Mom Goes Green

I have always loved nature, animals, wildlife, etc., but I’m not so fond of the wildlife turning my expensive yard “flair” into their favorite menu item.

Although we live in suburbia, we can see downtown Cleveland during certain seasons when there are little or no leaves on the trees in the ravine behind our house. Despite our close proximity to the city, deer are still regular visitors to our yard. We love our visitors except during incidents where, in a matter of minutes, they turned $100 worth of patio geraniums into an afternoon feast.

I just talked about my extreme dislike for weeds, and if I could train my deer to eat only the weeds we would be in good shape, but that’s not likely to happen.

On the bright side, I have discovered a wonderful deer and rabbit repellent. It’s called Liquid Fence and was developed by a retired chemical engineer after he moved to the Poconos and wanted to keep the deer out of his gardens. It’s all-natural, environmentally safe and smells like hell. Sincerely. It’s made of putrid eggs, garlic and water. When I spray it on the flowers, our daughter screams “Blech! Oh no, Mommy, you sprayed it again!” and makes a face similar to a cartoon character.

But more importantly, it’s safe for flowers, fruits, vegetables - whatever you want to keep the animals from consuming - and it won’t absorb into the produce, so no worries. Your homegrown veggies won’t taste like rotten eggs!

Yes, it smells awful when you’re spraying it, but as soon as it dries the smell disappears. I’m okay with the temporary smell because it’s safe, effective and it makes it less likely that my flowers disappear.

photo by: www.shop.com

This summer was the first year I haven’t used weed killer in my flower gardens. This change happened after a beloved friend of mine “took a tone” with me last year when I said I accidentally sprayed weed killer on my flowers because I wasn’t paying attention and thought it was my deer repellent. He said it was karma for using the weed killer!

I’m not really a gardener and can’t say that I enjoy it that much. Although I would love a vegetable garden, our treed yard doesn’t really allow for it. I do, however, spend a lot of time outside with my kids and LOVE to have a pretty yard, with lots of flowers. My kids love to plant seeds, help me water (the flowers and each other) and watch the seeds eventually sprout to blooms. Problem is – weeds!… a cruel gift of that jokester, Mother Nature.

I don’t know about you, but around here we have lots of annoying weeds that sprout up everywhere. They’ll even pop-up in cracks in the concrete. Those little helicopter-whirlygig seeds that come off the maple trees are driving me insane. Every single one of them has spawned its own tree in my flower gardens. Today, while weeding by hand, I stomped on one of those awful prickly weeds. It made me howl just like when I was a kid and stomped on them barefoot in the yard while playing.

Weed killers made it so easy, however, the problem with weed killers is this — they contain Glyphosate, which is acutely toxic to humans and animals, carcinogenic, mutagenic, has been linked to reproductive defects and is harmful to the environment. I suppose that’s a pretty good reason for me to feel uncomfortable spraying them around my yard and fearing that my kids would come in contact with them. Add to that the guilt of those precious little toes running through a chemically fertilized lawn and I was a basket case!

Needless to say, all of the above are off my list and out of my yard. Next time someone needs me, I’ll probably be knee-deep in weeds, but I’ll be chemical free!

And by the way, although we never officially cancelled our service, and after months of not showing, we learned that our lawn care company (for fertilizing and weed killing!) went bankrupt over the winter, so I guess that was a “sign” and a little bit of karma too!

We recently had occasion for a gathering at our house where we needed to cook for a large group of people and I knew the best option was to recruit my husband to handle some items on the grill. I considered the guests and their likes/dislikes and knew that chicken was an obvious, easy choice.

And now, my confession comes in…our usual, organic, Amish-raised chicken was not on sale (and yes, it can be more expensive), so the cost for the gathering would have been substantial for this one item. Meanwhile, our local, chain grocery store had their ever-appealing BOGO (buy one, get one free) offer and the wallet couldn’t resist. So, I released my usual standards and bought the regular, ‘ole chicken breasts. (GASP!)

I didn’t open the packages until we were ready to grill, but when I did….my husband and I stood there… awestruck… mouths wide open at the ENORMITY of those chicken breasts! After being so used to the modest, NORMAL size of the organic chicken breasts I usually buy, we were shocked…SHOCKED!

Enormous simply doesn’t describe them. All I could think about is “how many growth hormones and steroids did these poor chickens need to be injected with to produce these gargantuan breasts!!!…and “oh my god, I’m about to serve these to people I care about….steroids and all!”

