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Tag: Environment - Organic Lifestyle Magazine Tag: Environment - Organic Lifestyle Magazine

Environmental Revolution: How We Are Recycling the Non-Recyclable

We moan, groan, and complain about pollution and rightfully so. Landfills are overflowing; plastic waste chokes our lakes, rivers, and the oceans. Cigarette butts litter the roadways; old vehicles, appliances, and unwanted items clutter forested areas. Not only is all this garbage an eyesore, but it’s also detrimental to the environment.

The overabundance of trash is a serious problem demanding our immediate attention. It’s not going to go away on its own. Humans made the mess; we have to clean it up. For millions of years, Mother Earth pretty well took care of all our planet’s waste, but nature cannot reclaim manmade, non-organic materials on land or in the sea.

Our forefathers invented new machines and materials but never imaged ‘progress’ could result in such a plight. Since the Industrial Revolution and especially during the last century, humans have continuously created more and more items that last long beyond their useful lives.

Related: Drinking Bottled Water Means Drinking Microplastics, According To Damning New Study

After World War II, mobility and convenience became the preferred mode of life. We became a throwaway society where items were not made to last. The idea of ‘toss it away and buy another’ applied to nearly all consumer products. It was cheaper to buy a new kitchen appliance or a children’s toy than to fix it. In the last 50-75 years, durable and reusable items like glass milk and soda bottles have been replaced with plastic. We are now left with figuring out how to get rid of all the garbage.

According to the EPA, in 2014, the United States produced about 258 million tons of waste. Approximately 35 percent of it was recycled; the remaining 136 million tons were dumped into landfills.

Much of that garbage consisted of materials that have limited recycling programs available like tires, electronics, batteries, appliances, and cigarette butts. These items along with the rest of all the consumer and industrial waste products add up to a massive amount of trash with nowhere to go.

How Do We Dispose of Non-Recyclables in a Responsible Manner? Burning or burying garbage is not the answer. It just compounds the problem by poisoning the land and water as well as the air. What the world needs is a way to correct the imbalance in a responsible way.

Related: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

As conscientious citizens, we do our part by recycling some of our plastic, glass, and cardboard as well as taking steps to lessen our carbon footprint. But are we doing enough? What do we do about items that are not recyclable? Is it possible to make a dent in all the accumulated garbage while keeping up with the waste we are creating now?

I asked that last question to Lauren Taylor, Global Vice President of Communications at an innovative recycling company named TerraCycle. She says,

People are finally realizing the past 40-50 years are catching up with us, and there’s a real crisis. I don’t think it’s possible [to catch up with the waste problem] unless we start changing some things. If we don’t, it’s not going to get better.”

TerraCycle

TerraCycle is making this insurmountable task a little easier by providing a way to recycle the unrecyclable. They have become an international leader in converting non-recyclable waste into raw materials or useful affordable products.

In partnership with major corporations, they run free collection programs. Individuals, groups, schools, and businesses sign up for one or more programs to recycle items such as cigarette waste, used oral care products, contact lenses, energy bar wrappers, and used water purification products. During the past 15 years, over 100 million people in 21 countries have collected and recycled over four billion used products and packages. In turn, the recycled plastics, metals, fibers, and wood have been reused, composted, or upcycled into new products.

Earth911

There is another chapter in the recycling the unrecyclable story that needs to be addressed—E-cycling. Computers, monitors, telephones, and other electronic gadgets are left in limbo when it comes to recycling. Some retailers like Best Buy, Office Depot, and Staples have a drop-off service for used electronics, and most cell phone providers offer recycling programs. Some of these services are free, some charge a fee. By using Earth911, you can find an e-cycle center near you, whether it be a store or a recycling center specializing in electronics.

This website also has listings for recyclers of other waste such as tires, automotive parts, paints, batteries, construction materials, and metals that need to be disposed of. Earth911 has a database of 100,000+ recycling centers across the United States, and their blog has interesting articles to help answer questions about green living.

There are many companies, organizations, and projects doing a commendable job of collecting and recycling the waste piling up on the land, but that is only a part of the problem. How about the seas? The oceans cover nearly two-thirds of the surface of our planet and play a vital role in producing oxygen and providing food. Millions of tons of plastic and other debris pollute these waters endangering the sea life and in turn, endangering our own.

