Greenwashing Alert! Deceptively Disposable Nappies?

“Disposable Nappies” – as we know, they aren’t – they sit around in landfill for decades, and more.

What is greenwashing, and does it get applied to disposable nappies?

In a society that’s increasingly aware of its own negative impact on the natural world, it’s no surprise corporations compete for consumer approval by promoting themselves as environmentally friendly or green. Such promotions might be as simple as sprinkling product packaging with leafy logos or as involved as publicizing investments in emerging technologies. Organizations spend billions of dollars each year in an attempt to convince consumers that their operations have a minimal impact on the environment. But can you believe the claims? How much environmental marketing is simply greenwashing?

For today’s topic we’ve asked our Nappy WAHM’s about the perceptions of the general public when it comes to disposable nappies and the green movement. “Green washing” is alive and well, and the myths quickly permeate general knowledge, but are often just a case of creative advertising and clever marketing, not environmental care at all…

I’m pleased to have contributions from many friends of My Green Nappy included in this article. We have Emma from Brindabella Baby, Melinda from Avanappy, Mel from Little Para Pants, Louise from Scamps Boutique, Eva from Oz Baby Trends, Inge from Earth Kidz, Cassandra from New Age Nappies, Annette from Iish Fly, Michelle from Issy Bear Nappies, Alisha from Baby Safari, Cindy from Ticklefish Tots, Ashley from Cheeky Creations, Carli from MiniLaLa, Tracey from Flattery, Bec from Baby Chilli,  Julie from Cloth For Comfort, Chris from Baby Bullfrogs, Kate from Nappy Days, Michelle from Sustainable Hemp Products, and Karen from Baby Blossom.

Greenwashing as a term was originally related to a hotel chain that made claims about being eco-friendly in the way their towels were washed, yet it was found to be nothing more than a promotional ploy!  According to Wikipaedia:

The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices.

Let’s see what they have to say:

“What’s 1 aspect of using disposable nappies that you find is often ‘green washed’ in the minds of the general public?”

Emma of Brindabella Baby:

“It’s OK because they make biodegradable disposables now.” Green wash – most people don’t use biodegradables. Of those who do, most use the ones readily available in supermarkets that are only 70% biodegradable – so there’s still a large quantity of nappy not breaking down in landfill. And even if you use a 100% biodegradable nappy, it won’t break down in landfill if it’s in a non-biodegradable plastic bag.

Melinda of Avanappy:

The chemical makeup of the absorbency layers.

I keep hearing about the study that found cloth nappies use more water than disposables.  I think the study was assuming that you’re always washing your full stash at the same time.  I don’t know about anyone else, but the only time that’s ever happened here was before my son was born and he wasn’t wearing any yet!

Eva of Oz Baby Trends:

Eco Disposable brands. They still take a long time break down and only then under the right conditions. No matter how eco-friendly they might be (compared to normal disposables), they are still contributing to our disposable culture.

Inge of Earth Kidz:

That they are breathable. Duh, try putting plastic underwear on yourself!

Cassandra of New Age Nappies:

No worse than cloth re water use etc.

Annette of Iish Fly:

That using disposable saves on water in Australia’s arid environment. I find a baby in nappies tends to add an extra 2 loads a week, which in a front loader is around an extra 40-60 L a week, which is less than 1% of the average households water consumption. Another aspect  it promotes is that “It is ok to send hazardous body waste to landfill!”

Michelle of Issy Bear Nappies:

The words ‘eco-friendly‘.’

Cindy from Ticklefish Tots:

Well, no mention of the hundreds of years a disposable nappy takes to break down is certainly one thing …. Do you think companies who thrive from the sale of disposable nappies would stay in business if they publicised the fact that their product was not as eco-friendly as they would have us believe?

Carli from MiniLaLa:

Lots of people argue that cloth nappies use so much water, without realising how much water (amongst other things) goes into the production of disposables.

Tracey from Flattery:

There was a study done into the environmental impact of disposables/cloth (they came out on par with each other) the thing that frustrates me is that this study was carried out when cloth nappies were terry cloth squares – that required soaking in napisan (which is not used for nappies now) and water usage was based on pre-soaking and water guzzling top loaders and electricity usage included drying in a dryer not on the line!

