Random Random

Found out this fact today. Doesn't help me because I flat out refuse to buy grocery store vegetables (I'd have to be starving, I think), but for those of the world who aren't so fortunate to be blessed with a CSA and farmer's market, here's a tip on identifying genetically modified veggies at the store:

Look for the PLU codes on the labels stuck on your fruits and veggies.

* A four-digit number means it's conventionally grown.
* A five-digit number beginning with 9 means it's organic.
* A five-digit number beginning with 8 means it's genetically modified.

Who knew! Tip from idealbite.com.

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New Soap, New Concept

New Soap, Old Bottle

Now this in an interesting concept. Companies will on occasion sell refills to their products, in those big bottles that are always inexplicably on the top shelf so you risk knocking yourself over the head when you pull one down. (Superfresh also keeps the Kashi crackers on a shelf I can barely reach, and I really think this is explicitly to make my life more difficult).

Anyway, the concept of New Soap, Old Bottle is to cleanse and reuse old soda and beer bottles by filling them with new soap- from companies like Windex, 409, and Dawn. They also, as far as I can tell, have their own line of “Super Green” cleaning supplies, which you can also order on their website.


Now, I would generally prefer that the entire line was the “Super Green”, and they didn’t even fuss with nasty substances like Windex (which I personally can’t use- it sets off my asthma)- but I suppose this is part of their ploy to get people to buy into the concept. Many people (myself included) are suspicious of green lines of cleaning supplies, as there are a lot of brands that claim to be all natural or green, but who may or may not be able to substantiate those claims. (Clorox? Green? Come on.) So when introducing a new concept, especially something people might be a little suspect of (old bottles), it probably makes sense to break them in slowly, with products they’re familiar with.

So, kudos to them for innovation. The idea of reusing old bottles by putting new tops on them isn't exactly new, but the idea of putting new soap in them and packaging it up all nice is rather unique. I will continue to make my own cleaning products out of vinegar and baking soda, and put them in reusable bottles that I thieved from the trash (or my conventional cleaning product using parents), but for those of you who choose not to take the time, or simply prefer conventional cleaning products, check them out. They also sell spray tops and that sort of thing so you can make your own reusable bottles at home.

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Fresh breath without feeling bad

According to Ideal Bite, a web site that posts daily tips for green living, Americans toss away nearly fifty million pounds of toothbrushes each year. Regardless of the accuracy of this statement, it couldn't hurt to curb consumption during our daily hygienic routines.

Idea Bite (which also has a very nifty e-newsletter) offers some suggestions for being green without staying smelly:

• Use recycled/recyclable toothbrushes. Radius offers a toothbrush made of 93% wood bio-plastic. Only its head needs replacement; the rest is reusable. Looking for something a little less bulky? Greenfeet offers a similarly-green item made from recycled yogurt cups. 
• Make sure you use all of your toothpaste before you toss out the tube. Not only do you prevent more waste from ending up in landfills, but you also save money (and that's a big deal for college students). Try cutting your toothpaste tube in half before tossing; most likely you'll end up with more toothpaste than you thought you had. Tube Wringers are also nifty gadgets that help you use every last drop.

Yay!

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Go Grinch Green This Holiday

I have to admit that I used to dread the holiday season with the same amount of trepidation I typically reserve for getting fillings, or visiting the MVA. I worked retail through high school and most of college, and the holiday season from behind the counter was one never-ending nightmare. The amount of things purchased- the quantity of paper used to wrap purchases, and the bags to cart them home, and the wrapping paper and the bows and ribbons and all the multitude of trappings that seemed to accompany the holiday turned my eco-sensitive stomach on an annual basis.

Now I flat out refuse to set foot in a store from November onward- and I’ve found this to be a much better approach to the holidays. What shopping I do I manage during the year- either from local vendors, where I find unique hand crafted items for the people on my list, or, for the more difficult giftees (my dad), I use the internet to find ecofriendly stores who ship with a minimum of packaging and donate proceeds to minimizing their carbon footprint.

But really, by and large, I don’t buy gifts at all.

I’ll let that sink in for a minute. No, I’m not a Grinch- I just know that most of my friends share my sentiment for gifts that have no particular purpose- bottles of lotion and the umpteenth scarf and who knows what else. I have more than enough STUFF, thanks. When I give gifts, I aim for things I know will be appreciated. This is why most of my friends receive cupcakes, often accompanied by a bottle of wine.

