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 The Girlcott is proud to have the support of the San Francisco Department of the Environment. In fact, once the Sports Basement jumped on board to offer a location, the next calls we made were to find out whether we could even gain permission to collect these materials.
"Our organization has played a key role to support The Girlcott so that we can work together to educate our community about how to responsibly dispose of items that may be hazardous to our environment.
For anyone who can’t make it to The Girlcott on April 18th, San Francisco offers free residential pick-up of household toxic waste and we encourage all citizens to take advantage of these wonderful programs that protect our resources," advises Marjaneh Zarrehparvar, Toxics Reduction Coordinator, who facilitated approval for our event.
As more people grow further aware of the potential chemical hazards that may exist in our household products, it is essential that we do not attempt to dispose of them by dumping them down the drain or dropping them in conventional trash receptacles.
Our municipal water systems are unable to strip out harmful persistent agents such as the bactericide, triclosan, commonly found in hand sanitizers such as Purell. Researchers have found that this chemical is a powerful endocrine disruptor, which can interfere with proper function of the thyroid, as well as estrogen and androgen levels in our bodies. (Note that the Wikipedia link to endocrine disruptor in this paragraph is an EXCELLENT source on this important term- worth a click!)
As harmful as this ingredient may be to humans, it is equally threatening to our wildlife. Therefore it is essential for us all to consider that what we wash and pour down our drains may have a persistent and damaging presence far beyond our environs.
Whether it is shampoo, soap or laundry detergent, the healthiest products for our bodies are also the safest for our natural world. |
