Elizabeth Rogers, co-writer of The Green Book, The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet, One Simple Step at a Time
One of the biggest challenges I face as a mother comes in a strange shape and size. It is something that often keeps me up at night, and I have on many occasions tortured my seven-year-old son for not following my very specific directions about how to handle it. It is the dreaded PLASTIC BAGGIE.
Baggies in my house are a red flagged item. As a mother who is concerned about the environment, getting a shade greener every day (and raising a son who is obsessed with the environment), baggies take up a lot of airtime in our house. Why? Why do Baggies get this much attention? Well, it's simple.
I have almost perfected packing him a waste-free lunch. Every morning we wake up and pack a healthy organic lunch in his reusable, insulated lunch bag made from recycled plastic soda bottles, with the green frog print on it (now that is a product all moms must have). But every so often, my perfectly balanced (well, not really -- what mom has anything perfectly balanced?) waste-free lunch goes awry... when my son cries out for chips in his lunch.
If he wants chips, what do I put them in? I have everything else down to a science, and in my calculations I have figured out that in a year's time the average school lunch creates as much weight in waste as a nine-year-old child! So with this in mind, when the call for chips comes, I cringe, grab a baggie, and recite the following rules to my seven year old...
Tiffany Washko, NatureMoms.com
So what is “green” cleaning exactly? Green cleaning means using cleaning products that don’t endanger you, children, or the environment.
Many people use cleaning products throughout their homes without a thought or concern. They figure that if the product is widely available that it must be relatively safe for use. But these products contain all kinds of chemicals that can potentially be toxic, corrosive, flammable, or reactive. They can also cause serious health issues and environmental damage. Here are some examples of common chemicals found in conventional cleaning supplies:
- Formaldehyde
- Sodium Hypochlorite
- Hydrochloric Acid
- Petroleum Solvents
- Sodium Acid Sulfate
Some of the problems associated with these chemicals are skin irritations, nausea, headaches, nose bleeds, shortness of breath, burns, vomiting, kidney and liver damage, and exposure to carcinogens. Do you want to clean your home with chemicals that have the potential for that kind of damage? Certainly not...don’t take that chance.
These same chemicals also have the potential to harm the planet as well. When chemical cleaners go down the drain, most ingredients break down into harmless substances during treatment or soon afterward. Others, however, do not, and they threaten water quality or fish and other wildlife. Purchasing these mainstream cleaners can end up costing us quite a bit in the long run.
The best option for the health and safety of your family and the health of our planet is to use green cleaning items such as:
- Baking Soda
- White Vinegar
- Pure Castile Soap
- Lemons
- Vegetable Oil
- Essential Oils
Using the above ingredients you can make your own cleaners...
Michelle Bexelius, co-founder of GreenThisLife.com
Most older homes that are remodeled still have old, faulty wiring and need a professional electrician to re-wire them. Often times when we think of faulty wiring, we think the real danger is fires, but that's not so in every case.
I spoke to a mom at my son’s preschool and she told me this story:
In 1995 my son, Tyler, had an outlet next to his bed that had a power reading of 10.0. 'Normal,' or safe, readings should be 0.1-0.3. My husband and I did not even know what electrical magnetics were.
The same year our five year-old son became very ill. Doctors did not know what it was. Later, through many medical tests, it was discovered he had a tumor behind his neck, which was making him paralyzed from the neck down. Tyler also had a high temperature which would not go away (105 degrees). He was hospitalized for two weeks and he almost died. He was sick at home for three months with a visiting nurse giving him antibiotics through a catheter in his chest. Finally he pulled through and was well.
Later, through a friend, we found out about electrical magnetics in old wiring in homes and what it can do to the nervous system, especially in children. We had our house tested. Our outlets all measured very high. We had the whole house re-wired and now the house is safe. We talked to many doctors and came to the conclusion that too much electrical magnetics had gotten into our son’s body, which was the cause of his illness. Thanks, Patti.
Not only can electromagnetic fields be a health hazard, but eliminating them can help your home be more energy efficient. For more information such as how to test for EMFs (electro-magnetic fields), visit www.greenthislife.com.
Mary Isakson
I love the pithy eloquence of Farmer Hoggett’s famous line from the 1995 movie, Babe. It's an amusing theme that runs in the back of my mind, reminding me of the importance of avoiding wastefulness.
Every day while cooking, eating, shopping, commuting, and even relaxing, moms make hundreds of choices that involve balancing our families’ resources with consideration of our environment. It would be paralyzing to spend hours consciously deliberating each decision, of course -- so it makes sense to pick out key issues and train yourself to focus on them.
Non-biodegradable plastic bags are an easy and obvious target. Their use has proliferated wildly over the past twenty years. See, for example, this September 2, 2003 National Geographic News article regarding their impact on the environment, and efforts to promote reusable bags in their stead. A more current piece in the Christian Science Monitor also addresses efforts to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags. Even though I reuse my bags as garbage can liners, my family, left unchecked, can accumulate a phenomenal number of bags. I have lately been training myself to reduce the number of bags I bring home.
Certain retailers are helpful in this effort, most notably vendors in the farmers’ market who routinely ask, "Do you want a bag?" rather than automatically providing one. "No, Thanks," is my default answer. I try to only accept a bag when I truly need it, pressing my purse, a tote, or even my gym bag into service instead.
I have carried this lesson over to other stores, where retailers otherwise automatically bag every little item. "I don’t need a bag, thanks." I blurt out while paying, trying to say it quickly, before the clerk has grabbed a fresh bag from the rack.
A word of caution: Unload all totes promptly, lest you forget an item. I can tell you from experience that it is unpleasant to discover a banana in one’s jacket pocket a few days after a shopping trip. Never mind the time the juice container fermented.
Free access to non-biodegradable bags has helped to make them ubiquitous, promoting mindless consumption. It is easy to envision retail shopping without them; many of us can still remember the days before their use was common. Reusable alternatives are readily available. Developing the habit of carrying a tote is not a major inconvenience. It is an easy thing to say, with regard to the overuse of plastic shopping bags, "That’ll do."
Laurie Benenson
By now everyone has heard about the fabulous new compact fluorescent lightbulbs, which last about 10,000 hours, ten times longer than an ordinary incandescent lightbulb. We first discovered them at a hotel in New York a few years ago, and thought they gave off a hideous light, and had no desire to use them in our house. But that was then, and this is now.
I tried one in a lamp recently, and I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking -- the light is perfectly fine. Especially if you have a nice lampshade to soften the glow. Besides, the idea of saving $30 or more over the life of the bulb, per bulb, is a beautiful thing.
It's products like these new bulbs that give me hope that we may be able to reverse the tide in greenhouse gas emissions, which, of course, are responsible for global warming. It's the kind of modest change that everyone can afford to make -- in fact, you're wasting a lot of money if you don't make this change.
And there are other individual changes which, if made on a mass scale, could have a huge impact. If you can't drive a hybrid or biodiesel vehicle at this time, at least make sure your tires are properly inflated. You can improve fuel efficiency by 3.3% merely by checking to see that your tires are properly inflated! (Not to mention the fact that your vehicle will be a whole lot safer).
Another modest but highly impactful change that I've made is to reduce the ridiculous amount of energy used by appliances WHILE THE PRODUCTS ARE TURNED OFF! According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is used while the products are in "sleep mode" -- you know, when the little green light is on. You can stop this vampire-like theft of electricity either by unplugging the appliance, or using a power strip, and using the switch on the strip to cut all power to the appliance. And for heaven's sake, unplug your battery chargers when they're not being used.
Like I said, little things. The key is for everyone to enact small changes in their lives -- that's the way to make a difference.
