Pretty Ugly

You'll be pleased to know that in the course of the day's greening I've found yet more stuff to worry about.

Today's topic is beauty products.

I have nightmare skin. My face is sensitive but quite greasy and prone to zits (at 33. I ask you...); meanwhile my body is very dry, flaky and rashy, especially at this time of year. I've spent much of my life using prescription skincare of one sort or another - spot creams that make your face red, itchy and very sensitive to sunlight, and thick, goopy body lotions that ex-boyfriends have told me make me smell like wee (do you fancy me yet? I thought so).

Anyway, I never really gave all of this much thought until I got pregnant and my dermatologist told me to stop using the salicylic acid and Tri-luma, and my hippie yoga guru books (Gurmukh and Gowri Motha) told me to ditch the products containing petroleum derivatives (I'd never really notice they were in there) and parabens. I did all of the above, switching to health food store products, not really knowing why, other than I didn't really like the idea of putting petroleum products on my skin, someone recently told me lotions were only made out of petroleum derivatives for the convenience of the oil industry (which we all know is a Bad Thing) and because I always do everything it says to do in those hippy guru books because I'm a sheep.

Anyway, so this morning as I was applying my completely delicious new Avalon Organics Lavender Ultimate Moisture Cream to my face and my Nature's Gate Skin Therapy Colloidal Oatmeal Lotion to the rest of me I was thinking to myself I must tell you that after several rounds of experimenting with really crap natural products, I'd finally found some that, as well as using organic ingredients, being packaged in recyclable materials and not helping Mr. Bush and his oil buddies out, were lovely to use and really effective. No more scaly wee-scented skin for me - just refreshing, light, whippy face cream and rich, soothing body lotion. Yum.

And I thought that while I was at it, I might as well Google 'reasons to use organic skincare products' for your edification and mine.

Well, talk about a Pandora's Box. This goes a bit beyond just being eco-friendly because it turns out there's thought to be a massive link between skincare products and breast cancer. Apparently breast cancer rates have gone up 80% in the last 30 years or so, about 60% of skincare products are absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin (the body's largest organ) and are found in large concentrations in the bloodstream (parabens found in high concentrations in cancerous breast tissue, for example) and the vast majority of ingredients in skincare products aren't approved by the FDA or indeed anyone else. And apparently there are ingredients which, while entirely legal in the US, are banned in Europe because they're thought to be so dangerous. Not only this but because Parabens have a link to oestrogen (I think I wrote about this in the deo entry) they are also thought to be responsible for the early onset of puberty in some, possiby most, young girls these days (see this site, and this one).

Oh.

Then I found this website where you can enter your beauty product and brand, and it'll spit out a safety rating based on the known danger of ingredients in a product, where one is safest, five is most concerning.

So you can guess what I've been doing for the last three hours.

I just discovered their 'highest concern brands' list. This was designed expressly for hysterical women like me. Up there near right the top with scores of 4.7: Marvis toothpaste, which I used throughout my pregnancy and Jo Malone products, which I use and have bought for most of my female relatives and friends at one time or another (though to be fair it's the red roses fragrance they flag, which is not really my thing), plus the Kerastase shampoo I'm still working through gets a 3.something ('moderate concern'). Oh dear.

Luckily the Nature's gate lotion is only a 2 and the face cream is just 1.3. Oh, and all Tom's of Maine stuff is 1 or less.

I'm warning you, once you start trying this out, it's pretty addictive. But I guess I'd rather know. Or would I?

Ahem, anyway, that's a bit off the green topic. I'm sure tomorrow I'll have another comment from Anonymous telling me I need to 'BREATH' (sic). For now I'm off to get my now much less polluted beauty sleep. If I can sleep, that is, for worrying.

Old Scrubber

The hubby had to nip to the city for work yesterday which meant Dot and I were stranded at the cottage without a car. I used to be vehemently anti-vehicle but when you live somewhere like this, I hate to say it but it’s more or less essential. Without one, Dot and I had to find a way to entertain ourselves using only those resources to hand.

Fortunately my old mate Catherine saved the day by emailing me a long and detailed article from the Guardian (UK newspaper) about homemade cleaning products (you can read it here). This day seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get round to our long-awaited experiment.

Nothing if not ambitious, we began with the oven - people were coming for dinner and I’d been noticing how filthy the oven door was getting (where do those revolting brown drips come from?). The article said to mix a paste of salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, so we did, although cider vinegar had to stand in for the white that was called for (I can’t imagine it makes any difference). The concoction fizzed in the manner of a GCSE chemistry experiment when the vinegar went in - definitely more fun than just squirting a bottle of something. I spread it over the oven door with a spoon and set to with a scrubbing brush.

Things got off to a fabulous start. The grime was really shifting, especially from the glass window. “That’s pretty impressive by anyone’s standards,” I said to Dot, who was watching the exercise keenly from her bouncy chair.

Then it was time to clean the paste off. I cut up an old t-shirt of the hubby’s to make a cloth (feeling very pleased with my own resourcefulness and also foresight in having kept it for just such an occasion), dampened it and started trying to remove the now very brown paste from the oven door. This was easier said than done. Firstly, there was tons of it. And secondly there was, I now realized, salt caked all round the inside of the window and stubbornly stuck in the gulley round the door seal (I also noticed that my knees were frosted with white grit which must have sprayed off during the vigorous efforts with the scrubbing brush). I wiped, rinsed the cloth, wiped, rinsed the cloth, and so on about seven times, and still I hadn’t got it all by any means. Neither had all the brown drips gone – about half remained and there was now salty brown gunk dripping down the outside of the oven and brown puddles forming on the kitchen floor. I was getting a bit frustrated (and had the distinct impression Dot was sniggering at me) so I decided to settle for a slightly smeary finish and a slightly cleaner oven and move on (my leggings meanwhile came clean only after brushing with the implement I normally use for exfoliating my legs).

Undaunted I decided to tackle the hob. I went at this with one of the e-cloths the article mentioned. These were introduced to me by my mother and are pretty amazing: you can clean even quite stubborn stains with no product at all, just water. All evidence of my homemade curried carrot soup was soon dispatched, as was the residue of the hubby’s boiled milk from earlier.

