Blueland

Sustainable Holiday Gift Guide

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Day 335 – You may be already done with your holiday shopping. Or you haven’t even started. Whatever the case may be, it’s always a great idea to purchase gifts that will help people and the environment. Not only will you feel good giving special gifts to family and friends, but you can feel good that your gift will have a positive impact on the planet.

Here are 15 ideas from posts that I have written this year.

  1. Day 21 – Blueland – eco-friendly cleaning products
  2. Day 152 – Eco-friendly Toys
  3. Day 164 – Sustainable Phone Cases
  4. Day 178 – Eco-friendly Sunglasses
  5. Day 193 – Clothing made from recycled plastic
  6. Day 199 – Zero Waste Makeup Brands
  7. Day 205 – Igloo EcoCoolers
  8. Day 237 – Eco-friendly Yoga Mats
  9. Day 240 – Looptworks – Upcycled gifts
  10. Day 257 – Lost Golf Balls – used and recycled golf balls
  11. Day 272 – Sustainable Pet Products
  12. Day 293 – Green Goo – Skin care derived from plants
  13. Day 300 – EcoSports – Eco-friendly sporting equipment
  14. Day 324 – Rumpl – Eco-friendly blankets
  15. Day 327 – MC Squares – reusable sticky notes

Other great options include:

  1. Earth Hero – variety of Earth-friendly gifts
  2. UNICEF Market
  3. Certified B Corporation gift guide
  4. Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange – gifts for the artists in your life
  5. 4Ocean – gifts that help clean the oceans
  6. Gift card to commercial composting service
  7. Climate Pledge Products on Amazon

One more list to help you out:

20 Awesome Holiday Gifts that Help the Planet

Tomorrow, giving a gift donation.

Keeping the Toilet Bowl Clean

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Day 323 – Happy World Toilet Day! I thought it was the perfect day to talk about keeping your toilet bowl clean in an environmentally friendly way. On Day 21, I wrote about Blueland and their line of cleaning products. The people friendly ingredients are packaged in compostable bags. When the tablets are added to water in reusable bottles, various cleaning products are produced.

I was very excited when I heard Blueland added toilet bowl tablets to their product line. One tablet and a toilet brush and you have yourself a clean bowl. The Toilet Cleaner Set comes with a tin and 14 tablets. Refill tablets come in a compostable bag, so absolutely no waste.

Another great way to celebrate World Toilet Day is to help build toilets in countries where they are not available. Who Gives a Crap donates 50% of their profits to ensure everyone has access to clean water and a toilet within our lifetime. They offer toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper or bamboo. It is packaged in brightly colored paper, so there is no plastic to discard. We have been using Who Gives a Crap since January and LOVE this company so much!

The next time you are in the bathroom think about the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. Poor sanitation contaminates drinking-water sources, rivers, beaches and food crops, spreading deadly diseases among the wider population. It’s a convenience we usually take for granted.

Tomorrow, eco-friendly blankets.

Are Detergent Pods Good for the Environment?

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Day 284 – I used to use Cascade detergent pods in my dishwasher. I stopped using them because of the plastic container they were packaged in. I didn’t even consider the plastic that is found in the pod itself.

PVA (polyvinly alcohol) is used to coat dishwasher pods. It’s also found in laundry detergent pods, as well. Plastic Ocean International looked into PVA covered pods a little further.

“Once PVA goes down the drain, the chances of it biodegrading are very low. It requires strict conditions for it to be broken down via microorganisms that are not always present in wastewater treatment plants or in the environment. We also looked at how many pods were used to try to establish how much PVA goes untreated, every year, in the United States. We’re talking over eight thousand tons of PVA going into the environment, every year, originating from these detergent pods. That equates to 600 million plastic soda bottles worth of plastic, yearly. Ultimately, very little is known about how PVA behaves as a pollutant but one thing remains clear, it does not fully biodegrade.” – Plastic Ocean International

Your best bet is to use a PVA free detergent. Blueland cleaning products sells dishwasher tablets. Purchase the reusable tin and continue to load up with refills, packaged in compostable bags.

Tomorrow, celebrating National Farmers Day.