Introduction
Welcome, to the new format of Choosing Eco! You probably already know this, but Choosing Eco is dedicated to the process of helping you make eco-friendly choices easier in your daily life. Whether small (like cloth napkins over paper towels) or big ones (like resources to change to a zero waste home). So, it felt like a good time to reformat this newsletter and set up new section breakdowns.
I also hope this will be a collaborative process and not just me writing to you. So please feel free to respond, engage, comment, or share your insights with me! I will happily listen and learn. I am by no means an expert, just someone who cares a lot about trying to do the right thing for our planet.
Ok, here we go!
News Nuggets
Scientists are working on a pigment of paint that is soooo white it reflects more light than any other white paint. Why does that matter? Because they want to paint it on the tops of buildings to reflect sunlight and cool the temperatures of concrete jungles. Pretty cool. You can read about it in The Wall Street Journal here or on Apple News.
Drought conversations and news stories are nothing new to our current daily life, unfortunately. This article from CBS News about a "mega-drought" in the West is particularly alarming. If you missed it, I highly recommend you read it.
My family and I recently completed a Zero Waste Challenge organized by Hennepin County (we live in Minneapolis). I wrote about the experience, what we learned, and what we can continue to do on Medium.
Climate Bites
Axios: The next major climate science report: What to expect
CNN: Dragonflies are losing their wing color because of climate change, study shows
NY Times: Climate Change Drove Western Heat Wave's Extreme Records, Analysis Finds
Eco-Friendly Tips & Tricks
One of the simplest at-home eco-choices you can make is to stop using paper towels or significantly reduce your usage through towels and rags. At home, we use Tidy Dish Towels for wiping counters, the table, and surfaces. We have 10 of them and cycle through them once a day. In addition, we wash rags (with our cloth napkins) and other towels 2 - 3x a week.
We found out about them through MightyNest, and with this referral link, you can get a discount. Try the MightyFix for only $3 and get a set of Tidy Dish Cloths as your first month with promo code TIDYSET3
We also use cloth napkins, a switch we made over five years ago, which has saved us countless paper towels. Admittedly, we still use paper towels, but mainly for extreme messes of things that we don't want to be washed with the other towels and rags.
Making the change to cloth and reusable fabrics in the kitchen does have an upfront cost, but you will more than reclaim those costs by reducing your footprint and paper towel usage over the years!
Resources
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a renowned leader in explaining, testing, and rating consumer products and their impact on the environment. And even that description is limited. If you've ever wondered what all those difficult-sounding names on a label mean, EWG breaks it down. Check them out and start with their Consumer Guides.
I have been subscribed to another newsletter called Volts for a few months now. It is described as "A newsletter about technology, politics, and policy of decarbonization." It's free, but there is also a paid version. It typically has a podcast embedded in it and has covered lithium-ion batteries, solar energy, and understanding the electrical grid.