Lead Bags

Hello,

My name is bwings and I use cloth bags when I shop.

Actually most times I simply use the stroller but when I'm without the beast I try to always have cloth bags on hand. Not only are they eco-friendly but they are easier on your hands when you carry home heavy groceries. I carried home 30 lbs of groceries a month back and my fingers weren't incredibly mad at me for it.

So imagine my surprise when among my e-mails I discover this inquiry from Happy Hippie.

Dear Hippie Mom, I have been using my reusable grocery/tote bags when running my errands in an effort to be more green. I admit sometimes I fail when I forget to take them in the store or place them back int he car or stroller. But I would say I use them a good 90% of the time. Here is my concern. I recently heard someone say they had seen a thing on tv claiming these bags have an unsafe level of lead in them. Before giving up and going back to plastic or paper, I decided to check with you and see if you have heard anything? Thank you so much.Trying to stay green :)Happy Hippie

Well Happy Hippie, my initial reaction is this must be a rumor started by a method similar to the 'phone game'. We all know the phone game, one person whispers one thing in another's ears and the message is passed on until it returns to the initiator as something completely different. I envision this moment something like this:

Instigator - "Oh, you use cloth bags?! Why bother?!"
Hippie - "It's better for the environment and isn't that much trouble."
Instigator - "Better for the environment? Pft we're going to hell in a cloth handbag!"
Hippie - *eyeroll and walks away*
Instigator turns to his friend and says in a joking fashion, "I bet you she'd use plastic if she knew the bag had lead in it!"
Instigator's friend doesn't have a sense of humor and takes the joke seriously and BANG instant rumor.

Honestly, that's how I see a lot of these rumors starting. BUT nevertheless it's a statement I hadn't yet heard and so now I shall do what I can to seek the truth. Cloth bag conspiracy or legitimate concern?

As I did my research into this one I found that the facts were there but there was certainly a bit of twisting. Yes there are in fact bags being discovered to have lead contaminations in them. However, and I can't stress this enough, this was in polypropelne reusable bags (plastic #5) not cloth bags. So, in short, cloth bags are still safe as far as this particular concern. Three cheers for cloth vs. plastic winning yet another battle.

Now for the scary facts as they have been presented to me. It is true that some reusable bags have been found to contain lead. These bags with lead were found to have 194 parts per million. This is below the government standard of 300 ppm. But above (nearly double) the standard allowed in children's project which is 100ppm. {Don't let your children play with your plastic bags it um...er... well it says it pretty much everywhere that plastic bags aren't play things!} 


Good news, as I've already stated, the reusable bags in question were polypropolyene (number 5 plastic). It is my not-so-expert opinion that if you are already making a step towards a greener world by using a reusable bag, switching from a plastic reusable to a cloth reusable isn't that far a leap. However, if my not-so-expert opinion is incorrect then I have some data for you. The Tampa Tribune purchased some reusable bags from popular locations and commissioned lab tests on them for heavy metals. Feel free to examine their results.

For now I shall victoriously overpack my strollers and carry cloth bags.

As always, I enjoy your e-mails happy hippie, keep it green, you friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Green Pearly Whites

Hello,

My name is bwings and my daughter scrubbed the toilet....with my toothbrush!!!

No worries, we caught her in the act, she was only trying to help and the toothbrush was immediately placed in the cleaning supplies container. Of course this little cleaning endeavor on her part resulted in subsequent replacement of said toothbrush. Given my new efforts at greening the house I thought I should make any attempt I could to make this a green purchase.

I figure a toothbrush may be just a small piece of plastic but it's a household staple, one per person to be replaced once every 3-6 months! As I did with my artificial vs. natural christmas tree entry I will do the math, if everybody had a life expectancy of 85 years, 12 months in the year and a potential for a new toothbrush every 3 months (or 6 but we're going with the higher scary number) that means 4 new toothbrushes annually for 85 years. 340 in a lifetime per person and approximately 6,892,048,568 people in the world there is potentially 27568194272 per year and 2343296513120 per lifetime. I of course didn't subtract the 500 or so fuzzy teethed individuals who don't brush.

Some ways I could make my pearly whites a little more green (in a purely figurative manner of course) would be purchasing a(n):

• toothbrush made of recycled materials - Everything but the bristles can be made from recycled plastic. In some cases you can find toothbrushes made using recycled wood fiber, yogurt containers, flax and even dollar bills. Using recycled materials saves natural resources and uses less energy during manufacturing. Not to mention it's a clever form of upcycling. If there are no local recycling programs instated for #5 Polypropylene some companies will let you mail back your old toothbrushes to be crushed up for plastic lumber. 
• toothbrush made of renewable materials - Some companies use cellulose acetate extracted from cotton. This makes their toothbrush more bio-degradable. In fact, they claim it will degrade in the same amount of time it would take an oak leaf, 6 months. As compared to the thousands of years it would take a standard plastic to do the equivalent. 
• toothbrush with replaceable heads - As much as you'd still be changing the head every 3-6 months it'd be less plastic. It is estimated that you would have to throw away 14 - 42 replacement heads to equal the waste of 1 toothbrush. If you're looking at 340 toothbrushes in a lifetime that translates to a reduction in waste the equivalent of using only 8 - 24 in a lifetime! I actually had to do the math twice on that one as it's such a huge reduction! 
• electric toothbrush with rechargeable base or batteries - This is the least green of the green alternatives to plastic brushes. But one with rechargeable batteries and replaceable heads isn't too bad. 

