Moving Day!

Welcome to The Green Parent!
Remember that big news I was talking about a few weeks ago? Well, The Green Parent has officially moved to it's own domain! All your favorite stuff is still there: in-depth green parenting info, product reviews, polls, and interviews. And now we also have a Green Parents Forum so that you can have your say! To celebrate our new move I'll be giving away some awesome green prizes every day in September, so come on over and join the fun!

Don't forget to update your links. The Green Parent's new home is:

http://www.thegreenparent.com

See you there!

Serve up Some Eco-Friendly Pizza

I have yet to meet a kid who does not like pizza. So it’s no wonder that pizza is the ultimate family favorite and easy dinner fallback. According to American Heritage Magazine, 93% of Americans eat pizza at least once a month. That’s pretty much right on target around my house, maybe even a bit more if work and school schedules get hectic. With all that pizza, I couldn't help but wonder if I was serving up the most eco-friendly pie. Here's how to green your pizza:

DIY It: If it’s a distance to your local pizza place, make your own pizza at home. (Better yet, let your kids make it.) You'll save money on the pie and on the gas (not to mention saving the planet)

Plan It: O.K., I know pizza delivery is tempting, but unless your favorite spot delivers their pizza by bike or hybrid, avoid these unnecessary driving miles by picking up your pizza on the way home from school or work.

Order It: Speaking of pizza places that delivery by bike or hybrid, each of these pizzerias are going the extra mile to go green, (using organic ingredients, eco-friendly cleaners, recycled products, and in some cases…bikes and hybrids for deliveries.) So if you’re lucky enough to live near one, be sure to stop in for some planet-saving pizza.

Pizza Fusion: With a motto like “Saving the Earth One Pizza at a Time,” you just know you can feel good about the pizza at Pizza Fusion. There are currently 22 Pizza Fusion locations across the U.S. Check out their site to see if there’s one near you.

Galactic Pizza: Galactic Pizza serves up “Pizza with a Conscience” in uptown Minneapolis.

Amici’s Pizza: Amici’s Pizza in Berkley, Michigan recently received green restaraunt certification from the Green Restaurants Association.

Veg It: Stick with cheese and veggies when dressing up your pizza. These ingredients are healthier for you and for the planet. (For more info, check out this old post on the environmental impact of eating beef.)

Recycle It: Your cardboard pizza box is recyclable, but only if it’s clean. Grease/cheese/sauce covered cardboard really shouldn’t get tossed in with the recyclables as it could contaminate the whole lot, so tear those sections off and recycle the rest.

Reuse It: Pizza boxes make excellent craft (and unusual) craft supplies. Here are a few cool ideas to try:

• Felt Box: Use non-toxic glue to cover the inside of the pizza box top with felt. Cut out assorted felt shapes and store them inside the box. Voila! A traveling felt kit!

• Portfolio: Use pizza boxes to store your child’s art projects. The size is perfect for holding all sizes of artwork and it fits neatly under the bed. (Let kids jazz them up with stickers, markers, recycled paper, cut outs from old magazines, and paints. )
  

• Wreath Box: A pizza box is the perfect size for storing your out-of-season wreaths.

• Stepping Stone: Check out this DIY site to learn how to make a garden stepping stone from a pizza box.

• Solar Oven: Here’s one way to get cooking. This site will show you how to make a solar oven from a pizza box.

Got more pizza box craft ideas or know of another eco-friendly pizza joint? Share your ideas here...

Dr. Martin Luther King and the Quest for Environmental Justice

It goes without saying that environmental issues and social issues go hand in hand. As I mentioned in a previous post on world hunger, you can’t expect someone to worry about choosing a CFL bulb when they are trying to figure out where to get their next meal. Ditto goes for the woman who is being abused by her husband, the man who can’t get health care because he doesn’t have insurance, or the child who’s getting bullied at school.

Even more disturbing are the cases where environmental justice is in question, or more precisely, where environmental racism, is occurring. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s support of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike may well have been the first campaign to bring environmental justice issues into the limelight. But don't be fooled into thinking that environmental racism is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, as green goes mainstream, some less-than-reputable companies are simply moving their environmental damage into poorer communities where they know they will face less opposition.

Take, for example, the case of a recently proposed liquefied natural gas facility in which the company proposed to add 7 miles to their pipeline so that it would not affect the wealthy community in Malibu, CA. Instead, this pipeline would bring its air and water pollution to the low-income, farm-based community of Oxnard, CA.

