5 Small Steps to an Eco-Friendly Kitchen

1. Posted by SevenCostanza on Thu, Apr 26, 2007, 3:15 pm PDT

If my produce it organic, why would it have chemicals on it?

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2. Posted by on Fri, Apr 27, 2007, 3:27 pm PDT

Because even organic produce can have residue and bacteria on it

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3. Posted by Cindy M on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 7:07 am PDT

Do you really think people will pay $18 for trash bags? Sorry to say but I don't think they will.

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4. Posted by esrenity on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 7:16 am PDT

For now being environmentally conscience often means paying a bit of a higher price. BUT, if more & more people step up and make the purchases HIGHER DEMAND for these products will naturally drive the PRICE DOWN. And often, with eco-friendlly products you end up using less (light bulbs are a great example of this) so you actually end up SAVING MONEY.

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5. Posted by vdpascal on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 7:30 am PDT

Sorry but I don't have the extra money for your biofriendly products

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6. Posted by milan1208 on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 7:52 am PDT

OK.

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7. Posted by milan1208 on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 7:52 am PDT

Very good.

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8. Posted by beej on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 7:55 am PDT

HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY FOR THIS. YOU CANT AFFORD NOT TO. WE ARE PUTTING ALL THAT CRAP IN LANDFILLS THAT DOES NOT BREAK DOWN, SO THE LANDFILLS ARE FILLING UP.

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9. Posted by bluefruitrollup on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 8:10 am PDT

if you are also doing other environmental-safe steps to save money in your home each year, then spending a few extra bucks for these items wont hurt you or your wallet. its a win/win situation

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10. Posted by Eugene L on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 8:26 am PDT

THIS A GREAT THING TO DO. THE ENVIRONMENT IS GETTING PRETTY BAD AND WE AS PEOPLE SHOULD START PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMNT NOW. OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE IS IN JEPORADY.

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11. Posted by Lisa H on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 8:31 am PDT

Awesome !!! 18 dollars is expensive for garbage bags but well worth it and for 75 bags thats like 2 and a half months worth def. gonna look for stuff like that today when i go shopping...thanks

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12. Posted by Holly on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 8:40 am PDT

Quit complaining about prices already.... I think that the prices for the eco friendly products versus the non are quite comparable..... Try shopping around. Come on give it a shot you will love it. : ) Not to mention the eco friendly stuff usually smells so wonderful.... - blessings

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13. Posted by Liz W on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 8:46 am PDT

Even if your produce is organic, there are still chemicals in the air around it while it is growing, a farmer next farm over sprays and there is drift of the product, and many fruits need to be waxed (which is all natural) for storage. And who has handled the produce till it gets to you, were they sick, did they wash there hands?

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14. Posted by White Organic Polish Princess on Sat, Apr 28, 2007, 8:47 am PDT

So.............. if they compost in my bin, I wouldn't want to use them as trash bags, right? I don't compost all my trash. Nobody does. But I do like these products. Mrs. Meyers has a super fresh Geranium fabric softener, so yummy. I do have a problem though. I use cloth diapers, and natural laundry soaps are all soap, that's not good for diapers. Any suggestions for me? Detergents (I use Tide HE) are the only thing that gets them clean and residue free. I do get the extra concentrated to alleviate some trash, and I use borax and vinegar as well. Email me at momevans4x@houston.rr.com if you can help...

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15. Posted by peepshow333 on Mon, Jun 04, 2007, 5:36 pm PDT

Seventh generation makes a specific laundry detergent for babies... maybe that would work for your diapers... To those claiming that prices are too high for eco-friendly products, do some shopping. Target sells Seventh Generation products quite reasonably... for instance, 100 fl/oz of laundry detergent is only $7.79... dish washing detergent is around $3... That's not going to break the bank.

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16. Posted by susancwilhelm on Mon, Jun 25, 2007, 2:55 pm PDT

5 Steps to an Eco-friendly Kitchen that doesn't cost as much are: Vinegar Salt Lemon Baking Soda Borax oh and don't forget a little bit of elbow grease

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17. Posted by designlmc on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 7:45 am PDT

We have gone all organic in our in-home eating and household products. Our local "tree-hugging" supermarket supplies all these items. Most work wonderfully; I haven't seen the bags yet, but will keep an eye out. Couple of things: 1) The Seventh Generation dishwasher detergent is from hunger! Tried two bottles of it and never did a load come out clean. So back to liquid Cascade. If anyone knows of a really good alternative, let me know. 2) When my family decided to go all organic (we are 'fish-aterians'), we were nervous our food bill would skyrocket, as the organic market's prices are at a premium. However, our bills are LOWER, as not eating prepackaged foods and snacks are saving us a bundle!~ 3) We started a large veggie garden - don't have to really wash those babies! Plus we belong to CSA (Community supported agriculture) and buy a 1/2 share during the summer and get a weeks worth of veggies every week from a local farmer. Small steps, large impact~!

