Is Feeling Refreshed Worth Chemicals on Your Hoohah?

One place I have yet to go in our eco-fication is using cloth squares for the unmentionable number one and number two. I know one fantastic person who has taken that step and have even seen her really clean and neat system in her home.

Although we still use toilet paper here à la maison EcoYogini, recent adverts have boggled my mind. Have you seen them? The- Cottenelle 'Ultimate Fresh Care' combo of using toilet paper and flush and wipes. If you haven't, it consists of  different actors trying to name what the 'flush and wipe' combo would be.

I gotta say; my name for this is 'gross and environmentally damaging'.

Who honestly uses these?

If you've considered it, or are considering adding 'flushable wipes' to your toilet-care routine, here are a few extra thoughts to consider:

1. Adding a whole other set of wipes to your routine is double the wastefulness. Which also happens to equal a significant extra cost. For what? If you'd like an extra moment of freshness after you've used TP, wet a piece of TP, or use a cloth. 
2. No matter what companies claim, flushable wipes are not likely to truly 'biodegrade' in your septic systems (and a quick google search reveals quite a few testimonies claiming the opposite). 
3. Flushable wipes have chemicals. According to Cottonelle, they have anti-microbial ingredients, as well as emollients and mild skin cleansers. According to EWG, they contain some pretty sketchy chemicals (bolded make Ecoholic's Mean 15): Water, Propylene Glycol, DMDM Hydantoin, Disodium Cocamphodiacetate, Polysorbate 20, Fragrance, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Aloe Barbadensis, Tocopheryl Acetate
4. I don't know about you, but who in their right mind would slather chemicals connected to hormone disruptors and immunodeficiency on their hoohah or doodad? Umm... no thank you.
5. Finally, these chemicals don't biodegrade.. they just slip through our processing systems and get dumped in our oceans and rivers... ick.

I know as a fellow yogini that it can get pretty darn humid and feeling fresh can be a lovely dream... but there are so many other ways to accomplish this without dousing your private area with nasty chemicals:

1. Using a wet cloth, give yourself a refresher. If this is a daily thing, perhaps having some small cloth squares specifically for this purpose wouldn't be a bad idea. They won't be as dirty, since you've already used TP and would be super easy to wash. 
2. Wet a bit of TP after your regular routine. Sometimes that's all you need.
3. If you're in a public washroom and the TP is falling apart when you wet it (which isn't a bit deal if you've already used TP in the first place), wet a small piece of paper towel. No really, if you are that desperate it's not going to be the end of the world. 

Honestly people, adding chemicals to an already sensitively balanced eco-system is pure silliness.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Toilet Greenification- Apartment Style

Living in the city, in an apartment, makes certain eco changes difficult. Urban living does makes it easier to drive less (unless you live in Halifax, where the public transportation is SO abismal), access farmer's markets and I guess these tiny compacted apartment living stacked one on top of another results in leaving more Earth untouched. However, making changes like having alternatively sourced power and hydro, having a garden or replacing appliances for energy efficient alternatives are impossible... or highly unadvisable in case your landperson would get slightly cranky. (view of the Atlantic in Hubbards Nova Scotia that I took pre-yoga class)

We do our best, Andrew and I, in our infinitesimal box we call home and Wednesday we did the unthinkable. We tampered with our toilet.

(the culprit and if you look closely... my red socked-foot)

Living surrounded by the ocean my entire life (except for those few dry years stranded in the middle of the Okanagan) has resulted in some weird, obsessive attachment to water. I love water, I LOVE the ocean. Perhaps as a fisherman's daughter I've also grown up with a keen understanding of just how ruthless and powerful She can be. Many fathers, brothers, sons and even a few friends in my fishing community have been taken throughout the years.

Our oceans are our Earth's life and all Her inhabitants, every single last one, may thank the ocean for our existance. The ocean is where life began and the water cycle continues to nourish and sustain our world. As North Americans we are so wasteful with water, as if it has an unending supply that we can use and pollute.

According to Ecoholic, up to 65% of the water we use in our homes happens in the bathroom (Ecoholic 2006, p.156). One third of that number is from our toilets. If we had our own home, and could save some moolah, Andrew and I would totally invest in a low flow or two flow toilet. Unfortunately, swapping our current beaut and leaving it to hang out in the hall might ruffle a few feathers....

Our lovely toilet uses 13.2 litres with every single flush (3.5 gallons). Wow. Seems a bit excessive, especially for pee. Andrew and I both figure we flush the toilet about three times each a day (erring on the side of caution... we do often "let it mellow"), so in one year that would be 28 908 litres (7636 gallons). Whoa, twenty eight THOUSAND litres a year of water. As letting it mellow isn't always an option and pooing less is also not really an option, and buying a new toilet isn't up... what to do?

A water bottle! Vanessa from Green as a Thistle inspired us to make this eco-change. I know it's weird, but I was a little nervous about altering any appliance that wasn't "ours". The idea, place a filled water bottle in your toilet tank so that it displaces water, giving your tank less water to accomplish the flush. Bricks are a no go as they may eventually break down and damage stuff (I've heard differing opinions on this one, but since we don't have any spare bricks laying around it wasn't really an issue).

