Cleaning · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with cleaning

You Might Be an Eco Chick If…..

….you’ve decided that since you’ve made it this far this summer without A/C, you’re just going to keep going and tough it out, just to know you still can (and to save carbon emissions and cash).

….going to the regular grocery store (and gazing into other people’s carts filled entirely with processed food) stresses you out. And inadvertently walking down the household cleaning aisle makes you feel like you were toxified with all the offgassing going on.

….you think that Cash for Clunkers should have had higher MPG requirements.

car, carbon, cleaning, emissions, farm, Food, gas, MPG, News, processed food, summer

Spring Cleaning Greened!

6 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 03/18/08

Isn’t it funny how a lot of us grew up with the idea that a ‘clean’ house smelled like a bunch of toxic chemicals? Since my grandma who raised me had a mild version of MCS (that’s multiple chemical sensitivity), I remember her making her own all-natural (not to mention cheap!) cleaners, but my school and friends’ homes always smelled like PineSol, Windex and bleach.

I ended up thinking that my family was a bit weird (OK, we definitely are, but still) but now, I only use ecofriendly cleaners for both my health and the planet’s. Every time you breathe that stuff in, your body has to process more toxins, and every time you wash it down the drain, it goes into our shared water supplies- both our own drinking water and into aquatic animals’ habitats!

So this year, when you’re getting ready for Spring cleaning, think about how you can green it. If you’re a green cleaning newbie (or know someone who is), I recommend Clorox’s new Green Works line. I received some samples of it, and they work exactly like toxic cleaning products, so you won’t feel like you’re making such an extreme change. I’m not a huge fan of the Clorox company in general (until they take toxics out of ALL their products they’re still contributing to environmental degradation), BUT some people freak out at the thought of cleaning using just baking soda and vinegar, so it’s a good transitional option. My very favorite cleaning products are pricey but worth it. Mrs. Meyer’s are not only all-natural and toxin-free, they work great AND smell fan-freaking-tastic since they are made with aromatherapy oils- my fave is geranium. Heather’s products are great too!

Or maybe a party is a good way to get into the green- and meet other cleaning enthusiasts (Cleanfreaks unite!! Just kidding. Sorta.) Women’s Voices for the Earth is a national, nonprofit organization working to get toxins out of our environment, recognizing that they disproportionately affect women’s and children’s bodies:

To celebrate the first day of spring, Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) is encouraging women and men across the country to host a green cleaning party!
What is a green cleaning party? These fun parties are a great way for you and your friends to learn how to make non-toxic cleaners from common ingredients like vinegar, baking soda and olive oil – ingredients time-tested for effectiveness!. Sign up to host party, and WVE will send you all the information you need (including recipe cards, supply lists, and an informational DVD) to make your party a success.
Why make your own cleaners? A growing body of evidence suggests that chemicals in some conventional cleaners may cause harm to your health. And because cleaning manufacturers are not required to list all ingredients on their product labels, you have no way of knowing what chemicals are in products, and therefore, how to avoid them. The best solution is to make your own!

cleaning, Home, nontoxic, spring

Don't Be A Turkey: Get Your Thanksgiving Feast Green

5 Comments

by Olivia Zaleski · 11/18/07

Originally posted on The Huffington Post on November 14th, 2007

Photo from Channel14.com.

In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians stuffed their faces in an autumn harvest feast–the first Thanksgiving. Although Historians aren’t certain of the menu, it’s safe to say the pilgrims weren’t gobbling up pesticide-smothered potatoes and antibiotic-infused turkey.

Fast forward nearly four centuries, and this Thursday the majority of American’s will sit down to a copious table of factory-produced food. With few exceptions, 178 million plus turkeys will come from animal factories, while the vast majority of our fruits, vegetables; even vino will travel hundreds of miles from foreign farm factories. Such processing plants are reported to have few regulations and less regard for environmental best practice.

While raising turkeys in an industrial setting, or growing corn in a pesticide patch might make our food cheaper and available to a large number of consumers, factory farming comes with serious negative consequences for mother earth–clear cutting, dead zones, water wastage, methane-farting cattle, the list goes on. According to a 2006 study by the University of Chicago*, industrialized livestock produces more greenhouse gas emissions than global transportation.

Such studies come at a time when meat consumption, having quadrupled in the last 50 years, reaches an all-time high. The Worldwatch Institute claims global livestock population has increased 60 percent since 1961, and the number of for-food fowl has flown (try saying that ten times) from a stable 4.2 billion to blasphemous 15.7 billion.

