MOM’s Organic Market’s ER Blog

Among the many things that I have had on my mind lately, corn starch based “plastics” is one of them. Sound strange? It’s not as strange as one may think. Alternate forms of fuel, energy and packaging has been all over the headlines lately. From ethanol fuels to corn stoves, new innovations are making big splashes in the environmental pool.

Corn starch based “plastics” is something that MOMs is working towards in our packaging, and something we encourage from our suppliers. Not only is the material made out of a renewable resource, corn, but it also has no toxic materials and biodegrades in a matter of months. This ultimately means less waste in our landfills and the materials can be composted to help grow more corn.

Many of MOMs suppliers already have taken the step to make a positive environmental impact. Many of the shipments we receive are packed in either edible popcorn or corn starch based packing peanuts. These have an even shorter span of time for biodegrability. The corn packing peanuts will dissolve before your eyes when in contact with moisture. We also carry products whose packaging is corn based; Annie Chun’s noodle bowls, Newman’s Own Organics salad mixes, and a new water bottle out by New Wave Enviro, just to name a few.

Keep your eye out next time you’re walking through MOMs for corn based products, whether that be your favorite salad in a corn starch container or MOMs prepacked prunes and dates.

The other day I had a co-worker ask me about a good alternative for cleaning up grime and film. After a little while of searching, I came up with white vinegar! It appears that white vinegar has a million and one uses, and not just in baking recipes. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• * Mildew and Grime remover
• * Removes rust from bolts, nuts or even your old cast iron pan
• * Removes mildew smell from your laundry
• * Place a few drops in vase to keep flowers fresh longer
• * Excellent window cleaner
• * Stubborn stain, odor and gum remover
• * Wall paper remover
• * Remedy for sunburn
• * Weed killer
• * Will remove the smell of skunk from your pet’s coat
• * Removes stains from leather
• * Good grease cutter
• * Use to help unclog drains
• * Remove hardened dryed acrylic paint from paint brushes
• * Natural pest control, i.e. ants and cockroaches

To learn more about the infinite uses for white vinegar, or any vinegar for that matter, visit this page.

Yesterday, while I was answering a cell phone call, to my horror, the phone broke in my hand. I went to my cell phone provider and purchased a replacement, but what to do with my now broken phone. I jumped on the web to try to find a company or facility that would take my cell phone to be recycled. What I found was a company that offered that and more. What I found was TerraPass.

TerraPass is a company that helps to fight global warming by offering ways to help you reduce your carbon dioxide emissions created in your day to day activities. We all have what is called a carbon footprint, which is basically the amount of carbon dioxide we leave behind us after our car trip to the store, our flight to Vegas, or the electricity used to blow dry our hair. It’s our mark.

TerraPass helps to offset your carbon footprint by purchasing and investing in forms of renewable energy, such as wind power. Right on their website there is a calculator where you can enter your car make, year and the amount of miles that you drive per year, and it will show you your carbon dioxide emissions for a year. They will also display how much it would cost you to counterbalance it with renewable energy, which all things considered, is pretty affordable.

What I found on this site was a way to recycle my broken cell phone, and in turn, receive credits toward offsetting my carbon footprint. TerraPass will take just about any old or broken cellphone, and recycle almost every last piece of it. It’s a win win situation. I can only hope that more people take a look at what they are leaving behind in their footprint, and take steps in the fight against global warming.

I recently learned about Geothermal Heating from one of my coworkers who is considering installing the system in his home. I guess I had heard about this before, but I didn’t really know what it was all about. What exactly is geothermal heating? and why don’t more people use it, or if they do, why don’t we talk about it?

From what I’ve gathered, geothermal heating is a method of basically heating and cooling your home by taking advantage of the warmth stored in the earth. Normally the earth’s temperature is at about 55 degrees about 10 feet down. This is good in warmer climates, as you can use that to cool your home. In cooler climates it can be used for warmth. One can harness the earth’s temperatures by drilling deep holes, 6 to 200 feet deep, and placing pipes down the shafts. In effect, you are creating wells that will help circulate liquids and air that can be brought up to flow through your home.

There are two different types of geothermal heating systems. There are closed loop systems and open loop systems. Closed loop systems continuously circulate water and antifreeze through the loops and into a heat exchange system, which can be controlled at a thermostat. These systems are primarily used for heating. An open loop system, used more for cooling, has pipes leading to water wells or into deep water. It draws water from these and circulates the water through the house, providing cooler temperatures. The water is then circulated right back to that source, but further away from where it is drawn so to keep the cool temperature.

It sounds like geothermal heating is pretty great and one of the most efficient ways to heat and cool your home. Geothermal heating also has the benefit in that it helps conserve non-renewable resources, such as natural gas and oil, which, when burned, helps contribute to acid rain, green house gases and smog. The one thing that might steer people away from geothermal heating is the initial high costs for installing the system, between the drilling, laying the pipe and manpower. But the benefits, monetary and environmental, far outweigh the costs in the long run.

What happened to the good old days when people respected the environment and put trash where it was supposed to go? Did those days ever really exist or is it that packaging, products and consumption has gotten out of control?

I recently moved from a quiet neighborhood in College Park Maryland, to a busy high traffic area of D.C. Everywhere you look there are people, cars, buildings and concrete. There are no unoccupied spaces.

More and more lately I’ve been walking through the neighborhood, past all the shops, cafes and apartment buildings and have been astounded by the amounts of trash littering the sidewalks, small garden plots and gutters. I try to rationalize it in my head, but there is no excuse. Where is it all coming from? Is it blowing out of the tops of dumpsters and garbage trucks? Is it being blown out the windows of cars? Do people just not care and throw it on the ground? I think it’s probably a combination of all these things, and probably more.

