Category Archives: Environment

Feb20

Reusables and Your GROSS Factor

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Reusables and Your GROSS Factor
Reusables and Your GROSS Factor

I’ve been thinking about things we use and things we re-use.  We re-use many things for convenience and for the environment, other large items are for financial purposes.  Below I’ve created a list of sorts of things we commonly re-use and I’ve put it in order of “Not gross at all” to “Too gross for me.”

I don’t want to throw out paper or styrofoam plates everyday so I own nice plates and wash them after meals. I have silverware and chopsticks so I don’t have to dispose of these after meals. Same for serving dishes.
I have kitchen and bathroom towels so I don’t need paper towels or these new disposable bathroom towels (what a ridiculous invention!).
I use a glass cup in the bathroom so I’m not tossing out Dixie cups 3x a day. I’ve had my elec toothbrush for 5 years – better than disposable waste I think.
I made reusable cotton pads for makeup removal. I made washable butt wipes for my son’s diaper changes.
I use washable menstrual pads (Glad Rags and Imse Vimse)…and a hush goes over the crowd. No one talks about that one very much, yep, they’re more popular than you probably think.  The Diva Cup is a great option if you’re more of a tampon girl, they come in 2 sizes – pre-baby and post-baby!
Now I’ve been considering using something I’ve recently discovered, something referred to as “family cloth”.  Family cloth is reusable toilet paper!   I think that term makes it sound grosser than it needs to be!  I read an article about it after doing a google search (I’d temporarily thought I’d invented the idea) and I found a fantastic article written by Sayward Rebhal, otherwise known as Bonzai Aphrodite.  I’ve sewn up my own squares, but you can buy some cute ones on Etsy.   I’m considering going ahead with the family cloth, but I’ll only use it for #1 and I won’t share my cloths with anyone else – my family wouldn’t agree to it anyway.

My two guilty guilty bad-for-the-environment pleasures?  Puffs Plus and 7th Generation diapers. But I’m currently seeking out hankies like my grandpa used to use.  Do you have a guilty-pleasure/disposable item you don’t want to stop using?

My husband (and some other people) think I may be a little extreme and that I have a pretty high limit to what I find gross.    What do you think?  Where do you draw the line between being “green” and good-for-the-environment and gross/going too far?

Below is a list of things I could think of that we do or can reuse.  Some things are obvious, but I’m sure there’s someone somewhere that doesn’t even reuse the obvious.  It’s all perspective I guess.  Where is your limit?  What stops you from going further?

Houses – Do you dream of building a brand new house or is a used house okay?

I used to live in this house! An old Mid-Century Modern in Denver

Clothes – Do you wash and reuse your clothes?  What about giving to and buying from thrift stores?
Pots & Pans – Wash, dry, and reuse!  There will be a day they make a “convenience” set of throw-away pans!
Plates & Bowls – Paper plates, Styrofoam, or real plates?
Silverware – plastic?  Compostable?  Or metal?
Chopsticks – “disposable” ones or invest in a nice pair?
Seeds from Fruit & Veggies – use seeds from real fruit/veggies or buy a packet of seeds at the store?
Used paper - from scrap paper/doodling/list making
Wrapping Paper – Do you save wrapping paper to use another day? (I honestly don’t do this one)
Fabric Napkins – Would you wash fabric napkins to reuse or prefer throw away?
Towels – Wash & Reuse? Paper towels? Or air-dry?  I’ve seen beautiful reusable paper towels on Etsy, they even snap together to make a roll.
Toothbrushes – Disposables (one time use) do exist!
Bathroom cups – Plastic, glass, or Dixie?
Straws (glass or plastic) – I got some great glass straws on Etsy!
Ziplock Baggies – Do you wash and reuse baggies? What about using fabric snack baggies?
Food Containers – I wash and save nice glass bottles (for food) and some plastic ones (for toys and crafts)

Reusable Glass & Plastic

Composting – Do you compost? Worm or standard?
Baby Diapers – Wash ‘em or toss ‘em?

Baby Butt Wipes

Butt Wipes – I wash ours!
Menstrual Pads – I adopted these about one year ago and I’m really happy about it! Throw aways are a lot of waste, like diapers.
“Family Cloth” (reusable toilet paper) for #1 - I’m just starting this!

