Mother's going GREEN Day 64 - Cloth Diapers and Vacation

As those of you already know from reading my blog on a regular basis, I use cloth diapers on my baby and love them. Deciding to go on vacation brought on a challenge of keeping the cloth diapers clean. Although I probably could find a laundromat near the hotel I am staying in - did I really want to spend every second evening washing diapers after a fun filled day which would probably leave me exhausted? What about the film of 'bad' detergent left behind in those washers and driers? And I do not think I could trust the hotel laundry service to use a natural detergent. You see one of the things with cloth diapers is you do need to wash them with care and with a natural detergent in order for them to retain their absorbency...

Hence, for our vacation I opted to go with a disposable diaper. Now not any disposable diaper would do. My babies bum has been chemical free for sometime now and I hated the thought of placing a 'disposable diaper' on her bottom. My search began for a 'natural disposable' diaper. I did find a few out there Seventh Generation and Nature Babycare to name a couple. I choose to go with Nature Babycare. The packaging is 100% biodegradable. The diaper is too. Now I know that is not 100% accurate of anything as it still finds its way into a landfill where the conditions are not quite right for it to degrade as it should, but at least it is a possibility and made from all natural ingredients and is cholrine free.

To read more on this diaper and the company behind it, visit: http://www.naty.com/.

Okay, so I am cheating on my cloth diapers but only for a few days..... I will be back to them as soon as I get home.

Mother's going GREEN Day 60 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today's craft will add some sparkle to our summer nights on the deck.

Tin Decorative Candle Holders

You will need:

-- Tin Cans

-- Hammer

-- Nail

-- Tea Light Candle

-- Safety Glasses

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- It is best that you fill the cans with water and then freeze them - it just makes it easier.

-- Draw a design on the cans (after the water has frozen)

-- With a hammer and a nail punch out the design (this is when you may need the safety glasses)

-- Allow ice to melt. (I stuck mine in the garden where the sun melted the ice quickly and the water then went into the garden - rather than wasting it)

-- Insert the tea light candle

-- You may need to flatten out the bottom of the can especially if it pop out with the ice being in it.

And there you have it - A nice decorative candle holder.

Mother's going GREEN Day 54 - Green Ribbon Pledge and Shopping

Some days when it comes to writing my blog, I have so much to write on it can be tough to decide.. My husband suggested I write about the wonderful organic and local meal he prepared for dinner, I was going to write on deodorant; but after I read one of my fellow green bloggers post - I got side tracked into shopping (not for deodorant but for cool cool green stuff.)

Jollygoodandgreen wrote of the Green Ribbon Pledge - I decided to check it out and have joined her in her pledge. This is my pledge: Over the course of a year, the energy saved as part of your green ribbon pledge is 6810 kWh/year and 200 gallons of gasoline.

But while taking the Green Ribbon Pledge I clicked on to the store: The Rain Forest Site and here you can buy gifts for anyone and everyone and the great thing is you give back to the people who created your item, you give back to the environment. For the most part their products are organic, recycled, fairly traded and ethnic. You can purchase gifts to help others or animals. I purchased a pair of school shoes for a girl in Africa. South Africa is where I was born and raised it is my home so I chose to help those less fortunate on the continent Africa.

I could spend hours perusing the site. Great selection and always an opportunity to help the environment with every purchase.

Guys and Gals - GO SHOPPING!!!!!!! (guilt free - yes there is such a thing).

Mother's going GREEN Day 53 - Children's Eco-Craft

When Fridays come along, I usually head to the recycling can and try figure out what we can create this week because we have an abundance of milk jugs I decided to put them to use. We also needed some sort of plant markers for our rooftop vegetable garden which is growing so well - so the idea of Vegetable Plant Markers came to mind.

