Thursday, April 16, 2009

New Shower Curtain Liner, Oh Joy!

I have been researching shower curtain liners for quite awhile now. It has been a mini obsession, one that I find has taken too much thought. PVC is the standard material for vinyl shower curtain liners, and it is one of the worst common household toxins, which becomes evident the minute that you take one out of the package. As a pregnant mom with a small child, both of whom spend a lot of time in the bathtub, I have been looking for an alternative. I would love to have a hemp shower curtain, which I am mostly finding available from sites in the states, although as usual, if I want to pay more I can get one in Canada. They seem to run about $45US. However, I like my cloth shower curtain. So, I need a liner. Nylon, polyester, EVA... Found a nylon one at the local Bay, but it is still $30. With many guests visiting our home this month, and the smell of the old liner starting to get to me, I finally read somewhere that Ikea has not used PVC in their liners for over 10 years. We happened to be in Calgary the other day to take my in laws to the airport. We swung into Ikea, and for $1.99 CAD I purchased a PEVA "Nackten" clear shower curtain liner. I took it out of the package today, in the garage so it could do some off-gassing outside of my home, and I must say it doesn't smell. This is a good sign... I am still not totally keen on a plastic liner that will end up in a landfill at some point, even if I am good about cleaning it, but for the price and the time being, this is a solution I am happy with. If I decided to go with something in the future I will post about it here. And if you have found something that works great for you, while also being good for your home, wallet, and the environment, I would love your comments...

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