September 12, 2011

Replacing Paper Towels with Reusable Washcloths

Talk about a simple way to be greener! I was happily surprised when I went to use the restroom at my dentist’s office (shout out to Dr. Hubbard and his awesome staff!)  and saw that in lieu of paper towels, there was a basket of washcloths on the counter and another basket on the floor where the used ones were tossed.


Aside from maybe the restrooms at super fancy restaurants where someone’s standing at the counter waiting for a tip, the only other place I’ve seen anything like this was at the tanning salon I did a stint at during college where we cleaned the beds with white hand towels instead of paper towel.
I’m not sure of the hard numbers of this, but even though towels would have to be washed daily, using (likely) hot water and more energy, I have to think using the cloth towels saves energy and money in the long run, not to mention trees. And it wouldn’t be all that time consuming either.
So if you own a business (or know someone who does), using the washcloths is something I really hope you’ll consider. Maybe it’s even something worth mentioning to a boss if you work at a place small enough to handle this.

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August 30, 2011

Oakland County Recycling Center Gets Revamped

I recently toured a recycling facility in Southfield, Mich., for a video on its process. (Maybe I’ll share that later, but it’s sort of embarrassingly unprofessional.) While I was there, I also found out about the awesome $4 million renovations the center will undergo, starting in October. Below is the story I wrote for The Oakland Press.

A Southfield facility that prepares literally tons of items to be recycled in order to make better use of them is getting its own renovations to be more efficient.
On Oct. 1, the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County will begin to undergo $4 million worth of upgrades, expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Michael Csapo, general manager of the Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, explains the process of the Southfield facility.

General Manager Michael Csapo said the retrofit project will change the facility from a dual to single stream system. As a dual stream facility, it requires people recycling to separate paper from plastics and haulers to dump the material into separate parts of their trucks.
“The advantage of a single stream facility is that you can gain collections efficiencies at the curb,” Csapo said. “Instead of having to separate the material at the curb … everything can go into a single container and then into a single compartment of the truck, so you gain great efficiencies in the collection of material.”
A single stream system requires more attention to sorting, he said, so modern technology will be installed to help accomplish that. The technology includes optical sorters for sorting plastics, air classifiers to sort heavy and light items, eddy currents to attract aluminum, magnets to attract things that contain iron, and a series of disc screens that will allow material of different sizes to continue on through the process as other sizes fall through onto separate conveyors.

“All that is quality controlled by manual sorters as well,” Csapo said. He added that employment at the facility will triple from 12.
While the majority of renovations will be inside the facility, new loading docks will be added to make loading the baled materials more efficient, Csapo said.
The Recycling Authority is publicly owned and gets materials from member communities Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi, Southfield, South Lyon, Walled Lake and Wixom, as well as businesses.
Its renovations are backed by ReCommunity, a privately held company that operates the facility.
“The company that runs this plant under contract with us feels that it’s in their interest because they can attract more material and sort that material more cost effectively if it’s a single stream plant,” Csapo said.
ReCommunity owns and operates dozens of recycling plants throughout the U.S., mostly east of the Mississippi River, he added.
Besides the Recycling Authority, ReCommunity is involved with two other facilities in Michigan: One in Ann Arbor, which it operates, and another in Saginaw, which it owns and operates. Csapo said the Southfield location will be the sixth single stream facility in the state.
“Some of the facilities that are currently processing material in single stream fashion are at or above capacity, so some of that material will make its way here,” he said. “And then also, as more and more collection programs move to single stream, it makes it more convenient for the homeowner to recycle. Convenience equals participation, which means we generate more material.”
Also, get the story here.

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June 25, 2011

Battling Bad Skin with Baking Soda — A Year Later

Last August, I wrote about washing my face with baking soda in hopes of keeping my skin clear of acne in a more natural way. That post continues to be one that gets a lot of hits (thank you!), due to people having the same unfortunate situation as me, I suppose.