Vegetable Plant Markers

You will need:

-- Empty Plastic Milk Jugs

-- Pictures of Vegetables

-- Glue Stick

Instruction (with adults help if required):

-- Cut long 'rain drop' shape from recycled milk jug (2 per marker)

-- Glue picture on the top of 'rain drop' shape cut out (I used printed pictures on the back side of an already used paper, but you can either draw your own or cut some from a magazine)

-- Glue on second 'rain drop' shape to cover picture - this will provide some waterproofing so our pictures do not get damaged.

-- Place markers in garden to identify your vegetable plants.

Mother's going GREEN Day 52 - The Car Wash

My car is probably one of the not so clean cars on the road. I honestly do not have time to wash it and quite honestly have better things to do. But when it gets really dirty and dusty - when it is tempting to write on it with your finger "please wash me" then I head of to the drive through car wash. (okay - so not as dirty as in this picture)

Today, was the day I headed for the car wash and as we were going through it the thought occurred to me that this might not be the best environmentally friendly way to wash my car. As soon as I had a spare moment I was going to investigate this and here is what I found:

What is the most environmentally friendly way I can wash my car: doing it myself or going to the local car wash?

I figured washing the car by hand would be the most environmentally friendly way to go - since most of the time to be 'green' one needs to go 'old school' but as it turns out that washing our cars in our driveways is one of the most environmentally un-friendly chores we can do around the house. Unlike household waste water that enters sewers or septic systems and undergoes treatment before it is discharged into the environment. Which means that the water from washing your car in the driveway goes right into storm drains -- and eventually into rivers, streams, creeks and wetlands where it poisons aquatic life and wreaks other ecosystem havoc.

The water from out washed car includes the following harmful ingredients: gasoline, oil and residues from exhaust fumes; not to mention the detergents used in wasting the car, unless of course you are using an environmentally friendly detergent but even so it has the other chemicals I have just listed.

However federal laws in both the U.S. and Canada require commercial carwash facilities to drain their wastewater into sewer systems, so it gets treated before it is discharged back into the great outdoors. And commercial car washes use computer controlled systems and high-pressure nozzles and pumps that minimize water usage. Many also recycle and re-use the rinse water.

The International Carwash Association, goes on to say that automatic car washes use less than half the water of even the most careful home car washer. According to one report, washing a car at home typically uses between 80 and 140 gallons of water, while a commercial car wash averages less than 45 gallons per car.

For more info on this topic you can visit the following sites: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/car-wash.html

http://www.imagesautospa.com/Environmental.html

Needless to say I was thrilled about my findings - taking my car to the commercial car wash was in deed the green thing to do.

Mother's going GREEN Day 51 - Strawberry Jam Forever

Strawberry Jam Forever and ever. You guessed it we made strawberry jam with all those Strawberries - 15 jars of it. Enough to last us at least 11/2 years to 2 years. That is if we do not give anyway as gifts. Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, teachers gifts. Homemade and it really tastes GOOD!!!!

One less thing to pick up from the store. Produced locally (I would like to say it required no energy - but it did to cook but I am sure not as much energy than those mass produced jars of jam.) The plus side is we can reuse the jars a thousand times over making other jams and pickling our veggie garden harvest.

Here is the recipe we used (we made a few adjustments to the original recipe) My husband who is a chef said this was okay to do - I on the other hand nervous to how it would turn out not following the exact instructions, but it worked out just great and delicious too. The anxious part for both of us was waiting for the lids to "pop" to ensure a good seal. But after the pop we breathed a huge sigh of relief. Our hard work was not in vain.

Strawberry Jam Recipe:

4 cups crushed strawberries

1/4 cup bottled lemon juice (we used fresh lemon juice)

1 teaspoon (5ml) of vanilla essence

4 cups of sugar

1 package (57grams) Fruit Pectin

-- Combine all ingredients except fruit into a large deep stainless steel saucepan and bring to boil on high heat

-- Add sugar

-- Stirring constantly, return mixture to a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down.

-- Boil hard for 1 minute.

