EcoYogini continues the theme of being a 'clean' eco
yogini...
Pre-yoga class on Monday, my friends C, H, and I were discussing
how often we wash our yoga clothes. I use the 'wear+sweat twice' or
'wear+nosweat thrice' rule (I also use a similar rule of "wear
pants/jeans twice if not dirty" rule- shh don't tell anyone!).
Reasoning:
- We don't have our own laundry (since we live in an apartment) and
it piles up during our weekly wash.
- Lazyness
- It saves on water, energy and detergent use (woot
environment!)
Laundry was one of those easy eco-changes that can have a nice
impact with minimal effort. Since 90% of your washer's energy usage
is to heat the water- cold water washes it is! It's been five years
of cold water washing and I haven't even noticed the difference.
Also we FILL the washer to the max- mostly because it costs money
to wash our laundry, but wouldn't ya know that washer's MORE
efficient with full loads! Bonus (
Ecoholic Home
2009 p.38).
What we have experimented a bit with has been laundry detergent.
We've tried soap nuts (terrible fail let me tell you) and a few
other brands, until I gifted myself with the Ecoholic Home book: it
has a handy dandy laundry detergent eco-awesome-effective
guide.
(
Lorax approved Seventh Generation vs Bio-Vert the
Hockey Lover's choice)
Our two all-time favourites (and Adria Vasil's):
1. Bio-Vert
(liquid). This rocks as it's a Canadian company, the
products are made in Canada (Laval Québec)! The container, although
plastic, is made from 33% recycled plastic content, the paper
labels are made with 30% post-consumer fibres and are
FSC certified...
the list goes on. It has worked the best compared to
all other 'chemical laden' brands... and it claims to biodegrade in
28 days (where do you think all the soap goes once it drains out of
your washer?) with the EcoLogo certifying that it doesn't just
biodegrade it smaller toxic components.
2. Seventh Generation Natural 4X (Liquid):
Ok, although not Canadian, even before the new fab packaging, this
stuff was amazing. The container is made with 66% LESS plastic than
a regular container with the outside cardboard uber tree-hugger
look from 100% postconsumer recycled fibre. Of course the actual
ingredients are extremely environmentally friendly and will do up
to 66 loads! (which is double the Bio-vert counterpart). Sadly it
was twice the cost (although you could argue it would save money
re: double the loads) and it's not made in Canada. Kinda a sticking
point for me. However, because the packaging looked so cool I
totally bought it and gave it a go. It works amazingly. Of
course.
Wash your yoga clothes in cold water, avoid fabric softener, hang
to dry and you've got yourself an eco-friendly washed yoga gear!
Date Published: Feb 17, 2012 - 2:19 pm
When I taught school a few years
ago, I felt the need to immediately get out of my work clothes
when I got back home each afternoon. After being snuffled and
sneezed on, wheedled and wheezed on, I just needed to shed the
germs and the stress before I could move on with my day. Unless
we had somewhere to go late in the day, I usually just changed
into pajamas at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, to avoid dirtying
another entire outfit. Still, that created a lot of laundry. Add
a cloth-diapered baby to the mix, a baby that we allowed to serve
himself table food when he started asking for it around 6 months
old, and we had quite a pile to wash every day or two.
I like doing laundry (even though I know that it uses up energy
and clean water and expensive eco-detergents). I do NOT like
folding and sorting and putting away laundry. So here are a few
things my family does to reduce our laundry load, at least a
little –
1. Rewear pants and pajamas and sweaters and the like more than
once.
2. Use a moist washcloth to spot clean obvious problems areas in
clothes that don’t need an all-over clean.
3. Air out anything that has a slight smell but isn’t really
dirty.
4. Potty train early.
5. Keep a set of dirty playclothes by the back door, and only
wash them once a week or so.
6. Encourage your child to wear washable bibs to keep outfits
clean longer. (Mine refuses.)
7. Hang towels to dry after each use.
8. Wear loungewear that can be worn as daytime attire and
pajamas.
Well, I totally failed today. I am still wearing the same outfit
I put on this morning, but that is not the case with my son.
