It certainly won’t surprise anyone familiar with my blog that I use cloth napkins for every meal. In fact, the only paper napkins I have laying around are a few I’ve collected here and there when grabbing a bite to eat on the road. With only a couple Starbucks and Chipotle paper napkins in the house to speak of, cloth is all I have to offer guest.  Whether they’re grabbing a bunch of grapes on their way through my kitchen or sharing a full meal with me, a cloth napkin is what they get.

This can lead to minor problems. The minorist of which is not having a paper napkin on hand when a guest specifically asks for one. I’m not so green that I need to completely disregard a visitor’s request. However, when my guests are also family members, I don’t give in so easily. My house, my rules; and my family always goes along. But going along isn’t necessarily the same as getting along as I found out when my sister and our nieces visited me for a few days last fall.

At dinner their first night in town, my niece Lacey (not her real name), age 9, used her cloth napkin the way she’d used hundreds of napkins — paper napkins — before, and why wouldn’t she? Paper napkins are practically all she’s ever known. She’s accustomed to using napkins as nothing more than a creased paper towel, and she knows exactly where it will end up — in the garbage. So Lacey went into the kitchen with her plate for seconds and returned to the table with no plate—just her napkin loaded with a second helping of greasy potato skins.

“Lacey,” I said, “please don’t use your napkin to carry greasy food, hun, use a plate, okay?” Almost before I could finish my sentence, my sister, Lacey’s Aunt, snapped, “It’s a napkin, Crissy.”

Did my sister think I was over reacting to the permanence of large grease stains on napkins I use daily, or had she too failed to grasp the difference between a cloth and paper napkin for all intents and purposes? Ten seconds later I got my answer when she spilled her red wine and used one of my cloth napkins to mop it up. AUUGH! I’m not making this up.

I do own paper towels (the recycled kind) as well as keep a bin of rags handy for wiping up spills, but that might have been too fine a point for the paper napkin crowd that expects napkins to do double duty around the house.

I should have known that when the not-so-green and the oh-so-green spend a long weekend together, there’s going to be misunderstandings and disappointment. On this particular occasion, I learned that you can’t expect children to know how to use something they’ve never been taught to use, and even some adults need to be reminded that there’s more than one way to clean up a spill.

Soon we’ll be emptying our dressers and closets of wool sweaters and winter coats preparing to send them off to the cleaners for their final cleaning before storing them. If you thought the bill for dry cleaning half your winter wardrobe was the worst part of this seasonal ritual, guess again.  Many dry cleaners have a very dirty habit. You see, dry cleaning isn’t dry at all. Around 28,000 dry cleaners nationwide use the liquid solvent perchloroethylene (PERC), or tetrachloroethylene, to remove stains and dirt from clothes.

You know that faint, sweet smell dry cleaned clothes have?  Well that’s not the smell of clean—that’s the smell or PERC.  Clothes treated with PERC retain some of the solvent, and once brought into the home, PERC becomes an indoor air pollutant—made all the worse this time of year because our homes are sealed up tight. Inhalation exposure to PERC can have symptoms ranging in severity from fatigue and nausea to confusion and even unconsciousness. Chronic effects can be serious, including damage to the nervous system, liver and kidneys. PERC is also a probable human carcinogen, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

PERC can affect whole communities. It can escape from dry cleaners into the air through vents and into the soil and water through faulty equipment or improper handling. The general public’s exposure, even if low, may be persistent. Risk from exposure to PERC depends upon how much we are exposed to, how often and for how long, so those most at risk are dry cleaning workers and people that live very close to dry cleaning operations. Fortunately, the EPA ordered a phase-out of PERC machines at dry-cleaning shops in residential areas by 2020. However the agency has made no reference to plans for banning the solvent entirely. In California, a complete ban will be complete by 2023.

The alternative to PERC-based dry cleaning that’s in widest use is wet cleaning.  Professional wet cleaning is nothing like home laundering.  Wet cleaning uses specialized machines, non-toxic detergents and conditioners to gently wash many “dry clean only” garments.  Silk, wool, linen, suede and leather can usually be wet cleaned with good results when done by a qualified professional.  Wet cleaning uses more water than dry cleaning but produces no hazardous waste, air pollution or soil and water contamination. And other new processes are in development that will give consumers more choices. Cleaning processes using liquid carbon dioxide, silicone-based solvents and ultrasonic energy are being tested and show great promise for pollution prevention.

