Green Paige

Spring is here.  In our house, that means it’s time for daffodils, uncovering the bar-b-que and our car’s seasonal bath.   Ever year, I find a new tip or even a product to help make this car cleaning ritual of ours a bit more environmentally friendly.  Here is what I have learned so far:

• Hand Wash - When you wash your car in your driveway,  the water runs off your car and right into the storm drains which run into the water ways surrounding your community - rivers, creeks, streams and wetlands.  This water, that is laced with oil, gas and chemical residues, can poison aquatic life and destroy the surrounding ecosystem.  If you do wash your car at home, wash it on your front lawn and use a biodegradable soap like Simple Green Car Wash.  The water run-off will be absorbed into your lawn. 

• Professional Car Wash - Car washes, on the other hand, drain their water into sewer systems to be treated before being released into the local water systems.  According to the International Carwash Association, automated car washes use less than half the water that is typically used when washing your car at home.  Some car washes recycle their gray water, are solar powered and use biodegradable soap.  By looking in the yellow pages of our local phone book, I found a car wash in our community that recycles gray water.

• Windows - My favorite formula for cleaning windows is to mix 1/2 C. of white vinegar with 1 qt. of warm water.  I pour the mixture into a spray bottle and clean my car windows, mirrors and all shiny surfaces.

• Carpets - To lightly clean the carpet in my car, I sprinkle baking soda on the carpet and let it set for 15 minutes and then vacuum.  If the carpets are stained and need a heavy duty cleaning, I mix 1/4 C. Borax with 2 C. cold water.  While wearing gloves, I sponge this mixture onto the stained portions of the carpet.  I let it dry and then sponge the mixture up with water.  Let it dry again and then vacuum. 

• Upholstery - To clean leather, buff with beeswax using a chamois cloth.  For vinyl, I mix 1 tsp. of washing soda with 1 C. of boiling water until soda dissolves.  Sponge on vinyl then rinse.  Be sure to wear gloves.

• Wax - To create a good car wax, in a saucepan I mix together 1 C. food-grade linseed oil, 4 Tbsp. Carnauba wax, 2 Tbsp. beeswax and 1/2 C. vinegar.   Heat slowly over low temperature until wax melts.  Stir and then pour into a heat-resistant jar.  Once the wax has cooled and is solid, apply it to your car.  Use a cotton rag saturated with white vinegar to polish with the wax. 

• Air Freshener - To freshen my car, I take a cotton ball saturated with vanilla, rose water or orange water and place it in my ashtray.  It gives my car a wonderful aroma.

If you have some environmentally friendly car cleaning tips of your own that you would like to pass on, please write and let us know.

It’s Thursday afternoon and in our house, chaos rules.  Squealing toddlers are racing cardboard cars through a miniature town made from egg cartons, toilet paper tubes and plastic tubs.  Animated conversation surrounds our kitchen table as kids and parents help each other craft decoupage treasure boxes from discarded wrapping paper.  Intermittent bursts of laughter radiate from our family room where teens take turns playing game-show host for an environmental quiz they created themselves.  April, with its spring flowers and gentle rains, is here at last.  Our neighborhood is celebrating with an Earthday party.

How on Earth did this all begin?  One day while unpacking from our cross-country move, I noticed that my toddler was completely ignoring her big basket of colorful toys in favor of a large, brown appliance box.  I watched as she happily moved her favorite doll, an old shoe box and several empty yogurt containers into her cardboard play house.  Peeking through the corrugated shutters, she gave me her happy-face smile, the smile that is all teeth and pure joy.  “Me home, mommy,” she announced.  This statement provoked my own happy-face smile and gave me an idea.

I phoned the only neighbor I knew on our street and casually mentioned this crazy notion I had about hosting a neighborhood Earthday party.  I suggested that if each family came armed with wrapping paper, boxes and other materials left-over from the holidays or salvaged from their recycle bins, we could all have a great time creating crafts and games that would be fun and educational.  She loved the idea and quickly called another neighbor who called another neighbor.  Within a day, I had met more neighbors via the phone and in person than I had met in the entire time I had lived in the area. My wild idea for a neighborhood Earthday party had become a reality.

Create Your own Earthday Party

From that first experience, I learned that coordinating a neighborhood Earthday party is not only a great way to bring neighbors together but also an excellent opportunity to promote environmental awareness in our community. Here are a few ideas to help you organize your own neighborhood Earthday party:

• Invitations - Create fun not waste. If you know your neighbors, call them up and invite them personally or email them.  Visit a social-planning site like Evite.com that allows you to choose an Earthday-themed invitation design. Personalize it with party date and location specifics and email it directly to your neighbors.  If you prefer hand-delivering invitations, consider making recycled Earthday postcards by cutting the fronts off of old greeting cards and writing your message on the back. 

• Decorations and Supplies - Decorate naturally. Take your family on a spring flower safari and pick just enough flowers to brighten up your house. Enforce a zero-waste policy by using real plates, silverware, napkins and cups to serve food and drinks rather than disposable party supplies.

