BlogHers ACT Canada

The quest to rid Canada of Bisphenol A continues!

The team at Environmental Defence is calling on daycare centres across Canada to stop using a harmful chemical called bisphenol A.

Recently, nearly 150 mothers and other concerned Canadians gathered at Queen's Park to raise awareness regarding the use of Bisphenol A in plastic products, in particular, baby bottles and children's drinking cups.  It is also found in the lining of some tin cans.

Studies show that bisphenol A is a suspected hormone disruptor. That means it could be risky for children, even in low doses.

The rally at Queen's Park succeeded in drawing further attention to the issue, as Premier Dalton McGuinty has agreed to table a new bill this spring in an effort to reduce and ban toxic substances such as bisphenol A.

BlogHers Act Canada and Environmental Defence urge you to help to get daycare centres on board!

It’s easy to take action. You can send a letter to your children’s daycare centre, asking the centre to stop using products with bisphenol A. Toxic Nation's web site has a sample letter you can download and send.

You can also provide a sample letter for your children’s daycare centre to encourage its suppliers to stop providing products with bisphenol A.

Finally, if your daycare centre agrees to stop using products with bisphenol A, send the centre a Bisphenol A Action Form to fill out and send back to Environmental Defence.

Please share your success stories with us here at BlogHers Act Canada.  Together, we can protect children’s health from dangerous chemicals!

 

Buy Nothing

by motherbumper

The personal pledge I made when committing myself to BHA Canada's environmental action challenge was to make lifestyle changes that would (should) in turn, make a difference to my own life (with a trickle down effect - I hope).

Today I hope to take it to another level and do a whole lot of the monthly challenges at one time (see right sidebar for the list).  And I'm going to try to do this way more often than once a year: today is Buy Nothing Day.

One way to help lessen my impact on the planet is to consume less. It also means (literally) less crap in my life.  Most days I wish I lived a more minimalist lifestyle.  Unfortunately my love of IKEA and gadgets make this difficult.  I'm a bit jealous of my friend - her family lives a nomad minimalist lifestyle with child - but only a bit because I'm not really that into the whole nomad thing.  But the ability to pack up your entire life in a couple of backpacks and boxes is intriguing and sounds very stress-free.

What I need is some behaviour modification - not as radical as getting rid of all the possessions - but a change in thinking is totally necessary.  I need a spending habits make-over.  Calling it a make-over makes it sound way more fun than behaviour modification which I think sounds kinda scary - and possibly painful. 

Before making purchases, I need to firmly establish need from want.  Sticking to those decisions will be difficult but more thought on what the impact of purchases make in my life is needed.  Do I really need Guitar Hero 3?  Do I really want another video game (aka: time sucker) in my life?  Why do I keep saying Yes to those questions?

Today the hardest purchase to avoid is going to be the stop at Tim's.  Every Friday after tinytots gym class, Bumper and I pass a Tims and we've made a habit of stopping in and sharing a couple of timbits (and I get a much needed coffee). 

not today my friends

I think a change in our walking route is needed because explaining why there will be no timbits today would be more of a challenge than trying to talk myself out of GH3.  Trust me, there is no reasoning with Bumper.  Coffee is easy enough to make at home.  I'll survive.

If you are interested in finding out more about Buy Nothing Day and what you can do to participate in your area check it out over at Adbusters.  There are some really cool things going on and great recaps of past years.

Grinding to a halt.

I used to think that garbage disposals were a much more American convenience, and not a kitchen appliance that was seen often in Canada.  Then I moved to house in the suburbs that already had a garbage disposal installed.  (A very quick aside:  Remember on the Flintstones, how Wilma's garbage disposal was some sort of ravenous prehistoric creature that lived under her sink?  If only...)

At first I thought having a disposal was really great.  Although we compost our kitchen scraps in the warmer months of the year, in the winter it’s so handy to just toss your carrot peels, lettuce scraps and leftovers into the sink, turn on the tap and switch on the power.  The only problem we ever really had with the disposal was the one time it broke down, and clogged up.  Water wouldn’t drain from that side of the sink, and the smell...man alive! Otherwise, it’s been very handy and provided no animal matter gets stuck in the blades, it’s been very clean and no odor wafts out of that drain.

However, something has been nagging me in the back of my mind whenever I watch those food scraps get gobbled up.  Something doesn’t seem right about this.  I decided to look into the matter.

