Low air pressure in your tires reduces your gas mileage and increases the likelihood of an...

In the 1967 movie The Graduate, the word plastics represents a certain kind of bright, golden future. Well, the future is here. And so is plastic, which has a future far more enduring than we might imagine. A plastic is any of a number of petroleum-based polymer materials that can be molded or shaped into a wide range of forms; it is durable, long-lasting, and cheap to produce-a useful quality for manufacturers and consumers but a bad one for the environment, as it doesn't biodegrade and represents a tremendous landfill burden. Some, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), also release toxic chemicals into the environment during production and/or disposal. Different types of plastic are made from different chemical compounds; each is identified by one of seven recycling-category numbers. In general, numbers 1 and 2 are the most easily recycled. For more on plastics, click here.

Infants are especially susceptible to toxins. And since babies spend so much time in bed, it's...