Applesauce on the Go

Packets of applesauce kids just squeeze into their mouth? How fun! Me: What do you do with the package when finished? Them: We're partnered with TerraCycle, have you heard of them? Me: Yes, actually, they are a great company, that's cool.

I take a sample and walk on. I'm far from sold, but, you know, I play it all cool. For the next few days, I just stare at it. Should I try it? 100% fruit, no refined sugar. No spoon, no mess! No preservatives, no artificial flavors, no gluten, dairy, nut, or even BPA.

After pondering this product for days, I finally pop the little sealed yellow cap and squeeze. It's a little fun. I feel like a kid. I can see how this would appeal to kids. Apple-Banana. So much more fun than a boring old REAL banana. And eww when you cut an apple they get all brown by lunch.

Tasty? Eh. It somehow tasted fake even though all it is, is real ingredients. Maybe I'm just spoiled by knowing what a real apple should taste like, or applesauce made right in my very own crock pot. Maybe I've never had apple and banana mixed together. Maybe I just don't want it to taste great? Maybe some of the other flavors are better? Do kids like these??? Of course they do. They're FUN!

So... yay or nay? Well, nay of course. Duh - don't you know me by now??? TerraCycle is great, but are they getting every single GoGo pack when it's done? Or is it sometimes just easier to throw it away? Sometimes? I mean, sometimes you just are not near a TerraCycle can. Sometimes, just sometimes, a garbage can is much handier. It's just a little thing. One won't hurt anything.

Until you realize how that scenario plays out a million times or so.

Hip, cool, trendy, convenient, no mess no fuss... whatever. I'll never understand. I'll never get why, if you plan on having a family, that you don't realize everything will be harder, messier, and more time-consuming, but the whole point is that your progeny are able to have a nice place to live, too. I mean, who says, yeah, I want to have kids so they can grow up on a ruined planet and their kids can have cancer? When we don't pay attention to what we KNOW is happening around us, I feel like that is exactly what we are saying.

Are these GoGos ruining the planet? Of course not. It's the mentality that is behind them that is.

Give the kid a damn real apple already. Only, be careful, it was probably force-ripened on its way to you because it's not in season where you live. Just because this product is All Natural doesn't mean it's All Good.

Whose Healthy Choice?

ConAgra does it again. Yummy, delicious, natural, and most importantly, convenient!!! Healthy Choice has a great healthy choice for you for lunch! Healthy Choice 100% Natural No Preservatives frozen meal. Vegetarian. Pumpkin Squash Ravioli. All natural, pronounceable ingredients. Only 310 calories. What a great meal. So healthy.

For... whom? Well, for us, to eat, of course. What can be bad about this? Surely, nothing! No weird bad chemicals. No artificial flavors or colors or preservatives. Must be great... except... except for the lovely crap from the plastic tray leaching into your food as it steams in the microwave. We quite frankly have NO idea what could be coming outta that tray and into your food. Remember when we didn't know what BPA was? (Of course, there are plenty who STILL don't know... SIGH) To think it's fine, perfectly safe... I find that short-sighted.

Seriously. Can we stop pretending and believing that anything that comes packaged in plastic and frozen and conveniently prepares in the microwave so we never have to step away from our cubicles for lunch is ANYTHING but RIDICULOUS? I know, I know, we are SO busy that this really is the best way to handle lunch. I know, I know, we can't be bothered to actually MAKE something over the weekend to freeze and package and take to lunch all week. That would require... well, time. It's really SO LITTLE plastic that surely, we can give it a pass, right? And after all, we'll recycle it!

(No matter that it still takes OIL to produce the plastic in the first place...)

Will we? The un-Healthy-er Choice regular black trays are a #1 or #2. I cannot recall, and since I don't buy them, I can't look. These white trays in the super healthy natural "meal" are a #5. Not many municipalities do anything with this type of plastic yet. Again, my old tired recording, just because you throw it in the bin doesn't mean it gets recycled. If there is not enough money in recycling a particular plastic - if it is more costly to recycle it than it is worth afterwards, it is NOT getting recycled. That is currently the case with anything over #2, so far as I know right now.

