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| In This Issue |
| What does this have to do with us? |
| Plastic Update |
| Negawatt Power |
| Green Hour® |
| New Take Back Programs |
| RGG's First Year! |
RGG Events |
Main Street Concord's 34th annual Market Days & Summer Music Festival will take place Thursday, July 17 through Saturday, July 19 in downtown Concord. This popular festival runs daily from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and features great shopping and food with a variety of displays stretching from North to South Main Street with the road closed to vehicle traffic. Real Green Goods will be open AND will have a sale booth under the big COOP tent in the middle of Main Street with up to 75% off some items. |
New at RGG!
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Organic cotton dishcloth and hand towel sets in a classic weave and in various shades of pastels.
Jute tote bags
More sizes and styles.
Children's Sizes of Organic Cotton T-shirts with decorative fronts that say "Organic" and "Save the Snails".
Klean Kanteen
Stainless steel water bottles offered in six colors in addition to their original unpainted stainless steel bottles.
Insulated Thermos
Two new larger sizes of beverage containers for hot or cold liquids.
Locally made from recycled glass, lovely window hangings from Hancock Glass in a variety of colors with different imprints on the glass.
Non-GMO BioBags Biodegradable bags in several sizes ranging from the small Dog Poop bags up to larger Kitchen and Lawn & Leaf bags, made from non-genetically modified corn.
Rain Barrels
and Outdoor Tumbling Composters
Due to arrive soon! Look for them outside.
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| Recommended Viewing |
Available in our store to Rent-for-Free (with a fully refundable deposit) are:
"An Inconvenient Truth" By Al Gore, we should all know about this one by now!
"11th Hour"
Produced and narrated by Leonardo DeCaprio - be sure not to miss the Special Features at the end of the movie on this DVD where hopeful thoughts and solutions for the future are offered by an interesting panel of experts in various fields of study.
"Seeds of Deception"
The explosive exposé by Jeffrey M. Smith documenting the health dangers of genetically modified (GM) foods.
"You're Eating WHAT?" Also available in our store, you may pick up (and keep) a FREE copy of this audio CD by Jeffrey Smith discussing the hidden dangers in genetically modified foods.
"Crisis Averted"
A short video from Stonyfield Farm and Climate Counts can be found on climatecounts.org. This documentary is set in the future in the year 2055 that begins with the following: "Today, it is difficult to imagine the magnitude of the climate crisis that faced humankind 50 years ago in year 2005 when the world finally recognizes that global warming is a reality..." |
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| Green Tip |
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| Beat the heat and suck in the cool night air with an exhaust fan in the attic or top floor window. In the morning, shut off the fan and close the window curtains on the sunny side of the house. Dress lightly and take a cool shower in the evening. This really works! |
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Dear Reader,
It's spring time in New Hampshire, time to plant and fertilize. Due to increasing food prices, more families are growing their own food. The choices we make with regard to how we grow our gardens and the chemicals we put on them, can and do have a global environmental impact. |
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What does this have to do with us?
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The Gulf of Mexico is losing its famous shrimp and oysters due to an enlarging Dead Zone. A dead zone is an area usually at the mouth of a river that is so low in oxygen that most aquatic species can not survive. Excess nitrogen from farming flows down stream where algae feed, bloom and die, leading to oxygen depletion in the water. There are over 140 dead zones in the world. The growing Dead Zone at the end of the mighty Mississippi, one of the largest dead zones in the world, is now predicted to become the largest size ever recorded at 10,000 square miles or the size of Massachusetts, up from 7,900 square miles just last year.
 This is the time of year when homeowners focus on their lawns and farmers want a perfect, fast growing crop. A fertilizer with quick results comes from the traditional N-P-K mixture of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium. Nitrogen is the biggest culprit behind that instant fast green growth. In addition to fertilizers, applications of pesticides and herbicides are only partially absorbed by the plants and the rest... flows down stream. Testing on wells and aquifers shows significant amounts of these chemicals can that have leached into drinking water sources, and that hits close to home. Algae blooms along the seacoast are becoming more numerous and intense. In May along the New Hampshire coast, the Red Tide recently shut down the shellfish industry until further notice.