So impressed was I with the e-cloths that I decided to give the bathroom a quick once-over. The results were similarly gratifying. I also gave the loo a scrub with the brush and no product, as the article suggested, but then while my back was turned Dot, who was resting on my knee and is now scarily good at grabbing, seized the toilet seat and I realized this no-product loo cleaning wasn’t going to give me the peace of mind I needed as the mother of a child whose hands spend most of the day in her mouth. I washed her little mitts with soap and water and then prodded a bit of Babyganics cleaning spray around with the loo brush. That would do it.

Next up: the kitchen floor. The article recommends bicarb in warm water; I just used water, a bit of old t-shirt and some elbow grease and it seemed to do the job. Mind you, it made me realize how unfit I am – I was panting and sweating by the end of 10 minutes groveling about on my hands and knees.

I finished by sweeping the stairs and landing – no vacuum cleaner to save electricity. (In fact, I do this every day because having just had a baby, my hair is falling out in handfuls; keeping on top of this when your hair is dark brown and all your floors are either white tiles or cream boards is a full time job.)

Overall, the experiment had gone pretty well. No dirt our eco-approach hadn’t been able to tackle. We decided we'd do it again and get a bit more fancy with essential oils next time.

Cut to 8 o’clock last evening and me checking up on the two organic chickens roasting in the oven. I opened the oven door to find it streaked with salt and the window caked with a brown crust like the porthole on a rusty old ship. “What’s THAT?” asked the hubby, aghast. “Er, my eco-friendly cleaning paste?” I said. “BLOODY HELL” he said back.

One step forward, two steps back...

Hi there, sorry about yesterday - another day of Dot getting up at five so I just had to have an early night.

So, I was absolutely thrilled when I got home to PA - the hubby had headed home a week before us, and Dot and I returned to find the house sparkling like a new pin. It was amazing - the kitchen sink and the bathtub had never been cleaner.

And then I got suspicious. How had he got everything so much cleaner than I ever could? There was only one possible explanation... "You used bleach!" I said accusingly.

"Yeah, and?" he replied, "it was under the kitchen sink."

"That was there from when we moved in, left over from the old owner and you know we're not supposed to use bleach," I said.

"That's ridiculous, it got everything clean which is more than you can say for all that weird shit you use," he countered, not entirely erroneously. "So, what, we're never meant to use bleach again?"

"No," I said, "never."

You know what this means: it means I'm going to have to start experimenting with homemade concoctions pronto as the only way I'll win this argument is by proving I have a valid alternative. So thanks to Pen who posted the following handy hints in the comments:

1. For baths and basins, use bicarbonate of soda - it's ideal for tougher stains. You can mix a paste or use as a diluted solution depending how bad the problem is.
2. Tea tree, citrus, sage and eucalyptus oils are natural disinfectants. Great for floors, work surfaces and shower tiles. Use 2 - 4 drops in a bucket of boiling water.
3. White wine vinegar cleans glass and tiles and removes stains on cups and teapots.
4. Table salt works as a mild disinfectant and makes a fantastic mild abraisive. Mix into a thick paste for better results.
5. Use hot water and plain soap flakes with a little washing soda as an all pupose cleaner. Simple but effective.

I'll get to work with the bicarb tomorrow and keep you updated.

Regretfully the re-emergence of bleach in our lives was not the only backward step. I suddenly realized I'd spent the first two days back switching off lights, heaters, the computer printer and the TV, and that like some bad French farce, they were being switched back on again the minute my back was turned. I found this deeply depressing not just because I felt a bit like I was dealing with a small child and I hate being a boring old nag, but also because if my own hubby is still leaving the house lit up like the Brighton Pavilion, what hope is there for the rest of us?

I was brooding on all this as we drove to the city (I know, more driving) yesterday for a quick bit of work I needed to do. The hubby must have noticed my morose demeanour because he asked what was wrong.

"I'm depressed," I opined, a bit melodramatically.

"Anything I can do to help?" he asked kindly. Oh dear. Wrong question.

"Well actually, as a matter of fact, yes," I said. " You can tell my why it is that I still have to go round the house turning off lights when you know how bad it is for the environment and you know the environment is my thing."

"I turn the lights on because when I get up with Dot at 6.30 it's still dark and the lights make it cozy," he replied, defensively.

"Well that's fair enough, and you are amazing for getting up early with Dot, but I'm talking about them being on when there's sun pouring in through the windows at 11 in the morning in rooms we're not using," I said.

"Well maybe I don't get round to turning them off, and anyway I just like having lights on, I think it makes the house cozier and I like it to be cozy," he said.

That was it for me. "What are you talking about?" I said, getting up on my soapbox. "Cozy?! Do you not realize what's going on here? Did you not read about the ice shelf collapsing and the polar bears becoming extinct and all the rest of it? When are people going to realize how serious this is? Well, soon enough we'll have electricity rationing and then you'll be buggered."

"Or we can get solar panels on the roof and then I can have the lights on all day, and anyway I thought we'd bought wind power" he countered in a tone which implied he thought he'd caught me out.

"But solar panels are yet more stuff in circulation which one day has to be disposed on and will end up in landfill," I said. "And we do have wind power but you can't cover the entire surface of the planet in windmills, so we have to cut consumption too."

I remembered my mother in law'd told me I was onto a losing battle with this one, and my sister in law had emailed to say T had always liked the lights on, even since they were little children. I sighed and closed the discussion the way I always close it, with the biggest insult I can think of.

"You're as bad as George Bush," I said.

But actually, after today's news I take that back. Very few people are as bad as GWB, least of all my husband.

But if he could just try to turn the lights off now and then....

Home again home again...

So we're back in PA. Good to be back to get on with all our exciting projects (homemade cleaning products! compst bin!), but this global warming thing seems to be in full effect - this time last year the river was frozen into huge blue icy chunks like something which normally comes with a David Attenborough voiceover; today we got back to a free-flowing torrent and reports of 70 degrees two days ago. Easier to live with but wrong. Still, an incentive to redouble our efforts.

