One such company the Green Queen likes to tell people about is Burgerville USA. This company composts, recycles and buys its produce and meat locally. It also pays 95% of its employees’ healthcare premiums. And considering that this is a “fast-food” company, I like to support these business practices by eating at Burgerville when I run out of time and need to feed my family fast.

I’d rather spend an extra dollar to keep companies buying products locally, which helps keep my community vital and thriving. I’m also willing to spend a little bit more on a company that treats it’s employees well. That companies’ employees are also my neighbors.

I want to help sustain jobs in my own community. So, why wouldn’t I eat here? It simply makes sense…sustainable sense.

So, the next time you’re thinking of eating out…put your money where your MOUTH is. Promote companies that buy locally grown and raised produce and products and remember to check out the companies in your own neighborhood before you run out of time and need to eat in a hurry. That way, you’ll be ready to make the right choice.

So far, she has completely worked over her closet, just recently shoveled out her daughters’ toy room, and is plunging into the kitchen today, to be followed afterward by dealing with the mountain of papers in the family’s shared home office.

Recycla knows she’s not alone in this desire for order. In recent weeks, she has seen a number of articles and blog posts about decluttering, including this one about throwing out 50 things. According to the author, getting rid of 50 things will not only free up your home, but it will also free up your mind, plus it will be easier to be more organized simply by having less stuff. This is an interesting concept and Recycla agrees, although she thinks that rather than throwing out 50 things, it would be better to get rid of 50 things via donations, Craigslist, Freecycle, recycling, and the like. Only throw away those things that truly cannot be reused or repurposed or recycled.

50 things might seem like a lot, but you don’t have to do it all at once. Find a few items in your kitchen and pantry, find other stuff in your bathroom, and then a few other things in your closet, and so on. Eventually, all those “few other things” will add up and you’ll hit 50.

Recycla feels so much better — more free, really — by having fewer things in her house and by keeping things tidy and organized. She really does feel calmer and more balanced when everything is in place.

If you are interested in clearing your life of clutter, but don’t know quite where to start, you might want to consider visiting Kanelstrand’s blog and taking her Simple Living Challenge, which starts next week on February 1st. The challenge aims to help all participants take the first steps to a simpler, more meaningful life. For three weeks Sonya will post tips, ideas, and her own personal challenges.

Years ago, people drained, dredged, filled in and built over millions of acres of wetlands across America.  Wetlands were not valued for their biodiversity or for their role in keeping water systems healthy.  They were seen as cheap property that could become valuable once filled in.  The most famous example of wetland development occurred in central Florida:

Disney knew the importance of getting as much land as possible and was well aware of how prices would escalate if people found out what he was doing…  By the time Disney announced the project on November 15, 1965, the company had acquired 27,443 acres (43 square miles) for $5 million. (This has expanded over the years to more than 30,000 acres, or almost 47 square miles). As Disney predicted, within days of this announcement land values for property surrounding the Disney site sky-rocketed from $180 per acre to as much as $80,000 per acre.

The 1972 federal Clean Water Act changed the scene for wetland development as it included language protecting designated wetland areas and forcing people to avoid building on designated wetland areas.  If it’s impossible to avoid development on a wetland, “Wetland Mitigation” allows for development if an equal or greater amount of wetland elsewhere is restored or enhanced.  “Wetland Credit,” if you will.

Recently Enviro Girl got a very tedious and long letter outlining a wetland mitigation project on property adjacent to her family’s property.  Because of an interstate highway project, 17 acres of wetland will be paved over in order to accommodate traffic through Green Bay, Wisconsin.  This wetland is part of the Duck Creek watershed.  To compensate for the 17 acres of wetland being removed, approximately 60 acres of land adjacent to Duck Creek some 20 miles east of the highway project will become restored wetland.  This means the farmer who owns those fields had to remove all the drain tile and pumps currently moving water off of those 60 acres.  Various federal, state and county dollars will restore the former wetland area, including bringing in fill to create a berm around the designated area and plant it with native species.

One one hand, Enviro Girl is happy because:

*  Triple the amount of wetland being developed will be restored.

* Flooding, which has become a huge problem in recent years, will be reduced in her immediate area–60 acres will retain and filter an awful lot of water that previously got channeled into Duck Creek.

