Steam Power
On a recent shopping trip I caught site of the Shark Professional Steam Pocket Mop. Complete with multiple re-usable pads and three different size/shape heads, this mop claimed to both clean and sanitize floors using just steam – no chemicals required. While we’re big users of the Method Cleaning Products around the house, and would recommend them to anybody, not having any chemicals seemed like a better way to go.

In Use
We’ve had the mop for a few weeks now, and it works well on both our tile floors and our hardwood. For the tile, I’ve been sticking with the middle setting (mop), unless there is an area that needs extra cleaning when the scrub setting has worked effortlessly to remove it. On the wood floors I’m sticking with the lowest setting, dust, for now just to be safe.

Cuisinart Green Gourmet 8" Skillet

Among the collection of pans in the department store’s home goods section, we saw the Cuisinart Green Gourmet range. Unlike all the others, these were packaged in simple brown card and claimed to be “Eco-Friendly Nonstick Cookware.”

Eco-Friendly Cookware?
Was this just another attempt at greenwashing? Well, perhaps since the core of the pan is made from aluminium, hardly the greenest of metals when it comes to production, but there are some other features of the overall product which at least put it ahead of other similar pans:

• PTFE/PFOA-free and petroleum-free non-stick coating;
• 70% recycled steel handle;
• Improved heat conduction (allowing less energy use);
• 100% recycled packaging, printed with soy ink.

It feels well made too, so unlikely to end up in a landfill in a few years because it breaks. Given the choices we had for buying an individual 8″ frying pan, we thought we’d give the green one a try.

Ceramic Non-Stick
The one unknown for me with this pan is the quality of the non-stick coating. Unlike the more common coating, this one is a ceramic-based coating. In addition to the green aspect of not being based on PTFE/PFOA or other oil derived materials, Cuisinart are also claiming that it will make for healthier cooking.

We will post an update on here with our experiences with this new non-stick coating once we’ve been using the pan for a while.

Organic or Not?
We’ve tried to get as much as possible made from organic cotton, but the mattress was a challenge. Although there are several mattresses using organic cotton on the market, none of them are pure organic. There are two layers that it seems just cannot be organic/chemical free:

• The fire barrier (legally required for the US);
• The waterproofing layer.

So, while they’re not really fully organic, the goal was to get as close as possible within a reasonable budget.

We ended up with the L A Baby Organic Cotton 2 in One Orthopedic Crib Mattress as our favourite, and wanted to do some more research into its organic claims.

Online, we found a post at the WindsorSpeak forums where somebody had kindly pasted in the statement from L A Baby about the organic content of the mattress, and also the chemical they use for the fire barrier (boric acid). Here’s the statement about the organic content (apologies for the caps, it was how it was in the source):

ON THE 5260 ORGANIC MATTRESS SPECIFICALLY THE CORRECT PERCENT OF ORGANIC COTTON MATERIAL THAT IS IN THE MATTRESS IS 59% THIS INFORMATION IS ON EVERY LAW TAG THAT IS ON EACH MATTRESS. WE HAVE TWO LAYERS OF ORGANIC COTTON.
THE THIRD LAYER IS 85% COTTON AND 15% POLY FIBER – THIS IS THE FIRE BARRIER THAT WE HAVE TO USE TO MEET THE STATE AND FEDERAL FLAME TESTING REGULATIONS.

Lower down in the text they also give lots of additional information about boron and boric acid that was interesting reading.

We’ll post a follow up on here to let you know more about the mattress once it arrives.

Microwave
Heat a bowl of water and lemon slices in your microwave for 30 seconds to a minute; then wipe out the oven. Stains will be easier to remove and old food odors will be neutralized.

Laundry
For bleaching purposes, add 1/2 cup of lemon juice to your washing machine’s rinse cycle and hang clothes outside to dry.

A teaspoon of lemon juice thrown into your wash can also help your clothes to smell fresher.

Ant Deterrent
Pouring lemon juice around areas that ants frequent is said to repel them.

[Editor: I've heard of using orange peel/juice as well for keeping ants out.]

Lemon image from André Karwath via Wikipedia

I thought so too. And keeping fuel costs to a minimum not only makes sense for the planet, but should also help FedEx save some money. Then I saw a tracking record for a package that was being shipped to me from a city around 40 miles from my home:

According to Google Maps, the FedEx Oakland location that the package arrived at last night is 7.5 miles from my home, the package’s destination. Around 6:30am today it left there, and I assumed it would be on one of their delivery trucks heading here. But no, look where they sent it – Memphis, Tennessee!

Somebody at FedEx in Oakland actually loaded a package for delivery to an address less than 10 miles from where they stood on to a plane, and then flew it approximately 1800 miles to their hub in Memphis. At some point today, probably without even considering the stupidity or cost (to the planet and to FedEx) of these actions, another worker at FedEx in Memphis will load the package back on a plane, and send it back to Oakland – another 1800 miles.

So, my little package will have travelled around 3600 extra miles. Nothing green about that, and no matter how fuel efficient your vehicles, this is never going to be the right thing to do.

I actually called FedEx to see whether this was some kind of mistake. Perhaps the web site tracking information was wrong, or perhaps the parcel had accidentally been put in the wrong box. But no, from what the very kind customer service person told me, it seems that it is normal to route packages through their hub in Memphis like this.

