Monthly Archives: July 2007

No Detergent Necessary?

I’d love that, wouldn’t you? Assuming that the product is overall a green machine, this washing machine I saw over on EcoGeek sounds great. It doesn’t need any laundry detergent.

Instead, the Wash2O breaks the water down through a catalytic reaction so that it cleans your clothes, and makes it back into water at the end. And from the comments it sounds like it will be pretty energy efficient too.

Only trouble is that it seems to be in France, not the United States. Yet. Good thing I don’t need a new washing machine right now anyhow. Guess someone else gets to test these. I sure hope they work well.

Technorati Tags: ,

Making Green Fun for Your Kids

Childhood is a great time to learn about being environmentally friendly. It’s hard in many ways, as your kids see their friends live without thinking about how their actions matter, the toys they play with, the things they have.

The first step is to keep things age appropriate. You can teach children very young about some things. My 2-1/2 year old, for example, already knows the difference between the trash and recycle bins. He asks where to put everything.

girl with flower behind ear

My 5 year old is getting into reusing things. An amazing range of things are great for art projects. Old magazines, cardboard boxes, egg cartons and many other items have been saved for later projects. It saves a lot of shopping for ways to help my daughter be creative.

As they reach school age you can teach them by not sending lunches in disposable baggies or containers. At my daughter’s preschool, she was pretty much the only kid to bring her drink in a cup from home and snack in reusable containers. While these are still plastic, we’ll be using them for years rather than just once.

Some parts of green living are pretty easy on the kids. Throwing things in the recycle bin rather than the trash is pretty easy. Getting kids to reuse things, especially as they get older and more self conscious can be harder. The social pressures really add to the challenge.

Continue reading →

No Child Left Inside

I read about the new No Child Left Inside bill over at Green Options. The idea of this bill is to encourage schools to offer more in the way of environmental education.

In some ways I like this idea. Children should know more about the environment.

On the other hand, whose version? What if the teachers prefer the no global warming version of things and teach it that way. The one trouble I can see is that many environmental issues are very much subject to personal interpretation, no matter how much science is behind it.

Some basics are pretty easy to teach. Don’t leave your trash on the ground, pollution is bad and so forth. But I can see a lot of controversy coming around with this topic, just because there are so many opinions on the big environmental topics.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: , , ,

What Do You Recommend for Makeup?

I’m thinking I need to get some new makeup soon. I’m far from an expert on it, though, as I dont’ wear it often. I think the laast time was at my wedding, six years ago. I still have that makeup, but given how long it’s been, I have my doubts about how good it is.

I’m thinking, of course, of what the greenest options would be in this area. Since I don’t like to use it often I haven’t exactly researched it. But since I’m going to be a bridesmaid in my sister’s wedding, I think it would be nice to wear some again.

Any brands you like?