ECOSiZE Me

Green Resolutions: Make Every Day Earth Day

This year I am going to recognize the 39th Anniversary of Earth Day by creating green resolutions. The reason is simply to continue being green all year long.

My 2 Green Resolutions in celebration of Earth Day 2009 are:

1. Decrease my dependence on chemical products in my home and move toward environmentally-friendly, natural products. This includes both cleaning products as well as personal hygeniene items like soaps, shampoos, etc.

2. Learn and understand more about energy...energy production, consumption, conservation and alternative forms. Energy is such an abstract concept and since I do better with tangible issues this will be a good green challenge for me. We do participate in DTE Energy's Green Currents Program which supports electricity generation from clean, renewable sources such as wind farms and biomass plants. It's one small step in the green direction. More information can be found here. http://my.dteenergy.com/products/greenCurrents/index.html

Like any resolution, they are relative to their owner. Make yours as general or specific, as simple or complex as you want or need them to be. Green resolutions will be our reminder to take steps that are environmentally-friendly and environmentally-conscious, no matter how large or how small.

Happy Earth Day!

My Green Colander

What? My new green colander

• sizeable at 3.5 quarts with excellent drainage

• heavy weight and sturdy with comfortable handles

• made in the U.S.A.

Why? Made from 100% recycled #5 plastic (and BPA free).

Who? Preserve Products by Recycline

Where? http://www.preserveproducts.com/index.html

How much? A green deal at $12.99

We "close the loop" and come full circle when we purchase Preserve Products. What does that mean, exactly? It means that the items we put in our recycling bins have been re-processed and made into new and completely different products. In other words, the colander I now have is made from discarded yogurt cups.

As consumers, we use our purchasing power to support recycling programs and items made with recycled materials. We are "casting our vote" and saying that we will recycle and create the supply and then buy items made from these recycled materials and create the demand.

Be sure to check out the Preserve website. It's worth the time to look at their products, learn more about the company, the process and the environmental benefits of recycling. They are truly an environmentally-conscious company.

Recipe for a Waste-Free Lunch

Creating a waste-free lunch is an easy way to be green at ANY AGE. Get creative, have fun and personalize your lunch containers. This is a great way to empower kids while teaching them to be environmentally-friendly. This is a small step. But, taken together, will add up to big changes.

Here is a simple, delicious and eco-friendly recipe for creating a waste-free lunch.

1. Start with a reusable lunch bag/box. Add the following in any order.
2. Fold in a fabric napkin. Any size or pattern will do. Considering writing your child's name on a few to personalize it.
3. Add reusable utensils. I use a fork and spoon from our own everyday set. You could also pick up spare utensils from your local resale shop.
4. Pour in a reusable beverage container for water, milk or juice. Each member of our family has a Thermos brand insulated drink container purchased from Target. These seal well, have tops that open with a push of a button and have a pop-up straw. The insulation prevents condensation on the outside of the bottle.
5. Mix in reusable fabric snack bags or plastic containers. We use a combination of Zip-lock and Tubberware containers and fabric bags like "happy-sacks" found at snack-taxi.com.
6. Whisk in a reusable food thermos for hot foods. We found that Thermos brand makes a size that's good for kids and has a twist-on top that prevents spills. We purchased ours from Target.
7. Blend in recycling because it counts.
   • Thoughtfully include packaging that can be recycled where you are "lunching". But keep in mind that reusable is best.
   • My children's elementary school has container recycling in the cafeteria. They are able to recycle milk cartons and juice boxes, plastic bottles, metal cans, plastic cups from yogurt, pudding, fruit, etc.
8. Use very sparingly or not at all over-packaged and single-serving size items.
9. Assemble together, enjoy and feel good that you are being GREEN.

•  

Let it All Hang Out and Air Your Laundry

Sorry folks..we aren't talking about the scandulous tales of your private life. We are instead, actually suggesting that you air dry your freshly washed laundry. Harness the heat and bleaching action of the sun and the drying action of the wind.

Top Reasons for Airing Your Clean Laundry

• You'll save some GREEN. It costs $.30 - $.40 to dry a load of clothes, on average. It doesn't seem like much but it adds up. Over an average lifespan of a clothes dryers (about 18yrs); it costs about $1,500 to operate. 
• You'll be green by saving ENERGY. Most of our energy across the country is provided by the burning of non-renewable resources (i.e. fossil fuels...coal, natural gas and oil). This is what contributes to global warming and climate change. Surprisingly, clothes dryers are typically the second biggest energy-using appliance in a home after a refrigerator.
• You'll save your CLOTHES. The tumbling from washing and drying takes a toll on your clothes, evidenced by lint.
• Eliminate STATIC cling. The friction from clothes being rubbed together repeatedly in a dryer causes static.
• FRESHNESS. The fresh scent of clothes being air dried is unmatched and best of all CHEMICAL-FREE. My favorite is sleeping on freshly washed and air dried sheets. Now, that makes for some good zzzzz's.
• It's NOSTALGIC. "Line-drying" clothes, as we called it, was a sign that finally spring had sprung in Michigan. My mom line-dried clothes mainly because she loved the fresh scent. Little did she realize that she was economical and on the fore-front of being environmentally-friendly some 30+ years ago. On one end, the clothes-lines were affixed to the back of the house and sprawled across part of our yard to be attached to a metal pole cemented in the ground. Yes, cemented into the ground. Clotheslines were a permanent fixture in the backyards of most homes. We used stationary wooden clothespins and we even had clothes-poles that supported the lines as they were strung with laundry. As a kid, I would run between the sheets as they air-dried and play hide-and-seek.

