Red Tree Studios Eco-Greeting Cards

This afternoon I ran into my local Walgreen’s to pick up a birthday card for a friend. I enjoy reading through a bunch of cards until the perfect one makes its way into my hand so while perusing I noticed a card with Al Gore wearing a birthday hat. I was intrigued and decided to check it out. As a self proclaimed member of the eco-police I could not help but laugh at this card and, although I purchased something else for my friend, I picked up the Al Gore card simply to share it with all of you.


I was immediately impressed with the card considering I read “On recycled paper since 1971” at the bottom. Once I arrived home I pulled up the Red Tree Studios website to discover they also offer e-cards for free, and there are so many adorable ones too! There are even e-cards specific to today (Income Tax Day). I fully intend to send this card to one of my Greenie friends for their birthday but in the meantime I am granting Red Tree Studios Three Green Leaves for their attention to recycled paper, use of environmental topics as a fun birthday card and e-card option.

I would be excited to up this an extra leaf for adding the option of Earth Day e-cards but in the meantime, keep up the great work Red Tree Studios!

What Is the Harm In Dumping My Expired Medication?

After posting my findings on how awesome Tropicana is to do their little part to get Green, I was surprised to read a comment from Julie regarding my disposal of the expired medication cluttering up my bathroom.

“You haven't been dumping them down the toilet or into the trash, I hope. Old meds, be they prescription or OTC, should be taken to a pharmacy/drugstore to be properly disposed. Otherwise, they'll more likely end up back in our water supply or "infecting" our soil. Just a PSA!”

As a kid we were always taught not to take any medications that had expired as they could be dangerous and/or not even work to help with the problem we were facing. I have always thrown away anything that was old or washed it down the sink, as I’m sure a lot of people out there have, because it was what I had always done when replacing with a fresh bottle so Julie’s comment woke me up. Because I am a gal who likes to have all the facts in order before I either debate or take the advice of someone else, I decided to do some research into what Pharmacies do with expired medications once we return them into their capable hands.

There are a slew of websites out there who all offer the exact same advice -- do not flush any medications down the toilet as waste treatment facilities do not have the capacity to handle filtration of every type of drug and those drugs could end up back in the public water supply so a local pharmacy, doctor or hospital should be contacted to retrieve and properly dispose of the medications. It was just as Julie had recommended!

My first stop was directly to the Walgreens website as this is the most prevalent local pharmacy in the area. I was surprised to learn the Federal government released drug safety disposal methods almost two years ago. Please feel free to visit the page where I gained the information that various governmental agencies endorse. In the end I visited approximately six online sources and discovered that most pharmacies who do accept these drugs end up sending them out to be incinerated.

Through this research I did come across some information that raised my red flag meter -- “don’t believe everything you read”; each of us needs to use our best judgment to dispose of old medications in the safest way possible for both the environment at large as well as our own personal environment. Two examples of scary information follow. I will point out however that not everything was scary, these websites also contain exceptional tips. Again, listen to your gut.

☼ “there are organizations that donate expired medicine to third world countries. Even though your medicine may have expired, it may still be good long past the printed date. (Only professionals can determine this.) Rather than have it waste away in your medicine cabinet, why not donate it where it will be put to good use?” From wiseGEEK. I believe that redistributing expired medications, prescription or not, is completely illegal so this is something I would love clarification on if anyone has additional information.

☼ “If you're tossing liquid medication, you can minimize the chance that a child will drink it by putting something terrible-tasting in it, like cayenne pepper.” From Baby Center. This is a tip for how to prevent little ones from getting their hands on medications and it sounds a little odd to me. Yes cayenne pepper is a strong flavor however the child would have to drink the liquid to know this was in there. Unknown ounces might be ingested before they stop tasting it.

The best suggestions I came across today came from About.com as they seemed rational, logical and truthful. I am not endorsing any one method over another but I will certainly do my best to be mindful of the local and global environmental impact my drug disposal has in all future instances. Again, we all make personal choices in these matters so the more information we can be armed with on all sides, the better.