-Outfit 1 – covered in frosting and paint from preschool party
-Outfit 2 and shoes – just missed the potty
-Outfit 3 and sheets– Mama forgot to put on a diaper before
naptime
-Outfit 4 – had an accident at the park while having fun with a
friend
-Outfit 5 and shoes and coat and towel – splashed and bathed in
mud puddles at the park
-Outfit 6 – caked with spaghetti sauce
-Outfit 7 – flecked with globs of homemade play dough
All of these are important little boy experiences that I wouldn’t
want to take away for the sake of doing less laundry – especially
the mud puddles. But this is an entire load of laundry from today
that I can hear spinning in my front-loading washer. Well, maybe
tomorrow the Kelly Green Giant will at least remember the diaper
at naptime!
How do you lighten your laundry load?
Date Published: Feb 16, 2012 - 1:01 am
0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false
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18 pt 0 0 false false false
From Emerald
Apron’s Cosmetics Bag
Please entertain
my rant, because I am ticked off beyond belief. According to a
recent press release from The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, lead
is still found in many different brands of lipstick.
This is something that I first heard about a
few years ago, but apparently it’s been common knowledge for at
least five years. Why is lead still in lipstick? I’m sorry, have
we forgotten that lead is a known neurotoxin? That there are no
safe levels of lead exposure for children, and that pregnant
women and women of reproductive age should be especially careful
to avoid lead? This isn’t BPA in plastic bottles. There is no
question, NO DEBATE. There is scientific consensus that people
should not be exposed to lead. There are regulations for the
amount of lead in gasoline, paint, toys… so WHY is lead in
lipstick unregulated? We don’t want children to eat paint chips
that may contain lead, but we can have women applying lead to
their lips, multiple times a day, consuming the lead with every
sip or bite they take, and letting the lead absorb into their
skin. I’m seriously frustrated by this, and I don’t even own a
single tube of lipstick.
I’ve come to the
conclusion that I can’t trust any company to care about my health.
They only make changes when they are forced by regulations (and
even then, change is slow or companies are noncompliant). So why
can’t the FDA do the right thing and require that these companies
keep lead out of their lipstick? According to the press release
from The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, “The FDA said it is currently
evaluating whether to recommend an upper limit for lead in
lipstick. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is urging FDA to set a
maximum limit for lead in lipstick based on the lowest lead levels
cosmetic manufacturers can feasibly achieve.” As early as 2007, Senators Kerry, Boxer and
Feinstein urged the FDA to begin regulating lead in lipsticks and
other cosmetics. Seriously FDA? Stop evaluating and just do it.
Why not do something to actually protect human health instead of
listening to industry lobbyists?
Why don’t women
stand up for themselves and demand better? Why don’t men stand up
for women’s health while we’re at it? This isn’t about whether
you choose to wear lipstick or choose not to wear lipstick. This
isn’t an issue just for women, either. This is a human health
issue and everyone should be concerned. I can’t help but wonder
why a product like PAINT, which is used by all people, is seen as
worthy of lead regulation while a product like lipstick, which is
seen as only a women’s product, remains
unregulated.
I choose to opt-out of most cosmetics by
either just not wearing them or by making my own, but I don’t
think that’s enough. It’s protecting me and my family, but it’s
not protecting anyone else. So, what do you think we should
do? Contact our
representatives? Call for a mass
boycott?
Date Published: Feb 15, 2012 - 12:04 pm
Jenn the Greenmom gave us her
rant about Valentine's Day earlier this month
and touched on the issues around many popular gifts, I thought to
follow up with that I would share this video, enjoy.
Hope everyone has a very happy, ethical, and eco-friendly
Valentine's Day!
Date Published: Feb 14, 2012 - 12:30 pm
A suburban greenmom lights a fire...
We have a fireplace in our "new" house (i.e. the one we've lived in
for the past 3 years). Until a couple of nights ago, we had never
actually lit a fire in it.
My husband went out and bought one of those "fireplace logs" to
use. I winced; I figured these would have to be horribly un-green
and artificial and toxic chemical laden, probably a terrible thing
to use. But then
I started doing some research. Turns out a lot
of these things, even from mainstream brand "Duraflame," are made
of recycled sawdust (the stuff that would otherwise be disposed of)
and vegetable waxes, mostly. That they burn more cleanly and with
lower emissions--including carbon monoxide--than even ordinary cut
wood. And that they are
generally recommended as a
better choice than firewood for a fire in one's
home fireplace.
This surprised me a lot!
