What’s it going to take…fools of fuel! July 16, 2008

I know that this issue of higher gas prices did not happen over night and the solutions will not happen over night either, but do we really believe that the presidential candidates on either side are ready or willing to do what it takes to move our country forward with alternative energy options?

All I keep hearing about is how we need to start drilling for Oil on the Continental Shelf, or dive into our reserves, so we can lower the price of gas at the pump. My question is, if our economy was healthy and strong and gas was $4.20 a gallon, would anyone give a hoot???

The answer is NO.

After watching the Senate Financial Committee try to rip the Feds a new one on why the Freddie and Fannie group are in the toilet and who is going to save them and taking time for their own sound bites, I came to the sad realization that our government simply reacts and does not proactively pursue anything, except send more people to Iraq and Afghanistan.

I rarely discuss politics or bitch about what they are not doing on Capital Hill, having lived there for fourteen years. However, we are at the tipping point on many, many, many subjects and all I can say right now is, if you did not have an interest in politics before,

GET INTERESTED NOW!!, because if we have another four years of incompetence in the White House going forward, we are screwed. If you feel passionate about your quality of life, what’s happening in your community, your country and on our planet, PLEASE be the change you wish to see and get involved…use your voice, speak up and now would be a great time to start!

See, this is what happens when I do not go on vacation…I start to loose it! I feel much better now after letting off some steam and will return to my favorite discussions and topics, like alternative energy, eco-friendly products and all things sustainable!

Thanks for listening and if you have a positive idea or comment to share, I would love to hear from you!

“yes, you can have your veggies and eat them too!” June 19, 2008

 by EcoLita…who is the ecodiva.

 

It appears that we do not have to travel anymore to a foreign country to contract a food borne illness, like salmonella, e.coli, etc. We have it right here in our local grocery stores.

I know this is not as funny as it may sound and quite frankly I am not laughing and no one I know is especially when these events affect our food supply.

 

With the introduction of anti-bacterial this and anti-bacterial that, we as a culture have created such resistance against common, everyday germs and now we have created “super bugs or super germs”. They are resistant against our antibiotics, good old fashion soap and water and the more we fight them with anti-bacterial products, the stronger the bacterial strains become by transforming themselves into another strain of bacteria.

 

Now remember, this is my definition of what is going on.The bottom line is, we cannot continue this pace anymore.

Mother Nature however always seems to have a solution to what humans screw up on planet earth and she does a very good job of providing us with the answers and solutions if we just pay attention.

 

When we were told about the killer tomatoes carrying salmonella, I went online to see what brands were hopefully safe to eat. I found one company in Southern Arizona, called “EuroFresh.” They are greenhouse growers and have controls in place to monitor what comes in contact with their tomatoes. They are vine attached and use no pesticides. Check them out at www.eurofresh.com .

 

Like I said, Mother Nature provides us with everything we need, if we just pay attention.

Grapefruit seed extract is a by- product of grapefruit seeds and the pulp from grapefruits. and has amazing properties, such as antimicrobial, antifungal and antibacterial elements that kill, Salmonella, e.coli, staph, strep and other bacteria and viruses, without known side affects.

 

Information from this little gem of Mother Nature is vast and the best website I have found is www.gseinformation.com .

 

You can purchase grapefruit seed extract from a variety of companies. The best thing to do is go online, do your homework and buy from those companies you feel most comfortable with and having a track record and stand behind their products.

 

My good friend, Elaine, uses the extract with a dilution of water to wash her veggies and fruit. Based on research and current use in a variety of fields, washing vegetables and fruit in a bath of grapefruit seed extract may be the solution for cleaning and getting rid of any nasty elements that are hanging onto the surface of fruit and veggies.

The dilution of concentrated grapefruit seed extract and water will vary depending on the product purchased and best thing to do is consult with the manufacturer for their recommendations.

 

Regardless of whether there is an alert on tomatoes, fruit, etc., washing all of our veggies and fruit should be a habit that we all incorporate into our routine of food preparation. Having choices like grapefruit seed extract to use in that process is a great way to utilize more of Mother Nature’s gifts.

Bon appetite!

