Composting Conquest!

I have a small but significant achievement to brag about- last week I managed to get a green bin for our apartment building! This may not sound like much, but most larger apartment buildings are not issued with these. I had to ask my landlord to make a request & the city delivered- which means that all 16 apartments in our building now have the capacity to compost food & other green waste. Whilst completing research on waste reduction I was starting to feel rather guilty about my lack of a compost/green waste option- we don't even have a yard where we could've made our own compost heap. I was even starting to consider options like an indoor worm farm, which could have been rather interesting! While Jason is very supportive of all my new changes & rules in our house, I’m not sure how he would’ve liked that one!

Composting is a significant form of environmental action, as it reduces the amount of waste, specifically biodegradable waste, that ends up in landfill. Landfills are designed to merely store our garbage & do not provide the right conditions for biodegradable items such as paper, food & garden waste to break down efficiently. Furthermore, landfills produce a gas primarily composed of methane- a potent greenhouse gas. In fact, landfills are the biggest source of man-made methane emissions. So the less that ends up in landfill the better. In Ottawa, roughly 45% of the city's garbage is compostable organic material. All of that material can be put to good use, as composting produces a nutrient-rich fertilizer for plants & gardens. In Ottawa most of the city's compost is sold to the local farming community & the rest is used in city greening projects.

Stockposting

Another way of getting more out of your waste is a concept known as 'Stockposting'. It is an easy & efficient way to get extra use out of the food scraps usually thrown out or composted when cooking.

Wash all parts of vegetables thoroughly & keep a bowl or container handy & throw in any vegetable scraps that aren't being used, such as the outer skin/peel of onions, greens from carrots, celery, leeks & peel from vegetables such as carrots, pumpkins & potatoes. When there is a good amount, this collection of scraps can be boiled in water with some seasoning, such as bay leafs, salt & pepper, then strained to make your own vegetable stock/broth.

The same can be done with whole fish & roast chicken carcasses & large meat bones to make your own fish, chicken & beef stock or soup base.

Acknowledgements:

'Ecoholic Home' by Adria Vasil

'The Conscious Kitchen' by Alexandra Zissu
City of Ottawa website: www.ottawa.ca

Ethical Consumer Guide: Your Dollar is Your Vote

I recently stumbled across this great website produced by The Ethical Consumer Group of Australia, which provides a wealth of practical information for consumers, enabling them to make informed everyday choices. Of particular value is their comprehensive 'Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping', which lists & ranks a wide range of products & brands found in most Australian (& other country's) supermarkets based on particular principles. This guide is updated annually & includes food & beverages, cleaning products, cosmetics, toys & other common household items. On the website you can search for products listed in the guide or the entire guide can be downloaded in PDF format from their website. Alternatively, a pocket-sized copy costs $7.00 & can be purchased online via their website or from a range of stores, including bookstores (see website for list of stockists). An app version of the guide known as 'Shop Ethical!' has also been released for both Android & Apple users.

The website also provides lots of great information about the globally relevant issues surrounding the products we consume & the reasons for making informed choices. I particularly like the 'what did you vote for today?' chart, which provides a simple yet comprehensive overview of the issues concerning consumers today & I found it to be a great illustration of the areas I hope to address & consider when thinking about mindful living & writing this blog.

To read more on the issues visit http://www.ethical.org.au/issues/. Included is some interesting facts about Australia's major supermarket companies & their significant ownership of the nation's retail market share, as well as their involvement in poker machines, coal mining, & the production of chemicals & fertilisers.

The creators of this website & its materials make mention that looking at all these issues at once can seem daunting, overwhelming & even depressing to a conscious consumer & therefore recommend focusing on addressing just one of the issues at a time. Another suggestion is to start by just looking at the products bought most regularly. Also, often a consumer may have to prioritise their values when making decisions (organic or local, fair trade or rainforest friendly), as it will not always be possible to find a product that meets all the criteria. It's important to keep in mind that there is no right or wrong choice, just better & worse ones. Being informed helps us make these decisions.

New Recipes

Check out the Recipes page for some new additions, including gluten & lactose-free baked treats & easy vegan soups, courtesy of my friend Sam!

Mindful Cleaning

There is now a huge range of effective, people- and eco-friendly cleaning products available in stores, making it easy to substitute regular cleaners for greener choices. However, making the right choice can often be complicated, with an overwhelming range of terms & logos used & different companies making a variety of claims about their products. About 6 months ago I read an article on the David Suzuki Foundation’s website explaining that not all green products are created equal & that manufacturing companies are not required to disclose their product’s complete ingredient list, making it all the more difficult for consumers to make informed choices.

