Category Archives: Environmentally Friendly

What to Do for Earth Day?

Today is Earth Day. These days I find it to be an interesting combination between environmental concern and consumerism. So many companies take the opportunity to greenwash.

That’s not to say there aren’t good things to buy for Earth Day. If there’s a truly green change you’re wanting to make it’s a good time to do it.

For example, you might choose to use more energy efficient lightbulbs, such as CFLs. You might change laundry detergents. You might switch from a gas powered lawn mower to a push mower. You might buy a composter and start composting. You might switch to a low flow showerhead.

You get the idea. Just be sure that you’re really making an environmentally sound choice, not falling for greenwashing. There’s a lot of that out there.

If you’re living a generally green life already, you may feel like there’s not much to be done to improve your home, at least not within your current budget. That’s fine. There’s plenty more you can do.

There are Earth Day events in most communities. Some will be today, others on the weekend. Last year, for example, my family and I attended an event where people were able to help plant trees in an area that had burned in a wildfire. Our kids were too tired that day to help, but they enjoyed the educational parts of the event and a short hike through the nature reserve.

You can also encourage people you know to get more involved. One day doesn’t do much for the planet, but if you can use it to get people who aren’t thinking about the environment to consider it more, you could help with the problem. These things take time, after all.

Figuring Out Personal Care Products

I came across a very interesting article over on WebMD about the toxins in consumer products. Many people use products that have these in them every day.

Some are pointless at best, such as your typical antibacterial soaps. According to the article, the amount of antibacterial products in household soaps and such are not strong enough to kill the bacteria. Instead, they may only be helping create stronger bacteria.

Regular soaps do the job just as well in most cases. You’re better off avoiding products with triclosan in them. It’s really not helping you, and may be causing environmental damage.

Parabens and phthalates are also all too common. These two act like hormones in your body. Phthalates are hard to spot, as they hide under the name “fragrance”. Parabens are easier to spot as “paraben” will be a part of the word in the ingredient list.

When in doubt, the Skin Deep website is a huge help. It will help you to figure out which products are safer for you. You’ll be able to make more educated purchases for all sorts of personal care products for yourself and your family.

It’s Not Green If You Don’t Need It

I’ve posted occasionally on green consumerism in the past, but it’s one of those points worth revisiting regularly.

If you don’t need it, it’s not green!

I don’t care where it came from.

I don’t care what it’s made of.

If it’s the accumulation of more stuff, it’s not green.

We all struggle with this, especially since “need” is such a personal definition. Just look at what we think we need to get by in the United States versus other countries. In many cases the difference just ain’t pretty.

Be realistic about why you buy what you buy. Reusable bags and bottles are green because they keep you from using disposable bags and bottles. But having a whole collection of which maybe only a few are used is far less green. You hit the limit when you buy more of these things than you need.

Buying new things because you want to replace what you have with organic, fair trade, etc. is green in some ways, but wasteful if what you had was still perfectly good. Hopefully it’s all at least going to the thrift stores, Craigslist, Freecycle or something similar so that it will be used by someone else.

Being green can be complex at times. The right decision is not always obvious. A moment’s thought can do a lot to limit your mistakes.

Does It Really Matter That You’re Just One Person?

The environmental movement has a lot of fans, but you get some negativity too, especially if you post a lot about what people can do as individuals. Naysayers go on about how what really matters is what we do as a society.

That’s a good point, but it shouldn’t be a criticism of individual action. Why discourage people from doing either?

Yes, governmental action is required to get things done at the level they need to be done. Businesses need to get involved. The effort required is, quite simply, huge.

But do you really think these things will happen if they don’t see individuals doing the small stuff? I don’t.

The small stuff is what I see as motivation for the bigger things. It shows that we care, that we believe in putting forth our best efforts to protect the environment.

Businesses won’t change their practices without financial motivation, whether it comes from governmental pressures or consumers. The government won’t change without pressure from the voters.

Living even a small part of what we’re asking them to do is creating demand for these changes.

Make your small changes.

Then start campaigning for more.

Pay attention to what’s coming out from the White House. They have a page on the site now on Energy and Environment. Encourage your Representatives to push for these changes.

But still, try to live a green lifestyle. If no one is doing it, our leaders won’t feel the pressure to make changes. We can’t demand action from them if we aren’t taking it ourselves.

I’m Enjoying Crockpot Cooking Again

The further along I get on this pregnancy, the better a friendship I’m developing with my old friend, the crockpot. I really love that thing.

It uses less energy than the stove or oven, doesn’t heat the house on warm days (it’s southern California, we are still getting warm days here), and I can fit pretty much all of dinner in it, except anything we want raw.

When baby is big enough, anything made in the crock pot is likely soft enough for the food mill, so she’ll be able to join in.

Then there’s being able to start dinner at whatever time works for me that day. In the morning when I have the energy, up to early afternoon when I realize my energy levels are sagging. I just have to pick a high or low cooking temperature.

As I drag through this last month of pregnancy, retaining far, far more water than I ever had before, this really helps. Lucky for me, far, far more water still isn’t an actual medical problem. I just didn’t retain much water at all in past pregnancies. Now my sandals barely go on.