The more dedicated hippie would rinse with tea tree oil and water and brush instead with the root of the Araak Tree. As silly as that may sound that root is pretty nifty. It contains natural nutrients like fluorine, silicon, vitamin C, sulphur, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and calcium oxides. All of these things will whiten and strengthen your tooth enamel.


Unfortunately my local grocer didn't provide any with replaceable heads that weren't electric. I am certainly not in the market for an electric toothbrush at the moment so I settled for a regular toothbrush made of recycled materials for now.

Perhaps next time I will purchase one online. A quick search found these gems:

Acca Kappa Biocete Toothbrush - $6.50 - designed with natural bristles and a handle of biodegradable cellulose acetate. Only takes six months to biodegrade. 

Eco-DenT TerraDent Replaceable Head Toothbrush - $4.50 - $5.75 - Self-explanatory, only ever need to replace the head. 

Fuchs Ekotec Replaceable Head Toothbrush - (on sale) $3.74 - $5.75 - Comes with 2 replacement heads and then simply replace the heads. 

Radius Intelligent Toothbrush - $8.99 - An electric toothbrush with replaceable heads. The batteries will last over six heads worth of use (18 months) after which you can return the handle for recycling. 

Radius Source Toothbrush - $6.95 - Replaceable head toothbrush with a handle made from 100% recycled material - Half wood, half plastic but both recycled. 

Recycline Preserve Toothbrush - $2.99 - Made from 100% recycled plastic. 25-65% of that plastic comes from Stonyfield Farm yogurt cups. You can even send back the toothbrush to be recycled if you don't have a local recycling centre accepting of toothbrushes. They then grind it up to make plastic lumber for picnic tables etc. What I found cool was they have a thing called "Toothbrush subscription" where they will send you a toothbrush every x months (your choosing) to replenish and change your old one. I thought that was great considering how often I've looked at my toothbrush and asked myself, "Did I change that 3 months ago or 4?" 

Well, I'm going to go brush my teeth and go on a hunt for some more eco-purchases of the day.
Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

A forest in your bathroom

Hello,

My name is bwings and I roll my toilet paper underhand!

Without getting into the argument of overhand vs. underhand I'll go right into todays entry in my green-living adventure. I through a big shindig here the other day, small apartment, one bathroom, twenty guests. Crazy? Maybe a little! Even more crazy was the realization at the last moment that we only had one roll of toilet paper left! OH NO! That just wasn't going to do at all! Asmerus headed out to pick up some more while my friend and I continued to ready the meal for everyone.

Upon his return and my first visit to the lavatories thereafter I discovered he brought home 1 ply simple and plain paper. Not that we get frilly or puffy spoil your bum paper. Just this was the very basic of the basic. And as I sat there on the throne I asked myself, "Which is more eco-friendly? One Ply or Two?" I don't imagine there is one answer to this as without an extreme controlled study there would be no determined answer. Even then the answer would be completely unscientific which just wouldn't do at all. Whether a person uses more or less toilet paper when using 1 or 2 ply depends purely on the person and the purity of their erm.. dumps. But it did make me question the toilet paper as a whole. What, if anything, should someone be watching for when shopping for their toilet paper.

I had heard one thing which, sorry earth, I won't be doing, this is family cloth. I don't think I need to go into too much detail but essentially it's the replacement of conventional toilet paper with individual fabric cloths to be washed (I'd assume daily) and reused repeatedly. In some cases families would keep toilet paper options for twosies and guests. But like their are intense activists I'm sure there are those who say, "If you use my john you use my johnny cloth!"

There are other things to keep in mind when shopping for butt wipes, things I'm much more willing to do. Such as buying toilet paper free of bleach and chlorine and if in conjunction with being made from recycled material all the better. The problem with recycled toilet paper is that it is normallly bleached to remove prior ink. When the chlorine combines with the paper fibers it creates toxins such as dioxin. Dioxins cause cancer, learning disorders, impaired immune system, impared developing nervous system, impared endocrine system, fertility issues, diabetes and more. Therefore my top priority is in purchasing chlorine/bleach free toilet paper. Second to that would be to ensure it is recycled.

I will likely continue to purchase 1 ply paper. My family doesn't increase usage with ply reduction and 1 ply will break down easier and quicker. In case you were worried about Dioxins it might pleasure you to know that toilet paper is the least of your worries. I imagine you'll be less than thrilled to discover that more than 90% of exposure is through meat (yes fish included) and dairy. The higher up on the foodchain you go the higher the concentration of dioxins. (that puts vegetarian/vegan down at the bottom of the cart with cows) ;) Yes...I just compared myself to a cow mooooooo. Dioxins thrive in your body because of their endurance and ability to be absorbed by fat tissue. Their half-life in a body is estimated to be seven to eleven years.

