On average, each person in the U.S. uses 1.6 plastic straws every day!!! Between the ages of 5-65, this means that about 38,000 straws are used per person. And that’s not counting the paper wrappers!! By now you may be tempted to order your next drink without a straw. But lets face it, those suckers are handy.
The environmental impact is disturbing. Plastic straws are one of the top 10 debris ingested by sea life.
Although many disposable drinking straws are produced with the intention of being recycled (#2 and #5 plastics), they are not. As they are not biodegradable , but photo-degradable, it can take these flimsy straws centuries to break down. In other words, “disposable straws” are not really “disposable”. The majority of them join other plastic products that saturate landfills, or are strewn along roads and beaches, harming wildlife, and ultimately harming us. Many of these straws contain BPA, a known endocrine disruptor. As animals ingest bits of plastic, the BPA accumulates through the food chain ending up on OUR dinner plates and ultimately in our bodies.
Thankfully, Norwex has come up with a solution. The Stainless Steel Drinking Straws are people- and wildlife-friendly, a long-lasting alternative to plastic straws. Their sleek and curved design fits most cups and bottles for easy drinking at home or on the go. The pack of 4 will allow you to keep some at home, work and in your car for those impulsive drive-thru days! This is an easy way to keep your family healthier our beaches/ landfills cleaner.
Straws were originally made from hollow stalks of rye grass.
The first straws used commercially were made from paper (which are still available).
Most plastic straws are also individually wrapped in paper, which equals more trash.
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
Every piece of plastic ever used since its inception is still in existence, most of it is in our landfills. Here are three reason to cut down on your plastic consumption:
The average photo-degrading lifespan of a plastic item is 200 years. That means that your great-grandchildren’s grandchildren will be around to see the plastic WE consumed. Furthermore, these bits of plastic are easily ingested by animals, and later digested by humans. Not so comforting a thought!
We all know that oil is being consumed en masse. Twelve million barrels of oil are being used annually to produce plastic bags, in the US alone!
Harmful chemicals such as BPA are often found in water bottles and plastic containers that many of us send our children’s lunches in everyday. BPA is an industrial chemical which is harmful to the brain as well as to the behavior of children.
Plastic and foil food wraps have a bad rap! They can be a struggle to use, they leach into our food and they end up in the landfills. Check out this for 25 more reasons to go re-usable!
What percentage of plastic globally would you guess we recycle?
Sadly only 5%
Unlike many plastic and foil food wraps you may be tempted to stick in the microwave, silicone rubber does not react with food, liquids, and most chemicals. Why does that matter? Plastic and foil food wraps actually leach harmful chemicals such as BPA, into your food.
Norwex’s New Silicone Lids are BPA free, and will not off-gas hazardous fumes over its lifetime, or while in use. Furthermore, they are perfect for keeping hot foods hot while you wait for the kids to come home or food fresh in the fridge for a longer period of time. Not only will you be preventing more waste from ending up in our landfills (the lids can be used over and over!), but you’ll also be reducing your exposure to chemicals harmful to your body! Sounds like a win-win if you ask me!
Key Benefits:
Keeps food fresh longer
Helps save on environmental waste
Won’t leach chemicals into your food
Reusable, so they save you money
Safe to use in refrigerators
Safe in microwaves and ovens up to 230°C / 425° F
Won’t hold food odours
Dishwasher Safe
*Note: Highly acidic foods such as tomato based pastas sauce may stain the lids.
My favorite personal use for these lids is covering the pan when frying eggs. I like my girls to start the day with an egg, we fry them in a bit of coconut oil and the oil always spattered all over the stove top. These lids work AMAZING for containing the mess.
Loving the lids? Norwex is also offering terrific new packages, including a Pitch the Plastic Pack!
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
My oldest sister was the first person to officially introduce me to Norwex, she blessed me with my first Window Cloth. It didn’t come with instructions so, uninformed, I proceeded to use it with Windex. I was under the impression that the cloth was intended to replace your paper towel… So, I was terribly unimpressed with the job it did. Between using it with a cleaning solution and laundering it incorrectly, I ruined the cloth and ultimately gave up.
However a year later, I watched my other sister who’s nine years older than me remove her makeup with a Body Pack cloth and water. I told her jokingly that she looked my age and that I needed to learn the secrets of her skincare regimen, so I could stay looking younger than her.
She then explained she had originally purchased the Norwex Body Pack cloths for her teenage son for use on his acne-prone skin, but they seemed to serve a double purpose. Not only did the cloth improve his teenage skin; it removed all of her makeup including the waterproof mascara! I was impressed… and I needed a set of these cloths!
Shortly after that encounter, I got my first-ever Body Pack cloth and this time I asked some questions to learn the care tips.
Proper care is very important to enjoy your cloths for years to come. Here is a quote from a faithful customer of mine since 2006:
I follow Delores’ laundering instructions, and my cloths have always smelled fresh and clean. No smelly cloths at my house. ~ Michelle Kool, Edmonton, Alberta
The washing machine has a strong spin and rinse cycle to remove all of the excess soap from your cloths, so that no residue remains in the fibers. The dryer perks up the ‘spokes’ in your microfiber, making them ready to work hard for you again.
The lint from your regular laundry will get stuck into the perky ‘spokes’ of the Norwex microfiber and will reduce the cloth’s effectiveness. The best suggestion is to launder microfiber items separately. If you are just starting your collection, and have only a few items, launder your cloths with high Lycra fitness clothing or other lint-free items.
