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Stop putting nasty chemicals down the drain. That was the message I got loud and clear while listening to a water treatment expert from the City of Toronto, who was speaking at a conference I attended last June. I went over my cleaning arsenal in my mind. Vinegar? OK. EcoLogo certified glass cleaner? Check. Dye-free, scent-free, phosphate-free, biodegradable detergent? Yes. Toilet bowl cleaner? Gasp! Yes, that drain matters too. And I was using something nasty to clean my bowl because, well, that’s what I’d always used.

I just finished testing several types of ecologically better toilet bowl cleaners (some general purpose cleaners that work well on toilets). That will appear in the December/January issue of Homemakers magazine. But I wanted to share this interesting interview with an expert from Nature Clean, a Canadian company that makes all its products here, gets them EcoLogo certified (the ultimate endorsement) and that seems to actually give a d*mn about the environment. Here’s that interview.

Jess: Is the goal of a toilet bowl cleaner to kill bacteria / other life or, like using a dish soap, are we really just trying to dislodge material so it can be suspended in water and washed away?

Nature Clean: The goal of our toilet bowl cleaner is to clean the toilet – meaning dislodge material so it can be suspended in water and washed away. If you’re cleaning your toilet regularly, there really shouldn’t be any need to disinfect it. However it is a good idea to disinfect the seat and bowl every so often as you see fit. We recommend our disinfectant spray (100% natural ingredients). You just spray the surface, let sit for a few minutes and then rinse clean.

Jess: Why do you have a dedicated toilet bowl cleaner while others are offering a general purpose bathroom product?

NC: Our product is specially formulated to clean toilets. The liquid is more viscous so that it clings to the bowl – the product can then soak into stains and work better to clean the toilet.

Jess: Why should we concerned about what cleaning products we flush?

NC: Yes we should be concerned with the products we flush into our waterways. Not just the toilet, but also sinks, tubs, any drain! There are many chemicals used in traditional cleaners which are not necessarily earth friendly. Take a look at phosphates and the destruction they had on our lakes! Now most companies have limited or removed phosphates from laundry and dish products, but what about household cleaners? EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid) is another widely used ingredient that doesn’t biodegrade! It accumulates in our waterways, lakes and rivers after it’s flushed down the drain. It can remobilize heavy metals such as zinc, nickel, mercury, copper in our waterways. This sediment can eventually end up in our food chain!

So that’s it, folks. Consider the toilet bowl cleaner you’re using, and look for a better choice next time you’re shopping. If you have questions about this or other green living products, please ask me about them by posting a comment.

Have you changed to a more eco-friendly product because of environmental or health concerns?

Courtesy Bosch

If you’re considering upgrading an old appliance, the chart above helps illustrate how much you might save with that new fridge, washer or dishwasher. It illustrates the energy costs of operating an appliance over its lifespan, comparing 1990 appliances to those built in 2008. Whizzy new features and new functions aside, the savings from utility bills alone should convince you to make the switch.

I found that buying a modern, front-loading washing machine saved me money in another way too: the steam setting refreshes and  removes wrinkles from fabrics. I haven’t visited a dry cleaner since the new washer was installed. (And thus I’ve avoided perc and other dry cleaning chemicals as well.) I’m dreaming of a new dishwasher since, while the one that was installed in my home isn’t decades old, it’s incredibly noisy!

Bosch has added some energy and water-saving features to their dishwashers. Their ECOACTION function allows you to select an energy reduction mode, reducing consumption up to an additional 25 per cent. The ECOSENSE Wash Management System evaluates the soil level in the water via an infrared light beam and customizes the wash cycle accordingly.

When looking for more sustainable appliances, ask about lifespan, maintenance options and warranties, and also ask about how the appliance can be recycled at end of life. Ask whether there’s an appliance recycling program in place, and consider whether the appliance’s components are made from metals that are lucrative to recycle (e.g., steel, copper and titanium).

What’s your take – do you think replacing an old appliance is an environmentally friendly move?

It’s hard to find made-in-Canada stuff these days. There are proudly Canadian companies, but where are their goods made? Usually not here, not even on this continent. That’s why, when developing the Homemakers Summer 2011 issue (out now!) I was so happy we found many stylish items for our Made in Canada story. (Props to Style Editor Karen Kwinter, Art Director Annette Waurick and Photogarpher Felix Wedgwood for the great story shown below.)

This Canada Day I’d like to highlight one of the companies we featured for their particular fit with Eco Logic. Totem Bags of Oakville, Ont., is the ultimate recycler. As their video below shows, they take vinyl advertising banners, used innertubes and seatbelts and use them to make fabulous tote bags, messenger bags and other styles of bags. Durable, low maintenance and downright sexy (doesn’t that describe Canadians, too?) these bags are great for everything from chic shopping to stowing baby needs to a trip to the gym.

