Mom Goes Green

Once again the Mom Goes Green household proudly participated in Earth Hour 2010!… and the kids were no less excited than they were last year!

They eagerly stacked pillows all over the floor so we could snuggle up to read some books by flashlight and assisted Daddy in getting a fire roaring in the fireplace so we could make “S’mores”!  Undoubtedly our book was about climate change and I might have been annoyed by all of the interruption of questions, but it meant they were listening… and understood… and cared.

They knew it would be fun but they also excitedly talked about how people all over the world were switching off their lights too.  I can’t tell you how many times they asked where the lights were going off!  I’m excited to say that I can actually show them…. thanks to this fantastic collection of photos compiled by Boston.com you can show your kids that they really did participate in an incredible worldwide event.

In this presentation you can click on the photos and watch as the lights dim in these amazing places all over the world… take a look at this list:  Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Seattle, Singapore, Beijing, Moscow, Sydney, Athens, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Atlanta, Hong Kong, Oslo, Albany, Hiroshima, New York City, Abu Dhabi, Bucharest, Capetown and Cairo! When else can you imagine these cities and countries banded together in a unified cause… Earth Hour brought the world together in support of our common thread… Planet Earth!

I loved being a part of Earth Hour again this year. It “moves me”… what can I say!?  Now I’m also excited to see how many students from our daughter’s school participated.  Last week I sent home a notice with all 402 of them(!) announcing Earth Hour and, if they sign the pledge that says they participated, some of them will be randomly selected to win an eco-prize reward including BPA-free water bottles, pencils made from recycled newspapers and TerraCycle pencil bags (made from upcycled drink pouches)!

If you and your family participated, THANK YOU! If not, look and be inspired… and take a moment to enjoy the view of this spectacular event…

(This giveaway is now closed for entries.  See “comments” for the winner! And thanks to all who entered!)

One of my favorite family traditions is snuggling up to read books with my kids. They love a great story and there is no better way to give a “little green lesson” than to wrap it into a fabulous story that kids can embrace.

I especially love when a book ‘practices what it preaches’ and that’s why I love Simon & Schuster’s new series of “Little Green Books”! With Earth Day right around the corner (April 22nd, so mark your calendars!) there is no better way to start the conversation about our fabulous planet Earth!  And this series of books is as green as the tales they tell… they are made from 100% recycled paper, printed with vegetable based inks and 100% recyclable too (not that you would ever want to part with them unless you were passing them along, but “just so ya’ know!”).

I’ve always encouraged reading stories to children as a way to help plant the seed of awareness for protecting our environment and endangered species, and teaching kids that they can ‘take charge’ by recycling and conserving our resources… and my kids and I give this series a big green thumbs up!

I’m excited to tell you that Simon & Schuster is also offering a terrific “book bundle” from their series of Little Green Books for a Mom Goes Green reader!  Books include:

• I Can Save the Earth!
• I Can Save the Ocean!
• The Polar Bears’ Home
• Trees for the Okapis
• SpongeBob to the Rescue

All you have to do is leave a comment saying you’d like to win and tell me about the “little green kid” you’d like to share these books with, or send a Twitter message that includes a reply to @momgoesgreen and a link to this blog. The winner will be selected on April 7, so they’ll arrive in time for Earth Day! (US entries only… sorry!)

In the meanwhile, consider sharing some “little green books” to create some “big green ideas!”

Scenario: You come home from picking up the kids from school, after walking the dog, visiting the grocery store and stopping for a fill-up at the gas station.  You’ve trudged though gas, grass and “goo” all along the way, but you run into the house (with bags of groceries flung over your shoulders to get them to the freezer before the ice cream melts!) and don’t remove your shoes before you get to the kitchen.

Have you ever thought about what is on your shoes?

The fact of the matter is, your shoes encounter a lot more than you’d ever want to know… chemicals, pesticides, toxins and lead that rest on every inch of the ground where we walk.  And when you don’t remove your shoes everything you walked through becomes embedded in your carpets or rugs and transfers to your floors, and THEN it literally becomes airborne so you ALSO inhale those same contaminants that were once a part of your shoes!

Another scary fact:  studies have shown that wearing shoes indoors is a larger source of children’s pesticide exposure than eating non-organic fruits and vegetables!

Time to remove those shoes at the door… and it’s okay to ask your guests to do the same!  What is tolerable for your “soles” is not tolerable for your health or your most “beloved souls”!

Have you marked your calendar?  This Saturday, March 27th, 2010, from 8:30-9:30 pm is Earth Hour!

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning off their lights for one hour as a “vote” FOR the earth, and a “vote” AGAINST global warming.  By 2009, this movement had grown to hundreds of millions of people, and even darkened the Sydney Opera House, Rome’s Colosseum, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Parthenon in Greece, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip and New York City’s Times Square.

Last year people from all around the world switched off their lights in a unified vote because, regardless of where you live, we all depend on the same planet! This is the perfect time to turn off the lights, discuss global warming and the importance of “being green” as a family and consider taking actions to assure that we aren’t polluting our earth and overusing resources in our everyday lives.