When I wrote that post, I had just started using the baking soda and the results looked promising. I thought it was only fair to those people hunting for more info that I write an update.

A few friends who decided to try the baking soda regimen quit within a month or so because their skin was too inconsistent with it.

I was happy with the results for a while, but was having inconsistency issues too after a couple months. Then, when the colder, drier air moved in for the winter, the baking soda dried out my skin too much, even using moisturizer.

I went to a regimen of The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Skin Clearing Facial Wash and Arbonne’s FC5 Day Lotion (for oily/combination skin) and night créme (for normal/dry skin). It worked decently well, but still not the way I’d hoped.

My Facial Dream Team

Then, just when I was about to break down and visit the dermatologist my dad swore by, everything was made better — by a vitamin.

While in my beloved Whole Foods one day, I picked up a bottle of the 365 Adult Multi for Women. A quick label comparison against my old One A Days bottle proved that 365 had much more to offer, and in a seemingly more natural way that included herbs (the vitamins look speckly and smell awful too).

The 365 vitamins are packed with nutrients that support skin health like inositol, beet powder, dandelion root, spinach, vitamins K and the Bs, zinc, copper and more.

My face has never looked so good for so long and this is the longest (by FAR) that I have ever gone without using some sort of acne treatment. Part of this could be due to me being older, but I really think it’s very much due to these vitamins.

It seems that there are a few more challenges now that we’re back to the humid summer months, but I’m nervous about messing with a good thing and going back to the baking soda to dry things up.

So I’m curious to know, if you’ve tried it, how did it turn out? Have you had long-term success with baking soda as a face wash? I’d love to hear what’s worked for you and what didn’t.

Thanks for all your support, comments and clicks!

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June 10, 2011

Take Your Shoes off at the Door (please!)

As a society, we make a big deal out of washing our hands because of all the things they touch, besides our food and ourselves.

Yet once people know they’re expected to take their shoes off at the door of my place, they treat me with kid gloves or a roll of the eyes, as if I’m overreacting.

What’s sort of funny even is that my mom used to make us take our shoes off at the door, but she gave up on that at some point and now is one of those people whose feet I sometimes cringe at seeing as she walks around with her cute little shoes still on.

Several times, I’ve even tried to relax my uneasiness about it and told people to keep their shoes on when they’re only in for a minute. I get that it can be a hassle.

But in response to my efforts, I’ve often been told things like, “No, it’s OK. I know how you are about that…” as if I’m the crazy one for not wanting whatever gunk, grime and chemicals their shoes have encountered during their lifetime trekked all through my nice clean carpet.

So we should wash our hands because of where they’ve been all day, but keep our shoes on after they’ve been through streets, parking lots, chemical-laden lawns and malls?

I feel like I’m the rational one in this case and those people who think it’s fine to keep their shoes on inside should be the ones spoken to in that kid-friendly tone like they’re wild beasts who we don’t want to upset.

Little shoes, lots of germs

When I walk into other people’s homes, they’ll often remark that it’s OK to keep my shoes on because their floors need to be cleaned anyway, or the carpet already needs to be replaced. Ummm…OK?

While I always want my floors to stay as pretty as when they were first installed, I’m more disgusted at the thought of what we can’t see that’s seeping into them and being spread all over. I lie on my floors. I walk barefoot on them. I don’t want them to be contaminated. Home should be a sanctuary!

As further proof that I’m not crazy, I found this TreeHugger article to back me up.

It says that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that people bring lawn pesticides into their homes on their shoes and that those shoes are a major source of pesticide exposures, especially for young children who “spend a lot of time on the floor and who put dirty fingers, dust, and toys in their mouths.”

According to AChildGrows.com, the EPA’s “Door Mat Study” found that mats in “no shoes homes” had 60 percent less lead dust and chemicals in them than the mats in homes where shoes were allowed. There are also less allergens and bacteria tracked into the homes.

