Fish Friendly Stain Removers

It's been a long first 2 days of teaching for this blogger and it shows... my new khaki pants have a nice, large glob of dried up glue, not to mention whatever else accumulated at the bottom hem (I tend to buy longer than necessary pants).

But I'm not worried because I found 2 products that are amazing at removing stains... and eco-friendly too.

1. Ecover Stain Remover. Ecover, according to their website, contains plant based ingredients, is completely biodegradable, and has "minimum impact on aquatic life". It also does quite a number on stains... including stains that I've used OTHER stain removers on, with no luck. I love this stuff, and to be honest, I really love this brand... more on that in a future blog. :)

2. Bi-O-Kleen Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator. This is another environmentally friendly product, containing live enzymes, which apparently has no negative effects on our rivers, streams and aquatic life. I've found it very useful, not just on laundry, but also around the house. My cat got sick a few weeks ago, basically all over my apartment. (She's okay now, for the record). Bac-Out got rid of every last stain on the carpet... in fact, my carpet looks cleaner than it used to! Apparently it can be used in the bathroom too, although I haven't tried that yet.

For the record, I bought both these products through drugstore.com, although I know that Ecover is at my local "natural food stores" (for lack of a better term). And on that note, I'm off to attack my pants!

Beat the Heat (of Cooling Costs)

Here in Texas, August is the hottest month of the year. (Well -- usually. This August our weather seems to be laughing in the face of global warming and has been about 20 degrees cooler than usual.) With temps hitting 100+ degrees on a regular basis, we have no choice but to run our air conditioners non-stop, and no choice but to wrack up huge bills for energy costs.

Or do we?

Did you know that by simply replacing your manual thermostat with a digital thermostat, you can save about $180 per year on cooling and heating costs? These thermostats can be purchased at any home improvement store for around $40, are easy to install, and enable you to program them according to your personal schedule and needs, ensuring that you stay cool (or warm) when you most need it, and that energy is never wasted when you're not home or when you're in bed at night.

Digital thermostats are not just for homeowners; back in our apartment days, my husband swapped out our old manual thermostat that we were constantly bumping up and down, and forgetting to adjust when we went out, and our energy costs dropped noticeably.

So be cool: replace your thermostat!

Back to School...

The start of the school year is upon us, and for many students (and teachers like me) that means packing lunches. Now I've always been one for the individually wrapped snacks - they're just so convenient. Unfortunately, they also create a LOT of trash. I realized this towards the end of the school year and started looking for ways to generate less trash, perhaps even NO trash, in my lunch - something known as a "litterless lunch".

Now, at first I thought that I could stop buying individually wrapped portions and just buy, for example, a large package of chips and then put the chips into baggies. However, plastic bags are just as wasteful - and I'm trying to stay away from plastic bags. Plastic containers are an option, but they take up a lot of space. So I stumbled upon a few products.

The first is Wrap-N-Mat. This is a mat that you can wrap around your sandwich (or perhaps other lunch items). It wraps very nicely around each sandwich that I made, and when my lunch is over, it takes up less space in my bag, which is great. The exterior is fabric (they have a selection of a few different kinds) and the interior is lined - I chose PEVA lining over PVC. It's easy to wipe clean the wrap-n-mat, which I find convenient.

I really love happy-sacks (see picture in this post). Think plastic baggie, made out of fabric with lining inside, and that's what a happy-sack is. I have quite a few of these, in different fabrics, and I use them to hold dry snacks - chips, rice cakes, nuts. They come in different sizes, and take up very little space. They're also very easy to take care of - I throw mine in the washing machine with no problems.

Both of these items have really helped me create litterless lunches and they weren't too expensive - plus they will last for quite a long time. Funny enough but these days I look forward to packing my lunch - it's actually fun selecting my happy-sacks and using my wrap-n-mat.

Here are some other important parts of litterless lunches:

1. Carry a reusable lunch bag.
   
2. Use a reusable water bottle.
3. Use silverware instead of plastic utensils.
4. Try a cloth napkin instead of a paper napkin.

With all these tips, I hope you will start looking at how you pack your lunch differently!

Bright Green

The "energy crisis" is one of the most frequently used phrases bandied about on the news, and is also one of the 2008 Presidential election hot buttons. Left in the hands of politicians, goodness only knows how long it'll take to avert this crisis. Fortunately for us, we don't have to know how many politicians it takes to screw in a lightbulb. (Answer: none; we can do it ourselves.)

Did you know that by swapping out those old incandescent lightbulbs for fluorescent bulbs, you can use up to 75% less energy to light up your home? Each bulb you replace with a fluorescent bulb will last up to ten times as long, as well as save you up to $30 over its lifespan. (And with the price of gas climbing every day, we can all use the extra cash!) Not only do fluorescent bulbs reduce costs associated with lighting, but they also burn 75% cooler than standard lightbulbs, thus reducing home cooling costs.

As if the personal benefits aren't incentive enough to make the switch, check out the effect this could have on a national level:

If every American home replaced just one light bulb...we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. (EnergyStar.gov)

For more information on how to choose the right fluorescent bulbs for your home, check out Energy Star's helpful guide.

Now that's the brightest shade of green you ever saw.

Recycled.. what?!?

So continuing with the theme of recycled products, there's a little something I wanted to add.

