Buy Local - A Call To Action

Why Companies Manufacture Overseas
Companies have nearly $500 billion stashed abroad that can be taxed here at home. There are several reasons why companies choose to manufacture overseas;  I am sure that the financial benefits take precedence. To read what I have to say about the cost of manufacturing overseas click here.

My work wife, Melissa, and I chose to keep our products made locally for several reason. If you have interest; here is the back story. 


What YOU can do
>Contact lawmakers<
If our lawmakers revoke the tax breaks for overseas manufacturing and bring the big companies back to the USA, I believe that our economic future would look brighter. I humble suggest contacting our lawmakers and demanding that they stop giving companies incentives to manufacture overseas.

Here is a link with all the Congressmen and Congresswomen's contact information and here is a link that lists the Senators.

>Buy Made in the USA<
I am no economist but I am fairly certain that if Americans buy products made in the USA and support our mom and pop shops, it would make a difference.
 
Why Buy Local
Buying products made in the USA supports our local economy by providing jobs, which support families and generate domestic spending. Buying domestic also reduces the environmental impact by eliminating energy to ship goods internationally. Refusing to buy anything made outside of America will be a challenge for sure. While clothing and food are easier to find locally; I could not find any cell phones that are made in the USA nor could I find televisions. I did find this site that lists made in the USA products. *Note to self; get LolliDoo® listed*

Melissa and I manufacture in the USA using domestic components because we strongly feel that WE can make a difference, and SO CAN YOU! Next time you go shopping, instead of hitting Target or WalMart; try checking out a local mom and pop shop.

Read labels; I cannot reiterate this enough. Oftentimes folks believe that they are purchasing something made in the USA because the company is based out of the US when in actuality the goods are manufactured overseas. Additionally your items may be manufactured in the USA but the components are from overseas. It's not easy to find 100% American made goods.

I'm sure that this is a simple answer to a complex problem but I am confident that small changes make a big difference.

I LOVE LolliDuos™

My Work Wife Melissa has created the greatest diaper ever! The all new LolliDuo™ is fantastic for several reasons; here are my five favorites:

• The LolliDuo™ is a truly versatile one-size cloth diaper. You can use is as a diaper cover, a pocket diaper OR you can use it as a diaper cover but stuff it for extra absorbency. 
• LolliDuos™ are trim enough for daytime use but thirsty enough for overnight.
• The entire diaper saves at least six water bottles from going to the landfill. This is because the high quality performance fleece, that we are now known for,  is  made from recycled bottles.
• We have several super cute color combinations.
• You can choose snap or hook and loop closure.

Want to see more? Click here.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Miss Ellie in a LolliDuo™ - she was around 9lbs in these photos and as you can see, they fit her really well.

Don't believe me? Read what other folks are saying.

I honestly believe that Melissa deserves a HUGE Hooray for her genius in designing all LolliDoo® diapers. Well done Melissa, well done!

Cloth Diapering JUST Overnight Can Save $329 Or More

How easy is this? Purchase just one LolliDoo™ Overnight eco-pocket™. Use it only at night. In the morning throw it in the wash with your towels or whatever clothing needs washed that day. Repeat every night.

You can save a lot of money and your baby will wrapped in super soft and dry comfort all night. It's a win-win situation.

An average cost of disposable diapers is .30¢
An average LolliDoo™ Overnight eco-pocket™ is $38

While the upfront cost can be daunting. When you multiply .30¢ x 2.5 years -you get $329. This is supposing that you only use one disposable diaper a night. If your child needs nighttime diaper for four years (which is about average) then you save $438!

Go ahead - make your life a little easier :)

What we are doing to make LolliDoo as green as possible

Right Now

• We use new machine motors that consume 63% less energy than traditional clutch-motors
• Our packaging is made from printer waste and 100% reused
• LolliDoo Diapers are recycled, recyclable and reusable, and all cotton is certified organic
• Our office paper is recycled and we use both sides and recycle what we don't need to keep
• Fabric scraps are made into Mama Pads (coming soon)
  
• We designed our diapers so that they dry quickly on the line or in the dryer
• LolliDoo Diapers wash beautifully in cold water
• All printed materials that we distribute are printed on recycled paper with vegetable based inks
• Instead of mailing retailers information, we are using email as often as possible
• LolliDoo Diapers are shipped in recycled cardboard boxes
• All textile components of LolliDoo® Diapers come from the United States. Buying products made in the USA supports our local economy by providing jobs, which support families and generate domestic spending. Buying domestic also reduces the environmental impact by eliminating energy to ship goods internationally.
  
• Certified organic cotton is soft against baby’s skin and is highly absorbent. Certified organic cotton fibers are grown using safe and sustainable practices that respect both the earth and baby‘s health. Fibers are turned into textiles using eco-friendly processing that does not compromise workers’ health and reduces water, electricity and toxic runoff.
• Recycled fleece is a smooth, supple fleece produced from recycled beverage bottles. Recycled fleece is a low pill fleece that exceeds all industry standards for strength, shrinkage and color fastness. Recycling protects natural resources and saves space in landfills: Recycled fleece enables billions of plastic containers to be recycled each year, instead of them being buried in a landfill.
  