Dot and I took a stroll down to the river this afternoon. It was wonderful until her jetlag kicked in just as we reached the water's edge. After five minutes abject caterwauling I acquiesced and got my boob out on a rock in the middle of the deserted campground. Dot was fussing; I attributed this to the icy wind which had got up out of nowhere and wrangled her onto the boob. So imagine how bad I felt when she came up for air minutes later to display a veritable beard of super-absorbent material which had escaped from a tear in my breast pad and got onto her chin and even into her mouth (I was back on the Lansinoh pads having been unable to replace the eco-friendly ones even in Waitrose).

I spent the rest of the afternoon brooding over how severely I might have poisoned my little girl but feeling backed into a corner: the Lansinoh pads had to go, but even if I could find somewhere that sold the Natracare ones they'd proved no match for my leaky boobs (read embarassing leaks) and anyway, both types were generating way too much landfill for my conscience. So what to do?

Then I saw a reference to woolen breast pads in an email from the Bowery Babes (my yoga group) and in desperation asked for the reference. The reply came back: danishwool.com. I checked and hurrah! My prayers had been answered. Reusable pads in eco-friendly, naturally absorbent and hygienic wool that keep your boobs warm into the bargain! Here they are:

OK so they are the least sexy thing ever and will probably itch but I ordered two pairs of the Ekstra variety ("For women with extra strong "let-down" reflexes or heavy leakage") anyway.

So, just call me toasty tits. And pity my poor, long-suffering husband. He doesn't know about these yet.

By the way, I am dying to tell you about this cheese tasting thing but I've been up since 5; a baby with jetlag is not a pretty thing. Hopefully cheese tomorrow.

Home again

We're back in Pennsylvania today - can't believe we've been away almost a month, or almost a quarter of Dot's life. We had a great trip but it's lovely to be back.

But something's not right: this time last year it was freezing cold up here and the river was frozen into huge hunks of blue ice like something that normally comes with a David Attenborough voiceover. Today not a bit of ice in sight and apparently it was 70 degrees two days ago. Might be easier to handle but it's just wrong. Still, encourages up to redouble our efforts to stem global warming.

Dot and I decided to wander down to the river this afternoon to reconnect. Her jetlag kicked in just as we reached its banks and after five minutes abject caterwauling I acquiesced and got my boob out on a rock in the carpark of the deserted campground. Dot was fussing a bit but I assumed it was just because an icy wind had got up from nowhere, and wrangled her on. So imagine how bad I felt when, after some furious guzzling, I sat her up to discover a veritable beard of super absorbent material from the breast pad all over her chin and a few bits in her mouth (I'd gone back on the Lansinoh ones having run out of the eco-friendly version and been unable to buy more even in Waitrose). No wonder she'd needed some gentle encouragement to eat.

I spent the rest of the afternoon brooding over the harm I'd done her poor little body and feeling hopeless because what to do? I couldn't keep going with the Lansinoh pads, and even if I could find them, the Natracare ones had finally proved no match for my super-leaky boobs. And anyway, all disposable pads were creating far too much landfill for my conscience to bear. I seemed fresh out of options.

Then I saw in an email from one of the Bowery Babes (my yoga group) a reference to some woolen breast pads. In desperation, I got in touch and got the web address - danishwool.com - and hurrah! My prayers have been answered. Washable breast pads made from naturally hygienic eco-wool that are super absorbent, create no landfill waste and act as boob warmers into the bargain! (Just call me toasty tits) And here they are:



OK so they look like some creepy remedial thing and I'm worried they might be terribly itchy but I've ordered some (and a cute bib for Dot) anyway. I ordered the Ekstra - "For women with extra strong "let-down" reflexes or heavy leakage". Look, no one ever said this motherhood thing was glamorous (at least, I didn't).

So hopefully my ongoing quest for dry, eco-friendly boobs will soon be over. Just pity my poor, long suffering husband.

I'm still dying to tell you about this cheese tasting, by the way, but Dot had me up at 5 this morning (baby jetlag: not pretty) so I'd better get my head down while I can. Cheers all.

Super supermarkets

When I'm in the UK, I love going to the supermarket (and yes, as discussed elsewhere, I do know I need to get out more). But this trip I've been consciously avoiding going, feeling I ought wherever possible to visit local shops and farmers' markets instead.

Anyway, Mum and Dad were going to Waitrose, my fave supermarket, today, so I decided we could justify joining them in the interests of research (but not before I'd given them a little lecture about finding a good local farm shop now they live in the countryside. God, how annoying I must be to have around sometimes). I'd also seen ads from Waitrose last time I was here offering locally produced goods in specific areas, helping consumers with the shop local thing, so, you know, they're the lesser of the evils, anyway.

Well, it was a bit night-and-day compared to good old Pecks of Narrowsburg. Waitrose offer an eco-friendly organic and/or fairtrade alternative or three to almost-everything - deodorant, biodegradable nappy bags, dried fruit and nuts, these things called e-cloths my Mum uses to clean the bathroom - I don't know how they work, but you don't need to use any cleaning products with them at all, baby bottom cream, shampoo, hairspray, muesli, yoghurt, meat, fish, bread, wine, fruit and veg, cleaning products, laundry detergent, tea, coffee, chocolate...and so on. Also in the fresh produce section all the British-grown stuff is helpfully flagged with a nice Union Jack so you can spot your local(ish) produce at 50 paces. Amazing. (Just to point out, it isn't an homogenously affluent area catering only to rich middle class people, so that isn't an excuse).

It wasn't quite as gratifying an experience as the organic-only Cirencester Organic Farm shop I blogged about a week or so ago (still one of the best shopping experiences I've had in years - like being able to get really drunk without getting a hangover because you can't go wrong, it's all organic) but it really wasn't bad. In fact, I found myself wondering if Waitrose isn't actually doing more good then harm by making all this stuff so readily available, even if it is a supermarket. (The Times had an article about exactly this yesterday, but it's inconclusive.)

God, it'd be so easy to be good if I lived in England (wouldn't have to keep taking those really bad flights across the Atlantic, either).

Speaking of locally produced food, by the way, the two main political parties in the UK have decided to make this a political issue. The head Conservative bloke, David Cameron, was asking on the radio on the way back from the supermarket why the army and British schools don't buy British food - they're huge markets. The scary thing about this is I find myself agreeing with the Tory leader. A slippery slope?