No fabric softener or bleach
Do not use any chemicals with your Norwex products! For a fabric softener alternative, try the Norwex trio of Fluff and Tumble Dryer Balls. They will reduce your drying time by 25%. If you love the scent of fabric softener, add some essential oils right to the wool dryer ball.
Some customers like to add a cap full of Odour Eliminator into each washing machine load. This enzyme-based product smells nice and removes any unwanted odours.
Usage:
Avoid the temptation to submerge your Enviro and Kitchen Cloths in the kitchen sink of soapy water. Norwex cloths are only to be used with water, no soap. Use one cloth in your kitchen for 2-3 days, then launder.
The Body Pack cloths are sold in a set of three. One set of cloths is intended for one person, for a week. Use a fresh cloth, every other day.
A lack of laundering and the overuse of your cloths will result in unpleasant odour.
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
Do you like systems and organization? I do! I encourage my customers to color-code the microfiber cloths in their home. When Norwex lovers are asked what is their favorite product, it is predominantly the EnviroCloth! This cloth literally cleans up everything and it works amazing… with only water, so there’s no harmful chemical residue left behind– just the real clean.
Since the cloths come in four colors, I have always color-coded our home and have taught my customers to do the same. It’s a simple system:
Redis our go-to kitchen-cloth. It’s used for 2-3 days to wipe down the: counters, stove, microwave, exterior of the fridge and interior plexiglass shelving, the table after each meal, finger prints on the dishwasher and watermarks on the facet and in the sink! This hard-working cloth absorbs spilled tomato sauce, burnt on food, spilled milk or grape juice. Because you cannot bleach your Norwex cloths, red is a great color to camouflage any accidental staining from your daily kitchen activities!
Blue is the designated color for any heavy cleaning project. It lives under the kitchen sink and is pulled out for, wiping the floor when unexpected spills happen, cleaning the very dirty patio furniture, wiping the BBQ or oven, detailing the car, or washing outdoor windows. This way, one cloth does all the extra dirty work, instead of potentially staining every cloth you own!
Greencloths are used to maintain our bathrooms. Years ago we would squeegee our shower, but inevitably the doors and walls still got very grungy. Now, after each shower we quickly wipe down the shower stall to prevent soap scum and mineral deposits. In 10 years since our family was first introduced to Norwex, we have not sprayed any toxic cleaning chemical in our shower. That said, I don’t expect my family to deep clean after each shower. So we do use DeScaler for maintaining the tub and floor weekly. One green EnviroCloth wipes up the shower walls, bathroom counter and mirror for a week. Take a cleaning moment and you won’t need a cleaning day!
Yellowcloths are used for cleaning the toilets. Norwex has an excellent cleaner for inside the toilets, but this cloth is used for detailing the porcelain and seat. It hangs on the plumbing under each bathroom sink. It’s always handy if needed.
Friday is Norwex laundry day at our home and with this cloth system it is very simple. After the cloths come out of the dryer, each cloth is put back where it belongs. Only the Red cloths are folded and returned to the kitchen drawer, the rest are all returned to be used as intended in their designated areas for another week… until they are laundered again.
At my shows everyone laughs when I ask, “Now what would you be thinking if you found a yellow cloth on my counter when you come over for coffee?” : ) See… the system works! Everything stays where it belongs! Simplicity my friends!
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
During my first pregnancy, after three years of marriage, my husband offered to clean the shower for the first time. He didn’t want me inhaling the strong fumes in the enclosed space of our shower stall. I realized then, if it wasn’t safe for me to use these products while I was pregnant, how could they be safe for me to use when I wasn’t? I had been cleaning regularly with the typical, department store products. I had an arsenal of cleaning products I become accustomed to cleaning with. I was using the same products my mom used to clean my childhood home.
Picture from: www.theallergymom.com
It is often when children enter our homes that chemical awareness really kicks in. However, without knowing the alternatives we have, we continue to wash, wipe, and spray chemically laden products onto the surfaces that our children touch, lick, smell, and inhale everyday.
To this day, I have yet to hear a parent claim they would like to expose their children to a greater number of chemicals. However, we smile and take pictures of our babies kissing the bathroom mirror, licking our windows, and blowing bubbles in the bathwater. Have you ever watched your child eat food off of the counter and stopped to think; how did I clean that surface?
Health Canada reports that, “Household chemical products are among the top products responsible for injuries and deaths in children under the age of five years”.
“Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded the umbilical cord blood… researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood.” Read more… at Environmental Working Group.
It was to my great relief that Norwex offered products that would diminish our exposure to these cleaning products for our family’s future. I no longer have to worry about what I last sprayed on a surface, or what kind of chemicals my family will inhale when cleaning.
It delights me to be raising a generation that knows how to clean, without depending on harmful chemicals to get the job done. When our daughters join me for a weekend at a local Trade Show, they’ll tell the skeptical, potential customers that they do not recall anything being used in our home other than Norwex. They will often grab the mop and say, “our family has been using the same one since 2004!”.
Information is powerful. As long as there are stores full of cleaning chemicals, I have a job to do! I will educate others, one home at a time!
Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
Thankfully, Norwex has come up with a solution. The Stainless Steel Drinking Straws are people- and wildlife-friendly, a long-lasting alternative to plastic straws. Their sleek and curved design fits most cups and bottles for easy drinking at home or on the go. The pack of 4 will allow you to keep some at home, work and in your car for those impulsive drive-thru days! This is an easy way to keep your family healthier our beaches/ landfills cleaner.