Chances are, more than one cleaner in your area is offering wet cleaning or another PERC-free service, so ask around. When we choose greener cleaners, everyone benefits: dry cleaners can avoid health problems and regulatory pressures brought on through the use of PERC, air and water are protected, and consumers can avoid serious health risks from inhaling or coming in contact with clothes cleaned with PERC.

This video presentation by conservation photographer Garth Lenz shows and explains the devastation of tar sands mining, and it’s a video everyone ought to watch.  If you are moved by it, please remember to give your vote to clean energy candidates this election year.

You can also sign a petition to stop a massive 1,700 mile pipeline project, called Keystone XL, that would transport tar sands crude oil into the United States from Canada and with it a highly corrosive blend of thick raw bitumen and volatile natural gas liquid condensate. Pipelines are notorious for leaking, and the risk of transporting toxic materials through America’s heartland includes damage to water supplies and communities along its path. Sierra Club Chairman Charles Wesner—quoted in a recent Business Week article—said, “It’s not a matter of if [the pipeline will leak]; it’s a matter of where and when. It’s going to cause a great deal of destruction, somewhere at some time.”

QUESTION:  How should I clean latex paint out of brushes, rollers and trays?  Is it better to rinse them off in the sink so the water goes to the treatment facility, or to rinse them off outdoors over the ground so the paint filters through the soil?

ANSWER:  Let’s take these two cleaning methods one at a time.

Sink cleaning: As long as the paint is latex (water-based), cleaning your painting tools in the sink and rinsing paint residue down the drain is fine. Waste water treatment facilities are set up for this kind of thing and are capable of removing or neutralizing impurities.  Many cities prefer this method because they can control where and how impurities are disposed of.

Outdoor cleaning: Tools used for latex paint can be rinsed outside over the ground using a hose provided there is no risk of the tainted water running off into a storm drain or nearby waterway. This means rinsing them over a hard, impervious surface is definitely a no-no. Rinsing on grass is often best because the blades and roots provide a natural barrier that slows down the movement of water across the ground.

When choosing a suitable clean-up spot, give yourself a buffer of at least 15 feet between where you rinse and any edible plantings (on your property or your neighbors) and 200 feet from a natural water source. Choose relatively soft ground so the water will seep into the ground quickly. As it seeps deeper and deeper into the ground, the soil will naturally filter out impurities.

Before clean-up

Before cleaning painting tools, remove as much paint from them as possible.  First brush wet paint out of paint trays and buckets into the original container.  Then squeeze as much paint from brushes and rollers as possible.  (That curved notch on paint sticks is for scraping paint from a saturate paint roller back into the can.)  Clean paint brushes and rollers thoroughly to make sure they will last for years.

If you have a question you’d like answered in our blog, submit it through our contact form for consideration.  Don’t forget to sign up for email alerts so you won’t miss the answer if your question is among those chosen. 

Aerosol cans didn’t go away with the US ban on CFC propellants (due to ozone depleting properties) in the 1980s.  Then and now, alternatives with lower ozone depleting potential have allowed the aerosol can to live on.

Aerosol containers are pressurized products that sometimes contain flammable or poisonous chemicals. And about 90 percent of them are made of steel and aluminum, two very recyclable materials.  For both reasons, aerosol cans shouldn’t end up in a landfill if it can be helped.

What to do with aerosol cans:

As Earth911.com points out, if an aerosol can still has liquid inside, it’s not waste, it’s product. And just because you are done with the product for the moment, it is no reason to toss it away.

• Aerosols can be stored for a long time. Before storing aerosol products, read the label on how to prevent clogging.  If the nozzle is clogged the next time you go to use it, try replacing the nozzle with one from a different container.
• If you cannot use up an aerosol product yourself, give it to someone who can.
• As a last resort, take it to a household hazardous waste (HHW) center.  They will either offer if to drop-ins for free via a “product exchange table” or dispose of the contents in the safest way possible.

To recycle an aerosol can, take these steps:

• Use up every last bit of the product first so the can is completely empty.
• Depressurize the can as much as possible be holding the nozzle down until no more escaping air can be heard.
• Remove the plastic cap and nozzle. Unfortunately these plastic components aren’t recyclable in most communities, but it’s worth asking. Throw them away if not allowed in the recycling stream.
• Call your solid waste department to determine the most convenient disposal point.  It could be your curbside recycling bin, but more often than not aerosol cans are considered hazardous material and will need to be dropped off at a facility that can verify they are empty and depressurized before sending them to be recycled.