Pile of c....ompost

I think I mentioned last week that I'd had a quiet word with Dad about the fact that his country pile is missing a compost heap. Since my idea of a compost heap is a pile of grass cuttings, vegetable matter and teabags down behind the barn, I assumed remedying this situation was a simple matter of setting aside the requisite materials and finding a likely spot. Dad, however, is the type of person who takes fifteen minutes to compose a bowl of fruit and cereal of a morning, so as you might imagine, he had something more complicated in mind involving wooden pallets and three sections for waste at differing stages of decomposition.

We agreed last night that today's task would be to build him a perfect composting station.

Despite the fact that we awoke this morning to a classic British winter day - slate grey skies, light drizzle, blowing a gale - we came downstairs galvanized to the task ahead. Mum had noticed pallets at the local hardware store suitable for creating dividers; my brother had emailed links to several composting advice sites, the BBC best among them; and Dot and I were ready to wrap up warm and get digging.

But before we had even set foot in our Hunters, Winchester County Council took the wind right out of our sails. Dad checked their website; apparently they are to start offering residents rather nifty composting bins for £10 (just inder $20) a pop to use in their gardens. A quick call ascertained these would be available two days from now. Oh.

"Hardly seems worth making our own, then," said Dad. And despite noble visions of an honest day's toil, followed by us sitting back with a cup of tea to admire our handiwork, Dot and I had to admit that a) he was right, and b), we weren't exactly gutted we'd swerved a day of hanging round the garden freezing our bums off while waiting for orders.

I thought this was pretty impressive of Winchester Council and was just about to go into one of my rants about how that'd never happen in the US when I thought, remember Pecks and the loo roll and don't be so presumptuous. So I googled 'Pennsylvania, composting' and guess what? Wayne county, where we live, offers the same exact bin. You take a seminar and recieve a free composting bin, courtesy of Penn State. And this has been running since 2002. Oh me of little faith.

So there we have it. I've emailed guy who runs the program - Dave Messersmith of Penn State uni - and hope to have news soon.

Ooh, a whole seminar on composting. The hubby will be so thrilled when I tell him

PS 1 - I know I owe you a post on how to compost if you live in an apartment, Emmy - to come. And PS2, I'm really sorry but we went out today and so I haven't uploaded the pics. Soon, I promise.

Mrs. Mop

"God, what's that smell?" said the mother in law as she came through the door last week to find me assiduously scrubbing away at a couple of picture frames. "It's the white vinegar I'm using to clean the glass - eco-friendly, you know," I replied. There then ensued a detailed discussion of alternative cleaning products (lemon juice, vinegar) and their respective merits.

Then two days ago, I found myself having this conversation with my grandmother: "I think the green way is best love. But I do use Domestos to clean my loo," she said. "What should I use instead?" I promised to show her the Ecover Mum's bought, or suggested she try white vinegar. "I do remember my mother using lemon juice to clean the silver," she said. "It's funny how the green way is coming back."

And today when my aunt (who's also switched to all eco-friendly stuff) came to visit Dot, we were chatting things over when she began recollecting the days when we were kids and she used to use bicarbonate of soda to clean the U-bend in her toilet. "Great chunks of limescale used to fall off, you know," she said wistfully.

God, what's hapenned to me? Only four months ago I was all about segmenting target audiences, sizing the market and identifying the key business issue, and now here I am conducting almost daily mothers' meetings on the relative merits of household cleaning products (eco-friendly or organic, natch). Whoever thought they'd see the day?

And here's the even scarier bit: Mum says she's got a book upstairs called Vinegar: Nature's Secret Weapon (bonus sections: Nature's Secret Weapons 2 and 3: honey and garlic) and I'm really excited to sit down with it tomorrow and see what it says. Not to mention itching to getting home to make and try out some homemade cleaning products from vinegar, bicarb, tea tree oil and lavender.

Anyone think I need to get out more often?

Tomorrow: Dotpics - I promise.

Come back hubby. All is forgiven

Sorry I've been a bit slack these last few days. The hubby's gone back to the US leaving me and Dot to fend for ourselves in the wilds of Hampshire and Dot's gone on a sleep strike in protest.

Last night, despite being the tiredest girl in the world, she flat out refused to go to bed in her hammock, then woke me up five hours after I'd finally got to sleep for a natter and never went back to sleep. The previous night, new year's eve, she decided to start her celebrations at 12.30, finally called it a night around 2, then carried on partying at 5 in the morning, followed by an 8am wake up call (ah, gotta love motherhood).

Usually T takes her in the morning so I can sleep in. In his absence, I was to be found this morning desperately trying to doze while distracting Dot with a giant Toblerone (unopened, of course), a hairdryer and an old sock. She was about as impressed with these props as you'd expect.

As a result we've been a bit tired to do anything green, which just goes to show - the hubby may not be the greenest of greenies himself (although he is getting there), but without him, me and Dot can't get on with our usual planet-saving stuff. So darling, I take it all back. You are the wind beneath our reduced carbon footprint.

Speaking of carbon footprints, Dad was listening the radio in the car today and heard that the idea of reducing your carbon emissions has so taken hold in the UK that now 'reducing your footprint' is in the English vernacular. You don't even need to say 'carbon' any more. Can those of us who live in the US say the same? I think not. So, readers, let's start spreading it, just like the character in Mean Girls who goes round saying 'fetch' the whole time (as in 'that is so fetch').

Only hopefully the footprint thing will actually stick.

Feelgood new year's resolutions

I know this is about the least original thing I could post about but I'm going to do it anyway. Yes, it's an exhortation to make green new year's resolutions!

The good thing about going green is not only will it save the planet, save you money (bills and buying less generally), help you lose weight (walking, cycling) and make you healthier (no more ingesting and inhaling nasty chemicals), but, unlike most other new year's resolutions, which as far as I can make out are designed to take all the joy out of life (join a gym, stop drinking, stop eating, stop wasting hours on eBay and buying Marc Jacobs shoes (oh, is that just me?), it is now also scientifically proven to make you happier (see my Dec 26th post).

