Healthy Kitty, Healthy world

That part of my brain that justifies bad decisions has just come up with a good "reason" why eating fast food isn't such a bad thing. Ready for this? Paper bags.

Funny huh? I know, I know - why would a recycler like myself like getting paper bags. I can answer that it 2 words - Kitty Poop. Yes, Kitty Poop.

You see, I recently learned about how general scoopable cat litter was bad. Bad, bad bad actually. Where to begin.
- Most have dust containing an agent that causes cancer. And when that dust on our kitties feet gets put on our sofas, pillows and hands guess who breathes it all in? The one who bought the kitty liter and all their friends and family. Nice.
- The clay that makes it "clump" was strip-mined from the ground. Yes I said strip-mined. To the tune of 2 million tons a year. Have your attention yet?
- Once the clay has been processed - it's not bio degradable. Can't be flushed. So tons and tons of kitty poop are sitting in landfills.
- Most folks use plastic bags (as they are in such abundance) to throw away their kitty poop.

So, we've got stinky cancer causing chemicals in a non-bio degradable format in a non-bio degradable bag. Oh how non-green it is!!!

I'm currently working to transfer my lovely and picky kitty over to Swheat Scoop Wheat Litter. Thought about doing the pine, but I know our kitty would hate the smell. Swheat scoop is bio degradable. But how to dispose of it..... Supposedly if you're willing to wait 20 minutes for it to dissolve a bit first, you can flush it down the toilet. Not a horrible idea, but I'm not willing to waste 12-15 gallons of water per Kitty cleaning flush every day when my city is in a drought. We often put the poop in plastic bags still around the house. (Who thinks shoe shopping = plastic bags? One day I'll learn...) But of course then it's not bio-degradable.

And now we are full circle. Fast food bags. Small. Free (with purchase). Completely bio-degradable. If my whole household goes even 3 times a week (that would be once a week for each of us) we'd have enough bags. And while I'd like to dramatically reduce my numbers there, I think there are other folks in the house who would more than make up for me. So, thanks to McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Popeye's, Jack in the Box, Sonic, Burger King and many others not listed here - I'll be able to dramatically reduce our Kitty Poop ecological footprint. I'm not sure our Kitty cares, but I'm quite excited.

Bagging my week

So, it's been a hectic and awful week. It's been unhealthy in all the un-fun ways. Yesterday was the awful mess of a reminder of how bad the week had gotten. I bought a bunch of disposable cups when deep down I knew it was better for the world if I used real ones - but I just didn't have the energy to imagine washing them all. In rushing and exhaustion I got fast food burgers for dinner. I was sick about 20 minutes later and wondered why I had even bothered to eat it. Then I had to go to 2 different grocery stores and completely forgot my bags - so I have a bunch of plastic bags. And of course there was no time to go work out. Yes, yesterday was like the cherry on top of a crappy sundae.

Today I was determined to find good in the world. To get re-inspired. Re-focused on the good. Surprisingly, I found some of that inspiration at Amazon.

Amazon is the sole distributor of the World Food Programme Feed Bag. For $60 you get a reversible bag that is sized great for carrying books, groceries or anything else that your life requires you carry around. But $34 of that goes to feed a child for a year. Yes, that's right buy a bag - feed a child. And even better, it feeds the child through the schools - which encourages the kids to go to school and the parents to send them to school. In some schools it has increased participation 300%. Wow. Not only are these children less likely to die, but they will traditionally marry later and have less children than an uneducated adult - and they are going to encourage their kids to repeat the same process.

I may not be able to vouch for how green the process was that brought us the bag, and it may not be organic cotton - but this is absolutely healthy. Like a deep breath of fresh air. Saving bags by using this for groceries, saving kids from starvation, encouraging education, encouraging smart living.

I'll admit - I'm not buying this today. Finances are just a bit tight right now. But it is going on my Amazon wish list and I may be buying this for others as well come Christmas time. Check it out and decide if it inspires you to do the same.

Paper or plastic - or neither one?

I shopped for the first time without using plastic grocery bags. It was awesome. I used one big "keeps hot stuff hot or cold stuff cold" bag that I'd bought some time ago - and actually had used once before for grocery shopping at a store across town - but only so the food would stay cool on the way home. It wasn't made for ecological purposes.

So, I used my giant blue "keep stuff cold" bag and a black mesh bag that I've used for tons of things in the past, and appears to be made ideally for the beach. It wasn't a gigantic shopping trip, but not exactly small either. And I packed everything into those bags. With some room to spare in the blue bag. I will definitely need to get a few more bags - which was always a plan. I think K is more accepting of it now too. It was cool to see that what would have been 6-8 bags was all held in these 2 bags. No cart needed and easy to take into the house. Quite convenient.

But I found some plastic bags that I just couldn't shake. The plastic bags in the produce section where you put your apples/onions/pears/lettuce. Not sure what good options there are for that. Not putting them in a bag doesn't work well because they have to be grouped, weighed and moved easily by the check out person. And I really don't want them loose in the cart or dragged along the counter w/ who knows what on it. So, they need to be separated, but in see through containers that bring no additional weight to the table. Crap. Maybe something mesh? But dang - that could require quite a few bags.

So while I haven't removed myself from ALL plastic bags - no more plastic shopping/carry out bags. Just produce bags. Any good ideas on that?