Lunch boxes wrap up on what's eco and safe

Would you agree that the most eco-friendly solution usually turns out to be the best choice for your health and your budget also?  We find that making the safest choice for the planet is the safer path for people too, particularly when it comes to natural skin care, green cleaning and petrochemical plastic products.

With a simple decision on lunch boxes and how to pack a lunch, you can: help the planet by opting for long lasting and resource-efficient materials, reduce waste going to landfill, protect your health by avoiding toxic plastics, and save a little cash by reusing and buying in bulk.

Many Australian schools are trying to reduce rubbish by encouraging children to take home food scraps, use composting at school and use less plastic wraps.  Our family is fortunate to live very close to our school, but not so fortunate to be woken at dawn each morning by the clean up crew--the crows!  So there may even be an extra benefit for us from a waste-free lunch policy...a sleep in.

One of the nasties to avoid when choosing a lunch box, is Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) - recognised by this symbol.  Often on a soft shiny plastic lunch box (often the grey plastic inside) there is no label to tell you what it is, but it is more than likely PVC that can contain lead and phthalates.

According to the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ): "PVC is unique among plastics because it contains dangerous chemical additives used to soften it.  These harmful chemicals include phthalates, lead, cadmium and organotins, which can be toxic to a child's health.  Over 90% of all phthalates are used in PVC products such as school supplies.  Federal (US) law has banned the use of phthalates in children's toys, but not children's school supplies.  Lunch boxes, binders, vinyl backpacks and art supplies are frequently made out of PVC."

"Children are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of toxic chemicals used in PVC.  Recent studies have linked PVC flooring to increased rates of autism and asthma.  Chemicals that evaporate or leech out of PVC products may contribute to developmental disorders and damage to the liver, central nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems." 

Further, many environmental groups are calling for the banning of PVC because it releases dioxins during manufacturing and when it is burned, recycled or or disposed of in landfill.  Both Wikipedia and CHEJ detail the dangers, including how highly toxic dioxins have been found to cause cancer in workers manufacturing PVC. 

How to identify products with PVC

• Labelled with the word “vinyl” (e.g. vinyl ring binders)
• #3 recycling symbol or with the letters “V” or “PVC” underneath the recycling symbol
• Shiny flexible plastic inside and outside lunch boxes, back packs, clothing (such as raincoats) and waterproof mattress protectors. 
• Don't buy the product if it is not labelled with the type of plastic or with specific statements that it is lead free and PVC free.
• Contact the manufacturer or retailer to ask what plastic the product is made of.

Choose lunch boxes and school products made from metal such as stainless steel, fabric, sustainable wood, recycled paper and safe plastics that are PVC free, BPA free and lead free.  Polypropylene is also a safe choice.

Biome has just introduced the exciting Kids Konserve waste-free lunch range (pictured above): Food Kozy sandwich wrap, insulated lunch bag made from recycled PET bottles, stainless steel food container, ice pack and more. 
Biome also offers:
Goodbyn all-in-one lunchboxes with cool stickers
LunchBots stainless steel lunch boxes
4myearth sandwich wraps
Thermos
Klean Kanteen insulated wide mouth bottles
Bento boxes

Continue Reading..

Why is BPA the only concern?

The humble rubber duck made from Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) receives less recognition as a harmful product but places equal health concerns to Bisphenol A (BPA).

The term ‘BPA-free’ is well-known due to the Australian Government’s regulated actions in 2010 to declare a voluntary phase out of Bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles. Research has found BPA to cause numerous health concerns due to its ability to percolate food and beverages, however the chemical Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) used in many everyday products places equal health concerns but is significantly less recognised.

Similar to BPA, PVC contains phthalates to make the plastic soft and malleable and is used in various consumer products including raincoats, shoes and rubber duck bath toys. PVC is currently one of the most common plastics produced and is made using numerous toxic chemicals that are harmful to both humans and the environment including lead, cadmium, organotins, colourants, fire-retardants, anti-oxidants and phthalates. Approximately 95 per cent of phthalates made in the world are produced specifically for the production of flexible PVC attributing it to the world highest environmental pollutant.

The use of BPA and PVC in certain consumer products is banned or restricted in many countries around the world including Europe and the United States of America. Australia is very slow to prohibit the use of certain chemicals that other countries have ruled out and I feel that as consumers we shouldn’t leave it up to the regulators. Consumers are choosing products that are being put before them by companies that are purely profit-driven.

