EveryDrop Counts

Here's a product I'm in love with and I haven't even held one of them yet!

As I refuse to buy bottled water, I have a filter on my faucet on our kitchen sink. I'm used to it. I don't really like it, it's a Pur, I find it cumbersome and in the way and slow and most of all expensive to replace the filters. Plus, I feel wasteful throwing away the filters, but there is nothing else to do with them. I've pondered the Brita pitcher, I actually look at them every time I have to go buy new Pur filters. I don't like those either. They take too long to fill and are also cumbersome. And there's that time when you'll be waiting some water and there will be like half an inch fro the last person who neglected to fill it. So there's that. And it's also a lot of plastic. It seemed like the faucet-mount was the best way to go, despite the drawbacks.

So I really like the concept of this little guy. Yes, it's made from plastic, so there are some in my circles who would automatically nix it. I will not. It's much smaller than a pitcher. I think it has a certain simple elegance to it. If it were made of glass or something heavier, it might be too slippery - you are using it with water after all.

EveryDrop, by Whirlpool. Yeah, the big appliance guys. I was pretty instantly hooked with their cool website, 'cuz I'm all visual that way! It's very informative and thorough. I was ready to run out and buy one after browsing. Good job, web-dev-dude.(https://www.everydropwater.com/product-details.html)

You are still going to end up throwing away filters, of course, but they are worlds smaller than those giant beasts in the faucet-mount filter. If you have a nice faucet, you don't want to stick one of those things on it anyway. And ours has leaked from Day 1, even with plumbers' tape. Annoying. Couldn't be bothered to take it off to return it. And I'm always crashing into it. I also can't help having a sneaking suspicion that one day I will turn on the water and the thing will just explode off my faucet, scaring all living creatures in the house including me and spraying water all over Creation. Somehow, I don't get that feeling looking at this!

I picture this sitting quietly out of the way until it is needed. I see being able to take it on trips, so I can actually drink and use the water in hotel rooms. Heck, you know me, I would even take it to people's homes for gatherings, so I don't have to drink bottled water! Is this tiny? No - I wouldn't throw it in my purse. Well, I might be tempted, actually. Be it's definitely portable - your faucet-mount or stupid pitcher is NOT. I find this to be a product whose time has come. With this, you have almost no excuse to not use your tap. Oh the money you will save! Well, you have an excuse if your local water supply has been ruined by Clean Coal or fracking, but I think most of us are OK so far.

I personally cannot wait to get my hands on one of these. I know it will last a nice long time, so I don't worry about the plastic aspect as much. Plus the filters are a much better price point than those Pur and Brita gargantuan hulks. (I cringe so badly when I have to buy them. Seriously. Can't stand it.) I'm getting one ASAP. Then I'm a-gonna go all Office-Space-Fax-Machine-Scene on that farkin' Pur faucet-mount. Want me to do video of that when I do?

On a more positive note...

OK, after last week, I'm going to try to be a little more *up*. Well, we'll try. see how it goes.

Since moving into a house, after living in apartments for years and years, and now having the water bills, etc, right there in our faces, under our control, we have gotten creative. Those first bills can be a little shocking when you are used to someone else picking up that tab. Now we have our gas bill, electric, water, sewage bills... we got our baseline for the first month and pretty much said, "OK, wow, how can we bring these down?"

We brought them all down. Well, not so much the electricity  we are kind of always plugged in, but we managed to keep the house freezing to drop the gas, and we cut our water by a lot. We'll cut it even more over summer with my awesome rain barrels. But for every day usage, we made a few changes, and there it is.

Making a few small changes to save water and make your bill go down - easy stuff. This has got to be one of the easier ways to green around the house. These are things that, as mentioned in the previous post, are said again and again. I hadn't done them before because there was not really the incentive of SEEING what we actually use. It takes a bit of time for the hot water to get up to our shower. That's some water wastage. The husband found a bucket in the basement, and boom, now we run the water as it gets hot into the bucket, and use that water to flush the toilet. I was skeptical, but it's really just so easy. One of those things that becomes second nature once you do it a few times... the "why haven't I done this before" that happens. We save 3-5 gallons right off the top there. Bill immediately drops.

Some thing with the washer. We got a few 5-gallon buckets, and we simply get the water hose and fill the buckets as the washer empties. That water, of course, isn't going to be sparkling, so you have to be careful where you use it. We use soap nuts, so we can use this water for my new baby trees. That way, I won't be increasing my water bill for anything in my yard.