Hurrah! The new year's resolution that makes you feel good about yourself, a rare thing indeed.

Of course it only works if you stick to it. So here's some ammunition to ponder over your hangover: this week alone saw the first submersion of an inhabited island by rising sea levels (now I'm even more jealous of my brother and sister in law who are off to the Maldives in Feb - I may not make it before they completely disappear (the islands, not the in-laws)) and a chunk of the polar ice shelf nine times the size of London collapsing into the ocean. Pretty sobering stuff for new year's day.

So tonight eat, drink, be merry - and tomorrow go out and build a compost heap, recycle your christmas tree, stop using bleach and walk to the pub. Oh, and read littlegreendot, of course. If there's a break in the weather, that's what I shall be doing, anyway.

Happy new year. xxx

Right to Reply

Never let it be said that we aren't scrupulously fair here on littlegreendot. So here's what Nick the Teeth had to say on the topic of toothpaste:

Dear Big Sis, Love reading the blog, and big respect for all you're doing raising awareness of green issues. Just to let you know, I have nothing against hippies, I love hugging trees as much as the next man. When it comes to the lack of fluoride in toothpastes however, I think it is just plain negligent to omit it. You only get one set of gnashers, and the intro of fluoride in toothpaste has had a huge impact in reducing tooth decay in the last 30 years. Your Little Green Bro. xx .

Excellent. Point taken, fluoride it is. And Nick, if you're serious about being a little green dentist (or even a reasonably big one), perhaps you might consider encouraging your patients to switch to Tom's of Maine fluoride toothpastes. They're made using all natural ingredients and the company is tres green - wind-powered factories, all recycled packaging, 10% of profits go to good causes, etc. And here's the best bit - I've even found out that they sell it in Green Street Green Waitrose - right next door to your surgery! What's not to love? You too can change the world, one gob at a time. Check it out at http://www.tomsofmaine.com/dental_professionals/.

PS Mum's off to buy some now.

And to the rest if my readers, I promise that's all for now on the subject of teeth

Boys, it's all about boobs today

Our friends have just announced they're expecting a baby and we're thrilled for them (no names here as I don't know who they've told and don't want to steal their thunder...) so I thought I'd take the opportunity to give them an insight into the sheer glamour of what lies ahead by sharing a few marital exchanges from today.

This afternoon, as we sat in candlelight in front of the fire, having just returned from a brisk walk through the chilly English fog, an omninous rumble came from the environs of Dot's nappy. I decided to change her in front of the fire to keep her little botty warm (it's finally got cold this week here in Blighty, after the papers were warning of swallows still flying around and something hatching which should have stayed put till spring. Global warming...). "Can you grab me one of the new [Moltrex biodegradable, purchased at the Organic Farm Shop] nappies, love?" I shouted upstairs to the hubby. "Really - you like these?" he said, waving one as he came down the stairs. "I prefer the white [Nature boy and girl, also biodegradable] ones - they look cleaner and don't have those stupid cartoons on the front." "Yes, but the Moltrex ones are more flexible and they don't have that hard panel which digs into her tummy," I replied. "Fair enough," he shrugged, handing me the nappy before wandering off.

Even more scintillating was this morning's discussion of breast pads. Some background: I've been worrying for some time that the reasons I'm avoiding regular disposable nappies (chemicals next to baby's skin and possibly entering bloodstream, chemicals in production, chemicals and non-biodegradable products in landfill) should really also extend to the breast pads I'm using (boys, I know this is hard for you to read, but to avoid multiple daily wet t-shirt incidents of entirely the wrong kind, breast pads are a neccessary, if deeply unsexy, accessory to breastfeeding (at least they are if you have squirty boobs like me)). The final straw came when, earlier this week, mere moments before Dot latched on, I found a couple of grains of the super-absorbent material had somehow leaked out of the pad onto my boob. I brushed them away, but who knows how much of the stuff she might already have imbibed, plus this also made me wonder if there weren't chemicals from the pads just generally all over my chest which she'd been gobbling up every day for the last nearly four months (I can't think about this too much more or I'll drive myself mad with guilt). So when I spotted some eco-friendly alternatives in the Organic Farm Shop (Natracare - plant cellulose instead of plastic covers, no chlorine, no super absorbents made from petro-chemicals, biodegradable) I grabbed them. This morning I told the hubby I'd bought them and was deeply relieved about it. "Ah but will they work?" he said, knowingly. "Why wouldn't they?" asked the mother in law, who happenned to walk in at that moment. "Well, she got leaky boobs with lots of the ones she tried," the hubby told her. "She's only found one type that works." (He's right, but actually so far the Natracare ones (www.natracare.com) really aren't bad, and the peace of mind I've been feeling whenever I feed Dot is worth a little dampness. I'm sticking with them, as long as I can find a supplier back home).

So, daddy to be, see what you have to look forward to? Forget Vogue shoots, Manhattan real estate and West Village eateries; soon you'll be conversant in the finer points of eco-friendly nappies and chlorine-free breast pads.

And let me tell you, you'll never look back. Not even for a minute.

This dilemma has teeth...

Another thing I've been wondering about is beauty products. Until very recently - until I got pregnant with Dot, actually - I was merrily using any old shower gel, shampoo, moisturizer or body lotion as long as it was unperfumed (I'm a bit of a delicate flower, don't you know). Then I read something telling me almost all lotions are petroleum-based so shouldn't be used during pregnancy, which made me think it might be best not to be using them at all, then. I did a bit of research on greenpeople.co.uk who make lots of lovely organic products and apparently loads of the ingredients in the beauty products we use might be carcinogenic, contain oestrogen or irritate the skin.

Rather than try checking all my products for complicated-sounding ingredients like 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (contains formaldehyde, apparently) I've started switching to organic stuff. I now use organic shampoo (can't remember the brand), body lotion (Alba - the hubby says it makes me smell like an old lady but as I keep telling him I thought it was unscented when I bought it, and now I have to use it up before I switch to avoid waste. This is an occupational hazard of experimenting after years with your old staples, I will warn you) and eye cream (Dr. Hauschka) and once I run out of my Neutrogena will switch to organic moisturizer too. They aren't all fiercely expensive, Dr Hauschka notwithstanding.

