Guerrilla Green

I got a packet in the mail last week from a website called VoteForTrees.com, a tongue-in-cheek tree education/promotion site. It's a fun way to kill a few minutes. Especially worth watching are the "What are trees doing right now?" videos at the bottom right (my favorite - tennis).

Even more interesting than the packet was the envelope that it came in, which loudly proclaimed, "THIS IS NOT A TREE." It's made out of a synthetic material produced by a company called Yupo.

And even more interesting than THAT is a blog linked off the VoteForTrees.com site -- the These Come From Trees Blog, which bills itself as the world's first guerrilla public service announcement. Here are a few interesting details:

Quick Facts about "These Come From Trees"
- Testing shows a "These Come From Trees" sticker on a paper towel dispenser reduces paper towel consumption by ~15%
- A typical fast food restaurant with two bathrooms can use up to 2000 pounds of paper towels a year
- The average coffee shop uses 1000 pounds of paper towels a year
- A single tree produces around 100 pounds of paper
- A single "These Come From Trees" sticker can save around a tree's worth of paper, every year

I'm a sucker for stuff like this, so I'll probably buy some.

I'm also going to have to get to work on giving away some of the green Lance Armstrong-style wristbands I'm now piling up. VoteForTrees.com sent me two wristbands, which are now neatly stacked on my coffee table under my "PROJECT 37" wristband. That was an ill-fated, short-lived Arlington County government effort to boost the Arlington's recycling rate a couple of years back. However, some of the wristbands made their way to the Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment booth at last year's Arlington County Fair, and I thought it would be a good excuse for The Green Miles to sport his green like Lance sports his yellow, so I snagged one.