Rebecca Lacko from The Examiner featured hair washing in her environmentally-friendly column. She mentioned how “in our pursuit of conquering the unruly, straightening the tightly curled, curling the poker straight and tinting the color, our hair is repeatedly abused with countless chemicals, and stripped of its natural oils—and both are washed down the drain by gallon after gallon of water.”

As such, she suggests that hair washing should be washed less frequently. Here are some reasons.

Waste and expense
a. most use way too much shampoo and conditioner, too often
b. gallons of water to rinse it out
c. more bottles of product mean more packaging waste
d. less power used for blow dryers, curling irons and/or flat irons

Now that I think about it, it does make sense. It’s not just the water and the hair products that are involved here – the blow drying and other things associated with washing your hair also puts stress on the environment.

Allowing the scalp’s sebaceous glands to do what nature intended
The function of sebaceous gland is to secrete an oily substance to protect the skin from getting dried and scaly. Otherwise the skin after getting dry would shed off.

Maybe that is why some people have problems with dry itchy scalp?

In any case, if you wash your hair every day, you might want to reconsider that habit.

So what is green furniture? This kind of furniture has at least one of the following characteristics.

Sustainable – green furniture should be made from raw materials that come sustainable sources. These include man-made forests that are reforested regularly so as not to strip the natural resources.

Recycled – some furniture can be made from recycled materials such as plastics and metals. Instead of using newly made materials, recycled materials will lessen the strain on the environment and usually come cheaply as well.

Low toxicity – you might not know it but some products have high levels of toxic materials. Green furniture, on the other hand, is made of materials that have low levels of toxic elements.

Durable – green furniture should last you a long time. This implies that you will be using your furniture for at least a year (or even more!). Naturally, this means that you will not be buying new furniture as often. Another point is that repair should always be an option.

Local – green furniture is produced locally. Shipping over long distances increases the carbon footprint of products. If your furniture is produced or obtained locally, the carbon footprint is decreased.

The next time you buy furniture, you might want to consider these things.

More energy is wasted (as opposed to being saved) by recycling.
This argument is usually backed up by other ideas such as the gas and manpower that the trucks will use to run around town will offset any benefits of recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans. The truth is, however, the energy needed to create new aluminum cans is so much more than what it takes to recycle. The bottom line is that recycling is still more beneficial.

“Natural” cleansers are not disinfectants.
Have you heard people say that natural cleansers are not effective against bacteria. According to experts, though, hydrogen peroxide mixed with apple cider or undiluted white vinegar is strong enough to kill bacteria such E. coli. What you can do is put the two liquids into separate containers and then spray one liquid first, with the other next. You can use this to clean your kitchen counters and even to clean fruits and vegetables.

It’s better to keep your heating settings at one temperature than to turn it up and down.
The rationale is that it will take more energy to heat up the room if you totally turn it off. That’s why some people think it’s better to keep the room heated at all times. Ask the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) – you will still save more by adjusting the temperature as needed.

Previously we asked you what your carbon footprint was. Well as we’re bloggers, maybe we should start with the very activity that we are doing at this minute- blogging!

J. Angelo Racoma, a member of our team at Splashpress Media, wrote on one of our sister sites about this very topic- giving 10 Ways To Reduce Your Blogging Carbon Footprint:

The new year has come, and among some bloggers’ resolutions include being more environment-friendly. Sure, oil prices have plummeted, partly because of the worldwide economic crunch. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start being more efficient in your energy use. TIME Magazine’s latest feature tells us that there is a renewable-energy resource that is perfectly clean, remarkably cheap, surprisingly abundant and immediately available, and it is not some new-technology power plant or biofuel, or whatnot. It’s simple: energy efficiency.

I’ve actually tried to start a blog about becoming more green, but the idea of becoming more eco-friendly seemed a bit trivial to someone like me who spends almost all day in front of the computer (and so the blog has not had much activity for some time now). But then it hit me–being environmentally friendly should start at home, or better yet for a blogger, right at your fingertips.

And so I’ve thought of a few ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint, specifically from blogging. First and foremost, we define carbon footprint as the greenhouse gas emissions caused by your activities, whether directly or indirectly. So with blogging, this is mostly related to your use of energy or electricity.