So, I inquire: How is this a healthy choice? Healthy for us? Healthy for the planet? Who?

Doesn't matter. These will still be out there, they will still be bought, we are not going stop. It's really getting to the point where we truly deserve what we get.

Just wish the rest of us weren't getting dragged down, too.

Good Witch, Bad Witch, Plumbers and Diapers

John Smith, the Arizona Green Plumber, has a radio show. He asked me to be a guest, and I was happy to do so. He said we'd talk about my pet peeves in Green (THAT changes daily!) and whatever else came from that. It started out cordially enough. (You can listen to it anytime here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thearizonagreenplumber/2012/04/20/the-arizona-green-plumber-talks-with-the-good-green-witch) 

I like John a lot. He wrote a great book on his journey to being The Green Plumber. He sent it to me. I liked it a lot, too. I figured we would talk about wasting water. After all, that's something he runs into every day.

  

But somehow, the topic turned to one of my BIGGEST pet peeves: disposable diapers. His co-host, G.G. (Green Girl!), had a lot to say on that. She has kids, she used them on said kids. She thought my point of view and *tone* were perhaps a little much. Well, over the years, I've learned my tone is my tone, and I refuse to tone it down. What's at risk here is too important. So I am putting the show link out here for you, my readers my friends, to judge for yourselves... who won this one? Who comes away with it? It's OK, you can say I might have been a little wrong. I won't accept it, but you can say it!

My Plumber-Buddy John!

You know, I go to a lot of events, and I see the women who speak, and I want to do that, I really do! But my message isn't for the people who are already at those events. Those people already know what I'm talking about. I have to reach the people who don't know...

Apparently, I have a lot to say, and I'm pretty sure I'm always right. Hahahahahh.... ahhh Hubris. I hope you take a listen and let me know!

Soy, Everywhere

I had a great guest on my radio show the other week that opened my eyes just a little wider. I feel pretty knowledgeable about *stuff* in general, but every now and then I learn something, too.

Did you know some people are allergic to soy? Did you know it's a big problem? Did you know soy is in the majority of what you eat, drink, even touch???

Take a listen to the show here: http://www.newdissidentradio.com/archives/ggw/2012/april/ggw-040712.mp3  with my guest Kathy Kotteras. She was full of great, if not kind of horrifying, information.

Soy allergies and intolerance can cause eczema, hives, asthma, allergic rhinitis, anaphylactic shock, and digestive problems. Soy is a top 8 allergen.

This is all information before you even THINK about the fact that soy is huge in the GMOs. Soy, soy everywhere. It's in more things that you would even begin to think. Even the meat YOU eat, eats soy.

It gets me to thinking... is something like soy allergy on the rise because we ARE genetically modifying it? My personal resounding answer is a "Hell, yes." Would we be OK with soy if we weren't messing around with Mother Nature's recipe? I suspect this is the case. Mess with Nature and she gets pissy. And I don't blame her.

Whatever the case, I suspect we are only seeing the very beginning of a big big problem. Tune in to the show when you have the time, and learn something startling. Oh, and SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Because Water is So Un-Awesome On Its Own

In the world of unnecessary and silly products comes this gem: MiO Liquid Water Enhancer. (Opinion? Of course, But then it's my blog.) I felt it was harmless enough when I first saw it, but I finally looked it up and found it particularly useless on a number of fronts. Or just annoying. Or pointless. I haven't decided its strongest offense yet.

I think they got me right out of the gate by saying, "Water is superb. Except in your glass." Obviously, I am not their target audience, because this whole campaign loses me completely. We have to denigrate water to sell our product? Water? Now, we've been flavoring water for years and years. Kool-Aid? Powdered lemonade, powdered teas, etc. This stuff is a liquid in a tiny little container that is all super-trendy and so easy to carry in a purse, etc, and you squeeze as much as you want into your water.

