Lunapads Blog

I thought that this was an interesting video, pointing out that we often treat the Earth the same way that our culture objectifies and disrespects women.

It was with interest that I learned of Grist.org‘s “Screw Earth Day!” campaign, as I agree (at least in principle) with the idea that our collective responsibility is a 24/7/365 commitment, not just a day.  Same goes for Earth Hour, which, although impressive with respect to its results, in my mind can engender the idea that it’s enough to do it just for an hour, rather than making a permanent practice of reducing our energy consumption (SED!’s premise.)  The neo-eco movement can feel at times like a form of cultural greenwashing, what with all the new dubiously “green” products and marketing campaigns that seem to be cropping up everywhere one turns these days.

But then I take a second look – where does my cynicism come from, is it useful, and how does it square with my belief in small efforts and gestures having a potentially enormous impact?  Isn’t it better than doing nothing, or at least worth trying, considering what’s at stake?  Maybe if I stopped debating whether or not it’s a perfect solution or not and just got on board then we’d all be the better for it?  Seems a timely question, given the current political debate here in B.C. over carbon tax. Further to the “not arguing about perfect solutions and just getting on with it as we are able at the moment” observation, as a parent I appreciate the critical value of educating our children and being role models to them (Suzanne is doing this as I write, and I feel certain we will be hearing about it here!)  Events like Earth Day and Earth Hour are great ways to do this, particularly in participation with our communities.

For me, in the end it all comes back to personal responsibility.  Am I an eco-perfectionist?  Not by a long shot.  But I also believe that we can all try harder.  On that note, a little shout-out to the Lunapads staff, all of whom are great examples of various green practices: as cycling activists and commuters, vegetarian and veganism advocates, conscious consumers and DIY crafters.  Thanks ladies – you’re making a difference in so many important ways.

As a final antidote to my skepticism, I’d like to highlight some of my favorite green organizations and reading lists.  The Environmental Working Group is a vast repository of information about everything from safe cosmetics to pesticide use in commercial produce, and has an excellent newsletter.  The Vancouver Public Library has compiled an extensive list of books about sustainability, and our pal Annemarie Templeman-Kluit (aka Yoyomama - Vancouver’s source for everything anyone with kids needs to know about in this town) has posted some of her family’s fave green reads in her new blog here.  Our friends and colleagues over at SPUD and NatureBag have teamed up with Lavish and Lime to offer an incredible eco-products giveaway contest – find out more here.  Last but not least, Mindful Mama has just launched a great new natural parenting website in honor of Earth Day – way to go, everyone!

I hope that you all find a meaningful way to celebrate Earth Day – today and every day.

Our friends at Babeland (formerly Toys in Babeland) are celebrating Earth Day with style and fun at their Brooklyn location.  It’s free, it will be a blast, and the first 50 participants will receive a gift bag including goodies from Lunapads and Babeland – what’s not to love?  There will be product demos including green sex toys and lubes, plus an informative presentation about Lunapads and the DivaCup by Jayne Freeman, aka Mamarama (be sure to check out her blog & amazing videos).

The deets:
Eco-Sexy Earth Day
Wednesday, April 22 at 7pm
462 Bergen Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217 map
Phone: 718.638.3820

Have fun, and happy Earth Day!

We were really excited when we were contacted by Redbook magazine a few weeks ago.  Were mainstream women’s magazines finally ready for natural menstrual products?  Well, um, sort of.  Turns out that Lunapads weren’t the only period reference in the magazine (not counting the numerous ads for disposable pads and tampons) – check out what they had to say and see what you think…

“Your standard maxi pad might last five hours – but now you can get a pad that’ll last you five years!  The folks at Lunapads want you to add period products to the list of recyclables in your eco-friendly life.  These customizable cloth pads accommodate a wide variety of sizes and flows, and they’re machine-washable.  We’re all for going green, but this idea strikes us a little, um, yucky.”

Speaking of things that are yucky, this seems like a good opportunity to review the environmental impact of disposable pads and tampons.  A recent article by Eunice Wong at Truthdig.com spells it out in graphic detail, but for those who don’t have time to get all the way through it, here are some highlights:

There are 85 million women of menstruating age in North America. Conservative estimates are that the average woman disposes of between 10,000 and 15,000 tampons, pads and applicators in her lifetime. That’s about 250 to 300 pounds of waste per woman.  In the United States and Canada alone, more than 12 billion pads, tampons and applicators are tossed annually. (We typically quote the number as 14 billion, including applicators).

Which brings me to the article on the very next page, a laundry list of Redbook readers’ to-dos for President Obama.  Number 4 on the list is titled “Prioritize our planet’s protection“, saying “It’s time to go very green.  We must care for our world.”  Um, great idea – as long as we don’t have to wash our own menstrual pads, right?

