Happy New Year!

Greetings for 2009! I rang in the New Year with family and a Chinese feast of vegetable soup, spring rolls, steamed veggie dumplings, and bean curd. There were two family birthdays to celebrate, so I picked up two adorable vegan tea cakes (one carrot, one chocolate) from Planetary Pastry, available at my local Chelsea Whole Foods Market.

Among other items, I treated the birthday recipients to Sigg water bottles. Breaking the bottled water habit is a great resolution for 2009. More than 1.5 million barrels of oil are used annually to make bottles for Americans' water, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year, according to Carbon Conscious Consumer. Even scarier, they say 86% of plastic water bottles used in the U.S. are not recycled. Never mind all the fuel that is wasted transporting them, and our hard-earned money.

Want to spread your animal rights coolness while saving the Earth? PETA makes this aluminum bunny bottle, $16.


A reusable coffee mug shows you care about the planet and animals. Think about all of those paper cups and plastic lids in the landfills. ASPCA makes this cheerful travel mug, $13.50, also available in grey.


A mug Bob Barker would be proud of. $9.

Just say "yes!" to reusable grocery totes too. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales, and other marine mammals die each year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food, Carbon Conscious Consumer reports. Whole Foods Market offers a 5-10 cent discount per reusable bag, and my Trader Joe's lets you enter into a raffle to win a $25 gift card when you BYO-bag it.

ASPCA's Will Fight for Animals tote, $10.


Visit Farm Sanctuary's shop for totes, cups, and more.

Being an animal rights advocate and an environmental advocate go hand-in-hand for me. We are destroying our climate each day, often out of laziness, apathy, greed, and worse, a sense of entitlement. Any action we take to lessen our impact on the environment benefits all animals.

Veganize and Green Your Laundry Routine

Living a vegan life extends way beyond the plate. Animal by-products are hidden everywhere. Scarier yet, animal testing is still a routine practice. Did you know that Procter & Gamble, maker of the popular Tide brand, still tests on animals?

Luckily, there are more cruelty-free, affordable options than ever before. Trader Joe's Liquid Laundry Detergent is my pick. Biodegradable, non-animal tested and containing no animal ingredients, it has a pleasant, but not over-powering, lavender scent, and is reasonably priced at $8.99 for a one gallon container. It also has a built-in fabric softener. Not lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's nearby? Check out Method and Seventh Generation brands at Whole Foods Market and increasingly available in mainstream supermarkets.

Did you know that most fabric softener sheets contain animal fats? Fortunately, our friends at Method offer a vegan alternative with their squeaky green dryer cloths. Personally, I hang-dry most of my clothes, so I only need these for my towels and sheets. Hang drying is kinder on the environment than being dependent on the dryer, and of course saves money, always a plus.

Don't forget to wash in the cold cycle. A startling 90 percent of the energy used by a washing machine goes to just heating the water, according to Carbon Conscious Consumer. They calculate that if you wash four out of every five loads in cold water, you could reduce your CO2 emissions by 72 pounds in just one month, and save $60 or more on your annual energy spending.

Learn more eco-friendly tips from Carbon Conscious Consumer, including how to reduce your junk mail and breaking the bottled water habit.
Want to know if the products you're buying are tested on animals? Check out PETA's Caring Consumer search engine.