Life Without Plastic: The Practical Step-By-Step Guide to Avoiding Plastic to Keep Your Family and the Planet Healthy


Jay Sinha - 2017
    When they found it was difficult to procure glass baby bottles, Jay and Chantal made it their mission to not only find glass and metal replacements for plastic, but to make those products accessible to the public as well.Printed on FSC-certified paper and with BPA-free ink, Life Without Plastic strives to create more awareness about BPA-based products, polystyrene and other single-use plastics, and provides readers with ideas for safe, reusable and affordable alternatives. While plastic has its uses in technology, the medical and industrial sectors and some products around the home, single-use plastics may release chemicals when they come in contact with food and water. These disposable plastics are commonly used to package food and drinks as well as personal care and cleaning products. Jay and Chantal show readers how to analyze their personal plastic use, find alternatives and create easy replacements in this step-by-step guide. Get your family healthier, spread consciousness and radiate positive plastic-free energy by taking action to help the environment.

Living Like Ed: One Man's Guide to Living an Environmentally Friendly Life


Ed Begley Jr. - 2008
    From quick fixes to bigger commitments and long-term strategies, Ed will help you make changes in every part of your life.And if you think living green has to mean compromising on aesthetics or comfort, fear not; Ed's wife, Rachelle, insists on style–with a conscience. In Living Like Ed, his environmentalism and her design savvy combine to create a guide to going green that keeps the chic in eco-chic. From recycling more materials than you ever thought possible to composting without raising a stink to buying an electric car, Living Like Ed is packed with ideas–from obvious to ingenious–that will help you live green, live responsibly, live well. Like Ed.

What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating


Amy Johnston - 2008
    Chapters give detailed coverage of critical topics: design options, selecting and supervising the architect and contractor, cost estimates, budgets, plan specifications, contracts, dealing with town officials and keeping track of everything along the way. For each stage of the project there is detailed information on common pitfalls and how to avoid them, as well as insiders' tips which reveal what most contractors can't tell you. This book was previously published by Warner Books (2004) and titled What the "Experts" May Not Tell You About Building or Renovating Your Home.

Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change


Victor Papanek - 1972
    Translated into twenty-three languages, it is one of the world's most widely read books on design. In this edition, Victor Papanek examines the attempts by designers to combat the tawdry, the unsafe, the frivolous, the useless product, once again providing a blueprint for sensible, responsible design in this world which is deficient in resources and energy.

Homemade: How-to Make Hundreds of Everyday Products Fast, Fresh, and More Naturally


Reader's Digest Association - 1965
    Save a fortune making your own everyday cooking, cleaning, and toiletry products! At the same time, you’ll fill your cabinets with fresh, super high-quality products at work or taste great—without all the chemicals and preservatives of store-bought versions. Plus, ‘think green”—you will greatly reduce the amount of useless, environment-damaging waste and garbage—spray bottles, jars, and cans. For cleaning, laundering, and polishing, the compounds are much gentler and less damaging to drains, sewage, and septic systems. The ingredients in most brand-name products account for only pennies of the purchaser’s dollar and rest of what you spend covers advertising, packaging, shipping, and the retailer’s overhead.Try these easy to make recipes:Food Staples: mayonnaise, peanut butter, breakfast cereals, soft drinks, soups, pickles, and jellies—save 50% on homemade salsa Beauty and Health Supplies: moisturizers, facials, lip balm, aftershave, decongestant, foot powder, and PMS tea—save 90% on aftershave Household Compounds: glues, wood stains, ant traps, and houseplant food Cleaning Supplies and Polishes: carpet fresheners, cleaners, mildew remover, dishwasher detergent, and fabric softener—save 95% on homemade bathroom cleaner Pet Supplies: liver snaps, dog shampoo, flea dip, cat litter, pet bird honey treats, and hamster fruit cup—save 73% on cat treats Garden Products: fertilizer, soil conditioners, weed killer, deer repellents, and snail traps And much more Making low-cost, more natural versions of your favorite name brand grocery items is simple when you know the secrets. Homemade is your guide to saving a small fortune by making everyday household items yourself.

Five Acres and Independence


Maurice Grenville Kains - 1972
    Countless readers of Five Acres and Independence have come away with specific projects to begin and moved closer to the fulfillment of their dreams of independence on a small farm.Whether you already own a suitable place or are still looking, Five Acres and Independence will help you learn to evaluate land for both its total economic and its specific agricultural possibilities. There are methods of calculating costs of permanent improvements — draining the land, improving soil, planting wind breaks, putting in septic tanks, cellars, irrigation systems, greenhouses, etc. — and methods of carrying out those improvements. There are suggestions for specific crops — strawberries, grapes, vegetables, orchards, spring, summer, and fall crops, transplanting, timing, repairing what already exists — with methods of deciding what is best for your land and purposes and techniques for making each of them pay. There are suggestions for animals for the small-scale farmer — goats, chickens, bees — and means of working them into your overall farm design. And there are suggestions for keeping your small farm in top production condition, methods of continually increasing the value of your farm, methods of marketing your produce and of accurately investing in improvements — virtually everything a small-scale farmer needs to know to make his venture economically sound.Some things, of course, have changed since 1940 when M. G. Kains revised Five Acres and Independence. But the basic down-to-earth advice of one of the most prominent men in American agriculture and the methods of farming the small-scale, pre-DDT farm are still essentially the same. Much of the information in this book was built on USDA and state farm bureau reports; almost all of it was personally tested by M. G. Kains, either on his own farms or on farms of the people who trusted him as an experienced consultant. His book went through more than 30 editions in the first 10 years after its original publication. It has helped countless small farmers attain their dreams, and it continues today as an exceptional resource for those who want to make their first farming attempt.

