and about 20% of the cotton they use is organic. The company has plans to expand that to 80% in the next four years. Most of the organic cotton they use now is in their Sustainable Edition line. They also recycle over a million pounds of fabric scrap per year and have solar panels on the roof of their LA headquarters. I like their clothes because they are comfortable and versatile; I’ve worn their skirts and shirts all over. Warning: there are claims against AA, mostly stemming from union-busting and sexual harassment accusations against owner Dov Charney, but their environmental record is promising.

Levi Strauss has been a leader in greening up denim, and their organic cotton jeans, t-shirts, and polo shirts for men and women also incorporate recycled rivets, zippers, and buttons; they also use natural indigo to dye their denim. Although their RedTab line is way out of my price range, their non-RedTab Eco’s are quite reasonable for new jeans: less than $70, and they’ve got very contemporary styles (although I don’t really have the courage, or the body, to wear skinny jeans.) If I can’t find jeans at the local thrift store, or wanted something more current, I’d try to find these. They also had some bargain men’s polo shirts at their online store that I’d probably get for my husband to wear to work.

Victoria E wrote about Jonano back in May, but I waited to check them out until recently, and I wish I hadn’t. What a jackpot! Jonano produces certified organic cotton, bamboo, and hemp clothing, along with their popular ecoKashmere blend, and their clothing is made using Fair Labor practices. Jonano’s fabrics are dyed using low-impact dyes, and their packaging and mailings are printed on recycled paper. Their lines are women-heavy, with hardly anything for men, but I fell in love with many of their pieces, including some beautiful dresses, shorts, and pants. I can’t wait to order from Jonano the next time I’m in the market for clothing.

Rawganique offers sweatshop-free organic hemp, cotton, and linen clothing from Ecolution, Blue Canoe, and their own line of clothing. Although many of their items seemed a bit pricey, I found some dresses, skirts, and sports jackets that were reasonably-priced, and they offer hemp and linen alongside the widely-found organic cotton. I’d use this place in a pinch if I couldn’t find what I wanted elsewhere, but they’re definitely walking the walk as far as sustainability. Check out their About Us for proof!

Finally, REI gets my vote for affordable outdoor gear that can double as everyday wardrobe. I wrote at length about their sustainability efforts last week. The versatility of their clothing — I can wear it to work or around the campsite — makes many of their pieces sustainable choices, and I didn’t gasp when I checked the price tag: $50 seems reasonable for a durable pair of pants for my husband or a warm recycled-PET fleece jacket. If you are looking for well-made basics that will take a beating, don’t be afraid to try this performance gear — it’s not just for the backcountry.

These are five places that fit into both my aesthetic and price range. I also recommend you check out discount websites that offer more expensive clothing at cut-rate prices. For example, I found Loomstate jeans at over half off on Bluefly.com.

Thriftiness isn’t really "new" or "green"; people have found ways to reuse scrap or discarded items for years. The pre-industrialization U.S. didn’t have what we call "trash." Every bit of scrap and waste from the home was remade, reused in some way, or sold to peddlers where it was eventually recycled. With the Industrial Revolution came more products to buy with new kinds of packaging, and trash as we know it was born.

Dave and Lillian Brummet’s Trash Talk is a book that aims to get back to minimizing waste and finding everyday uses for trash. Think of it as "Hints From Heloise" meets Mother Earth News. The introduction reminds readers that reduce, reuse, and recycle should be precluded by refuse — as in, refusing to buy items that generate a lot of waste. The book is divided into four sections: the first has ideas for reusing common household items (some not-so-common — who has a plethora of old oven racks hanging around?), and the second has plans for habits you can implement that follow the four Rs, like composting, or cutting open toiletries bottles to get all the product out. The third section focuses on tips and habits related to paper, and the brief fourth section gives statistics that remind the reader that the little things do add up.

