So … What’s Wrong with Plastic?

First it’s important to understand that not all plastics are created equal.  Some plastics contain harmful chemicals that can leach out into our bodies, with a host of negative side effects.  Understanding which plastics are safe, and for what uses, is no small feat.

Here’s a little rhyme I heard to keep in mind when shopping.  5 and 4, 1 and 2 – all the rest are bad for you.  So check for the number inside the little recycling triangle on the bottom of your stuff and avoid the 3’s, 6’s and 7’s.   Just to be on the safe side, you’ll likely want to go easy on the 1’s as well.

What’s the problem?  Well, plastics contain a whole host of toxic substances that are put in there to make them strong, clear and flexible.  From phthalates, to BisPhenol A, to antimony, these chemicals are accumulating in the environment and in our bodies, causing reproductive challenges and cancers to name but a few issues.  And no one knows for sure how much is okay, which makes it very difficult to regulate and protect the public.

One of the best guides that I’ve seen to plastics is on the healthy child website http://healthychild.org/5steps/5_steps_5/?gclid=CIjg5df6s5wCFSMSagodPRuwnQ

This guide walks you through each of the various types, gives you some examples, and tells you about the challenges.

So what can you do with your lunches?

1. Avoid plastic – there are other options available, including stainless steel and glass.  Where its feasible, consider switching out.

2. Use only the “safe ones”.  Since an all stainless steel lunch can weigh several pounds, it may not be a great choice for the little ones, but particularly for your food containers, choose the safe options only.

3. Never, never, EVER heat food in plastics.  Heating increases the rate of leaching, and puts it directly into your body.

4. Be extra careful with babies.  Glass bottles are not much more expensive, and are a much safer option.

5. Limit use of cling wraps and baggies – these plastics can be less stable, not to mention less environmentally friendly.

It sounds daunting, but a little knowledge can help you significantly reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals in plastic.

It was primarily a symbolic gesture. Way back in 1979, in the midst of an energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They were used to heat water for some White House staffers.

“A generation from now,” said Mr. Carter, “this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”

Ronald Reagan had the panels taken down.

Excerpted from the February 13, 2010 op-ed in the New York Times.

Here are a few facts that are staggering in relation to this issue:

Canada is America’s largest supplier of oil.

America reached its peak oil production in 1970 and has been in steady decline ever since.

America’s consumption of oil reached its peaked during the energy crisis of 1979 at over 21,000 barrels per day.  It exceeded this level beginning in 2006.  The current economic recession has had a big impact on consumption, now hovering just over 19,000 barrels per day.

The US ranks 7th in energy consumption per capita after Canada and a number of small countries.

Three of the five members in my immediate family smoke. My Dad, after a breast cancer scare, quit. He’s been a non-smoker for almost three years now! Yay! At eleven years old, I took my first puff on a cigarette. And fainted. Clearly, the thrill was lost on me.

Which brings me to my rant of the month. It is estimated that 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered each year. It takes 12 years for the filters to decompose.

It is estimated that one in five New Yorkers smoke. My guess, from random observations, is that it is probably one in four. By comparison, the San Francisco Bay area has far fewer smokers. My guess is one in ten. I have pondered the reasons for this difference, and conclude that New Yorkers think it is part of the style image, and Californians weigh in on the healthy living side of things.

(more…)

As Canada Day approaches, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what our country has had to offer to the global environmental movement. We should be proud — because Canadians have made significant green contributions to business, academia, policy, and science.

No list of Canadian greenies would be complete without David Suzuki, of course. As a television broadcaster and writer, he raised our awareness as to The Nature of Things and the problem of climate change. He has received 22 honourary degrees and The David Suzuki Foundation has become a watchdog organization that is respected around the world. His daughter Severn Suzuki is an activist in her own right who electrified the 1992 World Summit in Rio De Janeiro at the age of eleven, by making a passionate deputation demanding that children’s voices be heard as we consider how our actions determine their future.

And of course, there is Greenpeace. This Vancouver non-profit sprang out of the consciousness-raising hippie movement of the sixties and seventies. Its founders brought a media-savvy, in-your-face kind of activism to the battles against whaling, old growth clear-cuts, nuclear power, and genetically modified foods.  And Pollution Probe in Toronto created a model for public interest environmental groups that has been copied around the world.

Canadians have also been pioneers in passing tough and effective legislation that protect both our own natural world, and the planet at large.  In the 1970s, Ontario passed two pieces of legislation, the Environmental Assessment Act and the Environmental Protection Act, that are still considered to be among the toughest worldwide. More recently Ontario passed the Endangered Species Act, created a greenbelt around Toronto, and introduced The Green Energy and Economy Act.

Ontario is not the only Canadian to pioneer progressive environmental legislation. Out west in British Columbia, the very first carbon tax in North America was introduced only a year ago. And our Atlantic provinces, along with Quebec, were the first to create a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative with their neighboring New England states.

Our federal government has also made great strides in developing technologies for a cleaner greener world. Engineers from Natural Resources Canada developed world-class software to develop renewable energy called RETSCREEN. It’s available for free download in 35 languages and is currently used by NASA, among many others around the globe.

So this Canada Day, as you fire up your barbecue and sip on your Alexander Keiths beer or your Niagara Reisling, meditate on all these achievements and be extra proud to be Canadian.

