Water Conservation
Although 70% of the earth is covered in water, less than 1% is available for our consumption. This means that conserving water is extremely important, and there are simple things we can do to use less of it.
Flush Less Often
I know this may sound odd or perhaps somewhat gross, but the fact of the matter is, even if you have a low flow toilet installed, by flushing less often you will be saving even more water. Sara Snow has a mantra that I like to follow: “if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down”. Sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it? I laughed the first time I read it.
Install A Low-Flow Toilet Or Retrofit The One You Already Own
Low flow toilets can save consumers thousands of gallons of water a year. That means less water consumed and more money in your pocket. This doesn’t mean you should trash the one you currently have for a new toilet though. There’s never any sense in throwing something away if it works just fine. If your toilet isn’t a low flow toilet (these toilets are usually marked somewhere as “low flow”), you can retrofit it to function like one.
Retrofit Your Toilet
There are kits that you can buy that will do this for you, but there is a cheap easy way to do it too. The following was taken from Sara Snow’s Fresh Living book (see the Go Green! page for the full citation):
- find an empty water bottle (or any type of plastic bottle)
- fill it halfway with pebbles then fill the rest of the bottle with water
- place the cap back on the bottle and submerge it in your tank
- this displaces the water and the toilet now requires less water to fill its tank, which means it will use less water each time you flush
Install a Low Flow Shower Head
This is mostly self-explanatory. The flow of a shower head is classified based on the amount of gallons of water it releases per minute. The smaller the GPM rating, the better.
General Ways to Conserve
How much time do you spend in the shower? Do you turn the faucet off when you are brushing your teeth or washing your face? Most of the time we don’t even really think about how much water we’re using. By shutting off the faucet when you are not using the water at that very moment you can conserve more water. It may seem a little inconvenient but if you’ve made it a habit to leave the water running, you can also make it a habit to shut the water off when it’s not in use 
As for showering, I have to admit that I’ve found it very difficult to shower in under 10 minutes. I am guilty of usually spending 10-15 minutes in the shower. This is much better than the 30 to 45 minutes I used to spend when I was in high school!
Using Safer Products
When you shop for new products to use (such as shampoo, body wash, or lotion), how often do you stop to read the ingredient label? I hardly ever did until I began reading about what most products contain and how harmful those ingredients can be.
Clarification On What The USDA Considers “Organic”
Organic produce is grown without the aid of chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides. Organic meat comes from animals who are fed an organic diet and weren’t given any antibiotics or growth hormones.
Reading labels and checking out products can be tricky. The first thing to note is that the USDA does not regulate the use of the word “natural”, but it does regulate the use of the word “organic”.
Companies may claim that their products are “all natural” but I’d still advise you to read the ingredient label. They may not be telling the whole truth and it is, unfortunately, up to you as a consumer to determine whether or not they are.
Only products which contain 95% or more organic ingredients may carry the USDA Organic Label. Products which contain less than 95% organic ingredients may state which ingredients are organic, but cannot carry the USDA Organic Label.
Some Ingredients You Should Avoid and Why
The unfortunate thing about companies and the products they produce is that there are very few federal regulations as to what they can and cannot put into their products. In Renée Loux’s book Easy Green Living, she explains that the FDA does not require screening of any ingredients added to cosmetics aside from color additives. This means that anything can be added and it is legal. There are a lot of ingredients which are believed to be not only harmful to the environment but to humans as well. I have chosen not to list all of them here, only the ones that a) I try to avoid and b) I have read about over and over again.
- Fragrance, Color – These labels are dangerous because they can contain any number of undisclosed chemicals. I still have to question why companies choose not to disclose which chemicals they use. They take the time to list others, why not these? Unfortunately, “fragrance” is a fancy term for chemicals such as phthalates which are known to be harmful.
- Phthalates – This ingredient is used to fix fragrances into products, enhance skin penetration (whoa!), and prevent nail polish from chipping. It is dangerous because it can cause contact dermatitis and is known to enhance the skin’s ability to absorb what is on it – allowing for other dangerous chemicals to be more readily absorbed (Loux).
- Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) – These are both used as surfactants and lathering agents. They are cheap to produce and can work well but they have been known to enhance the skin’s ability to absorb. They also manipulate and lower the skin’s immune response. It is still unclear as to whether or not SLS and SLES are hormone disruptors (Loux), but I have chosen to avoid them based on what is already known.
