Mom Goes Green

I love getting packages…my kids love getting packages….my husband gets packages constantly, but for pete’s sake…is bubble wrap necessary for a BOOK?! I’m thinkin’ not!

Last week he received a package that was so heavily wrapped in packing tape that it probably would have been easier to break into a bank vault than that box. Inside were packing peanuts, foam AND bubble wrap. Are they serious? Could there be any more overkill than three different types of NON-recyclable packing materials? My husband even said “well, have fun recycling THAT!”

(However, I want to send kudos to the New York Botanical Garden. Our recent purchase came wrapped in a waffle-like brown paper that is 100% recyclable. What a relief and a glimmer of hope!)

I detest all of those other packing materials, but I admit that I use them. Before you shake your head at me, let me say I RE-use them after they get sent to me. I hope by simply re-circulating them it will, at least, keep them out of landfills.

Fortunately, some suppliers now offer eco-friendly packing materials (like biodegradable peanuts that dissolve in water) for items needing intense cushioning. One option that often gets overlooked is simply newspaper. It’s readily available, accessible, cheap, recyclable and if you give it a good “crumple”… it’s pretty cushiony!

But what could be even more fun is popcorn. Just think of it…not only would we get the excitement of the package and the thrill of the item inside, but we could celebrate it all with a nice “packing material” snack!

Photograph: Getty Images

Organic fruits and veggies can be costly. ALL organics can be costly. I’m still unsure if it’s a law of supply and demand or retailers simply know us “greenies” are willing to pay a bit more.

However, I recently ran across a great, made-at-home solution that can help our NON-organics become a little safer and decrease that oh-so-appetizing covering of pesticides! (Isn’t it crazy that our healthiest, freshest foods come with a layer of chemicals?!?! Blech!)

It’s from Sophie Uliano, a passionate environmentalist, of Gorgeously Green. I’m not really an avid Oprah girl, but Sophie was featured on her Earth Day episode. She tells us to use this spray to make sure your fruits and vegetables are squeaky clean! Wash the produce thoroughly and make this concoction.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 cup water

* 1 cup distilled white vinegar

* 1 Tbsp. baking soda

* 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract (*available at your local health food store)

Combine all ingredients in a large container. Then, transfer to a spray bottle with a pump. Spray the mixture on the produce, and rinse thoroughly after 5 to 10 minutes.

I love it! And it sounds simple enough to me! Don’t feel bad if you can’t afford organics…just give it a try and clean that dirty produce!

photo by: www.disneymike.com

photo by: elegantfarmer.com

This weekend our kids begged us to take them to see “WALL-E”. Besides being an always-reliable Pixar film, we were introduced to a lovable, doe-eyed robot that leads us through a story with a message more important than I’ve seen in a movie in recent years.

What bothers me is the message seems to be a real afterthought for all of the reviews I’ve read. I haven’t heard a “buzz” so it was actually unexpected. I don’t believe this will be a spoiler (because it’s only a part of the storyline) but the message was truly profound. In a nutshell (and I won’t give you any more detail than this, so as NOT to get nasty emails!), Planet Earth becomes uninhabitable because it becomes overrun with trash, trash and more trash. It’s a wasteland, littered with humans’ remnants of excess.

Our kids are a little young to entirely pick-up on the message, but it was a golden opportunity to talk about it with them. They really embraced the idea and started talking about “yeah, that’s why we recycle” and “it’s baaad to litter!” Ahhh, my little sprouts make me proud!

My husband and I also picked up on some shots at big corporate greed and mega-retailers and appreciated the jabs they threw in. But more than anything, I love that they included a real message about the dangerous course that we, as Earth’s inhabitants, are currently on…and the abuse we are permitting.

I can only hope that movie-goers actually hear the message and recognize a story that I believe was entirely intentional, and (sadly)…very true.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Today we celebrate our independence…and part of the beauty of that is our freedom to “choose”. We can choose to be part of the problem or we can choose to be part of the SOLUTION.

While you’re enjoying cookouts, parties and celebrations, find time to make recycling a part of the choices you make. The little bit of extra time it takes will make a tremendous difference to Mother Earth in the long run.

“While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.” — Stephen R. Covey

Be part of the solution. Go GREEN!!!

This fall our son heads off to Preschool and our daughter will be in 1st Grade…wait a minute….hello? How did I get here? Where did my babies go???

I thought I was still young and cool, but yeah….probably not so much. Last week I looked at my outfit and thought I was teetering on the cusp of actually looking like a PTA Mom! (*shiver!* …but please, PTA Moms, don’t email me and ask what that meant. I think we can all come up with our own explanation and accompanying visual!)

I have been invited to be on the Boards of both schools and have accepted both of those offers; however, I wonder if either of them truly knows what they have gotten themselves into. A green mom is a whole different creature than a non-green mom!

I discovered that my son’s Preschool doesn’t recycle…at all. My daughter’s Elementary school is addicted to styrofoam. (*second shiver!*) These kids ARE the future. As cliche as that sounds, it’s just a fact. We need to start instilling environmental consciousness within them NOW…our children should never look at a plastic bottle as trash. This is our opportunity! I have a lot of work to do, and plenty of minds and policies to change.

THIS, my friends, is going to be my newest challenge…and oh, what a challenge it will be!

photo by: Wesley Fryer

I find myself increasingly bothered, annoyed, frustrated and even angered by some people’s responses to being environmentally conscious. You would think that WE were doing something wrong by being responsible. I mean, honestly!

There is a cashier at one of the grocery stores I frequent and after my first few encounters with her bad attitude about my reusable bags, I used to avoid her. Now, if she’s working, I head to her checkout. At this point, I DO want to piss her off. I want to remind her that this issue is not going to go away.

Apparently she finds it bothersome to have to attach the little tab on my reusables to the bag rack (so they stay upright). For her, it’s easier to pull apart the two sides of at least two dozen “evil” plastic bags than put my entire order in six reusables. And that is another issue I have…I know plastic bags are cheap, but cashiers need to be responsible about it. In my “previous life” I had a cashier give me four plastic bags for four items. What? She had to separate the chicken from the bread and the batteries from the tomatoes. I can understand the logic (I think) but it’s gotten out of hand.

Until plastic bags go away entirely, I think retailers need to have better policies and cashiers need to be trained to be responsible. And even if you aren’t willing to make a very small investment with canvas or non-woven poly reusables, simply reuse the plastic bags you were already given. Before buying my reusables, I traveled with a load of bags from every store I would frequent. If I headed into Target, I brought my Target bags back into the store for my new purchase. I thought that was more annoying than my pretty reusables, but it was an option.

Whatever the case, just stop accepting that it’s okay to take more and more bags, because it simply isn’t. You, too, can annoy your (least) favorite cashier!

photo by: www.supanet.com