While doing my research into toilet paper I discovered two things I thought to be really amazing! First is a nifty video showing an invention called the white goat. It is intended for companies that go through a lot of paper through the day. Taking their shredded paper and making toilet paper rolls for the company use. I assume the paper is bleached inside the machine but it's still a pretty nifty idea.

Second is the new tube free toilet paper from Kimberly Clark. It is said that the simple cardboard tube in our toilet paper roll is to blame for 160 million pounds of waste annually, in the United States alone. If you were to put the rolls end to end you could go to the moon and back....TWICE! Of course people are only going to continue to toss the toilet paper roll in their bathroom waste bin rather than walk it out to the recycling bin. I think this is quite innovative! I read that it was released November 1st and promptly got on the phone with my local grocery department. When reaching customer service I said, "I have an interesting question for you. I just learned about this new tube free toilet paper roll introduced by Kimberly Clark. It would've been released to public the first of November and I was wondering if your stole carried it." Well Customer Service promptly transferred me to Grocery who stuttered and transfered me to the assistant manager. It is their belief they do not carry this product.

Next step is to call Kimberly Clark themselves and see where one could purchase this product. It is my understanding that it is to be released in the United States at first and then later spread if it is popular. In my household our rolls are recycled and so it won't change the environment any if I purchase these rolls. However, I am ever so curious as to how these rolls hold their shape, so foolishly curious! If I find anything more about them during business hours I will surely update you.

For now I've looked into a clever eco-friendly bathroom trash can and seeing as it's the 11th day of Christmas *clears throat* on the 11th day of Christmas a hippie brought to me a recycled cotton wastebasket. But don't let that hippie catch you tossing toilet paper rolls in it! Or she'll open a BPA free can of whoop a$$ on you ;)

That's all for now, your friendly neighborhood hippie mom!

Technologic

Hello,

My name is bwings and I never have just one computer running at a time!

What happens when two nerds come together and make a love nest? They don't use feathers to line it, instead they have laptops, computers and multiple electronic accessories. This is not a joke, it's a very serious fact!! If there was a theme song for our house and it's relationship with electronics and technology it would very seriously be Technologic.



But with all these computers there often lies the need to replace or recycle a computer. How does one dispose of an aged computer nicely? This all depends on what the exact issue is.

Issue 1:
Your computer isn't working anymore and it's driving you crazy! You want to throw it out the window.
Solution:

Almost everyone knows one tech loving friend who will give a good crack at that aggravating data muncher for you. Talk to your friend, see if they will look into it for you. Most will do it for a pizza or some other favor. It will save you on having to send it back to the retailer and hope they can do something....in a few weeks. This solution is NOT always an option if your computer is under warranty. I can't stress that enough! If your computer is under warranty and the problem proves to be a hardware issue and not a software then your tech loving friend will not be able to open your computer. For there are stickers intended to show if a computer has been tampered with. Breaking these seals will void your warranty and that's a lot of pressure for your friend. Know your warranty going in.

Issue 2:  Your computer is getting old and you want to upgrade.

Solution:

This one leans back on those tech loving friends. You can either donate your worthwhile parts to these friends or ask if they wouldn't mind stripping your old computer for it's newer parts. In some cases they might be able to simply replace old parts of your computer for newer ones and save you money on the packaging of a whole new computer. In my house we have a computer that has been around for 12 years now. It's up to date as of 2009 but the computer has never been replaced. Simply parts and pieces removed and exchanged for others. Old parts sit in another tower casing to be sold at later available times or used to make new computers. It's completely possible to rebuild a computer without forking out the money for a new container. Unless you're into that sort of thing.

Issue 3: Replacing the trivial things, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc.
Solution: If these parts still work and you just want a sleeker design you can donate it to another who might not be able to afford the sleeker designs. Monitors will sell on kijiji or craigs list for a couple dollars here or there depending on the age and quality of the monitor. If you are replacing a wired keyboard or mouse for their wireless alternative then you want to store the wired version. If the day comes, and I hope it never does, that you need to enter safe mode or your bios this will be impossible with a wireless equivalent. A wireless will not (at least in my experience) run until your computer is on. To enter bios or safe mode you need keyboard use before computer start up. It's always good to keep one spare wired mouse & keyboard for these situations.

If the keyboard or mouse doesn't work and you know someone with a child ... do I need to spell it out? My daughter loved typing on our keyboard, but for the earlier part of her life she was rather aggressive with those buttons. Watching her mash the keys on a keyboard was cute, but watching her slam the keys on an expensive wireless model made our stomach turn. The solution was to donate an 80's model keyboard to her. She loved it and it is still one of her favorite toys.



Issue 4: You have exhausted your upcycling and reusing options with your friends or simply have no tech loving friends.
Solution: Find a computer refurbisher in your area. If your computer is less than 5 years old they will recycle it's parts into newer systems. They use the parts to replace broken parts in a newer system to save the owner some money.

Issue 5: Your computer is older than 5 years old/has no useable parts/has terrible hardware problems!
Solotuion:  Computer Recyclers in your area will do basically the same thing as a refurbisher. They will take the salvageable parts (if any) and recycle unusable parts.

In some cases recycling your computer can result in a tax deduction. Either it's market value or it's un-depreciated value. This may be only $10 if your computer is ancient, but if you go through computers quickly and treat them well you might be looking at a bit more. Worth looking into.

