Archive for the 'EcoWarrior' Category

Fish Expert on NPR

Published
by
Lauren
on April 22, 2008
in EcoWarrior, Healthy Eating, Non Toxic Living and This n That
. 1 Comment

I listened to a very informative interesting show on NPR yesterday. We all know the hazards of some fish.  Most of us have probably printed out the little charts telling us which fish is high in mercury, etc.  But this Fresh Air segment provides some very informative information about fish that I never knew.  Many of the fish in stores are named with made up names!  Chilean Sea Bass, for instance is just a nice name made up because the real name of the fish is much less aesthetic. 

The marine scientist also shares information about farm raised fish and why some of it is less than desirable.  He also addresses which fish are bad for the environIf you have time, its worth listening to.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89807877

Electronic Recycling

Published
by
Lauren
on April 19, 2008
in EcoWarrior, Frugal Living and This n That
. 0 Comments

How very cool! Costco has teamed up with Greensight Technologies to offer an electronic recycling program. You can actually get a rebate for turning in your old electronics, depending upon its condition. What an amazing idea! Get an estimate at the link for your computer, printer, fax, camera, game system or MP3 player. Even if you don’t qualify for a rebate, they will still take the electronic in for recycling.

An Organic Green Easter

Published
by
Lauren
on March 12, 2008
in EcoWarrior, Gluten Free, Healthy Eating, Holidays and Organics
. 0 Comments

Easter is coming! As per usual, I’m behind in getting started but save the info for next year if you’re already 10 steps ahead of me. ;)

Basket

One thing everyone can do to green up Easter is to NOT buy those throw away Easter baskets. There are many greener options available these days. For one, invest in a nice basket that will last many years. I have used the same straw Easter baskets for each of my boys for about 5 years now.

pail.jpg

You can also buy galvanized tin paint pails at your hardware store and have your children help you paint them or you can decopage them, if you are crafty.

Another idea I found was to use an actual outdoor hanging plant basket, which might be suitable for older children or the adult in your life that likes the Easter Bunny to visit.

Grass

I still bought the Easter grass last year and was hoping to find an alternative this year. If you start a few weeks early, Creative Kids at Home offers a great instructional on growing your own real grass for your Easter baskets.

This is a great opportunity to let your kids help out with the greening up of Easter. Now more than ever, global warming is an important topic that kids want to know and do something about. So I think for this year, we will hold a “construction paper rip”event. We have tons of construction paper (who doesn’t?)….so I’ll let each child pick their colors and rip into tiny pieces. The explanation is for our house an easy one, since we’ve always told our kids that the Easter Bunny (and Santa) use the wrapping paper and supplies at each house. So they will be helping to supply the Easter Bunny with a more environmentally sound option. Perfect!

Candy

Baskets do not need to be filled to the brim with candy. Things like stickers, small games, books, balls, etc. all make wonderful additions to your child’s Easter basket. If you have any icing bags laying around, you can fill it with any orange item, add some grass to the ends and you have a homemade carrot to add to your basket.

For organic, natural and free trade chocolates and candy, here is what I found;

Jelly Belly is now offering naturally colored and flavored jelly beans.  

Natural Candy Store offers natural, organic and dye free hard candies and more.

Check out Global Exchanges Fair Trade  store.  They have tons of Easter candy, chocolate and items for your child’s Easter basket! 

Liz Lovely’s Organic Fair Trade Bakery - Kid’s Easter Treats

Sweet Earth Chocolates - Organic/Fair Trade Easter Bunnies and eggs

Vegan Divine - Organic Easter Egg Hunt packs

From Kate’s Caring Gifts, Chocolate Easter Egg Pack

and Vegan Chocolate Bunny

World’s Finest is one chocolate company that over 40,000 schools and youth groups use for their fundraisers. At Democracy Now, you can send a free fax asking them for fair trade chocolate.

Eggs

Here’s a cool option for dying easter eggs;

eggs.jpg

This is done actually by wrapping eggs in onion skins! Learn how here at Instructables.com

If you want to dye eggs naturally, here are a few ideas for coloring eggs naturally. Or check out Martha Stewart’s step by step instructions on how to dye eggs using natural ingredients. Serious natural egg dyers will want to check out Mama Lisa’s Blog entry, How to Dye Eggs Naturally. Its an amazing egg-speriment! She takes you through her step by step eggventure in dying with photo results.

