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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January 20, 2011

What Our Plastic Does to Animals

A couple of weeks ago, for the (shockingly) first time, I sent a mass e-mail to family and friends, pleading for them to take note of an issue that I feel strongly about. Normally, I limit my enthusiasm to the sharing of links on Facebook and Twitter, but this time, I was too enraged not to bring a cause to inboxes.

So what was that cause you may ask?

Dead baby birds with bodies full of plastic.

Chris Jordan: Midway: Message from the Gyre 2009

I had recently come upon photographer Chris Jordan‘s incredibly heartbreaking and eye-opening Midway Journey. Here is an excerpt from his website explaining the project:

These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September, 2009, on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking. To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

So many of us use plastic bottles and utensils and don’t necessarily consider the consequences of doing so, or where it all might end up. If you ever saw something that would compel you to not litter, make sure to recycle or especially use less plastic, I have to think this project would be it.

Jordan’s photos are so disturbing, I think they say everything that needs to be said. This is one of those cases when a photo really is worth the clichéd thousand words.

In doing more reading, I’ve learned that it’s well-known that albatrosses suffer this fate because of their habitat. But knowing that this is happening to birds thousands of miles from the nearest continent, I can only imagine what must be happening to the ones on land.

I could only hope that my family and friends would feel as compelled as I did to not only let other  people know that this is happening, but also to use less plastic, helping the animals and the environment we all share.

I have the same hopes for you.

The Plastic Pollution Coalition is a great place to visit for tips to cut back on the plastic.

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December 17, 2010

Global Gifts

Christmas is about a week away. For many people, this means there’s plenty of time to get shopping of all the pretty shiny things done and get them under the tree. I am definitely one of these people. Not exactly a Christmas Eve shopper, but absolutely a the-best-deals-are-the-week-of-Christmas shopper.

My Giftless Tree — 12.15.10

And while it may be true that the best deals are yet to come, we are running out of time for shopping that involves shipping. I always like the idea of buying as local as possible when you can. Especially with the economy being hit so hard, it’s nice to know that you’re helping to keep local businesses pumping. Also, the less distance products have to be shipped, the better it is for the environment. Knowing your gifts sucked up less gas to get to their recipients is a definite bonus. An extra gift even.

But if you aren’t going to buy mom-and-pop local, I think the next best thing is actually purchasing goodies from faraway lands. Maybe not next best, depending on how you look at it, but still one of the best choices, for many reasons.

Yes, I know this is the opposite of what I just said, and this will obviously use more energy to get to you. But buying fair trade items are still a gift to more than just the person you’re handing that pretty scarf off to.

Silk striped scarves from Cambodia

Items purchased fair trade are made by people in developing countries who earned a fair wage for their work. It’s giving them a way to make a fair, honest living, giving them a chance at getting out of poverty.

It doesn’t even matter which person on your list you have yet to think of a gift for. The variety of items offered on the sites I’m about to mention are amazing. Things for people of all ages and interests. Really.

A lot of fair trade items are eco-friendly or made from recycled items like magazines, fabric, glass, and tire rubber — or even seat belts, rice and Motherboards. As much as I hate this phrase because it’s so overused, there really is something for everyone. This is especially awesome for someone like me who would prefer a one-of-a-kind item any day.

Some of the coolest items I have seen are fair trade because they’re usually handmade, meaning they also off that one-of-a-kind quality. In many cases they’re also brightly colored, reflecting the cultures they come from and made of resources found in the area.

I love free trade pieces for all of these reasons and more. There are so many organizations and websites selling them to support good causes.

GreaterGoodNetwork sells everything from jewelry to clothing to kitchen items and more to benefit a variety of organizations in the form of grants. Through thehungersite.com, shoppers can even choose items based on the cause they’d like to support. The causes include hunger, breast cancer, literacy, animal rescue, the rain forest and child health. The site explains where each item is traded from and how it will help the selected cause. Standard shipping in the U.S. is $4.99 every day too. It’s nice to not be about to hit “purchase” and be knocked over by crazy high shipping costs you didn’t expect.

Peruvian Sheepskin Slippers

Through eBay, the WorldofGood.com site says people can “shop for great products that also do good, so you can align your personal values with your buying decisions.” On each item you click on, you can read the story of where it came from and who it helps. The detail provided is pretty impressive. Through its Goodprint labels, shoppers can see whether the pieces they’re perusing are “People Positive,” “Eco Positive,” “Animal Friendly” or “Supports a Cause.” Again, these items include clothing, accessories, jewelry, household items and so much more.

