Greening Your Camping - Getting Started

Camp Fire

Camping is a low impact and low cost way to vacation either by yourself or with your friends and family.   We find that it is a good way to spend several days of quality time with friends that is not horribly expensive.

There are a lot of green websites that talk about how to go that extra step to make your camping trip even more green.   We've written some of these posts as well, including alternatives for dealing with bug bites, using reusable utensils and even camping with cloth diapers.  We went camping at a state campground recently and we realized that some people may benefit from a list of basic "green" things for camping.  Our blog is about step by step to a greener lifestyle, so here is a list of some of the basic things to get started with green camping!

Camp At An Established Campground - About half the U.S. states have public campgrounds and there are private campgrounds all over the world.   If camping in the United States, check out Reserve America to find a campground where you want to go that meets your needs.  Camping in a campground lessens your impact on the environment, especially if you are not an experienced camper.

Buy second hand equipment - If you expect to camp less then 3 or 4 times a year, it makes sense to buy second hand equipment such as tents, cook stoves, sleeping bags and other gear, rather than spending money on expensive quality equipment or cheap equipment that won't last more than a few trips.  There's nothing more frustrating than having equipment break or fail while you're camping.

Don't Burn Plastic - Let  me say it again: DON'T BURN PLASTIC. Plastics give off toxic fumes when burned and shouldn't be burned on a campfire.   This includes water bottles, plastic bags, silverware and plastic wrap from your food.  These should be disposed of either through recycling, in provided dumpsters or take it with you when you leave.  Burning plastic is bad for the environment, bad for your health and bad for the health of the people around you. Not to mention, it smells bad.

Take Out Everything You Bring In - Upon returning from camping I asked my children what thing should we tell people to make their camping better for the environment.  My 6 year old says "Don't leave your trash behind".   If the campground does not provide dumpsters, please take the trash with you.  Don't burn your trash.  In addition to plastic, don't burn cans - they leave sharp residue behind that could hurt the next person and you're wasting material that could other wise be recycled. 

Don't Throw Batteries In the Fire - Really.  It's just dangerous.

Don't Play Loud Radios - When you are out in nature try to enjoy the nature around you.   Radio music is disruptive to the wildlife around you, animals will be upset and confused by the unusual noises.  Other people camping near you don't want to hear your music.  Remember that there are no walls or windows that people can close if they don't choose to hear what you're saying, doing or playing.   Sound carries a lot further than you realize in the wilderness. 

Don't Drive To the Restrooms - Unless you're in an unusual situation, or have special needs,  most campgrounds are set up such that tent sites are with in a reasonable walking distance from the restroom.  Starting your car and driving to the restroom not only uses fuel unnecessarily, but is disruptive to the other campers.

Don't Idle Your Car - If you do need to drive within the campground for some reason, don't idle your car.  It wastes gas.  It puts noxious fumes into the air we breathe and if you're already camping, you really shouldn't need those extra few minutes of air conditioning or heating.   Sometimes showers are less convenient than restrooms, but it's healthier to hike over to the showers than drive. 

Consider Changes To Your Routine - If you're someone who automatically takes a shower every morning, think twice before heading over to the shower bleary-eyed.  Many people don't take daily showers when camping, or take them later in the day after they're sweaty or dirty. 

Don't bring bottled water - Public and most private campgrounds provide fresh drinking water. We use something called a platypus to carry water from the spigot to our table that we fill cups and bottles from.  Bringing sufficient water in your car is extra weight to drive and most likely means you'll have a lot of annoying empty bottles afterwards.  (Exceptions exist, you may want to confirm what facilities are available when booking your site or before arrival.)


Use Reusable Plates, Silverware and Pots - Its more work to wash dishes than to just  bring disposables ones that you throw away or paper ones that you burn.  However, it's much lower impact if you have plastic or metal dishes that you wash and reuse.  It takes time, but if you're camping with friends you can wash dishes together and spend time together.

Use Biodegradable & phosphate free soaps - Not all soaps are good for the environment.  When you toss your wash water, either pour it down a drain if provided, or if doing dishes at your campsite, take the water far enough away from your tent site that any animals that might be attracted aren't attracted to your site.