Garbage in the Oceans

Ocean plastic can be found everywhere from the coastal regions to the deep sea, even buried in Arctic ice. In an article on National Geographic’s website, Laura Parker reports,

In 2010, eight million tons of plastic trash ended up in the ocean from coastal countries—far more than the total that has been measured floating on the surface in the ocean’s ‘garbage patches.’”

According to the Worldwatch Institute, the amount is now approximately 10–20 million tons of plastic ending up in the oceans each year.

A recent study conservatively estimated that 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing a total of 268,940 tons are currently floating in the world’s oceans. This plastic debris results in an estimated $13 billion a year in losses from damage to marine ecosystems, including financial losses to fisheries and tourism as well as time spent cleaning beaches. Animals such as seabirds, whales, and dolphins can become entangled in the plastic matter; and floating plastic items—such as discarded nets, docks, and boats—can transport microbes, algae, invertebrates, and fish into non-native regions, affecting the local ecosystems.”

Some of the plastic is tossed from vessels sailing the high seas, but a majority of the trash originates from coastal outflow. With larger populations along the coastlines, more trash is being produced with an increasing percentage of that winding up in the water. So, a logical solution to curbing ocean pollution is to catch the trash before it floats out to sea. That’s the principle behind the Seabin and Plastic Bank projects.

Related: Ocean Plastic To Triple Within A Decade 

The Seabin Project

The Seabin is a floating trash receptacle located at marinas, docks, yacht clubs, and commercial ports. It is connected to a submersible water pump cycling water through the trash bin. The floating debris is captured in catch bags located inside the Seabin. It collects trash, oil, fuel and detergents, as well as micro-plastic and micro-fiber debris before it flows into the ocean. Seabins collect three-quarters of a ton of debris per year including plastic bottles, plastic utensils, disposable cups, cigarette butts, plastic particles, and surface pollutants. The trash is either disposed of properly or recycled.

The Plastic Bank

The Plastic Bank impacts high poverty areas by turning plastic waste into money. It is a fairly simple process—people collect plastic, take it to a recycling center and in return receive money, items, or services. This stops the flow of plastics into the oceans while providing a positive future for impoverished people.

The recycled plastic collected through the Plastic Bank is sold to companies to use in the place of virgin plastic for their products or packaging. The collectors have a source of income to provide a better life for their families. It is a win-win for everyone.

Related: How Microplastics Enter the Food Chain Through Organic Fertilizers

Where Does the Recovered Ocean Plastic Go?

  • In France and Germany, Proctor & Gamble started using reclaimed beach plastic to make bottles for Head and Shoulders shampoo. In the coming years, they plan to expand the beach plastic repackaging to other P&G products in the United States and the United Kingdom.
  • Adidas uses yarn made from ocean plastic in a line of tennis shoes and athletic shorts.
  • The Ahi Performance Cruiser Skateboard contains 50 square feet of abandoned fishing nets.
  • The bottles used to package Method’s Dish and Hand Soap are made from recycled beach plastic.
  • Bionic Yarn creates a line of textiles that are used in consumer products ranging from boat covers to furniture to high-end clothing.
  • Sunglasses, jewelry, luggage, art, and sculptures also contain recycled plastic. The list is endless.

What Can We Do?

We can play a role in recycling. See trash along the side of the road? Pick it up and dispose of it properly. Separate your garbage into cardboard, plastics, glass, and paper and take them to a recycling center. Find programs that accept other items that need to be disposed of. Take a walk on the beach and collect the litter. There are hundreds of ways to show your respect for our environment.

We can do our part by making wise decisions in the products we purchase and how we dispose of the waste. It does not require a major life change. It can be a small step—recycle something you haven’t before, purchase less of something, change the brand of an item you purchase because they do something different with their packaging. Small steps lead to big steps toward change.




Celebrating a Green Christmas

Christmas is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated and loved holidays of the year. It’s easy to get so carried away in the festivities you forget about the environment. If you are a true eco-friendly person or wish to become one, give each of the following tips a thought, and take the necessary steps for a beautifully green Christmas.

Christmas Trees

Have you ever wondered whether it’s better to buy an artificial Christmas rather than a real one? An artificial tree can be used year after year, but many of them are made with dangerous chemicals that add to environmental pollution during production. Besides, every eco-friendly person knows that there is nothing quite like the fresh smell of a natural Christmas tree to complement the holiday. Choose your tree from a certified farm that is sustainable and responsible, and consider a live tree you can plant after the holidays.

