AskWoollyM.

                                                                Paper or corn to line my trash bins?

Question

Hi there! I'm religious about bringing my own bags to ALL stores but what do you use to line your trash bins at home? I saw biodegradable liners online. In stores I have found them for our baby bio-diaper disposals and doggie poo but do they carry them in stores around town for trash? Would it be better to use/recycle the brown paper grocery bags?-Sharon



Woolly M.

Hi Sharon! Awesome you are a BYOB-er! Keep up the great work!

OK so in a perfect world, it would be so fantastic to go without any trash bin liner at all ever! And slow down our disposable product use and habits that go with them. But this maybe not realistic for everyone, especially if you don't have a garbage bin with a tight fitting lid on it to keep the stink out nor have the extra physical energy to clean the bin everyday. So at this point a better solution is to use biocompostable bags in your garbage bin. Biocompostable bags have a better chance of biodegrading in a landfill than a plastic bag made from petroleum because they are made from natural materials. If you are composting you won't have to change the garbage very often which is great too to reduce bag liner use. You also don't need to use any bags to line your recycling bin. You can just throw your recyclables directly into your recycling bin.

There is a large selection now to choose from of biocompostable trash bags online, but not as widely available on a local level yet especially if you need an a-typical gallon size. If you live in L.A., you can get biocompostable bags at Cater Green, All Shades of Green in Silver Lake area and you can get them throughout the U.S. at Whole Foods/Wild Oats chain. They only carry one size of biobags though. Also some natural food stores may carry them, good to call ahead so you don't make the extra trip. Looking for local stores to buy stuff from is always the best option, but in this case, I might consider buying bulk biocompostable trash bags online from a more local area. It is more cost effective to do this. Buying bulk is also great obviously cause you only really need one big case of them every year or two and the bags are loose in the case so there isn't any individual trash box packaging to throw away...less waste.

Now the brown bag question is a another good one. For bringing your groceries home reusing cloth/reusable bags is always your best bet instead of acquiring virgin fiber brown bags for trash bag use later on down the line...Some brown bags do have a little recycled content in them but not enough yet to warrant their use. The other issues still remain that would need to be addressed even if brown bags were made from 100% post consumer waste or recycled content...It would take a lot of energy to produce them still and they still would create chemical pollution in our air and water.
If these issues were improved upon maybe brown bags would be the better choice to lining our garbage cans rather than using corn starch biodegradable bags that are manufactured from farmed corn crops planted in plots of land which maybe could be used for actual food growth to feed countries that are hungry. We have been hearing about the growing concern about planting energy crops such as corn crops for the sole purpose of making ethanol for bio fuels. That it could be diverting agricultural production from food crops creating a food shortage around the world and especially in poor countries. I don't think anyone could argue thought at this point that these corn starch disposable products are making this type of impact on the world, not yet anyway...

 
Here are more biodegradable bag online links below.

Check out my Food & Drink Related Products Section here under Biocompostable Food & Trash Related Products to buy these biodegradable bags online. Woolly M.

Using reusable cloth bags is best. To learn more about paper vs. plastic check out this report by MSN on called Battle of the Bags

 
Bring Your Own Bag

By Ann Bradley

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you care about your community and your planet. You undoubtedly consider yourself someone who makes kind choices, not only for your loved ones, but for those without the means to advocate for themselves. Hopefully that includes our planet’s fragile flora, fauna and sea life.

That’s why “paper or plastic?” isn’t the right question. The answer is: neither. Bring your own bag and urge your friends and neighbors to do the same. As Heal the Bay president Mark Gold warned the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last January, “Fifteen minutes of convenience is not worth hundreds of years of environmental devastation.”

On January 22, environmentalists urged the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who together govern nearly 10 million people—more than all states but California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas—to get retail outlets to reduce plastic bag use. The vote was a compromise. What is needed is an outright ban like Australia, China, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, San Francisco, Oakland and 30 Alaskan towns. Unfortunately, the California Grocers Association and its well-paid lobbyists wield tremendous power and moan that customers demand plastic.

Prove them wrong. Bring your own bag.

Some enlightened retailers are entering the 21st Century with a better read on the bottom line. For example, last January Whole Foods announced that it will offer customers recycled paper or reusable bags. What better way to build good will and ultimately save money?

Bringing your own bag is win/win for you and your retailer.

It is also evident that the pollution and degradation caused by paper bag production is not the solution. To get the 10 billion paper grocery bags used in the U.S., 14 million trees are cut, not to mention the pollution caused by paper production and waste. Paper is not the answer.

Neither is plastic. Made from either petroleum or natural gas, plastic bags are everywhere.  World-wide only about 1% of plastic bags are recycled and in the U.S. less that 5% of the 60 billion bags we use each year get recycled.

And it’s not just the cost of the individual plastic or paper bags, but the cost to municipalities to dispose of them or to repair the damage they cause in clogged storm drains, etc. It costs 17 cents to dispose of plastic bags properly and that estimate doesn’t begin to calculate the harm to our natural world by the billions of bags floating into our streams, rivers and oceans. Each year, plastic marine debris kills one million sea birds and 100,000 mammals.

As Captain Paul Watson wrote in The Plastic Sea, “All the plastic that has ever been produced has been buried in landfills, incinerated, and dumped into lakes, rivers, and oceans. When incinerated, the plastics disperse non-biodegradable pollutants, much of which inevitably find their way into marine ecosystems as microscopic particles.”

In 2007, Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Ken Weiss won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2006 five-part series Altered Oceans. Part Four, “Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas,” described the devastation caused by plastics.

“Of the 500,000 albatross chicks born here (Midway atoll) each year, about 200,000 die, mostly from dehydration or starvation. A two-year study funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that chicks that died from those causes had twice as much plastic in their stomachs as those that died for other reasons.”

And further Weiss writes, “Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic — supple, durable materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene, Styrofoam, nylon and saran.”

Right now a plastic island twice the size of Texas floats about 1,000 miles off the coast of California in ocean currents called the Northern Pacific Gyre. This toxic mass began accumulating less than 50 years ago, a sad legacy for baby-boomers.

But we can change it. It starts with you. You right there reading these words. You’re not walking five miles from an African village for potable water. You’re probably driving to your local market. You can stash bags in your car and use them. If, bless you, you use alternate means to get around either on pubic transit, by bike or walking, a few bags aren’t going to weigh you down.

Most Saturday mornings, I hold a sign at our local farmer’s market urging folks to bring their own bag. Frequently people stop, turn and walk back to their cars for the bag lying on the back seat. It’s said that once you do something for a month it becomes a habit.

