Recycling dirty diapers!

This is the BEST! A recycling plant for dirty diapers. It will be powered by converting the organic parts (you know, poo) in the diapers to energy and the inorganic bits (the remaining 98%) will be post-consumer pulp and plastic. That is so fabulous. Have you ever thought of the bazillion dirty diapers in the landfill? Its the kind of thing that drives me bonkers to consider. That is a big part of why we use primarily cloth (not the only reason). But a lot of day cares and the like won't use cloth and 'sposies are not always avoidable. If we can work on improving the sustainability of how they are made and then recycling them, thats just awesome.

In other news: For the first time ever I planted garlic in the fall! I finally did it! For no good reason I have never managed to get it done in the past. So yesterday, a gorgeous day, z. and I pulled up the tomatoes, dug up the dirt, mixed in some compost, and stuck the little bulbs in the dirt. Yay! (note to self: they are just east of the broccoli)

my arch nemesis: waste.

but of course i still create a lot of it. i want to see the documentary film No Impact Man. the No Impact project was about a lot more than creating waste. A family went about the project of living with no net environmental impact for a year. im really curious about the details. mostly i am interested because it can be so hard to know what the right thing to do it - sure sometimes it is obvious but, as no impact man himself says:



"Everything, if you listen to conventional wisdom, is as bad as everything else. The spin merchants have got us believing that to try to make any difference is futile. You might as well give up. Throw away another plastic coffee cup. Don’t bother with the hybrid car. Go on, guzzle."



i have found this sentiment to be really ubiquitous regarding cloth diapers.

part of the plan of this project was apparently to do real work in figuring out these conundrums. so im curious. i would like to read the book, but also the documentary comes out today i think - filmed as low impact as possible.



p.s one lower your impact thing i like - http://www.snacktaxi.com/

i pack a lunch, one day ill be packing z's lunch. i have ziplock bags that have been washed and reused to infinity, but now im switching over to these because they are great.

can i trust the organic market?

I haven't seen it yet. Everyone is talking about it. I haven't read the books either. But Im on board.

Food Inc. is making some waves. I have heard more than one interview with the movie's creator and I am really excited that everyone is talking about food, and that more people are growing their own this year than ever. Our garden doubled in size and I am learning more each year. I still never pretend to know what I am doing. We certainly do not grow enough to take us off the agribusiness grid. We buy plenty of groceries and I focus not perfectly but solidly on organic produce. But the movie and the buzz about it gives me a great reminder - a kick in my too often forgetful or lazy or cheap butt - to be even more mindful of what I eat, what I buy, and what I feed my daughter. I buy a lot of "nature's promise" - Giant grocery's organic store label. But the truth is that I do not trust the label. i do not have time to research the food labels that i buy. if the milk i put in my cart says "organic" i want to know that that means xyz.

turns out i have good reason to be skeptical. i do not have time to research this intently, so look into it further if you are interested, but i have done a little searching (org consumer association is a nice site to start) and there is concern that the organic milk market is not well regulated and is becoming dominated by a few large producers that supply places like costco, safeway, giant, and other stores with their affordable organic milks but do not uphold organic standards. there is a lawsuit pending. I found a great comparison rating for milk and cheese producers - have to give a shout out to HyVee, the midwest grocery that i know from nebraska, for scoring better than stonyfield! (though both are in the excellent category)

how do we - the families in this country that live in neighborhoods like mine - "vote three times a day" for a sustainable safe and humane food industry do so if, at the very least, we cannot trust the labels on the food we buy? I cannot pretend to expect my neighbors to do all their shopping at farmer's markets. the only grocery or market in walking distance is Aldi. We need to fix regulations and agribusiness political power so that there is an answer to the problem at our regular neighborhood grocery stores. meanwhile, because i can and because i feel passionately about it, i am going to be more committed than i have been and work on shopping more consistently at the many farmer's markets in b'more, not only for special veggies or treats but for the regular fridge stockers like eggs and milk. we try to be conscious omnivores, but will cut back on meat even more, to only a couple times a week and only that purchased from farmers at markets.

bread and festivals

i know, blogging once a month is hardly blogging at all. and im not going to make up for it now. just popping my head in to make sure this thing doesnt get too dusty. some quick updates:

1. im going to start baking bread. ive always wanted to bake bread. the kind that rises that is. ive thought it was complicated. maybe it is, but i have a kitchenaid. must give it a try. my first attempt was braided bread for easter. it was gorgeous. i should have taken a picture. dagnabbit. it was delicious though a bit over cooked on the bottom. total success for attempt #1. totally easy. and my b.girl love love loves cinnamon raisin bread. so im now dedicated to making it myself. even though we always pick up wholegrain breads, its really hard to find them without hfcs and of course preservatives etc so, im giving it a shot. ill photograph future attempts.

