Environmentally friendly pizza boxes

More work needs to be done in the food industry with take-out boxes and take-home containers.

Here’s a good option for pizza boxes: WWW.GREENBOXNY.COM, Sned this info to your local pizza places and get them to start being smarter and more responsible about their waste.

To watch the video on how it works click here.

The Power of Information

Environmental working group website. Loaded with rating and tip, information and research on products.

Some topics include:

Chemical Index/Energy Tips/Farming/Health/Sunscreens/Toxins and much much more. Get the real information on what we are consuming and being exposed to so we can make healthy choices.

Reduce Your Body’s Toxic Load

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the pesticides that are sprayed to kill bugs? Do they just disappear magically? David Pimentel from Cornell University had that thought, so he studied what happened to pesticides and published his results in 1995.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post

Back at it

Wow…just saw the date of my last post. How time flies! New baby…new life to the buy nothing new. Maybe “Buy Very Little New” should be the title these days. It was a great experiment that had me practice intentionality until it became second nature. As a result I look to four things when I am in need of something:

1. Can I do without it?

2. Can I get it used from someone else?

3. Can I find it at a garage sale, Craig’s list, or a thrift/antique store?

4. Can I substitute something else I already have for it?

We got many gently used clothes from people once we had the baby—and baby items like crib toys, bath items and swings…even a car seat. We got a crib that can be configured to use when he’s a toddler.

We used Seventh Generation Chlorine Free Baby Diapers. He’s had zero diaper rashes!

We’re moving on to cloth diapers next week. A service picks them up every week to wash.  Should be interesting. I do wonder how much water that takes compared to the Seventh Generation diapers that break down in the dumps unlike Pampers and like disposable.

Garage sale season is upon us and I plan on enjoying the baby items for the first time. I am also noticing how all the items I now buy used are functional items like dishes and service dishes.

Now if I can only ween myself off of my gym shoe addiction!

Bikes for hauling

This is a great idea for those bikers who need to haul things….and kids.

Madsen Bikes—these are serious hauling bikes!

What’s in YOUR Body Care Products?

Follow-Up Tests of Leading Personal Care and Household Cleaning Brands Reveal Improvements in Levels of Carcinogenic 1,4-dioxane

But New Study Indicates Some Products Mislabeled as “Natural” Should Have Cancer Warning

3/6/2009 ANAHEIM, CA – Today, a new follow-up study was released that assesses levels of the petrochemical carcinogen 1,4-dioxane in leading conventional as well as “natural” and “organic” brands of personal care and household cleaning products. The results indicate significant improvement for 23 products from sixteen major brands that had formerly been found to contain potentially dangerous levels of the contaminant 1,4-dioxane in a similar study held in March of 2008.

Read the full article, fact sheet, and press release

http://www.organicconsumers.org

Rate it Green

Interesting site that gives lots of info so you can buy green confidently.
http://www.rateitgreen.com/

Paper vs. plastic. The shopping bag debate.

First, I’ll say–neither! Bring your own reusable bags. But if you have to here’s the skinny. For the full article please go to GREENFEET.net and spread the word.

PAPER?

Paper comes from trees – and lots of them. The logging industry is huge and the process to get that paper bag to the grocery store is long and environmentally taxing. First, the trees are found, marked and felled. Machinery is then used to remove the logs from the forest floor- whether it by logging trucks or, in more remote areas, helicopters.

Machinery requires fossil fuel and roads (which destroys habitat) thereby creating stress on the forests’ inhabitants (Even logging a small area has a large impact on the entire ecological chain in surrounding areas).

Trees must dry at least three years before they can be used. Machinery is used to strip the bark, which is then chipped into one-inch squares and cooked under tremendous heat and pressure. This wood stew is then “digested” with a limestone and sulphurous acid for eight hours. The steam and moisture is vented to the outside atmosphere, and the original wood becomes pulp. It takes approximately three tons of wood chips to make one ton of pulp.

The pulp is then washed and bleached, both stages requiring thousands of gallons of clean water. Coloring is added to more water, and is then combined in a ratio of 1 part pulp to 400 parts water to make paper. The pulp/water mixture is dumped into a web of bronze wires, the water showers through, leaving the pulp, which, in turn, is rolled into paper.

Whew! And that’s just to make the paper. We must include all of the chemicals, electricity, and fossil fuels used in the shipment of this raw material and in the production and shipment of a finished paper bag.

AND PLASTIC? Where does that plastic bag come from?

Plastic is a petroleum product – it comes from oil. As we all know, the oil industry is no small potatoes and is the cause of worldwide financial and political turmoil.

Traps of oil are located around the planet. Once a trap is located, a hole is drilled and a pipe is rammed into the oil deposit. The oil is forced to the top of the surface due to both the pressure inside the chamber and the weight of the earth above. Once a pump is in place, the whole operation is fairly simple and little oil is lost. The pumped oil is either piped or trucked to a refining facility where plastic is made.

Plastic is a by-product of oil refining and accounts for 4% of the worlds total oil production. It is a ‘biogeochemical’ manipulation of certain properties of oil, into polymers. Plastic polymers are manufactured into five main types; plastic bags are made from polyethylene. Polyethylene, as a raw material, can be manipulated into any shape, size, form or color. It is watertight and can be made UV resistant. Anything can be printed on it and it can be reused.

For the most part, the whole process of making plastic bags requires only electricity (minus the large, fuel burning heavy machinery required to acquire the oil). The electricity used in the actual production and manufacturing of plastic bags comes from coal fire power plants, which, it is interesting to note, 50% of that electricity is generated from the burning of old tires (made from rubber which is essentially, plastic).

Where does plastic go when thrown away?

Like paper, plastic bags can end up in two places: the landfill or the recycling center. If a plastic bag ends up in a landfill, it will stay intact for thousands of years. Plastic does not compost. With plastic products in the mix, garbage does not have a chance to break down over time. Landfills are considered airtight, which explains why after 20 years you can find a hot dog that is still fully intact and a newspaper with articles clearly legible.

Plastic is fabulous in that it is recyclable. All you have to do is basically re-melt and re-form. The re-melting process also sterilizes the plastic thus allowing any recycled plastic to be made into hospital grade products. Plastic can be recycled many times before it becomes brittle – then it can be made into something as functional as a mousepad or a doormat. Please note that not all plastic bags can be recycled and many stores that collect them, simply send them to the landfill for lack of another alternative.

My Holiday Tips

–Use old posters, posters from mail, schools, old maps, reused paper to wrap gifts.

–Reuse old christmas cards by removing the fronts. Send as post cards or stick in envelopes.

–Shop in antique shops and thrift stores. So much great items out there already in circulation.

–Look at ebay, criag’s list, any local classified ads for items being sold or traded.

–Be aware of packaging if you have to buy new. Over-packaged items should be avoided. Where does all that plastic go?

–Give experience gifts. Make gift certificates yourself for events. Walk in the woods, day at the movies, game nights, cooking diners, backrubs, foot massages, taking out the garbage, cleaning, babysitting……etc!

Downtown