Fortunately, Dr. King’s legacy of fighting for environmental and social justice found a champion in 16 year old Erica Fernandez. Upon learning about the proposed plant, this young eco-hero went door to door to rally her community to fight it. Thanks to Erica, 3000 people attended the town meeting to discuss the LNG project. And Erica and her community continued the fight all the way to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s doorstep, where the LNG plant was finally defeated.

Erica Fernandez won a Brower Youth Award for her actions to protect the environment and her community. Here's an excerpt from her acceptance speech:

"I was born and raised almost all my life in Mexico, surrounded by the beauty of nature. But when I arrived here to the United States, everything I (saw), was cars and pollution… I could not accept any more pollution… I wanted to be the voice for those who thought they didn’t have one; I wanted to be the hope for those who believed there was no way we could stop BHP Billiton; I wanted to be the inspiration for those who believe a person can make a difference; I wanted to be heard, and I was heard. And for that, I thank my community for teaching me a life lesson: a united community is more powerful than money.”

Sounds like Erica Fernandez has a dream...let's just hope there's lots more like her.

What can you do about environmental racism?

• Be on the lookout for environmental racism, both in your community and in nearby neighborhoods. Check out the Environmental Justice Scorecard to get a better idea of the distribution of environmental burdens in your community.

• If you think environmental racism is occurring in your community, contact your local Sierra Club. And while your there, check out check out the projects they already have underway to fight for environmental justice throughout the U.S.

Eating Out: How To Green Your Dinner

Whether you have the kids in tow or you are heading out for a much needed reprieve, eating out can be a fun break from the usual hum-drum of the home kitchen. But eating out also gives you less control of what you will eat and how it will be served. Here's how to eat out the green parenting way.

Go Local: Keep the location in mind when you select a venue for your meal. Choose a spot that's close to home to minimize driving. If possible, walk, take public transportation, or ride your bike and you will save time, money, and traffic/parking frustration.

Eat Your Greens: Patronize restaurants that use local and organic foods in their selections. Check with your favorite restaurant to find out if they incorporate healthier “green” foods into their recipes. Check out the Eat Well Guide for a list of restaurants that use local, sustainable ingredients.

Go Veggie: If you have a choice, go for a vegetarian selection. A vegetarian meal is better for your health and that of the environment, and it is often one of the cheaper items on the menu. And it may just give you a creative new meal idea to try at home.

B.Y.O.P (Bring Your Own Place Setting) Sometimes you can't always control where you will be eating. If you know you will be headed to a restaurant that uses paper napkins or plastic silverware, consider bringing your own reusable napkins and silverware from home to minimize waste. Sure, you may get a few odd looks. But any parent who has ever taken their child to a restaurant should be used to these looks by now.

Greener Take Out: If you decide to abandon the restaurant setting and get your order to go, ask that your food be packaged in as few boxes/bags as possible. Also ask the restaurant to forgo the usual wad of napkins, plastic utensils, and unnecessary condiments.

E-Cycling: The Green Parent's Guide to Disposing of Electronic Gadgets

As a parent with young children, I have found that it is almost as hard to keep up with technology as it is to keep up with a two year old. Old model computers, televisions, and cell phones are replaced faster than you can say VCR. But where do all those gadgets go when they die?

According to Earth 911, Americans tossed 1.5 billion tons of e-waste in 2006, including 44 million computers and televisions. Worldwide, 88 billion tons of e-waste were trashed in 2006.

Each one of these electronic gadgets is chock full of toxic chemicals like mercury and lead that create an environmental mess when they leach into the soil and groundwater. CRT-based computer monitors and televisions (the kinds that have tubes) contain on average 4-8 pounds of lead. Flat panel models contain less lead but more mercury. (Earth 911 site can give details about the nasty stuff that can be found in your TVs, cell phones and computers.) Industry experts estimate even though e-waste currently accounts for only 1 to 4% of municipal waste, it may be responsible for as much as 70% of the heavy metals in landfills, including 40% of all lead.

Landfilling electronics also wastes the otherwise useful materials such as glass, copper, aluminum, plastic and other components that could be extracted and reused. Finally, of the e-waste that is recycled (an admittedly small percentage of the lot) roughly 50-80% is exported to countries such as China and Mexico where it is dismantled without regard to human or environmental safety.

