Top 5 ways to connect with nature in the city.

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Naima

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The official first day of Spring is March 20th, and with the help of Daylight savings time our days extend well past when we get home from work. Trees are bursting out green leaves, flowers are blooming and soon I won’t have to wear two pairs of pants at night just to walk my dog.

Spring is a perfect time to reignite your connection with nature. In his book Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv, coined a term “nature deficit disorder” to describe that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. We lack a relationship with our environment and all things that come from it. To reconnect with nature you don’t have to go on a week long backpacking trip to Alaska, it can be a few hours close to home or in your own backyard. This Spring, before it gets raging hot, take the opportunity to reconnect with nature here locally in our big backyard of Dallas.

Here are my top five ways to embrace Spring in the city, reignite your connection to and be inspired by our natural world.

5. Take a stroll at one of the local plant nurseries. My favorite is Ruibal’s Plants of Texas in downtown Dallas is full of vivid colors, unique clay pots and friendly staff. Be inspired to start small and pick up some seeds, potting soil and a few small pots. Gardening doesn’t have to be a huge project in your backyard, it can start small with some basil, cilantro and other herbs to add some fresh flavor to your cooking. Growing food at home is a small way you can reduce your impact on the planet.

4. While your downtown visiting the local nursery you might as well wonder across the street to the Farmers Market. The Dallas Farmers Market is beginning to vet vendors to make sure their products are actually from local farmers. On my last visit I picked up Texas tomatoes, grapefruits (which by the way right now are amazing), and home grown free range organic eggs. Feel good about your purchases and put good food in your body. Buying local keeps shipping pollution and energy usage low.

3.While we are on the food kick, we all need a break from cooking at home, and when you decide to step out, support restaurants actively purchasing sustainable food. The restaurant Start, on Greenville serves up “real food fast” specializes in healthy food utilizing whole organic foods. Whatever you order from a grass fed burger to juice, watch as their staff fires up the juicer to make it fresh in front of you. Wherever you eat, ask or research where their food comes from. The more informed you are the better decisions you can make.

2. Get out for a hike in the city. Take a look on the City of Dallas Parks and Recreation interactive map of parks at dallasparks.org. There are parks everywhere. My secret spot is the backside of Harry Moss Park. Park on the side of road at Arborside Road and explore the windy trails through thick forest mixed with open fields. Or try out the secret spot I haven’t made it to yet, Dragon Park. Located at 3520 Cedar Springs Road, I hear it’s a small green hidden unique park with gargoyles, angels, fairys, and dragon statues. A perfect small park for a lunch picnic.

1. Let the intricate weaving of a spider web or precise honeycomb of a bee hive inspire your work. Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that studies nature’s models and then uses these designs and processes to solve human problems, create products and policies. It is basically copying mother nature to improve our efficiency or enhance our lives. Popular examples are swim suits designed for speed based off of overlapping shark scales, low energy heating and cooling buildings designed using termite mound structure, and velcro came from inspiration from seed burrs. Take the time to be present and look for nature in unexpected places, it could very well be that creative push you need.

As seen in the Katy Trail Weekly. 

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The International Plastics Recycling Conference comes to Dallas

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Naima

Plastic six pack rings, styrofoam, plastic hangers, plastic wrap, ziplock bags, and bread bags all fall into a non traditional category. Are these plastic items recyclable or not?

The Plastics Recycling 2015 Conference was held in Dallas the last week in February. Plastic professionals from all over the world including China, Nepal, and Italy, gathered to talk economic growth, sustainability, and the future of the plastic recycling industry.

The industry relies upon raw materials, from consumers, to sustain their business. The challenge is balancing a steady stream of raw materials with cost efficient methods to return materials back into consumer products. The industry needs to compete at a cost equal to or less than products made from virgin materials. Low oil prices are not helping. Low oil prices decrease the cost of virgin materials making it more cost efficient to buy virgin rather than recycled products.

What products are recyclable is all based on your local communities processing facilities, ability to pick up raw materials, and transportation. Currently in Dallas, the non traditional items are not recyclable through the curbside single stream blue bin program. Just because a product is not currently taken in your area does not mean that product is not recyclable. The recycling industry just hasn’t come up with a solution to easily recycle it, or the processing facilities are too great a distance away from collection to be cost efficient.