Bec from Baby Chilli:

The amount of water it takes to make disposable nappies, plus of course the crude oil, trees and plastic consumption that goes into each and every disposable nappy.

Julie from Cloth For Comfort:

I have found speaking with hundreds of people in my experience at the markets, one aspect which is ‘green washed’ is the amount of water used in the making of disposable nappies compared to cloth. I can understand this from the point of view of those who have not had any education regarding modern cloth nappies as the clever disposable nappy marketing campaigns can insinuate that less water is used in the making of disposable nappies.

Although this is true for only one nappy, it is much more when you add up the thousands of disposable nappies used for each child compared to the environmentally sustainable crops such as bamboo which is commonly used in modern cloth nappies and also the water it takes to wash and clean the nappies too!

Chris from Baby Bullfrogs:

Just how toxic the chemicals are that are used in them – blerghh!

Kate from Nappy Days:

That disposables are actually really good for the environment and that parents need to be more worried about spending time with their baby instead of doing mountains of washing.

Alisha of Baby Safari:

They think they are saving water by using them, the don’t think of the water that has been used to manufacture the nappies.

Michelle from Sustainable Hemp Products:

Marketing not focusing on the negatives like landfill and pollution problems and chemical usage in manufacture.

Karen from Baby Blossom:

Disposable are biodegradable. Although many parts of a disposable may be, wrap it in plastic and put it in landfill.

It still takes hundreds of years to break down.

Thank you to My Green Nappy’s Sponsoring Partners:

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If you are just visiting for the first time today, and have found something new in this article, be sure to register & receive My Green Nappy Guide, you’ll be both relieved and excited at the things you will discover!

3 Recommended Resources about Greenwashing and reducing the impact of using disposables :

1. Greenwatch: All you need to know about Greenwashing.
2. “The Six Sins of Greenwashing.”
3. Make your eco disposables more environmentally friendly by emptying them.

- Your Nappy Doulas -

This is part of a regular series of articles that offer you an insight into the beliefs, concerns, knowledge and wisdom of mums making and selling modern cloth nappies in Australia and New Zealand.

Discover More from Your Nappy Doulas…

A question to you about the not so modern phenomenon called Greenwashing:

What is an example of  ’greenwashing’ that gets you going in any area of advertising?

You might even check out The Greenwashing Index and share it around, or simply get a feel for how we are being misled in our concern for the environment…

Shrinking Baby’s Carbon Footprint: 1 Important Tip To Make Sure Your Cloth Nappy Use Produces Less C02…

We all know about global warming and how we can make a difference for future generations with small changes. Babies are small, so it is fitting that by making little adjustments within our lifestyles, we can shrink the carbon footprint of our babies. This is great for the future,  and is settling a standard of sustainability others can follow too!

For today’s topic we’ve asked our Nappy WAHM’s the question:

What is 1 important tip to make sure your cloth nappy use produces less C02?

I’m pleased to have contributions from many friends of My Green Nappy included in this absorbing article. We have Emma from Brindabella Baby, Mel from Little Para Pants, Louise from Scamps Boutique, Eva from Oz Baby Trends, Inge from Earth Kidz, Kyra of Bubbalooba, Cassandra from New Age Nappies, Annette from Iish Fly, Michelle from Issy Bear Nappies, Ashley from Cheeky Creations, Carli from MiniLaLa, Tracey fromFlattery, Bec from Baby Chilli, Julie from Cloth For Comfort and Chris from Baby Bullfrogs.

Let’s see what they have to say:

“Using cloth benefits our environment. What is 1 important tip to make sure your cloth nappy use produces less C02?”

Emma of Brindabella Baby:

Once you’ve found a nappy system that suits you, buy exactly the number of nappies that fits in your washing machine, plus six (to wear on washing day). This means you only ever wash a full load, but haven’t bought more nappies than you really need.

Mel of Little Para Pants:

Use them for more than one child, I’m thinking.

Louise of Scamps Boutique, NZ:

Use a dry pail instead of a wet pail.

Hang them on the line!! Unless you have rain for 3 weeks or an insufficient stash, there’s no need to use a dryer.

Recycled Gift Wrapping: How to add some ‘ECO-LUXE’ to your next gift giving celebration!

Recycled Gift Wrapping: How to add some ‘ECO-LUXE’ to your next gift giving celebration!

