The Green Canadian

The End of a Blog (for now)

2009-09-27T19:08:00.003-04:00

Well, despite my good intentions, I haven't been able to keep up with the blog on any kind of regular basis since I started teaching. I have high hopes that as I get my classes under control, I'll be able to start up again, but for now I think it's more important that I focus on my lesson planning and on trying to keep in touch with some friends and family.

I'll still be living a green lifestyle (we walked to the grocery store today!) and I'll still be reading books looking for more ideas to incorporate. I may well post book reviews or cool ideas on here on a sporadic basis. If you'd like to keep up to date with any blog posts, I'd suggest subscribing using an RSS reader. I use Google Reader and I've found it to be very simple, and a great way to keep up with the blogs I read.

Food Waste Friday - on Sunday!

2009-09-13T17:20:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the lateness of Food Waste Friday, it's been a busy weekend so far!

I'm not too disappointed in my waste this week. There's a bit of Chilean Dal, which might have still been ok, but frankly I've eaten a lot of it and it wasn't that great to start with. There's also some celery. We have a real problem using celery up before it goes bad. We do a bit better if we clean and chop it all at once, but even then we just end up with some cleaned and chopped celery going slimy in a pool of water.

I am going to be doing something to reduce waste tonight though. It's the start of the massive garbage nights in my area, when you can throw out as much and as large an item as you want to. Which means it's also time to see about a Landfill Rescue! I'll let you know if I find anything.

Green Birthday Presents

2009-09-10T22:11:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday! Given that I now blog about being green, that could make gift-giving a little harder. Luckily my husband was up to the challenge. The most important part of being a green gift is that the recipient will actually use/want the gift. Frankly, that's fairly important for any successful gift. In my case, he went with a combination of practical and fun. For practical gifts, I needed a new pair of running shoes and I'd been putting it off for awhile (I don't really like shopping that much). So, since it was a birthday gift I had no choice but to go out and pick up a pair, and I'm glad that I have them now, my old ones were definitely used up!

My fun gift came from the liquor store. :) I'm a big fan of apple cider, and I've mostly always drunk Strongbow or Blackthorn. Both are imported from England, but they were the best choices available at the LCBO. However, it looks like cider is gaining in popularity, and the choices have expanded as well. Last month I discovered County Cider from Picton, ON and was very happy with the taste, and the fact that Picton is a lot closer than England. Proving that he pays attention, and that he reads my blog, my husband picked up four bottles. Another great thing about this cider is that it comes in refillable bottles, so there's never any waste. One's chilling in the fridge right now, getting ready for the weekend.

So, that's my advice for giving green gifts. 1. Make them useful gifts 2. Make them local products.

First Day of School!

2009-09-08T20:07:00.002-04:00

This was my first day as a teacher and I'd like to have an ecological feel to my classroom(s). I've quickly realized that paper free is NOT possible in our school. The idea of doing a lot of work on the computers is great, but not when you have two computers and 27 students!

I think what I'm going to do to try and reduce paper usage is a) a lot of group work and b) a dedicated duotang for each student where they must place their papers as soon as they receive them. One thing I noticed in my practice teaching is that a class of 30 students can somehow go through 50 copies of the same handout! I'm hoping that by me keeping the duotangs at school for the most part, they'll stay organized and complete. It's horrible when you give a handout, and then find them all over the hallway! I'm also hoping that once the students know that there are no extra handouts, they'll be more careful of the ones they have. I figure the first time they have to copy a handout onto lined paper themselves will encourage them to keep their handouts!

I'd also like to find some articles/books that the students can read on their own that have an environmental theme. I'm sure I'll come up with a few more ideas as the year progresses, but if you have any, feel free to email me or leave a comment!

Food Waste Friday

2009-09-04T20:28:00.003-04:00

Sigh. Another Friday, another day of food waste. This week I'm guilty of neglecting my produce.

The green pepper started liquefying when I picked it up, there's fuzzy green spots on the pears, and the apple is nasty. The only one I don't feel bad about is the apple...that batch was flavourless and mushy to start with, so I wasn't inspired to eat it. Unfortunately the green pepper and pears are victims of good intentions with no real plan. Since I hope to start menu planning this week, hopefully we'll be able to avoid that kind of waste next week!

You can check out the other participants in Food Waste Friday over at The Frugal Girl. I see a number of them had better weeks than I did!

Quality of Life...and Blog!

2009-09-03T15:37:00.002-04:00

Now that I'm working as a teacher full time, I'm finding I don't have as much time in the evenings anymore, and I suspect it'll get worse when the students start next week! Since I'd like to avoid writing little posts without much value, I'm going to go from six posts a weeks on average, to three or four. Hopefully that will let me focus on my students, keep inspired for a green lifestyle, and still see my husband every once in a while!

One post that is definitely staying around will be the Food Waste Fridays. As a sneak peak, I can tell you that since I haven't been making a concerted effort with menu planning and food waste this week, it's going to show in the picture! I'm definitely going to need the accountability/embarrassment of the pictures to keep me on track.

Green Product: Glass Straws

2009-09-01T22:11:00.002-04:00

I'm all about being green, but I'm not sure I'd go this far to eliminate my use of plastics. Introducing the GlassDharma, the green alternative to the plastic drinking straw. The idea of trading in plastic straws for a straw made of glass....is it really that much greener? Even though we'd be reducing by re-using a glass straw, the resources that go into making the glass straw, the specialized cleaning brush, and the protective case (hemp or bamboo) along with the fact that you have to clean the straw after every use.....you've got to remember that that all takes energy, even if it's not petroleum based.

I like to use a straw at least as much as the next person - some drinks just taste better through a straw, though I can never convince my husband of that fact! However, if I ever get concerned enough with the environmental impact of my straw usage, I think I'll just start cutting back instead of switching to a glass straw. :)

Rinse and Repeat

2009-08-31T19:37:00.003-04:00

The first time I read a book which mentioned that my shampoo may not be all that green, I thought "I should look into that" and promptly forgot. Right now I'm reading another book (review to come) which has another large section on the impacts of shampoo on both the environment, and possibly on your body. This book talks a lot about the Precautionary Principle, which can be summarized as 'if you think it might have a bad impact, try not to do it'.

I don't have a favourite shampoo, but I pulled out the one currently in use, and here's the list of ingredients. I warn you now, there may be some spelling mistakes. I double checked, but most of those words aren't in my everyday vocabulary and spell check was no help at all!

water: nothing scary about this ingredient.
sodium lauryl sulfate: used to create lather, also in engine degreasers (higher concentration). May worsen some skin conditions, cause canker sores.
ammonium laureth sulfate: listed as very harsh in terms of shampoo use
sodium xylenesulfonate: a little disturbed when my search for this one took me too a pesticide database! Not a lot of information, but it's only slightly toxic.
acrylates copolymer: this search brought up a water treatment chemicals page. Harmful to skin and eyes contact.
sodium chloride: this is salt.
laureth-4: also called dodecyl alcohol, ethoxylated. Very harmful to marine life, but only a mild skin irritant for us.
dimethicone: makes hair shiny and slippery. Seems to have only moderate concerns for toxicity.
citric acid: Also found in pop.
butyrospermum parkii (shea butter) extract
hydrolyzed algae extract
cocamide mea
fragrance: Although not guaranteed, fragrance often means phthalates, possible endocrine disruptor
glycol disterate
sodium benzoate
polyquaternium-10
disodium edta
polyquaternium-6
methylchloroisothiazolinone
methylisothiazolinone
red 33
blue 1

Well, I was planning on looking up all the ingredients, but there were so many.... I think it's worth trying out some eco-friendly options. I might check out some of the local stores and do some online research. I think I can get used to the low-sudsing of shampoos without these chemicals, but it'll still have to prove itself good at cleaning hair! If anyone has suggestions...I'm all ears!

Meatless Meal - Chilean Dal

2009-08-29T12:12:00.003-04:00

In an ongoing effort to decrease my environmental footprint, I've been experimenting with meatless meals. Meat uses up a lot more resources than vegetables/grains, so by decreasing my meat consumption I become more environmentally friendly!

The latest experiment is a Chilean Dal recipe that I found at The Simple Dollar. I give it maybe 2 stars out of 5. I made a few substitutions (I don't like cooked carrots, so I threw in some tofu and broccoli) and I just didn't have any cilantro. I found that the recipe made A LOT of food, even though Trent's version was already cut down from the version he first found. We had three adults for dinner, and I have enough for at least 3-4 more meals for myself (I doubt my husband will eat this). I have to admit I found the recipe to be disappointingly bland. The salt and pepper to taste help, but it needs something more. Hot sauce also helped. Maybe the addition of some curry paste, or a lot more onion and garlic. If I try this recipe again I'll try spicing it up a bit. I doubt I'll be cooking it anytime soon, I'm sure I can find other recipes that are more to my family's taste.

Trent’s Chilean Dal

1 cup of lentils
1 large red potato, chopped but unskinned
1 chopped carrot
2 chopped tomatoes
1/2 hot pepper, chopped
1/2 small onion chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
8 ounces tomato sauce (small can)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp beer or sherry
olive oil
1/8 cup chopped cilantro
salt and pepper

Night before:
1. Chop potato, carrot, tomatoes, pepper, onion, garlic, and cilantro.
2. Soak and cook lentils till soft. Drain and rinse, set aside.

Next day:
1. Sautee onions, garlic, hot pepper, and cumin in olive oil. Add beer or sherry.
2. Add vinegar, potatoes, and carrots, cover with water, bring to boil.
3. Add tomatoes and cook till potatoes are soft.
4. Add lentils and tomato sauce.
5. Salt and pepper to taste. Add more water or beer if it’s too dry, or add hot sauce if you like it spicier.
6. Throw in the cilantro, take if off the heat. Serve after a few minutes.

Food Waste Friday

2009-08-28T17:20:00.003-04:00

For a while this week I thought I was going to be picture free. Then I started eating a couple of carrot sticks, got distracted, and left one out all night. After that I knew I'd have a picture of a carrot. But wait, there's more! While going through the fridge I found a container. Difficult to identify, but those fuzzy green things are in fact breadsticks. Obviously they've been around long enough that they would have qualified for an earlier Food Waste Friday. :) All in all, I'm not too disappointed, everything went into the compost instead of the garbage, and there wasn't that much even to go into the compost! Being publicly accountable for my waste, along with everyone else participating in Food Waste Friday with The Frugal Girl is really helping me stay conscious of our food, and inspiring me to use it up earlier. You can check out how the other participants did this week off the links at The Frugal Girl.

Exciting Times!

2009-08-27T10:01:00.002-04:00

Sorry about no blog post yesterday, but things got exciting around here! I just finished teacher's college this past year, and had returned to work in industry since teaching jobs are hard to come by right now. Well, yesterday I was offered a full time teaching job! So I spent most of yesterday wandering around in a happy daze, and explaining to my current employer that even though I'd only been back for 2.5 weeks, I was going to be leaving again. They're being very good about it, letting me only work out a three day notice instead of the standard two weeks. Which is greatly appreciated since the principal of the school I'll be at would like me to be there on Monday to see the school and meet the teachers. School starts in just over a week, so I'd better get busy. :)

This morning I was taking care of signing my new contract, getting benefits, etc. And for the next couple of days I'll be pretty busy finishing up a couple of things at my current work, and transferring some project specific knowledge to the person who's taking over my project, so the posting is a little light. I did make a meatless meal, so I'll post about that on Saturday instead of my usual web round up. I'm hoping that Food Waste Friday will be a small post, but I can already think of one item I'll have to take a picture of this week. :(

A Small Step Back

2009-08-25T12:36:00.002-04:00

Back in June I decided to give up pop, for environmental and health reasons. Since then I've noticed a lot more space in the recycling bins on garbage day, so it looks like it's been effective! Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon this week. For the past two days, I've had a gingerale with my meal. And the can is in the recycling.

I justified this decision since the pop was already in the house, I wasn't adding new waste. Definitely a rationalization. Which made me think that our environmental choices start well before the point of consumption. By creating rules for ourselves we can ensure that our environmental impact stays as low as we want it to go. This past weekend there was a GREAT sale on pop at a local store. I was tempted. I thought I could just pick up a few cases for when we had guests...just in case we needed them. I'm glad now that I remembered I'd given myself a rule about not buying any more pop! Without that rule I probably would have come home with 4-8 cases of pop, and I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't have stayed reserved for guests. Obviously I can't be trusted not to drink it myself if it's in the house. :)

The point here isn't that I'm not buying pop, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't buy pop. The point is that a while back I made a decision about the resources I wanted to consume, and came up with the arbitrary 'no buying pop' rule. And a couple of months later, when the novelty had worn off and there was a great deal to be had, that rule popped into my head at the right moment and made me really think about whether or not this purchase aligned with my values. So, take the effort out of making eco choices, and make up a couple rules that you'll live by (for the most part, unless you're having a party and really need some pop). So long as your rules don't kill your quality of life (like I will never buy anything that uses plastic), you'll be greener without having to think about being green.

PS: That's not to say I'll never ever buy pop again. If I'm having a party and know my guests would like pop, I probably will. But by only buying for a specific purpose, though I may pay more for the pop itself, I'll pay less in the long run, and use less resources since it won't get used up mindlessly.

One Small Step

2009-08-24T09:16:00.004-04:00

I'm sure by now that everyone has seen some variant on the commercials that tell us to change one small item in our daily lives and we'll change the world. (If you haven't, you can check some out on YouTube here and here. ) I definitely believe that enough people making changes in their lives can have a profound impact on our resource usage. However, given the size of corporations, it makes sense that they can have an even greater immediate impact. Think about it, the building I work in is probably at least 80x larger than my house (with way more than 80x the computers!). I've switched to using a laptop at home, and it uses about 1/10th of the power of my old desktop. If the 3000 employees that work in the same building as me also switch to laptops that's a huge difference in energy consumption! If I raise my A/C by a degree, that has an impact. If my workplace raises the A/C by a degree, that's a much larger impact.

