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I was reading an article in my local newspaper this morning where they were bragging about the biodegradable trays and packaging that they were using this year to help reduce the trash at one of our local stadiums.  That’s all well and good but does it really do any good if those biodegradable containers go into a plastic trash bag?  Do they ever actually biodegrade?  The answer…eventually but only after a hole forms in the bag itself.

After doing some research I have found that no one really knows how long that trash bag will take to biodegrade.  The reason…plastic has really only been around for the past 50 years or so, so it makes sense that no one really knows how long it takes.  Now depending on the bag thickness, it might develop a hole almost immediately since there is a lot of  mixing and turning that goes on in a landfill.  But if it’s a really good bag it might take a while for the sun and the rain to degrade the bag well enough that the elements finally get to the contents.  Only at that point will the “biodegradable” stuff start to decompose.

Now I’m not saying that it’s not important to use biodegrable packaging, in fact I would perfer that you do but we have to think further the just the packaging.  We have to think about the facilities to sort the items and if the people that will be at the event have the right mindset and if they are informed as to how and where to put their trash.

When I was at the Earth Day celebration they had volunteers at each pre-sort location.  The volunteers were to help gently inform the participants which barrel their specific trash belonged in.  Without those volunteers most people would have just thrown their trash into whichever bin was closer to them.  That’s the kind of thing that you have to do when you are teaching consumers how to better treat their trash.

At my house we have a bin for veg and fruit waste, 2 bins for recycables and another for “other” waste.  The small 13 gallon trash can in our house gets used so little that we can go for almost 2 weeks without emptying it.  We have a 30 gallon trash can for trash pick up that really only gets full every 2 1/2 weeks, but the recycle bins needs to be emptied once a week.

Yesterday I threw out the first piece of non-recyclable plastic that we have used in months and unfortunately there is plenty more where that came from.  I spoke about it a few days ago but we decided to join a food program called Angel Food Ministries and where as the program is great and you get to eat good food for a very reasonable price, everything comes wrapped in plastic.

I’ll be honest with you and say that after I lost my job I took the first one that I could find and the difference in pay has left a HUGE hole in our budget so unfortunately I am going to have to make a plastic sacrifice to be able to feed my family.  It’s only 1 piece of plastic a day that we are throwing out so it’s much less then the average family, but it still makes me sick to my stomach thinking about how far we had come in the past 10 months just to take steps in the wrong direction.  But I keep looking up and I continue to interview and I know that the Lord will bless me with the position that best provides for my family.

So in closing, if at all possible pass on the plastic bag.  Whether it’s the plastic baggie for your leftovers or the trash bag in your trash recepticle.  We do it in our house, I know that you can too!

Tonight I was thinking of frugal ways to save the planet while buying dinner makings and as I perused the pasta section, spaghetti sauce came to mind.You can buy it at my grocery store in 4 different ways.

1. In a 2 serving plastic container

2. In a 4 serving glass jar

3. In a 4 serving aluminum can

4. In a 2 serving foil and plastic pouch

Now I bet you can guess which one I prefer, but I’m gonna tell you anyway.

First the 2 serving plastic container…I’ll be honest and tell you that I have bought this sauce before. It tastes much better then most of the jar and can sauces and you kinda get a 2 for 1 deal since you can use the plastic container again. But if you are on a plastic free quest, like me, this is not the answer. Not only is it made of plastic that helps to fuel our oil addiction, it’s a smaller serving that costs almost twice as much. Neither one of these things gives it high marks on my list.

Obviousily the glass jar is my pick for the most econimical and earth friendly but let’s talk about the other items first.

Aluminum is recycable, so if you are a diehard canned sauce fan this is not the worst you could do. It also comes in a larger size so you can get more servings out of the can, but iit doesn’t have a lid so you can’t store the leftovers very easily and the inside of the can is lined with plastic. Still not a great choice but not the worst one.

What is the worst choice you ask…the 2 serving foil package. Granted it’s pretty cool that you can warm your sauce in the microwave in it’s own pouch but gesh aren’t you about to pour it over hot pasta that will warm it up anyway? Personally I think it’s an ingenious design, but look at all the extra plasticy foil packaging that is left over. You can’t reuse it. You can’t recycle it. You can’t do anything with it but throw it away in the trash. This is a bad bad choice!

