Safe and Sustainable Storage: Hidden Dangers of Your Storage Strategies and 4 Safer Alternatives

guest post
by Kenneth McCall

The next time you are packing up your winter clothes or holiday dishes to put into storage, take a second and think about the environmental implications of which packaging materials you choose to use. Unfortunately, the most popular packaging materials used also tend to be the least environmentally friendly. Bubble wrap and packing peanuts take hundreds of years to decompose. Plastic bags also take thousands of years to decompose, contaminating the ocean and harming marine life. On the bright side, today there are more and more biodegradable alternatives available on the market that will not only help the environment, but also help your health.

1. Eco-Friendly Bubble Wrap

Bubble wrap has been around since the 1960s and is today a multi-billion dollar industry. However, at the same time, these thousands of miles of bubble wrap that have been produced have caused significant damage to our environment. Bubble wrap is made from polyethylene, which takes hundreds of years to break down. However, nowadays, biodegradable bubble wrap is available on the market as a safer alternative. This type of bubble wrap has the same strength and cushioning properties as regular bubble wrap. However, biodegradable bubble wrap will decompose when exposed to sunlight, heat, pressure, and water. Furthermore, this alternative is nontoxic and will not cause any harm to any living species, including humans, animals, and even plants.

2. Biodegradable Packing Peanuts

Regular packing peanuts are made from polystyrene through environmentally costly processes. Fortunately, today a friendlier alternative is available - biodegradable packing peanuts. These packing peanuts are made from cornstarch and are nontoxic. In fact, there are numerous websites online that offer recipes for making your own cornstarch-based packing peanuts right in your own kitchen. Furthermore, when you are done using them, simply dissolve them in water! Regular packing peanuts also tend to form a small amount of static electricity- these biodegradable packing peanuts are significantly less static, making them a better option for packing up your electronics.

3. Mycobond

Mycobond is an environmentally friendly alternative to packing foam (also made from polystyrene) that is made from the vegetative parts of mushrooms. The makings of this packing material simply involves letting the mushrooms grow in a controlled environment. Compared to the manufacturing processes of packing foam, Mycobond only uses one tenth the carbon dioxide and one eighth the energy. Mycobond manufacturers are also currently figuring out ways to make the growth process into a simple kit that customers can order and then grow in their own kitchens.

4. Biodegradable Plastic Bags

Every minute, approximately one million plastic bags are used. Imagine how many of these have been used in the time it has taken you to read this article. Every single one of those bags can take as many as a thousand years to decompose. During this time, most of them float into the ocean, either suffocating marine life or entering the food chain through fish. This eventually has a negative impact on the health of all other living species. On the other hand, biodegradable plastic wrap can decompose in as little as ten days when put in a landfill. Although a bit pricier, these bags are designed to be used multiple times. Not only will you be helping the environment, but you may also end up saving some money in the long run.

Guest blogger Kenneth McCall is an avid ski, boater and bicyclist. When he is not engaged in outdoor activities he directs the IT operations at storage.com, building systems and tools for homeowners and businesses needing storage.com in places like San Francisco, and many other cities, including self storage in Atlanta.

If you'd like to be a guest poster on The Green Mamas Blog, contact us!
We'd love to have ya ;)

5 Sustainable Schools We Could All Learn From...

by guest blogger Maxine Dee

Insights and Ideas from 5 Schools that are Living Green to the Upmost

Education starts at home. And we all know it doesn't end there. So when you've brought up your kids to be Eco-conscious green warriors, don't you want them to be in a school where your Green beliefs will be enhanced and applied? I know I would! In fact, I've been so driven to find Green schools these days that I've taken to researching these trends. The number of schools committing themselves to the Eco cause is astounding! I compiled my favorites, initially to pitch these suggestions to my children's school, but I've decided to share this with all the Green Mamas out there! Here are five of these wonderful sustainable schools:

1. North Avondale Montessori, Cincinnati

One of the 22 LEED-registered buildings in the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) district, the North Avondale leads the LEED pack. Standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a building declared as LEED-registered means that it has met the needs and high standards for energy conservation and has paid much attention and care to increasing positive impact (while reducing negative impact) on the environment. In North Avondale Montessori, one of the more recognized projects is their walk out "green roof". The school's roof is planted with a layer of plants that helps soak up rainwater and simultaneously insulate the roof. This treatment not only gives students a patch of green in their own school, it also helps the school reduce their heating and cooling expenses. Aside from this, and perhaps most important, having a green roof give the students hands-on experience that has been proven to be most effective in information retention.


