Photo by AVID Vines, Flickr
It can be hard to estimate how much food to prepare for your holiday gathering. Earth911.com estimates that 30-40% of the food grown in the U.S. is wasted. That means that you might end up with leftover dishes and unused ingredients. After the evening of the big dinner, plan catch-up meals to use up that extra food. Serve turkey salad on dinner roles for lunch. Make dishes that use the ingredients you have on hand; for example, cooked meats and vegetables can be mixed into a casserole. Lightly steam leftover fresh vegetables and toss with pesto over pasta. Don’t forget to put reusable containers on your holiday shopping list so you can send some of the leftovers home with your guests.
Photo by AVID Vines, Flickr 1. BYO
Bring Your Own Basket Ask your neighbors to bring their own plates, silverware, napkins, cups. 2. Avoid Singles Serve drinks from kegs, pitchers or 2-liter bottles. If using recyclable drink cups, put out markers so guests can write names on cups. 3. Be Aware of Potluck Packaging Encourage everyone to bring their potluck items on platters and in bowls they take home and reuse. Avoid styrofoam containers -which can’t be recycled. 4. Use Waste-Free Decorations Avoid disposable tablecloths, center pieces, and balloons. Instead, have guests bring cloth tablecloths, real flowers and other creative, reusable decorations. 5. Clearly Label Waste Stations OK, so you may create some waste. Make it easy for people to recycle by labeling the trash and recycling bins with big, colorful signs so no one gets confused. Put all trash and recycling bins right next to each other. Striving for the goal of no-waste can be overwhelming to the point of paralysis. Treehugger.com writer Katherine Martinko recommends a number of strategies for reaching more attainable goals. She points out that "The idea of zero waste can set expectations too high and make the task feel impossible. Don't get hung up on perfectionism. Think "low waste" instead. Focus on becoming a better shopper, on using a critical eye to assess different forms of packaging, on weighing the pros and cons of a purchase. Make small incremental changes where you can, in ways that you can sustain, and you'll find over time that a small effort makes a big difference."* These strategies include comparison shopping to choose products with less packaging, or buying in bulk and creating smaller portions at home. Her personal approach is to "make constant comparisons between how one brand packages its food to another. That is the main factor in deciding what to buy, though I also consider the unit price, the origin, and the ingredients. For example, I'll choose a paper bag of potatoes over a plastic one, the loose bunch of radishes over the bagged one, a bare head of broccoli over a plastic-swathed cauliflower. I shop with cloth mesh bags and fill them with whatever loose seasonal produce is cheapest; sometimes it's apples, other times pears."* This approach acknowledges that everyone has accessibility to different resources. She concludes that "the goal, after all, is to make smarter shopping decisions and establish practices that are sustainable for us, as individuals, with our own unique resources and living situations."*
*Katherine Martinko, April 7, 2021, "Forget Zero Waste: Just Become a Better Shopper," treehugger.com Original article can be found here Treehugger.com Think about it: When you buy groceries in excessive, throw-away packaging, you’re buying trash. The cost of that trash is embedded in the prices you pay. If you read last week’s Green Tip, perhaps you’ve been encouraged to eliminate the plastic packaging associated with liquid soap by switching to bar soap. What other changes can you make to reduce your consumption of excess packaging, help the environment, and save some money? Here are a few ideas to consider:
Since the start of the Covid19 pandemic in early 2020, we’ve all become more aware than ever of the importance of washing hands to our health and hygiene. Both bar soap and liquid soap are effective at cleaning our skin and killing germs. However, the environmental impact of liquid soap is far higher than that of bar soap.
Liquid soap and body wash are typically sold in plastic containers with plastic (or plastic and metal) pumps. Tossing this packaging in the recycling bin is no guarantee it will actually undergo the costly, complex process of recycling. Moreover, the liquid state of these products makes them heavier to ship, adding to their carbon footprint. Bar soap is far more efficient than liquid in terms of packaging and transport. However, most bar soaps contain palm oil or palm oil derivatives which are associated with rain forest destruction. Overall, the best choice for the environment is palm oil-free bar soap. Local options include our neighbors at Nether Providence Soap Company and Philly-based Hand in Hand soap. For more information and thoughts on bar vs. liquid soap, check out this article published by McGill University’s Office for Science and Society and this article on SierraClub.org. According to the US EPA, “Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up about 30 percent of what we throw away, and should be composted instead. Making compost keeps these materials out of landfills where they take up space and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.” Backyard composting is a great way to reduce the amount of waste you contribute to landfills AND provide a valuable and economical natural fertilizer for your garden. Whether you build your own compost enclosure or purchase a pre-made bin, there’s a solution for every backyard. Darby Hoover, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says, “You don’t need a lot of technology. You just want to make the food break down in a way that’s compatible with your life.”
You can build your own outdoor compost bin or purchase a ready-made unit. This brief video from Tyler Arboretum can help you figure out how to get started. And this guide from NRDC spells out which items will compost well and which won’t. For example, meat, bones, and cooking oils are unlikely to break down completely in a small compost pile and can attract rodents and other pests. Vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and eggshells, on the other hand, will contribute to making your garden flourish. Also check out the EPA website for more information about the benefits of composting and how to do it. The USDA also offers extensive practical information on its website. You can even compost on a small scale indoors using a plastic bin with a lid. Social entrepreneurship is booming in our country and our region, and one result is a growing
range of socially- and environmentally-conscious gift ideas. But how to know if the gift that has caught your eye is really doing good? You may refer to blog posts or articles from trusted sources that identify sustainable products, or purchase directly from your favorite non-profits. Berwyn-based B Lab offers a different approach: B Lab certifies as “B Corps” companies that “meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” The online B Corp Directory allows you to search for certified B Corps by industry and geography. While the greenest option is buying a locally sourced real tree, you can reduce the environmental impact of an artificial tree by re-using it for at least four years. That is according to a 2020 life-cycle analysis of artificial versus real trees sponsored by the American Christmas Tree Association. Due to the energy required to manufacture an artificial tree, the more years it is reused, the lower the relative carbon footprint compared to purchasing a real tree every year. Transportation from the tree farm contributes to the carbon footprint of real trees. Thus after four years, carbon emissions from one artificial tree may be lower than the emissions required to transport four real trees. It is also important to consider that at the end of its usable life, artificial trees require disposal of plastic.
Single use packaging creates a lot of waste. Loop is working toward a circular economy by keeping resources in the system and getting rid of single-use packaging. A number of companies have teamed up with Loop to offer reusable containers for some of their products. Once you pay the deposit for the container, you only pay for the refill. They also provide pickup service and clean the empty containers. This is also another contact-free way to shop.
Terracycle, the home company for Loop, explains the process: Here’s how it works:
According to Norwexmovement.com,* we throw out 254 million tons of paper towels globally each year. Each ton of paper towels produced uses 17 trees and pollutes 20,000 gallons of water. Reduce your trash output and save money on paper towels by using Swedish dishcloths instead. These absorbent cloths are made of cotton and cellulose. Swedish dishcloths have a number of advantages over paper towels: they are more absorbent; they are durable and don’t tear when wet; and they are reusable – Three Bluebirds claims that one of their dishclothes replaces 17 rolls of paper towels. They are also easily cleaned in the washing machine or dishwasher.
*Amy Cadora, December 19, 2017, "Are you wiping out forests when you wipe your hands?" Norwexmovement.com |
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