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.

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.

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.

Complete the Circle - Recycle and Buy Recycled Products

With the growing popularity of curbside recycling programs in many urban and suburban areas, many people choose to recycle at least some of their recycleable waste. If you are not familiar with recycling at all or don't know the proper procedure for sorting your recyclables, check out this site. If you are already recycling, do you buy recycled too? Buying recycled is more important that many people realize because many people don't give much thought to what happens to the waste after it goes out for collection. You know, of course, that the truck comes by and picks it up just as with the weekly trash collection. You also probably know that it goes to a recycling center to be pushed through machines, chopped, sorted, processed and prepared for sale to companies looking for recycled fiber, metal, plastic and glass. But the most important step, the one that turns the recycled waste into usable new products is so far removed from the consumer it really has little apparent impact on their lives.

As with any other product, the waste you recycle is sold to consumers with motivation to purchase the product. Basic supply and demand dictates that the more of us that recycle, the lower the price of the processed product made of that recycled material, so every person that sets out a tub of bottles and cans or a box of paper is actually helping to make recycled products more accessible to everyone, but the other side of economics is there needs to be someone wanting to purchase that product in order to complete the cycle and keep the recycling centers in business. Unless we opened up a plant, most people would have no interest in the product produced directly from the recycling center. The bits of glass, plastic, metal and paper are useless until they are taken by yet another company and put through yet another process to become again something useful which in all hopes will be recycled again and so on. The other company in question may wish to manufacture toilet paper, paper towels, stationary, bottles or the many other products that went into the recycling bin in the first place. In reality, they are in a way collecting a product you have used up, taking the used product, freshening it up and then, the very important but often neglected part, selling it back to you.

While at first this may frustrate some people, after all, most states have done away with the can and bottle deposit, though when you could get paid to recycle, you also had to cart your own recycling to the recycling center, when you really think about it what difference does it make that you may be buying back something you gave away in a different form. You would buy it again if you tossed it in the landfill anyway. The only real difference between buying post-recycled products and buying virgin products is whether or not your recycling that you set outside each week will go to good use. Obviously it is more financially sound for the consumer to reuse as many products as possible, and that is how the overflow plastic bags from the store become my lunch pails and I ended up with cloth tissues, feminine products and towels and use glass or ceramic plates, but there are some things that just can't be reused, like toilet paper, paper towels and used paper. It is important to look for a high percentage of post-consumer recycled product (what we put out in our bins or take to a recycling center) because the other, often unlisted type of recycled product is pre-consumer, meaning it is industry waste reused by the same company. For example, this may be a product that was damaged or the end or corner of a roll that was cut off. While it is important for manufacturers to waste as little as possible, pre-consumer recycling is not anymore used than a remnant of fabric purchased at a fabric store. If a percentage of post-consumer recycled material is not listed on the package or advertising, it is probably that the company is using little if any post-consumer product. If there is no percent at all the company could be using as little as 1% recycled product, likely all pre-consumer scraps from the factory.

The primary motivator for a company to purchase recycled material is to sell more of their product to consumers. This is why you often see adverts or product labeling indicating "X% Recycled Y, Z% post-consumer" - it tells the consumer that the company is environmentally friendly and attracts environmentally conscious consumers. Virgin products are in general easier and less costly to manufacture (though with changes in the market and recycling methods, this is not always true) and sometimes even cut the supplier out entirely depending on the size of the company and their other holdings. I'm not saying there isn't a single company out there that is environmentally conscious in their own right, but even they need to make a profit or they will go out of business. Ultimately, this would force the recycling centers out of business since there is no demand for their product, and we would be right back where we started, dumping 100% of our inorganic garbage in a landfill. This is why the actions of the individual residential consumer are of critical importance. If you recycle, but buy virgin products, it leaves the circle incomplete and risks the purpose and future of recycling.

Even if you are already convinced that you should buy recycled, how can you do it without breaking the bank? Recycled products are certainly a little more expensive and can be a little more work to find, but again I would suggest buying in bulk and looking for sales and savings deals. Of all the recyclable materials, paper products are the easiest to find as a consumer and are replacements for products you use regularly around the home. I always preferred Scott toilet paper, so I switched to Seventh Generation 1000 sheet rolls. I also buy their paper towels by the case here (I generally use washable rags, but their are certain messes - think dog related - where you just can't do that). You can also get a case combo for 48 rolls of toilet paper and 30 rolls of paper towels here if you finish your cases at about the same time, but since I use very few paper towels, that doesn't work well for me. Buying by the case makes the expense managable since I only have to buy once or twice a year depending on the product, and I can plan it for a time when I'll have the extra money and again it's one less thing to worry about. Any kind of stationary comes in a recycled format, and with modern processes you often can't even tell the difference between recycled and virgin in look or texture (unless you want to) and many cleaning products. Recycled plastic can be made into plastic lumber (as for patio furniture or fences), clothing fibers for clothing, plastic toys, bottles, and much more. Your recycled glass often ends up as part of a roadway, however many home improvement projects may now contain recycled glass (such as tile or countertops). Cans are generally made into cans again which end up back on the store shelves, though some is used in construction as well. Some recycled glass and metal becomes part of home decoration like recycled sculpture, fixtures like towel racks and toilet paper holders, bird feeders and more. If you do not have a lot of disposable income to spend on home improvement or expensive decoration, it is unlikely that you will be in the market for products made out recycled glass, but if your area does not use it for road construction it would be a good thing to write your local officials about.

