Which is really best?

I don't know how many of you have seen this commercial so I'm including it in my post.  I have to say that it has been making me thoroughly crazy for the past week.   Granted, I'm probably not their target audience...

So I'll let you watch before I continue.




I have found this commercial to be completely frustrating.  Kleenex is making the statement that by reusing a towel, we are passing germs from one person to the next.  And that instead we should use a new towel each time we wash our hands so that we don't transmit germs.


I have a few problems with this.  First, isn't the point of washing our hands in the first place to get rid of the germs???  Second, let's see there are 3 of us in my house, and I'd say we wash our hand maybe 5 times a day (and if I'm cooking that could be 5 in an hour), which means we will be throwing out 15 towels a day.  And at 60 towels a box, that means we will need a new box every 4 days.  Okay, not only is that not environmentally sound, it's going to get expensive!


Now, I admit that I use wipes for my daughter when wiping her face and hands after meals because the washcloths were getting moldy and yucky, and I had to throw them out because I couldn't wash the mold out.  But I do rinse out the wipes and and use them a couple times before throwing them out.


Isn't there a happy medium between germs on towels and throwing out a ton of towels everyday???

Can I love Disney and Be Green?

This has been quite the debate in my mind for quite some time.  I lean toward green (obviously), but I also love one of the most commercial organizations there is, Disney.  And I've always been like this.  Recently, the dichotomy of my two loves has been getting to me.

On our last couple trips to Disney we haven't bought all that much, and for the Jolly Green Mommy it's been organic t-shirts and reusable bags that fold that small and can be attached to the diaper bag.  

But still...  I had problems finding common ground between my two loves.  So how have I made these two parts of me mesh.


1. You recycle at Disney whether you realize it or not.


Disney hotels now supply you with bags to recycle your newspapers and plastic bottles, but that's not what I'm talking about.  How do I know that everyone at Disney recycles?  A cast member told me!  Last December when we went to see the hotels for the holidays JGD got us on the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise.  (This was awesome!)  When we got off the boat, I asked one of the cast members if there was a recycling bin so I could recycle my water bottle.  I was told that Disney sorts the trash to separate the recyclables from the garbage.  

Now, I know that Disney still produces a large amount of trash, but they do what they can to lessen it by sorting through the trash to reduce the waste.


2. Disney Friends for Change: Project Green


How can I not love anything that encourages kids to get involved and help.  And help go green.  This is great for kids who do not live in a house where being green is important.  These kids need exposure from the outside to show them the importance of taking care of the world they live in.  This is a great thing for Disney to do.  And I give kudos to the Disney stars who decided that this was important enough for them to get involved too!


3. Disney's Planet Challenge

This is a competition for 4-6th grade classrooms.  They are looking for projects that give students the push to change things in their area for the better in an effort to improve the environment in "their own backyard."


Again, I love the fact that this get students and children involved.  They are the future, and it is up to them to makes these positive changes so that they can have a happy and healthy world to live in.


4. Oceans


Not only is Disney putting this movie out there for everyone to see, but they are going to establish a new protected area for everyone who sees the movie between April 22-28th.  


I also know that when you take part in Disney DiveQuest or Seas Aqua Tour, Disney takes part of your payment and donates it to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.


This one I know because JGD had the opportunity to Dive in the Living Seas when he did DiveQuest.  Which could only be described as awesome!

5. Living with the Land


Now, as a child, I hated this ride.  I thought it was boring and would do anything I could to get out of riding it.  On our past couple trips, I have been looking forward to this ride to see what Disney is growing in their "living laboratories."  I love learning about the new techniques that are being used for agriculture around the world


6.  That's not all!


I know that this is only the starting point of what Disney does to help the environment.  To see more of what they do go to

• Disney Public Affairs - Conservation Intiatives
• What does Walt Disney World Resort do to help the environment?
• Merchandise Bags

I do want to mention that I realize that there is more that Disney can continue to change.  Their buses could run on electricity, natural gas, E85 or hybrid energy.  Hopefully, we'll see this change one day in the not too distant future.  Then again, there is more that I can in my home.  Including replacing our current cars with hybrids....  (one day!)

My Blog is Carbon Neutral!

I want to thank Mom's Green Shopping List for showing me that this is even a possibility!

How does one make their blog carbon Neutral.  Go to Mach's Grün! (Mach Green) This is a site based in Germany.  The site is German, but it is worth the translation to learn more about this great initiative.  If you add their button to your blog, create a post about it, and send it back to them.  They will plant a tree for you in Plumas.

According to their site a tree absorbs 11 lbs of Carbon Dioxide Emissions a year.  A blog produces 8 lbs.  By planting a tree for your blog, you even things out.  In fact there will be 3 lbs more of absorption extra!