As a society, we need to make a different choice that has no questions around its safety. There are many products on the market that offer a natural alternative to chemical produced plastics. Natural rubber is nontoxic to humans and biodegradable as opposed to chemical produced plastics that can take over 450 years to decompose. So why do we continuing to produce toxic plastic when we have safe and natural alternative?

I believe it is up to us as a society to decide what is good for ourselves, our families and the environment and we can influence change through our purchasing power. So why choose a PVC synthetic rubber duckie when you can choose a truly from nature rubber duckie?

Make a change by signing our petition to ban Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) in products for children under 12 years of age in Australia!

Continue Reading..

BPA Free news

Pictured here: LifeFactory glass bottles with silicone covers

As reported on Channel 10 news tonight, 5 July 2011

Channel Ten news tonight aired an informative story on the dangers of BPA and how to avoid BPA.   Read more about our Biome store and the choices featured in the Channel 10 news story.  Founder of Biome Eco Stores and environmentalist Tracey Bailey, spoke in the news piece.  Link to the Channel Ten story.
We have all heard about BPA in the media lately and know that this dangerous compound is found in some plastic containers and drink bottles.  Make a difference in your and your family's health by choosing the safest water bottles and drinking containers available on the market today.

At Biome Eco Stores we have only ever offered safe, non-toxic choices including BPA free, PVC free and also free from lead and phthalates.

This post contains some thoroughly researched, credible sources that we have found on BPA.

The quick summary?  Good old-fashioned glass is the safest choice for any form of drinking vessel, drink bottle, storage container or cooking vessel.  This may not seem the most practical choice, but Lifefactory glass bottles are made from toughened glass and come with a silicone cover to help protect them from breakage.
What is BPA?


Bisphenol A (BPA) is a plastic and resin ingredient used to line metal food and drink cans and to make hard and clear polycarbonate plastics.  Here is a summary of the Environmental Working Group study in 2007 which found BPA in over half of 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda, and other commonly eaten canned goods.

The use of BPA is widespread, as is its permeation into the environment around us including drinking water and human breast milk.  BPA can leach into food from the protective internal lining of canned foods and from consumer products such as baby bottles and water bottles, polycarbonate tableware and food storage containers.  The degree to which BPA leaches from polycarbonate bottles into liquid may depend more on the temperature of the liquid or bottle, than the age of the container.  (Source: National Toxicology Program).

This Z recommends article explains the great advances made away from unsafe polycarbonate bottles that contained high levels of BPA, but calls for putting BPA-free into perspective.  Canada was the first country to ban BPA from baby products, followed by several US States.  It is still allowed to be used in Australia.

How do you limit exposure to BPA?

• Avoid polycarbonate #7 and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) #3 plastics, especially for children’s food or containers used for heating.  Plastics with the recycling labels #1, #2 and #4 on the bottom are safer choices and do not contain BPA.  Some #7 plastics are now free from BPA, so look for the packaging that also clearly states BPA free.
• Do not heat or microwave food in any type of plastic container – use glass or ceramic instead. Heating plastics to high temperatures promotes the leaching of chemicals.
• Reduce your use of canned foods – canned pasta and soups contain the highest levels of BPA
• Use glass baby bottles and glass bottles for drink bottles.
• Use high quality reusable bottles from trusted brands that publish results of quality control and testing.

Which water bottles and containers are safest to use?

In most cases, the old rule “you get what you pay for” is a good starting point.  There are many cheap metal water bottles in stores to meet the consumer demand for moving away from plastics.  We recommend only choosing an established drink bottle brand that you know and trust, that openly publishes independent test results, and that can be held accountable should there be a problem.

Metal bottles can still leach toxins, whether an aluminium bottle with no lining at all or an unsafe lining, or a stainless steel bottle leaching nickel – particularly if there has not been a tightly controlled and monitored approach to the manufacturing.

At the end of the day, you and your family are the ones who drink from the bottles and need to feel comfortable with whichever choice you make.

Biome offers only choices that are the best quality, reputable and free from all harmful things!

Glass water bottles
Lunch boxes
Sandwich wraps
BPA free baby bottles
Stainless steel bottle
Water bottle

Continue Reading..

More about BPA and SIGG

This is our third post on the issue of reusable water bottles and BPA. The two earlier articles explain more about SIGG & BPA and the exchange program.

Are SIGG bottles safe?
While SIGG should have been more transparent about the fact its bottles prior to August 2008 contained BPA in the manufacturing, the bottles are still safe based on independent tests that show no leaching of BPA or other toxins.