Via the same website I found a link to the Queen of Green’s recipes for homemade cleaners & decided to give it a try. Since then I have been making & using my own liquid laundry detergent, glass cleaner, toilet cleaner & all-purpose scour, with great success. I am not normally one to get excited about cleaning the bath/shower, but I was grinning with delight the first time I scrubbed away the grime to reveal a sparkling white finish using just plain old baking/bi-carb soda & water! Making my own cleaners is definitely cheaper, as only a handful of ingredients are needed, many of which are regular household/kitchen products, such as vinegar & baking/bi-carb soda (which is also comforting- knowing that what I clean the house with is also safe enough to go into my food!). I am also reducing waste by making the cleaners in a bucket/bowl etc then re-using the containers of my previous cleaning products to store them in. I haven’t yet used any of the recipes containing Borax, as I haven’t felt the need for this stronger ingredient. I use Dr Bronner’s Unscented Baby-Mild Liquid Castile Soap, which I buy from my local health food store & it’s certified Fair-trade & organic. If you like a pleasant aroma when washing your clothes or wiping your benches it is also available scented with essential oils. http://www.drbronner.com/DBMS/LS.htm

                 
David Suzuki Foundation's Queen of Green Blog : 'What Makes a Good Home Cleaner' http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/queen-of-green/2012/09/what-makes-a-good-home-cleaner-label/
 

DIY Cleaners Recipes: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/downloads/2011/QueenOfGreen-Green-cleaning-recipes.pdf

Disinfecting

In most houses a mixture of hot soapy water & elbow grease, or water and vinegar or borax, is the strongest cleaner needed. However, if you are a bit of a germaphobe, then a peroxide-based cleaner will do the job of removing bacteria. Most green brands make a product containing an eco- and people-friendly amount of hydrogen peroxide, usually named a “kitchen cleaner”.

The following is an excerpt from The David Suzuki Foundation’s website giving advice on the safe use of disinfectants:

‘Our recent obsession with germs has the Canadian Medical Association calling on the federal government to ban all anti-bacterial household products because of fears they cause bacterial resistance.

If you live or work with children, non-toxic disinfectants are even more important. Kids are not miniature adults. Kilogram for kilogram they absorb more chemicals than adults. To start, children are closer to the ground. They also have what some experts call an "exploratory nature" which means they put everything in their mouths!

Choose disinfectants with:

·                                 Ingredients listed

·                                 Plant-based ingredients

·                                 EcoLogo or Green Seal certified labelThe Green Seal standard provides criteria for the development of many products, from home-cleaners to paints. Certification guarantees that products perform as well as or better than conventional products and that ingredients are biodegradable and do not contain phthalates, heavy metals or optical brighteners.

Avoid disinfectants with:

·                                "Chlor" compounds

·                                 Fragrance

·                                 Triclosan
Triclosan in particular is one of the most common anti-bacterial agents in household cleaners and personal-care products. It's suspected of interfering with hormone function and contributes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Triclosan is also harmful to fish and wildlife.'

Taken from: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/cleaning/are-there-safe-alternatives-to-disinfectants-1/

According to ‘The Conscious Kitchen' by Alexandra Zissu, these are some of the purest brands found in North America:

· Vermont Soap Organics
·Dr Bronner’s
·Ecover

· Seventh Generation
· BioKleen

 

And these brands are highly-rated in Adria Vasil's Canadian guide 'Ecoholic Home':

· Bio-Vert

· Nature Clean

· BioSource

· Attitude

In Australia, The Ethical Consumer Group publishes a yearly detailed 'Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping' and in the 2012 guide it most highly recommends the following brands:

• Orange Power
• Earth Choice
• Ecostore

Stain Removal

For stain removal, there are also green options available, with Canadian 'Ecoholic Home' recommending: 

• Bi-O-Kleen-Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator
• Pink Solution

The David Suzuki Foundation provides a comprehensive guide to removing a wide variety of household stains using easy home remedies: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/downloads/2012/qog-stainremoval.pdf

Cleaning Tools

It is also worth considering what tools you use to do your cleaning. When it comes to cleaning the bathroom & other surfaces I do as my Mum does & use torn up old tea-towels, t-shirts, pillow-slips & other such items, which I then throw in the wash. There is also a wide range of washable, microfibre products, e-cloths and natural sponges now available, many of which require only water, rather than chemical soaps. Antibacterial sponges & cloths are usually embedded with triclosan (often using the label Microban-see above for explanation of triclosan). One-use/disposable products are the least environmentally-friendly options.

Paper Towels:

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York, if every household in North America replaced just one roll of virgin-fibre paper towels with 100% recycled ones, about 550, 000 trees would be saved.

Acknowledgements:
'Ecoholic Home: The Greenest, Cleanest and Most Energy-efficient Information under One (Canadian) Roof' by Adria Vasil

'The Conscious Kitchen' by Alexandra Zissu
The David Suzuki Foundation website http://www.davidsuzukifoundation.org/
The Ethical Consumer Group's '2012 Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping'  http://www.ethical.org.au/downloads/2012/GESS_2012.pdf