Environmentally Friendly Habits to Get Into

Today, I found an article from Scientific American that listed talked about eleven environmentally friendly habits to get into.  Although some of these have been repeated continually, some are new.  Those made me decide to share this with you:

1.      

           Look for recycled toilet paper.  Although the more upscale brands may be softer, they contain virgin fiber and are then bleached with chlorine to give them their white color.  Virgin fiber generally comes from trees on tree farms, grown specifically for that reason.  If is much more sustainable to use recycled toilet paper.

2.       Put a lid on water when boiling.  Then can save a lot money and energy.

3.       Planting a vegetable garden is a way to buy “local” food.  Not only does this cut emissions, but it ensures pesticides haven’t been used on your food.  Also, gardening is a good way to help with habit number four.

4.       Spend more time outside.  This requires you to use less electricity than you would sitting inside at a computer or watching TV.

5.       When remodeling your house, look for used flooring and other supplies.  This keeps these items out of the landfill, which is an excellent way to promote sustainability.  You can also consider selling or donating your floors, doors, windows, and more when remodeling.

6.       Replace electronic kitchen appliances with models that don’t require electricity.  Examples of such electronics are juicers, can openers, and coffee grinders.  This helps to reduce electricity use.

7.       Check out the ingredients for things such as toothpastes, shampoos, and soaps.  See if you can cut out chemicals in these products by looking for more environmentally friendly products.

8.       Completely rinse off your boat when you take it out of the water.  This helps slow the spread of the invasive species zebra mussel.  This mussel will compete with native species for resources, and clog pipes. 

9.       Turn your computer off at night.  By keeping your computer on when not using it, you waste a lot of energy, not to mention you increase your energy bill.  Turning off after use is another easy way to promote sustainability.

10.   Don’t use the “hot” water setting on your washing machine.  Using a lower setting saves a lot of energy.  For example, heating water to 140°F uses almost two times the energy that heating to 104°F does.

11.   Pay bills online.  This saves paper, and ensures that the bill will be paid on time. 

All of these are excellent ways to live a practical, sustainable life.

Source: Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=being-green-11-enviro-habits

Farmer’s Markets: A Good Way to Live Sustainably

What’s one of the easiest ways to live a more sustainable life?  Shopping at a Farmer’s Market.  This is an easy way to live your life more sustainably as well as being able to eat better food.

Shopping at a Farmer’s Market is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint.  Although you may have to drive farther than the grocery store, the food you buy is grown locally, and therefore less carbon emissions are released during the transportation of the product.

Also, because they are grown by local farmers, they are less likely to use environmentally-degrading fertilizers.  This eliminates the possibility of runoff from the fertilizers, and keeps these inorganic chemicals out of the water system.  The more we do this, the more we can protect our environment and keep our waters clean.

Farmer’s Markets also tend to have lower prices than those of grocery stores.  This, in effect, adds to the pros of a Farmer’s Market. 

All in all, Farmer’s Markets are an excellent way to live a more sustainable life, if you are willing to make the drive out to them.

Terracycle

I’ve noticed on some packages I’ve gotten recently the word “Terracycle” in corners.  I decided to look into what that means.

Terracycle is a company that collects what they consider “previously not recyclable or hard-to-recycle materials.”  Examples of this would be chip bags and Ziploc bags.  They then take these products and “upcycle” them into new products.

Terracycle insists that recycling is different from upcycling.  Although similar in concept, when recycling, you break the object down and change its form.  In upcycling, you keep the product in the same form, but just reuse it.

To participate, you join a collection group, or “brigade”, and start saving your materials that you signed up to recycle.  Then, take it to your local UPS Store, which ships the products to Terracycle.  Most of their programs are free, and most will donate two to four cents for each product to a school or charity of choice. 

Terracycle is an excellent way to live sustainably.  They are eliminating the idea of “trash,” and are finding excellent ways to reuse materials.  They currently make 256 different products, and that number is expected to grow within the years to come.

Source: Terracycle: http://www.terracycle.net/

Pepsi and Coca-Cola Introduce New Plant-Based Bottles

Pepsi and Coca-Cola are both introducing plant-based bottles to consumers soon.  Coca-Cola has already begun its program, and Pepsi is planning to roll out its version beginning with a pilot program starting next year.  Both these plastics have the same basis as regular, plastic PET bottles.  However, they have replaced petroleum-based chemicals with plant-based chemicals to make the bottles more environmentally friendly.

The reason they introduced this bottle?  Increased hype about the green movement is one reason.  Coca-Cola has been searching for a plant-based bottle since around 2002, and believes they have found the answer.  Their new model is made from thirty percent plant products and is fully recycle.  Deemed “PlantBottles,” these bottles have been specially formulated so that they can hold all of Coca-Cola’s products, not just certain ones.  They also look at the energy input put into the plants they use in their bottles, and select which plants to use based on the energy input.  So far, they have selected to use only sugarcane and molasses from Brazil.  However, that is bound to change in the future as farmers become more aware of this opportunity to partner with Coca-Cola.  Coca-Cola’s goal is to recycle these bottles, because they believe it is better to reuse the plastic than to make a bio-degradable plastic and put the bottles back in the Earth after just one use.  They are working on expanding bottle-to-bottle recycling.  Their ultimate goal: have one hundred percent plant based plastics on the market by 2020. 

Pepsi’s bottle is in the beginning stages of their plant-based bottle, and won’t begin selling it until 2012.  It is supposed to be plant-based and recyclable; however, it will also use materials that come from Pepsi’s food businesses. 

Source: Smart Planet: http://www.smartplanet.com/people/blog/pure-genius/coca-cola-packaging-goal-is-all-beverages-in-plantbottles-by-2020/5305/?tag=content;col1

Smart Planet: http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/business-brains/new-battleground-in-beverage-wars-sustainable-packaging/14313/

Alternatives to Plastic Food Containers

Even if you reuse your plastic containers multiple times, the process used to make plastic is still very unsustainable.  And if it is broken, if discarded in a landfill, can become very toxic when it biodegrades, and is ultimately an unsustainable practice.  Therefore, it is best to look for alternatives to plastic food containers when possible.

In the home

You may use a lot of Tupperware; I know that I do.  However, there are better alternatives than to use Tupperware.  A good choice is to use glass storage containers.  They are more environmentally friendly, are more sustainable when produced, and are less damaging if thrown in a landfill.  An aluminum or tin container would be good as well, and they are widely available.  They would also be easier to recycle.

For Packing Lunch

When packing a lunch, it is a good idea to use a metal lunch box instead of a plastic one, as they are more sustainable.  Also, instead of using plastic, disposable utensils, pack metal ones from home and then bring them back to wash.  Instead of using plastic Ziploc bags, look for cloth snack wraps.  These are reusable and overall are more sustainable than plastic, disposable bags.  Make sure not to buy oilcloth, however, as they are laminated cloth, meaning they are coated in plastic.

These methods help to reduce our impact on the environment, and overall are much more sustainable than even reusing plastic materials.

Source: Care 2 Make a Difference: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/plastic-free-food-storage.html