I was looking for information about going green and green roofing. Have you heard of this? It’s a garden on the roof. How cool is that? Especially when you don’t have the room on the ground. It helps with the cooling and heating of the house as well! For more information check out DCGreenworks.com.

Have you started noticing the volume increase in your mailbox yet?  It is the holiday season and I’ve started getting catalogs for toys, clothing, food, gadgets, cooking supplies, furniture.

What a waste!  The junk mail goes from the sender, to my mailbox and straight into the recycling bin.  I DON’T even LOOK at it!

Sometimes I enjoy getting that one catalog from my favorite company whose product I really admire and enjoy browsing and dreaming of future purchases.  Mostly, I am just annoyed.  I thoroughly dislike receiving the same catalog, “disguised” by a new cover.  In fact, my 5 year-old was happily browsing through a children’s halloween costume catalog, when I heard from the backseat of the car, “Mom, this is just the same pictures, but with a different front that fooled me”.  I had to laugh.  He hit the nail on the head.  I think of all the trees and beautiful carbon-sucking, oxygen-creating forests that were destroyed so I could receive the same catalog twice in a two-week period.  Most of the time, if it is a catalog I like, I still have the previous catalog, dog-eared from reviewing and re-reviewing my favorite pages.

If you are as annoyed as I am, do something about it!  Here are a few suggestions from stopjunkmail.org:

1. write your own simple letters and mail them to the return address of certain junk mail that you receive.

2. make phone calls to numbers you find on catalogs, request either to be taken off their list or sent catalogs less frequently.

3. call large direct mail companies or write letters requesting to be taken off their lists (please see this link from stopjunkmail.org for more addresses and information on companies like DMA (Direct Marketing Assn), Equifax, Trans Union, Novus, Experian, ADVO, Harte Hanks and Val-Pak.

4. visit catalogchoice.org to use their free service – you register with them and they will get your name off of catalog mailing lists that you choose.  They do not sell your information or give it to catalogs, only what the catalog needs to remove your name from their list.

5. visit greendimes.com to use their service.  They do offer a basic free service where you still do most of the work, or you can pay a small fee (their website doesn’t list the price) and sign up for their premium service in which they do the work and best of all – they plant 5 trees for every premium membership.

Take charge of your mailbox this holiday season!

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

More so than ever, my 10 year old (who has been with me on every election day since 1998) is wanting to watch debates, wants to know how government works, etc… He is well aware of how active his parents are in our political position, but this year he wants to be heard and to participate.I decided that while I will continue to persuade those around me to vote, I also wanted to encourage my son’s curiosity about our government and voting process.Vote kids is a website that asks kids their opinion on our country’s hot issues; such as health insurance and education.

“That’s what Vote Kids is all about – making children a priority in American politics, instead of a political afterthought, by demanding that public officials support better policies for kids, and bringing children and family issues to the voting public’s attention.”

PBS which has always been to the core for children; has a great website that engages children in the voting process, government and educates them in a fun way. It has links that discuss what the President does, and voting procedures. The Democracy Project created by PBS is a wonderful, interactive way to engage your child into the voting process. My son especially likes Zoom out the vote. This site also by PBS encourages children to get “their grown ups to the polls”. These are just a few of the many sites out there to get our children involved in the voting process.It is so important that you discuss voting and the issues with your children. As your children mature, they will begin to learn about the world, other countries and their political processes, and that many, many people do not have an opportunity to voice a political opinion, nor an opposing political view to their government.

I suggest you bring your child with you on voting day to see the process in action, and show them how proud you are to be part of a democracy. Teach them that it is their duty as a citizen to vote. So much of what we as adults are deciding on will affect our children. And yes, I will say it, our children’s children. So please don’t assume that your vote doesn’t matter because it is cancelled out by someone you know with a different viewpoint. Educate yourself, participate in the process and teach your children about democracy.

This is an incredible video

Severn continued to say:

“I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I’m only a child and I don’t have the solutions…but neither do you. I am only a child, but I know we are all part of a family five billion strong; in fact, 30 million species strong, and borders and governments will never change that.

Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share. We are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with children living in the streets. This is what one child told us:

‘I wish I was rich. And if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter, love and affection.’

If child on the streets who has nothing is willing to share – why are we, who have everything, still so greedy?

I am only a child, but I know if all the money spent on war was spent on finding environmental answers, ending poverty, and finding treaties – what a wonderful place this world would be.”

And here’s the kicker – this speech was given in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. How much is still relevant today? All of it. And the more important question is: How much has been changed, accomplished, since Severn spoke that day?

Years later, Severn wrote a piece for Time magazine in which she said: “I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I’ve sat through many more conferences, I’m not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual’s voice to reach them has been deeply shaken…In the 10 years since Rio, I have learned that addressing our leaders is not enough. As Gandhi said many years ago, ‘We must become the change we want to see.’ I know change is possible.”

At the age of nine, Severn founded the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. Today, Severn is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility.

She co-hosted Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a children’s television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002. In early 2002, she helped launch an Internet-based think tank called The Skyfish Project. As a member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the Skyfish Project brought their first project, a pledge called the “Recognition of Responsibility”, to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002.

Click here to watch the video and hear her incredible speech.

Immediately, I knew that I wanted no part of chemically engineered food. But how could I control our exposure to those types of food? My mind raced to times when my children may have eaten food from these genetically engineered seeds or animals injected with growth hormones to increase milk or meat production. How would I even have known? Thinking back, I see labels on the milk saying something about rBST. But corn and soybeans aren’t labeled – how do I know if we’re purchasing engineered food – either raw or in the processed form (like cornflakes cereal or microwave popcorn)? How do I know if my favorite restaurants are using engineered food?

Seeds for soy, corn, canola, cotton are being engineered to resist pesticides – meaning that farmers can plant these new seeds, grow the plants and blanket spray fields with confidence that the crop will not die, but the weeds will. So not only are we eating food from a genetically engineered seed, we are also eating food coated with pesticides known to kill anything it touches. And I don’t even know which corn at which grocery store is genetically engineered or not.

Cows (is there a milk shortage in our country??) are being injected with various chemicals to increase milk production. I know I’ve seen labels on milk in the last several years stating “this milk from cows not treated with rBST”, but I didn’t think to research what that engineered hormone was or it’s affect on cows or humans. According to the article, this hormone can cause lameness, liver problems, uterine problems, increased heartrate, and mastitis in cows. Any mom who’s breastfed a baby knows what mastitis is. It is an infection of the breast (or in a cow, the udder) in which bacteria and pus can come out with the milk. Feeling that cereal and milk in my stomach starting to churn, I swallowed back a gag, and the frantic in me got up, to check the label on the milk carton in the fridge…phew, we’re ok. We didn’t have sides of artificial hormones or pus this morning with our cereal. The market I shop at Ralphs (Kroger), doesn’t purchase their milk from dairies that use rBST.

It seems like more work, but I will be making the effort to purchase organic food. I already do as much as I can here at home: growing vegetables in the garden (this summer – herbs, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, watermelon and pumpkins), baking bread, trying to eat less processed food and more “whole” food. I make deals with friends or neighbors that have fruit trees, some of their fruit for some of our vegetables. I haven’t gone to our local farmer’s market for a few years. The market is during my children’s afternoon naptimes – and a busy mommy knows that she needs naptime to regroup and steady herself for the hectic dinner rush.

We are lucky though, we have a farmer’s market (find one in your town), we also have a Whole Foods market. For the sake of our health, I am going to make more of an effort to shop organically. Yes, it can be more expensive and more of a hassle, but it just feels right. Doing my research for this article was interesting, on both topics (Roundup Ready seeds & rBST), I found no government information that either was unsafe for public consumption. In fact, I found the opposite, statements that there is no difference between organic food and that conventionally grown, or that milk or meat from cows treated by growth hormones is no different than milk from untreated animals. These are relatively new technologies and I cringe when I think of possible future problems that come about when a product is rushed to market. I want to believe that my government is more concerned for the safety and health of it’s citizens, but I just can’t believe it to be true. Not when I read stories of tainted rivers, polluted groundwater, the horrible state of air quality, the rise of cancer and diabetes as well as endocrine diseases…and so much more that is currently affecting humans and our environment. Money speaks too loudly in our country. Let it speak loudly for you – refuse to purchase products that are from altered seeds or treated animals.