Make a difference. Make 2008 the year you go plastic and paper free. It starts with you right now. No paper, no plastic. Bring your own bag. Let your market and other stores know why you are bringing your own bag. Ask for a discount. In the long run, we all win when you say no to paper or plastic and bring your own bag.

Ann Bradley

Consider Passive AC. Open your windows on the shaded sides of your home in
the morning or evening to let cool air in to circulate... 

Question

Do you know anything about ductless AC? Does it work? Is it really more energy efficient? -Mollie

Woolly M.

Great question Mollie. Before I write a little about your question regarding ductless AC, I want to mention that there are many passive cooling alternatives out there that you might want to try first in efforts to make your house cooler and more energy efficient, without the use AC equipment. Here are a few general things to start with Ensure that you have proper insulation, energy-efficient windows and doors, are shading, and have proper ventilation. See if any of these or the ideas under section "passive cooling" below work for you before you consider spending money on an AC unit.

Some Energy Efficient AC Equipment

So a rep from a site called Eco Air and Water explained to me that ductless AC can be more energy efficient than a central air system in that instead of cooling the entire house it cools just the area that you are actually hanging out in.These systems do generally get a higher SEER Rating (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating), an important rating system for energy efficiency in air conditioners and refrigeration. 10 seems to be the norm in a central air system where there are ductless AC systems that can be rated from 13-16 points. The higher the rating, the more energy efficient and the more expensive. So one of these units to cool a 400 square foot area could cost around $1100. The wattage on one of these things is around 3000 as compared to a HVAC central air system which normally uses about 5-10,000 watts. Now I don't what type of home you are living in, but you might consider something more passive like a whole house attic fan which is a unit that is put into your ceiling in the center of your home with a grill that literally pulls cooler outside air through open windows and pushes hot indoor air out through the grill on the ceiling. It can lower the temperature in your home by five degrees in just a few minutes. A site called Whole House Fans said these units can be used on their own or in conjunction with an AC unit. If you use a WHF with and AC unit it would definitely offset energy use and lower your electricity bills, a better choice than using a central air unit on it's own. (We will discuss more alternatives to central air units below.) A whole house fan for a 1500 square foot home and up, would use about 276 watts of energy, very little on their own compared to typical central air systems(5-10,000 watts). They cost about $766. for this size. If your home doesn't have an attic, there is a unit available that works for a 1200 square foot space (mostly used for mobile homes) that uses up 110 watts of energy. If you live in an apartment and can't install something like a whole house fan you might consider just a window fan. A window unit can run around $87. dollars and uses around 87 watts of energy. Are these the best solutions for AC for your home? You will have to decide what is the most cost effective and least energy consuming for you. If you really feel like you can't do true passive air circulation in your home without AC equipment, these types of fans might be a great option for you. You might also consider an attic fan which ventilates the attic air which can cool the attic temperature by 30º, cooling the whole house down a good amount. Another suggestion on the equipment front is a Swamp Cooler/ Evaporative Cooler. They can be pretty energy efficient, they use 75% less electricity than a central air-conditioning system does. Saving energy and money once again. This is quoted from the Consumer Energy Center about swamp coolers which is interesting:

"Because the technology is simpler, an evaporative cooler costs about half as much as an air conditioner that will cool the same sized area. Some California utilities, such as PG&E, also offer rebates up to $300 to electricity customers who install whole-house evaporative systems. For perspective, a quick check of the internet in July 2001, found units capable of cooling 750 square feet that were priced as low as $275. Installation costs of swamp coolers are comparable to air conditioning units." -Consumer Energy Center

One drawback with these is that they do use 3-15 gallons of water a day, depending on how often you are using them.  Here is some info about the newer evaporative coolers that are out.

"Two stage evaporative coolers have been developed that pre-cool air before it goes through the moistened pad. The new coolers are reported to be as effective as air conditioning, but their initial cost is high - around $5,000 for a whole house system, approximately the same as air conditioning. The price may come down as more such systems are sold, but for the time being two-stage systems are hard to find.

Evaporative coolers are now on the market that use photovoltaic panels (solar) to create the electricity used to run the blower and the water pump. For hot, desert areas, the combination of evaporative cooling and solar power are a perfect match: the afternoon, when the most solar energy is available, is also the hottest part of the day, when cooling is most needed. And since swamp coolers use a fraction of the energy of air conditioners, PV cells can provide enough electricity to run the system effectively."-Consumer Energy Center

Heat pumps are another energy efficient way to go but cost a lot more money up front.

"Like your refrigerator, heat pumps use electricity to move heat from a cool space into a warm, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. During the heating season, heat pumps move heat from the cool outdoors into your warm house; during the cooling season, heat pumps move heat from your cool house into the warm outdoors. Because they move heat rather than generate heat, heat pumps can provide up to 4 times the amount of energy they consume."- EERE

Here is a great resource for cooling ideas for your home EERE

You can look at the Energy Star Program site for energy saving AC units as well.

Other ways to cool your home or apartment...

There are many other ways to get cool air into your home without buying machines as well...
Here are some concepts and then adapted ideas for particular spaces to follow from M & A, Materials & Applications Architecture and Landscape Research founder Jenna Didier in Silver Lake. Jenna doesn't use an AC unit to cut down on energy consumption and creatively applies larger sustainable cooling concepts to her own apartment.

"Here are links to descriptions of a couple of my favorite concepts.  Its not what you buy, its how you build:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_chimney

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher

You can adapt these passive cooling ideas to your own home...

Suck in Afternoon and Evening Breezes. If you are in an apartment, these ideas can be adapted with a little ingenuity - and strategically shading the south & west-facing windows from outside of the glass during the day.  Also - keep windows closed during the hottest part of the day & then open them wide to catch afternoon breezes and let in cool air at night.  We practice this and its eliminated our need for A/C...

Make Creative Shade & Sometimes Food as Well!

I also have a tomato plant air conditioner: one of my windows lets in too much sunlight and heats up the whole room, so I planted a tomato plant in the window box.  It will provide shade during the hot part of the day, and of course, fresh tomatoes.

Also, shading the windows can be done with just about anything, blinds, bamboo, growing vines - all from the outside. You can also use an energy film for blocking out 65% of solar heat on your windows which can help a lot. It can also retain interior heat in in the winter...it is however made from vinyl, I believe, which isn't a non-toxic material..."

-Jenna Didier
M&A

Here are some other ideas from Grist on cheap ways to keep cool. Sorry if they are too obvious. "Switch to fluorescent bulbs, which give off much less heat than incandescents. Don't use any appliances in the house when it's hot. If you must run the dishwasher, do so at night."