Our Planet Matters: 5 Ways of Recycling Gift Wrapping

Have you ever been caught out without sticky tape or wrapping paper? Have you cringed at the wrapping paper ripped off and tossed in the bin after one use at Christmas? Last Christmas we shredded our chrissy paper and added it to the veggie garden as colourful and festive mulch. We also use kids paintings as wrapping – always unique, and always plenty of it!

This year, I’ve decided to make fabric christmas stockings, to have a fun ‘me time’ activity, a creative activity, and to revitalise this eco-friendly tradition for our boys. I’ll probably make ‘crazy quilt’ stockings, as that is my favourite form of quilting activity. In researching a variety of ideas (I had done some furoshiki in the past), I have put together this cool resource to share recycled gift wrapping ideas with you. For gifts inside the stocking, I’m going to have fun wrapping them in the many styles of cloth wrapping you’ll find below. For those of you who are baby wearers like me, I KNOW your fingers will be itching to try some knots in new ways – perhaps on your wrap!

We only have one planet to live on and we all have to do our part to help reduce waste and preserve the beauty of our planet for future generations. Disposable wrapping paper creates nearly 4 million additional tons of garbage in the U.S. during the holiday season alone! (ewraps)

Eco-Luxe: A multi-purpose reusable accessory that is also ultra-stylish and luxurious. (bobo)

Let’s have a look at 5 ways you can reduce costs, make a difference, even start a new family tradition by scrapping the idea of paper wrapping paper once and for all:

1. Furoshiki: Fabric Gift Wrapping

Furoshiki is a Japanese tradition for using cloth to wrap gifts and more:

Originating from Japanese culture where it promotes caring for the environment and reducing waste; Furoshiki is the eco-friendly wrapping cloth. Using techniques similar to origami, it can be used for gift wrapping, grocery shopping or simply as decor. Choose from a wide variety of sizes and designs to complement your lifestyle. Why furoshiki? It is reusable and multipurpose. Each year billions of plastic bags end up as litter; reusable bags, such as furoshiki can help reduce the impact to our environment. Its versatility allows you to wrap almost anything regardless of its shape or size. Furoshiki: the eco-friendly wrapping cloth

Furoshiki Fabric Gift Wrapping

Furochic Fabric Gift Wrapping

Discover how to wrap a range of shaped objects attractively in fabrics…

2. Ewrapz

Ewrapz are one-piece wrapping cloths for gifts that have the ribbon attached, and they have a ‘legacy tag’ that you can use to record the travels of this reusable form of gift wrapping.

3. Bojagi: The Wrapping Scarf

Bojagi is a Korean tradition of using fabric for wrapping gifts. The wrapping scarf tradition comes mainly from Korea and Japan and originated centuries ago as a way to wrap and transport items before the widespread use of paper and plastic. (bobowrap)

‘How to’ videos for gift wrapping using a fabric scarf at Bobo.

4. Make your own: DIY Gift Bags Let’s call them ‘Boomerang Gift Wraps‘ that come back to the giver – or go to another recipient each celebration. That’s a term I like!

Here are some simple patterns…

Free and Easy Gift Bag Patterns

Free Drawstring Gift Bag Patterns

5. Use Kindy and Kiddie Art!

Perhaps you already do – it is a seemingly endless supply, and makes special wrappings, and gives it another use. It is also a fun activity to do with your kids, whatever age – walking on paper with painted feet, or using painted hands, painting on a table then doing finger designs and ‘printing’ it with paper laid on top… going crazy with stickers and stamps and collage….

Let’s have a look at some images of fabric gift wrapping:

 

Imagine…What if you raided the local thrift store and upcycled some cool retro or just interesting fabrics into some gift bags?

Your Nappy Doula’s talk about reducing, reusing and recycling…

Thank you to My Green Nappy’s Sponsoring Partners:

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If you are just visiting for the first time today, and have found this article useful, be sure to register & receive My Green Nappy Guide, you’ll be both relieved and excited at the things you will discover!

A question to you about recycling gift wrapping:

Does this concept inspire you as it does me? What do you want to have a go at before Christmas or another gift giving celebration?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Which of the 3 ‘Enviro ‘R’s’ have you done this week?

Reduce, reuse and recycle are the three well-known aspects of the ‘Waste Hierarchy’, urging us all to consider how we can reduce waste, re-use what we have and recycle what we can’t find another use for.

