There are a number of alternatives to vinyl shower curtains, but non of them are an easy home run. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) has been shown to emit over 100 toxic chemicals during the first month you bring it home says a new report from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. Some large stores like Target and Bed Bath and Beyond sell less-toxic vinyl curtains, that are PVC free, but we weren’t convinced that these were truly safe. Also, there didn’t seem to be a good way to recycle or dispose of the vinyl curtains, so we went in search of a deeper green curtain.

Bed Bath and Beyond (there is one near our house) sells Nylon curtains, but I still wasn’t convinced that nylong was fully recyclable or safe to manufacture. So we headed off to our local Eugene “Green Store” to find the perfect eco shower curtain. The “Green Store” had both organic cotton and hemp curtains available. The hemp curtains purported to be “mildew resistant” because of the natural characteristics of hemp. Unfortunately, the hemp curtain also cost close to $100 dollars, so we decided to go with the white cotton curtain.

We installed this curtain around Sept 8th and have been using it since. I have dumped it in the wash once since then. With three people showering daily in our house the curtain spends quite a bit of time wet and is starting to show signs of mildew again. The curtain cost $35, about $20 more than the inexpensive vinyl curtains available from the big retailers. If the curtain remains durable for a significant amount of time I will consider it $20 well invested. In the upcoming months I will keep you updated!

photo credit: evelynishere

This autumn, my husband and I have been busily jumping on the local food bandwagon by buying up as much local produce as possible and preserving it to last us all winter. One of the the things that small farmers do in order to stay afloat in competitive markets is to create “value added” farm products. In a sense we are adding value of our own by cooking and canning our purchases, creating a final product that is worth a lot more than the original produce.

Here in Eugene, September was apple season, apples were literally falling off the trees all around town. We splurged on an apple peeler/corer, and then dried a whole bunch of apples in our dehydrator. We also cooked up a large batch of apple chutney. We love curry and Indian food, but mango chutney is expensive and decidedly not local. Apple chutney is a delicious alternative and now there are 20+ jars in our cupboards.

Last week, with the first fall rains looming, farmers at the market were selling 10+ pounds of tomatoes at discounted prices, so we bought more than 30 pounds and proceeded to process them. Now we have many cans of salsa, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes ready to feed us all winter.
photo credit: Jasmine&Roses

If you are interested in sustainable living in Phoenix there are resources out there for you. Check out Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, who are working to make the area more sustainable through their design work. If you just need a little coaching on how to make your garden grow sustainably you should head on over to Doreen’s site. Doreen is a garden coach and would love to help you green your yard. I bet she has lots of tips for how to save time, money, and help the environment. Life’s a Garden is another great company providing gardening and landscaping services in Phoenix. They specialize edible landscapes and permaculture. If you want to learn more about permaculture, the Phoenix Permaculture Guild offers events and classes. And finally, if you want to buy locally grown, tasty produce, you can check out Phoenix’s farmers markets: Saturday at Roadrunner Park and Sunday at Ahwatukee.

“Biofuel use ‘increasing poverty’
A palm oil plantation in Ivory Coast
Palm oil is one of the biofuel crops stirring controversy

The replacement of traditional fuels with biofuels has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty, an aid agency report says.

Oxfam says so-called green policies in developed countries are contributing to the world’s soaring food prices, which hit the poor hardest.

The group also says biofuels will do nothing to combat climate change.”

What I find frustrating about such reports and the race to jump on the biofuel bandwagon is that we have completely missed the point of using biofuels. Growing crops, particularly food crops, to produce fuel makes no sense. In fact, corn isn’t even a particularly good source of biofuels. What makes a lot of sense is recycling wastes to produce biofuels.

Biofuel recycling in Olympia, WA at “The Reef“. Photo by DreamsJung. Used under creative commons licensing.)

In 1995 I saw this documentary, “Fat of the Land” about a group of women travelling across country asking greasy spoons to donate they frying oil to fuel their van. It was a fabulous mix of grrrls in 50’s dinner dresses and grrrls in getting greasy mixing chemicals. The lesson of the movies is that there are a lot of resources that go to waste in this country. Making better use of those resources makes sense. Hopefully since “Fat of the Land” was made there have been reforms in what happens to used vegetable grease and more of it is being recycled into biofuels. I haven’t done the research to know how many companies out there recycle waste cooking oil, but if you are interested, here’s one company in the Bay Area doing it - Blue Sky Bio-Fuels.

Bio-fuels can be a part of the solution but only if we do them right and recognize their limitations!

Carol over at CleanTechnica found this amazing automatic faucet that recharges itself via a tiny turbine. Check out her description and the diagram: “EcoPower Faucet Saves Energy by Recharging with Each Use”. I’m not a big fan of automatic faucets. They make me feel like the faucet gods are laughing at me as I wave my hands under the tap and fail to illicit any watery response, but I know they save water and help slow the spread of germs in public facilities. On the down side, automatic faucets usually need an electrical outlet, so this recharging variety could help public facilities save energy. I wonder how the turbine deals with things other than water going down the drain?

In Spain makers of “cava” sparkling wine are doing their best to adapt to climate change. The traditional sparkling wine is more vulnerable than other varieties to rising temperatures. In response wine makers are changing their cultivation practices, harvesting rain water to use during longer periods of drought, and even harvesting earlier in the season or at night. No one knows how successful these practices will be.

Luckily, wineries in the American West are doing well for now. Increasingly wineries are choosing to “go green” by growing organic, biodynamically, or with respect for workers rights. Benziger Winery, in the Sonoma mountains grows their grapes biodynamically. Biodynamic cultivation practices are more They were recently featured on the Sundance Show, “Big Ideas for a Small Planet.”Even the big networks and national magazines are starting to cover sustainable living options. Newsweek Magazine is now covering organic and biodynamic wines.

On the fair trade front, you can now support farm workers and their families, who are often the most severely affected by unsustainable practices by California’s large vineyards, by purchasing Black Eagle Wines.

For those of you who like the occasional martini, Qino One Vodka is not only organic and fairtrade, but also the only vodka I have ever heard of made from quinoa, the superfood of the Incas. I love to eat quinoa. It seems sort of a waste to distill it.

Meanwhile, eco-conscious consumers are concerned by the waste and health issues that go along with our addiction to bottled water. Even fancy restaurants in the Bay Area are replacing their bottled water with carbon filtered tap water. Ask Umbra answers a concerned consumer’s question about the safety of Nalgene. She recommends going with glass bottles, like those from Aquasana

Biota provides another option, disposable water bottles made from biodegradable corn plastic. While using these bottles wouldn’t reduce the carbon footprint caused by transportation, they might be an important alternative for those times when disposable water bottles are needed.

Around Northern California, stainless steel bottles from Kleen Kanteen seem to be popular. I haven’t tried one though, because I can’t help but think that water sitting around hot weather would get warm and metallic tasting rather quickly.

Lately I have been reusing my glass Pellegrino bottle. Maybe not the best solution, but it works until I find the ultimate safe, environmentally friendly water bottle.