hippies

Everything does not need a bag

by admin on March 8th, 2010 / No Comment

One really simple thing we have done this last year is to stop using so many plastic bags. I used to notice on an average trip to the store we would sometimes have thirty or forty bags sitting on the counter after putting everything away. This always seemed like such a waste considering it takes quite a bit of energy to make a plastic bag and them a lot more to get rid of it after.

I didn’t realize we used that many plastic bags until we stopped using them. We use plastic bags for almost everything. At the grocery store we have some need to wrap each kind of fruit and vegetable in a separate plastic bag, some people double wrap them. If you buy bulk items, deli items, any kind of meat, you probably put them all in plastic bags. Then finally everything gets put into even more plastic bags at the checkout. Then since the bags are so thin the store clerk will use more than one with just a couple items in each one.

Do we need so many? I don’t think so. An easy to solution to this is to buy about ten re-usable bags and take them to the store instead. They last a long time and many stored will give you money back for each one they use. For the items purchased in the store, just put them in the cart instead of a bag first. After getting rid of the impulse to put everything in a bag, it’s really easy to see things like apples and oranges are already wrapped

It’s weird at first but just put it in the cart, even if it’s a little wet. I remember feeling kind of strange doing this but I promise no one will care. This will save hundreds of bags every year from ending up in the landfill, or blowing around wherever.

Every once in a while we will forget to take our re-usable bags to the store, which is fine because we get the paper ones and use them in our kitchen trash as a liner bag. This eliminates our need for trash bags as well. Wow, really? We don’t need to wrap our plastic trash with more plastic? Nope, another big waste. Besides, our trash can lasts a month now since we started recycling. Sandwich bags, just use wax paper. Plastic wrap, don’t need it. Plastic water bottles, tons of trash and bad for you too. Now, don’t get me wrong. Plastic is very handy and I don’t think we can totally eliminate it but I just don’t really like the needless waste.

Also if you end up with a little plastic that is headed for the trash, recycle it instead! You can drop it off in Orem at Dunn recycling on Geneva road between 8th north and 4th north. You just pull up and they will tell you what pile to throw it in. It’s free and will make you feel like you’re a real hippie.

Your yard will be okay

by admin on March 7th, 2010 / No Comment

Category: hippies

Years ago we went over to a friends house for a barbecue and noticed their yard was sort of odd. It didn’t look at all like the plastic manicured yards all over the place but instead it was natural looking with imperfections and inconsistencies that added to the overall look in a positive way. After talking about it we found our friends didn’t use any pesticides at all. Instead they had found techniques and other means to achieve the same results without using any harmful chemicals. Now we have a fairly large yard with lots of grass and I have taken a similar approach, mostly as a result of an almost no knowledge of lawn care and a dash of laziness and the results have been great.

Sure we mow and keep our yard trimmed in general but we don’t in any sense go overboard. And our yard looks fine. We spend lots of time in the backyard and playing on the grass, the difference to me is when you sit down or lay on the lawn you don’t think about all the chemicals seeping into your skin. Instead its just grass. Yes, there are bugs and yes there are imperfections but I like them both and am glad to have a natural yard.

There are plenty of fertilizers you can use, if you have to, that do not create a health hazard. And while I am out enjoying my grass I see my neighbors spraying crap all over the place. Instead of just a little elbow grease they will all pour gallons of poison trying to disperse weeds here and there. Where the hell do they think all this poison goes? Why do we have to keep pouring chemicals all over everything?

Poisons are absorbed through the skin, by the mouth, or by breathing sprays, dusts, or vapors. You or your children can be poisoned if: you apply or are present during application of the chemical. Also if you touch contaminated grass, shoes, clothing, lawn furniture, etc., or put contaminated objects (toys, golf tees, blades of grass etc.) or fingers in the mouth. A recent government report states, until new guidelines for conducting exposure studies are developed, the E.P.A. will not know how much exposure is associated with lawn care pesticides and associated health risks, especially for children.

