Kyra Kristof
Cambridge, MD
My name is Kyra Kristof, and for the last two years it’s been my great privilege to work with Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau as a member of the EarthEcho International team. A former urbanite, I now live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where I spend my free time remodeling a very, very old house, sailing and painting. Over the past few years, I’ve been amazed to discover how many of my own behaviors have affected the environment in ways I hadn’t realized. Simple things that I had assumed were benign sometimes aren’t, and even though I try to be conscientious, sometimes I’m just too close to things to see them as they really are.
“Do you know what bleach DOES?” Alexandra asked me. I had just met Alexandra Cousteau a few weeks before, and if I hadn’t liked her so much the instant I met her, I’m sure I would have been intimidated by her. Outrageously professionally accomplished at 27, she was trilingual, well-traveled, smart, passionate about the planet, and drop dead gorgeous to boot. She was also always learning, and eager to share what she learned. This morning, it was the effect of bleach on coastal environments that possessed her full attention, and therefore, mine as well. So, back to the question at hand: “What does bleach do?” As Alexandra described the sterilization of marine environments and the animals that lived in them, I was surprised, although, of course, it made total sense. The reason you use bleach as a disinfectant is because it kills things, right?
Although my motivation hadn’t been an earth-friendly one, I didn’t use bleach as a cleaner or laundry product; the smell of it burned my nose and throat. Despite my motives, I’d been doing something good for the environment by allowing my whites to age gracefully. Right? “I don’t use bleach,” I said. Proud. Confident. “At all?” Alexandra challenged me, “What brand of dish detergent do you use? What about…” When I got home that evening, I went straight to the cabinet under my kitchen sink and started reading labels. I was stunned. Bleach was everywhere. When I sprayed and wiped my kitchen counter, I was leaving a chemical film behind on the surface on which I prepared food. I started to feel a little squeamish, but thanks to my conversation with Alexandra, I knew what to do next.
I started by replacing the chemical cleaners under my sink with products that used alternate ingredients—I particularly like Ecover and Seventh Generation products, and was thrilled to discover comparable products sold at the grocery store Trader Joe’s under their own label. I scrub my tub with Bon Ami and recently learned that if you sprinkle baking soda on your counter and use a half of a lemon to scrub it down, you disinfect and scour. Best of all, when friends would help to clean up after meals at my home, they would ask about why I was handing them products they’d never seen before, and this became a conversation starter. Many of my friends are now buying cleaning products that are more earth-friendly, and we all keep each other “honest” by doing product inspections when we’re at one another’s homes. I know this is just a small change, but it’s one of many in my own life, and one that is easy for me to share with others, and I feel great about that.