After some cooler temperatures last week, it’s finally starting to feel like spring! The perennials in my garden are coming up, and the heirloom tomato seeds that I planted this winter are ready for re-planting. I love the idea of having fresh heirloom tomatoes all summer, but I’m not much of a gardener so I’m just crossing my fingers that this experiment will work. For those of you with more of a green thumb who are looking to be inspired by a some urban gardening, check out what Sarah has been up to over at her blog,  Diggin’ the Dirt.

Raised beds are a great idea for gardening in the city, especially when soil quality is a concern. They can be any size, and can even be built on a balcony, drainage is better than a traditional garden, and so is removing weeds and pests. Also, seedlings can be planted closer together than in traditional gardens, so raised bed gardens are a great use of space. Now that I’m feeling inspired, I’m going to pick up some potting soil and some fertilizer and do some potted plant gardening this weekend!

I’m sure you’ve noticed. Becoming a mom seems to make you the world’s biggest magnet for advice. From what to feed the kids, to how to get them to sleep, to where they should go to school - it seems like everyone has a lot of ideas, and usually conflicting ones, on what you should do and how you should do it.

You may also have noticed that remarkably little of this advice has anything to do with your impact on the planet. Much of it is routed in traditions that formed long before we calculated our carbon footprints and fretted about the recycled content of our baby wipes. If you had asked my Mom about what it meant to be a Green Mom, she would have assumed that you got too close to a dirty diaper and weren’t feeling so well.

The funny thing is that the green answers also seem to be routed in tradition. Looking back to simpler times, we’re choosing things with fewer, more natural ingredients, from around the corner not across the globe. Right now, manufacturers are struggling with how to provide the conveniences that we’ve become accustomed to, without the nasty impacts that they’re having on the planet.

(more…)

Among the greatest challenges corporations are facing in the 21st Century marketplace is how to relate their core values and products to environmental principles. Below are some of the more impactful actions being taken by major companies today as profiled in the pages of Fast Company magazine:

• Wal-Mart, which operates the second-largest hauling fleet in North America, is providing funding to the biggest truck manufacturers to develop the first heavy-duty diesel-hybrid 18-wheeler. Wal-Mart will be testing the prototypes next year.
• Timberland awards its employees who buy hybrids not only with a prime parking spot at their corporate offices but also with $3,000 toward the car’s purchase.
• Staples has re-engineered over 3,000 of its private-label products to include at least 30% post-consumer waste. Whether it’s sticky notes or shipping boxes, nearly all of the new offerings have no non-recycled alternative in the product line.
• General Mills recently redesigned the packaging of their classic Hamburger Helper to shave off 20% of the paperboard box. This amazingly has resulted in 500 fewer distribution trucks on the road each year.

What’s interesting is that each company is taking a different path towards environmental sustainability: efficient transportation, employee incentives, product design or packaging but all with the common goal of reducing their carbon footprint.
Even companies not normally known as environmental (or social) stewards are preparing to green their acts up; McDonalds is starting to build LEED-certified restaurants, Coca Cola mentions the need to tackle climate change on their website and Nike scores 82/100 for overall environmental responsibility on the green consumer watchdog website ClimateCounts.org.

The lesson? Corporations, driven by profitability are looking to environmental sustainability as a key business practice. That means now more than ever it’s important we as consumers ask tough questions of companies before engaging their services or purchasing their goods. Our choices to make informed buying decisions and only support manufacturers and retailers that are prepared to be environmentally responsible will drive all industries to change for the better. How green is that item you want to buy? How open is that store in telling you? Keep asking, I can’t wait until the day I get to bite into a locally raised, organic Big Mac!

- Jaipaul Massey-Singh

Quality plays a major role in any consumer goods organization. The traditional definition of quality as “fitness for use” takes on a new dimension in a company claiming to be “green”. Not only should the product ‘work’ but it should also meet other criteria important to our community and to the planet for sustainability. Consumers today are being bombarded by organizations claiming to be green, but we have all heard that sometimes these claims are, at best, not substantiated or, at worst, fraudulent.

Our aim at Green Cricket is to help consumers be confident about what they are purchasing and also provide information to help people make more informed buying decisions. When you purchase an item, it is at the end of its “supply chain” to you, the customer. Many things can impact the final product along the supply chain in its quality and integrity - raw materials, method of manufacture, packaging and transportation. Our aim is to be transparent and sell products that we have confidence in. We do this by scrutinizing the products and our suppliers against our Green Criteria and by keeping aware of increased understanding of environmental and health issues.

This blog is your opportunity to express your opinions and to ask questions to our ‘expert panel’ and to contribute to thoughts from other consumers.

We want to hear from you!

Ever get overwhelmed by the number of products claiming to be biodegradable, non-toxic, recycled or recyclable that you encounter on store shelves? Ever wonder how many actually are? Greenwashing is the act of misleading customers about the environmental practices of an organization or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

The reasons for a company to greenwash are numerous, not the least of which is to get consumers to purchase their product or service over another which, actually may be more environmentally responsible but also more honest in the claims it makes. Others may include convincing investors the company is an ethical place to invest their money, satisfying regulators or avoiding critics.

(more…)