Category — Green Kitchen

When we moved back to the States a few months ago, I delighted in websites that taught me how to use coupons to get amazing savings at drug stores like CVS and Walgreens.  I quickly stocked up on toothbrushes and toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, soap, deodorant, and toilet paper for rock-bottom prices.  I mean, sure it’d be nice to use Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, but since I got the Colgate Total for free, I figured that was even nicer.

But since my stockpile has grown nice and big, I’ve started to have a change of conscience (pang of guilt).  I do still love the thrill of chasing a bargain, but I want to be certain that the products I’m bringing into my home are worth their price — even when that price is free. [Read more →]

I took my sons to the Renaissance Festival yesterday.  What a great time we had, especially at the joust reenactment. (That half hour was the equivalent for my five-year old son of me, oh, I don’t know, spending the day at the spa. In Maui.)  By the ride home, we had run out of water and food, so the crankies were starting to flare.  I decided to run through the drive-thru at McDonald’s to get everyone a drink.

Unfortunately, the kids’ chocolate milks came in these little mini jugs that were clearly going to spill all over my car.  So, I asked for cups with lids, and straws, and poured their milk into those.  (Of course, they still managed to spill all over themselves!) I was already feeling bad about all of this waste when my five-year old said to me, “Mom, will we recycle these cups or put them into the garbage bin?” [Read more →]

I used to fill up a recycling bin every week with bottled drink containers.  Most of those containers were water bottles.

In Israel, we drank bottled water because even when filtered, the water had a distinctly rotten egg flavor.  We originally had a bottled water service, which though more expensive, was appealing since the company reuses their jumbo-sized plastic containers.  I figured that had to be better for the environment than all those little bottles.

But then I noticed that the big bottles were plastic #7, which is known to contain BPA (Bisphenol-A, a nasty organic compound that is both a carcinogen and an estrogen disrputor, among other things.)  The litre-and-a-half bottles were plastic #5, which is considered a “safe” plastic (although I’m starting to wonder if there is such a thing), so I switched back to the smaller bottles. And recycled a couple of dozen every week. [Read more →]