An EPA study also showed that wearing shoes indoors was a larger source of children’s pesticide exposures than eating non-organic fruits and vegetables. Huh.

So we’ve got general grossness, stains and chemicals for the argument against wearing shoes in the house. Here’s another: comfort. One woman blogged that hearing her husband’s shoes in the house made her think of work, not the relaxation of being at home.

In conclusion, how about no shoes in the house? Kick ‘em off at the door and relax, and heck, why not wash your hands too.

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May 20, 2011

A Green Carpet Cleaner

Last fall, I was in desperate need of a carpet cleaner for the floors my little old lady cat had wrecked. Thanks to Yelp, I unexpectedly found a green carpet cleaner. My search ended there.

Last month, I got the carpets and a sofa done one more time and took the chance to help spread the word about this great business.

What follows is the story I wrote for The Oakland Press, spotlighting the great company that two incredibly nice people have built.

Every couple’s lives change dramatically when they have children. Most don’t alter their business practices because of it though.
Mike and Tina Ersig did.
After about 10 years in the carpet and upholstery cleaning business, the husband and wife, who own what is now called The Greener Cleaner in Troy, changed their cleaning process in 2008 when Tina was pregnant with their first child.
“Three years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter, I did a lot of research and found what was in traditional carpet cleaning methods, and we decided to become an all-green company. Traditional carpet cleaning methods include VOCs, phosphates and even pesticides,” she said.

Mike and Tina Ersig own the Greener Cleaner

VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are gases that are emitted from certain solids and liquids. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, some may have long- and short-term adverse health effects and are often found in paints, cleaning supplies, building materials and pesticides.
Phosphorus is a naturally occurring element, but scientists say too much of it being used in detergents and fertilizers runs off into lakes and coastal waters, eventually having a negative effect on drinking water.
Ersig said The Greener Cleaner uses top-of-the-line truck-mounted steam-cleaning  equipment similar to other carpet cleaning companies, and what makes it so people and eco-friendly is its EPA-certified cleaning solution, which is, in layman’s terms, made of baking soda, table salt and water.
“It also really helps people with allergies and asthma,” Ersig said, adding that many clients have said their symptoms have decreased after cleanings.
The non-toxic concoction is not only used by the company for carpet and upholstery cleaning, but also tile and grout, as well as mattress cleaning.


Ersig said that since going green, the company has seen a boost in business and that it’s continuing to grow at a fast pace, fueling the need for the company to hire another employee.
Many of the Ersigs’ customers are parents who had been concerned about chemicals being used in their homes and didn’t know a green carpet cleaning option existed.
“Everything that we bring into your home for the cleaning is actually food grade material,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about chemicals in your home after your carpets are clean. You don’t have to worry about your kids or pets being on the carpets and being exposed to anything that couple be harmful to them.”
Other companies offer options they call green, but The Greener Cleaner is said to be the only all-green carpet and upholstery cleaner in Michigan. Mike also is trained and certified by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration, and Tina said less than 15 percent of cleaners have the certification.
She added that being a family-owned and operated company helps it provide a high level of customer service. It offers 24-hour emergency water damage response, using an eco-friendly disinfectant and also doesn’t charge extra for spot treatment and light furniture moving.

To contact The Greener Cleaner, visit greenercleanermichigan.com or call 248-496-1800.
Find the story here too.

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March 22, 2011

For World Water Day, Ways to Stop Wasting the Resource

Two posts in one night is certainly unheard of for me, but both of tonight’s are important — and someone else has done all the work for both of them. In case you missed it, the first was about purchasing good stuff to aid Japanese relief efforts.

I certainly couldn’t let World Water Day go by without it being acknowledged too though.

WWD is an international day of observance that came out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro where the UN adopted a resolution, creating it. People around the world host events to raise awareness of the importance of freshwater and improving its quality. Each year, a specific theme is adopted for the day.

