If you wish to lower the amount of damage that your household does to the environment each month, you should consider investing in natural cleaning products. These products use only natural ingredients, ranging from citrus to coconut and herbs, to do the same job that bleach and caustic chemicals do. As the chemicals are not harsh, natural cleaning products are usually softer on the skin and do not cause agitation to the throat, eyes and nose when used. There is also only minor price differences between natural cleaning products and the harsher, non friendly chemicals that are typically found in retail stores.

When you purchase green cleaning products, you should evaluate the chemicals you currently use frequently and exchange those for natural products first. This will give you a better idea of how well the products work. Once you have used natural cleaning products, you may want to go a step further and replace your appliances with low energy ones, or use natural hair care products and organic foods.

It is important to realize that natural cleaning products are not necessarily non-toxic to humans. Many oils, herbs and other essences used in natural cleaning products can cause unpleasant problems for people if they are consumed. Natural and environmentally friendly mean that they do not cause harm to the environment. When you purchase and use natural cleaning products, you should follow the directions on the label carefully. This will ensure that you protect your family and pets from accidental poisoning. Most natural cleaning products are a lot less toxic to use than caustics and bleach, so they will not damage or burn your skin from handling them.

Once you have used your natural cleaning products, it is important that you participate in recycling programs to get rid of the empty containers. Recycling is a big part of making sure that you do as little damage to the environment as possible. Many producers of natural cleaning products will only use recyclable containers to help ensure that their products do not destroy the environment after cleaning agents have been used up. Some manufacturers will only use biodegradable containers in the case of powdered natural cleaning products. Liquid natural cleaning products may use either glass or recycled plastic containers.

If you wish to purchase natural cleaning products, you can place your order online or find them at specialized local retailers. Many natural cleaning products produced also participate in Fair Trade programs.

Timothy Greensland
organic cleaning products

Odoban Earth Choice Organic Acid Shower Cleaner 1 Gal    US $29.99

Sunshine Makers Simple Green Glass Cleaner Concentrate Organic Ingredients    US $27.80

NEW Toilet Bowl Cleaner Removes Organic Waste Lave    US $26.06

Bio Mop Bacterial Cleaner of Organic Matter 1 Gallon    US $30.95

All Natural Organic no bleach no scrub Mold and Mildew Cleaner one Gallon    US $49.94

Patented EPA Approved Organic All Natural Mold Cleaner Preventor 4 OZ Tria    US $12.96

If you live in a "typical" American home, there is a good chance that you have a good collection of household cleaners under your sink and in your garage that contain toxic chemicals that can possibly damage human health and the environment. Compounds such as chlorine and ammonia as well as petroleum-based surfactants and sudsing agents can be harmful to the soil, water, air, and our bodies, and are found in common store-bought cleaners, de-greasers, detergents and anti-bacterial products.

Risks to health are widely varied and include hormone disruption and reproductive harm, asthma and respiratory damage, skin damage and allergic reactions, neurological damage, and damage to internal organs. Risks to the environment include harm to soil and water quality, harm to aquatic life, and even chemical accumulation in the food chain resulting in more risk to human health. Household cleaners are also a source of contamination of indoor air. By reducing or eliminating our use of toxic cleaning supplies, and by replacing them with eco-friendly products, you can lower the danger to the environment and to your family. In addition, by being aware of packaging waste, and taking reusable shopping bags to the store when shopping for these alternatives, you can also help lower pollution created by the manufacture and use of plastics.

Recently, there has been some news about anti-bacterial soaps and their potential negative impact on health and the environment. Many anti-bacterial preparations contain triclosan, which can interact with chlorine and sunlight to create dioxin, which in turn can accumulate in the food chain. Dioxin is also linked to certain cancers and is known to cause reproduction problems in many animals. Your tap water source may be treated with chlorine, so any time you wash with anti-bacterial soap, the potential for dioxin to form exists. How does it get into the environment, then? Dioxin persists in water sources and in the in soil when sludge from wastewater treatment plants is applied as fertilizer. Water ecosystems are also affected because dioxin is highly toxic to algae, upon which those ecosystems depend in order to sustain life. Furthermore, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control (USCDC), we are not protected any better by using anti-bacterial agents than by simple good hand-washing with soap and warm water. In fact, we may be doing ourselves more harm than good in using them. Many experts are sounding the alarm that excessive use of anti-bacterial products not only keeps our own immune systems from being stimulated to fight diseases, but is also allowing bacteria that can survive the anti-bacterial ingredients to actually thrive.

Another group of harmful chemicals that are common in cleaners are phosphates. Used to boost the effectiveness of certain detergents, as well as being in many lawn fertilizer formulas, phosphates lead to algae blooms when they end up in fresh water sources. In turn, algae blooms lead to eutrophication, meaning the water source is deprived of oxygen. This threatens the survival of many aquatic organisms, and even causes the water to become unfit for drinking, not to mention unfit for recreational activities such as swimming. Care should be taken to avoid products containing phosphates, even if you live miles away from any fresh water source. If you wash your car in your driveway or fertilize your lawn, runoff that contains phosphates can end up in those fresh water sources.

The easiest way for consumers to limit damage to health and the environment is to buy green products that are free of the harmful chemicals mentioned above. While manufacturers are not required to disclose all of the ingredients in their formulas, some product labels will state that they are “phosphate free” or “vegetable-based” (rather than petroleum-based), which makes it easier to choose an ecologically sound product. You can find a database of product ingredients on the Department of Health and Human Services website that includes their potential effect on health. A quick web search will also yield many recipes for do-it-yourself cleaners which use mild and inexpensive ingredients such as castile soap and borax, and even common kitchen items such as baking soda, vinegar, and lemon juice.