When most people purchased their bottles in 2008 and before, it was on the understanding that the bottles did not leach BPA or any toxins--and that has not changed.  It was only in 2009 that SIGG said the new bottles were BPA free.

Is this a product recall? 
The exchange program being offered by SIGG and retailers is not a recall, because the bottles are not unsafe.   SIGG promoted the bottles as not leaching BPA or other toxins, and this is still the case.

SIGG has explained that while BPA was an ingredient in the lining, it was manufactured in such a way that it was polymerised, essentially locking in the ingredients.

See more details on the exhange program below.  The program will end soon, as SIGG worldwide has already ended the program.

What is BPA & how is it used?
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a plastic and resin ingredient used to line metal food and drink cans and to make hard and clear polycarbonate plastics.  Here is a summary of the Environmental Working Group study in 2007 which found BPA in over half of 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda, and other commonly eaten canned goods.

Its use is widespread, as is its permeation into the environment around us including drinking water and human breast milk.

BPA can leach into food from the protective internal lining of canned foods and from consumer products such as polycarbonate tableware, food storage containers, water bottles, and baby bottles.  The degree to which BPA leaches from polycarbonate bottles into liquid may depend more on the temperature of the liquid or bottle, than the age of the container.  (Source: National Toxicology Program).

This Z recommends article explains the great advances made away from unsafe polycarbonate bottles that contained high levels of BPA, but calls for putting BPA-free into perspective.

Canada was the first country to ban BPA from baby products, followed by several US States.

How to limit exposure to BPA?

• Do not heat or microwave food in any type of plastic container - use glass or ceramic instead. Heating plastics to high temperatures promotes the leaching of chemicals.
• Reduce your use of canned foods - canned pasta and soups contain the highest levels of BPA
• Avoid polycarbonate #7 and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) #3 plastics, especially for children's food. Plastics with the recycling labels #1, #2 and #4 on the bottom are safer choices and do not contain BPA. 
• Use glass baby bottles.
• Use high quality reusable bottles from trusted brands that publish results of quality control and testing.

Which bottles are safest to use?
In most cases, the old rule "you get what you pay for" is a good starting point.  There are many cheap metal bottles in stores to meet the consumer demand for moving away from plastics.  We recommend only choosing an established brand that you know and trust, that openly publishes independent test results, and that can be held accountable should there be a problem. 

Metal bottles can still leach toxins, whether an aluminium bottle with no lining at all or an unsafe lining, or a stainless steel bottle leaching nickel - particularly if there has not been a tightly controlled and monitored approach to the manfacturing.

Klean Kanteen and Nathan and Thermos are long standing, high quality stainless steel bottle brands.

At the end of the day, you and your family are the ones who drink from the bottles and need to feel comfortable with whichever choice you make.  More about SIGG on this blog.

Continue Reading..

Lunch boxes - easy & healthy

Biome loves gathering great ideas from our customers and we also love giving them a little prize for their help. Our last Facebook promotion was to post three unique ideas for food to pack in healthy lunch boxes & we'll include two free Kids Konserve Kozy sandwich wraps with your next online order or in-store purchase.

Here are some of the ideas for lunch boxes we received.
Savoury

• Rice Paper Rolls filled with vermicelli, bean shoots, grilled chicken and coriander
• Salad Pita Pockets
• Vegie sticks with Homemade Coconut Dip
• Cold toasted sandwiches with cream cheese and tuna
• Leftover cold quiche shapes (cut using shape cutters)
• Homemade mini meatballs
• Antipasto selection
• Rice Balls rolled in Turmeric
• Rissotto cakes
• Popcorn
• Wholemeal lavash wraps with chicken, avocado, lettuce and tomato
• Sandwich with marinated tofu and lightlty fried pumpkin slices
• Leftover meal in a thermos lunch jar for lunch
• Tuna, avocado or vegetable sushi
• Rolypolies (flat bread rolled up and cut like pinwheels with any smooth simple filling - like vegemite, hommus, cream cheese)
• Homemade yoghurt with crushed berries swirled through
• BBQ sauce or fruit chutney on a wholegrain roll
  
• Seaweed strips
• Cucumber and hommus
• Red capsicum and snow peas
• Homemade pizza slices cold 
• Raw kale chips

