Supporting My Kids’ School and the Environment

I really like how things are going this year at the school my children go to. Their school is a candidate school for an international charter school program, and it’s really going well. Most of the curriculum is what you’d expect from a public school, as the charter school is owned by the district, but it’s the little extras that make it so nice. I particularly like that the inevitable fundraising has been environmentally aware. Recycling is a part of it for my son’s class.

It’s pretty simple. They’re collecting soda cans and plastic bottles for recycling. Once a week we’re allowed to bring them in.

I don’t bring in much. We don’t drink much soda. However, I have a relative who does, and while I don’t see her much, I’ve asked that she put her cans aside for when I do visit or if she comes to see me. Every once in a while, the school should be getting a good sized donation of recyclables from us that way.

The teacher also wants magazines for class projects. It’s a first grade class, so she has requested that magazines have appropriate content and that ads for things such as adult drinks be removed.

Even the classic fundraiser they did recently was with an environmentally friendly company. I like how they’re thinking these things out. We probably didn’t sell as much as we would have with a cookie dough or wrapping paper fundraiser, but I like to think that it was less wasteful.

I’m really anxious for the fundraiser for my daughter’s class to start, and I really don’t know why it hasn’t started yet. Theirs isn’t to be quite so obviously environmental, but selling grocery store scrip is a pretty good idea. You spend what you’d spend anyhow, and the school gets money. It seems like a good idea to me.

If you’re involved in fundraising efforts for your child’s school, I urge you to consider the environment when you do so. Recycling certain materials can make some good money for your school while teaching the kids the value of recycling, and there are more environmentally friendly products out there to sell to family and friends than the usual stuff.

What Are You Really Criticizing When You Complain About Business Practices?

A lot of people don’t like it when they hear you complain about business practices. You say businesses should pay their fair share of taxes or should limit their waste and emissions, they hear you saying that business is evil. How do you get people to hear what you’re really saying when you criticize a business?

It isn’t easy at times. Some people treat any criticism as an inappropriate attack on business, even when you see your statement or complaint as a reasonable thing to expect of businesses.

I’ve seen people claim, for example, that environmental regulations are too hard on businesses, and that regulations should be done away with or decreased so that businesses can earn more. Some of them truly believe the free market will take care of those messes without government oversight, completely forgetting the disasters and messes that encouraged lawmakers to create the regulations in the first place.

Sure, a business can say that it could save a lot of money if it didn’t have to obey so many environmental regulations. The problem is that the rest of us would pay the cost in terms of health and a sometimes seriously damaged environment. Look at what happened at Love Canal, for example.  Then consider that the economic benefits of environmental regulations are believed to significantly outweigh the costs.

I’ve seen too much of what happens when greed outweighs sense for a corporation. I worked at Home Depot when I was in college, at a time when they weren’t hiring so many retired contractors to work there, so the employees weren’t as knowledgeable as the company’s reputation made many customers think. Sure, the company saved money because they could pay less experienced people less, which looked good on the bottom line for a time, but they lost a lot of business because customers got frustrated with employees who had no idea how to help them. I suspect that’s a part of what allowed Lowe’s to get so bug.

Obviously, that’s not an environmental example, just something I saw personally and my own interpretation of it. I could be way off base, but I doubt I am.

That kind of situation had an impact much faster than can be seen with most environmental impacts. Some come about quickly, sure, but they don’t usually impact the company’s bottom line so directly or right away. That makes it easier to ignore, and that’s why I believe in environmental regulation. These costs shouldn’t be external to the company that created them.

I believe that there are significant problems with the way many modern corporations are run. For what it’s worth, I don’t consider them “people” either. The problem I have is that corporations consider the benefits to shareholders above all things, above the employees, above the community, above the environment, above the nation. I don’t think that’s a good thing at all.

I believe that businesses have a responsibility to the society they are in. That means paying taxes. That means considering the overall impact they’re having, not just the money they pay out to employees, executives and stockholders, but paying reasonable taxes and not creating a mess of the area they’re in. I really don’t think that’s unreasonable to ask.

Corporations aren’t people, but it’s about time we quit treating them as spoiled children, allowing them to have their way, and start expecting them to act more as responsible adults. They need to clean up their messes without complaint and pay their share of the expenses of the country that is their home.

How Can You Avoid Consumerism This Holiday Season?

Halloween is just the beginning of the holiday season. Stores have long since put out Christmas decorations for sale and many children are already thinking about what they’d like for Christmas. Is there any way to avoid excessive gifts and so forth throughout the holiday season?

Remember Why You Celebrate

No matter the holiday you’re celebrating, remember why you’re celebrating it and think less of the things involved. Holidays of all sorts are celebrated for special reasons, and sometimes these reasons get lost in the drive to participate in the way family and friends have come to expect. This often leads to too much stuff being bought and a lot of stress to make everything just right.

Focus on People, Not Things

What really makes a holiday celebration a success? It’s usually not so much the gifts or even the food. It’s the people. Your best holiday celebrations are shared with people you care about. There may be some arguments and hurt feelings, but there’s a reason why holidays are such a focus for getting family together. Enjoy it as best you can.