“Family Cloth”

“Family Cloth” for #2 – I don’t think I can go there, not yet anyway.
Adult Diapers – Yes, they make them. After having my son I needed diapers for a while, but didn’t go with reusable. There’s something about adult fecal matter that I don’t like and I don’t want it going through my washing machine!

Where did I lose you? Did I lose you?? Any other reusable item ideas? Please add to the list!! :)

 

 

 

Dec31

What to Do in Denver When You’re Vegan: Go to The Wild Animal Sanctuary!

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What to Do in Denver When You’re Vegan: Go to The Wild Animal Sanctuary!
What to Do in Denver When You’re Vegan: Go to The Wild Animal Sanctuary!

Grab your binoculars and go to The Wild Animal Sanctuary

1946 County Road 53
Keenesburg, CO 80643
303-536-0118

Summer Hours: May 1st – September 30th 9am – Sunset 7 days/week
Winter Hours: October 1st  – April 30th  9am – 4pm 7days/week
Adults: $15
Children: (3-12) $7.50

Just 30 miles outside of Denver you can see rescued African lions, black bears, bobcats, camels, coyote, emu, fox, grizzly bears, leopards, lynx, mountain lions, tigers, wolves, and many more unexpected and delightful wild animals!  Instead of taking my son to the zoo, I like to take him to the Wild Animal Sanctuary where these animals have been given a second chance.  They’ve been rescued from roadside attractions, zoos, circuses, and other situations where they’ve been exploited, abandoned, or illegally kept.  In total they have nearly 300 animals in this sanctuary and have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to 42 states and foreign countries on rescue missions.

Here at the sanctuary the animals receive excellent veterinary care, proper diets, and have plenty of space in their large-acreage-habitats for the remainder of their lives.

Your visit will bring you through the visitor’s center/ticket counter and out onto the walkway system that spans more than 300 acres of animal habitats.  All of the walkways and decks are wheel-chair and stroller accessible with the exception of one elevated picnic area above the gift shop.  The walkways are all well above the animals and stretch one mile from the visitor’s center to the 15,000 square foot lion house.  The walkways are peppered with viewing platforms and binocular stands.

Cooling Off!

You will not get up close and personal with the animals, but that is for their comfort, they are private and territorial animals – this is not a zoo, their comfort is considered before yours, though your safety is a top priority as well.  Don’t forget your hats and sunscreen as there is NO shade in sight.  Make sure you check out the bathrooms before you head up onto the boardwalk, it’s your last chance!

Check out the bathrooms…FIRST!

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Dec21

What to Do in Denver When You’re Vegan: Get a License Plate!

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What to Do in Denver When You’re Vegan: Get a License Plate!

Replace your boring plate with a *special* plate!

 

Buy a license plate to help the animals!

Colorado has 28 special interest license plates in addition to the standard issue plates.  An extra fee is required to help support the organization associated with the special interest plate.  The fees listed are in addition to the typical fees it will cost to license your car.  Here’s a list of the plates that help animals and then environment:

  • “Adopt a Shelter Pet” – $80 fee for issuance.  $30 goes towards the Pet Overpopulation Fund and $50 to the state for the Special Use License Plate Fee.  $25 each year after with license plate renewal goes toward the Pet Overpopulation Fund.
  • “Adopt a Greyhound” – Available since 2001.  $50 state fee for issuance of plates, NO money goes towards a greyhound organization.  These plates are strictly a fun way to get out the word on adopting retired greyhounds.
  • “Respects Wildlife” – Available since 2000.  $50 state fee for issuance of plates, NO money goes towards a wildlife organization.  You must get a certificate from the Raptor Education Foundation to qualify to buy this special interest plate by purchasing a one-year membership for $19.95 (discounts for teachers, military, and police) and is tax-deductible.  You do not need to renew your membership with the Raptor Education Foundation each year to keep the license plates on your car.  FYI, this organization is not anti-hunting, their website says, “REF supports responsible use of our natural resources, including hunting, fishing, and falconry.”  Sort of an oxymoron to respect wildlife and be into hunting, but they do good things as well.  I’m on the fence with this one.

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Aug5

Secret Lives of My Old Flannel Sheets

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Secret Lives of My Old Flannel Sheets
Secret Lives of My Old Flannel Sheets

A long time ago, so long in fact, I don’t even remember getting these bed sheets.  It was definitely pre-Y2K, maybe around 1998.  They were great flannel sheets, but I had a black dog who never quit shedding and who also slept in bed with me.  If you’ve ever had flannel sheets and a dog you know what I’m talking about.  This shit collects dog hair that no clothes drier can suck off and lint rollers are also fairly useless; it just starts to ball up and all one can do is pluck it off one ball at a time.