For more information, go to www.earthhour.org and sign-up to be “officially” counted!

Want to know what we did last year?… click here… now…

Will you “vote” with me again this year?

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. Everything feels new and there is something very refreshing about sitting back and seeing things literally spring to life.  One thing that does need our assistance, however, is our home. Unfortunately there is NOTHING refreshing about a house that has been closed for months on end.

The problem is that, while we attempt to do our spring cleaning, we can actually create some heavily toxic air inside our homes and create a lot of waste.  Here are some tips on how to avoid this:

• Open windows. Let the fresh air come in. It does wonders!
• Buy distilled white vinegar – and lots of it.  The uses are amazing… everything from cleaning and sanitizing to disinfecting and stain removal.  Check out vinegartips.com for ideas, but whatever you do, do NOT use commercial household cleaners… they are harsh, harmful and unnecessary.
• Buy baking soda – fantastic for cleaning but also for removing odors from rugs and carpets.  Sprinkle some on, let it sit for 30 minutes and vacuum it up… nice and simple.
• Skip paper towels and sponges – gather old t-shirts and towels (not suitable for donation) and put them to work.  Skoy cloths are another favorite of mine, and they can all be washed and used again for later cleaning projects.
• Recycle – magazines, mail, catalogs, any needless papers, packaging….the list goes on and on.  Don’t just put them in the garbage can.  Put them in the recycling can.
• Food cupboards – you thought you’d need it, use it, want it, but alas you did not.  Donate it to a food pantry if it hasn’t expired; otherwise make sure the packaging, cans and containers get recycled as well.
• Donation boxes – inevitably you will find lots of things that no longer have usefulness for you but that doesn’t mean they’re not useful for someone else.  Clothing, shoes, household items, books, furniture, toys, anything and everything. Pack up these items and donate them to a charity, list them on Freecycle or Craig’s List.  But never throw away anything that still has “life” left in it.
• Proper disposal – motor oil, paint cans, aerosols… check Earth911 to find out where these toxic products can be dropped off for proper disposal.  Same goes for electronics.  If they can’t be given away check local resources or again Earth911.
• Consider air freshening in a less harmful way – If you MUST put the scent of spring in the air, forgo the aerosol air fresheners and instead fill a spray bottle with a combination of water and essential oils, and “spray away!”
• Consider some “Spring Resolutions” – no more antibacterial soaps (their harmful effects can be greater than their benefit), no more harsh cleaners and chemicals.  Vow to replace them with eco- and health-friendly products.  Put CFLs on your shopping list and use them for every bulb that needs replacing from here on out!  And when you buy these products, make sure they get placed in reusable bags!

Start stretching, limber up and let the green cleaning commence!

FACT: Each year, in the United States alone, we discard and send 1.6 BILLION plastic disposable pens to landfills.  Take a look at what that number actually looks like:  1,600,000,000

Mind-boggling, isn’t it?  And it is believed that most components of those pens will never biodegrade either… (and the image just got uglier, didn’t it?)

The better solution?  Invest in a refillable pen. The refills are no more expensive than disposable pens and the waste they produce is substantially less.

The pen may be “mightier than the sword,” but the refillable pen is “mighty green”.

Most of us never give much thought to the deodorant we apply daily… after all, don’t all moms naturally smell like roses?… yea, I know, not always but dare to dream!

There is a problem though… common commercial deodorants contain all sorts of frightening chemicals, including Aluminum Chlorohydrate (linked to brain disorders), Parabens (linked to breast cancer), Propylene Glycol (commonly used in manufacturing antifreeze!), Triclosan (linked to the development of antibiotic resistance) and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (a known carcinogen!).  Who wouldn’t want to avoid these chemicals?!?

Lately, I’ve been using Tom’s of Maine.  Those of us entrenched in the “green world” have probably heard of their products since they are easily found in major retailers, but it wasn’t as easy when I realized that it was probably time for our 8-year old daughter to consider some deodorant of her own.

Luckily I finally discovered Junior Varsity Naturals and honestly, I never imagined it would be so easy to convince my little lady to take-on this armpit task each day!  Their products are made of only safe, chemical-free botanicals, so I don’t have to worry about her putting toxic ingredients on her body just for the sake of hygiene.  And she looooves the smell… they have a Cherry Blast for girls and Citrus Sport for boys (all natural scents), so as soon as my little athlete is ready for some pit-assistance, I know he’s covered too.

If I can convince you of nothing else, please just avoid anti-perspirants. These are the products that contain dangerous Aluminum Chorohydrate to seal our pores and prevent sweat, but it’s being absorbed into our bodies every day!

There is nothing glamorous in the discussion of underarms, but even less attractive is the reality of the dangerous chemicals that enter our body as a result of wanting to smell more pleasant… now that’s really, REALLY the pits!

Weekend fun for my family included a trip to the fabulous Cleveland Museum of Natural History.  A visit in their Discovery Center had me tucked next to my daughter (at an all-too-small-table for an adult, mind you!) making leaf rubbings to decorate their tree mural (as every Ohioan is desperately awaiting the arrival of spring and the first sign of leaves!)