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18. Posted by Chappy on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 9:12 am PDT

Unless you're composting in your backyard which few people do, a biodegradeable trash bag will do nothing in a landfill. The process requires sun, moisture, oxygen, etc to degrade. While it may degrade at a very slow rate it is likely to do nothing but remain plastic in a sealed landfill.

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19. Posted by dr. velvet on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:12 am PDT

don't use trash bags. Put you trash directly in sealed garbage can. Messy kitchen waste in used paper grocery bags. Wash cans out weekly. Save money no plastic used.

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20. Posted by htotheizzo719 on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:22 am PDT

"Method" products are eco-friendly and do not cost too much!

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21. Posted by horny_naked_banker on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:24 am PDT

Couple of comments....to SevenCon: Your organic produce might not have chemicals on it but just think about all the people who touched and what their hygeine habits might be. I never really gave it thought until I was watching a show (on PBS in San Francisco) and the narrator pondered, "Do you really think the workers in the field walk all the way to a port-a-potty in order to urinate?" I've washed all my produce ever since. Second thought: Why do so many people only use price as their decision criterium? There are so many other things to consider and yet so many people think only of money. As for me, I don't care how cheap something is at W-Mart...I will not shop there.

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22. Posted by pauljen1 on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:32 am PDT

We use paper grocery bags as our garbage liner. The thing folks should be most concerned regarding landfills and non-bio-degradable stuff are WATER BOTTLES. They are choking the earth. How many people fell for 'bottled' water and where do those billions of empty bottles go.... to the landfills, to sit for all eternity. Save the earth, drink tap water and refill a water bottle!

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23. Posted by scott C on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:43 am PDT

Organic produce though organic may still be waxed for a shinny look. Conventional food does contain pesticide residues — often multiple residues. In the United States, the Pesticide Data Program (part of USDA found in 2005 that: These data indicate that 29.5 percent of all samples tested contained no detectable pesticides [parent compound and metabolite(s) combined], 30 percent contained 1 pesticide, and slightly over 40 percent contained more than 1 pesticide.[43] In contrast, a study published in 2002 showed that "Organically grown foods consistently had about one-third as many residues as conventionally grown foods."[44][45] It is important to note that there is a general misconception that organic food is synthetic pesticide-free. Several studies have found synthetic pesticide residue on about 25 percent of organic food (compared with 77 percent of the conventional samples) [46] [47] [48] [49] While it may be expected that conventional food would be more likely to carry synthetic pesticide residues, studies in Canada show a different picture. While up to about 25 percent of organic food carries residues of synthetic pesticides — synthetic, not organic — annual and comprehensive Canadian government studies by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency consistently find that only about 10 percent of conventionally farmed food carries any pesticide residues at all. [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] The Canadian studies are relevant because samples of all foods sold in Canada are included in the annual testings — whether farmed in Canada or in the United States or some other country. (A large amount of food that is sold in Canada is imported from the USA, including about 90 percent of all organic food sold in Canada.) So, the Canadian studies suggest, consumers could be paying a lot more money for organic food that offers similar, or even greater, odds of containing synthetic pesticide residues than the less costly non-organic versions. The reason so few conventional food products carry any synthetic residues at all by the time they are consumed is believed to be that residues wash or rub off during rainfall, harvesting, shipping to plants, bulk washing, packaging, transport to distributors, further washing, repackaging, shipping to retail outlets, handling by shoppers, washing at home, trimming, and cooking. Yet, the potential health effects of pesticide residues found in food are virtually nonexistent. Modern analytical chemistry is capable of detecting such small quantities of a substance — even a single molecule — that a "positive" result is meaningless. Many scientists think that such residues are without effect.[58] FROM WIKIPEDIA "ORGANIC FOOD" This page was last modified 18:27, 16 August 2007. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a US-registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.

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24. Posted by Colleen S on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:47 am PDT

As far as cleaners go, yes eco-friendly cleaners can be expensive. Yes there are some cheaper brands out there (i.e. method) BUT the cheapest way to go is to use common household items (i.e. vinegar) to make your own cleaners. It's eco-friendly and cheaper than even the mainstream chemical filled cleaner brands. You can find recipes for these homemade cleaners online or in books like "clean house, clean planet." AND remember, whether or not being eco-conscious is your thing, chemical filled cleaners are unhealthy for more than just the environment - they are unhealthy for YOU and your children and your pets. Switching to non-toxic cleaners benefits YOU directly. Also, $18 may be expensive for garbage bags but think of the "true" cost of all the garbage we produce (the cost of energy to ship it away, the cost of land to bury it or the pollution associated with incinerating, the environmental costs (energy, pollution, etc.) of producing the things we throw away - need i go on...so $18 (for 75 bags by the way - which is a lot) is a STEAL! With all that said, there are a lot of things an individual can do to reduce the amount of trash they produce and therefore reduce the amount of garbage bags they need, and reduce the cost i.e. buy less stuff, seek out products with less packaging, etc. AND if you are worried about your garbage getting stinky and needing to be emptied often, then try COMPOSTING! If you just keep a small container in the kitchen for all your food waste and have a compost pile out back (or if you live in a city, a wormbin) then all your waste can break down naturally and the finished product can be used to fertilize gardens and plants. Composting reduces household trash tremendously and all that natural material stays out of the landfill.

