Interesting Green Products

How is Your Family Green?

Kid Friendly Activism

Stop the Junk Mail

Neighborhood Recycling Project

5 Ways to Make a Difference

  Interesting Green Products

All kinds of food containers and servers made from corn, sugar cane, or recycled paper:

http://www.biodegradablestore.com/

http://www.branchhome.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=181

Biobags for the lawn, which decompose after 12 days, and for the kitchen (best used for food waste & paper I guess...):

http://www.biobagusa.com/

Rechargeable batteries that plug into any powered USB port to recharge (AA size):

http://www.usbcell.com/

Ecohangers rather than the wire hangers that end up in the landfill. Made from recycled biodegradable paperboard that requires less energy to produce. Encourage your dry cleaners to give them a try:

800-568-7768

Biodegradable ribbon:

http://paporganics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=NR

and this one cracks me up…

Golf balls (eventually breaks down into carbon dioxide and water):

http://www.ecogolfballs.com/

How Is Your Family Green? 

I like lists…grocery lists, to-do lists, travel wish lists, and of course, green lists. I posted two of my (recent) favorite green lists to the LMC discussion group. These lists generally make me think about my actions and inspire me to make changes.

Cut your carbon in half: backpacker.com/article/11030

21 Things you didn’t know you can recycle: www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/21Things.cfm

But sometimes they make me feel guilty (especially if I read them while enjoying my Starbucks coffee in my disposable cup – I do recycle it!). Plus at this point we all know about switching to fluorescent bulbs, that the answer to paper or plastic bags is neither but rather reusable bags and that we should recycle.

Here are my family’s top five efforts…

Use the dryer less: Over the summer my husband put up a clothesline in our backyard. It’s actually quite nice and out of the way. It’s a bit more effort to hang clothes and take them down but I did notice a difference in my PG&E bill and my sheets smell so good!

Don’t waste water: We keep a plastic milk carton by our kitchen sink. When we run the water to get it hot (e.g., for the dishwasher) we use the milk carton to collect the unused water. Then we use that water for something else (e.g., to water plants). We turn off the water when we brush our teeth and I’m trying to teach my kids that they can get their hands clean without the water on full blast!

Go paperless: We get almost all of our bills via email and then I pay them using online bill pay through our bank. We also get our investment (e.g., 401K) statements via email. I’ve cancelled lots of catalogs (call the 800 number and ask them to take you off their mailing list), cut down on magazines, and use the tips at www.stopjunkmail.org to stop unwanted credit card offers and shopping flyers. It’s great opening the mailbox to find birthday party invites and thank you notes rather than bills, junk, and more junk.

Replace disposable plates with reusable plates: I purchased a set of acrylic salad plates perfect for appetizers or cake and a set of white plastic dinner plates (both sets from Crate & Barrel). We’ve used these plates now for two birthday parties, one preschool coffee in the park, and one preschool and one grade school teacher appreciation lunch. And while yes, the initial cost was more than buying disposable plates, over time I think we’ll break even (or maybe even save $). And yes, there is clean up involved but they are nicer to use. It’s a great way to volunteer for the school and to eliminate unnecessary waste.

Recycle food scraps: I know the launch of the food scrap recycling has been met with a lot of complaints, but nothing worth doing is easy. The compost program is trying to reduce our solid waste that goes into very expensive landfills. Compostable material doesn't have to go there. The Lamorinda cities are doing a pretty good job with the brown recycling bins (there are stats on the CCCSWA website http://www.wastediversion.org/index.htm). We can be successful in the composting project, too. Some tips (yes, a list within a list) that have helped me:

Line the food waste bin with a paper towel, newspaper, or paper bag that can be put right into the green waste cart when you dump the food waste.

Use a sealable container rather than the food waste bin that was provided. I’ve been using (and reusing) one of the big (16 oz) plastic containers you get when you buy lettuce. Remember: don’t put plastic in the green waste cart. Plastic is not compostable.

Clean out your refrigerator the night before pickup, not before.

Put the really yucky stuff in the green waste cart directly rather than in the intermediate food waste bin (and again, wait until the night before pickup).

In the green waste cart, cover the food waste with yard waste (e.g., lawn clippings).

Kid Friendly Activism

A good question was raised recently on the LMC discussion group… “How can we get our kids involved in charitable activities?” It’s a question that has been on my mind for some time now. I want my boys to think about the world around them and more importantly get involved and make things better. We did a neighborhood battery recycling project a couple of months ago (see “Go Green LMC” in Resources, Parenting Resources on LMC website) but since then I’ve been a bit stumped for other projects to inspire and engage my boys. The question on the forum netted various suggestions from supporting Oakland Children’s Hospital to participating in Project Ready to Learn. My focus trends toward environmental issues… here are some ideas:  

• Participate in Coastal Cleanup Day. Sat, Sept 15th 9 to noon. What a great way to spend an afternoon... hanging out at the beach! You’ll make the beach look better and more importantly you’ll keep the trash from ending up in the ocean. According to information on the Monterey Bay Aquarium website, 80 percent of the garbage found in the ocean comes from land. Pick a beach, take a walk and help clean up! See http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.html or search for “California Coastal Cleanup Day” for more information.

