Pinterest: The Planet Friendly Solution for Magazine Addiction

I used to have a magazine addiction. I loved everything about them- their plastic-chemical-y smell, the way their shiny (or matte!) pages felt between my fingers, the snippets of info and eye catching photos...

There was a time back when we lived in BC where I actually created a binder of yoga articles to help myself "feel better" about my wasteful magazine addiction.

No doubt about it, magazines are practically the epitome of waste. Most of them can't be recycled... and it's almost ridiculous that they're still being purchased; we have such fantastic online versions that waste less.

According to US Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 1.5 million tons of magazines entered the municipal waste system in 2009 and 54% were recycled. (via National Geographic). 1.5 million tons of magazine equals a whole crap load of paper, chemical inks and pollution. Blegh.

You know what the best solution for magazines is?

Pinterest.

Yep, I know you've heard of it. I know you've pashawed it (just like you did twitter and facebook before you realized their awesome-ness).

But if you have a magazine addiction and give one lick about the planet... cancel your subscriptions, avoid the magazine section and sign up for Pinterest.

It's seriously like an online version of a magazine with the social aspect of a social media network.

How Pinterest works:
Pinterest allows you to organize and "pin" images and websites into boards or categories or boards- kinda like a scrapbook but way cooler. You can save recipes, inspiration boards/images, sequences... whatever your heart desires. (How Pinterest Works and The Ultimate Pinterest Guide)

You just drag the "pin-it" button to your tool bar and when you see something online that you like, click pin-it and you're good to go. You can also get pretty darn creative with boards and such.

The social part of Pinterest is also pretty darn interesting. Like twitter, it's much less personal than facebook. You can follow boatloads of people or organizations that have similar interests and you'll get a real-time update as to the boards and stuff that they're pinning on your Pinterest homepage. Like this cool DIY magnetic makeup board, or this beautiful pebble boot board.

You can search Pinterest using "key words" to find boards or pins that interest you. For example, when I searched "yoga sequence" I found a) morning b) keep calm over the holidays and c) fall equinox sequence.

I'm looking forward to indulging my magazine addiction sans destruction to the planet curtesy of Pinterest.

Fantastic Eco-Wrapped Yulemas Presents

This week has been busy with an engagement of our closest friends (after a sweaty hockey game!), picking up our ridiculously organic and misshapen Yulemas Tree, a work party and finally a day of rest.

And wrapping presents for family.

I adore beautifully wrapped presents and may have a few rigidities around wrapping presents PERFECTLY. That said, the thought of spending money on something that people are going to rip into pieces for it to be at worse, thrown in the landfill, or at best recycled, kills me. As a result, we haven't bought much wrapping paper in years.

Nevertheless, our presents continue to look smashing if I do humbly say so myself.

How? Through the joys of newspaper!

A local Haligonian paper, The Coast, always has the most interesting graphics and front page "art" work, which is especially festive during December. All I needed to do was pick up a free paper two Thursdays in a row, read them as I would anyway, and spend some time searching for a "wrappable" section.

Seriously, this can get really fun, especially since for certain friends I wrapped their presents using the "Savage Love" (warning, explicitly sexual articles post-link!) section of the newspaper (hah!).

Advertisements can look fantastic with beautiful graphics that can at times span an entire page, perfect for wrapping. My brother's gift was wrapped using a "Flight" advertisement that had an entire page of mountain and snow.

Smaller graphics can be cut out for pretty gift tags. A bit of repurposed ribbon or string and you're good to go!

Now, for my brother's "step-son" who's 3 years old, I caved and purchased a small bit of wrapping paper made from recycled paper. I pick my battles :)

Wrapping our Yulemas gifts with artfully selected newspaper can be fun, beautiful and would help save our landfills from tons of plastic-y, non-recycled wrapping paper. Give it a try!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How to Enjoy A Book

(For those of you considering abolishing "real" books from your life in favour of a (no!) e-reader, I present you with a few essentials to live by...)

How to Enjoy Books

(this is one of our book shelves, with my current book  that I'm enjoying: "Wildwood" written b y Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis)

Step 1: Entering a small, locally owned bookstore/library/Secondhand bookstore pause briefly and take a deep breath. You are now surrounded by books. Enjoy this moment thoroughly.