*  Water pollution will be reduced because the drain tile and pumps forced Duck Creek full of water toxic with agricultural pollution run off.

* Wildlife will find more habitat and what was formerly a cornfield will now become a diverse ecosystem, adding beauty and interest to the area.

On the other hand, Enviro Girl knows that wetlands exist in the lowest-lying areas for a reason–all water systems must recycle and replenish themselves and whenever human development messes with water systems, problems occur.  You need look no further than the damage caused by recent hurricane storm surges.  Coastal wetlands absorb the damage and protect inland areas.  The gain of 60 wetland acres in her back yard is great, but who knows what the loss of 17 acres further along the Duck Creek watershed will bring.

While this wetland mitigation project is under way, so is proposed legislation that would weaken wetland protection laws in Wisconsin.  The general argument is that property owners should have more say–if they want to develop property, that should be their right.  The proposed legislation would make it easier for property owners to develop their land as they wish and more easily apply “wetland mitigation” standards to compensate for their development. On one hand, Enviro Girl appreciates people’s desire to profit off of their real estate investments.   On the other hand, if everyone developed land as they pleased, she suspects we’d be surrounded by vacant strip malls, uninhabited housing developments and acres of asphalt pavement because human nature is to make a fast buck, not restore and retain wildlife and habitat for generations.  It’s no coincidence that legislature eroding Smart Growth in her state has also been recently proposed.

Realtors and other proponents of “economic growth” love to undermine efforts to protect land from development.  Yet Enviro Girl can easily point out plenty of available land currently zoned “industrial,” “residential,” and “commercial” that adequately meet the needs of a growing economy without contributing to water pollution or urban sprawl.  Economic development can take place without adding undue stress to our environment, but that often means property owners lose their “right” to do what they want with what they own.  Enviro Girl does not know a simple solution to this problem, but she does understand that everyone’s tax dollars pay to clean up pollution caused by a small percentage of the population who tend to profit the most.  One solution is to reassess property values and create incentives to reduce urban sprawl.  Taking the long view of Wetland Mitigation and Smart Growth legislation in Wisconsin means accounting for the cost of unchecked development and pollution–a cost that everyone ends up paying for.

Ahhhhhh…

A bowl of oatmeal is a warm, nutritious breakfast that tastes good and gives any Eco Warrior enough energy to battle even the most dastardly Hummer owner.

When Recycla says oatmeal, she doesn’t mean one of those single serving packets of oats, sugar, and artificial ingredients.  Oh no.  Oatmeal in Recycla’s home comes in an 18 ounce cardboard container so that there’s less packaging waste and the cardboard can be recycled later. (She uses the plastic lids as plant coasters.)  And why buy something that’s flavored already when you can so easily add your own special ingredients, such as fresh or dried fruit, nuts, and any number of spices?

Recycla’s personal favorite is to cook her oatmeal with skim milk and then mix in raisins, cinnamon, and some of her homemade applesauce.  Yum! Alternately, she stirs in some of  the cherries she froze last summer, a teaspoon of flaxseeds, and a tiny dollop of honey.  Delish.  Last fall, she went with a couple of tablespoons of pumpkin puree, a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, and a tiny drizzle of maple syrup. Divine.

Oatmeal has a number of health benefits, including the ability to lower one’s cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.  Even better, quick oats take only a minute to prepare in the microwave.  Best of all, oatmeal is inexpensive, so Eco Warriors don’t need to spend a lot of money on a breakfast that has staying power and will stick with them all morning. Recycla is a runner in training for a half marathon later this year. She eats a bowl of oatmeal before setting off on long runs of 6, 7, 8, or more miles.

Some weekend morning, when you have more time to dally over breakfast, Recycla suggests you try steel-cut oats (a.k.a. Irish oatmeal).  Irish oatmeal takes about 20-30 minutes to cook, but the result is a chunkier, nuttier, more flavorful oatmeal that will keep you full for hours.  Stir in some dates, maybe some walnuts, and enjoy. Alternately, if you have crockpot, whip up a batch before you go to bed at night and enjoy the results the next morning.

What about you Eco Warriors?  How do you like your oatmeal?

