Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Simple Ways to a Green 2008 Holiday

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 12/21/08

Every year there are things we do to minimize the consumptive haze. This year, with the economy being what it is and people mowing each other down at Wal-Mart, many are choosing alternatives to corporate Christmas debris. Here are some of the tips that help my family to slow down, enjoy each other and breathe.

1. Get Outside: This is always the number one answer for us. When cabin fever settles in or the air is getting stale, we head for the wild. Today we took our screaming toddlers for a cross-country ski. The gray sky broke as the sun set behind snow-covered trees. My son, who only has a few words (mama, dada, eat, lulu doggie) said “Weeeeeeee” as my husband glided on the snow. Moments like this make it worthwhile.

2. Avoid wasting energy with lights, inflatable snowmen and massive automated plastic snowglobes (these strange spheres that send styrofoam snow in circles are perhaps one of the signs of the capitalistic Apocalypse?)

3. Make stuff: This year I made my tahini, garlic, lemon dressing for friends. My hubby makes a mean roasted butternut squash soup with garlic, ginger and cinnamon and we put it in mason jars with a bow. I have friends who knit, make homemade lip balm, and create art to share with loved ones.

4. If you use Christmas trees, there are several sustainable options. One choice is to use a potted tree. If you don’t want to keep it after the holiday, you can find a planter who will take the tree. Here is a great resource page on how to manage live trees. Some municipalities collect trees for mulching. Use Earth 911 to find your local waste management. Fresh Christmas Tree is a great place to find sustainably harvested trees, but by this time of year they are usually sold out. They might be able to refer you to local farms that are growing trees responsibly.

5. Recycle Wrapping: instead of spending money on wrapping I actually save old wrapping and ribbons. Gift bags get used multiple times in our house. Re-gifting is also a really good way to avoid wasteful spending.

6. Donate to a cause: For those who don’t need ‘stuff,’ giving to local charities is a great way to give a gift with meaning.

7. Give an experience: Yoga classes, massage, theater tickets, or an afternoon of hiking…

Here is an excellent resource for other environmentally conscious holiday ideas. Mahalo!
Wishing everyone warmth for the season.

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Reduce: Use a Home Soda Making-Machine

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by Melissa Goldberg · 12/21/08

(Image: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

On the homepage of the Container Recycling Institute is a counter clocking how many beverage containers have been landfilled, littered and incinerated in the United States. This year alone the counter has tallied over 125 billion bottles and cans. Amazingly, the average American drinks around 60 gallons of soda each year, sadly, only 33-45 percent of those bottles and can get recycled. The environmental toll from the production, packaging and shipping of each soda can and bottle is incredible – the energy wasted in 2001 to produce 50.7 billion soda cans was the equivalent to 16 million barrels of oil!  Our towns and cities are being buried in water and soda bottles and cans.

With the economy in the dumps– no pun intended– the problems arising from these drink containers is getting even more severe.  Plainly said, at this moment in time, there is no market for recyclables. Paper, plastic, aluminum, cardboard, all those products we are so proud to put in our recycling bins and put on the curb for pick up are piling up at municipal recycling facilities.  A once lucrative business, recyclers cannot find anyone to buy there “junk”.

According to a December 7th story in the New York Times entitled Back at Junk Value, Recyclables are Piling Up, in some areas mixed paper is selling for $20-25 a ton, down from $105 in October and tin is now $5 a ton, down from $327 earlier this year.  Some towns and cities across country that used to get paid for their recyclables are either not getting their monthly checks or are now being charged to take the junk away.

I recently spoke with public works representative in my town who told me that our township was getting paid for all our recyclables but the checks had stopped coming.  However, they told me that our town is lucky because we are in a contract with a hauler, so our recyclables were still getting picked up. In many towns without rock-solid contracts, recyclable haulers are refusing to pick up their loads.

So now what?  Clearly we should not abandon our recycling programs. I know I’ve painted a bleak picture, but it is really important to continue to recycle.  However, now more than ever, the first two of the 3 “R’s”s are increasingly more important.  We need to REDUCE and REUSE.

Between 1960-79 the average person purchased 200-250 packaged drinks per year. In 2006 that number has soared to 686 drinks (Source: Container Recycling Institute).  We need to turn this around and reach for zero new waste. We need to make consumer choices to buy products that are not only recycled and recyclable, but to buy goods that do not generate more recyclable garbage.  Sounds hard right?  Well in some instances its not as difficult as you might think.

In my house we’ve taken an interesting step in this direction. We drink a lot of soda water (seltzer).  At least a 1/2 gallon a day.  Now my husband and I used to drink Pellegrino by the case.  Doing so would put at least 6-8 glass bottles back into the garbage/recycling stream on a weekly basis. In addition, our sparkling water traveled thousands of miles to reach us. A gallon of Peligrino costs over $7.50 per gallon, much more than gasoline.