Like I said before, the winner is the 4 serving jar of sauce. The jar itself is recycable. It’s resealable so you can store the leftovers. It’s alot cheaper then the foil pouch and plastic container and as for taste it ranges from ok to really tasty. The other plus…you can buy several different flavors like garlic, mushroom, veggie lovers. So it means that you can get more bang for your buck and you are not stuck eating the same thing over and over again.

Leave comments on this question…What sauce do you buy and why? Could it be considered eco-friendly?

So today after months of trying I finally went to the Farmer’s Market, finally!  I spent less then twenty bucks on more then a weeks worth of fruits and veggies and the best thing is that I supported community farms and not the big industrial supermarkets.  I did go to the supermarket when I was done and to my surprise free-range chicken was on sale for $2.99 a pound, gosh that’s cheap!  So of course I bought as much as possible, unfortunately since I bought so much they wrapped it in plastic, more on that later.

Anyway…at the Farmer’s Market I bought butter beans, corn, tomatoes, peaches, apples, cucumbers and lettuce.  What makes me sad is that the market is only open for a few more weeks and during the winter I won’t be able to go and get really tasty fruits and veggies.  I don’t know what it is but produce from the grocery store really doesn’t taste as good as farm fresh produce.  It’s probably cause they pick it early to ensure that it won’t be bad before it gets to the store.  I can’t explain it but something happens to food when it’s picked before it’s ripe.

The only problem with the Farmer’s Market…it’s not necessarly organic but lately, since I have been shopping at the grocery store, I haven’t been eating organic and with food prices who can?

I know, I know…you should only eat organic since it’s better for the environment but when I started this blog it was supposed to be about being green and practical.  And since my food budget hasn’t changed and the price of food has, something has to give.  While I agree that using pesticides are bad for your body and for the planet, so is paying $3.00 for a head of lettuce when you are trying to feed 6 people on $150 a week.  The trade off?  The way I see it…I am not buying one of those unnecessary convenience bags of pre-cut lettuce, that not only has been trucked around the world but has also contributed to our petroleum dependency.  When I buy lettuce from the Farmer’s Market I am buying a product that has been shipped less then 100 miles and hasn’t been packaged unnecessarily, especially when I bring my own bag to carry it in!

Now more about being practical and saving the planet…there is a fine line that we walk to help keep our planet in better shape and not break our pocketbooks.  Recently I was laid off because of the down turn of the economy, I worked in the sports industry and when people cut back on buying extra things the people that make those things take a hit and being the low-man on the totem pole I was the first to go.  But it’s made me really think about what I buy and how I can buy smarter.  Luckily I was able to find another job almost immediatly, it’s making quite a bit less then what we are used to so what we are able to buy will change dramtically.  I’ve been looking into local CSA’s and subscription services.  We found a food ministry called Angel Food Ministry, where for $30 you can get a box of food that will feed a small family for a week.  Typically the amount of food in the box would cost me $65 to $70 at the grocery store.  You don’t have to qualify, it’s open to anyone and there are delivery locations all over the US.  If I remember right there were 10 within 5 miles of my home.  You have to pay for the food upfront and by a specific date and then about 2 weeks later you pick it up at a nearby church.

We have all been affected by the turn of the economy and over the next few weeks I am going to continue to talk about what we can do to keep costs down but make a real difference in the life of our planet.  What have you had to do now that food costs are rising and paychecks are shrinking?

I was feeling lazy the other day and since it was Friday and there were no kids around I didn’t want to cook.  So knowing what take out places use Styrofoam and which don’t, I dial my local plastic free Chinese restaurant and ordered dinner.  I pick it up and duh, I ordered soup so it came in a plastic container…no big deal I can use it again.  But then as I went through the bag and the little plastic packets of duck sauce, soy sauce, hot mustard and the sweet and sour sauce started to appear.  There must have been 20 of them, all for 2 people!

Do people actually use that much stuff on their Chinese food?  Do you know how much sodium is packed into one of those packets?  I don’t think they have an expiration date so they are full of preservatives, do you really know what you are putting into your body?  Think of all the little plastic packages that are being thrown out each day because of Chinese take out!

As I thought about all those questions I watched my husband tear into a couple of the hot mustard packets and gobble it down with his spring roll.  I mean if I got 20 packages and let’s just say for easy of math that 100 other people who ordered take out that night received the same amount that’s 2000 plastic packages that are going into the landfill just from one restaurant in one night!