Brooklyn Brew Shop's Beer Making Book: 52 Seasonal Recipes for Small Batches


Erica Shea - 2011
    Erica Shea and Stephen Valand show that with a little space, a few tools, and the same ingredients breweries use, you too can make delicious craft beer right on your stovetop. Greenmarket-inspired and seasonally brewed, these 52 recipes include Everyday IPA and Rose Cheeked & Blonde for spring; Grapefruit Honey Ale and S’More Beer for summer; Apple Crisp Ale and Peanut Butter Porter for fall; Chestnut Brown ale and Gingerbread Ale for winter; and even four gluten-free brews. You’ll also find tips for growing hops, suggestions for food pairings, and recipes for cooking with beer. Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Beer Making Book offers a new approach to artisanal brewing and is a must-own for beer lovers, seasonally minded cooks, and anyone who gets a kick out of saying “I made this!”

Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks


Art Ludwig - 2005
    It will help you with your independent water system, fire protection, and disaster preparedness, at low cost and using principles of ecological design. Includes building instructions for several styles of ferro cement water tanks.

Reinventing the Chicken Coop: 14 Original Designs with Step-by-Step Building Instructions


Matthew Wolpe - 2013
    One has a water-capturing roof; one is a great example of mid-Modern architecture; and another has a built-in composting system. Some designs are suitable for beginning builders, and some are challenging enough for experts. Complete step-by-step building plans are accompanied by full-color photographs and detailed construction illustrations.

Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century


Alex Steffen - 2006
    Each chapter will offer practical answers to important questions, such as: Why does buying locally produced food make sense? What steps can we take to influence our workplace toward sustainability? How do we volunteer and advocate more effectively? How can we travel, live, work and learn in world changing ways? How, in short, can every human being help build a better future locally and globally? Illustrated with photographs and designed by Stefan Sagmeister, one of the most influential graphic designers working today, Worldchanging will prove that a life that is sustainably prosperous, just and democratic, dynamic and peaceful, is not just possible, it's here.

Basic Butchering of Livestock Game: Beef, Veal, Pork, Lamb, Poultry, Rabbit, Venison


John J. Mettler - 1986
    John J. Mettler Jr. provides easy-to-follow instructions that walk you through every step of the slaughtering and butchering process, as well as plenty of advice on everything from how to dress game in a field to salting, smoking, and curing techniques. You’ll soon be enjoying the satisfyingly superior flavors that come with butchering your own meat.

Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World


Timothy Morton - 2013
    But the environmental emergency is also a crisis for our philosophical habits of thought, confronting us with a problem that seems to defy not only our control but also our understanding. Global warming is perhaps the most dramatic example of what Timothy Morton calls “hyperobjects”—entities of such vast temporal and spatial dimensions that they defeat traditional ideas about what a thing is in the first place. In this book, Morton explains what hyperobjects are and their impact on how we think, how we coexist with one another and with nonhumans, and how we experience our politics, ethics, and art.Moving fluidly between philosophy, science, literature, visual and conceptual art, and popular culture, the book argues that hyperobjects show that the end of the world has already occurred in the sense that concepts such as world, nature, and even environment are no longer a meaningful horizon against which human events take place. Instead of inhabiting a world, we find ourselves inside a number of hyperobjects, such as climate, nuclear weapons, evolution, or relativity. Such objects put unbearable strains on our normal ways of reasoning.Insisting that we have to reinvent how we think to even begin to comprehend the world we now live in, Hyperobjects takes the first steps, outlining a genuinely postmodern ecological approach to thought and action.

Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money


Dolly Freed - 1978
    At the time of its publication in 1978, Possum Living became an instant classic, known for its plucky narration and no-nonsense practical advice on how to quit the rat race and live frugally. In her delightful, straightforward, and irreverent style, Freed guides readers on how to buy and maintain a home, dress well, cope with the law, stay healthy, save money, and be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, all while enjoying leisure and keeping up a middle-class façade.Thirty years later, Freed's philosophy is world-renowned and Possum Living remains as fascinating, inspirational, and pertinent as it was upon its original publication. This updated edition includes new reflections, insights, and life lessons from an older and wiser Dolly Freed, whose knowledge of how to live like a possum has given her financial security and the confidence to try new ventures.

The Earth-sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book: How to Build an Energy Free Year-round Greenhouse


Mike Oehler - 2007
    Book by Mike Oehler

The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps


Susan Miller Cavitch - 1995
    In this introductory guide, Susan Miller Cavitch shows you how to craft your own all-natural, wonderfully smelling soaps. Illustrated directions take you through the whole process, from buying supplies to cutting the final bars. With easy-to-follow recipes that range from classics like oatmeal and honey soap to more adventurous combinations using goat milk and borage, you’ll be inspired to make uniquely personal soaps that are gentle on your skin and a pleasure for your nose.