The fine folks over at Green Parenting have asked what many of us may have wondered at some point, "How can I start composting?"
Raj and Miah, of Green Parenting, try to demystify composting in their podcast "Composting 101 - A Wormderful Intro."
While they have been interested in composting for a while, Raj and Miah had many questions: If they do it wrong, will it attract rats and roaches? Are worms needed? What is hot composting? By speaking with Miah’s Aunt Patricia and Uncle Steven -- who have been composting for years -- they learn more about what composting is, what bins and supplies are needed, why it works and the many different ways composting can be done.
posted originally from: AT:Nursery
What do people know about Method cleaning products? Are they really as green as they claim? Has any one tried composting their compostable wipes and cleaning cloths at home?
We are trying to be more earth friendly at home but don't love the prices on many of green products, plus our "green" store is across town. Method is sold at my local Target (walking distance to my home) and is the best price, so I'd really love to use them and feel good about it!
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As far as how "green" Method products are, chemically, I'm not really sure.
What I do know is that you can make quite a few of their products yourself at home with bona fide green/sustainable ingredients, and that MANY of their products are superfluous and thus innately wasteful. You do not need a special shower spray, glass cleaner, AND multipurpose spay, for instance; vinegar and water will do the job just fine (wipe with old newspapers to prevent streaks on glass).
I also question their use of chemical perfumes in all products (I've never seen an "unscented" item) and their promotion of disposables like cleansing wipes. The fact that they make air freshener really squicks me out -- they're pretty much innately bad for the earth and your home's environmental equilibrium.
You shouldn't need to go to a special "green cleanser" shop to find cleaning products that are sustainable. Most household surfaces can be cleaned with vinegar, baking soda, basic soap like Dr. Bronner's, lemon juice, and salt in various combinations you can mix yourself at home. There are also a few widely available products which are considered "green", like Bon Ami scouring powder and Murphy's Oil Soap. The only specially "green" product I use at home is Seventh Generation laundry soap (which is available at most supermarkets in my area, you don't have to go to a specialty shop to get it here).
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k so what do you clean the toilet with? for some reason, boyfriend can aim with the best of them, but it's never ENOUGH aim - if you catch my drift. and since i don't cook with meat anymore, i don't have to worry about that bacteria, but the bathroom is a big one for me. there ARE germs all around the toilet, and the sink, if you think about it.
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I clean the toilet with a mixture of Dr. Bronner's and baking soda (and use vinegar and water as a spray for counters and the surface of the toilet). As far as I know, Method products are not antibacterial and thus do not actually "kill germs" any more than vinegar and water do. Antibacterial products have been shown to promote infections as they lower the body's natural immune response -- I would never use them in my home, whether or not I was interested in environmentally friendly products.
Urine is sterile. It doesn't contain bacteria and cannot spread disease.
Method does not make a toilet scrub, anyway, and I'm not even sure they make a gel bathroom cleaner -- the only Method product you could use for your toilet would be their dish, laundry, or hand soap, which is no more germ-killing than my Dr. Bronner's is.
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Oh, and another thing that majorly squicks me about Method?
They refuse to list product ingredients and other pertinent info about their eco-friendly status on their labels, and when questioned about it claim that they leave that info off in the name of good design.
A) Sorry, but I don't buy things because they have nice product design, I buy them because they do the job. The job here is healthy and sustainable, not "pretty bottle". If I wanted the cleaning product with the nicest package, I probably wouldn't pick Method anyway.
B) A good designer can come up with a visually pleasing concept that incorporates all the necessary information. This is pretty much The Major Tenet of graphic design. I'm a designer myself, and something like "oh, well I thought X important piece of info looked stupid with the overall design, so I left it out..." would NOT fly. Design should be in service to the goals of the product, not vice versa.
So, basically, I'm like 90% convinced that they're lying about how environmentally friendly their products are, in the first place.
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