It’s clear that the authors walk the walk: many of the tips are reuse ideas that I hadn’t heard of, and their extensive gardening background was surprisingly helpful. The home garden seemed to be a playground for reuse. And, again, this seems to be more for the crunchier crowd — it definitely had the vibe of Mother Earth News as opposed to Real Simple. That doesn’t mean that it was packed full of radical ideas; most of the tips and habits are pretty practical for those who are in the process of going green. But there were a few that I know would cause the light-greenest of readers to drop the book and never look back.

There are issues with the text. The editing leaves something to be desired; I don’t know if the format of the book was the best way to present the information. The second section just seemed a catchall for random green-living ideas. Why is there a whole chapter about picking up trash while going on walks in a book marketed as "an inspirational guide to saving time and money through better waste an resource management?" I don’t think there’s really enough material here for a book like this: there’s a lot of unfocused information that, while interesting, didn’t really have a lot to do with solid waste reduction. And for $19.99, you’d think you get a lot more out of a paperback than 190 pages with a lot of white space.

All in all, the book is worth a read, but not a purchase. You’d be better off checking it out from your library, if you can find it.

I took the plunge and did something unthinkable here in the midwest: I got rid of my car, "Treehugger" bumper sticker and all.

Some of you in urban areas might be thinking, "Well, so what?" I can assure you that this is a radical act where I am from. I grew up in suburban Des Moines, where driving around in cars is what we did for fun on weekends in high school. Even though I live in the city of St Louis proper, it’s still pretty unheard of for middle-class folks to be voluntarily car-free.

(Disclaimer: I am car-free, my husband is not — well, at least, not on purpose). So we do have a car, I just won’t be driving it to work or anywhere else I can walk or take public transportation.)

Why would I do this? Aside from the environmental piece, which is what put the idea in my head in the first place, the easiest answer is because I can. The bus comes right to my corner and goes right to the school where I teach in about ten minutes time. When the heat subsides, I can walk the work. That same bus will also take me to our local market, three farmers markets, a slew of bars and restaurants, a light-rail station (which will take me a plethora of places in and around the city, including the airport), downtown, Busch Stadium, my hairdresser, and several walkable neighborhoods with other businesses I patronize. Within a mile of my house, I can get books from the library, eat Mexican food or organic pasta, get a latte, buy yarn for my latest knitting project, pick up a pizza, drink beer, take my dog to the park, or pick up dry cleaning, and there’s always my bike for a longer jaunt.

In fact, anyone can easily see what goods and services are walkable from their home. Just go to GoogleMaps or Yahoo!Maps, and search for businesses, using your address as the "where" and "all" as the what. You can sort results by distance, and you might find some things you didn’t know were close to your home.

The other big (okay, HUGE) reason I sold my car is finances. I’m tired of a car payment, insurance, gas, maintenance, vehicle testing, personal property taxes, and the like. If I don’t need a car, why pay so much for one? A monthly bus pas costs $60, a fraction of my transportation costs with a car, and I can stow the extra money away for tuition, savings, or vacation (or maybe a sporty little scooter…) My mom would be proud of my financial foresight, and I’m not giving money away to the insurance company, the oil companies, and the State of Missouri.

I know it’s not going to be sunshine and rainbows. I’m used to picking up groceries right after school and being able to run errands on a whim. Now, those errands are going to take a little more planning. I’m sure my friends are thrilled that it’s now never my turn to drive anywhere, but they never liked being covered in dog hair from the backseat anyway.

Of course, I’m well aware that this plan isn’t for everyone: not everyone has access to public transportation, or lives in a pedestrian-friendly area. Heck, it might not be the plan for me in a year from now. But for right now, it was the right choice. If you think about it, it’s a little strange that, in order to get anywhere, many of us think we need a two-thousand pound hunk of metal surrounding us. Even so, it was hard to gather my courage and get rid of my trusty Focus and the convenience that comes with it. But I’m glad I did, and it’s been a strangely easy transition. Truth be told, I can’t believe I waited so long.

