Author Topic: Reduce your environmental impact 2019  (Read 25089 times)

Plina

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #50 on: January 06, 2019, 06:04:53 PM »
You can often buy the same as loose tea so you don’t need the bag. I am doing that.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #51 on: January 07, 2019, 09:53:10 AM »
I buy loose tea when I can but usually that means going to a specialty shop.  Grocery stores here basically like bagged tea.

nessness

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #52 on: January 07, 2019, 11:44:43 AM »
I've been focusing on organizing and decluttering, which doesn't feel environmentally friendly as I'm bagging up stuff to get rid of, but has the effect of making me more aware of and content with what I already have, so I don't feel the need to buy anything new. I thought about buying some plastic bins to organize my kids' toys but ended up using shoe boxes instead, which aren't ideal but work adequately.

Had a couple of fails this week related to poor planning - for example, I went to Starbucks the other day because I had to leave early and my husband didn't want me to risk waking the kids by running the coffee grinder, which could easily have been solved by grinding the coffee the night before. And I forgot a fork in my lunch today so will need to use a plastic one, which could be solved by leaving a few metal forks at work. So I think my next area of focus should be planning ahead better to avoid needing single-use items.

I think reducing dairy consumption is going to be one of the most challenging aspects of this challenge. As a busy family with two young, relatively picky kids, we eat a lot of quesadillas, pizza, and cheesy pasta dishes. They'll eat veggies on the side but won't reliably eat them mixed into things. The only WFPB dinner they'll reliably eat is vegetarian chili. They also like fake meat like veggie dogs and veggie sausage, so maybe I need to experiment with homemade versions of these things. Suggestions here would be welcome.

And a couple questions for pet owners: what's the best choice for cleaning up dog poop? I do reuse bags from bread, etc. when I have them, but we have 3 dogs so those aren't enough. Also, any recommendations for environmentally friendly cat litter?

gaja

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #53 on: January 07, 2019, 12:13:54 PM »
I've been focusing on organizing and decluttering, which doesn't feel environmentally friendly as I'm bagging up stuff to get rid of, but has the effect of making me more aware of and content with what I already have, so I don't feel the need to buy anything new. I thought about buying some plastic bins to organize my kids' toys but ended up using shoe boxes instead, which aren't ideal but work adequately.

A researcher at the local university who specialises in climate related LCA analyzis always says that he doesn't like goals of reducing the total amount of garbage. Instead, we should focus on getting people to deliver all their stored junk to the recycling stations so we get the resources back into the loop. If we recycled all the precious metals in phones and other electronics people don't use anymore, maybe we could remove the market for some of the worst mines in Kongo?

RetiredAt63

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #54 on: January 07, 2019, 12:20:02 PM »
I've been focusing on organizing and decluttering, which doesn't feel environmentally friendly as I'm bagging up stuff to get rid of, but has the effect of making me more aware of and content with what I already have, so I don't feel the need to buy anything new. I thought about buying some plastic bins to organize my kids' toys but ended up using shoe boxes instead, which aren't ideal but work adequately.

A researcher at the local university who specialises in climate related LCA analyzis always says that he doesn't like goals of reducing the total amount of garbage. Instead, we should focus on getting people to deliver all their stored junk to the recycling stations so we get the resources back into the loop. If we recycled all the precious metals in phones and other electronics people don't use anymore, maybe we could remove the market for some of the worst mines in Kongo?

Getting all those things into the recycling stream is very important.  The mining of coltan is a disgrace in many places.  The low-tech highly polluting mines, which are also very dangerous for their operators, are called "artisanal", but "artisanal" is for cheese or wine or bread, not for mines.  They remind me of the California gold rush in their environmental destruction.  About the same level of technology, too.

My area does have an electronics recycling depot, so phones and microwave ovens and so on end up there, instead of in the garbage.  We also have hazardous household waste day so hazardous waste does not end up in the garbage.  We are a small rural township. It is doable if the will is there.

cats

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #55 on: January 07, 2019, 01:27:52 PM »


I think reducing dairy consumption is going to be one of the most challenging aspects of this challenge. As a busy family with two young, relatively picky kids, we eat a lot of quesadillas, pizza, and cheesy pasta dishes. They'll eat veggies on the side but won't reliably eat them mixed into things. The only WFPB dinner they'll reliably eat is vegetarian chili. They also like fake meat like veggie dogs and veggie sausage, so maybe I need to experiment with homemade versions of these things. Suggestions here would be welcome.


