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Challengicious Monday: Dispose of Your Disposable Paper Products

>> Monday, February 8, 2010

Mondays are challengicious at The Conscious Shopper. Here's your next trash-related challenge:

Dispose of Your Disposable Paper Products

To complete this challenge, you can...

BABY STEPS

Use fewer disposable paper products. Grab a smaller stack of napkins. Rip off fewer squares of toilet paper. Reach for a cloth towel before a paper towel. You know the drill.

JOGGING STRIDE

Buy paper products with recycled content. Look for brands with at least 80% post-consumer recycled content and that are whitened without chlorine bleach.

MARATHON RUNNER

Use cloth. Napkins and towels are an easy switch. Handkerchiefs are a little more challenging. If you're a super duper marathon runner, you can even switch to cloth "toilet paper." And don't worry - these changes will barely add anything to your laundry pile.

This challenge is specifically geared toward those paper products that you can't recycle: paper towels, toilet paper, and napkins. But hopefully, you'll also take some steps toward reducing your overall paper use this week since according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), "The pulp and paper industry may contribute to more global and local environmental problems than any other industry in the world." Use recycled, print less, print on both sides, and recycle when you're done.

Right now, I'm somewhere between Jogging Stride and Marathon Runner on this challenge. All of the paper products we use have recycled content, and we've made a good effort at switching from paper to cloth (we ran out of paper towels at Thanksgiving and still haven't bought more). But I plan to nudge us a bit further this week by making some handkerchiefs to stash in the bathroom. Anyone know what the best fabric for homemade handkerchiefs is?

For more specific information about how and why you should reduce your paper consumption, check out:

Will you take the challenge?

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.

image by Margot Wolf

I Need...Allergy Relief

>> Thursday, May 28, 2009

I've had seasonal allergies since my family moved to Kentucky when I was a teenager, but since we moved to North Carolina, my allergies have been out of control.

Case in point: One day, I was driving my family through downtown Raleigh when my eye started itching uncontrollably. I was trying to drive with one eye and ended up turning the wrong way down a one way street. Luckily, I realized what I'd done immediately and no cars were coming, so I swung into the first parking lot and demanded that my husband take over the driving.

When your eyes are so itchy and watery and red that it's making you a hazard, it's definitely time to find a solution.

I had tried a few types of over-the-counter allergy meds with no success. They took care of the nose issues, but my eyes still itched like crazy. So I tried eye drops, but frankly, I am no good at putting things in my eyes. I figured I would have to head to the doctor for a prescription.

Or would I?

While catching up on my blog reading one day, I came across this post from Pays to Live Green about an alternative method for dealing with allergies: the neti pot.

A neti pot looks like an oblong tea pot. You fill the pot with a salt water solution, lean your head sideways over a sink, stick the spout of the pot up your nose, and pour. The salt water travels up one nostril and out the other, flushing all the nasties out of your nasal passages.

I was intrigued by the neti pot mainly because of the cost - only $20. A trip to the doctor would cost a co-pay plus the price of prescription drugs and drug refills. A one time cost of $20 sounded much more appealing.

Plus, a product that I could buy once and use over and over would produce less waste than the weekly packages of Claritin I was going through. And solving my allergy problem would mean I could stop using so much toilet paper to blow my nose.

Since I was heading down the path of alternative medicine, I decided to research other non-drug related ways to beat allergies. Here's what I found:

Prevention

Avoid the trigger. This is pretty obvious, but if you know you're allergic to cats, stay away from cats. If you know you're allergic to grass, don't mow the lawn. Etc.
Keep yourself and your pets clean. Shower daily and bathe your pets often.
Wear glasses or sunglasses outdoors to keep particles that might trigger an allergy attack out of your eyes.
Close your windows, especially on high pollen days.
Opt for bare floors. Dust and other allergens accumulate in carpet. If you have carpet and have no plans to replace it, at least vacuum often with a quality vacuum.
Use a dehumidifier. Allergens love a humid environment.
Avoid heavy house and yard work, but keep your house and linens clean (maybe play the pity card on your roommates or spouse).

Treatment

Try a Neti pot. See above explanation.
Drink herbal tea. Peppermint works well as a decongestant. Nettle tea reduces hay fever symptoms - you can also take nettle in capsule form. Eyebright is another herb I've read good things about, but I haven't been able to find it around here.
Take a shower to wash off any pollen or other allergens that might have settled on your hair and body. The steam from a hot shower can also sooth irritated sinuses.
Eat wasabi. This fiery condiment can make your nose drip and your eyes water, flushing out the sinuses. If you don't have wasabi, try any spicy food.

Another great resource for fighting allergies is the article "How to Allergy-Proof Your Home" at HowStuffWorks.

