At the top of any list of how to reduce pollution you will always find something about reducing your vehicle usage. Take the bus, carpool, combine errands, walk or bike there when you can, etc. - and they are all great suggestions that can save you in fuel and maintenance on your vehicle and reduce greenhouse gasses, but they are also inconvenient and time consuming. It can take over an hour to use public transportation to get somewhere that would take 15 minutes by car. Carpooling is great if everyone lives the same direction, but more often than not people live all over the place, not to mention carpooling can make you late to work and restricts your ability to stay late or leave early from work. Combining errands is actually more efficient, but forget that one thing and it's over. If you're looking for a long-term, convenient, time and cost saving and easy to stick to solution, why not order online and get the things you need take public transportation to you.
The US Postal Service is going to take the same route every day whether you order your products online or not, and the FexEx and UPS trucks will be out there regardless. It may be true that the additional packaging your products come in can be harmful, but the local store will receive and dispose of packaging anyway, and this way you get to ensure it is recycled. You can fill the extra boxes you get with other paper products and set them out on recycling day or carry them to the recycling center if you don't have curbside. There will always be a few things you need to get at the store, but these days you can get just about anything shipped to you online, and why not? When you shop online, you go right for what you need without having to walk through aisles of what you don't need that are set up to make you impulse buy. This kind of impulse buying leads to over shopping, leaving you with items you don't need, won't use and will probably end up being thrown away. Even if you don't impulse buy and the store is easy walking distance, who wants to waste their day off work pushing through crowded aisles just to find the product you came for is sold out and standing in a checkout line? You could be spending time doing whatever leisure activity your family enjoys and relaxing for the upcoming week of work?
I've mentioned Amazon's Subscribe and Save program before in passing, but the overview is you pick what you like, choose when to have it delivered, and pay no shipping plus get 15% off the Amazon price which is almost always lower than the store price to begin with. The program is very flexible, and operates with minimal management. You can send new deliveries whenever you want and cancel deliveries whenever you want. I've gotten everything from household products to over the counter medications to non-perishable grocery products through Subscribe and Save and my total savings over my local grocery store have been more than 50%. For clothing, electronics and larger items you can do a search to find the best deals or use one of the many website comparison search engines. You can review product features from every manufacturer and decide what will work best for you, then find the best price available. Most sellers of clothing or larger, more expensive products have lenient, user-friendly return policies because they understand sometimes when you hold a product or try it on you just don't like it. Shopping green is very easy online as well because you can search out eco-friendly options for just about everything you use including sustainable hemp, organic cotton, wool or bamboo clothing, plant based plastics, energy star appliances, recycled paper and plastic products, natural cleaning products and personal care products and much more.
Product selection is more important than it sounds. Often people are willing to buy a product at the store that does not have the features or ease of use they are looking for because it is "all the have left" or "what's on sale." For example, say I want an inexpensive coffee maker with a timer on it so I can grab my coffee on the way to work rather than stopping at the expensive coffee shop next door to the office. I get to the store, and the only ones they have on the shelves in my price range do not have timers, so I figure I'll live without it and just get up a few minutes earlier because I don't want to drive around and can't afford the very expensive one with the timer. I get home and the first week I hop out of bed 10 minutes earlier to use the coffeemaker, but after the newness of it wears off I start hitting the snooze button. I don't get up earlier and never have the time to brew my coffee, so the coffeemaker sits on the counter unused until one day I decide it's taking up too much space and put it in the basement and now I either keep buying the expensive coffee at the coffee shop or go shopping for a coffeemaker again. Or maybe I do actually get up and use the coffeemaker, but 9 months later it breaks. The store certainly wasn't going to tell me that that model breaks all the time because they want the sale, but other annoyed product owners would have told me online in their negative reviews. Either way, I've wasted my money and wasted the natural resources that went into making, marketing and picking up that product. If I'd shopped online, I would have found a coffeemaker with the features I wanted that I would have used all the time and I would have made sure it had a high rating so I could be relatively certain that it would not break in a short time. Underhanded marketing strategies like creeping featurism and planned obsolescence require customer participation. When people fail to research a product and end up with something poorly manufactured, or settle for something that doesn't really meet their needs and figure they'll upgrade later before the product reaches the end of it's usable life they are making a decision to waste the resources that go into the manufacture and shipping of that product.