I thought it about that number some more…if you do a google search for “Chinese restaurants, Germantown TN” you get 6 restaurants with Germantown addresses (there are countless more in a 5 mile radius but I’m gonna stick with ones in my neighborhood).  If we use the same math with the average amount of packets in a take out bag as 20 and the average amount of take out customers in one day as 100…heck let’s say 50 to make it more believable…and the number of restaurants in the local area as 6.  That would bring the amount of plastic packets given out to 6000 in just one day!  Now if your like me I put most of them in my refrigerator, so let’s say only half get used and thrown away that day.  That’s 3000 plastic pieces added to the landfill just from Chinese food take out and only from a 3 mile radius!

Think about how much Chinese take out is eaten everyday…OMG!  Think of all that plastic that is needlessly thrown away everyday because we are eating take out.  Not only are there the Chinese plastic packets but there are ketchup packets and dressing packets, mayonnaise and barbecue packages, honey mustard dipping sauce containers, plastic lids from the drinking cups.  Mc Donalds alone serves 47 million customers a day around the world, think of all the plastic lids that are thrown out each day.  That adds up to millions of pounds of plastic that is discarded from our eating out, no wonder our ocean is full of trash!

So remember this…don’t just go through life ignoring the stuff that surronds you, it all has to end up somewhere and plastic doesn’t just decompose overnight.  Do you really need a lid on your cup?  Or what about that plastic straw, can you drink straight from the cup instead?  When ordering take out can you say hold the condiments, I have my own?  Most Chinese food condiments come in glass jars it would be so much better if you bought it in a larger size and were able to recycle the jar later then needlessly throwing away plastic packet after plastic packet.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…Don’t just do, think first then do.

Week 30 of my blog…good lord only 22 weeks left in the year, where does time go?

So I’m back to photographing my plastic and even though there is only a small amount in the picture, I am still ashamed. Six items is nothing compared to the countless pieces of plastic that an average American family throws away each week, but after 30 weeks I should be getting better at this.

I bought or paid for all the plastic in the picture. In fact the balled up plastic wrap I just bought today when I replaced my air filter. I looked for an un/non wrapped air filter but something has to hold the paper that has the bar code on it, so it seemed I was out of luck.

Do you remember life before bar codes? Can you imagine that we used to have to go through a checkout line with a real person that had to look at the item and read the price off of a sticker? How archaic!

I also bought a halogen lightbulb and in the picture is the wrapping for it. Halogen bulbs are supposed to last as long a cfl’s but we have replaced this particular one 3 times in the year that we have lived in our house, go figure!

Along with the bulb and filter wrapping there are the drinks that we took to the movies. GASP! She sneeks in food at the movies…at $4.00 for a small drink wouldn’t you? Then there is the wrapping for the mayonnaise. I can’t find mayo in glass jars anymore, all the jars are made of plastic and the one that my husband bought the other day had an outside layer of plastic for it’s label. I didn’t mean to take it completely off but it wouldn’t stop tearing , so off it came.

Is your plastic usage dwindling? Are you down to less then me? Keep it up and see what I bring home next week.

I’ve had a couple of people email me and ask when the plastic usage pictures and posts will be back.

Well let me give it to you straight…I am ashamed of my plastic usage so I don’t really wanna show you guys anymore.  But don’t fret, I will start back this weekend.

When I shopped at the granola store it was very easy for me to not buy plastic but now that I am shopping at my local big box grocery store, I can hardly find plastic free/less replacements for the things that I normally buy.

For example…when I shopped at Wild Oats they had great organic juices in glass bottles.  At Schnucks they have one or two types of juice in glass bottles but no one in my family would drink it and paying $4.50 for a pint seems a bit unreasonable.  So to not buy large quantities of plastic, we started buying canned juice from Juicy Juice.  It’s still expensive, not as expensive as the organic juice from Wild Oats but for concentrate it’s a bit pricey. But here is the problem…aluminum cans contain a layer of plastic on the inside so the contents don’t eat through the side of the can during their long journey to your table.  So whereas it’s better to buy less plastic there is still plastic involved.

