Daily Health Bits

I wanted to expand on an entry I wrote the other day about reusable bags.  I told you that I bought two of the reusable bags from www.reusablebags.com and I just took one of them to the market for the first time.  It folded up neatly and I put it in my pocket while I shopped.  I whipped it out at the register and proudly said, "I'll use this bag, please".  I was amazed that all 13 of my items fit in the one bag, and it was strong and sturdy AND environmentally conscious.  Just to reiterate, I will list the contents of the bag so you can see what I mean:  a 3.5 pound bag of cat food, a block of jack cheese, two packages of diced chicken, 1 broccoli crown, 1/2 watermelon, 1 container of mixed baby greens, 2 containers of Naked Juice, 1 package of cherry tomatoes, 1 package of sliced mushrooms, 1 cucumber and a gallon of water.  I put the bag on my front seat, made one trip into the house, and didn't have groceries spilling out of plastic bags all over my car.  So, I would recommend buying the Recycled PET Earthtote.  It's made of recycled plastic containers and 1% of the profits from the bags goes toward environmental groups.

Posted by Cindy Burreson at 08:06 AM | Permalink

Trader Joe’s has a great idea, giving customers the opportunity to buy reusable shopping bags, to conserve paper bags that they will otherwise use.  The bags are VERY roomy, sturdy and can be used for other tasks outside of the store.  Globally, we use more than 500 billion plastic bags per year.  Many end up in landfills while others pollute oceans and kill animals who mistake them for food.  Sea turtles mistake them for jellyfish, their primary source of food, and when ingested it clogs the intestines leading to an agonizing death.  The production of plastic bags uses petroleum and often natural gas-two non-renewable resources which increases our dependency on foreign suppliers.  They take 1000 years to degrade, causing pollution and litter in our environment.  So, try to bring your own shopping bag whenever possible.  Plastic bags may not be the most important environmental concern, but it’s something almost everyone uses, and maybe we can all make a difference.  Visit the website below for more alarming statistics, and to buy reusable bags.  I bought two of the bags, after reading these statistics, and ironically, I saw a lady at the market using them as well.   It was nice to see that in action!

Source: www.reusablebags.com

Posted by Cindy Burreson at 08:19 AM | Permalink

At Biosintos, we believe that one's overall health not only encompasses your individual health but the health of the world around you.  So, whenever we hear of an environmental program that interests us, we like to pass it on.  Did you know that every year millions of tennis shoes are thrown away, piling up in landfills and wasting lots of usuable materials?  Nike has a program called Reuse-a-Shoe Program where recycled tennis shoes are collected, processed and recycled into material used in sports surfaces like basketball courts, tennis courts, athletic fields, running tracks and playgrounds for young people around the world.  Since the launch of the program, Nike has recycled over 20 millions pairs of athletic shoes, and built over 250 sports surfaces.  You can either mail your shoes in to:

Nike Recycling Center
c/o Reuse-A-Shoe
26755 SW 95th Ave.
Wilsonville, OR 97070

 Or follow this link to find a drop-off location near you: Map

The only restrictions they have are that they be athletic shoes only, with no metal pieces, no cleats and no damp or wet shoes.  So, look in your closet and see if you have any old worn our tennies that you can donate to this cause!

Posted by Cindy Burreson at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Have you ever wondered what happens when you recycle soda, beer or other aluminum cans?  In Body + Soul Magazine, I learned just that, and thought I would share it with you:

1. Trucks carry the aluminum cans to a scrap processing plant.
2. Cans pass through large magnets to attract and remove ferrous metals.  (Aluminum is not magnetic)
3. Sorted cans are condensed into 30-pound briquettes or 1,200 pound bales for shipment to aluminum companies.
4. Condensed cans are shredded into potato-chip-sized pieces, crushed and stripped of labels via burning.
5. In a furnace, chips melt down with virgin aluminum.
6. Molten aluminum pours into 30,000 pound blocks (also know as ingots).
7. Blocks are molded or rolled into sheets and send to manufacturers.
8. Sheets are reused to make things like new cans, cookware, bicycles, home appliances or car parts.

The aluminum can is the most valuable beverage container to recycle and it is the most recycled consumer product in the U.S. today.  (http://earth911.org)

Posted by Cindy Burreson at 02:31 PM | Permalink

This is pretty interesting.  I take a lot of vitamins, and never even thought about recycling the bottles until I found out this information.  Most vitamins come in what is called HDPE bottles.  They can be recycled along with all of your other household products, and should be, if you read the statistics:

If every American household recycled just ONE out of every ten HDPE bottles they used, we'd keep 200 million pounds of the plastic out of landfills EVERY YEAR!

In 2006, about 138 billion aluminum cans, and glass and plastic bottles that could have been recycled, instead ended up as litter or in a landfill.

In 1988 we used 2 billion pounds of HDPE just to make bottles for household products.  That's about the weight of 90,000 Honda Civics.

Currently in the United States, plastics recycling rates lag far behind those of other items, such as newspaper and cardboard.

So, remember to recycle your vitamin and household product bottles.  You can make a difference!

Source: Container Recycling Institute

Posted by Cindy Burreson at 09:50 AM | Permalink