Antibacterial hand soap is a good thing, right?

Probably not. Doctors have become increasingly concerned that the indiscriminate use of antibacterial cleansers is contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. For most people, plain soap and warm water is just the thing.

You can still enjoy the convenience of liquid hand soap by making your own. It's easy, doesn't contain potentially irritating sodium laureth sulfate, and works great! Here's a natural formula recipe:

• 1 cup filtered water
• 1/4 cup Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap
  
• 1 teaspoon vegetable glycerin

Combine in a reused pump bottle, and you're good to go. If you choose unscented castile soap and tolerate essential oils well, try adding a few drops of your favorites. Sandalwood and lemongrass is a fresh-smelling combination. Lather up!

For something you don't cook, raw food is red hot.

And among the people helping to popularize the idea of raw food, there are few enjoying more success than Ani Phyo. She's the geek-girl-turned-healthy-living-entrepreneur behind SmartMonkey Foods, which bills itself as "the premier resource for vegan, raw, and living cuisine."

Phyo is also a familiar face to YouTube viewers, with a series of well-received raw cooking videos drawn from her raw food cooking show. And now -- with the publication of her new book, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen  -- Phyo has firmly established herself as a leading authority on the raw lifestyle.

We thought it would be fun to catch up with Ani during World Vegetarian Awareness Month. Click through for the low-down on going raw.

There are about 15 billion batteries manufactured each year. Most are alkalines, discarded after a single duty cycle.

Maybe you've tried rechargeable batteries in the past, and were unimpressed by their duty life or high cost. But -- like Compact Fluorescent Bulbs -- rechargeables have come a long way in the past few years. The current generation of lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries compare well to conventional alkaline cells in terms of performance, and can be charged hundreds of times before replacement.

If you're using more than a dozen or so disposables each year, you can save money and reduce landfill waste by making the switch to rechargeable batteries (remember -- all batteries should be disposed or recycled properly). They're more expensive at the register: A pack of 4 AA cells goes for about $10, and you'll need a smart charger appropriate to your battery type and size. But at about 10 cents per use, they're a green living no-brainer. Charge up!

Some green reading to wrap your weekend or start your Monday ...

Last Monday's Blog Action Day exceeded everyone's wildest expectations . Over 20-thousand blogs actually took part, with over 23-thousand Blog Action Day posts tracked by Google Blog Search. There were so many excellent posts, it's tough to nail down anything approximating a "best of" selection.

A few which stood out in Lighter Footstep's feed reader: Brian Clark's beautiful post on The Butterfly Effect at Copyblogger; 21st Century Citizen with Are You Here to Help; Zen Housewife's Being the Change; Conversation Agent's guide to green social media; Environmental Change Through Photography at andipants; eMoms at Home's 10 Green Business Tips to Help Prevent Global Warming; No Impact Man's What No Impact Feel Like After 10 Months; and a very thoughtful compilation of what Read/Write Web considers the Top 35 Environmental Blogs, in which we were pleased to be included. Lighter Footstep's contribution is here. We're already looking forward to next year.

There's more. Click through to read the rest of the article.