Mom Goes Green

Mom Goes Green is now also “Upcycle Mom” to 400 kids… the kids at our daughter’s elementary school, that is!

We’ve finally joined TerraCycle in their “Drink Pouch Brigade”.  If you know TerraCycle you probably know all about their products, but if you don’t know about their brigades, let me give you the rundown…

First of all, keep in mind that each year literally BILLIONS of non-recyclable drink pouches get tossed in the trash and wind up in landfills… fortunately, along came TerraCycle.  They upcycle this otherwise worthless trash and convert the used drink pouches into fashion bags, tote bags, pencil cases, and a whole slew of other items for kids and adults.  All you have to do is save the drink pouches, send them to TerraCycle and earn a little cash for your school, organization or charity of your choice.

Sure the financial part is a little incentive, but more than that (to me!) is the idea of all the trash that is being salvaged, upcycled and put to use.  Anytime something DOESN’T go in the trash can (thus the landfill), I’m one happy green momma!

These programs are perfect for schools, community groups, Boy Scout or Girl Scout troops, youth groups, churches… you name it… any group can do it and make quite a contribution to the planet.  

And it’s not just drink pouches… they also collect yogurt cups, candy and cookie wrappers, chip bags, glue sticks and glue bottles… there is a list of 25 brigades, so something is sure to fit.

I’m ready to go and lead my little troops in the Drink Pouch Brigade.   Now, if I suddenly stop blogging, could someone please come over and rescue me from under the mountain of drink pouches where I’m likely to be buried?!?

I may be a “green mom” but I am also a “proud mom” and nothing, I mean NOTHING, melts my heart faster than my family! That is why, today… I am going to be a little indulgent and share an incredibly proud moment…

My precious, “just turned 8-years old” daughter and my husband performed in her elementary school’s Talent Show this past weekend.  She sang “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and Daddy accompanied her on ukulele and I couldn’t be more proud!  They were both amazing and she was (and to me, always will be) a star!  THIS is the reason we “do what we do”… to leave our amazing kids a better, safer, more viable world to live in…

Take it away, sweetpea…

No, this had nothing to do with being green, but again… she and my son are exactly why I spend time and energy to make our home, our community and our world better.  They are affected by every choice we make… xoxo…

I hardly blinked and my kids’ birthdays were staring me in the face again! Besides the celebration of the two amazing days that they arrived, I knew it also meant lots of planning… for parties, presents, treats, favors and everything that goes with their big days.

I also knew that I didn’t want to get sucked into the vortex of waste… something that seems to go hand-in-hand with any celebration!  So, was I able to keep it green? You bet I was, and here’s how:

• Gifts – only one gift each:  a new bike.  The outgrown versions will be donated to a charity so some deserving kids can ‘get their pedal on’ too!

• Party – hosted at home, I pulled out all the dishes, the cups and glasses, utensils, serveware… every last thing.  Use of disposables: NONE!

• Wrap – all wrapping paper was recycled, gift bags were flattened and saved, along with ribbons and bows.

• Decorations – yes… I tried to talk my kids out of balloons, but they insisted… so I insisted on the biodegradable versions and they will be properly disposed of.

• Waste – there was none.  At the end of the night, I asked my husband if he had taken out the trash… he said he hadn’t, but there wasn’t one piece of trash that was added to the can during the course of the entire party.  Even the cake box… recycled!

• Party favors – just like last year, no plastic junk here!  I instead opted for drawstring tote bags (picked up at the local craft store for $1.99 each!).  They’ll get used by the kids again and again!

• Treat bags – everyone at my kids’ schools traditionally brings a treat bag for their friends on the day of their birthday.  Instead, we gave their friends a recycled paper mini-notebook and pen.

Each year I seem to get a little better at this!  For every choice you make, there IS a greener, more environmental option… don’t let yourself go down the usual road just because it’s what you’ve always done.  That’s a route you don’t need to take.

Remember, “green parties” are NOT just for St. Patrick’s Day or politics!

It’s been a couple years since I had to think about “buying something for baby”.  But if I had it to do all over again, I would certainly make a slew of different decisions.  It’s not just about keeping them clean and well-fed, safely secured in carseats, happy and content, but it’s also about making safe product choices so you can rest assured that certain hidden dangers are kept at bay.  (Yea, it’s those hidden danger that can be tricky!)