New creative technologies and methods are being developed to recycle non traditional items which could change the items you can throw in your recycle bin. A community in California recently piloted an “energy bag” program in which non traditional items (such as plastic spoons, cereal box liners and squeezable pouches) were placed into a separate purple bag within the bins. The three month pilot program resulted in nearly 8,000 energy bags collected totaling approximately three tons of material kept out of the waste stream. The possible changes are not a nuisance, it’s less waste going into our landfills.

Another hot topic at the conference was contamination. How dirty is too dirty? This is also unique to the facilities in your community and what they can handle. The industry is searching for a better answer through investigating a life cycle analysis of virgin plastics “from cradle to grave”. Steve Alexander, Executive Director of The Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers, explained this research would look at answering the ultimate question of “is recycling that material worth it” and look at contamination rates across different facilities. The last analysis of it’s type was done 5-6 years ago, which in a fast evolving industry, has already become outdated.

Recycling in our communities takes research based processes and collaboration across community organizations. I sat in the morning session led by a panel of plastic recycling executives who asked the large crowd to raise their hand if they were from a local or state government. One person of hundreds raised their hand. Without collaboration from the city governments who mainly pick up and transport recyclables, businesses, non profit organizations, and community members, the success of recycling will remain stagnant.

Community members are vital to the equation and educating our public on the proper techniques to recycle products is key. I was impressed with the immense data presented on the success and failures of how each message from a simple graphic to a video, that is disseminated to the public, can cast a positive or negative light on recycling. I was just as intrigued as Kim Holmes, director of recycling for The Plastic Industry Trade Association said, “(plastic bag) bans just don’t really move us forward in the direction we want to go.” Instead of utilizing a ban that casts a negative connotation of recycling, they encouraged a more comprehensive approach to mitigate litter and providing recycling incentives.

Dallas may not be in the lead in recycling technologies but after hearing the progress from New York City leaders of their “Recycle Everything” campaign that has taken the city to the forefront, I’m excited for our city to pursue similar collaborative measures. When we do, I just hope it’s backed by strong research based knowledge and input from industry professionals.

A table set up by TABB Packaging Solutions to display how everyday items are broken down to smaller plastic pieces to be reused.

A table set up by TABB Packaging Solutions to display how everyday items are broken down to smaller plastic pieces to be reused.

As seen in the Katy Trail Weekly. 

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Colorado!

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Naima

We spent the past week in Colorado exploring the Steamboat Springs area. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to go with my family and hit the slopes. The weather was perfect, sun shining, mid 40s and a little bit of snow on the top of the mountain one day!

I put together a video montage of our adventures in Colorado. We mainly hit the mountain snowboarding and skiing but did take a day to take a short hike to Fish Creek Falls and take a dip in Strawberry Hot Springs.

Be inspired to make a big trip happen. It may be a lot of planning, prepping and driving but it’s so worth it. The proof is in my nephew’s faces:

If the video link isn’t showing above click here: https://youtu.be/vZrYIWYg08o

I’m ready for the next adventure. This trip reignited my gypsy soul. New life goal= put a camper shell on the back of the truck, sell all of our stuff and hit the road.

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Equality Vodka has a simple agenda, equality for all.

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Naima

I bundled up to avoid the impending sleet and ran into Company Cafe on the Katy Trail to meet Doug Jacobson and Bert Gallagher, founders of Equality Vodka. The restaurant was uncharacteristically empty due to the weather so we had the entire place to ourselves to chat about their journey. This was another story that may not be my environmental norm, but was too important to pass up. I was eager to learn more about the ultra premium vodka with a simple agenda, equality for all. Here is the article as seen in the Katy Trail Weekly.  

Life is a journey full of experiences that challenge us to learn more, change and grow. Doug Jacobson and Bert Gallagher, friends for over 15 years are founders of Equality Vodka which recently launched in Dallas. Equality Vodka is an ultra premium vodka with a simple agenda, equality for all.

