Green Options

Dioxin exposure during pregnancy impairs the development of mammary glands during pregnancy and may cause women to not produce enough milk for their newborns, a new study finds.

Breast milk is an amazing food for babies, and breastfeeding has many benefits for both mother and child, including reducing the risk of heart attacks for mothers, reducing asthma risks for babies, and reducing anxiety in children. But up to 6 million women either can’t breastfeed, or don’t produce enough milk for their child, and dioxin in our food chain may be to blame.

Editor’s note:  Please read the comments below. This company has come under scrutiny by consumers.

I’ve been noticing more and more people from all walks of life using metal water bottles. At about half the price of other stainless steel water bottles, non-profit Eco Canteen’s mission is to get as many people as possible off of bottled water, since 80% of plastic water bottled are not recycled.  Of the plastic water bottles that do make it to the recycling center, 40% of them end up in China or Indonesia.

Here are some staggering statistics about the detrimental environmental effects of plastic water bottles:

• 2.5 million disposable water bottles are thrown away in the US every hour.
• In 2007, $16 billion was spent on bottled water.
• 20 oz. of bottled water costs almost as much as a gallon of gas.
• Discarded plastic water bottles take 700 to 1,000 years to break down.
• A 20 oz. bottle of water takes 5 oz. of oil to produce and ship.
• Dioxin, one of the deadliest air pollutants, is created when unrecyclable PVC is separated from PET/PETE #1 plastic water bottles and then incinerated.

Today, the Irish government recalled all pork products linked to pigs slaughtered in Ireland, after lab tests found evidence of dioxin contamination in both animal feed and pork fat samples.

Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our paid sponsors, Ecomugs, a company that offers lead-free mugs as a green alternative to disposable cups, while at the same time providing a healthy work environment and support system for recovering alcoholics.

Here is good news for offices taking steps towards going green - a blossoming company in California makes eco-friendly coffee mugs featuring your logo and employee name. There’s no minimum order required, so even the smallest startups can take advantage of Ecomugs handy dual purpose - the mugs are valuable promotional tools that also serve as a highly effective way to let your customers know that you are doing your part for the environment.

Styrofoam - Alarming Statistics

Did you know that over 25,000,000 styrofoam cups go into landfills every year? Styrofoam makes up 25% of our landfill space and is not recyclable, so any cup you use today will still be around 500 years from now. Incinerating styrofoam is not an acceptable alternative to burying the impervious material, as it gives off over 90 different hazardous chemicals, including styrene vapors and dioxin.

Two years later than my daughter, my son has almost completed his toilet learning!  It has been different with my boy, as we have resorted to the bare bum method.  Feeling the cool breeze on his bottom seems to be the only way he can remember to hold it in until he reaches the toilet. This works while we are home, but he still had accidents in underwear and clothes.  Since we are down to one diaper a day just at night, I’ve abandoned the cloth diapers for Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free Diapers.

I’ve always professed that every baby should wear cloth diapers; however, with my son wearing one diaper in 24 hours, it takes a long time to make a diaper load of laundry. After a week, these cloth diapers get very rank, and I don’t really want to put them in my washing machine or waste energy and water to wash them more often.  Thus, I’ve resorted to Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free Diapers, as it is too late in the game (I don’t plan to have any more children) to invest in gDiapers. I do feel a slight pang of guilt using a landfill, aka disposable, diaper, but I rationalize six years of cloth diapering two kids has earned me the right to one disposable diaper a day.