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A Million Ways to Go Green
Be sure to stop by and read the latest green posts, green tips, end eco friendly advice today!

Earth Friendly Baby Toys – Why You Should Buy Organic, for the Environment and Your Baby

Buying earth friendly baby toys isn’t just something to do because it’s trendy. Buying the right toys that have a lesser impact upon the environment will only help your baby, too. Products made with sustainable materials and organic materials cause less pollution, less pesticides to be released into the environment, and less trees and resources from being used.

Why Buy Organic Baby Toys?

While as adults, we can take a bit more chemicals than babies, newborns and children have less body mass for the chemicals they are exposed to to circulate around in their bodies. That means a stronger concentration of dangerous chemicals like BPA, phthalates, and any toxins used on the toys will be in their body. Think of it like adding an eyedropper of food coloring to one gallon of water or to an entire swimming pool. In the swimming pool, you won’t notice the food coloring much, but the gallon will be very noticeable.

Think of Which Toys Your Baby Will Use the Most

When your baby is developing, their teether is going to get a lot of use, and so will their favorite teddy bear or plush animals. Keeping these items organic around your baby will reduce their exposure to chemicals. With your baby’s teether, be sure to buy one that is BPA free and non toxic. A number of teethers are also available that are made with organic cotton.

Buying Fair Trade Baby Toys

Fair trade toys and organic baby toys go hand in hand. With fair trade baby toys, you’ll be supporting workers that have made the toys to receive a fair wage for their labor. This will ensure that they can feed their families, and will fairly compensate them compared to other comparable items in the global marketplace. By buying organic, you are also supporting organic farming and cotton cultivation/growing.

Looking to green as many of your baby’s toys as possible? Take a look at some of the recommended non toxic, organic and earth friendly baby toys on this page. You can also find other ways to green your baby’s nursery here.

A Way to Stop Using Ziploc Bags: Reusable Sandwich Bags

It seems wasteful to just throw away a Ziploc bag (or no-name brand plastic bag, whatever you use) into the garbage, forever destined to a life at the bottom of the landfill, doesn’t it? The worst part is that the plastic never really breaks down, it just sits there and starts to break down into smaller pieces of plastic. In short, plastic is here to stay. Once it’s here, it will never go anywhere. That’s why going reusable with your sandwich bags is such an eco friendly choice. Reusable sandwich bags haven’t become popular yet, but they will! You can jump on the bandwagon first and get your own reusable sandwich bags here.

Another added to these reusable sandwich bags is that they are BPA free. That’s bisephenol a, a chemical found in many plastics that can cause reproductive harm, amongst other health issues. The effects of BPA on toddlers and adults alike have been heavily debated. The best choice you can make for you and your kids is an informed one!

Besides the lack of BPA, these reusable sandwich bags are nifty because they fold out into an eating area. This is really convenient when the table you are eating at is dusty, or questionable. When you’re done with your lunch, pack it up, take it home, and give it a quick wash (with organic soap if you have it!). The bag is big enough to fit a sandwich, along with some fresh snacks like apples, pears, cut celery or carrots. These make a great eco friendly alternative to ziploc bags, disposable sandwich bags, and brown paper bags. Send your kid off to school with one of these reusable bags, take them to work, or take them to school!

Creating an Environmentally Friendly, Organic Nursery for Your Baby

We’ve come a long way since a century ago. The introduction of more chemicals into our lives came with an increase of cancer cases, and a plethora of other health problems like asthma, autism, and allergies. While we can’t prove the exact connection between the two, it seems logical that our newfound technologies, chemical use, and pesticide use are causing some sort of harm on our bodies.

Going backward really isn’t an option for most of us. Giving up our cellphones because it causes brain cancer? That doesn’t seem to be affecting very many people’s decision to talk all day long on their Blackberry. Giving up the convenience of pre-packaged foods? That’s another tough one that some people are really having trouble with in America, especially with fast food still on the rise. How about going green with your baby nursery? Since you have to purchase all of the items anyway, that should be a lot easier to do, and you’ll be giving your newborn a pesticide-free place to sleep and play during their formative years (the most important years to keep them away from the chemicals). Even during pregnancy, chemicals still have a profound impact on the fetus and developing baby.