So, while I was at the Organic Farm Shop the other day, i decided it was time to try organic toothpaste again. (I'd given Tom's of Maine a whirl before, but it wasn't a big hit; the hubby refused to use it, saying it tasted of sick and I found it didn't foam up and left a nasty taste in my mouth). This is a big step for me because I come from a family of dentists and am obsessed with oral hygiene, constantly brushing and chewing gum, and am also neurotic about fresh breath. I bought some from Green People and left it in the bathroom.

Driving along yesterday, the MIL said 'I wasn't sure about that toothpaste. It didn't really feel like it was doing anything, although my mouth did feel clean afterwards'. I had to agree with her - it feels a bit like when you haven't put enough toothpaste on the brush, and I just don't feel confident about my minty fresh breath. In fact I've already brushed four times today (it's not 1 o'clock yet) and still my mouth feels a bit frowsy. I know my brother will be down on me like a ton of bricks for overbrushing - which can erode enamel or something like that - so another dilemma arises. Do I continue with this or go back to the Colgate?

To help me decide, I did some research and found out the following on www.goandco.com/toothpaste.html:

"Sodium Lauryl Sulphate is used for the same purpose in toothpaste as it is in bubble-bath - as a foamer and detergent. BUT SLS is a particularly strong, harsh detergent as well as having good foaming qualities. Indeed SLS is used to clean oil spillage from petrol forecourts, it is so effective...Plus it is especially preferred by personal care products 'manufacturers' because it is very cheap.

Technically SLS is a 'surfactant', an 'emulsifier', and a 'denaturant'. It is well KNOWN to be a harmful skin irritant that is particularly nasty in contact with the delicate eye, and mucous membranes (this is the main reason for instructions to 'flush your eyes with plenty of water' if you get shampoo in them – because SLS is known potentially to cause damage to the eyes).

SLS is just an unpleasant chemical that should just NOT be used on (or in!) the human body! – Due to growing negative media coverage in the last few years SLS has been removed or 'replaced' in SOME products (but you have to check 'what with' - see below!!). However, it is still very widely found in many well known, off-the-shelf, big-brand products...even though it is known to be:

Toxic to the liver and kidneys,

Toxic to aquatic animals/fish (remember many tons of this stuff washes-off down our drains!!)

On the NIH hazards list

Known to trigger eczema and skin problems

Known to cause mouth ulcers [mouth ulcers? what?]"

Er, ok, well, I guess it has to be worth persevering then. Anyone have any toothpaste success stories for me?

By the way, just so you know, apparently to be labeled 'natural', a product need only contain 1% natural ingredients. So don't be fooled...

Emiliano v. Epson

One of our readers, Emiliano emailed me a recent exchange with Epson about recycling his printer cartridges. Here it is:

hello,
what should i be doing with my printer ink cartridges? is there an
environmentally sound way of recycling them? i have a stylus photo r2400.
thanks,
emiliano

-----Original Message-----
From: recycle_support@ea.epson.com
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 07:52:19
To:emiliano
Subject: Re: ink cartridges

Dear Emiliano,
Thank you for your interest in recycling used Epson inkjet cartridges.  Due to the design of our inkjet cartridges, we do not refill or remanufacture them.  Neither of these alternatives is cost effective.  Nor do we have a program set up to receive them for recycling at this time.  We are continuing to search for the most cost effective, consumer friendly and
environmentally sound program available for disposal.

In the meantime, we recommend that you contact your local City Government and participate in their recycling and e-waste efforts whenever possible. We appreciate your support of Epson products and we thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please contact us if we can be of further assistance to you

Margaret C
Recycle Support

From: egranado@....>
Date: Dec 20, 2006 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: ink cartridges
To: recycle_support@ea.epson.com

Hi margaret,
Thanks for your reply.
However, that answer leaves me quite unsatisfied. I think epson should be doing more to offset their impact on the environment. Especially since your business model calls for consumers to continually purchase new cartridges.
I'm not sure of the chemical makeup of the cartridges, but I'd bet that they require lots of petroleum to manufacture and take many decades to decompose. How are we ever going to decrease our dependency on foreign oil and clean up our landfills with corporate policy like yours?

I encourage your company to try harder and rethink your "buy and throw away" inkjet business model.
Until then, I will begin contemplating using other printer brands with a more comprehensive understanding of their environmental impact
Thank you,
Emiliano
www.emilianogranado.com

'Neither of these alternatives is cost effective'? Oh well then, better forget all about it, even if:

- Stacked end to end cartridges thrown away in one year would cover a distance of over 24,000 miles = enough to circle the earth.
- Every year 1 billion ink-jet cartridges are sold worldwide.
- Only 3% of those cartridges are recycled.
- 95% of all ink jet cartridges were taken to landfills. 5000 metric tons of plastic and metal every month. (from freecycling.com)

Bloody hell, US corporations need a stern talking to. Luckily lots of other organizations have taken matters into their own hands. Many collect them for charity (try recyclingappeal.com and choose the charity you weant to support). Or you can get cash back for your cartridges: in the US, freerecycling.com offer up to $3.60 per cartridge. And if you want to boycott companies like Epson until they start doing more, you can buy reused and refilled cartridges from inkcycle.co.uk for much less than the big corporations so you never need use a new cartridge - or give them your money - again. I just don't get how all these people can make money for charity if it's not cost effective, but anyway....Emmy wants you to email the lady at Epson. Go for it.

More falling off the wagon

So, I had a plan for today’s blog entry. There’s a shop in the UK called Primark which, when I left, sold cheap nylon clothes you wouldn’t be seen dead in and now sells cheap nylon clothes which suddenly all my friends keep turning up at the pub in, saying with a triumphant smirk ‘£3.50 at Primark!’ [that’s $7 to you and me]. So for a while I’ve been planning to just go and just have a little look.

Obviously once I started this blog, I vowed to eschew the kind of cheap disposable fashion Primark sells. Then, yesterday, my mother-in-law told me that, along with Tesco and Asda, Primark had been in the news for paying workers in India £8 a month (http://www.waronwant.org/Fashion+Victims+13593.twl) and therefore having one of the worst human rights records in retail. Clearly actually buying anything there was now completely out of the question.

