Breaking the Bottled Water Habit

Today, I took the pledge to break the bottled water habit.  Here are a few reasons to stop using bottled water (aka, what Poland Spring and Dasani don't want you to know):

1.  Bottled water is full of oil! Ok, not literally.  But making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 17 MILLION BARRELS of oil annually.  

2.  At least 40% of bottled water is tap water anyway!  Yep, that's right!  You're paying good money for tap water.  You're being ripped off!  Not only that, but in taste tests NYC tap water beat out the leading brands of bottled.  By the way, tap water is more highly regulated than bottled water and therefore, possibly safer.

3.  Disposable plastic water bottles are not reusable.  Sure, for awhile I used the excuse that I refilled my water bottles, and was therefore being more eco-friendly.  NOT!  Worse than that, reuse of the bottles can lead to leaching of dangerous chemicals from the plastic.  

So join me and take the pledge!  

A great idea from my friend, Kate

So here is an email I just got from Kate which I thought you all might appreciate (er, all 2 of you reading this)...  I love that this is originally advice from Queen Latifah's grandmother!

I happened on this old idea for a very safe facial cleanser while reading an interview with Queen Latifah talking about her grandmother's beautiful skin (why was I even reading this? I must have been stuck nursing somewhere and this was within reach…)

Anyway, she suggests exfoliating with BAKING SODA, which is a very gentle, safe abrasive as well as having gentle cleansing qualities. Since I'm a sucker for new uses for safe household products, I decided to give it a try…and it is awesome!

Then I read up online and found that other people have discovered this too. It's a great alternative to traditional exfoliants (which are apparently made with teeny tiny little balls of plastic that end up in the ocean and fill fishies full of teeny plastic balls, yuck) and natural scrubs with e.g. walnut shells, which are too abrasive and damaging to skin. I love the feel of exfoliants but hated those options - what to do?

You can use a pinch of baking soda mixed in your palm with water, or just add a little to your squirt of whatever daily cleanser you use, but either way I have been using it for about 2 weeks now and I love the effect - soft, silky, cleeeeean skin. Not sure what it would do to someone with problematic skin, but I suspect it would only be helpful. You just have to be sure to moisture afterward.

Action Tuesday

OK, here's your action for the day!  We're sending a letter to the EPA asking them to ban endosulfan, a dangerous pesticide that is already banned in Europe.  Not only does it cause all sorts of toxicities with acute exposure, but there have been studies that link in utero exposure to autism.  (And for those of you who know me, know that this is one of my soap box issues!)  So please go to the EarthJustice website and send your message today! (Image stolen from aforementioned website)

Another Reason to like Ben & Jerry's

(cause you needed another reason?) They just introduced hydrocarbon freezers to keep their ice cream cold, instead of the old hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) ones. Hydrofluorocarbons are serious green house gases, and they can be released from refridgeration & freezer units as the units run and age. This is BAD. Which is why the new freezer technology is GOOD. Want to know more - go straight to the source! Ben & Jerry's website, of course!

TreeHugger.com - Getting Recession Ready

In light of the current economic forecast, I've been thinking about ways that I can save money.  Not that I don't have a reliable income that is unlikely to change (for the next year or two anyway), but it might not be a bad idea to try and save a bit.  Tree Hugger has a new article out about getting ready for a recession - the Green Way.  The most ridiculous part is that these are mostly common sense suggestions that save lots of money: Ditch prepared foods.  Eat less meat.  Get rid of your car (or at least, use it a lot less).  Get the last drop out of your toothpaste & shampoo.  I think the author took a page from The Tightwad Gazette.  But seriously, all of these are easy to do and are environmentally friendly.  See - I'm not crazy for trying to get what's left of the old bar of soap to stick to the new bar!  Now if only I could talk myself into reusing old coffee grounds.  (Ew!)

Christmas - I'm Excited!

Um, so I'm trying REALLY hard to live up to the handmade pledge I took for Christmas.  I started making stocking stuffers on Sunday night.  All was good except that the glue was not so eco-friendly (in fact, I'm sure it was quite toxic given all the warnings on the package).  But I opened a few windows and vowed to find a more eco-friendly option...  I think Allie's rice cereal after sitting at room temp for a few hours would probably work.  That stuff turns into cement!  I'm just not sure it would smell so hot after a few months.  Ew.  Let me know if you have any better suggestions! 

I'd post a picture of what I was making, but that would ruin the Christmas surprise now, wouldn't it?  Still, I'm excited.  :-)

Action Wednesday! ooh! politics!