My rain barrels will be much more labor-intensive, what with attaching the spigots and connecting them to the downspouts... and my barrels are sitting there waiting for that... but this was almost nothing to get to do. Sure, I have to heft a few heavy buckets at times, but that's good exercise. Use the core.

So... while we're all about saying the same old thing and the same ideas over the years, let's add this on. Water-saving... how novel. I guess everything is new to those who never tried it before.

A kinder, gentler tone. How's it workin' out for you? Next time - how I overcame the composting fear.

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!

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?

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.

Drink WAT-AAH Part 2

Yeah. I did it. I was at the Natural Products Expo West, and, walking about, I spied a company I had previously pretty much trashed in a blog entry 2 years ago. (http://goodgreenwitch.blogspot.com/2010/07/trick-kids-into-drinking-more-water.html) Sure, I had a moment when I thought I would just sneer and walk past, but then something came over me, and I walked right up to the lady there at the big colorful booth for WAT-AAH and flat-out stated, "Hi. I trashed your product in my blog." She exclaimed, "WHY would you do that??" We laughed (because I really actually AM a nice person), and had a very nice talk for the next 10 minutes or so.

I told her that I did not think bottled water aimed at kids was necessary, and that it set a dangerous example for later in life. She pointed out how their company attempts to get kids to get excited about drinking healthy water over soda or sugary juices and sports drinks. Valid. Going back to my original post, I did actually give them credit for that. (Shocking - I DID research before writing. Ha!) She pointed out their Healthy Hydration Program. I went to their site to read more about it, but the immediate noises that come up when you get there sets me off every time. And then my computer hung up anyway. Seems Google Chrome wasn't fond of the site either. It's a valid program. Good ideas. Kids SHOULD drink water instead of crappy sugary high-fructose-corn-syrupy things. I agree. She said their product has no flavor, sugar, or color, and they rely on fun colors on the bottles and fun to attract kids. She told me a bit about their Juvenile Diabetes Event. OK, they are a pretty into-it company, for sure. Good stuff.

They have great intentions. And the woman I spoke with, Carol (the owner, it turns out), was a very nice very lovely lady. Do they get a pass?

Mmmmm.... no. Sorry, Carol. I know you tried.

I cannot get behind any single-use plastic bottle usage. Are there situations when they are a necessity? Probably. But the 'fridge at home is not one of them. Running around with the kids is NOT one of them, much as parents like to say it is. Sporting events? No, not really. Why don't kids have reusable bottles with their names on them on the sidelines? How many half-empty bottles of this stuff gets picked up at the end of the game, how many kids grabbed another and half-drank it because they lost track of their original one? How much waste??? "Well, we recycle them." Um, no, we don't. We throw them in a bin and feel great about ourselves, but in reality, it is a giant crap-shoot that any of them actually get recycled, or really, down-cycled. More likely, they are contributing to the Giant Plastic Problem we have. Should we be avoiding plastic bottles as much as possible instead? Heck yah. Just because bottles no longer have BPA in them, does that mean there are not still unknown chemicals leeching out into that water that your precious angels are drinking? Mmm hmm. Remember a few years ago when we were ignorant of BPA? Think that can't happen again with another chemical? Mmm hmmm. It is seriously short-sighted to not think about that.

I also went back to read the comments from that earlier post. Apparently, bottled water strikes a nerve when it hits parents in the Big Convenience. I'm including here most of what a Dad said (not edited):

"I read you're blog because Im a Dad with a child that drinks WAT-AAH! all the time. I also make sure to re-use the bottles we buy whenever we can - and of course, we also recycle them.
Im as environmentally conscious as the next guy but I gotta say, reading this blog, Im betting you dont have kids. Nieces and nephews maybe, but not your own. I dont say that as a dig, but when you're running around town and your kids really thirsty and he or she can pick from one of the 400 bottles (plastic bottles) of sugary syrup or this water brand, I'm more than happy to throw down to encourage that decision."

I replied very nicely and with a conciliatory tone, but you know what? I've changed my mind. I already covered the part where throwing them in a bin does not recycling assure. And when you are "running around town," did you NOT think ahead that perhaps at some point your little joys would perhaps, oh, I don't know, get thirsty and plan accordingly? Or do you find yourself having to BUY stuff, because you couldn't be bothered to plan ahead? How about getting your kids in the habit to grab their own reusable bottles as you all head out to go buy stuff? (Wow, Green Witch, what a good idea!) No, I don't have kids. And hey there! Your having kids, by the way, is NOT an excuse to trash the planet I also happen to enjoy. If anything, you should be even more careful and more responsible. Heck, I should be the one gleefully trashing it. But lookit that: I am not.