When recycling or donating your computer try to have all your documents with it, any discs that came with that computer were useful to you and will be useful to the next owner.

Additional things you might want to know before going ahead with a recycle or refurbish is to ensure all your data is erased before passing it on. To prevent identity theft it is crucial that you format a hard drive to erase all your data. When you format it make sure you are doing it in the traditional way as there are now options to format and save your data. You want this hard drive wiped clean. A study on 129 old hard drives (many formated) found more than 5,000 credit card numbers, medical correspondences, love letters, porn, banking information and other data you wouldn't want in the wrong hands.

Lastly, please don't just toss these things out, there are so many options and what you're throwing out potentially contains lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and PCBs. Some have found their waste departments to be less than helpful with this and so I hope my suggestions have been helpful. Some find speaking with their local Geek Squad (best buy) has been helpful in locating a recycling program for their computers and laptops. In fact in some cases Best Buy will recycle most of your electronics, although TVs, CRTs, Monitors, Desktop Towers, & Laptops will cost you $10 to recycle through them. KEEP READING they will in exchange give you a $10 gift card. So really you're just promising to spend at least $10 in their store in exchange for their recycling. See? not so bad! If you're already a tech user you can likely find something to spend $10 there. A new mouse maybe?
You will have to take your harddrive out before giving it to best buy though or they will charge you a removal fee. But that's not such a bad thing, call up your tech friend, they might even be able to turn your harddrive into an external for you, thus making music storage practical.

Your options are endless really so there is no reason why you can't find something to do with that old computer. If you ever need any help from us you can feel free to e-mail your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

In the meantime I believe we're on the 10th day of Christmas a hippie brought to me a set of Circuit Board Cufflinks. Oh you know I had to go there, but honestly they are sort of nifty looking.

The Wheels on the bus

Hello,

My name is bwings and I don't have a license.

But billions of others do and I'd be willing to bet more than 80% of license holders drive cars and maybe another 15% of those without licenses do as well ;) Every vehicle is different but every vehicle is the same. Or at least every vehicle has the same concept, a device straddling tires/wheels propelled by an engine to get you from one point to another presumably faster than walking when grandma's not at the wheel. So ignoring the obvious question about gas and mileage what else can we think about when going green. Our tires! Of course, these tires that are manufactured using petroleum and then burnt into the pavement when drag racing rushing to work!

About one billion tires are produced annually made mostly of 4lbs of rubber (8 types), 5 lbs of carbon black, 1 lb of steel cord, 1lb nylon, 1lb steel bead wire, 3lbs of chemicals (including petroleum), 6lbs of synthetic rubber.

There is hope yet, there has been production started on various naturally sourced tires. For instance Yokohama has come out with their dB super E-spec. This tire is made using oil from orange peels and natural rubber. Thus reducing the need for petroleum based materials and is replacing it with a sustainable resource. In addition this tire promises a 20% reduction in rolling resistance which will save you in gas. Which is nothing to shake a stick at, for every gallon of gas saved is approximately equivalent to 20lbs of CO2 reduction.

In case you're questioning my math on this one it's as simple as chemistry. Take a look at your periodic table of elements and you'll find Carbon to weigh 12, Oxygen 16 that lovely "2" after the O means 2 oxygen atoms. Therefore 16+16+12 = 44 as the atomic weight CO2. To determine the amount of CO2 in the gallon of gas we multiple the weight of carbon in gas by 44/12 (3.7)  Gas is typically 87% Carbon and 13% hydrogen so where gas typically weighs around 6.3 pounds  the equation looks something like this:
(6.3 x .87) x (44/12) = 20.097 or reduced  5.5 x 3.7 = 20.35

Did you need to read that or did you just trust my math? I'm not just a hippie you know, I once studied math, physics and chemistry in my major at university....BAZINGA! Alright, nerd talk aside, that's a lovely reduction. I actually went as far as calculating my estimated reduction this past year. Starting September 2009 I have been without a car. When I had a car it was a gas guzzling beast of a car. We paid roughly $50 a week to gas up and at about $1 a gallon that's 50 gallons a week, 200 a month, 2400 a year! By no longer having a car I have reduced my carbon footprint by 48,000 lbs! If you need a visual for that take a person you know who weighs roughly 130 lbs, now clone that person 369 times!

According to a study done by TireRack the tires wouldn't save you huge with standard driving, only $50 and some change per year in milage. But that is $50 you wouldn't otherwise have and it is a better tire for the environment. If it is something you are interested in, it's the tire for you. Keep in mind though that it is still a new product and has yet to be taken through the wringer by consumers.

But when shopping for Christmas a tire might be a bit difficult to wrap so perhaps, *aahh aahhh ahhhem* on the 9th day of Christmas a hippie gave to me a Truck Tire Bentley Bag. Another item on Hippie Santa's list that is an upcycle. It is a leather in appearance hand bag made with reclaimed truck tire rubber. Truck stops in Colorado supply the company with used inner tubes and they are then created into something new. The company only uses cruelty free, recycled and vegan materials.

As much as I know what they mean and I adore them for saying it, I did snicker at the idea of a truck tire being cruelty free....how many squashed ... oh never mind. Just take it the way they mean it and don't think about the rest.