Unless you’ve got egg laying chickens clucking around your backyard, you’ve seen the dizzying selection of eggs at the supermarket. Cartons touting everything from “free range” to “vegetarian fed” to “no antibiotics”—up to a half dozen claims and labels that can lead to confusion instead of confident decisions about what it all means.

In this age of greenwashing, buyers are advised to be aware of claims that are more marketing hype than guarantees that the eggs are from happy, healthy hens. Below is an explanation of the labels you are likely to see on a carton of eggs in your supermarket or food coop, and what they mean. I’ve given each label a subjective ranking of meaningfulness on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being poor, 5 being very good).

Animal Welfare Approved (5)
The Animal Welfare Approved label, given only to family farms, verifies that participating farms put each individual animal’s comfort and well-being first. Hens must have continuous access to both foraging pasture and housing or shelter. Hens receive vegetarian feed to supplement their natural foraging. Non-therapeutic antibiotics are not used and hens that need antibiotics to treat a disease cannot be used to produce eggs.

Food Alliance Certified (4)
The Food Alliance website doesn’t get real specific about their definition of “access to pasture,” so it’s hard to say if its standards go as far as AWA’s –or perhaps further. They do say that “living conditions and space allowances provide for excellent physical health and comfort.” As with most third party certifications for laying hens, the use of hormones and non-therapeutic antibiotics is prohibited. The animals diet may include feed containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), primarily because Food Alliance maintains that nearly all livestock feeds are formulated from commingled supply, and it is currently unreasonable to require participants to use non-GMO feeds.  This may be true, and why Certified Humane and AWA don’t ban GMOs in feed either.  Only USDA Organic feed (fed to USDA Organic hens) is ostensibly free of GMOs.

USDA Organic (4)
Eggs carrying the USDA Organic label come from hens that are fed an organic diet (feeds containing no toxic and persistent chemical pesticides, animal by-products or genetically engineered crops), receive no antibiotics or hormones and are given access to pasture. The USDA Organic standards don’t go far enough in defining “access to pasture” in a meaningful way, so I recommend buying the Organic label in conjunction with one on the labels above.

Certified Humane (3)
The Humane Farm Animal Care program wrote and oversees the Certified Humane label.  As far as diet, hens are fed a vegetarian diet without antibiotics or hormones. As far as quality of life, hens are given shelter, resting areas, and sufficient space and the ability to engage in natural behaviors, but access to pasture is not a requirement. (It’s interesting that Humane Farm Animal Care doesn’t think spending time outdoors and foraging is a natural behavior for hens.)

Vegetarian Fed (2)
If you are a vegetarian, this label will certainly get your attention.  But a hen’s natural diet includes animal protein from sources like bugs, worms, crickets and grasshoppers, so while vegetarian feed will guarantee the hens weren’t fed foreign animal proteins (e.g. from the cattle industry or from their own peers), healthy hens have the ability to access pasture where they can forage for essential animal proteins.  For this reason, skip the “vegetarian fed” label in favor of one of the labels above.

No Antibiotics Administered (2)
If you are buying eggs with the Organic, AWA, Certified Humane or Food Alliance Certified label, you don’t need to look for the “no antibiotics” label as well because the aforementioned labels attest to the their absence. If you are not, choose this label—but with caution. This is a claim that has no third party verification system. You are taking the producer at their word.

Free Range (2)
Free range hens are given access to outside pasture for part of each day. The problem with the unregulated “free range” claim is that access is not qualified. There is no guarantee that access was continuous or unproblematic. Free range can apply to hens that received limited and impeded access to the outdoors, and in reality spend most if not all of there time in cages or over crowded hen houses. Not exactly the pastoral picture the term “free range” evokes.

Cage-free (1)
As with “free range” there is no third-party oversight to this claim. Cage-free hens don’t live in cages, but can spend most or all of their lives in crowded barns or warehouses.

Free-Roaming (1)
OK, you’re starting to get the picture here: another spin on “free range” or “cage-free” but equally void of standards to ensure that hen’s have spent time outdoors or been able to engage in natural behaviors.

No Hormones (1)
US Agricultural laws do not permit artificial hormones in poultry rearing, so there is no reason for this label to be on an egg carton.

Naturally Raised (1)
This is pure marketing since there is no legal definition of naturally raised.

Plenty of people think that re-gifting is tacky—even deceptive. Not me. I think re-gifting is brilliant! It endeavors to find an appreciative home for useful items we’ve found no use for ourselves and it minimizes the environmental fallout from holiday-style buying and selling of large quantities of new consumer goods.

