E-waste stands for electronic waste. This includes anything from discarded and broken cell phones, computers, iPods, and small appliances.

Developed nations are dealing with a crisis of overconsumption, which produces many harmful consequences. One of these consequences is e-waste, which is created when electronic products are thrown away. Unfortunately, the production, consumption and ultimate disposal of e-waste is sped up with planned obsolescence, when products are intentionally designed to have a short lifespan—they either break quickly and cannot be repaired inexpensively, or new versions are continually being designed to replace older ones. With the technology available to us, products can be designed to last for decades, if not longer. However, things seem to be lasting for less and less time. This is all in the name of profit, benefitting corporations that want consumers to keep buying products. According to Greenpeace USA, the average lifespan of computers in developed countries has dropped from six years in 1997 to just two years in 2005, and mobile phones have a lifecycle of less than two years in developed countries.

But the dangers don’t come solely from the waste itself; even more severe problems occur when the waste is broken apart. When e-waste is disposed of, it is often sent overseas where people in struggling developing nations take apart the products to recycle the e-waste and attempt to salvage parts with any value. Some recycling companies that appear to be reputable engage in this careless practice as well. North America and Europe are known to export a large percentage of their e-waste to countries like India, China, and Ghana.

In the process of taking apart the electronics, these overseas workers are exposed to dangerous toxins, putting themselves, their families and their environment at risk. These toxins include heavy metals such as lead, beryllium and mercury, as well as chlorinated solvents, flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). These are all deadly chemicals. Why should people in developing countries have to pay for the greed of our wasteful consumer society? 

What can you do about E-waste?

1. Rethink the amount of electronics you buy: don’t buy a new cell phone just because your contract expires and you can get the newest version that everyone else is getting. Also, look into getting your small appliances repaired before buying new ones. Reduce, re-use and recycle, in that order. Remember that no matter what advertising tells us, things don’t make us happy.
2. When you do have to get rid of electronics, recycle them with reputable companies. You can also contact the company where your product came from in the first place, and ask them if they have a take-back program. Always ask the recycling depot or company if they send the electronics overseas. If they don’t give a clear answer, choose somewhere else. Or, do some research and check with environmental organizations that would be able to direct you to a recycling depot in your area.
3. Support groups that are against e-waste. Recently, students from Simon Fraser University have formed a group to ban e-waste on campus. With plans to make an educational documentary to raise awareness of e-waste, teach people where they can safely recycle their electronics, challenge the amount of electronic waste people produce, and create an “E-waste Day” at SFU, the group is determined to tackle the issue of e-waste. To support them, join the Facebook group “Stop E-waste at SFU”, and follow the blog http://e-waste2011.blogspot.com/, which they update with their weekly progress, and you can find links to educational resources on e-waste and recycling depots around Vancouver.

Photo credit: Greenpeace India

In my last post about giving green gifts, I suggested homemade bodycare products as a great gift. As an update to that, here are some recipes and suggestions to help get you started!

The wonderful thing about making your own products is that you know exactly what goes into them. Unlike typical commercially produced cosmetics that boast a list of ingredients a mile long (if they even list their ingredients), you can be 100% sure that your homemade products are natural, non-toxic and safe. Plus, they can work just as well as mainstream products. You can also opt for organic and local ingredients whenever possible, making them even more environmentally-friendly.

I’ve kept these recipes very open so you can experiment, use your favourite scents, and discover your preferences. Another great thing about homemade products is that you can modify them to suit your own needs—some people like a thick body butter, while others like a light lotion. Using the same ingredients in varying amounts, you can make either kind.

Likewise, you can use essential oils to create your favourite scents to create a product perfect for you! Not sure where to start? For something feminine try rose, vanilla or jasmine. Lavender and chamomile are wildly known to be relaxing, while mandarin orange, grapefruit and peppermint are very energizing. Feeling adventurous? Try patchouli, bergamot or cinnamon.