-- Remove from heat and skim foam.

-- Ladle jam into hot sterilized jars within and 1/4 inch from the top rim.

-- Using a non metallic instrument remove air bubbles.

-- Wipe jar rim removing any stickiness

-- Put lid(s) on jars and screw tight firmly

-- Place jar in canner (we did not have one of these - instead we used a large pot of boiling water, enough water to cover the lid of jar by 1 inch.)

-- Boil jars for about 10 minutes.

-- Remove jars without tilting. (we used BBQ tongs for this task)

-- Cool upright and undisturbed for 24 hours (you may actually like we did hear the lids 'pop')

SEALED LIDS CURVE DOWNWARDS

-- Label and store in cool dry place

Mother's going Green Day 50 - The Big 50!!!

We made it to 50 days of going green and living green.

I became a member of Alltop - all the top stories covered all the time. So my blog appears as one of the top green blogs - Way to go me. What is Alltop; in their words: "We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs."

Today also on day 50 I passed the 500 mark on "hits". Word is getting out and people are visiting my blog. I feel the purpose of me writing this blog is being realised - spreading the "green" word.

Happy 50th blog day to me.... Hip Hip Hooray!!

Mother's going GREEN Day 45 - Husband is showing signs of Green

More and more these days My husband is exhibiting hues of green, he is starting to think with the environment in mind.

He has switched from a electric edge cutter thing to a manual hand held edge cutter. He is also enjoying using it as he gets a more precise cut and avoids cutting the edges too short. The environment enjoys it as no resources are used.

My husband is a chef and works in a large corporate hotel in the city. Lately he is starting to introduce organic food items to the menu. Yesterday he brought home some samples of cookies and granola bars that he will be switching to and they are all organic. He is also looking into organic meats and poultry and looking more at local suppliers for in season produce.

While he still needs to conform to "corporate" standards he is trying to go a little greener wherever he has the power to do so. Too bad the 'corporate' mandate could not be 'greener'. But baby steps....

My husband has also not brought home a plastic bag for awhile either. Way to go Hubby!!!

Moral of today's post: If my husband can live greener, then so can you...give it a try and don't worry that it just small things to start eventually you will catch on and just keep going.

Mother's going GREEN Day 42 - Electrical Power

As some of you may note; my post for day 42 comes one day late... We had a power outage yesterday - for us it lasted a few minutes but for some of our town into the early evening. Because of this our Internet connection was affected and now was only operating intermittently - not sure how - but that is what the cable company told me after several calls begging them to see what they could do to get me up and running so I could do my post. To no avail - hence I post today for Monday July 7,2008.

It was really weird - early in the afternoon as I was researching our use of electrical power (my kids have TV time for an hour after lunch and I surf the net) and BOOM the power went out. how ironic...

Since going green I do not turn on any lights - it works well now that it is summer as when it gets dark it is almost time for bed and then I usually sit on our deck and enjoy some quite time by the light of the moon.....It is great. I have always been a fan of saving electricity as it it a savings you also see in your monthly bill. I have been known to sit and read in almost darkness before turning on a light (which by the way does not damage your eyes only outs strain on them).

You too can save electricity by following these simple steps:

-- Do not leave lights on in a room when you leave.

-- If you have a porch light and would like it stay on to welcome your night time visitors - invest in a motion detector light that goes on when some one approaches your house. We have one as my husband often only gets home after dark and I do not want to leave a light on so he can find his way in putting the key into the lock - now the light goes on as needed and turns off 5 minutes later.

-- Turn off electrical appliances when not in use. Even the ones that are just in sleep mode. If it still has some sort of light/clock running even when it is off - it is still drawing power and using electricity.

-- Cut down your TV watching time (this benefits you and the environment). Get out and enjoy the world or in the evening pick up a good book.

-- The hardest one for me is also cutting down on my computer time - and also making sure I turn it off when I get up and leave. That includes the monitor.

