I took my eco-friendly cleaning products collection one step further today when I realized I ran out of laundry detergent. So I wanted to try out Method’s concentrated formula. Living in a small apartment, this will be ideal for me as my storage for these products happen to be on top of my dryer. Here are the lovely editions to my cleaning collection. I haven’t used the products yet but I look forward to doing so.
I recently finished reading “It’s Easy Being Green.” In it are a number of recommendations on what you can do to help the environment, a day at a time. So I’ve listed the items I want to focus on here so I can add them to my eco-wishlist.
- Take short showers.
- Turn the faucet off while shaving and brushing your teeth.
- Toss trash in the wastebasket, not the toilet.
- Take care of your vinyl shower curtain.
- Use water-based paints.
- Properly dispose of latex paint cans.
- Use rags instead of paper towels.
- Choose hydrogen- or oxygen-based bleaches.
- Buy concentrated products.
- Don’t wash clothes after every wear unless they’re really dirty.
- Buy phosphate-free, earth-friendly detergent.
- Keep my refrigerator full to cut down on energy.
- Keep the fridge at 37 F and the freezer at 3 F.
- Maintain my fridge twice a year.
- Use the toaster oven for smaller portion cooking.
- Switch to CFLs.
- Turn off the lights when not in use.
- Use ceiling fans to better circulate the air.
- Manage radiant solar gain.
- Buy gift wrap made of recycled paper.
- Reuse gift wrapping decorations.
- Get creative with gift wrapping.
- Recycle my Christmas tree.
- Choose energy-saving Christmas lights.
- Make my own gift tags.
- Participate in St. Jude’s Ranch for Children greeting cards program.
- Shop at my local farmer’s market.
- Eat less meat.
- Switch to cloth napkins.
- Decline silverware, napkins and condiments when ordering out.
- Wash fruit and veggies in a bowl of cold water.
- Turn the faucet using half the volume.
- Buy in bulk instead of single-servings.
- Collect grey water for watering plants.
- Buy quality products.
- Use rechargeable batteries.
- Buy a paper shredder.
- Recycle old athletic shoes with the Nike program.
- Recycle plastic peanuts with loosefillpackaging.com.
- Download software instead of buying the CDs, when possible.
- Buy only plastic bottles labeled with 1 or 2.
- Create notepads out of scrap paper.
- Ride my bike when running errands three miles away.
- Once a week, use public transportation instead of driving.
- Buy eco-friendly antifreeze.
- Decline housekeeping when staying at a hotel.
- Don’t take the complementary bottles.
- Use biodegradable pet bags.
So a number of new items on the list. I’ll indicate that these are from It’s Easy Being Green with an “E” to clarify the source. Here’s to an eco-friendly 2008!
Filed under: green living
Although I’ve been absent from this blog, I have not been absent from my eco-friendly efforts. I recently received It’s Easy Being Green and have felt a resurgence of my energies. So over the next few days, I’m going to document a few of the things I have been doing since my last post. There’s been many things and I’m excited to tell you about it.
Filed under: green living
So there was a small glitch in my plan to blog my one green thing each day and to proudly go where few bloggers have gone before! (OK, maybe not so “Star Wars” introduction voice here, but you get the idea). I was prepared. I had a list, I had ambition, I had umph. And then I got busy. I traveled, I got busy and I couldn’t keep up with my personal blog, let alone this one. So while I was gone, I kept using my reusable bag, my lunch bag, turning off my work computer, letting it mellow, taking home my recyclables, using my bamboo cutlery instead of plastic and replacing 12 more bulbs with CFLs. I tweaked my eco-wishlist and always thought of ways to fulfill my one green thing. I just couldn’t get myself in front of the computer to report it. But I’m back, from outer space, and ready to get back to the task at hand. I look forward to reporting my progress again.
I also started buying Method products this weekend. I spotted this wee bottle of hand soap at Bed, Bath & Beyond. As part of my dedication to finding greener cleaners, I discovered that I was running low on hand soap. What a great opportunity to find something that is biodegradable. I did some price comparison and for 12 fl oz, it wasn’t much more than comparable items. Dial soap was cheaper, but I hate Dial soap smell and that really wasn’t the point of this exercise anyways.
Other eco-friendly things today? It’s Spring kids so the windows were WIDE open letting some mad-style fresh air breeze on through the house. That was pretty niiiice.
