eco-friendly living

Eco-Friendly Baby Products for a Healthy Baby and a Clean Environment

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eco-friendly baby products

Starting early and raising an eco-friendly baby will go a long way in protecting the environment for their future. Choosing products from companies with environmentally friendly manufacturing processes and using recycled or reusable materials as often as possible will be as good for your baby as it will be for the earth.

Bottles and Sippy Cups

Using an Eco-Friendly baby bottle for your new little bundle of joy is a great way to keep them healthy while preventing contamination of the environment. Glass bottles or # 5 plastic bottles are both recyclable materials and will prevent your baby from ingesting Bisphenol-A (BPA) that can be found in other types of plastic bottles.

Avoid using materials that are not biodegradable, recyclable, or reusable. Aluminum or stainless steel can also be used once your child starts using sippy cups as it can be recycled after it has been used repeatedly and has become worn out. Glass and safe, biodegradable plastic also work well for all your baby’s cups and bowls.

Soaps and Detergents

Babies generally have very sensitive skin, and while some commercial products offer sensitive skin formulas, using Eco-Friendly baby products that contain 100% natural ingredients will ensure your baby is getting the most natural, non-toxic, additive free soaps and shampoos. Choosing organic products that don’t contain any harsh chemicals will decrease the amount of waste and toxins you introduce into the environment while keeping your baby as clean as the commercial brands, and perhaps even a little healthier.

Diapers for an Eco-Friendly Baby

Disposable diapers often contain harmful chemical ingredients that fill up landfills and pollute the earth. Using natural cloth diapers and wipes are just as effective as the disposable kinds while reducing a substantial amount of waste. If the convenience of disposable diapers is a must, you’ll be happy to know that some brands are biodegradable. Always be sure to check labels and product reviews in order to determine whether a brand is safe for both the earth and your baby.

Earth Friendly Baby Clothes

Eco-friendly baby clothes can be found by looking for clothing made from natural and organic materials. Choosing clothes from 100% organic cotton, wool, or hemp will often leave you with outfits that last longer, look adorable, and contain no harmful dyes or residual chemicals from manufacturing.

Babies put everything in their mouths including their hands, toys, clothes, and any number of other things they can find. Using Eco-Friendly baby products will prevent them from ingesting harmful materials while saving the planet. Choose companies who practice responsible manufacturing techniques and use biodegradable and recyclable materials for the safest and most eco-friendly products.

Eco-Friendly Water Bottles: Why Everyone Should Have One

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Eco-Friendly Water Bottles: Why Everyone Should Have One

Disposable water bottles use up so much of our earth’s resources and they severely pollute the environment when they end up in a landfill. Switching to Eco-Friendly water bottles can drastically reduce the amount of waste we produce while still allowing us to have fresh, filtered water while we’re on the go.

Using the Right Water

The reason we usually buy bottled water in the first place is for what’s inside. Bottled water will often be the same quality as the filtered tap water we can produce ourselves. While tap water in some areas is pure and perfectly acceptable to drink, water filters and purifiers are available for the areas that aren’t so lucky. These filters are usually quite inexpensive when compared to what you’re paying for bottled water.

Fitting your kitchen sink with a water purifier or keeping a jug with a water filter in your fridge will give you easy access to fresh, pure water without having to use up a ton of disposable bottles. Earth friendly water bottles can be filled with the same quality of water as the disposable types, so switching to the more environmentally friendly option is as easy as buying a simple water filter.

Types of Materials for Your Eco-Friendly Water Bottles

When deciding on the right water bottle to buy, consider what the bottle is made of and if it was manufactured in an environmentally safe way. Thick aluminum, thick plastic, and glass bottles are durable and can last a very long time. If you’ve used a recyclable material, these bottles can be disposed of safely while having little impact on the environment.

Some types of plastic bottles may contain Bisphenol-A (BPA) and some steel and aluminum types may be manufactured with harmful chemicals. Researching the type of bottle you intend to buy might take a little more effort on your part, but you can rest assured that you’re always using safe and Eco-Friendly water bottles the next time you decide to go for a drink of water.