Do you prefer goods that are made in Canada?

As you walk, you may put more pressure on your feet than your total body weight. Maybe those hard-working heels and toes deserve more attention than the latest nail polish hue. A Canadian outfit, Rocky Mountain Soap Company, makes this skin-nourishing foot butter ($13.50 for 55 g through their online store) in stick format so you can apply it to your feet without getting it all over your hands (they have another product for that).

What first intrigued me was the stellar ingredients list. With a long list of soothing natural ingredients (beeswax, carrot oil, fir leaf oil, lemmongrass oil, canola oil and others), and not one single suspect -ether, -paraben or bromo. After trying the foot butter on my dry heels, I was sold — it helps my feet feel and look healthier (and thus spiffier in sandals, too).

Ladies, if your partner is skilled (hey, even interested) in foot massage, try adding this foot butter to the mix. After washing your feet, rub this foot butter all over them, particularly on dry or cracked areas. It smells wonderful (your partner will appreciate that too) and provides super-rich yet non-greasy moisture perfect for a foot rub. Post-pampering, slip into bed in a pair of soft socks and, by morning, your soles, heels and toes should be much more supple.

Rocky Mountain Soap has its environmental T’s crossed as well. Their packaging is recyclable and, while attractive, it’s fairly minimal. (A bar of soap comes in just a paper slip, for example; perfume comes in a cardboard tube.) The products are made in Canmore, Alta., and their stores and the workshop where they make everything are powered with renewable electricity and green natural gas energy from Bullfrog Power.

Do you find it hard to keep your feet moist and supple?

It kinda freaks me out that every toothbrush I’ve ever used to clean my teeth still exists, sitting in a landfill somewhere. Except of course my current toothbrush and the dozen or so old ones I keep around for household cleaning. I do try to wring life out of those colourful tooth tools! But when I heard that Clean Idea, a North Vancouver company, is making toothbrushes and flossers with compostable handles made from bioresin (vegetable starch from potatoes, wheat, tapioca and corn) I was eager to give one a try.

What I found is these soft, simple toothbrushes work well. They may not have the swooshy colours of regular plastic brushes, but if I paid attention and brushed carefully, I could get that nice clean mouth feeling just as I would with a conventional brush. I’m not a flosser person — I just use regular floss to avoid all those handles (compostable or not), but I can see that if you really want to use a flosser, one with a compostable handle would be far better.

So far my Clean Idea toothbrush is actually lasting better than my conventional toothbrush, but they cost about the same ($3.50). I’ve recently noticed that my toothbrushes aren’t lasting as long as they used to, showing signs of wear in just a few weeks. So perhaps Clean Idea toothbrushes could save me some money as well as saving on petroleum resources and landfill guilt!

What I know about these kinds of biodegradable, compostable products is they won’t break down in your backyard compost. They require the high-heat, high-moisture environment of an industrial composting facility. Clean Idea’s handles meet international standards the require they  break down within 60 to 180 days in a commercial compost facility without creating toxic residues. Over the longer term, they’ll break down in landfill as well. Unlike my old plastic toothbrushes, and yours, and the estimated 24 billion toothbrushes a year used by people around the world.

Clean Idea toothbrushes are available at Shoppers Drug Mart and London Drugs and online here.

Do you think companies should be allowed to sell disposable products that can’t be composted or recycled?

Me and the Nissan Leaf

The Leaf has a smaller, but usable trunk

I thought the day would never come. I actually drove a fully electric production car, a car that will soon be available for Canadians to actually buy. Like, walk into a dealership and buy. Electric cars have been talked about for so long (yep, by me too – guilty!), I thought the Nissan Leaf awaiting me last weekend was going to be pulled from my grasp at the last minute, even though four of them sat there, charging, waiting to be driven.

On April 15 at Toronto’s Green Living Show, Nissan was allowing licensed drivers to sign up to drive the Leaf. It was bucketing rain outside, so when it was my turn to drive the Leaf I actually got to wait in one that was charging while waiting my turn. That means I had a good look at the dash and the interior.  Here’s a picture of the dash:

I’m not a car reviewer, so it’s hard for me to give you a really accurate sense of how the car felt. For that, you should click here. What I’ll say is that the Leaf was super-smooth to drive (it has only one gear, so you don’t feel hesitation from gear changing as you would in other cars), it accelerates quickly as one would expect with an electric car, it absorbed shocks well without being swimmy like big cars are, but other than that it generally felt like driving a mid-sized car.  The rep from Nissan was saying that many test drivers said, “Oh, it feels like a car.” What were we expecting? I liked that the on-board GPS turns in a reversing camera, so you can see what’s behind the car as you back up.