Easy Products

Lip Balm

1. Lip balm is much easier to make than you’d think. Start with a harder base, such as beeswax. (You can find beeswax in pre-cut pellets or a block that you can grate yourself.) You’ll also need softer oils, like a combination of sweet almond oil and coconut oil. I prefer a harder lip balm, so I use two parts beeswax with one part softer oils. You can experiment to get the consistency you like.
2. Combine the beeswax and oils in a microwave-safe glass bowl. Add a couple drops of vitamin E oil. This helps moisturize lips and will act as a natural preservative.
3. Heat the combination in the microwave until the beeswax is fully melted. The mixture should be liquid.
4. Add a few drops of any essential oils you like, such as vanilla, peppermint or rose.
5. Pour into a container and wait until dry.

Bath Salts

1. This recipe is about as easy as they come! Just combine equal parts Epsom salts and sea salt in a large bowl, and add any essential oils you like for scent. My favourite is lavender, and I like to add dried lavender flowers as well.
2. Mix well and store in a glass jar away from any moisture.

Bath Bomb

1. Combine equal amounts baking soda and citric acid into a large bowl.
2. Add a small amount of cornstarch to the bowl and mix with a spoon. For instance, if you used ½ cup baking soda and ½ cup citric acid, you would add ¼ cup cornstarch.
3. Add just enough sweet almond oil (or any other light vegetable or nut oil) so the mixture will hold together.
4. Add a few drops of your favourite essential oils for scent. You can also add dried lavender flowers or rose petals. Mix everything together.
5. Put the mixture into moulds (such as silicone muffin trays) and let dry for a day. When they’re dry, they should easily pop out of the moulds. Be careful with the bath bombs—they’re delicate!

Deodorant Powder

1. Like the bath salts, this recipe is extremely simple. Just combine equal parts baking soda and cornstarch with any essential oils you like and store in a shallow glass container. The baking soda neutralizes odor and the cornstarch absorbs moisture.
2. To apply, use a makeup brush to dust a fine layer of the deodorant onto your underarms.

One-Ingredient Miracle Products

If you’re recipe-challenged or just plain lazy, these one-ingredient products are for you!

1. Cornstarch Oil-Be-Gone Face Powder: For those who get shiny, oily faces during the course of the day, dusting a little cornstarch on your face with a makeup brush really helps. It can be used on its own or in combination with your regular face powder.
2. Tea Tree Oil: Tea tree oil can be used to treat anything from lice to foot fungus, but my favourite use is to combat acne. Just apply a drop to a pimple at bedtime and it should clear up overnight.
3. Aloe Vera All-Purpose Gel: Aloe vera is a plant known for its soothing and healing properties on the skin. It’s great on cuts and scrapes, blisters, sunburns, rashes, and even razor burn after shaving your legs. You can buy aloe vera gel from a drugstore or health food store. Even better, go to a plant store or nursery, buy a small plant and put it in your bathroom. Just break off a leaf whenever you need to use some and apply the gel inside the leaf.
4. Vitamin E Oil: Vitamin E is great for reducing the appearance of scars and moisturizing your skin.
5. Tea Facial Toner: Tea is a mild astringent and is packed with antioxidants so it makes a great toner. Green tea is a great choice, and if you have oily skin, chamomile is even better. Just brew up an extra-strong batch and store in the fridge in a glass bottle. To apply, use a cotton ball or a clean cloth.
6. Clay Masks: Clay comes in different kinds (green, gray and white) for different skin types (oily, normal/combination and dry/sensitive). It can be purchased at any health food store. Combined with a little water, clay makes excellent facial masks.

Where to go shopping

Your local grocery store should have ingredients like cornstarch, Epsom salt, sea salt, tea, and baking soda. Check out the bulk section for less packaging. Also, be sure to read the labels and get only natural products. For instance, sea salt can come with many additives, such as anti-caking agents. You want your bodycare products to be as pure and natural as possible so avoid additives.

For more specialized ingredients like beeswax, essential oils and citric acid, check out a health food store, farmer’s market or vitamin retailer. If they don’t have something in stock, they may be able to order it for you.