-- As mentioned before only run appliances like the dishwasher and washing machine with full loads. Also, decide what you want from the fridge before you open it. No need to stand with the fridge door open as you decide on what you need. You warm up the fridge, which then needs to use more energy to get it back to it's original temperature. Same thing with the oven when you are cooking. Use the oven light rather than opening the door to check.

-- Install energy efficient light bulbs - now that is an easy one.

For some numbers on how much electrical energy we use world wide look here. The United States ranks number 1; Canada number 8; United Kingdom number 13.

Electricity production requires the use of non renewable resources such as coal, oil, (natural) gas, uranium, of semi renewable resources such as biogas, wood, waste, or of renewable resources such as water, wind and solar energy. The non renewables form by far the most important resources for electricity production. Therefore there is an almost direct relation between electricity production and the use of fossil non-renewable resources. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the electricity generated in America in 2002 came from the following sources:
Coal 50%
Nuclear 20%
Natural Gas 18%
Hydro 07%
Other 05%

Here is some information on the relationship between oil and electricity and the impact on the environment.

Hence, you can see why it is important to conserve electrical energy or use a renewable form for producing electricity such as solar or wind power.

Mother's going GREEN Day 41 - A Day at the Movies

Taking a page out of Mom Goes Green blog, our family too decided to head for the theatres and watch the Disney Pixar movie WALL-E.

I seldom get out to the theatre what with an infant and all, but today the whole family went out. My son who is 5 loved the show and understands a little more on how our actions can impact the planet - the garbage and such. Since "going green" he has often asked me what the world may look like if we do not take care of it - I think this movie gave him a visual but also hope.

It definitely opens the door for discussions with children about the environment, which I think is very important considering the environmental crisis that the world is in. I too hope it can open the minds of the parents too and we can all live a little more environmentally conscious.

If you have children and even if you do not - this is a great movie to see and a movie with an environmental message.

Mother's going GREEN Day 40 - Recycled Toilet Paper

I remember back to my teenage years when we would joke about "recycled toilet paper" in the future. Well, that future is here and it is no joke.

But the day has come when we switched to recycled toilet paper. As I have mentioned before, my husband always buys in bulk, especially when things are on sale like toilet paper, Kleenex and paper towels. He often comes home from grocery shopping with large volumes of these products - it used to drive me crazy as we would then have to store all of this stuff.

But I am happy to say we have now used our last roll of the "virgin" toilet paper. And now it is okay for my husband to go out and buy in bulk as long as it is the 'good' stuff - like the stuff he recently purchased. Cascades 100% recycled. The label reads:

-- Recycled content(majority post consumer fibres): 100%

-- Virgin Fibre: 0%

-- Chlorine Bleaching: 0%

-- Water saved vs. paper industry manufacturing average: 80%

-- Added fragrances and colours: 0%

-- Environmental certifications: 2

-- Quality: 100%

A study shows that if every household in the United States just replaced 1 roll of the regular toilet paper with a roll of recycled toilet paper we could save 423 900 trees. Now that is a lot of trees.

For some fun facts on toilet paper and what has been used prior to 'toilet paper' visit: Toilet Paper World.

And in case you are wondering - Recycled toilet paper is not made from toilet paper but other recycled paper.

Make the change to recycled toilet paper.

Mother's going GREEN Day 39 - Childrens Eco-Craft

This weeks craft can be used to add some scent to your home. We hung one in the cupboard were our garbage can is and another in our laundry room above the dirty cloth diaper bucket.

Cinnamon and Spice Rope

You will need:

-- Plastic bag

-- 3 x Cinnamon Sticks

-- 2 x Coffee Filters

-- Spice/Herbs

-- String

-- Ring (optional - I used a ring from an old key chain)

Instructions: (with an adults help if required)

-- Cut the plastic bag into strips (at least 6 fairly long strips). Lay the bag flat and cut up from the bottom into strips.