Equality Vodka in snow

After living through their friends and strangers injustices for over thirty years, Jacobson and Gallagher were looking for a way to contribute to bringing equality to everyone. The two long time friends had contributed in various ways over the years, but they were on the search for just the right way to make their mark. Jacobson describes the exciting moment Gallagher walked into their office with the idea for the first time, “He (Gallagher) had a bottle, and it said Equality. He was like, we can give back with every bottle we sell, and it was the impact of that after 30 years of trying to figure this out.”  

Jacobson and Gallagher took the next three plus years to develop Equality Vodka, committed to provide funds to further the advancement of the equality movement for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. Twenty percent of gross profit off of every bottle purchased is donated. For the first two years, this money will be earmarked for Lambda Legal. 

“You never know where life will take you” said Gallagher as he spoke of how he was first introduced to some of the injustices in this world at a Lambda Legal event. Lambda Legal is the a legal organization whose mission is to “achieve full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work”.

Lambda Legal has their work cut out for them in Texas. Thirty seven states now recognize same sex marriages, Texas is not one of them and still does not have laws to protect against discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. Recently in the news, the Austin female couple, together for more than three decades, were granted the first same-sex marriage license in Texas history. Despite this ruling, it was made clear by the Travis County Clerk’s office that they would not be issuing more same sex marriage licenses. 

Actor Joe Mantegna attended an event to support Lambda Legal is using two Equality Vodka bottles to display the equality signal.

Actor Joe Mantegna, attending an event to support Lambda Legal, is using two Equality Vodka bottles to display the equality signal. Photo curtesy of Equality Vodka.

Equality Vodka is on a mission to bring their high quality vodka and message nationwide. The nonprofit chosen to receive funds will change to provide funding for several aspects of injustice in the LGBT community. Jacobson and Gallagher noted that there are more aspects of LGBT injustice beyond marriage inequality and job discrimination such as laws that inhibit or greatly complicate adoptions for same sex couples and LGBT youth. The friends visited the LGBT youth center in Los Angeles to learn more about LGBT homeless youth, often called a “hidden crisis” because of the lack of attention it receives. Many homeless youth lose their homes at 13 or 14 years old when they come out to their parents, and studies show that 320,000 to 400,000 gay and transgender youth face homelessness each year. 

The first Equality Vodka bottles hit the shelves in September of 2014 here in Dallas. Bottled and distilled from premium grain in New York, Equality Vodka has a light taste on the palate, is priced reasonably, and comparable in quality to something like a Belvedere. In just a few short months on the shelf, Equality Vodka is expanding throughout Dallas, mainly by word of mouth. And after meeting these two inspiring founders I can see why. Equality Vodka is their key to turn their passion into action and help make the world a better place. Now they just need our help. As Gallagher says, “Ask for Equality Vodka where you eat, drink and buy” to not only have a tasty cocktail but support equality for all. 

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Do something useful with 66 percent of your trash.

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Naima

A woman in her 20s, living in New York City, has generated only enough trash to fit in a mason jar in over two years. Since the average American generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day (3,139 pounds in two years!), you can see why this story has circulated the news outlets in the last few weeks. How is she doing it? One of the main ways she has no waste is through composting. About two-thirds (66 percent) of our household waste can be composted. Sure she is able to drop off her compostable waste at her local market but I’ve got some options for you to join the zero waste or at least less waste revolution.

Compost has a bad reputation. If it’s done right, it doesn’t stink, it’s not a lot of prep work and it’s easy to maintain. There are several ways to compost that fit every lifestyle even if you live in a tiny apartment with no yard. Compost is the process of using bacteria, fungi, worms, and other microorganisms to break up organic waste into a useful nutrient rich soil substance. There are several ways to transform your waste, just choose the one that fits your living situation.