So why am I so keen on electric cars? Because you don’t need to fill them up with gas. Imagine that, like your cell phone, you charge your car overnight when you get home (at the time when, in some parts of the country, the electricity is at its cheapest) using the same kind of plug you use for your dryer. And you never need to get a fillup again.

The Leaf costs $38,000, and about $300 a year in electricity to charge for daily commuting. some provinces are offering rebates on electric cars; Ontario is currently offering up to $8,500, according to this report.  It can go up to 140 km/hr and has a range of about 160 kilometres at city speeds (only about 65 kilometres at highway speeds).

The Leaf even has a little solar panel on the back above the rear windshield to trickle-charge the battery.

Solar panel on the roof of the Nissan Leaf

Sure, electric cars can’t replace all vehicles, not for a while anyway. Some people need to drive long hauls everyday, and electric cars are currently for shorter ranges. But for many people, most of the time, an electric car just might fit the bill. And if even a third of the vehicles on the road were electric, that’d be a huge step toward reducing our dependance on oil and vastly improving our air quality.

Could you see an electric car in your future?

TD Bank is celebrating Earth Day today, April 21st. If you are wishing there was one little thing you could do to celebrate the day and support a good cause, they have a solution. TD Friends of the Environment Foundation (TD FEF) has set up a “text to donate” function for your cell phone. You can make a one-time contribution of $5 by texting GREEN to 45678 (the $5 will be added to your mobile bill). To celebrate Earth Day, TD Bank Group will match every donation made to the Foundation on April 21st. The foundation supports local green initiatives in communities across Canada; the projects are all funded by donations, while the administration fees are covered by TD.

“Thanks to the support of our generous donors, we’ve provided more than $54 million to 19,500 environment and wildlife projects across Canada since 1990 – and we’re excited to launch the text to donate function to make it even easier for Canadians wanting to contribute,” says Mary Desjardins, Executive Director, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation. “With everyone thinking green for Earth Day, there is no better time to match donations made to the Foundation so that we can help Canadians make an even greater impact to the environment this year.”

Here’s how the TD FEF works, according to a release:
“One hundred per cent of every dollar donated to TD FEF goes directly to funding local projects in the community where the donation was made.  When non-profit organizations and schools apply for funding, the local TD FEF Advisory Board recommends which projects to support in its area.  Donations can range from less than $1,000 to more than $20,000 based on the scope of the project and how well the project meets funding criteria. There are 93 TD FEF chapters across Canada staffed by over 800 volunteers. TD FEF provided more than $3.5 million in funding to 970 grassroots projects across Canada in 2010.” So, chances are, FEF is doing something helfpul in your community.

Could donating to a good cause get any easier? I just hit “send.”

Do you find it hard to decide which energy-saving lightbulbs to buy because you’re unsure of how bright the bulbs will be? Incandescent, LED, compact fluorescent (CFL) and halogen bulbs all have a range of wattage (energy draw) and brightness (lumens) and other features as well. Figuring out which energy-saving bulbs will work in your light fixtures is worth it, however. According to Natural Resources Canada (link here), “In residential lighting alone, replacing conventional incandescent bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs could save Canadian consumers almost $600 million a year on their electricity bills.” Um, I think they mean all of us together, unless your energy bill is way bigger than mine.

So how to compare? Look at lumens, not the wattage of the various bulbs. How much energy a bulb uses has nothing to do with how bright it is, since the bulbs don’t efficiently convert 100 per cent of the energy into light. That’s why incandescent bulbs get so hot: they waste about 90 per cent of the energy used, converting it into heat instead of light!

Here are 7 questions you should ask when buying lightbulbs:

1.  How bright is it? Lumens are the measure of brightness, so it’s good to get familiar with lumens as the way to compare various bulbs.  Here are some common examples of equivalents. (Some bulbs may be more or less efficient than my list below, so you may see different wattage and lumen numbers on bulb packaging.) Bright to brightest:

25-watt incandescent = 220 lumens

7-watt CFL = 290 lumens

9-watt LED: 470 lumens

10-watt LED = 475 lumens

40-watt incandescent bulb = 495 lumens

9-watt CFL = 550 lumens

43-watt halogen = 800 lumens

13-watt CFL = 860 lumens

60-watt incandescent bulb = 800 to 1,000 lumens

20-watt CFL = 1150 lumens

75-watt incandescent bulb = 1170 lumens

16-watt LED = 2,500 lumens

2. What colour of light does it provide? You may want a warm-white bulb in some applications, where in others a bright or cool white bulb is more appropriate. Look for light colour options on the package.