A few weeks ago, when I knew I was going to try to sell my car, I walked to school one morning to see how long it would take. I put a little Sleater-Kinney on my iPod, and set off. As I was walking across a bridge in my neighborhood, I looked down and saw this incredibly expansive, colorful graffiti lining the culvert below. The only way anyone could see this urban artwork would be by climbing down into the culvert or by walking over the bridge. I smiled to myself, knowing I would have never seen this in my car. I can only hope that I have more moments like this in my new car-free life.

So we know that bottled water is bad for our planet. We also know that cities are refusing to purchase bottled water for employees. Now, a school is joining that fight. Nerinx Hall, an all-women Catholic high school for girls here in the St Louis area, is taking bottled water out of its vending machines and giving the student body reusable bottles to stay hydrated. I applauded this decision, but apparently some people think the Constitution is going down with the Aquafina. In fact, I heard a friend’s parent (who has a daughter at the school) exclaiming what an outrage the ban was. Since Nerinx Hall is not so far from the school where I teach, I wondered if my school could do the same. Many states and schools have banned full-sugared sodas in schools, and water sales have increased as it replaces soda in vending machines. It’s become widely available, so how do you encourage both students and staff to give up the bottled water habit?

My first thought was, "Why is this such a big deal in the first place?" It wasn’t long ago that most people scoffed at paying a premium for what they can get for pennies at home. Remember that old joke that "Evian" was just "naive" spelled backwards? It’s been less than ten years since bottled water rose from a luxury product to a ubiquitous beverage of choice, yet mention banning bottled water, and "from my cold dead hands" cries ring out everywhere. When did we grow so attached to bottled water?

First off: provide an alternative. Nerinx Hall provided water bottles to its students, but it’s a private school, and I’m sure tuition could be adjusted to allow for Nalgene for every students. Public schools may have that option. See if your school store will sell reusable bottles with your school logo printed on it. If you don’t have a school store, maybe a student group could sell them for a fundraiser. I found them for just a few bucks here. Still better might be a school-wide incentive program for those willing to pledge to curb the bottled water habit–with the reusable bottles as the incentive.

Second: educate. Many people don’t realize that there’s a price to pay for that convenience: plastic bottles are made with petroleum. The light bulb goes off once people realize that the same stuff that causes climate change produces the bottles they throw away with little thought. Here’s a few articles that highlight just how harmful that seemingly-innocent bottle can be.

Third: check out the contracts you school has with vending machines. Do you have to have water in them? If not, get rid of it.

Four: point out the price factor. Most schools are pinching pennies. So why, at almost every meeting or professional development session, are we offered cold bottles of water (and, even worse, the tiny 8 oz, encouraging people to take more than one!). Why are we paying for this? We’ve got gorgeous refrigerated drinking fountains–get your school administration to purchase a few filtered-water pitchers for the teachers’ lounge instead.

Five: get students involved. I’ve blogged before about the impact of visiting a landfill or doing a waste audit of your school. Once they see the magnitude of the problem, they’ll be motivated to act. Who better than other kids to get students to say no to bottled water? Can your student council do an awareness campaign? Students and staff alike are more easily persuaded by student activism than teachers getting preachy.

I start school again tomorrow, and the kids don’t come back for another week, but I’ve already met with my Student Council: they want to continue to lead the way in creating a more environmentally sustainable learning environment. I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with to tackle this problem!

The end of the school year is fast approaching. Twelve days for me, but who's counting? The end of school, in many grossly unrealistic teen movies, is often punctuated by kids gleefully throwing books and papers all over the hallway as they stick it to the man by trashing their locker before they head off for a summer of debauchery.

In reality, kids do have to clean out their lockers, and those of you with teens know how items in their possession tend to…accumulate, shall we say, over time. I've got students with textbooks, binders, notebooks, and paperbacks crammed into every square inch of their lockers. All that goes somewhere at the end of the year, and oftentimes, that place is the ginormous trash bins placed in the hallway to make end-of-year checkout move as smoothly and quickly as possible.