"You may further leverage nature if you have a layout (and weather) that permits a cross breeze. Open the incoming breeze window a little, and the outgoing window a lot. On the out window place an out-facing window fan, which will pull the air through the house. Even if you have only two windows, facing the same direction, you may get relief by opening both, placing an inward fan on one and an outward on the other." - Grist

These are just a few  AC ideas.I hope some of these ideas have answered your questions and will help a bit Mollie. I don't know of the best place to buy a good priced ductless AC from in L.A. Will let you know if I find one. But you can start with this online shop to give you more info. and guide you to a more local spot. Eco Air & Water

One more site here, Build it Solar, that has a mass of passive cooling ideas...

I hope some of this info. gives you a few ideas on ways alternative ways to cool your home. Let me know what you end up doing. Thanks Woolly M.

 

"The Good Envelope Folding Party" Silver Lake, CA. hosted by Woolly M. (Start your own community group...)

Hi! I wanted to share with you something fun that I have started doing called "The Good Envelope Folding Party" here in Silver Lake, L.A., CA. This is a bi-monthly party/womans' social group that I have at my house with friends and acquaintances in my neighborhood where we make (cut and fold) envelopes by hand out of old/unwanted magazines and recycled content cards to go inside them over some wine and laughs. I think this is an excellent community builder and a great excuse to hang out, socialize, be creative and help others. From each party an excellent box of handmade envelopes is produced, which we donate as unique stationery to local community fundraiser events (schools, non-profit orgs...) in need of a gift donation to raise money for their cause. Through these stationery donations we want to not only help raise money for these organizations but also raise awareness of the importance and benefit of working together as a community to reach simple goals and to help others...while producing something that has been beautifully repurposed and spread the good "green" word.

Host your own earth friendly activity and invite people in your neighborhood...

Women, men, fuzzy bunnies, whoever you are out there, start one of these groups in your own neighborhood and for your own causes. It could also be a fun holiday party activity as well if you can't make it a regular thing.  It's simple to organize and rewarding.
If you want to host an envelope folding party...1. Find an envelope that you like the shape in your home and take it apart carefully. 2. Trace around it on used paper to make templates for enough people in your group to use. 3. Cut the templates out. 4. Go to a flea market/St. Vincent De Paul or go on freecycle to find old worn out magazines or trashed books that have cool pictures in them to use their pages for the envelopes, make sure they are the right size for you envelope template. Or use any used papers, you don't have to use magazines... 5. Find some used or recycled cardstock to make you cards from, you will need an Exacto blade like thing if you are cutting them at home on a protected surface. 6. Have your invitees bring their own scissors and glue preferably gluesticks or make your own glue. 7. Evite or email your friends to come over  8. Party on. Maybe make some treats for your guests to eat...

Email me above if you need more help starting your own group. Woolly M.

 

"Peace Doves" photo courtesy of David of Edendale Farm, Silver Lake, L.A. CA.

Happy Earth Day 2008

Appreciate the earth every day. Make every new day a little brighter by changing out old habits and slowly introducing new environmentally friendly ones into your daily life. Make the earth a better place for yourself and for everyone around you. Here are some simple eco-friendly steps to introduce into your daily life.


Introduce these Easy Eco-friendly Steps into Your Life and Get Hooked by Jo Hosking


1. Opt-out of junk mail, catalogues and phone books. Get your family off the junk mail lists and save some trees!  www.catalogchoice.org to get off the catalogue lists and if you also get lots of offers for credit cards you can go to www.optoutprescreen.com and get your name taken off those lists too.
Or  www.41pounds.org will remove your name from catalogue and junk mail lists for $41. They also donate $15 to a non-profit (choose from a list) on your behalf.  The fee of $41 covers all the adults who live at your address for 5 years, and make sure to give them any variations of your name. 41 pounds is the weight of  junk mail that each adult in the US receives every year. Go to their website for loads of amazing facts about junk mail. They also have a new program www.stopjunkmailkit.com where they provide you with a kit to fill out on your own for $17.50. This is great if you want to keep your personal info. private. It takes about 20 minutes to fill out the kit.

If you want to stop receiving phone books and phone directories to your home you have to opt out of this separately from the above services. To opt-out of White and Yellow Pages you can sign up with this great service online. It is free. www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. Or you will need to call several different numbers to opt-out of them. Make sure they are actually directories that would normally come to your house otherwise you are giving out your address to companies who do not have them yet which could create the possibility of  new ones arriving.

VERIZON Yellowpages 800-888-8448

YELLOWBOOK (DISTRIBUTION) 800-373-2324

ATT/SBC Yellowpages 800-848-8000
(press option 1 and then option 1 again)

DEX Yellowpages 877-243-8339

Also if you are moving or have just moved only fill out a temporary change of address form at your local post office until you change your bills' addresses by hand. Your mail will be temporarily forwarded for 90 days. They cannot sell your info. to direct marketing if you do this type of forwarding. If you do a permanent change of address at the post office your info. will be sold to marketing companies and your junk mail will come back after using the above services and you will have to redo all of the opt-outs again.

2. Turn off your faucet. Something that you can do every single morning and every night is turning off the faucet when you brush your teeth. You can waste as much as 5 gallons of water each time if you don’t turn off the faucet!

3. Bike and walk more.Try biking to run errands or even go to work. Over a year you can save a lot of gas! Biking is invigorating and is of course good for you. Walking is obviously another great way to do your errands around your neighborhood or take the kids to school. A nice way to interact with other humans!

4.  Hang your clothes to dry. Get a clothes line and save money, energy and lessen your carbon footprint. If the climate you live in is especially dry and hot, your drying time in the sun will be quicker than a machine. Line-dried clothes also last longer (think of all that lint you have to clear from the machine) and need less ironing. Every 30 minute drying cycle costs 41cents in electricity and produces 5.36lbs of C02. Rotary lines can be removed when you’re not using them; have a look at www.clotheslineshop.com

5. Stop plastic bottled water use. Get an under the sink or counter top water filter and support your city water. Reuse single use glass bottles bought from the store, like glass Pom tea drink bottles or your favorite glass drink bottle (buy only enough single use bottles that you will reuse, buy your drinks normally in bulk containers : ) to take with you, wash them by hand or in the dishwasher. Or use reusable stainless steel water bottles. You will save a lot of money in the long run and prevent the plastic waste!

6. BYOC- Bring Your Own Container. Change your restaurant take out habits and bring your own reusable container to your favorite restaurant for take out to reduce the amount of single use disposables used and thrown directly in garbage. Around 22% of of landfill waste is created by disposable products and containers. Bring reusable containers with you instead of taking home a styrofoam doggie bag. Save the restaurant money and feel good about your great efforts.

