The EcoChic

The Eco Chic has been absent for a few days.  We packed up the family and headed off to Chattanooga, TN for a wedding.  Once again I kept the cloth diapers at home and packed up those nasty sposies.  I really have to find a system that works for traveling.  My main problem is that we rarely stay with friends and family, instead we frequent hotels.  Location is not the only restriction for using cloth, I’m not going to take time out of our already busy schedule to go find a place to wash our cloth.  I might actually invest in some g-diapers just for traveling.  (In case you are new to cloth, g-diapers are hybrid diapers.  They have a flushable insert inside the reusable cover.)

Big B missed two days of school and I missed two days of cool Back To School giveaways!  Later tonight I will be posting another Waste-Free Lunch giveaway! 

Lil’ B is eating like a little pig.  At almost 8 months she is eating almost everything I try to give her.  I can’t recall the last time she turned her nose up to food.  I’m still making the majority of her food from fresh fruits and veggies.  Tonight she had mango-sweet potatoes….yummy!  Big B actually tried a bite and like it too.

Have you ever considered the environmental impact of weddings?  There is so much waste!  The reception was littered with disposable forks, napkins, and cups that were used for less than five minutes…and like most people I made more than one trip through the bar and appetizer lines.  We got married in Vegas so we didn’t have a traditional wedding or reception. 

OK, that’s the random thoughts going on in my mind right now!

Giveaway Alert!  Litter Free Lunches is giving TWO lucky readers their very own set (of 5) of reusable cloth napkins.  (Valued at $19.99 each)  ECO-ngratulations to Tamara and Bonggamom!  You are winners!

Who can tell me what material makes up the most of our trash each day?  PAPER!  One of the easiest ways to reduce our paper waste is by switching to reusable napkins, especially in our children’s lunches.  It is estimated that if a family of 4 replaces paper napkins with cloth napkins that they can save over $70 a year AND reduce their paper waste by 40 pounds.

Litter Free Lunch is a company that was founded by a pair of moms in Illinois.  The offer a full line of napkins, including their newest, an organic cotton set.  Each set of napkins is made in the USA.  They are made of 100% cotton (or organic cotton) and measure 12″ X 12″ in size.  Each individual napkin has a sewn-in label with space for you to write your child’s name.  The napkins are machine washable.  In addition to cloth napkins, Litter Free Lunch also sells recycled lunch bags, stainless steel food containers, and water bottles.

Big B now has a wide variety of cloth napkins to use both at home and at school.  Today I asked him if he used his napkin and he said, “No!”  Upon inspection I could tell that he was acting like a normal first grader and that he actually did use it.  He’s a boy and doesn’t usually get too excited about these things but hopefully his friends will take notice and ask their moms for their own cloth napkins.  Litter Free Lunch napkins are great quality and have some really cute embroidered designs. 

An extra bonus is that Litter Free Lunch also offers fundraising options for your school.  You can download their fundraising packet from their website and present it to your child’s school. 

Buy It!  For my readers Litter Free Lunch is offereing Free Shipping from Sept. 1-Sept. 8th.  No coupon code is needed! Sets of napkins start at $19.99 each.

Win It!  Two lucky readers will win their very own Brights set (of 5) of reusable cloth napkins from Litter Free Lunch.  To enter you MUST visit Litter Free Lunch and tell me (click comment below) which set of napkins you like the best.  This entry is MANDATORY to be entered into this giveaway.  

Extra Credit!  Just like in school you can earn extra credit by doing some additional homework. 

1.  Follow both @TheEcoChic and @LitterFreeLunchon Twitter.  Leave me ONE comment below telling me that you follow us both.  Be sure to include your @Username.

2.  Tweet about the giveaway!  Be creative with your tweets but be sure to include both @TheEcoChic and @LitterFreeLunch and a link back here.  Tweet up to 2 times a day and leave a comment for each tweet.  Include a link back to your tweet.