  

In the future:

Our main "green" goal is to sustain ourselves on wind and solar power while powering up neighboring low income housing with our surplus wind and solar energy.


Did you know?

The amount of water used to launder cloth diapers at home is about 50 to 70 gallons of water every 2-3 days; this is about the same as a toilet-trained child or adult flushing the toilet five to six times a day.

It is illegal for solid waste to enter our landfills, so even disposable diapering families should put the poo in the potty.

An Eco Friendly Alternative to Wrapping Paper and Gift Bags

I should have posted this earlier and I apologize. My friend Sarah had the greatest idea this year. She offered hand sewn gift bags for the holidays. At just $4 a bag, who can pass up this economical and eco-friendly packaging solution? I am Jewish so mine are Hanukkah bags, but most of them were for Christmas. Her address is imamamadiapers@yahoo.com and she just informed me that she is making Valentine bags.






Other ways I reduce during the holiday season are by:
~Re-using gift bags, tissue paper and boxes for years. Literally until they break. Then I recycle them.
~An old Hershey tradition is to not sign cards. My grandmother, May Hershey, always gives the presentee blank cards with their gifts. She does this to be frugal but the tradition stuck and my whole family attaches blank cards so that they can be re-used.
~At my house we always recycle wrapping paper. I was surprised to find out that a lot of people didn't know that it was recyclable.
~Lastly, I always make presents. Well that's not totally true, gifts to my family are comprised of things that my kids made. That way, we get to use all those lovely things they make in school and my family is overjoyed to receive kid art.

However you celebrate the holidays, please be on the lookout for ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Sharing 5 of my favorite sites

I thought that I would compile s short list of the sites that I like. The first being http://www.mrsgreengoesmainstream.com Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream is a local radio show that focuses on green topics. Check out the site, it has all kinds of goodness.

My favorite printer in the whole wide world is http://www.wgiprint.com Wizard Graphics not only prints on recycled paper, but they print with low VOC vegetable based ink. They have great customer service and their printing is exceptional.

This really isn't a "green" site, but my absolute favorite travel site is http://chuckmanes.worldventures.biz/ It is my husband's travel site but they price match and you can rent condos, apartments in addition to hotels. You can also rent cars and find airfare, check it out if you are planning a trip.

I direct anyone who asks me questions about the cost of cloth diapers vs disposable diapers to the Diaper Pin's diaper calculator http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp. The diaper calculator gives an unbiased look at the reality of diapering.

For some reason the hyperlinks wouldn't work for the last two sites, so I bolded them. Copy and paste the addresses into your browser.

Lastly, my friend Nonie is doing an amazing thing for the breastfeeding community, it's called Mom's Breastaurant. http://www.momsbreastaurant.org She goes around the country to different festivals, fairs and expos, and offers moms a safe, comfortable place to sit and nurse their babies. Nonie doesn't charge for this service, which is even more amazing. Check out the site and support her if you feel like she deserves it, I do.

How did people wipe their butts before toilet paper?

I have been thinking about what I can do about the excessive toilet paper use in my house. With 6 kids and my nephew here 5 days a week, we go through at least a roll every other day. One of my girls-who will remain nameless-believes that her butt is never clean enough and therefore uses half a roll wiping herself. I finally told her to go get a washcloth and wash her butt after she pooped. That is working for now.

The bigger problem is the actual waste of resources and money. I am convinced that toilet paper is bad for the septic system, our bodies and the planet. So I did a little digging...

An obvious drawback to toilet paper is an issue that I am passionate about in regards to disposable diapers and it never occurred to me that it pertained to toilet paper, derrrrrrrrrr. DIOXIN!!!!!!!!! Dioxins cause cancer, learning disorders, decreased immune response, diabetes and all sorts of other nasty problems in the environment.

Sometimes I am so dingy I swear.

As I was searching online for banana leaves or something equally "safe" to wipe our butts on I learned that 424,000 trees would be spared by replacing a 500-sheet roll of virgin fiber toilet paper with recycled toilet paper.


When shopping for earth friendly toilet paper look for statements such as "unbleached", "processed chlorine-free" or "totally chlorine free" otherwise they might slip some dioxin in on the down low.

This is all great and informative but I want to know what alternatives we have to toilet paper. Seriously, how gross is it to keep stacks of rags in the bathroom and just throw them in the diaper pail after using them? I could handle it. The kids could get used to it. Chuck would grump but he'd come around. What would guests think? Do I care? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

I am going to do a little experiment. When I switched my family from paper towels and napkins to cloth, I just said we ran out and use a rag. They are now so used to rags as napkins and paper towels that no one has asked in months when I am going to purchase some paper ones. I wonder if I can pull the same trick with toilet paper.

I am going to try, stay tuned for an update.