Those arrows we are so familiar with create a loop. The first part of the loop is consumers placing recyclable materials in a special bin, not the trash. The second part of the loop is manufacturers purchasing the post-consumer waste to be re-purposed into a product or packaging. The last part of the loop is that we as consumers need to purchase products made of recycled material to show manufacturers that we appreciate their effort and to help keep them in business.

Just because I send a full recycling bin out to the curb every week does not mean that I am helping the environment. I need to be more careful about making sure to purchase products and packaging that are MADE of recycled material (it is usually proudly listed on the back of the product/packaging). It seems a daunting task. I purchase so many products, where do I start? Here is an idea (I found it on the BRBA Australia website):

1. Identify one product you purchase
2. Identify a similar product that uses recycled content
3. Purchase it, if you like it, keep it, if not continue searching
4. Start at #1 again with a different product you can replace

When you look for products and packaging made from recycled content, don’t just look for the triple looping arrows symbol. There is not really government regulation regarding the symbol. Look for wording near the symbol like “Contains Recycled Content”, ” Made from Post-Consumer Waste” and “Made from Pre-Consumer Waste”. Sometimes a percentage will be included. Obviously, the higher the percentage, the better.

I was giving myself a free pass to purchase plastics just because they had a recycle symbol on them.

Not all things recycle neatly into the same thing, as do glass and aluminum. Plastics are a good example. They don’t recycle as well as natural materials and most of it may end up in a landfill anyway. I was able to download a plastic packaging resin code chart from the American Chemistry Council’s website. A good example would be the plastic bottles used for water, made from PET/PETE (Polyethylene Terephthalate) can be recycled into, among other things, fiber for carpet. Bottles for milk, plastic bags and cereal box liners are made from HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) and it is usually recycled into bottles for non-food items and plastic lumber. Plastic products are made from non-renewable natural resources. A plastic product that is remade and then possibly not recycled after it’s end use will still end up in a landfill. This ends the cycle, instead of completing the loop of recycling. The unnecessary purchasing of products and packaging that use non-renewable resources is like throwing those resources away.

It may be a little more work until you get used to it, but by purchasing recycled products you are:

1. supporting recycling programs
2. creating jobs
3. conserving natural resources
4. saving energy
5. reducing waste and pollution

Can you put this list in order? (Answers below)

• Tin Can
• Disposable Diaper
• Plastic 6-pack Holder
• Paper
• Wool Cap
• Aluminum Can
• Glass Bottles
• Rubber Boot Sole
• Banana Peel
• Cigarette Butt
• Hard Plastic Container

Here are the answers to the list I posted yesterday: (I did my research at the Bureau of Land Management)

1. Paper: 2-4 Weeks
2. Banana Peel: 3-5 Weeks
3. Wool Cap: 1 Year
4. Cigarette Butt: 2-5 Years
5. Disposable Diaper: 10-20 Years
6. Hard Plastic Container: 20-30 Years
7. Rubber Boot Sole: 50-80 Years
8. Tin Can: 80-100 Years
9. Aluminum Can: 200-400 Years
10. Plastic 6-pack Holder: 450 Years
11. Glass Bottles: A Very, Very Long Time (Forever)

I am sad to say that I am confused by time frame claims above regarding cigarette butts and plastics (container and 6-pack holder) by our governmental resource (in this case, the Bureau of Land Management). I have found credible websites that list a time span closer to 12 years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade and some filters are made of a material that never degrades (Butts Out website and Cigarette Litter website). My research has also shown that scientists estimate plastics can take 1000 Years to degrade – meanwhile, they litter the environment, harm wildlife, leach plasticizers and other toxins into the environment and aren’t fully recyclable . (See these websites for competing information and to learn about plastic: Education World, Salon). Depending on where I research, I’ve found estimates from 20 years to forever given as an estimation to the biodegradation of plastic. The American Plastics Council website wrote a nice article about how plastics can’t be expected to degrade in a landfill because landfills are mummifiers, not composters. Then they changed the subject and quoted statistics regarding how much paper vs. plastic is estimated to be contained in landfills.

