Natural cat litter is a better option for both health and environmental reasons
Like many people, we have cats. Despite the fact that their litter smells sometimes and that they throw-up hairballs on the carpet and shed all over our couches, we really do love them and try to do our best by them.
In truth, they are really my cats, as I am the one that takes care of them, gives them food and water and cleans out their litter boxes. The other day, I was cleaning out the litter and started to wonder what the litter was made of and if it was safe for them to use. I mean, every time I poured new litter into the litter pans, I would hold turn my head and hold my breath to keep from breathing the dust in. I knew litter was primarily made out of clay, but I did not know what else was in it or what kind of environmental impact it had.
I also wondered if there was a better way to deal with the dirty litter. My existing method was to scoop the dirty litter into a plastic bag and then throw that plastic bag in the trash, which is not green at all. But, as far as I knew, there was no other way to dispose of dirty cat litter.
So, I finished cleaning out the cat litter, filling up their food and water bowls and set out researching my questions. I soon found out that traditional clumping cat litter is not very good for cats, people or the environment and that there are much better options out there that also help with the problem of disposal of dirty cat litter.
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Nonstick cookware makes cooking easier, but is it safe?
If you have been following are blog, you have learned that modern, processed and prepackaged foods contain very little nutrition and can be full of hormones and nasty chemicals. Not only are processed and prepackaged foods not that healthy, but producing them typically causes great damage to the environment in the forms of: dangerous chemicals used as herbicides and pesticides, hormones used in meat production, GMO’s used in the growing of corn, wheat and other crops, and extreme use of energy (read: coal and oil) to produce and transport food across the globe.
Hopefully, you have switched over to eating natural and organic foods when you can. If you have, you are likely eating out a lot less and cooking at home more, which is great. However, how you cook the food you eat is just as important as the actual food itself. You can buy 100% natural and organic food or even grow your own food in your backyard, but if you cook it in the wrong pan, you can still introduce dangerous chemicals into your body.
Today, the most ubiquitous type of cookware available is non-stick. It is heralded as a quick and easy way to cook food and clean up afterwards. But, is nonstick cookware safe?
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We bought a new bed for our daughter recently. It was a bunk bed and came in a zillion pieces that we had to put together. When the boxes for the bed arrived, we opened them up and were almost knocked back by the strong smell of paint that was coming from them. As this bed was going into our daughter’s bedroom, I decided to do a little research on what was causing the smell. What I found was absolutely amazing and scary at the same time.
Read more on Off Gassing – The New Products in Your Home are Hurting You…
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These common household cleaners are a good example of household hazardous waste
Whether you know it or not, you probably have hazardous waste in your home. Most of us do. Many of the traditional cleaning products that we use in our homes contain chemicals that are considered hazardous. Also, many of the products that we use to take care of our home, yard, bicycles, cars, toys and other items contain chemicals that make them household hazardous waste. Whether we should even have this household hazardous waste in our homes is a question for another post. The question posed here is, if we decide that we don’t want a household hazardous waste product anymore or if the product is too old or unusable for some reason or the other, how do we dispose of it properly? Read more on Household Hazardous Waste…
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Natural ant killers are a good way to control ants naturally
If you own or rent a house, chances are you probably have had to deal with ants getting into your home. While ants serve a much needed role as nature’s vacuum cleaners, if they get into your house, they are annoying little buggers!
My first reaction when I used to see ants in my home was to grab a chemical ant spray and douse them. However, spraying ants with chemicals is very bad in two ways. Read more on Natural Ant Killers…
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Broken CFL Cleanup is not as hard as you may think
Many friends and family members ask me about the mercury contained in compact fluorescent bulbs and how to properly do broken CFL clean up. When I ask them what they have heard to do with a broken CFL, I get stories ranging from “just open a window and clean it up with a broom,” to “open all of the windows in my house, turn off the AC or heat, leave for 24 hours and call poison control.”
It is obvious that there is widespread confusion on the subject of cleaning up a broken CFL. Read more on Broken CFL Cleanup…
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