Well, today was the first time I have left the house in a week and a half, due to recovering from my thyroidectomy. I drove the one mile to the store to get a few groceries, and to go to the bank. Yes, I could have walked but I am not supposed to carry anything heavy for another week, and that would be a long way to lug groceries for my poor mutilated neck!
I had picked up a huge canvas bag from LL Bean last month which was on clearance because someone ordered it monogrammed then changed their mind, and this is what I brought with me. For the first time in my life I brought my own bag to the store. Yes, it is very silly but it felt like a new start, like I was embarking on this grand adventure and this was my first step. As I shopped, I followed my list and also made some different decisions. I usually buy romaine lettuce in bags, because it is a tiny store and that is all they have. Last month I would have bought them anyways, thinking that it is a basic food need. This time I left them on the shelf. I can cook with spinach to fill the leafy greens until next week when I will be driving right by the Wegmans, where I can get all the naked veggies I want. I can do without in order to reduce my use. I picked up instead an eggplant, green peppers, pears and apples-that was all the produce to be had not wrapped in plastic. I normally would have picked up some meat and cheese, but they are all plastic wrapped, so I walked on by those as well.
I got out of the store with only a jug of milk (no paper cartons), a bottle of Ivory dish soap, and the lid of the oatmeal can in plastic. Everything else was plastic free! For me, that is pretty darn good. I have been researching dish soap alternatives, and next week will pick up some soap flakes in a cardboard box to give it a go. I can start getting the oatmeal bulk when I go to Wegmans. I realized after I left the store that the gas station kitty-corner from the store sells cardboard cartons of milk, and it is usually pretty cheap.
I didn't go to Wegmans because it is 30 minutes away, and that seems like a lot of gas to use when I don't have to. When school starts again, I drive right by there several times a week, so shopping there costs no additional polution.
I am still hoping to start getting milk from Byrne Dairy in jars, and raw milk from an organic dairy, but they are near school and I won't be heading that way for another week.
All in all, I was frugal and brought home far less plastic than I ever had before on a comparable shopping trip. I am pleased.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Small changes
I have been looking around at what I can do to minimize our use of electricity, and last night came upon a couple answers. I have two large fish tanks and a 125 gal terrarium with a turtle and until yesterday a frog (said turtle had said frog for lunch, sadly.)
The 30 gal tank upstairs has only 2 angels, an eel, and some loaches and plecos; these were hand-me-downs from a friend, and I put them in a separate tank because the angels had ick, which has since been cleared. The tank downstairs is a 55 gal which has been running for the last 10 years, only disturbed once to move to this house. It is set up to the same requirements as the other tank. I am seriously thinking of combining the two and dismantling the upstairs tank. It would turn off two motors, a heater and a light. I would have to start cleaning the 55 more often as a result.
This is not a bad thing, however, since I recycle the used fish water for my plants. It provides a nice fertilizer, and I do not have to use chemical fertilizers as a result.
I am also thinking of selling the turtle tank this spring and letting the turtle go. He is a young (5 yr old) painted turtle who is very adept at finding food and catching live prey. He was given to me as a baby by the same friend as above who found him in her dog yard-her dogs eat turtles, so she thought I could keep him. I have been thinking of building a small garden pond this spring, so I could release him on the property and continue to feed him until he adjusts to being outside again. This would turn off two lights, a heat lamp, a heater and a pump motor.
I also thought I would try to reduce at least 2 loads of laundry a week going through the drier by drying on a rack. We have a front loader so the rack will not hold an entire load, however if I can even just do half loads on the rack and combine the rest of the clothes for the drier, I should be able to get two down. The other options are to get another rack, put shirts on hangers and hang them from the cupboard handles in my laundry room, or bring the outdoor clothes line indoors. There is a huge radiator in the laundry room, so it gets pretty warm in there which should dry the clothes fairly quickly. When it warms up this spring I can dry outside.