Sweet

• Snowy Fruit Balls - dried apricots, dried peaches dried apple rings, sunflower seeds, raisins blended then rolled in coconut
• Apricot Fruit Bars covered with Rice Paper
• Dates spread with peanut butter, rolled in coconut and chilled
• Pumpkin & yoghurt muffins
• Sugarless date, rolled oat and banana slice
• Organic dried sultanas and apricots bought in bulk and divided into reusable snack containers
• Fruit kebabs
• Homemade iced tea
• Melon balls - a mix of watermelon, cantelope and honeydew scooped with a melon baller
• In summer, frozen banana, grapes and orange pieces
• Dried banana chips and dehydrated pineapple
• Sweet pistachio Lara bar

Thank you to all the great biome Facebookers that provided us with these great lunch box ideas.

Now, what to pack the lunch in? 
All of the kids lunch box available at Biome are safe, from BPA, lead, PVC and other toxins.  We also help make it easy to pack a waste free or 'wrapper-free' lunch with reusable lunch box containers.  Try a stainless steel lunch box.

The all-in-one Goodbyn lunch box with 5 leak-proof compartments and one lid has been trialled by us and makes it so easy to pack a waste free lunch.

Reusable sandwich wraps are a great way to reduce plastic wrap waste and avoid toxins in some plastic wraps - and even save money.

And one that has been very popular with the adults are the Bento boxes this great company also have a recipe book available for more ideas.

Find all these options on our website or you can come see us at the Biome eco stores.

Continue Reading..

Six reasons we love Goodbyn lunch boxes

Six new colours, six reasons we love Goodbyn...

(1) In our house, Goodbyn are the only lunch boxes we have bought for two years, which I feel makes them great value. The children have used theirs every day for school for two years and they are still going strong.  The plastic is sturdy but flexible, and there are no hinges to break.

There is no need to buy a new kids lunch box each year. The kids can apply Goodbyn stickers to refresh the design they want on their lunch box.

(2) Only one lid to keep track of - and it always seems to come home (unlike the 10 or so other containers in my drawer whose lids have disappeared, or vice versa).

How to close the Goodbyn lid? First, push down firmly on the two horizontal ridges across the middle, then pinch together all around the outside edges. Once the kids get the knack it is easy.

(3) The kids love packing their own lunch - what more do you want in the mornings? :-) For some reason they enjoy filling the little compartments and making their lunch look all creative and neat. They seem much more motivated to pack their own (or, is that because they want to sneak extra treats in...?)

(4) The layout of little compartments makes it easier for me to pack the lunches when I need to! It breaks things down into five sections that require less brain power to fill - sandwich here, fruit there, some dip there, crackers here and a sweet treat there. Done!

(5) Goodbyns are made from food-safe plastic, no PVC (unlike most soft lunch boxes), no lead, no BPA, phthalate-free and its made in the USA.

Rather than a faceless manufacturer, we know the story behind who makes them and who is accountable for the safety and environmental performance.  Goodbyn makes public their product testing results

(6) There's something about Bento boxes and a plastic wrap-free lunch!  Lunch seems much more appetising when it is not squished inside sweaty plastic wrap, but rather laid out in the Bento system. The Japanese have served food in this way for centuries after all.

Six new fruity colours now available in Australia in Goodbyn original and Bynto sizes, plus ice packs, three types of stickers and replacement bottles.

Visit here to see all of Biome's lunch boxes.

Continue Reading..

Recycling, the art of re-invention

 

A gorgeous new product we have in store at Biome has inspired this post for Planet Ark's National Recycling Week being celebrated right now.

Made from reclaimed cotton shirts, this little recycle yourself doll on a key fob is accompanied by a booklet that tells its story from cotton on the bush transforming to a smart business shirt, then to a discarded shirt, before its re-invention into this quirky doll.  As the story concludes: 
And today, someone who reminds you that in your heart you have the strength to recycle yourself into whatever you want to be.

Isn't that so true about all recycling?  A material or an ingredient has a useful life in one form, but when that use comes to an end there are so many ways it can be re-invented, re-loved, re-used or upcycled. Upcycled being the term de rigueur that refers to the process of converting waste or useless products into new materials or products of better quality.

We don't recycle at Biome - well not much...