Happy Greening!
Alicia

Other articles in our Greening Your Camping Series:
Greening your Camping - Reusable Utensils
Greening your Camping - Mosquito Bite Relief 
Greening Your Camping - Cloth Diapers

Not All Sunscreens Are Created Equal - EWG Sunscreen Guide 2011

Cover Up to protect yourself

During the past year we have been trying to be more careful about what we put ON our bodies, as well as what we put IN our bodies. The Environmental Working Group website is a great resource for learning about chemicals in topical products and what to watch out for. This week they have released the 2011 EWG Sunscreen Guide with a variety of information on what works, what doesn't, what's worth it and what to watch out for.
A few highlights:

• Cover up. Wear clothes. Find shade.
• Wear sunscreen. It's important
• An SPF over 50 is not necessarily better than a lower SPF and encourages people to stay in the sun for dangerous lengths of time.
• Avoid products with oxbenzone, Vitamin-A and added insect repellent
• Look for products with Zinc, titanium dioxide, Avobenzone or Mexoryl SX

For more information read the longer post I wrote last year on Living Healthier Through Sunscreen. After reading this year's Sunscreen guide from EWG, I can say it is still accurate and good advice.
I have found it fairly difficult to remember which sunscreens are the best ones to buy, but the EWG has put their EWG Sunscreen Database out as an iPhone app called "sunscreens" to help you remember. The key facts are to avoid "oxybenzone", "Vitamin A" and "fragrance" as ingredients. Once you've got that down, which brand you actually buy is less important.

Happy Greening!
Alicia

Clean Air Act Controversy - In Her Own Words, Lisa P. Jackson

Have you heard the debate about the new Mercury and Air Toxins rule proposed by the EPA?

This rule would reduce the amount of mercury that power plants can put out by 90%.  The technology exists and according to Lisa Jackson of the EPA, 50% of our coal power plants already have this technology in place and are using it.  Clearly it's affordable and Lisa argues that this rule will increase jobs, because someone will have to produce these scrubbers.

Click below to hear what Lisa has to say in her own words on The Daily Show. This interview is short, clear and understandable. 

The Daily Show - Exclusive - Lisa P. Jackson Extended Interview Pt. 1
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Mercury is a neurotoxin - it affects the development of the brain.  75% of mercury air emissions comes from coal fired power plants.   Mercury in the air gets into our water.   It is in the water we drink,
Over 400,000 newborns are affected every year by mercury and these standards are expected to prevent 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks every year.

Do you want to help?  Mom's Clean Air Force has information on how to express your support to the EPA.   Options include click & send, how and where to send your own letter, and how to get involved promoting this issue.

The EPA is also working on a rule that will limit mercury and air toxins for boilers.  This standard is more complicated so they are reviewing this rule further internally, before proposing it.  When it is announced, it will need our support too.

There is a huge amount of corporate money opposing these rules and it will take the voices of individuals in our country being heard supporting these rules for them to go forward. 

Environmentalism isn't a spectator sport.  You actually have to stand up and demand that we be vigilant in protecting our air and water.
Lisa Jackson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Show your support by contacting the EPA to show your support on these rules.   Our government is for the people and by the people so please help us make sure it hears the people.

Go to Mom's Clean Air Force to let your voice be heard on this vital matter!

Happy Greening,
Alicia

Congratulations to Julie L. on winning a Green Garmento

Congratulations to Julie L. who we randomly selected from the entries to receive a Green Garmento (in Burgundy of course)!

Burgundy Bliss from Green Garmento

We'd like to say a special thank you to Green Garmento who made this giveaway possible and for making a reusable dry cleaning bag that does so much more. As they say "Be fantastic...use less plastic!"

Happy Green Dry Cleaning!
Jon & Alicia

Packing Disposable-Free Kids Lunches - Including Fruit Cups

When our kids started attending daycare a few years ago, they needed a lunch packed for them every day, and so started our daily need to pack lunches for two children.  At first, as for many people,  this meant the daily use and disposal of items like fruit cups, juice pouches or boxes, sandwich bags, paper or plastic cups, napkins, etc...

2 Disposable-Free Kids Lunches

In retrospect, in the daycare days I had it easy because they provided the kids with morning snack and drinks.  Of course, they still used the disposable cups and paper towels and napkins. (By the time our children started kindergarten our daycare had started using completely reusable dishes, silverware and cups, but that's for a different post.)  Now that our twins are in elementary school, I have to pack lunch and snack, and the school does not provide them with anything (unless they buy lunch).   While this more work for me, it also provides more chances to skip the disposable stuff.

While we occasionally fall back to the the stand-by of a one time use juice pouch (which we upcycle through TerraCycle) or juice box (which we recycle through our city's single stream recycling) we try to use as few disposable items as possible. Our kids even collect the juice pouches and boxes from their classmates, bringing them home to recycle them. (We provide them with ziptop bags that we wash and reuse to carry the containers home.  Note, the zipper style work best for young kids enabling them to close it reliably and avoid leaks.)

Today, I sent them to school with a completely reusable lunch and snack consisting of:

Lunch

• Pasta (with spaghetti sauce for one, olive oil and Parmesan cheese for the other)
• Fruit Cups
• Milk

Snack

• Carrots
• Water for one, Lemonade for the other

Two tricks to packing a disposable-free lunch that I used today are Jars of Fruit and Contigo AutoSeal Kids Cups.