Finally, I am going to try to make our own cat food. I made the dog food for a long time, this can't be much different. I have two senior Siamese who are pigging their way through $40 and 92 cans of cat food per month. I figure I probably can make their food cheaper than that, as well as eliminate all those tin cans. I thought I could flash freeze the food in muffin tins and wrap them in tinfoil or already owned Tupperware, and defrost a few days at a time. If it goes well, I will likely raise a few turkeys this summer just for the cats. I was planning on getting an order anyway, and you can only get 15 or more at a time due to chick safety during shipping. I'll just keep a few more rather than auction them off.
So, hopefully I can reduce my carbon footprint a bit by making these small changes.
The 30 gal tank upstairs has only 2 angels, an eel, and some loaches and plecos; these were hand-me-downs from a friend, and I put them in a separate tank because the angels had ick, which has since been cleared. The tank downstairs is a 55 gal which has been running for the last 10 years, only disturbed once to move to this house. It is set up to the same requirements as the other tank. I am seriously thinking of combining the two and dismantling the upstairs tank. It would turn off two motors, a heater and a light. I would have to start cleaning the 55 more often as a result.
This is not a bad thing, however, since I recycle the used fish water for my plants. It provides a nice fertilizer, and I do not have to use chemical fertilizers as a result.
I am also thinking of selling the turtle tank this spring and letting the turtle go. He is a young (5 yr old) painted turtle who is very adept at finding food and catching live prey. He was given to me as a baby by the same friend as above who found him in her dog yard-her dogs eat turtles, so she thought I could keep him. I have been thinking of building a small garden pond this spring, so I could release him on the property and continue to feed him until he adjusts to being outside again. This would turn off two lights, a heat lamp, a heater and a pump motor.
I also thought I would try to reduce at least 2 loads of laundry a week going through the drier by drying on a rack. We have a front loader so the rack will not hold an entire load, however if I can even just do half loads on the rack and combine the rest of the clothes for the drier, I should be able to get two down. The other options are to get another rack, put shirts on hangers and hang them from the cupboard handles in my laundry room, or bring the outdoor clothes line indoors. There is a huge radiator in the laundry room, so it gets pretty warm in there which should dry the clothes fairly quickly. When it warms up this spring I can dry outside.
Finally, I am going to try to make our own cat food. I made the dog food for a long time, this can't be much different. I have two senior Siamese who are pigging their way through $40 and 92 cans of cat food per month. I figure I probably can make their food cheaper than that, as well as eliminate all those tin cans. I thought I could flash freeze the food in muffin tins and wrap them in tinfoil or already owned Tupperware, and defrost a few days at a time. If it goes well, I will likely raise a few turkeys this summer just for the cats. I was planning on getting an order anyway, and you can only get 15 or more at a time due to chick safety during shipping. I'll just keep a few more rather than auction them off.
So, hopefully I can reduce my carbon footprint a bit by making these small changes.
Nix shampoo?
Well, I bit the bullet today and tried washing my hair without shampoo. I have been reading about using baking soda and vinegar as shampoo and rinse, and thought I would give it a try. I have pretty long hair, down nearly to my waist, and it tends to be fairly dry and frizzes on top where my grey hairs play havoc, but also gets a little greasy at the scalp if not washed regularly. I used about 3 Tbs in a mug of hot water at first, but since I had not washed it in two days it still felt a little dirty at the scalp so I took a few Tbs in my hand and applied it directly to that area. After rinsing, I have to say my hair felt the same as after a good shampoo, so stage one seemed to be a success. I was pretty skeptical about the vinegar rinse. My hair is very picky for conditioners, and anything less than Pantene leaves my hair un-brushable. I used about 1/4 cup vinegar in a mug with hot water, and poured it over my head rubbing it in as I did so. Immediately my hair felt smooth, and that feeling stayed after rinsing with water!
After I was done with my shower and dressed, the true test came-the brush. I started to brush my hair and it ran through as if I had been using salon conditioner! Much easier than with even Pantene!
I am sold. I will see what it looks like dry, and give it the test of time, but so far I really am happy. The good news is the baking soda comes in cardboard with no plastic, and while I used vinegar from a plastic jug (left over from summer) it is available in glass jars with only a plastic lid. If I can figure a way to get the rest of my family to join me, we can nix all those plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner!
I will be looking at making herbal vinegar for my hair, I bet many herbs and spices would smell really good in a hair rinse, such as lavender, citrus, and vanilla.
