Rescue squads in 30 major U.S. cities are now available to clean up after your next green meeting, trade show, wedding or party. Special E rescues food, food scraps, recyclables, floral arrangements, decorations, party favors, giveaways, unused hotel amenities, and extra meeting and event supplies.

Over the last year, Special E teams have rescued more than 100,000 pounds of food and drinks, 2,500 floral arrangements and centerpieces and hundreds of tote bags, promotional products and unused event supplies.

What happens to the leftovers? Special E finds organizations that can use them. Food leftovers from a recent multi-day conference in San Francisco were redirected to soup kitchens, missions and homeless shelters. They also offer a program to plant one tree for every 25 guests that attend your event. “Rescue fees” average $1 to $3 per event attendee.

Green Event Shop and Go Mega Green help you plan a green event by providing affordable biodegradable, compostable plates, cups and utensils.  Now you can go even further.  Call in the Special E Rescue Squads to reuse leftovers.

We’re all hurting right now. At Green Event, we’ve taken the initiative to avoid letting the bad economy become an excuse for not buying Green. We have launched a sister site — Go Mega Green.com — that offers our 100% biodegradable, compostable plates, cups, cutlery, utensils, napkins and bags at affordable, bulk prices.

At Go Mega Green, you can order by the thousands rather than the hundreds and save. Both web stores continue to offer high-quality, green products for your office, next big event, or everyday use, including:

• plates and bowls made from sugar cane fiber

• spoons, forks and knives made from potato starch and soy oil

• bioplastic cold cups made from a polymer using field-grade corn

• hot coffee or tea cups made from recycled paper with a bioplastic liner

• unbleached napkins made from post-consumer recycled paper

Shipping is free once the minimum order thresholds are met: $350 in California and $500 nationwide. All products are always in stock. Your orders will generally arrive during the same week you order.

Of course, if you can still order in smaller amounts for your upcoming wedding, picnic, small office or individual event at our original site — Green Event Shop.com

A new study says that composting and recycling can dramatically reduce greenhouse gases. “Along with waste prevention, expanded recycling and composing can have the same climate protection impact as closing 21 percent of the nation’s 417 coal-burning powers plants,” said Brenda Platt of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and a coauthor of the study “Stop Trashing the Climate.” She noted that coal combustion is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. “Recycling is as important for climate stability as improving vehicle fuel efficiency, retrofitting lighting, planting trees and protection forests. By avoiding landfill methane emissions, composting, in particular, is a vital tactic in the battle to stop Arctic ice melting. Biodegradable materials are a liability when buried and burned, but an asset when composted.” The study was reported in BioCycle Magazine.

A friend and habitue of TED sent this video clip of photographer Chris Jordan speaking: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/279

In the clip, Jordan displays photos that attempt to demonstrate the waste generated by disposable cups. The first photo shows 1 million plastic cups, or the number of cups used on airline flights in the United States every six hours. The four million, disposable plastic cups used on U.S. airplanes every day pales in comparison to the 40 million! hot beverage cups that Americans use and throw away every day. Since Jordan could not stage a photo of 40 million cups, he used about 1/100th of that number to create an image. He then moves through a series of images to depict just how much waste we generate to drink our daily coffee.

On his own website, Chris says: “The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.”

According to Certain, an online registration company, there are six tips for planning a green meeting, event, conference or training program.

1)  Choose host cities and event venues in places that minimize travel and transportation.

2)  Go paperless in registration.

3)  Downsize or eliminate collateral, such as showguides and supplements.  Use touch-screen kiosks and make details available online.

4)  Find alternatives to providing bottled water.

5)  Encourage participants to take notes on their PDA devices.

6)  Use biodegradable, compostable products for food service and for giveaways.

“So you’ve given up on paper plates for easy dinners on the deck, but what about picnics and those big parties you throw occasionally? Wouldn’t it be nice to keep it easy and still be virtuous?” wrote Laura Thomas in the May 28, 2008 San Francisco Chronicle.

