Eco Green Tips

It should be common knowledge by now that the harsh chemical cleaners can pollute the indoor air in your house and cause asthma and allergies as well as harm aquatic life. However, finding your way in the maze of the so-called natural products may seem slightly daunting.

Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of Seventh Generation products says “Just because a product says it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s nontoxic.” And David Steinman, the author of “The Safe Shopper’s Bible” (available at amazon.com) suggests checking the labels and choosing the mildest solvent possible, for instance natural grain alcohol instead of toxic butyl cellosolve; coconut oil instead of petroleum-based detergents; natural-oil disinfectants such as eucalyptus, rosemary or sage rather than triclosan (common ingredient in soaps and cleaning products).

Here are a few tips for safer cleaning products:

• Replace conventional dishwashing detergents, all-purpose cleaners and disinfectants with the green varieties, such as Seventh Generation Natural Dish Liquid or Automatic Dishwasher Gel, Seventh Generation Natural All-Purpose Cleaner; Ecover cleansers, dish soaps; Aubrey Organics Earth Aware All-Purpose Household Cleanser; Vermont Soapworks Liquid Sunshine NonToxic Cleaner; Naturally Yours Gentle Soap for dishes or all-purpose cleaning.
• Furniture and metal polishes contain nerve-damaging petroleum distillates and may cause eye and skin irritation. Thus, use Hope’s Lemon Oil or Hope’s brass and silver polishes or simply clean your furniture with a mixture of 1 tsp olive oil and ½ cup white vinegar.
• Antibacterial soaps and cleaners are a known cause for growth of resistant bacteria. Instead, wash your hands thoroughly with plain soap (natural preferably) and warm water and for disinfecting bathrooms and kitchens use Seventh Generation sanitizers or Earth Power’s Herbal Disinfectant.
• For your laundry, stain removing and fabric softening, look for vegetable-based ingredients, fragrance- and dye-free or natural citrus-oil products, e.g. Seventh Generation Free & Clear laundry products (they work like a charm! Even remove stains without pre-washing or soaking). If you have heavy, stubborn stains, a good solution is soaking in water mixed with borax, lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide or white vinegar. And to soften fabrics, add ¼ cup baking soda to the wash cycle.
• Air fresheners and other perfumed products may cause asthma and allergies so to remove odors from you home, use baking soda, sprayers of lemon or any citrus fruit, cedar blocks or sachets of dried flowers or herbs. These natural ingredients provide a gentler way of refreshing your indoor air.
• Corrosive ingredients in conventional drain, oven and toilet-bowl cleaners cause severe eye, skin and respiratory irritations so replace them with any of the following: Earth Friendly Earth Enzymes Drain Opener, Naturally Yours Enz-Away enzyme drain opener, Ecover Toilet Cleaner, Ecover Cream Cleaner, or 1st EnviroSafety’s plant-based colloidal cleaners. Or if you cannot find any of these products, a paste of washing soda and water works well for ovens and pouring down a fair amount of white vinegar down the drain and leaving it for a while works well in removing nasty odors and cleaning the drain. For toilets, try a mixture of water, baking soda and lemon juice.

photo credit: Velo Steve

On Aug 20, 2008 Australian government announced a press release, in which it demonstrated its concerns about global climate change and offered 2 million US dollars to Asian-Pacific countries in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the ancient forests. While the efforts are greatly appreciated, unfortunately the effects will be minimal and most likely make no noticeable difference in the scope of global warming.

Regrettably, Australian government still allows first-time logging in their own backyard and chooses to ignore the latest studies done by the Australian National University, which states that the logging of ancient primary forests damages carbon stores about 40% in long terms. Moreover, it found that intact primeval forests store more carbon than previously thought and 60% more than the cultivated forests.

“If Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are sincere in their efforts to establish payments for forest protection, and if these efforts are really going to protect regional climate and biodiversity, they are going to have to forego industrial forestry in each of their remaining primary forests. Anything else is greenwash with grave local and global ramifications.”—says Dr. Glen Barry, president of the Ecological Internet.

Unfortunately, this seems to be far from reality. Australia maintains logging of ancient forests on a large scale as well as depleting other vital ecosystems, which results in a release of enormous amounts of carbon and drying of water resources, e.g. Tasmanian forests are cut down for disposable paper production and tropical forests in Queensland are felled to make room for the ever-expanding agriculture. Continuing such activities will have grave climate consequences not only for Australia (which already suffers water shortages and severe droughts) but the rest of the world as well.