7. BYOB- Bring Your Own Bags- everywhere! Take your own reusable bags to every store! Not just to your grocery stores and farmer's markets. Set an important example for others to follow.

8. Donate used toys to a good cause. When you buy toys think about how long they will last and what might happen to them when you don’t want them anymore. Will they break easily? If they do, would it be easy to fix them? Could another child enjoy them when you have grown out of them? www.beyondshelter.org will take things (in good condition) that you don’t want anymore and give them to families who have been homeless and need some stuff.

9. Use rechargeable batteries. Change over from alkaline to NIMH rechargeable batteries. These can be charged over and over again and will save you money in the long run. If you get a solar battery charger then the power is completely free. Dispose of your old batteries properly at a S.A.F.E. center. Jiffy Lube is also accepting old batteries. Please do not throw them into the trash they are considered hazardous waste.

10. Start an organic vegetable garden. If you have a yard and a little space why not start an organic vegetable garden? Start with easy to grow organic tomatoes and herbs. Delicious.

11. Be creative about gifts. Give a gift that will last a long time and is more meaningful. Why not give a fruit tree as a present? Every year when they pick their fruits from the tree they will be reminded of you. The gift that keeps on giving each year...

12. Start a compost bin or worm farm at home. You will be able to feed your vegetable garden with the compost you have made. It’s also fun to look for worms in your bin! Most of us could reduce our trash by half we composted our kitchen and garden waste.

13. Switch a couple light bulbs to energy efficient ones. Make sure you get the right wattage (A 60W fluorescent bulb should be replaced with a 15W cfl so that the room doesn’t feel all gloomy and choose ‘soft white’ rather than ‘bright white’ or ‘day light’) and remember that they take a few minutes to warm up. A 15W energy efficient light bulb that is on for 5 hours a day will save you a minimum of $8.54 in electricity costs and 110 lbs of carbon dioxide EVERY YEAR! Imagine how much you could save if you did the whole house…!

14. Energy savers. Turn off the lights when you leave a room, turn off the TV and computer game when you’ve finished watching/playing it and turn it right off at the set – if you turn it off with the remote that often means it is on ‘standby’ and that uses energy (there will be a little light showing on the front of the TV if it’s on ‘standby’). Set your computer to go to ‘sleep’ after 10 minutes of no one using it.If we all turned off our TVs and other gadgets that we leave on standby we could close down two US power stations! Remember to shut the door of the refrigerator! Use a Smart Strip Power Strip to plug your computer and peripheral electronics in.

15. Frequent your local farmer’s market. It’s a very easy way to learn which fruits and vegetables are in season and you can meet the people who grow the food you eat. A great way to reduce and eliminate excessive food packaging from your food that gets thrown out immediately.

16. Reuse good used stuff. Offer your used unwanted goods and find some new used treasures. Sign up for The Freecycle Network™, a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns.This is a great way to keep good stuff out of landfills.

17. Buy used, it's unique. Shop at flea markets and swap-meets. This can be a lot of fun. You might find something (a toy, a picture or even a great T-shirt) that you really love and that no one else has!

Question

Hi I am concerned about the quality of my tap water and am considering getting a filter for our home. How do I find out if my water is O.K. to drink here and find out what exactly is in it? -Judy

Woolly M.

Hi Judy. Here are my suggestions for finding out about your water quality. It is a very good thing to know especially if you are considering getting a water filter put in your house. It is important to know what things need to be taken out of the water in order to install the right type of filter. Here are some quick ways to find out if your water is safe to drink or if you should consider a filter.

1) DOWNLOAD YOUR WATER QUALITY, CCR (Consumer Confidence Report, Water Quality Report) READ IT OR HAVE IT READ BUY A PROFESSIONAL FROM A CERTIFIED WATER TESTING LAB OR FROM AN NSF CERTIFIED WATER FILTER COMPANY.

The water quality, CCR annual report is issued around July 1 of each year. It provides consumers with detailed information regarding the source of their drinking water and the treatment methods used, as well as the quality of the finished drinking water that was provided to your community during the previous calendar year.

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/ccr/whereyoulive.html

If you are having a tough time understanding these charts go to www.safe-drinking-water.org They have set out some easier ways to understand a CCR. Look for heading : "Making Sense of Drinking Water Right to Know Reports" and click on it.

or

2) CALL TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOUR WATER QUALITY.

Those who are particularly concerned about the quality of their tap water can take action by 1) calling their state drinking water program or the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800 426-4791) for a list of state certified labs for water testing; and 2) purchasing filters certified by NSF International (800 NSF-MARK) to remove the contaminants of special concern to the consumer (NSF certification is not, however, a complete guarantee of safe water)

3) CERTIFIED WATER TESTING LABS

You can call or download info. about local certified water testing labs in your state approved by the E.P.A. here...

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/labs/index.html

HERE ARE THE CURRENT EPA DRINKING WATER STANDARDS.

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/standards.html

If you do decide you need a water filter for your home, some people feel that the best and safest filters are certified by NSF International (a third party product certification non-profit) and have the WQA (Water Quality Association) Gold Seal of Approval. I definitely feel like these are good starting points to find a water filter for your home. If you decide to have a water filter company come over for an estimate, definitely have your water quality, CCR report handy to show the company so you can make sure they know what filter is appropriate to take out the contaminants from your water. Woolly M.

Question

My husband and I really enjoy going out to eat. Besides being convenient, we feel sometimes it is cheaper for us to do so rather then making food at home which can result in a lot of leftovers that just sit in the fridge until they are thrown out. We dine out at least 3 times a week. We would really like to support restaurants that are using more sustainable practices. We were wondering if there was some way to know which restaurants were more eco-friendly than others, like a rating or sign that let us know they have better environmental standards then their competitors. Does something like this exist?-Renna

Woolly M.

Hi Renna. Amazingly enough, something like this does exist. There is a non-profit organization called the GRA-Green Restaurant Association whose mission is to "create an ecologically sustainable restaurant industry." Awesome. They are dedicated in finding simple ways to reduce the restaurant industry's environmental impact and to make it more sustainable. They make it easy for restaurants to find environmentally friendly products ie. biocompostables...and services ie. waste management, utilities etc... for their shops. They educate and advise restaurants on how to create less waste in their own businesses through composting and recycling, and connect them to the most fitting local food suppliers companies to do business with. They also demonstrate to restaurants the cost advantages of making their establishments environmentally friendly. Saving money can be a big incentive in going green. A cool thing about the Green Restaurant Association program is that you can go to their site and they have a list of all of the restaurants that are currently certified throughout the U.S. These restaurants will have a "Green Restaurant Association" sticker in their front window next to their other ratings. There are many restaurants involved in this program already. And some are on their way to being certified such as delicious Organic Italian restaurant Andiamo in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA. Like other eco-friendly restaurants following GRA's environmental guidelines, Andiamo is composting their food waste, recycling and using biocompostable food ware. They use eco-friendly cleaning products and are energy efficient among many other things. They are involved in good social causes. Currently they are donating their recycling cans and bottles to a local public school so that the school may raise money to buy their own biodegradable food ware for their student's cafeteria lunches to replace government supplied disposable plastics. They offer drinks without high fructose syrups and are using fresh local organic ingredients to make their food.
So restaurants and customers can now have the best of both worlds when dining out. Good food and sustainability under one roof.  A model for all restaurants to follow. Look for the green "GRA" sticker and enjoy. Woolly M.