  • The pile. That’s right, you can just throw your waste in a pile in your backyard. With a little prep work, use chicken wire to enclose a small area to keep wild animals out. You will have some maintenance with turning your pile at least once a week and don’t expect to get the actual compost soil for about nine months. Organic materials can be thrown in the pile but you are advised to not throw in meat and dairy products.
  • Worm bin or vermicomposting. Worms eat everything and are rather pleasant roommates. They clean up your messes, don’t smell and stay quiet. Keep them in a small plastic bin and feed them all of your unwanted food. Red worms are recommended and can be bought at several sites online.
  • Bokashi (Japenese for ‘fermented organic matter’). Not fond of worms in your house? All you need is a bucket (preferably with a valve at the bottom) and bokashi mix of friendly microorganisms. This process will break down organic waste through the process of fermentation. The end product will still need to be completely broken down in a compost pile or buried in the ground. The upside to bokashi is you can throw any waste in, including meat, oils and dairy.
  • In vessel composting (tumblers) – There are thousands of varieties of tumblers you can make or buy. The idea is the same regardless of the variety: throw your waste and dry material in, tumble it every few days to aerate and leave it be. This is the kind I use (similar to this one still sold online)- it’s simple, low maintenance and doesn’t stink.
  • Windrows – Have a lot of waste? Most large scale compost facilities use windrows. They are rows of waste at least 14-16 feet long that heat up to high temperatures to break down organic material. Bulldozers are usually used to turn the piles. If done correctly, they too have low odor.
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Red worms in one of my school’s simple plastic compost bins.

 

No matter the type or composting you choose make sure to add brown material. Stephen Smith, Dallas Urban Farmer and founding member of farmvet.org stresses the importance of balancing your waste inputs with brown material, “You need enough dry ingredients. The importance in creating compost that works, making the right recipe is the key. Making sure you have dry ingredients to top dress every time you dump your waste in.” Your brown material can be leaves, dry grass/straw, used brown paper towels or cardboard such as egg cartons.

Smith is currently working on a project to showcase and educate Dallas on urban gardening and composting at a site right next to the Dallas Farmers Market. Through their nonprofit Farmers Assisting Returning Military, Smith and his colleagues are passioned to turn a current parking lot into a working urban garden and compost facility right next to the Dallas Farmers Market. The project, in it’s infancy stages, will showcase urban farming while also providing meaningful “dirt therapy” to veterans at risk. Learn more and support their efforts at farmvet.org.

If all of these compost options sound like too much work for you, you have one more alternative. Convince nine of your neighbors to go in on a compost collection with you. Recycle Revolution (recyclerevolutiondallas.com) will pick up your compost waste (large businesses or ten houses in an area or more) and deliver to large scale local compost facilities for a small fee.

No matter what way you choose to compost, these methods are better than the trash can. When we throw our waste in the trash it ends up at our landfills and begins a slow pollution emitting breakdown. Municipal solid waste landfills are the second largest source of human related methane emissions in the US (EPA). Every little bit helps. You may not reach the standards set by the NYC woman with one mason jar for two years, but you’re bound to be tossing less trash into the landfill each week.

As seen in the Katy Trail Weekly. 

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Can you tell if a product is really “green” or not?

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Naima

When I walk through the aisles of a store I often have to fight the inner thirteen year old girl inside of me. The bright colors, sleek packaging, unique fonts and environmentally friendly text slapped on the front of packages lures me in. Recently, new baby packaging has tugged at my emotions willing me to almost purchase diapers, when I have no kids. It’s obvious these marketers are good.

Naty diaper pic

Green washing is when companies make themselves look more environmentally friendly than they really are. They throw around green buzzwords that relay a positive message to the consumer yet have no merit behind them.

This past week it was the diapers and baby wipes at Walgreens. Walgreens has pushed to improve their sustainability efforts by offering customers green products and in 2012 launched their own line “Ology” of environmentally friendly products. You can now find household products such as dish and laundry detergent with less harmful chemicals than the name brands. But be careful what you pick up.

Every year Americans throw away 16 billion disposable diapers that last centuries in landfills (epa.gov). My knowledge of this stat, plus my friends questions, led me to notice if there were any new trends in the diaper market for a greener option. That’s when the Naty 100% eco diaper stood out to me, mostly because of their modern artistic packaging. Naty diapers are a Swedish product derived from natural and renewable materials, with the motto “Go green without giving up performance”. After taking a look at the website and finding their score on GoodGuide.com a low 4.5 out of 10 (graded on environment, social and health impact) I’m left concerned that the Naty package tricked me. What does it really mean to derive your products naturally and how many are actually composted and not just thrown away?

