Kitty Litter = Harsh Chemicals, Strip Mining, & Health Hazards

I'm a cat person, in case you haven't noticed. And since I'm trying to greenify my life it's only natural that I greenify my pets too.

Somewhere I learned that kitty litter uses specific clay as its main ingredient. This clay is strip mined. Strip-mining, according to Webster's College Dictionary, is a mine that is worked from the earth's surface by the stripping away of overlying material. So everything from the canopy down through the soil horizons are removed. After the mining process is completed the mine is often abandoned without any environmental restoration applied. Typically, strip mining is used with coal mining.

After discovering this, I researched other environmental issues with kitty litter; and discovered that the sodium bentonite is a hazardous chemical that naturally occurs within the clay. Sodium bentonite expands into a hard mass when wet. Makes things easier when cleaning, but not so healthy for my kitty or myself because when inhaled the clay expands in the lungs. This can cause asthma and other lung complications. The pads on their paws can develop sores. And ingestion from the cleaning of the paws isn't all that healthy either. (http://www.greenlivingonline.com/)

Silica based litters absorb odors and moisture. It's easy to inhale when the litter is disturbed.  Lung cancer, bronchitis, and TB in humans have all been linked to silica. Cats have been known to develop a fatal form of pulmonary TB and silico-TB. No wonder pregnant women aren't supposed to be handling kitty litter, I don't currently want to either.

Aside from all of the chemical hazards and side effects of kitty litter, another environmental issue is that it's not biodegradable because clay is in its basic form. Two million tons of kitty litter is sold every year, most of that is going to the landfill.

Now that I've been thoroughly depressed by all of this info, I've been looking for the solutions. I don't entirely trust the "flush it" kitty litters and I'm renting, ergo any chance of the toilet malfunctioning is a no go. Due to this decision, a compromise has been made. Cut out the harsh chemicals but still send the waste to the landfill.

So for the past few weeks I've been using Fresh & Natural: Scooping Clumping Cat Litter. Their mining process consists of nature restoration following the clay harvesting. The nature restoration consists of topsoil replacement and is reseeded with native pasture grass. The packaging is recyclable. The company has definitely made a lot of contributions to the environment and has won the Excellence for Mining Reclamation Award, given to them by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

The litter uses dehydrating crystals and flower extracts for odor control. However, its main ingredient is sodium bentonite. My flaw derived from too little information in the store in combination with not enough prior research. So I'm back to the drawing board.

Avid Reader?

After I finished my summer classes, I've been able to achieve something I haven’t done for at least a year: read an actual book. Not a trashy romance novel that takes me a few hours to read because of their simplicity but a fully fleshed out novel.

My more detailed goal for the summer is to read all of Jane Austen’s novels. They require a certain mindset and intense concentration that I just don’t have when I’m taking classes.

However, I just don’t have access to all of the novels. My copies are downstate in storage and since that trip is easily over $100 and 16 hours driving (without stops), it seemed rather unrealistic for me to get them. Buying them was also out of the question since my funds are rather low. So I defaulted to the oldest tradition of visiting the library.  

This is just about as green as I can think of when it comes to books. Some people say that digital books are the best way to be green. They don’t require vast amounts of paper or ink. You can have more than one per a device. But they do require electricity to function and (depending on the device that you’re using) can put a lot of stress on your eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually prefer to use my electronic devices for reading when I’m traveling extensively. It is convenient because it saves space. And I can easily download a book that could help me with the area that I’m in, or studying.

 

But you just don’t get the satisfaction of turning the page, the feel of the paper between your fingers, the smell of old parchment and leather bindings that greet you the moment you walk through those doors.

Because it’s a library, the book may sit on the shelf for years but it is also read by countless individuals. The book may have seen better days but the words printed on its pages are still strong, interpretative, thrilling, scary, loving, and impressionable as the day the ink dried.

Sweet Water Cafe

The first time I ever went into Sweet Water, I was a freshman in college. I took my parents there because they wanted to eat at a local restaurant that wasn't a chain. The restaurant was suggested by my friend Jeneka, who kept raving about how delicious all the food was. Since eating out at that point in college is a treat that only my parents can award, I thought that I would give Sweet Water a shot.

I didn't know about Sweet Water's policies or where their food came from. All I took away from my first experience was how tasty the food was and my mother saying, "It's a little overpriced. This would be a good place to take Uncle Rick." Not said specifically in that order, and certainly there was more to the conversation than just that, but my overall memory of this event isn't lucid. Also not to imply that my uncle only eats at expensive restaurants, it just had this atmosphere that he would like.

Two years later, I returned with Dr. A and some other Science Olympiad volunteers for a lunch promised by Dr. A. This was when I first learned that Sweet Water uses local farmer's foods. The food was still delicious.

The purchase of almost exclusively local food also explained the higher prices. Now the prices didn't seem outrageously high, as my mother first implied. The restaurant wants to support eating locally, which required fair prices to local growers for them to grow and live off the food they grow.

In the fall of my first senior year (yes I had two senior years), I took my former Theatre Director, his girlfriend, and my parents there to eat before my choir concert. I stressed how everything was locally grown/purchased, possibly to the point of annoyance but I really wanted them to see it as an environmentally responsible restaurant as opposed to this overpriced quirky local restaurant.

I knew that my Theatre Director was impressed when he got a sip of his girlfriend's orange juice. It was not that horrible mix from the box or from concentrate, nor simple fresh squeezed orange juice. It's traditionally made orange juice with all the flavor and worth every penny.

I could even see the transitioning opinions etched onto both of my parents' faces and how a simple glass of orange juice gave them a throwback to their childhood.

My latest trip to Sweet Water was after a trip to the Farmer's Market. I was with a group of friends and it seemed like a good day to treat myself. I got the orange juice and a vegetarian quesadilla.

I'm not a vegetarian but I am extremely pick about how my quesadillas are made. Though on this particular day I didn't nitpick about my food I just took it as is. It was one of the best quesadillas I've had all year. In the future, I would remove the olives off of it but their presence on this particular day didn't phase me.

This final experience caused me to look up their mission statement online. Turns out they use traditional ethnic food methods as a starting point for their food and then make it their own. Their ingredients are purchased in their "nearest to their natural state". The result isn't this horrible Americanized monstrosity but a delicious meal that I'd eat repeatedly, if I had the money to do so.

Sunscreen a failure? or just better for a different occasion?

With the arrival of summer, I have been trying to find a green sunscreen. Most typical sunscreens contain Oxybenzone. Oxybenzone is a chemical that "filters" ultra violet light on the skin's surface from light to heat.  There haven't been many studies comparing the affects of the transformed heat applied to the skin and the light applied to the skin.  The British Medical Journal shown that sunbathers who use sunscreens and suntan lotions are at a higher risk of developing malignant Skin Cancer.  Ironic considering we put sunscreen on to avoid short term and long term affects of sun exposure.

I've been experimenting with the Pure Lavender Sunblock from Alba Botanica.  It's 45 SPF, smells amazing, it's incredibly oily so dirt and sand stick and works for approximately two hours.

My job is an eight hour sun exposure with much gardening, so dirt is constantly sticking to me.    With the sun beating down on me, the oil feels insufferable and the bugs tend to love it and me more.  This sunscreen isn't going to cut it.  However, for a short walk about town this sunblock would be appropriate.