• Food and Drinks - Invite each of your neighbors to bring a signature dish for everyone to try while you supply the organic beverages and dessert. Introduce your neighbors to organic food from your local co-op, CSA farm or market.

• Activities - Make sure the crafts and games that you plan are fun, educational and age-appropriate for all the kids who will be attending your party. The EPA website has some great suggestions for Earthday activities suitable for all ages. Download their 11-page coloring book with tips to help kids care for the Earth not only on Earthday but every day.  For younger children, try building a miniature city from items in your recycle bin. Used boxes, canisters, plastic bottles and milk cartons can be repurposed into tiny houses, toy cars, play boats and even a choo-choo train. For more suggestions, visit PBS.

• More Ideas - Make a difference in your community by planting trees or flowers at a neighborhood church or school. Organize a community clean up.  Encourage your neighbors to volunteer their time to help a local environmental group.  For more ideas, visit The Heartland All Species Project  which has scripts for environmental plays and skits as well as directions for creating an Earthday parade or go to Earthday.gov  for links to several Earthday sites.

This article also appears in the April 2008 issue of Rocky Mountain Parent Magazine under the title “Earthday Party.”

You have heard of vegetarians, vegans, ecotarians and localvores but what about sustainavores?  Alert Wikipedia!  I think I just made up a new term.  Whatever you call it, sustainable eating is gaining popularity and for good reasons.  For our family, sustainable eating is saving our health, our planet, our budget and our future. 

Apparently, Green Paige wasn’t the only environmentally friendly blog launched yesterday.  The Take A Bite website, created by bestselling author Anna Lappe, was created to connect people with the growing movement to develop a climate-friendly food system around the planet.  The site is filled with interesting facts, ideas for action and inspiring culinary tips-all geared toward helping people understand the huge impact of industrial agriculture on global warming and how we can help bring to life a climate-friendly food system.

The Take A Bite website includes:

• A blog with news and analysis about food and climate change
• A directory of experts on food and climate change
• Q&As with thought-leaders and innovators
• Resources to help you choose a climate-friendly diet
• and more..

From the press release:  “I created this resource because I was stunned so few people are aware that our food system is responsible for nearly one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions,” said website founder Anna Lappé. “Moreover, few people seem to realize the potential sustainable farming holds for helping us reverse climate change.”

The site launches just a week after a landmark report was issued by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, a committee commissioned by the United Nations and World Bank.  The report urgently calls for drastic changes to agriculture practice worldwide, including promoting local food systems and sustainable farming practices that minimize fossil fuel and pesticide use. Modern agriculture “will have to change radically if the world is to avoid social breakdown and environmental collapse,” the report states.

The Take a Bite website can help all of us learn how we can be a part of this historic, radical shift toward a food system that is good for people and the planet.

Green Paige Review:   This is a great site.  It’s full of information and easy to navigate.  I especially liked their Six Climate-Friendly Diet Ideas. 

When was the last time you returned from the market with a couple bricks of polyvinyl chloride, a bottle of low density polyethylene and half-a-dozen polypropylenes?  Your initial reaction might be, “Never!” but in reality, it was probably yesterday.    

For most of us, shopping smarter to live a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle means buying organic or remembering to bring your canvas bags to the farmer’s market. What it also means is checking the bottom of your vitamin-infused water bottle for the number code inside the chasing arrows. It means, knowing the seven types of consumer plastics before you even step foot in the grocery store.    

Not only do plastics make up a growing percentage of U.S. solid waste but they could be leaching chemicals that are suspected of causing cancer or disrupting hormones into your food. Now, you’re not only confused about recycling plastics but scared too. You are not the only one. Here’s what you need to know before you make out your shopping list.

• Good old PETE 

         Code #1 is polyethylene terephthalate otherwise known as PET

         or PETE.

It’s widely recycled and has been reinvented as fiberfill for ski jackets or sleeping bags, carpets, auto parts, paint brushes, combs, cassette tapes, car bumpers, sails for boats, furniture and felt on tennis balls. PETE bottles should not be re-used because their design does not lend itself to proper cleaning and the bottles can harbor bacterial growth.

• Another good guy 

          Code #2 is HDPE or high density polyethylene.

Recycled HDPE can be found in plastic lumber decking, film, detergent bottles, drainage pipes, pallets, recycling bins, backpacks, office products, futon mattresses and many other products.

• One of the bad boys

         Code #3 is polyvinyl chloride.

It’s aliases include PVC or just plain V. It is used to make the cling-wrap that surrounds meats, cheeses and other foods sold in delicatessens and groceries.

In contact with foods, especially hot, fatty foods, PVC can leach chemicals such as adipates and phthalates which are endocrine disruptors and can cause reproductive health problems and infertility. Phthalates have also been shown to cause birth defects and damage to liver, lungs and kidneys in laboratory animals.  To top it off, this plastic is non-recyclable.

• Just okay

          Code #4 is LDPE which stands for low density polyethylene.

Why just okay and not good? The main drawback of LDPE is that it’s not as widely recycled as #1 PETE or #2 HDPE. 

• Okay 2

          Code #5 is polypropylene or PP.

