Green Spider Webs: Cleaning Fun for Kids
Like many Moms, I’ve been trying to get my son to take on more household chores. When we first made the transition to non-toxic, “green” household cleaners, it was a revelation. Finally, he could fully participate without any worries about exposure to household toxins. He loved spraying the cleaning fluid all around — which turns out to be the Real Reason to use green eco-friendly cleaners!
How quickly things change! Just a few months later, this newly minted kindergarten graduate thought himself too cool to help clean the downstairs bathroom. By the way, that’s the bathroom that’s every Mom’s worst nightmare: the gross downstairs little boy bathroom.
So I gave him another chore, whipped out the GreenWorks toilet bowl cleaner, and went to work on my own.
When he came by to check out the scene, he was furious.
“You didn’t tell me!”
“What are you talking about? I asked you if you wanted to help spray the new green toilet bowl cleaner.”
“NO! You didn’t tell me you had GREEN SPIDER WEBS!!!”
“You mean this?,” I asked, pointing at the dripping mess over the toilet.
“Yes, those are green spider webs!”
“Ok, well, when someone invites you to do something new, you should never say no before checking it out,” I admonished him. “You might be missing something cool. Remember that.”
And in the future, Moms, remember that the way to get your little boys to help with the toilet bowl cleaning is to say, “Hey, come help spray green spider webs down here!”
And don’t try this with your typical toxic toilet bowl cleaners, which can harm you and your little darlings. Stick to eco-friendly products like GreenWorks or this “Earth Stone” my bloggy green friend Anna reviewed here, or the Shaklee stuff my bloggy friend Mother Earth sells here. What green cleaning products do you use? What works for you? Leave a comment and share!
– Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 45% [?]
Filed under Green Cleaning Products, Green Ideas & Stuff | Wordpress Comments (3) |10 Tips to Green Your Memorial Day Picnic: Green and Organic Savings Friday
Memorial Day Weekend is the time for traditional picnics and barbeques. This year, go green! There’s never been a better time to do it – prices on biodegradable and corn-based disposable cutlery, plates and cups are down, and organic strawberries are in season. Here’s a look at what you can expect at the stores this week-end as you stock up, along with 10 tips for greening your Memorial Day holiday.
1. Need to mow the lawn to make your yard look beautiful? Forget about conventional gas and electric mowers. Go retro with a good old fashioned push mower. Not only will you help to save the planet, you’ll get real exercise too! If you must use gas or electric, how about sharing a mower with your neighbors?
2. Running out to pick up a grill? Diane MacEachern has some great tips on solar-powered and other “green grills”at her blog here.
3. The Big Green Purse author also suggests using lump charcoal instead of briquettes, which may contain coal dust and other additives. Diane says to look for hardwood briquettes from forests certified by the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood program, or lumps made from coconut husks. Cow boy Charcoal, sold at Lowe’s, Trader Joe’s and under the Whole Foods 365 brand, makes chunk charcoal out of wood leftover from furniture making and construction.
4. Cleaning off the dirty lawn chairs? Remember to use green cleaners. There’s no excuse now, with prices down to $2.98 on Green Works cleaners at WalMart.
5. Planning the menu? Re-think the beef. Beef is a key contributor to global warming. Can you go veggie? There are great veggie alternatives available like delicious veggie burgers, soy-based corn dogs, and of course the old staples of potato and pasta salad.
6.My Organic Market has a great in-store display up of everything you could possibly need for a green and organic Memorial Day picnic. From Drew’s Organic and All Natural Dressing and Marinade to Walnut Acres Organic Baked Beans, Rudy’s Organic Wheat Burger Buns for $3.29 per package, Rudy’s Organic Hot Dog Buns for $2.59 per package, Tree Free Plates for $7.99 a package, Biodegradable Forks, Knives and Spoons for $2.99 per package, and Tree-Free bowls for $4.69 per package. There’s a huge selection of organic beer and wine, and for the kids, Honest Kids Juice Quenchers are on sale for $3.99 for a box of 8 pouches. They even have gourmet lump charcoal – 100% all natural hardwood. (May be a contradiction in terms if you’re buying tree-free bowls, but we’ll leave that alone!)
7. What’s for dessert? It’s strawberry season! Finally, organic strawberries have fallen in price to the $4.99 a level (seen at MOM’s). You can even make a red/white/blue dessert with organic strawberries and blueberries and vanilla ice cream. Try Julie’s Organic Ice Cream. Its to die for!
8. Time to clean up? Whip out the biodegradable plastic trash bags, now just $4.95 per package here.
9. When dusk comes, and you head inside, open the windows instead of turning on the air conditioner. You’ll save money and the environment!