-- Tie at least 6 strips of the plastic bag to the ring. If you do not have a ring you can use a piece of string with the ends tied together to create a loop.

-- Braid the plastic bags (2 strips for each part of the braid). Tie it off when you reach the end with string or an extra plastic strip.

-- Take the coffee filters and place about 2 teaspoons of herbs/ spice in the centre. Pinch together and tie - see picture to right

-- Finally tie the cinnamon sticks and spice pockets to the braided plastic and hang up.

Mother's going GREEN Day 38 - Washing Dishes

"Mom, I thought we aren't supposed to be using plastic" was my son's words as I served up apple juice in plastic cups today. The thing is I had no clean glassware. I have recently changed my dish washing habits. My routine was to turn on the dishwasher after breakfast. It would have lunch, dinner and breakfast dishes (sometimes it was full and sometimes not). But now my routine is no longer - I wait until I have a full load. I had to go out and purchase more cutlery as I kept running out of that now it looks as if a couple more kids glasses are in order.

The "Green" on Dish washing:

-- A study refered to in treehugger.com proves that the dishwasher uses only half the energy and one-sixth of the water, less soap too than hand washing. see more on this debate: hand vs. machine washing

-- Set your machine (if possible) on a low energy setting, low heat setting. My dishwasher has 3 options: Hi-Temp Wash (on or off); High-Temp Rinse (on or off); Heat Dry (on or off) - mine are all set to off thereby maximizing my energy efficiency.

-- Run your dishwasher only when you have a full load.

-- Use biodegradable soap with no chemicals

-- Don't use a commercial rinse agent (again full of chemicals) I use good old vinegar as my rinse agent. My dishes have never looked better.

Here's to the dishwasher - thank goodness it is a green choice, as I would not enjoy washing dishes by hand.

Mother's going GREEN Day 37 - Driving "Green"

We live about an hours drive outside Vancouver, British Columbia (60km or so) along a beautiful mountain road with lots of twists and turns. And sometimes I need to make that trip into the city.

There is a rail track that runs right next to the road but alas no passenger trains or I would by far prefer to take the train. It is a 'political' thing that their is no passenger train - I would say about 50% of our community commutes to the city on a daily bases for work (my husband included). Lots of CO2 !!!!!! Now if only the train could take you there that would cut down on some of that pollution. But I think that is going to take awhile for that to happen.

However, there are green ways to drive, and I use the book Green for Life by Gillian Deacon as reference to some of them:

• Drive the speed limit - cars engines will operate more efficiently at the speed limit, as they are designed for this. Plus it is safer too.


• Keep your cars tires at the correct pressure - Tires that are not inflated enough cause a drag on the road - hence using more energy, gas and creating more pollution. To know what pressure is right for your tires - look at the sticker that should be inside the door frame of the drivers side.


• Keep your oil clean - The cleaner your oil is the better the car will run - more efficiently. I prefer to have my oil changed 'professionally' this way the oil can be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. If you choose to do it yourself, please ensure that you dispose of the oil correctly.


• Do not idle your car - not even to warm it up - Idling your car only wastes the gas and creates unnecessary CO2. It is best to drive a car to warm it up and if you live in a really cold place it is more energy efficient to buy a block heater that can keep your engine warm. Along our highway into the city - there is a lot of construction going on - in preparation for the 2010 winter Olympics, hence there are often times when cars are stopped for construction purposes. There are signs posted asking us to save the air and turn off our cars and I think this is just great - although some people do not and prefer to idle for the 10 - 20 minutes that they need to wait.

So even if you do not yet drive a 'green' car - at least drive green!!

Mother's Going GREEN Day 36 - Food Storage

With everything I have learned on plastics and food storage, I have had to re-look at my food storage.

I have had plastic containers for I do not know how long maybe 5 years that I store left over food in. I tended to heat the food in those same plastic containers and my favourite container for cooking rice in the microwave is plastic. All that has to go....