2. Baltimore ECOfestival is all of a sudden this saturday.

dream home

It is the first day after spring break and I have so very much to do! But at the moment I have to take a break to say, ohmygoodness I want to live like a hobbit too! This house is gorgeous and green and did I say gorgeous! Though cities are exciting, the fam and I were roasting marshmallows in our big stick burning bowl in our back yard yesterday evening to clear out some of the sticks our big tree drops and it was so happy, and we were really enjoying our outside space. And this past weekend I planted onions and peas and carrots and spinach while Zoe ran around the yard playing in dirt and wow that was fun. Now that I have decided I like space and yard and dirt, imagine living in the dirt? In a completely sustainable and beautiful home? If I could still walk to a coffee shop that happens to sell really great icecream, then it would be perfection. So, adding to the list of my goals in life: build hobbit home. Apparently it only takes 4 months and less than 5000 dollars (ok, ok, and perhaps some skills).

Grey Water: the next big thing?

(this post is inspired by, and most links provided by, today's email eco tip from idealbite)

In my cloth v. disposable post I mentioned that the problem with cloth (water consumption) might be easier to remedy than the myriad problems of disposables (multiple resource consumption, including petroleum products, and landfill overload for millenia). So, how to deal with the water consumption issues? First we need to improve general conservation of course. How tragic is it to see lawn (and sidewalk or driveway) watering at high noon in the summer? Or the classic, turn the water off while brushing your teeth! I'm going to guess most people still need to work on these basics. But if we are going to really deal with the problem of conserving potable water effectively we are going to have to go much further - how to do it? We are going to have to utilize grey water techniques. I am not an expert by any means, but interested to know more and wish we all were. Here are some things that can be done, some easier than others:
Rain barrel collection. I gotta get me one of these.
Green Roof. For my dream home...

Send water from your sink to your toilet (brilliant! shouldn't every new home built include this feature?)

Install a grey water plumbing system, sending bath and sink water to your yard (need a permit, not legal in every state, not for plants you plan to eat, and make sure you stick to eco soap products)

More info on greywater from Greywater Guerrillas

oh to save the world one tomato at a time

please read "why bother" in the NYT magazine's "green issue" and be inspired to plant something. dont have a yard? cant find a community garden? well, lots of vegetables grow excellently in pots and containers- tomatoes, lettuce, beans, garlic, peppers, carrots... (go here and here to learn)

here is my favorite bit from the article:
"But there are sweeter reasons to plant that garden, to bother. At least in this one corner of your yard and life, you will have begun to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen. Chances are, your garden will re-engage you with your neighbors, for you will have produce to give away and the need to borrow their tools. You will have reduced the power of the cheap-energy mind by personally overcoming its most debilitating weakness: its helplessness and the fact that it can’t do much of anything that doesn’t involve division or subtraction. The garden’s season-long transit from seed to ripe fruit — will you get a load of that zucchini?! — suggests that the operations of addition and multiplication still obtain, that the abundance of nature is not exhausted. The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. "

Brita should recycle filters - make it happen!

Please sign this petition to ask the Clorox company to begin a recycling program for Brita filters in the US!
Brita began in Germany and created a recycling program for its used filters. The North American division of Brita was sold to the Clorox company in 2000 and Clorox does not offer a recycling program. So while European Brita filters can be returned to the company and recycled, American and Canadian filters cannot. Ridiculous! Let's convince Clorox - which runs ads lauding itself as a way to reduce plastic bottle use - to recycle.

cloth v. disposables. seriously?

While hanging out at my mothers I watched daytime tv for the first time in forever and saw one of those morning "news" shows, you know that one where they go outside and talk to the screaming people, Good Morning America I think. Anyhow, they did a little bit about how many resources the average person uses in a lifetime and they talked about disposable diapers. Showed images of the amount of plastic, paper, cotton, etc used in all the diapers needed for one child - working on shocking us into disgust. But I was very erked that the punchline of this story was not about how to cut down on all the waste. Missed a big chance to give some tips for decreasing the maddness. They didnt seriously talk about cloth diapers but instead said "and in case you thought cloth was the answer"...well you have to wash cloth diapers and that takes water which is precious, so were screwed either way. Hellooo? Yes, washing cloth diapers uses resources. Duh. But after all that calculating about the environmental disaster of disposables its ridiculous to dismiss cloth so flippantly. We need a serious comparative study people! I am so so so so so so so so so tired of people telling me that they have heard that the environmental impact of 'sposies and cloth come out equal in the end. Why not disposable clothes then? Disposable dishes? We can improve our water conservation habits (grey water etc) easier than we can remedy the massive use of plastics and dumping of non-degradable diapers (filled with human waste mind you - also bad for the earth and for us). I was two extra loads of laundry a week. I use warm, not hot water. Cloth users know that bleach is bad for diapers, and many many use earth friendly detergents. A child uses around 3 thousand diapers in their first year (a little less the following years), and typically go 2 or 3 years in dipes. If 'sposies and cloth are comparatively equally earth damaging, somebody better prove it to me.
harrrumph.

lights out

Tonight at 8 everybody's turning out the lights. Well, a good portion of us. You?
I love that Google made it their theme today - like a holiday.
So turn off those lights and electronics and enjoy yourself a candlelit dinner.

