My fellow green blogger and Green Moms carnival member Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life gave an AWESOME lecture at the TEDx Conference in LA last month. Go Beth! The video is amazing and Beth is amazing. She is an inspiration. Enjoy!

One aspect of green living we may “forget” to consider is what will become of us after we die. And no I am not talking about an afterlife, I mean what will become of our physical body. Yeah, kind of a morbid topic but this post is part of the Green Moms Carnival being hosted by Deanna at Crunchy Chicken. Visit to her blog to see what others are writing about this topic.

I decided after my grandmother passed that I liked the idea of a place where you can go and visit your loved ones after they pass. Although I think it can be a source of guilt for some if they want to move away from that location later. I did not like the idea of the “decomposition” that occurs after burial. I found I could barely get those thoughts out of my mind whenever I entered the cemetery where she was buried. I also did not like the idea of body preservation or wakes with open caskets. Later, when I was diagnosed with cancer, it was hard to NOT think about what I wanted my “end” to look like. I decided that I wanted no funeral or service. I also thought it would be lovely to be cremated and then have my ashes buried in a wooden box with a tombstone above. Ultimately though I wondered about how much rural land is lost to create huge cemeteries, how eco friendly it is to burn your body, and what method was best.

What is Not So Green About Funerals, Burials, and Cremation:

* Land being cleared to use for cemeteries

* Embalming fluid and other chemicals used to sanitize and preserve bodies that can end up in our ground water

* Chemicals used to preserve your body when you donate it to science

* Urns, urn vaults, and coffins made of plastic or metal which will not biodegrade or do so very slowly

* Fossil fuels being used for grave excavation and for making tombstones

* Fossil fuels being used for funeral processions and body transportation

* Fossil fuels used to cremate bodies

Some Greener Choices:

* A wood, cardboard, wicker, or bamboo coffin or urn/box

* Donating organs

* Refusing embalming fluid or other chemical preservatives (may not be allowed if you plan on a burial/funeral)

* Having a small private service or memorial gathering

* Scattering ashes instead of burying them (legal in ALL states)

* Refusing a vault for internment of ashes or coffins and reporting cemeteries to the FTC if they claim it is the law

* Burial at sea

So… with all the pros and cons weighed I think I would prefer to be cremated since the energy usage to do so must surely be offset by the transportation and excavation costs of a burial. I want my organs to be harvested and then I want all preservation chemicals to be refused and my body immediately cremated and put into a cardboard box. At that point I would prefer my ashes be scattered somewhere of my choosing. BUT I will allow for my family to pull rank and have my ashes interred somewhere, if it is important to them. In lieu of a funeral/memorial I would prefer trees be planted. Money spent on funeral flowers would be better spent on donations to environmental causes. Low impact last rites for a low impact life…

So what do you think? Have you made plans of your own?

For awhile now I have had a no gum rule for my kids. Thankfully it isn’t a real big issue since none of us were ever big gum chewers but when Halloween rolls around I need to be vigilant about gum. It has nothing to do with cavities or sugar though. It is instead about choosing that they NOT chew on plastic. Plastic has all kinds of chemical and toxic nasties and in true bone-head fashion we decided to take a relatively normal and natural product (gum) and plasticize it. Well, no thanks.

Native Americans chewed the sap from spruce trees and thus introduced us to “gun chewing” many, many years ago. During the first days of gum mass production, gum was made from chicle, which is a natural latex sourced from the sap of the Sapodilla tree. But after WWII, innovators decided to make a synthetic rubber for gum instead. A typical gum base will generally have ingredients like polyvinyl acetate (plastic) among many others. The problem is that we are essentially chewing big gummy balls of chemical laden rubber, dipped in sugars and sweeteners, when we chew conventional gums. Sounds delicious right?

Canada took steps at one point to get polyvinyl acetate listed as toxic after studies showed it was a likely carcinogen but the gum manufacturers played hardball and won out. A preservative called hydroxyanisol (BHA) is also often found in gum and it IS listed as a “reasonably anticipated’ carcinogen but that does not stop minute amounts of it from being allowed in chewing gum. Apparently this is just another industry where the ideals of capitalism are proven false and apparently money is all that is required to make selling poisonous products, perfectly legal. I should mention that the company behind Glee still uses chicle in their gum and they deserve big props for that. However I still won’t let my kids chew it because they do use some of these chemicals in their formulation.

And of course there is the environmental aspect. The gum the natives chewed and the gum made from Chicle was natural and eventually decomposed. Modern chewing gum is non-biodegradeable!