So, what do we do about it? To walk around with a garbage bag and help pick up the garbage would be a solution, but only short term. To post signs and provide more trash receptacles is a good way to reach people, but those efforts can only reach so far. I think that we all need to start calling eachother out when you see someone littering. Stopping someone on the street who you see litter and gently, yet firmly, say “I think you dropped something” or “Hey, there’s a trash can right there”, or something of the like, is important. I feel like it may open their eyes and realize that they are being held accountable for their actions and may make them think twice before doing it again. It’s all about raising awareness and speaking up.

In the past few months, I have built up the courage to politely speak to people when I see them littering.  Occasionally I’ll just get blown off, but most times I’ll see people rethink their actions and pick up their trash.  It’s heartening to see that a little communication might help make our neighborhoods a little more pleasant.

Recently I’ve been finding more and more ants roaming around my outside garden, which is fine, but where does their trail lead? I decided to follow their trail, only to find that they were walking the perimeter of my house. It wasn’t long after that that they were then showing up in the laundry room and connected kitchen. What to do?

Well, the first move would be to clean, clean and clean some more. Wipe off all countertops, put away all food and dishes, basically eliminate the things that they are attracted to. If that doesn’t work, along with trying to find where they are coming in, which can seem impossible at times, you can try deterring them from their path. Ants, along with rodents, have a distaste for peppermint oil. Try sprinkling that about, or apply to a cottonball and place near a frequented area, and watch how they scurry away.

There is also a product on the market, which MOMs carries, that’s called Orange Guard, which is an enviromentally friendly way of eliminating your pest problem as well. Orange Guard is made with natural orange oils and is non toxic to children and pets. It not only will kill and repel ants, but also cockroaches and fleas. I used this product with the ants, after my other attempts of ridding them failed, and it worked like a charm. I found that you don’t have to spray the ants themselves, you can also spray their path, which will help drive them away. Not only does it smell nice, but I felt okay about using it around my kitchen and allergy ridden roommates.

Since I’ve started using it, the ant problem seems to have slowed down and they have made a new path away from my home. Now, I’m not saying that this is the only solution to an ant problem, but it is one of many options. It’s all a matter of finding what works for you.

Today I was talking with a customer about wind power and the Clean Energy Partnership when she asked me if I knew about corn stoves. “Corn stoves? I’ve never heard of those.”

Corn stoves were apparently invented in 1969 by a woman named Carroll Buckner from North Carolina. Corn stoves have been popular in the South and Southwest, and even made an appearance at the Oval Office during President Jimmy Carters term.

To give you a general idea, from the information that I found on the web, corn stoves are a clean, renewable way to heat your home. Instead of burning wood or oil, dryed corn kernels are used in your indoor burning stoves. While wood and oil can heat a home efficiently, they also significantly contribute to environmental pollution. Corn, however, is seen as a renewable resource that is not only abundant and cost-efficient, but also gives off little to no pollution while being burned. It not only creates less smoke, but also is great news for farmers.

I think that this sounds like a great alternative to wood and oil burning stoves. Not only is it good for the environment, but it is also good for your health, as the two can be directly linked. I was told by the woman that I was speaking with that there is a small community in Takoma Park that uses the corn stoves. They have actually installed a corn silo for the users to access, which follows the countless others popping up all over the nation. Who knows, one could pop up in your neighborhood. Keep your eyes peeled.

Today a few workers from the MOMs store in College Park and myself embarked on a mission to make the streets of Rhode Island Avenue clean once again. Each of our stores has “adopted” a portion of road near our locations that we help to keep clean, all organized through the Office of Highway Maintenance for each county.

You would be suprised by both the quantities of trash that are out there lurking in the bushes, invisible to a passerby, as well as the actual things you may find along your treck. To give you an idea of what I mean, when we first sized up the road this morning, about a mile stretch, it didn’t look too bad. Piece of cake! No such story. The roadway was littered with over 45 pounds of garbage and 30 pounds of recyclables. This is just what we could find. There could be more buried in the leaf debris. Among the litter, we found 3 full lighters, 4 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of gloves, countless candy and fast food wrappers, empty beer and soda bottles, batteries and…a wig.

It was a lot of hard work today, but well worth the effort. We made an immediate impact on the environment by going out and getting involved. Stay tuned for more adopt-a-road stories.

Today as I sat on the green line train, we passed a wet marshy area where I have seen many beavers, wild birds and even some deer taking a drink in the past. What I saw today was that someone had actually dumped their computer monitor right there on the edge. I couldn’t believe it. Someone had actually gone out of their way to dump it, instead of taking the time to drop it off at a facility that could reuse or recycle it.

Computer monitors can hold a lot of hazardous materials that people don’t really know about. Toxic materials in computers can include, but are not limited to, lead, lead oxide, barium, cadmium and mercury. From what I understand, when these elements are contained, they don’t pose much of a hazard, but when the computer monitor starts to break down, or is in pieces, it can pose a real threat to the environment. The leaching of these toxins can contaminate our water supply, kill off the flora and fauna of the surrounding areas, and can even directly effect our health.

Computer monitors can be recycled. There are different companies, organizations and recycling centers that will take in computer monitors and equipment that will either salvage the components or fix them up to be reused. There are local trash services that may even do curb side pickup…all you have to do is call and ask.

So, the next time you or someone you know has an old computer monitor, please, think about where it’s going and take the time to make an environmentally sound decision.

Cape Hatteras isn’t the first National Park to have an electric vehicle. The Ford company first donated 500 vehicles to National Parks in California, and their popularity has spread ever since.

It’s great to see the strides being made towards a cleaner environment.