According to Dr. Barry, the main cause of climate change is industrial logging of primary forests around the world. Therefore, Australian government as well as governments of other countries with ancient forests should rely more on the new science and less on the industrial propaganda when it comes to preserving forests and ecological sustainability as well as stopping global warming.

photo credit: kelly cree

Hopefully, many people are switching from unhealthy and environmentally hazardous conventional cleaners to the natural plant based ones by now. However, some of us may be a bit uncertain about how good these natural cleaners really are and whether the disinfectants actually kill the nasty bacteria that gather during food preparation etc.

According to researchers, natural cleaners and disinfectants are highly effective in killing bacteria carrying the food-borne diseases, such as E. coli. Actually, they claim that the plant based cleaners combined with a few simple steps are far better for you and the environment than the harsh chemical ones.

Here are a few easy steps you can take today that will result in a healthy home and a healthy environment by eliminating chemical cleaners from your supplies and applying some of the trick our grandmothers used so successfully:

• Wash your hands with warm, soapy (preferably natural soap) water before and after handling raw meat and eggs.
• Keep separate cutting boards for meat and vegetables to avoid cross-contamination and replace them when they become scratched.
• Wash your boards and utensil right after you’ve used them, especially when handling raw poultry.
• Soak leafy greens and wash them a few times to make sure that all the dirt, which may contain bacteria, is removed.

If you’re still not sure about your kitchen and bathroom being disinfected enough, say hello to your new best friends, Mr. Hydrogen Peroxide and Mr. Vinegar, both of which are very effective natural disinfectants.

To safely remove dangerous bacteria, such as Salmonella, Shigella and E. coli, pour a 3% hydrogen peroxide and undiluted white or apple cider vinegar in separate spray bottles and spray one immediately after the other. The best part—this method can be used not only on the countertops but fruit, vegetables, cutting boards and other surfaces.

photo credit: Lenny Montana

With the green living trends here to stay (hopefully), an increasing number of people are turning to eco-friendly household cleaners. While it is all for the best, one question remains: what do you do with the conventional cleaners containing harsh chemicals that you already possess? Well, there really is no good green way of disposing of them since simply pouring them down the drain is quite harmful to aquatic life but suing them can be risky to the health of your family and pets.

The most recommended disposal method is taking them to the local household hazardous waste (HHW) center. Most such places accept anything characterized as ‘toxic’, ‘poisonous’, ‘corrosive’, ‘flammable’, ‘combustible’ or ‘irritating’ as well as  products with labels such as “Poison,” “Danger,” “Warning” or “Caution”. Fortunately, this includes nearly all of the most environmentally damaging and unhealthy cleaners, including but not limited to oven and toilet cleaners, chlorine bleach and ammonia products and caustic drains.

However, there may be some products that the waste centers will not take, for instance tub and tile cleaners or laundry detergents. So what can you this in such cases? Well, if the product in question does not cause some kind of adverse health reactions, continue using it since the small amounts of the cleaner are not as bad to the environment as draining nearly a bottle of the chemicals and flushing them down the toilet. But make sure the area is well ventilated and keep children and pets away until the chemical evaporate and surfaces dry.

Last, but not least, use common sense in either finishing conventional cleaners you have before switching to the safer and greener varieties or disposing of them and the containers they came in.

Now that the green living trend has taken off and more people seem to be involved in changing their live styles, the whole idea of being green is becoming less alien and more of a daily thing. So I was thinking about ways we can implement in the day-to-day life to make things just a bit easier on Mother Earth. And one thing struck me like a sore: packaging. Everything everywhere comes in excessive packaging and when one stops to think what it costs to produce such packages (in terms of water and energy) just so they can end up in garbage bins, the question “why do we need all this stuff?” is becoming more apparent. However, until something changes in the industry, what is it that we can do to minimize the effects of this unnecessary packaging on the environment?

Here are a few tips you can use in your daily life to reduce your waste:

• Look for packaging made of recycled materials, if possible. The higher the content of a recycled material in se the better.
• Check the plastic code before buying a product to make sure the container or wrapper is recyclable.
• Reduce the use of single-serve items, such as food and beverages. Instead buy them in bulk and transfer to reusable containers.
• Buy household items and cleaning products in a concentrated form, that way you’ll get more of the product in the same package.
• Stay clear from items packed in excessive casing, for instance an item wrapped in plastic and inside a box.
• Limit your take-out. If you reduce your take outs just one dinner and one lunch a week, it will have an enormous effect in terms of saved waste. Besides, it will most likely save you some money as well.
• If you go to a restaurant, take your own reusable containers if you’re planning on taking leftovers. The foam containers the restaurants usually offer are not recyclable.