The next time you are at the store with your reusable shopping bag, load it full of eco-safe cleaners! But remember to contact your local government entity for advice on how to dispose of the toxic ones safely.

In one day, more water is produced by the melting of the Trotting Glacier than the population of New York City uses in one year; this glacier has receded 9 miles in just 5 years. Proof can be found in the ice core records that provide CO2 and temperature levels as long ago as 650,000 years. Each fume from a smoke stack and combustion engine output contributes to the seventy million tons of CO2 that people release into the air every day. Making an effort to significantly reduce our CO2 levels is the only hope for reducing its impact.

About one third of a family’s energy budget is used for heating water for normal use.

The utility companies supply the gas or electricity to heat the water for baths, showers, washing clothing, and many other things. In any case, these resources used to make this gas or electricity are becoming increasingly harder to locate, as they cannot be replenished and more natural resources are used up. This makes it hard for the typical household client with electric and water bills that keep on increasing at very high figures. As carbon-based fuels get harder and harder to locate and extract, this will only continue. Using a solar panel is a good way to heat water and has had success for close to a hundred years now.

The easier method of solar energy use available today is water heating through solar electricity. It is just a method of using the thermal rays from the sun and putting them in the water.

The solar panel is called the flat plate collector and batch collector systems. Flat plate collectors are simply a chain of pipes that are placed in part of the home where there's direct daylight (sometimes a southward-facing and fitted to the roof). Water comes through the pipes and the sun heats it up without any chemicals. The pipes are constructed to soak up the most heat from the sun.

A solar panel batch collector system is a water tank which has been changed to get the maximum out of the sun's energy. This includes black surfaces that absorb the thermal energy. Surfaces of black that absorb thermal energy are included. Close to the home, and in an area that receives a lot of direct sunlight, is where the tank is located. The water supplied by either of these systems can then be used in the regular plumbing system of the house where it may be employed for common-or-garden use like showers, washing up the dishes and cooking. The upkeep cost is minimal and the system will last about ten to twenty-five years, although the purchase and installation cost of each system is expensive.

It could take 5 to 7 years for you to recoup your money on purchase and installation, depending upon the amount of hot water you use and how effective your house is in storing hot water. You would also be doing your bit in reducing the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Just to mention a few of the advantages and disadvantages of solar power.

Precisely who is the government trying to protect by suing a small Kansas meatpacker in order to prevent them from testing all of their cattle for BSE aka Mad Cow Disease, rather than the pitiful sub-1% level currently required?

For some reason, I don't think it's me or my family...

One area I'd love to lighten up on would be our family's food budget, both in the area of environmental impact as well as dollars spent if possible. After all, who wouldn't like to save a little money? Even though we live in the breadbasket of America with possibly the greatest concentration of agriculture in the world, it's a lot more difficult to eat locally than you would ever think.

Oh, sure, locally raised beef / pork / chicken is everywhere (especially the first two). But there's only so much meat you can eat before you, well, die. Try to find any local vegetables outside of onions, tomatoes, or sweet corn (bleh), and the pickings are slim indeed. Even hitting the local farmers market doesn't yield much more: red and white onions, maybe a couple varieties of tomatoes, soon enough all the god awful sweet corn you can stand; if I'm lucky, some carrots or cucumbers of maybe even a green pepper or two might make an appearance. Heck, if I'd stumble on some asparagus or broccoli or salad greens or even garlic, I'd wonder if I was in the right place. No doubt my experience is tied to the quality of my particular farmers market (because I've been to many that are excellent; just not our local one ), so all you farmers market proponents out there can relax!

I'd love to get a local CSA subscription. But the closest ones I've been able to find leaves us quite a distance outside their delivery range. And far enough away that driving to pick up weekly deliveries makes no economic sense.

I'm personally looking forward to setting up our own garden - I've got too many ideas for what I'd like to attempt - once we settle a bit more at our new home. But considering that it's almost June already(!), I'm not sure there is time this year to plant all that much. But future years will certainly see quite a bit of very local produce!

So I am a little bummed that I can't pull something off like Rebecca Blood with her Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget series - Nebraska just ain't California, I'm afraid. Our little family of three will just have to continue to spend a fairly ridiculous amount to eat. We go out of our way to avoid as much overprocessed food as possible, and unless I'm missing out on some cost savings that haven't occurred to me, eating healthy is expensive.

I see via Lighter Footsteps that this week is National Vegetarian Week. When I first saw the headline I thought someone was taking a page from the Buy Nothing Day book by scheduling it during an especially meat-centric time: the opening of the grilling season AKA Memorial Day (Yes, I know that that is not the purpose of the day! Yet, many many grills will be making an appearance that day...). But I see the Vegetarian Society is UK-based, so I'll excuse them from fighting the uphill battle here in the U.S.

Nevertheless, in the spirit of the week, I am going to be bringing a few extra veggies to any get-togethers I hit this weekend.

And I don't just mean ketchup...

I'm not a big fan of PETA (don't care much for their methodology) nor Burger King (their food is just awful for you -- some day take a look at their menu's nutritional info and be disgusted), and it is exceedingly rare that they agree on just about anything.

But over the weekend, I read that BK is planning to show preference for cage-free agriculture methods in it's purchasing decisions which, as a softie, pleases me. Large corporate farm methods may produce food that is cheap and plentiful (at least here in the US), but knowing they way my food was treated before it becomes my food sometimes has me considering going vegetarian.

So kudos BK, for at least using a bit of your marketing muscle to make what I would consider a positive impact. Nevertheless, I still won't be eating there any time soon. And the King, well, he still creeps me out...

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