Perishable grocery items can be a bit harder to come by online, but not impossible in many areas of the country. While I don't advocate personal shoppers since this just means someone else will be generating pollution and doesn't really help conserve fuel or reduce emissions, services like Giant's Peapod and Safeway's home delivery use delivery trucks that drive a route and bring a large number of groceries at once. There are a number of local services in different areas that do the same, so if they do not operate in your area, check out grocery stores that deliver around you and make sure they are not personal shopper type services where one run per order is done. Unlike other online services this service may cost a bit more and you need to make sure they service accepts coupons if you use them. Often you can save a few dollars and allow the driver to pick the most fuel efficient route by allowing for delivery within a larger block of time, and if you distribute enough of your purchases to discount services on websites like Amazon, though, you should be able to end up with savings overall, not to mention extra time for yourself. You can spend days working on your list and save your staple products on your account, and you can still get the store specials. Since grocery stores are physically laid out to make you walk through all the products you don't need in order to increase impulse buying. It can also be hard to find the natural, organic and eco-friendly products in the store, while it is searchable online and easy to compare the different price, unit price, and manufacturer information online. For example, in the store I was unaware of the Nature's Promise cage, hormone, antibiotic and pesticide cage free eggs from vegetarian fed hens because reading the package of each and every product in the store is time prohibitive. Online I was able to look up natural and organic eggs, then see the clear cage free label, letting me know that for $0.30 more I could purchase a cruelty free product. I also found chicken and milk from the same company (treated the same way) and bison in place of beef (it is illegal to factory farm bison). By shopping online, I improved my health by purchasing food with no added toxins and the quality of life for the animals that produce my food by ensuring every company I purchase from is cruelty free and still was done in less time that going to the store. In addition, making your purchases online will allow you to stick to the list of things you actually need, so in spite of the slightly higher prices, you may even find yourself in the black if you are prone to knocking those extra things you swear you'll use (someday) into the cart.
In every way, shopping online allows you to make a better informed, better thought out decision. There is no more impulse buying, no more getting to the register and realizing you've spent too much but being embarrassed to remove items from your purchase, and plenty of deals you might not otherwise find. Not to mention you will really come to appreciate the convenience and extra time for yourself all while saving energy and reducing emissions.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Beyond Cloth Diapers - Green Toileting For Adults
For people out there that have never used cloth diapers this may come as a real shock, but for those that have, you probably have either seen or used cloth baby wipes. You use them, toss them in your diaper pail or wet bag and then run them through the wash. Wallypop takes it to the next logical step. In addition to selling reasonable priced cloth napkins, hankies, menstrual pads, cloth shopping bags, breast pads, diapers and baby slings, the staple products of many home operated natural living sites, Wallypop offers cloth family wipes (toilet paper) and asks the question if it's good enough for your baby, isn't it good enough for you? I'd think any user of cloth infant products would feel the same way. For those of us with no children, I admit it can be a bit of a leap, especially for #2, but the average toilet visit is not a #2 visit, and most of the toilet paper women use is for urine, which is sterile and generally does not have much of an odor. Not to mention if you "let it mellow" which is an excellent water saving practice, you know that the biggest problem is the collection of toilet paper you get in the bowl. Once you eliminate the toilet paper flushes you will find you save a lot more water, especially if there are a number of women in your household.
I took a look at some of my feminine products - cloth pads, sea sponges - all much grosser than a cloth with a little pee on it. I thought about how many recycled paper towels I have thrown away because one of my dogs had an accident or my female was in heat. I wipe that up with a cloth, so I finally got up the guts to order some of the soft flannel wipes (they are also available in hemp and sherpa). They are very thick and similar in size and weight to a pot holder. They are much softer than many brands of toilet paper and I never have to worry about soaking through or tearing. Granted, there are brands of regular toilet paper that are very thick and absorbant, but they use a lot of paper to get that thickness, don't have as much to a roll and are therefore not very eco-friendly. All right - I still haven't gotten there for a #2 visit and my husband doesn't use them at all due to the obvious biological differences. For now, I set the wipe bag along with the Seventh Generation toilet paper and Natracare organic wipes and everyone is happy.
So where do you store a soiled cloth wipe? I like the wet bags people use for diapers, also available at a reasonable price from Wallypop for the upstairs bathroom, and I toss the ones from the downstairs bathroom right in the soaking container I keep for my menstrual pads. Since I pre-clean them with Bio-Kleen oxygen bleach and Bac-Out, I can launder them in a mesh bag like pantyhose or menstrual pads. If you still can't stand the thought of washing them with other clothes, use a hand washer or a low cycle with just the wipes and any pads you may need to clean. Ultimately, you will save a lot of money on yet another product that you flush away (and if you use toilet paper to wipe your nose, you can always buy some soft cloth hankies to take its place).
