Give-a-way: Get Eco-Organized for the New Year December 5, 2008

This giveaway is over – Congratulations AuntieMWrites!

(Please note that one comment is made by me making AuntieM the 17th person to comment)

Here is your sequence from Random.org:

• 17, 20, 14, 6, 3, 18, 25, 13, 28, 7, 30, 27, 15, 24, 10, 21, 29, 1, 8, 26, 9, 22, 23, 31, 16, 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 19

Timestamp: 2008-12-13 16:24:14 UTC

I’m a pretty organized person. I use Google’s calendar so I can see important dates wherever I am, I email reminders to myself so I won’t forget things, and I even started this blog to keep all the “green”  and “safer” things I’ve learned in one place. I do, however, still have sheets of paper that always need a home. You know what I mean – recipes, a great hair style that I’ll never get, and interesting shoes I’ve pulled out from magazines. They add up to a pile of clutter that just drives me crazy. Yes, I’m “trying to be greener” but I just love the few monthly magazines I get and all of those loose pages I pull out need some organization.

That’s where Naked Binder comes in. Haven’t heard of them? Well, let me introduce you. Naked Binders are binders made from 100% recycled board, 97% of which is post-consumer waste from Connecticut

Naked Binder

Wrapped Binder

Project Binder

Architect Binder

Naked Binders are:

• Completely recyclable
• 100% recycled board, 97% post-consumer waste
• independently tested to 50,000+ flexes
• made from acid neutral board
• free of plastic, vinyl or toxic chemicals.
• are manufactured in the United States.

Naked Binders are not only eco-friendly and completely recyclable but they’re durable too, so they’ll be with you for the long haul – if that doesn’t scream “eco-friendly”, I don’t know what does!

Lucky you! One very lucky reader will win two binders – a Naked Binder and a Wrapped Binder. There are up to 5 ways you can enter:

• Leave a comment.
• Stumble this post
• Mention it on Twitter linking to me.
• Subscribe to my blog or let me know if you’re already a subscriber.
• Mention this give-a-way on your own blog and link back to me.

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry that you’re going for. The give-a-way will run through December 12, 2008. All winners will be emailed so make sure you include your email address with your entry. The winner will be chosen by Random.org. This give-a-way is open to U.S. residents only. If winners don’t respond after three days of being notified, a new winner will be chosen. Good luck everyone!

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

Giveaway – Bee M.D. Organic Honey Throat Drops November 20, 2008

UPDATE: Giveaway has ended. Congratulations Jill, Jen, Organicsyes, Patti, and GlassBathTubGirl!

This is such a great time of year – the changing leaves, the crisp air, the holiday season.  What all of us can do without, though, are those troublesome colds that always seems to sneak up on us. I always fight mine every step of the way and then somewhere by the second day, I give in because I know I’ve been beaten. At that point, I just need to rely on my favorite cold remedy – you do what you have to do to get through it.

Bee M.D. Organic Throat Drops

Well, now there’s something new to add to your medicine cabinet. Bee M.D. Organic Honey Throat Drops are USDA certified organic and have no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Bee MD uses only all natural, recycled or biodegradable materials and packaging everywhere possible and for every purchase, they donate money to support the research and protection of bees.

Bee M.D. Organic Throat Drops are available in Natural Honey and Honey Lemon and you can find them at your local drug store, grocery store and Drugstore.com.

Lucky You: Bee M.D. is giving away a bag of their throat drops to 5 people! You can have up to 5 entries:

• Leave a comment.
• Stumble this post
• Mention it on Twitter linking to me.
• Subscribe to my blog or let me know if you’re already a subscriber.
• Mention this give-a-way on your own blog and link back to me.

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry that you’re going for. The give-a-way will run through November 28th. All winners will be emailed so make sure you include your email address with your entry. Winners will be chosen by random. This give-a-way is open to U.S. and Canadian residents. Good luck everyone!

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

For the holidays choose safer, natural toys November 14, 2008

Recently, I wrote about introducing my daughter to toys made of safer, natural materials. My desire has been to try to limit her exposure to lead, BPA, and phthalates, all of which are extremely harmful but even more so to small bodies.

This isn’t an easy thing to do. You can’t always rely on safe toys being sold in conventional places. Many of the products sold there contain the harmful components mentioned above. I’ve always just ended up doing research myself on individual toys and just searched for them all over the internet.

I used to feel uncomfortable about well meaning relatives and friends purchasing toys for my daughter that may not be the safest choices and with the holidays coming up, this could be a time of “plastic overload”. I found, though, that there’s an easy way around this. When asked what they can get for my daughter, I just suggest a store that has a variety of choices with a high standard for safety.

One of those stores is Natural Pod. Natural Pod is a Canadian company that was started by individuals who were just interested in finding safer toys for their own children. Their site has a variety of beautiful toys for babies, toddlers, and young children. These are toys that you’ll want to hang onto for generations to come – how often have you been able to say that about typical toys you come in contact with?

They have lovely toys for babies:

Organic Soft Block Set

Stacking toys for toddlers:

Nesting Birds

Toys that inspire imagination:

Chef's Kitchen and Hutch

And toys that keep your child active:

LikeaBike Forest

Not to mention others, like musical instruments, bath toys, arts and crafts, and dolls just to name a few.

