packing lunch… the green way!

It is estimated that each American child produces 67 pounds of lunch packaging waste each school year! That’s a big ‘F’ in our report card! This year when school starts, make sure that your kids are lunch box smart!

There is no longer a need for plastic sandwich bags, paper bags and juice boxes.  There are tons of green lunchbox options out there and a lot of them are super cute too!  Here’s our eco lunchbox lowdown:


 1. Forgo the brown paper bag and invest in a durable lunch box or bento-style lunch container.

2. Go reuseable! Reusable sandwich bags and containers are super sturdy and easy to use, clean & store. If you have to pack a plastic bag, try to reuse it or recycle it!

3. Store beverages in stainless steel water bottles! Have your kids sip out of a reusable bottle rather than a juice box or plastic water bottle.

4. If your child needs cutlery or a napkin, pack the real thing. Encourage your child to bring home all leftovers to prevent accidentally disposing of the napkin and utensils (they may even be able to compost any leftovers).

5. If possible, steer clear of purchasing prepackaged foods for your child’s lunch. They are typically wrapped in excessive packaging and are more expensive than buying in bulk.

We’ve got an entire selection of GREEN LUNCHBOXES & accessories on our eco ike eco boutique!  Check out our entire selection here!

a car wash is a greener choice!

Not sure what is considered to be the greener choice: a car wash or doing it yourself? It turns out that going to the car wash uses HALF the amount of water per car than the typical home washing job and is definitely the greener choice!

When you think about what gets washed off your car – gasoline, exhaust fume residue, oil, car wash detergents – its good to know that it’s a federal law in the US (and Canada) that commercial car washes treat their waste water before it enters sewer or septic systems. Some car wash establishments recycle their rinse and soapy water as well.

In addition to the water recycling process, they also use a high-pressure pumps and nozzles that minimize the amount of water used.

Go green and keep your car clean with a car wash establishment!
 

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EcoSearch donates all of it's per-click ad profits to eco-groups such as the Sierra Club, Rainforest Alliance, Heal the Bay and Healthy Child, Healthy World.



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composting with kids!

Help your kids develop their green thumb by teaching them to compost.  Composting is a fun family project that's easy to do and great for the environment. Teach your tykes how simple it is to recycle waste and turn it into nutritious soil for your yard or plants. The micro-organisms that make the compost, need an even mixture of “greens” and “browns”. They also need water and air for a perfect compost formula. Here’s the compost recipe:

One part “brown” (dead dried plants – they provide the carbon): dried leaves, pine needles, straw, hay, wood shavings or chips.

One part “green” (fresh living plants – they provide the nitrogen): grass clippings, vegetable and fruit leftovers, plants, coffee grounds.

Place layers of brown, green, brown, green, brown into the composting bin, being sure to add water after every layer – make sure that the compost is always moist so the microorganisms can do their job. Stir every 3-4 weeks and voila… nutritious, rich soil!

A couple of composting no-no’s: NO meats, dairy, oil, fats, diseased plants or pet droppings!

A great book to read is, “Compost Stew” written by Mary McKenna Siddals and illustrated by Ashley Wolff  "Apple cores, bananas bruised, coffee grounds with filters used.  Just add to the pot, and let it all rot into compost stew!"


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Rub a Dub Dub! 3 reasons to use bar soap over liquid

(1.) Most liquid soap comes in excess plastic packaging that can be recycled, but end up in the landfill. Bar soap typically comes in a paper wrapper that has considerably less packaging.

(2.) You get more soap with a bar. Ounce for ounce, the bar soap will last longer than the liquid soap (typically water & liquefying ingredients are the first ingredients in a liquid soap – not true for bar soap).

(3.) It’s more economical! It’s good for the pocket book & the environment!

Raise the bar... because... substituting one bottle with a bar in each U.S. home would keep 2.5 million pounds of plastic out of landfills.

{photo of Nature Boy soap from Whole Truth shop here!}

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place a recycling bin next to the wastebasket!

a simple trick to encourage more paper recycling and less landfill accumulation is to place a recycling bin right next to a garbage bin.  this is a super easy way to conserve paper!  producing one ton of paper from recycled pulp saves 7,000 gallons of water and 17 trees!

{trash & recycle decals from Tasty Suite- get yours here!  use the code ECOIKE at check out and get 25% off on your order!}


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cloth napkins = the green choice!

Replace paper napkins with cloth ones!  Doing away with disposable napkins would keep 500,000 tons of trash out of landfills each year!

{'Eat Well' Cloth Dinner Napkins from Nicole Porter based out of NYC... get yours here!}

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cancel those catalogues!

Remove your name from unwanted catalog & mail lists!  Junk mail kills 100 MILLION TREES a year!

To make the opt-out process super simple, sign up at Catalog Choice {it’s free, easy & secure}! http://www.catalogchoice.org/


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photo courtesy of digital photography school

 

no wire hangers, please

No wire hangers! Mommy dearest was right… return wire hangers to the dry cleaners & reduce more than 3.5 BILLION hangers from reaching a landfill this year! 