The second life of my flannel sheets was as a curtain.  I know, it doesn’t sound too classy, but I had these metal coils at the top corners of my bedroom window and I could twist the corners of the sheets through them and it made a really nice drape.  At least good enough for a single girl/college student who didn’t have a lot of visitors to her bedroom.

After that, the sheet got used as a moving pad and for other odd duties.

It was after I had my son in 2009 that I found a new useful purpose for the sheets, the top sheet anyway.  After debating on whether to use cloth diapers, disposable diapers, or a diaper service – I regrettably (for the Earth) went with disposables, washing diapers would have been the straw that broke my back as a new mom, I knew my limits.  BUT I decided to make my own reusable butt wipes for diaper changes and created a great butt spray to go with them.

Butt Wipes & Spray

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May12

What the *Palm Oil* is that doing in my food? {with updates BELOW}

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What the *Palm Oil* is that doing in my food? {with updates BELOW}
What the *Palm Oil* is that doing in my food? {with updates BELOW}

I’ve been having a quiet battle with the seemingly ubiquitous Palm Oil of late.  I’d been watching out for it, but I really took issue several months ago when my husband brought home a perfectly natural (read: stir it your-own-damn-self) peanut butter from the store.  No, he didn’t screw it up, I’d asked him to pick up some natural peanut butter, and I didn’t specify, and no one is a label reader like I am.  It was Whole Foods brand and it had freaking Palm Oil in it.  WTF, Whole Foods?!  Yes, I promptly returned it.

Today I found Palm Oil in a ready-made pizza crust at the grocery store.  It’s in tons of stuff!  It sneaks in where you’d least expect it.  It’s a total bummer and it’s starting to piss me off.  What do you think?

Here’s a short history of Palm Oil, why it seems to be stalking me, and a nice and tidy letter I’m going to send off to any company who’s product I find it in – that you can edit and use too.  Let’s really get after these bastards who think it’s okay to destroy the environment, the rainforests, and who are helping to kill off endangered species.  If you need postage, just let me know!

So, Palm Oil:  It’s a whopping 41% saturated fat (no cholesterol though since it’s a vegetable oil, but it will raise your cholesterol!) and is one of very few vegetable oils that is a semi-solid at room temperature.  It’s highly stable when used for frying foods and is very cheap to buy.  It also gained popularity when Americans became conscious of Trans Fats – Palm Oil, being so nice and semi-solid, stepped up and took its place.

Did you know Palm Oil used to be used as an industrial lubricant during the industrial revolution and is currently used in soaps and household cleaners?  Gross.  It can also be made into fuel and given America’s hunger for cheaper gasoline these days, I fear Palm Oil fuel will become more popular than ever and many people won’t care about the rainforests as long as they can save .20 cents a gallon on the fuel pumps.  I’ve already read an article about it being the next fuel for the airline business to keep prices down!

Information I found on the Rainforest Action Network’s website says that 50% of products at the grocery stores contain Palm Oil and that you could find it as an ingredient in any room of your home. Read the rest of this entry →

Apr25

Drinking Wine to Save the Environment

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Drinking Wine to Save the Environment
Drinking Wine to Save the Environment

I’m doing my part.  I’ve decided to start drinking more wine!

I recently read a top-10 list of the best boxed wines on Real Simple’s website.  I know – boxed wine sucks, right?  Well, not any more.  And the packaging has gotten a lot better too!  Check it out on their website.

We purchased “Bota Box” 3-liter boxes of Shiraz, Chardonnay, and Old Vine Zin.  Each box is equivalent to 4 bottles of wine.  That’s 4 glass bottles that I’m not buying and sending off for recycling.  That’s AMAZING!  And makes me feel awesome.  We drink wine around here like some people drink water.  You should see our recycling containers on trash day, our neighbors either think we’re alcoholics or we entertain a lot.

Of these three Bota Boxes we really liked the Chardonnay, and the Shiraz was pretty good too – it was better after it took a spin through our aerator though.

Remaining Packaging

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Apr18

The Laundry Soap Recipe!

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The Laundry Soap Recipe!
The Laundry Soap Recipe!