The Food and Drug Administration has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. It’s a word that creates a buzz in our heads thinking it’s better for us and the environment. But we have to remember it’s just text, there is no meaning behind it.

It’s not easy to spot greenwashing. It’s everywhere. It’s even in my computer I’m typing on. The marketing of my apple computer was greenwashed. Wired magazine ran a great article in 2012, highlighting Apple products that received high industry standard environmental gold awards, that fell short in being recyclable, repairable and upgradeable. You can probably attest to that – Ever have an ipod, iPhone or mac just stop working after a certain amount of time? Now in 2015, the latest news from Apple is they are building a massive solar farm in California to power its buildings. More greenwashing or real green intentions?

Every industry from hotels to restaurants are jumping on the green fad. Companies will exaggerate environmental achievements to divert attention from environmental problems. It’s inevitable that companies will have an impact on our environment, the problem is the misleading of consumers to exaggerate their green standards. Greenwashing is also spending more money advertising their achievement than actually doing it.

It’s in our hands to hold everyone to a high standard and push for more strict regulations. Rely on your curiosity, be aware, look for vagueness and irrelevance on labels, and don’t be afraid to investigate. Try to keep your gullible inner child who falls for every pretty picture and sparkly color in check in hopes that we can support companies with true environmentally friendly intentions.

As for the diapers… your most environmentally friendly option is cloth diapers. Good news though mommas:  you can now find trendy cute ones of all patterns online and in many stores. Cloth diapers also come in a variety of fabrics from bamboo to organic cotton and if you are a little wary of how it works there is a disposable liner option (far less material than disposing of an entire diaper). The cost of the new line of cloth diapers is expensive but when compared to the cost of 8,000 disposable diapers, the average number a child uses, the cost of purchasing and washing is far less.

As seen in the Katy Trail Weekly. 

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What are the trees in Dallas worth to you?

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Naima

Nine billion dollars. That’s a lot of money. Way more than the recent powerball lottery. As residents of Dallas we live in the company of 14.7 million trees valued at $9 billion for their economic and ecologic benefits. That’s a lot of trees… or is it?

Trees in Dallas line neighborhood streets.

Trees line neighborhood streets in Dallas.

Why are these trees valued so high and what is their importance besides looking pretty?

Thinking back to biology 101, trees provide us with our most valuable resource, oxygen. This fact alone should prove their importance especially in Dallas which ranked #8 on the American Lung Association’s Most Polluted Cities (2014). Trees go beyond the obvious oxygen producers to provide several other benefits such as:

  • Improve soil quality – decrease erosion, add organic material
  • Improve air quality – absorbing pollutants such as carbon dioxide
  • Increase property values – in some estimates up to 20 percent
  • Decrease energy costs and save you $$ – shade in the summer and wind break in the winter
  • Accelerate the healing process – Scientific studies have shown patients in hospitals who have plants in their room, a window with a nature view or ornamental garden reduced recovery time after medical procedures.
  • Nature soothes, relaxes us, makes us happy. Studies such as one done in the UK on over 10,000 participants found, “Our analyses suggest that people are happier when living in urban areas with greater amounts of green space.”
  • Reduce urban heat island effect – In Dallas we live in an urban heat island. In simple terms, the sun heats our concrete and that hot energy has no where to go causing temperature rises. I like to call it the “oven”. Buildings and roads heat up quickly with little circulation to dissipate the heat. Trees can reduce this urban heat island by shading areas, dissipating heat through evaporation and increasing air movement.

Most of our city (35 percent) is covered with buildings, roads and cement. The USDA Forest Service recommends overall tree canopy coverage (space covered by tree growth) to be about 40 percent for metropolitan areas. Here’s where Dallas falls short. Dallas’ average tree canopy is about 29 percent.

