So you want to be a good steward of our beautiful earth. Recycling is a great way to do your part, but in our hectic lives we often forget many of the simple things we can do. I found this great list of ways to recycle plastic bags that uses the bag in many useful ways and helps our environment.
We all knew the Discovery Channel had green interests when it purchased Treehugger.com for $10 million, but now the Discovery Channel Store is featuring “eco-friendly” and “green gifts” toys for the 2007 holiday season. My family recently played with three of these products. Two of these toys (Pyramid Building Blocks and the Tolo Baby Carousel) will be featured in this post; one toy (the Hydrogen Fuel Rocket) deserves its own post, which will occur next week.
Wooden blocks are the best toys for children! Children learn so much from block play. Wooden blocks promote open-ended, creative play, and lay the foundation for geometry and mathematical learning. Although Pyramid Building Blocks may not be as open-ended as a Standard Unit Blocks, they present their own unique challenges that fascinate children and adults alike, as these Pyramid Building Blocks are designed for children ages 5-99. The Pyramid Building Blocks consist of 67 pieces, including 18 different shapes. At first, my six-year-old daughter was completely confused by the pyramid blocks. Yet after a few days, she became an independent, expert pyramid builder, although she insists on the calling the Sphinx a “human lion”. These wooden blocks are made by Haba, a high-quality German toy company. I couldn’t find any information on the forestry practices used in harvesting the wood for the blocks, although the company states, “We do however put a premium on materials that can be manufactured on an ecologically beneficial basis. We use primarily indigenous maple and beech wood and water-based paints for our toys. ” Haba is also socially responsible. Part of their corporate philosophy is
Only a company that is profit-oriented can secure its future. We take the word social seriously! Both in terms of social benefits for our employees and in relation to our mutually successful relationship with our partners.
Holiday season fanfare has already begun, and I am reminded of my holiday motto: No more junk toys! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and/or the Winter Solstice, if you have children, you know what junk toys are. Junk toys are toys that will have little educational value, are usually made of plastic, are overly commercial, and end up in our landfills. Green parents often try to make these toys disappear, but it is better [...]
Holiday season fanfare has already begun, and I am reminded of my holiday motto: No more junk toys! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and/or the Winter Solstice, if you have children, you know what junk toys are. Junk toys are toys that will have little educational value, are usually made of plastic, are overly commercial, and end up in our landfills. Green parents often try to make these toys
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The city of New York is the latest government considering restrictions on plastic shopping bags, with a proposal in the works to require large stores to offer in-house recycling and reusable bags for sale. But is action like that enough to stop the plastic bag scourge?
From Africa to Canada, Australia to Ireland, and in the oceans in between, plastic bag trash has become a pestilence seemingly without end. And
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After a trip to a local toy store to buy a birthday present for a friend, my daughter was frustrated with the fact that I would not buy plastic toys, yet those are the ones she is most drawn too. On the drive home, she composed a letter to Disney, asking them to become more eco-friendly. The letter was entirely her inspiration, and I was quite proud. Here is the letter she wrote [...]
The benefit of breastfeeding for children and their mothers is common knowledge, but is breastfeeding better for the environment? I was recently asked this question in response to Bill Maher’s criticism of public breastfeeding and Facebook’s refusal to post pictures of breastfeeding mothers. In honor of today’s Breast Fest, hosted by the League of Maternal Justice, I will explore the issues of breastfeeding and the environment.
According to
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Many residential recycling programs don’t accept yogurt containers because of the type of plastic they are made of. Many yogurt containers and margarine tubs are made with #5 plastics (polypropylene) or #2 (HDPE - High Density Polyethylene), while many clear soda and water bottles are made from #1 (PET - polyethylene terephthalate) and cloudy bottles, such as milk jugs, are made of #2 plastics.
Why can’t the makers of yogurt switch plastics? For
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A few months ago, in an effort to green up my health and beauty products, I ran across National Geographic’s The Green Guide. The site included a handy wallet-sized guide called The Dirty Dozen in Personal Care Products, which allows me to pick products that don’t contain harmful chemicals.
Then last week, my issue of Whole Life Times included a tear-out seafood guide. It lets me know what to
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We’ve already listed five reasons not to buy bottled water, but when you’re refilling your own here’s a few things to keep in mind about the water and your bottle.
The water. Nearly all municipal water systems in the U.S. provide water that is safe to drink straight from the tap. You can filter your own water at home using a simple activated carbon filter that will get rid of any bad tastes
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If you have children, you know that they have boundless amounts of energy. It only makes sense to use this energy to power toys, and Zen Design Group has come up with a line of toys that does just that. These “environmentally friendly,” kid-powered SEE Toys will be available online September 15.
SEE Toys has created five different kid-powered toys: Dyancar, Dynatiger, Dynafly, Dynashark, and Dynadolphin. SEE stands for safety,
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