Step 2: Start perusing each section, gazing upon the rows and rows of colourful spines. Perhaps grazing your fingers across a few, tilting your head sideways so you can read the titles or even removing a few to take a peak at the cover. Don't rush, walk slowly or stand quietly for a few moments. It's socially acceptable to do this in a book purchasing/borrowing space, take advantage.

Step 3: Find a book that interests you. It may be the topic, the title or even the cover art. Pick out the book and hold it in your hands.

Step 4: Pass your hand across the front of the book. Feel the finishing of the book, the weight of it in your hands. Is it a light book, or is it extremely heavy (meaning the possibility for a very lengthy and amazing read). Does the cover have bumps or art that feels different?

Step 5: Read the description at the back and check for an author's photo. You never know, it may sway your decision.... seriously.

 

the beautiful illustrations in the book caught my imagination

Step 6: If you've made it this far it means you've got a serious contender. Open the book and take a rifle through. Feel how the pages move. Do they have rough edges? (I LOVE those books!) Do the pages feel dry and stiff or do they flop through, heavy?

And... the ultimately most important part of the Book Adventure:

Step 7: Open the book and bring your nose in close. No, no, I mean REALLY close- right up in the pages. Inhale...

You might call me a huge weirdo, but different types of books have different scents. Some pages smell like chemicals, some like older paper. Library books have their own special smell (umm, I am not a fan honestly lol).

Books are so much more than the story inside. Having a real paper book has Seven essential steps before we even get to the Story World waiting inside. E-readers.... they can't even compare.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

EYCC: Paper towel tips and an update

 Andrew and I haven't bought/used paper towel in over three years. Not once. Not even for bacon fat, cleaning the bathroom, toast or cleaning mirrors and windows. You know what? I don't miss it at all. Why does your paper towel habit matter? I wrote a detailed post about it in December 2009, but I'll give you the main points:

• If every household in North America replaced just one roll of virgin-fibre paper towel for 100% post consumer recycled we'd save 550,000 trees
• 400,000 ha of Canada's Boreal Forests are harvested each year with most for paper mills
• Typical paper towels are bleached with chemicals, use virgin-fibre and extremely wasteful.

My steps involved switching to recycled paper towels, only to be used for emergencies and then one day I just didn't buy any more. Ya know, when you don't have any as an option in the house, you eventually forget why you'd ever need it in the first place.

My strategies and changes include:

• Using rags for everything cleaning related: including mirrors, toilets, bathtubs etc. I just have a system where I clean the toilet last, so that I'm not spreading toilet germs in the bathroom. Also, mirror and faucets get cleaned first to avoid streaks (vinegar and water seriously works the best).
• We use plates for all snacks, sandwiches, crackers etc. I figure the energy required to wash the plates is significantly less than the chemicals and processing required to make paper towel.
• Bacon fat: we just don't sop it up. I know- gross eh? But we rarely eat bacon... An option I have considered, however, is using a baking rack to allow the bacon to drip onto a plate underneath. Another option would be to dab the bacon with a cloth napkin to soak up some fat that way. We also pour the fat into a jar.
• Cat grossness: if the cats make some gross mess on the floor, we usually clean it up using a rag and the strongest eco-cleaner we have around (usually a 7th Generation spray). But if we have to pick something up (ew!) I usually grab some toilet paper and flush it....
• Napkins: we use cloth.

Seriously, I have no idea why I ever thought paper towel was necessary and that cloth alternatives and rags would be difficult to manage. 

UPDATE for: Decrease Paper Week 1
Well, our grocery shopping has been interesting. Instead of buying box board packaged mac and cheese, pizza and frozen goods, we've tried a few from scratch alternatives.

 

mmm Growler. The mug is so you can get a feel for the size...