That's all for now, your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

MOOOOOO

Hello,

My name is "bwings" and I don't feed my daughter hormones.

My daughter was breastfed until 14 months and then switched over to formula. She has the occasional sippy with milk but only when there are not other pleasant options. Although I could preach, "We are the only species that feed off another species breastmilk" but I needn't give you visuals of suckling on a cow's utter, and it's not the reason I don't feed her milk.

In actuality it was something that Asmerus wanted and I agreed with. Cows in factories are injected with countless chemicals and as a result we did not feel comfortable feeding standard milk to her until she was older, if at all. However, for my American friends you may already be aware that in the states bovine are injected with hormones to increase milk production. Bovine growth hormones also known as Bovine Somatotropin (rBST)  injected into bovine often leads to utter infections, resulting in antibiotics and multiple other treatments and injections. A cocktail of chemicals you would never inject a toddler with yet we fill their sippy with the juices from these walking syringes on a regular.

So what's a mom to do? If you live outside the United States you have far less to worry about, buy local, avoid American labels. If you are concerned with the additional chemicals or the vegan aspect there are organic options or milk alternatives such as Soy Milk or Rice Milk. However, if you are in the United States, as long as the FDA continues to approve growth hormone injections it will be in your milk and beef. Look for labels with the words, "no artificial hormones" on them. All milk has hormones, so anything labeled "Hormone free" is incorrect and should be brought to the manufacturers attention for misleading information. Labeling of injected milk and rBST free milk is not required by FDA and so in some cases you might have to research the company providing the milk. Wal-mart, Kroger and Costco have pledged not to sell milk from rBST injected cows.

I recovered a list of some others that I hope may help our friends south of the border.

• Ben & Jerry's ice cream is rBST free.
• Braum's 
• Chipolte Mexican Grill only serves rBST-free sour cream.
• Kroger & Ralphs have banned rBST milk since 2008
• Publix rBST free since 2007.
• Safeway have been rBST free since 2007.
• Starbucks free since 2008
• Wal-mart & Sam's Club provide "Great Value" brand which has been rBST for years but labeled free since 2008
• Winder Farms a home delivery dairy and grocer in Utah and Nevada sells only rBST free milk.

You can also check by state to see what is in your area for rBST free products.

Oh, and wouldn't you know it, it's the 3rd day of Christmas. *cough* ♫ On the 3rd day of Christmas a hippie brought to me a flip-flop door mat.♫ A flip-flop door mat? Yes, that's what I said. A flip-flop doormat. Simply put it is a colorful doormat made out of reused, pre-loved footwear.

Happy shopping, your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Variety, the spice of life

Hello,

My name is bwings and I started with the basics.

When it comes to cloth diapers I am a first time user and didn't want to throw a bunch of money into something I wasn't sure I'd be able to do. Although pretty certain, it's still an investment. So I started with the basic of all cloth diapers, the prefold cloth diaper. What is a prefold and what are the other types? I thought you'd never ask...I suppose you didn't ask. Nevertheless I will tell you.

I had a rather flustered mother hippie respond to my previous post on cloth diapers.

Dear Hippie Mom,

I am coming at you with flaming torches held high lol. I agree that cloth diapers are better but more of a pain in my trying to be green A**. With daughter one I did disposable until training began. Pull-ups were easier for quick trips and my cloth diapers have the pins. With daughter 2 i am using disposable for now but will go back to cloth once i am settled into the new house and unpack. Disposable really hurts the wallet but you get extra hours due to absorbency. I agree this is one of those things that there is no right answer when you weigh the pros and cons of environment vs mommy hours!!!

Yours Truly,

Happy Hippie :)

P.s A shout out to the Beast, from the Monster!

Well, Happy Hippie, glad to see you are still with us. How did your microwave hunt go? I hope my microwave findings were helpful, since then I have been considering trying out stovetop popping with a pan for the first time. Stay tuned, I hear it's quite difficult so should likely result in another attempt at cleaning a burnt pan with baking soda, but I digress.

I agree, in some cases they can certainly be more of a pain. I think, however, this depends on what type of diaper you are using. For instance, I am currently utilizing the basic prefold (sounds like you are using the same) and while it's delightful for her when she goes in the potty, it's a pain for both of us when she has an accident. It's absorbency level is lower than a dollar store disposable and it doesn't come fitted or with attaching pieces to hold it up. This was my own doing though, I could have purchased the higher end models but they were an investment and I am cheap and poor.

I imagine having two children you likely know of some, if not most, of the other varieties but just in case I'll go into more detail.

For types there are:

The flats

The Flats, Prefolds, Fitted, All-inOnes (AIO'S), Pocket Diapers, Pocket Diapers, Doublers & Liners.

• Flats - one-layered diaper, generally 100% cotton gauze, can be used as a doubler or stuffer for pocket diapers. Absorbent, economical, easy to clean, fast to dry. Flat & Prefold are least expensive choice $15-$20 per dozen but you get what you pay for as it's a 3 piece diapering system (Diaper, Cover, Fastener) they are more challenging to fold and pin.



