I still haven’t gotten over the fact that, earlier this year, The Gap revised its jean styles (though I can find no official confirmation of this fact beyond what the sales clerks told me and what I’d read in this San Jose-Mercury News article based on a Consumerist blog entry). Confirmation of information or not, suddenly, my beloved Original Boot Cut Stretch became the so-called Classic jean and, in my mind, became synonymous with Mom Jeans.

And so it goes that it was “good-bye, Gap,” and “Hello, Levis” (515s to be exact).

I’m just getting used to the new fit of these 515s–and the new places I can find them (Kohls, JC Penney, and for a lot cheaper than any Gap jeans ever were)–when I hear the news that my jeans might be bad for me.

I’d heard this news once before, in high school, when girls like me practically painted our jeans on–and then suffered the UTI consequences a few days later. No, this jeans-could-be-bad-for-you message isn’t about how you wear them; it’s about how the jeans are made.

Denim is mostly cotton, and most of the jeans in American stores contain cotton that, like so many other crops, are loaded with pesticides. Some folks are arguing that because you wear jeans on your body’s largest organ, your skin, that jeans (or anything else made from cotton) could be bad for your health.

Thankfully, the prevailing wisdom is that, unlike with foods, pesticides in cotton doesn’t really transfer through the clothing you wear, Nonetheless, it’s probably a good idea to look into “green jeans,” if only to be good to Mother Earth. But being good doesn’t come cheap!

When Levis originally debuted its Eco Jeans line in 2006, they were talking prices in the $250 range. Ouch. These days you can still spend that much, but you also have some more affordable options–if you can handle spending $58 or more for a pair of “green” Levis. (Yes, I paid this much for years with my Gap jeans.)

One company dedicated to bringing organic cotton jeans to the market is California-based Del Forte, which offers a “rejeaneration” option. That is, when you’ve worn out your jeans or are ready for something new, Del Forte will take your old jeans back, recycle them into new jeans, and then give you 10 percent off your next purchase.

OK, so these jeans aren’t exactly affordable either, sort of like why I can’t afford to shop at Whole Foods, though I completely support the Whole Foods approach to groceries. However, if I’m going to splurge on a great pair of organic jeans, I’ll want to support a company that really stands behind its mission and its message like Del Forte does with its jean recycling.

It would be great if other clothing manufacturers took a page from Del Forte’s green book and offered similar recycling options–and similar discounts. In the meantime, I guess that for me “green jeans” will always be Captain Kangaroo’s sidekick.

“Wow, Mom, you really have gone green.”

Tha’ts what my 12-year-old daughter Jane said to me this weekend, when I walked in the door from the supermarket, schlepping four mismatched but stuffed-to-the-gills canvas bags, all containing groceries. Of course, she didn’t offer to help me with my bags (typically tween, right?) but I’m elated nonetheless.

I’ve been talking the green talk for months. Now, it seems, that my daughter has finally recognized that I’m walking the walk, too. Soon enough, I hope her sister and she will be doing it, too. Actually, I’ve got to give these kids props already.

Even though the compost grosses them out, they have been diligently putting their apple cores in it.

Also, they’ve been trying so hard to avoid putting things in the trash that I’ve found empty ice cream containers and plastic wrappers in the recycling bin–sadly both unacceptable in our recycling program, like most in America. (The good news is that there are a few forward-thinking areas of the country (namely, the Pacific Northwest) that offer recycling for wax-coated paper products, like ice cream cartons and opaque milk containers.)

And the other day, when Jane arrived home from middle school, the first thing she said to me was, “Guess what, Mom? We’ve got recycling bins in the cafeteria now!” (I can thank the school’s new recycling club for those bins.) There was genuine enthusiasm in her voice.

But back to the notion of bringing your own grocery bags, a no-duh moment for most green folks. However, if you still haven’t joined the canvas-bag caravan, check out this “Paper or Plastic?” graphic from The Washington Post. It not only points out plastic bags’ petroleum-based production but also it explains why even those brown and seemingly earth-friendly paper grocery bags aren’t very earthy friendly at all.

