Tax season is in full swing and I am slowing climbing out of the sea of paperwork and bookkeeping.  Its a good thing that someone else is going to file for me this year!   Its hard to imagine doing it all.

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Though I have tried to “opt out” of junk mail, certain magazines and catalogues, I still get my fair share of junk in the mail.  I Hate Junk Mail – 10 Uses for Unwanted Junk Mail gives you a few creative ideas for your junk mail. Blog: dk Mommy Spot

10 Surprising Ways You’re Killing the Earth Without Even Knowing It by Carolyn Friedman goes into just that. From not eating farm raised fish, to not ignoring home inspections, she outlines a few changes we all can make in our day-to-day lives.  Blog:  Becoming a Radiologist

Before I started Green and Chic, I was told time and again that it was going to fail.   Though I have had thoughts of giving up Stop Thinking You Are Going To Fail Just Because Someone Says You Should really helps put things into prospective.  Blog: My Wife Quit Her Job

Giveaways

EarthLust Review and Giveaway - Win a BPA free, eco-friendly stainless steel water bottle  from Simply Stacie blog. Giveaway ends on March 4, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST.

Giveaway – Tropical Traditions Teeth Cleaner Set by Sweeps4Bloggers. This delicious coconut oil based teeth cleaner is free from artificial flavors and foaming agents.  Giveaway ends on March 8, 2010 at 8pm PST.

Seventh Generation Review and Giveaway Seventh Generation is offering one Free and Clear Cleaning Starter Kit. Giveaway ends on March 10, 2010.

Cloth napkins I recently made

Envelope I made from a paper grocery bag

Over the past year, I have done a pretty good job reducing the use of plastic in my day-to-day life. There are a few areas I need to work on, like the use of plastic produce bags at the grocery stores and farmers markets, but overall, I’ve done better than I have in years past.

For 2010, I decided to make an effort to cut back on the amount of paper I use .  I am usually mindful of my paper usage when it comes to eliminating unnecessary magazine and catalog subscriptions, junk mail, grocery stores bags, and reducing office and shipping paper. My use of miscellaneous paper products like napkins and facial tissue can be excessive at times, though I only buy 100% recycled paper products.  In an effort to reduce the amount of paper I use, I started using cloth napkins at the dinner table and handkerchiefs instead of facial tissue. I normally only use cloth napkins when I have guests, but whats stopping me from using them everyday?  Thankfully, I haven’t purchased a roll of paper towels in months, so that’s also a good start!

Have you made an effort to reduce the amount of paper and/or plastic in your life? Do you have any other ideas aside from what I mentioned?

When it comes to buying environmentally friendly products, we generally think of cleaning supplies, other household items, organic clothing, and more.  But what about what we use to write with?  Though I personally prefer pens, I still use pencils from time to time, and I’m sure if you have children, they probably go though a lot of them in the course of a school year.

Though pencils are a way of life for many people, we rarely think about the environmental impact of conventional pencils.   According to Forest Ethics, there are still manufactures that clear cut forests in California and Sierra Nevada to get wood for pencils.  In addition to that, 14 billion of these pencils are made in polluting factories every year.  What is the alternative?

Earthzone is proud to launch the world’s first environmentally friendly pencil. Earthzone pencils are non toxic and made from 100% recycled newspapers. The erasers are even latex free. I was sent a few packs of pencils and sharpeners to try out, and I must say, I am very impressed!  I was skeptical at first. I was expecting them not to be sturdy since they are made from…paper, but they act and feel just like a regular pencil.  The pencils sharpen easily, and do not break.  They actually feel and write better than traditional wood based pencils. In terms of how they look, the recycled newspaper is incorporated in the design, which looks pretty cool!

Earthzone offers a variety of pencils, including, HB, colored pencils and a pack of “artist series” pencils.

Do you buy pencils for yourself and/or your children? I guess I assumed most pencils were made from “recycled wood”, but I was wrong!  Have you thought about where your pencils come from?

New York City – The Garment Worker
Photo by: Paul Lowry

I recently saw a new documentary on the American garment industry called, Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags.  It goes into how the fashion/garment industry got started in America with New York City being at the center of it all, and where it is today.

Dozens of people who were at one time or is still in the industry were interviewed.  Individuals who’s parents worked in the New York City Garment District in the early part of the last century, union workers,  entrepreneurs who started garment manufacturing companies and people who was recently pushed out of business or laid off for various reasons were featured.  Reasons includes smaller companies going public, the recently crashed economy and factories going overseas.  Its a historical piece that’s both fascinating and will force you to think about our individual and collective choices.

How does this relate to green living?

“In 1965, 95% of American clothing was made in the U.S.A.; by 2009, only 5% is manufactured here.”

Most of our clothing is not local and is being shipped in from overseas.  The carbon footprint couldn’t get much larger than that.

Where is our clothing coming from?