Containers

One of the great things about making your own products is the amount of unnecessary packaging you can save. There are a few options for finding containers for your products:

1. Re-use glass containers you have now. Any face creams or lip balms in glass containers can be cleaned out and sterilized by boiling them for three minutes in a pot on the stove. If you’re doing this, be careful—the glass gets very hot so don’t touch it with your hands. Use regular safety techniques when you’re boiling the jars. Also, never boil the plastic or tin lids, only the pure glass.
2. Although some people do this, I don’t recommend reusing plastic containers because over time they can’t be cleaned properly and the plastic can break down. You want everything to be as sterile as possible. If you are going to re-use plastic, make sure it’s a number 2, 4 or 5 plastic. Number 1 plastic is only meant to be used once, and numbers 3, 6 and 7 have various health concerns.
3. If you don’t have any containers to re-use, check out drugstores, specialty cooking stores and even dollar stores to find some good containers. Always wash them first!

Taina, a Vancouver-based environmentalist and blogger, has taken on a challenge most of us would find daunting: living for a year without any plastics. She started in January, so May marks the fifth month into the project. Every few days, she updates her online followers with her challenges, successes, and angry (though justified) plastic-rants on her blog Plastic Manners.

Taina cites many reasons why she’s decided to tackle this particular issue. Basically, our society is in denial about both the pervasiveness and the dangers of plastic. First, many plastics leach toxic, carcinogenic chemicals that are dangerous to our health. Bisphenol-A, PVC, and phthalates are only three examples. Furthermore, plastic is polluting the oceans, and have been found in enormous amounts in the bodies of animals like whales, clams and albatrosses. Single-use plastics, such as straws, spoons, water bottles, bags and coffee cups are the worst offenders and the greatest source of plastic pollution.

Finally, recycling is not the answer. Not all plastics are recyclable, and those plastics that are not will be on this earth forever. If they are recyclable, they are usually “downcycled”. This means that they usually cannot be made into the same product. They have to be made into something smaller or of lesser quality. A little is always lost at every step. Recycled plastics can also break down into toxic byproducts. Not to mention, recyclable plastics do not guarantee that they will, in fact, be recycled.

I was lucky enough to ask Taina a few questions about her project and she was kind enough to let me share her story with you:

Q: What pieces of advice can you give to people who want to use less plastic?

A: I think it all has to start with a recognition of the problem- an awareness of how ridiculous our throw away habits have become. Take a granola bar. Great snack that you enjoy for maybe one minute, but the plastic packaging around it last FOREVER in our environment. An unpackaged treat (homemade), without the pollution and guilt, would be way more rewarding, guaranteed.   

Second, once you have really internalized the “dilemma”, then start refusing. On behalf of future generations/Earth/the Oceans, say NO THANKS! Refuse one item at a time – a straw, a bag, a coffee cup, a lid— until it becomes second nature and starts to apply to a wider range of things. And there are so many little convenience things that are easy as pie to give up right away without major changes to lifestyle. The bigger changes will come, when you are armed with awareness and quick refusal instincts. 

Q: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned so far in the project?

A: Hmm… I have two thoughts:

“Debbie Downer” would say: how catastrophic plastic pollution really is, and how important it is for us to act now. 

The optimistic part of me says: how easy it is to give up plastic, and how absolutely rewarding it is to go back to the roots, and make your own stuff. Convenience is not what makes life colourful.

Q: What are you most missing that you can’t find an alternative for? What alternatives do you wish existed that don’t?

A: Beer is one item that I wish existed readily without the plastic- caps on the bottles, lining inside cans. I will be making my own very soon.

Health products are hard to find without plastic- be it Advil or birth control pills. And other natural products (e.g. plastic-free toothbrushes) that are always wrapped in plastic. Same with plastic-free mascara (although someone recently gave me a tip on how to make my own).

On the alternatives front, I’ve come to realize how little you actually do need.  People always ask me about alternatives, and my list of essentials is actually not that big. You can simply live with less and be totally happy. Back to the store-bought granola bar, I totally don’t miss things like that; it is simply out of habit that we feel like we need all these convenient things.

Q: There seem to be two conflicting issues when it comes to this project. Some healthy, local, organic products come in plastic, whereas their non-plastic alternatives are either slightly less healthy, or come from far away. How do you balance these two issues?