So the next time the bagger at the grocery store asks, “Paper or Plastic?” I hope your reply is “No, thanks, I’ve brought my own.”

With thanks to “The Graduate,” plastic has become a part of our pop culture in more ways than just a popular phrase from a movie. We use plastic in every aspect of our life. Just in looking around my desk, here are all of the things I’ve got that contain plastic:

* Plastic drinking cup
* Reusable Crate & Barrel straw
* Lotion and lip balm
* Shell of a drafting pencil
* Trash can (OK, that’s under my desk but I think I can still count it)
* Highlighter

You know that I’ve been blogging recently about ways that folks can recycle plastic bags, and I’d like to add some new information to that recent post. If you’d like to bring a plastic bag or some sort to a supermarket collection bin, you can bring more than the plastic grocery bags and dry-cleaning bags I talked about.

You know those air-filled plastic thingamabobbers that companies use now to cushion shipments? (The technical term is actually air-filled pillow.) Well, you can drop those off at those collection bins, too. (Just pop them first so they don’t take up too much space.) How did I discover this? Well, I just received a package with some of that air-filled plastic in it, and I noticed that it said “2 HDPE” with a recycling symbol on it. One Internet search later, I landed on Recycle Now, the website of the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency. This site offers an easy-to-understand general explanation of what can be recycled where based on symbols and numbers. If you’ll scroll down to the HDPE #4 section, you’ll see mention that HDPE #2 plastic can be dropped off in those supermarket recycling bins. (They also take LDPE #4 bags.)

Not sure exactly what LDPE #4 bags are? (Neither was I.) The American Chemistry Council’s PlasticsInfo.org site (“Better Living with Plastics is its slogan!) offers an explanation, along with other kinds of “bags” you can put in these bins. I was surprised to learn that those plastic bags that new mattresses come wrapped in and plastic newspaper sleeves both qualify!

I wonder if the polybags that magazines come wrapped in would qualify, too? Does anyone know?

Recently, I posted about how I equate picking up litter on the side of road with my mother, Judy, and considered it a WWJD (What Would Judy Do) moment. Well, now that I’ve embraced this whole green and frugal thing, I’m having a lot more WWJD moments–some spontaneous, others because I’ve called her to ask a green question.

For example, yesterday I called to ask if I could compost those little pink packets of sweetener that I put in my coffee every morning. Turns out I can and so can you.

Because these packets are made from paper, they will break down in the compost, and I can treat them just like coffee filters and paper towels–all of which I’m composting now. My mom also filled me in on other things I can toss in the compost, include shredded paper and shredded paperboard (since my trash collector won’t take cardboard of any kind). If I’m going to add this shredded stuff, though, she warned that I should do it in moderation.

Guess what else I can toss in the compost? Hair!

I couldn’t have found this out at a better time. You see, one of my latest magazine assignments for Main Line Today is doing a round-up of great bridal shower gifts. I’ve been testing products for the past few weeks, and just today I was trying out this new battery-charged Electrolux Pronto 2 in 1 vacuum cleaner to see if it could pick up all of the dust bunnies our dog’s hair creates. (It did fine, by the way.) Anyway, when the little container that holds the sucked-in debris got full, I removed it from the vacuum cleaner, walked outside and dumped it in the compost. How cool is that.

As far as plain-old recycling/reusing goes, my mom let me know that she’ll often donate clothes to her local high school’s drama department so that the students can use them as costumes. Another great recipient of donated clothes is a battered women’s shelter, since women often arrive with just the clothes on their backs. The Women’s Center of Rhode Island advertises the need for clothing donations right on its website. (You may want to check if you can donate children’s clothing, too.)

Beyond clothing you can donate your used glasses to the Lions Club, through a local vision store or optician, which reuses the glasses and gives them to folks living in poverty who can’t afford to pay for glasses. Considering I’ve worn glasses since the 2nd grade, you can bet I’ve got a ton of old and useless glasses lying around upstairs, including those awful oversized, tortoise-shell preppy frames that were all the rage in the 1980s (check out Annie Potts glasses from “Ghostbusters” in this link). Blech.

