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Worried about toxic ingredients in cleaners? See our new improved list of the greenest products

 Posted by on October 3, 2012
Oct 032012
 
Worried about toxic ingredients in cleaners? See our new improved list of the greenest products

When the Environmental Working Group released their scorecard on green cleaners last month, I sprang from my chair to check the label on the case of Ecover Limescale Remover that UPS had just delivered.

I don’t usually buy by the case, but this was the only way I could get this cleaner, which I adore because it transforms my shower door from an icky, opaque bacteria-generator into a sheet of glistening glass, without using toxic ingredients. Or so I believed.
Fortunately, my limescale remover skated by with a solid “B” on the EWG 2012 Guide to Healthy Cleaning. Whew!

But some of the other products I’m using did not make the grade, despite being sold as “green” or “natural” products.

That’s right. Amazingly, many green cleaners contain endocrine disrupters, suspected carcinogens, toxic ingredients with unknown effects and needlessly harsh ingredients, like sodium laurel sulfate, according to the EWG review of more than 2,000 cleaners .

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Green DIY: Reclaiming old chairs

 Posted by on August 6, 2012
Aug 062012
 
Green DIY: Reclaiming old chairs

Check out this chair. Perhaps you have one that’s similar, a solid serviceable chair that you bought some years ago. We decided at the behest of another child in the family to redo them in a bolder palette. A lot bolder. The reveal in a moment. But first, here are the steps we took to make this reuse project work.

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The reuse files: You used what for a flower pot?

 Posted by on February 20, 2012
Feb 202012
 
The reuse files: You used what for a flower pot?

As we get ready for the spring garden, there’s plenty to do. We need to weed, compost and ready the beds. Inside, we’ve got seedlings we’re nursing along.
Yesterday, we began casting about for containers both for the larger seedlings and for herbs we may grow outside, which reminded me that we’ve seen a lot of cool re-purposing of containers for plants.
Here an old wash basin has been appropriated. We saw this outside an antique shop in the Midwest while on vacation last summer.

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Recycle your Christmas tree

 Posted by on January 2, 2012
Jan 022012
 
Recycle your Christmas tree

Every year the holidays bring the same debate: Is it more eco-friendly to use a live fresh-cut evergreen or a reusable faux tree?

And the answer is that the most eco-friendly yuletide solution is to decorate a potted live tree, which is planted after the holidays.
The next choice would be to buy a live Christmas tree, and have it mulched after the holidays.
Pine and fir tree mulch is commonly used in civic garden areas or even as fuel. In recent years, people have come up with a variety of creative ways to reuse even whole discarded Christmas trees, according to the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA).

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Don’t let your e-waste cause a holiday hangover

 Posted by on December 15, 2011
Dec 152011
 
Don’t let your e-waste cause a holiday hangover

This holiday season millions of people will be surprised by their loved ones with new smart phones, game consoles, lap tops, DVRs and televisions and a gazillion other electronic gadgets.
Americans, especially, who bought $11.4 million in electronics just over the Black Friday weekend, are hopelessly in like with their computerized convenience items, gaming equipment and ever-expanding retinue of TVs.
But with the joy of ringing in the new, comes a new responsibility to not trash the old – especially when it comes to electronics.

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GE adds a cool new feature to its refrigerator water filters: recycling

 Posted by on June 14, 2011
Jun 142011
 
GE adds a cool new feature to its refrigerator water filters: recycling

General Electric has unveiled a program that – finally – makes it relatively simple to recycle your refrigerator water filter.
This is news we’ve been waiting for since we went to Lowe’s a couple years ago and tried to recycle our filter canister only to have the appliance department salesman give us a withering look while pointing, pointedly, at the garbage can.

Not that this was Lowe’s fault, or the sales guy’s. There was simply no mechanism in place back then to recycle or reuse water filters. The solution, as it has been with so many American products, was to trash it. And it was painful to watch all that hard plastic head to the landfill; even worse, the charcoal filter inside which was (if it had worked correctly) teeming with microorganisms and chemicals that had been filtered out of the tap water.

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