So I decided I’d go to Primark in Cheltenham today, look around, find it all really tacky, then leave and blog about how virtuous I’d been in resisting the lure of the cheap sinful fashion.

Can you guess what happened next? Yes, it’s true, I somehow found myself walking out of Primark with two £6.50 tops clutched in my sweaty paws (they were in my paws – at least I managed to insist on no plastic bag). I put it down to the preceding six weeks during which I’d forbidden myself, a self-confessed clothesaholic, to even enter a clothes shop. Against this background, Primark was like an open wine bottle to an AA member – just a bit too easy.

The good news is, I tried the tops on when I got home and they look really synthetic and cheap – which is exactly what they are. So I’ll be returning them tomorrow for a refund. Hopefully that’ll get rid of the dirty feeling. And at least I’ll be able to look Dot in the eye when I pop her into her organic cotton babygrow in the morning.

And actually, now I've just read the waronwant.org website, I don't think it's funny that I gave in so easily. It talks about women being paid a third the living wage in Bangladesh to work 96 hour weeks. So that's it. Really this time.

Green and pleasant land?

Loyal readers, apologies for the missed days. We've been at a family funeral. We're back now.

Sooooo, here we are in the UK. I have to admit that after reading about the UK being the second greenest country in the world (beaten only by Sweden) Dot and I imagined ourselves coming to the land of milk and honey, and in many ways England has not disappointed.

Instead of yet more credit card solicitations, the junk mail my mother-in-law receives through the post is a catalogue called Send a Cow (no links today - bloomin software - but it's www.sendacowgifts.org.uk) - a catalogue full of ideas for ethical Xmas pressies (including buying a cow for a third world farmer). On Saturday, I bought eco-friendly (biodegradable) nappies in Sainsbury's, your bog-standard supermarket, in grotty Camden (last time I shopped in Camden it was for Soul to Soul Vol 1 Club Classics and a pair of dungarees. Aaaah how times change). Yesterday evening we picked up a bottle of organic wine at a rural BP gas station (the US equivalent would have stocked nothing but Marlboro Reds, radioactive ice pops and beef jerky), and today we had a wonderful experience at The Organic Farm Shop in Cirencester (http://www.theorganicfarmshop.co.uk) - they basically sell absolutely everything a regular supermarket would, but unlike e.g Whole Foods where not all the produce is organic, everything they stock - from jerusalem artichokes through sausages to breast pads (boys, unless you've had babies you won't know what these are and probably for the best, really) - is. If I lived here I would never shop anywhere else. It was heaven. Oh yes, diesel cars are ten a penny here, too, and diesel is sold on the main forecourt, unlike in the US.

But there have been some disappointments. On Sunday morning at brunch in Primrose Hill (London's answer to the West Village; locals include Jude Law and Kate Moss), the hubby texted me 'Pls pick up wrapping paper'. I texted back 'What for?'. 'Family Xmas pressies,' came the reply. I called him to discuss. "I am not buying wrapping paper. We'll wrap them in used newspaper." "We can’t wrap the family presents in newspaper," he objected, scorn dripping from his words. I knew he was thinking, 'stupid woman, how embarrassing, we'll look totally pikey and the family will not see the funny side' (his enormous family somehow all happen to be incredibly cool and style-conscious). "Well I'm not buying wrapping paper. The family read my blog and will get it," I replied. He huffed down the phone. "Alright, if I can find recycled paper, I'll get that," I offered as a compromise, "OK," he sighed.

So I trawled every last shop in Primrose Hill’s ‘village’. But my quest turned up nothing more than a few 'I dunno's and 'sorry, love's. I expected more from one of London's most chi chi, affluent, supposedly trend-setting neighbourhoods (after all, they have a fab farmer's market and a great deli stocking almost exclusively British produce). Instead, I went home empty-handed.

The wrapping paper stalemate was resolved when I agreed to some spare paper our hosts Theo and Sally had lying around - on the basis that if it had already been bought, it was ok to use it up (in fact one of the Xmas tips I was going to give on here was that you should see what hilarious bits of paper your Mum might have lying round from when you were a kid. I remember some classics like Donald Duck in a father Xmas outfit – sort of vintage 80s chic).

Which brings me to a dilemma the mother-in-law and I were discussing today – which is, when you decide to switch to the eco-variants of stuff, do you use up the bad stuff first, or switch right away and chuck the bad stuff in the bin (you’ll remember I had this same question over the eco-friendly lightbulbs)? My POV is you might as well use it up first because once the pollutants are out there, they’re out there, so they might as well serve a purpose before they head to landfill or waterways, otherwise the damage really is wanton

Actually, what I do is get the eco version, then keep the other under the sink in case I run out because I really can’t bring myself to use it. Or, in the case of laundry, you could do a wash every few weeks with the biological powder if your whites are looking a little more Magnolia.

Anyway, before I go, had to drop in a quote from Jon Bon Jovi, discovered in an article in this month's Q magazine about musicians going green:

"I think Gore is the smartest man I have ever met," Bon Jovi explains. "But if you really want to know why I'm doing this [showing trailers for An Inconvenient Truth at his recent tour], it's because i feel guilty about the huge hole in the ozone layer my haircits created. It is my responsibility to get right all the wrongs of the '80s"

Elnett-tastic.

Subtle Hints?

The hubby tore this out of the Guardian for me yesterday:

"And so to our coveted award for the season's Crappiest Advent Calendar, which goes this year to the admirable Landmark Information Group, which offers "complete environmental due diligence" (though not, sadly, on the chocolates contained in its calendar, which are noxious). Along with said confectionery, each new day brings a bright new factoid, including: "500,000 homes are on or near toxic waste in the UK"; "Radon is the second highest cause of lung cancer in Britain"; and (our personal favourite) "More than 700,000 households could be affected by past industrial activity around Birmingham". Happy Christmas to you too."

He said it was an example of environmentalism gone mad. I think he might have been hinting that I need to calm down.

In fact I have noticed people acting slightly awkwardly around me lately, a bit like how I am around vegetarians (bristly because I think they're judging me, but at the same time sheepish and apologetic because deep down I know they're right).