Another unique product Wallypop sells is their cloth sandwich baggies and wraps. Since there is no way to make plastic bags and wrap eco-friendly, these products are really important and I'm shocked that I haven't seen them elsewhere. There are alternate products like this natural waxed paper or these PVC and plasticizer free plastic bags that are better for you by eliminating harmful chemicals, but at the end of the day you still have plastic or paper being consumed and discarded. Even these compostable food storage products consume resources and create manufacturing waste. I'm not saying reusable cloth products will ever replace plastic bags completely - for long term storage you still have to have something airtight, but if you pack a sandwich for work or school or want to carry some cookies or crackers along in the car (and don't want to waste money and resources and generate waste by purchasing single serve packets), washable and reusable bags and wrappers that last for years and don't generate waste are the way to go.
Finally, for those reading this thinking how strange it is that I use and recommend so many cloth products, how gross it is to deal with food scraps, snot, pee and blood and/or how much time it must take in maintenance, remember that the concept of disposable items, unnecessary packaging, and single use items is largely a mid 1800's to present concept, and one that has done our species, our planet and the other species forced to share the planet with us nothing but harm. For the millions of years that humans have existed before the 1900's people tried to conserve and reuse products because most everything was made by hand until the mid 1800's and later. Check out this history of trash to see how little a problem trash was in the past, and how as we urbanized and began buying packaged and single use products rather than using natural, reusable products the problem with trash disposal became a global crisis.
An interesting point is that the invention of synthetic plastic in 1868 seemed to begin a new age of trash dumping. What initially was a fairly stable trash problem consisting largley of organic matter like sewage, food and dead animals began to increase rapidly as people began to produce more household waste consisting of manufactured items. This lead to new "solutions" like incinerators (1874) and the development of recycling centers (1897), but failed to address the increasing amounts of refuse. In 1900 the average person produced up to 1400 lb of trash per year, by 1916 that increased to up to 1750 lb per year and it remains close to that figure to this day. That is 10 times the body weight of the average person in trash every year times everyone in the country and the population is increasing - way grosser than handling your own bodily fluids.
Next time you carry your trash to the curb, look at how much is in the can for the week. Is it one bag? Two? Are you one of the families that has two or more cans full over the brim with trash? For my family, my goal is to put at most one full bag of trash out per week. I'm not counting recycling here, just the trash. If it is more than that, I try to figure out what is in there and what can be replaced with reusable products or eliminated because I don't want to see the day where we have generated so much waste that even burning and burying it doesn't work anymore.
I took a look at some of my feminine products - cloth pads, sea sponges - all much grosser than a cloth with a little pee on it. I thought about how many recycled paper towels I have thrown away because one of my dogs had an accident or my female was in heat. I wipe that up with a cloth, so I finally got up the guts to order some of the soft flannel wipes (they are also available in hemp and sherpa). They are very thick and similar in size and weight to a pot holder. They are much softer than many brands of toilet paper and I never have to worry about soaking through or tearing. Granted, there are brands of regular toilet paper that are very thick and absorbant, but they use a lot of paper to get that thickness, don't have as much to a roll and are therefore not very eco-friendly. All right - I still haven't gotten there for a #2 visit and my husband doesn't use them at all due to the obvious biological differences. For now, I set the wipe bag along with the Seventh Generation toilet paper and Natracare organic wipes and everyone is happy.
So where do you store a soiled cloth wipe? I like the wet bags people use for diapers, also available at a reasonable price from Wallypop for the upstairs bathroom, and I toss the ones from the downstairs bathroom right in the soaking container I keep for my menstrual pads. Since I pre-clean them with Bio-Kleen oxygen bleach and Bac-Out, I can launder them in a mesh bag like pantyhose or menstrual pads. If you still can't stand the thought of washing them with other clothes, use a hand washer or a low cycle with just the wipes and any pads you may need to clean. Ultimately, you will save a lot of money on yet another product that you flush away (and if you use toilet paper to wipe your nose, you can always buy some soft cloth hankies to take its place).
