Candles

As the holidays approach, you may be thinking about lighting up...candles, that is. But think twice before you light the traditional paraffin wax kind. According to the American Lung Association, paraffin candles emit 11 documented toxins (see EcoFabulous's article on great candles). Unfortunately, it is very likely that all the candles you have in your cupboard are made of paraffin wax.

You don't want to release major lodes of toxins in your home, but you'd hate to give up candles. You're in luck! There are many options for healthy and eco-friendly candles. Soy-based wax, for example, provides an excellent choice. Check out A Green Candle Company, BsaB, It's a Soy, McSoy Wax, and many others. Just Google it! There are plenty of varieties and fragrances to choose from. Soy wax candles can even be found somewhat easily in stores, too!

Apart from soy wax candles, you can also look into beeswax candles. Again, lots of options online and in nice stores. For an example, see Bluecorn Naturals. Much more natural than petroleum-based ones.

Worried about your birthday cake? Fear not. Little Star Creative Parties offers beeswax birthday candles in a happy rainbow of colors.

Remember to look for soy and beeswax alternatives in candles to keep your family and environment healthy!

Green Office Supplies

Each of us use office supplies on a daily basis, whether its just the occasional pen of the software engineer or the wall-to-wall school supplies of the teacher.

Luckily, green office supplies aren't hard to find online. Check out The Green Office for some great options across the board. Then, BeGreen has a line of pens, mechanical pencils, hi-lighters and markers made from at least recycled materials. Refillable pens are also an option. Check out Woody Pens and Wheely Pens to see some. For your paper needs, New Leaf offers recycled copy paper, and Mead offers notebooks of recycled paper. You'll also find New Leaf copy paper at Kinko's now! It's also a good idea to look into refillable dry erase markers if you use a white board often. See Neuland or AusPen if you're interested in these.

For some further reading, skim Planet Green's back-to-school article, which outlines some green office supplies and offers a thorough discussion of environmentally-friendly paper. Or Earth 911's 8 Ways to Green Your Office Supplies.

Ferm Living

Looking for something to freshen up the look of your house or apartment? Ferm Living offers some cute options.

For the kitchen: 100% organic tea towels. Could. Not. Be. More. Fun.

For the walls: Wall stickers! Large, removable stickers of fun, simple, silhouette designs. Many depict nature (trees, bamboo, flowers, birds, etc.) Really a great invention for apartments, dorms, or rental properties.

Also: Wall paper, pillows, cards, books, ornaments.

MeetWays.com

Tree Hugger ran an interesting story about Meetways.com.

The article reads, "Meeting half way is an old concept for cutting down the distance two people have to travel to get to one another. With everyone warily eyeballing gas prices and taking up bikes or a good pair of shoes as a preferable mode of transportation, shortening the travel distance and meeting half way seems even more appealing.

"But how do you pick where to meet, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the area? There’s a cool website that does the work for you and makes meeting in the middle more of an adventure.

"Meetways.com lets users enter in two addresses plus the type of place where two people would want to converge. So say you’re trying to get together with a client from across town and you’d like to talk over coffee. Enter in your two addresses and “coffee” and Meetways figures out the exact middle point, then gives you coffee shops surrounding that point. Users can find a favorite place that’s equidistant, or discover a place they’ve never tried before to make it an adventurous outing."

It's a small step, to be sure, but every little step helps!

Sustainable Lunches

Bringing your lunch with you to work or school has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of trash you produce. At home you can buy in larger bulk and separate food into single-serving sized reusable containers.

Ben and I have made a few steps in the right direction so far as lunch is concerned. We use reusable lunch boxes instead of paper bags; we bring cloth napkins instead of paper ones; we use glass food containers to transport last night's leftovers; we tote real silverware to and from work; we wash and reuse our plastic baggies. Yet we know we still have a long way to go.

Want a little help getting started with making your lunch more sustainable? Check out "Kids Konserve." You can find cloth napkins, reusable lunch sacks, stainless steel drink bottles, single-serving sized non-plastic food containers, and even "food kozies," which the site describes as "reusable alternative to plastic baggies, plastic wrap and foil...recycled, FDA approved, non-toxic, non-leaching, recyclable PE plastic...does not contain Bisphenol-A (BPA)."
The site even has a waste-free lunch kit that includes everything you need to get started.

So when your box of Ziplocks is running low or your package of paper napkins is empty, move toward a more sustainable lunch routine. And I, for one, would love to get my hands on a couple of food kozies!

UPDATE: To-Go Ware also offers an exciting line of dishes and flatware for the road. Check out their beautiful array of bamboo forks, spoons, chop sticks, and knives in lovely recycled plastic wraps. They also have stainless steel containers with snug tops that are perfect to bring your lunch with you to work or for bringing home left-overs from a restaurant.

Reducing Plastic in Your Life

Life Less Plastic is an inspiring (if irregular) blog about one woman's journey to live completely plastic-free. She recently had an article for the Dallas Morning News, and I'm including the text below.

I think we all can identify with her sentiments, being at times overwhelmed and discouraged by the magnitude of our unsustainable habits. But that's not the whole story. We also get to feel accomplishment every time we make lifestyle changes, even small ones. We get to live healthier, more wholesome, more fulfilling lives because of our efforts.

How I Gave Up Plastic
by Jeanne Haegele

Bad habits are hard to break, but sometimes you just have to try. At least, that's what I've been telling myself for the past year as I've attempted to give up plastic.

Why on earth would anyone give up plastic? There are ample reasons.

