When it comes to being eco-friendly, books don’t really make the grade. All that paper depletes our forests and rarely are books made from recycled paper and books are a heavy item to ship as well. But luckily there are eco-friendly solutions that are no-brainers.

Visit the library: So very retro, right? The library always has been and hopefully always will be an eco-friendly and budget-friendly way to read. If you don’t have a library card yet or haven’t been to the library in ages, do it now. September is the American Library Association’s Library Card Sign-Up month.

Swap online: Booksfree.com is like the Netflix of the book world. For $11 a month, you can borrow two paperbacks and keep a running wish list. Shipping to and from your home is included in your membership fee, and since they are paperbacks the carbon cost will be lower. Sites like this are a good book-sharing option if you can’t deal with library due dates. The site has over 200,000 titles ranging from the classics to the newest titles.

Get a Kindle: While the eco factor of electronic books has been long debated, a recent analysis by the Cleantech Group says that over the lifecycle of a Kindle, the carbon emissions are still less than reading traditional books. But if you don’t buy very many books each year, it’ll take much longer for the benefit to even out. The study showed that the breaking point was 22.5 books.

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Last year, over 20,000 American beach closing days were reported according to a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Raw sewage and storm water are the biggest culprits. And with a rainy summer season this year, your favorite beach could be shut down just when you want to cool off. Rain carries pollutants from dirty storm water and overflowing sewage into streams and rivers, which eventually make their way to the ocean, Nancy Stoner, NRDC’s water program co-director told USA Today.

So what can you do to make sure your favorite beach stays sewage-free? You can help keep pollution out of coastal waters by properly disposing of pet waste and trash as well as toxic household products, used motor oil and other pollutants, which can travel from your drain to beach waters. You can also help support programs and participate in activities that reduce storm water runoff pollution like rain gardens, rain barrels and green roofs.

Want to see how your beach measures up? Click here to read more

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For those suffering from mental health issues like depression, stress and anxiety, part of the problem may be an increasing alienation from nature. The psychologists behind the idea classify themselves as ecotherapists. Linda Buzzell-Saltzman, founder of the International Association for Ecotherapy now has more than 100 members joining her in this new hybrid profession.

“People were embedded in nature once,” Buzzell-Saltzman told TIME magazine. “We’ve lost that, and we’re paying the price.” Half of the world’s population now lives in cities, far away from sprawling green spaces. Gone are the days of interacting with the air, water, plants and other animals to survive. Now, we interact with our iPhones, BlackBerry’s, laptops and Kindles to get through our days. Buzzell-Saltzman, along with Craig Chalquist, a psychology professor at John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco, wrote a book on the subject: Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind.

Think you could be in trouble? Click here to read more

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If you believe the marketing hype, you might look at your bottled water label and decide it comes from a pristine private spring or a glacier in the land of polar bears. Guess what. The water in those bottles could just as easily be filtered tap water from the next state over. Those kind of marketing fibs are the inspiration for Tappening’s latest campaign on bottled water lies.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently released their Bottled Water Scorecard. Even though EWG says you pay 1900 times more for H2O in bottles than for tap, what you’re actually getting may not be worth the hit your pocketbook or the planet takes every time you go for bottled.

EWG brings to light the fact that municipal tap water must disclose the source and quality of tap water. Do a Google search to find your local water utility’s web site and you’ll find info about where it comes from and any chemical pollutants that remain after treatment. But the same isn’t true for bottled.

Ozarka Drinking Water and Penta Ultra-Purified Water are the only two waters that disclose their source and treatment methods on the label along with water quality reports on their web sites. Only 18% of bottled waters disclose water quality reports with contaiminent testing results. Click here to read more

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Can you believe that two out of five lips balms offer poor UVA protection? And that many are filled with chemical ingredients? That’s what the Enviornmental Working Group’s (EWG) sunscreen investigation found. No matter what though, SPF lip balm should be an essential accessory, especially in summer. According to EWG, “Lip cancer is most common on the bottom lip where sun exposure is most direct.” Plus, many dermatologists believe that wearing shiny gloss can actually attract even more UV rays to the already vulnerable area.

So which lip balms are your best bet for the best protection? EWG calls Purple Prairie Sun Stuff Lip Balm SPF 30 tops. The balm moisturizes with cocoa butter along with possible natural sun protectors shea butter and jojoba oil. The true UVA/UVB protection comes from titanium dioxide and zinc. Sun Stuff is 100% natural, 85% organic and biodegradable. Click here to read more

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