3. Does it turn on instantly? Some bulbs take a moments to fully illuminate. You may want instant-on bulbs in some areas of your home.

4. Can it work at low temperatures? Some CFLs don’t work or last as long at sub-zero temperatures, particularly if used with motion detectors. Look for  bulbs rated for lower outdoor temperatures if you plan to use them outdoors.

5. Is it dimmable? If you’re trying to create an intimate atmosphere, dimming is a must! More and more dimmable energy-efficient bulbs are now available.

6. How long will the bulb last? It may be worth it to you to pay a little more for high-quality bulbs that last longer. A good-quality LED bulb can last for 25,000 to 50,000 hours, so you may not need to change it for 15 years! How handy would that be for those tricky to get to ceiling-mounted lamps?

7. How much does it cost? Ah, the bottom line. But before you dismiss that pricey LED bulb, consider calculating the cost per hour, based on the bulb’s lifespan. A 40-watt / 495 lumen incandescent costs about $1, or $0.001 per lifespan hour. A 9-watt / 550 lumen CFL costs about $4, or $0.0004 per lifespan hour. A $40 10-watt / 475 lumen LED (with a 50,000 lifespan) costs $0.0008 per lifespan hour.

Have you turned out the inefficient lights in your home? Are you having any trouble figuring out which bulbs to buy?

Energy-saving lightbulbs contest CLOSED. Congrats to Vicki, who won a set of bulbs from IKEA! The contest closed at noon on Tuesday, February 8. Employees of Homemakers magazine and Transcontinental Media and their family members were not eligible to win.

Where do toys stop and personal care items begin?

Congratulations to Health Canada! The government agency announced it is banning phthalates (pronounced thal-ates) in kids’ toys, an excellent step in protecting children’s health. You can have a look at their press release here. But perhaps they should go a step further and ban phthalates in soaps, perfume and other personal care products too.

According to the release, “Research suggests that certain phthalates may cause health effects in young children when soft vinyl toys and child care articles are sucked or chewed.” Those health effects include feminization of the developing male reproductive system, as noted in this article.

Quoted in the release, Rick Smith, Executive Director of the formidable environmental organization Environmental Defence, said, “I applaud the government’s actions to limit the presence of this chemical in children’s products. Canada’s Phthalates Regulations are now aligned with measures taken in the United States and the European Union and will ensure our children receive the same high level of protection.”

Smith was a key force behind this legislation, in no small part due to the success of his book Slow Death By Rubber Duck, an international bestseller. Here’s a little video about it, showing the astounding results from Smith’s and his co-author Bruce Lourie’s 24-hour test of common chemical exposure, including phthalates:

At last Wednesday’s launch of Gillian Deacon’s new book, There’s Lead in Your Lipstick (see earlier post here), Smith addressed the crowd, noting the Health Canada decision to ban phthalates in kids’ toys. Not one to leave it at that, Smith said that Health Canada’s next step should be banning phthalates in personal care products. Yes, the stuff we slather on our skin, particularly fragrances and soaps, may contain phthalates! You may not see it on the label, because our government allows companies to simply say “fragrance” or “parfum” on the ingredients list, and not state what that contains.

If you think Smith is right, sign the petition for Environmental Defence’s “Just Beautiful” campaign, which seeks to eliminate hazardous chemicals, including phthalates, from our personal care products.

Would you support a call for further regulation of our personal care and beauty supplies products?

Flipping through the new issue of Homemakers magazine (February/March 2011, arriving at newsstands now!), I noted a terrific makeup tip that will help you look great and cut out some garbage, too.

I’m proud of my colleague, Rose Pereira, Homemakers Associate Art Director, for allowing us to feature her in our Six Minute Makeover story, the opening of which is shown below. It takes guts to step in front of the camera, not to mention being featured in a magazine that will be read by over a million Canadians. But Rose knew she could trust  photographer Jeff Coulson, Style Editor Karen Kwinter and Art Director Annette Waurick as they crafted this story showing how to cut your makeup routine down to six beautiful minutes.

In this story, CoverGirl makeup pro Greg Wencel recommends using a synthetic makeup brush for applying concealer, rather than a sponge. In fact, in our story, brushes were used for all makeup application. So it’s out with disposable makeup sponges, in with brushes, which you can clean and use over and over again. Kwinter recommends cleaning your brushes regularly with a mild shampoo, or using Quo’s makeup brush cleaner, shown here.

Do you have a waste-saving beauty tip to share?