World Water Day 2011 English logo

According to UNWater.org, “This year’s theme, Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenges of urban water management.”

I just thought you might want to know that.

But regardless of the year’s theme, this is the perfect day each year to take into consideration exactly what our own personal water usage is and how it can be reduced.

National Geographic’s environmental page has an incredible wealth of information on the topic, thanks to National Geographic Society’s multi-year freshwater initiative. One of the cool practical things on the site is a Water Footprint Calculator. You’ll be sucked in by the cute graphics of a duck, I swear. See how much water you use (in ways you may not have thought about) and pledge to cut back.

I fared pretty well because I’m a single gal living in an apartment who doesn’t have much money to buy new clothes and furniture and isn’t a big meat eater. See how you rate.

To put our average use into perspective, NatGeo says the average U.S. citizen uses 2,000 gallons of water a day. According to the UN, an American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day. It’s hard to even imagine that.

Another eye-opening page from NatGeo is Water Conservation Tips. Although I am aware of how bad for our planet meat production is, I’m almost embarrassed that I never thought about how much water goes into creating my cotton clothes (more reason to hit up resale shops!), into a cup of coffee (besides what you literally see in your cup!) or even electronics.

A crazy stat from NatGeo’s tips:

“The water required to create your laptop could wash nearly 70 loads of laundry in a standard machine.”

Whaaat?

Even if you only remember one thing from those tips, it’s worth it. Just having one water conservation tip ringing in your head could very likely save you gallons of water and keep it on Earth for a better (lifesaving? nourishing?) use.

Just in case you, for some silly reason, choose not to check out what NatGeo has to offer on the matter, I leave you with two more “wow” stats from the site:

  • It takes about 100 gallons of water to grow and process a single pound of cotton, and the average American goes through about 35 pounds of new cotton material each year. Do you really need that additional T-shirt?
  • On average, a vegan, a person who doesn’t eat meat or dairy, indirectly consumes nearly 600 gallons of water per day less than a person who eats the average American diet.

Please share your water-saving tips with me here! We all need all the help we can get.

And now, I’m going to go quietly contemplate a shower routine that will allow me to cut down on time spent in there and water wasted.

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March 22, 2011

Help Japan with your purchases

Hello my friends who want to be better and make this world better.

Today, I come to you with a simple post. Really, it’s just me passing along an awesome post by my pal Kaylee Hawkins.

She is a prime example of someone trying to make this planet better and she’s compiled an fantastic list of purchases we can make (without going broke) in support of Japan and its people who are still somehow pushing through devastation with amazing poise and strength nearly two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc on the country.

Please check out her post linked below to see several ways retailers are helping relief efforts and how we can join in. (Personally, I’m quite excited about the $18 Kate Spade tote.)

#reusetues – Your typical purchases for Japanese relief efforts.

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March 7, 2011

Water Bottles Go (Totally!) Green

I am excited. So excited.

Oakland Community College campuses will be the first in Michigan to offer entirely biodegradable water bottles in their vending machines.

Thanks to a partnership with Chicago-based Green Planet Beverage Co., the school will be selling the “vapor distilled municipal water” for $1.50 a bottle.

Here’s the good stuff: Founder and CEO Bradford Schulman said, “It’s a 100 percent plant-based bottle. The bottle itself is reusable, it’s completely recyclable and if it does make it to a landfill, it will compost within 80 days.” He added that the ink used on the bottles is soy-based.

OCC flyer for Green Planet Water

I’m so proud that schools in my area are launching this for the state (and proud of OCC for being that school). These are the kinds of companies we need to get behind.

Today, as we discussed this story at the newspaper where I work that had this story, one of my co-workers snidely commented that “regular” water only costs $1. I told him we should really be toting our own reusable water bottles around and saving the waste all together. But when that’s not an option, I’d gladly pay the 50 cents more for this biodegradable bottle.