Now, corporations are not generally motivated by warm fuzzy feelings for the environment, with a few exceptions. There has to be a business reason to make changes to standard operating procedures, and it all boils down to money. The more money a business can make (or save), the more likely they are to implement a green change. And even with cost savings, it can take a while to change the status quo. Which is why I was surprised by something that happened while I was away at school. I've been back at work for two weeks now. Before I left, every two weeks a mail cart would come by and place a pay stub in the mail slot of all those 3000 employees. Most people would look at it and either shred it, or take it home to be disposed of later. I mean, who really wants to end up with 20 years worth of pay stubs hanging around? I admit that I was anticipating the pay stub cart when I received something even BETTER. An email pay stub! I'm not sure exactly when they made this change, but I'm happy to know that there is no more paper being used for pay stubs. Unless of course you're one of those people who prints out your emails to file them. If you are...stop now! Save the files on your computer and make regular backups, but stop printing emails!

Them having made this change makes me think I should look into those little flyers some of my bills send me, the ones that say I can receive my bills online and never get mail from them again. After all, if a corporation can go paperless (or more paperless), I ought to be able to make strides in that direction as well!

PS: As of yesterday, I'm 20% done my 1000 empties challenge!

Web Round Up

2009-08-22T17:33:00.002-04:00

After a few weeks of not having many interesting articles to post, there's been a lot to read on the web this week!

No Impact Man is the blog of a guy who went for a year trying to make no impact on the earth. He also has a movie coming out soon. Today's article is an interesting look at how overwork can create blues, which may in turn lead to overconsumption.

Montreal now has a public bike sharing system. I'm not sure how it's going to work out, but it'll be interesting to watch the results.

When I cooked for the freezer, I mentioned that I'd like to try once a month cooking. Here's a Five Day Freeze plan for those who are having a hard time with once a month cooking (like me).

Despite not understanding Portugese, the ad campaign this post highlights is worth watching. Basically the argument is that if you pee in the shower, you can save the rainforest! The comments on this article are as interesting as the article.

I left the most controversial to the end...MacLean's magazine recently published The Case Against Having Kids. One of the reason's they mention is the environmental impact that more people have on the planet. There's actually a group taking this further, promoting the voluntary extinction of the human race. Not a group I'm planning on joining. This article promoted a lot of response in cyberspace, including a post called Children Are Worth Having. I wish that some of the responses had focused on the environmental impact of children....with used furniture/clothing and cloth diapering opportunities, the eco-impact doesn't have to be as severe as the first article implies. Maybe that's a post for another day!

Food Waste Friday

2009-08-21T13:29:00.004-04:00

Though blogging about my food waste is making me more conscious, and making me try to use up food before it goes bad, sometimes that's just not enough.

Here we have a peach. I knew it was going bad, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat it, it wasn't a very flavourful peach. :( Though it's not in the picture, for the last couple of days I've been carting a pear back and forth to work - I just hadn't eaten it with my lunch. Inspired to avoid waste, I took it out for lunch today. Apparently I was too late to avoid waste....if you'd seen it you wouldn't have eaten it either.

On a related note, ever wonder how fruit flies show up as soon as fruit goes bad? I'd guarantee they weren't in the house, but once the peach went, they showed up! From this article I learned you should definitely pitch any fruit that's going, larvae can happen fast! I also learned that those little flies can live on just the fumes of alcohol. I still don't want them in my house, but you have to admit that's a pretty neat trick!

You can check out the other participants in Food Waste Friday over at The Frugal Girl.

Meatless Meal - 'Spaghetti'

2009-08-20T14:10:00.004-04:00

Time for another meatless meal (so long as you use meat-free sauce)! This one is probably the easiest no-meat main dish you could make. I got the idea for The Biggest Loser cookbook which had a similar recipe (though they probably didn't put as much parmesan on their plate as I did on mine).

'Spaghetti'
Ingredients:
1 Spaghetti Squash
1 Jar pasta sauce, or homemade

First you need to cut the squash in half, lengthwise and hollow out the seeds. At this point the squash looks nothing like spaghetti, which made me worry I'd bought the wrong kind the first time. No worries! It'll look like spaghetti later.

Next, place each half cut side down on a cookie sheet. Cook in the oven for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the squash is soft when you poke it with a fork. Make sure you're poking the inside of the squash, not the skin or you'll end up overcooking (I speak from experience here).

Take the squash out of the oven, use a fork to scrape the squash into a bowl. This is where it looks like spaghetti. It's also a bit watery so you may want to drain after scooping.

Place squash on plate, spoon some sauce over the squash and you have an acceptable substitute for spaghetti.

I served this with some fresh green beans and garlic bread, which were great complements to the squash. I enjoyed the meal, and so did my guests. In fact, one of them even asked me how I got the pasta to be so translucent! I can see this being made at my house again, though probably not very often since my husband believes squash were not meant to be eaten. I felt the same way, but this doesn't taste too much like squash, more like whatever sauce you use.

Rebates go Ungreen

2009-08-19T10:36:00.004-04:00

A few months ago we purchased some computer equipment that came with a mail-in rebate. Being the frugal types that we are, we sent in the mail in rebate and waited for the cheque to come in. Now, you could argue that rebates themselves are un-green since they require you to mail in some paper, and then they mail you back some paper. You could definitely make an argument that it would be more eco-friendly for the manufacturer to just do something crazy, like lower the price of the product, and avoid the whole hassle of a rebate process. You'd be right! I'm sure manufacturers have many reasons to offer rebates. I'm equally sure that one of the reasons is that people buy the product and they forget or can't be bothered to send the rebate in. I can't really blame the manufacturer for that...they're letting people get some money back, but with a decent chance that they can keep some of the money after all. It's a good situation for them. And really...we're not using up that much of anything to mail in a piece of paper and get another piece of paper back. Paper comes from wood, and wood is renewable! They could be doing worse things.

Oh wait...they are doing worse things now! Instead of the expected cheques in the mail, we received a couple of rebate cards that look like Mastercards. Yep, plastic cards with a tiny amount of money on them that we must spend at a merchant. And not just any merchant, but one that will accept these rebate cards. Despite the fact that they look like Mastercards, not everyone will accept them (most will). So now instead of money in the bank that we can save up for something, we have two more cards to carry around waiting to be spent (didn't take us long actually...our grocery store accepts them). Why would a manufacturer do this? What happened to all the green hype about corporations wanting to be eco-friendly? How can sending us plastic cards, along with 2-3 pages of cardholder agreements be less expensive than sending a cheque? Maybe it has something to do with the diabolically small print on the back of one of the pages. The one that says that after 12 months there will be a $3.50 per month Account Maintenance Fee, a 3.00% per transaction International Transaction Fee and a $9.95 per incident Plastic Replacement Fee. So, if you get one of these anti-green rebate cards, make sure you use it up quickly. I'm not sure how to convince companies they should go back to the cheque method, but I'll be emailing our companies thanking them for the rebate, but expressing disappointment in the method of payment.

Thanks to Andres Rueda for posting the above picture on flickr and allowing its use.

Creeping DeCluttering

2009-08-18T08:19:00.000-04:00

I really like having a clean house, but *really* hate cleaning. It's just overwhelming to try to clean the whole house at a time. Unfortunately, clutter seems to multiply itself. You throw the mail on the dining room table one day, and the next thing you know, you're back to this.

Luckily for my house and myself, An Exercise in Frugality recently posted about Decluttering a Drawer. I decided I'd start off with my dresser. Here it is before:

After about 15-20 minutes (I'm not a fast cleaner) it was looking like this:

Now, that's great for me and my dresser, but what does it have to do with being green? Mostly this helps reduce product usage. With a clean, organized space you're less likely to buy random junk and clutter up your area. You have a specific need, and know where you're going to store your purchases BEFORE you make the purchase. There's also the fact that when you know what you have, you're less likely to buy duplicates. For example, it turns out that there was an open package of Halls on my dresser. Buried. I didn't realize that, so I went and got another (I have a cold right now).

It turns out that decluttering can also multiply itself. I was happy with the way the dresser turned out, and the next thing I knew I was putting away the pile of clothes that always accumulates right beside the dresser (ok, it was a couple of days later). Next I think I'll tackle the pile of sewing repairs off in a corner, some of which have been there for an embarrassingly long time!

Is It Green?

2009-08-17T08:22:00.003-04:00

I was heading to a party this past weekend and wanted to bring a gift that would be cool and green at the same time. After a bit of thought, I decided on a cut fruit basket...what could be greener than fruit, even if it does have to travel a little bit? I thought this way I'd avoid adding clutter and stuff to someone else's house. But was it really a green gift? When I picked it up, this is what I was given.

I was a bit disappointed in the amount of wrapping and packaging, but the cardboard is recyclable, and I understand that as a business, if you're sending someone home with cut fruit you'd like it to be covered in plastic.

Here's the basket ready to eat...looks pretty green, right?

Unfortunately, this company skewered all the fruit on plastic rather than wooden skewers. And they're stuck in some kind of florist's foam block to keep them standing upright. However, the fruit tasted great, the basket looked great, and with a few small changes I think this could be a really green gift. To make these baskets at home I think all you'd need would be: fruit, melon baller, funky cookie cutter.

Option 1:
Cut the fruit into cool shapes, stick them on a wooden skewer (renewable resource) and use the same kind of foam block and basket as above. Green savings: plastic wrap, cardboard box, plastic skewers. AND the foam and basket are reusable if you're making them for your own party.

Option 2:
This one came to me as I was writing the article, trying to get rid of the foam and basket. At first I thought of just putting the skewers in a vase, but realized the skewers would probably fall in, especially as their numbers dwindles as people ate the fruit. Then I realized you could stick the skewers in some RICE KRISPIE SQUARES! Since you can shape Rice Krispie squares into about any shape you'd like, you could create any number of funky shapes for your skewers. I'd probably start off with just a big rectangle and make a garden of fruit flowers. Green Savings: plastic wrap, cardboard box, plastic skewers, foam block, basket. The only thing that wouldn't be edible would be the wooden skewers, and they're a renewable resource. I can see myself using this option the next time I have a party! :) Extra bonus: no danger of collecting a lot of different baskets in your basement.

UPDATE: I've been told that what I thought was foam was in fact a head of lettuce holding the skewers upright. I love that!

Web Round Up - Comics!

2009-08-16T11:47:00.004-04:00

I haven't done a lot of reading on the web this week, but there were a couple of cute comics that were kind of environmental today. I like to keep up with a few comics on http://comics.com. :)

I also found a listing of "The Best Green Blogs" from Canada that I'd like to check out.

Food Waste Friday

2009-08-14T18:33:00.005-04:00

Alas, my streak is at an end. I was hoping to have another photo free week for Food Waste Friday, but when I went downstairs to get some onion for a sandwich I found out there was definitely going to be food waste this week.

Here we have most of a bag of onions that have gone soft and mushy. And kind of brown on the inside. I salvaged a couple, but the bag was a goner. I didn't think they were that old, but I made the classic mistake of storing my onions near the potatoes, which may have contributed to the speed of going bad.

I almost had some vegetable to add to the photo today, but a timely post at The Simple Dollar reminded me that I should throw leftover vegetables into a freezer container and just make a soup when it gets full. We'll see how that works out. :) I also managed to use up the last of the mushrooms and green onions today, inspired by the fact that I didn't want to take a picture!

Cooking for the Freezer

2009-08-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

Sometimes it's just easier to order out for pizza than it is to cook a meal when you get home from work. Unfortunately, getting it's hard to be green while you're eating takeout - all the containers and driving to deliver the food really add up. Luckily, there's a greener solution that doesn't take much time or effort at all!

Today when I got home from work I started making Black Beans and Rice for dinner (meatless meal!). The recipe says to use a 9x13 pan, but I decided to use a couple of square pans and have one for dinner and one for a future dinner in the freezer. I also doubled the recipe for two more trays to go in the freezer. Here's my trays as they're about to go into the oven.

It takes hardly any more time to put double the ingredients in the bowl, and helps green my life in a number of ways.
1. Cooking all of them at once means that I'm using one hour worth of oven time once instead of 2 or 4 times.
2. Packaging the other 3 trays for the freezer keeps my freezer closer to full, and a full freezer is a more efficient freezer.
3. Next time I'm tempted to just order out for pizza, I can pull one of these out of the freezer. It'll be ready in about the same amount time as ordering out and no takeout containers! And if it's just DH and I eating, we'll have enough for lunch the next day as well. :)
4. Since I doubled the recipe, I won't have to throw out half a can of tomato juice again!

Make sure you let the extra servings cool before you put them into your freezer - no sense in making your freezer work extra hard by throwing them in right away. Since I was planning on eating one for supper, I let the other three cool while the dinner portion cooked the additional 20 minutes with cheese, and while we ate. By the time we were finished, the other three were cool enough to make their way to the freezer. It's a good idea to label the dishes before you freeze them. I wrapped them in tinfoil, but ideally I'd like to get glass containers that have a nice permanent rubber/plastic lid that would go in the freezer and just get removed for the re-cooking. Someday I might even try the Once a Month Cooking plan, but for now I'll just increase my freezer slowly by doubling recipes as I make them!

All the Cool Kids are Doing It

2009-08-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's official, green is the new cool. If you need the proof, check out the number of contests now available that let you show off y

Count Me In Ontario (Ontario only). This one rewards municipalities that have the largest percentage drop in power consumption, or the largest per capita participation. In this case, participation means signing up on the web site. Your community has to have signed up as well. Even if you don't sign up, there's a list of 100 ways to reduce your energy usage, it's a good reminder list - I do 28 of them, and there's a lot that aren't really applicable for everyone.

There are also two other contests linked from the same site, a Fridge Relic contest and Home Power Saver contest.

A quick google search yields a few more contests. If you happen to live in Okotok (somewhere near Calgary), you can enter the B Green 4 Green contest to win $1000. Industrial Alliance customer? Go paperless for the chance to win a laptop. Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia residents can win a ceiling fan from Living Lighting.

Actually, entering online contests can be a fairly green hobby since there's no stamps or letters required, so long as you actually want the prizes! It's not green for me to win a year's worth of cat food if I don't have a cat. One good spot to find green contests is the Contest Girl website, which lists this contest to win green windows if you're a resident of the US.

Local Cider!