1.  Andrew made pizza dough from scratch and actually even froze one! They turned out delicious. Now we just have to make MORE.
2. Mac and Cheese is our next step... maybe tonight?
3. I bought granola (from La fourmi bionique) with no box board packaging (I could make my own, very easy, but a bit time consuming... so didn't happen yet).
4. We bought yummy yummy beer from the market in Growler form (2 litres) from Granite Brewery at the market. No box board for the bottles (since it's one big jug) and the bestest yummiest beer- The Peculiar. It does mean that we have to drink the entire 2 Litres upon opening... Also we had a bit of a problem with the Irish Stout- was completely flat. This supposedly happens due to the nitrogen needed to keep it creamy in draught form, which doesn't translate to jug form.

How has your challenge been going?

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Earth Yoga Challenge: Decrease Tree-Products

I'm hoping these themes will not only focus on ways to help the environment, but will help us reconnect as yogis and people with our everyday lives. A simpler life.

This first theme will definitely result in a de-cluttering and reconnection that we can use part of our yoga practice to help forge new habits and routines.

EYCC: Decrease dependence on Unnecessary Tree Products

In order to reconnect with our lives and planet, it's not enough to simply replace our non-eco 'stuff' with more barriers created by their eco-version. Instead, in order to connect we need to try removing what gets in the way. For many reasons, these barriers have been perceived as conveniences, but pile too many and instead we can barely see over the mound of 'convenience'.

Looking at our kitchen, I realized that Andrew and I accumulate a lot of paper products. For us, this is mostly box board like pizza boxes, Kraft Dinner boxes (yes we eat KD, LOVE it), beer boxes...  Yes, we compost them, but that's not the point. It's waste and trees and extremely unlikely the paper used for these boxes were post-consumer or required minimal energy. I also wonder about the state of the fertilizer produced from box board covered in toxic inks...

 The shameful pile of box board waiting to be composted. I'm embarrassed to show it... but in order of fairness I am sucking it up.

I announced to Andrew that I'd really like to try to decrease our use of boxboard packaged products.

While problem solving as to how this would look, practically instead of just committing to a vague 'We'll try to avoid food packaged in boxes' (in my experience not a successful strategy), what resulted in a list of activities that involved eating less processed and frozen meals.

Lisa and Andrew's EYCC for Feb 2011:

• Make our own pizza including the dough (make enough dough to freeze for convenience)
• Make home made mac and cheese
• Andrew will make and freeze his own taquitos and samosas for convenient food ready meals
• Granola and cereal stuffs will be bought bulk or be homemade (depending on time)

As you can see, not a whole ton of things to complete, but just enough that we *hopefully* won't be buying lots of pre-made frozen food and become one step closer to freezing our own meals. This also allows us to eat healthier and save money. Wee!

Say you're just starting out on the Earth Yoga adventure, what would be a really fantastic place to start? The best thing we ever did was cut out paper towel from our vocabulary. Holy Goddess, but did I ever depend on paper towel. Looking back, I can't believe how wasteful it was and how difficult I 'thought' it was going to be, functioning without it. Seriously though, do you need to mop up your mess, clean the bathroom, or eat your piece of toast on paper made from our disappearing forests? Here are some different options that might work for you this month:

General

• Cut out paper towel (post coming this week on some tips and support)
• Avoid ridiculously over packaged items (like toothpaste that is also packaged in a paper box)
• Switch to post consumer recycled toilet paper.
• Go to cloth wiping (hmmm, not quite there yet myself, but definitely interesting- post to come)
• Print on both sides of the paper at work. (my reports are always always double sided now)

Yoga specific:

• Stop printing receipts for classes unless specifically asked.
• Use an online method to tabulate class passes (it could be as simple as an excel spreadsheet)
• Send out electronic newsletters instead of posters and flyers. 
• Use towels instead of paper towel in your studio bathroom.
• Switch to post consumer recycled TP and tissues.
• Go paperless as a studio.
• Spend some time outside near trees- meditate on their presence and our co-dependence. 

So- what will it be? Choose one, two or three different things to commit to Change this month and post it in your comment below- wherever you're at in your Earth Yoga state will be perfect.

Please leave any other ideas or suggestions that I haven't thought of here, on twitter using the hashtag #earthyogachallenge or write a post and link it back (using a link in the comment below for others to find it :) ).