In its place I have opted for glass dishes - they do have plastic lids but are #4 lids so a 'safe' plastic. The glass containers are nice as I can clearly see what is in them when storing them in the fridge and now do not have to take it out and open it. A quick glance lets me know what it is. They are great for reheating too - I take of the plastic lid and cover with a plate and microwave as usual. My rice cooking dish has also been replaced and now it has a lid so if I do not use all the rice I can just put the lid on and save it for another meal - no need to dish it out into another container.

Food storage is an important part of our life. I do not relish the idea of cooking so usually cook more than required so I can just reheat for a future meal. Which turns out too to be energy efficient - since it takes the same amount of energy to cook 2 cups of pasta as it does 4 cups. Reheating in the microwave takes less energy than cooking it again. But I am now getting off topic about food storage.

I will soon be looking into some stainless steel food storage options too. Mostly for school lunches and snacks on the go. Glass can be pretty heavy to carry around and with kids there is always the chance of breaking it.

Mother's going GREEN Day 35 - Body Wash and so much more

Body wash- something I have been researching for sometime. Knowing that I would soon run out of my regular chemical ladened body soap - and need to replace it with an environmentally friendly soap.

My search turned up many options some turned out to be quite expensive and then others I questioned how green friendly they were.

Finally I came to a decision. Dr.Bronner's Magic Soap. The bottle lists 18 different uses, but according to their website it has many more. Some uses include: dish washing, car washing, pet washing, laundry washing, deodorant, shampoo and the list goes on.

I purchased the lavender scent for my children and it can be used as a body wash, bubble bath, shampoo you name it. You only need 2 drops of it so I am sure it is going to last much longer than the regular stuff. Lavender I choose for my children to calm and soothe them before bedtime.

For my husband and myself I purchased the peppermint scent - this one because of it peppermint scent you can even use it as toothpaste. We will use this as a face wash too. I chose the peppermint as a fresh lively scent that will get us up and awake it the morning.

I know that I am going to enjoy these soaps. Oh and did I mention that it is Fair Trade too.

Mother's going GREEN Day 34 - Miscellaneously Green

Was it ever hot today. 32 Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit)!!! But it was a day of many small successes.

No energy wasted on indoor cooling systems: I have never been a fan of air conditioning. Not even in my car (it has always felt very artificial) In my car I prefer to have all the windows down and just let the breeze blow though. The same was true today. My husband wanted to plug in the electric fans to cool our house and I said no lets just open the back and front doors of the decks and let the very slight breeze blow through. It did the trick and kept the house cool.

Reused Water: Because it was so hot, and even though we are trying to live a greener life, I did want my children to enjoy splashing about in the cool water of a 'wadding pool'. We filled the pool a little with water - enough for them to cool down in and have some fun. What we did do with the water once we were done was water all of our garden plants (which we would have done anyway since it was such a hot day). This way the children could amuse themselves for a while as they filled their buckets (and thier watering cans) with water and watered our garden. Picture shows our daughter watering the small tree we planted on earth day.

Reduced waste and recycled: I am not one to feed our pets 'human' food. Although I have heard that it is better for them than 'pet' food. No additives. So today I made the decision that our dog could now eat the left over 'human' food that our kids do not eat. In doing so we throw away less of the food waste and our dog can eat a little treat too. Because I did not have an extra dog bowl for this delicious snack - I thought - mmmmm what can I use..... my green friends at Our Green Year spoke about recycling yoghurt containers, so I went off to our recycling bucket and dug one out. Cut it a little shallower (since we are buying the larger containers and not the individual containers - so we can reduce packaging) and presto I had a little dog bowl.

Organic Food: Food has never tasted better and tonight we enjoyed a 100% organic meal. Chicken with carrots and tomatoes with organic dressing. Even organic ketchup for the kids. Hats off to my husband who is getting into the 'organic food' thing.

