Eco-Friendly Products

"I feel more confident than ever that the power to save the planet rests with the individual consumer."

- Denis Hayes, Coordinator of the first Earth Day, Former Director of National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Leading environmental activist

The world is at a crossroads. Modern science is finally able to determine how much of an impact we are making on the environment and what the implications are for future civilizations. The news is not good. We're polluting the atmosphere, our oceans, and our land at alarming rates. Our favorite sources of energy are finite, yet we continue to use more and more of them. Today, "going green" is more than a fad that will fall out of favor down the road, it's a way of life that we all must adopt to preserve the livelihood of future generations.

The good news is that there are all sorts of environmentally friendly products available to today's consumer. Everyone can do their part by doing simple things - purchasing more energy efficient appliances, using energy efficient light bulbs, and using reusable shopping bags are a few examples. There are simply more options out there than can possibly be mentioned on one page. The truth is that just about every product on the market today has an eco-friendly alternative.

Do yourself, the rest of us, and future generations a favor and start using some eco-friendly products. Don't be discouraged if you feel like that one lightbulb you bought or one reusable bag you've started using won't make much of an impact. The reality is that it will, and the more of us that start doing the same, the larger the impact will be.

For example, using one reusable bag for the rest of your life has the potential to save over 20,000 plastic bags, reducing pollution, landfill waste, and oil consumption. And that's just one person using one reusable bag that we're talking about here. Imagine the possibilities if your entire neighborhood started using reusable bags, or an entire city. The cumulative impact would be huge!

The same is true for other "small" things - lightbulbs, recycling...the list goes on and on. Do us all a favor and make a commitment to start living "greener" - even if you start small, at least it's a start!

Most folks are concerned about their health, and a growing number of folks are concerned with the environment. It's time to merge the topics, because green living is healthy living.

1. Reusable Shopping Bags

First, let's look at one of the more common eco-friendly products: the reusable shopping bag. How could using reusable bags possible benefit our personal health? Believe it or not, it can. The more reusable bags that we use, the fewer plastic bags that we will need to manufacture. The manufacture of plastic and paper bags produces a number of toxins that work their ways in to our bodies as "free radicals." Free radicals can build up in our bodies and can contribute to the onset of some serious health issues like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and a weakened immune system. So, the more reusable bags we use, the fewer free radicals that are produced and, as a result, work their way in to our bodies.

Further, plastic bags negatively impact ecosystems, especially marine ecosystems in their post-useful-life. This impact can dimish our ability to get healthy food. Also, millions of trees are harvested each year to produce paper bags. Those same millions of trees could be spared and used to improve the quality of air that we breathe. Again, reusable bags can cut down on this.

2. Buying organic products

Organic products are by and far healthier for our bodies. The direct effect of eating non-organic foods is that we are ingesting pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones and antibiotics. The indirect effect to our health is the environmental impact that our planet incurs through conventional farming and its heavy use of land and chemicals that strip the soil. Produce grown in conventional farming is lower in precious minerals that our bodies need.

3. Green Cleaning

A growing number of people are beginning to use eco-friendly household cleaners because of their environmental appeal. However, consider that these cleaners are also much better for your health - harsh chemicals commonly used contain free radicals that harm our bodies. These free radicals can be so harmful to our bodies that studies have proven that women who stay at home instead of work have a lower life expectancy.

4. Walking and/or biking instead of driving

The health benefits here are pretty obvious - walking or biking is a form of exercise that will burn calories and help you remain healthy. Walking and biking also eliminates the pollution that you would have caused had you driven a car. Of course, the length of the commute must be considered, but for shorter trips, you can never go wrong on a bike or on your feet.

A large part of our obesity problem today is the sedentary lives that we all lead. A lot of our economic crisis has to do with our dependency on foreign oil. Imagine a world in which most people walked or biked to get around. Would we be thinner and healthier? Probably. Would we be dependent on terrorist nations for our oil? Probably not nearly as much.

So, you can see that green living and healthy living are not necessarily two different things. These facts and ideas only add to the allure of adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle (or a healthier lifestyle, or both) as we can now see that you can kill many birds with one stone by making some simple changes in your life.