According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the air inside your home can be as much as five times more polluted than outdoor air!

Ever wonder why you sneeze so much in certain homes? The reason is the air. A lot of families suffer from respiratory problems, allergies, and other health problems due to the qualify of their indoor air at home. Organisms such as dust mites and mold are the main culprits. Other pollutants include natural gases such as radon, which is radioactive, colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas which is formed as natural deposits of uranium throughout the earth’s crust decay.

Read more of this story »

The peanut butter recall has been expanded to include all products PCA products from 2007 on.  Over 400 products have been recalled including ice cream, Asian sauces, and dog biscuits.  Even a few organic products are on the recall list.

Read more of this story »

How much of this cost was needed?  None of it.  The buyers could have better used the money to buy a bucket and a sponge.  They would have had ample funds left to repair their roof.

Read more of this story »

A couple days ago, I recounted my story about how I was forced to abandon my abode (a small tent) due to a blight of mold.  The old children’s song of the first lyric is what Pittsburgh’s been singin’ all summer.  The second is a little ditty I’ve been singin’, ever since I kissed that tent goodbye.

I haven’t tossed the tent in the garbage (that wouldn’t be very sustainable!)  I do plan on redeeming it: even if it ends up stained by the mold, its function shouldn’t be reduced by the event.  Since my close encounter of the fungal kind, I’ve been doing research about methods for removing mold.  Read on for sustainable solutions for dealing with moldy clothing.

Read more of this story »

“F*** sustainability. I just want a bed.”

—

Dear Readers,

The Mili-Tent is a bust.

On May 1, 2008, I moved into a tent in the woods within Pittsburgh, PA. It was in my mind an easy solution to a complicated problem: that of how to dwell sustainably.

Without the time nor interest in building a more permanent shelter, I figured a reused item (like a good old tent) would do the trick. A tent fulfills several principles of sustainable living:

• Reduce the size you take up. A 6′ x 7′ tent is the perfect example of how humans can downsize, leaving more space for other living creatures and ecosystems.
• Get outside more. Living in such a small space, that can truly only accommodate sleeping, requires that I step outside more, and consider the outside world and my community interactions more like “home” than my own four walls.
• Use sustainable materials. Naturally, a synthetic, petroleum based tent is NOT sustainably produced… but working with what you have on hand, and bringing no new materials into the world is a good option.

In retrospect, my ideal dwelling would be a small den, similar in size to a tent, constructed out of cob or another type of sustainable building material. This would have prevented the issues that proved fatal to the tent as a home alternative… but it would have meant a greater time and financial commitment.

In my early drafts of scripts for Sust Enable episodes, I was all set to trumpet the virtues and benefits of living in a tent. It’s not so hard!, my scripts said. I’m living an optimal, comfortable life! …The words ended up being far too ironic to even be funny. I suppose that’s what happens when you translate vision into reality sometimes. My lesson, however unflattering to me, is an important one to share.

Read more of this story »