We prefer to take a more traditional approach to the Christmas season, making it more about visiting and spending time together, celebrating the season over a good bottle of wine and delicious baked goods, preferring to exchange cookies and clementines rather than objects we know none of us will use. If you think about it, this is how Christmas used to be- a celebration of the season, where people exchanged special treats of cakes and candied fruits and spirits, and all the children got a new toy to last them until the next year. Possibly immediate family members would make something special for one another, or include a small gift carefully selected for the recipient. But gift giving was not an obligation in the sense that you had to go out and buy something for every person you crossed paths with on a regular basis (and especially not for people you saw maybe once a year).

This method is not only less stressful (and in my opinion, far more enjoyable than endless hours spent stressing over what to buy the people in my life), but is much more ecofriendly. Most websites will offer holiday green tips such as reusing wrapping paper and packaging materials, but I find I don’t use them at all. There’s nothing to throw away (we recycle the wine bottles) and nothing leftover to clutter our lives except the warm memories of evenings spent laughing and eating.

It may take some doing to convince your family to go more traditional, but I find most of the people I talk to are more than willing to adopt a less materialistic attitude toward the holiday- only they are afraid their own families won’t go along with the plan. I suspect we are all wishing for a way out of the hectic, stressful, topped with a bow holiday lifestyle we seem to be stuck in- and if this holiday, we turned and reached out to one another with our hands instead of our wallets, we’d find others just as willing to accept our gifts of good cheer. There’s a lesson to be learned from How the Grinch Stole Christmas: “He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming- it came! It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags! Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before- maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store- maybe Christmas perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Remember the Grinch, after all, is green.

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May the Thrift Gods Smile Upon You

On occasion, the thrift store gods smile down upon us, reminding us of their presence more than ever.

I should back up a little. My family has long been devoted to finding things in the most “thrifty” way possible- my mom and my uncle used to take me and my cousins out behind the strip malls dumpster diving for thrown away crafts supplies, picture frames, even cameras and film- anything we could find, really. We always make whatever we can ourselves, shunning the prospect of spending money on something unnecessarily. From my grandmother I also inherited the tendency to save everything compulsively, in case I might be able to use it later, resulting in the absurd number of boxes of bits and pieces, as I call them, filling my apartment workroom.

So when I found the perfect pair of shoes seven years ago I did not want to get rid of them. I am not one of those girls that really obsesses over shoes. I want a pair that I can beat to death, because I walk everywhere, and that matches the majority of my clothing so I don’t have to alternate shoes every day just so I match. I will admit an addiction to vintage heels, but when it comes to the shoes I wear on a daily basis I want one, maybe two options. This particular pair turned out to be so comfortable, and matched so much of my clothing, that I wore them every day until literally the bottom started falling out this past winter. The strap also came apart, and I fixed it back on with safety pins. I tried fixing the bottom of the shoe, with duct tape, with those plastic shoe things, with anything I could think of, but to no avail. I had to stop wearing the shoes on rainy days for fear of getting my toes wet.

This may all seem absurd to most people, who would say I should just go out and buy a new pair of shoes. And I did look for new ones, across two countries. I hate shopping in regular stores, but I suffered for the sake of finding shoes at least vaguely similar to mine. I even checked eBay. Alas. After months of searching, I finally gave up, resigned to only wear the shoes on sunny days. I considered having them fixed professionally, but considering the shoes originally cost me $10 at Payless I figured the shoe repair people would probably laugh at me for bringing them in.

And then- this past weekend- while scouring Goodwills for clothing for the upcoming MPC Photography Marathon (this Friday)- I happened to glance at the top of a rack, where Goodwill keeps the shoes, and what do I see, but my exact pair of shoes, except magically returned to their original condition, shining and in one piece. In my size.

I really couldn’t believe my luck. I hadn’t ever expected to find the shoes, ever again. The thrift store gods always provide, however. Just not always when you expect it.

My cousins and I have discovered this superstition, and liken it to the gods of prehistoric hunter-gatherer tribes. If you really need something, really need it, not just want it for some superficial reason, the gods will provide. You may have to patiently search, you may have to go a little out of your way, but with an open mind and the right attitude eventually everything you need will come your way- be it a new pair of shoes, the shelf you needed for those extra boxes of books, or even food. There is so much abundance in the world, that you will find when you aren’t trying to force it- when you aren’t demanding everything, right now, the way our society seems to encourage- the right things will eventually find you.

Advice we can apply to the rest of our lives as well. When it comes to the environment, things tend to work on their own, without intervention- the planet has had millennia to experiment and get things just right. If we’re willing to work within that system, and maybe accept that having oranges in a climate like Maryland’s in winter maybe just doesn’t make sense (and value them in summer all the more), the land will provide. The only rules: don’t take more than you need, and give back more than you take. I always make sure to donate two or three things to a thrift store for every item I find.