Americans send huge amounts of plastic to landfills each year – almost 60 billion pounds in 2006 alone. Some plastic never biodegrades, and most of what does takes hundreds of years. It is difficult to recycle, and evidence of plastic's negative health effects is mounting. Then there's the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a vast, swirling soup in the Pacific Ocean where wildlife is threatened by plastic refuse trapped in the currents.

Last autumn, thinking over these worrisome facts on a bike ride through the streets of Chicago, I started to wonder whether it would be possible to live without plastic. It seemed unlikely, especially since everything in the supermarket is wrapped, if not double-wrapped, in the stuff. How could I avoid it?

But I decided to go for it. I would conduct an experiment and give up everyone's favorite polymer.

Looking back now at those first few months, I understand why people feel green fatigue. Learning to live without plastic wasn't easy. I had to throw out so many of my old routines and rethink fundamental aspects of my life.

Grocery shopping was my greatest challenge. I remember my initial trip to the the supermarket, when I first learned that so many of my normal standbys were off-limits. Crackers, chips, cookies, pasta and dozens of other favorites were out, and I had no idea what to buy. Only a few items came home with me that day – and even some of those, like the canned tuna and milk, had hidden plastic in their packaging (aluminum cans and paper milk cartons are lined with a thin layer of plastic). I spent those first few weeks a bit hungry.

But with some practice, grocery shopping became surprisingly easy. Fruits and veggies are a much bigger part of my diet now, and I've discovered that several stores in my area have bulk bins with enough products to keep me happy – cereal, oatmeal, granola, nuts, dried fruit, oatmeal, rice and chocolate candy are some of my favorites. And I still buy milk (in a glass container) and meat (wrapped in paper at the deli), and use my own cloth produce and grocery bags. Eating well has been not a problem – and the cost savings are significant.

Groceries haven't been my only dilemma, though. Most of my favorite toiletries are packaged in plastic. Searching for a shampoo replacement has been a constant struggle, and conditioning my hair with a vinegar solution, while effective, makes me worry about smelling like a salad. And do you know how hard it is to find plastic-free makeup? Difficult enough that I've basically given up. Still, even these have been changes for the better; I use very few toiletries now, and I am, once again, saving a lot of cash.

So, like kicking a nail-biting problem, I gave up plastic – a bad habit that was hurting the environment – and I'm stronger for it. I've tested my boundaries, forced myself to think critically about my actions and developed a simpler way of life. I'm happier and healthier than ever.

I know I have more bad habits, still unnoticed or unchecked. But with a little effort, I know I can get rid of them, too. It just takes a true dedication to change, little by little. A commitment to drive less, adjust my thermostat, even eat less meat.

At first, breaking these habits will seem difficult; it did when I gave up plastic. But this experiment has shown me that the hardest thing about making changes is breaking old patterns, patterns that comfort you or help you make mundane decisions but don't truly influence your quality of life. Getting greener seems difficult at first, but it only takes small steps to get you on your way.

As for me, the more steps I take, the less I miss the old bad habits. And the more I learn that it's not the minor hardships that matter in the end.

Eating Local

Eating local is an extremely important part of living sustainably in the modern world. When you choose locally grown/raised/harvested food, you are dramatically reducing the carbon footprint you take on when you by food that has been shipped long distances (gasoline and diesel needed for that), kept cool or frozen (loads of energy required for either of those). Plus, buying local stimulates the local economy. Not to mention that food grown on smaller establishments are more likely to be organic/less pesticide-laden.

Luckily, it's getting easier and easier to do so. People living in the rural US have always been able to grow some of their own food and probably get some from neighbors too. In the suburbs, the amount of people planting fruits and vegetables in their yards or on their porches is growing every week. Many suburbs have monthly or weekly farmers markets. And people with larger tracts of land within the suburbs are calling on friends and colleagues to do some collective farming on their acres. Meanwhile, in the city, community-based farms are spreading like wildfire. There are more and more of those special places where you can rent or volunteer to tend a small patch of land within the city to grow your own food. And new skyscrapers are currently being designed that incorporate growing spaces for each apartment/flat. It truly is an exciting time to move toward eating local.

There are, however, unique challenges of eating local. Certain foods just can't grow in certain places because of the climate/growing zone. In Florida, for example, no apples. Most apples need to grow in zones 8 and below. No luck here in zones 9/10. So we have to look for other options.

On the other hand, okra grows like crazy. It's the only crop we've had huge success in this year, and we didn't even work for it at all. But we haven't the slightest idea what to DO with the okra. Fried okra? Check. Then what? Growing your own food and eating locally grown food in general requires that we get a little creative. We have to look outside our favorite three vegetables, for instance, and learn to enjoy the foods that grow naturally and happily in our areas. This is a good thing! Fed this way from childhood, our kids will be less picky eaters. And we adults will manage to consume a more balanced and nutritious diet if you can focus on what's local. Fresh food right off the vine is the most nutritious; some foods actually lose nutrients when they are frozen.

Try some local fruits and vegetables. Unless you live in the Midwest, those foods may be quite different from what your forefathers (or even your parents!) made the staples of their meals. But branching out into the foods that grow locally to where you currently live is better for the environment, for your health, and for your sense to connection to your sustenance.

Eggs

The New York Times recently ran an article that clarifies many of the myriad of claims you're likely to see when you're picking out eggs at the grocery.

"Sorting Through the Claims of the Boastful Egg" covers terms like:

-Cage Free
-Free Range
-Pasture-Raised
-Animal Welfare Approved
-United Egg Producers Certified
-Certified humane raised and handled
-American humane certified
-Organic
-Vegetarian-Fed
-No Hormones
-No Antibiotics
-Natural/Naturally Raised
-Fertile
-Omega-3
-Pasteurized