Do other shipping companies work this way too?

Many new flush mechanisms for residential use are coming with a dual flush option that can be used to save water. Typical modern single flush toilets will use 1.6 gallons of water per flush (gpf), or 6 litres. That is already a big saving on older units that could use as much as 5 gallons per flush). A dual flush unit adds a 0.8 gpf option for flushing liquid waste.

While the savings at home can be significant, the savings in a commercial installation are much higher since we spend so much more awake time at work than at home in general. So, installing dual flush options for office facilities and in other commercial buildings makes a lot of sense. If done right.

The photo shows the sign affixed to the wall above a new, eco-friendly flush unit installed in the building where my office is located. All sounds good, but I have two problems with this particular installation:

1. The reduced flush option is activated by pulling the handle up, which means most people will continue to use the full flush without even thinking about it.

2. It was fitted to a urinal, which should never need the ‘solid waste’ option.

The combination of those two flaws makes this particular installation essentially useless. A regular 1 gpf urinal flush mechanism would probably have been a better choice for this location, especially since most people will press the handle down.

Supermarket Bags
If you own a store that uses plastic shopping bags, why not switch to BioBag shopping bags? You’ll be able to do something good for the environment, without needing to persuade your customers to change their habits! If you work for a store, try suggesting to your employer that they switch to these greener bags.

Composting System
In addition to making compostable bags, BioBags also has a solution to help make composting your organic kitchen waste a little easier, and odour free.

[Via The Daily Green]

Amazon Green, a new store from Amazon, focuses on listing environmentally friendly products. Included already are eco-friendly cleaning products, EnergyStar approved lighting products and office electronics.

Currently, they’re also asking customers for their Green 3 products: the three green products that they wish everybody had. The current top three are reusable shopping bags and a couple of different CFL bulbs (fourth is a push reel lawn mower).

One of the most innovative companies in the green space is TerraCycle. Initially producing natural fertilizer from worm poop, and bottling it in old plastic soda bottles that they pay schools to collect, the company has now branched out into all kinds of innovative products made from trash.

Cleaners
In addition to their lawn and garden products shipped out in refilled soda bottles, TerraCycle is now shipping household cleaning products in the same refilled bottles. Everything from an all purpose cleaner to a drain cleaning product. All the cleaners go beyond eco-friendly and have in fact been certified as environmentally responsible by Environment Canada.

Bags & Office Products
More recently, TerraCycle has begun to make reusable bags from plastics that would normally find their way into the landfills simply because they are too costly to recycle. Calling this upcycling, the company is collecting cookie wrappers, drink pouches, yoghurt containers, corks and more. Better still, they pay for each one you send in (as long as you send in enough in each batch). This makes a great project for schools or other groups to participate in.

For the office, there are a couple of garbage/recycling containers made from e-waste, more bag options and even binders and folders, all made from stuff that was heading for the landfill.

In some countries the outlets have individual switches, making it simple to really switch off equipment. For countries where this is not the case, think about using a simple power strip with a switch on it as a way to avoid having to keep unplugging things.

Home Entertainment Systems

High on that list of remote controlled electronics are all those home entertainment components. Some of them might need to be left on (for example, a VCR or DVR that is set to record programming while you’re out), others can be switched off at the wall.

Regular (non-DVR) cable and satellite receivers should probably also be left on, otherwise you will need to wait for them to authorize and download the programming guide each time you want to watch something.

If you are using a power strip for a home entertainment system, consider getting one designed for A/V equipment.

Computer Equipment

Much like home entertainment systems, computers can be switched off at the wall when not in use (after being shut down properly of course). Using a sleep or hibernate mode will use less power than when the machine is on, but it will still be using electricity.

The same goes for printers, scanners and all the other peripherals that we connect to our computers. Switch them off at the wall (or unplug them) when they’re not in use.

The only real exception to this for the home office are the DSL or cable modem box and, if you have one, a wireless router or access point. The former is best left on because it maintains a connection to your ISP (in some cases it might even be monitored by them). The wireless wants to be on because you don’t want to have to switch that on each time you want to surf from your laptop. If you’re going on vacation though, unplug them both too. Also, if you’re signing up for new service, see if you can get a single box that provides both functions as that will reduce the overall power consumption.

A handy alternative to the power strip that copes well with the proliferation of wall transformers is the PowerSquid type connector with individual cables for each device. If you already have a power strip, but can’t use all of its sockets because of overlapping transformers, then you can get short extensions to convert any power strip into something like a PowerSquid.

If you are willing to spend a little time setting it up, consider getting a smart powerstrip instead. These have a master socket, which remains on all the time, and a set of slave sockets that will be turned off when the device on the master reduces its power consumption. They normally have one or two always on sockets too for those devices that must remain on (see above). When you first set this up you will need to adjust the power level at which the slave sockets are turned off, but once done you should be able to sleep your computer and have the monitor, printer etc turned off automatically.

Satisfy Your Inner Geek

All that is great in theory, but how do you know how much you are saving? Well, you can always get an electricity usage monitor and measure the power being consumed by your devices when on and off.