Mother's going GREEN Day 104 - Garbage and Recycling

I am really excited about an article I read in our local newspaper. The district has decided to only pick up our garbage every 2nd week. Why am I excited, well, people will have to create less garbage. On garbage pick up day, every week, I see garbage cans filled to the brim and now if we have pick up every 2 weeks this will have to be halved which forces people to consider what they are throwing away as garbage.

At the same time they will be implementing curb side recycling (currently we have to drop off our recycling at various depots in town). Now every other week they will pick up our recycling they will give a large tote to put our recyclables in - I know our recycling bin will be close to over flowing and I hope other's recycling totes will be too.

I am so thrilled about this new decision although I have read about many complaints too. Many seem to be concerned that their is just too much garbage and pick up every 2 weeks is not sufficient enough. To them I say: Just recycle more - If I can reduce my garbage to a can a month then you can do it too.

Click here to read the full article as it appeared in our local paper

Mother's going GREEN Day 103 - Tree Planting

Tree planting or in this case tree rescue. My husbands place of work was getting rid of some of their potted trees. Apparently they were going to be replaced with different more attractive trees. These trees were headed for the garbage.

Now trees are very important to the environment just in case you did not know here are some interesting fun facts:

-- Trees keep our air supply fresh by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

-- In one year, an acre of trees can absorb as much carbon as is produced by a car driven up to 8700 miles.

-- they provide shade and shelter, reducing yearly heating and cooling costs by 2.1 billion dollars.

-- A tree does not reach its most productive stage of carbon storage for about 10 years.

-- Trees cut down noise pollution by acting as sound barriers.

-- Tree roots stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.

-- The death of one 70-year old tree would return over three tons of carbon to the atmosphere.

any for many more facts on trees visit this site.

Because of this, my husband took the opportunity to rescue a couple of these trees and we have planted them in our garden.

In my opinion we should not be replacing trees but just growing more and more.

Mother's going GREEN Day 102 - Beavers and Cubs

In Canada, Scouts has brought outdoor adventure to young children for over 100 years. As their brochure says: "Entering our second century... the philosophy is more relevant and valuable than ever before to Canadian families." and considering the environmental state of our world I could not agree with them more.

Today, I enrolled my son into Beavers (the level just before cub scouts). He is very excited about going and participating in the nature walks, camping and all around outdoor fun.

The Environment section of their mission statement is as follows: youth learn to become caretakers of the environment.

I am so excited for him - it will further instill the values that we are implementing at home and it is my hope that he can gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the natural world surrounding him and how fragile it can be.

Go get 'em my little tree hugger to be...

Mother's going GREEN Day 87 - Children's Eco-Craft

My son will be starting kindergarten in the fall so I thought we could prepare something that we can file his artwork in once it has had its time being posted on the wall. A variation on the Magazine File. Of course you could make yours to hold magazines, story books, papers that need to be filed etc.

Magazine File

You will need:

-- a cereal box, or any other suitable box

-- Mod Podge (not sure how environmentally friendly this is - but we have it and it works great.)

-- Any one or all of the following: Pictures, newspaper, other children's artwork, pages an old colouring book, magazine pictures or gift wrap. We used an old world map.

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- cut the cereal box to resemble a magazine file

-- cut out pictures newspaper or whatever you have chosen

-- glue using the mod podge to the cereal box

-- finish with a coating or two of mod podge

-- allow to dry

You are done... and your magazine file is ready to store all of your chosen items.

Art/Space saving tip: We all love our children's art and it is important to display it in order to build their confidence. Here at our home we display it for a week and then take it down. I make sure I get a digital picture of their art which I save on a separate disk. This way I do not need to keep all of there masterpieces. I will always have copies on file. After awhile I ensure the "old" art is discarded in the environmentally correct way.

Mother's going GREEN Day 86 - Fair Trade Coffee

It took us 80 plus days for us to run out of our our 'regular coffee' (my husband likes to purchase non perishable items in bulk - that means coffee). And with the purchase of our new coffee maker we are finally moving to fair trade organically grown coffee.