2009-08-11T07:00:00.001-04:00

Farmer's markets are great in the summer for helping you to Eat Local, but what about drink? Sure, tap water is local, but sometimes you'd like to drink something other than water. If you like beer or wine there are a multitude of local choices for Ontarians. Unfortunately I don't really like either beer or wine. :( What I do like is a nice cider, like Strongbow (England), Blackthorn (England) or Bulmers (Ireland). As you can see from the brackets, my drinks have come a long way to get to my glass.... which is why I was so excited last time I was at the liquor store to see that the cider section has expanded!

Most of the ciders are still from across the ocean, but I brought home a bottle of County Cider from Picton, Ontario, and a bottle of Clos Saint-Denis Bourg from Quebec. Both were excellent ciders, but the County Cider is a bit more economical. The web page for County Cider also shows an ice cider, which I'm interested in trying out someday. While I was writing this article I discovered that you can also search the LCBO inventory to see if your store has particular products in stock. I thought this was pretty cool. For example, here I found that there's an LCBO not far from my work that has a Quebec cider I'd never even heard of, so I might have to stop by on my way home sometime. I wonder if you can use this product list to ask your local store to order in products they don't have on hand - an easy way to help you drink local!

Book Review: Green Chic

2009-08-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

I've recently finished reading Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style written by Christie Matheson. So, what's the book about?

The book is broken down into eight basic sections, each dealing with going green in a particular area of your life. As you might guess from the title, the author is mostly focused on living a stylish life, and how it really is stylish to be green, and how being green can make you more stylish.

The first section focuses on Little Green Things, and I have to say I almost put the book down after reading this area. If you've never had a green thought in your life, the suggestions might be valuable for you. Personally, 'turn off the lights when you're not using them' didn't add to my repertoire of green tricks.

The next section is Home, Green Home which definitely got a bit better. Along with the standard advice of using green cleaning products (she suggests Method, Mrs. Meyer's and Planet as the manufacturers), the author really gets into what the ingredients in standard cleaners do to both us and our environment. She goes through a few different areas in the home, and I may try out using handkerchiefs instead of tissues (organic cotton or hemp). I've thought about handkerchiefs before, and this book reminded me that I was interested in them as an alternative to Kleenex! The most informative part of this chapter is where the author details the different types of plastic, what they are, and why we should (or shouldn't) use them. The little number inside the recycling symbol tells you a lot about the plastic, and doesn't necessarily mean you can actually recycle the item. Basically, stay far away from anything that has a 3, 6 or 7 in that little symbol. Definitely avoid anything with the number 3 which is polyvinyl chloride, it's very resource intensive, lots of toxic chemicals, and most recycling facilities won't accept it. There's a few more sections on decorating which would be a great read before starting any small renovations.

Next section is dining and drinking, and the author weighs in heavily on the side of buy local, buy organic. If you have a choice, start with local then try organic. According to her, "the average food item travels about 1,500 miles before it arrives on your plate". The numbers may be a little different for Canada vs the States, but that's a lot of miles, and the food loses nutrition as it travels. She also mentions that meatless meals are far less resource intensive, and to stick with as much unprocessed food as possible. It seems that 17 000 new food products are on the market every year....I doubt there are 17 000 more vegetables or animals discovered every year, so I bet that's a lot of processing!

The next two sections are focused on looking good. Hello, Gorgeous and Green is the New Black deal with makeup, skincare and clothing. I was interested in the list of makeup and hair care ingredients, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be making the effort to switch to green shampoo...in this case the cost differential may be too high, I'll have to look into it more. The clothing section was interesting to me since it is one of the only places in the book that actually suggests getting rid of what you have. The author figures you should "edit your closet" so that you only have items that you love to wear. This lets you get dressed in awesome clothes in the morning, avoids you buying duplicates since you already know exactly what you have and gives you pretty stringent requirements for new clothes - they have to look and feel great, and be green. She gives a list of designers that use eco-friendly fabrics, suggests where to get great vintage clothing and goes over some of the worst fabrics to buy (cotton is bad, wool is better but still heavily treated). This gives me the excuse I wanted to go check out an alpaca sweater...I love the soft feel of the alpaca wool! Jewelery is extremely resource intensive (mining) which I'd never really thought of before. There are jewelers out there who specialize in using recovered metals that are reshaped into modern jewelery...something I'll definitely check out if I need any new items.

Getting Around deals primarily with everyday transportation (try to avoid cars) and travel. She suggests trying to avoid destinations that are anti-green like Las Vegas, and to travel light whenever possible - just a carry on would be ideal. Also try to avoid souvenirs you don't really need/want in favour of truly thoughtful items, or just take a picture. If you don't drive a lot, but don't want to be entirely without a car, a car sharing program such as zipcar could be for you. It's similar to renting, but only available for members and you can get hourly rates in addition to daily. Currently the only Canadian cities participating in zipcar are Toronto and Vancouver, but there may be other car-sharing programs. For that matter if you truly don't drive much, a car rental might be cheaper than buying the car and paying insurance for all those days it's sitting in your driveway! If you do have a car, make sure you keep it maintained so that you get the best mileage possible.

The final two sections, On Occasions and Big Green Things mostly recap suggestions from elsewhere in the book. Basically, use less stuff, don't waste, buy local, avoid synthetics, etc..

Is the book worth reading? It's not bad, though the tone sometimes seems very superficial. Avoid the first section and you should be able to get enough good information to justify borrowing it from the library. I don't think I'd buy this book, or keep it on my bookshelf permanently, but reading it is a great reminder of where I should be looking to green my life.

Web Round Up

2009-08-08T13:21:00.002-04:00

I'm preparing to go back to work on Monday after more than a year off to pursue some schooling. Coincidentally, here's an article from a personal finance blog I read that talks about a corporate culture, and how to create that "culture of excellence" in your own work and home life. The section on High Performance really resonated with me. I find if I'm surrounded by people who are dedicated to being green and frugal, it's a lot easier for me to be green and frugal as well.

Other interesting articles from around the web:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32031719/ns/us_news-environment/ Just because something's in the environment doesn't mean it should stay there! Sometimes it's green to uproot plants or kill off invasive species. This reminded me of when we visited New Zealand a few years ago...the stoats were brought in to kill off the rabbits that were introduced, but instead went after the native flightless birds to the point of extinction and endangerment. And somehow people still think it's a good idea to introduce new species to the eco-system....

http://www.thetinylife.com/?p=239#more-239 A fairly well written article discussing how consumerism impacts the environment.

And finally, I've started reading ToSimplify, a blog about a guy who has just transitioned from apartment dwelling to living in a camper van (he's on day 3 now). This is the second blog I've started reading about someone living in an RV (Early Retirement Extreme also lives in an RV). I think my husband's getting worried! :)

Food Waste Friday

2009-08-07T14:26:00.003-04:00

Note the absence of a picture....that's right, no food waste for me again this week!! It's been helped by the fact that since we've been doing some traveling I've had to really plan meals. (and the fact that we've not been home all the time). I did notice we have some produce that needs using up soon, so when I went to the store today I got enough other ingredients to make up a stir-fry for dinner. I haven't found anything that uses up vegetables like a stir-fry can. : )

I'd like to start organizing the cupboards and the freezer, but I'm a little worried about what I might find and ending up with some food waste! I'd better get to it soon though...ignoring the cupboards and freezer won't make the food in them get any fresher.

Check out how the other bloggers did with food waste over at The Frugal Girl. If you'd like to participate, just post your photo on your blog and link via The Frugal Girl.

Green Car Repair

2009-08-06T21:29:00.005-04:00

A couple of days ago my car was broken into while we were hiking on the Bruce Trail. The vandals broke my front passenger window, but didn't take anything (there was nothing of value in the car). Obviously we couldn't keep driving the car with no passenger window...it's not secure, not to mention noisy, and cold (especially once December rolls around). We took this opportunity to run a green experiment and get used parts from the junk yard. My husband has a friend who's fixing up an old car, so we knew of a junk yard not far from our house. Neither of us is into cars, but we figured it's worth a shot...and even if we couldn't repair it ourselves, we might be able to avoid buying new parts.

The experiment was an unbridled success, and has definitely changed the way we look at car repairs! And Google is an excellent resource for figuring out minor repairs. : ) We got to the junkyard and actually found a car the exact same year and model as mine. We probably could have used parts from other years or models, but remember, this was our first time in a place like thus...I have to admit it is a little intimidating. Our target car was on top of another vehicle, but that just made it a little trickier to get the window out.

We took the passenger window out (after a bit of time with some tools trying to figure out how to disassemble the door...another benefit of going to a junkyard, you get some practice before trying anything on your own car! While we were there, we also picked up the heater/blower since my fan sporadically stops working. When I came home from playing Ultimate Frisbee (where I sprained my finger so I'm typing all this with 6 fingers), my car had a working blower and an intact window! DH said it was a bit tricky getting one of the screws back in, but there's a real sense of satisfaction from knowing that you can fix your own car (new skill!).

So...we fixed the car in an environmentally friendly way, and we saved some green! The mechanic quoted $280 to replace the window in my car. The junkyard charged $38 for the window. Savings of $242...not bad for a half day's work! This doesn't include fixing the blower since I didn't have a quote. The blower cost us an additional $25. The next time we have a small car repair, we'll definitely be using the junkyard. We'll probably try the u-pull section again since it lets us experiment on taking the car apart, but they will also pull the part for you (for a small fee). If you have a number of parts you need, the one near us was having an 'all you can carry out in one armload' day for $50 this weekend. We decided to just go today since we were new to the whole junkyard experience and it's probably pretty busy on those days.

Next time you have a car repair, think about getting used parts - even if you get them to pull the part and your mechanic to install. You're still eco-friendly, and you'll probably save some green as well!

B.Y.O.T. (takeout)

2009-08-05T20:17:00.006-04:00

I like to go out for dinner every now and again, and since we were out hiking yesterday, it seemed like a good day to go out. Also, we were at a B&B so it was either go out for dinner or eat hiking food in our room - go out for dinner was the much better choice. When we go out for dinner, it's highly likely that there will be leftovers...and there should be with the portion sizes given out by most restaurants! East Side Mario's was having a special where you could buy any pizza for $9.99 with the purchase of a beverage. Since both small and regular size pizzas were in the deal, I picked up the regular vegetarian (really, really good if you happen to be going). Now, I found the nutrition information online, and my pizza would have had 1080 calories. According to this site, I need to consume 2095 calories a day to maintain my weight (really, I should look at maybe dropping the 5 lbs I gained while vacationing!). Since I do eat two other meals in a day, and we snack while hiking, eating 1080 calories for dinner is overkill...not to mention I would have been way too full to enjoy the evening.

So...did I get some lovely styrofoam takeout containers? No! How anti-green would that be? Since I knew I'd be going out for dinner, I brought a couple pieces of reusable plastic containers with me and put the leftovers in them. Added bonus...I didn't have to wait for my takeout containers! For those of you who worry about others putting your food away, this takes care of that as well. And since you're already carrying a trendy cloth bag with you, you can just slip your takeout into your bag. (Ok, maybe my bag isn't that trendy, but yours might be) This was my first time bringing tupperware to a restaurant, but I'll definitely continue. It's easy, convenient, and I'm saving the world by reducing the amount of plastic and styrofoam needed!

Vandalism is NOT Green

2009-08-04T18:14:00.003-04:00

Today I was hiking along the Bruce Trail - a fairly green hobby. We were doing 19 km today, so we dropped a car off at one end of the trail, and we all drive back to the beginning of the trail in the other car. That way, once we're finished hiking we can hop in the car we left, pick up the other car, and get on with our evening. Normally this works really well. Today, after a long day of hiking we got back to the car left at the end of the trail; today that was my car. As we neared the end of the trail I spotted my car and got all excited....there's nothing like seeing your car at the end of a long day of hiking...the end is literally in sight! As we switched out of our hiking boots and got ready to drive back to the other car, this is what greeted us on the passenger side.

Yes, as we innocently left our car in the designated parking area, on a busy road, at an intersection with a busy rail trail, someone decided to take a rock and smash it through my front passenger window. Which really sucks to come back to. They opened the glove box, and moved my hair band from a cup holder. That's it - except for the broken window of course. Frankly, I have no idea why they bothered breaking the window...it would have been pretty obvious from looking inside that there was nothing of value. And I do mean nothing...probably the map book was the most expensive thing in the car. However, I'm EXTREMELY grateful that this didn't happen yesterday when my in-laws car was parked there...with all their clothing, and my laptop bag.

So, the only thing I need to replace is one window. In terms of being eco-friendly, obviously it would have been better to keep using my original window. Since that's no longer an option, grr...still kind of mad at the person(s) who broke my window, we're going to go the next most eco-friendly route. Instead of buying a new window, we're checking at the auto wreckers to see if we can pick up a used window and my husband will either install it himself or we'll bring it to the mechanic's. So now, I'm going to continue trying to get ahold of my insurance to see if I'm covered at all, and wait for the police to come see my car for the official report. But I'm still feeling pretty cheerful, and the owner of the B&B we're at has actually just told me that he put some clear plastic up on my car window in case it rains. It's nice dealing with small business owners instead of giant corporations!

Buy Local vs Buy Organic

2009-08-03T21:36:00.002-04:00

There's been a huge increase in the buy organic movement in the last few years. Even my local discount grocery store has a fairly comprehensive organics section. Everyone has different reasons for buying organic, but the most common are health (decrease the amount of chemicals consumed) and the environment (eliminate the chemicals used in the production process).

The other major green purchasing movement is to buy local. When buying local, you're not as concerned with organics, you're looking to minimize the distance your goods travel to get to your plate or house. Farmer's markets and craft shows are good sources for local food and goods. It's often difficult to tell where something has been manufactured if you're buying from a larger chain store.

So....buy local or buy organic? I think that to get the most eco-bang for my buck, I'd like to try buying more local goods. I think that the resources used to transport goods between continents (and sometimes to transport the raw materials away and the finished goods back) has a larger impact on the environment than the difference between organic and non-organic products. Ideally, you can get local and organic.