We have another gathering in a few days. Menu item: chicken. Needless to say, this time my wallet suffered a bit, but my conscience didn’t.

photo by: thadman

photo by: www.its-ming.com

Finally. A grocery store is taking responsibility.

I recently shopped at a local, high-end chain grocery store. When I got home and looked at my receipt, the first line item read: Bagging credit: 3 @ $0.08 and in the cost column was a 24 cent credit. I realized that I had used three of my own reusable bags and the store was actually rewarding me for using them. Well, BRAVO! This is finally a step in the right direction.

The credit isn’t going to amount to much, but that’s not my concern (especially considering my feelings about plastic bags). My concern is that they are taking responsibility and recognizing the importance of reducing the usage of plastic bags. I’m also not concerned if their motive is financial or simply an awareness of a growing issue. I simply applaud the progress.

Plastic bags have already been outlawed in South Africa, Taiwan and Bangladesh. Six years ago Ireland actually imposed a 15 cent tax on every bag “sold” and I’m hopefully that we will soon follow suit*. I think if you charge people for every plastic bag taken, they’ll be forced to think long and hard before they accept six bags for 12 items!

(*In November 2007, San Francisco banned grocery stores from giving customers non-biodegradable plastic bags. The stores must use recyclable paper bags, reusable bags, or bio-plastic bags made of corn or potato starch. As of May, it now also applies to multiple-location pharmacies such as Walgreen’s, Long’s and Rite Aid. Way to go, San Fran!)

photo by: www.jcdanczak.com

Okay….so another unfortunate by-product of my former “advertising life” is presentation, presentation, presentation!

I have a difficult time accepting products that look like someone mixed it up in a bucket in their basement, poured it in a bottle and slapped a label on it. Unfortunately, perception is reality.

In my heart, I want to accept the new green products that are hitting some shelves and especially online stores, but they’re difficult to embrace when they just don’t have that visual appeal. Is that shallow? I don’t know. Maybe a little bit, but when I’m slathering it all over my kids, washing their clothes in it and spraying it on a surface I know they’ll touch at LEAST 20 times a day, do I really want it to come from some scary-looking bottle with hokey-looking graphics and not a whole lot of explanation about what I just bought…AND slathered all over my kids, used to wash their clothes or sprayed on the surface that they ended up touching 40 TIMES that day?!?!? I guess that’s what we’re doing when we buy the old faithful stand-bys that we’ve believed we could trust for so long. “Mom used it and I’m okay, so it must be fine, right?” Unfortunately, wrong.

(By the way…why are so many of the great looking products found online out of the U.K.? I’d love to try them, but shipping charges?…Yikes!)

I look forward to a day when those old stand-bys (full of toxic ingredients) get forced aside because we won’t accept them any longer. That day is coming, but many of the newer green products are already in bad need of a makeover so they give us a new sense of comfort about accepting a change.

I think I need to make another change. And a takeout coffee at a local restaurant recently reminded me of the issue.

It’s a restaurant that I would consider fairly conscious and “aware”. Besides a great menu of “world cuisine”, they specialize in some of the greatest fresh blended fruits and vegetables imaginable. (I admit I had two mimosa, but hey, they were fresh MANGO mimosas!) After a great meal, I ordered a coffee “to go” and they gave it to me in a (deep breath) Styrofoam* cup! AUGH!”

Could anything be worse?!? (Styrofoam?…yeah, Styrofoam!)

I quickly realized that the Styrofoam cup that I just accepted was going to outlive me…in a landfill…to the tune of about 400 years! Not only that, but you can bet that after pouring boiling hot coffee into the cup, some of those chemicals undoubtedly migrated into my coffee. Yummy!!!

This convinced me that I need to start stashing away a travel coffee mug in my car, just for these occasions. I don’t care if it’s a restaurant, a Starbucks, or a plain ole’ coffee shop — they’re going to have to start dealing with my own mug; even if it’s a walking advertisement for someone else’s java!

(*Styrofoam isn’t actually used to make cups. Cups are made of polystyrene, but most of us identify these cups as the brand name “Styrofoam”, regardless.)

Yesterday I talked about my recent switch to Seventh Generation detergents. I haven’t changed my mind(!) but today something extra caught my eye. It’s written on all of the bottles. This “it” I’m referring to is an excerpt from The Great Law Of The Iroquoi Confederacy, and it is simply this:

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”

I thought this was really profound. If more people could just adopt this way of thinking, the future would be a lot brighter. It’s not just about the impact our decisions have on today. It’s about what it means for our children, our grandchildren and every generation to follow.

