Until recently, people rarely gave a thought as to whether or not the beauty products they buy are green. Not only am I talking about the ingredients they use, but also the packaging they come in. Let’s take a look at factors which determine whether or not your beauty products are eco-friendly.

Packaging

This factor is perhaps the most devastating to the environment. So much paper and plastic is wasted in creating fancy packaging which is designed to catch our eye when it’s sitting on the store shelf. While this may look nice, it’s a complete waste of resources. After all, you’re using these products for what’s inside, not the boxes and wrappers they came in.

For example, just last week I was at the drugstore shopping for anti wrinkle eye cream. I was shocked to discover that most of the so-called “leading” brands use such overly elaborate packaging. For example, the Olay Regenerist was a heavy plastic jar, wrapped inside of a plastic container, placed inside a cardboard box, and all of it enclosed in clear plastic…. whew, that’s a lot! Plus there were various glossy paper inserts inside, too. All of that just for a measly 1.7 ounces of eye cream?

Typically you see this excessive packaging used the most on skin care products, but it’s also used on frozen foods and many other manufactured goods. So next time you’re shopping, try and pick those brands which use don’t use an excessive amount of paper and plastic to bundle up their products.

Natural Ingredients

Just like food, beauty products can be made with natural ingredients, or they can be made using things which are not eco-friendly.

For example, one of the most common ingredients used in skin care is a byproduct of petroleum. It is used as a base ingredient and will be listed on the label as petrolatum, petroleum jelly, or soft paraffin. There are alternatives to this, such as hyaluronic acid cream. While it’s true that hyaluronic acid is more expensive to produce, it is more environmentally friendly since it’s not made from oil.

Then there are ingredients which are naturally, but they’re created in ways which can hurt the environment. For example, things like shea butter, cocoa butter, and kojic acid are natural substances, but when they may be grown using pesticides and fertilizers, then processed using chemicals. So when buying these, look for organic versions. You can buy products like unrefined shea butter which are not only unprocessed, but many claim they work better too.

For the sixth year in a row, the Washington DC Green Festival will be held again in our nation’s capital.

Global Exchange and Co-op America are again presenting the festial a forum to explore and build sustainable solutions for communities and the environment.

Previous years offered a wide array of popular speakers such as Amy Goodman, Lester Brown, Caroline Casey, Madeline Kunin, Hervé Kempf, Marion Nestle, Andy Shallal, Sharif Abdullah, Paul Stamets snd many many more.

The two day green fesival highlights will focus on popular green topics such as clean technology, green building, socially responsible investing, eco-fashion, renewable energy, green careers/green collar jobs, natural foods, groundbreaking films, eco-tourism and more.

When attending the event, before sure to make use of many popular offerings such as the Fair Trade Pavilion, Community Action Center, Yoga and Movement Room and Live Music.

Find out about DC environmental initiatives; and learn how neighbors, community nonprofits and city departments are working together to make their cities healthier places to live.

If you visiting the Washington DC area to attend the festival, you should consider some of the many excellent Washington DC Vacation Rentals that available throughout the city.

The festival will be held on October 10-11, 2009.

The environment and our depleting natural resources are the two major issues in our world today. The governments of all the countries the world over are involved in promoting safe  environmental practises through encouraging environmentally friendly companies and also through strictures prohibiting unsafe methods that damage the  environment. The plans and schemes of these governments are already delivering positive results which can be seen in many companies going green like never before. This is not to say that environmental issues were not a concern of the governments before but there was a definite lack of a concrete plan to save the environment. Now there is a visible difference in the attitudes of governments, corporations and individuals alike in how they treat the environment around them. There is a realization now that the planet cannot go on functioning in a way that not only depletes the natural resources but also contributes slowly to the planet’s doom.

Going green is the way to go now. The role of many non profit organizations cannot be ignored in the creation of awareness among the public as well as industries and corporations on the importance of using effective recycling methods as well as utilizing raw materials that do not harm the environment.

The printing industry has been a major part in being one of the  chief environmental hazard  creators if one may use that phrase and have until recently been oblivious to the availability of alternate  greener methods for their business needs. Every printed paper or sheet has a lot of chemicals in it and every time these printed papers are burnt they release very high amounts of noxious fumes into the atmosphere. You can imagine the effect this will have on the atmosphere considering the amount of printed paper that is burnt in the open rather carelessly in many countries of the world. The need of the hour is to make printing services less hazardous to the environment by bringing in greener practices to the printing industry. As a result, many of the players in the printing industry as well as many non profit organizations that deal in printing related works offer green printing services now.

Green printing services brings the entire area of printing and related fields under a green cover. This means by the companies going green they will only employ environmentally friendly practices in their business. This could be in the form of using recyclable stationery, using state of the art machines and equipments that do not waste energy and contribute to higher emission rates. Reusable print cartridges and low polluting ink also brings down the rate of pollution and many printing companies use these methods to play their parts in controlling the damage their line of work can do to the atmosphere.

Many entrepreneurs think twice before venturing into the business of green printing services. They fear that using recyclable paper, green ink with low pollutants and papers with less or no chlorine content can all add up to the costs of running a printing business. They also think that the equipments needed for these sorts of processes are unaffordable and don’t justify the returns. This mindset has to be broken first to spread a perfect green cover over the printing industry. One look at many of the companies that offer green printing services to their clients and the volumes they handle should put to rest all their doubts. The success of green printing services augurs well not only for the printing industry and its customers but also gives us the belief that many other industries will follow suit and go green too.