Hangers account for 200 million tons of steel… lets reuse and put to a good use.

Not all cleaners allow you to return the hangers, so seek out the ones that do!

talking trash

We’re talking trash at eco ike! We just read this staggering statistic, “Each year Americans waste an estimated 160 billion pounds of food”! Whoa! That stat is according to Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of its Food (and What We Can Do About It).

Here are some of his tips to help reduce food waste:

• Love your leftovers. You can look at leftovers in two ways: convenient or creative. It’s convenient to pack the next day’s lunch after dinner. It’s a culinary challenge to turn last night’s roast chicken into several meals from soup to enchiladas.

• Keep your refrigerator uncluttered. Pack leftovers in clear containers. Shift new items to the back and old items to the front. Designate a shelf as the “use it up” area for soon-to-expire items.

• Start a compost pile. If you do have to throw food away, you can avoid sending it to the land-fill and instead help your garden.


American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of its Food (and What We Can Do About It)

image courtesy of Land of Nod

Save the Planet {and $1,510 this year!}

picture & product from athena creates 

Check out these great tips from Natural Health Magazine. 

I love these and think you will too!

Fear greening your home is too expensive?  These simple changes can pay off big every year:

• Choose a laptop over a desktop model with a monitor.  Savings: $45 a year
• Ditch paper towels in favor of reusable cleaning cloths.  Savings: $150 a year
• Trade in your current showerhead for a low-flow model.  Savings: $180 a year
• Install a programmable thermostat that automatically sets the temperature based on how hot or cold it is outside.  Savings: $250 a year
• Replace the air filters in your furnace and air conditioner unit every three months (dirty filters make the units work harder).  Savings: $80 a year
• Use an electric teakettle instead of heating water on the stove.  Savings: $40 a year
• Download music (legally) instead of buying CDs.  Savings: $300 a year
• Lower the brightness on your TV.  Savings: $15 a year
• Unplug your TV, DVD player and stereo before bed.  Savings $50 a year
• Swap disposable zip-close bags for reusable thermoses and containers.  Savings: $400 a year on lunches for a two-child family

excerpt from Natural Health Magazine

prettying up gifts & packages the green way!

Everyone wants to deliver gifts wrapped with care and love… how can you do that and be eco-friendly? Here are our tips:

• Put your gift in a reusable tote bag (the lucky recipient is getting two gifts at once!).
• Wrap with newspaper (for children, the comic pages are bright & fun) or a brown paper bag turned inside out! Decorate with a pretty ribbon.
• Reuse any gift bags or boxes that you have. Cut up old cards and add as a tag to the package.
• Repurpose children’s artwork- everyone will love to receive something wrapped with your little Picasso’s design.

image courtesy of inhabitots

A+ lunch containers

It’s back to school time and eco ike is dishing out lunchbox and container ideas. Plastic sandwich bags move on over, there are endless {and super cute!} options out there. Tons of Etsy sellers are making ‘reusable sandwich baggies’ check them out. And if your little one wants a durable and reusable lunch container that is eco friendly, check out:

our entire selection of GREEN LUNCHBOXES & accessories

on our eco ike eco boutique.  Check out our entire selection here!

please take your shoes off!

taking off your shoes not only helps keep your home cleaner, it also helps keep it healthier. If you think about where your shoes have been, you will realize that you possibly came in contact with a lot of contaminated dirt.


It is estimated that we track 85% of the dirt in our homes in from the outside on our shoes or paws of pets. In a recent warning about lead exposure, the Environmental Protection Agency specifically recommends that shoes remain outside the house. According to a report called The Door Mat Study, lead-contaminated soil from the outside causes almost all the lead dust inside homes.

wiping your shoes on a mat & removing them at the door cuts lead dust by 60%. The study states that limiting the amount of tracked in material may help reduce exposure to lawn & garden pesticides, wood smoke & industrial toxins, mutagens, dust mites, and allergens.

image courtesy of Real Simple

dirty laundry gets clean & green!

washing laundry (especially when you have little ones) is a constant task that utilizes a lot of water and energy. you can reduce your carbon footprint (and stains!) by following these five simple steps:

(1.) use cold water! 90% of all energy used by a washing machine goes to heating the water
(2.) soap up with eco-friendly detergents... they are better for your skin and the environment
(3.) do loads of laundry when you've got enough to run a full load. if you have multiple loads to wash, do them consecutively (the washing machine does not have to work as hard to get started)
(4.) after each use of the dryer, make sure to empty out the lint filter - it improves air circulation and makes the dryer work more efficiently
(5.) when possible, hang your clothes on a drying rack or clothing line.

considering that the average household does approximately 400 loads of laundry a year* (that's 13,500 gallons of water!), it's good to wash & fold knowing that you are being energy efficient :)

* according to Energy Star energystar.gov