There are communities now that actually prohibit the use of outdoor clotheslines because seeing someone's laundry air drying is unsightly. Yes, UNSIGHTLY! How could you hang your laundry outdoors for all to see? And if it's those "unsightly" undergarments that embarass us so...get over yourself and lose the vanity. I'll type it outloud...I wear a bra and panties everyday! It's really no surprise. If you're too vain to let everyone see them, then hang 'em in the basement to dry.  If the biggest concern that we as Americans have is to create these types of ordinances, then we would be in pretty, however petty, good shape. Except, as it turns out, we aren't in that great of shape and we have bigger issues to tackle then stopping someone from airing their (clean) laundry. I'm all for letting it all hang out. People from around the world have been air drying clothes for centuries. It is an environmentally-friendly, economical and age-old practice that should be encouraged and promoted. 

So no matter your reason or motivation, consider joining the movement to "let it all hang out". It's a small step in the green direction.

Thanks to these sites for great information. There's more info here than you ever wanted to know, but lots of info that you really should know.

http://www.laundrylist.org/

http://www.linedry.com/index.html

http://right2dry.org/

http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/

If you want to find out how much energy different appliances use, check out this website. http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/

 

Biodegradable Plates

We had an improptu Sparty Party on Saturday evening with some friends to celebrate MSU being in the Big Dance. Normally I would have used our regular Pfaltzgraff dishes but I took this as an opportunity to use (and test) EarthShell biodegradable plates. 

EarthShell is a greener choice in (disposable) dinnerware. They are made from potatoes, corn and limestone, all natural renewable resources. They are very reasonably priced at Meijer...$2.99 for a package of 25. They proved to be strong and soak-proof, just as the packaged claimed. In terms of environmental benefits, they claim to use the least amount of energy to produce, create the least amount of greenhouse gases, take up the least amount of landfill space and are biodegradable within 2 years in a commercial compost facility (compared to paper, plastic and styrofoam counterparts).

They are not recyclable, however, with fiber and other papers in municipal programs. Disposal options are composting or landfilling. I'm unsure as to whether commercial compost facilities widely accept EarthShell products in their programs yet. My first choice in dinnerware is still to use reusable products. But, in a situation where you need to use disposable plates, I would definitely choose EarthShell products again. They are also MADE in the USA. More information is available by following the link http://www.earthshell.com/advantage.php.

Natural Awakenings News Brief

 Much thanks to Jerry for publishing our news brief (p.10) in the April edition of Natural Awakenings. As it turns out, Juli's husband worked with Jerry years ago. Despite the vastness of the planet, our world is such a small place.

Pick up a copy or read it online. It's full of good stuff.

http://www.michiganhealthyliving.com/natural-awakenings-east-michigan-2009.html

NIMBY - Not in My Back Yard

I first learned about NIMBY as a "syndrome" or "principle" in my natural resource management classes at MSU. My husband learned about it in his business and marketing classes. It's an acronym for "Not In My Back Yard" and is most often used in describing resistance to unwanted development in one's neighborhood or city.

Our trash and recycling day is Friday. Every week I'm amazed at the amount of garbage still being disposed of from households, particularly in a city that has an extensive curbside recycling program. Moreso, I'm disappointed in the overall lack of participation in recycling.

I am not an extreme environmentalist, but I do believe that the very least each of us can do to be green is to recycle. Recycling programs are readily available in almost every community.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, our communities have made it so easy for us to dispose of almost anything and everything. Out of sight, out of mind. All we have to do is get the garbage to the curb and a truck picks it up and takes it away. 

How many of us have any idea where all of this garbage goes? Across the U.S., more than half of what we throw away is landfilled. About a third is recycled or composted and the rest (about 14%) is incinerated. Here in southeast Oakland County Michigan, our trash is taken to a landfill that is located in Washtenaw County, approximately 30 miles away.

Imagine that on your next garbage day, instead of taking your bags of trash to the curb, you had to dispose of them in your own backyard. I expect that every one of us would quickly learn to think twice about what we buy that must be thrown away. We would avoid over-packaged products. We would purchase items packaged in and made from recyclable and recycled materials. We would compost more. Use less. Create less waste. Why? Because what we did not reduce, reuse, recycle or compost would be our individual burden to bury in our own backyard. And honestly, who wants that?

Thankfully, my garbage is literally "Not In My Back Yard". But it does indeed get buried in someone's "backyard", somewhere. My family and I are making a very conscious effort to not only recycle as much as possible, but more importantly to reduce our garbage by not creating it in the first place. 

Learn from the kids

We conducted an "ECOSiZE ME' assembly to 500 elementary students yesterday.  Each time we do this, we are reminded about how kids this age soak up information like sponges.  They really get it.  They understand the need to be "green" and environmentally friendly.  They even understand the need to be "blue" because our water is important too. These kids will grow up having internalized the value of our environment at an early age. They won't need to undo bad habits or need "convincing" to conserve our resources or learn to reduce, reuse and recycle. It will be inherent. It's a refreshing thought because too many in our generation have to learn how to be "green" and "blue".  There are still so many people that don't see the importance.  We are all responsible for taking care of this planet and leaving it in better shape for our children.  Too bad some still feel it is voluntary.