Immediately I was drawn to the crayons they had on the table.  They weren’t your run of the mill Crayolas, mind you… they had pizzazz!  My daughter loved them too and handed me a card with a simple “here you go, Mom…”.  Low and behold a recycled crayon recipe! (She knows me too well!)

My first thought was, “well… of course!  Why wouldn’t I recycle crayons?”  My second thought was, “I need to share this…” so (in case I’m not the ONLY mom who has never done this!) here’s the recipe:

• Remove the paper from broken crayons
• Place foil baking cups and their paper separators in the wells of a muffin pan
• Fill cups ½ full with crayons (you can choose the same color family or multiple colors)
• Put the pan in a 225 degree oven for about 15 minutes
• Remove them from the oven and, if you’ve used multiple colors, give them a quick swirl with a toothpick
• Cool to room temperature, remove from cups, break in half or quarters, and get ready to CREATE!

You can use these at home, give them as party favors or gifts, or even donate them to a school or art class.  If you’re wondering about the real value of recycling crayons consider this… statistics say that 90% of crayons get discarded once they get broken or the tips wear away, so yes… this is a worthy project.

And considering there are literally BILLIONS and BILLIONS of crayons sold and distributed each year (think how many you’ve left on restaurant tables!) and I must have at least a million broken crayons littering my house, I’ll never cry over an unloved, broken crayon again… I’ll just recycle ‘em!

Ahh… Fridays.  The infamous Friday night “Carry-Out Food and Movie Nite” in the Mom Goes Green household.  The night when I don’t have to think about “what’s for dinner” and instead can rely on the simple question of where to get the food.

While this has become a tradition for us, it also brings the concern of all the waste that can be created when I don’t do the cookin’!  Who hasn’t experienced this with their order?: large, rustling bag; unneeded plastic utensils; mountains of paper napkins; a sea of condiment packets; towers of containers; single-use cups… the list could go on and on (and that list has a harsh consequence for landfill waste).

So, consider this when placing your next order:

• Coffee – Americans use approximately 15 BILLION paper coffee cups per year.  If your order includes coffee, bring your own cup… they’ll fill it for you.

• Condiments – really, if you’re taking it home, you probably have the same condiments waiting for you in your refrigerator.  Instead of thinking “Well, I PAID for them”, think “No thanks.  I have them already” and they aren’t in a dozen tiny packets, cups and containers.

• Napkins – skip ‘em.  Tell them you don’t need any since you probably already use cloth napkins at home…. right? Right.

• Utensils – goes without saying… we all DEFINITELY have those at home, so tell them you don’t need them either.

• Containers – many restaurants provide you with some decent containers but, while it’s nearly impossible to refuse them, you can reuse them.  Clean them, reuse them and consider them the next time you reach for a Ziploc or other disposable storage container.

• Cups – I certainly voiced my dislike of all the kids disposable cups during a dine-in meal, but many of those are also reusable, for beverages, storing craft supplies and lots of other projects.

• Bags – walk in with your own.  Tell them you don’t need their oversized plastic version… after all, you ALWAYS keep your reusable bags in your car…. riiiight? 

If you follow all of these suggestions, imagine this… you would have zero-waste…. AND you would have a nice relaxing evening, with a clear conscience and absolutely zero cooking too!

My recent post about avoiding antibacterial products actually got me thinking more about the issues of antibiotics, medications and even “superbugs”, as well as the proper disposal of unused medications. While we certainly want to avoid the products containing Triclosan (that can accumulate in our bodies and decrease the effectiveness of antibiotics), there are other important points about using antibiotics and medications that I want to be sure to share, so here goes…

When antibiotics ARE needed, it is very important to complete the dosage prescribed by your physician because failing to do so can also help create “superbugs”.  New term to you?  Well, by stopping antibiotic use BEFORE you have completed the full course means that the “stronger” of the bacteria can remain present in your body and they have the potential to rapidly multiply and cause you the same symptoms again.  This “survival” means they are more likely to become resistant to the drug and these “superbugs” are created.  (Kinda gives you the chills, huh?… me too!)

Along with this discussion it seems logical for us to remember about the proper disposal of unused drugs and medications.  In a post quite some time ago I talked about all the dangers of the common “flush factor”… those of us who flush medications down the toilet.  Baaaad practice!  This means they end up in our water sources since most water treatment facilities don’t have the ability to remove them.

That original post offered suggestions including contacting your local pharmacy to see if they have a program to properly dispose of medications or checking Earth911 to locate a drop-off in your community.

But, if you MUST dispose of them yourself, consider the greener, safer way to do it… to keep drugs out of our water sources and prevent soil contamination from landfills too:

• Keep them in the original container so they can be identified if they are found (but remove your personal information and identification).
• Add water to pills to start dissolving them.
• Add coffee grounds, sand or kitty litter to liquids to help absorb them.
• Put the original container in a secondary container and securely tape the lid closed.
• Put them deep in your trash.

The absolute best option is to find a safe disposal option, and as much as I dislike the idea of adding this trash to a landfill, it is certainly the option safer than adding them to the drinking water of you, me and… our kids!