Like #4 LDPE, it’s not as widely recycled as #1 PETE or #2 HDPE.

• The bad guys are back

          Code #6 is PS or polystyrene.

It is used to create foam egg cartons, soup bowls, salad boxes, coffee cups, utensils and trays for meat and produce.

What makes PS one of the bad guys are benzene, butadiene and styrene which are used in the production of PS. Benzene is a known human carcinogen. Butadiene and styrene, the basic building blocks of this plastic, are considered suspected carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and may disrupt hormones or affect reproduction. PS is energy-intensive to make and poor for recycling. 

• The good, the bad and the really ugly

          Code #7 is reserved for other plastics, usually polycarbonate.

These plastics are used in baby bottles, microwave ovenware, eating utensils and the plastic coating for metal cans.

Now, for the really ugly part. These plastics are made with Bisphenol-A which is a chemical invented in the 1930s as a synthetic estrogen. Bisphenol-A is a hormone disruptor which simulates the action of estrogen when tested in human breast cancer studies and can leach into food as the product ages.

Now that you know what those number codes really mean, take the time to look at the packaging before you buy. Knowing your numbers will help you make healthier choices for your family.

For information about corn and potato starch based alternatives to plastic, visit The Green Guide and search for plastics. For more information about specific plastics, visit The EPA  and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry .

This post is an excerpt from the article “Plastic Recycling By The Numbers” that originally appeared in Rocky Mountain Parent Magazine.

The smell and danger of having toxic chemicals in my house has always bothered me which is why I started collecting and experimenting with various formulas to create my own cleaners.  Here are a few of my tried and true recipes for furniture polish:

• Lemon Oil Wood Polish:  

         1 tsp. lemon oil

         1 pint mineral oil 

         Dissolve lemon oil into mineral oil and place in spray bottle. 

         Apply to wood furniture with a soft cloth.

• Leather Furniture Polish:

          1/4 C. olive oil

          3 drops lemon oil

          Mix ingredients together.  Saturate soft cloth with solution. 

          Apply to leather furniture.

• Wood Furniture Scratch Remover:

           lemon juice

           salad oil

           Mix equal parts of ingredients together. 

           Rub into scratches on furniture with a soft cloth until they disappear.

If you have your own recipes for tried and true natural cleaning products, please share them with us.

These days, our Sunday evenings are all about playing games.  My four year-old daughter loves Candyland, Chutes & Ladders and Mah Jong which teach her reading and math skills as well as concepts like cooperation.  My husband and I love turning off the television and spending time together as a family.  So when my husband discovered an environmentally-themed version of Monopoly, we were all thrilled. 

Earthopoly challenges participants to become eco-savvy stewards of the Earth.  The goal, like the original game, is for players to become caretakers of various properties around the board and to then earn funds for conservation efforts by collecting rent when another player lands on their property.

Unlike the original game, Earthopoly  allows players to purchase carbon credits in order to take personal responsibility for carbon emissions.  When a player has earned enough carbon credits on their properties, the credits can be returned to the bank in exchange for clean air. 

The makers of Earthopoly, Late For The Sky Production Co., use recycled paper, soy ink and natural game tokens including a shell, a bamboo ring and a giant corn kernel.   Their goal in making this game is to have as little impact as possible on the planet while at the same time, creating a game that is fun and educational.

Our family loves Earthopoly.  It has given my husband and I an opportunity to teach our daughter about environmental issues and how to care for the Earth while having a great time together.    

Happy Earthday and welcome to my sustainable living blog.

My name is Paige and I am many things - a mom, a freelance writer, an emerging environmental activist.  No, I don’t have a degree in environmental science nor do I walk a picket line.  I demonstrate through example and protest with the personal choices I make.

Three years ago before the green movement took on trendy celebrity status, I was a librarian living in a large city in the Midwest.  The highest point in the area was a place called Mt. Dumpsky.  It wasn’t a beautiful mountain peak or even the tip top of a modern skyscraper.  Mt. Dumpsky was the local landfill. Most people laughed about it and took it for granted.  They even stuck a Christmas tree on top of it during the holidays and lit it up for all to see.  For my husband and myself, the first time we saw Mt. Dumpsky festooned with Christmas lights was an illuminating moment, a turning point.  We decided that unless we started making some big changes in our lives in order to diminish our own ecological footprint and make the Earth a healthier place for everyone to live, we might as well pitch a tent on top of Mt. Dumpsky and call it home.

Now, we drive a Prius and buy recycled goods but it’s not enough.  We use canvas bags to shop with and have timed sensors on our lights but it’s not enough.  We eat locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables but it’s not enough.  Just exactly what is enough?  I don’t have an answer to that question.  What I do know is that my family and I are on a journey and I am inviting you to come along.

One step at a time, we are setting out to live more sustainable, healthier, happier lives.  As we change the way we live by making smarter and more environmentally friendly choices, I will share with you my discoveries through personal posts, blogicles, product and book reviews, news flashes and a weekly “green” idea.  I encourage you to share with me your own discoveries and ideas by posting comments.  Welcome to the world of Green Paige.