The coffee we have chosen is Ethical Bean and according to their website: Coffee is the world's second-largest traded commodity after oil, and the global market for coffee is extremely volatile. Over a decade ago, farmers saw prices drop 80% worldwide in less than 12 months. Over the past three years, the average price of coffee has fallen almost 50% and now rests at a near 30-year low, impacting over 25-million coffee growing families in over 50 developing countries.

But buying fair trade coffee for us just isn't good enough as based on my research it is also important to purchase coffee that is organic and shade grown in addition to being organic.

Fair trade coffee means that the coffee growers will be getting a fair price for their coffee. A price that will ensure a reasonable standard of living.

Organic coffee means that the coffee has been grown and processed without harsh toxic chemicals. When pesticides and chemicals are used to grow anything it not only kills the pests but makes its way into the surrounding environment and water supplies doing further damage to nature. According to this website - organic coffee beans have a rich, smooth flavor.

Shade grown coffee is very important to the environment. Coffee is best when grown in its natural environment - the shade of the rain forest. But because of the huge demand for coffee, forest are being cut down to make space for more coffee plants which then find themselves growing in full sun - not ideal for producing a good coffee bean and because of this it is drenched in fertilizers and chemicals in order for it to grow.

So next time you grab your next coffee consider for a moment where and how it was planted and what was paid for it.

Side note: I have reach 1000 hits today - yippee hooray for me. I get excited when I see how many people visit and makes me feel that all this blogging is worth while.

Mother's going GREEN Day 62 - Air Travel

Well it is almost time for our family vacation. This is not an annual activity for us - the last time we travelled as a family was 2 years ago and was to visit family out east.

On Saturday August 2, 2008 we head off to Disneyland.... The kids are so excited...so am I (neither my husband nor myself have ever been).

A family vacation comes with many green challenges and the first one is: How to get there? I took this one quite seriously... I did the research on a train but when I learned it would take us 35 hours to get to where we wanted to go - there was no way. It came down to the environment or my sanity. Call me selfish but I chose my sanity. For those who would choose the environment - well I doubt you have ever traveled with 3 children under 5 and a husband.

The research then began on airlines. Some airlines like Air Canada have environmental policies and as stated in their policy they have ongoing commitment to finding and implementing innovative solutions for protecting the environment ......And are well on their way towards their ambitious goal of improving fuel efficiency by an additional 25% between 2006 and 2020. Needless to say we booked with Air Canada. So check out the airlines environmental policy before you fly.

If flying still makes you feel guilty you can purchase "carbon offsets" by buying carbon offsets lets you negate CO2 emissions that you would use in flying or just about any CO2 producing activity. Air Canada has also partnered with Zerofootprint and allows you to calculate your CO2 emissions and then purchase the required amount of offsets. So for a mere $25.00 I have offset our families air travel CO2 emissions.

While flying you can do other simple things: reuse those earphones from your previous flight and then just keep on using them; bring your own healthy snack in a food safe container to avoid the fast food and packaging that comes with it. Chose direct flights - it is the landing and taking off that produces the most CO2 emissions. Pack light - the less baggage you have the lighter the plane, the less energy required to fly.

Green your air travel provides the following air travel statistic: Flying to Europe and back from the US contributes 3 to 4 tons of CO2 per person. That’s more than what 20 people in Bangladesh produce per year and roughly half the CO2 produced by the average American annually via all other sources (home heating, lighting, driving a car, etc.).

Mother's going GREEN Day 61 - Signs of Change?

Sometime ago I watched the movie "An Inconvenient
Truth" with Al Gore, I did enjoy it but both my husband and I preferred the one called "The 11th Hour". narratted by Leonardo DiCaprio. One scene in the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" stands out for me and in my daily life I often recall it. It is at the end of the movie and Al Gore is walking through an airport terminal and the voice over is of him speaking: "I keep looking for signs of change..."

I too keep looking for signs of environmental change.... I live in a small community and as I go about my daily life I feel good about the choices I am making and can visualize the impact - but then I go into the larger city and I see sooo many people and I watch them with all their plastic shopping bags and I wonder.... is change happening.... it seems difficult to see amongst those plastic shopping bags - the too much plastic packaged merchandise - the rows and rows of toxic products in the big box stores - the many many cars on the road - and how people toss out their garbage without a care in the world.

