The Secret in Formula…Poison??

Tweenie’s Greenies

Week 4:  Take Good Care of My Baby

You need a quick bottle for your hungry and whiney baby.  You hurry into the kitchen or reach into your diaper bag, grab a quick can of ready to use formula.  Pop it open.  Fill the bottle.  Put the bottle into your little ones mouth and successfully expose them to harmful cancer causing chemicals. 

That’s right, another doom and gloom cancer causing chemical story from good old Look, Mom, Look!  I’m sorry, that’s all I got right now for this Baby edition.  In trying to green my baby without them actually turning green, I have just come across countless items/ingredients that are suspected carcinogens.  I do often question just how reactionary I should be to these frightening reports, but I will do whatever I can to limit my child’s exposure to potential toxins.  It’s the nurturer in me.  I don’t want my children to be unnecessarily ill and therefore, I am spurred on to a hypervigilant state.  Although, this does little good for my anxiety issues.  Next thing you know, my family will be living a “green lifestyle” here and I will be sitting pumped full of anti-anxiety meds at a “special home” just for me.

Anyway, back to this story….Did you know that there is a potential cancer causing chemical in cans of ready-made or concentrated formula.  Well, guess what??  There is.  Yippee Skippee.  From what I understand it is not in the powdered cans of formula, only the liquid varieties.  A plastic chemical called BPA is used in the formula can linings and it leaches into the formula.  This chemical has been known to cause nasty reproductive problems.  And how about some little behavioral or neurological issues to go along with that? 

Even if the scientific community is still questioning this, at least we can simply avoid giving our babies ready-serve formula from a can.  Just another argument of why boobs are best for babies.  Which is just perfect since I can’t get Gret to take a bottle for the life of me anyway 

Here’s the link to this story:  http://www.ewg.org/node/22416

 

Reducing Our Using

  

Tweenie’s Greenies

Week 2: Perpetually Yours, Plastic

Okay, so as much as I wanted it to, the title doesn’t rhyme.  I know that but I still like the way it sounds :)  The week has flown by and I haven’t addressed 1/2 the issues I could with plastic.  It is really overwhelming to think about how much plastic we really use in our lives.  I like the uses of plastic and it’s difficult to change.  However, there are a couple things that we can do to at least reduce the amount of raw plastic we use and cut back on the amount of plastic we send to the landfill.  The main thing is to reuse and recycle!

Here’s some easy tips:

• Buy in bulk.  Instead of buying several small items in plastic containers, buy one big one.  It will save on the amount of plastic that was manufactured for that product and also the amount of plastic you recycle.  I am saying recycle because I know that you WILL recycle as much plastic as possible.
• Avoid buying plastic toys for your children.  Try to buy wooden or cloth toys instead.  You may be avoiding some chemical exposure for your children associated with plastics and also saving on the massive amounts of energy needed to manufacture plastic products. 
• Buy refills.  Cut down on the amount of plastic packaging by buying refills for certain products.  Such as baby wipes and cleaning products.  If you already have a hard plastic container, why buy a whole new one to replace it?  Many products have refills that come in soft plastic (which is a little better) or cardboard refill packs. 
• Use fewer plastic bags.  Here’s  a great fact from “The Green Book”:  U.S. Households dispose of nearly one hundred plastic bags annually, millions of which end up littering the environment and harming marine animals.  By reducing plastic bag consumption by just two bags per week, you’ll throw away at least 100 fewer bags per year.  If tied together handle to handle, these plastic bags would make a rope long enough to wrap around the earth more than 126 times.
• Buy products with as little packaging as possible.  Use less, waste less.
• If you buy items made of plastic, look for products that are made from postconsumer recycled content.  This is plastic that has been recycled and diverted from the landfill.

Overall, just consume less.  You will decrease the cost of manufacturing, and the amount of plastic sent to landfills and the environment.  Also, recycle.  Know what your city accepts and look at products for the appropriate codes.  It’s simple.  I know that it is close to impossible to eliminate plastic from our lives but we can change the extent of our use.  And ultimately, your home and surroundings will be greener for it.   

 

You Can Have Time in a Bottle

Tweenie’s Greenies

Week 2: Perpetually Yours, Plastic 

If you want to capture time, just put a Timex watch into a plastic bottle.  It will stay there forever and will keep on ticking.  Plastic never really decomposes when left to it’s own devices.  You can however recycle plastic.  If you look on the bottom of a plastic container you will notice a triangle of arrows with a number in the middle.  Most people think that it means that the plastic can be recycled (most of it can) but what it really indicates is the type of plastic.  See here for a summary of the types. 

Types 1 & 2 are the most common types of plastic that are recycled.  But even then, only a small percentage of plastic materials even make it to recycling centers.  Some of the other types of plastic are too difficult to be recycled and may not be accepted for recycling.  Unlike glass and aluminum, it is difficult recycle a plastic container back into a plastic container because it doesn’t retain the same properties when reheated.  It has to be “downcycled” into another plastic material. 

A great example of this, is a program set up by Nike to recycle as much material of tennis shoes as possible.  It’s called “Reuse a Shoe“.  It is their goal to keep as many old worn out tennis shoes from the landfill as possible.  I saw a presentation by a Nike rep on their shoe recycling program and was amazed at how much of the shoe can be reused and downcycled!  Nike has created drop off sites for tennis shoes to be recycled for new uses.  They separate the different materials of the shoe, grind the materials up and create play and sport surfaces such as the rubbery material that cushions the fall of your child at some playgrounds.  However, not many people know programs such as this exist and therefore, spreading the word is important for reducing the amount of material sent to a landfill.  Here is a way to look up a shoe drop off location near you.  Click Here.

Did you know that if you looked at North America from space, the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard is a landfill? (The Green Book)  If we reduce the amount of plastic that we send to the landfills by recycling, we can minimize the space used in landfills (plastic is estimated to take up 25% of landfill space) and ultimately decrease the demand for new landfills/waste areas.

 

That’s my Bag, Baby!

  

Tweenie’s Greenies

Week 2: Perpetually Yours, Plastic

In my quest to find more uses for plastic or ways to reuse plastic materials in my home, I came across this really AMAZING idea.  I thought I would share it with you, even though I was tempted to keep it all to myself.  Do you have 20 million plastic shopping bags around your house?  I do.  I recycle some, but feel that I must at least use them more than the 15 minutes it takes to get from the store to my house.  Well, I was impressed with this one website’s suggestions as to how you could reuse your plastic shopping bags.  Drum roll, please!  Here it is…

A Rain Hat!!

That’s right, all you have to do is put a plastic shopping bag on your head.  You can adjust the handles as you see fit.  I was thinking that a nice plastic artificial flower would look great hot glued to the top.  Waala!  You can be one hot babe even in the rain.  The only downfall of reusing your plastic bags like this, is that it may not be suitable for young children as per the warning on the bag about putting it over your head.