If you want to try your own luck with the thrift store gods, you can get started right here in Chestertown with our three lovely thrift stores:

Hidden Treasures
711 Washington Avenue
Phone: (410) 778-1219
Web: www.kentcenter.org
Hours: Mon. - Thurs. & Sat. 9:00am - 4:00pm Fri. 9:00am-5:00pm

The Nearly New Shop
320 High Street
Phone: (410) 778-1781
Web: www.chesterriverhealth.org
Hours: Mon. - Sat. 10:00am - 4:00pm

The WIN Thrift Store
106 Philosopher's Terrace
Phone: (410) 778-5999
Web: www.win-foundation.org
Hours: Thurs. & Fri. 10:00am - 6:00pm Sat. 10:00am - 4:00pm

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Radical Sustainability

“For example, a mainstream sustainable development program might propose installing a series of solar panels in a rural village. But solar panels only have about a 25-year life span, provided they’re not damaged sooner, and after this period the panels are useless. Typically these projects don’t consider whether or not the village has the technical expertise, access to tools or manufacturing, or money necessary to repair or replace the panels. Without these resources the village finds itself in a position of dependency. When the panels fail they must wait for someone to donate another set…

…instead of installing solar panels a radical sustainable development project might use locally harvested wood to construct a windmill that powers alternators made from scrap cars and other salvaged materials that are locally plentiful. The windmill’s design would be simple enough to be easily repaired, giving it a lifespan considerably longer than solar panels. Equally important, the design could be replicable, giving neighboring villages independence from charity.”

-Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew, Toolbox for Sustainable City Living

This is an immensely relevant point. Look at what most mainstream sources are calling sustainable. Solar panels? By what definition is a solar panel sustainable at all? They take an enormous amount of energy to produce, usually making use of electricity that’s powered by one of the non-environmentally friendly sources, whether coal or nuclear or hydroelectric. They’re expensive. And it’s unlikely the price will go down anytime soon. To top it all off, they don’t even last that long, and then what? What do you do with solar panels who have overstayed their welcome?

At best solar panels are a temporary solution- and not a very effective one, either. Better than burning coal, certainly. But think of this, as well: who buys solar panels? Not electric companies, that’s for sure. The majority of solar panels go on private buildings, or homes. Consumers are spending more money, supposedly to reduce greenhouse gases, but homeowners aren’t using nearly as much power as say, major industries. Who are doing little if anything at all to “reduce their footprint.”

No, most companies are just looking for something else to sell. Does the fact that Toyota is going to halt production on large trucks and build more Priuses mean they’ve wisened up and decided to be more environmentally friendly? No. They just realize trucks aren’t the moneymakers right now. Are Priuses anywhere near sustainable? Absolutely not. They may have fewer emissions- but what about the building process? Doesn’t that require an absurd quantity of resources? And what about the cars we already have? What happens to them?

The point is, the things we’re calling sustainable now are by no means so. It’s basically a poor justification to maintain a consumer economy. Because if we really wanted to look at sustainable alternatives- communities living off little or no power, generated entirely by processes they’ve built themselves from local or scrap materials they didn’t have to pay a distant company for- well, we’d really have to start questioning our entire economy, wouldn’t we? If people generated their own power- think it through. Imagine the implications.

And then ask again if our present society really wants to be sustainable.

I know I do.

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So...how much does that cost anyway?

Now that the Green Your Dorm campaign at Washington College has begun, I'm sure people are wondering, "So, how much money am I gonna have to fork out?" After researching the cost of eco-friendly vs. "normal" products, I've discovered that the answer is: "Not much more."

After totaling up the cost for everything you could possibly think up for a brand-spanking new dorm room, without using (mostly) anything you already have, the grand total difference was only $38.59. So, by paying $40 more, you ensure the products you're buying are supporting sustainability, animal-free testing, and keeping nasty pollutants out of the air. So, if you have to shop, shop eco-friendly. Here is the completed list:

Greening Your Bed

Organic Cotton Sheet Set (Target): $29.99

Organic Cotton Pillowcases (Target): $14.99

Organic Quilt and Sham Set (Target): $31.99

Total: $76.97

Bed

Cotton Sheet Set (Target): $29.99

Cotton Pillowcases (Target): $9.99

Quilt and Sham Set (Target): $27.99

Total: $67.97

Greening Your Cleaning

Seventh Generation All-Purpose Cleaner: $4.49

Seventh Generation Window Cleaner: $3.69

Total: $8.18

Cleaning (Amazon)