Prefolds

• Prefolds - Similar to flats but with multiple layers with focus in layering the middle. Referred to as 2x6x2's, 4x6x4's, 4x8x4's etc. The numbers is of course the layers side,middle,side. Come in variety of sizes, come in bleached (BCPF) or unbleached (UBCPF). Need to be pinned, don't come with cover. Hemp prefolds are more absorbent but also more expensive. Store easily, dry quickly, less pieces for wear and tear. Again Flat & Prefold are least expensive choice $15-$20 per dozen. But you get what you pay for as it's a 3 piece diapering system (Diaper, Cover, Pin/Snap) Can be used as a doubler or stuffer for pocket diapers.

Fitted

Pocket

• Fitted - Have elastic at legs and back, resemble disposable diaper, requires a cover. Often come with fasteners, easy to use, babysitters have little problem, range in price from $10-$20 each.
  
• Pocket - Has layer of fleece/PUL (Polyurethane laminate) with opening in back to stuff with a doubler/stuffer/prefold or some use handtowels. This way you can decide the absorbency level. Less bulky depending on stuffing. Can come with cover, outer layer is often waterproof.
  



AIO (All In One)


• AIO's - Absorbent diaper with cover all in one just like disposable, easy to use. SUPER EASY for babysitters! Harder to clean, takes longer to dry and they are the expensive option. Most start at $18 a piece but again, you get what you pay for.
  
• AI2 - Has everything of an AIO and the absorbent material can be removed making cleaning and drying faster. Easy to use and stuffer can be replaced. More expensive. 
• Doublers & Liners - Used to improve absorbency to diapers. Best in cases of naptime or overnight. 

I purchased the Pre-fold variety with intentions of taking them for a test run and then seeing if I couldn't modify them. I can easily see myself sewing them, adding elastics if need be and just generally making them more easy to use. For now, my clever self, I simply take those cute diapers covers that you are supposed to use under a dress and stuff it with the prefold. Lazy or creative you be the judge. It works for this hippie mom. Of course if she has an accident it means the whole shebang needs to be washed. But that's the joy of potty training isn't it?

If none of the above works for you and you still hate disposable diapers too you could always go diaper free. There are hoards of parents out there who have potty trained their child by the age of two or three months. If you ask me this is more a case of the infant training the parents as the child is certainly not capable of carrying themselves to the potty. However, I'm sure if it works for them it's certainly better for the environment. No diapers has to be a positive result of early training.

Hope your diapering becomes easier for you, Happy Hippie, and if not, may your first daughter soon be completely potty trained and then you'll only have on set of diapers to contend with. :)

Have a good weekend!

Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

P.S. The beast says a chipper "hi" to the monster. Followed by a "mommy, dat ball!" and footsteps off down the hall.

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Give us dirty laundry

Hello,

My name is bwings and I don't roll my clothes around in animal fat.

The Beast helping me with Laundry June '09

Maybe you weren't aware of this, but most fabric softener is made using animal fat from cows, sheep and yes even horses. That ought to capture your eye. I have heard of people eating cow burgers and leg of lamb but at the mention of a horse burger everyone gets angry. I don't pretend to be perfect, it's quite hard to know what is in everything we use. That is, in fact, why I started this blog in the first place.

To make the fabric softener they boil down the animal fat and mix it with ammonium among a few other chemicals and you create a compound to coat your clothing in fat and make them soft to the touch.

I just resolved to not use fabric softeners, I never did anyway but I would continue to avoid them. What they, can one do to soften their clothes if they were not to use fabric softener? From what I have read, aside from more naturally derived softener you can add vinegar to your wash. If you want soft and pretty smelling clothes you can also add some essential oils to the wash to aid in this. If you are seeking a natural fabric softener this blogger created a list of her findings. I have not personally researched those individual softeners so can not confirm how accurate her findings are. In other words, if you are seeking a animal friendly alternative you can use their list as a reference and then look into the product yourself to confirm. 

Aside from animal fat there is also the question of phosphates and EDTA among other chemicals in our detergents and softeners. A quick review, phosphates are a favorite diet for algae. The more Phosphates we add to the environment the more algae that is mass produced and the algae uses up all the oxygen thus killing the fish in the water. EDTA is found in so much! Shampoos, bubble baths, soaps, detergents etc. It bonds with metals increasing the mercury in fish and thus humans that do eat fish. 

Check your ingredient list, question statements like, "natural ingredients" and "Bio-degradable" for their are always lovely loop holes for manufacturers to use. For instance they can claim to be derived from natural ingredients when in fact it's just the water that these natural ingredients soaked in to make the scent. The rest of the cocktail is still EDTA and or phosphate ridden. 

And what about the container? I purchase my soap in large containers and refill my smaller container at home. It's a pain to always carry the big one around and I always manage to lose that little cover so it is not an option. But I ensure that the container I use is recyclable so I know when I am finished with them it won't spend hundreds of thousands of years in a landfill.

Remember that chemicals were used to create that smell you so adore, consider replacing it with essential oils or maybe just putting essential oils on your wrist and neck throughout the day. You don't need to soak your clothes in chemicals to smell pretty.