I pointed out to Carol (who really IS a great lady, I felt good about meeting her, and I really did digest all the things she took the time to tell me) that perhaps giving young kids these throw-aways was setting them up for bad habits into adulthood. She disagreed, feeling that kids who drank WAT-AAH grew up to be more responsible. Meh... I have to think I might be closer to the mark. Yes, WAT-AAH is a better choice than the other things in this picture here, but we SURE as heck do NOT need bottled water in the fridge or cupboards at home. There are no Earth-shattering emergencies that come along every random day that require this. A typical Summer day does NOT need the child running into the kitchen and grabbing a bottle like this. Run in and grab your personal bottle, great. But not this. Not the regular size, not the cute little size, no, this is not remotely necessary. While "running around" is not necessary. It really just isn't. Period.

Plus, they were downing them at the booth during the Expo. I know, it's all about showing how you use your own product... but yeah. Not so much. How many empty bottles after a weekend... and for what?

For what?

Convenience.

Yup.

I'm pretty sure we had sports and run-around days way back before the plastic bottle craze. And, funny, we're still here. We didn't die of thirst. Oh - and how funny, we didn't have nearly the obesity and diabetes that we have in kids now. How ever did we manage, you know, with Life being SO darned... inconvenient?

Wasting Water is Weird

Have you seen this ad campaign? Here's the gist: "Wasting water is weird. It really is when you think about it—and that’s the problem. We don’t. You see, there’s this moment when using water becomes wasting water. That’s when things start getting weird. But don’t take our word for it. Just watch Rip..."


http://www.wastingwaterisweird.com/


I couldn't have actually said it better myself. I love these ads. They are so true. We don't think about it. We don't think about it at all. Why is that?

Is it because water usage is so far removed from the water bill? If there were a little meter ringing up dollar signs on your faucet, would you pay closer attention? Should we start doing that? Is it too easy to turn on the faucet and zone out? Why do we take this precious resource for granted so badly?


I never complain about rain, because I know I use water, and, duh, it needs replenished. Rain means clean. Rain means life. Rain should be captured and returned to the Earth, not collected just to run off uselessly to the ocean, like it does here in Los Angeles. Flowers bloom, grasses bloom, dog-pee smells get washed away when it rains. Do you take a shower? Flush a toilet? Then trust me, you want it to rain sometimes. Next time someone complains about rain to you, tell them that they smell pretty good for someone who never showers. 


So I love this campaign and I love Rip the Drip and I hope more people see this. If just a few people think a little bit more about it, and make other people think just a little more about it... well, maybe then we won't be AS screwed as we probably will be anyway. Maybe not as soon. 


Eh. Maybe. Pass it around anyway. 

PeopleTowels: Small Act, Big Impact

The Natural Products Expo West was a few weeks ago, and I combed the aisles for 3 days looking for great products about which to tell you. I was not disappointed. 


The most exciting gem was SO great that I was impatient to write! Was it Mary Wallace, co-founder of PeopleTowels, that I just plain grooved with because she was so cool? Well, that was part of it. I mean, I already don't personally use very many paper towels at all. But of course, anything that helps and that I can get the word out on, I'm going to love. Here's what their site, http://www.peopletowels.com, has to say:

"The use of disposable paper towels has a huge impact on the environment by contributing to deforestation, water pollution and global warming. Some of the facts about paper towel consumption and the environmental impact are:

• To make one ton of paper towels, 17 trees are cut down and 20,000 gallons of water are consumed. 
• Every day, over 3,000 tons of paper towel waste is produced in the US alone. 
• Decomposing paper towels produce methane gas, a leading cause of global warming. 
• Paper was the largest contributor to municipal landfill waste in 2006. 
• The average person uses 2,400 – 3,000 paper towels at work, in a given year."

I love love love this product. How many times do I go into public restrooms and just shake my head at the overflowing trash bins, the mess of wet paper towels everywhere... the way they smell, the thought of the trees and processing and bleaching that has gone into them, and how this is just one restroom on one floor of one building in one town in one state... on and on. (Psst.. it's lots of times.) It's staggering. (Welcome to my brain.)  If we were carrying around PeopleTowels instead, this would not be plaguing my brain. Help my brain. 

