Sorry I have been gone for a bit. School is a total time sucker and in attempting to continue to live a simple life I must choose to give up some activities that I enjoy doing. Since spending time with my hubbo and sleeping will not be sacrificed (not even to school no matter how hard it tries to weasel its way in), my blogging cannot be as regular as I would like it to be. Unfortunately this will continue to be the case until I GRADUATE, which will be in DECEMBER!!!!

However, I did want to share with you an awesome find. Nordstrom is now selling Holistia Organic cotton underwear. It is so soft and comes is simple solid colors as well as some funky designs (most of which they unfortunately don’t picture on their site). The one down side is that when I was in the store I read the Ethical Fashion tag and interpreted it as Ethical labor practices. I wasn’t until I was in the middle of writing this post that I realized that it just talking about the environmental practices. So, it isn’t perfect but it is a step in the right direction, especially since cotton is the number one pesticide crop.

image courtesy of kixandthecity.com

Last night Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash debuted his new shoes. This time his Nike’s were a little different. They were made from scraps from other basketball shoes. I know that Nike has long been the bad guy in the world of footwear due to labor and environmental practices, but let’s give credit where credit is due. Nike has recently made a move towards more global responsibility and is now making the Nike Trash Talk which is the shoe model made from scrap material that is based off of their already popular Nike Zoom BB II model.

Nike footwear designer, Kasey Jarvis said: ‘I was really looking for a ‘here and now’ solution to footwear waste, and creating a performance product using waste materials felt like a very innovative solution. Using Nike’s Considered design ethos I was able to create a shoe that stands up to the stringent on-court performance requirements but is also more environmentally friendly.’

Steve Nash has been involved with environmental issues for a long time. It’s really great to see that he is taking that concern to his shoe company and that they are utilizing the waste that they create, and are making it usable. Nash said, “Any opportunity to promote the environment and preserve our planet is a step in the right direction.” If you’d like to get your hands on these, they will go on sale on April 22nd.

Nike still has a lot work to do to clean up it’s international labor and environmental practices.

Working on my Undergrad degree has been a broken trail for me as I have steadily committed to give it a place of importance, but never wanted it to be The Most Important piece in my very full life. There are other things that I have come before and will always come before my formal education. That being said, it has over the years remained important to me to graduate with a Bachelors degree and because of this I made a return to school last September. I am now attending University of Washington and it has been a very positive experience and I am very much enjoying this part of my life. There are some changes to my schooling habits that I have made upon my return that I would like to share with you.
In the spirit of ecological responsibility at universities around the world, I now present you with NOTES on Environmental Changes for Students (or anyone really):

1. Travel Mug filled with: fair trade, organic tea; fair trade, organic, decaf coffee; or fair trade organic hot chocolate. So, good. Drinking a warm beverage is lovely on these cold, wet Seattle days.
   • Produces less waste than disposable cups
   • On campus they have a Tully’s that only uses fully compostable cups. However, unless you actually put these cups (like any compostable products) in your compost they are not compostable.
   • It provides a lovely treat while sitting in class or studying.
2. Bring a refillable water bottle
3. Take public transportation (or of course walk, bike, or carpool)
4. Rebinders
5. Recycled notebook paper
6. Take notes on my computer through WordPress (how to below):
   • Install a webserver on your laptop. It’s easier than you think. There are packages that make it easy to install and setup (MAMP for a Mac and WAMP for a PC).
   • Create a database using the tools installed with either MAMP or WAMP.
   • Install WordPress. There will be some manual text editing you need to do for setup, but it’s minimal.
   • Create categories for each of your classes.
   • Start a new post for each class session.

   When you use this method of taking notes, you can easily look back at past class periods by date, and also there is a search function installed by default. If you run into trouble, my husband has offered assistance to those who need some direction. You can get in touch with him over at his companies web site Vigilanteweb.

