ecologically-friendly laundry products

Our Midwest windows dripped from humidity this morning calling to mind the phrase “Dog Days of Summer.”   The traditional period of the Dog Days is the 40 days from July 3^rd to August 11^th.    The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, was somehow responsible for the hot weather. ^¹

We’ve had a summer of scorching temperatures and sporadic storms.  But that hasn’t slowed the usual activities such as camping, fairs and picnics.  To avoid bites and potential disease from insects while spending time outdoors, change a few habits.  Do not use scented deodorant, soap or lotions.  Skip the perfume and hairspray and any other scented cosmetics.  As for clothing, wear white or pale hues – not bright colors.  Those clothes should be laundered with unscented detergent and softener, like adcoeco.  When choosing a location for your summer fun, avoid tall grass and weeds, and areas of standing water, where mosquitoes breed.  Don’t forget to explore the night sky for Sirius, the brightest star besides the sun.  Lastly, have a great time – school supplies are in the stores and cooler weather is around the corner! 

^{¹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days}

What’s in the news and on our minds are the Gulf oil spill and the efforts to undo the damage done by man to our planet.  While we watch and wait, we can review our own efforts to be earth friendly.  Are we good stewards of our land for future generations?  One of the ways we can help is by using earth friendly cleaning products.  Earth friendly means biodegradable and non-toxic. 

Our adcoeco laundry detergent was formulated as phosphate-free and with biodegradable surfactants.  Excess phosphates in the water will disturb the ecosystem.  More suds in the washer do not guarantee cleaner clothes. Synthetic surfactants used in other laundry detergents are slow to degrade and leave trace amounts in the soil and water.  In addition, adcoeco does not contain dye or perfume, which can cause allergies and skin irritations to humans, and are often derived from petroleum.   Next time choose an earth friendly laundry detergent and be part of the solution.

Visit the newest, forward-thinking carriers of our products:  Dublin Cleaners (Columbus Ohio), Rocket Business Services (Milwaukee Wisconsin) and Hydraulic Wash (Charlottesville Virginia).

My college sophomore came home after final exams to visit for Mother’s Day.  Her initial question was “What do you want first – your present or my laundry?”  Of course that was followed by “What are we doing for dinner?”  Pressed for time to do weeks of laundry in a few hours, I of course voted to get that project started.  Sorting is a necessary first step, but always a topic for debate with a college student. Coming from the generation of instant gratification, she claims that it takes too much time.  I’ve watched her skip that step in the past, stuffing the washing machine with a mixed load of t-shirts, pink towels and white socks.  Separating by color and temperature is one lesson I can’t seem to drive home.  “It’s easy, just wash everything on cold,” she instructs.  As if I’ve been over-working myself all of these years!  Having learned to choose my battles, I confess I’ve had to leave the room to not lose the tip of my tongue.

 My doing her laundry is a labor of love, a way to believe she is still dependent on me for her care while allowing her to relax and de-stress in familiar surroundings.  It allows me to reconnect as I sort.  “That shirt is cute – when did you get it?”  I come across a band-aid.  “Did you cut yourself?”  I unearth sweatpants covered with dog hair.  “Do you think having a puppy is a good idea for college students?”   Whiffs of perfume fill the air.  Fortunately, Mom’s detergent is fragrance-free, so there won’t be a clash of scents when she wears that new shirt later.  As I dug through the hamper, my living room filled with piles of colors – where were the sheets?  –   she yelled for me to stop!  “The stuff at the bottom is clean from the last time.”  She implored me to start using the sniff test to determine when I reached the “clean” items.  Yikes!  They may have been cleaned at one time, but were now too wrinkled to wear.  Surely I’d checked off iron on the campus supply list.  I’ll have to be sure to add to her supplies with a present of my own – bottles of adcoeco – so she can be just like mom.

With a new high efficiency washer, you must use HE detergent.  A concentrated detergent is made with less water and therefore less packaging, so you can be efficient while lightening the load on your shoulder!  When shopping for detergent, look for the HE logo  and simplify the selection by doing a comparison cost-per-load calculation.   All HE detergents are low sudsing and quick-dispersing.  They work by holding the soil in suspension instead of re-depositing it on the clothes.  HE washers have two to four rinse cycles, rather than one deep rinse as in an agitator washer.  As part of their energy savings, they remove more water from your laundry, requiring less dry time.