There's lots you can do to bring environmental issues to the forefront.  One of my favorite environmental groups, Environmental Defense, has an "action" you can take now to urge the moderators of the presidential debates to ask the hard questions about global warming and alternative energy.  Follow this link, and you can send an email to each of the debate moderators.  Easy peasy! 

P.S.  Above image is stolen from the ED website.  :)

Action Friday. Er, Monday!

Ok, folks.  Our darling President is at it again, trying to destroy everything I believe in, one at a time.  Actually, that's not true.  He's doing it all at once!  So quick!  Save the whales! And the polar bears!  And the bald eagles and all of the endangered species currently protected under the Endangered Species Act.  Cause folks, our dear president is doing his best to weaken the ESA.  Why?  Who knows?! Presumably so people can drill for oil in protected wildlife habitats.  Or maybe he really just hates polar bears and monarch butterflies.  Butthead.  

Anyway, click the link below and send your message to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, telling them not to approve the Bush/Cheney changes.  Do it soon!  Tell them you care! Please!

Defenders of Wildlife Action Center

(Image stolen from TreeHugger.com - a great site if you've got time to procrastinate! Quite Addictive!)

Eco Snobs

Yep, I'm one.  And it is so difficult to bite my tongue sometimes when people do things that are just so easy not to do!  Like yesterday, in Pathmark, some women stopped to grab an extra bag (while all the bags in her cart only had one or two things - I swear she bought 10 items and had 6 bags!) and I really was tempted to tell her that that extra bag will take 5000 years to degrade, and, oh, by the way, took petroleum to produce so thank you, lady, for the high gas prices.  But I was soooo good and bit my tongue.  People in the Bronx tend to have nasty tempers.  It could have been ugly.  

But I did manage to carry home all of my items in my book bag and not take a bag myself, as I had forgotten my reusable bags at home.  Er, go me!  **sigh**

Best Stain Remover EVER - Ecover

I was skeptical, but it totally works.  So well that I bought one for my sister in law too.  Its made from plant based ingredients and is biodegradable.  Its gotten grass stains out of Allie's knees, and spaghetti sauce off of Matt's shirt.  Yay!  It works!  Oh yeah, and the packaging is recyclable.  Mom approved.  :)

Action Tuesday

Since I missed last Friday's "Action Friday", I'm celebrating Action Tuesday instead.  So here it is: go to: www.coalriverwind.org and sign their petition!  Coal River Mountain is one of the last remaining mountain tops in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia.  All the others have been strip mined flat!  Sign the petition to turn the mountain top into a wind farm instead of another casualty of mountaintop removal.  This would create clean energy jobs, and prevent the pollution of streams and rivers that is the consequence of strip mining.  You can read all about it at their website.  Please add your signature to the petition!

  

You have been warned

Only unique/original gifts this Christmas, either made by me, or handmade by somebody else. Why? Because its better for the world. I'm not supporting the sweat shops (unless you count my kitchen, which also contains my sewing machine!). Because I know what my gift is made out of. Also, because I promised.

Tell Kleenex to come Klean!

I'm going to start posting "Take Action Fridays" which will be easy ways for you to tell your favorite Congressman, Representative, local politician, or Corporation what you really think (er, or what I really think!).  Occasionally these will be kudos, but today, we're telling Kimberly-Clark that we'd like them to increase the recycled content in their Kleenex.  Currently, its 0%.  Really?  We're chopping down trees hundreds of years old to blow our nose?  (or wipe our butts!)  

You can send your message through GreenPeace - all you have to do is put in your name and address, and they send your message on to the powers that be at Kimberly-Clark.  How easy is that???  So click the link!  Just do it! (er we'll get to Nike another day...)

http://members.greenpeace.org/action/start/209/?session_action=reset

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

I'm going to try and be more diligent about this blogging thing.  I have Allie's blog, which is all about, of course, the adventures of Allie!  I'm going to use this blog to try and save the planet, one day at a time.  Check in to see my adventures in green - products I've tried and challenges I'm giving myself and how're they're going.  Maybe I'll even inspire you?  :-)  Hope so!  

So here is challenge number one: Starting today, no more plastic shopping bags.  Period.  If I forget my reusable ones, well, sucks to be me.  I'll just have to buy less (a good idea for the planet and my wallet!) or look silly carrying it all.  

Ask me how its going a week from now...  and remind me to put my reusable bags back in my car.