Lastly, when and where you can, wash your clothes in cold water and hang to dry or tumble dry on low heat. It will consume far less energy and save you money on your bill. If you are going to use cold water you might want to find a green detergent that is geared towards cold water.

That is all for today as I have a basket of laundry to fold.
Your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

They have arrived!

Hello,

My name is "bwings" and I'm switching to cloth diapers....or at least my daughter is!

There is a lot of stink around the world about these diapers, pardon the obvious pun. Parenting is such a touchy subject and I don't pretend to be doing it the one and only way. I am going to do it the best way I can and leave you to yours. Removing parenting from the equation let's talk dollars and ecosystems then.

First thing I simply must share with you. It is apparently illegal to dispose of human feces, I couldn't find anything to support this but I have heard it and it does make sense. So why then, you might ask, are you allowed to dump tonnes of it in the landfills in little trojan horses of diapers? Quite simply put...you're not supposed. Do you use disposable diapers? Yes? Go fetch the bag or box it came from. Now turn it over and find on it where it gives you the instructions of using their diapers. Right there, in plain print that you never read because "Pft, I know how to use a diaper" it says, "Shake diaper contents into toilet before discarding"

WHOOPS!

Cloth diapers, what did our ancestors use?

First nations mothers would use milkweed and other plant life to wrap around their babies before strapping them to a papoose board.

Papoose Board

Inuit would use soft moss they had collected in summer months to line their babies clothes. Europeans in the 16th century used squares of cloth folded and tied around the waist with strings. The icky bit would be that rich children had a clean diaper a day anyone else changed once every 3-4 days (EWWW) Pioneers didn't have the best conditions either, they couldn't always clean their diapers and would just dry them for use the next day.

Cloth diapers have definitely come a long way since then.




Disposable Diapers, how long have we been tossing them out?

Disposable diapers largely get their finding from WWII. With women being thrown into the work-force they didn't have time to run around cleaning baby poo of clothes anymore. As they say supply and demand runs the economy and sure enough it wasn't long before they were established.

Marion Donovan & Boater

• 1942, during WWII a swedish paper company (Pauliström ) created the first disposable diaper using sheets of tissue inside rubber pants.  
• 1946 Marion Donovan developed a waterproof diaper shecalled the "Boater" using a sheet of plastic from a shower curtain and using plastic snaps in lieu of safety pins. 
• 1947 George M. Schroder invented the first disposable with fabric that was not woven. 
• 1949 Johnson & Johnson would introduce disposables to the United States. Others quickly joined the market as competitors. 
• 1956 Procter & Gamble {think Pampers}got a sniff of the subject [oh man I keep punning with you]
• 1959 Pampers had a name



Pampers 1961



Pampers vs Huggies

• 1961 pampers was introduced to the market almost twenty years after the first disposable diaper. 
• 1966 Sodium Polyacrylate (Super-absorbant material) is developed but not introduced.
• 1968 Kimberly-Clark {think Huggies} began beta testing
• 1978 Huggies is introduced to the market thus forcing pampers into a long and vicious battle for top diaper ever since. 
• 1984 Super-absorbent material sodium Polyacrylate is introduced. 

Cloth vs. Disposable the Big Debate!

Before I get into the logistics of Economics and Environmental factors let me spout off some fun facts.

The average time a baby is in diapers is 30 months. In that time they average 7,300 changes.
In 1955 it is said that 99.999999% of babies wore cloth diapers and 7% experienced diaper rash.
In 1991 statistics say that only 10% wore cloth and 78% of babies experienced diaper rash. OUCH!

Economics

Economically speaking it all depends on a lot of things. Diapers can cost up to $100 a month depending whether you are a name brand addict or a coupon cutter. It would also, of course, depend on your own level of hygiene but I'm not even going to think about that. *Shivers* Depending on how old your child is when you are using cloth diapers the same could be true for them. If you're using a laundry service for them it will balance out to be the same. And to wash them in the machine will cost a fair penny too. Not really encouraging as far as the money speaks. Although if you consider the rate at which you'd go through low grade disposable that might be cheaper then you might actually be saving money by going cloth anyway.
I couldn't do the math in my head but this lovely lady did and broke it down quite beautifully I might add. Her findings also lean towards cloth diapers being more economical. Although not by much if you are using a laundry service as opposed to washing them yourselves.

Environmental

Although there is a huge smelly mess of discussion about the impact of each on the environment, again with the unforgivable puns, to me it's pretty obvious that the cloth diapers are less impacting. The pro-disposable diaper argument is that the grey water caused by washing the cloth diapers is just as bad as the manufacturing and disposable of disposable. I haven't yet posted on laundry but I will say this, grey water impact can certainly be lessened depending on your detergents and water temperature.

An estimated 5 million tons of untreated waste and 2 billion tons of urine, feces, pastic and paper are added to landfills every year. It would take 80,000 pounds of plastic and 200,000 trees to manufacture disposable diapers for the United States alone!  "Bio-degradeable" diapers would have to be exposed to air and sun and in a landfill this is not very likely and thus would take hundreds of years to decompose only partially.

Untreated disposable diapers sitting in landfills risk contaminating ground water while the contents of cloth diapers get flushed down a toilet and then washed into grey water which will go into sewer systems to be treated at wastewater plants.


