The Story of Bottled Water

31st March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 4 Comments

Check out this energetic and easy-to-understand animated video about how the use of bottled water came to be so widespread and why it’s so bad for the environment. It also discusses how crazy buying bottled water is when you can get water from the tap that’s just as good or better than the bottled kind for much, much cheaper (bottled water is 2,000 times more expensive than tap water). This video is put out by the same people who did the Story of Stuff, which is another video I highly recommend watching, but it’s a bit longer. That video tackles our consumer culture and its negative impacts. Both videos are engaging and really enlightening, chock full of information that even the most green-conscious person will find alarming.

Doing Laundry and Being Green

31st March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments

Laundry is not very exciting, but it is a fantastic opportunity to green up your home. Lots of water and energy and chemicals are used in the process, so the more you green it up, the more you’ll diminish your carbon footprint, save yourself money, and extend the life of your clothes. Here are a few tips:

1. First, to decrease the amount of laundry you have in the first place, try to wear some things more than once. I know, I know, you’re thinking it’s kinda gross, but it really isn’t. Suits, sweaters that go over other shirts, jeans–I wear ‘em all at least twice before cleaning because they usually aren’t very dirty. Of course, if you were by a campfire or spilled something, go ahead and throw those clothes in the hamper.

2. If you are looking to get a new washer, consider buying Energy Star approved items. Energy Star machines can save you up to 7,000 gallons of water per year and up to $550 in operating costs over the machine’s lifetime.

3. Maximize your efficiency by making sure your washer and dryer are full before you do a load and by emptying the lint filter in your dryer after every use. This is will save on energy and water.

3. Use cold water. The vast majority of the energy used in cleaning clothes comes from heating the water, so by using cold, you will significantly decrease the amount of energy you use, and your clothes will generally get just as clean.

4. Check out eco-friendly laundry soaps. Regular detergents have crazy chemicals like phosphates, phthalates, and petroleum, which all have negative effects. Phthalates have been linked to cancer, petroleum can irritate the skin, and phosphates have a negative effect on the bodies of water they end up in by creating a bunch of algae and messing with the ecosystem. It’s way better to use soaps with natural ingredients. We posted awhile ago about some hand made soaps on Etsy. I bought the Bergamot Grapefruit soap, and it works really well and smells great. I’ve also used Seventh Generation’s brand and have been very happy with it. Or you could always make your own!

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