While I would like to say they really shouldn't because I'm not here to judge you, the truth is I do inadvertently find myself sizing up friends' houses for green-ness. Ecover washing up liquid by the sink? Brilliant. Need to take my jumper off because it's so hot in there? Hmmm, do they know how wasteful that is? Glass and plastic in the trash? Etc. Then ensues an internal conflict - do I say something or keep schtum?

My tactic has mainly been to direct people here so they'll hopefully be motivated to take action by our fascinating stories, rather than browbeaten into submission. This is partly because I don't want to be seen as a hectoring zealot/smug, self righteous old cow (a bit late for that, I know) but equally because people in uninsulated old wooden houses really shouldn't throw stones (people delight in nailing me on eco-crimes, by the way. For instance, last night I saw my brother for the first time in ages. "You know how it said on your blog that T drives off to get your wine every night around six?" he said, with the look of someone about to move their bishop to check. "I know, you're going to say we should buy a case so we only do one trip every twelve days and save petrol," I pre-empted. "Bingo!" he said gleefully. (Truth is, the hubby needs to get out of the house at least once a day and we live in the middle of nowhere, but I am working on it)).

But sometimes I just can't help myself. Come to think of it, I have even found myself quoting this that I read on the Seveth Generation website:

A 15 year study in Oregon, comparing women who didn't work outside the home with women who did, found a 54% higher death rate from cancer in the women who stayed home. The study suggested that chronic exposure to cleaning products played a role.

Scarily similar to the advent calendar; oh dear, am already a walking 'harbinger of doom and gloom' cliche. TIme to lighten up. But then, I'd want to know this stuff so I just figure you would too...

Offsetting our carbon

The good thing about having this blog is it's making me feel compelled to actually do all those worthy things I've been thinking and talking about doing for years but hadn't. For example, we flew to the UK last night (lots of fun, flying with a 3 month old baby. Actually she was doing just fine till we had to sit on the tarmac at Heathrow for an hour with Dot restrained by a seat belt, poor little love). I found out it's 3,458 miles one-way from NYC to London, so this morning I went onto carbonfund.org and paid $20 to offset 20,000 miles-worth of carbon emissions. You get to choose how they offset the carbon, so I chose reforestation - it's the easiest to get your head round and I like the idea of planting trees (actually I've just realized that I thought I'd totally overbudgeted but that's because I forgot that was a one-way trip till I wrote it down here so I'm about 700 miles short - will plant own trees when we get home to make up for it. Doh).

I really can't believe how easy and cheap it was to do this. Makes me wonder what took me so long.

Right, I have a very important date with a pile of back-issues of my favourite UK gossip mag Grazia to keep before the jetlagged bubba wakes up. Don't worry, they're ones our friend Sally has finished with. So technically this counts as recycling and as such could be considered greening.

Oh, by the way, if you were thinking of getting me the carbon offset for Xmas, no worries - there are plenty of other bad things i do which need offsetting too so it won't go to waste.

Xmas pressies

(Sorry, something up with the formatting again so no links and no text effects, most annoying. Anyway:)

Every green website and blog has done nice features on green Christmas pressies to buy people so I decided to do it differently and just tell you what green pressies I want for Xmas – in case anyone out there was thinking of getting me one (oh, and don’t forget it is my birthday on December 28th too). So here goes:

- I’d love this gadget that turns household waste into logs you can burn. Apparently better than recycling because you make your waste lighter and that reduces the petrol for transporting it. My mother-in-law told me they’re a bit crap but I still fancy giving it a go

- Getting someone a service instead of a thing is much greener. So, I’d like a Brazilian wax, a pedicure and my chimney swept (no, that isn’t a euphemism you naughty people – our wood stove chimney is in need of a clean, and a clean chimney is a more energy efficient one)

- A new jacket – not for me, for the hot water tank

- I’d love someone to do the trees to offset the carbon emissions from our flights to the UK…
…or, on a similar vein, we want to plant a load of conifers along the edge of our land, so trees themselves would be good. Think of all the CO2 our tree-fence would gobble up

- My friend Anna’s store Nest has green goodies I love, like Pangea organic soap – plant the box and flowers grow – and a beautiful minimalist dustpan and brush (weird to be asking for cleaning products but this is made from natural materials by blind people in Sweden and anyway, if you are getting someone a material good, something practical they’ll actually is much greener than some old knickknack they won’t)

- If I had a fairy godfather, I’d ask him for solar panels so we could generate our own eleccy ‘off the grid’ or to have the house insulated with eco-friendly insulation

- I’d love a new pair of Marc Jacobs shoes. Oops, sorry, that just slipped out. Er, scrap that one…

And as for Dot, well, she’s been spoiled so rotten this year she says all she wants for Xmas is her two front teeth. But since she won’t be getting those for a few months yet, I said how about a couple of nice long-sleeved organic cotton onesies and she seemed fine with it.

We’re off to England in the morning so we probably won’t get a chance to post tomorrow, so happy Wednesday, we’ll be back in a day or two. xxx

The Nest nexus

Dot and I did some good work this weekend. We'd been thinking for some time that we needed to do our bit towards greening our local PA community but were't sure where to start (recycled loo roll in Pecks aside).

Well, our friends Kelly and Anna just opened a lovely shop, Nest, in Narrowsburg (go visit!) and it's turned out to be a bit of a magnet for the local liberal arts contingent. On Saturday night they had an opening party where we managed to get at least three people to listen to our sermon about switching to wind power, had a great conversation with Will (who owns the coffee shop next door to Nest) about making Narrowsburg the first completely solar powered town on the Delaware, and promised an NY-based artist Daria Dorosh (dariadorosh.com) we'd look into whether such thing as a reliable biodegradeable plastic bag exists (Daria, we're working on it). Daria is also a member of the local nature preservation society (I think - need to confirm!) so all in all we felt we'd met some good contacts.

It all seemed really easy after a couple of glasses of pink champagne. Well, we've made a start and we mean to continue. Mind you, we're off to the UK tomorrow so Dot can hang with her grannies (and her great granny) so upstate greening will have to be on hold till the new year.