GladRags Gab

I have always thought of myself a pretty eco-conscious person, but when I started working at GladRags, I realized that I hardly do anything GREEN aside from taking 5 minutes showers, turning the heat off at night, opening windows and doors in the summer instead of using an air conditioner, letting the rain fall wash my car, eating local and when I can afford it, organic. I got to thinking, and researching other ways I could live a more green, eco-friendly life… and this is what I came up with:

Change out your BULBS!

By switching your standard bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, you will be using less wattage, therefore saving money as well! These bulbs last about 2-8 years, are fairly cheap at most local building centers, and just switching out 5 of your household bulbs is like taking 1,000 cars of the road!  

Don't Eat Fast Food!

I know it's so easy, but most fast food chains use way too much packaging, do not use local meats, fish, fowl, or veggies, therefore not helping local farmers. Eat Local, Buy Local!

Drive Less!

I have made the commitment of walking or biking to work now that I live closer. Gas prices are out of control, and the emissions of our little fun toys are the single biggest cause of pollution. Get out of your car and bike, ride public transport, skateboard, roller-skate, run, or walk!

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Take a few minutes to read E.McKibbon's beautiful words.  She tells us of the various transformations she has undergone in how she thinks about her body, menstruation and nature.  There are some great insights here - grab a cup of coffee. ~Diana 

I'm writing to say that I love your products. But I also appreciate that you give people the opportunity to talk about the wrongly- tabooed subject of menstruation, for long ago, it was something to be respected and honored.

I use your Sea Pearls tampons and your GladRags. I have never been a woman who thought periods were disgusting or a hindrance to my life-quite the opposite actually. When I was in my early teens, I looked forward to starting my period, and when it came at 14, my mother took me to our local gourmet market. She bought me a special sandwich, a piece of chocolate cake, a bouquet of flowers, and my first box of pads. I felt so special and womanly.

A few years later, I went on the pill. My period lightened significantly and only became a symbol of not being pregnant. I didn't think too much more of it than that. However, as I got into my early twenties, I became much more aware of nature. I surfed, I hiked, I lay on the beach and listened to Mama Ocean's waves, and I began to have an intuition that being on the pill was not for me.

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You know when you watch an enlightening documentary on some social ill - global warming, the state of US health care, violence in the US, political corruption - and you are all worked up about the injustice and just can't wait to do something? But wait, there was nothing IN that documentary about doing something; there was just a whole ton of stuff to bring ya down.

Well, I like Leslie Garrett's approach in The Virtuous Consumer better. In this book, Garrett gives readers the practical tools to take those much needed steps towards environmentally-friendly living. We know that global warming is a problem and now we're going to do something about it. But we didn't learn our bad habits in a day and they certainly won't be changed in a day. Garrett is patient with us and encouraging with her easy tips.

From 'Eco-Chic' to 'Celebrations that Save the Earth', Garrett schools us in sustainability. She even interviewed me about GladRags and other menstrual reusables (my name's in the index and everything). I'm one of her Virtuous Consumers Next Door and I, a bit to my embarassment, tell of wearing sea sponge tampons when I wore a dress to a wedding that didn't quite allow for - ahem - GladRags supporting underpants(!).

Read more about Leslie Garret on her site www.virtuousconsumer.com and pick up your own copy of The Virtuous Consumer - make me famous!

Blushing,

Diana

i just read Jenny Rose Ryan's post about her grandmother's rag bag. My own two grannies grew up poor in Oklahoma and they were scrimpers, what we would now call masters of frugal living. Granny Mallory, with an ever present thimble on her finger, sat sewing a quilt nearly every night and I still use potholders she made from my uncle's old jeans. My Granny B could bake like an angel but if there was a morsel left it was thrown over the fence to feed the chickens - no edible ever went into her trash. And because she grew up having to draw water from a well, she was an absolute water miser. Dishwater was thrown on the flowers by the door and rainwater collected to wash her hair (long after running water was a fixture in her house). I sort of dreaded when she stayed over to take care of my sister and me because our nighttime bath was only an inch deep. No room for rubber ducky entertainment in that tub!

My niece, who works at the EPA doing research on sustainable stormwater systems thinks Granny B's graywater usage and rainwater conservation passion might have influenced her career choice. And I know the saving ways of my grandmothers have influenced my artmaking career and my work at GladRags. Thanks, Grannies, for passing on your green livin' ways.

-Brenda 

Not sure what to do with all those old plastic bags?

Have a pile of old magazine in the corner of your closet?

Or maybe a lot of empty Diet Coke bottles?

Well now is your chance to make all this trash into wearable art in the Junk to Funk fashion show.  Entries are being accepted until October 17th, so get to it!

