7th Gen Blog

Ours is a pretty enviro family whose life is painted about as green as we can get it. Yet no matter how eco we go, there will always be a roll of recycled paper towels in the cabinet over the stove. Why on sustainable Earth do we use a disposable product, you ask? Because it's the healthy thing to do.

Here in the Green Mountain State, the Alliance for a Safe and Healthy Vermont, a broad coalition that includes environmental groups, health advocates, businesses, and organized labor, is advocating legislation that would require schools to use environmentally preferable cleaning products. The Vermont Senate passed the bill unanimously and advocates are now working to push a version of the bill through the House of Representatives.

Congratulations, dear Kate! You're about to marry that handsome Prince William bloke and become an honest-to-goodness princess. That's jolly good, but I should warn you that becoming royalty has a serious downside. Instead of a tidy London flat, you and the groom will soon have an entire castle to clean.

Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, including 78 bathrooms. Windsor Castle has 1,000 rooms and is over 900 years old. Imagine dust bunnies that are centuries old!

One of the first things I learned when I was starting to go green was that added fragrances were often viewed as a no-no in the natural world. It made perfect sense -- fragrances did seem like a pleasant, but unnecessary, addition to things, and some people are sensitive to them -- so I got right on board with going scent-free. Over time, I replaced my scented cleaners, detergents, and hand soaps with fragrance-free varieties.