(two posts in one day, whoa me)

Wishlist

While nursing (which is what I spend the vast majority of my time doing these days) I find myself dinking around the Internet (and sometimes doing research or writing. but not often.). Today I spent my time picking out the composter I would like to buy if I had 200$ in my pocket with no where to go. But one of the reasons I picked it is that 200$ is the best deal I can find, for one of these off the ground pest-resistant (urban friendly) spinning composters. We have an on-the-ground contained pile, but as we live in Baltimore it of course eventually attracted rodents (which were responsible for eating so many of our tomatoes last year). Luckily its far from our house, and so I haven't seen them, but as the evidence was there we had to abandon composting. That has seriously bummed me out as its almost spring and I have big hopes for my garden this year and the thought of buying compost is so annoying. But we have never been able to bring ourselves to shell out the money for one of these self-contained units. But its almost my birthday...

anyway, the one I have chosen is the "world's best organic compost tumbler" (with free shipping!)

Beijing's super cool water-cube

check out this amazing "water cube" built for the olympics in Beijing.
While China touts an eco-focused olympics plan, many people have laughed and called it all green washing, and I don't know much about the plan as a whole. But this building is really impressive! I'm not sure if its gorgeous (suposedly its the yin to the neighboring stadium's yang), but it is made of 100,000 square meters of Teflon-like translucent plastic that is only .008 of an inch, holds up to 300 times it weight, allows in more solar heat than glass which results in a 30 percent reduction in heating cost for the giant pools, as well as costing 70% less to install than glass (and it can be recycled). Plus, there is a rainwater collection system that gathers 10,000 cubic meters of rain, while a recycling system reuses 80% of the building's water. Wow. neat-o.
And instead of building fancy stuff that will be useless after the athletics-orgy that is the olympics, they designed the "cube" to have space to convert it into a recreation center with waterslides and tennis courts.

in other news I am still overdue, and will be induced on February 7th if this baby remains just too dang comfortable to get moving.

Crazy, thats me.

I officially designate myself a crazy person. I have a tendency to get stuck in a loop, my mind will keep working on something, often something relatively mundane or that I cant do anything about, and it takes me quite a while to move on. Lately Ive been stuck in a cloth diaper loop. I have got the types, the pros and cons of this and that, down. Now it is just decision-making and deal-finding that occupies an embarrassing number of hours. embarrassing. Deciding what to buy is complicated by the tightness of the budget, but at least I can be reassured to know that overall I will be saving money in the long run using cloth over disposables - especially if I were to buy some relatively eco-friendly disposables like seventh generation. Besides even so called biodegradable diapers will not actually disintegrate in a landfill anyhow, as even banana peels are well preserved in the ecology of a landfill. Anyhow, I have almost decided on what I will be buying, and they will be relatively boring and economical, though the cute and newfangled and organic and fluffy etc are tempting, just pricey. But the point is, I am getting ever closer to decision making, though being fully psychotic during the process. Meanwhile I have developed a equally crazy day dream of opening a store - a real bricks and mortar store - in baltimore for cloth diapers, wraps, baby things made by maryland work at home moms, things I like, green products, gently used things, etc. I even have a spot picked out (on harford road with red canoe and zekes and that new knitting store). I have always had a bit of an entrepreneurial bug in me, though my only experience actually running a business was a coffee shop, not a baby retail. And I know that in reality it would be craziness, and I would have to take out loans and then I would most likely go (even more) broke. And not to mention, I'm supposed to write a dissertation in the next couple years. But lately I have enjoyed the thought of dissing the diss and opening this store, with a playroom and community space where I can work with my baby in tow and meet and help other new parents and where people could buy good products in person rather than only online, which is where all the cloth diapering stuff is, at least when in baltimore. Its not the tea shop that I used to dream about opening, but I think there might be a market for it and it sounds fun. A little green shop for baby and me, and other babies, and you.

But, like I said, absolutely crazy.

Bags Bags Bags!