I guess that's fine. It makes people drink more water, I suppose, and that is always a good thing. Unless they are adding it to plastic-bottled water. And really, it's just a tiny little container. Can you recycle the container? Sure. It's a #7. Except no one really recycles that yet. And oh goodie - there's no sugar in it either. No, it has artificial sweetener in it. Yay! Cuz darn that natural stuff sure is bad. Sure, great for people who have to watch their sugar intake, but do you see what it has in it? Here, let me pull it right out of their FAQ's:

"MiO is sweetened with acesulfame potassium and sucralose, a calorie-free, artificial sweetener that is 600 times sweeter than sugar.Sucralose? Acesulfame potassium? They sound frightening. Don't let the long names scare you. Sucralose is a calorie-free, artificial sweetener that is 600 times sweeter than sugar. Both sucralose and acesulfame potassium, the sweeteners in MiO, are recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the general population, including pregnant women and children."

Hmmm. I chuckle. Everything is fine, until we find out it's not. Who knew what BPA was for years and years? "It's fine!" No, it's not. I try to keep it a rule to not ingest things I cannot pronounce. Sucralose? Sure, I can pronounce it, but what the hell is it??? "Recognized as safe by the FDA"? Uh huh. Somehow, I am not entirely reassured on that count quite yet. Call me cynical.

Whatevs, you know? I just hope it doesn't catch on. Maybe we can all ridicule people who use it? Just PLEASE do not give it to kids. They have enough things happening to them already. We don't need to discover in 20 years that Acesulfame potassium causes the F1 generation to have 11 toes and no hair.

Dig?

Air So Clean You Can Smell It

Should you smell air?

You can smell fresh air and clean air and pine-tree air and air right after it rains... but should you be able to smell air because you just sprayed a bunch of Lysol around? I saw an ad for Lysol where some chick was blithely spraying chemicals all over everything in her home. Including her kid's teddy bear. You know, because she was disinfecting it. Cuz it's germy. Ewww. Lysol Neutra-Air kills 99.9% of odor-causing bacteria.

Umm... you realize that means it kills all good bacteria too, right? I mean. it doesn't actually discriminate. It doesn't know. So when it says it kills 99.9%, that means it's killing good AND bad. And we really need good bacteria around. It keeps us balanced and healthy. You know what's not healthy? Killing off all bacteria. Oh, and buying bottle after bottle of product. You know who the sicker people usually are? The germaphobes. Because they've reduced their resistance to nothing.

This is the same company that has the touchless soap dispenser, because, you know, somehow it makes sense to some people out there that you shouldn't touch the soap dispenser even though you are washing your hands right then and there AFTER you touch it.

It's all well and fine for you in your home you say, but, excuse me, please, you are disinfecting MY world, too. You are creating superbugs and super drug-resistant bacteria in MY world because YOU are so afraid of germs that you are ironically creating even worse and stronger germs.

That is so ironic that it would crack me up, if it were remotely funny.

Here's a hint (and I don't mean bottled water): if it is a large corporation/company/conglomeration., they do not care about your health. They are not interested in your child's well-being. They do not care if you house is clean or fresh-smelling as a fake mountain spring. Psst.... they are trying to make money from you by playing on your fears. Stop. Letting. Them.

Wake up. It's April Fresh because it's April and it just rained, not because the chemicals tell you it is. I mean, where did they even get that smell?

I don't think I want to know.

Torn Again.

So, there is this snack food. It's good, healthy, raw, gluten-free, non-GMO... all kinds of good stuff. Just freeze-dried fruit. A really good snack food all around when you need/want it. Better than chips, or anything fried or overly-processed or filled with soy product. So why am I torn?

Crunchies, Nature's Ultimate Snack Food, are made in the USA and are by all accounts very good for you. Great on the go. Good for kids, good to mix into almost anything, up to 9 servings of your daily fruits and veggies. So what's my beef with them? (little pun there)

Well, let's move past the packaging, which of course rankles. That should be obvious to anyone who has been here before! No, instead, it is a little factoid my husband pointed out on the package: "Did you know: It takes 8-10 lbs of fresh fruit or vegetables to make 1 lb of Crunchies?" This is a selling point, apparently, because it is right on the package.