Happy Easter!

Cool Eco Art Link

Published
by
Lauren
on March 11, 2008
in EcoWarrior and This n That
. 0 Comments

If you haven’t seen this site yet, its worth the look.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?icl=7

“LED” the Way! A Green Christmas

Published
by
Lauren
on December 12, 2007
in EcoWarrior, Frugal Living, Holidays and This n That
. 0 Comments

Last year we started gradually changing over our incandescent christmas lights to the newer, and BETTER LED christmas lights.  This year, we’re just about done with only some white incandescent light wrapped garland that we use on our front porch left to change over.  We’ll be waiting until Christmas is over and all things Christmas go on sale to get the last of our LED lights. 

If you haven’t looked into LED, there’s a world of good in having them.  They burn tons less energy (TONS), last MUCH longer (200,000 hours compared to 2,000), do not heat up (fire risk), have no glass (its a nearly indestructible epoxy lens) and much more.

The colored mini lights are bright and cheerful.  The white lights take a little getting used to and you can not string them next to incandescent white as the glow is completely different.  But on their own, they are not bad at all.  We bought ours for a deal at Costco but if you want to learn everything there is to know about LED Christmas lights, I have the site for you!

Get with Green’s; Holiday Lights - 100+ Best Places and Best Reasons to Purchase LED Lights 

And going on now (only for another week or so) at HolidayLEDs  is a Christmas Light recycling program that can earn you some discounts on LED lights. 

I’ve emailed HolidayLEDs to see if they will continue the much needed recycling program after the discount period ends on Dec 20th.  Will update.

Also, keep in mind that there are other ways you can help to make this a green Christmas.  If you are going to send out Christmas cards,  please use recycled paper (we haven’t sent them out at all, the past couple of years).  Try newspaper comics or old maps for wrapping gifts or use reusable gift bags.  You can even contact local newspapers to see if they will give you the extra paper left at the end of the newspaper rolls after printing.

Also, keep in mind that ALL green wiring in holiday decorations does contain lead so be sure to wash your hands and keep your little ones away!  Another thing to keep in mind, is that if you are just plain done with your old decorations and ready for new ones, Freecycle is the way to go to keep unnecessary stuff out of our landfills.

Cow’s Unite - Bovine Rights Now!

Published
by
Lauren
on November 12, 2007
in EcoWarrior and Organics
. 1 Comment

This is too hysterical not to share.  Aside from some darn amusing tactics, you are joining hands with a good cause and a number of groups that support true organic practices in the dairy industry.  Without our support and involvement, organic practices will be allowed to erode.

So join our bovine sisters for free and get your posters and blog badges, as well as your map sticky.

Cows Unite

What’s YOUR Body Burden?

Published
by
Lauren
on November 10, 2007
in Bisphenol A - Pthalates issue, EcoWarrior, Non Toxic Living, Personal Care and This n That
. 1 Comment

I’m thinking its a really good thing that the media has recently been focusing on Bisphenol A, pthalates and PBDE’s.  If you’ve not had a chance to glance at the news lately, bottom line is that these chemicals are used in a variety of every day products and are proving to be a burden to our bodies, especially our little ones.  Bisphenol A is used in hard plastic, think baby bottles. Its also used in the plastic that lines food cans. PBDE’s are flame retardants and used in TV’s, sofas, mattresses.  Pthalates are used not only in cosmetics but are the main softener used in polyvinyl chloride (think soft plastic….like baby toys).

bottletoys.jpg

All of these chemicals are labeled “endocrine disrupters” as they can block natural hormone functions and they have been shown to cause genetic changes in the reproduction system (low sperm count, egg production disruption, changes in breast/testicular tissue).  Endocrine disrupters are the cause of the sex changes that we’ve seen in amphibians and fish.  JUST what you want to be experimenting on your bodies, heh? 

A recent collaborative of environment groups across the country tested a small group of volunteers representing a cross section of the population (ranging in age from 12 to 50).  All were found to have these three chemicals in their bodies.  This small monitering mimics the results of a recent CDC study of over 2,500, where 92% were found to have Bisphenol A in their urine.

One of the things that has always driven me bonkers about this chemical issue is that the responses we get from the powers that be are always singular.  Meaning, they respond to the outcry against each individual chemical as if it is not really the sum of our entire exposure that is important.  No one is regulating or calculating our entire body burden and no one who markets chemicals in any way (from personal care to plastics) is stepping up to take responsibility.