Whether they’re infants, toddlers or young children, any parent knows that they eat… constantly.  And whether you’re at home or away, you need to be prepared when those “hungries” set in!  Despite all the thought and attention we may give to nutritional choices, we can’t forget that a second choice looms… how we “contain” what we serve.  You can make the healthiest food choices on the planet but if the containers that hold those foods leach chemicals and toxins, then we’ve defeated our purpose, haven’t we?!?

Well, let me tell you about thinkbaby!  They sent me this terrific feeding set that is completely FREE of BPA, phthalates, lead, PVC and melamine… those scary contents we’re all trying to avoid!  The set contains two sizes of bowls with lids, a bentos box, a cup and a spoon & fork set.  The interiors are food-grade stainless steel so you don’t have to worry a single second about hormone disrupting chemicals leaching into the food (just the sound of that makes me shudder!)  Add to that the cuteness-factor, because they come with a fabulously-screamin’ bright orange exterior.

Okay, now I hear you… “I want one! I want one!” you say?  Well, thinkbaby is helping with that.  They’re letting me give away a complete set, so all you have to do is leave a comment saying you’d like to win and tell me who you’d like to “gift” it to, or send a Twitter message that includes a reply to @momgoesgreen and a link to this blog. This giveaway has a $40 value(!) and the winner will be selected one week from today’s post. (US entries only… sorry!)

And even if you don’t have babies, kids or someone you’d like to gift this to, (with the exception of the spoon & fork set), it can absolutely be used by us “big kids too!”

Whether it’s baby, kids or YOU, the next time you serve up a nice little helping of food in a regular plastic container, just remember to “thinkbaby” first!

Yes, will the worries ever cease… it seems not, because after researching new bath products for our kids I not only discovered some potential candidates, but also reasons to worry.

It seems there are some serious, and harmful, chemical “monsters” lurking in far too many children’s bath products.  This includes the most common products we all used on our babies (and often continue to use) – Johnson & Johnson, Gerber, Baby Magic and L’Oreal – all are major offenders.

And the two scariest ingredients, you ask? They are 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde (doesn’t THAT one conjure up some horrible images?).  Both are known carcinogens and unbelievably harsh on the skin, especially for young children.

1,4-dioxane is common in personal care products as a foaming agent.  Of course the ingredients won’t actually list it under this name, so avoid ingredients called sodium laureth sulfate, PEG-100 stearate, polyethylene, myreth, oleth and ceteareth-20.

Formaldehyde comes into play when common preservatives (like parabens) used in the bath products release formaldehyde but, of course, this won’t be on the ingredients list either!  Instead, look for and avoid names like quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea and diazolidinyl urea.

It’s absolutely mind boggling.  Sometimes I truly don’t know what to look for and what to avoid, because it seems we need a chemistry degree to have the ability to read between the lines (and I think manufacturers count on that)!

I have heard good things about both Gaia and Weleda, as well as the line of Burt’s Bees Baby (often much easier to find at a local retailer) but we’re currently giving Organix South TheraNeem a try!  The kid’s Shampoo & Bodywash and Conditioner are in use and (as far as my “non-chemistry-degreed-self” can decipher!) they don’t contain any of these scary ingredients!  I also find it fairly interesting that they seems to work wonderfully (and make our kids smell fabulously citrus-y) but they don’t foam-up as much as the common brands and aren’t nearly as thick… hmmm?  A likely side effect of what happens when you remove some of the bad stuff!

I know it will take extra effort, but there are plenty of products out there that are safer options.  If you have something you recommend, please share!

But whatever you do, don’t settle for the old stand-bys just because they’re easy to find and an ad campaign and some slick marketer appealed to your emotional side to sell a product.  Believe me, I used to be one of “them” and things aren’t always as they seem.

I know this for a fact, because this weekend, our kids reminded us!

Saturday morning was spent sleeping-in (far too late), but after we got moving, we really GOT MOVING!  After long discussions about how we should spend the day, we decided to make the best of an unseasonable warm Ohio day (68 degrees!) and simply get outdoors.

We went to our daughter’s school and ran around looking at all of the amazing wonders in her school’s Land Lab. This area in front of her school has a pond, decks, walking paths and large planter boxes that the families can adopt.  We cultivated our box and planted some bulbs (and will eagerly await their Spring arrival) and added a little metal sign that said “GROW”! (…somewhat of a double entendre for growing some of nature’s gifts as well as growing little minds!)

