Mindful of the need to cut costs in today's economic climate, the Queen was reluctant to splash out on an expensive new evening gown for her Slovenian State Visit.

Instead, she dug out some fabric she was given over 20 years ago and had someone on the sewing machine style into a dress for a white tie state banquet hosted in her honour…

…where is this going you wonder? No, I’m not about to be tell you to dress like the Queen or copy her style but this grabbed my attention as surely we’ve all got clothes and accessories in the closet that we don’t go near for whatever reasons.

Maybe you bought something and a week later you still haven’t worn it thinking “why did I buy this? Or maybe it’s the woolly jumper you got as a youngster with your initials or a choo-choo train stitched on the front?

Well, unlike the Queen your stuff is unlikely to be 20 years old so surely something can be done with it if its no longer in use. Transform some old joggers into shorts or even an old t-shirt into a cleaning cloth (Ok maybe not creative enough but you get the point) - whatever it is it doesn’t need to be thrown away. Also if this story I checked up on is really true maybe we certainly need to do more at our end with our old stuff?

I know for sure I’m going to have a look in my closet and see what can be re-styled. Winter is coming up so I could experiment on maybe adding an extra layer in my jeans with some old tracksuit bottoms… (That idea’s a bit better)

If all else fails and you can’t make something new out of your old stuff then check out Just Give to see what you can do with your old gear!

We’re not idiots. Many people, young and old, drink alcohol, and there’s really no sense in trying to avoid discussing it. But like any food, clothing, or beauty product, environmentally unsound practices do occur in the processing and manufacturing of alcohol.

That’s why it’s important to be aware of eco friendly liquor products—in this case, vodka! The site Eatdrinkbetter has a guide to eco friendly vodkas that adopt such pro-environment practices as infusing their product with organic ingredients and providing you with an envelope for recycling your caps. So, we’ll turn a blind eye to the drinking, but we’re laid back enough to show you how to do it with the Earth in mind.

In an unusual development, The Canadian Press reports a sharp rise in organized environmental crime. What is environmental crime? Well, for example, many criminals take loads of e-waste and sell them at higher prices to black (or green) market recyclers overseas. Afterwards, they’re mined for parts needed by people in poorer countries. While we’re all for the crime syndicate going green, we’d prefer they did it legally. But hey, if crooks are becoming more mindful of the environment, then what’s stopping everyone else?

Bicycles have been all over the news recently, with many cities adopting pro-bicycle policies to try and curb car usage. Also, many younger people are switching to bicycles, as it’s both a cheaper and hipper way to get around.

Many bicycles have lights for nighttime visibility—and though they use batteries, they shouldn’t be discouraged: Your personal safety is more important than the environment. But now there’s a way to be both environmentally sound as well as able to see at night: a battery-free bike light. The company Goodbye Batteries has created a light that receives its energy from magnets attached to the spokes of your bike. A pretty nifty invention, and surely a way to avoid looking like a hypocrite when someone points out your “battery-draining lights.”

Over at this web site is a method of recycling chewing gum. As the person explains, 472 million tons of chewing gum  is consumed internationally, creating a stretch of gum that could blanket the United States—polluting sidewalks, streets, and forest preserves. So how do we chew less gum? By chewing it again.

Gum can be re-chewed by simply adding sugar. Once you’ve extracted all the flavor, simply coating your chewed gum in sugar (or Splenda, if that’s what you prefer) can make it taste as good as new. There are additional ways to alter this formula, such as adding hot sauce and cinnamon to imitate Big Red, or mint leaves for cleaning up your stinky breath.

This article reports of an Australian student who figured out a way to produce solar cells in, of all places, a pizza oven. Trying to find a way for places with low-cost facilities to develop solar technology, she stumbled upon a method of developing solar energy in the oven, thereby discovering an unusual way for poorer countries to possess alternate energy sources. Whether or not this will have an effect on pizza, or if our environment will be redolent of wood-fired pizza has yet to be determined. 

A lot of people that sincerely want to go green don’t always remember the greenest options available; and how can you blame them? Remembering the various green steps you have to take—even in the most minor situations—often means being crazy about details. Basically, how do you just chill out and not stress about these things?

Over at Green Home , they have a list of a number of wallet-sized guides to the more environmentally aware options for plastics, cosmetics, grocery shopping, and going out to eat. But it’s partly what you eat that provides the most inspired resource: a seafood guide that you can access from your cell phone. So now, when you have a craving for fish, you can see reasonable alternatives to the kind you want, and sometimes they even taste better.