Toothpaste Hacks

A large part of living sustainably is living more simply. For example, it is often helpful to try to avoid buy too many products that only have one use.

Toothpaste one versatile product you (hopefully?) already have in your home. TreeHugger gives us a fun list of 10 non-traditional uses for toothpaste in cleaning and hygiene, including as a jewelry cleaner.

Pillows

Are you in the market for a new set of pillows for your bed? Since your face will be touching the pillow for 6-9 hours a night and you'll be breathing in right over it night after night, you may want to consider natural filling options.

GreenIsSexy has a fast run-down of some of the options you'll come across. Good luck!

Refrigerator Efficiency

An important part of living sustainably is simply using the things you already have more efficiently. Check out this LifeHacker article to learn how to help your refrigerator run more efficiently.

If your refrigerator doesn't have to work as hard, it can use less electricity. Over time, small details like this add up!

Happy BBQing!

Because it's BBQ time of year again, I'd like to share this article from TreeHugger. It offers ten easy tips to help you be good to the environment AND healthier when you BBQ.

ALSO: If you're in the market for a grill, you may want to check out what green is sexy has to say about the environmental impacts of the various options.

Garlic as Pest Control

Did you know that garlic can help keep certain pests like aphids, spiders and whiteflies away from your garden? It's true! Try this mixture, from green is sexy:

Garlic Oil Spray

10-15 cloves of minced garlic

2 tsp. mineral oil

600 ml water

1 tsp. liquid dish soap

Soak garlic in mineral oil for 24 hours. Strain garlic out and add 600 ml water and 1 tsp liquid dish soap. Mix thoroughly.

Healthier Sunscreens

Summer's practically here again already, so many of us will be spending more time outdoors. Be safe about it though, and wear sunscreen.

But wear a healthy sunscreen! For help in choosing one, check out the Environmental Working Group's sunscreen database. There you can find a list of the healthiest sunscreens, protective lip balms, and moisturizers with SPF.

You can also search the database for a specific product to see how it's scored. In this database, lower scores (0-2) are the best, while higher scores (7-10) should be avoided. Some things that raises the score of a product are dangerous ingredients (like oxybenzone, which disrupts hormones) and spray form (which makes it easier to inhale dangerous particles).

Unfortunately, one of the products we're using at home this season scored a terrible six. Better luck with your products, and buy healthier next time!

Easy on the AC

One way to keep your home running more efficiently is to avoid going overboard on the A/C when it's warm. But how can you keep your house cool without it? Try some of these tips!

From abc.com's "Save Money On Home Cooling":

• Pull down the shades and draw the curtains to keep out the summer sun.
• When the sun's not hitting your windows, keep them open, and use fans to draw hot air up and out of the house.
• Don't use exhaust fans in your kitchen and bathroom for too long if your house is air-conditioned. 'In one hour, it can empty the whole house of all your conditioned air'...
  
• Make sure your filters are cleaned or replaced once a month and that your vents don't have any obstructions in front of them.

Treehugger's "10 Overlooked Low-Tech Ways of Keeping Your Home Cool" has a host of ideas, including the ever important "use a ceiling fan instead." Most families just use a few rooms each night -- their bedrooms. No need to air condition the rest of the home! Just ensure that all bedrooms have working ceiling fans, then run them all night to keep the cool -- and the energy -- focused on only the rooms in use.

Green is Sexy recommends something a little less conventional for the "darker greens" among us: "Save energy (and money!) by turning off the A/C at night ... and curling up with an ice pack. Yep. An ice pack. If you put an ice pack under your neck or in your hands at lights-out, you’ll cool your body down enough to fall asleep and stay asleep."

BPA ... again

So, BPA is everywhere. Of course, we know about BPA in plastic water and soda bottles and food storage containers. But it's also hiding in places you might not have considered.

Some hidden sources of BPA:
-Receipts
-Dental work, including sealants and white fillings
-Soda and beer cans
-Food cans (like for canned vegetables, fruits, sauces, etc.)
-Blenders
-And more!

To see a depressing list of 17 unexpected sources of BPA, check out EcoSalon's article.

Seafood Guides

Many people learning to reduce their environmental impacts are switching from eating beef and other large animals to eating smaller animals, such as poultry and fish. But, when considering sustainability issues, it is important to carefully consider your seafood choices, too.

Luckily, Monterey Bay Aquarium's famous pocket guide is branching out! Now you can print different guides depending on your geographical location within the US. There's even a specialty guide for sushi!