When I was at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago I picked up the card of a local beef farmer. Another benefit of buying local is that you can talk to the actual farmer or manufacturer. For example, this farmer isn't certified organic (that's pricey and takes a long time) but when you talk to him, you find out that his cows are hormone and antibiotic free and fed on all natural feed. I'd like to try buying a quarter of beef and have that last us through the year. We'll have the satisfaction of knowing that our beef has only traveled about 40 km to get to us, and as an added benefit, it should be less expensive that if we were buying certified organic meat. In order to take advantage of this local beef offer, we need a deep freezer (already have one) and we need space in the deep freezer - I'm betting a quarter of a cow takes up some space! Over the next couple of months I'm going to make a real effort to organize our deep freeze and use up some items to make space for the beef. It's probably a good idea to organize the deep freezer anyways....less chance of something ending up in a Food Waste Friday photo is I can keep track of what's in there.

Food Waste Friday

2009-08-01T23:38:00.003-04:00

No picture, and no food waste this week! My first no-waste week (hopefully of many!). The post is a day late again this week because we were having such fun on vacation we decided to stay an extra day. We actually almost had a No Food week. About an hour outside of town I realized I'd forgotten to pack the hamburgers and hotdogs that were supposed to be some of our dinners. After we got there, and were talking about the planned steak dinner, DH asked where the steak was...turns out I'd forgotten to pack it as well! Good thing we caught some fish, and there was a grocery store not too far away.

Vacation!

2009-07-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

I know, it seems like I just published that I was going on vacation...but that was just a couple of days in the wilderness. This time I'm going fishing! I'll be back in time for Food Waste Friday though, and I'll do a much better job than last week. Since we all know that summer in Canada lasts for July, I figured I should make the most of it!

One In, One Out - A Month Later

2009-07-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Actually, it's been closer to a month and a half since I decided that for every durable item that comes into my house, another durable should leave. This was partially a way for me to become more conscious of my consumption, and partially a way to keep my house decluttered. When I wrote about my plan here, I admit I was feeling pretty confident, arrogant even, in how it was going to work out. After all, I admire simplicity in the house and like to think that I'm not that much of a consumer....I figured I'd have no problem keeping myself from accumulating. I actually thought that I'd probably only acquire a handful of items (if that), that I'd purge stuff I didn't use anymore, and that I might even end up with a clean and elegant house.

Sigh. I know, those of you who know me personally and have visited my house are probably rolling on the floor with laughter right now. I might admire simplicity and aspire towards it, but here's a picture of my dining room right now. In my defense, we've just returned from a trip and haven't unpacked much yet.

So, you already know the clean and elegant house hasn't happened, but how did I do with accumulation and purging? Well, it was closer than I thought it would be! Somehow there was a great sale on some clothing that I actually needed, I went to a store where I could replace a kitchen scale that had broken the month before, my grandmother gave up a deli-slicer, etc... Oh, and we won the centerpiece at a wedding we attended! All in all, from June 16 to July 24 I picked up 18 more items that will be in permanent residence. However, I also got rid of 21 items. The outgoing items were a combination of old computer equipment (sent to the hazardous waste depot), actual garbage (broken pair of sunglasses), and a bunch of other items that I either sold on craigslist, gave away on freecycle, or donated to a charitable organization.

There were days where I ended up buying items where I'd rack my brain over what could go away. Some of the choices were a lot harder than they should be....like the pair of jeans that I've had for almost three years and have never worn because the don't fit me and are unlikely to ever fit me. That was actually a tough choice to give away. Or the tiny pink satin purse that came with some nail polish and I've had for years...way too small to be useful but as soon as I decided to pitch it, I started thinking "well, maybe if..." I've got to say that I don't miss any of the departed items though, and in a few cases I'm pretty glad they're gone and being put to good use! AND when I was going through my closet I found clothing I'd forgotten about that did fit me, and looked good.

I have to admit that knowing I was keeping track of items in and out did actually make me think more about items I was considering buying. Having to think about what would leave the house acted as a check on impulse buying and made sure that I: a) really wanted whatever it was; and b) had a use for the item.

Will I continue with a One In, One Out policy? I think I will, but I won't track the items quite so closely, instead I'll just have an In column and an Out column with checkmarks. If the In starts getting ahead of the Out, I'll know that that's not the direction I want to go! Though if I really want to end up with a neat and uncluttered house, my sister suggested I might want to adopt a One In, Two Out policy for awhile! I'll probably also need to work on organization. :)

Food Waste Friday

2009-07-25T18:09:00.003-04:00

It's Food Waste Friday on Saturday for me this week! In part that's because I got home fairly late Friday night and didn't want to start cleaning the fridge and taking pictures. Since I'd been away for awhile I knew that there would be some waste. I tried to give perishable food away to friends before I left, but after I'd hit the road I knew I'd forgotten some. The other reason it's a day late is that I'm frankly ashamed of my picture this week. Next time I leave for an extended visit I have to do a better job of clearing the fridge before departure!

Featured above we have: rice (which I'd forgotten about or I could have used), Black Beans and Rice (which I'm really upset that I'd forgotten about because I definitely would have eaten it), pita strips, half a can of tomato juice (which I'd bought for a recipe and didn't end up using the second half in time), and.....a container of hummus. I don't blame you if you can't recognize the hummus, it definitely didn't have that colour or texture when I left! I don't feel super guilty about the hummus, someone had brought a huge platter to a party at my house, I used the leftovers at a barbeque the next day, and there was still this much left over.

I'd pledge that next week will be better, but that's not really saying much after this week! I'll also be spending some time at a friends house, so I'm making sure to not buy as many groceries for home this week.

Cut Back on the Television

2009-07-23T20:34:00.002-04:00

For around three years now, our house has been without cable. Instead, we have an antenna that my husband made up in our attic, and that's what we use for our television viewing. I've often thought that since giving up cable I've been less likely to buy stuff we don't need - I'm one of those people who can't help but pay attention when the tv is on, no matter what else is going on. When we're over at friends, it's well know that if they want to share a secret they should just turn the television on and I'm completely zoned out! Though I always secretly thought that watching less television let me be a little more green (less electricity, less buying of stuff), I just finished reading an article showing that it could make me a happier person as well! Check out this article called Unhappy people watch TV.

I don't see us ever living completely without television, but I think our lives have been improved by having a few less channels to choose from. In general, all the shows we really want to watch are available over-the-air (who wants to live in a world without Mantracker?), but we're less likely to sit and flip through the channels randomly until we find a rerun that kills an hour. Statistics Canada has information about how much television Canadians watch here. The average for an adult female in Ontario is 24.7 hours a week or just over 3.5 hours a day. I know that when I'm visiting family with cable, I often spend at least that much time watching television, at the expense of quality conversation. On the other hand, when I'm at my house, I often end up watching less than an hour a day; instead I'm outside going for a walk with my husband, visiting friends, or reading a good book (or blog post). Would you want to go without cable? Without tv at all? How would your life be impacted? Next time you're flipping through the channels, if you don't see something that you really want to watch, try shutting the tv off and going for a walk, or catching up on your email correspondence, or reading up on that new whatever you've been wanting to read about.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-07-22T22:39:00.002-04:00

Today was my dad's birthday, so we had the usual kind of party - family & food! How do you make a birthday a little greener? First of all, only buy presents that don't add to un-needed clutter. We all pitched in and got my dad a really nice set of knives. He does a lot of cooking, and so far he's been doing it with some less than optimal knives. With this set, he should be able to stop trying to replace his knives a bit at a time, and he shouldn't ever need another set. Far better than giving him a cool kitchen gadget like the Banana Saver and Banana Slicer.

We wrapped the knives in a reuseable (and reused) gift bag. I didn't get him a card (though my mom did). Part of that is that I'm being green (reduce....he's just going to recycle it a couple days later anyways), part of it is that I'm lazy, and part of it is that I'm saving the money! Honestly, most of it is the fact that he'll just pitch it a couple of days later...I rarely buy cards. I make exceptions only for people that I know really enjoy cards, and for weddings and showers where people use them to keep track of gifts received.

Love cards but still feel a bit guilty about the waste? Do what one of my friends does...her and her husband go out on Valentines and their anniversary and pick out cards for each other. They read them in the store and then leave them on the shelf. Or, get the cards but don't sign them. That way you can cycle them around year to year and only increase your stash when you find cards you absolutely love!

What if Water Was Work?

2009-07-21T23:09:00.002-04:00

Last week we went on a short trip to Maple Mountain, our entire trip log can be found here. So, if the trip has already been written up on the web, why am I writing here? I wanted to focus on the green nature of the vacation, and especially on water usage.

Compared to most vacations, canoeing and camping in a provincial park is pretty low on the resource usage. We actually tried this trip last year and had to turn around on the second day due to rough water on the Lady Evelyn lake....my DH agreed to turn around when I kept whimpering about being too young to end up in Davy Jones's locker. We came back this year, with a very important change (though a bit less green), we brought a motor to put on the back of our canoe! Now you might think that if I was really the Green Canadian, we'd be paddling that boat ourselves, avoiding any use of gasoline. Turns out we hate paddling, so after envisioning a watery grave last year as we fought the swells, we purchased an old 4 HP engine. Four horsepower goes a lot further a lot faster than two person power, especially when we were the two persons! The fact is, without the motor this year we wouldn't have made it any further than last year. I think they should rename Smoothwater Provincial Park to "Rough Enough to Beat Your Canoe Up Provincial Park", but I can see that it doesn't really have the same ring to it.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that our water usage at home is 130 litres per person per day, and the Canadian average is 329 litres per person per day. Our trip lasted for two days this time (successfully completed in two days!) and we brought in three litres of water with us. We filtered four more litres while we were out, bringing us to seven litres total, or 1.75 litres per person per day. That's 128.25 litres per person per day LESS than our average at home. All of that water was used for consumption. If we'd stayed out longer, we would have increased our consumption... it was pretty cool and overcast so we didn't drink as much as we would have on a nice sunny day.

I'm not advocating that anyone try to get down to 1.75 litres of water use...since we were only out for a couple of days, showering wasn't an issue, and obviously there were no flush toilets in the wilderness. I'm betting we can be more conservative as a society though. How much of the water we use is wasted because we didn't have to do any more work than turning on a tap? If we had to put effort into the water we use, would we let the shower run until we found the exact right temperature? Would we wash a shirt every time we wear it? Next time you're turning on the tap, think about whether your usage would change if you had to put some effort into acquiring the water.

The Tightwad Gazette

2009-07-20T10:24:00.003-04:00

I've been looking for a copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn for awhile now. I finally found copies of The Tightwad Gazette II and III at a used bookstore recently (there are three compilations in total). If you haven't read any of The Tightwad Gazette, try taking it out from your local library. I warn you now that if you plan on reading it like a regular book, cover to cover, you'll probably be disappointed. The book is a compilation of a lot of newsletter articles, and some of them will be more useful to you than others. And some are just plain dated now (I don't need to know how to repair a VCR...do they even still sell VCRs?)

However, there are some timeless articles that show you another way to look at common household items. For example, I haven't bought myself any shaving cream/gel since the first time I read the Gazette. Instead, I use one of the giant bottles of cheap conditioner as shaving cream. Far less waste since a bottle lasts almost a year and I'm conditioned! She also runs through the numbers to find out what is frugal (cloth vs paper napkins for example...cloth won!), gives a few frugal recipes, and gives a ton of examples for how to reuse household items for other uses. One that I want to try someday (for a Hallowe'en or kids birthday) is to collect a number of toilet paper rolls (or small pieces of wood) and some yard. Tie a prize to one end of the yard, and the rolls to the other end. Toss the rolls all around the room, under furniture, around each other, etc. Each guest gets one roll and has to follow it through to the end, untangling it to get to the prize!

Is this a book I'd recommend you go out and buy? No, it's not for everyone - and not everyone will want to read the articles more than once. For me, one of the benefits of this book is that it keeps me aware of the reduce/reuse mentality and encourages me to try out some of the techniques. Plus, some of it's just plain entertaining to read. :) As I said earlier though, it's worth checking out from your library to see if anything inspires you.

Web Round Up

2009-07-18T11:48:00.002-04:00

For the first time in what feels like ages I was able to go yard saleing this morning. Unfortunately I couldn't get a very early start on the day, so I didn't end up finding anything I wanted. My mother had much better luck, coming home with an entire box of children's books for only $3 - probably 30 or 40 books and a nice set of cloth napkins. I'll make the effort to get up a little earlier next weekend and see if I can get some more Christmas shopping done!

What have I been reading this week?

http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com/2009/07/10/green-spot-going-organic/ Canadian Dream talks about organic vs local and what works for his family. I've never tried local/free-range eggs, but I'm pretty sure there are some available at our local farmer's market. I'll have to check them out next week.

Feeling guilty about buying overpackaged, pre-made, convenience food but you really need the extra time in the evenings? This article shows that convenience food doesn't always save time. One of my friends recently tried Supperworks - I'll be interested to see how that works out for her in terms of time saving and cost per serving.

Food Waste Friday

2009-07-17T09:45:00.002-04:00

No food waste picture for me this week! Of course, I can't take all the credit for that, I'm at my parents this week and there's no food in their fridge that needs to go. Looks like they're doing a good job of using up food before it goes bad. I tried to use up or give away the food in my fridge that I didn't think would last until I got back, but of course I remembered a few more items after I'd hit the road. I have a feeling there will be a picture next week. :(

Check out how the other bloggers tracking their food waste did this week at The Frugal Girl.

No Space Gardening

2009-07-16T10:27:00.004-04:00

One of the items on my list of wants when we were looking for a house was space for a vegetable garden. Unfortunately, the house we ended up buying had almost everything we wanted except room to garden. The yard is fairly small, but what really stops the vegetable garden is the fact that it's been highly landscaped (very attractively), with a lot of trees and shrubs. There's maybe a 3' X 4' plot in the exact middle of the yard that gets enough sun for a vegetable garden. This year, that's not stopping us! Our deck gets a fair bit of sun, so we have some container plants that are providing us with a few fresh veggies. Our neighbours gave us two tomato plants that they started from seeds, we planted a couple of potatoes that were sprouting in the basement, and my favourite is the four lettuce plants I bought at the grocery store and stuck in a pot.

