well, having done my bi-weekly shopping trip, I was thinking about the choices we make to lower our impact on the planet. me and :devmisskittyooo:, try our best to always get products that are friendly to animals, and the environment, and make good choices for the future. Lots of people would like to do this I know, But the cost cam be a bit prohibitive sometimes, and availability is always an issue. I live in Vancouver Canada so all my information of course is specific to here, but hopefully other places carry these and you can try them out


Sometimes it's now what you choose to buy, but what you choose to DO that makes an impact on the future. Here are some steps I take to reduce the amount of waste.

Recycle - Most apartments these days have sorting bins somewhere for recycling. my apartment is pretty limited, I hate to say. I take all my pop bottles, cardboard and paper down there. In my old apartment without recycling bins, I would take the cans and bottles, and set them beside the garbage bin, so that the homeless could take them without causing a lot of noise, or having to dig through garbage. For a while I'd meet a guy weekly and give him all my bottles. It was win win, Income for him, recycling for me.

Reusing bags - I reuse all the bags I get from shopping, but I don't actually have that many because I use canvas and fabric bags to carry my groceries home in. One light weight bag i have rolls up to be smaller than a tissue packet, so i can carry it in my pocket all the time. Then when i buy little things I can just fill the bag up. We have several of these bags, and take them all if we do a big shop. we also have a Trolley (gingham and old ladyish to a T) that we use to shop in, and take our groceries home in. we just load it up without bags. then the over flow goes into the canvas bags.

Walk, don't drive or bus - I don't drive, and I never will. The rising cost of gas is just absolutely appalling anyways, but besides that, who needs more pollution? Kids these days, you'd think are made of glass with all the allergies, and asthma going around. we don't need to aggravate these conditions, or people will live in bubbles for the first 5 years of life. We walk, and carry our groceries at least 10 blocks home every time we go. I'm not exactly in shape, but its not very painful to do at all. exercise is good anyways. Luckily our city's transit is transforming into all green buses etc, so our buses are low impact, but the bus fare is a little annoying to pay


We get a wide variety of organic Products.
Milk - Avalon organic milk, is not only great and delish, but when you buy organic, the milk cows are better cared for. Even if you are cold enough to not care of an animals welfare, the flavour is better if the animals are healthy and happy.

eggs - Organic is the way to go with Eggs. Free range is not as great as it sounds, and the regulations surrounding what type of situation can be labelled free range are not very clear, or regulated. Organic means that not only are the birds free to roam, and trained to lay eggs where they need to, but they are never given GMO's or mishandled. Organic is happiness.

Vegetables - The Orgaic veggies way of life is not entirely planted in me yet. this is sometimes because of the cost difference, but additionally the selection is so small its almost tragic. I use leeks a lot, and of the 3 grocery stores and the market in my neighbourhood, none of them have organic leeks. So in that sense I'm forced to go with the regular ones. I try my best not to think of the horrible chemicals used in growing, and wash off the pesticides. I'm hoping in the future organic will become more available for veggies.

Award winning Yves meat alternatives - Yves is a product line I trust and LOVE. I'm a vegetarian so I rely on meat alternatives, but my sister is NOT a vegetarian and we both LOVE Yves veggie Ground round. Their products are healthier than meat, but additionally they are preservative free. We put veggie ground round in Tacos, shepherds pie, and pasta sauce. There is another product line called "oh naturel" by Schneiders that makes FABULOUS soy based meatballs, I put in stew, and soups, and the Chick' n Broccoli Melts are to die for!


Lately there are many earth Friendly cleaners and products on the market! Chemicals and cleaners are all so harsh this is a relief! not only for the environment, but our well being. Cleaners and chemicals that are less harsh on the environment can also be less harsh to breathe in when using them (inevitable) and on our skin.

Method - method cleaning products are not only in neat trendy bottles, but the scents that the products come in are not at all harsh, and quite pleasant. method is naturally derived, non-hazardous, biodegradable and non-corrosive. Today I was thinking about the price of it being a bit high, but when we went to buy it, it was only .20 cents more. so the 2 dimes is worth it

Bio-life - Shoppers Drug mart (a Canadian drug store chain) has a product like called "Bio Life" (link is to a product review) I ADORE these bio life products and they're really inexpensive as well! $2.99 for a rather large bottle of cleaner. Earth destroying brands are twice that!

My mum has a neat cleaner at home I cant remember the brand name of.

Vinegar - our wonder woman $Moonbeam13 says: one part vinegar, 3 parts water, 10 drops of lavender oil and 3 drops of tea tree oil will stop the formation of soap scum, sanitize, deodorize and create a natural deterrent for most bugs. Use it on any surface with a microfiber cloth and you will remove more dirt and bacteria from your services than any hard chemical, anti-bacterial cleaner. She knows! She did this for a living!


Now I know a lot of people will go off on the "its to expensive", "they don't work as good" etc type deal. Let me tell you something. The products work BETTER than the chemically products. I wont go back to nasty chemicals because i like my house cleaner :B not that I'm the cleanest person ever, but they work well enough that cleaning takes half the time, and my house doesn't smell like chemicals after, it smells clean.

The price of everything seems to be going up and up and up anyways, so we are all paying more, you might as well make that money go toward something earth friendly

Well, this long journal is the product of having nothing else to say HAHA.

Artist for life, Deviant 'Til death