10. If you’re heading back home to the big city after enjoying time at the beach, you may want to check out the local farmers markets or grocers. We pick up organic fruits when we are in smaller towns that enjoy a lower cost of living than our big city home town.
Happy Memorial Day, everyone!
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 57% [?]
Filed under Easy Green Weekend Projects, Food, Green Cleaning Products, Green Ideas & Stuff, Holidays, Organic Prices, Product Recommendations, Savings Tips, Where to Buy Organics | Wordpress Comment (1) |Still No In-Store Refill Containers for Clorox Green Works
Back in January, OrganicMania posted a rave review about Clorox Green Works™, but questioned the lack of refill containers. How can a “green” eco-friendly product lack refill containers? At the time, a Green Works PR rep told OrganicMania that the company was “exploring this option.”
My local grocery store still isn’t carrying refill containers, so this weekend OrganicMania wandered into a Walmart, thinking that if any place would stock refill containers, it would be a superstore like Walmart, which caters to families and people making bulk purchases.
But there were none to be found. It’s now more than three months since the launch of Green Works, and still no refill containers. Do Clorox Green Works, Walmart and the other retailers just expect consumers to keep buying more and more of the small containers? Sure, they’re recyclable, but it’s not as sustainable an approach as offering refill containers.
Refill containers are important because they minimize the use of smaller, nozzled plastic containers, reduce waste, and simply because they’re something green consumers expect from a green product line. They’re a key component of source reduction, which decreases the amount of materials used during the manufacturing and distribution of products.
Funny thing is, you can easily find a 64 ounce refill container for traditional Clorox cleaners, but not for Clorox Green Works.
Can a product be truly green without a sustainable approach to packaging? Me thinks not.
4/30/08 Update: Finally, after more Internet searching, I discovered that refill containers for Green Works are available on line at multiple sources including here, here and here, as well as at warehouse clubs like Sam’s. But this approach isn’t sufficiently green for a green product. If you’re going to market as a green company, you need to be authentically green. That includes packaging considerations. More on this tomorrow, when OrganicMania talks about the Take Back the Filter campaign against Clorox and Brita water filters.
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
Popularity: 41% [?]
Filed under Green Cleaning Products, Greenwashing, Marketing, Product Recommendations, Sustainable Packaging | Wordpress Comment (1) |A Great “Green” Weekend Easy Do-Good Project
If you hate built-in obsolescence and have a story about an electronic gadget that broke and couldn’t be fixed, here’s a great way to bring some pressure against companies that perpetuate built-in obsolescence. This is a simple project courtesy of the Electronics Takeback Coalition and Beth at Fake Plastic Fish.
Here’s all you need to do to prepare to send an email detailing your gripe:
1. Note the make and model
2. Year purchased. Is it under warranty?
3. Why it’s dead. (Doesn’t turn on, won’t reboot, can’t upgrade it to run certain software, etc)
4. Steps taken to try to fix it, or cost to fix it. (Tell what happened…did you try to get it fixed but you were told you needed to replace the whole thing? Can you give details? If you know whom you spoke with at the company, that would be great.)
5. Send your story and a picture of the dead gadget (if you have one) to stories@deadgadgets.com — and tell your friends too.
For the full scoop, read the post at Enviroblog here.
Popularity: 25% [?]
Filed under Easy Green Weekend Projects, Green Cleaning Products, Green Ideas & Stuff | Wordpress Comments (2) |The Real Reason to Use Green Eco-Friendly Cleaners
One advantage of Clorox’s “green market” entry is that the general population (as opposed to the environmentalists) is being made aware of the advantages of eco-friendly cleaners. But the real reason for Moms to use green cleaners may surprise you. In fact, I discovered this quite by accident the other day, when an accident of another sort – the juvenile variety – struck my bathroom tub.
There was a time when I would have groaned and hustled my little darlings out of the way while I dumped copious amounts of Ajax, Clorox, Mr. Clean, and what-have-you into the tub, waited for the noxious fumes to dissipate, and then quickly wiped everything away before my eyes started to tear and my throat began to burn.
But with eco-friendly cleaners, you no longer have to worry about the fumes. The fact that their plant-based ingredients are healthy for you and healthy for the Earth means that you can involve your darlings in messy clean-ups without any worry of health effects. For a generation of kids that seem to have largely escaped household chores, this is a revelation.