Last but not least, 42 pages later a reader asks for advice on how to get her period-shy boyfriend into bed while she’s bleeding.  Among other options, Redbook’s Love Network expert Lou Paget suggests “point(ing) out that getting it on during your period could make for a new, different kind of fun.  The extra fluid causes more slipperiness that many couples really enjoy.”

Talk about mixed messages.  First we have Lunapads sounding great (until you get to the last line), then a stirring call to eco-arms, topped off with a strongly pro-period message (at least when you’re in the mood).  Hard to know what to make of it all, but at least we’re on the radar!

So, I was just given the gift of being carbon neutral for one day. I mean, I did ride my bike today but I’m still contributing carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere – by working at a computer, by consuming goods that went through a manufacturing process, by living in an apartment that is not heated by methane gas from a compost pile! We are all guilty of contributing carbon to the earth.

Brighter Planet has come up with a helpful solution. With their One Day Campaign you can give the gift of carbon neutrality to 5 loved ones and as a bonus they’ll make you carbon neutral as well…and it’s free. Yep, free. All they ask in return is that you consider conserving during the holidays.

So while buying carbon offsets isn’t the final solution to our environmental problems, it is a big help towards financing renewable energy projects that will make a difference for our future.

And if we each take the initiative to ‘green’ our lives and conserve when we can we will continue to help the planet we all know and love~

Lunapads on Technorati
Last week, we were delighted to learn that our very own Lunapads Maxi Pad was picked by Grist among it’s review of eco-minded feminine products. Of course being picked is a bonus, but to us, it was great to see that Grist chose to cover the topic at all. Grist does environmental journalism with “news about green issues and sustainable living”. Grist strives to “to tell the untold stories, spotlight trends before they become trendy, and engage the apathetic.” Kind of like treehugger.com, but more light-hearted. Sarah Van Schagan covered the topic nicely, and will be doing a follow up story about tampon alternatives like the Diva Cup this week, so stay tuned!

However, one of their columnists, Umbra Fisk, gets me going every time she takes a “lite-green” stance on subjects near and dear to my heart. In her post in 2003 called “menstruation innovation“, prior to weighing in about natural alternatives like cloth pads and menstrual cups, she prefaces her comments by saying: “What we have here are small, popular disposable products, and generally speaking, the environmental impact of small objects is not worth fretting over.. Even if you do want to reduce your contribution to this minor environmental woe, there is a shortage of options in the moon-mama market.”

Excuse me? Not worth fretting over? Minor environmental woe? Is 14 billion pads, tampons and applicators going into North American landfills every year minor? That’s like saying that we shouldn’t worry about buying bottled water and switching to cloth shopping bags because, individually, we can’t make a difference. OK, maybe things have changed in the past 5 years and Umbra has seen the light. Nope. Last week, Umbra decided to weigh in on the cloth versus disposable diaper debate in her post called “Much a Poo About Nothing”. Well, we’ve posted about this issue before and know it isn’t easy always being green.

Using a cute but rather silly video, Umbra over simplifies the issue and completely missses the boat.

Not only do I disagree with her assessment (by lazily using a flawed 2005 study from the UK that has since been revised to state the opposite) that cloth and disposables are an environmental wash, but she doesn’t address the health impact of using disposables. Most disposable diapers use super absorbent polymers that can be harmful to babies (especially boys). Disposable diapers are made with pulp from virgin forests and laden with plastic that sit in landfills for 500 years. Yes, cloth diapers use water and energy to manufacture and clean, but water is a renewable resource and today’s high efficiency washers and dryers make a huge difference too. Her conclusion that it is a wash and not worth fretting over allows the apathetic to remain apathetic, which goes against the Grist mandate to engage the apathetic.Why do I care so much? Well, not only did I use (new and hand me down) cloth diapers on both my babies (and some elimination communication when ever possible) but it is obvious to me that this debate works equally well for the cloth vs disposable menstrual products debate. (ie: pad/tampon disposables are made from pulp, use chlorine bleach and leach dioxins in tampons, contain harmful chemicals and gels to make them more absorbent, etc.!)

If you care to weigh in, please do so here. Better yet, set up an account with Grist and tell Umbra what you think by commenting on her post!�

Let me share a story with you…

This summer my boyfriend and I went to help our friend out with his newly ‘inherited’ orchard (he’s the 4th generation to run Parsons Farm Market.) We lived in an ancient little camper with our cat, Tabitha (isn’t she just too cute in a bin of pears?!) on the edge of said orchard, with no water hook-up. This orchard has a fruit stand which all the food we grew was sold out of – and of course being a public place there were bathrooms, which also served as our bathroom. However to get to the bathrooms from our camper at night you had to stumble down the road in pitch black, manage to scoot past the tractors and pallets, move around the bins of fruit, jump the large puddle at the end of the path – all while trying to hold those inane fears of ‘things that go bump in the night’ at bay.