Conclusion


I'm not here to tell you how to raise your child, I am never here telling you which way is right or wrong in life. I am here only to draw conclusions on environmental impacts and express what I am personally going to do about it. Thus the blog about a mom going green. {there, I think I avoided angry mom mobs}

It is evident that cloth diapers are easily more environmental, but that was never a question for me. Assuming you are using environmentally friendly detergents and cold water {see tomorrow's post} you are not damaging the environment as much as you would be.

What am I doing about it? Well, I didn't use cloth diapers in the early part of her life because I am a working, stay at home mom. I would never have had time to get them clean as quickly as I should and therefore would have had maybe 20 odd dirty diapers just piling up, ewww. So for hygienic reasons I abused the earth as well as my wallet. My daughter wanted to potty train at 8 months (bless her) and so at 8 months I did start shaking her turds into the toilet, even before knowing I was supposed to be doing it all along. I did this in an effort to show her where they are supposed to go. Now that she has mastered the potty I have purchased 6 pre-fold cloth diapers. These are less expensive as they are not as "high-tech" as far as cloth diapers come. I will touch more on cloth diapers in another post. But for now I should go wash the potty seat for it's next visit from my cloth diaper wearing beast.

Your neighborhood hippie mom

Baking Soda Vs Pot

Hello,

My name is "Bwings" and I burnt my pot!

I believe we have all done this before, you put rice,pasta,vegetables etc. in a pot of water, you walk away, become distracted and before you know it... you have burnt impressions of your food on your pan. You can scrub and scrub and it still won't come off and can be so incredibly frustrating. If you're anything like me you give up and resort to using this pan for things like boiling eggs until you can replace it.

Given the results from the stove I thought I'd give baking soda a try. You've already seen the before picture, so let's move on.

I ran some water through the pot to moisten it and then added a good helping of baking soda to the damaged goods.

After about 5 minutes of rubbing I had removed a lot of it. But the centre remained stubborn.

 I repeated this behavior twice more before deciding to add vinegar to the mix.

Of course it bubbled and foamed angrily and then I scrubbed just a little more off and then snarled. Baking soda was getting it's butt kicked. I had heard about boiling vinegar and can I just say that vinegar boils fast! After it boiled I added some baking soda and then scrubbed again. Less came off this time than the time before.

Before

After

So it did make a difference but I believe this will be an over time process. I also read about leaving it soaking for several hours in vinegar. I had done this once before with an egg as an experiment as a child. The vinegar ate away the shell of the egg and left me thinking it was the coolest and messiest experiment ever at 8. 

Moral of the story, don't leave minute rice unattended. For tonight Baking Soda vs Burnt Pan is in hiatus while the pot soaks in vinegar for the night.

Until then adieu from your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.

Let's wrap this up!

Hello,

My name is "Bwings" and I've started the holiday wrapping!

This Shiny Paper is not recyclable! But totally reusable!

In the policy of keeping Monday light I'm bringing up a previous topic. Wrapping paper, although most has already been mentioned on this topic it is good to note something brought to my attention that I missed. As a reminder you should know that not all wrapping paper is recyclable so if you are concerned about recycling you want to purchase paper that hasn't been overly treated and glossed. Not only is it not likely to be recyclable but consider the amount of toxins that were used in making that same paper. Second and what I missed last week is the fact that once you are tossing the the paper into your blue bags for the curb ensure you've removed all the tape from the paper. It may seem completely annoying but trucks will reject whole bags if they spot one spot of tape.

I have worked as a landlord and I can tell you 100% for certain that my cardboard recycling has gone untouched for a week in the past because tenants hadn't properly disposed of their boxes. As a result it was left for us to correct so the trucks would gather the recycling. If you don't have a huge hate on for your landlord or you just want to make sure your paper is recycled for another purpose, then make that extra effort and snatch the sticky stuff off of it. So check to see if your paper is recyclable and then call your local clean up crew to see if they will accept your wrapping paper. A lot will, provided it's recyclable.

I purchased my wrapping paper last week for a quick and easy $5. However, not all my presents will be wrapped in recyclable paper. WHOA, WHY NOT?! you might be asking. Well it's simple, last year, and years prior, I received gifts wrapped in over glossy, non-recyclable wrapping paper. When I open these presents the paper doesn't always become crazy destroyed. I'm not anal about unwrapping gently mind you. But if it wasn't crazy wrapped in tape the paper is salvageable. Once unwrapped we put all the paper in a big gift bag that I have out every year. While everyone is off playing with their presents I go though this gift bag and fold the salvageable paper into neat folded piles and store them for next season. This is my way of twice loving paper that is just otherwise going to sit in waste for years. It honestly only takes another 5 minutes out of the year and saves the paper from years in trash. Not to mention it stocks me up on paper every year and reduces my wasted cash. I have, this year, wrapped 10 presents in reused wrapping paper. The more I wrap my families gifts in the more I'll have for next year.

Remember, in the U.S. of A. alone an additional 5 million tones of waste is generated from Christmas!! 4 million of those tones are from wrapping paper! Do you know how much paper equates a ton?!

Well, I'm going to go back to wrapping presents with the beast now. Your friend neighborhood hippie mom.