These three concepts have been expanded to include terms such as repair, renew, replace or  remove. All these concepts allow us to reduce our environmental impact in those small ways that add up, that we can gradually add to as we have the time and resources.

Using Modern Cloth Nappies of course means  you will be reusing nappies every time your baby wears a nappy, and thus reducing both your household costs each week, your waste load and you’ll probably feel quite good about this simple way to earn some ‘eco-karma’!

Taking it a step further, you can get nappies made from recycled or repurposed fabrics, such as those available from Tricia at Flannel Fings, the girls at Sewy Joeys,  and Allison at Green Bums. You’ll also discover that many businesses are using recycled packaging, stationery and biodegradable packaging as well as perhaps offering digital receipts and ultimately, your nappy can biodegrade into your own or someone else’s garden compost…For today’s topic we’ve asked our Nappy WAHM’s how they reduced, reused or recycled something this week.

I’m pleased to have contributions from many friends of My Green Nappy included in this article. We have Emma from Brindabella Baby, Melinda from Avanappy, Mel from Little Para Pants, Louise from Scamps Boutique, Eva from Oz Baby Trends, Inge from Earth Kidz, Kyra of Bubbalooba, Cassandra from New Age Nappies, Annette from Iish Fly, Michelle from Issy Bear Nappies, Alisha from Baby Safari, Ashley from Cheeky Creations, Carli from MiniLaLa, Tracey from Flattery, Bec from Baby Chilli, Kelleigh from Miracle Baby, Julie from Cloth For Comfort, Chris from Baby Bullfrogs, Peggy from Fluffy Bubs and Kate from Nappy Days, Sasha from Green Kids, Michelle from Sustainable Hemp Products, Karen from Baby Blossom.

Let’s see what your nappy doulas have to say:

“The ‘Three R’s’- tell us about one you did this week…”

Emma of Brindabella Baby:

One of my favourite fitted nappies finally fell apart at the leg elastic seams. It was bought second-hand and then used for all three of my kids, so it had a good life. But I kept the separate lay-in booster – handy for laying in cloth undies during toilet training when they sometimes don’t quite make it in time.

Melinda of Avanappy:

Adding vegetable scraps to the compost and giving boxes and newspaper to the kids to play with (they are imaginative play kids)

This week’s a bad example, we’ve been holidaying and threw away more than we usually do!  My husband put the recycle bin out tonight, though.

Louise of Scamps Boutique, NZ:

Reused nappies from my eldest which don’t fit her anymore on my youngest (clean of course!).

My daughter and I reused an old pizza box to make a cardboard mobile for a cousin.

Kyra of Bubbalooba:

This week I made shampoo from Soap Nuts – I was so excited when I got my Soap Nuts in the post, I have been googling for all sorts of things I can do with them. I’m loving the fact that they are grey water safe so I can reuse my washing water for the garden.

Inge of Earth Kidz:

It’s something in our system. We try to recycle everything, meaning getting it on the right piles.

Cassandra of New Age Nappies:

I managed to downsize my garbage bin to the smallest size as we now recycle almost everything.

Annette of Iish Fly:

Reduce- timed our showers to reduce water consumption.

Re-use- We have a tub in the shower I use to bath Ella. We use it to catch water while waiting for the water to warm & mix correctly and catch some run off– we then re-use the water on the veggie garden, along with the the compested veggie scraps from the kitchen.

Recycle- In my “other day job” working with socially disadvantaged people, I often rescue household items from vacant properties and household clean ups to give them a new lease of life in a needly home to prevent them ending up as landfill.

Reduce- timed our showers to reduce water consumption.

Michelle of Issy Bear Nappies:

I always try and use my reusable bags, but I always reuse any plastic bags over and over.

Pop over to the shop fronts of our Nappy Doulas to see each of their personal commitments to environmental sustainability!

Ashley of Cheeky Creations:

This week I reckon I have done all three! I’m always reusing. Instead of store bought baby wipes I use cut up cloths. I just wash these with the nappies.

Carli from MiniLaLa:

One that I did this week, is take a trip to the Baby & Kids Markets to sell some of the kids old things. Recycling!