There is a biodegradable plastic made from corn (PLA – polylactic acid) becoming more widely used. You can read about it here (Smithsonian website). It is nice to see more “natural” alternatives in development, although a better solution might be to work on our throwaway society’s mindset.

Future generations will deal with our waste for thousands of years to come, it is up to us to prevent the generation of waste and develop better and more creative ways of manufacturing and packaging our products. A great way to begin is by consciously lessening the amount you throw away and seriously thinking about the “cycle” of recycling – buy recycled, don’t just fill a recycling bin!

• Tin Can
• Disposable Diaper
• Plastic 6-pack Holder
• Paper
• Wool Cap
• Aluminum Can
• Glass Bottles
• Rubber Boot Sole
• Banana Peel
• Cigarette Butt
• Hard Plastic Container

I had reason to clean out my pantry last week, call it an ant invasion, and I found many old drugs that I wanted to clean out. We either didn’t finish the prescription or in the case of o-t-c drugs, they had expired. Now that I am in my Earth-friendly state-of-mind, I had to set them aside and find out what to do with them. They have been sitting on the kitchen counter for about 4 days now and it is freaking me out. I don’t like to leave drugs sitting around for the kids’ sake, I don’t like the clutter and my husband actually asked about it (he usually doesn’t notice clutter). So, in a spare moment this morning, I went online and checked into “prescription drug disposal” on Google. Several articles came up, some from non-professionals, some from government agencies and some from university studies. In any case, the answer is not good…and the answer is the same as I seem to be noticing lately when it comes to living green…

There is no good answer!

How many of you flush drugs? Who told you, probably your doctor. A seemingly trustworthy source.

Never flush drugs of any sort!

Studies have shown that water treatment plants aren’t capable of removing drugs from water. So, by default, animals are being harmed, and it’s not just animals, think of invisible bacteria now being exposed to let’s see…oh…antibiotics for example. That just can’t be good.

Other options include throwing in the trash or sending to a reliable source (usually a pharmacy) for proper disposal (probably incineration – doesn’t sound that great either).

So unused prescription drugs are either:

1. Ending up in the ocean
2. Ending up in a dump/landfill and thus the ground water table
3. Ending up in the air

I just don’t see a good answer here – Do you?

I called my local Rite-Aid and the pharmacist offered to take the drugs (he didn’t know how they were actually disposed, but he did say that they are all placed in a bin and sent to corporate for disposal). I can’t believe I’m actually suggesting this, but the other option was the trash.

Here’s what to do if you choose to throw away unused drugs:

• keep them in their original container
• take off the label (for your safety)
• place the pill container in a resealable plastic container (old margarine crock)
• throw away

We’ve all been told that old drugs lose their potency, so hopefully if you toss your drugs into the trash, by the time the 500 or so years pass for the plastic containers that are holding the drugs to actually decompose, the drugs will have lost their potency and will hopefully no longer be a threat to groundwater or the environment. Let’s HOPE!

In the meantime, if a doctor or anyone tells you to flush drugs – let them know it’s not proper anymore. Be safe with your health firstly, but try to take all of a prescription, or try to only receive what you will use – not extra. Don’t stock o-t-c’s when you’re not sick, but purchase them as you need them.

And finally, demand a better answer to the problem of prescription drug disposal. Demand this answer from drug companies, from pharmacies, from the government, from your waste collector. Don’t just sit around waiting for an answer - DEMAND IT!