America has a pretty big sweet tooth; in 1999, Americans consumed an average of 158 pounds of sugar-like substances (cane and beet sugars and corn sweeteners) each per year–a number that had been rising steadily since 1960. These days there are those who love sugar (even if they don’t realize they’re consuming it, as is often the case with high fructose corn syrup) and those who cite it as a diet danger, whether simply trying to maintain healthy eating habits or attempting to lose weight. The environment, if it could, would probably side with those who say no to the sweet stuff, as the growth of sugar cane has had negative effects like soil erosion and the contamination of nearby rivers during sugar mill cleaning.

But love it, like it or despise it, it doesn’t look like America is going to cut their consumption anytime soon. Thankfully, however, we’re now figuring out ways to make the most of the sugar we do use, with items like these Sugar Cane Disposable Dinner Plates from GreenFeet.

The sugar cane (or bagasse) material used for these compostable plates is a by-product of the sugar refining process and its use in the creation of the plates keeps it from being open burned, the previous method for getting rid of the waste. Click here to read more

Powered by Bookmarkify™

We won’t argue that pre-prepped jars of baby food are convenient and that as the parent of a young child, convenience is a valuable commodity. But there are some definite reasons to consider making your own baby food instead of purchasing store bought. The biggest one, undoubtedly, is your baby’s health. The European Union recently recalled all Chinese baby food that contained Chinese milk after it was discovered that a toxic chemical had been illegally added to the dairy supplies. By that point four babies had already been killed and 54,000 sickened. Although this is an extreme example, when it comes to the health of your little loved one, it’s always nice to err on the side of overly cautious. If you’ve always thought of storebought food as more nutrious, you can read this chart comparing the two options. Click here to read more

Powered by Bookmarkify™