After I was done with my shower and dressed, the true test came-the brush. I started to brush my hair and it ran through as if I had been using salon conditioner! Much easier than with even Pantene!
I am sold. I will see what it looks like dry, and give it the test of time, but so far I really am happy. The good news is the baking soda comes in cardboard with no plastic, and while I used vinegar from a plastic jug (left over from summer) it is available in glass jars with only a plastic lid. If I can figure a way to get the rest of my family to join me, we can nix all those plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner!
I will be looking at making herbal vinegar for my hair, I bet many herbs and spices would smell really good in a hair rinse, such as lavender, citrus, and vanilla.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
IPod touch
My husband, who doesn't care at all if he uses plastic or not, actually bought quite the gadget which all things considered is very good at reducing plastic. He bought the iPod touch for work as a alternative to a blackberry. It came in a small cardboard container with a carboard lid with no Cellophane and no huge hard plastic case, although it did have plastic bin and lid inside the cardboard box. The lid is recyclable, and the box is so sturdy it could be reused. Also, the information packet was wrapped in a paper envelope, rather than plastic. The machine itself is mainly made of metal, with few plastic parts. It is about 3"x4"x1/2", and has a touch screen which eliminates a plastic pen.
As he played with it over a week, he realized there were many things this little gadget can do. It works as a calendar, so he can keep track of appointments, and it can link up to other people's calendars as well. It can hold telephone numbers and addresses. It can function as an iPod, downloading enough music to last days with no repeats. If you downloaded directly off the Internet, which it can receive via wireless, you could reduce your use of plastic in CDs to zero. It also can be used as a PC, so you can check your e-mail, surf the net, and use word processing for notes. It could replace laptops for many, which would further reduce the use of plastic.
I was very impressed, and that does not happen with technology often. Apparently there is a version which also serves as a cell phone. Now I would not go throwing out a perfectly good laptop, Sirius radio or Blackberry to buy this. However, if I were in the market for one of these, I would certainly consider this. I think multi-tasking technology could help a lot of people reduce their usage of plastic and other materials without giving up the things they need.
Here is a link to the Ipod touch:
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/
As he played with it over a week, he realized there were many things this little gadget can do. It works as a calendar, so he can keep track of appointments, and it can link up to other people's calendars as well. It can hold telephone numbers and addresses. It can function as an iPod, downloading enough music to last days with no repeats. If you downloaded directly off the Internet, which it can receive via wireless, you could reduce your use of plastic in CDs to zero. It also can be used as a PC, so you can check your e-mail, surf the net, and use word processing for notes. It could replace laptops for many, which would further reduce the use of plastic.
I was very impressed, and that does not happen with technology often. Apparently there is a version which also serves as a cell phone. Now I would not go throwing out a perfectly good laptop, Sirius radio or Blackberry to buy this. However, if I were in the market for one of these, I would certainly consider this. I think multi-tasking technology could help a lot of people reduce their usage of plastic and other materials without giving up the things they need.
Here is a link to the Ipod touch:
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/
Plastic Ocean
You will never look at plastic the same again.
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/health-fitness/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we_2.shtml
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/health-fitness/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we_2.shtml
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Homemade yogurt
I could not find any yogurt that did not come in plastic with at least one non-recyclable piece, and even the recyclable ones are only so in some areas, so I decided to try making my own yogurt. I first looked at all the yogurt makers, but they, alas, are all also made of plastic. So after some searching, I found a site which had recipes for making yogurt without a yogurt maker. http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/bldairy9.htm
Basically, you inoculate milk with plain active yogurt, then keep it warm for 5-10 hours. The site has several ways of doing this, such as a heating pad, thermos, and crockpot. My first batch I tried in my crock pot. I put a tablespoon of yogurt in each glass pint jar and filled them with milk, stirring well, then putting on lids. I added 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the crock pot and heated it on low to around 100 degrees F. I placed the jars in the crock pot and turned off the heat. Every 40 minutes I turned the heat on low for 10 minutes;I set the kitchen timer every time I made a change so I would not forget. It took about 5 hours and I had yogurt. This really did not take much time overall; I puttered around the house all day anyways, so it really was not 'work'.
