Where have you been?

That's what people who read the blog are asking me.

Mark says I need to be honest with all of you and tell you the way our family supports being the change we want to see in the world in the summer...is by turning off the computer and going outside.

I keep meaning to blog..but when it is a choice between inside and outside...outside always wins!!

The photo is of Nate "walking on water" on the Wisconsin River.

What do you do with plastic caps?

This is how many plastic bottle caps we collected this month. You can't put them in recycling because they are a different kind of plastic than the rest of the bottle.

I have a hard time throwing them in the trash because I have seen photos of what happens when animals eat them ( I won't link to a photo) This is a problem for water birds...they see plastic bottle tops and mistake them for food. They eat them until their belly is full ....and then they starve to death. This is not something I want to be a part of... which brings me back to...what do you do with plastic bottle tops?

I just found out there is an alternative. AVEDA has recently started a recycling program specifically for bottle caps. They work mostly with schools but when I called they said I could bring in ours. In Madison, they are in Westgate mall.

If you know a teacher who might like to get their school involved, here is a letter to teachers that explains the program. Not connected to a school and want to find an AVEDA shop near you, here is their store locater.

For now we are going to collect our bottle tops and take them in every few months ( if you live near us, fill free to drop tops off at our place). In the fall, we will see if the boys school would like to participate. One more way to keep plastice out of the enviroment. Go AVEDA.

We were there!

Governor Doyle signed the statewide smokefree air bill into law on Monday! I picked Nate and Ben up from school early so we could be there.

From a kids perspective, it was a long wait in a hot, crowded room and then they couldn't actually see much of the Governor when he did get there.

The most interesting part: he signed the bill with multiple pens. The best part: both Nate and Ben got an official Governor Doyle pen and we celebrated with pizza at Ian's on State Street.

The law doesn't take effect until July 2010 ( don't get me started) but it does cover all work places in Wisconsin...the exemptions are cigar bars and outside.

Finally- Smokefree Wisconsin!

What's your Eco Intelligence?

I just finished reading Ecological Intelligence by Danial Goleman.

Every purchase we make has an impact.
Right now, we make most of our purchase decisions based on price. Since this is the only feedback we get.

Goleman promotes "radical transparency" in 3 areas

1. geosphere (impact on soil, air, water and climate. Ex: carbon footprint of a product)
2. biosphere( impact on our bodies and other living things. Ex:Hormones/toxins)
3. sociosphere ( human concerns like conditions of workers. Ex: no sweat shop labor)

If we had information about how products had an impact in these three areas, many of us would use that information to make decisions about what we buy.

That's where the Good Guide comes in (hat tip to my Mom and Dan Goleman). The Good Guide pulls together data on health, safety and environmental impact into one rating. It is new and it doesn't include everything..but it is a start.

FYI: Goleman is quoted in a recent issue of the Times as one of the 10 ideas changing the world right now.

I contacted my Alder

The plastic bag legislation was introduced and has been referred to committee.  Time to take some action. 

First I had to figure out who our alder is...Lucky for me..right on the City's website you can click on  "Find your Alder"   Ours is Chris Schmidt.

Also lucky for me...I could write an email to Chris right on the website...so I did...see below..

Chris: I noticed that legislation related to plastic bags is being considered in Madison. I'm a little disappointed that it is to recycle clean bags as opposed to just banning all plastic bags which has been done successfully in other cities and countries. What is your perspective on this..and if I want to get involved ...any advice? Thanks, Julie

May Action: Reducing Plastic Round 2

We voted at dinner on Sunday and decided to focus on plastic for another month. One of the things that influenced our decision is that Madison is introducing legislation to ban throwing away clean plastic bags.

Although we excited that Madison is concerned about plastic bags...we are disappointed with the proposed legislation.

• It will be difficult( impossible!) to enforce.
• It may actually increase use of plastic bags...since now it will be easier to recycle.
• Since it is OK to throw out "dirty" plastic bags...we still have plastic going into landfills and lakes.

It is a stop gap measure. Right now very few plastic bags are recycled..the hope is that this would decrease the amount of plastic bags in land fills and oceans by increasing the amount that gets recycled. What do others think?

We should have been on Oprah!

Oprah did an Earth Day show.

 

Oprah Earth Day Lunch Challenge: Switch from disposable to resusable for your lunch box (or bag), water bottle and silverware.  To get us started, check she is gving us coupons. 

Sigg has a great selection of metal water bottles, metal lunch boxes and you can get water bottle cleaning brushes and exta water bottle tops. With Oprah's coupon you can get 20% off Sigg water bottles through 5/31.

At To Go ware, like their tiffins ( round metal food carriers), the side kicks ( small metal food containers..we use these for lunch box snacks , dips and dressings) and I'm thinking about getting their bamboo utensils ($10)  With Oprah's coupon youcan get 20% To Go Ware  through 7/30. 

She has two lists Oprah's 11 ways to save the planet and Go Green at Home. We do 17  out of the 22 actions Oprah's suggests!  Here is her list (and how well we are doing.)

1. LED light bulbs ( so far we only have Christmas tree lights)
2. Compact Flourescent bulbs (yes)
3. Programmable thermostat (yes)
4. Weather Stripping ( need to do)
5. Drapes (could do better)
6. LCD TV (on Marks’ wish list)
7. Smart Power Strips ( need to check this out)
8. Water aerator (yes)
9. At home filtration ( so far we drink from the tap and use re-usable water bottles)
10. Energy star appliances (yes to fridge, washing machine, heater and dehumidifier)
11. Resuable cloth dish towels (yes and napkins too)
12. Eco friendly cleaning ( yes, we use vinegar, baking soda , borax and Dr Bronners)
13. Insulated water heater (yes, we dream about a solar water heater)
14. Re-usable coffee mugs (yes)
15. Ice cream cones instead of cups ( questionable whether we will save the planet on this one..but yes we do and both the boys are happy to keep helping on this one.)
16. Cloth bags for shopping (yes)
17. Reduce junk mail ( in progress)
18. Recycled Toilet paper (we try to buy 7 generation TP)
19. Delint the dryer  (yes and cleaning out the dryer hose made a huge difference)
20. No VOC paint ( most of the time)
21. Short showers ( I do a little better at this than Mark J)
22. Turn of the computer ( yes)

Oprah's 11 ways to save the planet and Go Green at Home

Hat tip to Sarah Apple for telling me about Oprah.