Recycling items like batteries, waste oil and electronics is arguably the most important recycling of all. Though these items are not generally collected curbside, many of them are illegal to dump because they are toxic and dangerous to humans and all other life. If you work on your own car, ask your parts store or local Jiffy Lube, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Pep Boys or other automotive facility if they will accept your waste. You will be surprised at how many will. Then when you take your car for the end of job test drive, test drive it over to a legal recycling point for your waste. As for electronics like cell phones, computers, printers, printer cartridges, and the like, check online for local charities or ask a local repair shop if they would like your item. If it is still in working condition, sell it or give it away. You could even get a tax writeoff if you itemize deductions (I don't so it doesn't help me a whole lot).

I should note in conclusion, that while you can get items like paper plates, plastic trash bags, disposable silverware, etc in recycled, it is better to use compostable, sustainable products like sugarcane and corn place settings and bidegradable, compostable plastic trash bags. Recycling consumes a lot of energy from the trucks that pick the material up to the recycling plant itself to the shipment of the processed material. By using biodegradable, sustainable products, the use of environment damaging products can be avoided altogether and the recycled material can be redirected to those items that cannot be manufactured in a lower impact way. Synthetic fibers can be bad in a number of ways. While it is great to shop recycled for products like shoes that need the added durability of plastic and don't spend a lot of time against your skin, you should strongly consider skipping the synthetic clothing in general and instead using renewable resources like organic cotton that are better for your skin, health and the environment. Buying a reusable water bottle and purchasing larger containers of drinks or making your own from fresh ingredients (like squeezed lemonade or orange juice) is a great way to avoid some waste aluminum and plastic and is better for you anyway. Bulk buy products often (but not always) come with less packaging, again preventing waste.

These aren't your parents' light bulbs!

I know this is a very over discussed topic, but CFLs have come a LONG way. When I first went to CFLs in response to the ever increasing price of electricity, I had to change several light fixtures and switches in my house in order to accept the lights. There were no 3 way CFLs, dimmer CFLs, CFL bug lights or CFL flood lights. All CFLs were the spiral design and they came in 40, 60 and 100 watt light output equivalents. If you were lucky, you might be able to find a daylight style light but that was all the selection you got. Imagine my surprise when just 4 years later as I shopped to replace a burned out CFL I found the huge selection now available. There are bug lights for outside. There are triple tube lights (three arches next to each other) and A shape (look like a tungsten bulb) if you don't like the look of the mini twists. There are chandelier lights, cylinder lights and globe lights for your fancy fixtures, 3 way lights and dimmer lights for your special switches, and even reflector (flood) lights for inside and outside. And they aren't even that expensive! If you've ever purchase specialty lights of the regular high-consumption variety you will be surprised to find this long-lived energy-saving alternative to be quite cost effective. But do they really work? Do they really last as long as the package says and do they really save money? And most importantly are they safe? As a long term user of this type of bulb, I say yes. I remember 4 years ago when my husband first showed me the package of funny looking twists on sale in Home Depot and I asked him the same questions. If they last for 7 years, why is the warranty only for 2, I asked, and what if they explode in my face? Don't they take time to warm up - that's so annoying! And how much energy do we really use in lights anyway? What's $50 over the course of 7 years IF they last that long anyway? Well, I moved once since buying many of them and none of them exploded even with the stress of the move. Not saying you don't have to be careful with them and how you dispose of them, but I am now convinced that they are as safe as the next piece of technology. After 4 years I have all but 2 of the bulbs. One I used outside and it did take time to warm up (I've now replaced it with a bug light that is designed for outside and it works perfectly), and the other was in a high traffic area and it's light output diminshed over time. For having every single bulb in my house converted to CFL, 2 bulbs in 4 years isn't bad. I should also note that you need to be careful to watch how many lumens the light puts out. In many rooms a 40 watt CFL will work just as well as a 60 watt standard light. If you like bright lights, this won't be a problem, but if they bother you, watch out! Just imagine how much less energy we would use as a nation if everyone switched! If we used those savings to eliminate plants dependant on harmful fuels, think of how much greater an effect that would have on the climate.