So if you have an old gadget that you want to get rid of, it is extremely important to make sure it is disposed of properly. Here’s how to green your e-waste:

Find It A New Home: Keep your old electronic devices out of the landfill by finding them a new home. Ask around among friends and family, Freecycle, or donate the item.

Send It Back: Contact the product’s manufacturer to find out if they have a policy for taking back their old gadgets. Some companies, such as Dell, will take back not only their own products but their competitor's as well.

Recycle It Right: Check out the EPA’s Plug-In to Recycling site for a list of companies that sponsor e-waste take back events and to find an e-cycling event in your community. If you can’t find one nearby, check out the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition’s list of Responsible Recyclers in your area.

Toilet Talk: Green Parenting for the Potty?

Are you flushing money (and the environment) down the toilet?

In the typical American household, 35 to 45% of all of the drinkable (or potable) water is used to flush the toilet. Older model toilets are the worst offenders, using 7-10 gallons of water with each flush. Newer models are slightly more conservative, using between 3-5 gallons. Flushing gallons of water down the toilet is not only a waste of the water itself, but also of the energy and resources used to filter that water and transport it to and from your house. It also costs you money twice: once on your water bill and again on your sewer bill.

So save yourself some money and help keep the environment from going down the toilet with these easy green parenting tips:

• Use The Can:Don’t use your toilet as a trash can. Toss tissues, dead bugs, and cigarette butts (make sure they’re out...better yet, don't smoke!) in the garbage to avoid unnecessary flushes.
  
  
• Gotta Leak? Not sure if the toilet at your house is leaking? Drop a little food coloring in the toilet tank. If the color seeps into the toilet bowl without flushing, there is a leak.
  
  
• Dam It! You only need about 2 gallons of water to successfully flush your toilet. If your toilet uses more than that, make a toilet dam by filling a plastic water bottle with pebbles or water and place it in your toilet tank. This will reduce the overall volume of the tank and cut down on the amount of water flushed down the drain. If you have an active toilet (and if you have kids it's likely that you do), this can save you roughly 300 gallons of water each month.

It's Good To Share

Mornings in my house revolve around a frenzy of food. Between preparing breakfast for my girls (they are on a cinnamon toast kick) to packing their lunches (PB&J, carrots, and applesauce), and taking a stab at defrosting what we will have for dinner, it seems almost surreal to me that outside my home, throughout my town, my country, and certainly throughout the world, there are mothers who will not be able to feed their children today.

It is heartbreaking and it is humbling.

Lest you think that hunger is a social issue and not an environmental issue, remember, many environmental problems such as air pollution, water pollution, and genetically engineering livestock and crops are the direct result of our desire to feed people in need.

And it’s pointless to beg people to recycle or install a CFL lightbulb when their only thoughts are on feeding their children.

So parent to parent…let’s go green this year by making sure that other parents have the food they need for themselves and their children. Here’s how:

• Go Local: Contact your local food bank, soup kitchen, or church to find out what you can do to help. Donate non-perishable items, distribute flyers, organize pantry shelves, or volunteer to serve.

• Get Clicking: It’s easy to become jaded and think that the money you donate will simply get lost in an administrative slush pile. But there are charities out there that are really making a difference by getting food and funds into the hands of the people who need them. Here are a few worth checking out:

Meals on Wheels: Meals on Wheels organizations provide hot meals (either at local community centers or by delivery) to elderly, homebound, and disabled folks in need throughout the country. Check out their website to donate or find a program near you.

Target Hunger: Target Hunger aims to alleviate hunger in inner-city neighborhoods. They distribute about 3 million pounds of food each month to families in need in addition to offering courses in nutrition, self-esteem, English-As-A-Second Language, adult literacy, math and job search workshops.

Heifer International: Give a man a fish and he’ll have food for today. Teach him to fish and he’ll have food for life. That’s the idea behind the programs at Heifer, International. This organization provides farm animals to the world’s hungry so that they can have something to eat today, as well as hope for the future. Heifer’s recipients also become future donors, as they pledge to donate their animal’s offspring to another family in need.

• Get Your Kids Involved: After all, we teach our children from an early age that it’s important to share. What better way to walk the walk than to show them how sharing benefits kids in their community and in their world.

Photo of child eating corn courtesy of Radharadhya d
Photo of child and goat courtesy of Heifer International