The Mom's Guide to Growing Your Family Green - look for reusables

Everyone agrees that “going green” is a great idea. But as a mom with a shortage of time and money, what are the best green choices out there for your family and the environment?

Terra Wellington, the author of The Mom's Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home, has the answers. I think I’m pretty knowledgeable about green matters since I’ve been replacing light bulbs, composting, and buying organic. Still, Terra’s practical guide is jam packed with hundreds of easy green how-tos that I hadn’t considered before.

Here’s an excerpt from The Mom's Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home:

Look for reusable

We live in a disposable society that has a limited understanding of what it means to conserve. Companies sell us things that have a limited life—sometimes for convenience, but other times so that we’ll buy more and pad their bottom lines. Unfortunately, our children are benefactors of multiple generations of overconsumption and nonreusability. I bet that if  you take a hard look, you’ll see yourself and your family underusing, overbuying, and overspending. To stop this expensive and wasteful cycle, you need to rewire your and your family’s thinking.  When you are shopping, think, “What can I buy that is reusable?” or “What might have a longer life span?” Here are some ideas:

Use reusable shopping bags:

Bring along reusable shopping bags for groceries, mall shopping, or any kind of buying.

• Chicobag - Reusable shopping bags.
• Ikea - Has reusable oversize totes for sale and encourages customers to not use plastic bags.
• Reusable Bags - Sells reusable shopping bags, reusable aluminum and stainless steel water bottles, and reusable lunch kits.
• Target - This retailer sells a number of reusable shopping bags and totes.

Put your reusable bags in your car’s trunk. That way you’ll always have them with you when you go shopping.

Reduce plastic wrap and food storage bags:

Put your food in reusable containers whenever possible. Make sure all plastic wrap and food storage bags are free of toxic chemicals like BPA and PVC, and plasticizers like DEHA and DEHP.

• Glad - Glad’s food storage products are made from polyethylene (plastic #4) and polypropylene (plastic #5), and contain no PVC, BPA, plasticizers, or dioxins. And no dioxins are
  formed when heated.
• Saran - Plastic food wrap that is free of PVC and BPA. It is also dioxin free so that it can be heated safely in the microwave.
• Ziploc - Free of PVC, BPA, and dioxins, this company’s plastic food bags and containers are also formulated not to contain harmful phthalates. The containers are plastic #5. The nonsteam and nonslider closure bags are plastic #4. Other bags with the slider closure and steaming capability are a mix of plastics 1, 4, and 5—and therefore would be considered a plastic #7 because of this mix. Plastic #7 is not toxic but is considered more difficult to recycle.

Mom Central Goes Green will be featuring more terrific tips from Terra Wellington and her book The Mom's Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home.

Anne-Marie Nichols is Mom Central Goes Green’s Managing Editor.

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