• Join the Monterey Bay Aquarium Action Team. After visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium we signed up for the Ocean Action team online at www.mbayaq.org. At first glance the projects might not seem particularly kid friendly… for example write Governor Schwarzenegger to tell him you support clean, healthy beaches for California’s coast and ocean wildlife. But get creative and perhaps your child’s drawing of the ocean could strike a chord. There is also good information on the website about safeguarding sea otters, making smart seafood choices and the importance of keeping plastics out of the ocean… marine life and sea birds confuse them with food and become sick and often die.

• Support and visit the Marine Mammal Center. Donate money and then visit (see note below). See the seals and other marine wildlife that have been rescued and are being rehabilitated to eventually be returned to their natural habitat. What a great way to show your child directly the impact of their support. http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/.  Note: The hospital in Sausalito is currently under construction but the website does offer some interim alternatives (i.e. read current patient stories).

• Shop the local farmers market. And try to prepare one entirely local meal each week of the summer. http://onelocalsummer.blogspot.com/. Eating local food is good for the local economy and reduces transportation costs. http://fogcity.blogs.com/jen/2005/08/10_reasons_to_e.html. My boys get a kick out of picking out the farm fresh foods… now if I could just get them to eat those vegetables.

• Read The Lorax by Dr. Suess. . Young and old alike will enjoy and appreciate the story of the Lorax. Hopefully it will get them thinking about the connection between all living things and how we all have a responsibility to take care of the world around us. http://www.amazon.com/Lorax-Classic-Seuss-Dr/dp/0394823370Dr  

Stop the Junk Mail

As a busy mom of 3 I’m always looking for ways to save time. One of the things that drives me crazy is the amount of junk mail I have to sort through each day. So I decided its time to stop the junk mail. (Also helps protect the environment by reducing trees used for junk mail… 100 million trees are used for junk mail every year in the US!)

Check out http://www.stopjunkmail.org/. You can find lots of help online, for example a sample letter to send to DMA (largest provider of direct mail list) to get off their list. Or you can ask for a “stop the junk mail” kit to be mailed to you. The kit outlines 5 easy ways to stop junk mail (stop credit card offers, sweepstakes, shopping flyers and more). There are also companies that will do all the work for you (for a small fee of course). See www.greendimes.com (talked about on Oprah’s green episode) Or www.41pounds.org

Neighborhood Recycling Project

Being “Green” is not just a catch phrase uttered by lovable Kermit but rather an important focus in our culture today. To help my children learn more about environmental efforts and to do something constructive we embarked on a battery collection community service project. 

First we made a flyer to put in our neighbors mailboxes. The flyer appealed to the neighbors not to throw away their batteries but let us help recycle them. Then we put a box outside our front door and encouraged neighbors to drop off their batteries. The boys were so excited to check the box everyday to see what we’d collected! To make it even easier we also offered to pick up our neighbors batteries… all they had to do was put them on their doorstep.

According to information on Sustainable Moraga’s website approximately three billion batteries are sold in the US annually, but less than one percent of them are recycled. And batteries are one of the largest categories of household hazardous waste land-filled in California: more than 34,000 tons of batteries are land-filled annually. Eventually, toxic metals — cadmium, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, nickel, and lithium — leach from batteries deposited in landfills, contaminating soil and water. Clearly recycling them is essential. Recycling companies reclaim the metals and sell them to industry. 

We collected batteries from neighbors, friends and even from our preschool, Mulberry Tree. All in all, we collected quite a few batteries and we recycled them at one of the Moraga collection sites (see list below). While we might not have saved the world, we saved a few batteries from the trash, raised awareness about battery recycling and my boys got a sense of accomplishment and did something “good” for the earth. 

If you want more information to do your own neighborhood battery project, please feel free to contact me at kana@steveandkana.com  

Battery recycling: Moraga - Longs Moraga Center, Longs Rheem Center, Moraga Hardware and Lumber; Lafayette - Longs Drugs, Ace Hardware; Orinda - Longs Drugs, Rite Aid.

For more information about Sustainable Moraga and Moraga’s Battery Recycling Program see http://www.sustainablemoraga.org/projects/battery-recycling-program/

5 Easy Ways to Make A Difference*

1. Pick up a piece of trash
2. Bring your own bags to shopping - keep a few in your car, wherever - it's an easy habit to start!
3. Carry a resusable water bottle
4. Turn off the water when brushing your teeth
5. Travel by foot, bike, BART when possible