A: I’m constantly battling with this one- so this answer will be rambly. It goes case-by-case:

When it comes to natural products wrapped in plastic, I simply say “no way!”. If it were really green, it wouldn’t have the offending substance around it. Those companies will not be getting my money. There are always better options out there- and if the stores and/or creativity fail you, then you just give it up all together. No biggie.

When it comes to things like the soap nuts [natural nuts that can be used instead of laundry and dish soap], I always land on the side of the nuts versus a plastic-wrapped detergent. This is because plastic has a huge footprint. First, the manufacturing of it from petroleum is ridiculous.  As is its shipping from wherever it was made. And then the waste; the biggest thing for me is that the plastic will never go away. If I do my own lifecycle analysis comparing the two products, intuitively the nuts would always win, even if they are shipped too.  Now, there may be a better, local, alternative to the nuts- like a baking soda that was made here.  I use that too. 

(I could go on forever about cleaning products. Most people feel that they need so many different types of products, because that is what industry has wanted to sell us. Literally, you could use baking soda and/or soap nuts to do your whole house, clothes, and dishes. And the benefit is that you, your kids, and your pets won’t be suffering from all those chemicals. And what about things like the stain repellents on clothing? Is the lack of a spot really worth our health?)

When it comes to health versus plastic, health wins in most cases (as long as “health” does not mean unnecessary “green” alternatives). For example, I will buy medicine when needed. And I buy organic vegetables and produced now, even with the stupid plastic sticker, if no other option is available. This is because the pesticides have a huge impact too, both on the Earth and me. And at least the sticker is small, and I am supporting a greater cause by putting my money to organics. But again, with a little planning, I don’t have to shop in those places that over-sticker their products.

I guess on the whole, it is a balancing act. Everything we do has an impact. The question is, what is an acceptable impact for you personally?

Q: Have you encountered any people who do not support your project? How do you deal with any criticism?

A: On the whole, people are super stoked.  I don’t think anyone wakes up and looks forward to consuming plastic and polluting, so they are happy to know that life without it is possible. It is interesting how little it takes for their own awareness to kick in. The only negativity I have received so far came from the Styrofoam-interest association. It figures.

Taina’s awesome blog contains frequent updates, as well as information about the dangers of plastics and links to other plastic-free activists. Check it out yourself at http://plasticmanners.wordpress.com/

Regardless of whether or not you smoke, drink, eat right or exercise, environmental toxins are inescapable. It’s a sad truth that comes with living in our modern world. Just to name a few sources, toxins are found in pollution, pesticides in food, and chemicals in plastics and cosmetics. It’s important to remember that people are part of the environment, not separate from it. Whatever toxins harm and pollute the earth have the potential to harm and pollute us.

An internal cleanse (or “detox”) is a natural, healthy way to gently rid the body of some of the dangerous environmental toxins stored in its cells. Historically, many cultures embraced cleansing as part of a healthy lifestyle, including ancient Chinese medicine and saunas. The human body naturally cleanses itself, yet it becomes overwhelmed by new environmental toxins that it did not have to deal with generations ago. Therefore, cleansing is increasingly important due to the vast increase in chemicals in our society.

Today, popular cleansing programs come in a wide variety of forms, including supplement packages, blends of tea, and smoothie mixes, and usually last for one or two weeks. After all the heavy, comfort food from winter (not to mention getting ready for swimsuit season) spring is the perfect time for a whole body cleanse.

Cleansing Benefits

Everyone is different, and will experience slightly different benefits. Some of the benefits of detoxing are:

• Increased energy
• Better sleep
• Improved digestion
• Reduced allergies
• You may even shed a few pounds in the process!

Please note: cleanses are not for everyone. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have any serious health issues, or are taking any medications, speak to your doctor before cleansing.

What cleanse is right for me?

When choosing a cleanse, it’s important to choose one that’s right for you, and that you know you’ll be able to commit to for the entire time period. Generally, the longer the cleanse, the more it will do. One-week cleanses usually only address water soluble toxins, whereas two-week cleanses are able to tackle the more important fat soluble toxins (toxins that are trapped in fat cells).

