Cosmetic Changes

My newest green under-taking includes researching my own use of cosmetics to find out what if I’ll need to do an “about-face” (ha ha) with my daily routine. I’ve had this idea on the radar for some time now, and unfortunately I learned that when it comes to cosmetics, ignorance is indeed bliss.

I began my search at the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetics database site (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com) which is a resource providing hazard ratings for a variety of products. It also lists problems associated with each cosmetic product such as cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, etc. My own foundation (Prescriptives, manufactured by Estee Lauder, which by the way, is an absolutely perfect color match that took me years to find), ranked an alarming 7 out of 10 on the hazard scale… and I’ve been using it every day for the last 8 years.

I’ve also come across information on ingredients to avoid when purchasing shampoos, toothpastes, lotions, etc. There’s quite mixed literature on whether sodium lauryl sulfates (a common shampoo ingredient & foaming agent) is cancer-causing, but most of the information I came across indicated this was a common misperception. The “bad boys” of ingredients seem to be Parabens and everything in the general family of Ethanolamines which includes Nitrosamines/MEA/DEA/TEA.

I’m concerned I’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg, but have already started implementing some changes as a result of this information. First, I’ve been taking my own plastic bottles to the local natural foods store & buying bulk shampoo that is free from some of the harsher ingredients (and saving plastic at the same time). I also found a website offering an alternative mineral foundation (loose vs. liquid), that appears to be a much safer choice. The site is www.everydayminerals.com & I’ve ordered some free samples to try out the colors and a pleasant surprise was the pricing… I’ll actually save money by buying this if I like it. I’ll report back with how it all turns out… if anyone has come across any good & responsible products, please email me at jlindgrenkerr@hotmail.com and I’ll be sure the check them out. – Jenny

Green-Cleaning Update

Our primary efforts this month are centered around green cleaning. A big challenge for us has been what to do with our conventional cleaners… we’ve started buying the environmentally friendly stuff, but it seems counterproductive just to toss out the toxic cleaners.

A friend of mine recently shared a suggestion about what she’d done with her conventional cleaners when she decided to make the same switch. She put an ad up on the Craigslist ‘free’ page, noting that she had a bag full of cleaners she no longer wanted. So, I tried it…. I walked around the house & picked out our conventional cleaners (bleach, 409, comet, Soft Scrub with bleach, dryer sheets, etc.). I set it out by the mailbox with the ad up and after a few hours it was gone. One problem solved.

I’ve realized a few things when it comes to green cleaners. #1) they’re not quite as good as the harsh stuff, but they’re not terrible either. #2) we’re getting by just fine with just a few key things… Bon Ami for scrubbing, borax & baking soda for quick general cleaners, essential oils for a clean scent (lemon, grapefruit & lavender are my favorites). The essential oil is also a great substitute for the scent of drier sheets... I just add a few drops with the detergent. #3) green cleaning is actually cheaper, as long as we don't fall into the trap of buying "designer" cleaners made for needlessly specific uses.

These are a few of our recent efforts. We’d love to hear from anyone else if you’ve had any green-cleaning success stories. - Jenny

What to do with e-waste?

NPR Morning Edition is doing a series of stories on "stuff" and being green. Here is a link to some interesting stories, including the one today on big cities that have banned plastic grocery bags: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89072464

Yesterday's story was on reusing and recycling electronics (cell phones, laptops, batteries) that have some pretty nasty stuff in them (cadmium, mercury, lead). This was timely for us, because we're trying to decide what to do with our old laptop (continued to use, sell, donate). The story provided a website that I found useful:
www.mygreenelectronics.org

One can enter a zip code and find a list of nearby businesses and depots that will take these reusable or recyclable goods.

