One of my readers posted a question about the safety of paper milk cartons, specifically the plastic liner. Great question, and when I don’t know a great answer I post to Debra Lynn Dadd’s site. Debra is great about responding in a timely and well-informed manner, and she is a great resource for all green living things. Please visit her site if you haven’t already!
Click here for Debra’s response to the question of milk cartons vs. plastic jugs, and thanks Chris for the question!
Hey folks, I know I know, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted. Many excuses, but I won’t bore you with the details.
Today I was prompted to write about reusing those great little plastic zipper bags (aka Ziploc) that you use for sandwiches, freezing leftovers, etc. I must admit, I used to make fun of my mom for reusing paper towels, so I can only imagine the grief I will get if and when she reads this…
Disclaimer: Yes, I agree, if you can get away from using Ziplocs completely, you will be a green hero. Great alternatives are reusable containers, wrapping your child’s sandwich in a reusable sandwich wrap like this one here or in a cloth napkin, etc. But, I am realistic and realize that most of us are still using these convenient little plastic baggies, so…
…I’ve been washing out my baggies and reusing them whenever possible. Drying them with a dish rag was a big ol’ pain, though, and then I ran into this handy plastic bag dryer over at GreenFeet.com. It’s keen, but I wasn’t planning on paying $18 to dry plastic baggies. Instead, I made my own out of stuff around the house:
Funky, huh? I used a little makeup brush stand that I’ve had since 1984 (seriously) and some chopsticks from Chinese takeout, and WA-LA!
Any other ideas? Please feel free to post.
Aveda stores are continuing their plastic bottle cap recycling project, so keep saving those caps! Click here for more information.
A repurposing idea for today:
Look what I did with a goofy 1970s avocado green utensil organizer…
The spools of thread fit perfectly in the utensil slots — and I can certainly see what I’m looking for easier than digging around in the Joann plastic bag in which they were previously living…
This just in: Waste Management in Colorado will now be accepting plastics #1 thru 7! Click here for more information…
As my friend Steph said, Alleluia and Amen!
I once had a boss that would chant, “Problems equal OPPORTUNITIES!” Well, my post from yesterday magically disappeared (thanks WordPress!), so I’ll write something similar yet updated…what a great opportunity!
Earth Day is a big event in our house, not only because we LOVE Mother Earth but because my husband’s birthday ALSO falls on April 22nd. James likes to say that he is one year younger than the Earth (but he’s really one year younger than Earth Day, which began in 1970). Ripley thinks it’s funny that he and the Earth are only one year apart, so we’ll leave it at that.
Our big plans for the day mostly revolved around creating cards and a banner out of recycled materials. Let me tell you, we had a blast repurposing items from my big bag o’ stuff that I’ve been hoarding. The bag includes, but is not limited to:
…you get the picture. Here is the end result.
I also had some fun with the packaging from a few scrapbook items. They started off looking like this…
and ended up looking like this…
Here is another one I made from scrapbook sticker remnant a few months ago…
We wrapped James’ gift in unused coloring sheets that I retrieved from the pre-school recycling bin. Ripley then colored in the pages and added a homemade “bow” made from a plastic discard, old yarn from preschool, and curling ribbon leftover from a balloon…
For more on our little celebration, click here.
So, what did YOU do for Earth Day? Did you slowwwwww down? Did you talk to your kids about recycling? Did you add something green to your “to do” list? I’d love to hear, so post a comment below.
And remember what my daughter says, “EVERY day is Earth Day.” Enough said.
I’m sure you all know that Earth Day (and James’ birthday!) is next Tuesday. What are you doing this next week to celebrate Mother Earth and all of the wonderful things she does for us?
Maybe you should consider DOWNSHIFTING for the week! International Downshifting Week is April 19th – 25th. This concept of slowing down and greening up is so cool. I guess I’ve been doing much of this over the past year without really knowing the word for it. Try it for yourself this week.
Here are few things we’ve incorporated into our Earth Day week so far:
A trip to the consignment store to drop off Ripley’s older clothes. We received $34 for our items, and I found 9 or 10 pieces to purchase for $39 total, so the whole excursion cost us $5. We have several outfits that are new to us, and our older clothes will be new to someone else!
Freecycled the Ripley items that the consignment store didn’t buy. 2 boxes of clothes are on our doorstep for another mom to pick up and use. If you don’t already Freecycle, you’ve got to try it!
A trip to a women’s consignment store, where I picked up 3 beautiful dresses, 2 skirts, and a top for under $150! I also scheduled an appointment to bring some of my clothes in for consignment.
Picked up recycling from our preschool. Ripley’s classroom has a recycling bin for all paper, plastic, and cans, and the school office keeps a bin for paper. Each week I pick up these items and recycle them with our curbside recycling at home. Often I find coloring sheets and letter-writing practice sheets in the school recycle bin, which I salvage for Ripley to use at home.
Ordered this recycled lumbar pack (made out of 100% recycled plastic beverage bottles) for my hubby for his bEARTHday (I mean birthday). Sure hope he’s not reading this.
