The Hum Sum is a platform dedicated to everyone who wants to offer suggestions and to engage in solutions for environmental challenges.

Our staff, interns and volunteer moderators are devoted to providing a space for practical, useful and planet-friendly posts. We are a cost-free, spam-free, rant-free, politics-free, troll-free and bully-free zone.

We encourage nonprofits, businesses, government departments, and projects to set up profiles, add their URLs, consolidate event calendars, create wish lists, and use our platform as a green directory.

Every day we see humanity buzzing with activity. We want to map, count and collect good ideas working for a healthy and harmonious planet!

Also see our Intro Video and Homepage

Spring Cleaning? Feeling overburdened by too much stuff?  

Post a Gift!

Wishing you could find free items and materials?

Post a Wish!

Just click the + (plus sign) to post once you are logged in. It is very quick and easy. Add as many as you like.

Together we are all helping to turn waste into resources, which is good for society and the environment.

You can also post services like green jobs, repairs, deliveries, and funding opportunities.

Use our site for home and work. Sign up is free. Be sure to browse the galleries to see what’s already here. Be sure to keep your profile updated and check your dashboard for messages and thank you letters.

Hair Matters donations (even one-time hair ponytail donations) are all made through The Hum Sum.

We get a lot of wonderful fiber on The Hum Sum, and cottage-industry mini-factories have limited space, so matches are made with the nearest addresses or with emergency site needs.

All loose fiber must be loose. It can be any length. Fiber must be natural (not synthetic or mixed natural and synthetic) and unbraided. Natural hair can be dyed, permed etc. Please note wigs and synthetic extensions will not be accepted for the oil spill hair mats and soil mulch.

Regarding matted, knotted, dreadlocks, shower drain hair, and hair from brushing – we do take it, though we also highly recommend using it in gardens, farms, flower pots, other soil, etc.

Please see our short VIDEO for instructions on how to send hair.

We always need ponytails that are 4 inches (10cm) or longer – please separate from short hair.  We use this long hair for scrims for the lacy outer layers of the mats.

All fiber must be debris-free – no garbage (pins, rocks, rubber bands, extension tips, cigarette butts, foil, food… ), just pure hair, fur, wool, fleece… If any trash is seen we have to throw away the whole box because debris breaks the felting needles, and that’s dangerous.

1) Take a PHOTO of your GIFT.

2) Log in / sign up and complete profile so we know your city, zip etc. It takes 10 seconds, and we do not spam or share our database.

3) Click on the + (on desktop: left sidebar ; on mobile: bottom center)

4) Select Donate a Gift, add photo, then in Title type Ponytail or Fur or Haircut Clippings or Fleece… for example. You will see the dropdown and department, category, subcategory autofill for you.

5) Complete title and form and click Publish.

Check for email notifications as a nearby hub will contact you, usually within 72 hours, to request your gift of fiber. Please click on the email link and accept a request to get an address and thank you letter.

You can mail the fiber in a plain envelope (no plastic baggies or rubber bands, please), or box (ideally lined with a paper bag or compostable bag). Often salons receive boxes of shampoo bottles and reuse those to ship hair clippings to us.

We also love seeing photos of salons collecting long and short hair in 2 different plexiglass containers, so that their clients can see their contributions to clean water!

Thank you!

Do you ride the bus, walk to work, recycle, garden, shop for secondhand clothes or sell antiques? Plan to install solar, drive a hybrid car or develop a green-job training policy?

Post guesstimates for how much money and time your household, your business, your classroom, your nonprofit, your city department… plans to spend on environmental choices.

Add your hours / expenses, and watch the tallies grow on our map, which allows us to quantify the collective planet-friendly  impact we are all having locally and globally.

Governments and large corporations / manufacturers need to know how much the general public really cares. Convenience and accessibility are key, we can vote with our dollars and want to do the right thing.  Mobilizing to make healthy choices as easy as doing the wrong thing.  

Let’s show what we, the general public, really want and expect in the form of clear water, fresh air, real food, easy transport, positive communications, beautiful environments, happy kids, content elderly, considerations and freedoms.

Our local-to-global Eco-Events Calendar conveniently consolidates information.  Share general  information about a cool event you heard about. Or, hosts and coordinators, post and gather RSVPs to your own event.

Attendees be sure to click on  links inside the post for up to date information and confirmations.

Eco-Events posts showcase inspiring, replicable local to global examples for building healthy environments. From climate summits to green building open house walking tours, celebrate eco-actions, great and small. Promote your restaurant’s planet-friendly menu, nonprofit’s volunteer day, school’s edible garden show, airport’s new recycling center, local shop’s sale on sustainable products, dog park’s model poo composting station, electric car parade, clean water photo expo, bike-friendly neighborhood roundtable… Let’s gather momentum and build on each other’s ideas!

Let’s connect and discuss – peer to peer, boots on the ground, around the world, sector by sector – how to tackle pollution, green job creation, sanitation, composting, recycled material stockpiles, renewable resources, protecting old growth forests, over-fishing, affordable housing, climate refugees…

Discussions, Articles, Polls, Questions, Communities, Comments, Likes, Topics – that go beyond UN SCGs…  so many ways to sort, research  and add vital information.  Great for students and curious minds!

Remember, stay positive.  The Hum Sum is what is being done and what can be done that is planet-friendly.  We encourage youth to have optimistic plans for the future.  There are plenty of other social media sites where people can discuss the end of the world.  You can only do that here if you include one heck of a solution!

Please note: there are rules, these forums, like the entire Hum Sum site are rant-free, politics-free, troll-free, bully-free, ad-free, and cost-free (and as in included in Umbrella / Canopy accounts).

The challenges we face are complex, but we can solve them together. Our forum is a place where eco-enthusiasts can stay in-touch, get organized, and be heard.

To delete your account, please visit your Profile Page (in your dashboard side menu or by going to your account’s My Page and clicking on the Edit My Profile Page button). Once in your profile, scroll to the bottom and click on the button for “advanced settings.”  Here you will see options to either delete or deactivate your account. We’re sorry to see you go.

Affiliates!

Emporium!