The Green Event Shop’s 100% biodegradable, compostable plates, cups and flatware were pictured and discussed in the “Hot Stuff” column of the Home Section.

“The picnic package offers enough of everything for about 100 people at $77, but a la carte orders are welcome,” said the Chronicle.

A friend and teacher in Berkeley shares the following facts from the “A.P. Environmental Textbook, Living in the Environment, 14th edition” by G. Tyler Miller Jr.

Americans throw away:

•    2.5 million non-returnable plastic bottles every HOUR.

•    1.5 billion pounds of edible food each year.

•    2 billion disposable razors, 130 million cell phones, 50 million computer and 8 million televisions every year.

•    Enough office paper in a year to build a wall 3.5 meters (11 feet) high from New York to San Francisco.

•    Enough disposable diapers each year that if they were linked end-to-end, they would reach the moon and back seven times.

•    186 billion pieces of junk mail (an average of 660 for every American) annually, and about 45% of which was unopened.

Did you know that Americans spend more money on plastic bags each year than the 90 countries spend on everything?  Lily Tomlin observed:  “We buy a wastebasket and take it home in a plastic bag. Then we take the wastebasket out of the plastic bag and put the bag in the wastebasket.”

There are alternatives.  Check out Green Event Shop.  Everything can be composted and used again to nourish local farms and gardens.

Well, it can be done. It’s easy and fun. I hosted a “no-waste” graduation party for 40+ people on Saturday. We used 100% biodegradable, compostable, bleach free plates, cutlery and napkins from Green Event Shop. The heavenly barbeque fare was catered and arrived mostly in reusable stainless steel containers.

After dinner, the guests were advised to place everything into a Ecosafe bioplastic bag. I set out used grocery paper bags and cardboard boxes for the recyclable drink containers. After the party, the clean up was EASY. We filled the green waste bin with three full Ecosafe bags of compostable “waste” and filled the blue recyclable bin with drink containers and cardboard boxes. Leftover food was shared with a next-door neighbors having a party for their daughter. Not one thing from the party went into the trash can.

Green Event Shop is blessed to have made contact with some brides who are firmly committed to making their weddings green. These eco-pioneers are working to create memorable events that express their concern about the environment. Their stories might help others.

Jess Gillette in Minneapolis purchased several Wedding Packages from Green Event Shop. Their solution for green centerpieces? “We have taken felled white birch trees and cut them into three different sizes,” explained Jess. “They will be drilled to create natural vases and candle holders. We will let them go home with our guests.”

Bethany Campbell in Palmer, Alaska chose to go green for her wedding because “I think it is important to stick to being conscious of the environment even when it is inconvenient.”

“I had family members tell me they really didn’t want to wash dishes for such a large group,” wrote Bethany. “I refused to use disposable table settings because I find it irresponsible. Besides using all compostable table settings, my wedding dress is a beautiful A-line hemp dress. We plan to donate all of our leftover food to the womens’ resource center. We used 100% recycled paper for our envelopes and our invitations were frameable prints done by a local artist. We have made a webpage for people to rsvp.

“I really am excited about having this celebration and it makes me feel even better knowing that I am not harming my surroundings in the process,” concluded Bethany. “Thanks to you Green Event Shop!”

Americans rank last in a new National Geographic-sponsored survey that compares environmental-consumption habits in 14 countries, according to McClatchy Newspapers.

The newspapers said:

Americans were least likely to choose the greener option in three out of four categories: housing, transportation and consumer goods, according to the assessment….The rankings, called “Greendex,” are the first to compare the lifestyles and behaviors of consumers in multiple countries, according to the National Geographic Society.

India and Brazil tied for the highest score, 60 points out of 100, McClatchy said. U.S. consumers scored 44.9.

Results are based on 1,000 online respondents per country interviewed in January and February by GlobeScan, an international polling firm.

If you want to read the whole McClatchy story, google “survey of environmental consumption” or go to:

http://www.miamiherald.com/983/story/525129.html

If you want to see how you score, take an abbreviated version of the survey at:

http://event.nationalgeographic.com/greendex/