Fruit from jars for
custom fruit cups

Fruit cups have always been a favorite of my kids, and we used to buy flats of them and send them in every day.  We eventually trained their teachers to let them bring home the empty cups for reusing or recycling, but that still felt wasteful.  We avoided making our own fruit cups for quite a while because of concerns surrounding BPA in the can linings. We tried, but we just don't have time to be cutting up and preparing fresh fruit every day.   Then we discovered jarred fruit at our local store.  Now we can make up our own fruit cups in a cost & time effective easy way, that is BPA free.  Today's fruit cup included peaches and mandarin oranges.

Contigo AutoSeal Kids Cups

Contigo AutoSeal Kids Cups have been wonderful and deserve their own post.  For a while we were reusing milk containers with screw cap lids that we picked up on road trips. We would run them through the dishwasher and put fresh milk in them.  Unfortunately, we had a few too many milk leaks in the back packs, so we had gone back to juice boxes & pouches.  Because we really felt that single use containers (even if they are recycled or Terracycled) are wasteful - and expensive - we bought a pair of Contigo autoseal kids cups after having a wonderful experience with their no spill travel mugs for coffee.  We got the 9oz model because they were smaller and our kids don't need that much to drink with their lunch or snack.  We have been using them daily in their lunches for over a month with no leaks plus they are dishwasher safe.  Another tip for these (or any) kids cups, you don't have to fill them all the way if your son or daughter isn't drinking it all every day.

So, today was a successful disposable-free lunch packing day.  And don't forget to include the reusable cloth napkin and silverware (if needed for something like pasta).

Happy Greening!
Jon

p.s. from Alicia - Yes, Jon really packs all the kids' lunches and snacks in our house!

Greening Your Drycleaning - the Green Garmento - Giveaway

Do you do a lot of dry cleaning?   The most "Green" thing to do if you do a lot of dry cleaning is to stop.  However,  if you have a very formal workplace and wear suits a lot,  that's probably just not possible.   In that case, my suggestion is to find a green dry cleaner.  The EPA recommends that you find a "wetcleaner."

When you take your clothes to the dry cleaner, or the wet cleaner,  odds are they send them home in a plastic bag.   Ewww!   The Green Garmento  is an eco-friendly alternative to the single-use plastic dry cleaning bags.  And it is much more.

Green Garmento - available in Orange,
Burgundy, Blue, Red, Green & Black

The Green Garmento is also a laundry bag, a hamper, a duffle bag and a garment bag - that you can use to bring your clothes home from the dry cleaner without the plastic.

Green Garmento brought their new idea for cutting down on plastic dry cleaning bags to our attention and sent us a pair to try out.  Now they have offered one to giveaway to our readers.

We tried out the Green Garmento for our own dry cleaning and while we couldn't avoid the plastic bag completely we think this bag is a great idea.  Our dry cleaner sends the dry cleaning offsite and was concerned that their service would lose our bag.  Fortunately, they were happy to the transfer our clothes to the Green Garmento when we picked them up and recycle the plastic dry cleaner bag.

We have found the Green Garmento very helpful for traveling as a simple garment bag and love the hanging hamper functionality to collect our dry cleaning in as we do not dry clean our clothes frequently.

Now they are going to send one to one of our lucky readers!
To enter,  fill out the form below with your favorite Green Garmento color between now and midnight EDT on Friday, May 13, 2011.

For an additional entry, "like" us on Facebook, then come back to this page and fill out the form selecting "Like on Facebook"

For a third entry,  use a the subscribe box on the left to subscribe to our blog via email (note that you will be sent a confirmation email and you MUST click on the confirmation email to be subscribed).  Then come back and fill out the form again and mark "I subscribe via email."

Maximum of 3 entries per person.

We will use a random number generator to choose the winner. We will only use your email address to let the winner know and arrange to get your Green Garmento to you. You will only receive future emails from us if you fill out the form to the left to subscribe to blog posts. If you have trouble filling out the form below, please email us at info@greenlifestyleconsulting.com.

Good Luck and Happy Greening!

Congratulations to Julie L. for winning a Green Garmento!

My Mother's Day Wish For My Children

A gift from my daughter

This afternoon when I picked my daughter up from school she handed me a craft she had made and said "Here, this is your Mother's Day Gift.  I don't know when Mother's Day is, so I'm giving it to you now."  She is 6 years old.  How sweet is that?   Every year someone has helped my children create some sort of Mother's Day gift for me and as much as I rant and rave about wanting less stuff, I always keep their Mother's Day gifts to me. 

