GREEN stuff!

SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR MOST RECENT UPDATE: 7/7/09

6/30/09

I’d like to share the tips, tricks, and advice I have on being “green”, or “eco-conscious”, or “reducing your carbon footprint.” Whatever you call it, we all should make a conscious effort to live right. Eat healthy, be active, spend time learning, laughing, wondering, being. Enjoy all that life has to offer without leaving a big mess behind you as you go. It’s so much easier than you may think. You don’t have to go “all or nothing” – Even the tiniest change can have a big impact, so do it a bit at a time.

REDUCE. REUSE. RECYCLE. This reminds me of elementary school. We’ve all heard it. Ways to do it?

REDUCE. Turn off the lights when you leave a room, shut down your computer when you aren’t using it, unplug appliances you rarely use. This will reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, and it will lower your electricity bill. Yay for saving money! Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. (I’ll never understand why people leave it running.)

REUSE. My depression-era grandmother and her hippie daughter, my mother, passed this to Misha and I as a habit. Deli-meat containers. Gift wrapping. Shoe boxes. If you’re resourceful, you can find second uses for just about anything. But don’t go overboard or you may one day find yourself trying to pack for college, wondering why on earth you have 4 years worth of bags full of bags at the bottom of your closet…

RECYCLE. It takes only 2 minutes at the end of the day to rinse and sort your recycling. Do it for a week or two, and you’ll be amazed at how much less often you have to take your trash out. Plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, junk mail, metal cans, wine bottles. Go online to locate a recycling center near you and drop off once a month. Why? My dumb quick version is that most items are quicker and easier to make from recycled materials and it reduces the amount of chemicals being released from certain processes, reduces the acres upon acres of trees being cut down (each tree removes unbelievable amounts of carbon from the air in their lifetime!), and quite often you can get some $ back. I take my paper goods to a nearby school that gets money/pound of paper. Also, when I’m done with (um, or too fat for) clothes, shoes, purses, furniture, electronics, I donate to a nearby resale shop whose profits are used to benefit the community.

GASOLINE. Most of you reading this are probably in Texas, and we’re lucky. Our gas prices are usually lower than the rest of the country because a bunch of dinosaurs died here a bazillion years ago. However, that oil is limited and costly and is one of the reasons we maintain a presence in the middle east (that’s as political as I’ll get). Reduce foreign dependency on oil, reduce the amount you spend on gas each month. Keep your tires filled with air, as this improves mileage. If you are idling for more than 2 minutes, turn off your engine. The amount of gas it will take to start again is about two minutes-worth of idling. (Obviously, do NOT turn your car off in Texas summer heat or if there are babies or pets in the car!) Carpool and run a bunch of errands at once! It’s more fun than doing it alone and it will reduce the number of trips and amount of time that have to be spent (I don’t have a ton of spare time-it’s precious!)

PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS. Just STOP using them! Get cloth reusable bags. I’m sure you’ve all seen the email forward of how plastic bags have been banned in certain countries, how certain states charge you to use them, how they choke baby seals, etc. Again, I’m from Texas, and the people here aren’t exactly the first to join in the green movement. If you insist upon getting plastic bags at the grocery store, be sure you do something useful with them like cleaning the litter box out. GUILTY #1 REASON TO USE CLOTH BAGS??? They hold more than plastic ones. If you’re too lazy to make lots of trips from cart to car to counter like me, try this on for size: I can easily fit the contents of a full Krogers grocery cart into two insulated cloth bags and 3 regular cloth bags. My frozen goods aren’t soggy when I get home, the bags don’t tear, they have long straps so they’re easier to carry than plastic or paper, and they fold up real easy and hide under my sink or in my trunk. PLUS… they are great to pack when you travel in case you need an extra bag to carry back souvenirs.

COMPOST. I love the idea of composting! Taking the food scraps from what I cook and eat, and returning it to the earth to nourish the plants and vegetables that I will enjoy in the next few months! Unfortunately, composting isn’t really an option for many people. It’s kind of messy, inconvenient, and can be pretty stinky. Fortunately, more and more options of receptacles are showing up on the market that make composting easier. Charcoal-lined ceramic scrap receptacles can sit on your counter and you don’t smell anything. Enclosed compost bins can be placed anywhere in your backyard without fear of odors, and do not require turning or adding worms or anything to facilitate the decomposition. This in addition to general recycling results in me taking out my kitchen trash only every 8 days!!!

Creepy Facts to Consider:

***I used to think that applying coat after coat of brightly colored nail polish was totally fine because nothing penetrates your tough nails! Well, your fingernail and toenail beds actually absorb chemicals much more readily than your skin does, and feeds those chemicals directly into your blood stream. I can’t cite offhand the chemicals in most nailpolish, but I do know that formaldehyde is one. And we all remember lovely formaldehyde from the fetal pig carcasses we had to dissect in freshman Biology, right?? Ew. OPI is one of the brands that has come out with a line of polishes (~10-15 bright pretty colors, the “South Beach” line) that do not contain the common harsh chemicals.

***Every middle-aged woman and angst-ridden teen is on a cornucopia of mood-altering, hormone-controlling drugs and we know that prescriptions provide a much higher dose than required. Fortunately, our bodies are smart enough to simply pass the unused drugs into our urine. But that flows downstream to a water treatment plant that is testing for and removing common bacteria, but definitely not any of those drugs. Now, I don’t know enough about chemisty to speak to whether or not the drugs can make it back to my sink tap in a sufficient state to be absorbed. But I DO know it is interesting to think about!

Books I suggest: Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style Let’s face it – I can’t build a house of tires in Houston, and I won’t stop getting my hair done. This book is realistic in its approach to living more consciously without sacrificing comfort/career/beauty.

7/7/09 UPDATE!

GREEN WEBSITES. Two websites I frequent for green tips are www.treehugger.com or sister page planetgreen.discovery.com

10 overlooked low tech ways to keep cool, London’s new hybrid double-decker buses, how to make your sex greener (yes, I said it),

LATEX MATTRESSES. I also want to suggest you look into a latex mattress, if you’re in the market for a new mattress anytime soon. Here’s why I went with the latex mattress: (and why Mom & Pops got one too!)

*Crazy 20-year warrantee.

*I like soft beds with good support. Super soft, perfect support. They use what they call a constant-pour method to get even support all over without seams or springs or anything. I wouldn’t jump on the mattress with a glass of wine sitting on it like in commercials, but there is very little bounce or movement for those of you that share your bed with another person (rather than two cats). Plus, you don’t need boxsprings so you can have a super-sick platform bed since they’re hip right now! (Yes. On sale. Star Furniture. Dark wood and black leather quilted headboard.)

*The rubber comes from a tree and will break down in a landfill. The latex is naturally anti-microbial and the little holes allow air to circulate, reducing mold or mildew risks. Also, the foam supposedly helps to regulate temperature. (I haven’t noticed, so I won’t comment.)

*Great for any sleeper: side, back, stomach. I’ve NEVER been able to sleep on my stomach, or without a pillow. I can sleep on my back, side or stomach, I no longer use a pillow (when laying on my back or stomach) and I never have back or neck pain!

*I hate “memory foam” because I feel like  get stuck in it! The latex foam responds to your momements immediately and you don’t struggle to get out of bed. (So if you have an irrational claustophobic fear of memory foam, this is the mattress for you!)

MORE TO COME! FEEDBACK/QUESTIONS/SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!!!