Greening Your Cleaning - Reusable Wipes

My heart always breaks a little when I finish cleaning and look at all the things I've thrown away: Swiffer cloths, antibacterial wipes, paper towels... But finally, my prayers have been answered!  I was shopping around uncommongoods.com and found these reusable, biodegradable cleaning cloths:

http://www.uncommongoods.com/item/item.jsp?itemId=17702
EDIT: While UncommonGoods has stopped selling Skoy Cloths, you can still buy them here.

The quick-drying towels can be microwaved to kill bacteria at high temperatures, like you might send a sponge through the dishwasher to reuse it.  Check out all the raving reviews on the website, too:

"I bought these based on all of the positive reviews. The reviewers are right! I have had them for a few weeks and absolutely love them. They are very durable and easy to clean. I have used them for everything from dusting, wiping the kitchen counter and wiping down the stove. They are great!"

" Great cloths! I have loved using these for all the little cleaning jobs around the house. Great for mopping up big spills or just cleaning off the kitchen table. I have one in each bathroom for quick cleanups when unexpected guests arrive. They are in great shape and have already been used a bunch. Seems like they will be very long-lasting. Great value!!"


If these particular towels aren't your thing, I would still strongly suggest using cleaning cloths and spray cleaners instead of disposable wipes.  You'll cut down on all the paper waste, have better control of how much cleaner you use, and expose your absorbent skin to less-concentrated chemicals.  Any mismatched sock or dishtowel will do as a cleaning cloth, and they can be sent through your laundry along with any other towels or heavily-used fabrics you might have.  To make sure they're disinfected and clean, wash cleaning cloths with hot water.  You could even clean them the ol' fashion way in a pot of boiling-hot water (with or without soap).

"Green cleaning" is easy to do and good for your body, home, and planet.  I'll definitely be posting more "green cleaning" tips in Locally Long Island for you.

How to Find Health Food Stores in Your Area

[ updated Nov. 20, 2011 ]

Although I'll try my best, it's impossible for me to visit every health food store on Long Island -- but the good news is that this is because there's so many!  I want to post a few tricks for how you can find health food and natural food stores near you.

A moment on shopping...  while chain stores can be easy to find and shop in, smaller family-owned businesses often have much better customer service.  You can feel more comfortable asking questions about products and get more experience-based answers.  You also know that the money you spend on groceries is going directly toward the owners, their employees, and their business, rather than the CEO's of huge conglomerates.

So, how to find health food stores...

[EDIT: Since revamping this blog in the summer of 2011, I've decided to focus exclusively on Nassau County resources. You'll find a listing of Nassau health food stores on the right of this page, under the heading "Local Links".]

1.  Word of Mouth
          Probably the best way to find stores near you is by asking around.  This way, you can get a review of the store from someone you trust.  Ask someone whose diet you admire, or maybe a personal trainer at your gym. 

2.  Yellowpages.com

          An old-school method brought into the modern day, the Yellow Pages' website can list some stores in your local area.  However, not all stores have chosen to be listed in the guide and may not be included.  It can still be a good resource if you don't know where to look.  Googling your city and "health food stores"/"natural food stores" may also work.

3.  Local Publications
          Skim the advertisements in your local newspaper, magazines, Pennysaver, or religious bulletins.  Small businesses sometimes chose to use these local services instead of a larger-scale advertising.

4.  Downtown Areas
          Does your town have a downtown area with lots of shopping and stores?  You may want to browse through those streets one day to see if there's a natural food store. 


Keep your ears and eyes open, and continue reading Locally Long Island!  I'll be posting about my visits to natural food stores on the online throughout the blog.

How to R-e-c-y-c-l-e on Long Island

 
Whenever I talk about recycling, this song comes to mind.  Readers my age might remember this educational clip from Nickelodeon's "Rocko's Modern Life"...

...but even those readers who haven't seen it before have surely heard of the importance of recycling.


Although it might seem like we have an endless supply of materials, most resources on the planet are finite. Recycling reduces the amount of potentially reusable materials that wind up in dumps. This, in turn, reduces the need to extract and use new raw materials to make products. In this way, recycling not only saves material, it saves money. Fellow blogger Molly Man commented how, according to Adrienne Esposito's article in Newsday, it costs $80 to dispose of garbage, while it only costs $40 to dispose of recyclables. Also, it can take up to 17 times more energy to produce an aluminum can from scratch than from recycled materials. I've heard on many occasions that recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours! Seeing thousands of cans wind up in landfills every day when they have that kind of potential is a shame for our world and our wallets.

So how do I recycle?

Each town on Long Island has its own recycling policies regarding what can and cannot be recycled, what days of the week are pick-up days, etc. The first step, then, is to find out what town you're in so you can follow their recycling protocol.  You can use Citidex Long Island to find out what town (called a "township" on their website) you reside in.  

Information on each town's recycling policies can be found on their web pages.  Thanks to LongIsland.com's thorough list of townships and their official websites, I've made this list with links to each town's recycling homepage:

Nassau County

• Town of Hempstead 
• Town of North Hempstead (print-out reference table)
• Town of Oyster Bay 
• City of Glen Cove
• City of Long Beach 

Suffolk County 

• Town of Bablyon (this FAQ gives relevant answers toward the middle of the page)
• Town of Brookhaven (the most helpful section is toward the bottom, called "Recycling".)
• Town of East Hampton
• Town of Islip (uses a drop-off collection system instead of a pick-up system)
• Town of Riverhead
• Town of Smithtown 
• Town of Southampton (uses a drop-off collection system)
• Town of Southold
• Three Village (follows Brookhaven's recycling guidelines)

Generally, towns will pick up your recyclables as they would your trash.  In these cases, you'll need to either request a recycling pail or a decal to leave curbside for sanitation.  A few towns in Suffolk, however, ask that you bring your recyclables to a recycling center.  In this case, you can designate a pail or bag in your house for recyclable materials.

Oftentimes, establishments like apartment complexes and dorms have a privately owned recycling provider instead of the town’s facilities.  You’ll want to check for extra guidelines in places like these, too.

It's very important to follow protocol for your town to avoid contaminating the collected recyclables.  It's helpful to print out guidelines and keep them on your fridge or near the recycling container.

Recycling Basics

• Check every plastic you're about to throw away for a recycling symbol!  You'd be surprised at how much can be recycled: fast food cups, Chinese food containers, packaging, shampoo bottles, yogurt cups...
• Make sure that you thoroughly clean your recyclables with soap and hot water.  Otherwise, any residue will smell and may cause mold to grow.  It also helps to remove and throw away bottle tops or leave containers uncovered so that leftover water can evaporate.
• Plastics' "recycability" is based on the type of plastic they're made of.  Each plastic is given a number code, 1 - 7, which can be found on the bottom of any recyclable plastic item in a triangle.  This website gives you more information on what each symbol means, some examples of plastics, and images of the symbols. 
• Some towns allow recycling of scrap paper (usually black and white printed computer paper).  Check your town's specific guidelines.  If it can't be recycled, you can reuse it by using the backside for taking notes.
• Newspapers, magazines, and cardboards can also be recycled.  Usually, they must be flattened, tied in a bundle, and left outside.  Again, check your town's specific guidelines.

It may take some time for recycling to become a habit, but once it is, you will see how second nature sorting your trash can be. Each container you recycle will end up being used again instead of wasting its potential away in a landfill.