What do I want for my children?   If I could give them anything in the world for Mother's Day, I would give them a planet with clean air and without global warming.

I would give them a planet where the polar ice caps weren't melting, where animal habitats weren't vanishing and where 100 year and 1000 year storms weren't coming two and three times a year.

I would give them a planet where you could swim in every river and pond, where you could drink the spring water in my grandmother's town and where children didn't get asthma and respiratory diseases just from breathing the air where they live.

I would give them a planet where all the food they eat is free of pesticides, artificial hormones and antibiotics.

I would give them a planet where I know they are becoming the best they can be and not wondering if they'd be a little smarter, a little brighter if only they hadn't been exposed to BPA, phthalates, mercury and other toxins as a fetus and infant. 

I would give them a planet where we didn't have to worry about our health, our environment and our impact all the time. 

I would give them a planet where kids could just be kids and adults could do what makes them happy and live in peace with one another.

What am I giving my children for Mother's Day?  I'm giving them an education on how to make the world a better place.  I'm working hard to keep toxins out of their food and air.  I'm sharing information and trying to influence others so that maybe, just maybe, my grandchildren can live in the world that I wish for my children.

Happy Mothers Day!
Alicia

What can you do to give our children and grandchildren this world?  Start here by submitting a public comment to the EPA on the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics rule. 

Then browse  our "With Kids" tab for ideas on how to include your children in going green and contributing to making this a better world for everyone.

This post is part of the MCAF Blog Carnival: A Mother’s Day Gift

The Family Garden: A Different Mindset

Are you an ardent gardener and now that you have children, you have a hard time squeezing in time to work on your garden? Are you new to gardening, but you think you just can't possibly get started with young children? Perhaps you don't have children yet and this is just one more place where you think they might interfere with your hobbies and interests?

Consider the Family Garden. This is the idea where you incorporate children into every aspect of your garden. With this mindset your garden might not be as organized as you might like, or you might not put each plant in the perfect location. However, I guarantee that you will be more satisfied and your children will learn more from your garden if you involve them in the entire process.

Some people might think this is obvious "of course I let my children help in the garden" but I have watched many people who tell their children to stay out of the garden, who send them off to play elsewhere and just don't include them. Often this is because they are afraid that the children "might not do it right", or they might compact the dirt or step on a plant or heavens-forbid, pull up a tender seedling instead of a weed!

I think it's important to let go of a little control, accept that your garden might not be exactly perfect, and let them help out.

This year I took my toddler and first-graders out with me when I started to turn over the dirt, pull out the weeds that had started with the first melting snow and started laying out my garden. I encouraged them to help me dig. I turn over the dirt & weeds with my big shovel. Then I use my hands to pull out the weeds by the roots and my toddler and older children gather the rocks that come out and put them in a bucket. Shovel by shovel we are working the ground together, getting it ready for seeds. My toddler has enjoyed it so much that every day, rain or shine I hear "Dirt! Dirt! Outside!" The first thing he does when I let him out back is run for the garden, grab a shovel and start moving things around. Of course right now only a very small amount of the garden is planted, so I have to work up a plan for when I don't really want him digging everywhere.

Right now my plan for controlling his digging is threefold: 1. I let him dig where he wants now. 2. He helps me plant seeds, and I explain that we can't dig up the seeds. 3. I will keep a part of the garden (the shadiest part) for him to continue to dig in all summer. If worse comes to worse, there may be a point when I resort to fencing. I usually use some amount of fencing as support for plants like my tomatoes anyhow, so it might just work its way in.

I'm also trying to include my daughter more fully in gardening this year. She's in first grade and quite smart (if I do say so myself). This year, instead of just talking to Jon about where everything should go in the garden, I decided to discuss it with Ellie. I talked to her about what needs a lot of sun, and what can do with less and then which parts of the garden are the sunniest. Then we talked about how the carrots were easy for little kids to pick last year because they were right near the edge and that was a good location. Next month when it's time to put in tomatoes I'll talk to her about the idea that some plants do well next to each other and others need to be further apart - for example, tomatoes and basil do very well together, but it's good to keep your peppers farther away from the tomatoes. After discussing these things, I let her pick where we should put the lettuce and carrots. I picked where to put the snap peas - I wanted to try a new location, so I explained to her why we planted them where we did (they're going to grow up a string trellis between two support of our solar awning!)

I realize that letting a first grader decide where we put the various plants might not result in the "perfect" locations, but including her like this really makes her feel a lot more invested in the garden. Who knows, maybe we'll find a better layout than we've had previously.

These are the first things that we're doing to make our garden a "family garden" this year. How are you including your whole family when you garden?

Happy Greening!
Alicia

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