Creating an Environmentally Friendly, Organic Nursery

First of all, you don’t have to buy everything organic, however certain things are important to consider. Think about what things your baby will be in the most contact with, and how much time they’ll be spending with that item. For example, babies spend a huge amount of time on their mattress. Mattresses are also sprayed with dangerous fire retardants and breathe those in. The cotton inside of the mattress is also sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and plant growth regulators used to stimulate growth artificially. These all in turn end up in the plant, then on our clothing. Skin is permeable, that is, thing go out, things come in. The pesticides on the clothing or bedding, even when washed, can still remain on the clothing, and are absorbed into our skin. The statistics for the pesticides used on cotton in California in 2007 were staggering. Chemicals used like sodium chlorate have negative impacts on the environment, wildlife, and our own bodies when subjected to the chemicals over long periods of time.

So what items in your nursery are the most important to buy organic?

Buy an organic mattress. If you have to choose any one thing to buy organic in the nursery, choose the mattress. It’s a little bit more money, but considering what’s in the other mattresses, it’s worth the extra money. You can find a selection of the best customer reviewed organic mattresses on this page.

Buy organic crib sheets. Your baby will also be right on the crib sheets, so buying organic here is also a good choice for their health. If you need further convincing, this article might convince you why you should buy organic cotton.

Buy organic toys. When your baby is going through their teething stage, they’ll put just about anything in their mouth, especially toys. Giving them some organic toys can cut down on the amount of chemicals filtering through their tiny, vulnerable bodies.

There are many other factors to consider, like the paint you use in the nursery, the furniture (and whether it’s non-toxic), and the clothing that they’ll be wearing. Read more about creating a green nursery for your baby on this guide page, featuring more tips and organic suggestions. Your baby will thank you by being healthy!

A Year in Review at the Green Living Tips Blog

For our 101st post over at the green living tips blog, we decided to review not just a handful of posts, but all of our posts. It was a great reminder of what we’ve accomplished so far on the blog, and was an opportunity for readers to catch up on the past year and a half of green blogging.

First, we reviewed posts 1-25, which were all in 2008. Some of the topics we blogged about were VOC, hybrids, balloons, and back to school waste, to name a few. Next up, our post reviewed posts 26-50, on Sarah Palin’s stance on green issues, recycled old pizza boxes, composting coffee grinds, and the Amazon Kindle, along with 21 other topics. Posts 51-75 discussed 25 easy ways to be more eco friendly, with topics such as eco friendly gift wrap, celebrating a green Valentine’s Day, and biodegradable trash bags. Finally, posts 76-100 was our finalgreen retrospective, with blogs on I Am Not a Paper Cup, reusable SIGG bottles, green tips for Turkey Day, and quick energy fixes.

So what was the point of all of this? A retrospective is a great way to share with your readers all that you’ve already accomplished, while jogging your memory about past posts. While you read the posts, you’ll quickly see what you do and do not like about your past posts.

Some things to look forward to on this blog in 2010:

* Greening your baby
* Organic gardening
* Ways to reduce your energy consumption and reduce your electric bill
* Choosing a green charity to support

Welcome to A Million Ways to Go Green!

Welcome to A Million Ways to Go Green!  A Million Ways to Go Green originated as a group on Squidoo.com, featuring green tips and information from a variety of talented writers, homemakers, Moms, Dads, grandmothers, grandfathers, kids, and students. When the group grew to over 300 pages (or lenses, as Squidoo likes to call it), I knew the group had grown wings and needed to fly to a bigger place.

So what will A Million Ways to Green contain?

Information and links to other green resources. Some green writers will even have the chance to add their own post to A Million Ways to Go Green. The more the merrier!

Who writes for A Million Ways to Go Green?

Right now, it’s just TheGreenerMe, but will soon branch out to include other green writers and lensmasters from Squidoo.

How can I write a guest post for A Million Ways to Go Green?

To write a post for this blog, you’ll just need a few things. First, you’ll need a great idea for a post. It can be a green idea, it can be a green product, but it has to be about truly going green, and it has to be useful. We do not accept posts written about ebooks or products that may not be considered truly green. Once you’ve contacted us about your guest post, we’ll let you know if the topic is suitable, and we’ll give some further criteria for your guest post (like the number of words in the post, images, external linking). Then, we’ll read your post and most likely post it!

While we’re working on new blog posts and the appearance of this blog, you can chew on our posts over at the Green Living Tips Blog.