What's this got to do with green living? In my experience, the large majority of what gets thrown away at the end of the year is reusable or recycleable. With a little advanced preparation, and some prompting from teachers and parents, the piles of paper products, pencils, pens, etc., can be diverted from the trash and put to good use.

• Those old tests, worksheets, and papers that might not be fridge-worthy can easily be recycled: just make sure the trusty recycling bins are in just as convenient a place as trash bins.
• Start a school-supplies freestore. I easily did this by asking both teachers (we've got our own mess to clean up, as well) and students for still-usable three-ring binders, tablets, notebooks, writing utensils, looseleaf, markers, crayons, etc. Set up a collection table in a centrally-located area. Encourage kids to turn in items by swapping old items with summer-worthy trinkets like paperbacks, candy, pool passes, gift cards, etc. I use the collected items the following year for students who need supplies.
• Don't forget other recycleables: I guarantee that among the school-related items, their are surely soda bottles, aluminum cans, etc, that can also be recycled.
• Make sure there's a lost and found area: teens often borrow each others clothes, only to forget where they came from. Better they find their owner than end up in a landfill. Same with books, CDs, and other personal items.
• If you've got younger kids, make a trip to help your child clean out their locker without just pitching everything. Better yet, see if your PTO can help create a gently-used supply closet.

I'm lucky that I sponsor Student Council–this is an easy, but productive service project for my young activists.

Pssstt…You can do the same thing when you clean out your home office…

Did you know that for most Americans, their home accounts for twice as much pollution as their cars? In fact, the average American home uses $1900 worth of energy per year–mostly due to heating and cooling.

Summer is fast approaching, and with it, higher energy bills when you finally break down and turn on the air conditioning. I know we'd all love to be able to afford solar panels for our homes or the new backyard wind turbines, and go off the grid. However, the first step to energy independence is energy efficiency and conservation. Need tips to save money by saving energy when you can't beat the heat? Look no further than Energy Star.

Last year, Energy Star launched Cool Your World with Energy Star @ Home, which allowed visitors to tour an animated home that featured tips on how to be more energy efficient. DIY projects such as installing a programmable thermostat (I easily did this at my house, and I swear I'm by no means handy), regular heating and cooling system maintenance, and proper sealing of one's home can save the average family at least 20% on energy costs. This year, Energy Star @ Home is going a step further by adding testimonials of real families and their quests to cut energy bills through energy efficiency.

What steps did a family like yours take to save energy? Check out the launch May 21st, just in time for summer's arrival. Have you already completely energy efficiency projects in your home? Hit up the site and submit your family's story.

During our energy unit, I had a student tell me that her family was going to install compact fluorescent bulbs in their home, but they were worried about the mercury. Huh? I hadn't heard anything about this, and I had been using CFLs for years. I decided to investigate further.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that mercury exposure is a common misconception when it comes to CFLs. Fortunately, these myths are easily debunked.

Myth: There is a large amount of mercury in CFL bulbs.

Fact: Yes, there is mercury in CFLs. Generally, this amount is about 4 milligrams of mercury per bulb. To put this in perspective, a mercury thermometer has 500 milligrams of mercury in it, and older thermostats can contain as much as 3000 milligrams.

Interestingly enough, the use of CFLs can actually prevent mercury from entering our air. Burning fossil fuels produces more mercury in the air we breathe than any other source. Since CFLs use less energy, hence, fossil fuels, less mercury is put in the air. The EPA calculates that a power plant will emit 10 milligrams of mercury to produce the electricity needed to power an incandescent bulb over the course of its lifetime, but only 2.4 milligrams of mercury to power a CFL for the same amount of time.

Myth: There are no proper disposal guidelines for CFLs that have burned out.

Fact: CFLs are not technically considered hazardous waste by the government, but it is recommended that you use proper precautions when disposing of burnouts or breaks. Earth911.org can give you specific directions for disposal in your area. In general, you should dispose of CFLs like you would batteries, paint, or oil.