Another unique product Wallypop sells is their cloth sandwich baggies and wraps. Since there is no way to make plastic bags and wrap eco-friendly, these products are really important and I'm shocked that I haven't seen them elsewhere. There are alternate products like this natural waxed paper or these PVC and plasticizer free plastic bags that are better for you by eliminating harmful chemicals, but at the end of the day you still have plastic or paper being consumed and discarded. Even these compostable food storage products consume resources and create manufacturing waste. I'm not saying reusable cloth products will ever replace plastic bags completely - for long term storage you still have to have something airtight, but if you pack a sandwich for work or school or want to carry some cookies or crackers along in the car (and don't want to waste money and resources and generate waste by purchasing single serve packets), washable and reusable bags and wrappers that last for years and don't generate waste are the way to go.
Finally, for those reading this thinking how strange it is that I use and recommend so many cloth products, how gross it is to deal with food scraps, snot, pee and blood and/or how much time it must take in maintenance, remember that the concept of disposable items, unnecessary packaging, and single use items is largely a mid 1800's to present concept, and one that has done our species, our planet and the other species forced to share the planet with us nothing but harm. For the millions of years that humans have existed before the 1900's people tried to conserve and reuse products because most everything was made by hand until the mid 1800's and later. Check out this history of trash to see how little a problem trash was in the past, and how as we urbanized and began buying packaged and single use products rather than using natural, reusable products the problem with trash disposal became a global crisis.
An interesting point is that the invention of synthetic plastic in 1868 seemed to begin a new age of trash dumping. What initially was a fairly stable trash problem consisting largley of organic matter like sewage, food and dead animals began to increase rapidly as people began to produce more household waste consisting of manufactured items. This lead to new "solutions" like incinerators (1874) and the development of recycling centers (1897), but failed to address the increasing amounts of refuse. In 1900 the average person produced up to 1400 lb of trash per year, by 1916 that increased to up to 1750 lb per year and it remains close to that figure to this day. That is 10 times the body weight of the average person in trash every year times everyone in the country and the population is increasing - way grosser than handling your own bodily fluids.
Next time you carry your trash to the curb, look at how much is in the can for the week. Is it one bag? Two? Are you one of the families that has two or more cans full over the brim with trash? For my family, my goal is to put at most one full bag of trash out per week. I'm not counting recycling here, just the trash. If it is more than that, I try to figure out what is in there and what can be replaced with reusable products or eliminated because I don't want to see the day where we have generated so much waste that even burning and burying it doesn't work anymore.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
How to help FREE with only a few seconds a day
Need a great way to spend 30 seconds on the internet and want to help out some great charities for free? Recently I refound a website I'd log ago lost the address for, but I remembered it immediately because it was such a great site before. If you're like me, and you don't have deep pockets for yourself much less giving to charities, this site allows you to donate to charities using corporate money from their sponsors and a little bit of your time. If you click on a few links a day here you can support charities such as rainforest preservation, world hunger, animal welfare, breast cancer and literacy with just a few seconds of your time. There is no catch, advertisers donate money for you to view their ads. There is no need to purchase anything ever, you never have to enter your information, you don't have to install any spyware on your computer. You can click on each link once a day per computer and it's not like you have to go through page after page of ads, just one click on each page and navigate away if you don't want to buy anything. If you choose to buy something, they will donate more, but from the statistics they show most of the funds come from clicks, not the store.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Beyond the Pooper Scooper - Managing Your Pet's Waste the Natural Way
Nobody likes a pile of dog feces, which is probably why it is an ever present nuisance befouling the grassy areas of city and suburb alike. Anyone living in a populated area has surely seen more than one irresponsible dog owner walking their dog hastily a few blocks away to do his business without a bag in sight so they can shirk their responsibility to clean up after their pet and leave a steaming pile behind destined for some innocent person's shoe. I am not this kind of dog owner. Before I had my first puppy I had a poop bag dispenser and 5 rolls of bags and where the dogs go, it goes. I also had a pooper scooper for the yard, where the dogs do most of their business anyway, and I can honestly say the only people who have misstepped into my dog's leavings are myself and my husband. But even though my dogs and I were not leaving a recognizably vile blight on my neighborhood streets behind us where we go, we were still leaving an ugly pile of filth in the landfill where it is not so obvious. The plastic bags I was using were not biodegradable, and by putting the plastic bags inside plastic garbage bags and sending them to the dump, I was taking up unnecessary space in the landfill for biodegradable waste.
