Help Our World
While Shopping
Within
Your Budget and Lifestyle
If we all make easy changes in day-to-day shopping, it will help the world. This page and the green buttons provide basic information so you can help our world by smart shopping for every-day items. Beyond the basic material on this page, you can follow buttons and links to learn more about:
-
Fair Trade, sustainable seafood and paper and wood products;
-
taking action to educate others and influence retailers;
-
educational materials, especially for classroom use.
If you can't find what you want
on my site, try
.
Expensive purchases and
nutritional issues aren't discussed. I have a crude web page for
health & nutrition.
Four Basic Actions You Can Take When Shopping
1.
Look
for LOGOS: Many people
are aware of the government’s Energy
Star®
,
dolphin
safe
and
organic
logos.
There are independent, nongovernmental
certifiers. The main one you'll see is
Fair Trade Certified™
,
mostly on coffee, tea and chocolate.
Sometimes you'll see
, mostly
on salmon, and
on wood
products, including paper and furniture. With wood products (especially
paper), it also helps to know about brands and
for paper
to look for post-consumer
waste.
2. Buy SEAFOOD wisely: Avoid buying seafood that is over-fished, caught in a way that causes excessive deaths of other marine life, contains toxins or contributes to pollution. A convenient item is the Seafood Watch's wallet card, which is available free.
3. Buy PAPER PRODUCTS wisely: Paper with post consumer waste (PCW) saves trees. Chlorine bleaches pollute. "See paper products" below.
4.
Know
HYPE from HELP: Some
commonly used terminology can be misleading. Here
are some examples.
- PAPER PRODUCTS
www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp has data on some brands in
supermarkets.
recycled: Paper manufacturing produces scrap which is "recycled". That’s always been done.
post-consumer waste: Real recycling of material that would otherwise have been in a landfill. Look for percentage of post-consumer waste in "recycled" paper products.
federal guidelines: (not regulations) They state that recycled paper should be at least 30% post-consumer waste.
- EGGS
The Christian Science Monitor ran
an article in
2004.
animal care certified: A nearly empty industry standard.
cage free: A lot of chickens together in a large cage instead of separated into small cages. (Cage-free chickens are shown on page 172 of Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson.) Somewhat better than small cages.
free range: Chickens are not kept in cages 24/7—they’re allowed outside for part of their lives; however, the conditioning and environment is often such that they never go outside. (See page 171 of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.) - BIODEGRADABLE
trash: Landfills are usually designed to be sealed and prevent change. Products that biodegrade may actually cause problems by producing methane gas. There is a move to better-designed landfills that use the methane, but yours is probably not one of them.
sewage: Easily biodegradable is often better in your wastewater system.
Incidentally, as of 2/06 Californians must dispose of many products as hazardous waste.
- LINE CAUGHT FISH
longlines: This is what "line caught" means. Baited smaller lines are hung from what is usually a very long line that is near the surface. Unwanted species of fish, sea birds diving for bait and snared sea turtles often die on such lines. more info
trolling or pole-caught: This is environmentally responsible since the lines are hauled in quickly and unwanted catch can be released alive. more info