With all the deliveries of stock we receive in our stores, we gather a mountain of cardboard boxes and stuffing of various kinds from bubble wrap to polystyrene beads, shredded paper and compostable beads - but we take joy in not recycling.  Don't panic!  We re-use -- rather than recycle -- as much as we can.  Where ever we can re-box (as in re-use a box) or re-stuff (re-use stuffing materials) we will.  In fact, we even have our neighbours on the bandwagon.  The restaurant gives us their wine cartons, the laundromat gives us freebie magazines and the coffee shop gives us boxes.  They love it because their bins are less full and we love it because we don't have to buy boxes and stuff.  Some of our suppliers send re-boxes to us as well, then we use them again to send to you...so that is at least three useful lives before any more energy is used to recycle them!

Where can I recycle certain things?

Planet Ark's Recycling Near You program is gold. That is, Planet Ark deserves a gold medal for all their incredible work to promote education and uptake on recycling.  They have a telephone hotline, or, visit the website where you can type in your location and it delivers links on where you can recycle certain things.

The page for recycling in the Brisbane area has a wealth of leads.  For example, one link tells me what materials I can put in the household kerbside recycling bin in Brisbane
All these materials are collected:

• Glass Bottles and Jars (but not drinking glasses and plates)
• Aluminium Cans
• Aluminium Foil
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Office Paper
• Envelopes Without a Window
• Envelopes With a Window
• Phone Books
• Pizza Boxes (scrape the food out, some grease is ok)
• Egg Cartons (unless you know someone with chickens that can reuse them)
• Cardboard
• Steel Food Cans (does a magnet stick to it? it's steel if it does)
• Steel Paint Cans (empty)
• Steel Aerosol Cans (empty)
• Milk cartons
• Juice cartons
• Tin-plate or aluminium lids from steel food cans
• Plastics marked with
   

The last one is great news - they accept all plastics marked from 1 to 6, which is pretty much most firm plastics these days.  This was not always the case.
We aim to ensure that every plastic item stocked at Biome has a recycling symbol stamped on it - without that symbol there is no hope of it being recycled.

If you are into re-crafting, there are so many books and internet resources on how to make new things from old things.
Happy re-inventing!

Continue Reading..

Handbag make-over for an eco-cadet

This is an article I wrote for Peppermint Magazine's launch issue in August 2008.

One tote-sized revolution at a time is enough I say. Faced with the enormity of our planet’s eco-troubles, it would be easy to hide behind the Generals. However, the thrill of victory is contagious, so I have resolved to make a series of small advances. Starting with a green makeover for the handbag that carries me through each battle…oops, day.

Tissues. Every parent needs a wad of these for wiping away green trails from small noses (green is good, but not that type). But where are all the recycled choices? We can make recycled paper for wiping other anatomical parts, so why not tissues? I will have to track down some reusable organic cotton hankies instead.

Lipstick. Thankfully my favourite lippie (Sante Shiny Bronze) is already natural and petrochemical-free. Apparently a woman swallows about 2kg of lipstick in her lifetime, so I was an early convert to making sure that it was tasty jojoba oil and plant waxes.

Reusable bags. I freely admit to a type N.R.M.R.B. personality (never remember my reusable bags). Those oversized celebrity handbags look as though they have about six green bags stuffed into them, but my econo-tote calls for a more compact solution. To the rescue, a good friend designed a nifty Stuffit shopping bag that scrunches up so small I can adopt several for my handbag.

BYO fork. We seem to eat so many meals in the car or on the go (incredibly, Australians do eat more meals outside the home than in) and that can mean a lot of waste. I wince when I throw out a once used utensil or container because there are so few recycling bins in public places. Reviving my Girl Guide motto, I’ll Be Prepared in future with a reusable bamboo plastic fork. Why didn’t I think of that 30 forks ago?

Reusable coffee mug. This eco-message has made it through and I love my slimline SIGG thermos that fits neatly in my bag. An even sweeter reward, some coffee shops give a discount when you B.Y.O. cup.

Wallet. Could it be that in my quest to avoid animal hide, my handbag has been infiltrated by the dastardly PVC? That most toxic of all plastics with the recycle symbol #3? I can’t see a symbol on it so I will have to abstain. Hemp it will need to be, or, one made locally from recycled fabric.

Receipts. Among the miscellaneous paraphernalia, 28 receipts. Possibly enough to make a box of recycled paper tissues. If we could all remember to ask for ‘no receipt please’, surely we could save a rainforest or three.

Car keys. Hmm? I can’t get rid of those unless I get rid of the petrol guzzler they ignite. For that skirmish, this cadet will have to return another day…

With thanks to dear friends for the inspirations in this article.

Continue Reading..