We make a lot of homemade veggie sausage/seitan in our pressure cooker.  I use this recipe as a general guide (can typically fit 4x the recipe in the pressure cooker, so great for making a big batch!).

nessness

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #56 on: January 07, 2019, 01:34:02 PM »
I've been focusing on organizing and decluttering, which doesn't feel environmentally friendly as I'm bagging up stuff to get rid of, but has the effect of making me more aware of and content with what I already have, so I don't feel the need to buy anything new. I thought about buying some plastic bins to organize my kids' toys but ended up using shoe boxes instead, which aren't ideal but work adequately.

A researcher at the local university who specialises in climate related LCA analyzis always says that he doesn't like goals of reducing the total amount of garbage. Instead, we should focus on getting people to deliver all their stored junk to the recycling stations so we get the resources back into the loop. If we recycled all the precious metals in phones and other electronics people don't use anymore, maybe we could remove the market for some of the worst mines in Kongo?
Thanks, this is an interesting perspective that I hadn't thought of. Most of what I got rid of so far was clothing and a few toys, and while I did donate most things, I know the supply of used clothing and toys already exceeds the demand, so they may still end up getting trashed. But I'm pretty sure I have a few old, non-working cell phones stashed away in the garage somewhere. I'll add finding and recycling my non-working electronics and spent batteries to my to-do list.

Malaysia41

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #57 on: January 07, 2019, 01:54:24 PM »

I think reducing dairy consumption is going to be one of the most challenging aspects of this challenge. As a busy family with two young, relatively picky kids, we eat a lot of quesadillas, pizza, and cheesy pasta dishes. They'll eat veggies on the side but won't reliably eat them mixed into things. The only WFPB dinner they'll reliably eat is vegetarian chili. They also like fake meat like veggie dogs and veggie sausage, so maybe I need to experiment with homemade versions of these things. Suggestions here would be welcome.

@nessness, if you're open to the idea of soaking and blending cashews, you can make some pretty amazing 'cheezy' wfpb dishes.

The trick is to do a few iterations and dial in the sauce to your own liking.  I would suggest using whole wheat pasta, of course, just to keep it healthy.

Here's an example. This one looks pretty darned close to the recipe I've followed. It's from Chocolate Covered Katie, and everything I've made from her site has been delicious.  Some WFPB mac-n-cheeze recipes use roasted pumpkin rather than roasted carrot. Personally I prefer the pumpkin, but either will give the sauce the color your kids will likely expect. (And go easy on the vinegar).

( https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2018/08/13/vegan-mac-and-cheese-recipe )
Ingredients
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 medium peeled carrot, steamed or roasted (80g)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp white or cider vinegar
1/2 cup water, plus more for soaking
optional 2 tsp buttery spread or oil, for richness
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3 servings pasta of choice, or you can put the sauce over veggies or use it as a dipping sauce
Instructions
Completely cover the nuts in a bowl with water. Let soak anywhere from 2-6 hours, or refrigerate and soak overnight. Drain fully. Combine all ingredients (including 1/2 cup water, but not including the optional cheese-style shreds), and blend in a blender or with an immersion blender until completely smooth. Transfer to a small pot and heat to your desired temperature, stirring optional cheese shreds in at the end. Taste, and add extra seasonings (onion, salt, nutmeg, pepper) if desired – I like to add another 1/2 tsp salt and a pinch more nutmeg. Serve over cooked pasta, rice, veggies, etc.