Lucky you: Get 10% off your first order at Natural Pod when you use the code “GCM08″ through December 31st. Be sure to pass this information along to any family members who may interested in purchasing holiday toys for your little ones.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

Just too cute, eco-friendly baby shoes October 22, 2008

Not too long ago, I wrote about some really cute, Earth friendly casual shoes. Lately, I’ve been on the lookout for the same in baby shoes since my daughter is standing now and it seems like walking is right around the corner. She tends to still put a lot in her mouth and I’m always checking when I have her in the stroller that she hasn’t pulled off her socks and started munching on them. Finding shoes for her that are as non-toxic as possible is a major plus since they’re probably the next things she’ll find interesting and want to pull off to investigate. Here are some I know of listed below. If you know of any other Earth friendly shoes for babies that I haven’t mentioned, please tell us about them!

Stride Rite’s Early Walkers have a recycled rubber outer sole, water-based inks for the details and logo, and natural stitching. They’re not exactly inexpensive but Stride Rite’s shoes have excellent support which is always important, especially for little babies.

Scooterbees are made with Sensuede fabric, a breathable micro-suede engineered and patented wrinkle, fray, shrink and spill-resistant material. The fabric is made with 100% post-consumer and post-industrial polyester and is produced without the use of harmful solvents. They are lined with bamboo velour fabric that is naturally anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. The soles are made with the anti-slip and water-resistant ThermoPlastic Elastomer (TPE) material. According to Scooterbees site, TPE is a degradable material made of carbon and hydrogen, and it uses no harmful chemicals in its production such as in traditional PVC’s. It’s PVC-free, latex-free, chloride-free, dioxin-free, and phthalate-free.

Isabooties are 100% animal free, formaldehyde free, made in the United States with fair labor, use fabrics that exceed the Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety, and come in packaging that is recycled/recyclable and printed with soy ink.

These shoes by Simple have hemp uppers with certified organic cotton knit lining, recycled PET and latex elastic, and have 100% post consumer paper pulp foot forms.

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Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

Turn your #5 plastics into toothbrushes, kitchen products, and more. October 17, 2008

I came across a really interesting site today that gives new meaning to the word “recycling”. Recycline is a company that uses scrap plastic and cups from Stonyfield’s manufacturing facility in New Hampshire where they’re located and turns them into Preserve Toothbrushes, Tongue Cleaners and Razors. They’ll even let you print a postage-paid label so you can return these purchased items back to them so they can be recycled again into plastic lumber for park benches and decks.

If your community doesn’t recycle #5 plastics, Recycline offers the Gimme 5 Program where you can send these plastics to them so they can be recycled into new Preserve products, such as mixing bowls, cutting boards and more. 

Since only #5 plastic is used for Recycline’s products, all of the items are BPA-free.To find out where you can purchase these great products, click here.

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Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

Poland Spring’s gone “green”? October 10, 2008

First let me start by saying that I am a big supporter of carrying a reusable water bottle and filling it with plain tap water. But occasionally I forget it and get thirsty. Like yesterday. So, I stopped in a corner shop to get something to drink when I noticed “eco” on the side of a Poland Spring water bottle. The green girl inside of me never misses an opportunity to see when something ecological is going on, or not, in the case of greenwashing.

So I picked it up and here’s what it said:

Eco-Shape Bottle

This bottle is lighter than most half-liter beverage bottles because it contains an average  of 30% less plastic. It’s another way we’re reducing our impact on the environment. Be Green.

I called them up to find out more and it turns out that it’s the same plastic they’ve always used, just thinner. I went to their web site and saw that the label is approximately one-third smaller and because the bottle is now thinner, it’s easier to crush for recycling.

Of course, these changes are probably helping the company save money. We know there’s many people still drinking bottled water on a regular basis, though, so I guess you can say every little bit helps until we can convince the rest of the population to carry reusable water bottles.

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Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

Toys, toys, toys October 6, 2008

Everyone needs a little fun in the mix of life and that includes Baby. There’s plenty to choose from wherever you go – teethers, plush toys, and of course, tons of big, plastic things with annoying, repetitive music. It’s important to have variety, but trying not to over do it is key. Be selective and try to make each item have a purpose so we don’t continue to add excess to our landfills later.

With all the alerts about BPA, though, it’s also important to make sure your child’s toys are safe too. When choosing a new toy, be aware of the company that manufacturers it. Do they use safe materials and practices? Consider wooden toys with non-toxic finishes and when buying plastic items, do some research first. A few places you can start with are Z Recommends for teethers and bath toys.

Here are a few examples of toys I’ve been using and have been very please with so far. You can consider them for your own child or someone you know is expecting. Does your child have any favorite “green” toys?

Salto from Haba

Haba Bonita Clutching Toy

Under the Nile Organic Cotton Grapes

Baby’s First Blocks from Haba

Crocodile Creek PVC-free Rubber Ball

Ogunquit Wooden Rattle

miYim Organic Plush Baby Victoria Bunny

Please see my update to this post about a HABA product.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

Environmental Working Group + Amazon = A Lot Of “Green” September 24, 2008

I mention the Environmental Working Group quite a lot here on my blog. They keep us informed on BPA, toxic ingredients in personal care products at Skin Deep, and work hard on Capitol Hill to help change policies that affect our health.

They recently announced that they are now an “Amazon Associate“, which means next time you do some shopping on Amazon, go through the Environmental Working Group’s web page first to help them earn a percentage of your purchase. You wont spend more by doing this. Instead, you’ll help fund the EWG so they can bring us more of the news that keeps us informed.