Agree to Limit Gifts

There are many ways you can control how much is spent on holiday presents. You can agree to dollar amount limits. You can agree to shop at resale stores. You can agree to give each other things you’re done with that the other would like. You can draw names so that each person only needs to shop for a few.

Handmade gifts are another great option, especially if you have a lot of creative people in your family. Handmade gifts have a lot more personal meaning to them than anything you can give from the store.

You can also agree to simply exchange holiday greetings with extended family rather than gifts. This can be extremely welcome if finances are tight for some families.

Find something that works for your family. It may take some time – sometimes one or more people will agree at first, then fall prey to the urge to continue on as before, leaving others feeling as though they haven’t done enough. It takes a lot to make a limit on holiday shopping work, but it can be done if all participants really want it to.

As for your own children, they really don’t need a ton of presents. In my family, the stuff grandparents give them take care of most of that urge kids have to unwrap presents, while my husband’s and my main gift to them is a shopping trip with one or both of us. A budget is set, and they get to pick a toy and some new clothes, then we head out for a treat. Simple and they beg for that to be their gift each year right now. Kids love it when your time is a part of their gift. I love that the clothes they’d need anyhow can be a gift.

Give to Charity in Someone Else’s Name

A gift doesn’t have to be something that sits in the recipient’s house. It can be given to a charity the recipient approves of.

Think about programs that allow you to buy schoolbooks or livestock for people in need, or that bring clean water to communities without clean water nearby. There are a lot of great charities that help with the specific things communities need.

Think About the Food You Buy

Food is a big part of many holiday celebrations. Everyone has their favorites and their traditions. Some ways, it’s harder to change food traditions than gift giving traditions, but you can make it work.

Start with food sources. What can you buy that was grown or made locally, free range or organic? How much can you make from scratch? Can you avoid processed foods?

It’s not always easy to improve your food sources. It can be downright expensive or impractical, depending on what’s available in your area and your budget. Just do what you can.

It takes time to make major changes to how your family celebrates holidays, but the benefits are great. Not only do you give things that are more wanted, but you get less stress and more time to truly enjoy the holidays and the time with your family.

Which Brands of Chocolate Are the Most Ethical to Buy?

Like many others, I have a strong fondness for chocolate. It’s not quite a food group or anything like that, but a nice piece of a good quality chocolate helps to make up for a lot of stresses. The only problem is not not all brands of chocolate are anywhere near equal when it comes to the ethics of the company.

There is a large problem in the cocoa industry with child labor and slavery. This is a huge issue, and to me the most important reason to pay attention to the ethics of the companies you buy chocolate from.

Sustainability is also a concern. Not all cocoa farming methods have a focus on being sustainable or are organic.

It’s not always so simple to figure out which brands are the most ethical to buy as different sources have different guidelines to determine how ethical a chocolate company may be. Green & Black’s gets an A from Better World Shopper, but only 1.5/20 on Ethical Consumer’s default chart. You have to decide which factors matter to you.

It can be frustrating to lose a favored brand to the realization that they may not be entirely up to par with their business practices. I’ve long been fond of Ghirardelli, and they only got a C from Better World Shopper, as there’s no sign that they buy Fair Trade cocoa or anything like that, so it’s time to switch. I’m glad they aren’t the worst, but I wish they’d be better, because their chocolate tastes wonderful.

Finishing Off Cloth Diapers

We’re in the middle of potty training my youngest. I can hardly believe that soon I won’t have to deal with diapers anymore. Diapers have been a near constant thing in my life since my oldest was born 9.5 years ago. I am so glad we finally discovered cloth diapers so we could cut down on the waste.

Now my youngest is really starting to get it with her potty training. She has enough accidents that we aren’t ditching the diapers yet, although I think we could if we wanted to just deal with the occasional mess. Even nights are getting close to done, although it’s harder to predict when nighttime training will be complete. Now we have to decide what to do with the cloth diapers once we’re done with them.

By done, I mean we aren’t having more kids, so no need to save the diapers for the next little one. If we were planning on having more kids, keeping them would make sense. We’re not, so it’s going to be time for the diapers to go away.

One of the great things about cloth diapers is that even if they’re in a condition where all you feel you can do is throw them out, they break down faster than disposable diapers. Depending on type, it may be a few months or a few years, but they’ll break down, much sooner than the estimated 250-500 years for disposable diapers. But before you just throw them out, consider donating them to charity. Sometimes they have uses for old cloth as rags or someplace they can send them.

If your cloth diapers are still in generally good condition, however, you may be able to sell them or give them to a family who needs them. There are sites such as Diaper Swappers for selling cloth diapers online.

Some types of cloth diaper lend themselves well to repurposing. Just how you repurpose them depends on the type you get. Some are good as burp cloths or dust rags. Some cloth diapers use microfiber inserts, which can be good for a variety of cleaning jobs. Obviously you want to be sure you’ve cleaned them very well indeed before you reuse any cloth diaper for other purposes, and you may still gross some people out with the thought of it.

Of course, the same goes for your cloth baby wipes. They’ve done one job; now you can come up with a new job for them.