When Enviro-Girl lived in town, she marveled at the gigantic snow blowers her neighbors employed to clear 20-40 feet of sidewalk and a short driveway to the street. Enviro Girl’s  garage was set back from the road and she shoveled three times the area her neighbors blew out with snow blowers.  Shoveling is a heck of a work out, inducing sweat and heavy breathing  within minutes –- but it’s the friendliest way to clear the snow. The trick to making shoveling a reasonable task is using the correct tool –- a shovel appropriate for your build and height – and attacking the snow in manageable bits. If 6-8 inches are expected to fall, shovel two to three times during the snowstorm so you’re only clearing a few inches at a time. If you can’t do this, only clear what’s necessary in the first round and clear the rest later.  A 2-foot wide path is adequate for mail carriers and pedestrians, and you might consider only clearing a path to one entrance of your house and leave the other access points alone.  If you get less than 2 inches of snow, you can clear it away using a broom.

Shovels produce no emissions, exhaust, air or water pollution–the person using the shovel might feel exhaust, but Enviro Girl argues most of us would benefit from the exertion of shoveling snow.  Shoveling snow won’t annoy your neighbors because it’s pretty quiet and it’s cost-effective.  You can purchase a snow shovel for $10-30 and they cost nothing to maintain or operate.

If you’re inclined to remove snow using industrial-strength machinery like Enviro-Girl’s husband, remember that bigger isn’t always better. A plow attached to an ATV uses less fuel and makes less noise than his 6.5 hp snow blowing machine.   (Enviro-Girl thinks her hubby is overcompensating every time he buys equipment with engines…you should see his chainsaw.)  An electric snowblower (Toro makes one that runs about $299) uses less energy, makes less noise, and gives off no emissions in stark contrast to its gas-powered counterparts – so if you must blow snow, electric is definitely the way to go.

But snow’s only part of the problem in the winter. Ice simply must be dealt with and there are various methods to employ.  You can chip it away, potentially damaging the concrete/asphalt beneath.  You can scatter other substances on top of the ice to gain traction on the ice until it melts naturally – sand, cat litter, bird seed, and fertilizer are good choices. These things won’t melt your ice, but they’ll help you travel over it safely until sunshine and warmer temperatures do make the ice disappear. (Enviro-Girl is going to try used coffee grounds next time her driveway freezes over.  It’s important to note that she has a strict rule about no shoes or boots in the house!)

If you can’t wait for Mother Nature to take care of things, you can melt the ice. Some places install heated walkways and driveways – radiant heat systems that run hot water pipes below the brick or concrete. These use a lot of energy. Rock salt melts ice and is fairly inexpensive, but it’s really tough on plant life and when it drains away through storm sewers it can mess up ecosystems in lakes and rivers.  Too much chloride is toxic to freshwater plants and animals.  It runs off into water supplies, it kills roadside plants, it builds up in streams and lakes, it can degrade the soil.  It’s also rough on cars, skin, and road surfaces. Rock salt doesn’t work at temperatures below 20  degrees Fahrenheit, either.  In response to the rising costs of road maintenance and environmental concerns, many municipalities have switched to applying brine–rock salt and water combined–before ice can form.  Brine saves money and leaves behind less salt residue.  Sugar beet juice mixed with brine is being studied in several communities because it works well at temperatures as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit and reduces the amount salt required to melt ice.  Many people use Calcium Chloride for melting ice.  It’s three times as costly as rock salt and can still cause skin irritation, but very little Calcium Chloride goes a long way in melting ice.  Calcium Chloride poses the same environmental risks as rock salt.

At the end of all her research, Enviro-Girl plans to use traction on the ice in her driveway.  She’ll chip away at it with her handy chipping tool (a great work out!) and pray for warmer temps soon. One other thing Enviro-Girl has learned: if you let an ice storm fall on a cleared driveway, you’ll have a skating rink that is impossible to clear. If you let an ice storm fall on a snow-covered driveway, you can shovel the ice and snow off pretty easily. In this case, a little laziness paid off on half of her driveway – unfortunately it isn’t the half she needs to drive on!

Disclosure:  Enviro Girl and her family didn’t clear their rural 1/4 mile driveway with a snow shovel — they depend upon a neighbor with a tractor.

1) Go to Work a Different Way:

a) Don’t drive your car,
b) Take mass transit,
c) Ride your bike,
d) Or even run/walk.