From their information: If 1 in 4 adults used PeopleTowels for a year instead of paper towels, and we're just talking in public restrooms here, we would save enough trees to cover the state of Alaska. We would save enough water to FILL 22,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. And then, think about the landfill space saved and the resources not being used to make the paper towels. 

Now you see why I love love love this product? I bought a few. They are SO cute, too! Mine rolls up nice and small in my purse. You can clip them on you messenger bag or your backpack. This is an amazingly easy new eco-habit to adopt. In fact it is easier than remembering bags or carrying a water bottle, because they are so light and easy. 

So, thank you Linda, thank you Mary, I was so happy to meet you and to learn about your product. Thank you Expo, for having these PeopleTowels there. I think they cannot catch on soon enough. Order them online or find them at stores listed on their site. Give them as gifts. They are so cute and fun, and if you have a business, you can get your logo on them too. Good Green Witch PeopleTowels? Oh you bet your bippy those are coming. 

Let's get these things to catch on. It's such an easy habit-change to make. We can do this.

Dishwashers

After my last post about the whole Jet-Dry crap, and subsequent washing of dishes by hand, and the comments by all yinz (getting back to my Western PA vernacular), I got to thinking a little more. I haven't had a dishwasher in YEARS. My parents have one, and I never know how to load the damn thing, and somehow there are always complaints about its performance. And manufacturers are taking the phosphate out of detergents, because it's kind of bad stuff, but then the dishes don't get very clean. You have to rinse them well and hell by then you may have as well just washed 'em by hand, right? Seems like an awful lot of extra water to me. Rinsing them off... then all the water even in your "water saver" mode... hmmm.

People say washing dishes by hand wastes more water. I say no, not necessarily. You just have to be a little conscientious and judicious when washing by hand. For instance, don't fill up the whole damn sink THEN start washing. Wash while filling. Don't rinse one thing at a time. Stack them then rinse quickly. Don't use too much soap; then you don't have to rinse as much. And most importantly, don't turn the water on full blast when you really don't need to.

SO THEN comes in the argument about TIME. My favorite.  Greenie, I don't have time to do dishes. I'm too busy. I have kids. We make a lot of dishes. Um, that's what kids are FOR... to do dishes. If you have kids and they ain't doin' dishes, you are doing something seriously wrong. They're too busy with all their activities?? YOU are doing something seriously wrong. Chores are FOR kids. Kids are for chores. We all did them. It made us better. I know a certain 22-yr-old that can't do dishes to save her life. THAT is WRONG. Kids on step-chairs to reach the sink to do dishes? THAT'S more like it. We juggled school and homework and playtime and still were expected to do our chores. Period. We earned an allowance, we didn't just get it handed to us, or get "rewarded" for behavior we were supposed to exhibit anyway. Kids should do chores. I will not back off of that opinion, no matter how many people try to say I have no idea what it's like because I don't have kids. I was a kid. I did dishes. Every day. Get over yourself and get over your kids and figure it out.

Then there's my other favorite thing: families who use paper or Styrofoam (??????!!) plates at dinner because they don't have time/can't be bothered to do dishes. See the above paragraph so I don't have to repeat myself. There is NO excuse to use anything disposable at the dinner table. Hell, I ain't even giving a pass on lunch. PLATES. Clean things when done. Repeat.

This is what we call progress, Folks. Disposable lives and no time to do BASIC things that we used to have to do, but now we don't have time because we are too busy running around and stressing out to do the most basic things in the world. Make it into family time. Catch up on the day over dishes. You're spending time together, who cares if it's a "chore"? Whatever. Just frickin' do something.

Wait, wait.. we have free time now and we're happier and oh so much more productive and life is so much easier.

Oh. Wait. No it's not. No WE are not.

Let's go back, shall we?

It's STILL a Plastic Bottle!

Every day, to and from work, I am treated to billboards proclaiming Dasani Bottled water, in new PlantBottles! I get them each way. I can't miss them. Have you seen this? Yes! So exciting! Purified bottled water now in a better plastic bottle! "PlantBottle: Up to 30% made from plants. Still a 100% recyclable bottle." Oh good. Yay. Because I was worried that, since it was still a largely plastic bottle, that it might end up in the ocean, not get recycled. Oh wait... it might very likely end up in the ocean anyway.