I have - when I go out and need to grab a quick something to eat - bring my garbage home with me as I feel there are not enough option for me to properly dispose of my garbage. Sure there is a box for glass bottles and perhaps cans next to the garbage bin - but what about the plastics and the paper. Today I brought home the banana peel from my banana (food for my worms) The empty juice bottle and a paper napkin - just so I could dispose of it properly.

Then I return home to my smaller community, were life seems simpler and I feel I can make a difference. Do I see the signs in my own community - to be honest very little - but it is a smaller scale and I at least feel more hopeful....

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 48 - What we can do to combat Light Pollution

Yesterday, I spoke of the environmental and human health concerns that light pollution poses. Today, I will suggest ways in which we can help combat light pollution.

First off I joined the International Dark-Sky Association for $30.00. by doing this the money generated through membership and donations will help reduce light pollution; conserve energy
and enhance human health & the environment.

Other options I can personally implement are: Using light sources of with a minimum intensity required to accomplish the light's purpose; Turning lights off using a timer to turn off light when they are not needed and Improving lighting fixtures, so that they direct their light more accurately towards where it is needed, and with less side effects.

As opportunity presents itself I will also attempt to be an activist in lessening light pollution in my community, hopefully as time goes on I can attend community planning meetings where I can raise the issue of light pollution and suggest alternatives.

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 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 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.

Mother's going GREEN Day 24 - The Green Clean

I think subconsciously I always new the cleaning products I used to clean were harmful. I always had an excuse not to clean. First off the fumes give me a headache especially when it came to cleaning the bathrooms. Small enclosed space - lots of chemical fumes - no wonder.

When I was pregnant I refused to do any cleaning - poor husband - worked so hard at work and had to clean too. And even after I was a little hesitant. What would happen if my baby cried and needed me while I was cleaning - all those fumes would not be good for them. Now I think back to when I used to clean the bath tub - I would dread bathing my children in the 'clean' bath as I was sure no matter how well I tried to rinse the cleaning agents off - there would still be some residue. Then there would be the times when my little ones would want to help clean and I would say "No, yucky dangerous don't touch". Yes we clean with yucky dangerous stuff. See all the different products I have used - picture to the right.

Turns out I was not wrong and my fears justified about the cleaning agents I used.

Ammonia - Fatal when swallowed
Ammonium Hydroxide -Corrosive, irritant
Bleach - Potentially fatal if ingested
Chlorine - Number one cause of poisonings in children
Formaldehyde -Highly toxic; known carcinogen
Hydrochloric acid -Corrosive, eye and skin irritant
Hydrochloric bleach -Eye, skin and respiratory tract irritant
Sodium hypochlorit - Potentially fatal
Sodium laurel sulfate - Carcinogen, toxin, genetic mutagen
Sodium tripolyphosphate -Irritant
Trichloroethane -Damages liver and kidneys

and the list goes on..................... If this is the dangers to us humans imagine what it is doing to the environment....

Some interesting facts:

• In the past 40 years, at least 70,000 new chemicals have been released into the environment through new consumer and industrial products and food.
  Male and female infertility are on the rise. Research is now pointing to pesticides as a viable cause.
• Women who work in the home have a 54% higher death rate than women who work out of the home. - Toronto Indoor Air Conference, 1990
• According to the U.S Poison Control Centers, "A child is accidentally poisoned every 30 seconds and more than 50% of all poisonings occur at home with children under 5 years of age."
• There has been a 25% increase in the last 25 years in cancer incidence among children under 15 years of age.
• Thirty years ago the 3 major childhood illnesses were chickenpox, measles and mumps. Now it is asthma, ADD and cancer.

For more info on the above visit http://www.healthycleaning.com/whycleanhealthy.html

Today, I decided to go "green" with my clean and now have only a few cleaning products: Vinegar, Baking Soda, Lemon Juice, Borax (for tougher cleaning) Water Newspaper and a little Rubbing Alcohol way safer now for my children to help clean and for the first time in a long time I was excited about cleaning and these non chemical alternatives really and truly work. No need to worry about the headaches, accidentally mixing chemicals or the potential dangerous residue left in the bath tub that could harm my children. Now see the "NEW" cleaning products I use pictured above. What a difference.