We used homemade jelly in place of fruit, (my husband really liked the blueberry, I liked the grape) but this summer I will experiment with putting up whole sweetened fruit to use in yogurt. The beauty of this system is once you have that first batch, as long as you save a few tablespoons plain yogurt from each batch for the next, you never have to buy yogurt again, and if you buy milk in glass jars, no part of your yogurt will be in plastic at any point in its making.
Basically, you inoculate milk with plain active yogurt, then keep it warm for 5-10 hours. The site has several ways of doing this, such as a heating pad, thermos, and crockpot. My first batch I tried in my crock pot. I put a tablespoon of yogurt in each glass pint jar and filled them with milk, stirring well, then putting on lids. I added 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the crock pot and heated it on low to around 100 degrees F. I placed the jars in the crock pot and turned off the heat. Every 40 minutes I turned the heat on low for 10 minutes;I set the kitchen timer every time I made a change so I would not forget. It took about 5 hours and I had yogurt. This really did not take much time overall; I puttered around the house all day anyways, so it really was not 'work'.
We used homemade jelly in place of fruit, (my husband really liked the blueberry, I liked the grape) but this summer I will experiment with putting up whole sweetened fruit to use in yogurt. The beauty of this system is once you have that first batch, as long as you save a few tablespoons plain yogurt from each batch for the next, you never have to buy yogurt again, and if you buy milk in glass jars, no part of your yogurt will be in plastic at any point in its making.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Hospitals
I just got home two days ago from the hospital for a thyroidectomy. I stayed only one night at the hospital, but I was completely dismayed at the amount of waste, specifically plastic waste. I must have gone through 8 Styrofoam cups, about 10 little pill cups, several juice cups, the container which goes on the toilet, a water pitcher, kidney shaped pan, and all the plastic wrap on everything from my socks to the bread for dinner. This does not count all the IV lines and other inevitable plastic equipment used in the surgery. Nothing was reusable or recyclable. The worst for me was getting a single slice of white bread neatly wrapped in cellophane. It didn't even resemble food! I am not sure why the hospital could not use paper cups for drinking and pills, and why they could not recycle some of the plastic which was not in direct contact with wastes, such as the pitcher.
I thought about the fact there were 366 beds at this hospital, all wasting what I would guess is about a pound of plastic a day. Multiply this by 7569 hospitals in the US, and you have about 2,770,000 pounds of plastic per day being thrown into the environment.
There was nothing I could do about my thyroid, however this experience made me realize that by watching our health we are minimizing our impact on the environment. Hospitals and doctor's offices are so paranoid about germ contamination they contaminate our environment without hesitation. I understand, having taken microbiology, how vital it is that hospitals are as close to sterile as possible. The problem is they are creating a worse medical crisis in the long run. Our ability to deal with our physical environment is fast declining, and it is logical that chemicals are responsible for this. When are they going to wake up and realize that you cannot just keep jettisoning plastic garbage in these amounts and expect to have a clean and healthy environment; if there is not a clean environment, how can we have healthy people?
I did end up taking the water pitcher home. I cannot recycle it, but since it is insulated I can use it to keep a jar of milk warm when making yogurt. At least one small thing was reusable.
I thought about the fact there were 366 beds at this hospital, all wasting what I would guess is about a pound of plastic a day. Multiply this by 7569 hospitals in the US, and you have about 2,770,000 pounds of plastic per day being thrown into the environment.
There was nothing I could do about my thyroid, however this experience made me realize that by watching our health we are minimizing our impact on the environment. Hospitals and doctor's offices are so paranoid about germ contamination they contaminate our environment without hesitation. I understand, having taken microbiology, how vital it is that hospitals are as close to sterile as possible. The problem is they are creating a worse medical crisis in the long run. Our ability to deal with our physical environment is fast declining, and it is logical that chemicals are responsible for this. When are they going to wake up and realize that you cannot just keep jettisoning plastic garbage in these amounts and expect to have a clean and healthy environment; if there is not a clean environment, how can we have healthy people?
I did end up taking the water pitcher home. I cannot recycle it, but since it is insulated I can use it to keep a jar of milk warm when making yogurt. At least one small thing was reusable.
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