Is This Recyclable?

Question

Nobody seems to know if you can recycle Tetra Pak boxes or not. I say yes, my husband says no!I hope you can tell us!-Pauline

WoollyM.

This is a really important question, with a sort of complicated answer. Aseptic boxes, also known as aseptic bricks, are made from multi-materials which makes them more "difficult to recycle", especially here in the U.S. for some reason. These packages are usually composed of 70% paper, 24% polyethylene and 6% aluminum. Milk cartons, also known as Gable Top cartons, are basically made from the some of the same materials sans the aluminum. They both have to be put through a similar recycling process called hydrapulping. This process separates the paper from the plastic and aluminum that these boxes are made from so these materials can be used for something else. Usually the paper fibers are the materials recovered from this particular process although I did read that some aluminum recycled from this process has been used towards high-end plastic lumber products. Aseptic containers have proven beneficial in some ways in that they don't take as much energy to transport them to stores as do bottles and cans. They have proven very useful in transporting water to third world countries where water cannot be safely drank. These boxes are also able to hold onto vitamin nutrients better than other packaged food. Aseptic containers only represent .03% of all solid waste in U.S. which some may see as a good thing. But because of this small recovery number, even if it all were recovered, there is less of an incentive for recycle programs to actually collect and recycle them. Large volumes of a particular item make recycling that item more economical and cause more interest in creating facilities that actually process particular materials, such as the hydrapulping process.  So even though 12 million U.S. households have access to curbside programs that recycle aseptics, the actual recycling rates for the containers are quite low. The lack of local hydrapulping facilities seems to be one of the major reasons why this aseptic recycling rate is so low. States that find it too expensive to haul or ship these items away to one of these facilities to be processed (most are overseas) will be less inclined to offer this as part of their recycling program. Los Angeles, CA. does not offer an aseptic box or a milk carton recycling program partly for this reason. The closest hydrapulping facility to send these products to is said to be Calgary, Canada which is really not cost effective and certainly not energy efficient. The state of Oregon allows aseptic box and milk carton recycling, but according to Lauren from Master Recycling, these collected boxes have to be hauled away from the recycling facilities to a third party facility in Oregon who sorts through them and ships them off to to Korea only to then be downcycled into tissue paper. Downcycling basically is a process that recycles materials into lesser quality materials. Sending our used food boxes overseas just doesn't sound worthwhile or efficient to me. Not particularly eco-friendly for those living in the U.S. Now if you are Europe, it seems like these boxes are more environmentally friendly in the sense that are being made from FSC papers and have an elaborate, accessible and efficient recycling system to recover them properly for processing them into new materials.

So what to do...? Even if your city or state does offer aseptic box recycling (you can find this out by contacting your cities bureau of sanitation) like Oregon's, is it really beneficial? I don't know but I can give you my gut feeling here. I think that we should try to step away from the convenience for now and try to refrain from purchasing foods that are packaged in these aseptic boxes in the U.S. until companies who manufacture them like Tetra Pak, take responsibility for their used product's afterlife and disposal and offer a Take Back program of some sort or a more reliable recycling system. As a Rice and Soy Milk drinker this is a tough thing to do. Maybe buy them less frequently... Or make your own??? There are plenty of alternatives for veggie broths, soups and other foods if you are tend to buy these in aseptic boxes. This definitely needs to be part of a larger discussion. Thanks for the great question. Woolly M.

Photo courtesy of Red Worm Composting & Compost Guy

Question

I would like to compost but live in a small New York apartment with a small back garden. Can you suggest a good solution for me? -Lena
   

WoollyM.

Fantastic! You can absolutely compost even if you have a small apartment or garden to do it in. Composting is one of the most important eco-friendly things you can do to help the environment. Composting diverts tons of organic waste that would normally be dumped into a landfill and puts it to good use by recycling it into nutrient rich soil. Doing this will amazingly reduce your daily trash and your food scraps will be transformed over time into beautiful food for your indoor plants and your small garden, just like magic.

My suggestion for you is to try worm composting referred to as vermicomposting. You may hesitate at first, but it is a really neat and effective way to recycle food scraps into a gorgeously nutrient rich soil additive. You will need to either make or buy a worm bin for these little friends to do their work in. Preferrably make your own bins with reclaimed wood, FSC wood, or an non-toxic alternative to particle board  such as Wheatboard or Strawboard that use safer glues. I am not crazy about plastic but there are alot of plastic worm bin options to make or buy. They will be included in the Worm Composting PDF download at the end of this discussion. You can get pretty creative in storing your bin. Put it under the kitchen sink, in the closet or whatever cooler shaded/darker area of the house that suits you best. Worm bins should never be in temperatures below 50º or above 85º, so if you realize that the bins are suddenly in a very hot or very cold area you should move them to a milder area. I read about a clever individual that actually uses a larger wooden worm bins as coffee table in their living room, a great space saver idea. I know you are probably wondering about the stink factor from this type of composting. But believe or not, if all is going well inside your worm bins, there shouldn't be any stinky odor coming from it. It should have a healthy just rained on forest floor smell when opened. Click here for Woolly M. Instructions on How to Worm Compost. It is also available for download to the right of this column under the category "Composting". Thanks Woolly M.

Question

Hello. I am trying to go green.  I take my own bags to the grocery store or shopping and use them to take things home.  I was wondering though, what do I line my waste basket with in the kitchen to take out the garbage?  I have a can that fits the plastic bags that you get from the store and if I don't use a bag the garbage would smell in the house.  Thanks for your response. Peace and Joy. Yvonne


WoollyM.