So I started looking around for what brands there are
out there; please let me know if any readers have actually
tried any of these, or know of any others...
Duraflame: The most well-known brand, they seem
to be trying pretty hard to greenify their product...hard to tell
how much is authentic and how much is greenwashing, but it's a
start...
Green Heat: This is the one we used, and it's made
from waxed cardboard rather than sawdust. It did a pretty good job,
although I have to admit its presence was more about ambience than
about actual
warmth.
Energy Logs:
This Canadian brand seems more geared for actual heat output than
"pretty" fireplace fires...they suggest mixing "normal" wood with
one of their logs if you want the higher flames.
Earthlog: made
out of recycled paper. I like the idea of the zero-waste recycling
process...
GreenLog: This one is apparently made out of
grass. (Talk about a renewable resource!) What I like
here is that it does
not require that the rest of our
system continue its current mode of overconsumption so it can get
its raw materials...on the other hand, the raw materials are there,
so it's kind of a good thing other brands are out there to deal
with it, you know? I would love to try one of these--they
saythey burn up to 6 hours, which is twice as long as most of the
others out there, and they also mention that they come out with a
zero balance carbon footprint--whatever carbon dioxide is created
in the burning of the logs is taken in by their next crop of grass
as it grows. Food for thought!
Anyone else have any experience with artificial fire logs? What do
you think about them?
Date Published: Feb 13, 2012 - 1:30 am
I always figured I lived a fairly green lifestyle given my
resources. Reduce, reuse, recycle was ingrained in my practices. I
ate locally and organic whenever my budget allowed. I grew my own
produce. I eschewed plastic crap in my house whenever I could.
What scares me is it isn't enough.
There's that little bit inside you that tries to dismiss the
worries that the things you use every day could kill you. And you
try to tune it out.
The reality is chemicals are imbedded in our society, and it's
going to take a heck of a lot of effort to get them out. Even if we
don't know what the effects of these conveniences are.
A few years ago, I read
the Body Toxic, and it scared the crap out of
me. That book chronicled the history of hidden chemicals, almost as
a government conspiracy. (Who knows? Perhaps it is.) There, I
learned to fear PVC shower curtains and microwave popcorn. Fun
stuff.
The problem is, while there's much you can do to educate yourself
on chemicals imbedded in our everyday things and the possible
effects, hunting down alternatives is tough business. That's why I
looked forward to reading "The Non-toxic Avenger: What you don't
know can hurt you" by
Crunchy Chicken's Deanna Duke. If anyone could find
an alternative, I figured, she could.
Duke's book focuses on her attempt to reduce chemicals and toxins
in her body from everyday exposure. It's a scary thought -
particularly since she too was leading a green lifestyle before
this project began. The books chronicles her challenges in
reconciling with her husband's cancer and son's autism, and in
seeking alternatives to polluting her body - in everything from
carpet to cleaning products, from mascara to margaritas. (Hey, you
have to have fun.)
No, Duke doesn't find all the answers. She's still on the hunt for
mold-cleaning products, for example. But I love the fact she's
still looking and willing to share what's she's found as the best
possible alternatives.
"It's still an uphill, daily battle trying to determine whether a
product I pick up at the store will poison me," she writes.
At least we have a new, consolidated resources to help us in this
battle. I came away, whether Duke intended or not, with a guide
that could sit on my shelf - one that I could point to in order to
help me more quickly find solutions to my quests.
Date Published: Feb 11, 2012 - 10:43 am
In which Truffula embraces color in her life, just not in
things she or her family might ingest...
In my continuing self-education about supporting our health,
activated charcoal kept popping up. I added it to my mental
list of things to get for my ever-evolving "home pharmacy."
After my sister suffered through 36 hours of, um, episodes
following a meal with some now-suspect coleslaw, I decided I needed
to have that charcoal on hand sooner rather than later, just in
case a situation hit in my own household.
On Monday, I walked to the chain-store pharmacy near my office,
wallet in hand. I went to the counter, and explained for what
I was looking. The aide remembered that she'd seen some
charcoal in an over-the-counter aisle, but that it might have had
its formulation changed. She strode expertly right over to
the aisle location, plucked off a box, and... confirmed the
change. She then turned me over the pharmacist for further
help.