“Paper or Plastic?”…NOT!!! June 9, 2008

 

By EcoLita…who is the ecodiva.

 

It’s a bird, no, it’s a plane, no…it’s a plastic bag. You know the ones I am talking about. The plastic bags that fly around as you are driving down the road, the ones you see stuck on trees, cactus, (if you live in the desert) and anything else they can attach themselves too, are in fact, not only a major user of petroleum, but in addition a huge source of our litter in this country and around the planet.

It is estimated that we toss out around 100 Billion bags a year, which is equivalent to dumping 12 million barrels of oil…you do the math now and see how much money we are spending on plastic bags.

Unfortunately, we only recycle about 2% of the plastic bags in the US and maybe 1% worldwide.

They are in our land fills and will take centuries to decompose and break down. Of course, at this point, that’s a wild ass guess, because we do not really know, due to the fact that they have not been in the landfills for a century yet.

They also cause great distress to our wildlife and sea life, by tangling up animals and sea creatures and just creating one big sorry mess.

 

Yes, they can be recycled and when disposed of properly with recycling, they can be reused. However, we do not seem to do that very well.

People just toss them out and do not think about the negative impact these bags makes on our planet.

So, EcoLita will never complain about something, and not come up with a suggestion on how to change or do it differently.

It’s all about choices and I believe if you want to use less plastic bags or stop using them all together, then use paper bags or better yet, purchase those “recycled” plastic bags that the stores sell and use those every time you shop.

Almost every retail store, especially grocery stores, has the plastic grocery bags with handles, that can be used to tote your groceries and other products and they are wonderful to use, because they are stronger and last a long time.

The content of these bags are made from recycled plastic bags. They hold up longer, are stronger and are easier to handle. Most of the time they are a dollar or less and many of the stores are offering discount coupons to help consumers purchase more of them.

I keep them in my car, so I can take them into a store, when I shop.

 

Some stores, such as Trader Joes and others offer paper first, over plastic and that is a better option, than the plastic, because the paper bags are already made from recycled paper.

You can use your paper bags to recycle your newspapers, magazines and cardboard and you can bring your paper bags to the grocery store and reuse them as well.

They may not last as long as the new recycled plastic bags from the stores, but they are better than those awful plastic bags we see scattered along the landscape.

A third option and also worth considering is using fabric totes made from cotton, hemp and polyester.

However, cotton takes a lot of pesticides and water to produce, polyester is another man made chemical based fiber, so bags made from industrial hemp would be my choice for a fabric tote.

 

So next time you head to the store, take your plastic bags and recycle them in the recycle bins, bring your paper bags and get yourself a stash of recycled plastic shopping bags to use for your shopping needs.

You will be eco-chic, reducing your carbon footprint, and saving millions of barrels of oil, cleaning up our environment and doing the planet a HUGE benefit… and just think, you will do all that by not using plastic shopping bags!

Now that your not tossing it in the garbage, where is the recycle center in your home? May 23, 2008

In my last blog, I told you the story of the window blinds and how we recycled a ton of stuff, from paper, cardboard, steel, aluminum and plastic.

Now you might be thinking, “well ecodiva must have curbside recycling, or someone else picks up her recycles for her….wrong”, I have created a recycle center in my garage and you can do it to!

We do not have curbside recycling service in our neighborhood and if we want it, then we have to contract it with a company and they will only take certain items.

However, we do have a recycling facility about 2 miles away, where we can put it in the car and take it over to these giant containers and dump all of our recycles in one location.

To Toss or not to Toss…it’s not a question, it’s a choice. May 22, 2008

Earlier this week, I had new window treatments installed, replacing the ones that Arizona sun destroyed after ten years of great service. My installer asked me if he should take them and dispose of them,along with all of the packaging that the new blinds came in.

My first question was, “do you recycle any of this stuff”, or do you just toss it in the garbage?”

He replied, that he does recycle the cardboard boxes, but tosses out the plastic bags, Styrofoam packing, the bubble wrap and any excess screws and plastic parts. He also said the old blinds were worthless, because of their condition and not reusable, so he would just toss those away too.