Added a line on my email signature that reads “please consider the environment before printing this email”. My darling hubby forwarded me an email with that message at the bottom. Thanks honey!
Took a big bag of plastic lids to an Aveda store for recycling. Click here for more information.
Got our compost piles going for the season. (thank you James!) It’s been killing me that our piles have been full, frozen, and not accepting any new kitchen waste. James got out in the yard and broke up the piles, turned the compost, and made room for new banana peels, egg shells, and coffee grounds. In a few weeks, Rip and I will get out in the yard and dig some of that beautiful dark compost into our flower beds. Can’t wait!
Here are a few more things we are planning for the week:
Reusing plastic and paper discards to make decorations and cards for James’ bEARTHday. I’ll post some pictures after the celebration!
Contact Door to Door Organics to start home delivery service of local organic produce.
Contact Revolution Cleaners to begin pick up/delivery of James’ dry cleaning – this is an environmentally friendly dry cleaning company here in the Denver metro area.
Clear through my closet to collect discards for consignment and/or donation.
Take used books and books on CD to the used book store. You get store credit to use for purchases of new and new-to-you books, and someone else gets the pleasure of reading your old books.
Do you have one little green thing that you are planning to add to your routine this Earth Day? If so, post a comment to let us know your plans!
As you may or may not realize, the plastic caps from your water bottles, milk jugs, shampoo containers, and other recyclable plastic containers are NOT recyclable. During the recycling process, the lids get cut off and discarded, ending up in landfills and waterways. Baby sea creatures ingest those caps, which can lead to malnutrition and death.
Grim info, but there is a piece of good news right now: From March 10th to May 10th, Aveda stores will collect your hard plastic caps and use them to make lids for a new line of shampoo. If you bring in 25 or more caps, you will receive a free sample size of an Aveda product. For more information on the program, click here. UPDATED 7.9.08: Aveda is continuing this program for the forseeable future, so please continue to collect your plastic caps and take them to your local Aveda store. The samples are great and are PARABEN-FREE!
For those of you here in Colorado, the Denver Children’s Museum accepts plastic lids for use in their kids’ crafts. Just bring them in with your next visit!
It’s been awhile since I’ve taken the time to send out a GGandG update, and I’ve been trying to decide the right format going forward. For now, I’m going to begin writing updates on this blog as often as I can find time, and I won’t be sending out my normal GGandG “newsletter” like I did in 2007. I may send a periodic email to you guys to alert you to new content on the site, but I don’t plan to write anything formal (it was never that formal to begin with!).
I’ve got notes galore on topics that I have meant to write about, so now it’s just a matter of getting started. Here’s the first…
Struggling with The Switch
I’ve been struggling with the process of switching from traditional products to those that are “green”. I really have made the effort to stop buying products that are harmful to the environment or to my body, leaving out important things like beer and wine and chocolate, which can be construed as harmful to my body but which are oh so fun to enjoy. I just can’t quite bring myself to part with them. However, there are three categories of green products that have been giving me the blues…
Automatic dishwashing detergent: I have tried Ecover, Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyers Clean Day, and Earth Friendly, and I am FRUSTRATED. Some of these cleaned well but etched my glassware and silverware. Others just didn’t clean well at all. I really believed that the problem was my 10-year-old dishwasher, so to prove the point I started running the dishes with Cascade again. Unfortunately, I proved myself wrong. The glasses and silverware are now sparkly, and all of the dishes come out clean. Oh well. If someone out there has had good luck with any “green” detergent for the dishwasher, please let me know by posting a comment below!
Makeup: Over the past year, I had successfully switched over to paraben-free everything, with the exception of my powder and concealer. I tried a mineral-based loose powder from Jane Iredale (expensive compared to the drugstore stuff I’d been buying), but I quickly realized that it was making me breakout something fierce! I abandoned ship and went back to the bad ol’ Cover Girl stuff I’d been using until I saw that Physicians Formula has come out with something called Organic Wear. This line is the first Ecocert Certified Organic line of makeup in the U.S. It is 100% free of synthetic preservatives and parabens and is not tested on animals, so I HAD to try it! Plus the price was right — $11 – $13 for the powder and $7 for the concealer. THE VERDICT? So far so good, but it’s only been a week. Since it took me several weeks to realize that the mineral stuff was causing my skin problems, I’ll have to give it a little more time to give you my final word.
Sunscreen: Everything I’ve tried so far (MyChelle, California Baby, Aubrey Organics) has either left my face looking too greasy or has “rolled up” when I try to apply makeup over it. Although I like the California Baby sunscreen products for Ripley, I’d like to find something that really works for my face. Any thoughts out there?
So, what have I learned from these experiences so far? Not everything that is “green” is going to be perfect, but in my opinion it’s worth trying things out to find a safer, more environmentally-friendly solution. AND it helps to share your findings with others. If we are all out there on our own searching for new green products by trial and error, we need to share this information with each other to save your fellow green beans the time and trouble!
SO GET POSTING! Tell us what you’ve tried and what the results have been by posting a comment below.
…you’ll have to click here to hear more…