7. Print only when a Professor requires a hard copy of an assignment and print on both the front and back of each paper.
   To print on the front and back from my computer I:
   1. Press Print
   2. Within the Print Detail page select Paper Handling
   3. Select “Print Odd Numbered Pages”
   4. Print
   5. Place either the single sheet or stack of printed pages face down in the paper tray with the bottom of the page closest to me in.
   6. Repeat steps 1 and 2
   7. Select “Print: Even Numbered Pages� and “Page Order: Reverse�
8. Buy used Text Books. There are plenty out there already and they are usually cheaper. You can also check text books out of the library instead of buying it. A final suggestion is to book share. If you have a reliable classmate it may work out for you to share a text book and split the cost. Everyone has their own study habits and you know what works best for you.

If anyone else has tips feel free to share them through comments!

This is the slightly longer version of the “10 small changes you can make for the benefit of creation” list I made for my church back in April for Creation Sunday. It has some good and interesting information in it so I thought that I would go ahead and share it with you guys.

1. Eat Local (Grow your own veggies, buy a share in Community Supported Agriculture, shop at farmers’ markets)
   Info: Supermarket food travels an average of 1,500 miles by the time it gets to your plate. Buying local strengthens the local economy. A dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. You get to celebrate the seasons by eating local in-season food.
2. Buy fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee and fair trade, organic tea.
   Info: Sun coffee (grown with no shade canopy) destroys natural habitats and cannot be sustained for many years without intensive management (additions of chemical fertilizers and a range of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides). The few studies that have been conducted have found that the diversity of migratory birds plummets when coffee is converted from shade to sun (studies in Colombia and Mexico found 94-97% fewer bird species in sun grown coffee than in shade grown coffee) ¹.
3. Buy organic food when possible, especially organic chocolate.
   Info: Non-organic cocoa is 2nd only to cotton in terms of the most pesticides used on the crop. Exposure to pesticides is being increasingly linked to various kinds of cancer. Industrialized agriculture produces food that is deficient in minerals and nutrition because it has over-cultivated the land. Crops get their nutrients and minerals from the soil that it is grown on. If the soil is not taken care of and becomes unhealthy then the food grown on it will also lack nutrition and health.
4. Buy products with minimal or reusable packaging or buy in bulk (like the bulk bins at Madison Market Co-op or Whole Foods) and use your own containers when shopping and bring your own shopping bags.
   Info: Around 33% of trash in the average American household comes from packaging.
5. Start an indoor or outdoor compost bin.
   Info: “The landfill is not designed to help things biodegrade, which requires contact with air and water. Instead, landfills hermetically seal their contents away from the environment to protect it from the toxic things in the landfill that aren’t biodegradable. What this means, is that organic things like apple cores and yesterdays newspapers and cornstarch cups, when dumped in the landfill, either don’t break down at all—and certainly don’t end up returning nutrients to the earth—or they break down anaerobically, which means they produce methane, a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.”²
6. Buy recycled paper toilet paper to help protect endangered forests.
   Info: Every day, the amount of toilet paper used equals about 270,000 trees.
7. Make your own household cleaners.
   Info: The EPA says indoor air pollution is often 2-5 times worse than outdoor air pollution, and harsh cleaning chemicals contribute.
8. Switch to compact florescent light bulbs (CFL)
   Info: CFLs are some of the most efficient lights available - they can replace incandescent bulbs that are roughly 3 to 4 times their wattage, saving up to 75% of your lighting energy.
9. Buy used products when possible (books, clothing, furniture) and make repairs when possible instead of buying new.
10. Print only when necessary and on recycled paper.
    Info: Offices use 1.5 lbs of paper per person per day.
11. Use a coffee mug or travel mug.
12. Reduce your carbon footprint caused by travel (buy a TerraPass, use flexcar, carpool, public transit, bike, or walk)
    Info: Every gallon of gasoline burned creates about 20 lbs of climate change-causing CO2.
13. Enjoy God’s creation by being part of a community garden (or start your own community garden in your own backyard), volunteering on a farm, or getting out and enjoying nature with loved ones.

¹Smithsonian, National Zoological Park, Migratory Bird Center; ² No Impact Man;

photo courtesy of elvisripley

My friend Mike sent me a very much appreciated link to this article, The CFL mercury nightmare.

How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent light bulb? About US$4.28 for the bulb and labour — unless you break the bulb. Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about US$2,004.28, which doesn’t include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.

