Did You Know?

• If 25% of American homes used 10 fewer plastic bags month, we’d save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.
• To make plastic wrap, manufacturers add “plasticizers” that are potentially harmful chemicals that can even work their way into our food!! 
• Our coffee filters, paper towels, are white, because they’re bleached.  That may look really clean, but it’s not a benign aesthetic; the process of bleaching paper is responsible for creating dioxin, which is a deadly toxic that has been dumping into American waterways. 
• Lots of the time, paper is bleached white despite the fact that we rarely look at it or care about it’s color.  Americans buy billions of bleached coffee filters every year, and then throw them away after one use.  What difference would it have made if we purchased the brown, unbleached ones? 

Simple Solutions:

• Use reusable containers to store food in your refrigerator instead of habitually wrapping food in aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
• Use unbleached coffee filters.  Check your local supermarket, or contact Rockline, Inc., PO Box 1007, Sheboygan, WI 53082, or online.  Reusable cotton coffee filters could be used.
• Keep rags in the kitchen to wipe up spills instead of using paper towels every time.  Then wash and reuse the rags.  Still cheaper, and especially if you dry your rags outside on the line.  I know, how old-fashioned!
• Use biodegradable wax paper to wrap sandwiches instead of foil or plastic.  Or, for sandwich and freezer bad addicts:  Biodegradable, non-toxic bags made of 100% cellulose.  Write to Earth Care Co. Box 3335, Madison, WI 53704, or online.
• Other kitchen products are also available by mail from Seventh Generation, 10 Farrell St., South Burlington, VT 05403, and online.

Warehouse of Information Fact:

• Appliances, heating, and cooling cost the average US home well over $1000 a year in energy.