Hi Yvonne. Thanks for writing. This is a really important question! I would like to suggest a few things. The first suggestion is obvious, sorry but have to mention it and it is definitely a little messier more time consuming one, but a better choice for the earth. You can throw your garbage just loose in a sealed garbage can with a tight lid without a bag liner and then throw it directly in your outside bin when full. This in combination with composting. Composting is amazing and it will really keep all the smelly rotting waste out of your garbage can, put your food scraps to good use and give you a lot less less garbage to contend with inside your home. If you need to find out more information on how to compost look to the right column of the AskWoollyM homepage and there are 2 downloads on how to easily compost. One of the downloads is how to make a worm compost.

My second suggestion is to buy bulk biocompostable corn starch garbage bags for lining your garbage can instead of traditional plastic ones. They are a better choice (for now until something better is developed) rather than traditional plastic bags because they do biodegrade more naturally over time in a landfill like biodegradable food items. 

Not only does it take huge amounts of oil to produce the almost trillion plastic bags we consume a year

(that's like 1 million bags a minute apparently worldwide), but we really can't get rid of them very well once they are produced and after they have been used. Throwing them away is not an option as traditional plastic bags only photodegrade over vast amounts of time which means that they will only break up into tiny pieces, contaminating our soil and water (rivers, lakes, oceans) with toxins, they will never completely go back into nature. And sadly, these little pieces of plastic kill tons of animals who accidently ingest them thinking they are food. Recycling plastic bags in the home bins seems like an O.K. idea and some cities let you do it, but unfortunately only like 1-3% of all plastic bags at this point are actually being recycled. More incentive to use the biocompostable bags right? It is recommended that these biodegradable materials be disposed of in proper compost facilities that have high heat temperatures or in a home compost pile, but still throwing them in the garbage has got to be a better choice than plastic bags for sure. They will take a while to break down, but they will break down. One important note though, make sure these biodegradable bags (or any biocompostable containers or foodware) don't get mixed into the plastic recycle stream as they will contaminate the recycling process. So make sure you don't line your recycle bin with them or toss them into it.  It is best to not line your recycle bin in your house anyway and to directly toss the recycling in your outside bins without a bag. Another important point about cornstarch products is to try to make sure they are GMO free (not genetically modified) Here is a site that goes into why GMO farming and foods are bad for us and the earth on OM Organics. Biocompostable Biobags are certified GMO free. Trellis Earth bags are not certified GMO free but claim their bags are not made from genetically modified corn. Here are a few other places to buy these bags in bulk. World Centric and Eco-Products. You can also get them in smaller packs from Whole Foods or probably any local natural food store.  Keep up the great work in using reusable bags for everything else and in greening your life. Woolly M.

Question

Hi. We are in moving from one house to another in L.A. soon and were wondering if there are any eco-friendly-ish movers that we could hire to move us? -Tim

WoollyM.

Good thinking! Everyone who moves should consider the impact their move will have on the earth and the limited space left in our landfills. Apparently, 20% of Americans move every year! So if everyone is using disposable materials to move with that is a lot of unnecessary waste being generated. Think of all the precious resources that we are using for a simple service just to be thrown right into the garbage; Non-recyclable packing materials, cardboard boxes (a lot of these boxes are still not made from recycled materials and after use only 40% of the box gets recycled for other uses when it is recycled) and plastic wrap/Styrofoam materials, typically single use products when transferring oneself from one residence to the next. This is another area  that we need to address our throw-away habits and retrain the way we think about the necessity of conveniences vs the damage we are doing to our earth.

Hee Hee. I agree that the term "Eco-friendly-ish" is an appropriate way to describe some green companies, but I am excited to say that in this particular case that there is a respected eco-friendly zero waste packing material service option and an eco-friendly moving company option in California, both do service the L.A. area. This impressive earth friendly, zero-waste do-it-yourself pack and move service is called Rent a Green Box also known as Earth Friendly Moving. This service provides alternative moving reusable containers and packing materials for your move instead of disposable ones. 7-10 days before your move, they deliver their RecoPack (Recycled Ecological Packing Solution) plastic reusable containers/boxes in vegetable powered/bio diesel trucks to your home. These containers are made from mined recycled cleaning product containers from our landfills. "For every 100 RecoPack containers they manufacture, they remove an average of 256 pounds of trash from the country’s landfills!" Excellent! So after you receive these RecoPack containers at your home, you pack them with your stuff, stack them and move them to your new place of residence via an eco-friendly moving company such as Go Green Moving, unpack the rental boxes and then Rent a Green Box trucks pick the Recopacks back up. You can also get 100% recycled packing paper, Geami (replacement for bubble wrap), dolly, labels, markers, corn based packing tape alternatives from them for your other moving needs. This service is currently offered only in California state, but will be moving people nationwide soon.

Another option is to get used cardboard boxes in good condition. There are several companies that offer them and you can also look on Craigslist for them sometimes local people will offer theirs after a move. One used cardboard box company is called Usedcardboardboxes.com. They will ship you your boxes for free. You can also use this site BoxQuest to locate places that sell or give away used moving boxes. Or you can always get used boxes from your local grocery store, restaurants, hardware or electronic stores.

There are some really important things you can do to green your move even more, such as really sifting thoroughly through all your old stuff and donating your unwanted things to Goodwill, Salvation Army or St. Vincent  De Paul. Or you can Freecycle your unwanted stuff. This site is a great non-profit grassroots movement where you can give and get things for free locally. The idea is to keep good stuff out of landfills. While cleaning you will probably roundup all your old cell phones, electronic devices and their wires, old computer storage disks and many other electronic waste items that you do not know what to do with. Gather them up in one box and go to the site Earth 911 to locate your closest e-waste facility. Some even will pick up for a small fee if you have enough stuff. You can also carbon offset the greenhouse emissions from your move buy purchasing offset credits. Here are a few good sites to do that at. Terrapass, Carbon Fund and Be Green Now. Check out Care2 to get more info. on how to have a less of an impact on the environment while moving. Good luck with your move Tim!

Question

Hi, I am researching on behalf of a charity that offers nightly food and accommodation in church buildings to homeless people in London, UK. Often the churches are full and we have to turn people away. However, what we currently give them to take away is hot food and drinks in single-use food and drinks containers made of very un-eco polystyrene. Please can you tell me if you know of any more eco-friendly single use hot food and drinks container companies where I can buy as cheaply as possible from, for this purpose? Thank you for your help.  -Gareth, UK

WoollyM.

Hey Gareth. It's great that you are thinking about how you can lesson your impact on landfills with Biocompostables! Obviously in your particular case, people are not staying at your facility to eat and are taking away the food. Normally, I would recommend using reusable plates, cups and utensils first before considering using any disposable item, to steer away from our "throw away" cultures and mindsets. But again in this case, Biocompostable food ware is definitely a better option than any conventional disposables.