This situation was less than ideal but luckily I had an alternative…the pStyle! An amazing little invention (much like the Diva Cup!) that gives one the freedom to pee standing up without undressing.

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There’s no shortage of election mania occurring on this continent, and Canada has now hopped on the bandwagon with a federal election set for October 14th.  I personally don’t find the Canadian political scene to be nearly as interesting as what’s unfolding in the US, but hey, at least it’s still due democratic process, right?  Not so fast: Elizabeth May, the leader of the federal Green party of Canada, is not being invited to participate in televised leaders’ debates.  The Greens are the party of choice for approximately 10% of Canadian voters, and are the only federal party headed by a woman.  Got a problem with female leaders who have an agenda of taking better care of the planet being excluded from public debate?  Thought you might.  Learn more here, and be sure to sign the petition.

My husband received this video the other day courtesy of a friend in the UK and we have enjoyed it several times since. The first time I watched it, I wasn’t sure if it was real or a spoof on an actual incident involving an oil spill off the Australian coast. Not knowing exactly where it came from (other than Australia), I have come to the conclusion that it’s just a brilliant Monty Python-esque spoof on certain people who, let’s say, don’t exactly get it about environmental issues that would be even funnier if it didn’t have some elements of inconvenient truth…enjoy!

I’m a big novel reader (as in large novels, as well as into reading them) and often find myself getting into reading a chain of thematically related books. Trees happen to be this summer’s pick (which fits nicely with my gardening enthusiasm – coincidence??) I’ll have to post another time about the epic chain of dystopic fiction that I consumed while pregnant with my daughter – it was truly weird, but made for great reading.

At any rate, I have recently enjoyed both Richard Preston’s The Wild Trees as well as John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce, which is unusual for a fiction buff like me. I’m super-picky about writing quality (not that I necessarily have any right to be ;-), and am often disappointed with the quality of non-fiction writing, but in these cases I didn’t really even notice. They’re both gripping stories that contain a lot of great scientific information about trees that provided a good refresher course for me (particularly useful these days, given the number of times I am asked the question “why?” by a certain curious 3 year old) and just generally got me hooked. It’s wonderful to be reminded of what an adventure life can truly be, and yet stunning how little we really understand about the natural world.

The photo above is one I took recently of a beloved giant willow tree that resides at my in-laws farm. When my husband and I bought our house we took a branch from it and it has happily adapted to our back yard. Hug your favorite tree today!

Crunchy Chicken (Deanna Duke)’s legion of fans have come together to organize a tribute to her in the form of Lordisa-only-knows how many blog posts, plus a drive for Goods 4 Girls Kits in her honor. In case you’re not already acquainted with la Crunch, check out the blog and her Goods 4 Girls site, which is devoted to supplying schoolgirls in Africa with sustainable menstrual supplies, and by extension keep them in school while they’re menstruating. In short, she rocks, and if you’re not already a fan, then you’re in for some ass-kicking inspiration.

We’ve been asked to write a specific post about what Deanna’s posts have meant to us, so here goes: I must confess to being a relatively recent addition to her Crunchiness’ fan club, which began when she recruited Lunapads to the Goods 4 Girls cause (it wasn’t hard!) In those few months, however, I have been completely won over by her hilarious, well-researched, articulate and deeply personal calls to arms with respect to taking real, meaningful steps towards more sustainable lifestyles. In a world where we are short on heroes, this woman shines like few others with her feisty way of calling the BS and leading by example when it comes to everything from greenwash consumerism to growing vegetables.

Thanks to her influence, Affluenza is my bedtime reading of choice, the Lunagals passed on a “shopping extravaganza”-themed event for women entrepreneurs, and our customers have donated hundreds of Goods 4 Girls kits. I am recommitted to working out my personal eco-bugs, and my garden is resplendent with everything from leeks to strawberries.

When it comes to the gardening, Crunchy’s example has been particularly timely for me, as I am enjoying my first-ever very own backyard and am even considering doing some home canning, a completely new adventure for me. Working in the garden has also proved to be a wonderful activity for Gigi and I to share (see gratuitous cute daughter photo at right – couldn’t resist!)

Needless to say, Deanna is also a major advocate of natural menstrual products (particularly the DivaCup, and she has personally converted hundreds of women with her DivaCup challenges.) Thanks to her example I am going one step further and replacing some of my toilet paper usage with my daughter’s homemade cloth wipes, something I’m not sure that I would otherwise have done. Last but not least, I have recently resurrected my old sewing machine and am excited to return to making some of the household linens and clothing.

So thanks, Deanna, for everything. You’re a fantastic role model and inspiration. We wish you, your fans and family all the best, and are proud to be your allies in taking better care of our beautiful planet. Oh, and while I’m here, Goods 4 Girls kits are an additional 10% off the already cost-price for the month of June, so if you haven’t already donated, please consider making a difference in this unique way.