Mom Goes Green

I love Cleveland. We are NOT the “mistake on the lake”* or any of the other pathetic references you have heard. (As my dear friend, Kev, says “Please, come up with something original!”) I always say “People who don’t know HOW to love Cleveland, don’t KNOW Cleveland.”

Anyhow, I vaguely remember hearing about World Environment Day a few months ago. I truly meant to research it, but I admit that in the chaos of being a Mom, I forgot about being a Green Mom, and it slipped my mind…

Until it was time to tuck my kids into bed for the night. Because we can see Cleveland from the back of our house, we all get used to looking out and seeing downtown. But that night, our daughter said “Mommy, where’s Cleveland?” I was ready to ask her what that silly question was all about, until I noticed she was looking out her window.

Lo and behold…where WAS Cleveland? The city was dim and so many of the lighted buildings we were used to seeing just didn’t seem to be there. It wasn’t until later, when I saw the late news that I realized….Wow. We participated.

Cleveland turned off non-essential lights to recognize World Environment Day! We are moving in the right direction. We may be a bit behind other regions, but just like greening our daily lives, every step is a step in the right direction.

No more “mistake” jokes, okay? New motto: Green City Blue Lake….

(* The important thing to remember about the Cuyahoga River catching on fire nearly 40 years ago is that it sparked an EPA movement that fought for strict regulations on industrial pollution and resulted in legislation aimed at cleaning up the nation’s rivers, including the passage of the Clean Water Act (less than a year after the incident). I think we should be proud, not ashamed.)

photos by: www.urbanplanet.org

My kids are the epitome of snackers. We can’t leave the house…EVER… without something to drink and snack on. Fifteen minute cruise to the corner store? Doesn’t matter. Two minutes in, I’ll hear “so what did’ja bring, Mommy?”

I got in the horrible habit of buying snack packs of every freakin’ snack in the universe… pretzels, snack crackers, graham crackers, rice cakes, nuts. Or I would use sandwich bags or little ziplocs and fill them with whatever snack they wanted to bring… (including all of the above and even fruits and veggies!) But each and every time we arrived home, lo and behold, I had a huge handful of trash… all destined for the trash can. No recycling in sight.

So… I did what I knew I should do. I bought some small reusable containers and started buying larger bags or boxes of the same, exact snacks. Instead of finding myself overwhelmed with individual bags and wrappers every single time I give my kids a snack, I take a few extra seconds to fill the containers with the snack-of-choice to-go… and when we arrive home, the containers get washed… instead of trashed.

It’s such a very small issue, but all of our small issues grow – exponentially – into big problems. I’m no longer part of that problem.

Our family four-some has developed a little ritual for Friday evenings. We call it “Friday Night Movie Nite”. It includes a stop at Blockbuster, the Pet Store next door, carry-out dinners, jammies, popcorn and a movie while all snuggled up in the family room.

During a recent trip to Blockbuster, one of our four-some (I don’t remember who) spotted the popcorn and this fantastic-looking little shaker bottle perched nearby. We discovered a “white cheddar cheese” topping for popcorn that seemed pretty irresistible, so we bought it.

Honestly, it tastes great. When I thought about it more…there cannot be a single, natural ingredient in that stuff. We have dubbed it: “chemical”. It’s actually funny when my husband asks our kids “Do you want chemical?” and they know exactly what he means. It’s funny, but disturbing too. Sometimes our daughter will beat him to the punch and say “No chemical tonight, Daddy.”

It’s sad but true. We’ve all come to accept food products that are chemically or genetically engineered. White cheddar cheese popcorn topping included. (It says “All Natural” on the label but do you suppose “Silicon Dioxide to prevent caking” is good for us? I’m thinking not.)

A new resolution….get off the Friday night chemical, girl!

One of the hardest parts about going green and being a green mom is the things you can’t control.

Last year our city repaved some of our most decrepit residential streets…ours included. It was pretty bad and we needed it. The hassles and delays of the project were annoying and on-going, including lots of mud and muck that always seemed to flow into our driveway during rainstorms while the curb area was a mass of dirt.

This spring the paving company finally got around to adding more dirt and planting grass. That would seem to be a relief, however they planted the most awful grass on the planet! It’s full of crab grass and weeds and, I swear, it grows two inches a day.

I called the city and asked what their plan was. The engineering department quickly answered “oh, they’re going to spray it all with some heavy-duty, industrial-strength weed killer and see how it goes.”

Fabulous. “Heavy-duty” weed killer sprayed on the lower half of my lawn…near my children’s yard…near the edge of the street…20 feet from a storm sewer drain. Well, I “know how it goes”… no doubt, in the long run, it’s going to affect a whole lot more than the weeds…and there’s not a thing I can do about it.

photo by: pluto.phpwebhosting.com

Every time I see litter by the roadside, I try to imagine what the litter-er was thinking.

What in the world could make someone think it’s okay to take something they don’t want and turn it into landscape.

Not long ago, our family was loaded in the car and traveling to downtown. No more than 100 feet from a major intersection, some fool in a huge SUV (an Escalade, no less) chucked an ENTIRE Sunday newspaper out the window.

I watched in horror as, at least, a hundred pieces of newsprint slammed into the pavement and exploded into page after page of litter. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the culprit, but never came up with a realistic reason why this was better than simply waiting until they reached an appropriate receptacle for the newspaper.

[Thirty-eight percent (38%!!!) of our total waste is from paper and paperboard!]

How do people rationalize that this is acceptable? Our community has so many options for recycling newspaper. Half of the schools, churches and miscellaneous parking lots have large dumpsters that are designated for paper recycling. There’s just no excuse.