Another important item to donate rather than toss–your cell phone. Not only do you want to keep cell phones out of landfills for toxicity reasons but also your used phone can help someone else–whether it be victims of domestic abuse or soldiers fighting in Iraq. Some organizations that take used cell phones include Collective Good and The Wireless Foundation. Here’s a Charity Guide article that provides extensive details on how donated cell phones do good and what you need to know to donate yours.

So let’s see: we’ve just cleaned out some of our clutter, kept items out of the trash that could be composted or recycled, and possibly helped those in need with our donations. Not bad for a day’s work.

It was a “free shipping” email fest in my inbox this morning. No sooner had I logged on then “free shipping” after “free shipping” offers pinged into my email.

There was free shipping from Boscov’s Department store on orders over $50. Next was free shipping from Zappos.com, my favorite site for getting the hip Saucony sneakers I love. (I’ve seen Zappos.com boxes on “What Not to Wear”, so Stacy and Clinton must love the site, too!) A few seconds later, Lands’ End popped in to let me know that they were offering free shipping on orders placed before October 29th (hurry, or you’ll miss out!)

I had to wonder: will free shipping be the make-or-break for retailers this holiday season? Seems so.

A few minutes ago I got a press release from the National Retail Federation about the new 2007 eHoliday Study, conducted by BizRate Research for Shop.org and Shopzilla, on consumers’ thoughts on free shipping (61% of us love it, myself included) and what retailers will be doing about it for holiday 2007.

Turns out that a whopping 78.6% of them will be offering free shipping in one form or another. Take that another way and it adds up to this: on average, nearly eight out of the 10 websites you shop at online are likely to be having a free shipping promotion of one kind or another this year. With news like that, who wants to wait until Black Friday (or the newer trend Black Monday also known as Cyber Monday) to start your holiday shopping? I know that my palms are starting to itch for some good deals (though my bank account probably won’t allow it).

This free shipping free-for-all got me thinking: good deals aside, would it be better for the environment if this year I shopped online exclusively? I figured that if I drove to the mall less–and so did millions of other Americans–wouldn’t that be a step in the right direction for our collective carbon footprint?

Amazon.com would like you to think so, and offers a link on its website to an academic paper that compares the environmental impact of e-commerce versus traditional retailing. I downloaded the document and read through it with my best PhD eyes (though I have a BA only; it’s my husband who’s got the PhD).

And guess what? If you and I drove to the mall less and shopped online more, we probably would be having a smaller impact on the environment. In fact, the last line of this paper, written by two professors from Carnegie Mellon University, is telling: “[O]ur base analysis case suggests that E-Commerce sales have a cost advantage and environmental benefits.”

Cool. Whose ready for some online shopping? Remember: if you’ve got gift cards, now would be a great time to use them!

Growing up I thought of vinegar as oil’s best bud and the tangy liquid that made cucumbers spicy and delicious. But over time I’ve learned just how versatile vinegar can be–and not just as a salad dressing.

For starters, I’ve discussed how vinegar can deodorize wet laundry that’s sat for too long in the dryer, and how “brewing” a pot of vinegar can work the gunk out of an overused coffee pot. I remember my mother teaching me that a combination of vinegar and baking soda poured down a drain can clear out a clog as well as chemicals, without the same caustic effect on pipes (though I have to wonder if the exploding Diet Coke-and-Mentos concoction that the guys on “Mythbusters” favor would clear out drains as well).

I just got finished writing a story for All You Magazine on how going green can save you green (gee, why does that concept sound so familiar?!). In researching how to make your own cleaning supplies, a suggestion in my story, I came across tons of innovative uses for vinegar. Here are some of the uses that didn’t make it into my story:

* Vinegar can act like pest control.
Pour it in a place where ants are congregating to “encourage” them to get out of dodge, or put out a small bowl of vinegar to suck in fruit flies that might be buzzing about your fruit. (You can visit this vinegar tips website for more ideas like these.)