Blessings!


article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Eco-Wedding Invitations

Countdown to Eco-Wedding: 6 weeks. It is crunch time and my checklist has caused some stressful moments. In the middle of these 6 weeks Andrew and I will be going on a 'pre-wedding honeymoon' to New York City!! I'll definitely try to check out 'Yoga To The People'- after all the chatting over at 'its all yoga, baby' I'm definitely curious to see what it's about!

Our invitations were created, cut and sent a few weeks ago and I can now share them with you!

Although there's pressure to have fancy, letter pressed invitations, I just couldn't wrap my head around spending that much money on a piece of paper that was just going to get recycled (hopefully!). So, for two years we searched for our perfect wedding graphic. We had a tree with our letters carved in, followed by a tree with a heart in the middle... 

And then I found a tandem bicycle graphic- free download. Andrew fell in love with this invitation. A few hours of playing around with the wording, fonts and colours and voila! A Tandem Bicycle invitation to represent our brand new Life Journey together.

It was essential that I find a sustainable paper solution. Fortunately there are a lot of post consumer recycled cardstock options out there now and I easily found beautiful ivory sheets for not too much money. I would have preferred forest stewardship certified paper.... but I didn't really give myself enough planning time. We sort of needed invitations to be made and mailed in two days time (haha, yep we were *that* organized).

The actual sizing and cutting of the invitations involved much more swearing, beer and frustration. We used box cutters, glass picture frames and a ruler. Several hours of intense staring, measuring and frantic cutting later and we were good to start addressing. Note to self; borders are extremely helpful when printing two invitations per page.

Full invitation and rsvp card

I was so proud of those invitations and of course we received minimal feedback (or even email rsvps.... but then our wedding is small enough we knew mostly who was coming anyways). We even made ten special rsvp cards for those people we knew weren't computer savvy. Why anyone would spend a fortune and ridiculous amount of hours for such a minimally noticed aspect of the wedding is beyond me.

Close up of the invite! :)

 

Next up; the weekend program of events. After spending a chaotic weekend at a friends wedding (which was lovely), I realized the importance of letting your guests know just what the 'plan' is for the affair. Since we'll have many guests staying two nights, a short Weekend Program will help guide expectations and decrease the need for constant timeline with bride-groom verification. 


It's fine when the bride and groom are super laid back about details and events, but guests really do need to know what the deal is in order to figure out timing and weekend expectations. 


As a result, our wedding website has tourist resources for our out of town guests, accommodation options, thoughts on what to wear (i.e. October can be chilly, the ceremony will take place outside so shoes should be able to handle grass etc). As most of the family have so nicely reported that 'why no, we didn't look at the website yet!' my paper-saving plan has gone down the composting toilet.

Wedding programs test-print

 

Alright, a printed 'program' it will be. I found another funky bicycle graphic and spent an hour typing up the basic weekend events. I sourced a paper supply that was back ordered and not being used (so reclaimed paper? lol) and will print two programs per page to maximize paper use. 


Done and done.

Pre-literacy and Kindles; 1-0 for Development vs Environment

My achilles heal for 'greenification'... books. Oh how I heart books, the smell of their pages, the print, how they look on my shelf. Growing up, we weren't rich, but books were always a justifiable expense.

As kindles, 'kobo's and various other e-readers have been flooding the media and marketplace, we'll slowly move to non-paper reading. Which I will never get completely accustomed to, but I can understand the ecological savings and value in using an e-reader. As an adult.

But when it comes to children books I am a firm 'hard copy' believer. 

 Me and my new book 'Crazy Hair' by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean

 

The mantra 'read to your children' isn't repeated a zillion times just for fun. Children who grow up reading, being exposed to books in their homes, having books around them to touch and feel and being told that reading is fun, are extremely more likely to succeed academically. It's a sad fact that our public school systems are set up for children who have good literary skills. Every subject, even math, depends on good reading and writing skills.

 Awesome rhyming and adventure in this book, perfect for my 4-5yr old clients!

From my perspective, I see those children prior to school entry who are MOST at risk for difficulties with reading and writing. Having difficulties with language and sounds is directly linked to struggling with literacy. Although for most of us it's been years since we learned how to read, it involves a lot more than simply sounding out the letters on a screen.