It seems that my instincts were right.  Although making use of a garbage disposal removes waste from the local landfill, it also greatly increases the load on local sewage treatment facilities.  More water is used up in the flushing of material down the drain (and in the treatment of it).  These and the possibility of clogged pipes are all excellent reasons to avoid using the garbage disposal whenever possible.

The garbage disposal is one appliance I will be reducing the use of from now on.  I think I’ll try to keep composting throughout the winter, and meat scraps and other non-compostable waste will go in the garbage.  Convincing my husband to join me will be the real challenge.

Here’s a list of articles I consulted that helped me come to this conclusion.  I hope you’ll take some time to investigate for yourself, if you’re a garbage disposal user.

• Garbage disposal guilt - disposal vs. the trash can for perishable wastes, by Jeanne Rattenbury, Vegetarian Times,  January, 1996.
• Land Septage, Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
• To Grind or not to Grind?  That is the Environmental Question . . .Avoid Garbage Disposal Problems and Odor by Limiting the Waste Going Down the Sink, Grinning Planet.
• Disposal Proposal: On garbage disposals, by Umbra Fisk, Grist, March 27, 2003.

Reminder:  Today there is a rally being held at Queen's Park from 10 am until 11 am.  The rally's war cry is "Ban Toxics, Baby!  A Family Rally to End Toxic Chemicals in Baby Bottles."  In an effort to persuade the McGuinty government to get cracking and pass a law to get toxic chemicals out of baby bottles and other consumer products, Toronto area moms will be gathering at Queen's Park with their friends, their babies and their old baby bottles for some music, fun, hot apple cider and cheering.  Join in!   Visit Toxic Nation for more information.

Taking the reins.

Thank you, everyone, for the warm welcome in the last post's comment section.  I was so pleased when Sandra contacted me to see if I was interested in taking a more active role in the BlogHers ACT Canada initiative.  My name is Amy, but around the internet I’m known as “Assertagirl”.  I’ve always been a big believer in green living, and my husband Graham and I make daily efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, so naturally, I told Sandra and the other writers here at Mommy Blogs Toronto, “Of course I’m interested!”  I am proud to join in, since BlogHers ACT Canada is a terrific initiative that I’ve been participating in since we voted this past summer to use our collective Canadian blogging power to make positive environmental change.

I want to mention to you here in my first post, that although I am neither a mommy nor any longer a resident of Toronto, I am definitely a Canadian who places green living rather high on her personal list of priorities.   This November, in particular, our challenge to reduce home energy use has been top of mind.  I find myself constantly turning out lights, unplugging unused appliances, and making an effort to run heavy duty appliances during off-peak hours.

I have a little bit of research to do when it comes to a couple of appliances that we have in our home.  I want to find out, for example, if our garbage disposal is doing the environment more harm than good.  I promise to report the findings!

In the meantime, I encourage you all to take a look at this video.  This Green House Tour was conducted by Olivia Chow, Member of Parliament for the Trinity-Spadina electoral district of Toronto.  Olivia’s husband is Jack Layton, leader of the NDP and MP for Toronto-Danforth.  Together, Olivia and Jack have transformed their downtown home into a green house.  One of the ways they've accomplished this is by utilizing solar energy to contribute to the power grid, reducing the cost to heat and cool their home.  Although this may not be feasible in all neighbourhoods, or in all of our homes, I find this video really inspirational, and I hope you do, too.

Airing Your Dirty (or Clean) Laundry

posted by: Sandra

Did you know that in some municipalities it is illegal to hang your laundry out to dry on a clothesline? Illegal.

Unsightly? Morally questionable to expose our kids to the sight of bras and panties dangling in the wind? Or as one site I read put it, "too trailer park trash"?

Ahem.

I, for one, have fond memories of growing up and helping my mother hang our clothes to dry. There is something wonderful about the smell of air-dried sheets and sweaters. The sight of an old woman's stockings flapping in the breeze makes me giggle. Why so much hate for clotheslines?

Although I may romanticize it, I really should admit that other than on the odd swimsuit and towel, I never do it as an adult. The clothes dryer is just too darn convenient. And close.

But in my pledge to do better for the environment, is it really the greenest choice? The World Wildlife Fund, says we should be allowed to harness free solar and wind energy by hanging out clothes out to dry. They, and other environmentalists, are calling on provincial governments, like in Ontario, to overturn municipal by-laws that ban the dreaded clothesline. Especially in the hot summer when we need to work hardest to conserve energy, air drying our laundry is a perfect solution.