But it's OK to use it! They are saving precious resources! They say so right on their site! They are using corn-based ethanol. I think. Yeah. There's some kind of plant material mimicking the plastic in there... mixing with the PET... so they are using less actual petroleum... so... hmm... it could be they are saving money on petroleum-based plastic with a cheaper plant-based plastic that is still plastic and looks like plastic and acts like plastic.... and feels like plastic... and floats in the Gyre like plastic... um, GREAT! It COULD be that they are just saving themselves money and trying to get the "green" angle to MAKE more money, too... naaaah. CocaCola Wouldn't do THAT.... They CARE about the PLANET... not the bottom line! Really!

TreeHugger site had an article that mentioned, "It is estimated that we have 6 times more plastic than plankton in our Oceans." Does that alarm you? It alarms me. Sure, these great terrific new bottles from our friendly friends at the Earth-friendly company of Coca Cola use less petroleum, but... that's about it. You know the old saying: "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..." well, this looks like plastic and acts like plastic, so, therefore, ergo, et cetera.

Don't be lured into thinking this bottle is any better. It is not. TreeHugger says in the same article, "Plastic bottles always suck, even if they're being recycled. That's because the energy it takes to recycle them is mind-boggling. It's no simple task to melt down all those bottles, and the plastic is usually degraded in the process and can't be used for food-grade products again."

There is only one answer: continue to avoid these bottles at all times.

I'll stick to wine. It comes in glass.

Healthy kids should mean healthy planet, too

Waterlicious® is the first vitamin- and fiber-enhanced fruit-flavored water specially formulated for growing kids, both in terms of nutrition as well as taste.

Waterlicious. Making water delicious? Clever. Good for kids and better than sugary juices and sodas? Absolutely. No high-fructose corn syrup? Yay. Natural and all-around good stuff. Hooray. 12-oz throw-away plastic bottles? BOOOOOO. Fail.

I know, I know, I KNOW again. It's convenient. It's good on-the-go. It helps make life EASIER. Giving kids something like this instead of enduring their screaming makes parenting EASIER. I completely grant that this is a better product to give kids than some of the alternatives. What I refuse to grant is why it must come packaged like this. I would be 100% behind this product if it were in glass bottles, in big sizes, so that you can keep it conveniently in your fridge and dole it out into reusable bottles when needed. But this product is not in glass. It is in light, cheap plastic that will be here long after your childrens' children are gone. Yes. The plastic bottle you are using to pacify your child when it really isn't necessary will be here still when your child... well, you get it. Is that what you want? I don't. I believe in the premise behind this drink, but I do not feel it is necessary and I do not agree with keeping cases of it in the home. Heck, why not make some mix that parents can add at home? (Oh yeah, like already exist?) And 25 bucks for 18 bottles? No.

Let's look at it. What is it? Well, it's flavored water. That doesn't seem outrageously novel to me. With the tiniest bit more effort, I'm pretty sure we have the technology to flavor water at home and take it on trips to the park. Seriously. People think I am being a little harsh on these products aimed right squarely at children. Scratch that. At parents. THAT is why I am against these products. They are NOT in the best interest of children. They are create solely for parents who need convenience and do not make the time to make an alternative for their kids. PERIOD! These are quick easy fixes to something that really isn't a problem. TAKE a few minutes and create some kind of flavored water yourself at home with your own water from your own tap. It is NOT that hard. Get the kids involved. The ONLY thing these products do is teach toddlers that it's perfectly OK to use these disposable bottles and that everything should be quick and easy and convenient and store-bought instead of made at home.

Parents are busy. They are hassled. They don't have time for their kids. They work a lot. They're tired. I get it. But I cannot, will not stand by and watch the planet get trashed. I will speak out. I will declare these products are irresponsible and unnecessary. And I will go one step further and say that if parents are not prepared to take a few extra moments out of their day to avoid these oil- and resource-consumptive products, then perhaps they should rethink the number of kids they plan to have... seriously. Kids deserve time and care. Why else have them??? It's all well and good but the rest of us live here too, and THAT is why I speak out. We cannot just go on doing whatever we please to the Earth, because some of us actually want there to BE a future for these kids.

We have a bazillion reasons why bottled water is not good for adults. Why should we think it's OK for kids???

It's really not.

New Year, New Green Tips!

Ahh... the first Monday of a new year, a new decade. Do you feel fresh, renewed, hopeful? Or do you feel the same old same old, another Monday, back to work, back to the grind? I tend to be a glass-half-empty kind of person myself. I know: shocking. Greenies are supposed to be eternally sunny and hopeful. But I'm going to try harder this year to be more of the solution. There's more than enough of the problem going around.

