Get a green thumb, and body, and mouth

You can look at Going Green in many ways. While it just may not be feasible to have the GREEN take over your life, some small changes are possible. To those who say, "I'm just one person, my stuff doesn't matter" you are wrong. Every bit counts. So QUIT USING THAT AS AN EXCUSE!!!
Lets start with something easy you can do to help good ol Mama Earth. No matter who you are, man, woman or child, everyone needs to think about PERSONAL HYGIENE. We use all kinds of toxic chemicals and plastic items on our most prized possession, our bodies! Do you really want to drown your skin in products whose ingredients will NEVER decompose?? That just doesn't sound right to me. I mean we are talking about everyday items like shower gel, hand soap and toothpaste!

I've recently seen multiple "green" products appear and even at a lower cost than in earlier years. There are LOTS AND LOTS of brands/products/items I could talk about here, so lets keep a focus and I will talk about one brand for now that ROCKS in every category.

I need to declare my love for Tom, Tom's of Maine that is. Check out www.tomsofmaine.com Tom's is pretty much a Green Stud. The whole company does everything it can to not only make and create natural care products, but they do it in an energy efficient building, and put it in recyclable packaging. You can be sure that ZERO animal ingredients were used, and NO animal testing was performed if you buy a Tom's of Maine product. When you are all done with the product, you can recycle the container! If your neighborhood doesn't do a certain type of recycling, send the packaging back to Tom's and they will be happy to do it for you.

To prove how amazing this company is here is a direct quote taken from their website

"We do this by creating safe, effective natural products free of artificial dyes, sweeteners, and preservatives; by harvesting, processing, and packaging with respect for our natural resources; by not testing on animals or using animal ingredients; and by donating 10% of our profits and 5% of our employees' paid time to charitable organizations."

WOW.

Some more details on that...
They use wind energy. They use all energy-saving lighting. They recycle aluminum tubes, cardboard, folding cartons, mixed paper, and even challenging items such as shrink wrap.


They also:

* Use vegetable-based inks on all packaging
* Wrap their bar soaps in biodegradable cellulose made from wood fibers
* Created a deodorant stick made of just a single plastic (#5 polypropylene) so that it can be recycled- according to their website, this is "the first of its kind in the industry and a container that is even stronger and more reliable than the old nonrecyclable version!"



Its amazing to find a company that strives to be environmentally friendly and aware in just about every aspect of their business.

One product I enjoy is the toothpaste. You may think it tastes a bit off, but in reality it is just clean and natural! According to their website, sweeteners used in other toothpastes (saccharin) are about 400 times as sweet as sugar. WOAH! Tom's doesn't use But we use artificial preservatives so their toothpaste doesn't taste as sweet. After using it for a few days you don't really notice the difference until you maybe pick up an old tube and start brushing. The difference kicks in then! You can almost feel the sugar scratching on your teeth after brushing with artificially sweetened stuff. BLEAH!

Tom's started small (still family owned) and has grow over the years but still keeps core values. They have multiple products so I encourage you to find them in the drug store visit their website at www.tomsofmaine.com .


Enjoy a greener, healthier lifestyle!

Molly O