3.  Become a Fan of The Eco Chic on Facebook and share me with your friends (link is on right side at top).  Leave me a comment here telling me your user name and that you shared with your friends and earn one extra entry.  BUT If you can get 10 of your friends to become my Fan on Facebook I will give you 5 extra entries into the contest.  Write on my Facebook wall and tell me which friends of yours became my Fans.

4.  Purchase anything from Litter Free Lunch and earn 5 extra entries.  Leave me 5 comments below telling me what you purchased and the email address you used to make the purchase (this will help me verify the entries). 

Leave your comments HERE and be sure to leave individual comments for each entry. 

Contest is open to residents in the USA and will close on September 1, 2009 at midnight (EST).

ECO-ngratulations to Tamara and Bonggamom!  You are winners!

Have fun and WIPE YOUR FACE!  Just be sure to do it with a cloth napkin!           

Reader Special! Purchase anything from Kids Konserve from now until the end of Sept. 09 and save 15% using coupon code ecochic.

If you read my post earlier about Waste-Free Lunches you will know that I have been working on making our own lunches more waste free.  The best place to start is with the lunch box which is the easy step.  How about taking it one step further and purchase a complete waste-free lunch kit?

Kids Konserve is a company right here in the USA that sells these cute lunch kits complete with lunch sack, cloth napkin, stainless steel beverage bottle, food cozy and 2 stainless steel food containers.  The complete kits start at $40 or you can purchase each item individually.  The signature lunch kits have a cotton sack while some of their newer lunch sacks are made from 100% recycled water bottles. 

My favorite item in each kit is the Food Cozy.  These reusable, food-grade wraps are a good alternative to baggies and plastic wrap.  They can be sealed with a strip of Velcro and can be hand-washed to be reused the next day.  Food Cozies are on sale during their Back To School Special for 25% off. 

This year I am serving on the PTA and helping make my sons school a little more GREEN!  While Waste-Free Lunches is on the agenda, it’s not our first priority.  We are currently working to get recycling set up in the classrooms and offices.  Once we get the recycling set up we can then promote Waste-Free Lunch days.  Kids Konserve holds challenges for schools to help them promote going waste-free.  One way to promote Waste-Free Lunches is through fundraising.  Kids Konserve has a complete school fundraising package available online.  Schools can earn 10% back for each purchase of Kids Konserve products.  One thing that I hope to promote by the middle of the year is a Trash-Free Tuesday.  You can find other ways to promote Waste-Free Lunches on the Kids Konserve website.

What’s your favorite Kids Konserve product?

In honor of my son’s first week back to school I have dedicated the entire week to Waste-Free Lunches!  This week will feature great tips for sending your child off to school while treading lightly on the Earth.  When parents go school shopping they are really good about getting their child a brand new lunch box but what goes inside the box?  Single use baggies, aluminum foil, waxed paper, pre-packaged & individual serving snacks and meals, disposable forks & spoons, paper napkins, juice pouches…you get the picture!  It is estimated that the average elementary school age child produces 67 lbs of waste per year from disposable lunches alone!  These disposable items aren’t cheap on the pocket book either! 

Here are some tips to help reduce your grocery bill and your footprint!

1.  Purchase a durable, reusable lunch box.  The days of paper bags are long gone, your child wants a cool and hip reusable lunch box or bag!  Check out one of my sons new lunch bags, the Meadow Munchler by Built NY.  The Munchleris one of many lunch bags and totes that Built NY produces.  This insulated, soft-sided, polyproplyene bag has been tested and contains no lead and is safe for food.  It is available in 4 whimsical animals and was inspired by children book illustrator, Stephen Savage, to represent zoo animals.  After all, our kids belong in a zoo don’t they?  One cool thing about this bag is that when it unzips fully the entire bag lies flat and acts as a place mat for your child.  I bet your kid would be the talk of the lunchroom with one of these cool bags!       