My guess is that the penny pinchers who will balk at the idea of spending an additional 50 cents on these water bottles instead of the plastic ones just don’t get it — yet. Plastic 101: It doesn’t ever go away. It is just piling up around us and it uses up resources the world can’t afford to waste like petroleum.

In The Oakland Press story, Schulman remarked that his company is “set up to fail” against the big guys. How can we let companies like this fail?! And do we have any valid reason to do so? I just saw that someone left a nasty comment on the OP story about being proud of his “gas guzzler” and that he “doesn’t buy the ‘go green’ BS.” What is not to “get”? And even if you don’t “get” it, why hate? Is there really any reason at all to say that biodegradable is bad?

Anyway, maybe that was a bit of a tangent. Thanks for bearing with me through it.

I hope you’ll support Green Planet Beverage Co. and check it out on the company’s Facebook page.

Hopefully, we can spread the word to get these bottles in more vending machines and OCC will start a trend here in Michigan.

Please check out the full story about the bottles coming to OCC and see a video of Schulman discussing it here.

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March 6, 2011

Plastic Bags No More (& The Great Garbage Patch)

I don’t accept plastic bags for my items at stores very often. But when I do, I feel super guilty about it.

I have pile of reusable bags from various stores I frequent that’s impressive enough to make me look like a bag lady, but they don’t cover all the places I go. And I have this weird thing about feeling like an idiot shopping a Kroger with a reusable Meijer bag, so I don’t. Which is stupid. I know. I have done it, but it’s not how I generally operate. I need to get over it. Or get generic bags (and I’ll happily accept donations of snazzy bags!).

Bag Lady's Backseat 2.2011

I am stubborn enough to walk out of a store with my purse (thankfully it’s usually oversized) stuffed full of my purchases when it’s physically possible, or with my arms so full it’s likely something will tumble to the ground. All of this hassle as a way to not take a plastic bag.

Sadly, there are lots of times I accept the bag. Mostly out of laziness. Sometimes because it really would be impractical to not take a bag and I forgot to bring one of mine into the store. I tell myself it’s OK because I reuse them as lunch bags until they get holey, then I toss them in recycling.

For the most part, I do utilize reusable bags though. Made out of fabric, canvas or recycled materials, they’re sturdier than plastic, usually have handles long enough to sling over the shoulder and allow for several more items to be stuffed into one bag. They even look nice. Many stores, like Whole Foods and Target even support our efforts by offering discounts on the bill for each reusable bag. As if all that wasn’t convincing enough, using them means less bags will end up in a heap of trash for eternity — or floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Somehow, I was ignorant to this swirling mass of trash estimated to be the size of Texas which is mostly between Hawaii and San Francisco. Really, according to NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, it’s made up of millions of smaller “islands” of (literally) tons of trash that are impossible to get a handle on so far. Another patch was discovered in the Atlantic last year. Yet another thing that I found stunning and appalling. Also another quite amazing way that the Earth has reconciled with something man-made, or rather hasn’t exactly figured out how to.

In the middle of the ocean, the currents of the North Pacific Gyre are unforgiving to trash that’s made its way off the coast and never escapes the calm center. Greenpeace has an animation to show how it all works. Similar to what I wrote about with the baby albatrosses being fed diets of plastic (and other junk), other animals are as well, or they of course become entangled in the trash.

You may not think that using plastic bags really matters all that much, but I love this video (narrated by Jeremy Irons) that shows the life of a plastic bag and how it eventually can end up in the Garbage Patch and think it’s enlightening.


Maybe your plastic bags won’t ever end up there. I live in Michigan, so my plastic making it across the country seems somewhat unlikely. But think of it on a more local level if you need to. Think of the animals in your area who could eat it if its littered or simply escapes the recycle bin, not to mention all the resources like petroleum that go into their creation. Finally, consider the fact that they will never, ever leave the world. You grab a plastic bag at the pharmacy to drop your cold medicine in for the 30 second walk to your car then into your house. Compare the time you’ll use that bag to how long it will stay on this Earth — it will outlive all of us.

