When the holidays roll around each year, many of us greet the season with a mixture of excitement and dread. We want to spoil our loved ones rotten with fabulous gifts, but we struggle stay in control of the budget and think of something new and interesting to give. Add to this the longing to be environmentally conscientious in our purchasing and many of us feel overwhelmed.
This holiday season, consider these eco-friendly gift suggestions that
accommodate diverse budgets but won’t compromise your values. Don’t
forget to check out Greenrock’s Top Ten Green Websites, too – many of
them feature great ideas for greener giving.
Did you know that the average school-age child with a daily disposable lunch generates approximately 67 pounds of waste each school year? That’s an enormous amount of garbage, particularly if you multiply it by your child’s entire class or all the students in Bermuda – about 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size primary school.
But the typical Bermudian school student’s lunch isn’t just wasteful. It also consists of a dangerously high amount of processed food and costs far more money than it ought to.
Every summer my mother feeds her garden slugs a nice bottle of beer. It’s not that she is in the habit of placing alcohol out for all the animals around her cottage to enjoy, but that slugs are well known to be drawn to beer, which diverts them from garden vegetables. For the pleasure of their free happy hour, the slugs eventually find themselves drowned in the bowls of beer she’s distributed. As a result, my mom can harvest her lettuce and other produce without resorting to using harmful chemicals to keep away these invading pests.
This fall, why not embark on some of these planet-friendly activities with your kids? You’ll foster in them a love for the environment and sustainable action, and have fun at the same time.
Green is the new black. When your kids pester you for the latest fashions, discuss ways that you can be creative with their old clothes or personalise ones that you buy secondhand at a local thrift shop. Recycle them into new creations by choosing a saying or picture and printing it onto t-shirt transfer paper to iron onto their t-shirts. Add some personality to clothes by using fabric paint to stencil or free-style a design. Sew patches, sequins, trim, ribbons or buttons onto clothes or bags. Or throw a clothes and toys swap with other families that have kids the same age: ask each family to bring cds, dvds, books, video games, clothes and toys they no longer use to swap for “new to you” items.
This summer, bring your kids into the world of Greenrock with our Green Kids Summer Series. This month, we offer some of the top websites and books available to share your love of the environment and sustainable living with your children. Next month, tune back in for some great activities and challenges for them to put what they’ve learned to the test.
Putting sunscreen on a child is like trying to pet a hummingbird. Good luck getting a kid to stay put long enough to let you lather it on, let alone with the coverage that the experts deem necessary. And it’s not much better with adults. Across Bermuda all summer long there will be victims of the “forgot a patch” sunscreen crowd. Those with burnt backs but pristine white fronts, blistery noses beneath a sunglass-shaped white area, and painful, aloe-covered calves.
Greenrock is pleased to announce that biodiesel is now on sale in Bermuda. Ornamental Iron Works Limited has just been certified by the Bermuda Government's Environmental Protection agency to sell biodiesel. Biodiesel is up to 20% cheaper than regular diesel and is made from 100% waste cooking oil. It is non-toxic and biodegradable.
It is unlikely that you consider your cell phone to be a ticking time bomb or the package of batteries you buy toxic sludge. Undoubtedly, you do not buy disposable razors in an attempt to destroy the environment, nor do you buy bottled water thinking that the plastic will burn nicely in our incinerator.
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