2.  Purchase reusable sandwich and snack containers.  Depending on your lifestyle you may opt for the cheap plastic containers or the safer BPA-free options like the stainless steel lunch containers.

3.  Bring back the cloth napkin!  Chances are the kids just wipe their hands on their pants anyways so don’t use paper, use cloth!  Maybe they will at least use it as a place mat!  Come back later in the week as I giveaway some cool cloth napkins from Litter Free Lunch and Fabkins! 

4.  Buy products in bulk or large containers and repackage them into individual servings (using your new reusable containers)!  This will save you LOTS of money too!  An ordinary bag of cookies now becomes 10 or more days of kids snacks and costs a fraction of the cost of pre-packaged cookies.  And no more baggies means more savings there too!

5.  Invest in a good water bottle for the kids.  All the major brands are making them small and fashionable just for the kids!  Again, you can fill the bottle with the beverage of choice without the expense of those pesky juice pouches.  My little one takes his bottles with him everywhere these days.

By spending just a little money up front on these reusable items you won’t have any expenses (except the food) afterwards.  The average savings from packaging alone is about $250 a year for each child.  I can think of lots of things to do with $250 besides buying baggies!  Just be sure that your child remembers to bring everything home with them.  I was actually quite impressed with my son last year, as a Kindergartner he never once forgot to bring his stuff home with him.  We never lost a container or a fork!

Not only will you be saving money at the store but if you are like me your kids will start eating a little healthier along the way.  I always find myself adding fruit to his lunch since it doesn’t need any packaging.  Instead of cookies we’re now eating bananas.  What are some tricks you use to make your kids lunches a little more healthier and greener? 

It wouldn’t be Waste-Free Lunch Week without some coupons, promotions and giveaways!  Check back tomorrow and learn about a great waste-free offer from Kids Konserve and win your own Litter Free Lunch cloth napkins.  There will be more surprises each day so visit often.

The Carnival of the Green is a weekly blog phenomenon conceived of over pints of beer in London between Al Tepper of  City Hippy and Nick Aster of TriplePundit almost four years ago. It travels from blog to blog every Monday. TreeHugger became Carnival central in 2006 and each week we will point you to the Carnival every time it rolls into town. If you’re a blogger who likes to talk about green, then visit TreeHugger and sign up today!

Last weeks (August 10th) host was Victoria Klein and next week (August 24th) is Recycle Your Day.  Be sure to follow the Carnival as it continues to travel around the globe.

This week I have some green posts that even my (vegetarian) best friend will appreciate.  For starters, Steven Handel at The Emotion Machine talks about his Thoughts on Vegetarianism and Animal Rights.  Be prepared though, some of the videos involve animal cruelty and are pretty disturbing. 

Environmentally speaking, livestock are responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases, according to the United Nations’ online document “Livestock’s Long Shadow.”  This often leads many to leading a vegetarian lifestyle.  As a vegetarian, I’m sure you are always looking for new recipes.  Sally Kneidel offers one of her favorite vegan meals on Veggie Revolution this week.  Read, eat, and enjoy!

Vegetarianism is not the only way to green your food choices.  Eating organic foods will keep nasty pesticides from you and your family.  I try to choose organic on the Dirty Dozen when the prices are competitive.  One other thing I look for before I look at whether an item is organic is where it was grown.  If an organic apple was grown in Argentina and a regular apple was grown in Washington I personally feel that the one from Washington would be a more eco-friendly option.  Want to learn more about The Specifics of Eating Organic?  Go check out the blog at Gluffy.  There are some out there that say eating organic has a greater risk of bacteria such as e-coli.  Free Organic News has a simple post that defends organics.

The government has some very controversial bills in the system that will effect what we eat (and grow).  The Truth blog talks about H.R. 2749, The Food Safety Enforcement Act of 2009 that passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.  The post titles “Facism on the Farm-H.R. 2749“ explains how the bill will have a negative impact on small local farmers, including organic farmers.