Christmas Cards

Send e-cards instead of paper ones. We live in a digital age, a time when people have access to the internet through smart devices and phones. If you choose eco-friendly e-cards, you can personalize each card, choosing music or animation. Considering the fact that Christmas cards usually end up in the trash, isn’t it time to consider environmentally conscience alternatives?

Christmas Presents

Pick your presents wisely. There is no need to go overboard. Buy less and buy local. This is the greenest action you can take this Christmas. Tons of products come to the U.S. from China along with a huge carbon footprint. If you buy local, you are supporting local suppliers and minimizing your environmental impact.

Christmas Decorations

Reuse decorations. You don’t really need to buy decorations every year. Instead, you can reuse the décor from last year. If you are feeling particularly creative, you can create your own decorations instead of buying them. That way you will not only save on money, but also reduce the clutter of your home.

Go through the items you are about to throw away and see if you can use anything. One great example is reusing paper from packaging into custom-made gift packets. Simply draw a shape on two layers of paper and stitch the two pieces together. All of those Christmas cards you received in previous years that are too cute to be thrown away can be glued together to make a thematic wreath to hang wherever you please. Acquire some acrylic paint and use it to turn your food jars into Christmas characters, such as Santa, snowman or a greeny elf – a fantastic addition to any Christmas décor.

It really isn’t that hard to transform your Christmas into a green one. All you need is to turn to your environmentally-cautious mind and think of what ways you can make your holiday is less taxing to nature. Be sure to check out the Handy Rubbish Blog for more information on recycling and green living topics.

Further Reading:

Eco-Friendly Toys: Tips for Keeping Kids and the Planet Safe

What Do Natural, Organic, and Non-GMO Actually Mean?

Five Easy Home Improvements to Make Your Home Green and Healthy

Seven Easy Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient

Sources:

The Guardian – Pollution articles




5 Environmentally Friendly Ways To Increase Your Home’s Value

Who doesn’t love helping the environment?  We no longer want large water heaters or other expensive features. Smart buyers are looking for environmentally friendly choices. Water, specifically, is an area ripe for improvement.

The benefits of going green are twofold. First, it adds appeal and versatility to your home, offering unique value compared to other homes lacking these features. Secondly, of course, is that many of these items add actual financial value, both in terms of property value and savings on bills!

Whether you’re currently looking to sell, simply want to live a greener life, or just want to keep your options open in the future, these solutions offer fantastic benefits for everyone.

Harness The Rain

If you live in an area with plenty of rain, turn this to your advantage. Rain collectors can harness this resource for dish washing and other uses around the home, helping to cut down on water bills. However, this water isn’t entirely clean, so it can’t be used for drinking.

That being said, you can add a filter to purify the water for various home uses. This is often where the real value comes in, as it can then be used to provide free shower and tap water! Once you have an effective system set up, you’ll rarely need to use muniipal water.

Organic Gardens

A well-kept garden can do wonders for a home’s price tag, but an organic one also serves a purpose. Whether it’s a large vegetable patch or a simple raised bed, any garden can introduce organic crops. While these will improve your value, they’ll also provide tasty and healthy veggies in the meantime.

Just remember that a key to understanding property value lies in thinking like a buyer. A ready-to-go organic garden helps ease buyers into a better lifestyle and suggests at how green the wider property already is.

The Water Boiler

Even if you have an effective collection system for rainwater, every home still needs hot water. How you heat your water matters a great deal. Your average boiler uses gas or electricity, both of which are power-heavy, to heat water throughout the home.

An efficient boiler, on the other hand, helps save money and adds to the property’s value both financially and in terms of environmental awareness. It will also help improve your home’s energy efficiency, helping to create another vital selling point.

Natural Water Features

Speaking of the garden, how many homes these days feature a water feature of some sort? Most people may think of pools, but these require a lot of clean water and expensive pumps. Still, some simple landscaping can create features that use natural rain water, reducing your need for maintenance and imported water.

A fountain can recycle rainwater, for instance, while a pond serves as an aesthetically pleasing feature. Tastefully done, adding these add little touches to a well-finished garden, increases the value without added bills or running costs.

Water Usage

While cutting down on how much water you use will help keep bills low, it doesn’t influence your home’s value until you make some physical changes. Taps, pipes, and showers all use water, so determining just how much water they use is key.Eco showers speak for themselves, but what else can you do?

