While on the rink this weekend, it occurred to me that I should post a few tips for the hockey/ringette season. Us Enviro-Nuts (I know you're one too!) never rest.
Pre-game:
- * Wash your gear with eco-conscious laundry soaps. Use cold water and hang to dry.
- * Avoid perfumes, spray or dryer sheets to take the stink out. The best deodorizer is baking soda. Leave an open box in the area where you store your gear. Better yet, disinfect nature's way by airing your gear outside in the sun (when possible) given the whole winter season sport and all. Place a few drops of an essential oil like lemon, lime, lavender or whatever your fancy onto a rag and leave it in your bag.
- * Use a deodorant without propylene glycol, aluminum, parabens, phthaltaes, dyes and fragrance. See http://www.cosmeticsdatabase
.com/index.php?nothanks=1
Getting There:
- * Carpool to your games and practices. An excellent way to talk strategy before the game or revisit the highlights afterwards!
- * Avoid idling your car. And yes, with ice sports comes cold winters - but keep it within reason.
- * When traveling for tournaments stay in green hotels close to the rink and rent as few vehicles as possible.
In the Dressing Room:
- * Don't use sock tape. It's not reusable or recyclable. Buy shin pads and other gear with Velcro already embedded, or trade the tape for reusable, washable Velcro strips. It'll save you money, too.
- * Update your undergarment gear with 100% organic cotton or bamboo and hemp blends. Bamboo is 30% more absorbent than cotton. Here's a fact: conventional farming uses about 1/3 pound of pesticides and fertilizers to make one cotton t-shirt.
- * Don't drink bottled water. It's expensive, unregulated (most of the time it's tap water anyways) and the bottles are made of plastic which is petroleum-based and often don't make it to recycling bins. Use tap water in a reusable water bottle, not made from plastic #1 or 7. The safest bottles are made from #2, 4 and 5.
Post-Game:
- * Shower with soaps that don't contain sodium laryl sulfate, propylene glycol, parabens, dyes and fragrance.
- * If you're thinking about new gear, first look at consignment options or donating your old stuff.
- * There are some green rink facilities and technologies out there too. hhttp://www.hydro.mb.ca/earthpow
er/geothermal_heat_pumps_for _ice_rinks.pdf
Do you have any tips you'd like to share?
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Lindsay Coulter
Conservation Policy Analyst, Sustainability Program