Pre-literacy skills start with understanding how to hold a book- right side up, knowing that those weird squiggles are somehow words and that a story has a beginning, middle and end.

With good parental support, children learn that letters are powerful and have meaning and that we read from left to right (via using your finger to move along the page). They start to learn that letters have sounds and that words can be broken up into letters, sounds and 'beats' (syllables). All those nursery rhymes? They're phonological awareness (pre-literacy) games built into regular culture.

With e-readers children don't turn pages, there is no concrete, visual beginning and end, the screen can adapt to the position you hold it (so right side up doesn't make sense anymore) and it becomes more difficult to read like a traditional book.

 Seriously, octopus in his crazy hair... love it!

We could briefly talk about the current research on television-screen exposure and the link to developmental delays, language delays, obesity and attention difficulties... but that would require a whole other post. I'll just say that children do not learn language from a computer-television or other 'e-learning' device. Children learn language from play, conversation and peer-adult interaction. If you're interested, I could definitely write another post on this topic- just let me know :)

So- here is where the eco-line is drawn. More developmentally appropriate eco-options for your little one:

• Get a library card and visit frequently! This will instill the value of library-lending at a young age and up the chances they'll use it as teens and adults. Also, libraries often have free events like circle times, book readings etc that would give your child the opportunity to interact and play with children their age.
• Buy books from second hand book stores- they have been previously loved.
• Look for local book-exchange groups, or start your own! 
• Check out yard sales or hit up family members for books their children have outgrown.
• Buy from local bookstores so that you're supporting local!
• Last resort- buy good quality books that will last, choose selectively for level appropriate for your child's age or find some that are made from sustainable materials.  

 How about it? Have any non-ereader children book ideas?


Blessings!


article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How life is hidden in seemingly barren places... Yule musings

Happy Yule and Winter Solstice! I thought perhaps it would be fitting to clarify a little bit regarding my previous post and the Canadian Boreal Forests as Yule and Solstice are good times for insight and thoughtful re-evaluation.

The Canadian Boreal Forests consist of close to half of Canada's total. So much forest, wilderness and wide space... Canada is known for it's forests. We are a huge country that is sparsely populated in comparison to countries like the United States or those in the UK.

The actual 'boreal' forest encircles the northern globe to encompass Canada and Eurasia and makes up almost 1/3 of the world's forests. Canada's third of this massive forestial ecosystem, contains wetlands that filter millions of tons of water each day. Wetlands like the black spruce peatland pictured here. When I look at this picture I see life, lush and green. Perhaps because I grew up on the Atlantic coast, where trees are quite smaller than other parts of the country, and hemlocks and wetlands are prominent and essential for wildlife growth and water.

Unlike more southern forests, the boreal forest is characterized by long cold winters and short summers, resulting in more coniferous tree species. Wetlands (i.e. peatlands), bogs, marshes and fens consist of 30% of the Canadian boreal forest. These invaluable wetlands filter millions of liters of water daily and provide habitat for more than 13 million ducks... which is about 40% of the American duck population. (Hinterland Who's Who). Canada's Boreal Forest is the largest intact contiguous forest on Earth.


According to Environment Canada, the Federal Government Site, harvesting of the boreal forests has increased steadily over the past ten years. As paper production takes up the majority of the harvest, it has been supposed that increased consumer demand has resulted in increased harvests. These harvests are creeping up to more northern, ecologically fragile areas each year.  Approximately 1 million acres of forest are mined annually (David Suzuki).


Unfortunately, most science behind renewable forestry comes from research done in southern regions or forests and not in mid-northern boreal ecosystems. There is a difference, as northern forests are more fragile and prone to soil erosion, regrowth is extremely slow and wildlife easily affected by disturbance. A dominance of those all important wetlands can result in even more soil modification. High moisture content and lower structure can result in displacement, compacting and decreased nutrients to name a few (EC). 

According to the World Resource Institute, the current harvesting practices of Canadian Boreal Forests is unsustainable as implementation of sustainable policies are inconsistent.