I refuse to be part of the problem.

One of my latest “green searches” has been to find a replacement for all of my current detergents – laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid and dishwasher detergent. A friend told me about all of the super harsh (and harmful) ingredients in Cascade and it really got me thinking.

The problem is this: many of these detergents contain phosphates - it’s a naturally occurring substance, but if too much of it gets into waterways, algae and phytoplankton feed on it and reproduce in massive numbers, causing an algae bloom. I don’t want to get too technical, but what it boils down to is that the algae produce neurotoxins and these toxins may have severe biological impact on wildlife and they pollute the water supply.

As if that isn’t foul enough to convince me, I took into consideration that additives, like perfumes, color and brightening agents, increases the toxicity of detergents. And this is the stuff I’m using to wash my dishes, glasses, silverware…my clothes, my CHILDREN’S clothes. I think about the residue and consuming those toxins or having those things linger in our clothes.

So, I’ve switched to a line of products called Seventh Generation. My husband is annoyed by them (back to that “no aroma so they don’t smell clean” issue…but he tolerates them…followed by a head shake and an eye roll!) They’re readily available in my local, chain grocery store and, since I’m signed up for the grocery store discount card, the register often kicks out coupons for the products to the tune of $1 to $4! Niiiiiice!

These products are made of naturally derived cleaning agents. They are non-toxic, biodegradable and hypo-allergenic – no perfumes or dyes. And they work(!), as well as the other brands I just left behind.

On the back of every bottle they even give you some food for thought in this example: If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 50 oz. 2x ultra petroleum based liquid laundry detergent with our 50 oz. 2x plant based product, we could save 233,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 13,400 U.S. homes for a year!

They’re safe for the environment and they’re safe for my family. That’s all it takes to convince me.

I’ve had so many discussions with friends about going organic but, surprisingly, few of my friends follow the same guidelines I have for myself and my family. Reasons range anywhere from “I just haven’t gotten to it yet”, “it’s too complicated”, “it’s too expensive” or a simple “yea, I know! I want to, but…”

Recently, however, one of my friends had a really legitimate question: “Where do I even start?” In my opinion, I told her to start with organic dairy and meat products. Besides recycling, those were my first two changes. And to me, the reasons were obvious.

Let’s think about it for a second. Besides the animals simply being treated more humanely, for me, one major word comes to mind…steroids! They are dangerous to humans for a reason, so it seems ludicrous to me that farmers would be allowed to pass on animal products that are overloaded with growth hormone, steroids and antibiotics. So when we consume these products what do you think is in the milk, eggs or meat of these animals? Drugs that are harmful to humans and, in some cases, illegal.

We tell pregnant women and nursing moms not to consume certain foods, to watch their diets and avoid alcohol, but then we have drug laced meat and dairy just spread out on grocery store shelves, ready for us to consume.

Knowing what we now know, I can’t understand how this is acceptable to the FDA. And I, personally, can’t stand the thought of giving my kids non-organic milk on a daily basis. (I won’t even begin to discuss the gross side effects cows experience when injected with too many growth hormones!…yeah, it’s bad!)

For me, it brings new meaning to the old anti-drug slogan “Just Say No!”

photo by: www.soyprotein101.info

photo by: www.gourmetgarage.com

I can’t believe what I almost did. Going green rule #1…recycling. It’s one of the easiest things to do, since the trash has to go out anyhow. Just sort it (if your community requires that) and throw it in your recycling can (like we’re fortunate enough to have in our city).

The thing is, I bought new blinds for our bedroom and bathroom, and after I replaced the old with the new, I hovered over the garbage can thinking “well, how should I put these in the can?” Problem was, I was hovering over the GARBAGE, not the RECYCLING…as I stood there with two armloads of aluminum. Aluminum! How could I forget, but I nearly did. All it took was a few snips of string on each set and I was peeling away slat after slat and loading the recycling can. When all was said and done, there was very little that had to go into the trash, but I was amazed at myself that the trash can was almost where all of it went. I’m glad my brain finally kicked in.

I also learned that manufacturers like Levolor, Hunter Douglas and Kirsch are making their miniblinds with 70% to 95% recycled aluminum contents. Well, bravo! I honestly didn’t realize that aluminum miniblinds were such an environmentally responsible choice.

photo by: www.easywindowblinds.com