Soda-Club Pure and Penguin machines

Recently, we got the opportunity to try out Sodastream Soda-Club, a home seltzer and soda-making machine. The machine is already helping eco-conscious consumers elsewhere – 30% of German and 24% of Swiss households have soda machines and have reduced their waste.  With a Soda-Club machine, we drink freshly made, great tasting seltzer and we are drastically reducing waste from store-bought cans and bottles. The machine uses no batteries or electricity, just a 14.5 oz CO2 canister that can make up to 60 liters of seltzer or soda. Empty carbonators are returned to Soda-Club to be cleaned, inspected and refilled with CO2 drawn naturally from the air. Carbonators are reusable as long as they remain in good condition.

We tried a machine that is called the Penguin. This little marvel comes with 2 glass carafes. Other versions come with clear plastic (PET), BPA-free reusable bottles will about 3 years. Each bottle also comes with a special cap with a hermetic seal that keeps your soda carbonated long after you first open it and it really works.

The machine’s also come with regular, diet and caffeine-free flavors to make cola, root bear, cherry soda and many more. In addition they have fruit essence to make flavored-seltzer. If you are purist like me these syrups may not pass the test. But for those of you who still need your soda fix, it beats drinking high-fructose Coca-Cola. Regular flavors have 2/3 less carbs, calories and sugar than store-bought sodas, and contain much less sodium. Both regular and diet flavors do contain Splenda®.

For our household we are sold. We always have fresh bubbly seltzer in the house. Finish a bottle during a meal, just fill the bottle with water, stick it in the machine press the lever and we have seltzer in seconds. According to Carbonrally, we save about 6 lbs of carbon emissions per week (production, bottling, transport) by making our own soft drinks. According to Soda Club, worldwide, they estimate over 10 million units have been sold.  That is huge savings worldwide in carbon emissions, bottles and cans.

So if you are like me and want to still recycle but REDUCE your waste dramaticly, I suggest giving a Soda-Club machine a try.  The machines range from about $100 to $230 dollars depending if you order just a machine or a machine with flavors.  All machines come with CO2 carbonators.  It may sound a little steep but the savings on your waste, environmental impact and future costs (pay back depends on how much you drink), it is well worth it.  AND Soda-Club is giving Eco-Chick readers a discount. Use the discount code MELISSA at check out you will get an additional $5 off after their current holiday discount, a total savings of $25 per machine.

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Deplasticize Your Life!

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by Starre Vartan · 08/18/08

This movie from the 1950′s shows Disney’s “House of the Future” which is totally kitted out in plastic EVERYthing. Ironic that here I am from 2008 writing about how to get plastic out of my life!

I haven’t picked up a plastic bag in weeks now*, and I’m looking for a new eco-challenge. I think a wholesale elimination of ALL plastic from my life could be a worthwhile next step towards the continuing greenification of my life.** Why plastic? Yes, it CAN be great (plastic medical devices save lives and plastic helps reduce the weight of cars so they’re more fuel-efficient), but mostly, it’s evil.

Reason 1: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area TWICE the size of the continental U.S. that’s filled with floating plastic debris. The smaller the plastic gets, the higher in the water column it floats, with marine life choking on the stuff. The source of the debris? North America and Asia (that’s you and me).

Reason 2: Plastic is made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource that we’re spending millions of dollars and the lives and well-being of our fellow humans to obtain. Eight percent of oil worldwide goes to make plastics. My use increases demand.

Reason 3: Many plastics (we’re not even totally sure which ones yet) leach toxic chemicals into our environment (and us, especially fetuses) when they’re created, and into our bodies when we use them for food and beverage storage. Life is toxic enough without adding to it.

Instead of plastic storage containers, try: Glass ones. There are all kinds, from traditional round-shaped ones from Pyrex, but I like these square versions with frosted tops even better.

Instead of plastic produce bags try: Cloth or reusable ‘green’ bags (or none at all). Naturally-protected produce like bananas, oranges, apples, limes and avocados don’t need a bag- I never use them and my veggies aren’t suffering. Only leafy stuff and small fruits and veggies (cherries, brussels sprouts) really need to be bagged. I use the Evert-Fresh bags (but several companies make these now) because they keep produce fresh in the fridge way longer than supermarket produce babs. You can bring these to the market for those items that demand a carrier, and you can just rinse and reuse these. (I’ve had mine for four years now.) A friend of mine likes different-sized cloth bags which she throws in the laundry every now and again, so that’s another option.

Instead of plastic wrap try: A dish! (My father who lives in Australia actually taught me this one-thanks Dad!) Instead of putting plastic over a plate of leftovers, just use another dish of the same size or smaller. Want to be able to see what’s under there? Use a clear glass plate. For bowls, use teacup saucers (you can find these a goodwill for pennies. Food will stay moist and protected sans plastic, and the plates are reusable forever.

Instead of plastic baggies try: Wax paper bags or a cloth napkin.
This is a toughie. Sometimes there’s nothing like a sealable plastic bag- for something mushy or potentially messy- if I have to, I use mine over and over until they die so I don’t buy more than a box of these every couple years, if that. But for drier items (sandwiches, fruit, cut veggies) a wax paper bag will keep moisture in and it will eventually biodegrade (unlike plastic). I use a cloth napkin for short-term transport of homemade burritos, sandwiches and veggies which won’t leak much but need a bit of protection. I can use it as a napkin while eating; plastic, not so much.