Lettuce is one of those veggies that we really like to have some around for burgers and sandwiches, but find it really difficult to go through an entire head before it goes bad. The great thing about growing your own lettuce is that it doesn't go bad! We pick a leaf or two every time we need some and leave the rest on the plant to get bigger. So far, it's been over a month since we've bought lettuce in the store and the garden has kept us well supplied. Best of all, we haven't wasted any!

Container gardening is one eco-experiment I'll be doing again next year. Even living in an appartment in the city, container gardening would let you grow some of your own vegetables. It's great to be able to head out the backdoor (or balcony) to get some fresh tomatoes and lettuce whenever I want a sandwich. I'm not sure how the potatoes will work out yet - it's a fairly shallow container, but the plants are definitely growing. I'll have to wait until the fall to see how the harvest is. Next year, I think I'll add a handful of bell pepper plants to the collection.

Rush Hour Commuting

2009-07-15T14:05:00.003-04:00

Every day last week I had to commute 44 km in the morning, and 44 km back in the evening. In the morning, I left early and the commute took about 45-50 minutes. In the evening, everyone left at 4:30 (we didn't have the option of staying late) and the commute took about one hour 30 minutes. For the most part, the morning commute wasn't too bad, though I had to get to work about 40 minutes ahead of time in order to avoid rush hour. Unfortunately there was emergency construction one of the days so my morning commute ended up taking an hour and half! It's not unreasonable to assume people may need to commute 88 km in a day, but averaging 35.2 km an hour is NOT a good, or green use of time. You have to assume that all those cars idling in gridlock on city streets and highways aren't helping in terms of smog or greenhouse gases.

So, what are our options for reducing commuting?
1. Move closer to work. A drastic solution, and one that only works if you have long term employment, and everyone else in your household works in the same area. You also need to be able to afford the housing in your employer's neighbourhood. Living closer to work means either a shorter commute, or the chance to walk or bike to work.
2. Take public transit. The ultimate in carpooling, public transit moves a large number of people for a smaller per person emissions rate. Unfortunately, public transit doesn't always go directly between where you need to be. If I wanted to take public transit last week, it would have required around four transfers, systems from 2-3 different regions and a couple of hours each way.
3. Carpool. This is particularly effective if you're working in the same spot for awhile. You can find other people in your office you live near your neighbourhood and commute together. I've used this method before, and the added benefit is that since a few of you are all depending on each other, you can't get too caught up in work and stay until late in the evening. Definitely a benefit for maintaining work-life balance!
4. Telecommute. If your employer lets you work remotely, there's no shorter commute than waking up and walking to the next room. Some jobs lend themselves easily to telecommuting (a lot of the tech industry) and some jobs guarantee telecommuting is not an option (teaching grade 6 for example).
5. Change when you drive. If you can avoid the rush hour times, it'll cut a huge amount of time out of your commute. There was a really interesting study in the Netherlands where commuters were given an incentive to avoid rush hour, and had up to date traffic information streamed to them so that they knew when or where they should drive. I can see why government might want to get in to changing driver habits...less rush hour means less congestion and less accidents, which can only be good! Of course, you need to know where the traffic congestion is in order to make informed driving decisions, which is why they now sell GPS with the ability to receive traffic updates (for a fee of course). Avoiding traffic is a pretty good reward for me, but I'd love to see my area start a reward system like this Dutch city!

Holiday!

2009-07-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

For the next couple of days, I'm going to be on vacation. I'll have plenty of access to sparkling lakes and beautiful forests, but no access to the internet (or electricity or running water). Regular posting will resume on Wednesday.

Web Round Up

2009-07-11T14:08:00.003-04:00

No real pattern to the articles I've been reading this week. Sometimes it's fun to just wander the web!

Ever heard of The Monkeysphere? Check out the article online and find out why some groups and organizations just seem to work better together and form a real sense of community. Also find out why when you break down with a flat tire at the side of the road it takes a lot of cars going by before someone stops by and helps.

The Energy Guy has articles on pretty much any electricity subject you want to know about. Some are definitely more American centric, like the solar stimulus package, but there's a lot of good information as well.

Finally, there's an article at Wise Bread on Things Wear Out. A neat way to evaluate your possessions and the way society has changed. I don't think I've ever known a tinker or cobbler, though I have gone to a tailor a couple of times.

Food Waste Friday

2009-07-10T12:30:00.000-04:00

A pretty good week for low food waste! There's a couple slices of ham that I just didn't trust...I don't think ham is supposed to have an iridescent sheen. There's also a few slices of kielbasa; they don't look bad, but last time we had some my husband and I both got sick so I wasn't risking that again. I'm very happy that I managed to use up all the fruits and vegetables, I think I'm starting to make real progress with the food waste.

Check out the other bloggers participating in Food Waste Friday over at The Frugal Girl in her blogroll.

Meatless Meal - Lemon Basil Pasta

2009-07-09T06:30:00.001-04:00

Due to the higher environmental cost of raising meat compared to vegetables, I'm trying for one meatless main meal a week. If I find enough of them that we really like, it could expand to multiple meals in a week. This week I tried a Lemon Basil Pasta dish from the Budget Confessions blog. I didn't have angel hair pasta, but spaghettini worked just as well.

The dish was easy to prepare and didn't take long at all. I served it with some grilled vegetables which added variety and had the added benefit of using up all the vegetables I thought could go bad by this week's Food Waste Friday! The portions near the bottom of the dish are definitely very lemony - I might use a bit less lemon juice next time. My husband liked this dish as much as the Black Beans and Rice, though I rated it a bit lower. We had some guests over while we ate, so I can tell you that the dish is kid-approved! The two and a half year old really liked it and ate everything on her plate. I think I'd like to try the Garlic Basil version discussed in the Budget Confessions comments, but this dish could get made again.

How Low Can You Go?

2009-07-08T06:30:00.000-04:00

Today our hydro, water and gas bills all came in the mail. This isn't as depressing as you might think, I like to check out our resource usage and compare against other months, and national averages.

Electricity:
Our average daily use: 11.51 kWh
Average Canadian household: 31.86 kWh
Average United States household: 30.71 kWh
Average European household: 12.79 kWh

As you can see, we're doing fairly well right now compared to the national average (just over 1/3), though I know there are people who do more. I think we've gotten to the point where if we make any more changes, we'll start seeing an impact on our lifestyle. So, why is our daily usage so much lower than the average? We use almost all CFLs in our lights (we have 46 lightbulbs in our house, I counted); we only have a couple that are the cold white light, or that take a few seconds to flicker on so we keep them in low usage areas. Our televisions and DVD players are attached to a power bar, and the power bar is turned off when they're not in use. This eliminates the vampire power still being consumed even when appliances are turned off. Our appliances are all fairly new, and all EnergyStar. And, last but not least, we turn things off when we're not using them! My laptop is fairly energy efficient, but it still uses 30 watts when it's plugged in, by unplugging the laptop when it's not in use I can save about 420 watts, or almost 0.5 kWh per day.

Electricity usage in Europe and the United States
Electricity usage in Canada

Water:
Our average daily use per person: 130 litres
Average Canadian: 329 litres
Average American: 380 litres

Again we're lower than the average, but I'm not honestly sure why. We shower regularly! We do try to make sure that we only run the dishwasher and washing machine with full loads. We do water our lawn, but we avoid overwatering. We have a low flow showerhead and a front load washing machine, but we haven't done anything else to conserve water.

Water usage statistics

Natural Gas:
Our annual usage: 1302 cubic metres
Average Canadian usage: 2700 cubic metres

Since natural gas usage varies widely by the season, I thought it was more useful to look at the annual usage - not too hard to do if you keep all your bills. Again, we're lower than the national average but not as dramatically. I'm sure the fact that we purchased a smaller house helped here, and the programmable thermostat we were given as a housewarming present means we don't heat the house while we're sleeping. It's also been helped along by my husband's insistence that if I'm cold, I should put on a sweater instead of making him miserably hot! :)

Have you ever checked your resource usage? How do you compare?

Busy vs. Green

2009-07-07T06:30:00.000-04:00

This week I'm going to be a lot busier than I have been for the last little while. I'm leaving the house before 7 a.m. and fighting traffic, then fighting traffic again nine hours later (I hate traffic). So what happens when a busy life collides with green ambitions? Yesterday I noticed that green lost, being busy had a very un-green effect on my lunch. Instead of homemade lunch in reusable containers or on a plate, I packed a microwave meal. You know the kind - a food-like substance sitting on plastic, with plastic film, in a a waxed cardboard container. Even worse, it turns out there was no microwave where I was, so I ended up at Tim Horton's getting lunch served to me in bags :)

As I battled traffic on the way back home, I decided the next lunch would be greener. I'm not a morning person, so getting up even 15 minutes earlier to make a better lunch is not going to happen. For me, the key is going to be finding lunches I can make the night before in a minimal amount of time that will still taste good the next lunch hour. A quick trip to No Frills and I have the makings for some deli sandwiches, fruit, and a treat. The sandwich will be packed in a re-usable container (when you're making lunch the night before, don't put tomatoes on the sandwich, I learned this one the hard way!). The fruit is it's own container. The Ah-Caramels are individually packaged in plastic - too bad but still way better than eating out or microwave meals! If I'd planned better, I would have made a batch of cookies, or another batch of the Chocolate Peanut Squares that would have been ready for this week's lunches. I think I'll try to stock up on some homemade desserts (less packaging), of course then I'll have to store them in the freezer so that they don't get eaten right away!

The Unhealthy Truth Part II

2009-07-06T06:34:00.000-04:00

This is Part II of my review of The Unhealthy Truth, written by Robyn O'Brien. You can read the first part of my review here.

After discussing her own story, and the 'allergy epidemic', the rest of the book is devoted to genetic engineering, chemicals in food and how to modify your diet to avoid the worst problem items.

The arguments for and against genetically modified foods are found throughout the rest of the book. O'Brien points out that in many other countries, food containing more than 1% genetically modified ingredients must be labeled as containing GM foods - unlike in the United States (or Canada) where no such labeling exists. She has a point in saying that consumers of GM foods are part of a giant, largely unregulated, science experiment right now, and that they should at least be made aware that they're participating! Though even if consumers decided that they didn't want to be eating corn that contains it's own pesticides, they may not have much choice. According to a USDA figure, 96% of the soy grown worldwide is genetically modified, 80% of the corn, and 86% of the US cotton crop. Throughout the book, interesting stories and tidbits of information can be found. For example, I didn't know that GM crops often have "yield lag" where the yield is actually less than that from traditionally bred seeds.

The Monsanto corporation is also sprinkled liberally throughout the book as one of the leaders in genetically engineered food, and other innovations in food technology. After reading about some of the connections between Monsanto, the FDA and the US government, it's no longer clear who is in charge of ensuring food safety. One of the big items talked about is Bovine Growth Hormone, or rBGH. Given to cows to help increase their milk production, rBGH seems to have a detrimental effect on the cows receiving it; resulting in more antibiotics and shorter life spans. From the book "cows hopped up on rBGH typically live for only about two years after they start receiving the drug. By contrast, cows who aren’t injected with rBGH live on for four to 10 years." Interestingly, milk is NOT something of which there is any shortage in the States, so rBGH increases the supply far beyond what the market can support - hence there are subsidies and some farmers are paid to dispose of their milk. This isn't a concern in Canada, the European Union, Japan, Australia or New Zealand - all of whom have banned the use of rBGH. The use or rBGH may be why milk is on some of the "must have organic" lists coming out of the States, but doesn't often show up on Canadian lists. Other food issues tackled are the use of artifical colouring and the preservative sodium benzoate in soft drinks, and a brief expose of aspartame. You can read about some of the articles she's quoting such as the Southampton Shocker and a three-part investigation of aspartame online.

The information on GM foods and food additives is interesting, but I was most interested in the easy ways to change my diet advertised by the book. Unfortunately, the book falls down in this area. She begins by suggesting that you start small, you don't need to go all organic, chemical free at every meal - which is a good tip. As she mentions, you can't let "the perfect be the enemy of the good". Her list of diet-changing tips includes things like "use half the powder in your package of KD" (eventually moving to real cheese) and "eat fresh vegetables". There are a handful of recipes, but I was hoping for more.

Is the book worth reading? I'd say yes, it's an interesting book, and well-written. I'd borrow from the library rather than buy it though, I don't think it's the kind of book you'll need to re-read or reference often. For those people who are suffering from food allergies or sensitivities, this book could change the way you look at food. In fact, you may not realize you have a food sensitivity until you try cutting out some of the common offenders mentioned. I'm going to make the effort to cut out artificial colouring (good thing I'm almost done the Lucky Charms!) and I'm already working to reduce my pop consumption.

For me, I think the most valuable piece of advice in the book is the list of tips on determining expert/study credibility. According to the novel, 100% of studies that were funded by the food industry found that aspartame was safe or had no detrimental effects on humans. Of the studies not funded by the food industry, 92% found one or more problems with aspartame. Numbers like this make me want to know the details behind the studies we see in the papers every week.

Whenever you read or hear an "expert opinion", consider the funding source. Google the name of the doctor, organization, or medical institution and add one or more of the following terms: "disclosure", "speakers bureau", "grant", "consulting fee", or "funding".
Insist on full disclosure. If the expert is not forthcoming in disclosing his or her funding, insist upon it. Take it up the chain until you get it from someone at his or her organization. Then share the information: on your Web site, with your friends, in your blog, in e-mails.
When considering these experts and their opinions, weigh the influence that patents, royalty fees, speaking arrangements, television appearances, and the like might have on their reputation and financial success. ... Start to picture them like those race car drivers who have their sponsorships and endorsements blazoned across their uniforms.