We came home and planted more bulbs in our own yard, raked leaves, the kids ran around playing every sport imaginable and jumped in (and sometimes destroyed) our perfectly raked piles.  Fortunately, living on a ravine, our leaves are simply raked down the hill so they can decompose and be recycled by nature.

The kids spent a half hour cracking open acorns to “make hors d’oeuvres” for the squirrels!  We even made ourselves S’mores over an outdoor fire and continued to run around and play, and enjoy the day long after darkness fell.  Everyone was in a fabulous mood.  And I don’t doubt for a second that it had everything to do with simply being outside and enjoying breathing the fresh air.

I sometimes forget that a great day with my family doesn’t need to include museums or amusement parks, trips or expensive events or vacations.  Everything we need is outside our own backdoor or a short, local drive away… all found in nature, most often for free.

Kids today spend twice as much time indoors as we did (a very sad fact), so if you need ideas, reasons or simply more encouragement, check out NWFs “Be Out There” program and you’re sure to find something that clicks!

At the end of the night our daughter could hardly relax as she settled into bed.  She talked about how excited she was to see our flowers grow and proclaimed the day as “the best day ever”!

Thanks for the reminder, my little sweet pea!

This year I’m posting early!  November 15 is America Recycles Day and what a great opportunity to make some dramatic, but not difficult, changes in our daily lives.  This is a day that “encourages more people to join the movement toward creating a better natural environment by recycling and buying recycled products” and “promotes the social, environmental and economic benefits of recycling.”

Last year I used this opportunity to hold a project at our daughter’s school that centered around America Recycles Day and this year will be no different.  I’m encouraging all students to submit their best recycling tips or their favorite way to recycle and will then compile all of their great ideas and turn them into a recycling newsletter that will be sent home to each family.  I never doubt that the greatest way to learn is from each other.  I’ve even added a footnote on each flier reminding families that the paper is recyclable!

I’ve also added a little incentive and will randomly select a bunch of entries to win some really cool “eco-friendly” prizes, like recycled drink pouch pencil cases from Terracycle, BPA-free water bottles, recycled note pads and pencils made from recycled newspapers.

This is a great opportunity to remind kids (and all of us) why recycling is so important:

• To reduce pollution
• To save energy
• To help the environment
• To save natural resources
• To keep trash out of landfills and prevent contamination

If you have kids in school, there is still time!  Talk to your principal and ask if you can do a project too.  All it takes is a little time… and really, isn’t a little bit of time worth the impact that you can make to help set kids and their families on the road to Recycle-ville?!?  (If you email me, I’ll even send you the flier!)

November 15 is America Recycles Day but the most important thing to remember is that we should make EVERY DAY a RECYCLE DAY!

This post is long overdue since the ghosts and goblins of Halloween are beginning to gather for a spook-tacular night!  This is often a season where we can simultaneously go fabulously green AND bust the radar on breaking the rules!

If you still have plans in the works here are a few things to remember when you want to lean toward the greener end of the dial!

• Decorations – nature provides the greatest resources!  Pumpkins, gourds, cornstalks, leaves, Indian corn… all gifts of nature can be used for fabulous decorations and composted afterward.  Because we have a ravine behind our house, all of them go down the hill to be recycled by Mother Nature (and devoured by the animals that haven’t already abused them for a special “treat”!)
• Costumes – your own closets and drawers can be an amazing costume store.  Get creative and go to town!  Consignment stores and thrift shops are also great resources and a far better choice over purchasing new.  And reconsider face paint unless it’s homemade and non-toxic – the FDA does not regulate them, so you or your children could face some nasty chemical exposure and a reaction that’s even worse!
• Treats & candy – buy organic candy or simply be aware of those that are over-packaged to avoid a lot of excess trash.  Or forgo the candy all together and instead give pencils made of recycled materials, paper pads or stickers.  All are better than coated papers that wrap tons of candies.  And avoid a bunch of plastic trinkets that will eventually meet the trash.
• Treat bags & “loot collectors”! – instead of buying cellophane bags, buy themed or Halloween-colored paper bags.  Instead of buying a big plastic pumpkin for trick-or-treating, buy a reusable bag.  You can find them anywhere and everywhere!
• Parties – there are lots of ways to be greener but start by using fabric table cloths instead of disposable plastic.  Reusable dinnerware is best, or even uncoated plates and cups that could be composted… but at the very least, avoid a bunch of disposable plastic.
• Crafts & games – try making crafts using recycled materials.  Cans and jars can be turned into great Halloween candy holders!  And try a game of “Rotten Pumpkin” (instead of “Hot Potato”) with a small pumpkin or “Pin the Nose on the Jack-o-Lantern” (use a homemade paper jack-o-lantern and paper noses – all materials can be recycled afterward!)
• Make good use of the excess – if your children collect an overabundance of candy (that you don’t want them to have), consider taking it to a homeless shelter instead of throwing the majority of it away.