Oxy All-Purpose Cleaner: $4.99

Windex Window Cleaner: $5.63

Total: $10.62

Greening Your Bathroom

Organic Bath Towel (Bed, Bath, and Beyond): $14.99

Organic Hand Towel (B,B&B): $10.99

Organic Wash Cloth (B,B&B): $7.99

100% Recycled Bath 2 pk Tissue: $2.59

Total: $36.56

Bathroom

Bath Towel (Bed, Bath, and Beyond): $4.99

Hand Towel (B,B&B): $3.99

Wash Cloth (B,B&B): $2.99

Charmin 2 pk Bath Tissue (Amazon): $4.02

Total: $15.99

Greening Your Teeth:

Preserve Toothbrush: $2.79

Tom of Maine’s Organic Toothpaste: $4.99

Tom of Maine’s Organic Mouthwash: $5.99

Total: $13.77

Teeth: (Target)

Oral B Toothbrush (Amazon): $4.59

Colgate Toothpaste: $3.49

Listerine Mouthwash: $5.29

Total: $13.37

Greening Your Shower:

Burt’s Bees Shampoo: $8.00

Burt’s Bees Conditioner: $8.00

Burt’s Bees Face Soap: $5.28

Burt’s Bees Body Wash: $8.00

Preserve 100% Recycled Triple Razor: $7.49

Total: $36.77

Shower: (Target)

Pantene Shampoo: $4.84

Pantene Conditioner: $4.84

Neutrogena Face Wash: $7.99

Dove Body Wash: $4.49

Gillette Venus Razor: $9.99

Total: $32.15

Greening Your Kitchen

PUR Water Pitcher (Target): $12.99

Klean Kanteen Water Bottle: $19.95

Preserve Tableware Pack: $16.00

Preserve Cups (6): $5.99

Organic Kitchen Towel (B,B&B): $5.99

Organic Dish Cloth (B,B&B): $3.99

Seventh Generation Dishwashing Liquid: $3.49

Permanent Mr. Coffee Filter (Amazon): $14.99

Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Paper Towels: $4.99

Total: $94.38

Kitchen

Water Pitcher (Target): $15.99

Rubbermaid Water Bottle (Target): $9.99

Disposable Plates 25 pk (Target): $15.99

Disposable Cutlery – Spoons and Forks 144 each (Target): $27.98

Disposable Cups 72 pk (Target): $24.99

Kitchen Towel (B,B&B): $3.99

Dish Cloth (B,B&B): $2.99

Dawn Dishwashing Liquid (Amazon): $6.82

Disposable Mr. Coffee Filter 100 pk (Amazon): $2.19

Viva 2 pk Paper Towels (Amazon): $5.79

Total: $116.72

Greening Your Laundry

Seventh Generation Laundry Detergent: $10.89

Seventh Generation Fabric Softener: $4.99

Ecover Stain Remover: $3.39

Total: $19.27

Laundry (Amazon)

Tide Laundry Detergent: $9.08

Downy Fabric Softener: $4.25

Shout Stain Remover: $2.99

Total: $16.32

Greening Your Air

Diffuser (Target): $9.99

EccoMist Spray: $8.95

Crystal Salt Lamp (Target): $19.95

Air Purifying Plants (1):

Areca Palm: $12.50

Peace Lily: $4.99

Dwarf Date Palm: $18.80

Lady Palm: $15.80

Bamboo Palm: $14.95

Total (with Peace Lily): $43.88

Air

Air Wick Spray Kit (Amazon): $13.59

Febreze Air Spray (Amazon): $3.92

No Lamp: $0

No Plants: $0

Total: $17.51

Greening Your School Supplies

Recycled Notebook (Target): $.97 each (4) = $3.88

Recycled Lined Large Post-Its (Target): $14.99 a pack

Office Max PWC Paper: $7.49 500 sheets (1)

EcoWriter 90% PWC Pencils: $.25 each (12) = $3.00

Skilcraft Recycled Pens: $3.42 for 12

Abudant Earth Binders: $9.99 for 5

Total: $42.77

School Supplies (Amazon)

Notebook: $.70 (4) = $2.80

Lined Large Post-Its: $13.69

HP Printer Paper 500 sheets: $12.99

BIC 12 pk Mechanical Pencils: $6.03

BIC 12 pk Pens: $2.25

5 1” Binders: $5.55

Total: $43.31

Green Grand Total: $372.55

“Normal” Grand Total: $333.96

The Difference: $38.59!!!

Hmmmm...maybe the Green option should be the normal option. Definitely.

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