Green to Grow

Just time for a quick post today. I came across a wonderful new company today, Green to Grow, which produces BPA-free, pthalate-free baby bottles. It's a new company, founded by parents who, like me, were trying to create for their infant son a toxin-free environment. Michael Ritterbrown and his wife, Shelley, came to the same conclusions I did when they became parents and decided to do a little reading. They, however, unlike me, got their act together enough to start a company.

Their website is still under construction in some places, but you can order baby bottles singly or as part of a gift set. Like all BPA-free bottles, they are more expensive than your average baby bottle, but I believe its more than worth it. Also on the site are links to research papers on a host of different chemicals, including most of those discussed on this blog. Click on the link above, or on the link under my list of links.

Attack of the Catalogs--Repelled!

I happened upon the website Catalog Choice a few weeks ago and have, since then, been busily sending all the unsolicited catalogs I receive to the execution block. Catalog Choice is a nonprofit site sponsored by the National Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Foundation that enables consumers to opt-out of catalogs they receive at their home, and which they'd prefer to see pulverized. So far, I've registered about 25 catalogs. It takes about 10 weeks for the request to be processed.

The goal is to cut down on the millions of trees cut down for these pointless catalogs, and to regain a little bit of ground in the war of personal privacy. For example, the state of Minnesota's Department of Health sells its list of birth information to whoever coughs up enough cash. As a result, I was bombarded with mailings from formulamakers (including two whole canisters of powdered formula--NO THANK YOU!), baby photographers, toy stores, and so on. One more disturbing--to me, anyway--mailing was from a stocking-maker who had emblazoned my son's name across stockings featured on the front of the postcard.

Birth information is, unfortunately, public information; but we should be given a chance to opt-out of such marketing schemes.

Pottery Barn and Formaldehyde--Silence Speaks

After months with no real response to a very straightforward question: does the Pottery Barn Rhys Media Lift contain formaldehyde? I must conclude that it, in fact, does contain it. Why make such an assumption? Because if it were not, it would be such an exception--such an ecological, green Brownie point--that it would be simple to find out. The only reason I thought the media lift might be sans formaldehyde glue was because the first PB rep I spoke to said that the company adhered to California's toxins laws, deemed the strictest in the nation. However, after corresponding with California's toxin guru, Brent Takemoto, Ph.D., I discovered that there is no law governing formaldehyde on the books yet.

I've written extensively about the dangers of formaldehyde in building materials and home furnishings in earlier posts. California has categorized it as a known human carcinogen, and is currently working on legislation that would make particleboard, MDF, and other wood products containg formaldehyde illegal.

This is a simple question. The lack of a straightforward response is not only frustrating but hypocritical. After receiving PB's holiday catalog (for Pottery Barn Kids), I happened upon a lengthy self-aggrandizing bit of promotion that extolled PB's commitment to eco-friendly business practices and human-friendly products.

And perhaps it is time to let the curtain fall on the Theater of the Absurd here. Pottery Barn furniture products cannot be certified as toxin-free because PB "can't get an answer from its 'vendors'". I think, as times passes, PB is going to realize that it will lose customers if it can't provide information like this. Transparency along the supply and manufacturing line is becoming more and more important to consumers, thanks to the lead-toy fiascos out of China. If PB doesn't adapt, I think--I hope--its customers will abandon it.

Clorox Buys Burt's Bees

Burt's Bees has sold out. And not to a somewhat Earth-friendly conglomorate, like Hain-Celestial (makers of Earth's Best baby food and Celestial Seasonings tea). Burt's Bees has sold itself it to Clorox, makers of perhaps one of the most toxic products on the market, chlorine bleach. Burt's Bees sold itself for $925 million.

It's not fair to simply assume that a company like Clorox will be unable or unwilling to keep the ingredients in the Burt's Bees products nontoxic; but it is worrying whenever a large company takes over a smaller company that had been born out of idealism. Fear that a company will try to maximize profits by taking shortcuts is well-founded. This fear is grounded in the news that Fitch Ratings took Clorox's rating down a notch to BBB because the acquisition is mostly debt-based. They'll have to make up some of that lost money somewhere.

Someone on the Consumerist comments section said she was going to buy up a ton of BB's products before "the formula" gets changed. Obviously it's too early to make assumptions like that, but fans will certainly be scrutinizing the products in a way they knew they didn't have to before.

Here is a limp and unconvincing letter from Burt's Bees to its "loyal customers" regarding the acquisition (the direct link to the letter is broken, so click on the "The Hive Gets Even Bigger:
Burt's Bees Letter to Consumers

In addition, the New York Times ran an article on the acquisition, titled: Can Burt's Bees Turn Clorox Green?