With landfills overflowing and the earth’s resources becoming depleted, switching to reusable products has never been more important. Earth friendly water bottles will not only save you money by preventing repeated purchases of bottled water, but they will also go a long way in saving the earth from excess pollution.

Why Should You Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products?

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Why Should You Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products?

As it becomes more and more important to protect our environment and repair the damage we’ve already done to it, more companies are providing us with greener choices and Eco-Friendly cleaning products are a great place to start your endeavor to help prevent any further pollution.

Check Labels

Reading the labels on Eco-Friendly cleaning products will allow you to determine if they are indeed environmentally safe. Some products may claim to be all natural, or good for the environment, but they may only contain one or two natural ingredients and the rest may still be harsh chemicals. Checking the label for unwanted ingredients will ensure you are purchasing truly Eco-Friendly cleaning products.

Manufacturing Techniques

Earth friendly cleaning products should not only contain ingredients that are safe for the environment, the process in which they are made should be eco-friendly as well. The packaging should be minimal, biodegradable, recyclable, and reusable. Researching the manufacturers of certain Eco-Friendly cleaning products will give you some insight into their specific practices and will help you determine if they’re an eco-friendly company you can trust.

Toxins in Your Home and Environment

When using commercial cleaning supplies, not only are the chemicals going to pollute the earth from manufacturing and waste disposal, they will contaminate your home as well. Using bleach and other toxic chemicals to clean your house with will regularly expose your family to harmful fumes. Small children often touch everything with their hands and mouths so using Eco-Friendly cleaning products will potentially prevent them from ingesting any harmful substances.

Home Remedy Cleaning Tricks

You can find Eco-Friendly cleaning products already in your own home. Most of the ingredients in eco-safe products consist of natural ingredients such as water, vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide. Using a combination of these products, as well as natural soaps, will be just as effective in cleaning your home while saving you money.

Polishing furniture with a little bit of olive oil on a cloth can give it a lustrous shine; using a mixture of water and vinegar in a spray bottle can clean glass and mirrors just as well as any commercial products. Reducing packaging wastes and using milder cleaning supplies can help you save the planet while allowing you to save some money as well.

Eco-Friendly Building Materials and Sustainable Living

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Building any new home can take up a lot of energy and resources so using Eco-Friendly building materials whenever possible will go a long way in reducing the impact your home has on the environment. Responsible building practices can also be used to ensure you’re using as little energy as possible to build your house.

Alternative Types of Earth Friendly Building Materials

Using materials that are cheap and plentiful can save you money while using up less of the earth’s valuable resources. Substitute bamboo for wood whenever possible and use stone, rocks and clay for your foundation rather than concrete. Some aspects of your home may still require wood so try to avoid wood from old growth forests and use your lumber sparingly.

Rammed earth and recycled steel are excellent Eco-Friendly building materials to reinforce the walls and frame of your house. Any recycled materials that you can swap out for the less environmentally friendly ones will give you a greener house that isn’t creating excess waste.

Sustainable Energy for Your Home

Earth friendly building materials aren’t the only way you can protect the environment from the construction of your house. Using natural energy sources both during and after the building process can save you money and prevent a drain on limited energy resources. Solar panelling, wind mills, and water wheels are great ways to provide your house with all or part of its energy.

Determining the types of power sources you’ll be using in advance will allow you to choose the perfect location to harvest your energy. A house powered primarily on solar power will need to be built in a very sunny region. If you happen to live in an extremely windy climate, a series of wind mills can offer you an ample energy source.

Earth Friendly Building Materials inside Your Home

Once you’ve got a floor, roof, and walls, furnishing your house can be turned into an environmentally friendly endeavor as well. Installing strictly low energy lighting may cost more at first but will save you money in the long run when you discover how rarely you have to replace your bulbs.

The tiles and flooring you use can be made from recycled materials while sinks, counter tops, and cabinets can be salvaged from demolition sites. Last of all, ensure all of your major appliances are low energy and environmentally safe to build yourself the greenest house possible.