I love bags, and we all know that everyone should use reusable bags all the time. Certainly. Of course! The key is having one on hand at all time. Part of that is planning when you are shopping, but that certainly doesn't always happen for me, and I get so frustrated when I find myself at the store empty handed. That is why I am so stoked for these collapsible bags that clip to something! I just ordered several for christmas presents! (and also one for myself). I don't actually own one yet, I am just assuming they are great, because they look and sound great, and someone told me they are great...and there is a 10% discount until the end of October (coupon code eccd87) (thanks greenstylemom.blogspot.com !) Also, it seems the yellow bags are 2 dollars cheaper than the other colors, go yellow!

Another favorite tip for using less plastic when shopping: I saved a half a dozen of the small plastic bags used at the grocery store for produce and keep them in my canvas grocery shopping bags and now use the same ones over and over. you can, of course, also buy nice net bags for produce, but if you don't have any like me, this plan also cuts down on lots of waste.)

six month check in

The grape sized heart beat is now more than a pound and does gymnastics in my belly.

And I have been learning all the things that one needs to learn to prepare for a small person's arrival. So far the greatest learning curve seems to involve diapers. This will, I am sure, be a large part of our upcomming life: diapers. There are many many many more types of cloth diapers out there than I ever realized. Old school with covers, pockets with inserts, full units with buttons...and many many opinions about them all. I am living in a bit of fear and apprehension for how it will all go down, with the little one here needing changing all the time and me doing the laundry while I work on getting back to work and finding a teaching job before too long. I dont want to enter these mommy wars that are so ridiculous, but I worry that only those that make mommying their full time job are able to forgo disposables, breast feed exclusively, and do all these things that are best for the planet and the child. That is the paranoid part of me and the part that has just read blogs written by "green mommy"s and super nurturers that post their homemade organic grown in the backyard weekly menus and reports on their unschooling schooling. The other part of me, the more rational chill part, knows that its all possible and there are biodegradable disposable diapers for when you need them, and breastfeeding doesnt mean never being away from your child, and Ill be a fine mom. Not to mention, we live a really lucky life. I dont have to work a day and night shift standing behind some counter. I have a partner that is also ready to be mom, also does laundry also wants to be home, although he will mostly not be, as dictates the life of a med student. I will have a good bit of time off when the baby is new, after which I will be still be predominantly home knocking out a dissertation - damn I have it so much better than most of the moms in this world who are up against so much more.

So my pledge to myself and to my baby is to do what I can. To do what I can to be as sustainable in our living and as nurturing in our caring. Oh and to find the best baby wearer/wrap/sling out there - another thing with about 5,000 options.

fourth sector

yesterday was baltimore's ecofestival. i helped a friend at the co-op america table, and now im a happy new member. though i dont have much personal experience with co-op america yet, im a big fan of the fourth sector, and its a great tool for us consumers who want to find green businesses. so, check it out online.

and as long as im on the topic of sustainability once again, ill blab about my current fixation: did you know that something like 40% of most household's electricity usage is spent on appliances that are plugged in but turned off? how tragic! i want to take out a national tv ad campaign to tell people this so that they know to not leave their cell phone chargers plugged in when they are not using them, for example. a great solution is to plug everything into a strip that you can turn off and on. we do this in the office for all the lights, printer, stereo etc and it makes a big difference - can even see it in the electric bill. thats my eco-tip for the day.

Earth Day

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

i hope everyone is enjoying the day outside, it is really gorgeous here. we are about to finally dig up the garden beds! get really dirty, just the perfect thing for earth day. another perfect thing for earth day is molly's most favorite (no special order) earth friendly things, products, companies, or whatever:

1. Two liter botte of water in the toilet tank. so easy! less water with each flush!

2. composting. so good for the vegtables! and my favorite compost turner.

3. Diva Cup. i love this. in my opinion, its the greatest thing ever and you should give it a shot. and think of the landfill space filled each month the world over, ohmygoodness. and its so great in general, beyond its eco-friendliness.

4. Flor. i want more flor rugs, super cool, environmentally conscious company, groovy.

5. co-op america. im new to this, but seems to be fantastic.

6. always printing on both sides. sometimes two pages to a page. damn we academics use a hell of a lot of paper. its only acceptable when we print double-sided. far as im concerned.

7. free-range and antibiotic free eggs and meats. mass use of antibiotics to prevent disease among humans and animals is a serious danger to global health.

8. all things stonyfield. my favorite. oh i love stonyfield.

9. anti-water buying. this isnt a thing, but a negative to a thing: water bottles = BAD. exacerbating water crisis around the world = BAD. but water, water is good. keep it free, clean, and without the prodution of tons and tons of plastic. please

10. gardening! now i better get out there and get started!

(11. i had to edit this post to add one more that i remembered today that is cool enough to be dorky enough to edit a post: biodegradable plastic bags! i originally bought these for the compost bin, but turns out they are great in general. really good for keeping fruits/veggies in the fridge, they last longer. and its just like plastic but disapears in the compost bin! so cool!)