Tap inserts can be fitted in your kitchen and sink to ensure a full spray of water without wasting it at the same time. These little features help cut down on water without changing your lifestyle, making them easier to advertise and display if your home ends up on the market.

Similarly, for the extra passionate homeowners, a bathwater diverter can re-direct or collect used bath water into an outside container for use in the garden. If you combine this with a rainwater system, just think how effective this will be. These physical installations add instant value to your home as new buyers can easily see the savings.

Conclusion

So, there you have it – 5 effective ways to help improve your property value and save the environment. How you choose to implement these depends on your home, of course. Not everyone has space for a pond, but even the smallest organic patch will help. Your home should proudly showcase its green lifestyle, making its water-savvy features tempting for anyone looking to buy in the area.

Recommended Reading:
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How Vertical Gardening Could Help Save the World

Most people aren’t gardeners, and even fewer are bona fide farmers. All of us, though, eat.

For this reason, food producers around the country — and around the world — are faced with a high demand for their products, a demand that might become unattainable in the future. In order to ensure a greater sense of food security, it’s time for us all to consider cultivating our own gardens.

You might be scratching your head if you live in an apartment, urban environment, or any other place that doesn’t have the green space for a garden. Fortunately, green thumbs before you have come up with the idea of a vertical garden. You can hang plants, put them on shelves, or simply put them in pots with trellises so that they can grow onward and upward.

You, too, can grow onward and upward if you start your own vertical garden. Aside from improved food security, below are six more reasons home gardens are the way of the future.

It’s Good for the Environment

Imagine the journey the vegetables you buy in a grocery store must go through to get there. They’re often picked in another state or country and transported for miles to reach you. That effort requires a ton of resources that your backyard garden can eliminate. Your own fresh fruits and veggies will produce less waste, help prevent soil erosion, and stave off future droughts.

It’s Healthier for You

You’ve heard — or you might know from sampling them yourself — organic fruits and veggies typically taste better than their pesticide-laden counterparts. Naturally grown produce also boasts more vitamins and minerals, especially if it’s locally grown and bought as fresh as possible. Imagine how flavorful and beneficial your vertical garden will be: freshly picked vegetables and fruits can go directly into your cooking, no middleman or nutrients lost.

Many home gardeners also get creative, growing produce that might otherwise be hard to come by or expensive in stores. This daringness has health benefits, as your body craves dietary diversity. New fruits and vegetables without steep price tags or miles of travel? Sign us up.

It Keeps Water Cleaner

As previously mentioned, many farmers rely on chemically based products to keep insects and other plant-eating pests at bay. These might be helpful to the farmer and improve overall yield, but they’re not good for us or for our water supply.

Perhaps it rains or the farmer waters his plants after spraying on a layer of pesticides. Where does the run-off go? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it often goes into our groundwater, and more than 35 states have contaminated groundwater because of this cycle. Your home garden can help cut down on this, and you can drink from the tap with a little more confidence.

It Cuts Down on Energy Usage

You probably don’t think about farms as places where a massive amount of energy is used, but think again: modern farming uses more petroleum than any other industry. This figure includes the production of synthetic pesticides, which actually account for more energy usage than the planting and harvesting of natural crops. If you say “yes” to gardening — and “no” to synthetic pesticides — you can help reduce this number.

It Boosts Biodiversity

Crop fields are often dedicated to, well, one type of crop. This makes the farmer’s life easier, for sure, but it doesn’t do much for the environment. It saps nutrients from the soil and allows pests to become smarter in their attack on our food supplies; that’s why fertilizers and pesticides have become commonplace.

By planting your own garden with a bunch of different plants, you’ll be doing your part to mix it up. Even if you don’t have a plot of land to improve with your green gardening, your vertical garden can attract bees and other helpful insects that might not show up to tired farmlands. They’re vital to the biodiversity of an area, too, because of their role in pollination.

It Bulks Up Your Wallet

This one might not necessarily save the world, but it might mean the world to you and your family. A vertical garden can help you save grocery money.

You can also use scrap wood and recycled containers, rather than buying new supplies to start your vertical garden. It doesn’t take much: seeds, soil, and some basic power tools can transform an unused corner of your patio or apartment into a tiny farm.

You can also create your own compost in order to fertilize your plants for free. Once your garden starts yielding produce, you’ll save money at the grocery store, too. You’ll avoid rising food costs, help the environment, and eat more flavorful meals. Who said saving the world had to be hard?