At first I could not think of how to stop this - after all, if I just left the waste to decompose in my yard I would have a swarm of flies, nowhere to walk, and my house would become the pit of the abominable stench. That wouldn't do. Luckily my husband was not new to owning dogs and told me about the Doggie Dooley. I purchased the deluxe round unit for about $50 since I have 2 large dogs and no longer set a trash bag full of poop out with the rest of my trash. It is easy to use with a pooper scooper like this flexrake - just step on the foot handle to open the septic lid and deposit the waste. The septic requires minimal maintenance, just add water and digester periodically and it does the rest. The small lid takes up minimal yard space, doesn't stand out because it is so low to the ground and can easily be hidden with ground cover in the warmer seasons. Because of the breakdown process, be sure to put in plants that like rich soil and they will grow very fast making your yard a verdant retreat rather than your dog's toilet. Most dogs will return to the area around the septic to do their business, making cleanup quick and easy. While a dog septic doesn't give off much odor when closed, you might want to cover your face while servicing or filling it because once opened it is just like opening any other septic or sewer. Do not put the septic in an enclosed or partially enclosed area. If the septic is out in the yard in open air, the stench will dissipate completely within a minute or so of closing the lid.
So now I had a septic to manage the business my dogs do at home, but still those tiny walk bags found their way into my trash can and headed off for the landfill. Though a few bags of poop per week doesn't seem like much, if you imagine those same bags over the period of a year, or the dog's life, and then multiply by all the other people who dump their dog's droppings in the trash can, well - that's a big mountain of crap wrapped up in packages that can take 100 years to decompose. At the time I had yet to hear of biodegradable, compostable plastics, but one day while looking for some new CFL bulbs I stumbled upon some kitchen bags and gave them a try. Because I was so impressed with the kitchen bags, I decided to look for compostable options for my other bag needs and found the BioBag compostable pet bags. At around a quarter a bag, they don't break the bank. Since my area does not have a community compost, and I don't want to fill my compost barrel with dog feces, and I don't want to put bags in my septic, I choose to bury the bag and feces alike where the micro-organisms in the ground make quick work of turning the bag and feces into a beneficial part of the ecosystem. The bags might work in the septic, and maybe next year in the heat of summer when it is at peak efficiency, I will give it a shot with a single bag. For those with a larger yard, composting at home would be the best option, and for those with community compost - well, if you have that option you are phenominally lucky and I am envious.
I like the BioBag products because the company is so transparent about their test results and the bags are certified in the US (including the super strict state of California) and Europe. They are also made of sustainable materials - corn starch! There are some products out there labeled as biodegradable plastics that are actually mixed type plastics that break into smaller chunks during the decomposition process that can be consumed by birds and other small animals before decomposition is complete. The biobags will completely and uniformly decompose in almost any environment, the exception being sealed landfills where the oxygen and bacteria cannot do their job, but this is true of any material placed in such a landfill and is yet another reason why sealed landfills are so bad. BioBag also makes other compost, trash bag items and even an eco-friendly human toilet for campers. With the help of companies like BioBag and products like pet septics we can help reduce the migration of biodegradable waste to the landfills and start naturally returning it to the Earth where it belongs.
At first I could not think of how to stop this - after all, if I just left the waste to decompose in my yard I would have a swarm of flies, nowhere to walk, and my house would become the pit of the abominable stench. That wouldn't do. Luckily my husband was not new to owning dogs and told me about the Doggie Dooley. I purchased the deluxe round unit for about $50 since I have 2 large dogs and no longer set a trash bag full of poop out with the rest of my trash. It is easy to use with a pooper scooper like this flexrake - just step on the foot handle to open the septic lid and deposit the waste. The septic requires minimal maintenance, just add water and digester periodically and it does the rest. The small lid takes up minimal yard space, doesn't stand out because it is so low to the ground and can easily be hidden with ground cover in the warmer seasons. Because of the breakdown process, be sure to put in plants that like rich soil and they will grow very fast making your yard a verdant retreat rather than your dog's toilet. Most dogs will return to the area around the septic to do their business, making cleanup quick and easy. While a dog septic doesn't give off much odor when closed, you might want to cover your face while servicing or filling it because once opened it is just like opening any other septic or sewer. Do not put the septic in an enclosed or partially enclosed area. If the septic is out in the yard in open air, the stench will dissipate completely within a minute or so of closing the lid.