* Vinegar works well to “fix” a pet’s accident.
If your dog gets skunked or your cat pees on the rug, vinegar can help get the odors out. With the peeing-on-the-carpet instance, the lingering smell of vinegar will likely dissuade the animal for peeing there again. Hopefully she chooses her litter box the next time and not a patch of carpet six inches away.

* Vinegar makes your hair shiny again.
If you’re a styling-product junkie, you’re probably spending money on and using clarifying shampoos on a regular basis to wash away that build up (or at last you should be). Turns out that a vinegar-and-water combo hair rinse does a great job getting rid of styling-product build up, too. I find this idea kind of icky but folks tell me that if you shampoo after the rinse, the smell disappears. (I guess this can’t be any more icky than when my daughter brought home lice and we soaked our heads with olive oil to get rid of the little buggers–and it worked.)

For more ideas on what you can do with vinegar, check out The Vinegar Institute, a trade association of vinegar manufacturers. (Who knew such an association existed?)

In the meantime what are some ways that you use vinegar around the house–and I don’t mean in salads?

As a follow-up to my recent post on figuring out how to recycle hangers from the dry cleaners, I’ve decided that taking those hangers to a local thrift store or church clothing giveaway is probably the best way of reusing the hangers.

Many food pantries also need grocery bags for packaging the food their clients take home, if you’re looking for another use for those. But the best news of all is what I’ve just discovered about recycling dry cleaning bags for real.

You’ve probably seen those bins at the grocery store for recycling your plastic shopping bags (the image above right is from the Packaging Institute’s website). Well, it turns out that you can also use those bins to recycle the plastic bags that come over your dry cleaning. All of these bags are turned into Trex decking, which, according to the website, is also made from stretch film and recycled wood.

While in a perfect world, we would all be doing without dry cleaning and disposable grocery bags, but in reality, they are still out there, so at least now you know of an environmentally friendly way of disposing of these bags.

I’m waiting, just waiting for my postal carrier to make a comment. About the fact that we need a bigger mailbox. Because everyday for the past few weeks, our volume of mail has been going up and up. No, I haven’t been crazily mail-order shopping, but I’m guessing that the catalog companies would like me to be. You see, it’s been a downright blizzard of holiday catalogs around here, now that everyday brings a new, glossy and pretty catalog touting the latest and greatest gifts of the season.

Don’t get me wrong–I love shopping via catalog or direct mail. I find it’s an efficient use of my time and my dollars, especially if it involves L.L. Bean (I have an L.L. Bean Visa card, meaning that I keep earning free coupons, and I enjoy free shipping). But things are getting out of hand, now that my recycling bin is piling up with catalogs I’ve rarely given a glance.

Wouldn’t it just be better to cut down on how much mail I’m getting (though in the pre-holiday season, that might simply be impossible)? I used to work for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), in its communications office, so I know all about the DMA’s Mail Preference Service, which is designed to get people off of direct marketers’ mailing lists. (My tenure at DMA also retrained me not to refer to unsolicited direct mail as junk mail, the snail mail version of spam. “JM” is considered to be a derogatory term at the DMA.) Perhaps its time to get in touch with that service again, though now this service comes with a disappointing $1 fee.

One of the catalogs that arrived yesterday actually included information about getting your name out of the unsolicited credit card offer cycle, with a phone number that ties into the three big credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. That number, by the way, is 1-888-567-8688 at the Federal Trade Commission. Supposedly if you call it, you can opt-out of “prescreened” offers. I’ll be giving that number a ring today, too.

In the meantime I’m going to continue to gather these catalogs and pieces of direct mail (save for anything that’s a credit card offer–that goes right into the shredder so I can avoid some stranger opening a credit card account in my name), and then drop them off at the Abitibi Paper Retriever “dumpster” at my daughter’s school, which provides a place for local residents to recycle their paper and help support the schools. (The school gets money based on the amount of paper Abitibi can recycle from each dumpster. Use this link to find a dumpster near to you.)

I’ll probably keep a few catalogs lying around for potential holiday shopping (though I always end up placing orders via a company’s website, not through the catalog’s toll-free number) or even good bathroom reading, but hopefully by this time next year, I will have cut down significantly on the amount of direct mail we receive.