If you don’t have curbside recycling and have a questions about where your recyclables should go, hesitate for a second… and then go here: www.earth911.org . There’s a locator at the top of the page… put it to (good) use!

(Now if I could just find that jerk in the Escalade!)

Well, I was stuck. Now I’m a little un-stuck…at least for a few new products.

I’ve been really concerned about soaps, shampoos, lotions…all those things that smell oh, so yummy, but go down the drain …and are full of synthetic chemicals that actually harm our skin and contaminate water and the environment.

Many of them actually commonly contain petroleum synthetics, sulfates that are harmful to the environment and marine life, synthetic stabilizers that contain suspected carcinogens, non-biodegradable detergents and forms of formaldehyde (!?!) preservatives. Well, fabulous! I can hardly wait for my next shower so I can poison the earth and MYSELF!

I’m taking my first step and I’ve replaced our hand soap and my kids’ bath wash and shampoo with Method products. I’ve heard a lot about them (and knew they were available in tons of places) so I’m giving them a try. Method products are naturally-derived, biodegradable products and placed in recycled/recyclable containers from factories and offices that operate using some of the greenest practices I’ve heard of yet!

Not only are they wonderfully green, the packaging is great (my feelings about ugly, green products are no secret!) and they smell fabulous!!! Ahhh! More of my criteria met!

I have to be honest and say that while I purchased them, I haven’t yet put them to use. I still have a small supply of our current products and wouldn’t it be ridiculous to just dump them down the drain??? I mean, they’re going to wind up there anyhow, whether we use them or dump them down in one big blob!…

But I will certainly keep you posted…check ‘em out during your next store visit and let me know what you think!

Recently I talked about being on the Boards of both of our kids’ schools. I was mortified that our son’s Preschool didn’t even recycle.

Well, the Preschool Board is on board! The teachers agreed to implement recycling in the classroom and one of the Moms picked up the curbside recycling receptacles from the city for me. We are good to go! Now all I need to do is get something for the classrooms to collect our recycling before it goes curbside.

Youth is the most critical time for earth-friendly practices to be instilled in our little ones. It’s a great lesson for the kids and a wonderful habit to recycle. Kid recyclers turn into adult recyclers.

And if all goes well, every one of them will go home and hassle their parents to make sure their family is doing the same! Step #1 in “School Challenge” accomplished. Only dozens and dozens of steps to go!!!

I’ve mentioned a couple of times about our house being situated on a treed ravine. It’s really beautiful and is part of the attraction of our house. Obviously our backyard is also filled with trees, as is every neighbor’s yard, all the way down the block, along the ravine.

A few years ago our next door neighbor sold her house and moved to Atlanta. The new family is friendly and pleasant enough. They take care of their house and yard and even bailed us out of two feet of snow this past winter…(honey, anytime you wanna buy a snow blower, don’t stop yourself!…although, undoubtedly, the emissions aren’t good for the environment!)

Then one morning we were awakened by the roar of blaring chainsaws…slashing away at every limb, branch and trunk of all 12 of the neighbor’s backyard trees. By the end of the day, there were 12 sad, little, one-foot stumps sitting helpless around their yard.

I wanted to throw-up.

Even my kids knew how horrible it was. Our daughter said “Mommy! Why did she do that?!?!? Cutting down trees is baaaad!” She said she was tired of the leaves and acorns. Wow. Leaves and acorns. Such a problem. I cannot imagine EVER taking down a tree unless it is dying and a threat of falling. (In fact I have two pretty gnarly trees in my yard but can’t imagine taking them down.)

Trees are so very, very crucial to our environment. They provide oxygen and shade, improve air quality, conserve water, preserve soil and support wildlife (as both food and habitat) and the list goes on and on. Truly, it broke my heart.

Sure their new grass is thick, lush and green now. Mine is sparse in spots and slightly pathetic because of the limited sunlight, but when I look out into my yard, I’m at peace with Mother Earth and I know she’s at peace with me.

photo by: www.kracked.com

Toot, toot… yeah, that’s me… tooting my own horn…. something I don’t usually do. But today, I’m happy and I’m proud.

I just found out that my blog was accepted into the new green directory at Alltop.com. If you don’t know about Alltop - it’s a top directory site (thought of as the “online magazine rack”) that was conceived by Guy Kawasaki, a well-known book author and respected speaker. There are many other fantastic green-related sites and blogs in the directory and I’m honored to be a part of it. Check it out: http://green.alltop.com

I hope this means that I’m truly making a difference; that my blog truly matters… that’s what I’m here for.

So, I’ve resolved my dilemma with having to accept throwaway coffee cups for takeout coffee, however…

I was strolling through the coffee aisle at the grocery store knowing we needed more filters for the maker. As I reached for the usual brand I buy, words from the package in the next row leaped out at me. They read: Unbleached Coffee Filters. UN-bleached?

It honestly never occurred to me. I only thought about the coffee, not the filters. But when I thought about it for a moment, it seemed a little bothersome. Unless I picked up the unbleached version, I am literally filtering my morning java through a paper that has come in contact with bleach – a chemical used for household sterilization, whitening and cleansing, but not for the body’s digestive system! The natural, unbleached versions are brown. The common ones are bleached to a snowy white…maybe to make them look clean, new and prettier. But bleach?

The EPA says that chlorine in bleached coffee filters can leach into the coffee and using bleached coffee filters can result in a lifetime exposure to dioxins that “exceed acceptable levels”. Enough said. I already use sugar and cream. Hold the bleach.

photo by: www.cheftools.com