Web Round Up

2009-07-04T06:42:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy week around our house, two weddings and a baby shower! However, there's still been a few interesting articles from around the web this week. I think the first two in particular show the importance of really thinking about the moves we make to make our lives greener. Being labeled environmental or green doesn't always make something the best choice.

http://www.thegreenrepublic.co.uk/green-technology/eco-friendly-ipod-charging/#more-59 This guy is powering his iPod using an onion and an energy drink. He claims it's green because the onion is compostable and the energy drink bottle recycled. I'm not convinced that the energy used to grow and transport the onion, not to mention make the bottle, energy drink, transport to store and recycle the bottle is less than what would be required to create the small amount of electricity needed to charge an iPod. Cool, yes, but green? I doubt it (but if he's got hard data, I'd be willing to look at it).

http://southernfriedscience.com/2009/02/16/the-ecological-disaster-that-is-dolphin-safe-tuna/ A fascinating look at the effect dolphin-safe tuna has on the rest of the marine life. Not only is the article interesting, the commenters offer some well-reasoned responses.

http://blog.canadian-dream-free-at-45.com/2009/07/03/green-spot-selling-the-second-car/ I've often wondered about becoming a one car family. I'm not sure it's worth selling a car since neither of our cars are worth much, but it'd be interesting to run the numbers and find out if we could live on one car. I like that Canadian Dream is estimating about $4K to run his car, instead of the $9K suggested by other articles...I'm certain we don't spend $9K per car, even taking in the original cost of purchasing the car!

Food Waste Friday

2009-07-03T14:57:00.002-04:00

Every Friday I'll be posting a picture of any food that's being thrown out in our house that week. Kristen at The Frugal Girl started Food Waste Friday a while ago. The idea is that by tracking the waste weekly you'll be more aware of the food you have and will hopefully remember to use it before it needs to be thrown out.

This weeks I've got a handful of leeks that I never got around to using and a few strawberries. I'm disappointed in the strawberries...they were from a local farm and I'd bought them for a fruit platter to serve at last Saturday's shower. A few days later, the ones in this container tasted like they'd been fermenting. :( Oddly enough, the other container is fine. The fruit and vegetables all went to the green bin, and the ziploc bag is the only garbage. I know some people wash out their ziploc bags, but it seems like a lot of work to me, and I'm sure you'd never get the smell of leeks out anyways!

This week I also made the Chocolate Peanut Squares from The Frugal Girl, and I guarantee you won't see a photo of them in next week's food waste! They're almost done already. If you like Reese Peanut Butter Cups, I highly recommend you try this recipe out.

Meatless Meal - Black Beans and Rice

2009-07-02T10:24:00.000-04:00

Due to the higher environmental cost of raising meat compared to vegetables, I'm trying for one meatless main meal a week. If I find enough of them that we really like, it could expand to multiple meals in a week. Last week I tried a Macaroni and Cheese recipe that was ok, but lacking in flavour. This week I grabbed another recipe from the book Frozen Assets Lite & Easy, Black Beans and Rice. The dish took maybe 15 minutes to prepare, and just over an hour to cook. We had friends over for dinner that night, and I'll definitely be making this recipe again. Everyone enjoyed it! A few things I'd change in the preparation...stir the rice and beans about three quarters of the way through the cooking time, otherwise you end up with hard rice on the top layer. One of my friends also suggested crushed tortilla chips on top as a garnish, I'll definitely try that next time. I also doubled or tripled the cheese topping - I didn't measure but just grated until the top was well covered.

I'm rating it at four stars out of five. In fact, I'm going to make it again next week for the freezer to use up the rest of the tomato juice. I'll probably make two 8x8 pans instead of a 9x13 so that it's in meal sizes that better suit my family.

Black Beans and Rice

30 oz. black beans (drained and rinsed if canned)
20 oz. frozen corn kernels
2 cups long grain rice, uncooked
32 oz. salsa
3 cups tomato juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the shredded cheese.
Pour into a 13x9 inch casserole dish; bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees.
Remove from oven. Cool, wrap with foil, label and freeze. Thaw when ready to cook (only if cooking for the freezer)
Sprinkle with shredded cheese and cook at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted and the beans and rice are heated through.

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T10:37:00.000-04:00

It's Canada Day, so not much of a post today, I'll be hanging out with friends and family. Possibly watching some fireworks later (if it's not raining I'll bike down to the park...I can probably bike home faster than the cars will get out of the parking lot!). Speaking of fireworks, check out this article about the environmental impact of fireworks. I'm not convinced this isn't scare-mongering journalism, but it's an interesting read. I've seen laser shows I've enjoyed just as much as some fireworks shows.

Landfill Rescue

2009-06-30T10:28:00.000-04:00

In my area, garbage is collected every two weeks, and each house is restricted to three bags per pickup. If you need more than three bags, there are tags you can purchase an put on any extra bags. Twice a year we have what are called No-Tag days, where every house can put out as much garbage as they'd like, bags or large items. On these days my friend and I go around performing a Landfill Rescue. Basically we cruise the streets, and if we see something that we know can be re-purposed, we take it home with us. It's amazing to me the kinds of things that are thrown out on a regular basis. Every time, we see more plastic patio chairs than you can imagine. There's also always a lot of children's toys, and often some lawnmowers (may or may not be working...so far about 80% of them work with a bit of effort). We're definitely not the only ones out on those nights either, you can see pickup trucks piled high with items, often scrap metal. We might be the only ones who specialize in big plastic items, like children's toys. :)

So where does all this stuff end up? Our backyard keeps some of the 'rescued' items. Our patio set is entirely rescued; chairs, table and umbrella - we've actually upgraded pieces a couple of times. We also have a pressure washer, camping chairs, lawnmower, children's jeep (the battery powered kind that two kids can sit in - powered by a battery taken from a lawn trimmer). I'm sure there are a few others, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head. Since there's no way we'd be able to keep everything we pick up (at one point I had four lawnmowers in the garage), extra items find their way out to friends and family, or on craigslist and freecycle. I have a friend that works with an organization that collects furniture for the formerly homeless...I keep thinking that there should be an easier way to connect those who could really use the items with the items themselves but the logistics just don't work.

I actually enjoy the rescued items we have more than the ones we go out and buy. It's odd, but there's something satisfying about going out and hunting down the items yourself. :) I haven't gone so far as to check out a freegan lifestyle....I'm not sure if it's that I don't want to, I don't have the courage, or I'm just not sure which dumpsters to dive!

If your area has a similar dumping night (not all areas do), check it out sometime, you might be surprised at what you find.

The Unhealthy Truth - Part I

2009-06-29T10:36:00.000-04:00

I've been reading a book called The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O'Brien (foreword by Dr. Kenneth A Bock). There's a lot of information in the book, so I'm going to do a multi-part book review discussing the book and it's information. For this first part, I'll discuss the Foreword up to partway through Chapter 3.

The author, Robyn O'Brien is a mother of four and a Houston native. She started researching childhood allergies when her youngest daughter had a severe allergic reaction to eggs. As she continued researching, she found more and more information that she thought should be shared with everyone, particularly parents of people with allergies. She admits to not being a scientist, but she's certainly shown a passion for research and is the founder of the AllergyKids website.

The book starts out with a very strong message that the world is changing, and environmental changes are causing numerous ailments in today's children - including autism ADHD, asthma, and severe food allergies. They make a compelling argument that improved diagnostics is not the only reason for a dramatic increase in rates of autism, ADHD, asthma and allergies since adults are not showing the same statistical increase, only the children. Throughout the book they mention that since children are more vulnerable to toxic environments, they are acting as our canaries in a coal mine, and that we should be paying attention to what their ailments are telling us.

These first few chapters are focused on telling the author's story, and how she started researching food allergies. A fair amount of time is spent on the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) as one of the largest not-for-profit organizations. The author's dismay at finding the amount of funding received, but not publicly disclosed, by FAAN from Big Food and Big Pharma companies comes across clearly. Eventually the author decided to start the AllergyKids website to try and share her findings with other parents (and run it as a for-profit business with the proceeds dedicated to funding research into food allergies). Eventually the author starts to discuss food, and what really is the unhealthy truth. This section closes with The Hidden Side of Soy which discusses the fact that soy is a double-edged sword with all of it's isoflavones. Here are a few of her points:
1. Soy is rich in phytic acid, which blocks absorption of essential minerals including calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, copper, iron, and zinc.
2. Eating soy boosts estrogen, for women this could cause estrogen to be too high during pregnancy, resulting in a variety of health risks for both her and the baby.
3. Infants being fed on soy formula had up to ten times higher blood levels of isoflavones than adult women who were taking soy as medicine
4. Monsanto is responsible for producing over 80% of the world’s soy in the form of a widely used genetically engineered soybean

In the next section of the book, she'll be looking at genetically modified foods, and hopefully getting into how she thinks diets should be modified (she guarantees it'll be easy and inexpensive). So far it's an interesting read, and written so that the points are easy to understand. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book. Look for Part II of the review next week!

Throwing a Green Party

2009-06-27T09:27:00.003-04:00

There's no web round-up today since I didn't find any articles on the web this week that I needed to share. Maybe because I've been busy getting ready to host a baby shower this weekend! Parties mean people and food, but they don't have to mean an environmental disaster. Here's the steps I've taken to make the party a little greener.

Baby showers mean games, and games mean prizes! Instead of wrapping the prizes in wrapping paper, I used some gift bags that were already at my house. Two of them are for wedding gifts and two are for Valentine's, but I didn't think that mattered. :)

It's been hot around here for the last week, so I needed to make sure I had lots of drinks available for people. On the table you can see a punch fountain (it lights up and the punch cascades from the top down). This fountain belongs to my friend and I borrowed it for the party...definitely not everyone on the block needs to own their own punch fountain!

Also on the table there's a variety of plates and glasses. Parties mean food, and food needs plates! There's three basic options for plates/glasses at a party. First you can go with disposable plates. They're easy to clean up, all you need is a garbage bag, but they're definitely the worst in terms of eco-friendliness. Next you can go with biodegradable plates. They're still single use, but you can get some that are made out of corn for example. Higher up on the eco-friendly chain, but expensive - and like I said, still single use. Last option is to have re-usable plates and glasses, which is the option I went with. We're using our normal plates and glasses, and I'll throw them in the dishwasher when the party's over. Remember, the dishwasher is green! This is a little more work for the hostess, but the most eco-friendly. I didn't have enough matching plates and glasses for everyone, but I thought that the important thing was that everyone had a plate, not that everyone had the same plate!

Food Waste Friday

2009-06-26T12:06:00.002-04:00

Another Reason to Reduce

2009-06-25T11:07:00.000-04:00

It seems like lately I've been coming across all sorts of reasons to reduce our garbage. First there was the fact that for every dollar spent, half a litre of petroleum is consumed. Now we're starting to see the impact of not collecting garbage on a daily basis for the city of Toronto. For those of you who aren't aware, Toronto's city workers are on strike, and that includes the waste disposal workers. The strike started on June 22 and it didn't take long for tension to mount. It's also not taking long for piles of garbage to show up anywhere and everywhere. Below is a picture by erinleah off of flickr.

Politicians are saying that they won't rush in to end Toronto's garbage strike, so it'll be interesting to see whether Torontonians will save their garbage, use the depots set up around the city, or dump anywhere they won't be caught. I'm sure that new flickr photos will be appearing daily chronicling the city streets. One reason the strike won't be legislated back to work is that Windsor has been dealing with a garbage strike for 11 weeks now. How are they dealing? One Windsor man has found that private disposal facilities are inexpensive and well run.

If my city's garbage collection went on strike, I think the worst impact for me would be the compost, especially in a hot summer! We have two large compost containers, and I'm guessing it would take 6-8 weeks to fill them both (maybe a little longer if I can get some no-waste weeks going for Food Waste Fridays). Our four recycling containers would fill up faster, but we could always use some cardboard boxes for the masses of junk mail and flyers we receive, plus, now that I've given up pop that should remove a lot of cans and cardboard from our recycling. Our one garbage can should last us 6-8 weeks of normal use as well. If I knew I was about to be involved in a long garbage strike, I might look into backyard composting or vermicomposting; other than that I think I could last at least two to three months before I had to find something to do with my garbage/recycling. What impact would a garbage strike have on your lifestyle?

A Dollar Spent

2009-06-24T11:13:00.004-04:00

I ran across an interesting piece of information in a book I was reading recently. In a study done by Charles Hall, a professor at Syracuse, he determined that for every dollar spent (American dollar) a half-litre of petroleum is consumed. His study looked at worldwide spending, so it's not just determining the impact of spending in America, or North America. The half-litre of petroleum takes into account the full lifecycle of the product; resources, production, transportation, etc. Obviously not every dollar will have the same impact, the half-litre is averaged out over all types of spending. I'm fairly certain that spending a dollar at your local yard sale, bake sale or Goodwill store doesn't have the same ecological impact as spending a dollar on, say, oil for your car. This study shows how a green lifestyle and a frugal lifestyle are often closely related, and gives us another way of looking at our purchases.

The book Your Money or Your Life asks it's readers to consider purchases in terms of 'life-energy', or how many hours you'd need to work (trade away) to purchase a $400 iPod for example (based on how much you actually clear after all your work expenses are taken into account). Thinking of purchases in terms of hours worked really lets you decide how badly you want/need the item. Now I'll be thinking in terms of petroleum impact as well. Here's a few examples of purchases along with the petroleum impact. For fun, I also included how far I could drive on that many litres of gasoline.

Night at the movies (for 2)
Cost: $40
Environmental Cost: 20 Litres
Trip in my car: 260 km

New 40" television
Cost: $1099.99
Environmental Cost: 550 Litres
Trip in my car: 7150 km Enough to drive from BC to Newfoundland!

Basic cable
Cost: $30/month
Environmental Cost: 15 Litres/month
Trip in my car: 195 km or three trips to my parents per year

Haircut (women's, no colour)
Cost: $35
Environmental Cost: 17.5 Litres
Trip in my car: 227.5 km

Definitely a new way for me to look at purchases, and another good reason to try and reduce!