Anyhow, back to my point of the recent media attention.  I think its important that we don’t let this topic die.  That we continue to talk and blog about it and thereby keep it active enough for the news media to report on. 

Here’s a quiz you can take to get an idea of YOUR body burden. http://extras.insidebayarea.com/bodyburden/bodyburden.html

Kid Ecowarriors!

Published
by
Lauren
on October 16, 2007
in EcoWarrior, Healthy Spirit, Our Amazing Kids and This n That
. 2 Comments

I have to admit that I dance a little “proud mama” dance when I think about how much my boys have learned and taken to themselves the lessons of being a “healthy” person in today’s world.  This past weekend I was dancing a number of times.  ;) 

On a trip to Target, my 8 year old stomped on a floating in the wind McD’s bag and mashed it into the nearby garbage can.  And not without grumbling about who would do such a thing.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it appeared that the garbage can was overflowing and it probably hitched a ride on the wind, as it was apparent that he felt proud of himself. 

A little while later on the car ride home, my 5 year old peanut was unwrapping a piece of candy that we had secretly dropped on our doorstep the night before (a halloween neighborhood thing).  He hands me his garbage and instructs me while doing so, “Now Mom, do NOT throw that garbage out the window”.  Seems my stories of stopping my vehicle on the side of the road and forcing any passengers dumb enough to toss garbage out my car window to get out and pick up the offense, took root!

We haven’t managed to instill all the lessons of being an ecowarrior in a natural family yet but we’ll get there. I realized last night while chatting quietly with my 8 year old in his bed (part of our bedtime routine) that all these lessons will take when they are old enough to understand.  He’s had a problem the past year or so letting go of negative things that happen. Last night he GOT the releasing negative energy as we talked about creative visualization methods.  I suggested putting these negative feelings/things into the form of a helium balloon and simply cutting the string and watching them float away.  But my spirited 8 year old had a more creative way of letting go, in the form of a catapult.  I really like his way of thinking  ;) 

Blog Action Day is here

Published
by
Lauren
on October 15, 2007
in EcoWarrior and This n That
. 1 Comment

Today, for Blog Action Day, I thought I’d write about some of the things that we do (or strive to) to tread lightly on our earth. 

Recycle - Reduce - Reuse!

Its important that when we do use plastics and other recyclable containers that we take the time to recycle.  In NJ, recycling was mandatory and picked up with the garbage.  Where we live in NC, its not so easy but still just as necessary (though not required). There’s a recycling drop off that we take our empty containers and cardboard to every other week or so. To find local recycling resources in the US, the National Recycling Coalition can help with their local resources database.  The issue is not only on how much we’re putting into our landfills and how long it will be there but the energy and cost involved in NOT recycling.  Our earth just can’t afford it.  The following information comes from  Earth911.org ;

  • Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours.
  • If you toss an aluminum can, it will still be an aluminum can in 500 years
  • Making new aluminum cans from used cans takes 95 percent less energy and 20 recycled cans can be made with the energy needed to produce one can using virgin ore.
  • Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
  • In 2006, Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each, but only recycled an average of 38 bottles per person, which equals about 50 billion plastic bottles consumed, with only 23% being recycled. That leaves 38 billion water bottles in landfills.
  • A plastic bottle tossed out will not even start to decompose for 700 years.

Recycle your batteries, cell phones, old clothes (via Freecycle or Craigslist) or unwanted items, eyeglasses, AND more.  We haven’t fully switched over to rechargeable batteries and we’ve had a few mishaps with our rechargeables getting recycled (oops) but we’re working on it.

If we are in need of a household item, we first check Freecycle and Craigslist.  This way, we’re recycling by reusing someone else’s “treasure”.

We turn lights off, ceiling fans are used only when we are in the rooms, turn water off and the many more little tips you can find that put together, CAN and DO make a difference.  So lets all get with it!  :)  And do what we can to put whats important first. 

Blog Action Day - October 15th

Published
by
Lauren
on October 13, 2007
in EcoWarrior and This n That
. 0 Comments

Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day
Thousands of people blogging on the same day about one of THE most important issues, our environment.  So c’mon, register to participate NOW. Use your blog, your myspace page, your LJ….where ever you speak your mind. Let’s all be united for one day…for one cause.