You obviously already know this info. below or you wouldn't have asked your question. But your question presents a really important opportunity for me to explain why we need to really stop the use of conventional disposables and make better choices. These facts (US) are especially important for people who do have the option to choose reusable food ware for their events and parties.

Here are some disturbing facts on conventional disposables:

• 970 thousand tons of paper cups and plates were discarded in 2003 (EPA).  If, we approximate 15 grams weight for each cup or plate, we get 64 billion paper cups and plates being thrown away every year in USA.
• 730 thousand tons of Styrofoam and plastic plates and cups (710 thousand tons were Styrofoam) were disposed in 2003 (EPA). Using 10 grams weight for each cup or plate, we get 73 billion mostly Styrofoam cups and plates being thrown away every year in USA.
• According to EPA statistics, a total of 3,810  thousand tons of plastic containers & bottles were thrown away in 2003.  Using a generous number of 20 grams for each container, we get a number of 190 billion plastic containers & bottles being landfilled or incinerated every year.
• The above numbers do not include trash bags, grocery bags and other plastic materials like trays, utensils, clam shells, caps and other plastic packaging.  A total of 8000 thousand tons of these items were discarded in 2003.  -Worldcentric.org

Yikes!

Biocompostables are a better choice when you can't use reusable food ware, as in your case. They aren't made from dirty petroleum based products nor do they contain unhealthy additives in them like the conventional ones (eg. Styrofoams and other plastic disposables pollute our oceans, our earth, never decompose and kill tons of animals every year.) Biocompostables are also not made from virgin wood fibers claiming our valuable forests. They are made from sustainable materials such as corn, wheat or sugarcane that will degrade eventually when composted.

Now, it is recommended that Biocompostable food ware be composted in a high heat compost facility or a home compost in order to properly break down in 90-180 days. If you decide to take your compost to a facility, obviously you will need it separated as such and not mixed with other garbage or recyclables, brought in a Biocompostable bag. If you throw these items in a home compost, it is recommended to break the products apart before mixing them in with your other compost items. Now, if you can't find a compost facility near you, throwing Biocompostables in the garbage isn't the worst thing to do. It is still an environmentally better choice, even though it is still taking up valuable landfill real estate. Biocompostables will eventually degrade in a landfill but will take a lot longer than180 days to do so.

Here are a couple compost facility info.sites for the UK. They might be able to direct you to an appropriate compost facility locater for your area:

http://www.compost.me.uk/

http://www.organicrecycling.co.uk/

http://www.sita.co.uk/what-we-do/composting/sita-uk-and-composting

To locate a compost facility in the US contact your state's waste management board or try the site Find-a Composter.

eg. California Waste Management

Find-A-Composter

Here are my favorite companies to order Biocompostable food ware from. World Centric.org is a great fair trade company to order from. They have the best prices and have non-profit discounts. They are in the US though. This might make it costly to ship. Another US company I like is Eco-Products. They carry the Eco-tainer cups that hold hot liquids. Unlike conventional cups, their cups are lined with a corn starch lining rather than a toxic plastic lining on the inside. They also sell various types of biodegradable food ware. I also like Trellis Earth. They carry Biocompostable products including cornstarch bags. I use them for my garbage instead of plastic ones.

I found these Biocompostable product sites in the UK, Friendly Planet and Goodlife.

Good luck! I hope this can at least get you pointed in the right direction over there! Woolly M.

Question

I am a graphic designer in Los Angeles. I do a lot of online work but also offer some printing to my clients. Do you have any ideas and or vendors who can make the printing process as green as possible. I always use recycled papers. Thank you so much. -Ellen


WoollyM.

Hi Ellen. This is so cool that you are wanting to print with a greener printer and already using recycled papers to print on. I have found a few green printers in Los Angeles for you to work with locally for a start. I have also included some online green printers that you can upload your work to first and print with, which you may already know about. Some of them are in California, some are not. Sorry to state the obvious, but it's always best to pick the closest printer to you to use the least amount of fossil fuels possible and really save on shipping costs. Some of these green printers are approved by Co-op America too for their good business practices. All of these progressive, high quality green printers use non-toxic veggie or soy based inks to print with and print on recycled content or PCW (Post Consumer Waste papers).

Los Angeles Area

I had a nice chat with a green printing company in Culver City called Britannia Press. They use veggie based inks and have a nice selection of recycled content and PCW (Post Consumer Waste) papers to choose from. They carry some commercial brand papers that have some recycled content line like Classic Crest along with some others like Environment brand paper which is 100% PCW. Their printing prices are reasonable and cost only 10-15% more than conventional printers (due to the costs of the recycled paper). They provide great service, quality printing and are enthusiastic about preserving the earth in the process. They also have good business practices and are approved by Co-op America.

Britannia Press, Inc.
3652 Eastham Drives like Classis
Culver City, CA 90232
Phone 310-839-3828
Fax 310-558-1324
 

There is another company called Plan It Green Printing in Eagle Rock whose focus is mainly on producing alternative biodegradable tree free labels(bamboo, corn based and sugar cane) for consumer products and printing on them. Very cool. They also are a green printer broker. Meaning they will find the right green printer for your job and send it out for you to be printed.

Plan It Green Printing
4955 Highland View Ave.
Eagle Rock, CA 90041
rob@planitgreenprinting.com
Phone 310-403-2530
Fax 323-550-1496

 

Here is a letterpress company in Pasadena that was recommended in the Los Angeles Times as a greener letterpress printer called Fugu Fugu Press. I was not able to get a hold of them to find out the types of inks they use to print with but did see that they have a selection of PCW waste to cotton papers to choose from when printing.

Online Green Printers approved by Co-op America

GreenerPrinter (CA)
Cary Printing (NC)
GreenDotPrint (NY)
A. Maciel Printing (CA)
Community Printer (CA)
Inkworks Press (CA)
EcoPrint (MD)

Online Green Printers

Wizard Graphics (CA)
Bacchus Press (CA)
Eco-Friendly Printer (NY)
Alternative Graphics (OR)
Barefoot Press (NC)
Angel Printing (CA)

*This company is in Oregon, not exactly the location you are looking for, but their work is pretty awesome. You can probably work with them online if you want to and send files via email.

Pinball Publishing

Read more about Green Printing

Green California Info. on Printing and Inks
Barefoot Press writes about green printing
Top 10 Green Printing Practices

 

Question

I am wondering if you have any information about SIGG bottles as an alternative to plastic water bottles ... are they as good a choice as Klean Kanteen, or are there issues to be aware of? -Denise

WoollyM.