2. Tarkington Elementary School, Chicago

From floors made of recycled glass to a faculty that takes to heart their task of training students to become genuine stewards of the earth, Tarkington Elementary School is one of the Chicago Public School system's gems. Also a LEED-registered school, Tarkington Elementary fulfills the responsibilities that come with being such a school. With beautiful two-story high windows, the school is not only breathtakingly gorgeous, but it also utilizes natural light to its full extent. Aside from this, Tarkington actually has "intelligent lights" that are sensitive to the amount of natural light in a room and adjust themselves accordingly. As if that was not enough, this school's faculty is such an inspiring bunch! One of their instructors managed to merge a lesson on recycling with mathematics! Now that's just genius dedication I'd love to see in my children's school! With a "green roof" that blooms all year long with plants from the tundra, the students not only get access to such beautiful scenery; they also get a whiff of fresh air in the busy metropolis.


3. Stadium School, Baltimore City
   

While it is fantastic that schools take the initiative and action to create sustainable
environments, it is even more heartwarming to know that the students initiate their own green projects. In Stadium School and 16 other schools in the Baltimore City district, this is a reality. In Stadium School, the Recycling Club is a handful of sixth- to eighth- graders who have taken the initiative to create a paper recycling program in school. Even after acts of vandalism by other schools to derail the project, the Stadium School Recycling Club has forged on to place recycling bins around school, and has even created guidelines about recycling. They've even brought this practice to their own homes! What an inspiring bunch of kids!


4. West Virginia University

Suppose you have Eco-warrior kids who are about to go off to college. Aside from their quality education, the question on your minds might be, is this college eco-friendly and sustainable as well? With West Virginia University, the answer is a resounding yes. Not only a leader in energy research (having completed more than $90 million in energy-related research), WCU has also created an eco-sustainable environment with simple projects. To reduce trash in dining halls, they introduced a tray-less dining hall. Their dining halls even donated excess food to charities and sends used cooking oil to a biodiesel processor! Tapping the competitive spirit of their gifted students, WVU created Ecolympics, a competition where residence halls are challenged to conserve energy and recycle their waste.

5. Harvard University

Driven by their goal to drastically reduce their emissions on campus, Harvard dedicates ample research and campus action towards this goal. Among a few of their Green initiatives are their 63 building projects geared towards LEED registration, renewable energy on campus, composting in residential halls, a 55% recycling rate, and many, many others! So while paying for that hefty tuition fee, you're actually helping save the Earth, one Ivy League school at a time!

These are only 5 out of the hundreds of schools all over the USA committed to creating Green learning environments for our children. If your school isn't already one of these eco-schools, then maybe you can print out this article or even send them to the National Wildlife Federation's Eco School Website to inspire them to walk the Green path.

Guest blogger Maxine Dee is a dedicated mother who believes in raising here children in a happy and healthy environment. She has been learning more about living a sustainable lifestyle during the last few years and has come to appreciate the many positive benefits of living a conscious life.

Be a Green Mama Guest Blogger :)

The Green Mamas Blog is opening its doors to all you awesome Green Mamas out there, coast to coast! Whether you're pure green, striped, or spotted in your green ways, if you love to blog and are a green mama at heart, that's all it takes. Oh, and green papas are welcome to guest blog post too ;)

Guest Blogging Guidelines:

• must be your own original work in whatever medium you choose - written, image, video.
  
• if your post has been previously published, please include a note stating such with a link to the piece's original publication.
  
• your post should be timely, relevant, and eco-conscious in focus and in the interest of green families.
  
• at least 300-400 words. It can be much longer if you like.
  
• video no longer than five minutes.
• a back link to our site (your guest post) from your website/blog.
  

For your bio, please include:

• your name with link to your website/blog
  
• a thumbnail photo
  
• a 1-2 sentence blurb about yourself, including what makes you a green mama/papa.

We do not wish to own any rights to your publication. What you write is your own. The Green Mamas blog is a means to help disseminate information and entertainment to the green mama community.

All contributions will be considered, however not all submissions will make it to post. Green Mama Lia will make every effort to help aspiring green mama writers fix any grammatical errors to make their posts stronger, but she (I) don't have the time to fix everything. If it's not written well, well...polish and shine your posts as best you can.

Smilies are welcome :)

Please email your contributions to LiaMack@yahoo.com or find us on Facebook :)

Join Women’s Voices for the Earth to Eliminate Toxic Chemicals

The following guest blog post is by Cassidy Randall, Program and Outreach Coordinator for Women’s Voices for the Earth


Moms know that the ads we see are often the front lines for whether a product gets bought or ignored. A large and increasing number of greener moms may read up on blogs, read reports and articles and try to look up chemical names of material safety data sheets, but not everyone does this. Many moms are still influenced by ads that say “this will get your laundry smelling like a spring breeze!” and buy the bottle—along with the messages and ads that are sold to them.