.......umm.....

Do you hear the crickets? It's what I hear.

Does that seem... confusing? Can't more people be fed with the 8-10 pounds? I'm confused. Someone please explain this to me. OK, yeah, the method of freeze-drying makes this snack available to more people than that 8-10 pounds of fruit or vegetables. The nutrition is still there. You can still eat these off-season, or they can get to a place that fresh fruit can't reach. OK. That must be valid. I still can't wrap my head around it. Maybe since you find these mostly in the stores I don't like as much, and that a package can cost, say, $5, that you can forgive my doubting that this is an entirely great thing. It's not like these are going to be shipped to poverty-stricken areas or starving kids. These are simply a "convenient" (says so right on the package, you know how I feel about THAT word), froofy, over-priced hip thing. Sure, you can get your kids to eat their fruit this way. Sure, you can be all cool with your bag of oh-so-cool edamame and rice. You're so cool. You have stuff from Whole Foods. You must have disposable income and be someone I want to hang with. That's what these packages say. Mmm hmmm.

So, yeah. I'm not sold. I had the sample pack, I tried them, they didn't suck, but I know I don't need them in my life. Save yer packaging an' yer over-priced hip snack food. I'll eat and actual pear. And if it is not in season, I won't eat it. And if I have my own pears, I'll can or dehydrate them myself and enjoy them another time.

Water, Water Everywhere

There were SO many water companies at the Natural Products Expo. Healthy water, fun water, Artesian water, mineral water, flavored water, coconut water... that was just the water, not the juices and teas and everything else. So much water, so many plastic bottles. Natural does not equal green. But shouldn't it?

My favorite beverages were in glass or cans. In this post, though, I will touch on the plastic people. The great glass beverages deserve their own individual posts.

I liked some of these people very much, and I liked their product, and I wish I could get behind them. But I cannot. I just cannot, never, no, ever justify these plastic bottles. Yeah, so it's a sticking point for me. Do I think we can be healthy  without drinking all these froufy fancy waters? Yeah. Do I wish I could drink them? Sure. They are very tasty! But it's just not worth it.

Take Crazy Woman Water. I loved these guys. And, ironically, though it is Crazy *Woman* Water, and the company founder is a woman, there was nary a woman in the booth. But the guys were fun! And informative. CWW is premium Artesian water, naturally rich in minerals, from Wyoming's Bighorn National Forest. It was yummy. Yes, you could really tell there was something special about this water. Made me want to live right there so I could walk out my door and go to this spring and sip from the Crazy Woman Mountain Spring. But do I want it captured and dragged out from the aquifer and put in plastic bottles and delivered to me wherever I am so I can enjoy it? Call me a crazy woman, but no. I want it to stay right there where it was meant to be and never exploited.

Then there is Real Water. These guys really crack me up in their quest to get you to buy their plastic bottles. I get their point that negatively ionized water is good for you, and I understand their point that the water we end up drinking becomes positively ionized on its way to us, I see what they are saying about alkaline water being healthy, but AT WHAT COST to the planet??? There are such things that make your water alkaline in your own home; you don't have to ship it into your mouth via a plastic bottle. I DON'T CARE if the bottle is suddenly BPA-free. It still ain't goin' anywhere when yer done with it!!!! And - here's the really funny part, I mean the real screamingly HIGH-sterical kicker... they want $36 a case for this! 36 bucks! Thirty-six smackers! REALLY??? So, only really rich people with seriously disposable income (dispose everything?) can drink healthy water? Sigh.

U'a Water was another. Now, I really liked the lady at the booth, but I couldn't get behind the product. U'a Deep Sea Hawaiian Water. I don't even think you can buy it yet. It is extracted from the ocean depths, desalinated, and remains rich in nutrients blah blah blah. Was it good? Yes. Do I feel the need to have it delivered to my mouth in - again, you guessed it - a plastic bottle? NO! I don't need this stuff and neither do you. Is it delicious and healthy? Yes. Should we be trashing the planet for it?