Because I work from home, I spend a lot of time in my home office. Well, in theory I should be spending most of my time there, but since I still haven’t fully unpacked my office from our move in May, in reality I’ve been spending most of my work hours at the dining room table. Nonetheless, as I work towards putting my office back together, I’m trying to figure out how to make it as eco-friendly as possible. Here are some of my ideas:

* Use task lighting only, instead of power-sucking overhead lamps. Also, change out incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent lights (CFL).

* Make sure the ceiling fan in my office is spinning the right way to lower my heating/cooling bills. FYI, it would be clockwise in the winter to push down warm air and counter-clockwise in the summer to lift up warm air.

* Continue to recycle used printer and copier cartridges by taking advantage of the manufacturer’s free recycling program. For example, whenever I buy a new toner cartridge for my HP LaserJet, the box from the store includes packaging I can use to send the used cartridge back to HP for recycling.

* Always print on both sides of paper before tossing it in the recycling bin or shredding it. (Note to cat owners: you can use shredded paper as a free replacement for cat litter.)

* Instead of tossing my old magazines in the recycling bin, I’m going to see if any local doctor’s offices might like them for waiting-room reading, or if local schools could use them for projects.

* Keep all of my electronics plugged into a single power strip that I can turn off at night.

* When I need to ship something, use the USPS’s Click-N-Ship service via the USPS website, which allows me to print out mailing labels and postage, and I can put the packages out with my regular mail. This saves me from taking extra drives to the post office.

* In a perfect world I would have an all-in-one machine that acted as my laser printer, copier and fax machine. I’m sure one machine would use a lot less energy than the three machines I currently use. But I’ve only seen all-in-ones with ink jet printing. As an author, who prints hundreds of manuscript pages at a time, an ink jet just isn’t up to the job.

As I look around my office (yes, I’m sitting in it for a change), I’m drawing a blank on other green things I could do in here.

What would you suggest I add to my eco to do list for the home office?

As part of my audition today for this new green living show, I brushed up on a bunch of information that I thought might come in handy during my try out. It did–and I thought folks here might benefit from this information as well. Some of this you may have heard before; the rest might provide an “a ha” moment for you. I know that I had plenty of “a ha” moments in pulling this collection of green facts, figures and fun stuff together. Here goes.

* Always-Plugged-In Electronics Can Be Power Vampires
Appliances that can’t go into low power mode when plugged in continue to suck energy even when they’re not actively in use, like your computer or cell phone charger. It’s not a lot of energy but it adds up. People could save almost $50 a year on energy costs by plugging things, not directly into a wall, but into a power strip—and then turning the strip off at night or when they’re’re not using it.

* Laptops Are Way More Eco-Friendly Than Desktops
A regular desktop computer uses about 300 watts of power, and that adds up to about $405 a year to run. On the other hand, a laptop computer uses only 45 watts of power and costs about $50 a year to run. I’m sure it helps that once your laptop battery is charged, you can unplug the computer from it and the plug from the wall. But overall it’s quite eye opening to see how much more energy a desktop computer uses.

* Composting Really Adds Up
Americans throw away 1,200 pounds of organic matter each year, but did you ever stop and think about what exactly 1,200 pounds looks like? Here’s some food for thought.
A bull weighs 1,200 pounds
A Cooper Mini car weighs about 1,200 pounds
A lighthouse bells weighs about 1,200 pounds
That should helpl put things in perspective about why everyone should start composting.

* A Programmable Thermostat Is Like Cruise Control for Your Car
Just as your get the best gas mileage when you set your car on cruise control, it’s the same with a programmable thermostat. If you aren’t constantly turning the heat/air on and off, or moving the temperature up and down, you’ll get a more consistent temperature in the house and use less energy overall—therefore reducing your energy bills.

* Raise or Lower the Thermostat to Lower Your Bills
You save one percent on your heating/cooling bills by adjusting the thermostat by one degree. So setting the air at 72 degrees in summer (instead of a brisk 68 degrees) will save your four percent on your bills. Likewise, in winter, keeping the house at 72 degrees instead of a balmy 78 degrees has the same money-saving effect. These small changes may only add up to $5 or $10 of savings a month, but think about it this way–you use less energy, then there are fewer emissions. And if there are fewer emissions, then that’s good for the environment.