I cringed…yikes, I thought, all of this going into a landfill made me nauseous and I could not let him do it. So I suggested we look at the parts, packaging and other stuff and see what I could recycle first and then what was left,that couldn’t be recycled, would be thrown away.

So we recycled the cardboard, the plastic bags, the steel screws, the paper instructions, and the precious bubble wrap. The only things we tossed were a few plastic parts and strapping material.

Next, I looked at the old blinds and concluded the only thing we could recycle was the top rail and bottom rail, which are made of aluminum. The paper/fiber part of the shade had to be tossed and the plastic pieces. However, there was a bunch of aluminum top and bottom rails that are now in the recycle container, instead of the landfill.

I realized that until we went through this exercise, my installer never thought about what he was throwing away and if he didn’t think of this, what about all of the millions of people around the world that do not give it a second thought?

My husband and I both recycle vivaciously. I was not born into a family of environmentalists or advocates and neither was my husband. We do however realize that if we do not take the time to make a difference on the planet by our own actions, how can we expect our clients, friends and family to do it and they are certainly not going to do it for us, so we must take charge of our earthly responsibility.

Each week we are amazed at the “filled to capacity, overflowing garbage containers” that sit in front of our neighbors driveways waiting to be picked up by the trash collection companies. We have the same size containers as our neighbors and we barely have a full garbage back in it.

The reason is we recycle almost everything possible. We recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum and steel. We do not throw anything away, until we look to see if it can go into a recycle container first.

This life style choice and habit came from our passion and concern about creating an eco-friendly, healthy and sustainable planet. As an interior designer and architect, working with green, eco-friendly and sustainable products, we know how much of an impact everyone can have on the planet by simply looking around their homes and offices and choosing to be more conscious of what they toss in the garbage and what is recycled.

It takes very little effort and once you incorporate the habit into your life, you will automatically look at each thing with different eyes and decide…to toss or not to toss…it’s your choice!

 

wine, food and sustainability April 28, 2008

For those of you who live anywhere in the Northern Arizona or feel like taking a road trip on Saturday, May 3rd., Sustainable Arizona is having their annual meeting and a wine, food and sustainability event at Alcantara Winery this Saturday, May 3rd, from 11:00am to 3:00pm.

there will be wine tastings, food, products on sustainability, music, and river float trips on the Verde River around the winery, along with vineyard tours.

Barbara Predmore, winery owner and visionary extraordinaire, will be hosting this event with Sustainable Arizona, a non-profit organization that promotes, education, communication and relationship development in sustainability, green and Eco-friendly alternatives. The relationship with SAZ and Alcantara is very symbiotic and supports the vision that those of us in the region want and see and support in our community.

you can visit www.sustainablearizona.org for more information, directions and times for the event.

“we’ve come along way baby”…going green April 7, 2008

I can remember more than ten years ago, when looking for eco-friendly, green, sustainable products for a client, who had multiple chemical sensitivities was next to impossible. I would call companies and ask how their products were made, what were the glues, adhesives, finishes and dyes used and they would ask me “why do you want to know” ?

It was their legal department that was asking me the question, thinking I was an industry spy, looking to steal their magic potions. When I told them the reason for the inquiry, they would pause and say,

“Well, we aren’t sure what the answer is to your question, so we will have to research it and get back to you”, and of course, that would be the last conversation I would have with that company. Bottom line is, they had no unearthly idea what the hell was in their products. So if they didn’t know, do you think the rest of the population that was buying this stuff knew?

Nope.

That’s what makes this such an exciting time to be on the planet, at least for me as a designer. Now, we are starting to see accountability and people demanding to know, what exactly are they getting when they go to purchase furnishings, decorative accessories, paints, fabrics, etc.

Of course, we still have millions of items out there that are only green perhaps because that’s the color of the paint on them, but at least, we have choices in almost every category of product, as to what we choose to put in our environment, our mouths, on our bodies and in our bodies. So when you shop and are looking for a new item to bring home and decorate your home with, ask yourself, ” how will this work in my environment and support an eco-friendly interior. See you don’t have to have multiple chemical sensitivities to want or have a healthy environment, you should just naturally want it because you are worth it!

Hello world! April 3, 2008

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