There Are A Few Things I Simply Can Not Give Up

Green design, green products, green living, green this and green that -- the word Green has overtaken the general media! With the advent of so many fine things there will always be some things that just do not make the cut where safety, convenience, comfort, price, or a combination of all of the above, is concerned. As a self proclaimed Greenie I tend to give everything a try and if it works for me, fits into my lifestyle, then it will be here to stay. If not then I must revert to my old choices with no guilt and know there are so many other ways I can make a difference instead.

This past Thursday night was the latest Bennetts Brook Green Group (BBGG) meeting. It was small, only seven of us, but once again we touched on many fantastic topics and I was the lucky recipient of two lovely items that evening! One of the members picked up reusable shopping bags for everyone at Walgreens (I love this store) and at the end of the night I also won a door prize. I had the option of choosing between a bar of soap and a box of tissues. I eyed both but decided to go with the tissues because I had never used any of this company’s products before and was rightfully curious.

The brand is Seventh Generation, a well known name just about everywhere these days. The box is eye catching with little green leaves on a white background and on one side details of the product are given. These hypo-allergenic tissues are made from 100% recycled paper, have no dyes or bleach and are two ply. The bottom of the box indicates that if all households using tissues were to purchase a recycled product we would keep 17,000 pounds of chlorinated pollution from water ways and save:

☼ 283,000 trees
☼ 730,000 cubic feet of landfill space
☼ 102 million gallons of water

Yes this is wonderful and yes I am excited to feel good about making a difference. But am I literally looking down my nose at this gift? Well, sort of. No, they are not soft and no I do not believe I could use them if I had a cold as my nose would be raw after just one day. I am certainly happy to have the opportunity to try them out but I am a firm believer that anything we use has got to be the right thing for each of us personally or it will end up in a landfill before its intended life cycle is complete.

I will leave these tissues in the holder on the back of the toilet because we do not get sick often in this household and may only ever use one tissue a day. For that purpose they will be just fine and it will make me feel good knowing I am doing something more environmentally friendly but when this box runs out I will not replace it with another. Instead I will donate to plant a tree and use that as the trade off for the box of Puffs Plus with lotion that will make its way into my cart.

Walgreens Is Jumping On the Green Wave

As a simple girl I do not wear much makeup so when I do purchase the few products I use, they are generally less expensive brands. Over the years I have tested a plethora of price ranges and find that none do any better job than the next so the convenience of being able to purchase right at my neighborhood Walgreens Pharmacy is always a nice touch. Tonight I went in to pick up a couple items and took a brief walk through the store as it had been a while since I had shopped there. I was pleasantly surprised to see three instances of Earth friendly attention in my probable ten minute stop.

First, the makeup I purchase is a pressed powder made by Wet n Wild but when attempting to locate it I found it had been replaced with a new version. Upon inspection of the package I discovered the new name was Natural Wear. Intrigued I read on to discover the makeup is made from 100% natural ingredients and the package, now a heavy duty cardboard as opposed to the previous plastic, is made from recycled paper. Upon testing it at home I was pleased that it looked just as nice as what I had used in the past and it felt good on as well.

Walking around I noticed some kitchen towels on an end cap and since I always like to reach out and touch that kind of item I did so. I stopped walking right away as I read the sign indicating they were 100% bamboo fiber. As a rapidly renewing resource it is an excellent choice for creating fiber and tends to be much softer to the touch than cotton. What made me excited was to see that the towels came in a package of two and were only $5.00; just $2.00 more expensive than their much rougher cotton counterparts around the corner.

Deciding to forego purchasing the towels I headed to the cash register where on the counter I read a sign that encouraged customers to either bring their own shopping bags or just simply say “skip the plastic” and take their items without a superfluous plastic bag. I generally do this when I have a small number of items that will fit in my purse anyway but it was wonderful to have the reminder.

With over 5,500 stores nationwide and in Puerto Rico it was encouraging to see this company that was founded about 108 years ago is rolling with the times. Not only do they employ local workers in their establishments but they are keeping an eye on the planet as a whole by encouraging sound shopping practices and offering eco friendly selections to their customers. Keep it up Walgreens!