It never ceases to amaze Recycla just how frequently lead is found in children’s products. Check out this new list.
Yet another reason why you should always choose quality over low price and check the labels carefully for country of origin.
Posted in issues, quick link
Have you seen the video about the woman who gets a 300 page iPhone bill? Check it out.
Posted in 3 Rs, electronics, quick link
For part 1, click here.
Cold winter weather is here again and the Eco Women have been discussing lotions with each other and trying to find the best products for their dry, itchy skin.
Some products they’ve been trying lately:
Captain Compost uses lotions by Lemongrass Spa and Melt. Both companies are local to her (bonus!) and have lovely products.
Enviro Girl is a huge fan of Indigo Wild’s Zum Rubs. She uses the rubs on her chapped hands (she has eczema) and it does relieve the itching and rashing up. Recycla has used them too and also vouches for their fabulosity. (Yes, that’s a real word.)
Recycla absolutely loves her Kiss My Face Peaceful Patchouli Moisturizer — most of the year. Yes, she knows about the hippy dippy associations with patchouli, but she doesn’t care, because she loves the scent in this particular lotion. It’s not too overwhelming, but the smell does a linger for a few hours. Unfortunately, this lotion does not quite do the trick in the coldest and dryest of weather, so she is looking around for something else to slather on from chin to toes to keep her skin from totally flaking off.
Recycla has also tried Whole Foods’ 365 Brand lotions. Don’t waste your money. An hour after application, your skin will feel just as dry as if you hadn’t just rolled around in a vat of the stuff.
Readers, what are some of your favorite lotions?
Posted in personal care
She hates the mall, shopping in general and the unoriginality of factory made goods, but she does appreciate the personal touch. What place can fulfill Enviro-Girl’s fantasy of the perfect shopping experience?
The ultimate online handmade store. Thousands of creative people peddling their goods in one spot. Etsy’s site is easy to navigate–allowing a user to shop by category or by item tag or by artist. if you want to only buy from people in your state, you can. Etsy offers paintings, jewelry, clothes, toys, stationery, furniture, vases, purses, clocks, dishes, lotions, candles, music, bedding and glassware. Everything Enviro-Girl has looked at has been priced reasonably and everything she’s bought is well made. The craftsmanship and care is evident even in the packaging. Items are shipped fast and efficiently–Enviro-Girl has bought several gifts and the sellers have enclosed notes and shipped said gifts directly to Enviro-Girl’s friends. Every thing she’s ever ordered off of Etsy has arrived at her door within 3 business days–very satisfactory service. Whether you want to spend $10 or $100, Enviro-Girl guarantees you’ll find something suitable.
The shopping experience on Etsy is personal (unlike that on Amazon.com or Oldnavy.com or anywhereelse.com). Many sellers include a lagniappe–a something extra in the package, an added gift in the tradition of shopkeepers of old. And every seller includes a handwritten note of thanks, their appreciation that you, good shopper, have chosen their handiwork to use or to give to a loved one. That touch makes Enviro-Girl smile every time she opens an Etsy purchase.
Enviro-Girl loves keeping her money local and Etsy is a grand way to do this as an online shopper. She loves the idea of paying the producer directly and she loves buying handmade because again, it’s unique and it’s better. She’s been telling everyone she knows about Etsy and why she loves it so. Check it out if you haven’t yet, and here are a couple of Enviro-Girl’s favorite “stores” to get you warmed up:
Rhymes with Magic (funky jewelry with a message!)
Keys and Memories (recycled jewelry with your initials)
While they Play (divine gloves, earrings, she’s a gifted knitter)
Comfy Creations (aromatherapeutic heating pads for every body part you’d want to pamper)
Pink Lemonade Bags (very cool totes & purses)
Now go! Click on the links!
It’s about this time of the year that we’ll find a new phone book on our front door step. It surprising that it’s not one of those things that slowly gone away since you can find so much information on the internet. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t even keep yours or you just need to know where you can take your old one to be recycled, head on over to Earth911.
At the top of their home page, you can enter what you’d like to recycle and your zip code. A list will then shows up showing you where you can go. While you’re there, take a look at the main menu across the top of the page to see other items that can be recycled that you may not normally think of.
Hard to say, but Enviro-Girl’s been reading Paul Roberts’ book The End of Food and what she’s learned about chicken has really, really freaked her out.
For a long time, chicken has been perceived as a “healthier” protien/meat than beef. It’s leaner, it’s more acceptable across cultures and it’s cheaper to produce. And since the 1980′s, Americans’ appetite for chicken is unabated. The new chickens are bigger, with larger breast portions (because duh, it’s all about the white meat), and cheaper to raise.
What does that mean, “cheaper to raise?” New commercial breeds of chickens mean the modern chicken is twice as big than it was in 1975, the breast portions weigh over 1/2 a pound each, and they reach slaughter weight within 40 days instead of the 10 weeks needed by the farm-raised chicken of the 70′s.
Cheaper to raise? Not yet–the profit margin for chickens is a mere 2 cents profit on each pound. TWO CENTS. So, bigger bird = good. Feed bigger bird cheaper food = better. Consider–the average chicken in a Tyson plant eats a combination of starches, amino acids, antibiotics and protein. The automatic processing means nearly 100 birds get slaughtered each minute at modern chicken factories.
