China Plans to Ban BPA

March 14, 2011 by 2 Comments

If this doesn’t convince you to rid your home of BPA-laden products, I fear nothing will.  China has not been known for being the most environmentally of friendly countries, but now China has decided they want to pursue a ban of the substance along with the European Union.

Unfortunately, just because a product says it is BPA-free doesn’t mean it is safe. The other unfortunate in the situation is that I was unable to find out what plastics did not leach estrogen hormones.

In our house we got rid of almost all plastic. I use glass containers for storage and reheating in the microwave. We use glass and ceramic for food and drink. I do still have some nylon and silicon utensils.

I recommend ridding your kitchen, as well as your home, of as much plastic stuff as possible. I have really come to embrace real materials that will last for generations, instead of disposable items that are in the landfull before the end of a season.

Filed Under: Home Toxins, Plastic Tagged With: , , , , ,

It’s Time to Leave the Bottled Water on the Shelf

January 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

As if people needed more reasons to dump bottled water, this report by the Environmental Working Group on Bottled Water should be the extra push that some need.

The are so many reasons to leave bottled water on the shelf:

1. Out of the 60 billion PET containers used each year only about 28% of those were recycled (Container Recycling Institute)

2. Plastic waste is found everywhere on the planet, including the ocean

3. Plastic does not biodegrade, but photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, which are then consumed by animals

4. Bottled water is expensive, costing up 100 billion a year for the U.S. alone (OneWorld.net)

5. Tap water is more closely regulated than bottled water by the Environmental Protection Agency

6. A reusable stainless steel water bottle won’t leach chemicals, even when left in a hot car

7. Home water purification systems cost pennies on the dollar compared to bottled water (Natural Resources Defense Council)

8. Bottled water uses between 32 and 54 million barrels of oil to bottle and ship in the U.S. alone (Live Science).

Do yourself, your wallet, oil reserves, animals and the planet a favor and leave the bottled water on the shelf.  Invest in reusable, quality water bottles.  There are many styles and materials to choose from: stainless steel, glass, nylon, aluminum and BPA-free plastic.  I  keep a bottle in my car that I fill as needed.  Each member of my family has at least one water bottle.

Photo courtesy of Reuseit

Reusable water bottles are everywhere now; local grocery stores, national chain stores, eco-stores and online stores.  In Eau Claire I can find reusable water bottles at Mother Natures’s Foods, Little Bare Bottoms, Festival Foods, Target, Scheels etc…  Online I can find them at Reuseit, GreenFeet, Amazon, EcoBags, Uncommon Goods, etc…  There is NO reason not to buy a reusable water bottle anymore, and there is a long list of reasons to NOT buy bottled water.  Make the change.

Filed Under: Reduce and Reuse Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Dehydrators to Go Green?

July 21, 2010 by 7 Comments

Sure!  What better way to take advantage of local, seasonal food than by dehydrating the bounty of the season.  That is what I recently decided to do.  Our family LOVES dried blueberries all year.  We put organic blueberries on sunbutter and toast.  Oh so yummy, and healthy too.  The downside is that organic dried blueberries are very pricey.  We have a number of local growers who don’t use a bunch of nasty pesticides.  Even better, to save money, you can go and pick your own.  That’s what we did the last weekend.  The blueberry recipes are flowing out of my kitchen.

I decided to invest in a dehydrator.  Well, I can’t just go buy a dehydrator, I need to research.  I started thinking about the material used in dehydrators.  With all the buzz about BPA, I decided a dehydrator made from polycarbonate might not be the best health or eco choice.  As a matter of fact, I decided to avoid plastic dehydrators all together.  I’ve gone with a stainless steel case, and stainless steel racks.  It is the closest to an inert material next to glass.  Stainless is as close to leach-free as you can get, again, next to glass.  The stainless is more expensive, but there is a long warranty, so I hope it will be the last dehydrator I buy.    I also figure it will pay for itself in dried blueberry savings alone: wink, wink. Much of the stainless steel on the market is recycled, plus stainless is infinitely recyclable.  There are a number of stainless dehydrators on the market.  I did  find one dehydrator where the case was BPA, but the trays were polypropylene.  Polypropylene is considered a food safe plastic.   The dehydrator I decided on is rectangular with the drying element in the back.  The research and reading I did convinced me this is the most efficient shape and process.  I also ran across non-electric dehydrators, which would be the greenest, but some of the reviews moved me to an electric one.  I expect the dehydrator by the end of this week.  Once I get it, and try it out, I will write a review.

Here are some of the websites I looked at:

Sausage Maker-Dehydrators

Harvest Essentials

Plastic vs. Stainless

Dehydration Nation-Hanging Dehydrator

National Center for Home Food Preservation

Filed Under: Food, Plastic, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

BPA in Your Receipts?

April 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Receipts

Is there BPA in the receipt from your last purchase?  There’s a very good chance there is.  So, what’s the big deal if there is?

Well, what do you do with your receipts?  Do you recycle them?  Could the receipts wind up recycled into toilet paper, and leach into the water table?  Do you just toss that paper?  Maybe the paper ends up in a landfull  (yes, I meant landfull).  When that paper breaks down won’t that BPA leach into ground water?

Perhaps the BPA will rub off on your skin, and absorb into your body.  If you don’t wash your hands after handling the receipts, you could ingest the BPA when you eat.  BPA is an estrogen-mimicking chemical.  There is growing concern over BPA use.  To find out more, please read the article attached.

Concerned about BPA: Check your Receipts

Filed Under: Environment, Health, Home Toxins, Plastic, Recycling, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,