This list is frightfully late but there is always time to keep it “EEK-O”-friendly! (Okay, I can be “boo’ed”   for that one!  Wait… I just did it again, didn’t I?… never mind… just keep it green for Halloween, and ENJOY!)

I had a completely different post planned for today, but in light of a recent conversation, I just had to write this instead.

You might recall a post last spring when we were in the market for a mattress for our son.  We wanted an organic, chemical-free mattress so we could have peace of mind while he was getting a peaceful night’s rest.  The issue is the excessive chemicals sprayed on traditional mattresses to make them meet government standards for fire retardants.  They are so, so dangerous for everyone, since we inhale these toxic chemicals each and every night, but especially for children with developing bodies and systems.

Well, a friend of ours recently contacted us and wanted to know about the mattress we ended up buying.  When I sent him the information he told me that the mattress store he just visited told him that he was “unable to buy that type of mattress without a prescription” (presumably because they are also hypo-allergenic) and “they have to use chemical fire retardants to meet standards”.

This is where my blood started to boil.

The reality is that they were lying to our friend simply because they didn’t HAVE what he was looking for and, obviously, would go to any length to make a sale.

The truth of the matter is this:   Mattresses do NOT need to be sprayed with chemicals to make them fire retardant! They do, however, need to meet standards for BEING fire retardant.  There are other ways to meet this standard but unfortunately, for consumers, the cheapest way to do this is simply to spray on a load of dangerous chemicals.

The mattress we chose was from Savvy Rest (via Healthy Home Sleep Gallery).  Since organic wool is quilted to the inside of the organic cotton fabric cover, THIS is the non-flammable layer that inhibits burning and makes it pass these tests.

I absolutely hate the fact that a mattress retailer would tell such lies just for the sake of a sale.  But on top of that, they are completely misleading consumers about the truth.

Of course, there are honest retailers out there, but if you are in the market for a new mattress, don’t be misled.  You CAN buy a safe, non-toxic mattress… no prescription needed.

My list of duties just got longer…  drumroll, please… I am now the Head Room Mom (read:  “Lead Party Queen”!) for our daughter’s 2nd grade class!  She is absolutely thrilled and while I’m excited too, I’m also simultaneously worried.

I know what parties essentially “mean”….  things like lots of trash, waste and “un-environmental” activities.  It’s fairly easy to control what goes on for a party in your own home but this is another situation entirely, yet I believe there are still plenty of things I can keep in check.

1. Ask volunteering parents to send in bulk foods instead of individually wrapped items. One big box of Goldfish and a big bowl from home is far better than 25 individual packages!
2. Same goes for drinks… large containers and cups over a bunch of individual boxes or bottles, then recycle the container and compost the cups.
3. Opt for supplies using materials that are less harmful:  Paper over plastic, please!  Paper plates, cups and napkins can be composted, but reusable products are even better.  I love the Party Pak from Kids Konserve.  Invest in this supply of party wares (plates, cups and utensils) and wash and reuse them for every party.  (Get 15% off, now through October 31, by entering: momgreen at checkout!)
4. Skip plastic tableclothes.  Bring a fabric tablecloth from home and opt for laundering over plastic in the trash.  And borrow decorations from home and take them back afterward… simple as that!
5. Make your arts and activities eco-friendly.  Consider decorating little totes or lunch bags so they have some usefulness after the party ends.
6. Play games with supplies from home.  Or consider supplies that can be recycled, like a game of bingo.  You can print cards at dltk-cards and use edible “markers” (like M&Ms!) and recycle the cards afterward.
7. Pass out goodies in paper bags instead of cellophane treat bags, and give extra thought to what goes inside.  Mounds of plastic will eventually wind up in the trash.
8. Recycle and compost everything you can!

Sure, these little ideas won’t change the world but they will certainly help make sure that all of those “little partying feet” create a smaller footprint than would have been created otherwise!