Local eco-blogger Vanessa Farquharson spent a year going green in radical fashion, chronicling her endeavours on her blog, Green as a Thistle, and in her upcoming book, Sleeping Naked Is Green. In the run-up to Earth Day, we've asked her to provide us with tips on how to become more environmentally friendly in the most unfriendly of ways.

What are the environmental side effects of the birth control pill that made you want to stop using it?
Well, it was my mother — a doctor — who first advised me to go off it, mostly because I'd been using the pill for about 10 years and had been single for about one, and I was approaching my thirties. In terms of environmental side effects, the problem is that most of the hormones in the pill exit the body through our urine, which gets flushed down the toilet and into the sewer system. The technology in our filtration plants is good enough to filter out some chemicals but it sucks at getting rid of pharmaceuticals, and when the estrogen ends up in nearby rivers and streams, it converts back to an active form and starts screwing around with frogs and fish. This article explains it pretty well.

Going off the pill is fine and dandy when you're single, but now that you're in a relationship, what green-friendly birth control method are you using?
Well, I wrote about this on my blog fairly recently and got 44 comments from people weighing in on what birth control methods they use and how it affects the environment. It can be a very controversial topic, but I find that most of my in-the-know friends — whether they be a holistic nutritionist or a western-minded family doctor — are quite passionate about the toxic effects of the pill, so I really think that almost any other method is going to be greener somehow. There's the IUD, the sponge, the diaphragm, condoms and more, but I personally have had a lot of success with the calendar/rhythm method. The only catch with this is that you have to be a little OCD about taking your temperature every single morning, charting it out, being in touch with your body — especially "down there" — and you can't take any chances during ovulation.

After 10 years of taking the pill, was going off of it a jolt to your system?
You know, every woman has completely different reactions when she goes on the pill and off it again — in my case, nothing happened to the size of my boobs or the condition of my skin or anything, but I didn't get my period for an entire year. Honestly, that's just wrong, and it proved to me how sketchy hormonal tampering can be, especially if you intend to have babies later on. Anyway, it was a huge relief when I finally started bleeding again and eventually it became a regular cycle again, and if anything, my cramps are better.

Read more of Vanessa Farquharson's Green to the Extreme tips and other ways to make yourself more environmentally friendly at www.eyeweekly.com/greenliving.