You’ll get into better shape, save money and help protect the planet all at the same time.

2) Use natural remedies to heal your ailments.

a) Slice large onions and lay them on your chest, to help clear-up sinus congestion.
b) Steam a pot of water, add a teaspoon of crushed lavender, hold a towel over your head and inhale the warm revitalizing scent.
c) Pour 1/2 cup of Epsom salt into your bath to help soothe aching, tired muscles.

3) Use Products a Different Way.

With the new year here people often want to clean out the old and here’s how to do it without polluting the planet.

a) Use vinegar and water to wash your windows and even your clothes. You can mix 1/4 cup of vinegar in a quart of water. Moisten a dry cotton cloth with this mixture and you can wipe down your counter tops, appliances and even your bathroom.
b) Use a slice of lemon to clean the bottom of your copper pots and pans. Simply rub the copper with lemon juice and salt and you will be awe…mazed.
c) Use baking soda to clean out your refrigerator. Take two tablespoons of baking soda and mix it in a quart of water. Use a sponge and dip it in the liquid to clean your appliances.

People haven’t always had store bought cleansers that were full of dyes, perfumes and chemicals. They used vinegar, baking soda and scrub brushes. You can too!

Luckily, there’s no need to throw all that plastic in the trash. Depending on your time, inclination, and skills, you can either re-purpose the gift cards into new items or you can send them to a company that will recycle them for you.

If you’re feeling crafty, check out this post for a list of ideas for reusing plastic gift cards. And here are a few more ideas.

If you want to simply recycle the cards, send them to Earthworks, which will chop them up, melt the plastic bits, and create new plastic out of the old. No chemicals are used in the process! Mail in your used cards to:

1)  Make it the only option.  It’s impossible to reach for a bag of chips when there aren’t any chips in the pantry.  Enviro Girl doesn’t buy carb-based snacks and when she hears the kids whine “I’m HUNGRY” she directs them to a banana, orange, apple or carrots.

2)  Make it the easy option.  Just before supper’s on the table is when her crew is bound to come into the kitchen looking for something–anything–to munch on.  Enviro Girl sets out a bowl of grapes or a dish of carrots and since it’s easy, that’s what her family reaches for.  Enviro Girl is a big fan of raw fruits and vegetables because they’re easy to snack on–often involve a quick rinse and sometimes a little chopping.  Snack food doesn’t get much easier than that!

3)  Make it the tasty option.  Enviro Girl buys at least 5 different types of fruits or vegetables each week.  Right now she has apples, bananas, clementines, pineapple and spinach in her fridge.  She’s got frozen blueberries and strawberries from last summer just waiting to be thawed.  With so much variety, eating healthy foods becomes more appealing.

4)  Make it the main option.  When meals are served, fruits and vegetables always go on the table.  A dish of sliced apples and a bowl of grapes sit next to the pan of lasagna.  And like the lunch ladies in school cafeterias, Enviro Girl makes her kids take 3 things on their plate.  Inevitably they have to reach for the fruit or vegetables.

5)  Just put them on the plate.  Ever notice how when you’re at a nice restaurant, you often get served a bit of fresh fruit as a garnish–and most people eat it?  Enviro Girl has–and she uses that trick at home.  Last night when her family ate waffles for dinner, each plate had a peeled clementine artfully arranged.  Guess how many clementines her family ate?  All of them–because they were there on the plate.

6)  Cook with the vegetables, bake with the fruit.  Enviro Girl makes pasta, quiche, soup and casseroles with additions of vegetables.  Peppers, onions, zucchini, tomato, spinach, peas–they’re easy to toss into almost any recipe.  Breads, cakes and muffins taste even better with berries or diced fruit.

Eating healthy means making an intentional effort.  What are some of your favorite ways to serve up vegetables and fruit at your table?

1.  Let your municipality recycle it.  Most towns, cities or counties will pick up Christmas trees curbside for free.  They’ll chip and mulch that tree just like they do with other types of yard waste they collect throughout the year.  Those chipped and mulched trees become a free supply to gardeners or get spread around city and county parks.  If you’re not sure whether your municipality offers this service, call your town hall or check online at Earth911.com.  Generally these programs are in effect the first two weeks of January.

