Protect Your Health, Save the Planet, Fatten Your Wallet (guest post)

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Please to welcome Heat.  Quite frankly I can no longer recall where we met—I just know I learn something from her daily.  She’s wise.  She’s insightful.  She’s green in a way I currently only aspire to be…

 

Often, when people think about “green” or “healthy” products, they also think “expensive.”

In some cases, it’s true that “leveling up” is more expensive. Organic produce, most of the time, costs more than conventional.

But in many cases, greener is cheaper—and fattens your wallet.

Take household cleaning products, for example.

Many of us own separate cleaning products for different areas of the house: kitchen, bathroom, floors, mirrors, etc. Each of these products costs $3-7, is poisonous to people and animals, and pollutes the water and the earth when it leaves our homes.

Baking soda and vinegar are cheaper, more eco-friendly, non-toxic to you, your kids, your pets, and will take care of most of your basic around-the-house cleaning.

Wouldn’t it be great if your biggest worry, upon seeing that the toddler broke into the cabinet of cleaners, was that there would be a mess?

Same is true of bottled water.

When I was teaching part time, I’d drink over a quart of water every day at work. I took water in a 40-ounce stainless steel bottle that I bought for $25 six years ago.

Doing a search, I found 16.9-ounce bottles of water for 21 cents each. (Never mind that you’d need to buy 72 cases of 24 bottles to get that price…) Rounding just to make things simpler, let’s say I’d drink two of those each day at work.

In two months, the cost of the bottled water equals what I paid for the reusable bottle. Tap water prices vary by region, as do the variety of water filters available, but none cost as much as water that comes in a bottle.

Bottled water is a source of BPA, a toxic chemical that disrupts the way hormones work in your body.

It mimics estrogen, is linked to early puberty in girls and feminine traits in boys, and has the most damaging effects to fetuses, infants, and toddlers. It has genetic repercussions in humans for three generations.

The other problem with bottled water is the bottle.

How much energy and natural resources went into obtaining and refining the petroleum, and creating and shipping the bottle? All for a single-use, live-in-a-landfill-forever bottle? Sure, you could recycle it, but most people don’t recycle most bottles.

In general, single-use disposable products cost more in the long run than their reusable counterparts.

The kitchen wins for most likely to have unnecessary nickel-and-diming for the sake of convenience.

Plates, cups, flatware, napkins, towels, casserole dishes, bread pans, and so on all come in disposable versions. While using something once and then throwing it away might be simpler, it is more of a drain on your budget (and on a more recurring basis).

Most single-use disposables also contain chemicals from the production process, whether to affect their flexibility, color, or texture. These are not chemicals we want in our bodies, whether through contact with our skin or ingestion.

As for environmental impact, most people think about the problem of trash (which is indeed an enormous problem), but there is also all extraction, and multiple steps of production that are not earth-friendly. Bioplastics, while not being made from petroleum (or being only partially petroleum-based) are not any better. (That’s a whole other can of worms…)

It takes a little bit of adjusting to go to reusable items, and in some cases there is an up-front cost.

It’s worth it.

Your body will be glad to have fewer toxins to deal with. Your wallet will be glad to have fewer expenses. The earth will be glad to have more resources and less waste. Win-win-win!

  • Have you stopped to consider how green–or not!–your home currently is?

 

 

 

Cancer survivor. Mom. Teacher. Entrepreneur. Musician. Triathlete. Inspirational. Occasionally hilarious. These are all words that describe Heat Dziczek.

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Comments

  4. I have a love/hate relationship with my bottled water.

    As someone who’s environmentally conscious, I hate the idea of throwing plastic away (our apartment does NOT recycle, and I have no place to store large quantities of recyclables until I can drive them to the center). Our water, however, is pretty bad. I’ve used Brita filters, and while they worked great in Albuquerque, here in Santa Fe they’ve been a problem. I’m not sure if every filter I bought for a year was defective, or there’s something in the water, but I went through boxes of filters trying to find one that didn’t turn our water black.

    If I didn’t live in an apartment, if I owned my own home, I’d think nothing of putting in a water filter. The snap on ones by Brita and Pure clog after the first use with the water from the tap.

    I’d rather see water come in returnable bottles (yes, I’d pay more up front for the bottle refund) or in something other than plastic (if they can put wine in boxes, why not water?)

    I’m sure there are places in the country with worse water than here. I think about some of the places with a lot of arsenic in their water, or water that’s been polluted by fracking.

    After my experiences with all this and the frustration I feel being “part of the problem”, I am a lot less judgemental than I was of people who get their drinking water out of plastic bottles.

  5. Being green means consuming LESS as a general rule, and that is good for both the planet and your wallet. 🙂

    For example, recycling is good, but buying less packaging in the first place is better.

  6. Putting water in boxes actually makes the problem worse. The boxes are cardboard lined with plastic (you can’t keep liquid in a cardboard box!), which makes them unrecycle-able in many recycling centers. So the wine, broth, non-dairy milk boxes (called Tetra-paks) can’t be recycled in many places where straight-up plastic can.

    Using a big jug of water (think: water cooler at the office) would use a lot less plastic than buying boxes and boxes of 16-ounce bottles. Every step counts 🙂

  7. For anyone local to Mesa, AZ…

    Tomorrow I am hosting a series of make-and-take classes. We’re making deodorant, lotion, lip balm, body wash, and toothpaste … and then we’re making bathroom cleaner, glass cleaner, dishwasher detergent, disinfectant wipes, and dryer sheets.

    Come for one or come for all… If you click on my name at the beginning of this comment, it’ll take you to the registration page.

  8. Yup, doing things the old fashioned way just works so much better- most of the time.
    Here in yuppity Seattle people actually think they are superior for drinking bottled water, and all while outlawing plastic bags and charging a bunch for paper ones.
    Common sense is so nice and yet not so common…

  9. I just started drinking tap water out of a reusable bottle as opposed to bottled water. Huge wallet fattening! Plus I’m helping the world a tiny bit. Two birds, one stone.

  12. I wonder how much we’d save if we made our own household cleaner?
    I tend to get lazy about the toxins (bad I realize), but I’m cheap LOL

  14. Love these tips! There’s a green girl inside me but with 4 kids sometimes I do sacrifice for convenience. Anyhow, I know this post is several days past but do you have any tips for green cleaning wood floors?! I’m a grown adult and I’m completely stymied by my own floor… help?

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