Filed under: green living
I am vowing to replace my household cleaners with eco-friendly, human- and pet-friendly alternatives. I’m thinking of trying out the Method line. As I don’t often replace cleaners, this will be a slow process. I still need to do some price comparisons and read up on other alternatives, but this might be my best bet so far. I’ve sold the idea to the rest of the household so that’s always promising. WoohoO! More updates on this topic soon.
Filed under: green living
So one green thing is underway. It’s been a week and I have made a few small changes that hopefully in the end will make a bigger impact. But I started to think, what do I want to do to help with a sustainable, eco-friendly, green world? What can one person do to really make a difference?
I realized that everyone needs an eco-wishlist—a collection of small steps one can strive to make toward a Mamma Earth sustaining existence. Here are a few of mine that I want to cross off my list during the course of this project.
- Purge/recycle old bills.
- Use reusable cup when buying Starbucks beverages.
- Use less toilet paper per use.
- Start a compost pile.
- Switch to a biodegradable litter.
- Reduce my total plastic consumption.
- Recycle prescription bottles.
- Urge my office to change from disposable plastic utensils to donated reusable silverware.
- Download music and programs whenever possible, thus reducing packaging and shipping resources used.
- Turn off the computer when not in use.
- Use the dishwasher.
- Donate old and unwanted clothes.
- Buy organic food.
- Switch from paper bags to a reusable insulated lunch bag.
- Use my PDA for all lists; scrap the paper”to do” lists.
- Recycle old gym shoes with the Nike program.
- Reduce accumulated waste each week by half.
- Switch to eco-friendly house cleaning products and soaps.
- Choose a all-natural variety lip balm instead of petroleum-based.
- Replace liquid shampoo with a shampoo bar.
- Buy eco-friendly, biodegradable garbage bags.
- Find a pump hairspray alternative over aerosol.
- Purchase more recycled products.
- Reduce my total junk mail intake.
- Choose ethanol over pure gasoline options.
- Reduce the number of plastic bags consumed in my household.
I do have some areas of concern that I’m not quite sure about eco-friendly options as of yet. Research will be conducted on the following:
- Makeup
- Dishsoap
- Toiletries plastic waste: toothpaste tubes, hair care products, deodorant
Update: Check out my progress by viewing my eco-wishlist.
I went to the here in Chicago today. I partly went as a function of work (I’m an editor for two concrete trade publications), as well as personal interest. Unfortunately, the show didn’t have much that fit my industry but was so much fun to walk around as a citizen and consumer. All kinds of industries were represented—food, skin care, clothing, home building, activism, energy-savings and much more.
I was seduced by the To-Go Ware—a utensil set made of sustainable bamboo in a handwoven carrying case. The purchase goes to a great cause. The cases are made by the Karen refugees on the Thai-Burma border. It also reduces the number of plastic cutlery thrown away. I’ve taken to sporting my set everywhere I go.
I also discovered some wonderful organic tea from a local vendor, Light of Day Organics. Let me tell you, this stuff was seductive. Of course, almost all of the flavors I wanted to try they weren’t able to bring with them but I did snag some Hummingbird Nectar that I brewed and iced and tasted delicious. I also snagged two organic cotton t-shirts, which have now become my most comfy shirts.
The show featured an all-vegan menu with recyclable cutlery and folk singers to serenade you during lunch. Mayer Daley was there talking about his various citywide initiatives to make us greener. At the end of the show, you received a free compact fluorescent light bulb to help reduce our carbon footprint. I look forward to next year’s show, which I’m hoping will be a little larger and include more home building aspects.
Filed under: green living
Sustainability is everywhere. This year alone a plethora of large consumer magazines came out with “green” issues—May 2007 Vanity Fair, Issue 27 Ready Made, May 2007 Elle and March 2007 Domino magazine, to name a few. Trade publications are hammering the idea into their respective readers; I should know from my concrete editorial job. Movies such as An Inconvenient Truth have shocked the public back to reality and living a more healthy, eco-friendly world has become even more important.
This coming Earth Day has sparked a lot of thought on my behalf. I remember a report I wrote on landfills in fifth grade—obviously before my time. I was so appalled by evidence of 15-year-old hot dogs still intact and the millions of tons of paper products poured into our limited land resources. But some where along the line I got lazy. Actually, down right ignorant. I’d tell myself I was doing my part, but obviously, I could have done more.
So this year, I came up with the idea of pledging to do one green thing a day. It doesn’t have to be big. It can be quite small really, but that I would try to make a small change on my lifetime impression on the Earth. So this blog will be dedicated to that progress. Please join me by doing one green thing yourself.
