If you love a tree you will certainly be upset to know that those dreadful disposable diapers have now entered our shops as well. The tragedy is that one average sized tree must be felled to produce between 500 and 1000 diapers. The paper pulp is chlorine-bleached and causes problems with contamination. Disposable diapers take over 500 years to biodegrade! All they are good for is, to kill too many trees!

It is so easy to care for mother earth. Just use cloth diapers instead of disposable plastic and paper ones. A cotton one is softer and healthier for your baby sister or brother! Coax your mother to use cloth diapers for baby.
Remember that at seven ounces per used disposable diaper, an average baby will create 3000 pounds of waste in a landfill site over a period of two and a half years! One billion trees per year go into the manufacture of disposable diapers, says another expert!

Disposable diapers also make you go shopping more often than usual. But your cloth diapers save on transport, money and trees!

Because of disposable diapers, 3 million tons of untreated feces and urine end up in landfills. Cloth diapers are ecologically sound!

Use a rag instead of paper towels. Think about the mounds of paper towels in every supermarket in every city in the world. These were all made from forests, cutting down lovely trees! Then think about that same mountain of paper towels, all covered with little blobs of spilled tea, coffee, rice, dal etc. filling our landfill sites. What a tragic waste! Isn’t it much better to use rags?

Use a wash cloth to remove make up. Paper tissues and ‘cotton’ balls are used once and thrown away, wasting the resources used to make them and filling up our garbage. Use a facecloth with warm water.

Tell your dad to throw away his disposable razor. They create mountains of plastic garbage. Buy him a permanent razor.

Compost everything organic: save vegetable peels, houseplant clippings, tomato stems, fingernail and toenail clippings, banana skins, corn husks, mango peels, cat hair, human hair, cabbage cores, broom sweepings from the floors, house dust etc. and put it in the garden to make fresh soil for it.

Grow sunflowers and marigolds in your garden, as they will invite birds to visit!

Re-use greeting cards at least once. And remember that the prettiest cards are always the home made ones. Sometimes you can make smaller cards from bigger used ones, saving paper and money.

Reuse gift boxes as often as possible. Save all the gift boxes you get, to use when you have to give a gift. Then when you go to a store to buy a present tell them you don’t need a box. This will help a tree to survive a little longer.

It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper. Depending on what newspapers you read, you could be using up one tree every 10 or 12 weeks, week after week after week! Isn’t it more sensible to borrow your neighbour’s newspaper or lend him yours?

Adopt a tree for lunch time. Schools in Australia have been pioneering a new lunchtime exercise. Students ‘adopt’ a tree and throughout their school and college life, rest under it, and care for it.

Hair is good for your garden: Use hair clippings on your garden when it falls out. The nitrogen in hair can release itself over many years, feeding trees or shrubs.

Plant nectar sweet, scented and medicinal plants and flowers; buy them from the University of Agricultural Sciences Aromatic and Herbal plants section. Ph: 65315598. You will get lovely toilet cleaning plants, catnip that your cat will thank you for, aloe plants to keep as doctors in your kitchen, and many more treasures costing just Rs. 5 to Rs. 10!

Don’t use toxic oven cleaners: they contain lye. Sprinkle water, followed by layers of baking soda. Rub gently with very fine steel wool pads for tough spots.

Avoid air fresheners. They may contain harmful chemicals. make your own airfresheners with herbs and plants.
Avoid moth balls which are harmful to your liver and kidneys.

Add brewer’s yeast and garlic to your cat’s food. Fleas hate it and will vanish. Flea-collars are not good for your dog. Run orange or grapefruit skins through a blender or food processor, then simmer with some water. After the pulp is cooled, brush into your pet’s fur with your hands. Remember to use only skins, as fruit juice will make the fur too sticky.

Just remember that everytime you decide not to use pesticides in your garden and home, you are helping the earth to breathe more joyously!