You can either reduce consumption altogether. For instance, you can limit yourself to just a couple of hours of online activity every day. But that would only result in conservation and not efficiency. That’s doing less with less. What we want is to be able to do more with the same amount of energy, or even less.

1. Unplug, unplug, unplug. Or at least turn off the main switch. I must admit I’m guilty of this environmental sin. Most of our electronic gadgetry these days come with a soft power button. That is, you press a toggle button and your TV, monitor, component, or whatever gadget turns on and off in an instant. But turning it off this way does not actually cut off the power supply from the device. Chances are, leaving something on standby will consume about 5% to 30% of its powered-on use.

Standy power accounts for about 5% to 8% of household electricity use (sources: 1 (PDF), 2, 3 (PDF)), and results in about $3 billion in wasted electricity annually in the US alone.

One good solution is to plug your devices in a power strip (or AVR), which you can simply turn off after use.

2. Use a laptop computer. In the old days, I used to do online work on an ancient Pentium-IV desktop computer with a CRT monitor. Not only was it noisy, hot and slow, it was very power hungry, too.

Desktop computers typically consume 350 Watts, while laptop computers would usually draw just 45 Watts or so. You can check your power supply to see how much maximum power draw your gadget takes when plugged in. For instance, my Compaq Presario laptop uses a maximum of 65 Watts, while my Asus EeePC takes in about 36 Watts maximum.

If you’d rather stick with a desktop, you can use alternatives like nettop computers or smaller, energy efficient models. I hear Macs are more energy-efficient than their PC counterparts! I’ve gotten rid of my old desktop, and now I use an Apple Mac Mini (G4), which consumes the same amount of electricity as most laptops (plus the monitor, of course).

3. Switch to LCD. If you still haven’t done so, then this is the right time. LCDs are getting cheaper and cheaper by the moment. These days, CRTs are usually only appreciated by hardcore gamers who need really fast refresh rates, and some graphic designers (who for some reason are able to calibrate their CRTs better than LCDs). But for writing, emailing, blog reading, and the occasional online video, LCDs are appropriate. They’re easier on the eyes, lighter on the desk, and they consume less power, too. A typical LCD would consume less than half the consumption of its similar-sized CRT counterpart.

And while we’re at it, you can reduce your monitor’s brightness to a comfortable, but not too bright, level.

4. Set your computer to sleep/standby or hibernate. Most laptops would have this setting by default, but not everyone is aware how to change or activate this on a laptop or desktop. In my case, whenever I need to take a short break, I just close my laptop’s lid and it goes to sleep. That way, the computer’s screen and keyboard are protected, and I save a bit on consumption. Or in case I forget, my computers are set to sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity (and my desktop hibernates and turns itself off altogether after a couple of hours).

This is especially important on desktop computers. Screensavers don’t give any savings at all, but the difference between sleep mode and powered-on is dramatic (see tip #1). Of course, it’s still best to turn off and unplug when not in use, but for brief bathroom, stretching or coffee breaks, sleep mode does wonders to the environment.

With both Mac and Windows machines, this is fairly straightforward.

5. Minimize the use of the A/C or heater. In cool weather, I no longer turn on the air conditioner at my home office. Or when it’s really warm or hot, I share A/C use with the wife and kids (either the kids play at my office room, or I work at the bedroom). Sure, we need quiet time to concentrate on writing. But isn’t it fun to share the warmth (or cool) with someone you love? You get to save on the electricity bill, too!

Case in point: Our electricity bill for December was just 50% of our usual bill during warmer months. This should also apply to folks in cold countries, although it would be the other way around.

6. Use energy-efficient lighting. If you blog from home, then you should switch to energy-efficient light bulbs, like compact fluorescent. Incandescent bulbs burn up more than 96% of the energy it uses as heat. So a 15 Watt CFL bulb is usually as bright as a 400 Watt incandescent bulb.

If it’s daytime, then open those blinds or curtains. Let the sun shine in!

7. Brewing coffee? Why not brew enough for two or more cups? I normally only get to consume one cup per sitting, but on those all-nighters, I brew myself an extra cup just to be sure. Brewed coffee will go stale if you leave it warming on the hot plate for more than 20 minutes (that is, if you’re using a drip-brewer). But if you’re consuming more than one cup anyway, it would be a waste of electricity, water, soap and even coffee grinds if you were to brew twice or more. Why not brew enough to last your blogging run? You can actually keep coffee in a thermal carafe or thermos for about five hours, and it will still taste as good.