In my search for information on cleaning products I came upon this web page: http://lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?fetch=household it too list the dangers of our current cleaning products, however it goes on to suggest some alternative products as well as some recipes to make your own from the ingredients I listed above.

Here's to the "GREEN CLEAN" my challenge now is what do I do with all the dangerous cleaners, throw them out? NO; Keep them? NO my kids may get a hold of them. I am tempted to send them back to the company so they can be made aware that I am not interested in their poison anymore.

Mother's going GREEN Day 23 - Books and Litter

Well you may be asking what books and litter have in common - not much really except for today.

My son is to start kindergarten in the fall and they had sort of an open house this afternoon. The school is fairly close so we walked as when he does start school we will be walking. It is a route we seldom walk now and the sidewalk is unfortunately strewn with litter. I made a mental note to take along a bag to collect the litter in the future (my son always wants to pick it up to examine it anyway - so we might as well pick it up and get rid of it properly.)

At the school they were giving away some older library books so of course we grabbed a few. My kids love to read stories and hey why not pick up some books and reuse them. There was one book in particular that was just left behind after the other parents collected the books and I figure I would grab it since no-one else seemed to want it. It is titled "The Wartville Wizard" by Don Madden.

When we got home it was the first book that my children wanted to read, strangely enough the book is all about litter and how one man (the wizard) tries to clean it all up and eventually discovers he has magical powers over the trash and can send the trash back to the person who discarded it - it then sticks to the person. Some of the characters have shower curtains, bed linen, cigarette butts all stuck to them. The story ends when the people of the town decide not to litter anymore and throw their garbage in garbage cans where it belongs. If only 'real life' could be like that.

It does send children a message about not littering, also about one mans struggle to care for the environment and how in the end he won. I enjoyed the book and I am glad we picked it up. Great for kids and great to reinforce our family's ideal of going green.

Moral of the story: Pick up litter. It is what you can do to live greener.

Mother's going GREEN Day 21 - Shopping the eco-friendly way

Yes, there can be an environmentally way to shop.

• Shop less (do we really need everything that we buy - lets think how quick the excitement of the product you buy will wear off - especially when it comes to children's toys)
• Shop locally - support your local businesses in your community, often the business in our community in turn support the community we live in. Also, it will help foster relationships which is also a good thing.
• Locally made - Shop for locally made products. Support your country's economy.
• Shop online (my personal favourite) - when you shop on eBay or Craig's list you can choose to buy second hand items (recycling) "one mans junk is another's treasure" and many of the warehouses use much less energy than your conventional store.
• Packaging - try to purchase items with minimal packaging. Today, I was so excited to buy my infant a baby rattle (made no less with the environment in mind) it is made with wood and natural fibres packaged with recycled paper and none of those plastic ties which you land up having to pry from the toys with some sort of sharp object. This toy had natural string holding it on the board - a simple knot to untie and toy was ready for enjoyment. (pictured on right)
• Bring your own bag - always bring your own bag or try to anyway.

References for this post was from a book I have on hand "Green for Life (200 simple Eco-Ideas for Every day)" by Gillian Deacon

Mother's going GREEN Day 20 - Those darn plastic bags

Even though we long ago said "NO PLASTIC BAGS" one or two always make their way back into our home via my husband. As soon as he walks in the door he apologises - but he did not have any fabric bags with him and they just gave him a bag anyway is his excuse. It is a challenge to teach an old dog new tricks. First off I have suggested to him to just say no - no to plastic bags the cashier does not take any offense to it; and also at all times to have a bag ready. But I guess for some men remembering to take a bag with them everywhere they go can be quite a feat.

These plastic bags are like cockroaches - always around and no matter what lengths you take to get rid of them they always seem to be there and like cockroaches they will probably be around long after too - give or take a few hundred years.