You’ve read The Laundry Soap Trial, right? Well, here’s the recipe I came up with.  I’m brainstorming ways to improve it, but so far, the experiments I’ve done show that mine works exactly as well as using 7th Generation – only there are fewer ingredients and it’s W-A-Y cheaper.  Also, you get that warm, fuzzy feeling from making something.

Here’s how I made my new laundry soap:

I bought a box of Borax, a box of Washing Soda, and a bar of Lavender scented Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castille Soap. The first two ingredients weren’t as easy to find as I thought.  Not at Whole Foods or Sunflower!  I found the Borax at Target and the Washing Soda at King Soopers for just a few dollars for each box!  The Dr. Bronner’s was at Whole Foods.

Borax

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Apr14

The Laundry Soap Trial

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The Laundry Soap Trial
The Laundry Soap Trial

I’m loving having a great excuse to do experiments in my home – having you reading this is my motivation to follow through and do it as technically as possible.  So, thanks for reading this  :)

You probably know I’ve been working on making my own laundry soaps recently.  I found a formulation I like – it smells great and was made with really cheap and awesome ingredients.  My husband was down on the idea and my mother thinks I’m crazy, so to prove them wrong I did the following experiment:

We bought one pair of brand new white socks, which were then worn all day and I walked all over my house with them.

The Dirty Socks

Despite the illusion of one looking cleaner than the other – I think that was just an optical illusion with the sun and my camera – they are pretty much equally dirty.  They got pretty dirty (you’d never believe I scrub my floors every two weeks!).  I took one sock and washed it in 7th Generation laundry soap and the other was washed in my soap. Read the rest of this entry →

Apr8

Greening My Home

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Greening My Home
Greening My Home

It’s a continual process and I get to learn new things every week, it’s fun and exciting (sometimes stressful), but I feel better for it.  I feel like a bigger person, I feel like I’m doing something, and I feel like I’m helping.  I know I will never be one of those people who can show you her trash from the week in the palm of her hand, trying to would drive me into a state of OCD that I would never come back from.  If you’re that person, I envy you, but I also don’t want my life to revolve around reusing, using less, and going without.  Some people would say I do already, but they’re not on board with recycling at all anyway.

So, this new burst of change started when I read a blog post about making one’s own fabric softener.  I quit using the liquid stuff years ago and I used the drier sheets after that…until I saw what kind of waste that was making, I also started to wonder what that weird waxy substance was on the sheets and realized I didn’t want that residue on my clothes.  That’s when I quit using any fabric softener; sure my clothes get static clingy sometimes and I don’t smell like a mountain stream anymore, but who cares?  People don’t naturally smell like mountain streams and neither should I.  But then I saw that someone was making their own fabric softener with essential oils and white vinegar, I got to thinking and I really liked the idea.  I tried it, but wasn’t thrilled.

Now I’ve decided to start making my own laundry soap.  Immediately before making this decision I’d just bought a nice cardboard jug of 7th Generation laundry soap (which I’ll be promptly be returning to Whole Foods – where I bought it) and I’m going to make myself a bucket of homemade laundry soap.  That’s my plan for the week. Read the rest of this entry →

Mar20

35 Ways I am Saving the Environment

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35 Ways I am Saving the Environment
35 Ways I am Saving the Environment

I’m always trying to do more when it comes to helping to save the environment.  I get stressed out when I think I could be doing more or when I realize that I really don’t want to live without a car (I’m sorry, I just can’t at this point in my life!)  But I started thinking more positively and wanted to make a list of the little things I am doing; it seems I’m doing a lot.  Tell me what you’re doing?  Any secrets to saving energy or resources?!

 

 

 

  1. Eating a vegan diet.
  2. Recycling.
  3. I Up-cycle old license plates into awesome book ends.  Check it out on Etsy!
  4. Talking to the general manager about starting a recycling program at the gym I go to.
  5. Talking to the general manager about having more vegan options at the gym’s cafe
  6. Using a clothesline and rack to dry my clothes – I actually went as far as to unplug my clothes drier so I couldn’t get lazy and use it every once in a while.
  7. Turning down the thermostat at night.
  8. Saving the cold water from my bathtub while I wait for warm water for the shower.  So many uses for 3-5 gallons of extra water!

    Saving Water

  9. I signed up to opt-out of telephone book delivery.  That’s huge!
  10. I use disposable diapers on my baby, but I made reusable wipes.

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