Tracey from Flattery:

I’m a serial recycler – we don’t chuck out ANYTHING usable – if i can’t scavenge parts or reuse it for something else – I always give unwanted stuff away on freecycle – beats sending it off for landfill!!

Bec from Baby Chilli:

I always recycle, its a big thing in our house, of course reuse our modern cloth nappies and reduce our carbon footprint by turning off lights, the aircon and having short showers.

Kelleigh from Miracle Baby:

We have put all plastics for the week into our plastic recycling bin.

We have washed and reused our cloth nappies.

We have used leftovers for lunches.

We have reused our grocery shopping bags.

Julie from Cloth For Comfort:

Recycle – I sent the nappies my daughter has grown out of to my sister for her to use with her daughters.

Peggy from Fluffy Bubs:

Reuse – I used my bamboo fleece off cuts to absorb cooking oil, rather than using paper towel.

Kate from Nappy Days:

I started making my own bread because I hate having to buy it in a plastic bag!

Alisha of Baby Safari:

We’ve reused some timber from the old deck we had to make up some stables in the shed rather than go out and buy new timber for them.

Sasha of Green Kids:

The three R’s are often cited in our house, as we want our kids to grow up conscious of the impact their individual actions can have, both positive and negative. If I had to pick one for this week, I will go with reduce. We always use reusable containers for sandwiches and lunches, and rarely ever use plastic wrap. We do a lot of things in our household to reduce our overall footprint, including recycling, composting, using cloth nappies, brewing our own beer to save bottle waste, growing our own vegies, among many others!

Michelle from Sustainable Hemp Products:

I made breastpads out of fabric scraps.

In our home (which we call ‘Fair Haven’ after the Star Trek: Voyager episode) we have a recycle bin, use modern cloth training pants and night nappies, my oldest son has a recycling box in the shed where he collects plastic bottles and cans for recycling, and we take boxes and whatnot to Kindy for the making table. I turn foam meat trays into a construction toy and we play with bottle caps in all sorts of sorting games with my baby boy!

Thank you to all our nappy doula’s for their contributions,

P.S There is a question at the bottom of each of these features. Join in the conversation and share your own experiences and stories with us…

- Your Nappy Doulas -

This is part of a regular series of articles that offer you an insight into the beliefs, concerns, knowledge and wisdom of mums making and selling modern cloth nappies in Australia and New Zealand.
Discover More from Your Nappy Doulas…

3 Recommended Resources about Helping You to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle:

1. Visit My Nappy Style Window with supplies to help you make your own DIY Nappies...
2. Where to buy secondhand nappies in Australia and New Zealand…
3. Freecycle - an online community for sharing free stuff around your community!

A Question to You About Reducing, Reusing and Recycling:

“The ‘Three R’s’- tell us about one your family did this week…”

How to Celebrate Earth Day with Your Kids

Earth Day is coming up on the 22nd of April.

How to Celebrate Earth Day with Your Kids

8 Ways to Get Outside, Reduce Your Waste and Have Fun!

Be sure to visit our recent ‘congo article’ by your nappy doula’s:

What’s your Green Hour?

- we’d love to find out what your family does outside!

Environmental Awareness – Encouragement Vs Education

Environmental Awareness – Encouragement Vs Education

By Eric C Eckl

“I can do small things every day that will make an impact on water pollution.”

It’s such a simple statement, and it’s true. So why is it so hard to send a message — over the airwaves, online, or in print — that actually evokes that reaction? Unfortunately, many environmental messages accidentally evoke an entirely different reaction, instead:

“It is hard to believe that the actions of one person can really contribute to lessening water pollution.”

I pulled those quotes from test audiences that reviewed a pair of environmental public service announcements. It’s my job to help environmental organizations pre-test their commercials and other marketing materials before they are released to the public. The two spots had a lot in common. Both of them urged everyday citizens to do their part in their daily lives to stop water pollution before it starts. But here’s the key difference — the producers of more successful advertisement crafted their message to encouraging. The producers of the less successful advertisement crafted their message to be educational.

Tennessee Water Works produced the “Heroes” advertisement, which prompted that confident “I can do small things every day” response. Who are the “heroes” this ad is about? People like you and me, who plant trees, recycle their motor oil (instead of dumping it in the drain), and care for their lawns responsibly. This advertisement holds up the example of ordinary people doing ordinary things and tells the viewer how great it is. In just 30 seconds, the advertisements repeatedly send the message that these people are heroes and their small actions add up to something important. According to the test panel, this message eventually sinks in.