Reduce the chemicals in your house – Part 2

by admin on March 7th, 2010 / No Comment

Category: hippies

I still remember the day Angela decided to break this addiction to the chemical companies. Motivated by unexplained symptoms and surrounded by doctors wanting to prescribe more chemicals, she did something extreme but totally logical. She gathered up all the chemicals in the entire house and simply took them out to the garage. Seeing all the products we had put into one place was staggering and the first thing that went through my head was the amount of money we were about to just toss into the trash. Not just cleaners under the sink but everything in the house. Dishwasher soap, hand soap, toothpaste, shoe polish, carpet cleaners, lawn care, window cleaner, wood cleaner, cleaning pads, cleaning cloths, cleaning sticks, eye gloss, lip gloss, sunscreen, lotions, cremes, perfumes, cosmetics, shampoo, nail cleaner… the list goes on and on.

Angela had realized something profound, something I would not come to grips with until months later, we are drowning our selves in chemicals. We rub them on every surface of our homes, we eat them, we wash our bodies with them, we go out of our way to spend money on them. Angela was right, we were not throwing money away by getting rid of our hard earned stock of chemicals, we were saving our money and our lives by saying no to them.

My big question was what we would use instead. I remember feeling an almost worried about the germs just rising up and taking over the house but this was just left over from years of advertising and marketing campaigns aimed at brainwashing us into thinking germs are something to be eliminated all together. Angela didn’t have all the answers but was confident we would be okay saying she would figure it out. And she did, soon we had other harmless methods of cleaning our home and maintaining things in the yard.

Overall I think we accomplished the following things:

1. Greatly reduce the chemicals we are exposed to in general.
2. Reduce our footprint, we all make a difference.
3. Our health is better, period.

In this section I hope to share what we did to accomplish this as it wasn’t always clear what worked best from the beginning. We have tried several strategies and have never found a silver bullet but with a little effort and some changes to our thought process, we were able to do it meaning anyone can.

Reduce the chemicals in your house – Part 1

by admin on March 7th, 2010 / No Comment

Category: hippies

A while ago Angela decided to clean up our act a bit and dragged me along kicking and screaming. Now two years later I am completely amazed at the huge differences just a few changes make to not only our health, but also about every other area in our lives.

There is plenty of research done now that shows most of the chemicals found not only in household cleaners but many other things we use in the home are very harmful to our health. For the skeptic, and it amazes how many people will defend their chemical addiction, it is foolish to assume the agencies controlling what products are safe in this country or any other for that matter are not driven by money and do not understand long term effects of the chemical exposure we see today. It is one thing to look at a single cleaner and judge it’s danger by assuming a very limited exposure. Most every chemical, even severely toxic ones have a safe level of exposure associated with them, but when combined with hundreds of other chemicals around the house day after day, year after year it is a different situation entirely.

It’s a giant industry that only has to invent a new problem to solve in order to be successful. Sadly the reality is not the too happy mothers receiving total satisfaction from having the latest disposable tipped cleaning device depicted in the commercials but instead mom bringing in literally pounds of harmful chemicals into the house and then spreading them diligently on every surface in the home. If you just step back for a minute and think about this it’s a staggering realization the bombardment of chemicals a person living in a ‘clean’ house has on them. It is suspicious at least.

Helping the environment has always been something in the back of my mind that I was going to ‘get to’ one of these days. In fact, it ranked right up there with things like organizing things around the house and sitting down to write some letters… never enough time. Save the earth, recycle, go green, don’t litter and all the other slogans were always present but never in the forefront of my mind, that is until Angela made a major change one day. Now, there is no turning back for us.

Angela was one of many people who was addicted to cleaners. Germs the enemy, the household surfaces the battlefield and the rest of us caught up in the crossfire. Every new clever cleaning product advertised on television prompted a trip to the store. I dreaded passing the cleaner isle as it meant a long trip down it with a huge price tag at the end. Looking back we both agree she was addicted to the cleaners, not in a chemical dependency way but head over heels I’m a good consumer way. Which is not surprising considering the amount of money spent on advertising household cleaners in the U.S.

Continue to Part 2