Where I'm At

I've been using a neti pot for a couple weeks now, and it's working great. I don't know if it's because it makes my eyes water a bit or if my eye cavities are connected somehow to my nasal cavities, but running saltwater through my nose has solved my itchy eye problem as long as I do it as soon as my eyes start itching. I've read that you can use the neti pot up to four times a day, though once or twice is probably best.

The only downside is that using the neti pot is disgusting and messy, definitely something you want to do in privacy. So if you're struck by a nasty allergy attack at work, you're still more likely to reach for some drugs than to head to the community bathroom to flush out your nasal passages.

Image by brookenovak

Related Posts:

I Need...A Shopping Guide

>> Tuesday, February 3, 2009

This is a list of the shopping guides I've posted on this blog. It will be updated on a regular basis as I add more.

The idea for the "Baby Step," "Jogging Stride," and "Marathon Runner" categories came from a post by No Impact Man, and I explain the thinking behind it in more detail here.

Looking back over some of the posts here, I'm worried that a first time visitor to my blog would get the wrong impression about living a green lifestyle. I don't want people thinking that going green is really hard because you have to stress about every detail, including your razor blades. And I think it's dangerous to get caught up scrutinizing little details but end up missing the big picture. On the scale of things that matter to the environment, razor blades are pretty far down there.

As a Conscious Shopper, I personally want to be conscious about the buying choices I make in every aspect of my life, down to the smallest detail. And if you're like me, I hope you'll see this information as a handy guide to get you started.

But even if you're not interested in changing your razor blades, I hope these posts will at least set you on a path toward my overall philosophy: that we need to live more consciously, aware of how our purchases and actions affect others and the environment.

READ THIS FIRST: Conscious Shopping Tips

Grocery shopping:

A Paper Primer
Plastics Primer, Part 1: The Problems with Plastic
Plastics Primer, Part 2: Solutions (sort of)
Seven Reasons to Eat Organic

I NEED...

Plastics Primer, Part 2: Solutions (Sort of...)

>> Thursday, January 22, 2009

I overanalyze everything, so the plastics problem is a difficult one for me because my brain works like this: "If I have a choice between plastic and something else, is the something else really better? Paper production is incredibly destructive, especially to water, which they say is our most precious resource. Glass is good because it's reusable and readily recyclable, but it's also heavier than plastic, so transportation of glass is a global warming issue. Metal is pretty good, but cans are lined with an epoxy resin (plastic), so I'm back where I started. Aaargh!"

When my brain runs in this circle, the conclusion I always come to is that we just need to buy less in general. Perhaps plastic is the worst material, but if I'm not buying at all, I won't be faced with the dilemma of what to buy in its place.

Of course, there will always be situations where you'll still have to make the choice to buy plastic or buy something else, so here are a few suggestions to help you out:

Stop buying disposables. Disposable is a pretend word anyway. It refers to products that are inexpensive, so you're not supposed to feel bad about throwing them out. But from a frugal standpoint, anything thrown in the trash is money lost. And from an environmental standpoint, trash is trash, even if you call it "disposable."

Bring your own bag, water bottle, mug, take home container, etc, etc, etc.

Buy products that last, and fix them when they break. You can't avoid buying a plastic TV, computer, or cell phone, so take care of the things you buy and make them last a long time.

Avoid excess packaging. If something is overpackaged, don't buy it. If you can find a product with less packaging, choose that product over the other. When mailing things, choose packaging that can be easily recycled, and don't use styrofoam peanuts.

Look for products with no packaging like fresh fruit and vegetables and many soaps.

Buy used. Not only does used mean no packaging, but it can give many plastic products one more life before they head to the landfill.

Buy in bulk. Shop the bulk bins at health and natural food stores (bringing your own container of course), and buy bulk containers of other products.

Buy concentrates. The main ingredient in many products is water. Choose concentrated products and add your own water. You'll save packaging and money.

Choose plastics that can be recycled. In my area, that's only plastic bottles and plastic bags.

Buy recycled products such as recycled trash bags, bottles with recycled content, and recycled toothbrushes.

Find ways to reuse plastics, especially those that can't be recycled. Use old egg cartons as planters for starting seeds. Take berry baskets back to the farmers market. Wash out and reuse plastic baggies.

PET bottles are not meant to be reused for drinking. Because the plastic is very thin, PET bottles become a breeding ground for bacteria. It's best just to use these bottles once and recycle them, or stop buying them at all.

Avoid storing liquids and fatty foods in plastic, and avoid heating foods in plastic. Both conditions increase the likelihood of chemical leaching.

#2 LDPE, #4 HDPE, and #5 PP are your best bets. They are the most recyclable and the least likely to leach toxins into your food.

Avoid all PVC. Follow Umbra Fisk's advice and declare, "No on vinyl, and that's final!"