Try to use N-P-K fertilizer sparingly or not at all. Instead, try one of the many organic feeds on the market, or Heidi's Plant Pep™ available at Real Green Goods.
The Northeast Organic Farming Association has a wealth of information on lawns, farming and gardening. Link
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has resources on many topics. Link
Please remember, "We ALL Live Down Stream".
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Plastic Follow Up
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PVC Alert - That new shower curtain smell. "Vinyl Shower Curtains release Toxic Chemicals". As many as 100 toxic chemicals associated with adverse health effects including cancer and birth defects are released into the air we breathe from the off-gassing of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) shower curtains. These chemicals make up that "new shower curtain smell". Despite these dangers, PVC, commonly known as vinyl, is used to make not only shower curtains, but is also found in children's toys, teething rings, lunch boxes, shampoo bottles and home building materials. Read More |
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Negawatt Power
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(vs. Megawatts) A negawatt is a measure of energy efficiency in watts of energy saved. "Negawatt" was coined by Amory Lovins, a physicist and visionary environmental activist who gave the keynote address at a Green Energy Conference in Montreal in 1989 entitled, "The Negawatt Revolution: Solving the CO2 problem". The best way to save energy/money this summer is to not use the energy in the first place:
- Unplug electrical units when not in use: TV, VCR, DVD, cell phone charger, coffee maker, etc.
- If you can't unplug these devices, consider purchasing a Smart Strip to do the job for you. See More
- Replace incandescent light bulbs with CFL's or LED's.
See More
- Use a laundry drying rack instead of the clothes dryer.
- Use air conditioning at a minimum or use ceiling fans to circulate the air.
- We are all involved in the fight against Global Warming. As consumers, we are responsible for our rate of consumption as well as what we choose to consume and from whom. Support those companies which are practing green standards and selling environmentally sound merchandise. Are we choosing: renewable energy, recycled materials, organic and biodegradable materials?
- "What more can we do?" Discuss with family and friends ways to limit consumption to have a lesser negative environmental Impact. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify!
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Green Hour® |
Green Hour® suggested by the National Wildlife Federation
- A bit of time set aside every day for unstructured play to discover the wonder of nature.
A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen. Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity and violence. Richard Louv, author of "Last Child in the Woods", refers to this disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the main symptoms of nature deficit disorder is the replacement of the "Green Space "by "Screen Space" as the main occupier of children's free time.
The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, or the park down the street.
To provide parents and caregivers with the information and inspiration to become connected with the outdoors, NWF has created www.greenhour.org, a family-centered website full of ideas.
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New Take Back Programs
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Real Green Goods has always been a repository for burned out CFL's. In addition to this, we now have three new take-back programs: Stonyfiled Yogurt containers (washed), corks, and cell phones.
- The Stonyfiled containers will be brought directly to the plant in Londonderry for reuse to join their own reclaim program on site where Preserve® and Stonyfleld Farm® have partnered to keep the plastic out of landfills by turning these cups into toothbrushes and razors.
- Natural Corks are 100% natural, biodegradable and renewable and so there is no reason why natural wine corks should end up as landfill when they can become flooring tiles, building insulation, automotive gaskets and more. In conjunction with ReCORK America, we are helping to collect corks for their program.
- In conjunction with the Good Deed Foundation, cell phones will be recycled and the money earned will be sent to the Women's Funding Network and Clean Air-Cool Planet, both New Hampshire Organizations.
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RGG's First Year!
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| Happy 1st Anniversary to Real Green Goods on July 9th! No fan fare, just come in for a visit and light refreshments of birthday cake (organic of course). We love customer feedback and would honestly like to know: how are we doing? We have so many wonderful supportive customers. It has been a heart warming year and we want to thank you. |
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Thank you for reading and for caring about the environment. And, as we say at Real Green Goods, Have a Green Day!™
Sincerely,
All of us from Real Green Goods |
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