It turns out, we need more trees. The Texas Trees Foundation (texastrees.org) gathered about 130 diverse people from city council members, corporate builders, energy producers and nonprofit executives this past Thursday to announce their goal of adding three million trees to our urban forest by 2022. But they aren’t just planting anywhere. Their strategy is based on a research report due out this week titled The State of the Dallas Urban Forest. The report is a culmination of sampling combined with previous reports to create a base to proactively make management decisions regarding the health of our urban forest. This study will allow the Texas Trees Foundation to plant in their motto, “Right tree, right place, right way” to maximize the benefit of each tree to our community.

By now in reading this article you may be thinking of a big concern in Texas. Drought. How can we plant trees if we are in a drought? I asked this question to the Texas Trees Foundation Director of Operations and Urban Forester, Matt Grubisich. “Just because we’re in a drought, doesn’t mean that’s when you stop planting trees, that’s when you actually want to start planting trees. When you look at the overall water usage it takes to get a tree established it pales in comparison to turf (grass).” Not only that, a lot of our native trees, if they are established and healthy, can sustain periods of drought.

As Texas Trees Foundation moves forward you can plan on more trees in our community areas such as the medical mile, Dallas schools, Downtown Dallas and spreading to our neighbors through parks and trails. You can get involved at texastrees.org, register your own tree through their Tree Tracker program or get your local community together to sponsor tree planting in your neighborhood.

Mayor Mike Rawlings kicked off the breakfast last Thursday with his own tree story as a young boy asking us to reflect on our own, urging, “We all have a tree story.”  All I could remember was being shunned out of my brothers “boys only” tree fort only to be left swinging down below on the tree swing. Our tree stories may vary from person to person but trees themselves are more important now than ever in our lives.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings speaks at the Texas Trees Foundation breakfast held February 5, 2015.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings speaks at the Texas Trees Foundation breakfast held February 5, 2015.

As seen in the Katy Trail Weekly. 

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Solve your dry winter skin with the environment in mind.

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Naima

Do you have dry cracking skin from the harsh winter weather? The dry heat in our buildings is pulling every ounce of moisture out of our pores combined with cold temperatures that do not encourage us to rehydrate with ice cold water. Sound familiar? This time of year, we all are left with dry skin longing for lotion.

What lotion do you pick up? The choices are endless and hard to decipher which are the best for you and the environment. You may be surprised to find out that many of the lotions on the shelves contain harmful chemicals such as parabens, petroleum products, alcohols and aluminums.

Phthalates, found in many beauty products, is a known endocrine disrupter found to “interfere with the body’s endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects in both humans and wildlife” (National Institute of Health and Environmental Services). Phthalates have been linked to medical issues such as infertility, sperm damage and birth defects. When we lather up after the shower we are inundating our skin with harmful chemicals that over time build up in our bodies.

It’s easy to see if the package itself is environmentally friendly (can it be recycled and is it made from recycled products) but the ingredient list is where it starts sounding like another language. The owners of our local environmentally friendly spa, The Green Lotus, put it simply, “If I can’t pronounce it I don’t put it on my skin or eat it.”

The windmill powers the electric car charging station and offsets energy used inside at The Green Lotus Spa in Dallas.

The windmill powers the electric car charging station and offsets energy used inside at The Green Lotus Spa in Dallas.

The Green Lotus Spa (thegreenlotusspa.com) opened in 2012 after owners T.J. Mundell and Timmy Patterson took a chance to make a spa as environmentally conscious as they are from the products to the energy they use. The Green Lotus offsets some of the energy used in the spa with an on site wind turbine that also powers their electric car station out front. They take their skin care and environmental impact seriously and are looking forward to lessening their footprint in the future with solar panels. They also have hopes of creating their own organic eco-conscious skin line. Mundell and Patterson recommended some skin care lines to me but after a bit of research I’m more excited to see what they come up with locally that keeps our environment in mind.

So what can you put on your skin now? Simplify. Don’t be fooled by false marketing and start reading your ingredient labels. Go organic, at least with your lotion. Organic requires that products were not grown with fertilizers or pesticides which is healthier for you and keeps these toxic chemicals out of our waterways. You can also use the GoodGuide app to find the best beauty products rated on the environment, social and health impacts.

