I recently picked up a small flyer in Milagro's Boutique, advertising a new Web site, Enviromom: "Making green lifestyle changes doesn't have to be overwhelming. Take baby steps with other Portland EnviroMoms!" Now of course I would like to encourage DADS to visit the site and learn baby steps too, but aside from that, what a great idea!

I just checked out the site for the first time. One of the first things to greet my eye was the suggestion that we all get together and write to car seat companies, demanding a car seat recycle program. What a great idea (again)! Car seats are just landfill-fillers, waiting to happen. We are encouraged to buy new ones pretty often, not reuse them, etc. (Yeah right; I borrowed my friend's barely-used infant seat so I could use it for the five months my daughter fit in it, rather than spending another $100 we didn't have at the time!) And yet nobody seems to recycle them! What a great marketing strategy too--these companies could retain customers by only recycling their own car seats for a discount on a new one, etc. But they will never do it if we don't force their hands.

I clicked on one of the links and wrote an email to Graco. I strongly encourage you to do the same. Heck, even if you don't have kids, if you care about the environment, do it anyway!

And visit Enviromom for other great ideas.


Milagros Boutique Chinook Book coupon: Save $5 off $25 or more

Blogger Hillary Ryan recently wrote a two part blog on car seats, where she discovered "you can take your used carseat plastic shell (stripped of the foam, fabric and harnesses) to FarWestFibers." Far West is the only Pacific Northwest recycler that takes the seats, so we're fortunate to have them here in Portland

Car Seats--No Green Alternatives?

Car seats Part Two