Even better for those of you with smart phones: you can also get a mobile guide app!

Enjoy eating responsibly!

Mothballs

It's getting to be time to put away your winter clothes for the year -- thank goodness! But don't pack them away with mothballs. Those things are literally poison, which is helpful in keeping moths at bay but not so good for your health.

An alternative? Cedar chips or blocks. You can find them at hardware stores (like Lowes), big box retailers (like Wal-Mart), and bed/bath specialty stores (like Bed, Bath & Beyond). They're inexpensive and much better for you than moth balls!

An added bonus: you can refresh cedar blocks and chips with cedar oil and/or sanding. This will keep your cedar investment working for years to come!

Fish Tank Water

Have a (fresh water) fish? Next time you are refreshing its water, consider pouring the old stuff over some of your plants. It's full of nitrogen and other nutrients your plants thrive on, which makes it a great fertilizer without the extra chemicals or environmental impact.

To learn more, see Aquarium Water as Houseplant Fertilizer or other similar online articles.

Environmentalism 2.0

Just some happy, motivating thoughts to start your day. :)

From No Impact Man:

Thoughts I come back to when thinking about environmentalism 2.0

1. Happier planet = happier people.

2. You make a difference.

3. Our culture is broken.

4. The personal is political.

5. Economic growth ≠ Life satisfaction growth.

6. Jobs are paramount but we should work to make our planetary home better not worse.

7. The concept of zero sum game is for people with zero sum brains.

8. There is a better, happier system out there.

9. If thine eyes (or thine economic system) offends thee, pluck them (or it) out.

10. It’s not about having less. It’s about having more. The question is: more of what?

11. There is dis-ease in our culture. People yearn for something better.

12. People are trustworthy and altruistic and good and will do the right thing if you let them.

13. This does not deny the fact that normal people act abnormally in abnormal situations.

14. Love and good company, the chance to be of service and to matter, connection to something bigger, the use of our most prized talents—these things make most people happier than stuff.

15. Being responsible for the world is not a burden. It is freedom from victimhood!

16. My happiness cannot be complete unless you are happy, too.

Ripening Green Tomatoes

This post might come way out of season for some of my readers. Just remember that this info is available here, though, and come check it out again during the appropriate season!

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Sometimes the end of the road for our tomato plants comes before all the fruit currently growing can finish ripening. Whether your plant is shutting down because of an impending frost or simply reaching the end of its lifespan, you can salvage all those green tomatoes!

1. Remove all viable tomatoes from your plant. Cut them off with just a centimeter or so of vine attached. If they are too small or too hard, compost them or enjoy a serving of fried green tomatoes. If they are whitish, however, you can make a go of them.

2. Sort your tomatoes by color. Divide them roughly into "slightly pink/orange," "light green/whitish," and "solid green."

3 a. Put the "slightly pink/orange" tomatoes in a brown paper bag and place it somewhere warm. These tomatoes will ripen on their own nicely, probably in just a few days.

3 b. Wrap each of the "light green/whitish" and "solid green" tomatoes in newspaper and place them in a shallow cardboard box. (Alternatively, you can fill the box with shredded paper or straw and place the tomatoes directly into the box, leaving room between each tomato.) Put the whiter tomatoes together and the solid green ones together. (The whitish ones will reach an orange tone faster, so you'll want to be able to easily locate them without looking at every tomato.) Put the box someplace cool and dark.

4. Check your tomatoes every 2-3 days. Remove any that show signs of rotting or other problems. Move any tomatoes that turn orange from your box to your bag. Take any that turn [optimal color for the type of tomato you're dealing with] from your bag to your kitchen counter, and enjoy!

Sustainability in the Classroom

If there are any other educators out there reading this blog, you may be excited to learn that there are lots of ways you can help teach the next generation how to take better care of the Earth than their forebears.

Here are some places to begin:
-For the science classroom: Students Learn Environmental Stewardship, Improve Science Scores: Middle-Schoolers' Test Scores Boosted by Integrating Horticulture Lessons

-For the science, social science, or English/language arts classroom: The No Impact Project has designed lesson plans on the themes of consumption, energy, food, transportation, and water. Each lesson is designed for one 50-minute class period and may be used singley or together.

-For the art, math, science, social studies, or English/language arts classroom: Cool It Schools motivates students worldwide through sustainability-based and environment-centered projects, showcases, and even competitions in a wide variety of categories.