It turns out some of the best moisturizers can be found in our kitchens. The same oils we use to cook with can provide our skin with moisture, protection and vitamins without the added chemicals and emulsifiers. Emulsifiers are added to lotions and soaps to allow the mixing of oils and water based products. These emulsifiers can leave residue on your skin clogging your pores. Buying products that are made from one ingredient eliminates the need for emulsifiers.

The oils most commonly recommended as all over moisturizers are olive oil, grapeseed oil and coconut oil. I keep all three on hand and alternate through the three on my face and body. Especially this time of year when not much of your body needs sun protection, take the opportunity to try out the oils. Don’t be worried about a greasy residue on your skin. Use a small amount and rub it in, there’s no mess.

When buying oils, seek out cold pressed, organic or raw forms to get the least refined product possible. The simpler the product, the better for you and the less resources went into manufacturing. It’s impossible to avoid every synthetic chemical in your life but buying whole ingredients to use for your skin care can be an easy way to cut out the harmful toxins your applying directly to your skin. It’s better for you and our environment.

plantabil

The Green Lotus (thegreenlotusspa.com), a local environmentally friendly spa, plants a tree through plantabillion.org for every service performed at the spa.

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What to do with your used cooking oil

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Naima

Quiz time. Can you put oil or grease down the drain if you mix in hot water and dish soap?

Although that is a popular idea for many people, that’s a negative here in Dallas. You should not dump any grease or oil down your drain. The oil and grease may make it through your pipes as a warm liquid but by the time it gets to the city’s pipes it’s ready to start clogging. The oil and grease solidifies into thick layers inside drainpipes causing a messy, smelly and costly clean up. This hardening and build up can create huge problems with our city’s infrastructure and our waste water treatment plants.

Richard Statser, a Supervisor at Dallas Water Utilities makes it clear, “Any grease, any used cooking oil, needs to go a different route rather than down the drain. So many people see the drain as a black hole, and it’s not. There’s a biological process at the end of the drain that we are trying to run efficiently as possible and we would prefer that any used cooking oil or grease not be put down the drain.”

If you can’t put it down the drain, then what should you do with that gunk?

With some chemistry knowledge, the right equipment and a steady supply of vegetable oil, you could start making your own biodiesel in your garage. There are several do-it-yourself websites and biodiesel kits available to make cheap fuel for your diesel vehicle. But without a substantial supply of a high quality cooking oil (without water and not too acidic), this option really isn’t feasible.

Luckily in Dallas, there is an easy way to recycle your used cooking oil. Through the “Cease the Grease” program you can drop off your used cooking oil to be turned into energy to help our Southside water treatment plant run more efficiently. Cease the Grease is a City of Dallas initiative to educate the community about proper grease disposal to help protect our homes, businesses and environment from the nasty effects of Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs). Of the 25 drop off locations around town, there’s one located downtown at the Dallas Farmers Market and at all of the Whole Foods in the area. Find your closest drop off location at ceasethegrease.org.

The oil you drop off is placed into huge biodigesters to produce methane gas that is used to power the waste water treatment plant. Last year, Cease the Grease collected about 4,500 gallons of oil to help subsidize the energy needed to process about 50 million gallons of waste water per day. The impact of the energy saved may be small but the impact of the oil not clogging the infrastructure is huge.

But Cease the Grease doesn’t want your grease, they want your oil. The grease such as animal fats, butter and sauces needs to be disposed of in the trash and not in your drain. The garbage disposal is not a black hole for grease either. This type of waste can be used to make biodiesel as well but the city is not currently equipped to take the animal products. Do your best to separate the hard grease from the oil before dropping off.

Used oil is a valuable resource that shouldn’t be dumped down our drains or into our landfills. Used oil can seep through landfill liners contaminating ground water supplies and waterways. Small amounts of oil can threaten aquatic life, such as plankton and algae, vital to maintaining these ecosystems. Next time you have an empty jar, save it for your oil. In just a few weeks or months, depending on your oil use, you’ll be making a substantial contribution to recycling this resource.