1000 Empties Update

2009-06-23T21:59:00.002-04:00

Today I officially pass the 10% mark for my 1000 empty beer cans/bottles found. The past couple of days I've gone for a bike ride and brought along a cloth bag in case of beer cans. The first day I found 42, the next 7. I think I'll keep bringing bags along when I bike, but I don't expect to see another 42 can day! This brings my progress to 106 cans, or 10.6% in 16 days. It's a little scary how much litter you see at the sides of the road, it might not take as long to get to 1000 as I'd originally thought

Meatless Meal - Macaroni and Cheese

2009-06-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

According to a lot of research, eating meat is far more resource intensive than eating plants. That makes sense when you realize that for every kilogram of beef produced, a cow needs to eat 15 kg of grain and 30 kg of forage. There's also the fact that cows produce more greenhouse gases than human transportation. With all that in mind, it's easy to see that reducing the meat in a typical North American diet is one way we can lower our ecological footprint. I'm not planning on becoming vegetarian, but I would like to ensure that meat isn't the main focus of every meal we eat, so I'm going to be experimenting with some meatless main courses. This could be a bit challenging since my husband believes that vegetables are 'food for food'!

I thought I'd start with something easy like macaroni and cheese, even though I know that mac and cheese alone is not a balanced meal. I grabbed a recipe from the book Frozen Assets Lite & Easy and got to work. The meal didn't take that long to prepare, though I had to make a couple substitutions (I didn't have skim milk or fat-free cream cheese so I used 1% milk and Philadelphia Garden Vegetable cream cheese). Total prep + cooking time was about 1 hour.

I'm not sure if my tastebuds have been corrupted by KD, but we found this dish to be a little bland. As it is, I'd give it three stars out of five. After tasting, there are a few changes I'd make to the recipe. First of all, you need about four times the topping....we all know the topping is the best part. When reheating, the taste was improved by sprinkling extra grated cheddar on top, and also by adding some garlic/parmesan sauteed mushrooms. I think that salsa or hot sauce could be used as well. I'll make this recipe again, but will definitely add a bit more spice to make it a little more interesting.

Three Cheese Mac-n-Cheese (6 servings) - original recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
1/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 cups skim milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups reduced-fat cheddar cheese, grated
2-oz fat-free cream cheese, cubed
1/3 cup Italian flavoured bread crumbs
1 tablespoon margarine, melted

Preparation:
1. Cook and drain the macaroni
2. Combine flour and pepper in large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup milk, whisk until smooth.
3. Gradually add the rest of the milk, stirring briskly. Cook over medium heat until mixture just barely begins to boil.
4. Remove from heat; add cheeses, stirring until melted.
5. Stir in macaroni. Pour mixture into 9-inch square baking dish.
6. Mix bread crumbs with margarine. Sprinkle over top of casserole.
7. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees farenheight, or until golden brown and bubbly.

Giving up Pop

2009-06-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

A bit ago I wrote about how I felt that reducing was better than recycling. Looking around my house, there are a few single-use items that shouldn't be part of my lifestyle. Like pop (coke/pepsi). I don't feel too bad about the cans, since I do recycle everything, but reducing would have an even lower eco-footprint. The ecological impact wasn't enough to change my habits on its own. The fact that I noticed I was getting caffeine headaches if I went a day without pop wasn't enough to change my habits. Put the two facts together, and I'm motivated to get pop out of my house. Since a single can seems to have around 10 teaspoons of sugar I'm sure my teeth will thank me for kicking the habit as well.

I've never gotten into drinking tea or coffee but I have had a problem with caffeine addiction through pop before. I know that in three or four days I won't have the headaches anymore, the real problem will be in breaking the actual habit of having a can of pop. Until a few months ago pop was reserved as a treat, but somehow I ended up in the habit of one a day, even if I wasn't really craving a coke. If there's anything sillier than drinking a bunch of empty calories with no nutritional value simply for the sake of a habit.... Since this isn't my first time quitting pop, obviously restricting myself to moderation doesn't work - it sneaks back in slowly. So, from here on out, no more pop at home. I'll still allow some if we're out at a restaurant, but I won't be buying more for home use. At home I plan on replacing pop with water, and some juice. The planet will thank me, my pocketbook will thank me, and my body will thank me!

Web Round Up

2009-06-20T17:25:00.000-04:00

For green and frugal entertainment, check out any festival's going on in your town. We walked down to one in our area yesterday (no fuel, and frankly it would take forever to find a parking spot anyways). It's always fun to check out what the local artists have on display, and you can't be festival food for an indulgence!

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/2009/06/thefeeling-of-time.html This was an interesting post from Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme. Thinking back, there's definitely times in my life I remember WAY more vividly than others.

http://greenupgrader.com/4262/one-million-beer-bottles-later-and-its-a-buddhist-temple/ And I thought finding 1000 empty beer bottles would take awhile! Check out this buddhist temple made out of beer bottles, it looks great.

Food Waste Friday

2009-06-19T14:04:00.005-04:00

Biking for Transportation

2009-06-18T16:50:00.007-04:00

A few years ago I thought I could be green and get in shape in one fell swoop by using my bike. After a long and tiring ride to and from work followed by days of sore muscles, I gave up that idea. But my memory is short and the next year I tried again - after buying the biggest, cushiest gel seat I could find. My husband and I got the bikes out and went to the grocery store. It was grueling, but I kept up fairly well. The way back was more uphill and I arrived home a little after him, tired but triumphant. Somehow he seemed to guess that I hadn't ridden my bike to school much as a kid...my grueling ride was him trying to ride slow enough for me without going so slow he fell off the bike. :) Again with a few days of very sore muscles (which my husband didn't seem to have, darn him!) and the bike was abandoned for the year.

This year I have a new strategy, and it's working much better. I've still got the cushy gel seat, and I took a quick lesson from my husband on how to use my gear shift to make my ride easier - such a difference! I head out on my own and without putting pressure on myself to maintain a pace the rides are way more enjoyable, and with little soreness! So far I'm using the bike on nice days when an errand is around 3 km one way. I'd like to work up to not using a car for anything less than 5 km away, unless we need to transport something large. I've noticed a few things about biking.
1. The bigger the gel seat, the better. Why be uncomfortable?
2. Jeans get caught in the chain and tear. :( Tuck them inside your socks or wear something tight fitting.
3. Gear shift down on a hill. It makes a bigger difference than I thought.
4. Don't push your speed...you want this to be fun, not a chore.
5. Wear a helmet! You might feel a bit silly at first, but I like my life and don't want to forget it because I took a fall and knocked my head.

Maybe eventually I'll get to the point where the bike is my main mode of transportation during those nice Canadian months (both of them) and the car is alternative transportation.

Reduce, Reuse or Recycle?

2009-06-16T22:11:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot of publicity about recycling lately, especially with Tim Horton's announcing recycling of it's coffee cups. I like recycling, I think it's important, but I think it's the LEAST important of the three R's. In order to get to the recycling stage, you've already created the object and now you're using more resources to turn it into some other object to buy again. The disposable coffee cups is a great example of this. On the ecorenovator website, I read "The energy expended to recycle a paper coffee cup is extremely difficult - they are coated with a polyethylene. It takes 4-5 times more energy to collect, transport, reconstruct — i.e. recycle - than to simply make a new one". Recycling the cups is still better than letting them sit in a landfill, but think how much better off we'd be if we reduced the need for the cups (14.4 billion disposable coffee cups are bought each year in America). Yes, there are expenses and resources used up in making a non-disposable travel or china mug, but those mugs are reused countless times before they break for some reason. And each reuse saves the effort of making a disposable cup and the landfill space or cost of recycling.

In my opinion we should reduce as much as we can, reuse as much as possible and only then turn to recycling. Last option of all is the landfill of course. I'd love to try a zero waste challenge like that undertaken by this family in the UK. I really like the idea of voluntary simplicity and decluttering, which also works well with the idea of reducing our personal consumption. I still need to work on it in my own life. My husband is not impressed when I read blog articles that encourage me to declutter like this one or this one. I've figured out why though....I need to stop trying to get rid of his stuff and focus on my own :)

I think my best bet will be to adopt a one-in, one-out strategy for non-consumable/non-gift items. Of course, since I just bought 68 books at a yard sale last weekend.....but they're not staying! Once I've read the ones I'm interested in (they came in a box, I couldn't pick and choose) they'll be posted on freecycle or at a used book store. Today is Day One of my one-in, one-out policy. Let's see how it goes!

Why Didn't I Think of This??

2009-06-15T18:30:00.000-04:00

Since I've been posting food waste photos on Fridays, the plastic bags I've been throwing out have really been bothering me. I realize that even if the food wasn't wasted, the bags still would be, but I thinkg the fact that I'm seeing all the bags at one time is what's really making me think about the waste. Since plastic bags are a petroleum product, they're created from non-renewable fossil fuels. I thought there had to be a better use for fossil fuels than carrying my vegetables home from the grocery store and then spending eternity in a landfill. A quick Google search showed some retail solutions where I could buy a reusable mesh/fabric bag for produce. That seemed like a good idea but a little pricey, so I kept searching. This forum was also looking for bags, but some members pointed out they'd be easy to make and all you'd need is some sheer fabric and a drawstring. Now, no one would ever call me an expert seamstress but I was confident I could manage the (max) four straight(ish) lines this would required. :)

I immediately went to the basement to look for a sheer curtain I thought might be down there - which is when I realized I need to clean the basement. Temporarily defeated, I went to the Salvation army the next day (by bike, not car!) and picked up one curtain and two things that might have been related to a curtain.

A few minutes with the sewing machine (alright, more like an hour, I had to read the manual again to figure out how to work the machine) and I have an awesome selection of bags, enough for all my grocery needs. I made three different sizes to suit apples/onions/bakery, peppers/broccoli, and mushroom/beansprouts. I figure three large, six medium and three small will be more than enough for my grocery needs. Here's a picture of the large and small bags in use. The large is holding 10 apples with no sign of strain, and the small is actually holding a couple of peppers...the bags are roomier than I thought they'd be.

No more plastic bags for me, I'm one step closer to being able to go plastic free! And with enough leftover fabric that odds are good some people are getting bags for Christmas.

Another bonus...as I picked to and from the grocery store, I added five more empties to my collection.

Web Round Up

2009-06-13T09:00:00.001-04:00

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/06/03/a-guide-to-eating-well-without-spending-a-fortune/ Want to lower your environmental footprint without going vegetarian? Start by getting rid of the excess packaging in convenience foods (not to mention the preservatives and other chemicals!) and start cooking. Trent provides a few tips on getting started in the kitchen

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026873.100-how-kangaroo-burgers-could-save-the-planet.html An interesting look at the impact our meat choices have on the environment. I'm not sure if flying kangaroo in from Australia would be lower impact than eating homegrown beef. I think I'll be looking for a few vegetarian alternatives.

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/2009/06/how-to-spend-very-little-money.html Jacob at earlyretirementextreme talks about how to live without spending much money. This post could just as easily have been called How to Live With Less Environmental Impact.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/06/09/fuelly-2/ JD uses Fuelly to track his mileage for financial purposes. I track my mileage on a spreadsheet for the same reason, and so that I can notice if something's going wrong with my car. As a result of the data we've collected, we've switched to using my car instead of my husband's when we can, despite the fact that his car is four years newer! Better mileage = less gas = less gas expenses = less emissions! Maybe I should switch to Fuelly to see how we compare to other drivers.

Food Waste Friday

2009-06-12T16:52:00.004-04:00

This Friday's post is a little later than last week because I was called in to supply teach today, with a whole 20 minutes notice to get to a school that's 45 minutes away! Let me tell you...grade 8's at the end of the school year on a Friday go a little crazy.

Every Friday I'll be posting a picture of any food that's being thrown out in our house that week. Kristen at The Frugal Girl started Food Waste Friday a while ago. The idea is that by tracking the waste weekly you'll be more aware of the food you have and will hopefully remember to use it before it needs to be thrown out. I think it's helping - I made heroic efforts to use up the cherries and strawberries mentioned in last week's post before they went bad. :)

This week looks bad, but the trail mix, sunflower seeds, peanuts are all from a long time ago. I found them when I was looking for trail mix for our hike. This stuff was too far gone to use, but I did find some newer trail mix that I now know to use before it gets too old! The bags have a pepper that's growing mold and some wild plants I picked to use for salad and didn't use all of (dandelions, violets and trout lilies). The plastic container is some couscous salad I bought from a local market that looked a lot better than it tasted. Once again, all the food went into the compost, the plastic container was recycled and the bags went into the trash. The bags going into the trash bothers me the most...I'm going to have to find a way to avoid that, and it would happen even if I wasn't wasting the food.

Check out the other Food Waste Friday participants in the side bar of The Frugal Girl. She's having the kind of food waste week I aspire hope to reach!

Ode to the Library

2009-06-11T07:30:00.000-04:00

I returned home from a hiking trip to good news on the answering machine! Four of the books I wanted to read from the library came in and are waiting for me to pick them up. In my opinion, there is no greener building than the public library. Each library serves thousands or tens of thousands of patrons, and each library patron is likely to take out a lot more than just one book. If we all had to buy each book we wanted to read....think of the resources that would have to get used! Not to mention the fact that I'd need to have bought a 10,000 square foot house so that I'd have room to keep all my books.

Frankly, a lot of the books I've read I don't really need to read over and over again. I have a few that I keep around for reference, more that I just really liked and will re-read, and a few more that I couldn't wait for a reserve to come in at the library (I was one of the people at the bookstore at midnight when Harry Potter came out). The library lets me check out a wide variety of books, and if I find some I particularly like, I can start looking for them on bookmooch or at Chapters. Right now, I have eight books out from the library:

Cook for a day, eat for a month: frozen assets lite & easy; by Deborah Taylor-Hough
The dinner fix: cooking for the rushed; by Sandi Richard
Edible garden weeds of Canada; by Adam F. Szczawinski
Frozen Assets: how to cook for a day and eat for a month; by Taylor-Hough, Deborah
Green for life: 200 simple eco-ideas for every day; by Gillian Deacon (coming to me soon through bookmooch!)
Instant immersion American sign language (a computer program)
Into the Fire; by Suzanne Brockmann
Walden; by Henry David Thoreau

As you can see, I'm going through a cooking phase right now. Mostly I look for cool recipe ideas, but I don't want to actually keep that many cookbooks around with all their recipes (I have no interest in remembering how to make Crab Quesadillas, Crab Rice Chowder, Crab Quiche or any of the other Crab recipes). Most of the time when I want a recipe I just go to allrecipes.com and it's there in a printable format, with a lot of reviews and suggestions for tweaking the recipe.

