What Ingredients Are in Your “Organic” Products?
January 3, 2009 by boygreen · Leave a Comment
Organic labels on personal care products can be deceiving. Due to a lack of proper regulation of personal care product labeling, products can have the word organic in their brand or product name, but unless the product is USDA Certified organic, you may not be getting what you paid for.
A recent study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association showed a number of personal care products labeled “organic” contained a carcinogenic chemical, and many so-called organic products contain conventional petrochemical cleaning agents.
Read more on ingredients to watch out for, culprit brands, and the ongoing legal battle on the Organic Consumers Association website.
Trick-or-Treating Green
October 6, 2008 by momgreen · Leave a Comment
Halloween is approaching. Go green for halloween this year. Here are some ideas:
- Hand out organic candy or healthy snacks like trail mix.
- Trick-or-Treat for your local food bank: Accompany your kids (in costume, of course!) and ask your neighbors to donate a canned or non-perishable food item for the bank. Try organizing a community-wide effort by asking everyone in your neighborhood to do the same, and compete to see who can bring in the most food donations.
- Host a costume exchange party. Get together with your friends pre-halloween and exchange kids’ costumes rather than purchasing new ones.
- Make costumes and decorations from used or recycled materials and save them for next year.
- Participate in reverse trick-or-treating. Hand fair trade chocolate back to your neighbors along with a card explaining the social and environmental issues in the cocoa industry, including abusive child labor. More information is available at www.reversetrickortreating.org.
Tesla Roadster: World’s Fastest Golf Cart?
September 29, 2008 by boygreen · Leave a Comment
The Tesla Roadster, now in production, is a serious sports car. It is also seriously green. As a sports car, the statistics are stunning. Since it is based on the Lotus Elise, it’s pedigree is not in question. It will do 0-60 in under 4 seconds and handles with a nimbleness unmatched by anything but a go-cart.
You can’t get much greener than 100% electric. No generators, no gasoline of any kind, and the recyclable batteries will last for 100,000 miles. This makes it the only 100% fossil fuel-free production automobile currently available throughout the US.
All of this sportiness and “greenness” is not without compromise. Since it is based on the diminutive Lotus, it lacks many creature comforts, passenger space and luggage space. Most people drive places alone so this probably isn’t a huge problem, especially for commuters. Since it is a plug-in electric, the source of the power that it plugs in to may or may not be green. The car’s “greenness” is also slightly compromised by the fact that many of the materials and components used in the production of the vehicle still leave a significant carbon footprint. But you can’t win ‘em all.
Changing Nailpolish Colors
September 27, 2008 by girlgreen · Leave a Comment
I rarely wear nailpolish on my fingernails, but living in a warm climate where flip-flops are a year round standard, my toes are always coated in a glossy shade. Until recently, most brands of nailpolish contained formaldehyde, toluene, and DBP, chemicals that can be harmful to your health.
New Nic’s Sticks from Nicole by OPI add a green twist to nail polish. DBP, toluene and formaldehyde-free, these cool new pumps elimate the goopy bottle and potential spills. The nail polish is in a pump with a brush on the end - you just pump it out into the brush and apply. My favorite shades are date night and home by midnight. OPI doesn’t test on animals.
Revlon also offers DBP, toluene and formaldehyde-free nail polish, and the company is also cruelty-free according to CaringConsumer.com.
Greening the Cleaning
September 26, 2008 by momgreen · Leave a Comment
I’ve been trying out some of the new products from Clorox® Green Works™
The Green Works™ All Purpose Cleaner does a great job on every type of flooring I’ve tried it on. I especially like using it on the bamboo floors. I’ve had a really hard time cleaning the bamboo without leaving streaks or residue, and this product is excellent in that department. I used a mop and added some of the concentrate to a bucket of warm water. Th cleaner did foam up on the floors and I thought for sure it would look terrible, but once it dried, the floors were perfectly streak-free and didn’t have any sign of cloudy residue on them. They look great.
I’m also a big fan of Method
A Bright Idea: Compact Florescent Light Bulbs
September 23, 2008 by boygreen · Leave a Comment
EnergyStar® qualified compact florescent light bulbs use up to 75% less energy than traditional incandescent, or normal, light bulbs. According to energystar.gov, if every home in America changed out just one regular light bulb for a compact florescent bulb, it would save enough energy in one year to to equal the amount of energy used to light over 3 million homes.
Read more
Green Your Shampoo
September 23, 2008 by girlgreen · Leave a Comment
So by now you’ve figured out the boygreen team is going green. Once you start moving in the green direction, it seems like you have to keep breaking old habits at every turn. I’ve been using the same shampoo for years, a cheap “grocery” brand that my hairstylist chastises me for using at each visit. Shampoo is shampoo, right?
Well, apparently not. My stylist said that a lot of cheap shampoos contain chemicals that temporarily smooth or add shine, but actually damage your hair in the long run. The artificial chemicals are cheaper than all-natural ingredients, hence, you get what you pay for when you buy cheap shampoo. Still not convinced as to whether she was just trying to make a sale or really knew what she was talking about, I did some research on my own.
Surprisingly, there is a long list of chemicals on that bottle of my old favorite shampoo, most of which I can’t pronounce. I googled some of them, and here’s what I found:
- Ammonium Laureth Sulfate: Can irritate skin, may damage hair.
- Disodium EDTA: A penetration enhancer that alters skin structure to allow other chemicals to penetrate into the skin.
- Methylisothiazolinone: According to Wikipedia, recent studies show this may be a neurotoxin.
The realization finally sunk in - chemicals in soaps, shampoos, lotions and other things you put on your skin or scalp can absorb into your body. Who knows what these chemicals do to you, so my new household rule is if you don’t know what’s in it, don’t use it. This is proving to be much more difficult than I expected!
One thing I have determined is that I love anything by Aubrey Organics. I have wavy hair that tends to frizz, and the White Camillia Conditioner is great. It smooths the frizz and my hair feels much softer, even after just a few weeks. I’ve been using it with the Rosa Mosqueta Shampoo, which smells great. The best part is that the ingredient list is simple, just herbs and natural things, so I feel good about using it. The company is also cruelty-free, not testing it’s products on animals.