Reducing my footprint, one toe at a time
I've been thinking lately about a goal I wish I had put on my 101: think about and implement ways to reduce my consumption of resources. Most notably, what I keep thinking about is how much I throw away, and how society seems to be organized so that everything comes with too much packaging and is meant to be disposable.
I already try to reduce my use of plastic and paper bags from the grocery store, so that's one area where I'm doing well. I also buy in bulk a lot (saves cans and plastic packaging), and re-use containers. I make my lunch instead of buying it in a container or package. (Speaking of which, Mr. Bento made the Cool Tools blog! Mine is still going strong almost a year after I bought it, with only slight cosmetic nicks, and is my constant lunch companion, so I wholly agree that it is a cool tool.) But I still throw a lot of stuff away and when I do think it through, I often realize that I could avoid disposing of the thing by choosing to do something different, though in many cases it would be significant departure from 'normal' behavior.
Plastic vegetable bags or containers are a good example. I do use a lot fewer of these than most people because I try not to get them every time I go to the store or farmer's market, and I try to dry and reuse them and remember to bring the ones I already have when I'm shopping. But I often fail to remember to bring them, and furthermore, eventually the bags get nasty and can't be re-used anymore, and I throw them away. I've looked into cloth vegetable/staple bags (like these or these) and I know they're the answer, but I haven't bought any yet. (These look good too, considering that throwing away food because I don't get to it in time is also wasteful!) And I'm still stymied on what to do about flour. It would just sift out of the cloth bags, but I've never tried to buy it in a container at Rainbow because I don't know how they would weigh it. Apparently it is allowed, because you get a 5-cent credit for bringing recycled bags or containers. (Rainbow FTW also for using "poring" correctly.)
Aside from bags, there's also the containers that I end up picking up, mostly at Trader Joe's. The obvious answer to this is "Don't buy vegetables from Trader Joe's." Which is pretty good as an idea, but then it's Saturday and I suddenly realize I need parsely to make tabbouleh for ariiadne's party, or it's Wednesday and I realize that I don't have enough carrots to make two cups of grated carrots for work's carrot cake birthday treat. Apparently the answer to this is "Plan better." Sigh. But that's hard!
There are a lot of things besides that. Like using rags instead of paper towels to clean up messes. I try to do that but sometimes the mess is really icky, and I don't like to waste laundry space laundering rags either, because our washer and dryer suck. There's turning things off when I'm not using them (which I fail to do with the computer and often lights), getting a dish tub or sink plug wide enough to plug up my disposal to wash dishes so that I don't waste so much water while washing dishes (a serious matter since water reserves are low here). Instead of accumulating or throwing away bread bags, I could make my own bread. And so on.
I already do a lot of major resource conserving things, notably not owning a car, not eating meat or much in the way of animal products, trying to eat local where feasible, using reusable containers, and reusing and recycling containers and packaging. And other big ones I'm not going to do anytime soon, like not having a single-person household. So sometimes I do wonder if it's worthwhile to work on these other things which are something of a drop in the bucket. But I think it's always worthwhile to take a stab at it. After all, if we all save a drop in the bucket every day, then every day we collectively save a bucket!
I already try to reduce my use of plastic and paper bags from the grocery store, so that's one area where I'm doing well. I also buy in bulk a lot (saves cans and plastic packaging), and re-use containers. I make my lunch instead of buying it in a container or package. (Speaking of which, Mr. Bento made the Cool Tools blog! Mine is still going strong almost a year after I bought it, with only slight cosmetic nicks, and is my constant lunch companion, so I wholly agree that it is a cool tool.) But I still throw a lot of stuff away and when I do think it through, I often realize that I could avoid disposing of the thing by choosing to do something different, though in many cases it would be significant departure from 'normal' behavior.
Plastic vegetable bags or containers are a good example. I do use a lot fewer of these than most people because I try not to get them every time I go to the store or farmer's market, and I try to dry and reuse them and remember to bring the ones I already have when I'm shopping. But I often fail to remember to bring them, and furthermore, eventually the bags get nasty and can't be re-used anymore, and I throw them away. I've looked into cloth vegetable/staple bags (like these or these) and I know they're the answer, but I haven't bought any yet. (These look good too, considering that throwing away food because I don't get to it in time is also wasteful!) And I'm still stymied on what to do about flour. It would just sift out of the cloth bags, but I've never tried to buy it in a container at Rainbow because I don't know how they would weigh it. Apparently it is allowed, because you get a 5-cent credit for bringing recycled bags or containers. (Rainbow FTW also for using "poring" correctly.)
Aside from bags, there's also the containers that I end up picking up, mostly at Trader Joe's. The obvious answer to this is "Don't buy vegetables from Trader Joe's." Which is pretty good as an idea, but then it's Saturday and I suddenly realize I need parsely to make tabbouleh for ariiadne's party, or it's Wednesday and I realize that I don't have enough carrots to make two cups of grated carrots for work's carrot cake birthday treat. Apparently the answer to this is "Plan better." Sigh. But that's hard!
There are a lot of things besides that. Like using rags instead of paper towels to clean up messes. I try to do that but sometimes the mess is really icky, and I don't like to waste laundry space laundering rags either, because our washer and dryer suck. There's turning things off when I'm not using them (which I fail to do with the computer and often lights), getting a dish tub or sink plug wide enough to plug up my disposal to wash dishes so that I don't waste so much water while washing dishes (a serious matter since water reserves are low here). Instead of accumulating or throwing away bread bags, I could make my own bread. And so on.
I already do a lot of major resource conserving things, notably not owning a car, not eating meat or much in the way of animal products, trying to eat local where feasible, using reusable containers, and reusing and recycling containers and packaging. And other big ones I'm not going to do anytime soon, like not having a single-person household. So sometimes I do wonder if it's worthwhile to work on these other things which are something of a drop in the bucket. But I think it's always worthwhile to take a stab at it. After all, if we all save a drop in the bucket every day, then every day we collectively save a bucket!