The government of Honolulu produced the “Water for Life” commercial that prompted the second, doubt-filled reaction. This spot is educational. It shows images that reveal how trash and pollution find their way into storm drains and out into the ocean that Hawaiians love. Sure, it’s true. But it’s grim — bumming the viewers out with shots of murky, polluted water, garbage, and choking wildlife. According to the test audience feedback, viewers see reason to believe that solutions are within reach, or that they have a part to play in bringing it about.

Environmental experts are often dismayed at how little the average citizen understands about their work. It’s easy to find yourself falling into the “if only they knew” trap — “If only they knew they lived in a watershed,” “if only they knew the stormdrain went to the creek.” It is our natural tendency to produce commercials, web pages, brochures, and other materials that try to cram a whole of science into a tiny amount of attention. But the test panel reactions to these commercials underscore the shortcomings of these line of thinking. When it comes to raising environmental awareness, it turns out encouragement is even more important than education.

Eric Eckl is an expert on using marketing techniques to raise environmental awareness and encourage environmental action. He writes the water blog “Water Words That Work.”

Article Source

A Question for you about My Green Nappy and ‘Environmental Awareness – Encouragement vs Education’:

My primary goal with My Green Nappy is encouragement. Encouraging every family down under to have ONE green nappy for their baby to wear. But also, education. My Green Nappy Guide is designed to gently educate and encourage, to inspire and provide helpful resources and ideas so you can ‘cherry pick’ those actions that suit you at the moment, all while introducing you to the many nappy suppliers in Australia and New Zealand.

I found this article this morning and decided straight away to publish it here. Thinking about this article and the resources here, I have a question for you; I can use your responses to shape this site into one that is even more encouraging of environmental awareness as it relates to green nappies, mums and bubs and this important stage in our lives. my question is:

“How is the balance? When you look around My Green Nappy, is there a good balance between encouragement and education?”

- Charndra

Our Planet Matters: Coral People – Underwater sculptures used to protect the reefs

Dive Into Art!

I was looking at Eco Ideas Net, which I talked about last week, and found this great story. Jason De Caires Taylor has created an underwater sculpture park in Cancun. He takes full-size casts of local people and turns them into installation art which is a tourist attraction for divers as well as a way to educated the wider community about the issues represented. 400 scupltures will be installed by the end of the project.

The artist has a website about his artwork called Underwater Sculpture which you can also visit to see more of his work.

Vicissitudes - 26 Statues, Depth 4.5 metres, West Indies

This sculpture, called ‘Vicissitudes’, was the one that caught my eye first. Symbolically, it says a range of things to me – the people are in a circle holding hands – so, working together to protect that which they are made of – in this case – materials that support coral growth. They are facing outwards, giving the impression that they are protecting the reef, as they are also looking in many directions at once. Thirdly, they are children or young people – saying to me something about protecting this fragile underwater environment for future generations, as well as teaching children about the importance of these eco-systems to the bio-diversity of Earth.

I also think about the casts taken from the hollows of Pompeii and remember the time my Mum did a clay cast of me and how at that time I discovered I did not enjoy being immobilised under clay, especially when a spider walked past. I have however had my preggy belly cast since then, but not my face – no siree! I can’t imagine having a full body cast done…

Cancun’s famous coral reef is under environmental stress because of its popularity among divers. These underwater sculptures draw divers away from the reef. The sculptures are made of special materials that promote growth of new coral.

You can see the underwater world starting to consume the sculptures...

As someone with an art background, I thought the idea of sculptures displayed underwater was a very clever way to draw attention to the plight of our global coral reefs. There is a whole range of scultures scattered around the area for the divers to explore and find, keeping them away from the sensitive reefs in the area.

Here’s the comment I added to the article:

I like the idea of using art in a functional way like this to draw attention to the plight of the coral reefs. That they become part of the system and contribute to promoting more coral growth is great – scuttled ships have been used this way for years, what a great idea to create another form of diving experience for underwater tourists to explore!

There is also a short video about the story, showing a range of sculptures. I’d certainly recommend checking out the gallery at his website, Underwater Sculpture.