Hi Denise. Excellent question. Here is my general feeling about SIGG. It probably is a safer alternative to plastic bottles but am not convinced that it is THE SAFEST alternative to drink from because of the various materials it is made from. SIGG bottles are aluminum bottles with a "food-compatible stove enamel baked on" on the inside and a "heatbonded powder paint" on the outside. These bottles are FDA approved and independently tested to be safe, but I am still skeptical. On it's own, Aluminum isn't the greatest material to eat or drink from. It can contain harmful substances such as Lead, for instance, that can leach into your foods. And it has also been linked to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease. So I do understand that this is why the SIGG bottles do need to have this enamel lining in them. But is the lining really o.k. for our health long term? We don't know. It is recommended not to wash SIGG bottles in the dishwasher as they say it may wear the inner lining down (or possibly release something when heated in high heat? Hopefully the lining does not contain BPA like Grist mentions in an article). Not knowing the long term effects of this lining and paint, makes me feel like sticking with something that has been around and used for a long time like #304 food grade stainless steel such as in the Klean Kanteen, ThinkSport, Guyot drink containers. Any well made stainless steel drink bottle will do. Make sure you trust the source from where you are buying it. (just a note Thinksport is great but they are quite big, better for adults probably.) Here is a link to stainless hot drink mugs too. Also, sorry if this is really obvious, a great drink container for an adult without spending a lot of $ is reusing previously store bought organic drink glass containers from the store. You can use them over and over and wash them by hand or in the dishwasher. eg. GT's Kombucha glass drink containers.Woolly M.

Question

I am building a house and am trying to build as cleanly as possible...When
it comes to sheathing a house the typical choice is to use OSB... This is a
chip board like material held together with a lot of glue...typically it has
formaldehyde in it.  Are there alternative sheet goods that can return to
the earth a bit more gracefully than the OSB?  Is Plywood a better choice?
Plywood can also have the formaldehyde glues so I wondered if I do have to
choose between two less than great choices is one better than the other? -Michael

WoollyM.

Hi Michael. This question is a fascinating one to research. Here is what I have gathered so far...
I spoke to a woman named Patti, a green consultant for Royal Plywood Company here in Los Angeles, and she explained to me that exterior rated OSB actually uses forest resources pretty efficiently as compared to plywood. Even better, it can be found as an FSC certified product. Basically if you are using OSB for the exterior, for weather protection, the glue used in the board will be a PF (Phenol-formaldehyde) binder which is less toxic then UF (Urea-formaldehyde) binder that is used for an interior grade OSB. UF binders are off gassing and release free radicals and are known to be human carcinogens. There is another kind of binder that can be used in OSB which is non-formaldehyde-emitting called MDI, methyl diisocyanate which is a polyurethane binder.

I think this site could be really helpful to you. It has a more detailed explanation of what I was talking about above and also gives you products to look at that come from certifiable woods etc...

http://www.greenbuildingblocks.com/search_products/search_results.go?taxonomy=bc&category=22&subcategory=53&stateCd=All&submit.x=7&submit.y=9&submit=Search

Also to answer your question about whether to use OSB or Plywood, this article is really detailed and explains the difference in their production and the energy consumption it takes up to produce each type of sheathing. I thought this quote was particularly helpful from it "OSB is made from newer, less commercially viable small diameter tree species, such as aspen, so its impact on forest resources is less so than for plywood. Such small diameter trees are growing faster than they are being cut down (twice as fast in Canada)." -Walls & Ceilings

Part 1 from Walls & Ceilings (Environmental concerns)

http://www.wconline.com/CDA/Archive/e579e402585cb010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____

Part 2  from Walls & Ceilings (Environmental concerns)

http://www.wconline.com/CDA/Archive/d6f81406ca768010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____

another helpful article...

http://www.ecoact.org/Programs/Green_Building/green_Materials/wood_panels.htm

Here are some different sheathing material alternatives to Plywood and OSB (Obviously make sure they work for what you need it for since I am not a builder):

Wheat (Straw) Board-Wheat is created from a rapidly renewable agricultural resource, wheat-straw, which offers a rich golden alternative to traditional hardwood or panel products.

http://www.environbiocomposites.com/products.php

Straw (Wheat) Board-A structural strength board made from wheat and soybean straw can be used as wall sheathing. Straw boards can be more water-resistant than wood-based panels.

http://oikos.com/products/wood-plastics/isobord/index.html

http://www.environmentalhomecenter.com/shop.mv?CatCode=PRODUCT&ProdCode=PACIFIC_BOARD

Recycled Paperboard-Made from recycled newspapers, paperboard can be used as a sub-floor, sheathing or roof decking. Aside from being very environmentally friendly, paperboard also has a higher insulative value than wood panels and can reduce sounds. Traditionally, it is less expensive than other wood-based sheathings.

http://www.environmentalhomecenter.com/shop.mv?CatCode=PRODUCT&ProdCode=HOMASOTE

MDF (medium density fiberboard)-that contains neither phenol nor urea formaldehyde. This product may be a good option for interior use for people sensitive to formaldehyde emissions from standard wood products. http://www.environmentalhomecenter.com/shop.mv?CatCode=10230_FINCARPN

Agricultural Fiber Board- http://www.agriboard.com/ or http://www.kireiusa.com/main.php

Biofiber- http://www.environbiocomposites.com/

I like this site Oikos. It is a green building source that has some simple run downs of what is available as well and explains the different sheathing options in detail, a really great resource with a book that could be useful.

http://oikos.com/library/vision/index.html

Here is the Oikos Green Product Directory

http://www.oikos.com/green_products/index.php

So to make things really confusing, here is Columbia Forest Products Formaldehyde-Free plywood called Pure Bond at competitive pricing.

http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/products/prodpb.aspx

Keep me updated. Would love to know your progress and what you decide to do on this.
Thanks. Woolly M.

Question

Hi there! For years I used a French Press coffee maker...until recently I heard that unfiltered coffee lets in Cafestol (a natural lipid that increases cholesterol). Do you think that reusable hemp or cotton coffee filters will keep out some of the coffee oils (which make up the Cafestol)? Thanks! -Abby

WoollyM.

Hi Abby. Very interesting question. Here is what I found out. Basically Cafestol has been found in both Arabica and Robusta coffee beans in varying amounts depending on how they are processed. Cafestol is most present in boiled coffee methods such as The French Press or Turkish coffee but has only been found in negligible amounts in drip filtered coffee. So the filters do keep most of the bad oils you are talking about out.

Reusable hemp and cotton coffee filters work exactly the same as disposable ones minus the waste. So you really are good to go with these. It might interest you to try green coffee bean extract as a coffee substitute as it does not contain Cafestol and has been found to have an incredible antioxidant effect. Hope this helps!