Once I started to get more serious about zero waste, it was clear we needed to down size our landfill receptacle. It was super easy to cut down when we started to recycle soft film plastics by dropping them off at Cole Hardware or to the plastic bag recycling box in front of Safeway. Turns out all soft film plastics can be recycled there, including dry cleaning wrap, bread bags, cereal bags, etc..... of course the goal is to cut down on this plastic as much as possible since it can only be downcycled once into plastic lumber. Below are some other examples of soft film plastics.  LOOK OUT ZERO WASTE - HERE WE COME!

Last year my son Theo was exposed to lead dust so I am particularly aware of new ways I can cut out additional lead exposure. Here is new one for my to do list.
This month a new law went into effect in our home state of CA lowering the amount of lead that a faucet may be made of from 8% to less than 0.25%. Hopefully this will help to protect drinking water. As it turns out, brass faucets contain lead to  - lead is a key ingredient in brass.
All California schools, businesses and homes will have faucets that are effectively obsolete due to the Assembly Bill 1953’s strict requirements.
Cole Hardware emailed me a 25% coupon for new compliant faucets... once they get some in stock. Here is the coupon for you.


I will keep you posted on my faucet plans.
more info:
www.noleadfaucet.com

New toilet seats for our tooshies! Bobby was motivated, after a long sit on the cheap plastic toilet seat, to upgrade our loo situation. Our upstairs toilet seat was wood with a nice big crack down the middle and loosely attached with only one screw. Plus, potty training Theo has taken to closing (slamming) the toilet seat cover after flushing.

To our delight we found Bemis Whisper Close toilet seats, a green option at Home Depot. Now our bathroom looks so nice - it looks like we installed a new toilet. Theo and I also spent some quality time tapping the seat down and watching it close ever so smoothly and quietly. All this reward for about 30$ each.

I would like to claim that I researched toilet seats before our trip to Home Depot, but with a 2 year old and another on the way, some days we are operating by the seat of our pants.

I was delighted to discover our new seats are made from salvaged wood, certified by theRainforest Alliance and their Smartwood Rediscovered Wood program.

"More than 4 million pounds of post-industrial wood shavings each month become recycled wood composite seats, marketed worldwide by Bemis. Use of post-industrial wood eliminates 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the environment. That's similar to powering 96,126 homes for one year or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from 132,921 passenger vehicles.In addition, Bemis uses environmentally friendly water based paints, significantly reducing VOC emissions. Our packaging, is even environmentally friendly, using more than 75% recycled content, and is fully recyclable."
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Go Bemis!

A few weeks ago, I picked the brains of the staff at Flower Craft for low water plants. Most of them had no idea what was native, so we spent some time looking plants up in a catalog. In the end, my little red wheel wagon was filled with CA native plants. I was pretty excited to buy plants that attracted butterflies and hummingbirds. 

This is what I ended up with:
Santa Barbara Daisy (Erigeron Karvinshianus) small pink white daisies, tough, attracts butterflies.
Alpine Columbine
Two kids of Heuchera -"Amethyst Mist/ Coral bells" with burgundy leaves and "Ruby Bells- Alumroot"- red flowers, green leaves.
Penstemon "Midnight" Purple flowers attracts humming birds.
Yarrow (Achillea"moonshine") an old favorite from the high desert of New Mexico where I grew up.


Most exciting of all was a flowering zinnia's I planted from seed.  "My Peggy's Delight Zinnia" from Seeds of Change (named in honor after my late mother Peggy Coyne, who fought for environmental issues) bloomed on the 9th anniversary of her drowning. Pretty amazing how one little yellow flower can bring me so much peace.

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On the morning of my son's 1st birthday, a huge crowd was coming over to our new house to celebrate. It was a gorgeous Saturday, I was still unpacking, painting and building a kitchen island from pieces I found at Builders Resource.

Checking the answering machine before the crowd arrived, I listened to a message from the SF Health Department telling me my son had tested with elevated levels of lead in his blood and that they needed to come out to our house to investigate the source of lead. I nearly fainted and fell to my knees. They didn't tell me the how high his levels were and, of course, the office was closed for the weekend. I did get a hold of our pediatrician and she talked me down off the ledge as best she could.

Our pediatrician does a routine blood test for lead 12 months and she recommends this for all kids in the San Francisco because there are so many old houses covered in lead paint. She also told me that the government had recently lowered the threshold for a "positive" result and to keep in mind that my son was not showing any signs of developmental delay. Two days later I learned that he had the lowest possible positive reading. Still not good news but better than what I had been imagining.
Joe Walseth from the SF Health Department came out to inspect our house. It is a routine follow up, anytime a child has elevated levels, the lab sends the results to the health department. (But some how our pediatrician was not notified.)

Joe as very clear, very calm and very helpful. He collected samples from every room in our house. (very CSI with plastic gloves and vials...) He focused on friction areas like doors and windows, as well as our back stairs and the soil in the yard.

Our house is from the 1890's, paint from the Edwardian and Victorian era can have paint with up to 40% lead content. Joe explained that this was the paint to be most concerned about. Keep in mind any paint before 1978 should be treated as lead paint.

After the test came back, Joe was pretty certain our son was exposed to lead from the soil in the backyard. The soil results came back sky high. There were a few places in the house we need to deal with, but really the issue was the soil and the back stairs. Theo had only played in the backyard 2 or 3 times!  I could see a few paint chips on the ground but I thought kids needed to EAT a paint chip to get exposed. I didn't know that just being in the dust/dirt is actually what poisons kids most often.

A friendly neighbor told us the back story. The previous owners had neglected the paint on the back of the house for years and when it came time to sell, they hired careless painters who powerwashed a million lead paint chips onto the garden.

Even though we were pretty sure Theo was exposed from the yard, Joe made some recommendations for around the house. 
1 Touch up damaged paint, especially where there is friction, ie windows and doors. (do not use sandpaper) 
2 Bathe Theo in a plastic storage tub because the enamel on our tube has worn through. 
3 same with kitchen sink - we wash dishes in a plastic sink tub. 
4 we replaced all our old door hinges as they were crusted with lead paint. 
5 we bought a HEPA vac 
6 I wash things more than I did and I don't feed Theo food that has fallen on the floor (those scraps are for me) 
7 wash hand before eating, and shoes off at the front door.

Joe's recommendations for the yard:
Encapsulate the soil. Cover with weed guard fabric and then fresh soil.

Joe's recommendations on how to cleanup lead dust inside your home.

1Vacume with HEPA filter
2 wash with soap and water
3 repeat vacuum and wash again.