Getting rid of your old agitator washer for a new high efficiency model will reduce your energy bills, because there’s much less water to heat.   HE washers use less water because they clean with a tumbling action.  This motion, along with clean rinsing laundry products is gentler on fabrics. States  are offering rebates to those replacing old appliances with an Energy Star model.  Rules vary by state regarding recycling of your clunker appliance, along with the state’s allocation dollars and start dates for the program.  Although about $300 million in federal funds are making this program a possibility, many states are expected to refund the money quickly even though they have until February 2012 to use up the funds.

Our long hard winter has awakened to one of the most allergy-causing spring seasons in years.  The delayed blooming of plants and trees has resulted in many appearing at once to irritate our eyes, sinuses, throats and lungs.  Learn about the origin of “hay fever” and recognize the worst offenders  in your area of the country.  When visiting a doctor for my daughter’s allergy symptoms, I learned of the existence of an experimental ragweed farm near our home.  In some cases medication is unavoidable, but I like to see what else I can do to alleviate her symptoms.

Although the budding foliage may be beautiful to look at, we may be anxious to seek the indoor comfort of our homes.  An easy tip is to remove your shoes – there’s pollen on the soles – before entering your home.  Another way to find some relief is to use a hypoallergenic detergent for your clothes and bedding.  Avoid using down pillows and comforters, and wash your bedding in hot water with a hypoallergenic detergent like adcoeco.  The small bottle is concentrated; remember to not use more detergent than necessary and you’ll avoid an additional rinse cycle.  Additionally, adcoeco contains no dyes or perfumes, so you can enjoy a good night’s sleep (windows closed, of course).

Our culture sure does love sports.  We quickly jump from the Final Four to Opening Day.  Growing up I played whiffle ball or used a homemade Great Depression model rag ball that my dad had sewn.  In the carefree 60’s and 70’s we gathered cousins and neighbors to play our games in the street.   Green would only mean that the ball had been hit foul to a neighbor’s yard – the environment was not our concern.

I took an online quiz questoning “the least green sport.”  The answer:  baseball.  In the green arena, Major League Baseball has been criticized for their association with Scott’s MiracleGro, which promotes chemical-heavy turf management.   Consider the watering, lighting and concession stand trash at a ballpark.  In addition, the home team is required to have 90 new baseballs on hand, with usually 5-6 dozen used per game. 

But MLB has started to move in the green direction.  The Washington Nationals Park was the first major league ballpark to be certified as a LEED green building.  Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is an accreditation by the U S Green Building Council after meeting their standards of sustainability.  The Green Building Council rates:

•  Location and Planning
•  Sustainable Sites
•  Water Efficiency
•  Energy and Atmosphere
•  Materials and Resources
•  Indoor Environmental Quality
•  Innovation and Design Process
•  Regional Priority

The Nationals Park is close to public transportation, has water-conserving plumbing fixtures, efficient lighting, and a roof of highly reflective material. 

Following Washington around the bases is Minnesota’s Target Field.  The Twins’ stadium will collect, filter, and re-use rainwater, reducing municipal water usage by 2 million gallons a year.  A rain-out won’t be all bad!  In the clubhouse, offices, and training room, a water filtration system will reduce the use of bottled water.  Now if only the hot dogs were healthy!  There is a new menu item at the home of the Toledo Mud Hens.  The 15 scoop “Fifth Third Fanatic Freeze Sundae,” served in a souvenir helmet for $25.  I hope the sticky helmets don’t end up in the trash.  But healthier food is another trend that the stadiums should change, and another blog.