2.  If you have room in your yard, drag your Christmas tree to a corner or prop it in your garden to provide cover for wintering birds and other backyard wildlife.  You can make your tree more appealing by leaving bird feeders or stringing it with popped corn.  Whether lying on its side or pounded to a stake to stand upright, your tree will weather out the winter just fine and add to the backyard habitat for birds and other winter creatures.

3.  Enviro Girl drags her tree to a garden bed where it can both decompose a little and provide good cover for more tender plantings.  When the weather gets warmer, she’ll drag that tree into the woods and use it as the foundation for a “rabbitat” (a pile of brush and branches favored by rabbits).  The old boughs and needles also provide excellent mulch if shaken or cut off and left in a garden.

4.  In Enviro Girl’s area many people donate their old Christmas trees to be used  as markers on frozen lakes and rivers to indicate safe places for ice fishermen and snowmobilers to drive across the ice.   As the ice breaks up in the spring, the trees sink and provide fish shelters as they decompose over time.  Christmas trees are used all over the Great Lakes for this purpose, and on many smaller lakes and ponds, too.

5.  Saved until summertime, a Christmas tree will dry out and become quite flammable.  If you need a fire starter for a fire pit, those tree limbs and trunk are incredibly useful!  Enviro Girl has also sat near a fire pit where her husband set fire to last winter’s tree and she assures you that’s a spectacle to witness–at a safe distance!

6.  In some areas, like Louisiana, old trees are collected as erosion barriers by rivers, streams and mountains.

7.  If you or a neighbor has a wood chipper, you can make a pile of mulch out of a neighborhood’s worth of Christmas trees in just a couple of hours.

If it comes from the earth, you can return it to the earth.  A Christmas tree is no exception–recycle it back into the ecosystem responsibly!

The first is one even your Grannie used — honey to quiet a stubborn cough. One spoonful can be more helpful than over-the-counter cough syrups for children, as found in a Pennsylvania study. The honey soothes a throat irritated from coughing and coats it. For adults, two teaspoons are probably a better dose, but not for diabetics, due to the high sugar content.

While you’re checking out your pantry, don’t overlook the wonders of cranberry juice. Great for urinary tract infections, drinking the juice or taking cranberry extract pills can actually help to prevent them. A Dutch study found that cranberries keep bacteria from attaching to bladder walls. The caveat here: be careful if you take blood-thinning meds like Coumadin or Plavix; possible interactions may lead to bleeding.

Another berry with healing properties is tart cherries. Drinking their juice can prevent gout attacks and relieve muscle soreness after exercise. There is evidence that their natural anti-inflammatory content can reduce arthritis pain, too. Research on animals shows links to retarding diabetes and heart disease, making these cherries not just for pie anymore. Be certain to reach for the bright red tart cherry, high in antioxidants than its sweeter relatives, black or Bing cherries.

Ginger, fresh or powdered, has been shown to have powerful anti-nausea effects. Studies have shown taking one gram an hour before surgery reduced nausea and vomiting those first 24 hours after the event. The National Cancer Institute also found that patients undergoing chemotherapy who take as little as one-quarter teaspoon of ginger daily before their treatment cut nausea by 40%.

But you can use it for simple motion sickness by eating one or two pieces of crystallized ginger, found in most supermarkets and food stores, before getting in that car.

Turning to your medicine cabinet, next time you reach for the menthol rub, such as Vicks, for a cold, be aware that you could be treating nail fungus at the same time. Safe and easy to obtain, wipe those nails affected with a cotton ball wet with white vinegar before applying a thin coat of the menthol gel. Easy to apply, studies show using this approach once daily cured or cleared up the fungus, sometimes more effectively than more expensive alternatives.

While you’re in the bathroom, don’t overlook baby shampoo at the back of the closet if you’re one of the many adults who suffer from itchy, red or crusty eyelids, known as blepharitis. This causes scaling and crustiness along the base of the eyelashes and is very common in older adults. The Mayo Clinic suggests the following: Dilute a tiny amount of baby shampoo with water and gently rub the mix with clean fingers on your closed eyelids twice a day for one minute. Rinse well with water. Remember to apply the mix only to the eyelids, never to the eye itself.

Eco Lassie is not recommending specific brands of items, nor has she or Eco Women profited from mentioning any of these remedies.