Most of us are familiar with sweatshop labor, but I guess I didn’t realize that so many of our clothing comes from places that still practice modern day slavery. Though I personally try to be mindful where my clothing comes from, its sometimes hard to pass up on a good deal.  The problem is, that $10 dress from any large discount retailer cost more than just $10 as pointed out in the Story of Stuff video.  Chatting with local designers in the Portland area, I learned just how difficult and costly it is to create just one garment.  Factors such as the cost of materials (especial organic), paying employees a fair living wage, rent, insurance, overhead and so many others makes it difficult to break even sometimes let alone turn over a profit. Just because some locally made items are being sold at high double or triple digit prices, doesn’t mean the brick and mortar stores, online shop owners, designers, seamstress, etc are living large.  Its a tough and many times thankless industry to be in.

What can we do?

That is a very good question and I am always open to ideas. I do know we have to change our shopping and consumption habits: buy less and buy local.   Is there anything else we as individuals can do to reverse this trend?

Photo by: LeeBrimelow

As a mother of four, Mary has a deep interest and concern for the state of our world, and for preserving it for the future of our children.  As a freelance writer, she enjoys researching and writing on topics of health and green living, so that she can learn as she helps to spread the good word!

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Biking to work used to be such a foreign concept, but nowadays you see far more people using this mode of transportation. What you may not realize is that jumping on a bike to get to and from work can help to clear your head, make you feel physically better, and reinforce your commitment to be more eco-friendly.

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Photo by Moria

This is a guest post written by Brett Lindenberg an avid internet marketer from nether regions of Northwest Minnesota. When not trying to harness the power of Twitter (@brettlindenberg) he enjoys watching Brett Farve be a Viking.

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Batteries are the unappreciated purveyors of our connectivity obsessed society. We use them to power up our vehicles which enables us to travel long distances, on our wristwatches to be able to tell the time of day, on our laptops which allows us to use our precious computers even if there is no electrical power source, etc. Hey, we even use it on our cell phones which have become a necessity nowadays. Indeed, there is no denying that these batteries have made our lives easier. Let’s face it; we just can’t live without them.

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Are are going to make the necessary changes?
Photo by Dr. Keat

This years topic for Blog Action Day 2009 is Climate Change.  I admit, I had a hard time knowing what to write at first, but because this is such a poignant subject, it doesn’t feel right to keep quiet.

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As word citizens do we think about climate change, whats causing it, and what we can do to reverse it or at least slow it down?  Depending on where we live, our lifestyle, what we read, what we watch and the company we keep, we may not really think and reflect on climate change as much as we should . When the weather is unusually hot, cold, too much rain, not enough rain, wild fires and so on, we then blame it on global warming or climate change.  And when the subject comes up in the media, think about it…a little.  When it comes up in our minds, are we moved enough to make the necessary changes in our lives to help curtail climate change?

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Many of us have recently heard the shocking news that some SIGG bottles contains Bisphenol-A (BPA) in their liners. The BPA is in the bottles that was manufactured before August 2008.  You can read the CEO of SIGG’s apology on the Huffington Post blog of their decision not to disclose when they first found out.

Though I’ve never owned a SIGG bottle, I did have plans to purchase a couple for myself and gifts for others. Learning about this breach of trust really angered me in ways no other “conventional” company who’ve told similar lies have ever done. We have using products with plastic and eating canned foods for years  and we are just now finding out the the hazards of some of theses items.  After manufactures of such products have been revealed and products with these chemicals banned in certain countries, we put our trust in companies that are supposed to be looking out for us.  Yes, they are out to make a profit and that is their right and I respect that, but does that mean they have a right to be dishonest when it gets difficult?

Should we now just take everything what any company says about the safety of their products with a gain of salt? How do we know (or find out) if a company is lying to us about their products?

Photo by Declan TM

In the seventeen months Green and Chic Blog has been in existence, I have written a few posts that has stood the test of time.  These are still the most searched and visited posts since I started blogging.  I recently edited  a few of these posts to give them a bit of a “face lift” for my new readers.

“I have a headache!” – A word about perfumes was one of my first posts in the “Chemicals to Avoid” series. I wrote this post out of frustration due to constant exposure to artificial presumes, scents and fragrances that gives me terrible migraines.

Petroleum jelly possible cancer risk is sort of a controversial subject because we don’t know for sure if petroleum jelly actually causes cancer, but there are other good reasons to avoid products with petroleum jelly and mineral oil.

Alternatives to fabric softeners Did you know that commercial fabric softeners is one of the most toxic household products used today?  This post goes into why that’s the case, and what you can use as a safer (and cheaper) alternative.

Out of these three, is there anything that stands out to you? I will continue to revise some of my older posts in the coming weeks so stay tuned via RSS or email.

Photo by: D’Arcy Norman

Local. Used. Eco-Friendly. Less

These are the four words I keep in the forefront of my mind when shopping. From clothing  to food, if its not local, used and/or eco-friendly, I wont buy it.  Here’s how I apply “less” to shopping:

Less
First and foremost, I try to focus on buying and acquiring less.  I’ve learned the hard way that having less is more economically and environmentally friendly, especially if an item is not built or manufactured for long-term use.   Though its beneficial from a financial standpoint, for the purpose of this post, my focus is environmental.

Here are a few common items that we don’t need to buy, that only ends up in the landfills.

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