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25. Posted by daizymaizey on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:52 am PDT

PLEASE don't start on the water bottles again! Unless you are willing to gripe equally at all the soft drinks being sold then you can't say anything about choosing a healthier option! And I don't care how much media wants to try to convince me my local water supply is safe and clean -- I know better!

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26. Posted by Nanci K. on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:53 am PDT

We use paper grocery sacks as kitchen garbage bags. We compost all our food waste - It's not hard folks, learn about it! Even apartment dwellers can have a small, enclosed tumbler style compost bin on a patio/balcony. If you can't use the finished compost loam, some local gardening friend would LOVE it. With composting, no wet or sloppy stuff goes in our garbage to soak the paper bags. It's mainly the non-recyclable packaging, floor sweepings, and other misc. trash. The paper sacks fit pretty well in the kitchen bin, they hold their shape well to carry to the trash can, and best of all - They're free with your groceries! Yay! With composting and recycling, we only fill up our trash cans every few *months* and then (since we live in the country) we run them in to the county dump ourselves in the back of the truck for $5 to $8 (based on weight.) So that's our trash bill, plus a few bucks in gas, every few months. Even if you don't want to run things to the dump yourself, composting can save you a lot in money not spent hauling off the heavy, wet food waste with your trash, and not filling your cans as fast. You could drop from two cans to one for pickup, or go from one a week to one every two weeks. To top all that off, stuffing compostable food waste into plastic bags where they can't properly decompose and then filling landfills with plastic bags full of that stuff is just plain dumb. Convenience should have limits on it's stupidity.

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27. Posted by Natasha on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:54 am PDT

Most importantly it is necessary that we all REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYLCE in our kitchens. Reduce the amount of food and waste by being conscience of our needs and not over buying. Reuse everything: plastic bags, yogurt containers as tupperware, leftovers the next day, etc. Recylce everything that is recylcable, This cuts back on landfill waste and is very inexpensive, most places it is free to have your recylcing picked up from your house. Lets all be more aware of our waste and keep this earth a better place.

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28. Posted by ladybugmay1961@sbcglobal.net on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:56 am PDT

Wow! Great tidbits posted. I know whatcha mean about the cost and some of the friendlier products not always working the best. But, heck, we gotta try! Cummulatively, it WILL make a huge difference! Yeah, what I spend on organics, I save by not buying prepackaged or snack foods. Look at the unit prices. That stuff can go for $17 per lb and it's nutritionally devoid. Anyway, I gave up plastic bags. Now I keep cloth totes in the car. But I still buy plastic trash bags. I just switched to washing laundry in cold water only. Everything is just as clean as in warm and it saves alot of energy. Finally, I stopped using dryer sheets, too. One day, I thought, how many 100s of millions of them go into the landfills? Now I use liquid softener by Sun & Earth and it works great. One last thing, who's "Horny_Naked_Banker"?! I wanna meet him sometime soon! Yums!

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29. Posted by catnamddog on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 11:58 am PDT

For laundry, I use Charlie's Soap. It's hypoallergenic, biodegradable and made with coconut-based detergents and green river washing soda instead of chemicals. It also only takes a tablespoon of the stuff to clean a full load of laundry. I also dry my clothes on drying racks (another way to be more eco-friendly) and my clothes still come out soft without adding fabric softers. I highly recommend it! http://www.charliesoap.com/

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30. Posted by Colleen S on Fri, Aug 17, 2007, 12:02 pm PDT

Answers to a few comments above: - biobags can be found online at websites like greenfeet.com - true, these bags won't biodegrade in sealed landfills BUT are still a better alternative than plastic bags, made from petroleum a non-renewable resource. I do recognize that there are a lot of debates in this area and it does take fuel to produce the corn (a renewable resource) used to make these bags and there are other negative effects associated with agriculture so there is never a perfect solution. My view on all this is that plastic will NEVER break down, and often garbage doesnt make it to a landfill but the bags end up somewhere else (i.e. the ocean) so at least if these bags end up as litter somewhere, they will decompose. - if you're concerned about these bags breaking down while in your garbage can - no worries, it doesnt happen that fast - but they will break down in your compost pile if you use them there. - i agree - water bottles are a HUGE problem as well. Use an alternative refillable metal (plastic ones leach harmful chemicals) such as a Kleen Kanteen or a SIGG. Tap water is often better than bottled water anyway. In the U.S. all municiple water is drinkable and if yours is not the cleanest possible, a pitcher filter like a brita or one that attaches to your faucet will take out the majority of additives (i.e. chlorine added by your municipality during the purification process). - if you want more ideas of how to live eco-friendly on a budget check out the Center for a New American Dream at http://www.newdream.org/ - Sign up for the Carbon Conscious Consumer campaign at http://c3.newdream.org/ and pledge to take action to reduce your personal impact.

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