Recycled toilet paper. Yes, the very thought made me pause at first and it was a few weeks before I got over the initial concern. It just sounds wrong. But there's really nothing wrong with recycled toilet paper. Instead of cutting down trees to make it, they're recycling paper that would have otherwise been dumped into a landfill and turning it into... toilet paper.

To be honest, there's not much of a difference between recycled and "regular" (also known as virgin fiber) . I've always been a girl who likes her toilet paper nice, soft and fluffy. I'm not a fan of scratchy toilet paper, who would be? So I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that, while not as fluffy as I'm used to, recycled toilet paper is NOT rough or scratchy at all. There's barely a difference. If you're not convinced, try it yourself - some stores sell single rolls of toilet paper and you can test it out and see that it's not that bad.

I've also extended it to paper towels, and I will say that while they do feel quite a bit stiffer and rougher than what I'm used to, it's not enough to make me go back. I mean, I'm cleaning up a spill and it's going into the trash when I'm done - why do I need extra soft and fluffy virgin fiber paper towels when the recycled ones do the job just as well?

Plus just think of all the trees that aren't getting cut down as a result. According to this and this, if every household in this country used just ONE roll of recycled toilet paper, we would save close to 424, 000 trees. That's just one roll, and that's just toilet paper. Think of the possibilities...

Green Product Recommendation: Organic wear Makeup

Last week Ariana posted some tips for reusing, reducing, and recycling that are easy to implement in our everyday lives. Following up on that, I'd like to recommend a product that can help with the reducing aspect of the three Rs of living green.

As people interested in making our lives a little more eco-friendly, I'm sure you've all read or heard that a simple change you can make is to look out for the products that use minimal packaging. But why not take it a step further, and be on the lookout for products that are packaged in recycled -- and recyclable -- materials?

Packaging is one thing I know I really take for granted. It's so much more than just the cardboard or shrink-wrap or any of those tamper-proof seals. Packaging is often the product itself. How many of you have ever thought twice about your makeup compacts? I never considered all the plastic that goes into my pressed powder cases, my palettes of blush and eyeshadow.

The other day I was shopping for makeup, and I noticed a line of organic makeup. It's called Organic wear, by Physicians Formula. Now, I'll admit, what attracted me to this product initially was the organic aspect, knowing that natural ingredients are probably a lot better for my skin than manmade chemicals. But then I noticed that the packaging is made from recycled materials, and in the case of the Organic wear pressed powder (and the blushes and eyeshadows, I believe), the compact is made primarily of paper, using 93% less plastic than traditional compacts. The makeup brushes in this line, too, are made of natural goat hair fibers, instead of synthetic materials.

The most recommending feature, of course, is that not only are these products packaged better for the environment, but that they're great for my skin. I'm not noticing a difference between the look of my old makeup versus the new; the tinted moisturizer covers surprisingly well, equal, I'd say, to my former foundation of choice; and a dusting of the pressed powder over that finishes the look. But I am noticing that at night, when I take off my makeup, my complexion looks healthier, so I'm wondering if the chemicals in the old makeup weren't contributing to skin problems! Good for you, good for the earth, and, as I've forgotten to mention, good for your wallet (the cost is equivalent to regular makeup at the drugstore or supermarket) -- what's not to like about Organic wear?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…

I’m sure we’ve all heard those three words before and they’re nothing new. However, I did want to share some little tips that I’ve been trying to follow lately.

Reduce

I’ve started reducing what I get. For example: I know people who get a large handful of napkins when they go out to eat and then use maybe half that. If I must use napkins, I only take what I know I’m going to use, so that nothing goes to waste.

I also try to reduce how much waste I generate in general. I’m more aware of what I shop for, trying not to buy individually wrapped items if possible. I keep scraps of paper around to write on rather than buying new notepads (which is a weakness of mine). I’ve also reduced the number of catalogs that arrive in my mailbox. https://www.catalogchoice.org/ is a great website that will take you off mailing lists.

Reuse

Well cloth bags would fall into this category, but I’ve started reusing other items as well. I’m a sucker for those bottled iced teas that come in glass containers (even though I try to stay away from them) and I’ve started saving those containers to reuse. You’re not supposed to reuse plastic bottles but there aren’t any problems with glass bottles, other than them being a bit heavier than I’m used to!

I also like to reuse envelopes (that my paystub arrives in) and boxes for mailing, whenever possible. At work I’ve started running off homework and other copies on paper that has already been printed on one side. Parents don’t seem to mind, kids don’t care either way and it saves me from having to ask the office for more paper!

Recycle

This might be a no-brainer but unfortunately it doesn’t occur to some people. I live in a small apartment but I’ve made space in my laundry room for buckets to hold my recycling. I’m still new to recycling so I’m not great about it but every bit helps… those 4 plastic juice containers that are waiting to go to the recycling plant are 4 containers that have been saved from doing nothing in a landfill.

Something else that I’ve been recycling lately is books. Well, it’s recycling in a way… I used to take them to used bookstores but sometimes I’d be lucky to make enough money to make it worth the gas to get there. These days I’ve started mailing books to my friends, and some of them are sending me their books as well. I find it works well – while I’m spending a bit of money to ship the books, I’m getting ‘new to me’ books in return, and I don’t have a bookshelf of books I won’t read anymore!

If you know of any tips that you’d like to share, feel free to add them in the comments!