Suffocating in Plastic Toydom

I’ve been thinking lately, as I look around my itty bitty house, how did we get so much crap?  I will say that most of this stuff was bought by us without thinking and almost 90% of it belongs to our 2 year old.  The crap I’m talking about is little plastic things, nick nacks, useless toys and trinkets that at the time of purchase seem like a good idea and I will admit that she plays with maybe 20% of the stuff.  But you see I’m now on a mission

My mission is not to rid my house of the plastic crap, although that would be nice, because where would it go?  The garbage? Goodwill most likely?  I’m sure in my quest to green and de-clutter I will be donating some of this stuff to goodwill or other organizations.  What my current mission is, is to keep the plastic toys and trinkets out of the house in the first place.  I am not saying we aren’t going to buy our daughter toys or things to play with, but I’m thinking of things that are much more earth friendly.  examples would be toys made from sustainable wood, metal or organic cotton.

It’s funny I’ve always really thought of myself as a green person until I realized the amount of plastic that we had bought to entertain our child.  While it might not seem like a big deal at the time you buy something, over time plastic breaks down and leaches into the environment which also happens to be your home, um gross!!!  Also like most things that kids own they out grow it or bore of it within a few months, now what?  A. Keep it for the next kid B. Give it away C. Give it to some other unsuspecting family or D. Throw it away.  Inevitably it will end up in some land fill.

There are some other options to not buying plastic toys, instead rent or trade for them.  The companies below have made a living out of doing that.  Trade in old toys for toys that your kids currently want and then trade again or rent the toys that your kids might be interested in keep them for a bit and then send them back.

http://www.toystotrade.com This is a site to trade old toys, that are still good of course with other toys your kids are asking for.

http://www.babyplays.com This is a site that works like a library sort of.  You put a wish list together and get a membership plan set up for yourself.  Check out the site, it’s a really neat idea.

Now I’ve never actually tried these sites, but the idea is really intriguing to me and at this point I’m thinking I might be sending some toys there way if nothing else.

I will keep you all posted on my current no plastic mission and let you know how it pans out.  Wish me the best!

Greener AC

This was just a random thought that I had recently about ways to green up our home.  I’m sure others have thought of it, and if that’s the case why hasn’t it started happening.

OK so my thought was why don’t Air conditioning companies go in with solar panel companies and make AC’s that are ready to be run by a solar panel.   It would be a nice little package unit, one AC and one solar panel all wrapped up in a nice tidy Eco friendly package.  If you can buy solar panels to run your electric car, why can’t you run your AC with one?  I don’t mean that you need to outfit your house with solar panels and that you convert your electrical usage to solar, but wouldn’t it be nice if you were able to set up a single solar panel that was strictly there to power your AC!?  It could store up energy throughout the year and during the summer months it would keep your AC humming with less guilt for using it.

I personally don’t have an AC system in my house, but if something like this came out I would really have to come up a reason Not to buy one.  Rarely do we need AC where I live, but there are days when I spend a little extra time at work to enjoy the cool air.

Just a little random thought for the day.  Till next time stay cool as the summer kicks into full gear!

Green Denial

I read something on a forum that I belong to recently that got me thinking.  What the person said was simple “I don’t bother with organic, really what’s the point.”  They were talking about baby crib sheets.  The next portion of her post was “I always buy white sheets so I can bleach them”

So here’s my thoughts on this simple, but painful post.  Buying organic cotton bed sheets, crib mattress etc for baby is the best thing you can do for you new little one.  Why?  Well that requires a two part answer

First: babies skin is so thin and porous that is more susceptible to the pesticides that were used during the farming of the cotton. The health effects of pesticides depend on the type of pesticide. Some, such as the organophosphates and carbamates, affect the nervous system. Others may irritate the skin or eyes. Some pesticides may be carcinogens. Others may affect the hormone or endocrineEPA’s human health risk assessments for many pesticides are available on the web. This was taken directly from the EPA website about health effects from pesticides.  Just a tad scary I’d say!

Second: Every time pesticides are sprayed they aren’t just staying in the exact spot they are sprayed.  These little mists of death travel into our air, water & soil causing trouble wherever they go.  So buy not buying conventional cotton your not just keeping the pesticides out of your house and away from your baby, but your helping keep them out of our water, soil & air.

Now the second part of this ladies post talked about bleaching her sheets.  Now if you talking non-chlorine bleach great! Even better if it’s seventh generations hydrogen peroxide “bleach” but that’s another post all together.  So chlorine bleach kills germs and whitens yes it’s true, but at what cost to the earth and the people you love?  Chlorine bleach is capable of eating through fabric, wood & metal if given the opportunity.  For some reason this doesn’t sound like a great idea to have around my newborn, even if it was “washed” out in the rinse cycle.  Here is a list of the chemicals used to make bleach, this is from the Clorox website  If your feeling feisty check some of them out.  Here they are:

Water, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium hydroxide, Sodium silicate

Here’s a site that lists a lot of chemical info.  http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts178.html If your interested in looking up what these chemicals are please check out the site above.  Or just copy and paste what you’d like.

So my whole point of this is what?  My family tries to be as Eco as possible making decisions to keep not only our household clean and healthy but also doing are part to keep our fellow “earthlings” healthy.  Is this in vain or are we becoming a bigger group of people and this particular person is now more in the minority of thinking?  Also do you think it’s possible to change someone who thinks this way to start thinking Green?

Thanks for reading this little side note crazy talk today.

Back to my own laundry with non-chlorine seventh generation “bleach”, seventh generation biodegradable laundry detergent and Method fabric softener when needed.