So now I had a septic to manage the business my dogs do at home, but still those tiny walk bags found their way into my trash can and headed off for the landfill. Though a few bags of poop per week doesn't seem like much, if you imagine those same bags over the period of a year, or the dog's life, and then multiply by all the other people who dump their dog's droppings in the trash can, well - that's a big mountain of crap wrapped up in packages that can take 100 years to decompose. At the time I had yet to hear of biodegradable, compostable plastics, but one day while looking for some new CFL bulbs I stumbled upon some kitchen bags and gave them a try. Because I was so impressed with the kitchen bags, I decided to look for compostable options for my other bag needs and found the BioBag compostable pet bags. At around a quarter a bag, they don't break the bank. Since my area does not have a community compost, and I don't want to fill my compost barrel with dog feces, and I don't want to put bags in my septic, I choose to bury the bag and feces alike where the micro-organisms in the ground make quick work of turning the bag and feces into a beneficial part of the ecosystem. The bags might work in the septic, and maybe next year in the heat of summer when it is at peak efficiency, I will give it a shot with a single bag. For those with a larger yard, composting at home would be the best option, and for those with community compost - well, if you have that option you are phenominally lucky and I am envious.
I like the BioBag products because the company is so transparent about their test results and the bags are certified in the US (including the super strict state of California) and Europe. They are also made of sustainable materials - corn starch! There are some products out there labeled as biodegradable plastics that are actually mixed type plastics that break into smaller chunks during the decomposition process that can be consumed by birds and other small animals before decomposition is complete. The biobags will completely and uniformly decompose in almost any environment, the exception being sealed landfills where the oxygen and bacteria cannot do their job, but this is true of any material placed in such a landfill and is yet another reason why sealed landfills are so bad. BioBag also makes other compost, trash bag items and even an eco-friendly human toilet for campers. With the help of companies like BioBag and products like pet septics we can help reduce the migration of biodegradable waste to the landfills and start naturally returning it to the Earth where it belongs.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Detoxify Your Clean - Swap Your Swiffer For An Omop
If you are anything like me, you fell in love with the swiffer the moment you tried it the first time and never looked back. I must confess I didn't even bother to read the ingredients when I switched, I just tossed my new convenience into the cart and went. I did much the same thing with the Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner. I wan't thinking much about the toxins I was spreading all over my floor and shower at the time, I was thinking about how much easier it would be to lose the bucket, mop and sponge. As time went on, and I started changing my cleaning sprays and wipes to eco-friendly non-toxic options, the shower cleaner and Swiffer stayed for lack of an eco-friendly option - or so I thought.
This week when I went to the grocery store, I decided to browse the green cleaner section to see what my local SuperFresh had to offer. Until then, I'd been buying cleaning products online in bulk, but sometimes you just plain run out and can't wait. I wan't planning on buying anything, just seeing if it was a good place for a midnight mess run. As I was comparing prices, overwhelmingly disappointed with the selection, I came across a brand called Method that was on sale for very good prices - better than my online prices in many cases. There on the bottom row a large paper box caught my eye. It was an Omop wood cleaning kit (they make an all floor kit as well). I decided to take a closer look, and picked up the box and leaned it on my cart. The recycled paper box contained a tool that is essentially an ergonomically designed Swiffer with a larger pad. It has a longer handle with a loop to set your hand in and a curve in the handle to reach different kinds of areas more easily. Even better, the dry cloths are compostable bamboo and the wet cloth is a microfiber cloth that is machine washable. The cleaning fluid is all natural and non-toxic, perfect for a family with children or pets that might injest some fluid from the floor. Finally and eco-friendly Swiffer replacement! Into the cart it went, and I went back to the Method products, intrigued by their offering.
I collected several packets of compostable wipes with non-toxic cleaners for different surfaces around the house. Even the package lids are ergonomic, opening with the push of a finger rather than having to break a nail prying at it. A few spray cleaners to try went in the cart. Most of the sprays are no better and no worse than other comparable cleaners, so they are good for convenience or on sale (I will do an article on spray cleaners later). There was one spray that stood out as different, though. It was daily shower cleaner - the eco-friendly Automatic Shower Cleaner! This was going to take some modification, though. I am guessing that the shower cleaner is still under patent by the lack of any competition. For this reason, the cleaning spray came in a spray bottle that would not fit in the Scrubbing Bubbles sprayer, and Method does not offer an automatic sprayer of their own. The fluid looks similar to the Shower Cleaner fluid. I bought 2 bottles and came home to look at the problem.
Because I still had an empty bottle in the shower cleaner, I noticed I could refill the bottle by drilling a hole in the top of the old one, then filling with the Method cleaner. A pain, for sure, but not impossible. With a small hole saw, a drill, a funnel and a cork I was able to modify the shower cleaner to accept the method product. I am not sure how long it will work, or what to do if the bottle wears out (I guess I could buy a regular refill and dump it into a black water recepticle so it does not head to the bay). It does work today, though, and I finally found an efficient way of cleaning that is eco-friendly. Method products are worth your time to check out, though you may want to buy them on sale.
