Green Daily

Every week we pick a theme to explore in more depth, and this week that theme is eco-friendly pets. To read all our posts related to this theme, click here.

I once bought a bag of cat food that touted its all-natural, all-organic ingredients. It had raisins and bananas and other items I had never seen in a list of ingredients for cat food. My cats refused to eat it. And I thank them for it.

Cats and raisins don't agree. Raisins cause kidney damage in cats, though at the time I didn't know it.

Advertisements told me my boys would love Greenies. You may recall the 2006 news stories of dogs dying from indigestible Greenies. The cat treats are supposedly very different. Nonetheless, my cats refuse to eat them.

So I've done a little digging for natural pet treats. I can't testify that these treats will clean your dog's teeth or that your cat will even want to eat them. I can't promise anything. You could stick with tins of tuna or sardines, but be careful of the mercury.

This is what I found:

My yard is too small to even be measured as a fraction of an acre. My city lot is 30' by 150' and there is only grass in the back. I do have a lawnmower and it's one of those lovely gas powered monsters desperate for a tune up. It takes an hour to mow the law because it stalls all the time and admittedly, we let the grass grow too high.

But this isn't what turned me on to electric mowers, it was that according to the Environmental Protection Agency, a push mower emits as much hourly pollution as 11 cars; E-LEV-EN.

Enter the Neuton battery powered lawn mower. I'm salivating just thinking of it.

Like getting greeting cards, but don't like the waste they generate?

ReProduct has come up with a solution. It's easy:

• Buy a card and sent it to a worthy recipient (you can choose from pre-made cards, or custom-design your own)
  
• Once the lucky recipient receives the card, enjoys the sentiment (and removes the cash, if applicable), they simply drop it in a mailbox (it comes with an prepaid envelope)
• The card is sent to Shaw Industries, where it is combined with tons of others and used to make carpet tiles

...pretty cool, eh? Mom will appreciate your sentiments as well as your attention to the environment. Go grab one quickly - there are special Mother's Day design options for your perusal.


re [feelgood style]

As you're preparing to throw together a last-minute gift idea for Mother's Day (again) this year, consider the following: I bet, right now, your mom is thinking to herself, "Sure, it's nice that the kids remember every year, but really, I wish we could all spend a little more time thinking about how our actions affect the planet."

So true, right?

Good news, now can kill two birds with one stone. The Climate Change Chocolate bar will not only satisfy mom's sweet tooth, but will also buy 133 lbs of carbon offsets -- the average daily use of one American.

Then you can burn her a CD of your favorite mom-friendly music and send her an e-card instead of picking something out at the store -- not because you're lazy, but because you love your mother, and she loves Mother Earth. Aww. Cute.

[via Alternative Consumer]

If you bought your CFL from someplace like Ikea's $1 bin, you might be regretting it. In fact, you may hate every moment you have to spend reading or watching tv or scanning Green Daily by the light of that antiseptic light bulb.

I have two solutions for you. One option is to get a new type of bulb. There are several out there that put out better light--not to pick on Ikea. Your second option is to burn through your long-lived pack with a Lunet light cover. I'll start there.

These are basically plastic covers that fit into your ceiling fixture. Four styles are available: frosted, Roman, antique glass and Art Deco. Of course, if the offending bulb happens to be in a lamp, I've got no Lunet light cover to help you. You could perhaps design your own and market it at home expos as Lunet has done.

Or, you could put that bulb into your recessed light fixture, add the cover then purchase different CFLs. Last year Popular Mechanics ran a lab test for the best compact fluorescent. Researchers found that all the CFLs they tested beat the Sylvan Double Life Soft White. That is, the quality, color and brightness of the light as well as the life of the bulbs were better. N:Vision tested the best, and the MaxLite Micro Max wasn't great for reading but it offered color like,"the sun at the beach." How can you go wrong with that?

Just in time for my trip to NYC, the folks at Greenopia have come up with a New York City handbook. These useful little green consumer guides point out the earth-friendliest ways to shop the city. San Fran and L.A. have their own handbooks and more cities will eventually get covered.

So you're thinking, "what's so special about another green guide?". Well this isn't just a list of companies that pay to get on a directory. These little books (printed on chlorine-free, recycled paper, of course) have been compiled by actual researchers wandering New York streets.

You'll get details on everything from tree-free party invitations to silk made from free-range silkworms (which I didn't even know existed). To reduce carbon emissions, researchers even took bicycles and public transportation to research the greenest offerings in the city.

I know where to get organic ice cream where I live, but this guide will point out the fair trade coffee and locally-produced goodies I should try in between museum visits. Getting some fancy, planet-friendly threads will be way easier with Greenopia's list of eco sample sales and shoe stores that offer animal cruelty-free foot wear.

In case you are hiding under a rock, the New Christmas Season is here: The Mother's Day/Father's Day/Grandparents' Day/Fourth of July Season. The abbreviated name is MoFaGrap Day. It sounds horrible, I know. To avoid the awfulness of this name, treat each holiday separately and start them right with Zero Waste Gifts.

