GreenBrig

The makers of Shout, Scrubbing Bubbles and Windex are now introducing their new Green line of cleaning products called Nature’s Source. Since they are made of 99% natural material, the only thing that is left behind is the clean scent. This is a great alternative without sacrificing the power of cleaning products that come from S.C. Johnson.

Green products from the beginning to end

S.C. Johnson has always focused on the environment, even before it was required by law. They removed CFC propellants from aerosol cans before it was required by law. They even started using renewable energy sources to run their plant. Their ‘Greenlist’ process indicates the environmental impacts for 95% of the raw materials they use, such as -solvents, propellants, insecticides, packaging and more. Also all of their Nature’s Source cleaning bottles are recyclable.

Nature’s Source Products

There is no industry standard on what is called “Natural”, hence S.C. Johnson has made sure that at least 99% of their ingredients come from the nature or be derived from natural sources. The only parts that are not natural are the fragrances, dyes, stabilizers and preservatives. And best of all their products all are Kosher certified. These natural products get the same job done as their non-natural partners do but are bio-degradable as well.

Some of the natural cleaning products that they carry are:

• Windex® Nature’s Source® Glass Cleaner
• Scrubbing Bubbles® Nature’s Source® All Purpose Cleaner
• Scrubbing Bubbles® Nature’s Source® Bathroom Cleaner
• Scrubbing Bubbles® Nature’s Source® Toilet Bowl Cleaner
• Shout® Nature’s Source® Laundry Stain Remover

Note: All of the products above contain more than 99 percent natural and naturally derived ingredients.

You can find most of these products in your local grocery store. Most of them run from about $5, but you can find better deals on Nature’s Source cleaning products at Amazon.com also.

Give it a try, and hopefully you will love the results.

The Congo cutting board made by Totally Bamboo is meant for the environmentally conscious consumer. Handcrafted using cured, flat strips of bamboo that are bonded together using formaldehyde-free glue developed specially for cooking utensils. Bamboo is a fast growing, renewable resource which grows to harvesting size within 3-5 years, making bamboo the environmentally friendly choice for making cookware.

Bamboo Cutting Board Product Review

The Totally Bamboo Congo model cutting board features strips of bamboo laid in end-grain fashion and arranged in alternating directions to produce a visually appealing parquet pattern. Bamboo is also harder than maple wood and are therefore perfectly suited for making cutting boards, and will not absorb water or stain. Measuring 17-1/4 by 13-3/4 by 1 inch, the Totally Bamboo Congo cutting board is sized to be manageable for the average user, but also large enough to be used for preparing most dishes. The Totally Bamboo cutting boards do not dull knives easily, while resisting marking relatively well even after prolonged use.

Bamboo Cutting Board Warping

Care is simple with the durable Congo bamboo cutting board requiring only light washing with soapy water after use, and the occasional wipe with mineral oil. Users of bamboo cookware have recommended oiling them with mineral oil immediately upon purchase until they will absorb no more oil. This appears to help prevent warping which has been a minor problem with bamboo cutting boards. The Totally Bamboo Congo cutting boards appear to be fairly stable for everyday use even though they may warp slightly.

The durable end-grain bamboo construction makes the Congo cutting boards long lasting alternatives to traditional wood or plastic cutting boards. The fact that the Totally Bamboo Congo cutting boards do not mark easily and come in a visually appealing design also means that you can leaven them on the countertop without feeling guilty.

There is the ever lasting debate over whether cloth diapers are greener than disposable diapers. After reviewing the study done by a UK government environment Agency in 2005, they have published that niether is better than the other. Cloth diapers use more water, energy and detergents to clean them, where as the disposable diapers add on to the solid wastes ending up in landfills. I personally think disposable diapers are convenient and a new parents best friend, but cloth diapers are reusable and you can use a bio-degradable detergent to wash them. In some third world countries, they don’t even have disposable diapers available and all they use are cloth diapers. So if you have the time and energy to use cloth diapers, do use them. I definitely believe in the long run, they are greener than disposable diapers. If your not one of them, and want to use a disposable diaper, read on and learn that Huggies is trying to become more green.