I think you know how I would answer that one.

This is some kind of insanity to me. I'm going to talk about a filter system for your home that gives you alkaline water right there and then, no millions of bottles wasted.

Because, repeat after me, just because we throw it in the bin, doesn't mean it gets recycled. It just. Goes. Away.

Sorry, guys I met along the path. I liked you, I did. But I cannot fall in line with you. Talk to me when you have glass bottles.

One Pallet in One Store in One Town...

My grocery store of choice, Sprouts, is fairly cool. Sure they have their things I would love them to change... plastic bags at the bulk area, for instance. Why not have a scale to tare the containers we can bring in ourselves? And I can't wait for them to stop offering plastic bags altogether at checkout, or at least charge for them. But generally, they offer great prices on cool things, not at all like the prices at Whole Foods (and nicers employees and cooler clientele), and their butcher case with responsible, sustainable product is wonderful. (That's how I got my husband hooked on going there!) I'll miss it when I move away.

But then, standing in lined to check out, I just have to shake my head. Here sits a pallet of water. Pricey water in plastic bottles. Pointless water in plastic bottles.

This stuff is called Hint, because it has just a hint of fruit flavor. Great. Fine. It's not soda, it's not fake-tasting, it's all good stuff. Like WAA-TAH but for adults. Because, you know, we just have to have water to drink and that stuff from our own filters just isn't chic enough. Or something. This is so convenient. $18-22 for a 12-pack??? GIVE ME A BREAK. We PAY this much just for the great pleasure of polluting the planet?

Yeah yeah yeah, you throw the bottles in recycling bins. I've covered that. Yeah yeah this is much lighter to ship therefore saves fossil fuels. Uh huh. And how about the fossil fuels that go into making the plastic? Hmmmmmm????

I was unaware of this brand because I never go down that aisle of bottled stupidity. But here it was in front of me. Look at that picture. I took it with my phone. It is the actual stack in Sprouts. That is one pallet in one store in one town in one county in one state. THINK about it. Think about how this stuff sat in warehouses and shipping trucks etc, in the heat, leaching plastic chemicals. I fail to see any sense or logic in purchasing any of this, especially considering the price tag. What is it going to take to stop this madness? How much do we have to know before we stop?

If you have an answer to that, I sure would love to know.

Tree Free Paper

This paper is made of what? STONE? AWESOME!!!

When I think tree-free paper, I think maybe recycled or made from hemp. (Hemp. Hah. The perfect answer to most if not all our economic woes and many environmental ones, too, and we can't grow it in the US. Go figure.) But I never heard of paper made from stone. Apparently I am a little behind the curve on that one.

The people who introduced me to stone paper are Buffalo Natur out of Canada (http://buffalonatur.com/index.php). They have lots of other great green products too - basically everything you (used to) need for school supplies. I mean, who uses PAPER anymore. Well, I do now, because I will find any excuse to write on this stuff. There are plenty of other brands out there, and they really are not that much pricier than regular paper tree-killing notebooks. These particular notebooks are made of stone which is recycled from construction sites. Think what an endless supply that is. Think about your paper usage. Sure, you may not use a notebook very often... but at work? Your printer? Or your kids?

This paper is cool because it is apparently recyclable, it is water and grease resistant, very durable, and hey you do NOT get paper cuts with it! I swear! It feels great  Everyone I show it to wants to write on it then wants to steal my notebook.

Trees are precious. We need not cut them down just so we can throw them away. These other ideas for "paper" are the kind of ideas that really make me happy. If you can't easily find hemp paper (Thanks W.R. Hearst for that SO much), then check out this stuff in your local drug store. If it cost a few cents more, well, how much paper are you REALLY using, it's worth it and maybe, just maybe, you will be a little more judicious with it?

