Top five things to avoid on your next shopping trip

Polyvinyl Plastic (PVC)

This toxic plastic turns up in everything: purses, blinds, shower curtains, children's toys. Sometimes labelled with a number '3', PVC is extremely toxic throughout its lifecycle from manufacture to disposal and, because it contains chlorine, it will create hazardous dioxins when burned.

For more information from Greenpeace on PVC, click here.

Ancient forest pulp

It turns up in toilet paper, facial tissue, napkins and office paper: pulp from 10,000 year-old ecosystems like the ancient Boreal Forest in Canada. It's also very easy to avoid. Paper and tissue products that are 100 percent post-consumer recycled and processed chlorine-free are widely available across Canada.

For tips on buying ancient forest friendly tissue products from Greenpeace, click here.

For tips on buying ancient forest friendly paper from the Markets Initiative, click here.

To learn more about Forest Stewardship Certification — the only forestry certification system endorsed by Greenpeace and other environmental groups — click here.

Genetically engineered food

More than 70 per cent of processed foods in Canadian grocery stores contains genetically engineered (GE) ingredients.

You won‘t know which ones, though, because, in Canada, there are no laws requiring labels for GE ingredients. To date, there have been no long-term tests on the effects of GE food on human health. We do know, however, that GE crops are bad for the environment, polluting organic and conventional crops and reducing the amount of biodiversity (the variety of plants including food crops) on the planet.

The easy out: buy certified organic food. Organics aren‘t allowed to contain GE ingredients. For a directory of organic suppliers in Canada, click here.

You can also do some triage when buying non-organic processed foods. Take a look at the ingredient list. In processed foods, corn, soy, canola and cottonseed oil (and their many derivatives) are generally genetically engineered.

For more information from Greenpeace about genetically engineered food, click here.

Excess packaging

There are many reasons to avoid excess packaging. The obvious ones — overflowing landfills — are just the beginning. Almost all plastics currently on the market are made with petroleum — a non-renewable resource that takes a toll on the planet during its extraction, manufacture and disposal. And many 'alternative' plastics — the ones marketed as a miracle substitute for a post-petroleum world — are made with genetically engineered (GE) corn.

The solution? Start by bringing your own bag to the grocery store, your own reusable mug to the coffee shop and your own food safe reusable containers for take-out meals. If the water in your community is safe to drink, cut out bottled water.

Want to go deeper? Ask retailers and manufacturers to take responsibility for used packages like empty bottles and lipstick tubes. Consider denuding your purchase at the store and asking the manager (politely) to dispose of the packaging for you.

Meat

We‘ve said it before but it bears repeating: meat is bad news for the environment. Number one: meat wastes other sources of food. The Worldwatch Institute estimates that the total amount of food and grain fed to livestock in the US each year could feed everyone on the planet five times over. Animal production also wastes massive amounts of land, energy and water.

And, if you‘re still not convinced, meat is emerging as one of the biggest culprits when it comes to climate change. Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the United Nation's scientific panel on climate change, has asked the planet to "please eat less meat." Why? Because livestock production creates more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined.

For a whole book full of green tips, check out the fabulous Greenpeace Living Guide.