Sustainable Living, the Old-Fashioned Way

Your great-grandmother may have known a lot more about sustainable living than you do. That’s the thesis of What’s Gotten Into Us? (Random House, 2011). Author McKay Jenkins (http://mckayjenkins.com), a University of Delaware English and journalism professor, takes aim at the tens of thousands of industrial chemicals that manufacturers have been adding to household amenities over the past 70 years. If we want to protect our health and the planet’s health, he says, we will do away with these substances and learn to live much like people did at the beginning of the twentieth century.

“Chemically speaking, those were simpler times,” he writes. “It’s worth relearning some of what we’ve forgotten. How to build and furnish and clean our houses. How to care for our lawns. How to feed and clothe and bathe our children.”

Jenkins says that, since World War II, fossil-fuel-based “petrochemicals” have been taking up a larger and larger presence in the amenities of everyday living—fertilizers and pesticides in our food, fabric treatments on our clothing, plastics in virtually every amenity we use around the home or office, and other manufactured substances in our air, water, and soil. Baby shampoo contains formaldehyde. Toothpastes often hold doses of ethylene glycol, a compound also found in paint and antifreeze. Is your dish soap colored? That’s probably because it’s got dyes laced with lead or arsenic.

Less than 3% of these have ever been tested for their effects on human health, Jenkins says, but upswings in many public health problems should make us wonder: Cognitive disabilities in the United States became 191% more common between 1977 and 1994, and premature births have jumped up 30% since 1981. Worldwide, rates of autoimmune diseases have doubled or tripled.

It’s no coincidence that we’re getting sicker while we are increasingly awash in industrial chemicals, Jenkins concludes. So, what can we do about it? Replace most of the new industrial chemicals with natural and homemade alternatives. Here are a few of Jenkins’s recommendations:

Housecleaning. Colorless is better when you’re shopping for dish soaps. Also, buy soaps made with plant oils and dishwasher soaps made with borax. Clear out clogged drains with a mix of baking soda and vinegar, instead of synthetic drain cleaners. And since “nonstick” cookware is often made with Teflon, you had best substitute stainless steel or cast iron, and sauté your food in butter or olive oil.

To get rid of odors, don’t spray with air fresheners. Use another, time-tested remedy: opening the window. Comb and bathe your pets more frequently; apply indoor pesticides less often. Remove your shoes when you walk in the front door, since shoes track toxins and germs. Also, vacuum twice a week, and avoid synthetic carpet-cleaning chemicals.

Forgo the floor cleaner, and instead scour your dirty floor with a mixture of hot water, white vinegar, and nontoxic dish liquid. And by all means, use washable rags instead of throw-away paper towels.

Furniture. A lot of furniture today is laminated or sealed with formaldehyde. Steer clear of it, and buy solid wood furniture. You can be sure that it is safe if it is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (www.fsc.org) or another similar conservation organization. When it needs sprucing up, apply olive oil instead of wood polish.

Select upholstery made with cotton, wool, or other natural fabrics, and make sure it has not been treated with flame retardants. You can minimize fire risk the natural way by buying cushions made with all-wool stuffing, which is flame-resistant. Untreated foam cushions resist flames, as well.
It is best to avoid wall-to-wall carpeting, since it usually contains synthetic fibers and is finished with toxic chemicals.

Go with area rugs made of natural fibers. The Carpet and Rug Institute (www.carpet-rug.org) is an information source for environmentally safe carpet options.

Clothing. Buy clothes the same way you buy upholstery: Look for natural fibers, such as cotton and wool, and steer clear of synthetic fabrics and flame retardants. When it comes time to wash your clothes, protect your health and your local waterway’s health by using plant-based detergents instead of conventional detergents; washing soda instead of bleach; and vinegar or baking soda instead of fabric softener.

For tough stains, dab on lemon juice, borax, hydrogen peroxide, or white vinegar. If the clothes need to be dry-cleaned, take them to an organic dry cleaner.

Hygiene. Shop around, and you will find plant-based toothpastes and other naturally based hygiene products. Opt for them when at all possible. If you do not know where to find them, consult the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetics database, www.cosmeticsdatabase.com, which identifies products as chemically safe or unsafe. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics also has a database, www.safecosmetics.org, focused on laws and responsible companies.

Lawn Care. Cut grass with an electric lawnmower or a push mower, not a gas-powered mower. Rake the leaves with a rake, and not a gas-powered leaf blower. For weed control, lay out mulch and apply a garden hoe when needed.

You can keep the garden pests away by spraying your plants with a homemade mix of water and soap, lemon, or hot peppers. Also, seek out some help from the food chain: Release ladybugs and certain other beneficial insects to eat pests for you; and grow native plants that will attract bug-eating birds. For more advice on pesticide-free lawn care, you can consult Beyond Pesticides (www.beyondpesticides.org) or the Rodale Institute (www.rodale.org).

About the Author
Rick Docksai is an assistant editor for THE FUTURIST magazine and World Future Review.