No Plastic Bags: Further kudos to him as he also purchased another canvas bag when grocery shopping today after he realized that he would not have enough and to avoid the plastic ones. I believe my earlier post about his plastic pitfalls has put a little fear in him.

So all in all a great "going green" day in this household. Living green is becoming a habit, almost second nature. Which make this mom really happy.

Mother's going GREEN Day 33 - Cloth Napkins

I picked up a package from the Post Office today. Yippee, my cloth napkins had arrived and just in time too.

Having small children can be messy at meal times and we have always given them a 'paper' napkin to wipe their hands and their face. My husband as you may recall does all of our grocery shopping and likes to buy in bulk so we had a ton of paper napkins - we just this morning used the last one, so my package arriving today was great timing. No more paper napkins, that get used once and then tossed out. We are now going with cloth.

I bought my napkins off E-Bay - vintage was the description which means 'used' - So we are not only going to save throwing away the paper but we are also reusing. Ones mans junk is anothers treasure. I purchased 45 napkins for approximately $1.00 each. Enough napkins to last us through several meal periods without having to wash them. It would be a shame to waste additional energy to ensure we had clean napkins - sort of counter environmentally productive.

I think now I am going to invest in some 'napkin rings' just to add some flare to our meals. Having the cloth napkins too reminds me of meals with my grandparents who always used cloth napkins. A mix of differnent patterned cloth napkins - just like mine.

Mother's going GREEN Day 32 - Childrens Eco-Craft

Finally the sun came out in our part of the world....Yippee!! We crafted something simple outside in order to enjoy the sun.

Pet Rocks (a classic)

You will need:

• Nice smooth rock
• Paint
• Google Eyes (if you have any – not required)

Instructions:

• Paint rock in pet of choice (we did a Lady Bug – but you could do a bee or a regular bug whatever your creative heart desires).
• Stick on Google eyes
• We placed our 'Lady Bug' in our garden for a little bit of colour.

Mother's going GREEN Day 31 - Computers and Such

I have been having some computer problems for the last several weeks. Finally, today a technician was out to have a look at the problems..... After a few hours we got it fixed but he did mention to me that it was probably time I got a new computer. "What a new one, this is only 5 years old" was my response. "Yes, but a computers life is only about 5 years" he said.

That got me thinking - if everyone has a computer which pretty much everyone does have that's an awful lot of computers being replaced every 5 years give or take a few years, and an awful amount of computers being made each year. I made a decision to hang onto this computer for much longer. Okay so it gives me problems, sometimes it can be slow, but it does the job I need it to do. When the time comes I will get rid of it the environmentally friendly way. My friends at Our Green Year speak to this (http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/search?q=e-waste). However, I also found a website that suggests much of the E-Waste is then just simply sent off to China, Nigeria, India and Pakistan (usually illegally) where it remains in toxic piles waiting to be recycled, poisoning the residents. http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HomeGarden/stop-e-waste-by-recycling/

So when it comes time to reinvest in another computer (I will try and make this one last another 5 years - by fixing it) I will ensure that the company I buy it from will also offer a good recycling program for it, when it's time comes. Here is another interesting site on all the hazardous chemicals in ones computer: http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=e8def77a-3a8f-420b-ad29-a9e08d03fca0.

Moral of this story: Don't throw out your computer or any electronics for that matter and be sure to recycle it ethically. With an E-Waste company that has ethical practises.

A side note on plastics: One of the comments I received recently was that their organic produce was packaged in an 'unsafe' plastic. This prompted me to check mine. What I had, all seemed to be in the 'safe' plastic. But what I did note though was my milk and juice are packaged in 'unsafe' plastic; whereas my old cleaning detergents (I had to blow of the dust and search the back of the kitchen cupboard for them) are mostly packaged in the 'safe' plastic. How ironic - I guess the cleaning companies just don't want any more poisons to leach into their already toxic product.