Greenpeace's top three tips for a green bathroom

1. Limit toxics.

When you buy face cream, toothpaste, shampoo, makeup and other personal care products in Canada, you are entering a Wild West of government regulation. Right now, pretty much anything goes—carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxins, endocrine disruptors. It's all lurking in the average North American medicine cabinet.

So how do you avoid toxic chemicals? Well, here's a great first step: love your face. Part of changing to the world is learning to outrun the mythological men and women invented by corporations to keep the status quo firmly in place and sell you a lifetime's worth of face cream. It's okay to have hips, it's okay to have pores and it's okay to age.

Once you've decided that everyone—including you—is already beautiful, you'll be able to cut out a raft of products up front. As for the rest, there are some great resources out there to help you avoid the most toxic of chemicals. For an online database of products rated for safety by the Environmental Working Group, visit: ww.ewg.org/reports/skindeep. You can also visit The Guide To Less Toxic Products at www.lesstoxicguide.ca.

2. Save water.

Your bathroom is a great opportunity to reduce water use. And you can map your progress—if you own your home, check your water bill each month and watch it go down! (You'll save on your energy bill too when you reduce hot water use.) Many municipalities have 'water saving' kits that will help you reduce water use throughout your home—contact them to see what's available in your area. In the meantime, here are a few tips for both home owners and tenants.

Replace toilets high-efficiency models.

Toilets account for one-third of domestic water consumption. Toilets installed prior to 1980 could use up to twenty litres per flush. Today, standard 'low flush' toilets are about six litres per flush. The best toilets are usual 'dual flush,' and have two options—one for liquid (three litres per flush) and one for solid waste (six litres per flush).

If you are renting your home and aren't in a position to replace your toilet, try suspending a plastic container filled with water inside your toilet tank. The volume of the bottle will correspond to the amount of water you'll save on every flush. Make sure to install this carefully so it doesn't interfere with the operation of the toilet.

• Install a low-flow showerhead and aerators on taps. Aerators are small screens that go onto your taps and help decrease water consumption by increasing the amount of air in the spray.
• Fix leaks and running toilets. According to the City of Toronto, a leaky toilet can waste close to 300,000 litres of water per years. Fix all leaks as soon as they start!
• Turn off the tap. When you're not using it, turn it off. Use a glass to brush your teeth and turn off the shower while you lather or shave (some new showerheads have a button so you can cut the water for a few seconds).

3. Choose ancient forest friendly tissue products.

Right now, corporations like Kimberly-Clark [www.kleercut.net] are cutting down ancient forests to make disposable products like toilet paper. Greenpeace has convinced more than 700 businesses [http://www.forestfriendly500.org/] to stop using Kimberly-Clark products until they agree to our simple demands:

• Immediately stop purchasing virgin fibre from endangered forests.
• Drastically increase the amount of recycled fibre that they use for all their tissue products including Kleenex brand toilet paper, facial tissue and napkins.
• Only buy virgin fibre from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) [www.fsccanda.org] eco-certified forests. The FSC is the only guarantee that forests are managed sustainably.

We're also helping consumers make forest friendly tissue products choices. Recycled tissue paper options are widely available in Canada. Buy only 100 percent post-consumer toilet paper and facial tissue from now on. For information on forest friendly tissue products from Greenpeace, please visit http://tissue.greenpeace.ca