My son gleefully pushed the trigger button of the “friendly cleaner” and asked what else he could do to help. I was thrilled that together we got the cleaning job done in a fraction of the normal time. He was so eager to help that together we cleaned the entire bathroom. My husband was in shock when he returned home (he always worries when I clean of my own volition, thinks I’m coming down with a fever, been abducted by space aliens or something of the sort).
So there you have it – give those kids some responsibility – give them a “friendly cleaner” and turn them loose!
– Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
Popularity: 36% [?]
Filed under Green Cleaning Products, Green Ideas & Stuff, Parenting, Product Recommendations, Tips | Wordpress Comments (8) |Clorox Green Works(TM) Responds to OrganicMania…
Monday’s post about Clorox’s new green cleaning line posed a question about the lack of large refill containers for Green Works products. Refill containers are important because they minimize the use of smaller, nozzled plastic containers, reduce waste, and simply because they’re something green consumers expect from a green product line. They’re a key component of source reduction, which decreases the amount of materials used during the manufacturing and distribution of products.
Since I didn’t see refill containers in the store, nor on the Green Works website, nor mentioned in their press release, nor for that matter mentioned anywhere in the blogosphere, OrganicMania contacted both Clorox and their PR firm to find out about their plans for refill containers.
A representative from Ketchum, Green Works PR firm, left a voicemail for OrganicMania saying that GreenWorks is “exploring this option” and noted that “that’s all the information that’s available right now.”
Hmm…I scratched my head. How can you launch a green product line and not include refills? It seems so basic. Especially when a quick trip to my local grocery store proved that other Clorox products, such as their clean-up cleaner with bleach, come in 64 ounce refill containers.
Before posting this update, I decided to do one more comprehensive web search to see if anyone else was addressing the refill issue. You’ll never guess what I found….on restockit.com, an ad for a 64 ounce refill container of Green Works glass window cleaner.
Popularity: 31% [?]
Filed under Green Cleaning Products, Marketing, Uncategorized | Wordpress Comments (2) |Green Works(TM) Really Works!
I hate to clean. Really, really hate it. That’s the reason you haven’t read about green cleaning products on OrganicMania™. After all, it’s so much more fun to try organic foods than to try organic cleaning products!
But the fact is, toxins in the home – many from chemical-laden cleaning products – are one of the greatest dangers to health. When considering which organic and green products to buy, cleaning products should rank near the top of your list, along with “the dirty dozen” fruits and veggies. Yet deciding which green cleaning products to purchase is a tricky and expensive process of trial and error. Like many Moms, I have a shelf full of barely used green products that simply didn’t do the job as well as the tried and true standards we all grew up with – Ajax, Clorox, Mr. Clean, and Spic n’ Span.
Now, improvements are coming with the introduction of green product lines like Clorox’s Green Works. Green Works products include all purpose cleaner, bathroom cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, dilutable cleaner, and glass and surface cleaner. When I spied some prominently displayed at my local Giant for just $2.99 per 24 oz. bottle, I decided to try the natural bathroom cleaner. After all, I’ve spent more than twice that much on natural cleaners from companies that specialize in green products but are hardly household cleanliness icons, like the Clorox Company.
Here’s what I noticed when I put Green Works to the test on my dirty bathroom sinks:
• Easy-to-pump trigger – it felt like a “real” cleaning product with foam and spray options;
• Mild, clean scent; and
• Fast working effectiveness.
Incredibly easy to use, all I needed to do was swish some wet towels around the sink and the caked on soap scum and dreck came up really quickly. The entire cleaning process took only seconds, with just a wipe, rather than a true hard scrub.
Some skeptics may question whether Clorox can be trusted to introduce a truly natural product. While there’s no true standard for “natural” products, the Clorox Company states, “We set ourselves a very stringent standard. The ingredients must come from renewable resources, be biodegradable and free of petrochemicals. Green Works™ cleaners are at least 99% natural. In certain cases we had to use synthetic ingredients, like the preservative and green colorant.” The package ingredients are clearly listed. For example, the natural bathroom cleaner contains coconut-based cleaning agent (nonionic surfactant), glycolic acid, essential lemon oil and filtered water. The label also points out that it contains no bleach and no phosphorus.
My only complaint? I didn’t see any large refill containers. I hope Clorox is not expecting green consumers to repurchase these relatively small 24 ounce containers. Sure, there’s a bold printed request to please recycle the packaging, but I didn’t see any large refill containers in the store, nor pictured on their website or mentioned in their press release. These would be an obvious addition for such a complete product line, so lets hope the large refill containers appear in grocery store aisles soon.
Popularity: 39% [?]
Filed under Green Cleaning Products, Marketing, Organic Prices, Product Recommendations, Where to Buy Organics | Wordpress Comment (0) |
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