Instead of plastic silverware, try: Bringing your own.
I carry my own utensils- or I should say utensil- with me: the Aussie splayde is perfect, but a spork works too, so I never need to use plastic. You could also try a set of collapsible chopsticks (I find a need a spoon more often than a fork, but think about what you eat and what works for you).

*The key to avoiding plastic bags is to carry an oversized bag so you always have a place for small items, keeping a fold-up reusable bag like Envirosax in your bigger bag, and leaving your canvas bags for grocery shopping in the car so you’re always prepared.

** So far I’ve switched to 75% organic food in my home, I drive only on the weekends, I’ve gotten a super-efficient furnace, use only low-VOC paints, compost food scraps, grow my own veggies and herbs, buy from my local farmer’s market from April-October, adopted all my animals, buy more than half my clothes and shoes from sustainable companies (see my blog, Eco Chick for a listing), take the train instead of flying, switched from a desktop to a laptop (they use 90% less power), bought a water and energy efficient new washer, and line-dry my clothes whenever possible. I’ve been vegetarian for 15 years, so that’s not recent, but it still counts!

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100-Mile Challenge

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by Starre Vartan · 11/20/06

What cute Turkeys! I like to see them scuffling through the leaves in the woods, not on a plate!

Treehugger encouraged folks to get their whole Thanksgiving meal within 100 miles of their homes in the aptly named 100-mile Challenge, and though I’m not entering their contest, I am trying to get most of the tasties for my feast locally. I think this is a great idea, and especially for people who don’t cook much (that would be me!) and really do it up on Thanksgiving.

So here’s my menu, and my local (or not so local) choices. FYI, I live in Southwestern Connecticut:

-Homemade Tofurkey (my favoritie tofu is made in Middlefield, CT, 54 miles away, seasonings I already have, and are from all over the place)

-Bread stuffing for Tofurkey (bread is from bakery less than a mile from my home, though I don’t know from where their ingredients come from…)

-Cranberry sauce (cranberries are from Massachusetts bogs- over 100 miles away, regional)

-Pumpkin Bisque soup (pumpins are pick-your-own from farm about 60 miles away, organic cream is from New England dairies)

-Mushroom Quiche (eggs from New Hampshire, less than 200 miles away, mushrooms are from California, cheese and cream is from New England dairies)

-Tat Soi (like Bok Choi, but darker- from my garden!)

-Pumpkin muffins (uhh….from the box!)

-Mashed potatoes and gravy (Idaho organic potatoes and premade gravy from California)

-Green salad with dressing (greens from California)

-Chardonnay (from California)

-Cherry pie, apple pie (apples are local, I buy organic pre-made crust, cherries are from the can! but organic)

-Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Ice cream (fair trade beans, but not really local…but at least regional- from Vermont, about 200 miles away)

Ok, so that’s my dinner. I am glad to see that the bulk of my food is actually from the Northeast, at least. Maybe I’ll nix the salad….I haven’t bought some of my ingredients yet, and I’m headed to the farmer’s market on Wednesday, so maybe I’ll see if I can get onions, potatoes and some mushrooms there instead of Wild Oats, which would make my meal much more regional and would support Connecticut farmers.

Happy Thanksgiving to All the Eco Chicks (and guys too)!

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Guestblogger: GardenRant

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by Starre Vartan · 10/12/06

I’ve been enjoying the well-written and funny-as-hell GardenRant blog of late, and Susan Harris, who runs the site jointly with two other women, is guest-posting about why she wanted to start a blog that focuses on ecologically intelligent gardening. Check it out!

Why Gardening Matters 

by Susan Harris of GardenRant
When uppity women come together to create a website, the first thing they do is tell the world who they are. So EcoChicks have their Raison D’Etre and the women of GardenRant have a Manifesto, which declares that We Are:
In love with real, rambling, chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens.
Appalled by chemical warfare in the garden.
Gardening our asses off.
And so on. But first on the list is “Convinced that gardening MATTERS” and we’re on a Rant to tell everyone why. Conveniently, examples abound from the our own rants and raves and comments by our community of opinionated gardeners and friends. Consider a few.

It’s about using our land to grow food. Here and here.
It’s about switching from turfgrass to a diversity of wildlife-attracting, water-absorbing, soul-enriching plants. Here and here.
It’s about changing our cities. Here, here and here.
It’s about what Home Depot and Scotts Miracle-Gro are doing to independent nurseries. Here, and here.
It’s about plant immigration – are you for it or against it? Here, and here.
It’s about guerrilla gardening breaking out everywhere. Here and here.
It’s about getting MUCH smarter about how we use our water. Here, and here.
It’s about quacks on PBS hawking their toxic homemade concoctions. Here.
As GardenRanter Amy Stewart once wrote: This isn’t needlepoint, people!

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