I consider myself to be a pretty eco minded person, I wouldn't go so far as too say I'm extreme when it comes to conservation and minimizing waste, but I do exert a fair amount of effort to try to minimize my impact, especially when it comes to over consumption and blatant waste. And I certainly would consider our (Americans) use of plastic a blatant waste.

For my part, I always bring my reusable bags when I go shopping, and I even go so far as to use an empty bread loaf bag to pick up dog poop rather than throw it out unused. These days when I make my lunch I reuse one ziplock bag for several weeks, rather than dispose of it daily, and I also use a tupperware to pack my sandwich and vegetables. Right there, assuming that I make lunch 3 days (and eat out 2) per week, multiplied over 49 weeks (52 minus a measly 3 for vacation), that would ordinarily be 294 bags if I used one for chips or snack, and one for sandwich. But typically I reuse one bag for three or four weeks in a row before it becomes too nasty, and my use of a tupperware removes the need for half of them right away. So that puts me down to only 37 per year for 147 days of lunch. Not great, but a significant reduction from average.

But we all know that you can be the most efficient person in the world, and it's just a drop in the bucket compared to the waste of a business. So I now have a way to save another 245 plastic bags per year by doing nothing. How do I do this? I realized a year or so ago that the cleaning people swap out the bag in the trashcan at my desk if there is anything it.

So the solution? It's simple. I bring my trash to the office kitchen to dispose of it. And just like that, I don't use my trash can and they don't change the bag. (I've experimented to ensure that this is the case.) Just like that 245 bags removed from the landfill.

So above and beyond the hundreds (likely thousands) of plastic bags I save per year by carrying my reusable shopping bags and implementing these simple strategies, I now can include another 500 bags (a low estimate combining lunch and work strategy) that I am saving from our landfills.

If every person made these three simple adjustments, we could save hundreds of thousands (probably millions) of plastic bags from the landfills. Even at a small company of 20 people, these three virtually unnoticeable lifestyle changes would save 10,000 bags from our landfills over one year.

As you can see, making a difference is not that hard.

Labels: conservation, consumption, eco-friendly, how-to, lifestyle, resources

I have seen some people posting recently asking for green product recommendations, so I guess this is as good a time as any for me to post my own. Green products are sometimes a catch 22, they are clearly better for the environment and most often for us as well, but a lot of times the products are much more expensive, and worst of all, sometimes they just don't work! Well, here are the products that I have found to work for me and would definitely recommend (though I can't control the price), based on five years of trial and error.

Just a heads up, these links below take you to Amazon, as much as I'd love for you to head over there and buy stuff so I can make a few bucks, keep an eye on the prices, check some of the third party sellers on Amazon for the same products. I don't know why some of the listed prices are so expensive

Cleaning Products

• Seventh Generation Dish Soap
  • 2nd runner up Ecover Natural Dishwashing Liquid, but it doesn't foam as nicely which makes you use more
• Seventh Generation Toilet Bowl Cleaner
• Ecover Dishwasher Powder or tablets


• Green Works (yes I know it's a Clorox product, but what can I say, it works. I also use a water/vinegar mixture)

Personal Hygiene

• All of Dr Bronners Soaps
• Avalon Organics Shaving Cream
• Earth Science Tea Tree/Lavendar Deodorant
• Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash
• Lily of the Desert Aloe 80 Organics Shampoo
  & Conditioner
• Seventh Generation Baby Wipes
• Avalon Organics Lotion
• Tom's of Maine or Desert Essence Tea Tree Toothpaste
• Desert Essence Tea Tree Oil or Blemish Stick

I'd like to note that I have found a few good cheap soaps (bar, hand, and washing machine soap) at Trader Joe's. I know TJs is debatable, but when I look at the ingredients they seem to be ok. That said, I'm looking for a new all purpose hand soap that is not outrageously expensive, so feel free to comment.

What green products do you use?



Related Links:
Green & Eco Friendly Products

Labels: biodegradable, eco-friendly, organic, sustainable

Pets, pests, and pesticides, or my flea plea.

In our house, there is one cat and two dogs. We are in San Diego where the weather is usually great year round. Unfortunately this means that all of our favorite pests also can live year round, and they are especially persistent in the summer. So I send this plea out to my reader(s), if you have pets have you been able to control fleas in your houses without using all the usual nasty chemicals?

As much as I hate to do it, I do use Advantage or Frontline on my cat, and my girlfriend uses it on her dogs. But to be honest, I've never seen much change in the fleas on the animals after administering it. The last two times we gave Advantage to one of our dogs, within a few days time I spotted large fleas on him. And same thing on my cat. Though I do notice that when I find the fleas on my cat after giving the Advantage, they seem sluggish and are easy to catch, no doubt due to the effects of the chemicals. But the thing is, if I'm putting this poison onto my pet's skin, it should work perfectly. And at $10 a dose, I'm not going to poison my cat and keep having fleas. I know how terrible this stuff is and I cringe when I give it, and I always do so reluctantly hoping all the flea problems will go away, but they never seem to. And yes, I've read all about how pests are becoming resistant to these pesticides, ironically because we use them too frequently. In our overzealous attempts to kill them we are actually giving them so much exposure that they are becoming immune to the chemicals.

I've also tried diatomaceous earth, both on the pets and on the beds and the carpet, but again, I haven't seen a big change, and if there is one, it's never more than a few days relief before the fleas show up again.

Now I'm reading about these non-toxic flea traps, has anyone used those? Do they work?

For the past two year I've been looking for safe non-toxic solutions, and try to avoid the nasty chemicals, and the truth is I haven't had anything work for me. Next option is to "flea bomb" the house, which I hate hate HATE to do, but my girlfriend and I can't take the flea issue. I find them on my feet when I do yoga in the living room. I find them on the bed sheets after my cat has her nap. And I find them on the dogs the day after their Advantage dose.

Update 9/9/09: I have used this Victor Ultimate Flea Trap for the past month or two, and it does actually work. I wouldn't count on it to handle a full infestation, but it does definitely catch fleas.

Labels: chemicals, eco-friendly, pesticides, pests, pets

Eco friendly trash bags? A contradiction?

I had written an article on another site that continues to have quite a bit of interest, so I am putting an updated version of the article about eco friendly and biodegradable trash bags here.

Typically for my trash I actually use extra bags that find their way into my home, however I have had great luck using these eco friendly biodegradable compostable three gallon trash bags. They are called BioBags and I use them for collecting kitchen scraps and then composting, so I can vouch for the fact that these bags actually do biodegrade very quickly.

According to the product description they are "manufactured from GMO-free corn" and "are 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable. The 3 Gallon Kitchen bags work well in a small trash container or composter, but are also great for food storage. Since Biobags breathe without leaking, they allow heat and moisture to escape, keeping fruits and vegetables fresher days longer than regular plastic. The 3 gallon bags measure 17" x 18" and are .62 mil thick."

They also go on to give the downside of using regular plastics:

Regular polyethylene-based plastic bags can take over 100 years to break down and are not compostable. Sadly, less than 2% of all plastic bags ever get recycled. Plastic bags are everywhere, littering our beaches, lakes and Ocean. Studies estimate that over 100,000 marine animals and 2 million birds die every year from ingesting or being caught up in plastic debris.

You can also use these BioBags to pick up your dog poop!

To purchase eco friendly trash bags, check out the selection of biodegradable bags here.

Related links:
Official BioBag home page

Labels: biodegradable, composting, eco-friendly, environment, trash