I told the pharmacist my story: I was looking for activated
charcoal. My mom had some, but it had senna in it. I
wasn't sure that a laxative ingredient would be the bees' knees if
I had to use the charcoal in a case of, shall we say, already acute
bowel motility. Therefore, I was on a quest for plain old
charcoal. The pharmacist nodded, saying he knew just what I
wanted. He reminisced about simple charcoal powder..
(Ah, perfect, I thought!)
He padded back to his computer, typed away, and came back to let me
know that his supplier had charcoal tablets. He could order
them and have them for me the next afternoon. Great, I
said.
Tuesday afternoon, I walked expectantly back to the pharmacy.
The pharmacist remembered me, and had a little box waiting.
He handed it to me for my inspection. I went right to
the ingredient list. Oh! In fact, it WAS a list.
This wasn't just charcoal... it had some homeopathic remedies
mixed in. I tried to overlook that fact, and my finger
continued tracing along the back of the carton... FD&C this,
and FD&C that... (Why the heck would I want fake colors in a
black product whose job was to go into the gut, do its thing, and
then pass back out?) I looked up at the pharmacist, who
sensed that I wasn't liking where this was going. He quickly
assured me that I didn't have to buy it. He would have no
problem sending it back to the warehouse.
Especially since he had gone through the trouble of ordering this
just for me, I really wanted to like this product and to buy it
from him. That nagging gut (pardon me!) feeling told me
otherwise. Stoically, I kept reading... propylene glycol...
proplylene glycol?! Are you kidding me? Now, we had a
deal-breaker. What part of just-activated-charcoal-please
was not getting through? Was it really that hard to find a
single-ingredient item?
With the confidence from my internal nagger, I looked back at the
pharmacist, who kindly reassured me that sending the product back
was no problem. Very well, I told him. Please do return
it. I then thanked him effusively for his help, and headed
back to work.
My non-internet options are not exhausted -- there are two other
stores which I'm quite certain will have a product for me.
It's a drive, not a walk, to get there, but I can chain the
trip there with other things.
I'm enthusiastic about the power of such a simple remedy. I'm
far less enthused about the challenge of trying to find it in its
pure form.
Signing off on another installment of "Less is More"...
To our health!
Date Published: Feb 10, 2012 - 7:39 pm
|
My 5-day-old baby in a fitted cloth diaper.
|
Eco-novice urges you to consider cloth.
Even if you use disposables for the remainder of your child's
diapering months, I would encourage anyone who is even remotely
interested in
cloth diapering to consider using cloth for the
first six months of your baby's life.
Here's why:
1.
If you are a bit concerned about all the toxic chemicals in
your child's world, then both the known ingredients and the undisclosed
ingredients (such as the components of the fragrance) of disposable diapers will give you
pause. If you are going to pay attention to the ingredients in
any product, it might as well be the product that comes in contact
with your baby's private parts all day long. During this newborn
period, your baby is extremely vulnerable to endocrine disruptors
and other harmful chemicals. In addition to being more sensitive,
newborn skin is also more permeable than the skin of older children
and adults. Chemicals in diaper wipes, disposable diapers, and
personal products can easily pass through your infant's skin into
her body, so this is the time to be super-conscientious about
ingredients.
2. Cloth wipes are better at getting off that
yellow runny poop than disposable wipes. Also, the
ingredients in disposable wipes are weird.
3. Cloth diapers prevent pooplosions! And, as
many parents know, newborns are prone to poopy explosions because
of their runny poops. I am now cloth diapering my third child and I
have never had cloth diaper leak poop.
4. You don't have to do a darn thing about the poop.
Dealing with poop is one of the big reasons that
folks steer clear of cloth diapers. But if you breastfeed, newborn
poop is completely water soluble and washes right out in the wash.
You toss the poopy diaper in the wash and you're done. The diapers
will stain, but personally I don't care about that (line drying
helps with that, if you do care).
5. Young babies stay put. There is a small learning curve to
using cloth diapers, especially if you are accustomed to using
disposables, and it's easier to become a whiz at using cloth
diapers with a newborn than with a squirmy 9-month old or
toddler.
6. Newborn babies go through a lot of diapers. I
change my 2-month-old baby about 8 times during the day, I'd say.