* * *

As each CFL contains five milligrams of mercury, at the Maine “safety” standard of 300 nanograms per cubic meter, it would take 16,667 cubic meters of soil to “safely” contain all the mercury in a single CFL. While CFL vendors and environmentalists tout the energy cost savings of CFLs, they conveniently omit the personal and societal costs of CFL disposal.

My first response was to feel really sad because I have encouraged a lot of people to switch to CFL bulbs because they are more energy efficient.

My second response was to remember that this blog is a place of learning, encouragement, and positive life changes based on education. It is a process and sometimes that process involves mistakes—this is in general a helpful life lesson to learn, none of us are perfect and we are all in need of grace.

In trying to find out more information on CFL’s and how to properly dispose of them I came across this NPR article which acknowledges the problem but discusses it in a more productive and helpful manner.

“The problem with the bulbs is that they’ll break before they get to the landfill. They’ll break in containers, or they’ll break in a dumpster or they’ll break in the trucks. Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens,” says John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America, the trade group for the people who handle trash and recycling.

[Wendy Reed, who manages EPA's Energy Star program,] says that even though fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, using them contributes less mercury to the environment than using regular incandescent bulbs. That’s because they use less electricity — and coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of mercury emissions in the air.

“The compact fluorescent light bulb is a product people can use to positively influence the environment to… prevent mercury emissions as well as greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s something that we can do now — and it’s extremely important that we do do it,” Reed says. “And the positive message is, if you recycle them, if you dispose of them properly, then they’re doing a world of good.”

I haven’t decided what to do with the current CFL light bulbs that I have throughout my home, except that I will be very careful in my handling of them, or what I will do when I need to buy new bulbs.

However, here is what I have taken away from this:

1. We use more energy than is good for our planet and there is no easy or problem-free solution to our need to light our homes, offices, and stores. Maybe it was better when the sun and moon were used to light our way.

2. If a bulb breaks near your home you will have soil contamination which is dangerous because it is a neurotoxin and if it breaks in your home there is a major hazard waste issue.

3. Throwing CFL light bulbs in the trash in not an option even if it is legal in your county because you could cause dangerous health problems to workers who are exposed to the neurotoxin.

4. You can bring light bulbs to IKEA to recycle them, search Earth 911 to find a disposal options near you, or look into lamprecycle.

5. “CFLs are safe to use in your home. No mercury is released when the bulbs are in use and they pose no danger to you or your family when used properly. However, CFLs are made of glass tubing and can break if dropped or roughly handled. Be careful when removing the lamp from its packaging, installing it, or replacing it. Always screw and unscrew the lamp by its base, and never forcefully twist the CFL into a light socket by its tubes. Used CFLs should be disposed of properly, learn how to properly dispose.”

6. Finally, this has been a good reminder that we all need to be working to live a sustainable life, trying to leave the places we touch better than we found them.

Resources via NPR article:

• General Electric’s mercury and CFL FAQs
• Fact Sheet: Mercury in CFL bulbs
• Energy Star: FAQs on disposing of CFL bulbs

photo from Flickr (SpooSpa)
My lovely friends Amy and Lee just got married this past weekend! They are in the process of opening gifts, which of course means a houseful of wrapping paper, boxes, and an assortment of packaging materials. The resourceful and very cool, D. Lee did some research and found two sites that help you figure out what to do with that (and any other) miscellaneous waste.

This one will only be directly helpful to those of you living in King County (Seattle, WA). However, it may serve as a reference to help the rest of you find a similar site or resource in your neighborhood.

Have you ever bought a new appliance and wondered how to get rid of your old one? Found stacks of old business periodicals you want to recycle? Upgraded your organization’s computers and ended up with a mountain of old electronic equipment? Every day, King County residents and businesses run across unwanted items that make them wonder: “What do I do with this?”

This site was designed to answer that question! The What do I do with…? directory is a database that contains listings of hundreds of businesses and organizations that accept unwanted items from residents and businesses in King County, Washington, for reuse, recycling or proper disposal.

The Plastic Loose Fill Council helps you find a place near you to bring all those packing peanuts.

The Plastic Loose Fill Council (PLFC) was founded in 1991 to develop, promote and implement the original use and subsequent recovery, reuse and recycling of polystyrene loose fill, commonly known as “packing peanuts.”