Today, I told my husband that I am not getting rid of anymore plastic bags he accidentally brings home. I will be reusing them in several ways. I have found a website that gives you detailed instructions on how to make "fabric" out of them (he might be wearing a rain jacket soon from the bags he brings home). There is also many websites that offer crochet patterns for plastic bags. I love to crochet so I might be doing a bit of that with the bags. I already have 2 crafts that I will be utilizing the plastic bags in my children's Eco-craft Friday's. So my dear hubby better watch out - he might soon find himself among a ton of creative re-incarnations of the "plastic bag".

Some serious facts about the plastic bag:

• Well over a billion single-use plastic bags are given out for free each day.
• Each year billions of bags end up as ugly litter.
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
• Production requires vast amounts of oil.
• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
• Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

The above facts and more plus possible solutions can be found on the following website: http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php

Treehugger provides some pictures of 'plastic' fabric clothing and some links to places on how you too can make your own fabric or perhaps your next crochet project - just visit the following link: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/diy_plastic_bag.php

Mother's going GREEN Day 16 - The 3 Minute Shower

Yes, it is possible. A 3 minute shower. After all I have read on water consumption I figured I could aim for a 3 minute shower. Now you may ask how is this possible? Well, I enjoy the warm water for a minute and a half, I also wash my face during this time. I then turn the shower off and soap up and wash my hair, then I turn the shower back on and rinse off for another minute and a half. Technically a little longer than 3 minutes but I only use 3 minutes worth of water.

Since I had children I have never had the luxury of anything more than 5 minutes in the shower always a baby crying or a child interrupting so a 5 minute shower for me has always been sort of the norm. That is why I challenged myself to use even less water by turning off the water while I washed. It seems to work great and now I am in the habit of doing it everyday. Not sure how I will feel about the cutback in the winter when you will get a little chilly - but perhaps I will appreciate the water even more when I get to turn it back on. In case you are wondering we have a clock in the shower which I use to time my showers.

When it comes to bathing the children, I bath the infant first in her little bathtub. I then dump her water into the big bath tub where I bath my other 2 children together. I fill there tub up with 3 inches of water. I measure this by putting my hand in the tub and when the water reaches my palm it is 3 inches deep (the length of my fingers). When I first did this my son exclaimed: "Mom, how are we supposed to bath in such a little bit of water?" It has since become the norm.

Based on some figures from my green friends at "Our Green Year" http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-26-of-our-green-year-limiting-our.html ,

I am only using 45 liters of water per day on my shower, 315 liters per week or 16380 litres per year rather than the average North American who showers for 15 minutes using 81900 litres per year.

An interesting sites to visit regarding Canadian water consumption: http://www.environmentalindicators.com/htdocs/indicators/6wate.htm

The average water consumed in a household in Canada is 125 000 litres per person per day to see how your household compares to this average visit: http://goblue.zerofootprint.net/

Mother's going GREEN Day 15 - Picnics the Green Way

Summer is almost upon us in our neck of the woods, although you wouldn't believe it with our cool temperatures.

But with summer here many people will head outdoors for picnicking and there is an eco-friendly approach to these wonderful outdoor meal occasions.

• Make your food fresh and organic and local if possible.


• Use minimal packaging to transport your food. Perhaps glass containers for homemade salads, fresh veggies and dip, a nice sandwich and some yummy homemade cookies for dessert.


• Ditch the paper plates, plastic cups, cutlery and paper napkins and dine outdoors in style with stainless steel cutlery, glass glasses, cloth napkins and china plates (the plates you use on a regular basis). This way you will not creating additional waste which eventually lands up in the landfill.

Our family has a "picnic basket" - a gift I received from my husband for my very first mother's day and in it we keep all of our utensils, china plates and glassware along with our traditional red gingham cloth tablecloth and matching cloth napkins. It is perfect.

Going picnicking as a group or joining a group on a picnic can also be environmentally friendly if everyone just brings there own plate, cutlery, glassware and cloth napkin.

Going on a picnic is all about enjoying the outdoors, experiencing mother nature so in turn it would be nice if we left none of ourselves behind. Happy summer and happy picnicking.