Green Options

There is a simple life cycle for recycled goods: the things you place out in the recycling bins are picked up, recycled, and then resold to you as something new. Your old phone book, newspaper, and paper bag comes back as a cardboard box to ship Christmas presents off in. Yet, with the economic decrease and consumerism dropping is that cutting into the cycle of recycling? Should we be spending more money and consuming more goods to keep recycling going?
Should we consume more to recycle more?
That is the basic premise of an interesting article on NPR - Recycling Industry Slows As Consumers Shop Less. The story shares how one man in the recycled fibers business is seeing declining profits. As fewer people shop there is a lower demand for the packaging boxes made from recycled products.

We all know that eating fish can be good for us. The protein, the Omega 3s, the mercury. Er, well maybe not the mercury. That part can be fairly dangerous actually, especially for children and pregnant women. Yet according the Washington Post the FDA is urging the government to tell us to eat more fish, mercury risks be damned.

If approved by the White House, the FDA’s position would reverse the government’s current policy that certain groups — women of childbearing years, pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and children — can be harmed by the mercury in fish and should limit their consumption.

The FDA’s recommendations have alarmed scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, who in internal memos criticized them as “scientifically flawed and inadequate” and said they fell short of the “scientific rigor routinely demonstrated by EPA.”

Just when you thought it was safe to hang out at Eco Child’s Play they through a new writer like me into the pool. Hello everyone, I’m Summer, a new face that you will hopefully see a lot more of. I’m joining the team to share my love of parenting and the planet here.

OK, a little about me. I’m a stay at home mom of [...]