You can easily find many other great options and lots of supportive research out there. If there are any specific programs that you know of and like, please feel free to leave their websites in the comments! Working as a community of educators, we can help shape the future faces of sustainability.

Old Electronics

Having broken down electronic equipment in your home can be stressful. It clutters up your house, taking up valuable space.

But don't just throw these items away! Many electronics have hazardous substances in them -- like lead and mercury -- that you definitely don't want seeping into the earth via landfills. (In fact, disposing of electronic waste in the regular garbage is illegal in some states.)

So what's a person to do? Recycle your electronics! Some brands -- like Apple and Dell -- take back their products once you are done with them. See a good list of such retailers here. If your product doesn't qualify, you still have lots of easy options.

Staples and Best Buy take back and recycle all sorts of electronics, regardless of the brand. While Staples charges $10 for every non-Dell product you bring in, Best Buy's recycling program is essentially free for all products they accept.

Electronics recycling is a big deal these days, so information and options abound out there. Even Comedy Central can help you with their Address the Mess campaign. Slate also recently ran a helpful article called "How to Dispose of Old Electronics in a Responsible Way." So, happy de-cluttering!

NOTE: For information specific to cell phones, which can be reused for great causes like giving people suffering from domestic violence a lifeline to call the police, see this article from green is sexy.

Frosty Temps

Even in our southern suburbias, we can have some cold days. I mean, Central Florida is having freezes every night right now!

How do we deal with the cold as efficiently as possible? Your goal should be to avoid using the heat as much as possible. Many people say that you can fairly easily lower your thermostat a degree a day without noticing much difference. So, if you're still in the 70s, start lowering it. You might be surprised how low you can take it! Our heat isn't set to come on unless it gets below 58, and we're fine. Even with our thin FL blood!

But just because we want to tread lightly on our energy use during the winter doesn't mean that we are entirely without control. You can keep you house warmer than your heater cut-off with some simple practices.

1. Use windows wisely. In the morning when the sun comes up, open all your curtains and blinds. Let the solar energy poor into your house all day long. When the sun starts to go down, tightly cover all windows to keep the cold air out. Doing this faithfully will keep the temperature warmer inside than it is outside!

2. Seal your sockets. Put those child-safety covers on all electrical outlets that are on perimeter walls of your home. This will help combat air leaks.

3. Drafty doors. It's the perfect time to check your weatherstripping! But even good looking weather stripping might not be enough to keep the chill out. Get a door draft stopper (like those bean bag snakes, remember those?). Or improvise your own: Roll up a towel and put three rubber bands on it: one on each end and the third in the middle.

Sometimes trying to keep the cold out is not enough. Let's say your house does dip down below that 58 degree mark (or whatever you have bravely set your thermostat to). Then what?

1. Wear more clothes. An easy one. Double socks, sweatpants, and lots of layers on top while you're at home. Do not underestimate how comfy you can be like this! :)

2. Enlist the help of your partner, friends, and/or pets. Cuddle up on the couch under a blanket. (Our cat has actually gotten desperate for our attention since it's gotten so cold. He'll do anything to sit on or be held by us!)

3. Pick your room wisely. Remember that south-facing windows get the most sun. Consider spending your time at home in your southern rooms. This might be a nice change of pace anyway! (A second choice should be west-facing rooms, which get the second best sun.)

Need some encouragement or motivation? Check out Crunchy Chicken's Freeze Yer Buns Challenge 2009-2010! You'll find a great community of brave -- though perhaps a bit frosty -- greens there.

Resolutions: 2010!

What are everyone's 2010 eco-resolutions?

Here are mine:

1. Sustainability in the classroom: This spring I'll be student teaching. With any luck, I'll be teaching full-time in the fall. Therefore, I'd like to take my knowledge and passion about sustainability into my classroom to share it with my students. One of the biggest goals of social studies is to give students the tools they need for getting along in today's world. There are no more important tools that those that help ensure there's still a "world" to get along in.

2. Write in the neighborhood newsletter: I wrote a short article on wise water use for the fall newsletter our neighborhood does. I'd like to write on other green topics for the newsletter this coming year.

3. Curb our take-out food addiction: Ben and I have never had a problem with take-out foods until this year. It's frustrating since in most other parts of our lives we've been living more sustainably! This year, I resolve to slowly but surely get our rate of consumption of meals that require disposable containers to once a week.

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Need some encouragement for your own resolutions? Check out Alternet's Guide to New Year's Resolutions for 2010.