If you change your baby's disposable diaper in the middle of the
night, you may go through even more diapers. Let's assume 6 diapers
per day for the first six months (I'm trying to estimate
conservatively here -- feel free to argue with my calculations in
the comments). That's almost 200 diapers
per month! Let's
estimate that you spend $40 a month on diapers, night time diapers,
and wipes. (If you choose to buy "greener" brands of disposables,
you will spend significantly more.) As long as you spend less than
$240 on cloth diapers for the 0-to-6-months period (and you can
spend far less than that if you choose a
less expensive system, buy used, or
make your own) you will come out ahead
financially. Plus you've kept hundreds of diapers out of the
landfill.
I'm not going to argue about the environmental impact of cloth
versus disposable diapers here, but there is no doubt that cloth
diapering exposes your child to fewer potentially toxic chemicals
during a very susceptible period. Add to that the fact that the
first six months are in many ways the easiest and most economical
time to cloth diaper, and I think we have a pretty good
argument for cloth diapering your newborn.
How much do you spend on diapering supplies each month?
Have you considered using cloth diapers?
.
Date Published: Feb 09, 2012 - 11:45 am
From the
laundry basket of the Homegrown Mama
Remember back
when the rest of the Boothers and I shared our Eco-resolutions for 2012? It was my goal
to actually get my act together and bring
my reusable bags to the grocery store. I don't go
to many places when I grocery shop. Kroger, the butcher and a
local country market. I always remember to take my insulated
bags to the butcher shop. Even now, when it's cold out, I
like to have my own bag with me because I can really stuff it full
and even just toss it into the fridge when I get home knowing
everything is contained.
I had
realized that if I was going to make the other stores and the bags
work, I might just have to do it without extensive lists for the
sale flyers at Kroger and probably also not bring the kids along.
For the record, I've only been successful about half of the
time. What's been a bigger realization for me in the last
month, however, is that the sale flyers and coupons aren't really
working for me. I used to watch the couponing show on TLC and
even got to attend a how-to for coupons a few months ago. I
left feeling very inspired and had high hopes of saving all sorts
of money.
But as I
clipped the coupons faithfully every Sunday afternoon, I realized
that I was throwing away 80% of them because they don't work with
the Real Food guidelines. I know how to
make croissants for the weekend breakfasts, so I don't
have a use for any of the Pillsbury coupons. I make my own
beef stock so the Swanson coupons are also pointless for me.
Little by little, I realized that I really don't benefit from
the coupon clipping. Sure, it's nice to save the money on
things like garbage bags and toilet paper, but I'll never have a
stockpile of products in my basement that weren't canned by
me.
But really,
it's ok. I don't need to have a stock pile of salad dressings
that have a shelf life of years waiting for me to rotate through
them. I can whip up a quick dressing in less time than it
takes me change a diaper. Switching to Real Food takes some
effort, but it's not without reward. I'm not spending hours
clipping and scoping for deals. Instead, I've found bread
recipes I love. I didn't waste the chicken bones and made
stock. It's amusing to me that a few short months ago, I was
all set to save money by using brand name items until I realized
that I can save money just by continuing what I've been doing for
years. Even though I have yet to find a coupon for farm-fresh
lettuce or 50 pounds of flour, I do sometimes purchase naturally
branded food products. And when I'm looking for those
specific products from the natural product lines, I always scope
out Organic
Deals. If you are looking at a Gluten Free diet or want
to buy specific organic products, this site is wonderful.
These days,
my coupon box has coupons for Traditional Medicinals teas and free
day passes to take friends with me to the local children's museum.
I keep my eyes open for deals in the grocery and I'm wise
about what I purchase at the grocery versus at the bulk food store,
but I rarely use a manufacturer's coupon. I guess I don't
really need those 40 cents off on Rotel tomatoes... there are still
4 dozen pints of my own canned diced tomatoes waiting for me to use
them before this year's tomato harvest!
Date Published: Feb 08, 2012 - 7:30 am
Today has been crazy and right now I'm trying to get dinner on the
table so for my post today I'm going to share a video/recipe from
EcoRico, an
eco-friendly cooking show on YouTube. I have not made this recipe
but I've made Arroz con Pollo before and it's quite good and this
one looks even better.
If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out more of
EcoRico.
Date Published: Feb 07, 2012 - 4:54 pm
A suburban greenmom goes on her annual Valentine's Day
rant...