These birds are unhealthy, our insatiable appetite for white meat means these birds are bred so top-heavy they cannot walk after they’re 5 weeks old–and many suffer heart failure under the weight of their chicken-McNugget-bred-boobies. The birds slaughtered are essentially teenagers, never reaching sexual maturity because WE WANT CHICKEN ON OUR PIZZA/TORTILLA/RICE/PASTA.
Chickens also require more antibiotics than ever before as they are less disease resistant and bred in such dangerously close-packed flocks. As we know, more antibiotics= more bacteria evolving to resist the antibiotics. The cycle never ends and eventually trickles upward into human consumers.
Since learning all of these things, Enviro-Girl’s throat gets a little clogged when choosing her protein course at dinner lately. Her family already eats meat at one meal a day, their beef comes from a local cow butchered at a local meat market (they are still enjoying the benefits of Eugene, their last cow). But how to find a reasonably safe and humane source for chickens?
One answer Enviro-Girl has discovered at a local organic/fair trade/righteous & holy grocery store is Applegate Farms
Chicken Nuggets. They cost over twice as much as the nuggets made by Tyson or Banquet, but they are a mix of thigh and breast meat, and the chickens are rasied without antibiotics. Her children love them and they satisfy the occasional chicken nugget urge since Enviro-Girl cut them off from chicken nuggets cold turkey a year ago.
Readers, consider the source of your chicken and please realize that it’s generally NOT a safer or healthier option than beef or pork if it’s produced by Tyson, McDonald’s or Perdue. Educate yourself about your food and make the best choice for our environment and your body. And if you know another source of humane, healthy chicken, Enviro-Girl would love to hear it!
Posted in food
Tagged Applegate Farms, chicken nuggets, chicken safety, Paul Roberts The End of Food
Your husband’s old work shirt, an ugly polo shirt circa 1982, a kid’s dress shirt–you’re done with it and ready to make it a rag, but what about the dang buttons? Buttons are a free and easy way to add embellishment to almost anything. Enviro-Girl suggests you take a few minutes and a scissors and cut them off. Here are 5 fun ways to keep your buttons out of the trash bin and keep your rags button-free.
1. Donate your button stash to a local art school or elementary school or day care or Sunday school. Kids love to glue buttons, dry macaroni, beads, and baubles onto boxes and construction paper.
2. String your old buttons together with colorful thread or thin wire to make garland for a Christmas tree, an Easter Egg tree, or anything else you’d like to spruce up. One easy example is found here at Two Stix in the Woods.
3. Sew your old buttons at the hem of a pair of jeans, a skirt, a canvas bag, or a dishtowel for funkified bling. A cluster of colorful buttons sewn in a row at the wrist of a pair of mittens or at the brim of a cap adds a unique touch.
4. Martha Stewart suggests making button clocks or button bags with your old buttons.
5. Glued onto card stock, buttons look so clever and pretty–don’t forget the extra postage, though!
6. Make cool magnets with your old buttons.
Posted in living green on a budget, Uncategorized
Tagged button crafts, button recycle, eco crafts
***Disclaimer: this post is intended for women ~ no offense to the guys out there but we think you’ll find this post irrelevant at best and gross at worst***
Captain Compost spends too much time blog hopping when she should be working. One of her favorite haunts is Blogs Are Stupid, where she found a review of the Diva Cup. This was a contraption that she had never heard about before, so she decided to do some investigating herself. Always looking for new ways to be green and save money, further research showed that this product was worth trying out.
The next time Captain Compost visited her local Whole Foods store, she purchased her very own Diva Cup. The directions were a little lengthy but once she learned how to use the product, she was instantly in love.
The Diva Cup is a menstral collection cup that is inserted vaginally. It needs to be emptied and cleaned 2~3 times a day. It is made of silicone and cost Captain Compost $35.00.
The Diva Cup is the most comfortable feminine hygiene product CC has ever used! Once it has been inserted, she can not feel it. She feels cleaner and less bulky than she does when using pads or tampons. The cup is easy to clean and use. But most of all, Captain Compost loves the economical and environmental impact that the Diva Cup has.
Captain Compost is hooked! And also excited to never have to purchase another feminine hygiene product again. She highly recommends this product to any woman wanting to save money, reduce her landfill contributions and have a happier period!
***the ecowomen were not paid to write this review nor are they employed by the manufacturers of the Diva Cup***
Posted in Uncategorized
It’s December, which means that some parts of the U.S. already have snow on the ground. And ice. Slippery, sloppy ice.
How best to deal with the mess?
Deicing salt has long been used to clear snow and ice from porch steps, sidewalks, and streets. Salt is convenient and inexpensive, but it is also problematic.
In a nutshell, salt is bad for plants, soil, and groundwater. Salt spray that’s been splashed on plants can burn them, leaving them discolored or dead. Plants are also adversely affected by salt that’s absorbed underground.
Luckily, there are some eco alternatives:
If you really prefer to use salt for deicing, use as little as you can get away with.
Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Posted in gardening, house stuff
Check out this interesting blog post on how buying organic is not always prohibitively expensive.
Posted in food, living green on a budget, quick link