If you prefer getting your caffeine fix at the neighborhood cafe, then you could try walking or biking if it’s not too far. Or if you have to use the car, then perhaps you can plan your trip. Why not bring some family members along if they’re running some errands?

8. Consolidate your blog hosting. Unless you run blogs purely for SEO, or unless your blog gets DUGG every day, why not host your blogs under a single hosting account? Most hosting accounts these days offer more than enough bandwidth and space for one single blog. If you run your blog from a hosted service like WordPress.com or Blogger, this shouldn’t be an issue. But if you run a self-hosted blog, or perhaps you run your own hosted blogging service, then this could make a difference. Not only do you save on hosting fees, you help save the environment, too!

9. Work more efficiently. I guess this is subjective, but you definitely reduce your carbon footprint if you do more with less time or with less resources. So rather than spending hours upon hours pointlessly sifting through your feed reader trying to find something interesting, why not get your thoughts more organized? Why not plan ahead, noting down topics you’d like to write about, and clipping quotes and URLs in a handy notebook, so when you’re ready to write, information would be easier to access?

Or how about reducing your workspace clutter? At any given time, I have dozens of tabs open in several browser windows. Not only does this clutter my current window, it also clutters my taskbar and on-screen real-estate. Every once in a while, I shut down my browser altogether and open only the tabs I really need, like my Gmail, feed reader, and Twitter window, among others. This way, I get to focus, and I’m able to produce better output.

Working smarter beats working harder. You get more things done with less effort! You help save the world, too.

10. Write shorter posts. I’m not a fan of one-liners, but posts that are too long tend to tire me and cause me to spend a little more time than I want to. At the very least, split your post into headings, bullet points or lists, to make reading (or scanning) easier.

And I think this should be the last tip, because I’ve just violated it with my post going past the 1,000 word mark!

Contributing to the increasingly popular concept of carbon footprint-reduction does not necessarily entail drastic lifestyle changes. Even a few adjustments here and there can make a difference. And even if these savings result in just a small reduction, the sum can add up to something big, if we all do our part.

Don’t forget to contact us if you have any suggestions as to what you’d like to see us post about here at Yurto- we always like to hear from you!

On thing I know is that kids love flashlights, or torches, as they say in England. They like to play with them, especially under the sheets, in the dark. The regular flashlights we’ve had throughout the years have been victims of my kids abuse, because when one of my kids get their hands on them, they either get misplaced or left turned on. Not good for when there’s a sudden power outage or when the plumber needs to look under the sink. Nor is it good for the environment when you think of how many used batteries there are that go in landfills and are not disposed of properly.

So when I found the Powerplus Penguin, I was thrilled to bits, and so were my kids. Firstly, its not always that you find an eco-friendly toy that REALLY appeals to older kids, second, this was very good value (most eco-toys are NOT cheap), and third, it also has a great practical function and won’t just sit there in the playroom after they’ve played with it a few times.

This cute little penguin has no need, I repeat, no need for batteries. It’s a clever invention from the U.K., which is charged by simply pumping the wings (a light squeeze from your child). When charged, the ultra bright LED has a lighting distance of twenty meters which is just right for kids purposes.

Although I bought it for my 7-year-old girl (the packaging said it was recommended for kids 6 and above), my 4-year-old eyed it enviously (he said it was Pablo from the Backyardigans, his favorite, which meant it was for HIM) and definitely wouldn’t have much trouble using it too. Oh, and the packaging was fantastic too – made from attractive recycled materials, it was really simple and easy to open, without all that extra awful plastic, sharp bits and twisty metal things you find with most toys.

You can purchase the penguin at Nigel’s Eco Store for £5.99, but you can find it a little cheaper at other shops if you search.

In the news again were some chilling findings that a slew of everyday bath products made for kids had dangerous levels of carcinogens. Like any Mother, my reaction is deep resentment and anger for these big companies that let things like this happen for years, and how lethal ingredients like formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane is found in every day items we put on our bodies. Both substances are known to cause cancer, so when you think about it, it somewhat explains why so many people in the world today have the terrible disease.