With Valentine’s Day approaching, I guess it’stime for the annual
questions and reminders about the scary labor conditionssurrounding
the production of chocolate, flowers, and jewelry…this holiday has
always kind of bugged me, but pretty much any holiday
that's primarily about "showing how much you care by buying a lot
of stuff" bugs me.
So I don’t need to say a lot of new stuff:just another plea to, if
we can’t ignore the holiday all together (which wouldbe my
preference, honestly!), to live it as lightly as we are able to
livethrough the rest of the year.
FairTrade chocolate,
recycled gold,estate jewelry,
organicflowers (or better yet, live plants),
conflict-free diamonds,small personal Valentine
greetings if they can’t be avoided all together.
So--once again, I'd love to throw it out to the comments: Do any of
you have any great ideas or favorite vendors for how to enjoy this
holiday in a light-living way?
--Jenn the Greenmom
Date Published: Feb 06, 2012 - 12:42 pm
The Booth welcomes guest poter Kenna Lee.
Truth is, disconnected from mainstream media as I am, Groundhog Day
doesn’t usually cross my radar. Most years, I don’t notice that
January is over until Groundhog Day has come and gone. But this
year, my son hand-drew a calendar as a school project and so I
occasionally look at it. And this week I had one of those V-8
moments: staring at the February 2 square, hand slapping my own
forehead, exclaiming, “I could have had a metaphor.”
As February begins, the days are finally noticeably longer, as
evidenced by the fact that if I serve supper at five, no one wants
to come inside to eat. The light approaches, and I start to stick
my head out of my hole of doing indoor chores (mending, mostly) and
pretending that the world doesn’t much extend beyond the safe warm
burrow of my house. And like the groundhog, I might decide to stay
inside for a while longer, and I might decide that it’s safe to
come out, as long as I don’t have to see my shadow.
Thing is, like my rodent friend, I don’t much care for my shadow. I
like to go along with my suburban homestead-lite life, getting
ready for the next great shift in consciousness by teaching the
kids how to save seeds, hopefully humming, and occasionally turning
the compost. Mostly, if I keep my face to the light, I succeed. But
if I slow down, turn around, and let the bright light behind me
show me that my shadow side exists, I tend to retreat. Because the
shadow side of my giddy green life is fear. Dark, nasty, scary
nightmare-type fear. Fear of massive famines and societal breakdown
and my kids and I holed up in our house protecting our saved seeds
with a shotgun. Fear that climate change will bring about an
unmanageable shift, and that humanity will not rise above but sink
below our current level of function. Mankind has, after all, not
such a great record of dealing fairly and peacefully with limited
resources. I might just take my mending and hide under the covers
for a few weeks yet.
Reconciling this real fear and my more hopeful self requires an act
of will, one that the groundhog lacks. He simply reacts: sunlight =
shadow = hide. I, on the other hand, apply the resources of my more
developed frontal lobe to see the light and shadow, feel the fear,
and move beyond it. Maybe the fear is well-founded, but hiding in
my hole isn’t going to help any one or anything, least of all my
kids, the ones around whose future my fears tend to churn.
So I’ll look at the shadow, and decide to turn the other way, and
get the kids to fill some seed flats with soil so we can pull out
the seeds we saved this year, and start to plant. And we’ll set
those flats out in the bright sunlight, and be glad for it.
Full-time nurse, part-time environmentalist, and all-the-time
mother, Kenna Lee lives in Sebastopol, California, with her three
semi-feral children and several domesticated animals. Her book: A
Million Tiny Things: a mother’s urgent search for hope in a
changing climate (Moles Hill Press) will be out in April; sign up
for updates at www.milliontinythings.com.
Date Published: Feb 04, 2012 - 6:20 am
Whereas EcoYogini watches
herself transform into a tree-thumping friend... over
soap.
I have always prided myself in not being one of "those"
tree-huggers. Ya know- the preachy kind. Oh I can pontificate all I
want on my blog, but IRL I believe that my friends (and family) are
intelligent people that will make decisions that work best for
them.
Except. The other day a tree-thumping info-bite escaped my mouth
before I could stop it. It went something like this:
EcoY & C. stepping into a Lawton's one Saturday
afternoon.
C- "I need more handsoap refills- come help me choose
something yummy smelling!"
