Via MyBookYourBook you can request up to five books a month and pay only postage in order to borrow them, and in exchange, you're requested to make ten books available from your personal library.  You browse around, find what you like, click, and an email automatically goes to the book's owner.  You send the book's owner a self-addressed, postage-paid, padded envelope, and they send the envelope back with the book in it.  The book is now yours.  Six weeks later, the system automatically enters your new book into the circulation system, making it available for the next person who wants it.

StudentSwapShop lets you post classified ads tailored to your particular school, so that you know you're not going to encounter high P + P.  It's a hit or miss site in that it's all segregated by categories, and too often the categories are entirely empty.  Why don't these guys set up so you can just browse - such as at yesterday's swap site post, SwapXchange?

Obsolete computer that works but is now basically useless to you?  Couch you don't need?  Or maybe you need some chairs or a desk at your not-for-profit?  Visit Throwplace.com - a refinement on the Freecycle idea.  You can either offer your castoffs to a particular charity, or designate them as Up-For-Grabs - any charity can get them.  (Charities must be properly registered with some official government body, depending on whether they're US-based or "International" - well, yes, the American sites do tend to have a bit of the Us-Them problems but considering this is such a fabulously good idea we'll overlook that.)  And yes, you get a receipt - it's a donation.

With a slogan like the whole world can talk for free, Skype is pretty hippy for an internet service.  If you're on the Skype network you can use it to call anybody else on the network for free.  Their long distance rates to call regular phones are also pretty reasonable.  In fact, now you can call within Canada and the US for free - even calling regular phones that aren't on the network.

The fourth episode of the Strawbridge's green renovation focused on a heat recovery system, designed to remove moisture from the air inside the house, after it had been well insulated with recycled denim! Current central heating systems, double glazing and insulation results in our houses having poor air quality, mould and condensation.  Whilst we can open a window for some fresh air or buy more houseplants, we also waste energy through our heating systems.  Heat Exchange System's ensure fresh, dry and warm air passed through vents around the house.  For the first time, Briget Strawbridge proclaimed "its not easy to live a greener life", referring to home life without heating and the struggle to install all the vents around their farmhouse.

Forty-five years ago, Britain's "ecological debt day" was July 9; in 1981 it was May 14. This year, according to the New Economics Foundation, "ecological debt day" in Britain was yesterday, April 16.  The report is based on how much Britain consumes versus how much it takes to absorb the waste generated.  It would, according to the NEF, take 3.1 Earths to keep up with Britain's pace of consumption.  And some of it is just plain stupid: exporting 1,500 tonnes of potatoes to Germany and importing exactly as many of exactly the same stuff; exporting 460 tonnes of gingerbread while importing 465 tonnes; exporting 10,200 tones of milk and cream to France while importing 9,900 tonnes of the same.  So buy local, guys!

Read more at the BBC story: Britain now 'eating the planet'

[Gabrielle Taylor]

The Green Stationery Company has a nice little seven-step process on how to cut down on waste generated by your office, followed by five reasons to go green.  Not only is this a tidy sheet to show a sceptical boss, you can also toddle them around the online catalog containing such gems as eco-friendly gel pens in bulk and even wind-up mobile chargers for a very modest £7.95.

[Gabrielle Taylor]

In my latest blog search I have uncovered.............

the weird craze of flowering tea [via Slashfood];

great facts and tips in recognition of World Water Day this week [via City Hippy]; 

the new clothes swap phenomenon [via Treehugger TV]

and a helpful site which answers all your eco-queries [eco-worrier].

Isn't it crazy that we let a perfectly good water supply i.e. rain, wash down our drains every day?  I've recently switched to a water meter and will be getting a couple of water butts to water my garden this summer.  If money were no object then I would invest in a rainwater harvesting system like this one from Freerain.  The water is diverted from the roof to a storage tank buried in your garden where it is filtered and pumped out again to use for washing machines, WC's and garden watering.  By using this system you will save 50% of your average water consumption. It costs around £3000 and its clearly a long term investment, which may add value to your home.  For more details go to the website or call 01636 894906. [Ella]

For all you busy bees, Wax Nostalgic is a Scottish company selling eco-friendly household cleaning products - all made with non-toxic, effective and naturally fragrant ingredients wrapped in chlorine free packaging. The company also contributes a portion of its revenue to several ethical charities, and the website also has very readable and detailed information about the product, including this £9 turpentine-free lavender furniture polish. Household cleaning without the sting in the tail - nice. www.waxnostalgic.co.uk [written by Ian Harris]

Last year, while taking a slow meander through the caves of consciousness and a walk down the path of freedom (Glastonbury), I happened upon a free magazine called The Spark, a quarterly crammed full of ethical, organic and environmental stuff. "Thinking globally, listing locally," The Spark focuses on alternative life in the West Country and has been doing so since 1993 - they even plant trees to offset their carbon footprint. The Wild and Wooley West has the largest proportion of alternative practioners in the UK and is also the home of the best band in the whole world, The Ozric Tentacles. The mag's new issue out in Feb; you can download the current one as a PDF over at www.thespark.co.uk [written by Ian Harris] 

If you don't buy a goat or a hoe this Christmas, try your hand at offsetting: even celebs such as our very own Mel C are getting in on the act of 'neutralising' their CO2 emissions. Offsetting generally works by you paying the likes of Climate Care a set sum for tree-planting and green energy projects around the globe. This year there's an added incentive for spending at least £10 on offsetting with Climate Care - you'll get 40 per cent off Dave Reay's Climate Change Begins at Home [review here], making it roughly £10 instead of £17. Full details here.

Admit it: Monopoly's rubbish. Things are fun and unpredictable for five minutes. After that, you're selling Mile End and your utility companies to afford the rent at your tyrant uncle's hotel on Park Lane. This Christmas, may I gently recommend a French-made - who else? - eco alternative for eight year olds and up. Known as Bioviva, the game boasts twelve international awards on its mantlepiece. Though I'm yet to play it,  the premise is essentially Trivial Pursuit with nature questions and a Risk board with travel instead of war and strife. Beats remortgaging properties to get your boot past Go. A £24 outlay snags you all the essentials including a mammoth 900 questions - it's on sale at Gaia Distribution. [found via top notch green directory site, Eco Street]

I always found the AA's Very Nice Men and the RAC's Knights of the Road mildly disturbing, so it's good to see there's an alternative in breakdown land in the shape of ETA. Naturally, it offers roadside assistance - at £40 to the AA's £45, complete with a one hour guarantee - but it's also an out-and-out greenie company. For a start, it undertakes eco transport research, lobbies government on reducing car use and offsets its own emissions with energy effiency projects in the developing world. It even actively attempts to raise our awareness of car overuse and why public transport's good - presumably doing itself out of punters in the process - and recommends you offset your driving at £2.80 for every 1,000 miles. Finally, it hosts a mighty handy online guide to which cars have the best MPG - Honda's Civic IMA hybrid is currently sitting at number one. ETA

So it transpires Doc Emmett was wrong - instead of flying cars in the future, we'll all be whizzing about in hydrogen-powered ones on the ground. Well, we will in 2020 once we've sussed how to make the stuff without wasting more energy than the gas is good for. In the meantime, there are prototype sci-fi home power stations to get excited about, such as Honda's new Energy Station III. It's basically a hydrogen fuel pump and a generator for your house, complete with a fat battery. The only ungreen bit is that it's natural gas-powered instead of wind or solar. Honda Research.