I Need...Paper

>> Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I'm just looking for regular old paper this time. The kind that works great as printer paper but can also be used for drawing, doodling, painting or any other children's craft that you can think of.

The fact is that we use a lot of paper in our house. If you were snooping through my trash, you'd think I was running a business based on the amount of paper that goes into our recycling. But in reality, I just have two extremely talented budding artists (says the proud momma), and every evening I sneak into their playroom, gather up all the used pieces of paper, and make them disappear in the recycling bin.

Since we use a lot of paper, this is one area where my family can make a reasonably sized impact.

If you missed my post about why you should be more conscious about your paper purchases, you can review my Paper Primer here.

BABY STEPS

Print on both sides of the paper. Utilize your printer settings and print on both sides whenever you're printing a multiple page document.
Use the back sides of used paper for notes, lists, and drawings. If I forget to print on both sides, I pass the paper on to my kids, who are happy to fill up the back sides with their masterpieces.
Don't print it out. Do you really need a hard copy? Will a digital copy do?

JOGGING STRIDE

Buy recycled paper. The higher the post consumer content the better, and make sure it's bleached without chlorine.
Buy FSC-certified paper. Check out this guide by the Forest Stewardship Council to find FSC-certified paper producers.
Or buy both!

MARATHON RUNNER

Go tree-free. Choose paper products from alternative sources such as hemp and bamboo. Both hemp and bamboo are fast-growing plants that can be used to make paper products. Look online for tree-free paper sources. I even found one online store selling banana paper, coffee paper, and mango paper.

Tips for the Budget Conscious
You can get a case of 5000 sheets of paper (100% post consumer content, FSC-certified) from Staples for $51.99.

Where I'm At: I've been buying 100% recycled paper, but haven't given much thought to the FSC certification. That's something I'll be looking for from now on.

I Need...Paper Towels and Napkins

>> Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Okay, I realize I'm a little slow going on my paper changes, but slow and steady wins the race, right?

Today's subject is paper towels. If you missed my post about why you should be more conscious about your paper purchases, you can review my Paper Primer here.

And here are some facts from the ever humble Seventh Generation about recycled paper towels:

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 120 sheet virgin fiber paper towels with 100% recycled ones, we could save:
1 million trees
2.6 million cubic feet of landfill space (equal to over 3,800 full garbage trucks)
367 million gallons of water (a year's supply for 2,800 families of four)
and avoid 38,000 tons of pollution.

Now let's start making some changes:

BABY STEPS

Use smaller paper towels. Try the select-a-size type of paper towels, and use a smaller size when you can. Using smaller equals using less.

JOGGING STRIDE

Follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time, reach for cloth first. Use a towel to wipe up spills, use a washcloth to clean up messes, use rags to clean, use cloth napkins. Give these Skoy cloths a try. The other 20% of the time...

Use recycled paper towels. Look for a brand with at least 80% post-consumer recycled content and one that was whitened without chlorine bleach. You can find "opinionated and unscientific reviews" of paper towels by Grist here.

MARATHON RUNNER

Use cloth 100% of the time. Stop buying paper towels. If you don't buy them, you'll find ways not to need them.

Tips for the Budget Conscious
The cheapest brand of recycled paper towels I've seen are Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value 8 pack for $7.99 (about $1.00 each). If you don't have a Whole Foods nearby you can get 30 rolls of Seventh Generation Natural paper towels through Amazon's Subscribe & Save program for $46.74 ($1.56 per roll). 30 rolls is a lot of paper towels though. Maybe you can work out a deal with your neighbor and split the pack.

Where I'm At: I'm in a 50/50 phase right now, but working toward 80/20. My biggest hang-up is using paper towels for cleaning. I tried using rags and didn't like it, but I know I've just got to get over it. Maybe I just need more rags.

I Need...Toilet Paper

>> Thursday, October 9, 2008

I'm changing my paper habits by starting at the bottom...my own bottom that is! (Ha, ha, you know a post about toilet paper has to start with a bad joke).

If you missed my post about why you should be more conscious about your paper purchases, you can review my Paper Primer here.

Or here are some other statistics about toilet paper brought to you by Seventh Generation (who is never shy about advertising how their products are better for the planet):

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 500 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissue with 100% recycled ones, we could save:
423,900 trees
1.0 million cubic feet of landfill space, equal to 1600 full garbage trucks
153 million gallons of water, a year's supply for 1,200 families of four

So now that you know why you should change, here are some steps you can take to be a Conscious Shopper:

BABY STEPS

Use less of the toilet paper you're already using. According to Charmin, the average person uses 8.6 sheets of toilet paper per trip to the bathroom. Could you get by with 7? 5? 3? If you're using virgin toilet paper (which is very strong and absorbent) and especially if you've only gone #1, it really doesn't take that many sheets of toilet paper to get a good wipe.