- Parabens – Parabens are used as preservatives in cosmetics. There are four different kinds: butylparaben, ethylparaben, methylparaben, and propylparaben. Recent studies have shown that these chemicals may not be safe. Loux describes, in detail, why these ingredients should be avoided: Butylparaben may be linked with allergies, skin toxicity, biochemical changes, developmental and reproductive toxicity, endocrine disruption, hormone mimicry, tissue irritation, and organ toxicity. Ethylparaben has been linked to cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity, endocrine disruption, hormone mimicry, and organ toxicity. Methylparaben is linked with allergies and skin toxicity, biochemical changes, cancer, endocrine disruption, hormone mimicry, tissue irritation, and organ toxicity. Propylparaben has been linked to allergies and skin toxicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, endocrine disruption, hormone mimicry, and organ toxicity.
After having read all of this, you are probably wondering where to start. I remember I was overwhelmed when I walked into my bathroom and started to look at the labels on my cosmetic bottles. I still don’t believe in throwing things out, so I kept using my products until I ran out. This gave me time to research what I should buy and where I could buy it. I buy all of my cosmetics at my local Whole Foods Market, but you can find a vast array of safe, green cosmetics online. The key is to read the ingredient labels and decide for yourself. I always begin by narrowing products down based on ingredients and then price per ounce. A good website to start with is the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database which allows you to search through thousands of cosmetics. Each product is assigned a toxicity rating based on its ingredients and the databse will explain why certain ingredients are believed to be harmful.
Green Cleaning
Today’s household cleaning products are loaded with chemicals, most of which are unhealthy for humans and the environment. Sure, they may do what they claim to, but is it safe to breathe all of that in? No. Furthermore, do you think that if all of those synthetic chemicals are harmful to you they will be any safer for the environment? Definitely not. That doesn’t mean that you cannot have a clean bathroom though. There are green alternatives and making that change is not as difficult as it might seem.
I prefer to make the majority of my cleaning products at home, but there are companies who sell green cleaning products. Most supermarkets carry these produts so they shouldn’t be difficult to find, but as always, read the ingredient label before you buy.
Toilet Scrub
To clean my toilet each week I use about 1/4 cup of baking soda and 8 drops of a favorite essential oil (right now mine is rosemary). The baking soda helps to lift grime off of the bowl and whiten it, and the rosemary oil leaves a fresh scent behind. I’ve also heard of using a combination of baking soda and vinegar (when both are mixed they react and begin to fiz) because vinegar is a natural disinfecting agent, but the rosemary oil is also a natural disinfectant so I’ve chosen to save the vinegar for other purposes.
Counters and Other Surfaces
To disinfect surfaces I use an all purpose cleaner made of equal parts water and vinegar. When cleaning I can smell the vinegar but the scent is gone within minutes.
Shower/Tub Scrub
To clean my shower doors I use my all purpose cleaner. The vinegar helps cut through mineral deposits left behind by dried water spots. To clean the shower floor I use a brush, a little bit of water, and baking soda. The baking soda helps lift grime off of the shower floor while whitening it at the same time.
Dusting/Psuedo-Swiffering Bathroom Floors
Let’s face it, Swiffer Cloths work great, but throwing them away after use is a waste. It’s just more stuff that is going to end up in a landfill. I’ve recently begun reusing my room mate’s discarded dryer sheets to dust the floor. They trap dust and hair really well and can be used on other surfaces too, not just floors.
Paper Products
Did you know that most toilet paper is a) not made from post-consumer content and b) whitened with chlorine? These are products that we use on the most intimate parts of our bodies. Somewhat scary if you ask me, because whitening with chlorine leaves behind by-products known as dioxins. Dioxins are tetratogens (they cause malformations in fetal development), mutagens (they cause genetic mutations, some of which lead to cancer), and they are suspected carcinogens (meaning they are believed to cause cancer) (Loux).
There are companies that make toilet paper from post-consumer content (the higher the better in my opinion, because this ensures that the toilet paper was not made from virgin trees) that is whitened without the use of chlorine. Most natural markets carry them, and even some general super markets do too. It’s just another step toward an even greener lifestyle.
Unclogging Drains the Green Way
Think about the last time you had a clogged drain – what did you do? You either called a plumber or you bought something to pour down the drain to help unclog it. Did you stop and read the ingredient label? Most of those products contain harmful chemicals. They can irritate your lungs and harm the environment and neither is a good idea. There is a green alternative which I have found to be even more effective than the last non-green product I bought for my drain:
- Fill a tea kettle with water and set it on the stove to boil
- Pour abour 1/4-1/2 cup of baking soda into the drain followed by 1 cup of vinegar (I usually just eyeball the amount)
- Immediately plug the drain with an old rag so that the two do not fiz back out of the drain
- Wait until your water has boiled and then remove the rag and pour the hot water down the drain