That’s why I find it so unnerving that Procter & Gamble has issued a complaint to green company Seventh Generation, asking them to take down one of their online advertisements for the inexcusable crime of talking about safety.

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ ruling upholding Procter & Gamble’s claims against Seventh Generation’s commercial implies that companies can’t make claims based on the safety of their products, even though more and more research shows that consumers are increasingly making purchasing decisions based on product safety due to health concerns.

Case in point: a recent report by EcoFocus Worldwide found that the category they term “EcoAware Moms” (more than 51 million women) have $1.45 billion in buying power, and that of the top five products that these women are buying more often, two of them are safer cleaning products: chemical-free cleaners (47%) and plant-based cleaning products (40%). You’d think companies would want to advertise the relative safety of their products to this powerful consumer group.

More disturbingly, the ruling upheld Procter & Gamble’s claim that chemicals in conventional cleaning product chemicals have no connection to a rapid increase in illnesses such as autism, ADHD, asthma, allergies, immune system deficiencies and birth defects. But scientific research continues to mount, linking chemicals in cleaning products to chronic health problems. Women’s Voices for the Earth has released three reports compiling the science on certain chemicals in cleaners and impacts to human health, finding:

• A class of chemicals called APEs are linked to reproductive harm and fertility problems.

• Phthalates are linked to genital malformations in baby boys, reduced sperm count, and increased asthma and allergic reactions in children.
  
  
• Triclosan is hormone disruption and is linked to increased risk of breast cancer.
  
• Synthetic musks are bioaccumulative, showing up in blood, breast milk, and infants, and may break down our bodies’ defenses against other toxic exposures.
  

These are just a few of the chemicals of covered in WVE reports—for more, visit the WVE website at www.womenandenvironment.org. For the past several years, WVE has reached out to all the major cleaning product companies, pressuring them to remove these chemicals of concern. Procter & Gamble has not removed ANY chemicals of concern identified in WVE reports (SC Johnson has removed 4, Clorox has removed 5, and Seventh Generation products contain none, for comparison), and has ignored WVE’s inquiries on whether the company uses synthetic musks or phthalates in their fragrances.

Procter & Gamble is the maker of Mr. Clean®, Tide®, Dawn®, Febreze®, Cascade®, Gain®, Swiffer®, and more. It seems like a company with such high-profile brands would want to advertise their safety. And if companies aren’t allowed to advertise how safe their products are, then consumers should be able to look on a product label to decide for themselves—too bad Procter & Gamble is only disclosing a few ingredients on their website, and no ingredients on product labels (as U.S. law doesn’t require ingredient disclosure for cleaners, few do). At least consumers can look on Seventh Generation product labels to see all ingredients and make a choice based on safety at the point of purchase.
The bottom line is that harmful chemicals shouldn’t be in cleaning products to begin with. Join Women’s Voices for the Earth to eliminate toxic chemicals that impact women’s health from products we use every day!


Sign our Twitter petition to the American Cleaning Institute
http://act.ly/2dc

Follow WVE on Twitter
www.twitter.com/women4earth

Join us on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Womens-Voices-for-the-Earth/110000049854

If you have something to say and would like to be a guest blogger
for The Green Mamas blog, please contact us. Thanks :)

Earth Hour... Turn Off Your Lights Tonight!

re-posted for Earth Day Network

Earth Day is a month away, but another opportunity to join the fight climate change is just around the corner.

On Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 PM, millions of people across the globe will take a stand against climate change by turning off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour.

Earth hour is a chance to drive the environmental movement forward with one simple action. More than that, your participation will have impact outside of the usual suspects - you will raise climate awareness amongst your friends, family, and neighbors.

Help build environmental awareness - take action this Saturday for Earth Hour.

Earth Day Network is proud to be an official supporter of Earth Hour. We know that when millions of dedicated people gather to demand change, it works. Be the difference between the status quo and the substantive change needed for a more sustainable future: join us by taking action during Earth Hour.

This Saturday, let's demonstrate our resolve and take Earth Hour to the next level. Visit MyEarthHour.org to find out how you can play your part.

We can't wait to see the difference you make!

Thank you for everything you do,

The Team,
Earth Day Network

P.S. Don't forget - Turn off your non-essential lights at 8:30 PM this Saturday for Earth Hour.