Pick a brand with a conscience. Better World Shopper gives Cottonelle a B- and Charmin a C+. Quilted Northern and Angel Soft get an F. Climate Counts gives Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Cottenelle, a score of 58 on their 100 point scale, and Proctor & Gamble, the makers of Charmin, a score of 69 (that's actually a pretty good score).

JOGGING STRIDE

Buy recycled toilet paper. There are several brands to choose from: Seventh Generation, Marcal, and Green Forest, to name a few. I went with the Seventh Generation brand because I found out from Fake Plastic Fish's site that you can get your toilet paper delivered as part of Amazon's Subscribe and Save program for the reasonable price of $40.79 for a pack of 48 rolls of 500 sheets each ($0.0017 per sheet). Cottonelle from Amazon is $0.0024 per sheet. The Seventh Generation toilet paper is also individually wrapped in recycled/recyclable paper rather than plastic wrap, and it comes in a great big box with no plastic packaging in site. The toilet paper itself, to be honest, reminds me of the cheap toilet paper you see in public restrooms, but it's doing it's job and that's all that matters.

MARATHON RUNNER

Use cloth wipes. I tried this out as part of Crunchy Chicken's Cloth Wipes Challenge. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Since we're already using cloth diapers, I just moved the cloth baby wipes into the kids' bathroom to make them more accessible. I have two potty trained boys who only wipe for #2, and I actually found that the cloth wipes work much better than the moistened flushable wipes I was buying (as long as they remember to put the wipes in the diaper pail and not the toilet). I like the softness factor of the cloth wipes (as opposed to the rough recycled toilet paper), and washing the wipes was no big deal since we're already washing cloth diapers.

Where I'm At

Despite the roughness factor, I like the Seventh Generation recycled toilet paper, and the price is right. I'm also keeping the cloth wipes in the kids' bathroom for now, but once Third Son is out of diapers, I doubt I'll keep up the cloth wipes. Sorry, Crunchy Chicken, but I just can't bring myself to wash my pee-stained wipes with my regular laundry!

A Paper Primer

>> Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Here's something you may not know: "The pulp and paper industry may contribute to more global and local environmental problems than any other industry in the world," according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

I had no idea. Paper seems like such a benign product! It's used for so many good things: making children's artwork, cleaning up messes, wiping our noses and butts...It's a natural, sustainable product, and unlike many other manmade things, paper biodegrades.

So what's so bad about it? In Garbage Land, author Elizabeth Royte explains:

"Virgin papermaking...depletes forests and their biodiversity, it uses more water than any other industrial process in the nation (more than double the amount of recycled papermaking), and it dumps billions of gallons of water contaminated with chlorinated dioxin and a host of other hazardous and conventional pollutants into rivers, lakes, and harbors....Each year, paper factories send 420 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrogen oxides, and other heat trapping gases up through their smokestacks (and emissions are expected to double by 2020). Along with the gases come 38,617 pounds of lead and 2,277 pounds of mercury and mercury compounds."

And according to the NRDC, "Most of the world's paper supply comes from timber logged in regions with ecologically valuable, biologically divers habitat."

I've been wanting to "green" my paper products for awhile now, so here's my checklist for good paper:

Recycled. There are two types of recycled content: post-consumer and pre-consumer. Post-consumer content refers to the paper collected from household and office recycling. In other words, the consumer has already used it once. Pre-consumer content refers to the extra paper scraps produced in the paper manufacturing process. The higher the post-consumer content, the better.
FSC certified. This means that the trees used to make the paper come from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and indicates that a forest is sustainably managed.
Processed Chlorine Free. This means that the paper was produced without chlorine. Chlorine bleaching produces dioxins, which are a toxic substance. (But don't think this means your paper is going to be grey. Most recycled paper is still whitened using other chemicals.)

Other thoughts to consider:

Reduce, reuse, recycle...in that order. I used to have the attitude that I didn't have to think about how much paper my family was using because we were recycling it all anyway. Sorry folks, that's the wrong attitude, and I've since seen the error of my ways.
Paper can only be recycled four to nine times. After that, the fibers become too short to be used again.
Recycled paper products are generally more expensive than their virgin paper counterparts. (This is in part due to government subsidies for the timber industry.) If you don't think you can afford to switch to all recycled paper products, I personally think it's most important to use recycled toilet paper, facial tissues, and paper towels because those products cannot be recycled. But that's just my opinion.
When you buy recycled products, it lets the paper industry know that you value those products, recycled paper products will become more readily available, and generally that means they will be cheaper.

The National Resources Defense Council provides an extensive shoppers' guide for paper products, and The Green Guide has created a "Smart Shoppers Card" that you can print out (on recycled paper!) and take with you when you go shopping.