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March 05 Catherine won!Well, how exciting is this! Catherine's Paper towel project took First Place for Individual Project Physical Sciences and then she took first Place Overall for Physical Sciences. She has now received a Letter of Intent to attend the CWSF (national) Science Fair In Ottawa!! We are filling that out this evening. There were 10 letters handed out but only 4 or 5 kids will go. We are so excited it is stupid. Also: She was invited to display her project at GreenWeek here at the College beginning March 17. (Pictures to be uploaded when techie husband arrives home)
I was amazed overall at the choices the kids made to study and test from hovercrafts, and conterfeit money, environmental concerns, and how to wash fruit and veggies properly. One fellow received accolades for a project based on Phantom Draw. the amount of electricity an item uses if it is plugged in but not in use. He took his own home and calculated $75/year and then multiplied that by the number of houses in Medicine Hat, then Alberta and then Canada. These kids at our school are 13 and 14 years old. At the Regionals there was a younger division Grades 4-6 and an older division as well. The Best overall was a little robotic puppy made from recycled parts. The winner, Kate, lives in our cul de sac. When they interviewed her for the paper she said, " I just like going out to the garage with my Dad, and seeing how things work."
On not such a lite note, my Mom is 81 and has been persuaded that it is time to move into assisted living. She is so distraught they had to take herto the hospital because she couldn't breathe. Way too much stress. Everyone I talk to says this is what they went through with their parents and in a month they were wondering why they hadn't moved before. Mom, has a hard time seeing things in a positive light she suffers from depression and it is hard for her to remember to think about the good stuff. We shall see.
To top off this great stress of the move , she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. What bothers me is that the lump found is quite large and also is already under her arm, Where was her damn doctor then? This needed some time to grow or did Mom just decide not to go for her Mammograms? I had mine February 29 as part of an annual check-up. Don't forget those monthly self-exams. Early detection is the answer so don't be afraid. Better to have a small lump checked out than to go through a complete masectomy or face death. Take good care. February 16 Catty is a winner!Catty won her division Physical Science for the Science Fair!!! She will go to the regionals in March here
at the college. Also attending will be her Best Friend Jayden who lives in our Cul de sac (House #12)
worked with paint, glue & oil got a third,"The Boy" Jamie got a third adding alcohol to plants which they
liked for a while, so dumping your drink into a plant at a party is okay as long everyone else isn't doing
it, and a friend in the Cul de sac (House #8) got a first and is on the front page of our news with a big
5 X 7 photo and write up. She made a recycled puppy out of parts of older things that were going into
the garbage anyway...Christmas lights light up the eyes ..etc. (MedicinehatNews.ca) I think.
Catty's project; Battle of the Brands was a product comparison of Paper towels. She (we) tested 30 different brands. It got a little tedious so we all helped. Anyway, we learned that:
-Paper towels are an environmental nightmare but a bit of a necessity. They stop the spread of viruses and they take a lot of fats out of our cooking but...we believe they are a product that has been
Greenwashed, meaning they try to make them look environmentally friendly (recycled material, no
chlorine, less water used to manufacture etc...but they are usually used for messy jobs and then end
up in the landfills...
-New material has longer fibers than recycled material so that stronger and more absorbent usually means virgin material is used...Sponge Towels are okay as they use managed forests so as not to cut
down virgin tracks. Their Select-a-Size is all new material from their own forests, their regular size
towel is a 60% recycled/40% new material. Then they have White Swan (Viva) which is recycled. The
best towel then becomes the best towel for the job So that you are not using too much paper towel for
a small job or having to use sheets and sheets of a weaker brand to do the same job as a stronger
towel. So consumers need to look at their own usage and re-think the purchases they make. Are you
polishing windows or picking up a hairball? (Don't use paper towels to polish your glasses - it takes off
the coatings)
- Also the best paper towel is a personal choice based on a consumer's values...inexpensive, kosher, recycled, environmentally responsible (I didn't know there were Kosher paper towels either KSR
logo on the label)
- Buy large rolls: a single roll (45 sheets) and core is 9.25 cm across add another 35 sheets and
increase roll size by only .75 cm...this reduces using another core, reduces the plastic needed to
wrap the package and also reduces the costs of transportation and the emissions...925 double
rolls is 1850 rolls is about the same space as 1000 single rolls..then there are super, mega and
jumbo rolls.
- When Catty e-mailed companies she suggested they reduce the core size to 2.5 cm from 4 cm changing the industry standard and increasing the benefits that come from the smaller roll size
same as from the mega rolls (less material in the core, in ther wrapping and less effects of shipping)
OMG...they are looking into it! There is a big thing now about Carbon Credits and such and we are
aware of Government grants and Tax breaks for some of the capital expenses that this would
require to re-tool some of the machines but not too sure how they work. More study to be done.
- The top 5 brands were store brands and then Sponge Towels were the first National Brand tying for 5th place (Bounty was 8th)
- If you must use Paper towels then the one we ultimately loved for general use was London Drugs Super absorbent Jumbo Premium Recycled ranking 14/30 (2/30 lowest price) and tied with that was
Cascades Brown 14/30 is was stronger than their white one which were more expensive but were also
more environmentally gentle.
- The best picker upper really is a rag...Cut up your old T-shirts and worn out towels into nice squares and set them by the sink..If they have to go in the garbage then that's where they were headed anyway
but you got one more use...if they can be rinsed out and thrown in with a load of laundry and re-used
well...even better! Being Green is actually very economical.
And that's that.. Lots o' love Bonnie |
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