What I find especially disturbing is that in the list are brands that most families like mine have trusted for years, believing they were safe for our children. Products like Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, which my husband still loves! The group who uncovered the dirty facts were non-profit Campaign For Safe Cosmetics, and here’s some of what they said:

” Despite marketing claims like “gentle” and “pure,” dozens of top-selling children’s bath products are contaminated with the cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, according to the March 2009 Campaign for Safe Cosmetics report, “No More Toxic Tub.”

This study is the first to document the widespread presence of both formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane in bath products for children, including baby shampoos, bubble baths and baby lotions. Many products tested contained both chemicals.
The chemicals were not disclosed on product labels because they’re contaminants, not ingredients, and therefore are exempt from labeling laws.

Formaldehyde contaminates personal care products when common preservatives release formaldehyde over time in the container. Common ingredients likely to contaminate products with formaldehyde include quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea and diazolidinyl urea.

1,4-dioxane is a byproduct of a chemical processing technique called ethoxylation, in which cosmetic ingredients are processed with ethylene oxide. Manufacturers can easily remove the toxic byproduct, but are not required by law to do so. Common ingredients likely to be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane include PEG-100 stearate, sodium laureth sulfate, polyethylene and ceteareth-20.

The key bit there I think is: “Manufacturers can easily remove the toxic byproduct, but are not required by law to do so.” So when the group conducted the study, they found that there were still large amounts of the toxins which meant that the companies didn’t bother to remove the poisonous byproducts. WHY?

Around the world, several countries have already taken measures to ensure that their baby products are safe, like in China, where they are being removed from supermarket shelves and undergoing more testing. Japan and Sweden have already banned formaldehyde from personal care products.

Aside from 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, watch out for these baddies too:

peg-100 stearate, sodium laureth sulfate, polyethylene and ceteareth-20, quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea and sodium hydroxymethoylglycinate.

For the full list of tested products as well as more information, check out the article here.

In changing your ways to greener living, the key thing to remember is:

“little things mean a lot”

Meaning, you don’t have to go out marching in Washington or move your family to a yurt in the wilderness to save the earth.

Take your weekly trips to the grocery store, for instance. Just by being aware of what you buy can make loads of difference. For me, the main thing I’ve done in my home is to switch the cleaning supplies I use from the nose-burning, toxic, chemical-laden stuff to non-toxic, bio degradable brands. It was the smell that actually bothered me the most (especially when I was pregnant), so switching to the lovely natural stuff I use now as a surface cleaner, which uses orange oil, is such a great thing.

A small local company in my area makes most of the stuff I buy now (more points for saving on transport fuel) , but even the bigger guys are starting natural, eco-friendly lines now, like Clorox Green Works, which launched early this year. Did you know they bought Burts Bees too?

Here’s a part of a good article I found which should help you in the grocery. Read and heed.

Buy local. When food doesn’t have to travel far, it requires less packaging materials, fewer preservatives and often fewer pesticides. Not only are these processes bad for the environment but they also take away from the taste of the food. Another benefit to buying locally grown food is the shorter distances the produce needs to travel, which results in less damaging greenhouse gases.

Buy environmentally friendly products. Many companies are trying to be more environmentally conscious so look for brands that offer natural products in recycled packages.

Take fewer trips. Car emissions continue to be a major contributor to greenhouse gasses in Canada making carpooling and fewer trips to the grocery store a must. Making a grocery list in advance can help cut down on trips to the store for one-off forgotten items. Organizing a grocery store carpool with friends or neighbours is also a fun way to spend time with people while reducing the number of cars on the road.

Cut down on plastic bags. Canadians use approximately 10 billion plastic bags each year. Reducing that number means bringing reusable grocery bags with you to the store. If you don’t already have some, most stores have their own brand of reusable bags you can purchase while you are there. Another alternative is to use cardboard boxes to carry your groceries or paper bags that can be recycled.

With housing prices slumping all over the world, Gerd Niemoeller’s invention, The Universal World House, couldn’t have come at a better time. Primarily designed for refugees and migrants in the third world, the prototype costs just $5,000 for 36 sq.m, weighs a mere 800 kilos and can be set up virtually anywhere.

Gerd Niemöller said recently in Der Speigel:
” From the very beginning, our goal was to create practical, environmentally sustainable, and, most importantly, cheap living quarters for the slums of the Earth….Now, that is possible.”

