In a time where we have the benefit of unlimited resources at our fingertips, it is no wonder EnviroCitizen.org has found that many individuals are acting as their own green lifestyle consultants! If you have decided to go about transforming your lifestyle into a more eco-friendly lifestyle on your own, we have provided some terms you may wish to become better acquainted with as you start out on your journey to greener living.
Biodegradable refers to the ability of an object to break down and decompose naturally in a physiological environment. In short, biodegradable items are things that, under normal conditions (this is a key factor), would decompose naturally. For example, a banana peel is biodegradable. Over time, microorganisms will break down the chemical composition of the banana peel and it will become a part of the environment.
Unfortunately, many things are marketed as being biodegradable that really are not. For example, bags used to pick up after dogs are often marketed as being biodegradable. Under laboratory tests, where the bag is subjected to unnatural situations, it will biodegrade. However, in a landfill, where it is buried underneath other trash and dirt, there is not enough air for it to actually biodegrade. In general, the best way to determine if something is truly biodegradable is to analyze whether or not you could throw it in your compost pile and not have it be there next year.
Post-consumer is a phrase that you'll often see on labels, typically on paper products. If a product is claiming to be made from recycled content, it will either say "made from 100% recycled materials" or it will say "made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials". They seem the same, but they are actually very different.
If something is made from only from recycled materials, it's not as green as it seems. For example, a company that makes cardboard boxes might make some of their boxes from scraps of other boxes. That is considered using recycled materials. On the other hand, if something is made from post-consumer recycled materials, then an item has been used by a consumer, recycled in a facility and is then created it into another paper towel or piece of paper.
If something is recyclable, it means that it has the potential to be reused and created into another produce. Recyclables generally must be free of food (so you have to rinse plastic containers out prior to throwing it in the recycling bin) and are items such as shampoo bottles (which also should be rinsed out), milk cartons and paper.
If something is recycled, then its raw materials originally started out as something else. For example, you can buy paper towels that are made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials. So, your paper towels used to be a napkin or a piece of paper.
A lifecycle analysis is a tool that is used to determine the total cost of a product. This tool goes way beyond just the monetary cost to you, the consumer. Say a shirt costs $20. A lifecycle analysis looks beyond the price tag. The shirt, in the very beginning, started out in a cotton field that was sprayed with herbicides, pesticides and fungicides. The seed that the cotton plant grew from was probably a genetically modified seed, so the seed took a lot of energy to make. Then, the cotton is mechanically harvested, shipped somewhere else, woven into a shirt, dyed, bleached, treated and then shipped to a store. All of those things cost more than money; it costs resources and it damages the environment. So, consider the true and total cost of the things that you buy.
EnviroCitizen.org offers many household eco-friendly products to help you begin moving forward with your new green lifstyle. |