Statser reminds everyone to, “Be diligent and continuing to not pour grease and used cooking oil down the drain.”  The more oil that goes into the recycling program, the more efficient our waste water treatment plant will be and the better for our environment.

Drop off your used cooking oil at one of 25 locations around town, including this one located at the Dallas Farmers Market. 

ceasethegrease

As seen in the Katy Trail Weekly.

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Is the Trinity River going to be ok?

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Naima

The weather in Dallas this past weekend was superb. The bright sun begged us to get outside as temperatures rose to nearly 70 degrees in January. A far cry from the bundled up cold we’ve been facing.

We took the good weather opportunity to check out the new Continental Avenue Bridge Park along the Trinity River just west of downtown. The park was bustling with kids playing, bikers speeding by and plenty of dogs sniffing around. We made our way through the playground, chess tables and down to the river paths.

I often drive over the Trinity River and through the mixmaster disaster of construction but rarely get a chance to get down to the river to see how the construction is affecting the area. It’s eye opening.

The Horseshoe Project is the large scale construction on Dallas highways just west of downtown. There are several large cranes, bulldozers, and tons of other construction equipment right along the river and in some cases in the river. The wildlife we did see (some turtles, a great blue heron and an egret) took off quickly from their perches as quickly as they saw us approaching. On a day the bulldozers stood still, this was their time to enjoy some peace and quiet.

The trash build up in the river at one of the construction sites was full of plastic bottles, old toys and way too much wood debris (see picture). Upstream the riparian area is being thinned out and mulched. A riparian area is defined as, “the part of the landscape adjoining rivers and streams that has a direct influence on the water and aquatic ecosystems within them.” In simple terms, a riparian area surrounds a water body and is important for soil erosion and water quality. The more plants you have in the area, the better the erosion control, the better for the river.

I spent the next many hours reading through the over 400 page environmental assessment of the Dallas Horseshoe Project, researching maps, and trying to figure out how much emphasis this estimated $800 million project put on the environmental impacts. The environmental assessment, completed in 2012, is a collaboration with agencies such as Texas Parks and Wildlife, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and corporate biology scientists. It assesses the projects impact on environmental factors such as air quality, soil quality, historical landmarks and wildlife. The assessment identifies organisms found in the area, if they are and endangered or threatened species, and estimates if the project will impact the species. From the study, the most at risk wildlife are the aquatic species such as alligator snapping turtles and native mussels. The assessment states, “Increased turbidity and sedimentation during bridge construction could pose a threat to survival of the mussel species in the Trinity River.”

Overall the assessment declares, “No long-term impacts to wildlife populations are anticipated as a result of the proposed project. In areas temporarily impacted, wildlife species would likely re-colonize the available habitat areas after construction.”

But overall, beyond this assessment, we should all continue to be concerned. The obvious benefits of elevating traffic in downtown is necessary yet the proper care into the future for our Trinity River and Blackland prairie natural areas are vital. The Trinity River provides water for cities downstream of the Dallas/Fort Worth Area. As Texas faces more drought issues, preserving the quality of the Trinity River is important. The Trinity also provides ecological benefits that support our native habitats and a wide diversity of plants and animals. A long term creative protection plan that places high importance on the ecological health of the Trinity is imperative to preserve what some call “the life line of the area”.

This isn’t the first time, nor the last time the Trinity will face disruption. The Trinity River has a history of being manipulated by humans. It’s been rerouted, filled in and dredged along the Dallas/Fort Worth lengths. There are also beneficial current projects to continue to strengthen levees and restore the river channel by the Trinity River Corridor Project (trinityrivercorridor.com). The Trinity is in store for some more major changes in the near future and being such a valued part of Dallas’ area we should be very invested in preserving it.

The Continental Avenue Bridge is a great place to enjoy the outdoors with the Dallas skyline as your backdrop. Just don’t forget to take a look over the bridge at the Trinity River and think about how our human activities are affecting it. We should all keep a close eye on the progress and health of our ecosystem amidst the construction it faces.

As seen in the Katy Trail Weekly.

Some pictures from the outing:

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