At the granola store they would wrap my deli meats and cheeses in paper and at the grocery store they will not for any reason put the deli items into anything but their own plastic baggies.  I protested but after the look that I got from the deli manager, my protest did not go any further.  I can bring my own bags (oh! I have a story to tell about a BYOB convert!) but I can’t bring a plastic container of my own to put food into?  What’s up with that?  I’m sure that there is a Health Code or something but gesh, if I’m gonna spend $6 a pound for turkey I should get to have some say as to what I take it home in.  Anyway…I’ve tried to get away from eating luncheon meats totally but it seems that my 6 year old is on a PB&J protest (that I can buy in glass) and is refusing to eat peanut butter totally.  So at least for the rest of the summer I will have to buy the luncheon meat so that the poor child doesn’t starve. I do have one nice thing to say about the butchers at the meat counter at my local Schnucks, they have stopped using the plastic baggies to wrap the chicken and are only using butcher paper.  I guess my persistence with that department has won them over to the green side!

The one thing I can’t get away from is block or shredded cheese.  I know that even Beth at Fake Plastic Fish struggled with this issue too.  Since I don’t drink milk and most of my kids don’t either, we have to get our calcium from somewhere and cheese is it.  We have cheese on our baked spaghetti, tacos, enchiladas, chili dogs, turkey burgers and especially on our pizzas.  I can’t give it up but the worst part is I have no idea if the cows that produce this cheese are happy or not.  It’s definitely not organic like the milk and eggs that I buy so it’s even worse to buy it then I originally thought!  I’m going to the Farmer’s Market this weekend .  Yeah right, I keep saying that!  Pray that they have some happy cow cheese that I can start to substitute, at least then I would only be breaking one green rule.

Of course there is always the plastic wrapping from the turkey that I buy, but I don’t really count that as bad since I buy the turkey instead of beef since we all know what cattle does to our environment…don’t we?

There is a fine line that we walk between being green and living the way a normal consumer does.  I say it’s always worth doing!

Over the past few weeks, I have been contemplating over what to say next.  I have been very concerned about the economy, the state of America and what it is doing to my family and others that I know.

But it all came to me yesterday morning…

My husband and a band that he belongs to ( The New Memphis Hepcats) were scheduled to perform on a local daily news program, so I had the tv at work tuned to something besides the Golf Channel.  Well the President preempted the program, but I left it on since I was curious as to what he had to say.  Now let me “preempt” this by saying I voted for George Bush…2 times.  I am ashamed by this. You know what they say…”Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.” I haven’t decided whom I am voting for in the next election but I assure you, my decision will be well researched and thought out. 

So, I believe that I have the right to complain, I put my trust in him and he let me down.

As I listened I was appalled as to what he had to say.  What I heard was a bunch of, “I told you so’s” and “its all congress’s fault”. 

I started a project where I would compare prices and the cost of gas between my local grocery store and the granola store.  Well I haven’t been able to finish the project because every drop of my gas is precious and I can’t (even for science sake) to use any more then what is needed.  Now I know that I could offset that travel by riding my bike to work, but when it’s 95 degrees with a 85% relative humidity, riding is a tad bit uncomfortable. 

But I say all this to get to my point…with the rising costs of gas and food, it’s not time to play the blame game, it’s time to fix the problem before middle-class families like mine can’t afford to by the simplest necessities. Not to say that the problems of the poor are not important, but 9 times out of 10 they can apply for some type of governmental assistance (that’s not the answer either), families like mine don’t qualify for programs like that and we are starting to suffer. 

I don’t mean to sound ugly, but now is the time to forget politics, forget about suffering in other countries and focus on America’s recovery and may I say that offshore oil drilling is not the answer.  I agree wholeheartedly that buying 70% of our oil from foreign companies is ridiculas and we need to do something about it, I don’t think that potentially ruining more of the ocean is the right thing to do.  The President doesn’t agree with me on this.  However, I agree with the principle of why he wants to do it.  The less we need, the lower the price.  But what about spending that same money on more eco-friendly or earth friendly fuel production.  I say that then say “No more corn ethanol” that is not what we need, save the corn for the growing food crisis.  Now other forms of ethanol are good to research but NO MORE CORN. 

Speaking of which, my favorite gas station that is connected to my grocery store, that consequently gives me a discount on my gas when I buy their groceries, has gone to putting corn ethanol in their gas.  That makes me sad, especially when they are not cheaper then any of the surrounding gas stations.

Now especially is the time to write to your Congress person and voice your concern.  Don’t sit idly by as things get worse.  Take a stand and let them know that what is going on is not ok and you won’t stand for it.  Give them reasons to support eco-friendly research like wind, and solar power.  you voted for them, make them hear you.

I went to the grocery store this past weekend to begin an experiment on the differences on pricing and products between the large chain grocery store and the granola store (which I realize is a chain too but there is only one here in the city).