Landfills and Waste Managment

Yes, disposable diapers are ending up in our landfills nationwide, but according to the US EPA, diapers only account for 1.5% of the solid waste in the landfills. Eventhough, it is such a small percentage, Huggies has been trying to improve their diapers by reducing the weight and material in each diaper without compromising performance. This means there is less space being taken up in trucks that deliver them to the store, and less in our landfills, but most of all babies feel more comfort.

You might think a bio-degradable diaper might be better, but only if they end up in a place where there is air and water to decompose it. Most landfills have air and water restricted to the area and sealed from the environment. They are buried and their methane gas is captured to generate energy. Huggies uses this energy in one of their facilities.

Future

Huggies has been researching on making their diapers better without adding material but actually subtracting. There is an on-going effort to reduce the energy  spent on producing diapers and reduce their release of Carbon Dioxide.

They are taking steps to getting only Natural sustainable wood pulp for their diapers. Suppliers are encouraged to practice sustainable forest management and are certified their forests and fiber.

Step by step, the next generation will become to be know as the green generation. From the diapers they wear, we are setting up the next generation to be more conscience and aware of where everything comes and ends up at.

Sunshine Maker’s Simple Green All purpose Cleaners has got more than just a fresh Green Apple smell. They have been recognized by Good Housekeeping Magazine also. With so many “Green” cleaners coming into the market, this product has stood the test of time. They have been around for over 30 years now and have always wanted to focus on being environmentally friendly. Their products are made of non-toxic, bio-degradable, non-flammable, and non-abrasive formulas. Bottom line, their product works, and millions of consumers stand by it. Even their plastic bottles are made PETE spray bottles (Polyethylene Terephthalate) or HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) drums. This means both are 99.9% recyclable and they use recycled material to begin with.

House-hold Product Uses

Some of the well known products from Simple Green are the All purpose Cleaners that is widely available in your local grocery stores. But the other products range from Pet Stain Cleaners to Degreasers. They offer customized cleaners for each occasion, but according to Amazon.com reviews of their cleaners, looks like the all purpose cleaners takes care of most of the everyday mess that needs cleaning up. I’ve never used it, but after buying 15 different cleaners to clean the house, this product seems it’s economical and would get the job done on the first try.

They can get the job done in your:

• Kitchen & Bath
• Kids
• Pets
• Laundry
• Outdoors
• Garage & Car
• Floors & Carpet

Best of all, most of them only cost about $5.99 for a 32 oz bottle and you can dilute them to make gallons of cleaning liquid. This means you don’t need to buy many bottles of this product, but only one for a very long time and it means you are saving money and throwing away less plastic bottles.

All Natural Simple Green Cleaners

Simple Green Naturals are 100% naturally derived, with ingredients from nature: chicory, coconut, corn, palm, naturally occurring minerals, salt and sugar, and water. Even though their products are 100% natural, they have not lost their greasing fight powers. They still get the job done. Even their labels are made of soy products and the bottles are 100% recyclable.

So next time your in the store, pickup that Simple Green product and give it a try. I’m sure you will love it and be satisfied with what it’s made off.

Green Numbers – a series of posts presenting facts and figures relevant to the environmentally conscious consumer.

• One-fifth of the average US household electricity consumption is used for electronic devices.
• 40 percent of the energy used for home electronic devices is used while they are turned off.
• 85 percent of the $250 billion spent worldwide on powering personal computers is wasted in standby mode.
• 1 million megawatt-hours of power that would be saved annually in the US by energy-efficient battery chargers.
• 90 percent less energy is used by laptops than desktop computers.
• 49 percent of the energy used by the average household is utilized for heating and cooling rooms.
• A quarter of the heat loss from a house can be caused by improperly sealed windows.
• $13 billion in energy costs is wasted annually in American homes as heat escaping through cracks and leaks.
• 70 percent more electricity is used by a refrigerator manufactured 20 years ago compared to one made today.
• 2 times more electricity is used to wash clothes using water at 140 degrees F than at 104 degrees F.

DISCLAIMER – GreenBrig.com does not guarantee the accuracy of the statistics presented on this page, nor does it recommend or endorse any particular use of this information.