For mom, options abound. May I suggest used books? Some people like gifts shiny and wrapped in shrink wrap. But the gifts you'll find at the used book store may include rare collectibles, out of print items and new releases in near mint condition. My mother devotes her spare time to flowers. I found three flower books in great condition, two of which were sadly out of print.

Speaking of flowers,you can still put together a package of native plants grown locally. Go for the already potted route, or get a bunch of small plants ready to go in the garden.

I hate it when I go to a take-out restaurant or I'm grabbing a bite in the airport (where I seem to be frequently these days) and I have nothing else to use but plastic silverware. Fortunately, while reading FitYoga magazine today I came across something portable and most likely airport friendly. To-Go Ware Bamboo Utensil set includes a fork, knife, spoon, and chopsticks for your eating pleasure without the guilt over the waste of plastic. It comes in a fold-and-wrap cotton holder which is handmade by a women's cooperative on the Thai-Burma border. There are some other great reusable products from To-Go Ware, featured in the gallery below, which makes eating on the run much more green!

Can you guess the 10 hottest eco-hunks?

Sure, at first it might sound like a suspect ad from your paper's personal section, but in fact this entrepreneurial effort is the brainchild of Omar Soliman -- who, as a college senior, dreamed up a business model that was both highly profitable and good for the planet. That idea earned him a $10,000 grant from the Leigh Rothschild Entrepreneurship Competition, and quickly became College Hunks Hauling Junk -- a junk removal service that employs "the friendliest and most trustworthy junk haulers in the industry. Law students, medical students, undergraduates, and athletes have joined the College Junk Team to earn money and gain valuable business experience."

So, to be fair, the site "Ex-Boyfriend Jewelry" should simply be "Ex Jewelry," 'cause it's not just boyfriends that shower their mates with jewelry.

Name aside, though, the site is a pretty smart idea - its slogan is "you don't want it, he can't have it back." Instead of burning that topaz necklace, tossing it in the trash can or hurling it onto the highway, make some money off that sucker (the necklace, not the ex) and help the environment in the process.

You can hawk everything from bracelets to earrings, but my favorite is the "Gifts that should have been jewelry" category, filled with bags, wallets, perfume, and even a few wedding dresses from some bitter sisters whose beaus ditched them before they could don the virginal white gowns.

The end result? Fellow bitter sistah gets rid of her burdensome reminder of a failed relationship, and you get a gently-used piece of bling. Win-win.

Easily the crappiest part about owning a dog is picking up its feces. And it's the worst when you're on a walk, or at the park, and have to pick up freshly-made deposits -- because let's be honest: warm poop is totally gross. So, to solve that problem, one company figured it'd be fun to freeze that sh-t.

Enter POOP-FREEZE, "a specially formulated aerosol freeze spray that, upon contact, forms a frosty film on dog poop (or cat poop) to harden the surface for easy pick-up."

Yesterday, while thinking of ways to reuse flip-flops, I found an interesting video online of Kenyans turning used flip-flops into toys, jewelry and sculptures. UniquEco Designs takes the thousands of used flip flops that wash up on Africa's shores and turns them into art. The products are then put up for sale which does two things; eliminates the need to dispose of all of that garbage and provides the artisans of East Africa with a steady income. What a great company!

Yep, Mom. You know - the woman in your life who dishes out advice, lets you cry on her shoulder, and doesn't ask for anything in return (well, except maybe that you call her once in awhile).

It's time to make her day. But before you go running out and ordering some huge, overpriced bouquet-and-chocolates deal, think: does mom really need this? Does the environment really need this? C'mon, mom knows you spent about .5 seconds last year whipping out your credit card on Amazon and getting that chocolate/flower monstrosity shipped to her apartment in Boca.

Wouldn't she rather have something that you spent a little time on? (You know it's true). Devoid of creativity? No prob. Check out our gallery for some green ideas. Both moms (yours and the earth's) will thank you.

Yesterday I reviewed Method Kid shampoo and today I'd like to give a review of Method Baby wash as well. Method baby squeaky green hair + body wash is one of the newest additions to Method's growing line of cleaners. With growing concerns about the toxins that I put on my baby's skin, I was drawn to the phthalate-free promise on the bottle.

The two main ingredients listed on the face of the packaging are rice milk and mallow (as in marsh mallow, one of the original ingredients in my favorite puffed confection). Both are mild enough for baby and beneficial to the skin.

I more conscious now of what soap and shampoo I keep around for the kids. I try to fight my cheap frugal ways and buy healthier options, even if it hurts. During my last trip to target I two small $9 bottles of baby shampoo and conditioner in my basket when I came across Method Kid Squeeky Green 3-in-1 Shampoo in Fuzzy Peach scent for the pleasing price of $6.99.

The shampoo, conditioner and body wash promised no "numbing agents," parabens, or phthalates. The solution looked like a winner so I threw it into my cart. I use quite a few Method products and it's a brand that I trust. I found all of the ingredients listed online and at the very least, the packaging was fun (I'm a sucker for packaging, what can I say?).