Think about how much gum you have chewed in your lifetime. You probably never gave it much thought when you wrapped it up in a piece of paper or a tissue and then tossed it in the garbage. That gum is still around though… somewhere, and probably looks pretty much the same as when you tossed it. Some countries, like Singapore, have even banned it. Others have established programs (cool link BTW) to collect and reuse (recycle) chewing gum to make new products.

If your own kids have gotten into the habit of chewing gum you may be able to convert them over to something else, like taffy or ginger chews. Or when they ask for gum in the store you can just get creative and offer them something else instead. When they go Trick or Treating perhaps you could make a deal and trade the gum for other candy or for a small bit of money. My kids now automatically know that the gum should be declined, traded, or tossed if given to them.

One clever way you might educate your kids about gum is to give them a Make Your Own Gum Kit that uses natural chicle. You could show them how gum used to be made, tell them how it is NOW made, and then discuss the health and environmental impact of gum while they have fun making some of their own flavored gum.

Have you and/or your kids made a habit of chewing gum? What have you done to avoid it?

In this world of convenience we all need a reminder that that plastic is forever and the choices we make in purchasing plastic has an impact that goes beyond our wallet. Always, AWLAYS look for a plastic free alternative if you can.

5 Easy Ways to Get Rid of Plastic in the Home

This week I came across two different articles – one in my local newspaper and the other in magazine – that focus on the problems that are facing our bees. Hives are dying off and the bees are disappearing and this has many people VERY concerned. Why? Well, ecosystems in general are a complex series of interconnected life forms that depend upon each other. It very much is a circle of life and when part of the circle breaks… this means trouble for all other parts of it. Ecosystems exist in a state of balance and when one component is affected, the whole system is thrown off.

Bees are an integral part of a healthy ecosystem. They aren’t just helpful to have around… we NEED bees! No bees means no pollination, which means the disappearance of certain plant species, which in turn means the disappearance of certain animal species. I read somewhere that a 1/3 of US crops are pollinated by bees so even mighty humans will be heavily impacted if bees disappear.

Here are some things to think about the next time you get annoyed by a bee.

1. Pollination

Bees’ pollination efforts are responsible for a wide diversity of wild flowers and many crops depend on them. In fact, without bees’ pollination of flowering crops and flowers, there would be far less food in general and diversity in particular. In fact, if bees did not pollinate in the wild, some vegetation would become extinct, leaving space for invasive, problematic species to take over. Animals that eat the extinct vegetation would then die off, followed by the carnivorous animals that eat the herbivores. As noted above, it’s all connected. You cannot take one link out of the chain and expect it to function.

Human food is dependent on bees too. Apples, pears, cucumbers, cherries and other flowering/fruiting crops depend on bees to fertilize the flowers so that fruit will develop. When a bee gets nectar from a flower, it gets coated in pollen. The bee then carries this pollen to another flower, fertilizing it and causing the flower to develop into a fruit. Without pollination, many flowering crops would not yield fruit, or would yield very little.

2. Bee products

Human health is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of bee products. Here are some important items that bees provide that can benefit humans.

* Honey – Honey is not just another sweetener. Raw, unfiltered honey that has had minimal processing from hive to jar has many healthful benefits. It contains all sorts of vitamins, including phosphorous, iron, vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E and K. According to herbalist Stephen Buhner, honey has at least 75 different compounds.

A spoonful of raw honey makes an excellent cough syrup, and it can serve as a base for home-made medicinal syrups. Raw honey is a remarkable dressing for severe burns, and the antibiotic properties of honey have excelled conventional antibiotics in the treatment of ulcers and surgical infections. Honey has even been touted as an excellent treatment for allergies.

* Beeswax – This natural, beautiful product has been used to make candles, lip balm, cosmetics, crayons, moisturizers, and other items.

Many vegans argue that we should not utilize bee products and to some extent they are right on. I would, however, say that we need to support bee keepers who take care of their hives well and who extract honey sustainably. If there is no support for them, then people will get honey from major agribusiness who will be far less ethical in their handling. Patronizing ethical beekeepers gives them a reason to keep up the good work they do. Without changing the external factors that are harming our bees they will still be in danger of disappearing so we need to keep the good guy on the case.

The bee is an important component of the ecosystem, and we humans, as part of the ecosystem, benefit greatly from what bees do. It would be wise for us to talk to local beekeepers, find out what we can do, patronize those are helping repopulate bee populations, to stop using chemicals in our yards that can harm the bees, and to contact bee removal experts if we feel a hive is too dangerous to remain on our property. We all need to think a little bit more about those little guys and what we can do or stop doing to make sure they stick around.

What do you think? How can we bee more proactive about protecting bees?