This week when I went to the grocery store, I decided to browse the green cleaner section to see what my local SuperFresh had to offer. Until then, I'd been buying cleaning products online in bulk, but sometimes you just plain run out and can't wait. I wan't planning on buying anything, just seeing if it was a good place for a midnight mess run. As I was comparing prices, overwhelmingly disappointed with the selection, I came across a brand called Method that was on sale for very good prices - better than my online prices in many cases. There on the bottom row a large paper box caught my eye. It was an Omop wood cleaning kit (they make an all floor kit as well). I decided to take a closer look, and picked up the box and leaned it on my cart. The recycled paper box contained a tool that is essentially an ergonomically designed Swiffer with a larger pad. It has a longer handle with a loop to set your hand in and a curve in the handle to reach different kinds of areas more easily. Even better, the dry cloths are compostable bamboo and the wet cloth is a microfiber cloth that is machine washable. The cleaning fluid is all natural and non-toxic, perfect for a family with children or pets that might injest some fluid from the floor. Finally and eco-friendly Swiffer replacement! Into the cart it went, and I went back to the Method products, intrigued by their offering.
I collected several packets of compostable wipes with non-toxic cleaners for different surfaces around the house. Even the package lids are ergonomic, opening with the push of a finger rather than having to break a nail prying at it. A few spray cleaners to try went in the cart. Most of the sprays are no better and no worse than other comparable cleaners, so they are good for convenience or on sale (I will do an article on spray cleaners later). There was one spray that stood out as different, though. It was daily shower cleaner - the eco-friendly Automatic Shower Cleaner! This was going to take some modification, though. I am guessing that the shower cleaner is still under patent by the lack of any competition. For this reason, the cleaning spray came in a spray bottle that would not fit in the Scrubbing Bubbles sprayer, and Method does not offer an automatic sprayer of their own. The fluid looks similar to the Shower Cleaner fluid. I bought 2 bottles and came home to look at the problem.
Because I still had an empty bottle in the shower cleaner, I noticed I could refill the bottle by drilling a hole in the top of the old one, then filling with the Method cleaner. A pain, for sure, but not impossible. With a small hole saw, a drill, a funnel and a cork I was able to modify the shower cleaner to accept the method product. I am not sure how long it will work, or what to do if the bottle wears out (I guess I could buy a regular refill and dump it into a black water recepticle so it does not head to the bay). It does work today, though, and I finally found an efficient way of cleaning that is eco-friendly. Method products are worth your time to check out, though you may want to buy them on sale.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Support Earth Hour 2009 - Turn Off Your Lights!
If you've ever wanted to help out environmental causes, but feel frustrated since you don't have enough time to take care of everything you need to for yourself, much less volunteer, and you sure don't have enough money to donate (not to mention you don't get any tax kick back like the rich itemizers do), finally, here's something anyone can do! Earth Hour started in Sydney, Austrialia in 2007 as an idea that anyone could do to save natural resources and raise environmental awareness. People turned off their lights for one hour from 8-9PM. It was successful and gained global attention, with many other cities and businesses around the world participating in 2008, with over 50 million people in all 7 continents participating in events ranging from huge gatherings to quiet candlelit family time at home. On the website you can sign up to participate in 2009 from 8:30-9:30 PM (in your local time zone) on Saturday March 28 and get regular info updates if you want them.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Energy Star Washers and Dryers for Any Size Home
When it comes to washers and dryers, traditionally they have been separate, and while there are a plethora of energy star washers, eco-friendly dryers are harder to come by. It just takes too much energy to generate all that heat. Because my washing machine and dryer are both on their last leg, and I'm tired of babysitting both of them (kind of defeats the purpose of a machine to have to sit there the whole time), I decided to check out my options. Things have really changed - at least in the US. Europe has had much of this technology for a long time, and I've seen many messages from Europeans shocked that we haven't. You're not going to find this stuff at your local Home Depot or Lowes yet, but to my surprise these solutions were both initially less expensive than buying a traditional washer and dryer and save energy in the long run - you can't lose.