Recent reports show how important it is to look into what companies that take old electronics do with them. That is, do they use environmentally responsible methods for extracting reusable resources? There were two recent stories in the New York Times and National Geographic about how many of our recycled computers (50-80%) and televisions have ended up in developing countries where struggling people expose themselves and their families to harmful chemicals in an effort to make some money. One father who was profiled in the National Geographic article was shown using his family's cooking pot to smelt lead from circuit boards.
See articles at:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/high-tech-trash/essick-photography
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/technology/24junk.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=africa+computer+recycle&st=nyt&oref=slogin

-David

Greener Beings in Mexico

We got a very nice series of emails from Tori and Oscar who live in Todos Santos, Mexico (Baja) describing some of their observations there. We hope you find these as interesting as we did:

On recycling, reusing, composting, and waste:

“Good for you with your green beings blog – you are thinking the thoughts that need to be dealt with and living in Oregon can make most of them work. Here in Mexico you would spin out!! Baja has relatively no recycling program!! The answer of course for the dumps is just to burn – plastic – batteries – paint - everything goes up in clouds of smoke. We finally yesterday found a place in La Paz that would take the mountain of wine bottles we have been saving (our bodega suddenly has so much more space), but then the people told us we were the last glass they would take, so now we’re back at square one. A good friend of ours from Vancouver is a recycling analyst – like she travels to India and Thailand and looks at garbage dumps. We went to the local Todos Santos dump – she nodded her head and said yup – they need me here. They and we are actually investigating possibilities of recycling locally – so that would be a huge change.

I guess a local positive is that if something can be used, it doesn’t get thrown out (people’s yards piled with stuff attests to that). A bad is that other countries (like us) send their used things here. Second hand clothing that maybe doesn’t make it to goodwill, does make it here. Energy is very expensive – our electric bill for the month is about $100, but that’s only running a trailer with Christmas lights outside. Government inefficiency inspires each person to be creative and inventive, and truly, little gets thrown out or goes to waste. You know the ball of rubber bands everybody in the US has growing larger by the day in the kitchen drawer. Here I hoard rubber bands and curse when one breaks of old age.

Plastic bags are incredible here – everything comes in it’s own plastic bag – and for cleanliness I want them to put things in bags. Then we reuse them for our trash – and then it goes to the dump – more and more and more plastic bags, which, in Baja’s dry climate, never compost. We are starting our own compost pile, and being virgin composters are slow, but getting toward a usable dirt. It is interesting to be in such a dry climate where things literally don’t decompose. We pour a lot of water into our compost pile, otherwise the mango leaves just dehydrate – like mummies in Egypt.”

Comment: THANKS, TORI AND OSCAR. THE POINT ON INEFFICIENCY INSPIRING CREATIVITY REALLY RESONATED WITH ME. WE OFTEN HAVE SUCH AN ABUNDANCE OF STUFF THAT WE DON'T SEE THE POSSIBILITIES IN THE THINGS WE DISCARD. ALSO, WE HAVE OUR REFUSE CONVENIENTLY WHISKED AWAY AND DON'T HAVE TO LOOK AT IT. -David

Green Travels

Life is full of opportunities to consume paper, plastic, and things in disposable packaging. On a recent business trip to Chicago, I realized how much more true this is when traveling. I made the mistake of not thinking this through before I left, and found myself drinking multiple tiny bottles of water on the plane, receiving copies of USA Today every morning on my hotel doorstep, drinking many paper cups of coffee, and eating a number of lunches and snacks out of paper bags and plastic boxes. Given how much more careful we’ve been about this recently, I really felt like I was leaving heaps of trash in my wake. I think I will do better next time by bringing my own water bottle and coffee cup, and being better about planning meals.

The other issue I thought about while traveling was how horrendously polluting air travel is. I don’t feel like I can travel less without impacting my career. So what can I do? Well, one thing that anyone can do is pack less luggage. It sounds funny, but I read something somewhere (and if that doesn’t convince you, nothing will) that if everyone packed one pound less in their luggage, they would save umpteen hogsheads of diesel fuel. No really, just think about what it takes to carry hundreds of passengers’ extra Danielle Steele novels five miles into the sky and 2,000 miles across the country. Anyway, I’m going to D.C. in June. So don’t be surprised if I post a picture of me wearing just shorts and flip-flops at the Smithsonian (plus my coffee cup, of course).