Let's start this by some really easy suggestions on how to save water around the house. The cool thing about this tip is that it can save you money, too. Any time you save water, you save on your water BILL. These are things that certainly will not impact your quality of life, or even incovenience you in any way. Just little things that you might not have realized are a little wasteful and unecessary. These following suggestions don't even cost you anything up front, and there's nothing to install!

For instance, we all know to turn off the water while brushing our teeth. That's been said til we are all blue in the face. There's no need to keep that water running, and the gallons (yes, GALLONS) you save every week will tick off your water bill nicely and noticeably. Be the Enforcer around your home, too. Sometimes everyone needs to be reminded. Soon, it will be second nature to turn it off.

Try to cut your shower by a minute. Just one little minute! That's not hard at all! This was my big downfall. I love me my showers. I have finally been able to cut way back. If you shave a minute here and there, then maybe you can take it down even further. Either way, just that one minute off will also save you gallons over just one week.

When washing dishes by hand, keep in mind that you don't need to FILL the sink before you being washing. Use the fill-water to be rinsing what you are washing as you fill. And once the sink is full and you are rinsing on the other side, remember to not keep the water running in between rinses. It's tempting, I know. If you only have a small amount of dishes to do, consider just washing out of a bowl or pot instead of the whole sink. Pile all the things to be rinsed on the other side and do them all at once.

See? No low-flow fixtures to install, no major llife changes, no money out-of-pocket... just simple common-sense ideas. I always think these are things most people already know, and maybe you already do, but somehow, there are people out there who simply don't put the thought into it. This is a year of action for us. It has to be. Feel free to spread your knowledge and pass things around. A lot of times, what we we think is common sense or common knowledge, isn't so common.

Change is Scary. Apparently.

Being a little greener in our everyday lives is actually a very easy thing to do. Heck, I have a book out about it. It just takes the tiniest little bit of change in thinking...

AHA. There's the problem. "Change." For some reason, we are reluctant to change. Oh, it's OK so long as it comes slowly and we barely notice it. But active change? That we have to think about? Nah. I get it. I was reluctant to learn my new cell phone when I got it. I was comfortable with my "old" one, even though it was becoming a cumbersome brick. Change can be hard. Heck, just this morning I had to force myself to take a different route up my hiking path. We become accustomed to certain things in our lives, and we hit a comfort level that we think we like. And if we change one thing, maybe we'll lose control in other areas? Is that what it is?

The changes we need to make really aren't so significant. A lot of it is remember the things we have forgotten how to do. Things like, washing tennis shoes when they get dirty, rather than getting a new pair. Turning off lights like Dad told us to when we were little. Not flushing after #1 because we saved water where we grew up with the wells and the septic tanks. We USED to do things, but we CHANGED... it's just that we changed so slowly that we didn't notice. We call this progress, I guess. Is it really? (That's a topic for another day!) I just think that some of the change we have to make to be greener is to change BACK to things we used to do. And that's not so scary. After all, we've been there. Is it the fear of going in the wrong direction? Does the Green movement make us think we aren't making progress? That's a deep thought... hm... more on that one later!

Back to Change. Here are some of the super-easy changes we can make every day, tiny little things that take the tiniest tweak in thinking, and that will lead to easier changes every week!

1) For the love of all things holy, TURN OFF the running water while brushing your teeth. I have lost count of how many times this gets put out there and people still don't do it. I don't know how it gets any easier than that.

2) Follow that up by not wasting a lot of running water while doing the dishes. See how easy these things are? And by doing them, we're just a little bit greener!

3) Skip the straw in your beverage. All the time. Just forget it. No straw. Give yourself a no-straw law. You can even start small, with just a few days a week. I'll wait.

4) Use less toothpaste, shampoo, dish detergent, etc. Scale back until you find the level of the least amount that works. You might be surprised to find how much less you really NEED.

5) Lower your thermostat/air conditioning. Instead of making it super-toasty during the winter, lower the heat a few degrees and throw on a sweater. In the summer, put the a/c up a few degrees. Do you really need to freeze? Put on a tank top and shorts. You're at home. No one cares how you are dressed.

Look at that! There is a week's worth of ways you can be the eensiest-teensiest bit greener, with SO little effort, and I've even given you the weekend off! Green does NOT have to be hard. What it is, is paying ATTENTION, and making some changes. That's not really so bad, is it? And you don't even have to preach to others. Just lead by example. BE the change. We can do this.

We have to.