* Shutters Shut Out Heat and Cold Like No Other Window Covering
You may think that fabric curtains act like an extra sweater on your windows, but the truth is this: window shutters used indoors as window coverings are the most efficient way to add an extra layer of insulation against the heat and the cold. And if you have old, single-pane windows (like I do in my house) and you just don’t have the budget for newer and better windows, then installing shutters might be your best financial and energy-efficient option in the short run.

Thanks to everyone who posted and emailed their opinions on what they thought was a “casual yet stylish” outfit that I should wear to my audition. I’m pleased to show you the photo of the winning outfit at left.

In a tribute to my aforementioned favorite show, “What Not to Wear,” which always offers shopping information after the reveal, I’ll give you a rundown on what I’m wearing and where I bought each item. All told, I spent about $100 to pull it together–not too shabby.

I’ve got on a black tie jacket made of jersey material, with 3/4-length sleeves from the apt. 9 brand, available at Kohl’s. (The image on the Kohl’s website shows the jacket in grey but, like I said, mine is black. I’ve got a black shell underneath it, something I already owned.) My jeans, also from Kohl’s, are Levi’s dark wash boot cut stretch. The shoes were tucked away in my closet (forgot I owned them) and are Joan & David buckle-top pumps in black leather and black patent, with 2 1/2-inch heels. I got them at Nordstrom. Finally, my accessories–the red chunky necklace (shown in orange in this link), earrings (hidden) and tote bag–are from Target.

Once I had this outfit on, I knew it was “it.” Hope everyone agrees!

I’ll let you all know how the audition goes after tomorrow.

This Wednesday I will be auditioning for the host position of a new green living show. Given my new green and frugal lifestyle–and my desire to write a book on the topic–this would be the perfect gig for me.

Now, I’ve just got to figure out the perfect outfit for me. To wear to the audition, that is.

When the casting folks called last week to schedule my audition, they told me that the dress code was “casual but stylish.” Since I haven’t got time to ring up Stacy London and Clinton Kelly from my favorite show “What Not to Wear” (and I don’t know them anyway), I was hoping that you might be able to help me pick out an appropriate “casual yet stylish” outfit.

I would really appreciate your thoughts and feedback on what you think I should wear–and “what not to wear” to the audition.

Here’s a riddle for you: What uses the same amount of steel each year as 60,000 cars? You may be surprised to learn the answer–3.5 billion dry-cleaner wire hangers, which nearly all consumers toss in the trash.

I know that before we kicked our dry-cleaning habit, I always felt guilty that I couldn’t figure out how to reuse or recycle these wire hangers. Everything else that came from the dry cleaner I found other uses for, such as the bag that held shirts became a recycling bin for newspapers and the plastic bags that covered the clothes could double as packing materials. But those pesky wire hangers? I mean, there are only so many mobiles that you can make from wire hangers! I know that I’m not the only one struggling with this wire-hanger dilemma–check out this entry at Green as a Thistle.

I know that a few forward-thinking dry cleaners allow customers to recycle their wire hangers by bringing them back to the shop, much like grocery stores that offer a small financial incentive to grocery shoppers who reuse their store-issued bags. But what if your dry cleaner around the corner doesn’t want to be bothered with taking returned hangers? (Many don’t.) Well, good news.

The other day I learned about a company that offers a more earth-friendly alternative to these wire hangers. Called EcoHangers they are made from recycled paper and are 100 percent biodegradable. Supposedly, 35,000 dry cleaners nationwide have signed up to use EcoHangers; it would be great if all 50,000 dry cleaners did. I mean, how cool would it be to pick up your shirts, suits and slacks from the dry cleaner, and know that when you’re done with the hanger, you can toss it in your recycling bin.

Now if we could just get the dry-cleaning industry to figure out a way to make a biodegradable plastic sheathing to cover cleaned clothes–something like those starch-based packing peanuts that melt in water.