From the time you are born, you are surrounded by electronics that need batteries. No matter what the gadget, they all need to be powered by either a battery or a power cord. I personally think that using a power cord is better for the environment since it uses energy from either a Nuclear Power Plant or Coal Power Plant. Also using a power cord, the strength of a charge is stronger. If the gadget needs a battery, then it probably is one of many types of batteries. So first of all you have to buy that particular type and size of battery and make sure you have enough for the life of the product. Second, if they are not rechargeable you need to find a way to dispose of them, since the compounds in the dead battery can leech into the earth and cause harm.

Rechargeable Batteries

Buying a rechargeable battery can save the earth and money for you in the long run, especially the gadgets that drain the energy very fast. Also you should find out if the product takes rechargeable batteries, since some electronic toothbrushes die once the battery loses power. You wouldn’t be able to replace the battery in those types of devices. So before you buy the product, make sure it will make sense in the long-run.

To further benefit from the rechargeable batteries, buy an Energy Star device with Smart chargers. These chargers stop charging the batteries once it if fully charged and in other instance charge faster than the normal chargers. This can potential save about 4 million tons of greenhouse gases in a year.

Stretching your Dollar

To make sure your getting the most value for your dollar, buy a rechargeable battery with the charger combined. Places like Sam’s Club, sell the charging device with couple of different types of batteries. This way you won’t waste your time shopping around for a compatible device with the battery size.

It is also key to not have the charger plugged in all the time. To maximize the life of the battery, only charge the battery onces it’s dead or dieing. This way you will be able to take full advantage of the recharge. Also using a power-strip to charge the batteries or gadgets can save you money, since you can cut off the charge with one switch. If they are all charged at off peak hours, like after you go to sleep, you can save some money too.

Disposing of Batteries

After the life of the battery, it is very important to dispose them properly. There are many retailers that take in batteries almost free of charge. Give them a try for your home or office needs. Even though it is only required in California to recycle the Alkaline Batteries to be recycled, it is very important that all the other states follow.

Please do the right thing, since the number of electronic gadgets with batteries will only continue to increase for generations to follow.

Who likes junk mail? No one, except the people who are sending it to you. Everyday I get junk mail, but I do try to throw it into the recycling bin. But half the damage is already done by printing and mailing it all over the country. If we can minimize the number of these ads being printed, I think we can reduce our Carbon foot print.
If you are using these mailers to find good deals, then fine. There are useful coupons and flyers that might save you a buck or two. But if you have a computer at home, you can mostly find all those coupons online. All those companies have websites with printable coupons, or better you can load them on to your local grocery store loyalty cards. This way you don’t need to feel embarrassed about going thru you envelopes of coupons and checking expiration dates. You get the discount as soon as you swipe you loyalty card and you buy the advertised products.
Now back to junk mail – there are many ways to stop junk mail and not just those coupons but also credit card offers that many times can have harmful information if the wrong person gets a hold of it. This website gives you many ways to get onto “Stop Mailing” lists and turning off paper bills.
http://green.yahoo.com/living-green/stopping-junk-mail.html

Also another key point is that if you stop paper statements and change them into email notifications, some companies even give you discounts (at least for a couple of months). I personally like email and online statements since I can compare and find old archived statements. A lot of time I get the statement and I file it away, only to not be able to find it later. This is especially helpful if you are moving or filing legal documents.

Try these little tricks out and hopefully your world will get a little less messy.

The store brand line for Whole Foods is called 365 Everyday Living for one reason, you can afford to buy organic and natural products 365 days a year. It truly is worth your time and money because they us the highest quality of ingredients to make their products. I have bought some of the products in their store and I can hardly believe the prices. The best values can be found in things like organic milk and eggs. Usually a gallon of organic milk will cost you about $7, but the 365 Everyday Living Organic Milk is only $5.60. Even though it’s twice as much as regular milk, organic milk is generally good for pregnant women and children. It has less hormones and does not interfere with growth development.

Their website talks about all their products and any questions you might have about them. They carry canned and frozen products, milk, eggs, snacks, supplements and many more items for your pantry. You can feel good about what you are feeding yourself and your family. In this day and age where people are turning towards getting back to basics, it is true with also food. You should eat products with less preservatives and that has not been packaged in a harmful way for the environment. Just because you want to eat organically, does not mean that you need to give up chips and chocolate. They carry all of that but made with natural and organic products and they taste a lot better than the once you get in the regular grocery stores.