The Peanut Hotline, 800-828-2214 and loosefillpackaging.com, is the national reuse program for plastic packing peanuts. Consumers can drop off their leftover plastic packing peanuts at Peanut Hotline collection sites. There are over 1,500 collection sites in the US.

Earth 911 is also to good site to check out. It will help you find a local place where you can drop of anything from plastic bottles to electronics to hazardous waste to be reused, recycled, or properly disposed of.

Co-op America put together a list of 10 things you should never buy again, with some facts and alternatives choices. I thought this would be perfect for you one/changers so here it is with a few added links:

1. Styrofoam cups
Styrofoam is forever. It\’s not biodegradable.
Alternative: Buy recyclable and compostable paper cups.
Best option: Invest in some [if possible used] reusable mugs that you can take with you.

2. Paper towels
Paper towels waste forest resources, landfill space, and your money.
Alternative: When you do buy paper towels, look for recycled, non-bleached products. Search the National Green Pagesâ„¢ for recycled paper products.
Best option: Buy dishtowels or rags to wash and reuse.

3. Bleached coffee filters
Dioxins, chemicals formed during the chlorine bleaching process, contaminate groundwater and air and are linked to cancer in humans and animals.
Alternative: Look for unbleached paper filters.
Best Option: Use reusable filters such as washable cloth filters.

4. Overpackaged foods and other products
Excess packaging wastes resources and costs you much more. Around thirty three percent of trash in the average American household comes from packaging.
Alternative: Buy products with minimal or reusable packaging.
Best Option: Buy in bulk and use your own containers when shopping.

5. Teak and mahogany
Every year, 27 million acres of tropical rainforest (an area the size of Ohio) are destroyed. Rainforests cover 6% of Earth’s surface and are home to over half of the world’s wild plant, animal, and insect species. The Amazon rainforest produces 40 percent of the world’s oxygen.
Alternative: Look for Forest Stewardship Council certified wood.
Best Option: Reuse wood, and buy furniture and other products made from used or salvaged wood.

Learn how to become WoodWise at home and in your office »

6.Chemical pesticides and herbicides
American households use 80 million pounds of pesticides each year. The EPA found at least one pesticide in almost every water and fish sample from streams and in more than one-half of shallow wells sampled in agricultural and urban areas. These chemicals pose threats to animals and people, especially children.
Alternatives: Buy organic pest controllers such as diatomaceous earth.
Best Option: Plant native plants and practice integrated pest management. Plant flowers and herbs that act as natural pesticides.

7. Conventional household cleaners
Household products can contain hazardous ingredients such as organic solvents and petroleum-based chemicals that can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into your indoor environment, positing a particular danger for children. The average American household has three to ten of hazardous matter in the home.
Alternative: Look for nontoxic, vegetable-based, biodegradeable cleaners.
Best Option: Try making your own green cleaner using vinegar, water, and castile soap [click here for some easy recipes].

Find safe, green cleaners in the National Green Pages™»

8. Higher octane gas than you need
Only one car in ten manufactured since 1982 requires high-octane gasoline. High-octane gas releases more hazardous pollutants into the air, and may be bad for your car.
Alternative: Buy the lowest-octane gas your car requires as listed in your owner\’s manual
Best option: Make your next car purchase a hybrid. Or ditch the car and take public transportation, ride a bike, or walk.

Learn more about green transportation »

9. Toys made with PVC plastic
70% of PVC is used in construction, but it is also found in everyday plastics, including some children’s toys. Vinyl chloride, the chemical used to make PVC, is a known human carcinogen. Also, additives, such as lead and cadmium, are sometimes added to PVC to keep it from breaking down; these additives can be particularly dangerous in children’s toys. PVC is also the least recycled plastic.
Alternative: Avoid plastics that are labeled as “PVC� or “#3.� Look for #1 and #2 plastics, which are easier to recycle and don’t produce as many toxins. Use sustainable construction materials.
Best option: Take action to tell manufacturers to stop using PVC plastics, especially in children’s toys.

Find safe toys in the National Green Pages™ »

10. Plastic forks and spoons
Disposable plastic utensils are not biodegradeable and not recyclable in most areas.
Alternative: Use compostable food service items. Companies such as Biocorp make cutlery from plant materials such as corn starch and cellulose.
Best option: Carry your own utensils and food containers.

