Books to read NOW!!!
As you get to know me you may be finding out that I am committed to asking myself what can I do for you? How can I help you become a conscientious consumer which may help someone else to become one. Two books that will help you understand how critical it is now for us to be making the right choices in your every day living are Mark Schapiro’s book “Exposed” and Stacy Malkan’s book “Not Just a Pretty Face- the Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. Both of these books will start you thinking about what you can do differently in your approach to life everyday from furnishing your home to the toys you buy for your family. Learn what you can do that will change how you purchase and consume and bring the credibility of your dollar to change the way the big companies create, market and pollute. Learn how you can found out what American companies are ready to comply to a new standard that the European Union has been putting in place for four years. Over 1,100 ingredients are now banned in Europe for unhealthy consumption. In the United States there are 10. The Europeans decided to find the “cause” of the ever increasing numbers of disease in their communities; in the U.S. we’ve decided to devote our research into the “cure”. Hmmmmm.
Green is not going away!
Whether or not you believe in global warming GREEN is not going away. From the car you drive (or don’t drive) to the home you live in and the political choices you make GREEN is the new party without lines. The first thing everyone can do right now is to go to their showers, sinks and laundry and toss out any products with sulphates in them. Sulphates are the sudsing agents that adhere suds to your clothes, bedding, towels and hair. If they are staying in your hair and your bedding you can bet they are not dissolving as they go down yours and everyone else’s drains. You think those suds are clean smelling but really they are far from that. They are the components of layers and layers of cumulative matter that becomes inescapable to our desensitized noses. The truth is, we don’t know what “CLEAN” smells like anymore. Try an experiment on your self. Buy a bottle of biodegradable dish soap and use it in your shower instead of the shampoo your hairdresser sold you last. For the first time in a long time you will hear the sound of squeaky clean. Isn’t that amazing. Your hair will be one whole shade lighter because the only thing that will rid your hair, clothes, bedding of those leftover suds from your non-biodegradable products is one that is biodegradable. If your grocer isn’t offering you a good choice of options in the shampoo and laundry aisles let them know or choose to shop somewhere that does offer options for GREENer living.
Freegans on Oprah
It isn’t the first time I’ve seen dumspter diving as an alternative to paying for food and other household goods but it was the first time I saw Freegans on Oprah. I am always excited to see who, what and where gets featured on this often powerful and brilliant showcase. Freeganism (in case you didn’t know) is based on anti-consumerism and an alternative lifestyle strategy devoted to the environmentalist and anti-globalization movement. Practicing freeganism can involve everything from dumspter diving, wild foraging, gardening and even the idea that you would eat anything as long as it is free. I am impressed with the efforts and commitments to those who really practice this belief and literally eat what they have found and not purchased. It can be a pretty limited menu but geared more upon what you do have and not what you need to go get. I was bothered however when their pantry of goods showed off some pretty unconscientious foraging of shampoo and suds that were not environmentally wise choices. My question is “do you take something from anywhere just because it is free or do you refuse it because it is an inconvenient truth to the bigger picture, the environment?