If you want to contribute to sustainable lifestyles and grow your own food, vertical gardening is a great solution! Nearly anyone can do it; you just need the right inspiration.

What vertical gardening strategies could you use in your home? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!

Further Reading:
Sources:



5 Reasons to Avoid Factory-Farmed Fish

(DrFrankLipman – Frank Lipman) While it may seem like a modern invention, “aquaculture,” has been around for ages – man has been “farming” fish in net enclosures, ponds, vats, urns and even woven baskets for thousands of years. More recently though, say within the last few decades, worldwide demand has exploded and farming fish has grown just as rapidly, evolving into a multi-billion dollar industry. Its mission: to produce more fish quicker, faster, larger and cheaper to meet the insatiable demand for what once seemed a limitless and inexpensive source of protein and good fat.

Not surprisingly, the extraordinary growth of the fish farm business has brought with it a number of industrial farming problems that concern me enough to advise all my patients to avoid factory-farmed fish. While there are some fish farmers producing eco-friendly and healthy fish, they are the exception, not the rule, so unless you’re able to purchase fish from those types of purveyors (usually smaller-scale, artisanal or boutique-style fish farms), just say No Tanks…that is, no to farmed fish – and here are five simple reasons why:

1) There’s no such thing as a free-range, farmed fish

In fact, it’s quite the opposite, with fish farm enclosures packing the creatures in, well, like sardines, leaving little room for the fish to swim freely or to engage in their normal behavioral patterns. The result? Stressed fish, who like us, tend to get sick more easily when their defenses are down. With their immune systems compromised, the fish become more prone to illness, parasitic infections and diseases, which then can spread quickly through their over-populated aquatic quarters.

2) Farmed fish are like really into drugs, dude

Next, the sickened fish have to be made well again, with you guessed it, drugs.  To do this, farmed fish are fed antibiotics, antifungals and/or pesticides – which means so are you, with every fork-full. Hardly an appetizing thought. As if that weren’t enough, farmed fish are often injected with booster shots of sex hormones. Turns out, captive fish populations tend to produce fewer offspring, so fish farms often enhance Mother Nature with fertility treatments (i.e., hormone shots, special feed, etc.) to stimulate offspring production and pump up the yield. With this in mind the question becomes, what are those fish hormones doing to our bodies? And is it worth the risk? I don’t think so.

3) Their diet is simply revolting

As is the case with industrially farmed, land-based livestock, top quality, 5-star feed isn’t on the menu, so what does the average farmed fish eat? Mostly fishmeal. Sound innocuous enough, that is till you discover that fishmeal is made up mostly of smaller fish mixed with (presumably genetically-modified) soybeans, grains and corn. Possible GMO issues aside, the larger issue is that in order to make all that fishmeal, a tremendous amount of smaller fish are fished out of the sea – anywhere from 3-to-6 pounds of small fish are needed to produce just one pound of farmed fish. In addition to being an enormously wasteful process, it also leaves less food available for wild fish to feed on, which contributes to their population declines. Oh, and what else do farmed fish snack on? The carcasses of deceased neighbors floating in or lying at the bottom of their tanks. It’s not a pretty picture.

4) If you’re looking for nutrition, farmed fish falls short

Even if you could overlook the drugs, hormone shots and less-than-optimal diet, farmed fish still comes up short in terms of nutrition, one of the reasons so many of us turned to fish in the first place. Compared to wild fish, farmed versions can have as much as 20% less protein, twice as much inflammation-boosting omega 6 fatty acid, less usable omega 3’s and fewer nutrients overall. In short, wild is better.

5) Industrial fish farms pollute their surroundings

Numerous studies report that water quality suffers in areas where fish farms operate, creating something akin to the aquatic version of agricultural run-off. Decaying fishmeal, diseased and dying fish and their waste products combine to create conditions that enable bacteria to flourish, polluting not only the fish farm waters but seeping into and damaging neighboring wild fish habitats, marshes and wetlands either by accident, carelessness or poor fish farming methods. Isn’t all this damage and pollution is too high an ecological price to pay for farmed fish-on-demand? I believe it is.

So, with all this in mind, what’s the alternative to farmed fish? The answer is wild fish though the wild stuff is not without its own set of issues, including over-fishing, dwindling populations and mercury concerns. To help you make the best possible choices, when buying fish at the market or dining out, ask questions and find out where your fish is sourced, and if it’s fished sustainably. Before you buy, check your choices with the Blue Ocean Institute’s helpful Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood or download printable lists of eco-friendly seafood recommendations from Seafoodwatch.org 

For more on how to make informed seafood choices, check out School Yourself the Smart Way to Eat Fish.




