Friday, May 31, 2019

Easy Everyday Environmentalist - Do Good in 20 Easy Ways

How long does it take to break down a plastic bottle? A grim 450 years to 1000 years (Source 1). How long does it take to make a easy to use a plastic coffee lid? Seconds. Default. Automatic. Start today by skipping a coffee cup lid.

We are busy, modern, efficient citizens. We want easy steps to be better for the environment without inconvenience. That can be done! This article tells you how. Read more.

Modern technology has brought us convenience. We are moving so fast in the digital world, focused on productivity and efficiency, we forgot the footprint we left behind. Thankfully, Planet Earth I & II are very popular in the Silicon Valley. We became acquainted with plastic pollution in the ocean, coral bleaching, marine life trapped and harmed by fishing lines and plastics.

Skip the Coffee Lid

"From a sustainability perspective, answering the question of how long it takes various types of garbage to decompose is important. We should reduce the consumption of products that generate waste materials that take a long time in landfills to get completely decomposed." 

Yes, it is easier to spill a paper cup of coffee but a little bit of caution and inconvenience can reduce plastic wastes. It is estimated that Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day! (Source 4) If each lid weighs 2 oz that is 800 000 000 ounces or 22680 metric tons per day! Skip that coffee lid. A hard-core environmentalist will skip the paper cup as well, but our goal is to make huge impacts with tiny habit changes. 80/20 rule applies. 

Make Good Purchase Choices

San Francisco grocer, ice creamery, and food stand Bi-Rite offers biodegradable cups, compostable forks spoons and bowls. Stanford Dining has been trying to compost all its lunch time utensils and waste since 2010. (Source 2) Patagonia still participates in conservation efforts around the world.  REI outdoor clothing and accessories ran campaigns on behalf of protecting public lands of United States in the past two years. Support these efforts by shopping and dining at places that make good choices.

Note the biodegradable cups look very much like plastic cups. You can spot them by reading the labels on the bottom and side of the cups.

Be careful of greenwashing. Fast Company recently published an article about companies greenwashing its consumers making sustainable commentaries that are not a part of the company's practice. (Source 3)

Notice that your six-pack beer rings look different? They may be better for sea turtles. Some of them are even edible. Source 5

Reuse as Much as Possible

Cleverly reusing, recycle, comfortably is o easy task. In my house, we gamify this to see how clever we can get and get lots of fun out of it. 

Remember that morning coffee cup? I use it to host my tiny compostable food bits throughout the day. Use it to replace a trash bag and avoid contaminating. 

Did you know that have a dish washing station with threes tub of water: one for soap, then rinse, then double rinse is better than running the water the whole time? 

My roommate grew up in Texas and does not have everyday recycling reuse baked in her routine, so I remind her of Planet Earth's end-of-season episodes and encourage her and compliment her for her new habit.

Don't Throw Away that Grocery Just Yet

Recipes to help you deal with excess grocery:

Sometimes I cook for 1, usually 2, and at most 5. I want to buy fresh eggs, herbs and organic grocery but I cannot finish them all. Frequently, like many Americans, we have to throw away perfectly good grocery from the fridge, and sometimes, we feel iffy about the expiration dates. 

First, a really good news, CNN reports that FDA plans to unify the expiration, best by, use by date labels to make it easier for Americans to gauge the quality of their food. Source 6.  "The confusion over the various labels is contributing to Americans tossing out $161 billion worth of food each year, the FDA says. That's about 20% of consumer food waste in homes." 

To be honest, I get nervous if my food is one day older than it should be. I have developed a few recipes to avoid this dilemma. When I buy eggs, I make half of the batch into truffle devil's eggs. I make it spicy and creamy and eat it every morning when I don't have time to make breakfast! A side of avocado makes it great too. Excessive milk? Add sugar and heavier cream for a home-made half and half. Fruits that are getting too ripe? Home made pie fillings, jam, spread, add your own sugar to preserve it. Fresh salmon that can go back in three days? Freeze it! Your own previously frozen salmon except this time you know exactly when you froze it and you know it was previously fresh so it is still quite healthy! I have also frozen chicken breast, left over beef slices, salmon and carrots for my cat. My cat needs a wet food or heavy water content diet so I save money (so I can afford  his prescription dry food) by making delicious home-made meals: defrosted spice-less chicken breast with slightly stale oats (that we didn't have time to eat and tastes just a little sad for humans but perfectly healthy and nutritious still), left-over beef gravy with flakes of defrosted salmon chunks and carrots bits, all fully cooked, no spice, a very tiny amount of salt. You'd be surprised how 2 dollars worth of chicken breast can feed a cat for days! Plus, I know home-made meals are often healthier and fresher than packaged meals. To make packaged meals have long shelf life, the content usually is high on transfat but healthy pet food is expensive.

Too much fresh basil and olive oil? Pesto sauce. 

Beyond the Basics: use leaves to wrap food instead of plastics

A particularly creative solution is to bring back the traditional east asian and south east asian way to wrap food in leaves to reduce food packaging waste. It's still practiced in many south east asian countries and also east asian countries like Japan. 



Source

  1. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-long-does-it-take-garbage-to-decompose-2878033
  2. https://lbre.stanford.edu/pssistanford-recycling/composting/food-and-compostable-material-collection
  3. To provide link
  4. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-coffee-obsession_n_987885
  5. https://www.fastcompany.com/3060131/these-six-pack-rings-are-edible-so-they-wont-kill-wildlife
  6. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/health/fda-packaged-food-labels/index.html

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