When I go to pick up my four new books, I may even make my trip a little greener by biking or walking down to the library. At our library you have to check out your books yourself using a self-checkout, and you also have the option of not printing a receipt with your due dates. Since I use the internet to check when my books are due (usually I remember to check before I go overdue), I'll skip printing the receipt as well.

Check out your library - it's been in the reduce (your book buying) and reuse (book-sharing) since long before reduce and reuse became fashionable.

Boots Across Canada

2009-06-10T07:30:00.000-04:00

If you enjoy hiking, or being outside, you've got the chance to have Keen Canada donate $5 to a trail in your area. This year $75,000 is available for donation, all you have to do is upload pictures of your boots on a hiking trail before October 31, 2009 and they will donate $5 per pair in the Boots Across Canada program (maximum 10 pairs of boots per picture). They'll also enter you in a draw to win some Keen merchandise, including shoes! Any pictures uploaded by Ontario residents will result in donations for the Bruce Trail. When I uploaded our boots, 1271 pairs of boots had been uploaded - 1094 from Ontario trails. This is a great program, and an easy way to support hiking trails in your province. More donations means more money for trail improvements, and more chances for the trails to acquire land for conservation purposes. So get hiking!

1000 Bottles of Beer by the Road

2009-06-09T08:10:00.000-04:00

When I met my husband, I became a hiker. I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have been allowed to marry into the family if I hadn't developed a love of hiking. :) The motto of most hikers is "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints". After my first few hiking excursions, I started to notice that no matter where we went, it seemed that someone had been leaving beer cans and bottles in their wake. This bothered me on a couple of different levels. First off, the environmentalist in me was disgusted that people couldn't bother to take their trash back out with them. I mean, they carried it in with them, and the bottles and cans are a lot heavier when they're full! Secondly, my frugal heart hated the fact that each of those cans and bottles was worth 10 cents!

I decided that I should start bringing bags with me when we hike, so I could pick up those discarded empties. Sadly, I've only rarely been able to come home with an empty bag, and my hike yesterday was no exception. My habit of picking up the empties became so well-known that it made it's way into no less than THREE speeches at our wedding (my parents, his parents, the best man...thanks go out to my husband for not including it in his speech!). I call it environmentalism with a kickback; it's definitely not a hobby I'd recommend if you're really trying to increase your income, more of a bonus for the warm-fuzzy feeling you get while helping to keep the world greener.

In Ontario, 98% of beer empties were returned to The Beer Store (the only place in Ontario that sells beer and handles the deposits). This is an amazing return rate. According to their press release, over 2 billion empties were returned for deposit in the 2007/2008 year. Which means that over 40, 000 empties were NOT returned; either going to a municipal recycling program, a landfill, or our streets and hiking trails.

Since I enjoy tracking numbers, I thought I'd see how long it takes me to collect enough empties to return for $100. At 10 cents per empty that's 1000 beer bottles or cans....I prefer the cans, they're a lot lighter to carry while hiking! Why $100? It's a nice round number. So is $10, but $100 is 10x more impressive. :) I'm hoping that it will take a LONG time to find that many empties that were just discarded into the environment, but it'll be interesting to see what the exact amount of time is. Starting June 8, 2009 I'll be keeping count of my empties, and you can view my progress in the side bar of this blog. Any guesses on how long it'll take? Keep in mind I don't go hiking every weekend, but I'll be including anything I pick up on walks around my neighbourhood as well.

Community Yard Sales - the Ultimate Eco-Shopping

2009-06-08T07:12:00.001-04:00

I'm lucky enough to live in a high-density part of town (you can see our part of town mentioned in the documentary The Death of Suburbia...you can even see our neighbours' house!) I'm luckier still in that the ratepayers association sponsors advertisement for a giant, community-wide yard sale once a year. Yard saleing is the ultimate in eco-shopping. Everything is re-used, and the odds are pretty good that anything you buy that day is being rescued from a landfill; the rule at our house was 'if it goes out for the yard sale, it's not allowed back inside'.

A community sale is even greener than just regular yard saleing since once you're there you often don't need to drive anywhere. My friend and I spent a profitable morning wandering our neighbourhood shopping at a LOT of different sales. We both did fairly well. I spent a grand total of $13.50 to pick up gifts for four different people for Christmas (I can't say what they were or I'd ruin the surprise for some of my readers). This doesn't finish their Christmas shopping, but it's all stuff I know they'll really enjoy. My friend picked up 12 board books for her daughter for a mere $2, not to mention clothing and toys. You just can't beat that for a morning's work! After the sales were finished a lot of people left what hadn't sold outside with a sign saying "FREE", which is where I picked up a personal finance book. :)

You can probably tell by this point that I'm a fan of the yard sale. However, there are DANGERS associated with yard sales, or as some call them gar(b)age sales. If you end up buying a bunch of stuff you don't need, that doesn't count as eco-shopping. If you don't need it/won't use it, don't buy it. It's easy to get carried away with the thrill of the hunt. I have bought way too many board games that we've never used. I always picture a nice party with everyone hanging out, having fun playing a board game, so I pick them up. It's never happened....my husband calls them bored games, which tells you how enthusiastic he is about my vision. Eventually I'll bring myself to part with some of them instead of letting them take up space in my basement. Maybe I'll have a yard sale!

There are some items that yard sales are absolutely perfect for providing. Children's clothes go for a song at most yard sales, I've bought pants and shirts for as little as $0.25 each, though $1 is more common in my area. These are perfect; for the most part kids outgrow the items well before they're worn out. Just be careful to check for marks or tears before buying, there's no return policy at a yard sale! Really, anything child related is usually a great buy at a yard sale. How can you go wrong for a playpen costing $10? (yes, it was clean and safe) I've seen a lot of car seats available, but since you don't know if they've already been in an accident or been roughly used, I'd be a bit leery of purchasing one. If you or someone you know is into cooking, odd kitchen items are also great at yard sales. There are a lot of people around who *thought* they'd like cooking or baking and only find out after they've purchased all the equipment that it's really not their favourite hobby. I picked up a mini-muffin pan just like this one for only a quarter! (And I do like cooking and baking so I use it). I was also really tempted to buy a karaoke system but restrained myself by picturing the look on my husband's face when I brought it home. Books can also be a really great bargain at a yard sale, but unless you plan on reading them multiple times or use as a reference, I'd just get them from the library.

If you've never been yard saleing before, give it a try this summer. You might find a great treasure, but make sure it's something you'll use! I've been yard saleing since the summer before I went away for school. We outfitted our entire first apartment with yard sale finds (bed, sofa, pots, dishes...everything a student needs, at a students budget!). Best of all, you'll know that whatever you purchase isn't using up additional resources. It doesn't get any greener than that! (Photo by eraut off of flickr)

Web Round Up

2009-06-06T14:48:00.000-04:00

I'm still working on the cherries and strawberries, but I'm confident they won't show up on next week's Food Waste Friday. It's been a busy weekend already, with a HUGE community wide yard sale in my area. I can see a post on the eco-ness of yard sales coming up. :) Meanwhile, here's a few of the interesting articles I've read this week around the web.

http://www.google.org/powermeter/ Is there anything Google can't do? Currently in Beta test with a few power providers, Google is going to give you the ability to see exactly how much power your house is using at any time, from any computer with internet access! You need to have a smart meter installed, and your electricity provider has to be on-board. The only Canadian company in the beta test is Toronto HydroElectric, but I've signed up for the email announcements to find out when this will be available for all.

http://www.doughroller.net/green-living/3-gadgets-cut-energy-costs-30-percent/ Doughroller looks at a few gadgets to help cut power costs. I've never used the thermal leak detector, but I love my programmable thermostat and the Kill A Watt tool.

http://myyearwithoutspending.blogspot.com/ Can you be stylish and green without breaking the bank? Angela at My Year Without Spending says yes and proves it by featuring pictures of her readers wearing stylish second hand outfits.

Food Waste Friday

2009-06-05T13:36:00.000-04:00

I've been following a blog called The Frugal Girl for quite a while now. Every Friday Kristen (the frugal girl) posts a picture of any food she's throwing out that week. The idea is that by posting publicly, and keeping a record, you're more likely to be aware of the food in your house, and try to avoid wasting any! This seems like a good idea to me, so I'm going to join the group of people who post with Kristen. After all, not wasting food has got to be good for the environment, right? Not to mention the pocketbook!

I went through my fridge and found asparagus, broccoli, a bit of yogurt, and a few cherries and strawberries that needed to be thrown out. I'm not someone who thinks that after the best-before date the food turns to poison...but the yogurt was best before April 15, and had some really interesting yellow and green mold growing on it. There was maybe one serving of yogurt left in the container. As for the produce...I just forgot about it for awhile and now it's not edible (unless you happen to like slimy and gross-smelling asparagus....I don't). However, since I went through the fridge I was able to see that a few of the cherries and strawberries were starting to go bad, and that inspired me to clean the rest of them and get them in ready-to-eat format in the fridge. Food Waste Friday is going to save me from wasting the rest of the fruit! And now I'm having cherries for dessert after lunch instead of Mr. Christie Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies. It's probably for the best. :)

Here's a picture of my food waste. All the produce went into the compost, and the plastic yogurt container was recyclable. The only items that went into the garbage were the produce bags.

I couldn't find any specific studies showing how much food Canadians waste on average, but I did find an interesting article in the Toronto Star. It seems that 27%-33% of food is thrown out in America and the United Kingdom, with similar amounts seeming to hold true in Toronto. Some food waste is inevitable (apple core, melon rind, etc..) but they're saying that 1/4 to 1/3 of the food thrown out is untouched or unopened, and 61% of the food waste could have been eaten if the consumers had planned better (like what I'm throwing out this week). That's a lot of energy to grow the food, ship the food to consumers, package the food, and then dispose of the food (and if it ends up in landfills instead of compost, that's how methane gas gets created).

Green Dishwasher Detergent

2009-06-04T10:50:00.000-04:00

I've been reading Green For Life and was inspired to try out the green dishwasher detergent recipe she's written about. In fact, there's so much information in this book, that I've decided I want to own my own copy (right now, I have the library copy). Luckily there's one available on bookmooch right now, so hopefully I'll have my own copy soon.

The Recipe
Mix equal amounts of Borax and baking soda. Use 2 tablespoons per dishwasher load in place of commercial detergent.

She also suggests using distilled white vinegar in place of a rinse agent (like JetDry), but since I still have rinse agent in my dishwasher, I didn't try that out this time. Maybe next time.

The detergent was easy to make, and I happened to have Borax and baking soda at home, so I didn't need to purchase anything! But...the real test....are the dishes clean?

Now, I know what some of you are thinking; "the dishes can't be clean if you're not using a lot of harsh chemicals and getting a lemon-fresh scent" Wrong! The Borax and Baking Soda combination is commonly considered to be an excellent substitute for toxic cleaning chemicals. Don't believe me? Search on Google, you'll find tons of articles including this one which says the same recipe can be used for laundry detergent. I'll have to do some more research to make sure it'll work in a high efficiency washing machine before I try that out though.

Ok, so now you're convinced the soap substitute is ok, but is it environmental to wash dishes using the dishwasher compared to washing by hand? And can't you get the dishes cleaner by hand? Absolutely it's environmental, and no, you can't get them cleaner by hand. This excellent summary shows why dishwashers are the right choice environmentally speaking: "Scientists at the University of Bonn in Germany who studied the issue found that the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap than hand-washing an identical set of dirty dishes. Even the most sparing and careful washers could not beat the modern dishwasher. The study also found that dishwashers excelled in cleanliness over hand washing." Keep in mind that the dishwasher can use much hotter water than your hands can stand, and that hot water is great for killing bacteria. The key for environmental use of the dishwasher is that you must only run full loads, let the dishes air dry, and you shouldn't pre-rinse all the dishes (really, that's why you HAVE a dishwasher, so you don't have to wash the dishes!). Scraping food off before loading the dishwasher is recommended, but rinsing wastes water. You don't have a family of six that makes enough dishes each meal to run a full dishwasher? That's ok, neither do I! I speak from experience when I tell you that the dirty dishes aren't going anywhere, you can let them sit in the dishwasher for another meal or two until it's full enough to run. It doesn't take long. :)

So, environmentally speaking I should continue to use my dishwasher, and I should switch to a Borax/Baking Soda detergent mix (possibly with vinegar instead of rinse agent). Does it make sense financially? For my analysis, I used the prices available right now at my local No Frills grocery store. Yes, I could probably get detergent cheaper by buying on sale, but I can probably get baking soda cheaper by buying in bulk and on sale as well, so I figure it probably evens out. Since I couldn't get exactly the same sizes of everything, I'll break it down into a price per 100g to compare costs.

Traditional Detergent
1.8 kg of No Name lemon scent dishwasher detergent @ $3.29
Cost: $0.18 per 100 g

Earth-Friendly Detergent
2.13 kg of Seventh Generation Eco-Friendly dishwasher detergent @ $7.99
Cost: $0.38 per 100 g

Borax & Baking Soda mix
2 kg of Borax @ $5.27 or $0.26/100 g
500g of No Name baking soda @ $0.99 or $0.20/100g
Cost: $0.23 per 100 g (50 g Borax, 50 g baking soda)

So the Borax and Baking Soda mix isn't quite as economical as No Name dishwasher detergent, but significantly less expensive than some of the earth-friendly alternatives. I suspect I could probably bring the price down a little by looking for Borax and baking soda at a warehouse club like Costco to see what bulk pricing can do. Even if I can't, the price difference isn't that big (and I'm not using No Name detergent right now). I'm going to call this eco-experiment a success, and homemade dishwasher detergent will have a place in my house! (and hopefully this means I'll never run out of detergent again...so annoying when that happens....)

Introduction to The Green Canadian

2009-06-03T23:41:00.000-04:00

This blog is going to be my informal way of tracking what I do to make my life greener. I think that we are all caretakers for the world, and should do our part to ensure that future generations have a green world to live in. Welcome to my battle to create a greener life for myself and my family, without going broke in the process!