Cost, price, value. These are topics for another one... but in the meantime, this stuff is SO cool! I encourage you to look for things like this. I'll point them out when I find them. I'm still trying to nail down where to buy products from these guys, but there are other brands out there.

I love it!

Worse Instead of Better

Are we going to learn before it's too late? I start to think not. For every scrap of awareness I think might be out there, we come up with 15 new and wasteful products.

Cat added for size reference :) 

Oh, sure, I've railed against these before. But they haven't gone away yet! They are still everywhere! My co-worker had this one and has stated she will never get them again. For the amount of waste, they are not as good as they should be, taste-wise, or amount-wise. We looked closely to notice the recycling code on it is a number 5. Those numbers don't currently get recycled. We only process 1's and 2's. So, all these bajillion plastic things just end up... somewhere other than our homes.

Oh, sure, you can reuse them. But how many can you possibly keep around to use? How many possible reuses are there? If you eat more than a few of these a month, what are you doing with them?

Oh, sure, they are convenient. Quick lunch on the go. But you are super-heating these in the microwave. Do you not think some of those chemicals from said plastic, whatever they are, BPA or no, are leeching into your meal? (I keep using "leech" vs "leach" because I like the image it brings to mind, but I suppose I should use the right one, lest someone try to call me on it. OK fine. Darn it. Leech is more fun.)

Oh, sure, we're so busy that we have to grab these things for lunches. Eat at our desks. Too too busy to make something over the weekend to package and bring in all week, even though that is so much healthier. How many chemicals are in these thing before we even talk about the plastic? I prefer to make a batch of rice or quinoa or pasta to jazz up and bring in all week. Isn't that smarter? Healthier? Cheaper? Better for everyone all around?

But... but it says "healthy choice" right on the box. Silly Green Witch. Why can't I believe what's right in front of me? Sure.

Speaking of All Things Baby...

Stumbling around the Natural Products Expo in search of green baby things, mind reeling from information overload, I saw lots of cloth diaper booths. This is good. My favorite was Sweet Pea Diapers (http://www.sweetpeausa.com/pages/Why-Cloth%3F.html) , because they were cute and colorful and the lady there told me that I should try the financial aspect of getting people to switch. Oh, and the smelly aspect. And the health aspect. But mostly the money. I didn't buy any for the upcoming step-grandchild, because it is clear they will not be used. Because they are smelly and messy. Except that they are not. They are better and cheaper in the long run and easier and oh so much healthier. But that never seems to matter. Because parents are afraid it will be too smelly. Sigh. I've covered before how with ALL diapers, you are supposed to take the waste and actually FLUSH it, and you then do not have nearly as much a smell as you think you will. And not nearly as much extra laundry as you think you will. And disposable diapers are not meant to wrap up the smelly waste and then tossed in a "genie" then the landfill where you can forget it forever. No. But, no one cares to look into that. Even though they know that is a giant part of having a baby: diapers. Yeah, let's slap toxic chemicals and bleached products and rash-causing plastics on the most delicate of skin. Cuz, you know, there might be smelly consequences otherwise. It's hard. Can't have that. That delightful lady told me that, done properly, a bin of waiting-for-laundry diapers is a rose garden compared to a bin of disposables.

Cute Sweet Pea Diapers

I also found a little campaign called Change 3 Things (http://change3things.com/index.php) that asks parents to "commit to using 3 cloth diapers a day instead of disposables for 1 year." Hmm. Seems like that should be doable. It's for the child's future and well-being after all, right? Don't you want them to have health and a nice planet on which to live and raise their children? No? Because it's smelly? And hard? Here are the fun little factoids they toss out (direct quotes):

• One baby contributes at least 1 ton of waste in diapers alone to a local landfill.
• Disposable diapers are the third most common consumer product in landfills today.
• A disposable diaper may take up to 500 years to decompose.
• A family can spend $1500 to $2000 or more on disposable diapers by the time the baby has moved to potty training.

