Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: Matt Callow

As pumpkin patches across the country hitch up their hayrides and welcome the harvest with visitors, eco-friendly sites are posting hints and tips to remind readers to choose and use their gourds wisely.

This isn’t going to be much different. In fact, in my search to find options of what you can do with pumpkins—aside from showing off your creative carving prowess—I found that many regions of the US and UK are promoting composting. Pumpkins in a landfill can produce weeds and, believe it or not, sprouts. Only to be covered with someone’s torn up sofa or old alarm clock.

Whether you put the post-holiday pumpkin into a curbside compost bin or into your home kit version, the gourd holds valuable nutrients that can make good fertilizer. In fact, one site even recommended that you just plant the jack-o-lantern shell into the garden, to decompose at will.

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Lush employees go naked in San Francisco.

Who among us hasn’t done work in the buff? Pants sometimes take a backseat to meeting a deadline now that Blackberries, laptops, and home computers let many of us occasionally work from home. But going to work naked when you face hundreds of people a day? That’s what store employees of the cosmetic company Lush did last week to promote its “naked” package-free body and bath products.

Wearing nothing but aprons that read “Ask me why I’m naked,” employees at 27 stores across the U.S. handed out flyers that encouraged customers and passersby to consider the environmental impact of packaging. Yes, it was a publicity stunt, but it was a fun, good-natured way to inform people on an otherwise dismal subject.

The U.K.-based retailer says that packaging contributes 2 percent to global greenhouse emissions and plastic consumes 8 percent of the world’s oil resources. The State of California says that packaging makes up one third of the 66 million tons of waste Californians throw away each year.

Industry is the biggest offender of packaging waste, but consumers contribute to the pile, too. With that in mind, Lush sells many of its products, including shampoo, without packaging and in bars that are sliced to size. (Liquid shampoo, because it’s mostly water by volume, weighs more and takes more energy to transport. It also requires plastic packaging.) At a customer’s request, a salesperson will wrap bars in paper to take home. That, of course, defeats the idea of no packaging, so repeat customers often come in with a reusable baggie or soap dish.

More resources:

“Bare Facts on Packaging,” August 28, 2008, SFGate.com
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/chrongreen/detail?blogid=50&entry_id=29565

Use Less Stuff Report, for consumer tips and the latest research on waste reduction
http://www.use-less-stuff.com

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

As we get ready for a work-free, eco-friendly Labor Day weekend, CTC would like to take a moment to point out some of our favorite ”green living” tips of the week across the web.  Enjoy!

1. Before you fire up the barbecue grill this weekend, check out the “Green Grilling Guide” on The Huffington Post.
2. For the ladies, Planet Green suggests a really cool and economical way to make homemade blush out of strawberries. 
3. The Daily Green shows us a fantastic and simple way to clean your windows with vinegar and newspaper.
4. GreenStrides touts hemp as the optimal bed linen fabric for your earth-friendly bed.
5. And last, in honor of Labor Day, Ideal Bite advises those who can work from home to do so at least one day a week - save fuel and sleep in!

Last week we wrote about common ingredients in sunscreens that can bleach our coral reefs, where people swim and snorkel. Consumer advocates at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) also warn us about potentially unhealthy ingredients in sunscreen and other personal care products.

photo credit: Aine D

Yet even when armed with lists of ingredients to avoid, it can be a little overwhelming to decipher labels at the store. It’s tempting to take relief in the FDA and personal care industry’s claims that the ingredients used are of no significant harm. That may be the best route. But a growing number of consumers want to better educate themselves on the choices they make.

Here are quick tips you can use to read (and finally understand!) your sunscreen and other personal care labels:

Active v. inactive/other ingredients:
“Active” ingredients are the components that do the real work. In sunscreens, that means the chemicals (avobenzene, zinc oxide, etc.) that protect your skin from the sun’s rays. “Inactive” or “other” ingredients include everything else, from fragrance and preservatives to the components that give sunscreen its lotion-y feel.

UVA and UVB protection:
SPF (sun protection factor) is only part of what you need to know. Some ingredients protect against UVB rays, which cause skin burn, and some others protect against UVA rays, which  have been linked to wrinkles and skin cancer. See EWG’s report for details and specific brand recommendations:
http://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/

The order:
Ingredients are listed in order, from greatest to least: your sunscreen contains the most of the first item listed and the least of the last one.

Less is more:
Fewer ingredients mean less potential to come in contact with harmful ingredients. If you can pronounce the ingredients that’s even better. Some conscious companies now explain in layman’s terms what purpose each ingredient serves.

Watch out for butyl paraben:
What’s suspected to be harmful to the coral reefs is not necessarily suspected to be harmful to humans, but butyl paraben appears on both lists. It’s used as an antifungal.

Look for “-yl”:
This is not a foolproof method as it’s merely a chemistry term, but it’s good for a quick scan. Sodium lauryl sulfate, methyl paraben, butyl paraben, butylated hydroxytoluene are just a few “-yl” containing ingredients you may wish to avoid.

12 ingredients to be aware of:
See the Dirty Dozen Chemicals Guide by Teens for Safe Cosmetics (1 page PDF)
http://www.searchforthecause.org/documents/dirty_dozen.pdf

See how your sunscreen stacks up:
The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Database contains detailed ingredient information on more than 25,000 personal care products. If your brand is not in the database, you can enter its ingredients and see whether it contains any of the 50 chemicals of concern.
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1

photo credit: laszlo-photo

For years we’ve been told by doctors to wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from the cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. Now it seems, this protection for humans may come at a cost. According to a report published in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences journal Environmental Health Perspectives, chemical ingredients found in most sunscreens can cause bleaching in coral reef and are accumulating in fish and other aquatic life.

An estimated 6,000 tons of sunscreen ends up in coral reef areas where people swim and snorkel. And because 60% of the world’s coral reef is threatened by rising sea temperatures, pollution, and excess UV radiation, the sunscreen issue is worth further study and action.

Here are a few ways you can do your part to limit these chemicals in our oceans and still protect yourself from the sun:

1. Wear a long-sleeved rash guard (swim shirt) so less skin is exposed and less sunscreen is needed. You can find UPF-rated clothing at surf shops or online at Coolibar and Athleta.
2. When not in the water, stay in the shade, so you’ll need to reapply sunscreen less often. Bring a beach umbrella and wear hat.
3. Wear sunscreen with biodegradable ingredients. (This is already a requirement in some protected areas in Mexico.) Avoid sunscreen that contains Benzophenone-3 (Oxybenzone), ethylhexylmethoxycinnamate (Octinoxate), 4-Methylbenzylidene camphor, and Butylparaben.

Brands such as Alba Botanica, Badger, Burt’s Bees, California Baby, and Keys Soaps carry sunscreens that don’t contain the ingredients above and can be found at many natural foods stores. But buyer beware: none of the suggested brands come in an SPF higher than 30, which for those with fair skin, can be an issue.

Coming soon: our own biodegradable sunscreen field test.

More on this topic:

Swimmers’ Sunscreen Killing Off Coral in National Geographic News