You don't have to give up shaving or chain yourself to a tree to be environmentally friendly. The decisions we make every day as consumers can make a big difference.
So how does one decide what are the best choices? A new book called Ecoholic offers to help Canadian consumers wade through the politics.
Author Adria Vasil says you don't have to lead protests to make a difference. Start by making small decisions, such as installing a programmable thermostat, using non-toxic cleaning products or biking to work.
Vasil's book is based on her column of the same name written for NOW Magazine since 2004. It's a smart buyer's guide that's been customized for Canadians, written in Vasil's trademark sassy, breezy style.
There are tips on making environmentally responsible choices at the grocery store, the drug store, the home renovation store and much more.
"There is a maze of choices out there and that's why this book is needed," Vasil told CTV.ca. "You've got to be armed with all the information."
Through her book, Vasil presents both sides of debates on hot-button issues. For example: which is more friendly to the Earth: chopping down a Christmas tree that has been grown on a tree farm and sprayed with pesticides? Or buying a fake tree that has been made with polyvinyl chloride and plastics?
Vasil presents both sides of the debate and leaves it in the hands of consumers to make their own now-fully informed decision.
"I've asked the questions and done the research," she says. "I encourage people to be skeptical and to think critically."
Vasil laments that many Canadians have not been given all the information about the products they buy and are completely unaware of what's in them. Take personal care products, for example. She says that the average adult uses nine personal care products a day, containing a total of 125 chemical ingredients, many of which most of us can't pronounce, never mind assess their safety.
While the beauty industry likes to add so-called natural ingredients to its products, such as ginger and ylang ylang, "the truth is you're drenching your lips, cheeks and hair in a largely untested and lengthy list of petroleum-derived, genetically modified, carcinogenic or animal- (even whale-) derived ingredients."
"There are approximately 10,500 chemical ingredients stirred into the personal care products that line shelves... neither Canada or the U.S. requires much testing for these products," she writes.
"We look to our governments to keep us healthy," Vasil explained to CTV.ca. "But Canada has not been a leader in these things."
"Europe has been ahead on this, getting rid of carcinogens in beauty products. And the United States started catching up after bio-monitoring the population" and finding that we are carrying a soup of chdemicals in our blood and breast milk.
Vasil warns that even some products at health-food stores aren't perfect.
"You can go to the health food store and find lots of great toothpastes that are free of chemicals," she told Canada AM. "But you also have to keep in mind that not everything at the health food store is chemical-free. It's a bit of a 'wild west.' So you want to be a little bit dubious of what's out there."
The good news is that many simple beauty products can easily be made at home, and the best part is you'll know exactly what goes into it. Here's her recipe for:
Homemade toothpaste
6 teaspoons baking soda (whitener)
1/3 teaspoon salt (mild abrasive)
4 teaspoons vegetable glycerin (to create the gel)
15 drops of an organic essential oil - wintergreen, spearmint (minty fresh flavour)
Mix into a paste. Store in a small, labelled jar.
Excerpt from Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products and Services in Canada, by Adria Vasil
Top Ten Things You Can Do for Your Children
1. Walk or bike your kids to school, or if that's not feasible, ride on weekends--a family that bikes together saves the planet together!
2. Keep them inside and out of the downtown core on smog-days (going for a car ride when there's a smog alert on is a big no-no!)
3. Make sure their toys are PVC-free--keep them from breathing in any offgasing plastic softeners.
4. Don't reward with toys. Try to teach them that happiness doesn't comes from buying new things, and the planet doesn't need the resource extraction, chemical-pollution and landfill clogging that comes with making and eventually trashing them.
5. Use natural shampoos, creams and soaps. What you put on your young one's body is as important as what you put in it.
6. Feed them organic whenever you can afford it, so they get a pesticide-, hormone-, and antibiotic-free diet.
7. Say no to high-fat, high-sugar, chemical-laden processed foods. There are plenty of natural alternatives, even for packaged kids' snacks.
8. Create a non-toxic nursery or kids' room full of earth-loving children's books.
9. Resist the urge to swaddle your babe in landfill-clogging disposable diapers. But if cloth is out of the question, get unbleached, chlorine-free throw-away ones.
10. Teach them to love nature: take them to the park, on little hikes, or picnics in conservation centres.
Top 5 Eating Habits to Heal the World
1. Support local growers, be it through farmer's markets, farm-fresh food box deliveries or just keeping your eye out for local labels at the grocery store.
2. Go vegetarian or reduce meat/dairy intake--meat production uses up to 20 times as much energy as growing grain.
3. Choose fair-trade coffee, sugar, chocolate and anything else you can find fair-trade so you can be sure you're not supporting "sweatshops in the fields".
4. Buy certified organic to avoid pesticides and spare waterways, wildlife and workers troubled encounters with toxic pesticides.
5. Pass on resource-intensive, packaging-heavy fast food and heavily processed junk.
Top 5 Eco Packaging Suggestions
1. Choose renewable and recyclable glass.
2. Know your numbers. If you're buying something that comes in plastic, check the bottom for numbers that tell you the plastics are recyclable in your area, like #1 and #2. (See the City-by-City guide to learn what can be recycled in your city.)
3. Buy dry: if you're picking up something like chicken broth, the powdered kind goes a lot further than the canned.
4. Buy in bulk, and bring your own containers.
5. Good things come in small packages. Often foods like cereals that come in smaller boxes contain the same amount of, say, mueslix, as the bigger boxes that are just full of air. Compare product weight to be sure.