One baby = 1 ton of waste? How many babies are born each day, month, year? And we have no idea how long it will take to decompose because none of us will be here that long. And plastic doesn't decompose and go away, it just gets smaller and smaller and stays around pretty much forever. And I would say a family would spend a lot more if they changed the baby as often as it SHOULD be changed, but because Pampers keep babies falsely dry for so long, parents will often leave the same diaper on way too long, contributing to rashes that require even more money shelled out on doctors and creams. Not to mention the suffering of the poor kid and the crying and sleeplessness of all involved. 

You know, because cloth diapers are smelly. We can't be bothered. 

It's funny that having a baby seems to absolve parents from doing the right thing by not just the rest of us, but by their own baby, as well. Because it's hard. And, oh, yeah, here's that point again: I don't have any so I can't have a say.

Except for that little part that, yes, I can.

The Better Bottle

There were SO many beverage companies at the Natural Products Expo that had their products in plastic bottles. So many. STILL. Natural, after all, does not equal green or even eco-friendly... though one would think it should. But it doesn't. I gravitated toward products in glass bottles. There were a few. And I was looking at baby products, as my step-daughter is having one. A baby, not a product. She doesn't pay much attention to green products, but hey I thought I would try. Turns out I will have lots to share with you guys, anyway! I learned a lot! But I digress.

A small booth with colorful things caught my baby-product-aware eye. The extremely nice people there (I failed to write down their names, ARRG!) were very informative. The company is Pura (http://www.purastainless.com/), and they were showing their line of stainless steel baby bottles, Pura Kiki. Here I come with my less than zero knowledge of baby bottles. I don't even know what most parents use, I really don't. There are plastic ones out there, right? Because glass if far superior but glass breaks and is inconvenient and we aren't as smart or savvy as our grandparents who successfully (apparently) DID use glass, and oh it's just so heavy to have to carry everywhere we run around and around and around with our super trendy diaper bags and SUV's. (But I digress.) So, yeah, glass is not an option, though I have seen awesome glass baby bottles with silicone sleeves. But no. How about plastic bottle WITH those plastic liners? There ya go. Double the plastic, double the fun, double the convenience, double the easy clean-up. I don't know, I really don't. Yes, yes, yes, having babies is hard and time-consuming and messy and I shouldn't talk because I don't have any and I can't possibly understand and when you have a baby you need everything to be super-easy and convenient and mess-free as possible because I can't possibly understand how hard it it. Yeah? Well, here's my motto: if you can't do it right, don't do it. (BUT I DIGRESS!!!!) ANYWAY....  these bottle at Pura are stainless steel, because, apparently, even BPA-free plastic will leach dangerous chemicals in your beverage, especially when exposed to dishwasher humidity and boiling. (Re-read that sentence; it is important.) They have silicone sleeves for protection and a host of other things, and they fit a variety of different nipples from other manufacturers. See? I didn't even know those things were usually proprietary. Duh. The bottles are light and as your child gets older you can put a sippy-top on it, thereby eliminating the need to continually buy anything plastic... and they even have adult bottles. I live in this world. Therefore, I do have the right to ask that other people who use this world too, use it properly and don't mess it up for the rest of us. That includes parents. Just because you had to have a baby does not give you the right to trash the planet for the rest of us who are otherwise living a little more responsible. (So there - digression complete.)

It was pointed out to me that stainless steel production is not the eco-friendliest thing. True. But, what is? What is better? What is the effect seven generations down the line? Because, for that matter, solar panels SUCK from an environmental standpoint. They take very precious rare minerals mined from very horrible places. But the long-term pay-off is what we are seeking, right? Are you going to get a stainless steel bottle and get rid of it after a few uses, or are you going to use it for years, because it WILL last that long? If you were not using it, would you use 10, 50, 100 or more plastic bottles? Is that not much worse in the long-term? Steel, even stainless, can and will be recycled much more readily than plastic. This makes it a better answer in my book, if you are going to rule out glass altogether.

Your child can use this bottle for years. How much plastic does that replace? Isn't that worth it?