Toilets

Although American toilets are using less water per flush now than they did in the past, there's still much room for improvement. Many of the hardcore greens are moving to the admirable "if it's yellow letter it mellow" movement. But I'm sure many of us are a little hesitant to dive right in at that depth.

If you are building a house or remodeling or just have the money to install an improved toilet, consider installing a dual flush model. Popular throughout the rest of the world, dual flush toilets give you two flush options: one for liquid waste (uses a small amount of water) and another for solid waste (uses more water). Here in America, you can try them out in Ikea restrooms. For examples, see Caromausa, Kohler, or ToTo.

There are also a few different kits you can purchase to retrofit your current toilet. Check out Aquanotion's TwoFlush kit. It's highly recommended across the green internet.

Of course, you can also do more low-tech solutions to make your toilet more water saavy. Green Is Sexy's article A New Resolution for an Old Toilet recommends, "To reduce the amount of water your toilet consumes, try filling up a half-gallon plastic bottle with stones or sand and water, seal it shut and place it in your toilet tank. This will make the toilet tank seem more full and will require less water to fill ‘er up (think of your bathtub with you in it). Keep the bottle away from the operating mechanisms and make sure your tank has enough water left to flush properly. By making this teeny change, you can save up to 60% of the water you were using before."

Drain Cleaner

We've talked before about reducing the sheer number of cleaners in your arsenal. A goal to be worked toward slowly but surely. But there's one cleaning product that is much worse than others: drain cleaners.

Green is Sexy gives us some advice in the article "Hard Boiled":

"The active ingredient in most drain-cleaners is sodium hydroxide, otherwise known as caustic soda or lye. It is a man-made chemical used for its corrosive properties, and corrosive it is! Not only is drain-cleaner deadly to ingest and irritating to your nose, throat and lungs if inhaled, it can also corrode your pipes! While non-toxic alternatives are available, try avoiding clogs in the first place. Pour a kettle full of boiling water down your shower drain once a week. The boiling water breaks down any soap or hair conditioner coating the pipes, helping everything flow a lot easier. If a clog should occur, despite your best attempts at prevention, try a non-toxic solution before turning to products made with sodium hydroxide." [emphasis added]

So, try to prevent. But if it's already too late, try making your own (from Clean & Green):

1/2 cup baking soda
1 cup white vinegar
1 gallon boiling water
1/2 a used lemon
Pour baking soda down drain/disposal, followed by vinegar. Allow the mixture to foam for several minutes before flushing the drain with boiling water.

Shoes

Planet Green had a fun article recently about sustainable footwear. A great resource to consult when looking for shoes. The brands you'll find there were chosen for falling into one or more of the following categories: sweatshop-free, sustainable leathers and/or glues, minimal waste in production, vegan and/or recycled materials, eco-friendly fabrics, sustainable packaging.

I especially liked the selections at TOMS Shoes and Terra Plana. (TOMS will be coming out with a boot soon, too!) You'll see lots of tennis shoes, too. Many of the brands listed also support important causes, like donating shoes to children in need, if social-consciousness is important to you, too.

UPDATE: The Autonomie Project also offers Converse-esque casual tennis shoes in white, blue, green, and black. Autonomie Project products are fair trade and made of sustainable, organic, and/or natural materials.

UPDATE: Payless is coming out with a new, affordable green shoe line in early 2009. Check out the Earth 911 article here.

Greening Your Pet

When we've taken pets into our homes and families, we must be conscious of their footprints, too. If you have a dog, consider using vegetarian feed. Cats are obligate carnivores, but you can at least steer clear of foods with beef in them.

Cat litter is another major source of environmental impact for our feline friends. First of all, stay away from clay based litter. Clays are not biodegradable or environmentally-friendly. There are, however, non-clay options that clump. Try Swheat Scoop. Made of (surprise, surprise!) wheat, Swheart Scoop is 100% biodegradable, flushable (for both sewer and septic systems), compostable (non-vegetable gardens only, of course), and renewable. It is free from fragrances and chemicals, and produces far less dust than your typical clay based litter. The litter feels about the same as your traditional litter, so your cat won't have a hard time transitioning at all.

There are other options, too! You can consider Feline Pine, which is chemical free and made from 100% recycled material. There's also Yesterday's News, which is fragrance free, non-toxic, more absorbent than clay, and virtually non-tracking. (I have reservations about only a "significant portion" of this litter being post-consumer material.)

Tree Hugger has a post about making your own newspaper-based litter, if you are so inclined (and have a source of used newspaper). Check it out here.

Handy Pocket Guides

With so many unsustainable features of American culture, it can be daunting to try to remember what's good and what's harmful in any given sector. Luckily, there's help. Experts can focus on one issue at a time and boil their recommendations down to handy-dandy pocket-sized guides.

From seafoods to plastics, produce to cosmetics, check out these pocket guides from Green Home.

More Diapers!

This weekend we visited our parents' homes, and my in-laws mentioned my blog. I think they've absorbed a thing or two from it, which is great. But my father-in-law actually ridiculed our view about cloth diapers, saying that he bets we will change our minds when we have our first baby. Sure, a funny joke, but a little insulting, in light of all the changes we have already made and those that we will continue to make in the seven to ten years between now and when we have children. I cannot imagine using disposable products now, let alone in a decade!

But on the way home from our trip, Ben and I discussed the diaper issue again. We said that no matter how strongly we feel on the issue, it would be irresponsible to claim that we know we'll use cloth diapers for our children. We can, however, know that we use rags instead of paper towels, cloth napkins instead of paper ones, cloth menstrual pads instead of disposable products. In other words, we have an ever-improving track record on very comparable issues.

However, as on many issues, we believe that in ten years there will be a completely different range of products and options from which to choose. Maybe we would use disposable diapers if they were biodegradable, compostable, and made from 100% post-consumer materials. [Check out Nature Babycare for a pretty good disposable option like this.] We don't know what our set of options will be then. In 2008 though, cloth is our best choice.

Enter Earth 911's article "Another Player in the Diaper Dillema." The article introduces a third option: flushable diapers. They combine a cloth outer diaper with a plastic-free, flushable insert. Pretty good option, eh? Check them out!

Modular Living

We currently live in a 1800+ square foot house. I'm not too sure why we live in such a large house, just the two of us with no plans to start a family in this town. Really, it was when we were looking at houses that our eyes and minds got greedy. "How great it would be to have a large library, a dinette, two offices," etc. We knew better than to buy more than we needed, but our conception of what we "needed" became more and more warped as we thought about getting the most square footage for our dollar.

I'm very committed to our next home being significantly smaller. And when we move, I plan to donate lots of things we don't really need to Goodwill (and encourage Ben to do the same).

Modular houses offer exciting options for new small homes. [Large homes, too, actually, but I'm looking at the small ones.] Many are built of recycled/reused/reclaimed materials and designed, engineered really, to be as space and energy efficient as possible. Check out some interesting examples:
-Dome House
-Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

...and this article talks about some of the benefits and offers more examples.

It's really very exciting to think about paring down our possessions a lot and living in a home that fits what we really need, not what our consumer-culture brainwashes us into craving.