China Plans to Ban BPA

March 14, 2011 By greengirlinc 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 greengirlinc 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: , , , , , ,

Popcorn Without the Plastic

September 5, 2010 By greengirlinc 2 Comments

Our family got a plastic microwave popcorn popper as a gift.  It seemed like a great idea, rather than buying microwave popcorn.  Then I started getting rid of most of the plastic in my kitchen, and I got to the popcorn popper.  What to do?  Did it really seem like a good idea to cook corn in plastic in the microwave?  But it is so quick and easy to do.  I remember the old days of Jiffy Pop in aluminum, and our Stir Crazy counter top popper.  The Jiffy Pop popcorn was inevitably burned, but the Stir Crazy really worked well.  Why not go back to the Stir Crazy, well, the dome is plastic. We’ve all heard the benefits of the counter top air poppers.  Again, the air poppers are plastic. Hmmmm, I guess we could use a sauce pan and really go old school.  But standing and shaking a pot for 10 minutes is not really on the top of my “want to do” list.  I have seen stove top poppers that have a built-in stirring handle or crank.  That seems better than shaking a pot, and it’s not plastic.  That could work.  The other popcorn popper I just ran across is a silicate glassware microwave popper.  This seems like a great option to me.  It’s quick and efficient because of the microwave, and it’s not plastic.  There is also the Pop-O-Pot which is a ceramic microwave popcorn popper.  One other idea is taking whole cob popcorn and putting it in a paper bag and microwaving it.  This is a fun and novel idea, but you do have to watch that bag closely so it doesn’t catch fire, and then there is the waste of using a new bag each time.  Maybe I’ll experiment with using a glass popcorn popper and the popcorn cob.  What way will you choose to pop your popcorn?

Crate and Barrel – Glass Microwave Popcorn Popper

Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper

Pop-O-Pot

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