However, popular starvation cleanses (though heavily promoted) are not safe or effective. These include the famous “Master Cleanse”—also known as the “Lemonade Diet”. This “cleanse” requires high amounts of sugar (from maple syrup) to keep you going, and enough cayenne pepper to keep your body temperature high enough, as the body is starved of key nutrients. The same goes for “cleanses” consisting only of laxatives.

It’s also important that you choose a cleanse from a reliable company. It should have enough nutrients and vitamins to keep you energized and healthy while removing toxins from your body.

Good ingredients to look for include:

• herbs such as milk thistle, which detoxifies the liver
• fibre (soluble and insoluble) to bind to waste and carry it out of the body
• vitamins and minerals, which support the body’s normal processes
• protein and amino acids, to provide long-term energy
• antioxidants, which bind to harmful free radicals released in the cleansing process
• probiotics, to support the immune system

How do I cleanse?

Most cleanses require dietary restrictions. Basically, you don’t want to add toxins to your body when you’re trying to remove them.

Avoid:

• Alcohol
• Caffeine (including green tea, although herbal tea is usually allowed)
• Junk food
• Artificial colours, flavours, sweeteners or preservatives
• Dairy products (can be difficult to digest, and often have added hormones)
• Gluten (a difficult-to-digest protein found in wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, and other grains, pastas and cereals)

Reduce:

• Refined sugar
• Highly acidic foods, such as tomatoes and vinegars
• Red meats (often have added hormones)

All cleanses differ, but generally, foods allowed include:

• Lots of water! (and herbal tea)
• Lean protein, such as skinless chicken and fish (except for tuna due to mercury)
• Nuts and seeds (these provide long term energy and healthy fats)
• Fresh veggies (organic is best, to avoid pesticides)
• Fresh fruit
• Brown rice
• Beans, lentils and other legumes
• Herbs for seasoning

It’s important to stay motivated. Remember, it’s only one or two weeks long, and to get the benefits, its important to complete it. Try to get a friend or two on board with you, so you can motivate each other. And although it’s hard, when the cleanse is over, don’t go overboard on the junk food to make up for lost time! If you follow the rules and complete the program, your body will thank you and you’ll feel great.

Happy spring cleaning!

Just when you want to look your best; dark circles, a sallow complexion and puffiness strike.  It is easy to get run down this time of year, with too much of a good thing everywhere you turn.  Lack of sleep and a little bit of stress don’t help things out either.  And all of this takes a toll on your skin.

By taking a few extra minutes each day to pamper your skin, plus sticking with a decent exercise routine and healthy diet whenever possible, you can get your radiance back in no time.

A healthy diet is essential in keeping you and your skin in top shape.  Eating organic as much as possible will help to limit your exposure to toxins and ward off acne and dryness.  Flax and fish oil capsules are not only good for cardiac health but are high in fatty acids that help to keep the skin moisturized.  Antioxidants fight free radicals, which cause premature aging, and can be found in green tea, pomegranate seeds and berries.  And be sure to up your water intake.

Exercise is another vital component to a glowing complexion.  An aerobic workout boosts blood flow and delivers nutrients and oxygen to the skin.

Treating outbreaks is easier if you know what is causing them in the first place.  As Lula Braithwaite of LoveLula.com organic apothecary said in the September issue of The Saturday Express Magazine, “Spots on the forehead and nose can be a sign of poor digestion; for clearer skin take a psyllium husk supplement, drink plenty of water and cut down on bread and dairy products”.  Lula goes on to say that blemishes on the chin are more often caused by a hormonal imbalance, while those on the cheeks could indicate a kidney imbalance and may be aided by detox.

And last but not least, stress does more damage to our overall health than we care to believe.  Tension and anxiety, even in small doses, can cause pale, tired-looking skin, acne and other skin ailments.  Facial oils are effective remedies for soothing and healing stressed skin and tea tree oil in particular is a great spot treatment for blemishes.

Put these tips to use, along with a good nights sleep, and your skin will be fit and in peak condition. The rest of you won’t feel so bad either.