divine green: Sustainable Home, Beauty, & Lifestyle

By David Rittenhouse

TOKYO–One recent morning while I was hurrying into Shinjuku station here to catch the metro, I stopped at Starbucks for a small coffee and one of those really tasty sweet brown rice scones that they have in Japan.

When I finished my breakfast on-the-go I took my plastic tray with ceramic plate and paper cup to the return point/trash bin and had a sudden moment of conscientiousness. There were at least five different holes into which to separate and place the garbage–paper cups, plastic cups, tops, ice-liquids, other combustible and non-combustible items. (The Japanese government requires the recycling measures.)

This got me thinking. (more…)

For every liter of Fiji, Evian or Dasani bottled water that you buy, it takes another three to four liters of water to make the plastic container it sits in.

That unsettling research is from Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, one of the nation’s top water-conservation assessment centers. National Public Radio’s Terry Gross interviewed Gleick on Tuesday for the show Fresh Air. (Interview here.)

(more…)

One of the more inspiring companies I visited with at the Green Festival in San Francisco last weekend was Green to Grow, a Los Angeles-based maker of bisphenol A-free baby bottles.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical unknown to most shoppers, but it’s a component of a polycarbonate plastic that comprises most clear baby bottles on the market today. Environmental studies have shown that BPA can disrupt neurological and reproductive hormones in children, causing illnesses such as attention deficit disorder and early onset puberty. Separately, researchers have shown that the toxicant, under pressure from heat and kitchen cleaning brushes, can leach out from the plastic into the bottle.

(more…)

Organic alcohol seems like an oxymoron. But organic is so popular nowadays that the makers of wine, beer and vodka are coming out with chemical-free concoctions on a seemingly regular basis. Whether the products are about social consciousness or pure marketing is a question for another time. (Square One calls its certified organic rye vodka “social and socially conscious.”)

But if you’re going to drink, why not make it a cleaner cocktail?

(more…)