Environment, Organics, Fair Trade & Recycling at Big Green Purse

Butter for Your Hands, Not Your Bread, Plus Much More from EcoCentric Mom

 It's that time of year when my hands are starting to feel so dry, you'd think I lived in the desert. Nope, it's just winter setting in, along with its prescription for cracking skin and painfully tight dryness. Happily, this month's EcoCentric Mom subscription box included butter - hand butter that is, made by The Seaweed Bath Co. from shea butter, neem oil and bladderwrack seaweed extract. I'm not sure what a bladderwrack is, but this balm feels great, and smells yummy, too, with a hint of citrus (or maybe that's what bladderwrack smells like...).

Not to leave lips at the mercy of winter, either, the subscription box also included both the 3 Little Girls Holistic Oange Pop Lip Gloss, and lip scrub and lip colour from Lauren Brooke cosmetiques. The organic sugar in the lip scrub helps smooth chapped lips, then moisturizes with organic lecithin and shea butter. The lip colour is infused with organic pomegranate and non-GMO vitamin E. And of course, the lip gloss is organic, too. Winter or summer, I actually put lip gloss on top of lip colour for extra moisturizing, so am glad to try out both these products.

Children Slammed by Typhoons, War Need Your Help - Today.

 Kids should be able to be kids, right? They should be able to run and laugh and go to school and aim for a future that is bright and hopeful and full of promise.

But for children in the Philippines and Syria, that definitely is not the case. And even though those places may be worlds away from you, I hope you'll stop for a moment, read about the plight little ones in these two forlorn countries face and, through UNICEF Australia, decide there is something you can do to help.

THE PHILIPPINES

On Friday, November 8, a powerful typhoon called Haiyan struck the Philippines. You probably saw some of the initial news reports about the typhoon's impact on communities across the country. Powerful winds ripped roofs off housing and uprooted trees. Flooding and the collapse of buildings killed thousands of people. Parents were separated from their children; millions of people lost their homes, their belongings, and their livelihoods.

Idling Engines Make Air Quality Worse, Especially in Winter

 The colder it gets outside, the more people want to heat up their cars inside - even before they get in the car. Leaving an engine to idle -- in other words, turning the car on and leaving it on when it is parked for longer than about the wait at a stop light -- wreaks havoc on clean air. That's because when your vehicle burns gas, it emits dirty particles and toxic chemicals that combine in the atmosphere to produce acid rain and ground-level ozone or smog that can be very harmful to our lungs. Air pollution is particularly tough on kids, reports the terrific non-profit group Moms Clean Air Force, because they actually breathe faster than grown-ups and inhale more air per pound of body weight. Some communities, like this inspiring group in Nova Scotia, Canada, have banded together to put a stop to idling at schools, sporting events, and shopping malls.

Green Halloween Costumes - Swap Before You Shop

Between now and Halloween, we're doing a series of posts to help you put the "eco" in EEK! Please send ideas for information you'd like us to cover. We're starting today with a post on Halloween costumes. Come back soon for our tips on non-toxic face paint, organic and natural candy and other treats, plastic-free decorations, and the ten best ways to use a pumpkin after Halloween is over.

 Halloween costumes give all of us a chance to be someone or something else. But this spooky holiday leaves its mark on the planet. Most costumes are treated as disposable, which means they end up in the trash when the partying and trick or treating are over. Commercial costumes (and decorations) can be expensive, too. All together, we Americans spend over $5 billion annually for this one-day celebration.

Here are some cheap, green alternatives:

EcoCentric Mom Box Review: Ooh, Aah, and Yum

Every Ecocentric Mom Box comes packed with a selection of interesting, useful and tasty treats that help me make healthier, more eco-friendly choices when I shop. Here's the lowdown on what's in this month's box:

FOOD FIRST

Kallari Organic Chocolate Bar - I've written before why it's so important for chocolate to be produced organically. And when you shift your spending to organic chocolate, you encourage more conventional manufacturers to become more organic, too. Your purse power aside, Kallari chocolates make the shift worthwhile just because they taste so good. The 70% cacao bar included in this month's Ecocentric Mom Box was smooth, creamy and very flavorful. Plus, I love the fact that Kallari is produced via a cooperative of 850 indigenous Kichwa families in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin. The cooperative shares 100% of their profits among 21 rainforest communities to "maintain our way of life in one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth." Try a bar!

Do Your Kids Think Saving Energy Is Important? Enter Contest by May 31.

Team ENERGY STAR, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's program to help kids and families understand why saving energy is important, has launched a contest to encourage kids to tell us in their own worlds why energy efficiency makes a difference.

To enter, all kids need to do is share their stories on the Team ENERGY STAR web page. The "story" can be told in words, pictures, video, slides, animation, drawings...the sky's (almost) the limit! The deadline for entering is May 31.

EPA and ENERGY STAR will recognize those who tell the best, most inspiring stories with a variety of energy-efficient electronic prizes from LG, including:

·      Smart phones

·      Feature phones

·      27 inch LED televisions

·      Computer monitors

·      MP3 Docking Stations

 PLUS: YOUR CHILD'S NAME IN LIGHTS

Winners’ names and photos will be broadcast on LG’s billboard in New York's Times Square in conjunction with a Twitter Party on June 7, #TeamENERGYSTAR.

Go to the Team ENERGY STAR website now to get more details and encourage your kids to share their story! (http://www.energystar.gov/team)

Is Glade Air Freshener Bad for Babies?

"Cleaning product companies aren’t required to disclose the ingredients they use in their products, and what they’re keeping secret from you could be hazardous to your health," reports Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE), the respected non-profit research group that investigates toxic chemicals in the common household cleansers we use.

  In their "Dirty Secrets" study, WVE commissioned an independent laboratory to test twenty popular cleaning products for hidden toxic chemicals from five top companies: Clorox, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, SC Johnson and Son, and Sunshine Makers (Simple Green). WVE found reproductive toxins, carcinogens, hormone disruptors, and allergens -- none of which were listed on the product label. 

"Consumers deserve to know what chemicals they are being exposed to, so that they can easily avoid products that may cause allergic reactions or serious long-term health impacts like cancer, birth defects, or pregnancy complications," WVE declares - and I agree. That's why I support WVE's effort to get Congress to pass new federal legislation that requires cleaning product manufacturers to disclose all the ingredients they use in their products directly on the product label.

I also support WVE's effort to persuade companies like Glade to list ALL ingredients in their product on their label. You may think Glade helps clear the air. According to WVE's research, here's actually what Glade is putting into the air:

Toxic Chemicals Found in Glade (according to WVE research)