It is with heavy buckets that we rejoice in the arrival of spring and groan at the thought of spring cleaning.  Soap aside, let’s not forget to purge old cosmetics from our drawers and countertops.  We’ve all purchased a lipstick shade that’s just never going to look attractive.  Makeup has a shelf life that can be found somewhere on the packaging or the web.   In addition to reading the labels on our food, we need to become knowledgeable of what’s being absorbed by our skin – the body’s largest organ.  To check the contents of your makeup “box of tricks” visit this site:   http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/browse.php?maincat=makeup .  At my age, the box contains an overflow in search of a silver bullet concealer.  My trend-following daughters manage to accumulate/use more items than I can check labels on as they experiment with their Lady Gaga looks.  Potential exposure to hormone-altering chemicals tied to cancer and hormone disruption has been published by the Environmental Work Group.  I know my generation of moms has questioned their daughters’ early onset puberty.  Do some further research and decide for yourself.

Since sandal season is coming and pedicures come with it, I’ve decided to focus my battle on nail polish.  Make sure it’s free of toluene, formaldehyde, or DPB (dibutyl phthalate, or “three free.”  Here’s a card from OPI to guide you when replacing your products: http://www.womenandenvironment.org/Nail_Polish_walletcard.pdf. 

After you organize your products, empty tubes, bottles, lipstick covers, jars and caps from full size products can be brought to any US Origins department store counter for recycling -regardless of brand. Origins is committed to the environment and will give you a free sample of one of their skin care products in return!    MAC cosmetics accepts its packaging back for recycling with its Back to M A C Program.  Return six primary packaging containers and receive a free MAC lipstick of your choice.  I wonder what I can find for concealer….

It’s almost time to reclaim my week-ends; meaning the end of club volleyball season for my youngest. Held at various schools, it’s the parents’ responsibility to clean up after the tournament.  One can always find mountains of plastic bottle filled trash cans and half empty bottles left on the tables in a rush to take the court.  Can’t distinguish your Aquafina or Dasani?  Head to the cooler or concession stand for another! 

Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles per hour and only 13 percent of those get recycled.  Forty percent of this $16 billion a year business is providing us with simple tap water.  In our desire for convenience, we could be harming our health in addition to the environment.  The studies continue on possible toxic effects of Bisphenol-A.  If you haven’t already, please make the switch to use aluminum bottles, so you won’t absorb this hormone altering chemical.  In the meantime, plastics coded #1 (soda, adcoeco) 2 (detergent), 4 and 5 are considered safe to use, although don’t re-use #1 bottles for drinking.   Those made of #3, 6 and 7 (plastic wrap, Styrofoam, and polycarbonate bottles) should be avoided because they cannot be recycled or are harmful.  Bottoms up!

No, I’m not writing about the green shirt in your closet.  Sunday night brings the Academy Awards and this broadcast promises to showcase more than Oscar winners.  Look for eco-friendly fashions on Suzy Cameron (wife of Avatar director James) among others.  She’ll being wearing a Red Carpet Green Dress contest-winner designed by a Michigan State University student.   Recently, Nike introduced shirts made from eight recycled plastic bottles that will be worn by all of its national teams in the World Cup.  (The plastic came from landfills in Taiwan and Japan).   Materials used in an eco-friendly wardrobe can include soy, bamboo, organic cotton, non-toxic dyes and other recycled goods such as rubber.  Fortunately, these fabrics can be machine washed or hand-washed with your eco-friendly detergent and softener.  Metal can be reformed for jewelry or belts.  While celebrities or athletes may be the only ones who can currently afford these garments, eco-friendly dressing can extend to recycling vintage garments, utilizing garage sales or simply living with quality versus quantity – a drum I’ve been beating to three daughters for some time.  Enjoy the show.

Over the past few months I’ve ridden a roller coaster of feelings about Toyota’s quality problems.  Each day I slip into my Camry as a defensive driver – ever conscious of my foot on the accelerator.  I wonder how this could have happened.  For some years I was employed by an OEM supplier in the auto industry and was impressed with the kaizen philosophy.  Consequently, I made my first Toyota purchase, and cruised down the road with quality, value and efficiency, buying another in 2009.  Then came new meaning to “Oh what a feeling” and “I love what you do for me.”   Instead of asking for more, I’d like to ask for less – less greed, less complacency, and less evasion.  The new five- passenger, zero emissions, all-electric Leaf by Nissan looks promising as a car that can go 100 miles on a single charge.  Leaf is scheduled to be available by late 2010 – any predictions on my trade-in value?