11 Low-tech Methods for Eco-Friendly Laundry

(NaturalPapa – Derek Markham) Dirty laundry happens. And then washing clothes happens, usually quite wastefully, without a thought for the overall impact of this common chore. Whether you’re trying to transition to having a lower environmental footprint, attempting to rely less on the grid, or just want to go greener in the laundry room, there are a variety of simple and low-tech methods for washing clothes in a more sustainable manner.

When my family and I were experimenting with living in a tiny house, we spent six years learning how to do things in a simpler and more sustainable manner, sometimes out of choice, and sometimes out of necessity. And like most families, especially those that use cloth diapers for their baby, washing clothes seemed like a never-ending chore. Going to the laundromat every couple of days wasn’t really optimal for us, except in the middle of winter when it was too cold to wash clothes outside, so without our own washing machine, we had to get a little creative. Some of the ways we dealt with laundry weren’t so much about washing clothes, but about needing to wash clothes less often, and to use less energy and water to do so.

We’ve since moved on into a house with our own washing machine, but many of these eco-friendly laundry tactics have stuck with us over the years.

1. Wear clothes longer between washing: This is kind of a no-brainer, and probably doesn’t apply to socks and underwear (but your mileage may vary), but only washing the clothes that are noticeably dirty or smelly is a great way to cut down on the amount and frequency of laundry that needs to get done. Unless your job leaves your clothes dirty at the end of the day, chances are you can wear pants, shirts, sweaters, skirts, etc., at least twice (if not more) before washing them. Personally, I also try to buy pants in colors that don’t easily show dirt or wear, and I choose to purchase longer-wearing items instead of always going for the bargain clothes. For me, that means that I tend to go for the heavier weight pants, such as those made by Carhartt or another workwear brand, and to buy them in dark colors. Obviously this isn’t optimal if your job has a strict dress code or requires wearing white pants…

2. Wash by hand: We began washing clothes by hand out of necessity, as we didn’t have a washing machine, and while it takes more time and physical energy to get it done, it also had the benefit of making us very aware of how much laundry we were generating each week. There a number of low-tech tools for washing clothes by hand, but we found that a laundry plunger, such as this one from Lehman’s, was effective, affordable, and long-lasting. We used five-gallon plastic buckets (which I was able to get for free from the local college’s dining services) to wash and rinse in, and we were learned that if we started washing the least-dirty clothes first, we were able to wash multiple loads in the same water, and then do the same with the rinse water. After we were finished with one bucket of dirty water, we used it to water trees and to keep our compost sufficiently moist. If you’re looking for another human-powered laundry solution, this pedal-powered version looks intriguing.

3. Use a clothes line: The sun and wind are very effective at drying clothes throughout the year (it even works in the winter, unless we hit long periods of below-freezing temperatures or snow and rain), and when drying clothes outside wasn’t an option, we used clothes racks to dry them inside. We didn’t ever buy or build a clothes wringer, as we lived in a dry sunny region, but that could be an effective method of speeding up the drying process, especially in more humid locations. Depending on the climate where you live, using an outside clothes line may not always be the best choice, but either a homemade or a purpose-built clothes rack can do the trick.

4. Wash clothes while showering: This is an old backpacking and traveling trick which can enable you to get clean clothes while you clean your body. Either step into the shower fully clothed and get them wet under the showerhead, or remove them first and put them in the bottom of the shower with you. If you use a gentle all-purpose soap such as Dr. Bronner’s, there’s no need for a separate laundry soap, and the soap from your body, in combination with the scrubbing action of your feet on your clothes, can effectively wash your clothes in almost the same amount of water that a shower alone uses.

5. Use concentrated and biodegradable laundry soap: When we were washing clothes by hand and using the resulting greywater for plants, we chose to use a brand that was specifically designed for greywater systems (Oasis), but there are certainly other greywater-friendly options on the market. We still always buy a concentrated and eco-friendly laundry soap, even after getting a washing machine. And for those that want to get started with using greywater for the landscape, re-routing your washing machine discharge to a mulched greywater basin can be an appropriate project (check your local regulations, or proceed at your own risk, as many municipalities are very strict about greywater projects).