Moments of us smelling and rating the scents of various pump
soap refills, all synthetic and filled with chemicals.
EcoY "They smell pretty good considering..."
C- "Ah, considering they aren't very good for the
environment?"
(concerned face)
EcoY: "Well... it's just there's those little plastic-y bits
in the soap. They're called nurdles".
C-"Wtf? Nurdles? But I thought they were just bits of
soap... they're plastic?"
EcoY: "Yep, and they go down your drain, don't get disolved
by our water systems and flow into the oceans for fish to swallow.
The fish swallow the plastic bits. It's really terrible
actually."
Claps hand over mouth.
C- "But it's on sale...."
(because she's an awesome
friend, she forgave me- and bought the soap)
Nurdles are tiny bits of plastic that float around in the ocean.
Sadly, our ocean is filled with these bits, from plastic that
slowly breaks down into smaller parts (but does NOT decompose or
disappear) or from things like the little balls present in handsoap
or body wash. The "micro exfoliation beads".
These soap and body wash beads are made of plastic. Therefore, they
don't dissolve in water. Instead they go down your drain, through
your sceptic system (or municipal/city water treatment system) and
spew forth into your rivers and ocean. To swim merrily on their
plastic way until a fish eats them. According to research cited by
Alan Weisman's "
The World Without Us", all sea organisms able
will swallow plastic nurdles (p.146). If they lodged in the
intestines of the organism the result was terminal. Other times
they passed through.
The point of concern was that plastic and how it bioaccumulates in
living organisms hasn't been studied well enough as plastic hasn't
been around long enough. One thing that was clear: soon we'll all
be ingesting these plastic nurdles, from zooplankton all the way up
to humans.
Surround those nurdles with synthetic chemical ingredients wrapped
in more plastic and you've got bodywash and pump soap.
Sadly, I was addicted to both pump soap (because I thought men
would NEVER use a bar to wash their hands... my brother and dad
were always pump soap guys) and body wash (because it smelled so
pretty).
(Peppermint poppyseed soap: week4 of use, poppyseeds= no
plastic exfoliants)
Then I discovered
Birch Bark Soap. (Actually, I just needed to
discover yummy smelling, locally made soap). Sherrie at Birch Bark
Soap, uses only natural essential oils, olive oil (no palm oil!)
and her soap smells amazing, lathers beautifully and doesn't leave
a residue. We order in bulk so that the soap is cheaper AND we
place our soap in a jam jar with small ocean shore pebbles leftover
from our wedding ceremony (long story). This way our soap lasts
weeks per bar.
(our kitchen soap in a glass dish)
Soap ends that get tricky to lather or handle go in the
kitchen and become our "kitchen soap". And wouldn't you know,
Andrew's mother taught him to wash his hands with whatever soap was
available. So no pump soap does not equal no washed hands. (Ok, my
brother and dad aren't disgusting, but they seem to have their
quirks).
(star anise soap in the jam jar- wide mouth- with pebbles.
Easy to clean, keeps the soap from turning to mush! ps- this
scent is delicious!)
If you're a pumpsoap/body wash kinda person, just know that making
the switch to bar soap is totally doable, relatively inexpensive
and can have equally yummy smelling results!
Date Published: Feb 03, 2012 - 3:00 am
Depending on where you live, sometimes the best green community you
can find will be online. Yes, it is all too easy to waste time
reading tweets and status updates. But if you live in a green
desert (such as *cough, cough* Mississippi), sometimes tools like
Facebook are the most effective community to be found. On Facebook
I can ask for advice or read statuses and messages to discover:
1. Which vendor at the farmer's market is running a special on
no-spray blueberries.
2. Who has an extra potty seat that they are giving away.
3. Where the municipal glass recycling facility has moved to.
(That's right. My city won't tell me, but Facebook will!)
4. When my local used children's clothing store is having a big
sale.
5. Who has a great homemade holiday gift idea.
...and much more!
The Kelly Green Giant wants to know - how does Facebook
strengthen your green community?
Date Published: Feb 02, 2012 - 12:59 am
From Emerald Apron's Sandbox
It has been incredibly warm for winter in Connecticut! We've been
soaking it up, so there's no time to write a post. Please link up
your Wordless Wednesday if you have one on your own blog!
Date Published: Feb 01, 2012 - 2:43 am