Unlike the wild birds the Pilgrims ate, factory turkeys need antibiotics to stay alive, let alone healthy. Excuse me for being graphic, but the majority of factory-raised animals are reported to live so closely packed together that they have to defecate on each other. Such close-quarters create a cesspool of nasty, even deadly bacteria. I could go on and on.

Now, I’m not saying you should serve tofurkey this Thanksgiving. Although conventional meat production causes deforestation, polluted waterways and greenhouse gas blabidy-blah, I won’t insist you replace the traditional Turkey with a slab of coagulated soybean cake–that would be gross and grossly hypocritical.

Perhaps hypocritical is an understatement considering I can barely go three weeks, perhaps even three days, without vivid fantasies of red meat bbq. Many lonely nights I have resembled the McDonald’s Hamburgler, tip-toeing to the kitchen to gobble a few helpings of red-meat leftovers–ones I had so earnestly tried to refuse at dinner.

Confessions aside, there are a several environmental consequences to consider before we stuff-our-gobs this Thanksgiving day. And although I am not ready to hit up the tofurkey just yet, I sincerely hope to find a way/ask my mom to replace this years Franken-food feast with local and organic produce. In addition to spiking the apple cider, join me this Thanksgiving by following these three simple green food tips:

For the tips, keep reading……

agriculture, Animals, Australia, autumn, birds, Bush, business, car, cleaning, community, consumption, corn, CSA, deforestation, eating, Eco-Chick, emissions, Energy, farm, farming, farms, Food, fruit, fur, gas, giving, health, India, local, meat, mom, News, north carolina, oil, Organic, paper, Personalized, Plants, plastic, plates, produce, reduce, restaurant, soy, sport, sustainable, transportation, travel, waste, water

Loving, Naturally

3 Comments

by Ann Benoit · 10/26/07

A few great natural products i’ve recently fallen in love with for my uber sensitive skin:

yhst-34946187506477_1969_809563594

Sunshine Spa’s Brown Sugar Scrub Mango Ginger: this organic brown sugar scrub is amazing! I have super sensitive skin and this scrub leaves my skin smooth and happy after shaving. Contains lots of great oils and organic sugar. Really tasty too!

drb_lsoaps_baby

Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild Unscented: this uber mild soap with organic coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp oils is also great for sensitive skin and can be used for body, hair, cleaning floors, and pretty much everything else. Bronner’s other soaps are a little too harsh for my skin, but this one is a winner. Great to take camping and great for cleaning the floor!

yhst-34946187506477_1969_396432889

Earth Science’s Chamomile & Green Tea Eye Makeup Remover: great for removing all sorts of makeup with green tea and chamomile extracts. Scored pretty low (meaning good) in the environmental working group’s cosmetic database. Doesn’t irritate my contacts either.

Baby, cleaning, cosmetics, fall, farm, Hair, hemp, makeup, mom, oil, oils, Organic, skin, soap, spa, sugar, Tea, vitamins

If You Must Dryclean….

5 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 09/03/07

My little pile of separated drycleaning materials

I do have some clothes that need drycleaning and as I’m getting ready for Autumn, I’ve been making sure my sweaters and wool pants from last Winter are ready to go. You never know when you’re going to wake up in the morning with frost on the window (I can’t wait!). Besides seeking out and patronizing PERC-free or wet-drying cleaners, (sometimes called ‘organic’ cleaners) as they use fewer harmful chemicals, there are other ways you can make your drycleaning process less wasteful. For more information on why to avoid PERC, and a lowdown on the various types of alternative cleaning available, go here.

As I was organizing my closet, I had a bunch of the plastic hanger bags, paper hanger covers, and of course, hangers piling up on the floor. What to do? Well, I pulled them all apart, making little obsessive piles of the various components:

-The paper bits were folded and added to my paper recycling.

-The plastic bags were tied off on the ends, tightly (since they have that hole there for the hangars to go through), and will be used for garbage bags.

-The twisty ties go into my kitchen drawer where I will used them for everything from keeping my tomato plants held up to attaching my cat’s tail to her leg (just kidding!).

-The hangers will go back to the cleaners so they can reuse them, since I would never hang my clothes on them in my closet. Not only do they ruin the shoulders of your shirts, but have you ever seen the scene in Mommy Dearest with the wire hangers? My grandma raised me, and she had similar, though less-violent feelings about such hangers. Using them would result in my grams turning over in her grave.

-The plastic clothespin thingies and/or safety pins that keep skirts on the hangar also go back to the cleaners for reuse.

Don’t just throw a wad of plastic, paper and wire hangar into the garbage, reuse and recycle! Of course, if you can avoid drycleaning (by buying clothes that don’t need to be) in the first place, that’s the best way to go.