A member of the ooffoo community picks up on the report published this week by the British Government on threats to global food security and presents thoughts on how individuals might still have a part to play in averting disaster. Can we make a difference, or is it down to scientific advancement and changes to mass agribusiness processes?

Don’t worry, I have some great blogs that DON’T talk about food! 

In our current economic state we are all learning how to trim our budget.  Don’t let your electricity bill get you down. If you spend the next weekend implementing a few really simple changes to your water heater, you could improve its performance by 25% or more. That’s cash in your pocket, bank account, or investment portfolio, not to mention less carbon in the atmosphere.  Visit Tyler at Frugally Green to learn his simple tips.  Looking for more ways to save money while living a greener lifestyle?  The Humane Connection explains the term MOGO-nomics: 12 Steps for Saving Money AND Making Humane Choices.

Are you a student who is going to college?  The Real Green Girl has a list of 14 Green Things to Bring to College.  Most of my regular readers don’t have to worry about college just yet with there babies and elementary school age kids so visit back here later this week as I show you the small changes we’ve made this year to send our first grader back to school.  I may even have some giveaways to help make your kids lunches waste-free.  (*Hint*Hint*)

Want more giveaways?  I’m sure you know Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish and her journey to become less dependant on plastic.  Beth has a terrific interview with Tiffany, proprietor of Picnic Basket Crafts, who tries to package her homemade personal care and cleaning items without plastic.  Also, a drawing to give away one plastic-free item to a lucky winner.

And I couldn’t have a Carnival of the Green without a special post for my cloth diaper friends!  Have you ever wanted to learn how to make your own laundry detergent?  I found some recipes at Wise Bread in their article Household Cleaning Hacks That Save You Money!  Or you could just wait until next week when I give away some Rockin’ Green Soap!

Thanks for visiting the Carnival of the Green and I hope that you take a look around my posts while you are here.

One more last minute entry from Erin at The Conscious Shopper came in while I was writing this.  Tips for conserving water, ordered from easiest to hardest ways to conserve.

My little 5 yr old (ok..he’s a big boy now) will be starting school this week.  The start date of school is suppose to be Tuesday BUT that might change with Tropical Storm/Hurricane Faye headed towards Florida.  His school supply list was pretty basic this year; nothing too extravagant.  Mostly just paper, pencils, pencil box, glue, etc.  On my trip to Wal-Mart I only spent $5 on the whole list of supplies.  How can you make your kids school supplies a little more green?

Look for recycled paper and recycled folders.  Look for pencils that are either refillable or made from rainforest free trees.  TerraCycle even offers some unique and quirky back to school supplies.  They have a cute pencil bag, lunch box, and backpack all made from juice pouches.  I actually saw the pencil bag at our local Walgreens last week (only about $3).  Looking on their website they also offer eco-binders and a drink pouch homework folder. 

TerraCycle Bags

I found this yesterday and was so excited that I shared it with my sons pre-K director this morning.  Elmer’s and Wal-Mart have teamed up to encourage recycling of empty glue and glue stick containers.  I’ve never even considered how many of these get disposed of daily at our schools.  Every year we are asked to provide the school with some basic supplies; including glue and glue sticks.  I had no idea that glue and glue stick containers were even recyclable (they are #2 plastics).  Be a part of the solution and share this program with your child’s school and encourage them to take action.  We need to remember to teach our children the importance of recycling and caring for the Earth at a young age; it will be easier for them and better for the environment in the long run. 

I’m actually disappointed in the response I got from the director at my son’s school.  She said they don’t need a program like this because they refill their glue bottles.  That still leaves all those empty glue sticks being thrown away not to mention the large bottles of glue they use to refill the individual sized bottles.  I’m glad they reuse the small bottles but they need to remember that the large bottles still have an impact to the environment.  I’ll try to approach it again in person this afternoon and let you know how it was received.