So if it’s paper, will it blow away? And what exactly is it made of? Well, the answer is NO, it won’t blow away. It’s made of resin-soaked cellulose made from recycled materials – cardboard and newspapers. The material actually resembles a honeycomb and is extremely resilient to the weather when an air vacuum fills each of the units. Its being flexible also means it is virtually earthquake-proof!

Niemöller’s company who patented the house reported that thousands of orders have already been made, mostly from Africa, through organizations like World Vision. The paper house is a much better alternative to the tin and plywood shanties seen in many developing areas of the world, especially as it used recycled materials. According to an article in the London Times, it was built so that families can slaughter their dinner on the veranda, and conveniently hang the meat out to dry in the bathroom’s line:

“The house has eight built-in single and double beds and a veranda with a sealed-off area housing a shower and a lavatory. It has been designed together with the German development aid agency GTZ, and with the architect Dirk Donath, from the Bauhaus University in Weimar.

Apart from the sleeping area, there are shelves, a table and benches. It has been designed so that a family can slaughter an animal on the veranda, wash it in the shower and hang it, along with fish, on an integrated washing line. The whole wall of the kitchen can be tipped open to let air in and to blur the distinction between inside and outside. “

Surrounding your home with chemical-fighting houseplants is a wonderful thing to do for your family – not only does it rid the air of some major toxins (like I mentioned in my post), but it also makes the house much more attractive.

Just one large houseplant produces enough oxygen (through photosynthesis) to clean about 100 square feet of space, so depending on the size of your rooms, it is easy to work out how much you need. An average size home or apartment, for instance, will need just one large plant (like the easy-to-care for spider plant pictured above) in the main living area.

Here’s a quick guide to what plant does what:

Plants that remove Formaldehyde:
The philodendron, spider plant, and golden pothos

Flowering varieties that remove Benzene:
The gerbera daisy and chrysanthemum (mum)

Plants that remove Trichoroethylene:
The peace lily and the chrysanthemum are the most effective. Also useful are English ivy, Chinese evergreen, bamboo palm, snake plant (mother-in-law’s tongue), and several types of dracaena, including marginata, corn plant, and Janet Craig.

Tips On Caring:
- Most of these houseplants are relatively easy to grow in moderate to bright indirect sunlight or under florescent – Avoid windows or glass doors where sunlight shines directly on the plants, except for flowering mums and gerbera daisy, which thrive in sunlight. Ivy, palm, philodendron, spider plant, and dracaena are all susceptible to spider mites.
-To prevent infestations, mist often and avoid hot, dry air. The pots may be set in trays of pebbles in water to provide moisture around the plants.
- Make sure the bottoms of the pots are above the level of the water.
- Beware of overwatering any plant, the most common cause of houseplant deaths. Golden pothos, Chinese evergreen, and snake plant should not be misted and should be allowed to dry out between watering to keep the roots healthy.

To learn more about how houseplants can clean the air around you, a good book to read is How To Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants That Purify Your Home Or Office“>How To Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants That Purify Your Home or Office.

Effects Of Cell Phone Radiation With Green Planet Armour

For years, my spouse, an anti-technology dinosaur, has been preaching the danger of cellphones. He’s always owned one though (pre-paid), rather begrudgingly, never turning it on unless absolutely necessary, much to my annoyance. Well, the other day he told me it was time I did some research on the dangers of cellphones and do a post on it on YURTO as he reckoned most people use their cellphones at home even if it was invented for use outside of the home.

What I found was basically that cellphones emitted radiation, which when given in large doses, is indeed dangerous. In fact, I read this very disturbing article in the UK Telegraph, wherein a noted brain specialist says that “mobile phones are more dangerous than smoking” and was the reason for the rise in brain tumors.

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take “immediate steps” to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Obviously, the mobile phone people has dismissed the professor’s claims as baloney, and a large study in the UK has shown little evidence, BUT it also said:

Professor Challis, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Nottingham, said: “It all sounds pretty reassuring and that is good. But we cannot rule out the possibility that cancer could appear in a few years. The epidemiological evidence is not good enough and most cancers take longer than 10 years to develop.

So I am inclined to agree with hubby, but am not quite prepared to give up my phone (what if there was an emergency with the kids while I was out?). Luckily, there is a company addressing this, and their product is something we should all get, short of giving up your portable.

Green Planet Armour is a nifty little product you can easily connect to your electronic device which uses nano technology to combat the ill effects of radiation. Check out their website today.