The green-thinking lawmakers have even begun to enact measures that incentivize using the reusable bags or outlaw the disposable plastic bags. Might as well get ahead of the curve.

So let’s do the best we can. Make sure to reuse and recycle, recycle, recycle! Spread the word about the Garbage Patch because it just might open someone’s eyes. And finally, pledge to stop using the one-time use plastic. There are even websites, like the Plastic Pollution Coalition, that make it simple for us to do it. I just took the leap. No more half-assing it for me.

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February 16, 2011

The “Natural” Label Doesn’t Make it Natural Food

I keep thinking about a conversation I had with a co-worker today that left me totally shutdown and annoyed after the fact because I didn’t clearly explain myself. That tends to happen. I get in arguments discussions with people and am not good at thinking on the spot, and I think of better descriptions and support for my arguments an hour or even 15 minutes after the convo has ended.

So this discussion that has left me burning inside and annoyed with myself for the past eight hours was about food. Natural food to be exact.

Sparing you the blah blah blahs of it all, I’ll say that the relevant part of the conversation went something like this:

Co-worker: “… It’s like how food is marketed ‘natural’ and that has no meaning at all.”

Me (not usually argumentative at work): “What do you mean it doesn’t mean anything? How can you say that?!”

Co-worker: “Well, what does it mean?”

Me (unprepared for a battle): “Well, it doesn’t have chemicals … and things like that.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I was wrong. Or more precisely, I knew I just wasn’t being very articulate, because in my head, I knew what I meant. The word has a definition to me, but she was right in that it doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the food packaging world.

I rave to people about the glory of shopping at Whole Foods and being able to pronounce all the ingredients in any given food I purchase from there. I tell them that I pretty much buy all organic, but at the very least, natural — none of that name-brand junk for me anymore!

Au naturel oats 2.16.11

I know what “natural” means to me, even if it took me a couple hours of stewing to be able to process it. The main thing for me is what I see (or don’t see) on a label of ingredients. Trying to do the best I can with the best-quality food I can consume, that label means a lot to me. I just feel like I’m doing better. And something doesn’t necessarily have to be organic to have one of those back-to-basics ingredients lists.

When I think natural, I think no dyes, no artificial colors or flavoring and no chemicals to prolong a certain food’s edibility.

So the problem comes when things that don’t have those simple labels do scream “All natural!” on the package. And it turns out that the FDA has refused to determine what constitutes natural. That makes it confusing for consumers, especially those who haven’t done any research. Natural is not a synonym for healthy — or organic, which is regulated.

According to the Food Marketing Institute:

The term “natural” applies broadly to foods that are minimally processed and free of synthetic preservatives; artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors and other artificial additives; grow hormones; antibiotics; hydrogenated oils; stabilizers; and emulsifiers. Most foods labeled natural are not subject to government controls beyond the regulations and heath codes that apply to all foods. Exceptions include meat and poultry. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSTS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires these to be free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, preservatives and ingredients that do not occur naturally in the food.

So basically, that is all what I took to be the definition of “natural” too, only I give the dumbed down version. Because really, if it’s free of all those antibiotics, hormones, stabilizers, emulsifiers and the like, we can easily read the ingredients on a food label, right?

I have to wonder why the FDA can’t apply the something similar to the USDA‘s standards for natural meat and poultry to the rest of our food, so we can trust labels a little more — even though I’m sure I’ll always be skeptical of them (I have come to terms with that being the journalist in me). In the meantime, at least we can be aware of the fact that “natural” on a label doesn’t always mean what we think and sometimes a little research is in order.

And at the very least, I think a good rule of thumb is that if you are not a chemist but can read all the ingredients in something you’re buying, you’re on the healthier/more natural path.

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