I had heard this story earlier this summer and then again today on the radio. It got me thinking about all the ways we can reduce energy in the home. Simple ways. They might be less convenient, but we might even like them a whole lot better if we gave it a try.

Have you begun the November Challenge yet? Don't forget to blog your ideas, suggestions and experiences reducing home energy by November 20th so we can do a round up of all the posts.

And if you ever needed a visual to motivate you to realize how much of a difference we can make by conserving energy in our homes, then take a look at this ...

Do you have a muscle house? This is the month to find out.

--------------------
On another note, please join me in welcoming the exceptionally talented, Assertagirl as the new lead blogger for BlogHers Act Canada. She'll be taking the reigns next week and looks forward to blogging this wonderful initiative to new heights.

I am so grateful to have had the chance to be a part of launching it with all of you. May there be many fabulous eco-action-filled days ahead for BlogHers Act Canada!

Ban Toxics, Baby!

posted by: Sandra

We blogged it on Blog Action day. We signed the petition. We closed our eyes really tightly and tapped our shoes together three times.

But it hasn't gone away yet.

Bisphenol A is still all around us ... including in baby bottles.

The battle continues to be waged and we can be part of the front lines. If you are a BlogHers Act Canada blogger or reader living in the Toronto area, then we'd love to invite you to special event. We are excited to support Toxic Nation's "Ban Toxics, Baby!" rally on November 20th. Here are the deets:

Family Rally to End Toxic Chemicals in Baby Bottles

We want the McGuinty government to get cracking and pass a law to get toxic chemicals out of baby bottles and other consumer products.

FAMILY FUN RALLY!
Join us with your babies and your old baby bottles for music, fun, hot apple cider and cheering at Queen's Park.

WHERE: Queen's Park front lawn
WHEN: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
10AM-11:30AM
Rain or Shine, we'll be out for a party!

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

RSVP to Cassandra Polyzou at Environmental Defence
(416)323-9521 x222
cpolyzou@environmentaldefence.ca
visit www.toxicnation.ca for more info

Not in Toronto to attend the rally? Still want to do something tangible and up close and personal?

Toxic Nation is also embarking on a huge campaign to urge daycare centres to ban Bisphenol A.

You can ask your child's day care centre to become Bisphenol A free and to implore their suppliers to do the same. All the info plus sample letters can be found here.

So let's do it, baby. Let's ban toxics!!!

If you go to the event and take photos ... be sure to blog them and let us know so we can post links and spread the word about the rally. Thanks!

November Challenge: Reduce Home Energy Use

posted by: Sandra

One of my 6-year-old's favourite things to do is remind me that he's going to save the world. He loves to follow me around the house and loudly declare: "Don't forget about global warming, Mommy" whenever he's caught me leaving a room without turning off the light. We can all join my adorable-but-know-it-all son by turning off the lights to save the environment in November's BlogHers Act Canada eco-challenge to reduce home energy use!

This month we invite you to reduce your home's eco-footprint. Between now and November 20th, write a post filled with your fabulous ideas on how to save energy. Tell us what is hard. Tell us what is easy. Tell us about how you watch McSteamy and McDreamy in the dark just because it is good for mother earth. Heh. Then we'll do a round up of all your great posts to share with everyone. Let's blog this one loudly!

To start you off, here are some great ideas on how to be energy efficient while doing my three least favourite things around the house: cooking, dishwashing and laundry. Who knew that we could make such an impact while doing chores?

Or what about becoming an eco-terrorist like the MommyBlogsToronto gang did on our eco-trip to Chicago. I have a big box of energy-efficient light bulbs for the first person willing to photograph or video themselves in a series of covert operations to secretly change bulbs all over the land.

Blogging is good. Eco terrorism is cool. But what else can we do to show our commitment to reduce home energy use?

We can also join FLICK OFF, which is a movement to fight climate change by getting Canadians to use less energy. Their site has some awesometastic suggestions on how to make a difference in dozens of different ways. So "Go Flick Yourself"!

And if you haven't already, sing up for the David Suzuki Nature Challenge. Many of their challenge items support the idea of reducing energy use.

Their site is full of resources on choosing energy efficient appliances and on how to reduce home energy use by at least 10 percent. Suzuki really is like the poster boy for Canada's environmental movement. (Well, not that kind of poster boy - even though he does have that hot science-guy thing goin' on).

So this month, spend your energy reducing it! Make a sizzlin' You Tube video or write a post between now and November 20th and let's get some buzz around November's challenge!