The closest to the traditional washer and dryer is the combo washer and dryer. Do not confuse this with a washer and dryer combo where two separate units are stacked on top of each other or side by side, a combo washer/dryer is a single unit that washes then dries your clothing. They come in vented and ventless depending on what kind of space you have, and range in price from $450 apartment sized units to a high end $1900 model. Your average unit will run about $700 but remember you're getting both a washer and dryer, so they actually don't cost any more than a new washer and dryer and often cost you less. What makes them so efficient is the way they dry. Rather than using heat, they spin much faster than a standard spin cycle, extracting the moisture without the need for a heating grid of some sort or air flow. Because they use so much less energy, they can be plugged into a regular 110A plug. They also save you space in your home and time because you no longer have to empty the dryer, empty the washer, haul the clothes to the dryer, then refill the washer and repeat. Now you can set clothes in the washing machine, go to work or sleep and come home or wake up to fresh, clean clothes. They do take longer than a standard dryer, so you will probably want to change your schedule to do this rather than wash everything on a single day because that will take forever.
But what if you have a tiny load or live in an apartment where they will not allow you to have a large unit (especially if they are trying to motivate you to use their coin fed machine)? The Laundry Alternative has your solution. The site is worth looking over, but I want to highlight a few of my favorites. The Wonder Wash is a little hand powered machine that uses no energy and very little soap. It only takes a few minutes, and holds 5 pounds of laundry. For a small family, women with cloth menstrual products, or parents with small children and/or using cloth diapers this little machine can help a lot with the things you need now. Even for a larger family, sometimes you need that item now and with this item you don't have to run the whole washer to do a couple outfits. It can be a standalone system for a single person or family of two if you do your clothes every few days, and since it is small and light if you go camping or travel you can bring it along with you and pack lighter. The other item I really like is the Countertop Spin Dryer (and the mini version). These also work in just a few minutes, so in 10 minutes or less with these two inexpensive appliances you can have a clean outfit for two people washed, dried and ready to wear. If you use cloth diapers you can forget the big pail and just wash in the evening. Since the spin dryer is also portable, you can pack it with the Wonder Wash and take it with you for clean clothes anywhere and if you are not in the market for a new washer and dryer, the spin dryer makes an excellent addition to your conventional dryer. By using the spin dryer for a few minutes before transferring your clothing to the conventional dryer, you can cut the time by half an hour. That means much less wasted energy and cost savings for you on your utility bill.
The closest to the traditional washer and dryer is the combo washer and dryer. Do not confuse this with a washer and dryer combo where two separate units are stacked on top of each other or side by side, a combo washer/dryer is a single unit that washes then dries your clothing. They come in vented and ventless depending on what kind of space you have, and range in price from $450 apartment sized units to a high end $1900 model. Your average unit will run about $700 but remember you're getting both a washer and dryer, so they actually don't cost any more than a new washer and dryer and often cost you less. What makes them so efficient is the way they dry. Rather than using heat, they spin much faster than a standard spin cycle, extracting the moisture without the need for a heating grid of some sort or air flow. Because they use so much less energy, they can be plugged into a regular 110A plug. They also save you space in your home and time because you no longer have to empty the dryer, empty the washer, haul the clothes to the dryer, then refill the washer and repeat. Now you can set clothes in the washing machine, go to work or sleep and come home or wake up to fresh, clean clothes. They do take longer than a standard dryer, so you will probably want to change your schedule to do this rather than wash everything on a single day because that will take forever.
But what if you have a tiny load or live in an apartment where they will not allow you to have a large unit (especially if they are trying to motivate you to use their coin fed machine)? The Laundry Alternative has your solution. The site is worth looking over, but I want to highlight a few of my favorites. The Wonder Wash is a little hand powered machine that uses no energy and very little soap. It only takes a few minutes, and holds 5 pounds of laundry. For a small family, women with cloth menstrual products, or parents with small children and/or using cloth diapers this little machine can help a lot with the things you need now. Even for a larger family, sometimes you need that item now and with this item you don't have to run the whole washer to do a couple outfits. It can be a standalone system for a single person or family of two if you do your clothes every few days, and since it is small and light if you go camping or travel you can bring it along with you and pack lighter. The other item I really like is the Countertop Spin Dryer (and the mini version). These also work in just a few minutes, so in 10 minutes or less with these two inexpensive appliances you can have a clean outfit for two people washed, dried and ready to wear. If you use cloth diapers you can forget the big pail and just wash in the evening. Since the spin dryer is also portable, you can pack it with the Wonder Wash and take it with you for clean clothes anywhere and if you are not in the market for a new washer and dryer, the spin dryer makes an excellent addition to your conventional dryer. By using the spin dryer for a few minutes before transferring your clothing to the conventional dryer, you can cut the time by half an hour. That means much less wasted energy and cost savings for you on your utility bill.
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