I learned about this list via The Worsted Witch.

Now that Spring is here I want to encourage all of you that can to do two things: 1) Buy a share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)/any local sustainable organic farm or grow your own food; 2) start either an indoor or outdoor compost bin/pile.

I finally ordered the worms I needed for my own indoor compost bin and last Thursday evening Kendall and I had a fun evening working on the project. The bag of worms aren’t as bad as I thought they would be (the worms are mostly concealed by the dirt they are packed with). I am great with all sorts of creatures when they are outside, but when I find them or bring them inside my home I kind of… become… a big sissy. On Friday morning we went out of town for the weekend and I was nervous that I was going to come home to a kitchen overtaken by worms that had cleverly escaped from the compost bin. However, to my delight, they were right where I left them and after an afternoon of cooking up a bunch of fresh veggies from our CSA share I was able to gather the scraps, open the lid, and toss them to be composted!

I am a huge fan of CSA’s. They are generally less expensive, more convenient, and more sustainable than buying organic food at the grocery store. As for composting, getting it setup and maintaining it is SO easy and the cost to set it up is minimal. Composting makes extremely rich soil and is better than anything you can buy.

Happy Spring to you all!!!

I am hoping that you all get that this isn’t about bread specifically. The bread is only a specific example of a general idea…now that you are more in-tune with the waste you produce, where has your thinking led you?

My thoughts led me to what people did before our obsession with putting preservatives in and packaging everything. (It’s like we are always preparing for some huge disaster and living in fear that things are going to be taken away from us and we aren’t going to have enough.) They either made it themselves or bought it directly from the person(s) that did make it. Food may not have stayed fresh as long, so, people bought what they needed as they needed it. (I know that it wasn’t as always as rosy as this sounds, but I am trying to get at a general idea and not at a full historical account of consumerism.) It may sound strange but, this realization has made a big impact on my thinking. Part of me didn’t understand why this hadn’t occurred to me before since community, connection, and interaction are so important to me. Yet, I also understand that there is a timing to things and when we are ready and the time is right, things will settle in and take root just as they should. In the same way that I feel the need to know the people producing my fruits and vegetables and the land where they are being grown, I need to know those baking my bread and even bringing as much of that into my own home as I can. I have been baking my own bread for about 3 months now and love it. There are times where I love it less and it feels like a chore, but I love baking it in my home and then breaking bread with family and friends. I no longer have to throw out packaging (woohoo!) and when I bought a special loaf of delicious peasant bread, it was from a small, local bakery called The Monkey Tree.

My challenge to you is to begin to find creative ways to reduce the trash you create. Whether it is baking your own bread, buying it from a friend who loves to bake, make your own household cleaners, find a health food/natural remedies/body products store that sells shampoos, conditioners, lotions, etc. in bulk (You can reuse the containers you have and you pay by the once.), buy used clothing or recycled clothing, etc. Basically, begin to rethink and find solutions for what you regularly (or not so regularly) buy and the trash you are creating in the process.

I would love to hear any ideas you come up with!

New Belgium Brewing Company is starting a national ad campaign and getting attention for their sustainable company practices. As part of the ad campaign New Belgium has created FollowYourFolly.com and “is devoted to the whimsical side of sustainable living”. Before entering each of the company’s sites there is a message saying that like their beer, their sites are also only to be legally enjoyed by those 21 and over.

Yahoo has launched an Cannes Advertising Festival.

Make an online ad that inspires people to get off their butts and improve the planet. Create an ad for the cause that’s close to your heart. Maybe it’s about hybrid cars, energy-efficient light bulbs, or recycling.

Tell all your friends about it and invite them to give your work a “love it” rating. Our panel of creative judges will take into consideration entries with high “love it” votes when selecting the final winners. Magnifique!

Gap’s RED campaign has received a negative backlash and it has taken a cohesive form in BuyLessCrap.org.

Created by words pictures ideas (WPI) and Romantic Static, Buy (LESS) provides a more meaningful option for would-be donors to causes; instead of buying products like Gap clothing and iPods, since just a small percentage goes to causes, GIVE MORE - as in, donate directly - Buy (LESS) urges.

Read more.