Green Living
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Green daycare
my friend is writing up a business plan for a small (25 child) daycare and I'm trying to encourage her to be and promote herself as environmentally conscious. She's planning on buying organic and local as much as possible. She'll cloth diaper if that's what the parents want. All laundry will be done by the parents for their own child. What other things can she do? compost, recycle...
I was thinking of paper towels as my DS's daycare goes through a ton - but with germs and stuff - wasn't sure if cloth napkins and towels were really feasible in that situation.
any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you!!
Re: Green daycare
You are in CO?
This company: http://www.ecoproducts.com/Business/food_services/fs_food_services_index.htm
Is based out of Boulder. They sell in bulk and everything they make is eco-friendly.
There are two ways she could go about things...the kids and families could bring their dishes, bottles, plates, forks etc from home and label them (totally reusable) OR she could order things in bulk from this company which is eco-friendly and compostable--THIS carries a cost of course, but it is an option!
We used them in our early-childhood programs that I worked in for plates,cups and cutlery..and they were awesome.
we are in CO - that site is great! thank you!
and yes - green cleaning supplies - duh!
recycled TP (costco)
recycled paper towels (costco)
something about paperless communication (emails, website forms, etc.) I don't have a kid in day care, but I'm thinking report card type things that get sent home to parents.
GL to your friend! I'd send my future/hypothetical kid there!
Our old daycare was pretty eco-friendly. The didn't use any disposable plates/napkins/etc. They were CD friendly. They used EF laundry detergent. For the older kids each kid had their own plate (brought from home) that they washed for each meal.
However state licsensing still required them to use bleach for all their cleaning. There was no alternative. Just so you are aware.
good to know on the bleach (good thing it isn't me starting this up, huh?) - hopefully she's done all the research on the requirement side.
DH wasn't sure about this switch, but I insisted, so he agreed to try. He'll never go back to paper again!! He has facial hair and destroys paper towels! He goes through several a meal. With cloth he doesn't have to worry about little bits of paper getting stuck in his facial hair!
Cloth napkins aren't difficult at all, and she could make or buy some for pretty cheap. She wouldn't need large dinner napkins for the little ones, just some small ones.
We have a basket in the kitchen we throw them in when they are dirty. We wash when it's full. We also put kitchen towels, dishrags, and dirty grocery bags in there. If she's worried about germs, she should wash them in hot water. We make our own detergent. She shouldn't use fabric softener because it reduces absorbancy. We use vinegar in the rinse and wool dryer balls. When it's not pouring rain, I actually prefer to hang them on our clothesline in our windtunnel backyard. It looks like they've been ironed!
Hope this helps!
In regards to paper towels...there are other "green daycares" around.
I had several friends who went to this school--and there are several others in the Phoenix area.
http://www.awakeningseedschool.org/ and Boulder has to have something this might be one:
http://www.boulderjourneyschool.com/index.html
It seems she might be better off asking how a school with 25-75 small children does it in bulk rather than a family of two handles it.
definitely washcolths instead of paper towels
no paper plates/plastic cups
recycle
Those are things that drive me nuts at my daycare. I love the daycare, but they are so ungreen it isn't funny.