I gotta admit, it took a few months of thinking about it before following through. The main issue, we don't buy bottled water or bottled anything. Hardly ever. Strangely enough, I have this aversion to plastic bottles... So I was struggling with WHAT exactly to place in the toilet. Should we...no...BUY bottled water for this one change? Andrew, being the practical guy that he is, picked up an stainless steel water bottle and announced our victory. It had been a "gift" from my job, but it's ugly, made by a no-name company in China with our company's name painted on the side. Who needs to be reminded with every drink where they work? So it's been hanging out in our cupboard for about three months.

And now it is in our toilet- WOO!

Andrew assured me that it wouldn't rust, break anything or spontaneously combust (he's so nice) so we filled it with water and (he) found the perfect spot. It's only a 500ml (16fl oz) bottle which changes our toilet to a 12.7 litre toilet. Which in a year will save 1095 litres. I can't even tell the difference when I flush, in one way a good thing, but a little bit of a let down. SO I'm considering (if it can fit) to put the OTHER stainless steel water bottle (600ml) I got as a present from a client in there as well. If I can make it fit- toilet tanks are pretty darn minimalist. Combined that would mean 1.1 litres less per flush which would more than double my water savings in a year!

Other options include buying a "toilet dam", costing less than ten dollars and can save up to 3 litres per flush or a water bag (the "toilet tummy"- seriously, who came UP with these names??). Because I'm lazy, it made more sense to simply use something we already had in the house (plus it means cheaper, and less eventual waste). I'm not sure how anyone could fit an entire 1 litre juice/milk jug in their toilet tank though... Also, I have read filling the receptical with sand or rocks may help it sink.

The next step: shorter showers.... gah.

Blessings!

article and photos by EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Is your bum worthy or Ancient Forests and Bleach?

I was inspired to finally write this post by Grace, who reminded us about how seemingly tiny changes can make a difference to our Earth. Go on over and check out her two informative videos (and what do you think about the first interview from Fox??? Was it just me that wanted to shake her, just a little bit? Just a little itty bit?).

("furry" mountains on the drive between Vernon and Vancouver)

If you haven't been yet, this post is about TP. As in for your bum. As in Papier de Toilette. Can you imagine a world that didn't have TP? Where people used, cloths, leaves, or even... water?? It would seem that North Americans are pretty particular and leaders in the TP revolution that has taken on the world by storm in the past 100 years. For thousands of years humans poo'd and peed without the help of fancy, schmancy paper and then... the invention of "medicated paper" was introduced to the United States by Joseph Gayetty who worked extremely hard to convince Americans that wiping their bums with paper was actually a necessity.

Fast forward a hundred or so years and most North Americans couldn't even make it through a normal day without using toilet paper at least once or twice. Have you ever thought about where your toilet paper comes from? The tissue paper industry is a biggy, and according to Greenpeace, Kimberly-Clark (company that owns Cottonelle along with several other big companies) produces more than 4 million tons of tissue paper a year, and currently the majority of their products are made with virgin forests. Including the Ancient Canadian Boreal Forest.... which by clearcutting they devastate the forests biodiversity in plant and animal life. Anyone who has been or lived in BC recently will understand that monocultures can be dangerous. While living in Vernon Andrew and I witnessed firsthand the visual evidence of the pine beetles devasting destruction to BC's forests.... miles of orange pine trees, a monoculture wipe-out aided by warmer winters.

According to Greenpeace, Kimberly-Clark has just announced their new environmental policy concerning sustainable harvesting. Their goal: achieve 100% of their wood product from Certified Forest Stewardship Council forests by 2011.

According to Ecoholic, over 700 000 tons of disposable tissue products are thrown out/flushed in Canada every year, the average person going through about 100 rolls of TP per year. Also, those scary bisphenol A and other cancer-linked chemicals that we're avoiding in our water bottles and products? They have been found to be involved in our toilet paper as well (as if paper is ever REALLY that white naturally). Not to mention the amount of water, shipping and processing that goes into the process of creating those three-ply bum-wipes! (Ecoholic, Adria Vasil 2006).

(pine trees as far as the eye can see on the drive to Vancouver!)

Does my butt REALLY need to be wiped with ancient forests and bleached out chemical soaked paper? Really? Switching to TP made from recycled paper was a super easy solution and there are several companies out there that make fantastic alternatives. Seventh Generation has been one of our fav's... but Greenpeace has a fabulous table to help you wade through the ever present greenwashing poop to find the best eco-wipe!

OR you could be brave... and try cloth wipes. I really like the idea of using cloth wipes for number one, but I'm not too sure I'm ready for the poo-wipes... Please check out The Organic Sister's fantastic chronology of her journey into the cloth-wipe world. It's actually less scary sounding after the first few posts! Also, Crunchy Chicken has a bunch of fun posts about her journey as well!

Thank you so much Grace for giving us those fantastic tidbits of news from Greenpeace!

Article Authored by Eco Yogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com (eco-poo at it's best!)