Green Living show 2012 experience

We learned about eco-friendly products and ways we can to be part of sustainable living at the Green Living Show, which will be held at the Direct Energy Centre CNE from April 13th till April 15th.

At the show, we got to know about free services such as getting rid of our garbage in an environmentally friendly way. For example, using TerraCycle. Once, we sign up and tell which type of the waste we like to get rid of, we can start collecting and then send it to TerraCycle using their free shipping UPS slip. The materials that are collected will be used to create new products. TerraCycle operates all over the world. Recycle your electronics is a service that helps us get rid of office and home electronic products. Orange drop can be used to safely dispose our hazardous waste free of charge. Household hazardous wastes should not be thrown in the garbage or down the drain. We can take it to municipal HHW depot collection event or take the paint and batteries to a retail drop-off location. Put your postal code on the side bar and search for the collection depots. 

There were other companies that offer eco-friendly options and ways we can make our home greener, for example using rain barrels, solar powered panels, roofing, green windows, water systems, and more. They had a variety of gardening products and tips. There were many products related to fashion, beauty and clothing which were made using natural organic material such as pure cotton and bamboo. The show had companies and business that taught about healthy living by adding yoga and exercise to our daily routine. The electronic cars on display looked really cool.

There were lots of things related to bio-diversity such as plants, seeds, flowers, planting with Rona and Rouge park and magazines that has tips on how we can be part of cultivating a green city.

We spent a lot of time at the Eco-zone which had lots of hand-on children friendly things to do. They had reptiles to touch. There were lots of playhouses and toys built with cardboard. Children mixed clay, soil and wildflower seeds and made seed balls to plant. I found out that there was corn-based glue from Elmer's. The ROM had organized a booth where we learned about some creatures found in the oceans in Canada.

We made cool fish using paper plates. The paper plate fish were made using...

paper plates

googly eyes

glue

markers

yarn to hang

Cut a triangle shape on one sides of the paper plate for the mouth. Staple this triangle piece on the opposite side, horizontally from where the cut was made for the tail.

Glue the googly eyes and decorate the fish. Punch a hole to hang the fish using yarn.

There were lots of organic and healthy food to taste. They had mushroom growing kits at the Organic Garage so we can try our hand at growing our own oyster mushrooms at home.

I was happy to see familiar products such as Green toys, Kicking horse coffee, Organic Meadow, Three Farmers Camelina oil, TIFF, Rough park, ROM, WWF, and RONA. 

Organic and eco-friendly products have so many benefits to all of us, however they aren't very accessible. My hope is that it would become wide spread so people would be able to purchase these regularly for a reasonable price. Although, paying the extra cash makes us reluctant to take a step towards eco-friendly options, at the Green Living Show we felt that the long term cost would be less and the impact on the environment would also be less when we use eco-friendly products.

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