According to Environment Canada, about 90% of harvesting in the boreal forests are done through clearcutting. Including full-tree and tree-length.


Further, the paper and pulp mills have historically caused toxic run-off with mercury, dioxins and and furans, polluting local water ways that supply all of Canadian water systems. According to the IPCC, forest clearance may account for 1/4th of all carbon dioxide emissions... annually (David Suzuki conference).


Although the ginormous forests of mountainous interior of BC were different and beautiful in their own right, I have always loved the small, short coniferous forests of Atlantic and Northern Canada. There is something striking about recognizing the importance of something seemingly barren... understanding that life flourishes and dynamically impacts each part of our world.

Beneath the surface of our sleeping time, like Yule, the Boreal Canadian Forest reminds us that life is in every thing. To be cherished and protected.


I am indeed, a tree-hugger. :)


Happy Yule~


article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com


 

Kickin' the Paper Towel Habit- For our Forests

I admit, I was a paper towel addict. It's so convenient... and easy... and disposable. In my family we always had huge rolls of paper towel, for toast, crackers, cookies, chips, cleaning up spilled things... even though we had the half piece option we used a lot of paper towel.

One of the first steps in my cleaning eco-fication was to switch to paper towel made from 100% post consumer recycled paper. If every household in North America replaced just one roll of virgin-fibre paper towel for 100% post consumer recycled we'd save 550,000 trees (Natural Resources Defense council as quoted in Ecoholic Home 2009).

Approximately 400,000 ha of Canada's Boreal Forests are harvested each year with most for paper mills (Ecological Assessment of the Shield Ecozone-Government of Canada). Seriously, I do not need to eat my crackers on material that was bleached and soaked in chemicals from our beautiful boreal forests.

Over the course of a year I noticed that we used less and less. Mostly because brown paper towel doesn't really suit food purposes, so I started choosing plates over paper for snacks. Also, they were more expensive, so we only bought one or two rolls at a time. It got to the point that we only ever used the paper towel for cleaning the bathroom. I honestly didn't think I'd be ready for using cloth only to clean the bathroom. Really- for some strange reason I thought that my cloth 'lavettes' would leave streaks on the counter and mirror and be too gross to clean the toilet.

Then, a few months ago we ran out of paper towel. I looked at the bathroom and it's glorified mess and went to the drawer filled with dish cloths (we sadly do not have a dishwasher in our apartment, other than one named 'Andrew' as it's his chore...). I chose the few that looked a little sketchy and on their way out, took a deep breath and gave it a go.

I needed a strategy. I wasn't going to clean pee off the toilet and THEN wash the sink- ew! SO, I decided that my plan of attack would be: mirror, sink, counter, bathtub and shower curtain and last toilet. I had also been using vinegar, water and tea tree oil for a few weeks on the counter, mirror and faucets. I assumed that it would streak and leave weird water spots since the cloth wasn't dry.

Black Spruce peatland (Hinterland Site)

I was so wrong. In a few minutes the bathroom was great! The faucets left NO water marks at all. I have to concede that vinegar-water really is perfect for those surfaces. I had long since given up on buying sponges, since those that aren't made from plastic are pricey, and washing the tub with a cloth was VERY weird and a lot trickier than expected. Vinegar-water and baking soda really doesn't work for my bathtub, so I keep a 7th Generation tile-tub spray that lasts forever and works amazing.

Now our apartment is paper towel-free. Since it's only the two of us I clean the bathroom (my chore since I'm picky!) about three times a week which results in three cloths to be washed a week. Which isn't a big deal at all. Now it seems strange to eat food on paper towel when there are perfectly fine plates or... our hands, to eat from. The only time we have ever missed paper towel is when (on rare occasions) we eat bacon... Last time Andrew placed the pieces on a cookie rack for the fat to drip into a plate beneath it... lol.

Really, switching to cloth wasn't as annoying as I thought it would be, and that's one less thing we have to buy each week. :)

Alright, now we're off to watch 'The Muppet's Christmas Carol' with friends where we will eat nachos, drink rum and eggnog and enjoy Yule :)

Blessings!

article copyright of 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!)