Visit ‘Dive into Art’…

A question for you about these underwater sculptures:

Looking at ‘Vicissitudes’, what does it make you think of?

Our Planet Matters: Eco Ideas Net

A Greener future starts with you!

That’s the line that greets you on visiting Eco Ideas. net, an environmental site launched in November 2009:

Welcome to ecoideasnet, the new environmental website with fresh stories and simple ideas for your green lifestyle. Our blog will keep bringing you the latest eco-ideas and happenings from around the globe. And the eco+you section lets you see how your actions make a real difference right now. Join us at ecoideasnet and show the world that you care about our precious environment.

The core areas of the Eco Ideas Network...

Like My Green Nappy, the Eco Ideas Network  is based on the premise that every little effort contributes to making a big difference.

Suggestions for what you could do in a range of areas.

This is a social networking site, in which you can record your actions when visiting, comment on what other people are doing and suggesting, and vote for their ideas too. What you can do that is different is find eco friendly activities that suit your lifestyle in a range of areas. Energy, CO2 reduction, water, waste and community are the areas highlighted. You get ranked in relation to all the other members on the site!

'My Actions' - a personal area of what I'm doing

When you join this network, you create a little profile about yourself, and then select an area, look through the suggestions and select what you are doing or can do, adding it to your total. Above is my first go – I considered that My Green Nappy was my ‘Come up with an eco idea’ and of course all my sites mean I thing and learn about the environment and the planet everyday, and share it with my friends!

I had a look at the Water one first – and the first suggestion is to take shorter showers!  This is a good one for me, as I usually shower with one or two children, and although group showers are a good thing, far too much playing goes on, and showers have been known to drift on… not good! A member of our family, Anita, gave us a spare shower timer – an egg timer set to four minutes, and we have that on the door now, it is great being able to use that to get a better feel for what a four minute shower feels like.

I guess that once really really strict water restrictions kick in – or the price rises so high – we’ll all be learning about ‘Navy Showers’ – where the idea is that you have a quick rinse, turn off the water, lather up, then turn it on again to rinse off. You’d certainly want to have continuous flow hot water though – I was horrified when we were living in a rental place in Canberra and had a water system that meant all this cold water pouring down the drain before it would heat up enough to get in! Sure, you can put a bucket under it, but it is still a waste, really.

So, if you would like to see how much you already do and find some new ideas, pop over and join in. It was easy as pie.

Visit Eco Ideas.net…

A question for you about water:

Are you good at saving water? What strategy is the one you always practice, and how do you remember to do it?

Earth Hour is this Saturday the 27th March – A Question for YOU!

Visit to Register your family or business and join in this collaborative activity: Earth Hour

Yes, Earth Hour is symbolic. I think it is a great initiative, and will be supporting it again this year.

Does one hour really make a difference? Yes it does if it raises awareness, starts a new tradition or re-kindles an old one, if it stops us and helps us think about our planet and why it matters that we reduce our impact.

I know people who are blase and refuse to participate, saying we should do Earth Hour every day – but I feel that is a bit odd – why not join in and have fun with your family at the same time everyone else is?

This will be our third Earth Hour. The first we lit candles and chatted. I enjoyed it, hubby watched the clock, LOL.

Last year we had candles again and I read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone out loud. It was so enjoyable that I wanted to do it more regularly. This hasn’t happened, so this year is another chance to kick off the tradition again.

This year – I’ll be making sure we have some candles today and have a think about what we could do – I’d like to do a story or two – but what else?

A Question for you about Earth Hour:

What does your family do for Earth Hour?

Watchful Eyes, Thoughtful Mind… How our past present and future are connected on this Earth!

I am pleased to have been offered a guest post at the fascinating site Watchful Eyes, Thoughtful Mind…

From the site:

I acknowledge that there is a lot for us to learn and understand yet on this planet. I also believe that life goes in cycles and therefore, our civilisation is not the first advanced humans this planet has seen. History (which we conveniently call mythology and ignore) tells us of various feats of advanced ancient civilisations and their downfall, gradual or sudden. We CAN learn a lot from our past, about our future and about our planet, if we make a wise choice.

You can check out the blog about My Green Nappy on “Watchful Eyes, Thoughtful Mind” at this link before exploring Radhika’s blog further:

Eco Friendly Nappies: My Green Nappy