February 2020

Red hearts, red roses, chocolates with red decorations— the deep hue is everywhere you look this time of year. But there’s still room for a touch of green to your Valentine’s Day plans! Read on for our tips on celebrating sustainably with your sweetheart this year. Green Your Greetings According to Hallmark, approximately 145 million cards are exchanged on Valentine’s Day. And that’s not even including those children give in school classrooms! That’s a lot of paper…and a lot of trees. Think about sending valentines electronically or making them from materials you already have around the house, like old magazines and fabric scraps. You can also use seed paper to craft cards, which, when planted, biodegrade in soil and grow wildflowers. Talk about two gifts in one! Choose Local, Organic, or Fair-Trade Chocolates Does your Valentine have a sweet tooth? Pick out the perfect treat for them all while doing good for the planet by selecting responsibly sourced chocolate. Shop from a local business or look for organic and fair-trade confections. Also, be mindful of packaging. As tempting and pretty as those heart-shaped chocolate boxes are, they’re often filled with unnecessary plastic. Instead, opt for candies containing less packaging but that are just as thoughtful. Pick Pesticide-Free Blooms A bouquet is certainly a grand gesture of love on Valentine’s Day…except when the flowers have been heavily doused in pesticides. You can easily order organic florals online or consider creating your own arrangement. Gather greenery from your garden or head over to your local farmers market to buy fresh blooms from a chemical-free grower. If your true love has a green thumb, a potted plant is another great alternative. Plants do wonders for air purification, plus it will last much longer than cut flowers! Give the Gift of an Experience It’s wonderful to give, but when we give things, sooner or later, they’re disposed of, often ending up in a landfill. Giving an experience can be equally romantic, without doing harm to the environment. Set out for a picnic or hike to a place in nature you both enjoy. Snag tickets to a show happening nearby. Throw on a couple aprons and take a cooking class. The possibilities are endless as long as you’re spending time with one another! Wine and Dine with the Earth in Mind A candlelit dinner for two—is there anything more romantic? Just as long as your reservation is at a farm-to-table restaurant! From field to fork, the average dinner travels more than 1,500 miles. Eating at a restaurant promising farm-to-table practices means their offerings are locally sourced and support area farmers. If you’re unable to get a table out on Feb. 14, whip up a meal of your own at home! Pick up ingredients at the farmers market and tap into your inner chef to make a feast that’s sure to impress your significant other. Or make a V-Day memory and cook together!

There are many myths created about cleaning garments and also some good advice too. I think I have tried or heard of every way possible to clean woolens and other sweaters. From using net bags in the washing machine to hand washing and drying on a bin liner for four days and from silk wash programs to laying in a greenhouse after washing! But there is more to perfectly preserving your pullover than cleaning alone. Choosing the right program for your woolen… if it exists! Some people will use the wool program on their domestic washing at home and sometimes it works. There is also an expectation that when you wash an item, eventually it will lose color or shrink. Sometimes that’s fine for a standard pullover… but not necessarily for a high-end cashmere. Most programs will wash at a certain temperature, spin, and repeat. There is little consideration for the amount of detergent or water for that load, the optimal mechanical action or how to get it dry afterward. Dry cleaning machines do at least allow for the type of garment by having specific programs that allow for the correct flow during the cleaning process, the weight of the load and how to dry to correct level – setting a max temperature and having a built-in ‘dry control’ capability that will prevent the items being over-dried. Also, when it comes to machine washing at home there are so many detergents and softeners that will promise cleaning capabilities, softness and smells of a summer meadow but they themselves can have a negative impact on the garments. Many products will contain optical brightening agents (OBA) which can be great on keeping whites white but not good for colors, causing the color to fade. There are non-biological detergents, which be better that OBA products for specialist items. Liquids can be better, especially when soaking for long periods, although this will depend on the colorfastness of the garment. But still, the user is still left with the issue of drying and pressing. Using a domestic iron can get rid of creases but there is often too much heat and not enough steam. And how many times has the pattern of the ironing board appeared on the garment?! And of course, placing a hot iron onto a wool garment can cause ‘glazing’. But the biggest difference is the GreenEarth difference. Dry Cleaning has a bad reputation but not all dry cleaning is the same. GreenEarth is not petrochemical-based. GreenEarth is made from liquified sand (Siloxane). Liquid silicone degrades into sand (SiO2) and trace amounts of water and carbon dioxide if spilled or released to the environment. It is recognized as safe for air, soil, and water, not classified as a volatile organic compound (VOC) by the U.S. EPA. Not only is it good for the planet but for clothes too! Liquid silicone is chemically inert, meaning it does not chemically react with textile fabric or dyes during the cleaning process. This minimizes abrasion to and/or swelling of fabric fibers, eliminates traditional issues with the removal of dyes and optical brighteners, helps maintain the soft hand of garments, and prevents shrinkage. Therefore, a wider variety of clothes can be safely cleaned with GreenEarth. Woolens, delicate silks, suede and leather trims, beads, sequins, painted garments, specialty buttons and trims, couture garments, heirloom fabrics, and other “problem” items are no problem at all. Our own experiences can be so valuable in terms of how we clean garments in the future, be they mistakes or trying great newly discovered ways. GreenEarth has 20 years of experience and also, it’s employees and 6,000+ affiliates have seen pretty much every scenario, making our ‘cleaning family’ one of the most knowledgeable in the world of aftercare. For the ultimate guide, GreenEarth has a technical handbook available that we helped create. To find out more, click here.