Cloth

Many items worthy of mentioning in celebration of Earth Day are alternatives to paper and plastic products. A trip out to the landfill may be all it takes to realize how much we throw away. Several years ago I began to try to cut down on the number of things that end up in our garbage and eventually the landfill. Here are some changes we are working on and some cool products:

Diapers: I switched to cloth with Annika. I read that 1% of the landfill is disposable diapers. Oh my. Frankly, that grossed me out and sounds pretty unsanitary if you give it much thought. And, would YOU like to wear paper underwear? I wouldn't - cotton is much more comfortable. I found Annika got less diaper rash in cloth and today's cloth diapers are not like those of years past. They are super cute! One in particular that we liked were fuzzi bunz. Another option is to order them from a work at home mom. There are lots of cloth diaper resources online and a great article in Mothering magazine exploring all points of view.

Cloth Menstrual Products: Some of the same reasons as mentioned above with regard to the environment, landfill, and comfort. Also, less personal exposure to chemicals such as dioxin, which is a bi-product of the bleaching process used on most menstrual products, and has been linked to various health and fertility problems. Again, there are women who make and sell these products from their homes and can be located online, there are sewing patterns to make these yourself, and there are larger companies that sell cloth pads available at health food stores. I have been happy with GladRags - maybe someday I'll delve into sewing my own. After I learn how to knit(that was my resolution a couple years ago - still unaccomplished)!

Napkins: I was inspired by Shakespeares Pizza to use fairly thick, cotton hand towels in place of paper towels or paper napkins for wiping hands and faces. I still keep a roll of recycled unbleached paper towels around. There are some things I feel I just need a paper towel for. If you have food-scarfing cats you can probably relate.

Microfiber cleaning clothes: These work great on windows and for general cleaning in place of papertowels or newspaper.

Reusable shopping bags: Working on this and doing better! It seems the biggest problem is remembering to take them with me when I leave the house. Now I keep them close to the door so I can't miss them. I have a couple string bags, and have a couple bags from local grocers. I'm happy to see that most if not all of our local grocers have cloth bags available for sale at very reasonable prices. My favorite cloth bags are ones I have picked up from various meaningful places, a family reunion in Northern Iowa, and a bag I purchased at the Waikiki Aquarium on our honeymoon in Hawaii. It is looking a bit tattered after 13 years!