Handmade Mirrored Bangles - Fair Trade From India

Another great site is Global Good Partners, which sells handmade items from groups of artisans led by women in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The organizations it partners with to help the items reach a global marketplace pay fair wages, hand make items, create sustainable livelihoods and have eco-conscious production. It works with 47 community-based organizations in 24 countries.

 

Mens silk ties from Cambodia

What I’ve mentioned here hardly makes a dent in all the impressive information there is about these organizations, but it’s at least a start. It’s worth mentioning that these items are often incredibly affordable by not only American standards, but also by struggling 20-something journalist standards as well. Gifts as low as $3 that are still beautiful. In doing the research, I was actually pleasantly surprised. Perhaps it doesn’t only have to be gifts for others that I buy this way…I could use a pretty new scarf or bracelet…

I can’t say which items I’m buying for gifts this year (don’t want to spoil the surprise, right?!), but I have to mention, I’m also looking forward to being able to give a beautiful, unique gift from Poland or Brazil or India that is in-line with the culture, which is so special, even though I couldn’t visit there myself. At least when I say it’s from there, it will be helping a good cause and not made on an assembly line.

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December 14, 2010

Preserving Plastic with Personal Care Products

Part of what I’m always trying to find are products that can’t usually be recycled, but are in fact being made by some companies in a way in which they can.

Two of those products are razors and toothbrushes. I haven’t found that disposable razors can be recycled, so they instead get tossed into the pile of things that will end up in a landfill heap. Toothbrushes may be accepted for recycling in your area, but it doesn’t appear to be commonplace yet either, although they’re always good for household cleaning or craft projects.

After doing a little research online, I discovered a Waltham, Mass.-based company that I fell in love with. It’s Preserve Products and I have yet to find another company quite like it.

Their products are totally made by #5 polypropylene plastics — largely made up of yogurt cups — thanks in part to the company’s Gimme 5 program. Making its products from recycled plastics reduces greenhouse gases emitted, water, energy, oil, natural gas, and coal used in making plastic.

Preserve has lines of household and kitchen products in addition to the personal care items, all fun-looking and brightly colored, which makes them that much more appealing.

Preserve's Pretty Kitchen Starter Kit

Because its products are made from recycled #5, they’re all completely recyclable as well, so this obviously includes toothbrushes and razors.

The Triple- and- Double Razors come with two sets and can be replaced wherever the razors are sold and even by other brand blades. When you decide it’s time for a whole new one, the handle is completely recyclable. I also love it because it comes in a plastic case which makes it easy for travel. The razors range in price from about $7.50-8.50. They are pretty great as far as disposable razors go. They work for both men and women and have a curved handle that’s easy to grip. I would have to warn that you have to make sure to be very lathered up though, otherwise the moisturized strip won’t stay on long.

My Preserve Partners

The process gets even more impressive when it comes to the toothbrushes though. They look so basic compared to the intense-looking contraptions most often sold these days that have various kinds of plastic and bristles poking out all over. Preserve toothbrushes look so simple that I doubted their effectiveness. But I love them. There is nothing quite like a fresh toothbrush and Preserve’s are no exception. I like the simple looking design. Back to basics. They are BPA-free, have curved handles and tiered bristles. They come in a range of softness too of Ultra Soft, Soft and Medium (I like Ultra Soft).

Out with the old & in with the new (both Preserve. One is Ultra Soft, the other is Soft.)

Making them even more awesome, you can purchase a toothbrush that comes in a mail back package to send to Preserve when you’re through with it. This was really what sold me in the end. You can also get the brush that comes in a plastic travel case, which also can be returned with the toothbrush when you’re through. If you want to be really good about your dental hygiene, Preserve even offers a personalized subscription that will have a new toothbrush sent to you every three months for year for $13. This isn’t bad because the toothbrush itself is $2.99 for the kind with the mail back package and $3.29 for the travel case kind.

Aside from the razors and toothbrushes that I’m obviously so excited about, Preserve offers so many products that are worth checking out. I’m so excited about this company and it’s eco-friendly efforts. Around my house, we always get stocking stuffers like this that aren’t too fun to buy, so this year, Preserve products are definitely worth considering. OK, not considering. Buying! They’re even offering shipping discounts till the end of the year.

Yes, I’m aware that this post sounds like Preserve is paying me to say nice things, but I swear the people there don’t even know I exist! I’ve been dying to tell people about it for the past six months though.

If you’ve tried the products I’ve mentioned or any others, I’d love to hear what you think. And if any other companies are doing what Preserve is, tell me please!

Happy brushing!

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