Myth: If a CFL breaks in your home, it will cost thousands of dollars to properly clean up the mercury released.

Fact: This is a myth that actually has an interesting story behind it. It apparently started when Steve Milloy published a story on Fox News claiming that a woman named Brandy Bridges broke a CFL in her child's bedroom and was concerned about spilled mercury contaminating the carpet. When she called Home Depot, her local Poison Control, and finally the Department of Environmental Protection for the state of Maine, she claims they recommended a $2,000 carpet cleaning. Milloy used one line out of the original story about Bridges, published in Maine's Ellsworth American, and neglects to mention that the story goes on to say that there is a simple, inexpensive, and safe method for cleaning up a spill such as this, and the DEP has now said that it "isn't necessary to hire professionals at all" for a CFL break. Read a more thorough debunking here (via Treehugger).

In short, don't believe the hype. You can breathe easy when it comes to using CFLs in your home.

Knitting and crocheting have experienced a renewed popularity as a new generation of crafters embrace their needles and yarn. As a knitter myself, I love heading to my local yarn store (LYS) to check out the beautiful multicolored skeins.

The big question for an eco-friendly knitter is this: what kinds of yarn leave the lightest footprint? Many knitters steer away from acrylic for various performance reasons, but synthetic yarns are also bad for the earth, since they are made from petroleum. Vegans object to using wool, and, although great for many heirloom projects, are just not as sustainable as some of the newer options. Industrially-produced cotton brings with it a slew of environmental problems, including water and soil pollution.

Until recently, my LYS only had earth-toned organic cotton, which was beautiful for a baby blanket, but didn't allow for enough variety for a range of projects. Is there anything else out there that will allow me to make awesome crafts in a greener way?

Fortunately, eco-friendly fibers have exploded in the past few months. Some, like the organic cotton, take an existing fiber and green it up. However, a whole new crop of yarns are being produced using normally cast-off materials. South West Trading Company, of Tempe, AZ, makes yarns and fibers from soy, corn, bamboo, even milk and shrimp and crab shell fibers. Their SoySilk fiber is created from byproducts of tofu production (and is produced in a variety of decidedly non-earth tone hues). Bamboo (which, because of it's rapid rate of growth, is a popular green knitting needle choice) produces a soft fiber often compared to silk or cashmere. Hemp yarn is also gaining popularity beyond the granola-set of knitters, and recycled silk, spun from old saris by women in Nepal, is a unique fiber to work with. Most of these yarns can be found at Yarn Market.

But why shop online? If your LYS doesn't stock green yarns, just ask. Most will stock it if people will request it. At the very least, they'll order it for you. After I bought up most of the organic cotton at my LYS (hey, it was a bigger blanket than I had planned) I was pleased to find that not only did my store start stocking a much wider variety of eco-friendly yarns, but they even sponsored an event to promote their new lines.

Kenny Luna may have some help in his quest to get CFLs into the hands of students across the country: nine schools in Southern California. The schools are part of the Alliance to Save Energy's Green Schools program; elementary and high schools in the Alta Loma, Hesperia, and San Bernardino Unified School Districts are all participating

The schools provide students and their families a means to exchange incandescent bulbs with more energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly CFLs. Students sign pledges vowing to replace their old bulbs with CFLs, supplied by Southern California Edison, and document the wattage of the bulbs they replaced. Bulbs were exchanged at school, during PTO events, parent events, and other school-community activities.

The program set a goal for the 2006-2007 school year: to replace 4,000 bulbs in the homes of district families, but that goal was too conservative. The program replaced over 8,000 bulbs in the fall semester alone. In fact, the program has been so successful that twenty more schools were added for the second semester, and the program expects to easily make their three-year goal of replacing 12,000 bulbs in less than a year.

Think of it this way: in just these nine schools, students have already saved their families a collective $40,000 in energy costs, and about three million kWh over the life of the bulbs. The program anticipates a one-year savings of over $700,000 for student families.