This is another installation of how rad Portland is.  I love seeing events where people come together over not only their love for art, but also appreciation for the environment, sustainable living and recycled goods.  Nice work.

The actual event is at the Wonder Ballroom on November 17th.  Check them out: www.junktofunk.org  

-jodi nan 

I have to admit, I have never been a kid person.  I never really saw myself as a parent, most of my friends didn’t consciously chose to have kids, and I am the youngest of the majority of my extended family.  I enjoy being the baby and have never felt like that needed to change.

So my sister has a bun in the oven.  As well as 2 of my close friends, added to another close friend who had a kid less than a year ago, and another who is trying.  All of a sudden, I am surround by breeding.  To say the least, it is freaking me out.

Now, as a consumer, a responsible one at that, with this new baby craze sweeping through my world, I am inspired to research new green baby products.  I love to shop, I admit it.  And this is giving me something new to shop for.  Let me correct that, I love to research products, yet rarely buy them.  I am an e-commerce analytics tease (many abandoned shopping carts).  Back to the main issue here, eco baby products.  Adorable.

Here are a few links to get started with:
GreatGreenBaby
EVO
allthingsgreen.net  

And don’t forget that Gladrags Night Pads can be used for post-partum!

There are tons of other companies out there making amazing new responsible baby products.  Comment if you find more!  I will pass them on to the sister…

-Jodi

Labor Day always signals to me that summer is over. But it really isn't over, because here in Oregon, September is a wonderful warm, dry month. I’m getting amazing vegetables in my weekly basket from Pumpkin Ridge Farms. I’ve belonged to this CSA for over twelve years and without a doubt, my family and I are healthier people because of it  - I would never actually buy the vast amounts of dark, green leafies I am forced into cooking! It feels great knowing I’m eating an organically-grown morsel picked that very morning and that I’m helping local farmers Polly and James make a go of farm life. In every delivery, they include a note with recipes and a report of how the sun, the rain, the wind, and the bugs are effecting the crops. It’s great to be in touch with nature through your food.  Check out the CSA in your area.

Happy eating,

Brenda 

I’m reading the astounding Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Nature Deficit Disorder? Initially, I didn’t want to read it. First, out of disgust for this disorder-for-everything kind of culture we live in and secondly because I couldn’t believe, have we gotten to that point already? But I am wrong on both counts. In the first case, Richard Louv, the author, states right away that this is not a medical diagnosis, just a way of describing the growing separation of nature from childhood that he had been keeping tabs on for the last decade. And in the second, I find out that people have been concerned about this issue for years. Since 1877 (!) a non-profit called Fresh Air Fund out of NYC has been providing inner-city kids with free country vacations so that they could get the obviously health-enhancing benefits of…nature. Okay, point(s) taken.

It’s sad that we have somehow become so removed from nature that we have to advocate to be near it. Louv sites, among other things, the decline of the family farm, intellectualization of the natural world (understanding acid rain but never playing in the river), the rise of community associations that place strict rules on natural space, and our recent tendency to scare our kids out of wandering out into nature as characteristics of this, the “third frontier”. He provides mind-boggling facts like, “between 2000 and 2003, spending on ADHD for preschoolers increased 369 percent,” and tells the story of the three boys who built a tree fort in their yard only to be shut down for not having building permits.

The tone reminds somewhat of Deep Economy , the book that Brenda blogged about earlier. With these important but rather gloom-and-doom books, I try to hang on to what positive points I can. There are always helpful solutions at the end and the hope that we can make the right decisions. And I hang on to simpler things: watching my kids play outside in our yard, making “soup” out of hose water and yard debris, and our mutual delight in butterflies. And for my myself, when I notice the changes in my body—that it’s almost time to grab a GladRag out of my drawer—I know I’m keeping a connection with the lunar cycle and the aspect of nature that is my very own body.

–Michelle 

Rachel Carson was born May 27, 1907. Her book, Silent Spring , started a wave of environmental concern that goes on to this day. She was instrumental in getting certain pesticides banned and her work helped form governmental regulatory programs to deal with environmental protections (many of which have been gutted by our current adminstration). But right now we need to think of banning more chemicals. A May 17 story in the LA times, reports on new studies that identify over 200 commonly found chemicals that are linked to cancer.  More info is avaliable at silentspring.org

Today I discovered VoiceYourself.com, a website that is full of information about the environment and activism. And I consider it a site with integrity because they actually link to GladRags in their Righteous Rags section (organic clothing). Too many so-called "save the earth, stop global warming" websites and magazines just can't bring themselves to mention truly sustainable products like reusable menstrual options. One of the founders of VoiceYourself is the warm and wacky Woody Harrelson. Hats off to you Woody, and your group.

-Brenda