6. Avoid using chlorine bleach: We’ve managed to do without chlorine bleach for washing clothes for many years, and I believe there isn’t a strong case for using it (again, unless you are required to wear bright white clothes). There are options for avoiding the use of bleach in the laundry, including using non-chlorine laundry whiteners, but we’ve found that the sun is the most effective and eco-friendly bleaching method, and that drying clothes on the line was sufficient for our purposes (although we do live in a very sunny region of the southwest, and your location may not be optimal for that).

7. Only wash full loads: This is another simple tactic that should be second nature to use these days, but isn’t as common as it ought to be. Doing small loads of laundry on the same settings as a full load is just wasteful, and by waiting for a full load to accumulate before washing it, we can optimize our laundry habits. If we’ve only got one item to wash, then washing by hand may be a better choice.

8. Only use cold water: Even after getting a washing machine, I left the hot water supply unhooked, and we’ve only used cold water to wash our clothes for many years now. They get just as clean, and by not having to heat the wash water, our energy consumption (and energy costs) are much lower. In the event that we do use a laundromat (when traveling, for example), we still choose the cold water wash.

9. Use a laundromat’s commercial-sized washing machine: Using a laundromat’s large commercial washing machine may be more efficient in terms of water use, and can let you get away with one big load instead of multiple smaller loads of laundry. Obviously this depends on the age and efficiency of the washing machines at the laundromat, but many times the front-loading washers use a lot less water to get the same job done as the standard top-loaders in many homes.

10. Skip the dryer sheets: Dryer sheets are kind of a mystery to me, as I’m not sure why people still choose to buy and use them. Perhaps it’s a matter of marketing, or perhaps we may believe that unless something comes out of the laundry with a scent on it, it isn’t truly clean, but I feel fortunate to have not bought into that. Not only are dryer sheets an additional item that must be manufactured (and then disposed of), they may actually leave undesirable residues on our clothes, which are then in direct contact with our skin.

11. Purchase a more efficient front-loading washing machine: This item is on my list of essential home upgrades to save up for, and is a relatively simple method for more washing clothes more sustainably. Front-loading washers can get clothes just as clean, but use much less water to do so. And if we choose a model that is also rated higher in energy-efficiency, we can also reduce the amount of electricity we use for laundry.

The weekly chore of washing clothes can be done with a lower environmental impact, whether you own a washing machine or not, and greening our laundry process can be an effective piece of an overall personal sustainability initiative.




Plants Won’t Grow Near Wi-Fi Routers, Experiment Finds

(NaturalNews – Michael Ravensthorpe) It’s not difficult to understand the appeal of Wi-Fi. This revolutionary technology, which has been commercially available since 1999, eliminates cabling and wiring for computers, reduces cellular usage charges and allows us to connect to the Internet from anywhere with a signal. Despite these benefits, however, studies continue to show that the radiation generated by wireless routers is negatively affecting our health. In fact, the British activist website Stop Smart Meters recently published a list of 34 scientific studies demonstrating the adverse biological effects of Wi-Fi exposure, including studies linking it to headaches, reduced sperm count and oxidative stress.

The latest research into the dangers of Wi-Fi, though, comes from a surprisingly humble source: Five ninth grade female students from Denmark, whose science experiment revealed that wireless radiation is equally as devastating to plants.

Undeniable results

The experiment began when the five students realized that they had difficulty concentrating in school if they slept near their mobile phones the previous night. Intrigued by this phenomenon, the students endeavored to study the effects of cellphone radiation on humans. Unfortunately, their school prevented them from pursuing this experiment due to a lack of resources, so the students decided to test the effects of Wi-Firadiation (comparable in strength to cellphone radiation) on a plant instead.

The girls placed six trays of Lepidium sativum seeds (a garden cress grown commercially throughout Europe) in a room without radiation, and an equal amount in a room next to two Wi-Fi routers. Over a 12-day period, they observed, measured, weighed and photographed the results. Even before the 12th day arrived, however, the end results were obvious: The cress seeds placed near the routers either hadn’t grown or were completely dead, while the seeds placed in the radiation-free room had blossomed into healthy plants.

The experiment earned the five students top honors in a regional science competition. Moreover, according to a teacher at their school, Kim Horsevad, a professor of neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden was so impressed with the experiment that he is interested in repeating it in a controlled scientific environment.

You can help reduce your exposure to Wi-Fi radiation by following the advice in this article.

Sources for this article include:
http://www.globalresearch.ca
http://www.safespaceprotection.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com