The final issue I considered while traveling was what the hotel housekeeping staff was supposed to do on my behalf every day---namely, replace everything that looked used, throw everything away that looked dirty, and wash everything that was unfolded. So I did my best to consolidate my trash (since I knew that even one Kleenex in the trash bag meant the whole thing was getting tossed), take my recycling with me (yes, including my USA todays), and re-use bath linens, soaps, shampoos---next time I think I will leave a note (soy-based ink on a lettuce leaf, of course). The most obvious one was not having the staff change the bed linens. Jenny and I always laugh about the notes at hotels that say, “We care so much about the environment that we are willing to ask you to sleep in your own filth so that we can take credit for being a green hotel. If you place this card on the pillow, we will gladly change your linens at the expense of the next seven generations. Otherwise, we will spare Mother Earth the unnecessary water and bleach, and pocket the money.” Anyway, we shouldn’t be so cynical—who says the hotel has to suffer for being greener. -David

Green Dishwasher Detergent

We were saving our theme of green cleaning for next month, but I do want to thank my friend Summer for sharing her "recipe" for an eco-friendly dishwashing detergent. I also took her advice and put a bag of our conventional cleaners out by the mailbox and then placed an ad on Craigslist for free cleaners... in an hour, the bag was gone.

Anyway, here's the recipe that Summer gave to me:

"Green" Dishwasher Detergent

1/2 borax
1/2 washing soda
a few drops of grapefuit essential oil

I combined equal parts borax and soda and dumped it into a big glass jar with a scoop. When we run the dishwasher, we use one scoop and add a few drops of the oil. Granted, this is not quite as good as the regular dishwashing detergent, but it's pretty darn close and considerably less toxic. Washing soda (also known as sodium carbonate) is sold in grocery stores in the laundry/cleaning section... mine is the Arm & Hammer variety. Also, the best part is that the grapefruit oil smells really good... I actually look forward to running the dishwasher because our house smells so clean. I've also started adding lavender essential oil to our wash in lieu of fabric softener or dryer sheets, and the laundry actually smells better this way. I just put a few drops in with our laundry detergent. More on our green-cleaning efforts to come! - Jenny

No Stuff Month ends; Community Involvement Month begins

It’s been a bit too long since our last entry, but we’re proud to report there wasn’t much to write about since we weren’t buying anything. We did go out to eat a couple of times, grab a coffee here & there, and I did buy a couple books for the kids at one point when we had a young visitor staying with us. But that’s about it, and we’re glad No Stuff Month is over!

I have to admit that I’m quite excited to see our next credit card bill… it should be the lowest it’s been in years! The thing I’m most pleased about though is that rather than buying junky Valentines presents for the boys, Dave & I made our own cookies & decorated them. When they woke up on Valentines Day, they each had a plate of cookies waiting for them… too much sugar to be sure, but we don’t want to deprive them of everything. It was great to see how excited they were, too, and it was a good lesson that they still appreciate the little things and don’t need big presents for every holiday.

Now, about March….

Our theme this month is giving back & making a positive contribution to our community. We believe our efforts at home are worthwhile, but we also want to make sure that we’re participating in larger scale efforts (the line between environmentalism & politics starts to blur here for me). For our first week, we took the boys to a new church that’s in line with our environmental values… we really liked it & will be signing them up for Sunday school there on a regular basis. My 5 year-old and I also went to a rally here for Barack Obama the other day. We made a big sign that says “Kids for Barack Obama” and stood at a nearby intersection and waved to traffic. It was great chatting with another girl who was there with her mom because she believed Obama was best suited to address global warming (she was nine!). It rained & hailed on us, and passers by honked, cheered, booed, sneered, and waved. All in all… a different, but rewarding experience, and hopefully the both of us got something out of it, besides a couple of free Obama bumperstickers.

Thanks to those of you who've reminded us we're due for a new blog post! This is an easy thing to let slip, and we appreciate the motivation to keep going. - Jenny