Like they say with computer programming, garbage in garbage out. It’s true for food also, only if you put in good quality food into your body, will your body and mind be used to its potential. If you continue putting in food that even the animals won’t touch, then you are not respecting your body. I know how difficult these economic times have been, but your body always deserves the best. Even if you can’t buy organic and natural foods all the time, pick two or three items like milk, eggs and poultry and try buying those organically. I’m sure you want to give yourself and the kids the best. By making small changes, you are setting the tone for the rest of your life.

Most of the water that is available for drink in the US is very safe. They are tested daily for some contamination and others on a weekly or monthly basis. But still there is worry about pesticides and chemicals leeching into our drinking water after the county filters it. To prevent those types of worries, the Pur water filtration system company has created 2 types of water filtration systems. The first is the water faucet mounted filters – this basically goes over your water faucet in your kitchen sink or where ever you want it and filters the water that goes through it. The second type of filter is the pitchers and dispensers. You can fill these water containers and it filters the water as it goes through it in the middle. This is a convenient way to filter your water since you can take this while traveling or camping.

Why switch?

Some of the main reasons why you should switch from bottled water to a in-home water filtration system is for the money and the taste. Consumers out there like the taste of bottle water and the piece of mind about the quality of the water in the bottle. But to tell you the truth, bottle water is not FDA regulated, which means their water quality standards are lower than the water that comes out of your tap. Second, with a in-home water filtration system you can get clean good tasting water for pennies over the bottled water. Plus you will not add on to the carbon footprint by throwing away so much of plastic bottles. Also those plastic bottles leech toxins into the water. So with a filtration system, you can be sure that your family will be save from high cost and high toxins.

Cost of owning a Pur Filtration System

Both the filtration system have an indication that lets you know that it is time to change the filters. This is great since each family goes through drinking water at different rates. The faucet filtration system can cost you anywhere from about $30 to $55 and their filter replacements can be bought separately for future uses. The pitcher/dispenser can cost from about $25 to $35 and their filter replacements are available separately to buy for the future.

The Future

The Pur Water filtration company plays an active role in giving drinking water to remote regions in the world. Their newest effort is the filtration pack. This packet can be easily carried anywhere in the world and just emptied into a bucket of water. After stirring and straining, the water is now clean and drinkable. These packets are distributed to remote regions of the world to help stop the spread of water-borne illness.

So next time please think twice before buying that 24 pack of bottled- water. You can be consuming fresh, clean water right from you tap for only pennies.

Nowadays, you can buy anything that is green, or eco-friendly. Furniture has also caught up to that race. Think of all the pieces of furniture you use in a day. Now think how many are made from recycled or renewable sources? You guessed it, probably none or a very small percentage. All that cushion, wood, metal and plastic that is used to make those furniture, could have been made from recycled material. In the US we throw away so many good pieces of furniture everyday, that if there was a recycling program started for furniture, there would be at least one recycled piece of furniture in everyone’s house in a couple of years.
You can always donate your furniture to charity and the bonus with that is you can get a tax write off for the value of that furniture.
There are many companies that make green furniture. One that I found online was called “Green Culture“. They make all their furniture from either recycled material or sustainable and renewable sources (for example bamboo is said to be the fastest growing tree that can be used to make furniture). When giant furniture stores give consumers inexpensive furniture, it becomes very difficult to stray away from them and choose a slightly more expensive but eco-friendly furniture. This is where you need to think about supporting an industry that has been taken over by the Walmart’s of the world and stop them from making furniture with toxins in them.It’s true, all the furniture we have around us leechs toxins into our environment. There have been links that show that the rise of cancer in this decade is also due to that reason. There are even petitions going on to stop the flame retardants being used on furniture that leech toxins.

Deforestation is one of the main reasons why we should recycle our furniture. More than half the number of forest in the earth was destroyed by humans in the past 50 years only. Imagine, at this rate, our grandchildren will only read about the Amazon Rainforest. You can change this by using wood from reclaimed lumber from old buildings, flooring, decks and others. The second way is to use recycled plastic and glass to make a compound that furniture can be made from. I’ve personally seen deck furniture made from these compounds and they are very sturdy.

So please choose wisely before remodeling your living room or kitchen. Go for bamboo or stainless steel when possible.