We could donate or sell things we don’t use, but these are the holidays, and if one needs gifts, why go to the store and buy something else that had to be manufactured from raw materials and was probably shipped all the way from China or Indonesia or Taiwan.  Instead look in the back of your closets and cupboards, on those out of reach shelves in the garage and in that taped up box in the attic.  This kind of “shopping” is resourceful, thrifty and eco-friendly. However, re-gifting isn’t for dummies. You have to be smart about it.  Here are some general rules I like to follow:

1. The item should be in like-new if not mint condition.
2. If the item obviously should come inside special packaging (e.g. a digital DVD player) you should have that packaging (including owner’s manuals) and be able to put it all back together as if it were never opened.
3. Disregard rules 1 –  2  if you’re exchanging gifts with an individual or group that has agreed to re-gift with abandon!
4. Check for personalized inscriptions or note cards.  The former will make the gift un-re-giftable, the latter can be removed.
5. If re-gifting a store coupon, gift card or merchandise credit, confirm that it is transferrable.
6. If you received the item as a gift, you need at least 3 degrees of separation between the original gifter and your chosen recipient. In other words the two should have a nearly zero percent chance of running in the same circle.  For example, consider it safe to re-gift something you received from your boss to your Aunt Delores who lives seven zip codes away. Don’t be as comfortable re-gifting your boss’s gift to your secretary!
7. Re-gifting shouldn’t be a way of just getting rid of something or saving money.  Be reasonably sure your recipient will like and use the gift.
8. If your recipient inquires about the origin of the gift, they either want to know what store they can exchange the gift at or maybe they suspect it is a re-gift. Fess up, and own it.  If the recipient is offended, well then you just learn something valuable: not that re-gifting is bad, but that people who don’t know when to just shut up and say thank you may not deserve a gift in the first place…or next time.

Whether you’re a proponent or opponent of re-gifting, we’d like to hear from you, so post your comments below.

Of all the repurposed products to come through my office in the past twelve years, few have impressed me more than the creations of The Green Glass Co. Green Glass salvages used and condemned beverage bottles and artfully transforms them into unique tumblers and stemware.

The company’s website states that their goblets have been chosen for the table of King Carlos of Spain, a former Mayor of New York City, movie sets, and celebrity dinners!  And now they can grace your table as well!  I’m giving away a set of four Green Glass tumblers. The tumblers are fashioned from the lower portion of a cyan bottle. The distinct design carries ‘Protect the Earth’ in 4 languages: English, Spanish, Afrikaans (South African) and French. (4 1/4″ tall and 3 1/8″ at base)

For a chance to win these tumblers send us an email telling us you’d like to enter the contest, plus do one of the following:

1. Sign up to receive new Green Matters’ blog posts via email or
2. Like our It’s Easy Being Green page on Facebook.

Deadline to enter is January 1, 2012.

(Green Matters uses Random.org to select winners.)

The out-of-town guests and Thanksgiving feast leftovers are long gone, but there is one thing from last weekend that hasn’t disappeared yet—the
greasy, splattered mess inside my oven! My poor oven paid a price for giving us one very crispy, brown-skinned bird and two juicy apple pies—among other things!  Time to clean it out before the next round of heavy baking.

If your oven worked overtime on Turkey day and has similar baked on spills and splatters, don’t be tempted to use a conventional oven cleaner you pick up at the grocery store. Conventional oven cleaners that come with warning labels like “poison,” “danger,” and “corrosive” create toxic fumes and can burn eyes, skin and internal organs.  You not only compromise your health and safety when using such dangerous products: they are released to the environment through evaporation of volatile components and when rinsed down the drain, contributing to air and water
pollution.

Whip up a safe, effective and inexpensive oven cleaning solution by combining three ingredients you probably have on hand right now.

1. Combine 6 T (tablespoons) baking soda, 1 T liquid dish soap and 1 T white vinegar to make a paste.  (Note: when adding the vinegar to the baking soda it will foam a bit.)

2. Using a rubber spatula, spread the paste over the baked-on grease and burnt-on food.

3. Close the oven door and walk away. After 20 minutes, spritz with hot water and let sit another 10 minutes before wiping clean.  For stubborn spots, use a coarse rag or sponge and apply a bit of elbow grease!

Learn more about natural, green cleaning at http://www.greenmatters.com/green-tips/housekeeping/