What an awesome initiative.  I hope you'll join me!

Being Green in a non-Green World

We spend Passover at hotel on Miami Beach.  It's a nice break from the real world and we don't have to change over all the pots, pans, dishes, glassware and silverware in the house.  As well as burn out the stove and sink, cover the counters, etc...

It's a great week for our family (and some extended family).  We get to spend some quality family time together and rest by the pool and at the beach.

There were a couple things that struck me as "living" in a world far opposite from my own.  Were not perfect, but we do try to do whatever we can to be green.  I recycle or reuse everything I can, and try really hard to create excess waste.  Over the past week I saw more waste and misuse.

At the end of the week they showed us the numbers on what had been used during the week.  There were three numbers that really struck me (and none of them are in reference to the abnormal amounts of food served and sent back and wasted food that was thrown out).

• 36,000 water bottles
• 15,000 styrofoam containers
•  9,000 trash bags.  

Now the bottles made me upset because not one of the 36,000+ plastic bottles (I don't remember the count for 2 liter soda bottles) recycled.  There was not a single recycling bin anywhere.  And I would find it incredibly hard to believe that they might go through the trash to pull out the recyclables.  Having seen them collect the trash, there's no way.  The plastic bottles were put out on tables at meals and found in any other location where food was available.

The use of that many styrofoam containers and garbage bags is just plain gross.  I think we created our own landfill last week, and I am completely disgusted by it.  I've been trying to think of ways to help this situation in the future, and I'm not sure what the best solutions are.  I thought about having my own water bottle, but when the only water available is already in bottles it doesn't make a difference if I use my own bottle or not.  I suppose I have a year or so to think about it.  I would love to hear ideas.

My other experience of fighting "traditional thinking" last week, had to do with diapers.  I normally use cloth diapers, but when we travel, especially for any amount of time we use gDiapers.  For more thoughts on the diapers we use go here.

I was changing my daughter and someone noticed that I was not using a normal disposable diaper, which of course prompted a conversation.  It was with a long time friend of JGD's family, we'll call here Bumble.  Now I was not surprised by this conversation but found it amusing just the same.  Let me give you a little background on Bumble, well at least let me tell you that Bumble (like many Jewish grandmothers) has her thoughts about doing things and is not afraid to express them.

Bumble looked at me and mentioned that when her daughter lived in Israel (now this was some time ago, as he oldest son is my age), her daughter used cloth diapers with her kids because it was less expensive.  When Bumble and her husband went to visit her daughter in Israel they decided that they would spend the money to buy the disposable diapers for her daughter.  However, she was quite upset that her daughter went back to using the cloth ones after they left.

I wasn't sure what Bumble was expecting me to say, but I thought the conversation funny.

Back to Basics

I originally started this blog to talk about being a mom who leans toward Being Green.  Recently, it has been more about being a mom working with her daughter.  That won't change, but I have decided that once a week, I will try and discuss one green topic.  


Earth Hour


So as I sat in my dark house this evening thinking about Earth Hour, and the impact that this one hour can make on those who participate, I decided that it was time for my blog to get back to it's green roots.


For those of you who are not aware of Earth Hour be sure to check out the link above, but for a brief explanation... At 8:30 on March 27th people pledged to turn off all non-essential lights in their homes.  Some towns made citywide events for people to participate in during the hour, and some people arranged events to help people enjoy the hour of non-electronic bliss.  


Now I admit, I ended up using Kindle on my iPhone, as I had not really prepped for this time period, especially since Jolly Green Daddy was at the fire department and I was left to myself.  However, I thought that the amount of energy used my iPhone during this time was small enough that I would be better off using it in the dark than turning on any of my other electronic distractions. 


During the hour of darkness in my home, I looked out my windows in my backyard and realized that every house surrounding me had their lights on.  I thought I would go stand in the driveway and check the rest of the houses on the block.  I could not find one other house in my view that had their lights turned off.  (I will say that my lights by my garage were on, but they are on light sensitivity sensors, and are not easy to turn on and off).  I was definitely bummed that all the street lights were still on in my supposedly green town.


When I mentioned something to JGD (who is really not that green, but puts up with my tendencies), his comment was that it was not well publicized.  I gave this some thought, as I had seen it several times on Facebook, and it realized that it depends on where you look.  I am a fan of many different green businesses and as a result they all mentioned Earth Hour and I knew about it.  I suppose if you have no interest in the environment you wouldn't know about Earth Hour, but then again, would you care?


This made me sad to realize that I like in a neighborhood, where so few people care about the environment that they had no idea that there was a movement for everyone to turn off their lights for an hour at 8:30 tonight.  


I guess my question for myself now is... what do I do now?