I bought what most of what we needed and tired not to pay attention to prices because if I did the granola store would automatically lose the competition. I bought brand names and tried to stay away from plastic, but that was all but impossible. I want this experiment to show the pros and cons of both stores but especially the environmental costs.

What I do know is that I spent $155 on about weeks worth of groceries. I tried to only shop the outside isles where the best food is (fresh produce and the meat and fish counters) but I had to buy breakfast food and a couple other household staples. I actually spent $185 but about $30 of that total were non-food items that I will not count in my actual totals because those kinds of items are not bought on a weekly basis.

Next week I am going to shop at the chain store and at the Farmers Market to see what kind of difference that makes. The week after that will be at the granola store only and then the following week will be the granola store and Farmer’s Market. At the end I will compare all the pros and cons and ask you to make the decision as to where I should shop.

How is the increase in food and gas costs effecting you?

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans right? What about Murphy’s Law? All those things were working against me over the past few weeks, but now I am back and ready to get down and dirty again!

Now don’t you worry your pretty little head, while I was gone I still tried to stay away from plastic, in fact I had some plastic free weeks. But it’s been getting tougher and tougher for me to stay away from plastic though. I try to shop at the granola store, which is 5 or 6 miles from my home instead of my local grocery store which is less then a mile, because there are more plastic free alternatives at the granola store but with gas reaching $4 a gallon I just don’t know if I can continue to drive out of my way for groceries.

Another reason is with the rising prices of food I can’t afford to pay the already high cost of food from the granola store plus the rising cost. I’ve seen my grocery bill go up by $25 to $30 and when you only have a budget of $500 a month that added cost can mean the difference of eating well for the last week or not. I might have to stop shopping at the Farmer’s Market because they are passing on the high cost of gas to the consumers too. I’d like not to stray to far from my values but a budget can only stretch so far.

It’s not cheep to feed a family of 6, especially a family that has so many food issues. One doesn’t eat fish, one doesn’t eat vegetables, and the list goes on. Gesh they are picky, why can’t they all be like my oldest son and eat pretty much whatever I put on the table? I am going to have to open them up to some new cheaper dishes or we will never stay afloat. What will/do you feed your family now that the times are getting tough? Can you stay within your values and not sink deeper into debt?

I haven’t talked about trash in a while, so I thought I would update you on the amount of stuff we throw out each week.  In a previous post I talked about how we had reduced our trash so much that it didn’t matter that we missed taking the trash to the curb for pickup.  What I thought amazing about that was it had only been 2 weeks since I started the plastic free challenge.  So what about now , it’s been 12 weeks, how little do I throw away now?

Well it’s amazing, at least to me, but we have missed 2 weeks of trash pick up and still have plenty of room in the recycle bin and the large trash can.  In fact we are throwing so little away that the kitchen trash can (13 gallons) only needs to be emptied every 10 to 14 days.

How do we do it you ask?  I’ll tell you one thing…it’s not hard to do, all you have to do is pay attention to what you buy.

Here are some ways to reduce your trash:

1. Start looking for items in the grocery store that come in little or no packaging.  Squeeze boxes and listen for the crunching sound that internal bags make.

2. Buy more fresh produce and stay away from frozen and canned veggies or fruits.  Don’t buy veggies that come wrapped in plastic.  Why do you need to buy carrots in a plastic bag?  Your gonna peel them before you use them, so what’s the point of the plastic?

3. Don’t buy things that come individually wrapped.  This one is a tough one for our family.  We have really been working on this, but we still buy the healthy breakfast bars that come wrapped in foil.  Maybe one day I will take the time to make my own granola bars.

4. Bring your own containers to the grocery store.  Unfortunitly none of the stores that I shop at let me use my own containers but other bloggers use them in their hometowns so it’s definitely something to try.  Also if you shop where you can buy from the bulk bins, use your own bags or better yet go to your local Chinese restaurant and see if you can buy some of their paper take out containers.  Everyone in the store will ask you where you got them and then you can start up a conversation about reducing your footprint.

5.  Bring your own bags to the store or don’t use one at all.  Do you really need a bag for that box of spaghetti? Can’t you just hold your receipt in your hand as you walk out the door?  Don’t let anyone tell you that a bag is mandatory.

Those are only a few ways to reduce your trash and make sure you don’t forget about composting your table scraps.