Other sites that are also consistently good for simple, delicious WFPB:

minimalistbaker.com
onegreenplanet.org/channel/vegan-recipe

Like I mentioned before, you can always join us for the WFPB gauntlet challenge. Lots of people there are not quite doing 100% WFPB, but are there to increase their repertoire of WFPB recipes.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2019, 01:59:27 PM by Malaysia41 »

Malaysia41

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #58 on: January 07, 2019, 01:58:25 PM »
(our whole discussion about Monsanto)

You know what you will get?  Because it is what I got when I was at a provincial consultation about neonics?  We are just doing what the farmers want.  At this point most farmers are so tied into the modern industrial way of agriculture that it is a positive feedback loop.  I heard a presentation from someone very involved with soil health in Canada, and his organization pushes no-till (they will use roundup if they have to, but almost all the time they don't have to) and they have a terrible time persuading farmers to change away from plowing.  Farming is such a risky activity that farmers are very conservative and reluctant to change - if something works, it is one less risk for them.  Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has been around since the 70's and is still not used as much as it could be.  Farmers would rather buy seed to cope with soil pest insects than even see if that particular farm or a particular filed has the insects, they are all for insurance by pre-treatment and later on, by regular spray schedules.  It is really sad, but they are on such tight margins, and their investment in equipment is so high, that change is incredibly risky for them.  CAFO is part of the industrial model of agriculture, but I think it is also a reaction to the uncontrolability of animals being outside - if they are inside (pigs, poultry) or in a small monitored area (cattle) they are less vulnerable to the elements.

Thank you for writing this up. This is the kind of insight I need to better prepare for this project in Feb.

nessness

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #59 on: January 07, 2019, 02:57:18 PM »
Thanks @Malaysia41. Unfortunately nutritional yeast is one of the few foods I strongly dislike - I've tried a few well-reviewed recipes that use it and found them all to be barely edible. But I'll take a look at the WFPB thread - thanks for the suggestion.

I think I'm going to try making air-fried tofu this week - we like braised tofu from restaurants but I haven't been too successful at making it, but we got an air fryer for Christmas which might work better.


MicroRN

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #60 on: January 08, 2019, 08:35:35 AM »
Thanks @Malaysia41. Unfortunately nutritional yeast is one of the few foods I strongly dislike - I've tried a few well-reviewed recipes that use it and found them all to be barely edible. But I'll take a look at the WFPB thread - thanks for the suggestion.

I feel the same way about nutritional yeast.  We have drastically reduced our dairy in the past year.   My husband and older kid are lactose intolerant, kid may also be sensitive to casein.  I tried several nutritional yeast recipes,  and everyone thought they were awful.  We've switched to non dairy milk for cereal and baking and coconut or almond yogurt.  Older kid is also fine with vegan american- style cheese slices, coconut ice cream, and Kite Hill almond cream cheese is pretty decent.   However, most of the cheese replacements just don't taste good to us,  so we look for recipes that don't involve dairy to begin with.  One of our standby quick meals is spaghetti.  "Meatballs"  are one of the vegetarian substitute foods that work really well, either homemade or commercial.  For homemade,  I prefer a mushroom and chickpea base.  I keep some frozen,  and with jarred marinara sauce,  pasta,  and a vegetable or salad,  I can feed us all with minimal effort.  Add some French bread brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with garlic salt.

Also,  it's worth having fast and easy options around.   I keep a bag of frozen Morningstar nuggets and oven fries, so when we're really slammed I toss a pan of each in the oven and either microwave frozen corn and peas or cut up raw vegetables.  Yes,  processed and not nutritionally perfect,  and not super frugal, but it's better and cheaper than hitting the drive through.  I also always have a quart of tomato soup in the pantry.   Just heat it up,  add a swirl of coconut milk,  and some garlic toast.  My black bean burrito filling is a can of black beans,  some frozen corn,  salsa,  and chili powder heated together for a couple minutes.   I serve it with tortillas or over rice, with guacamole, red onion,  cilantro,  and more salsa.  If I have more time,  I cook dry beans. 


wenchsenior

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #61 on: January 08, 2019, 10:08:32 AM »
Thanks @Malaysia41. Unfortunately nutritional yeast is one of the few foods I strongly dislike - I've tried a few well-reviewed recipes that use it and found them all to be barely edible. But I'll take a look at the WFPB thread - thanks for the suggestion.

I feel the same way about nutritional yeast. 

I like nutritional yeast ok, but it's important to know that there is a subset of the population that cannot clear vitamin b6 from the body (I turn out to be one of them, unfortunately), and therefore must be extremely careful of supplemental b6 or risk nerve damage.  Trust, me it isn't fun to overdose on b6.  I'm actually suspicious that a couple years of only 2x per week B-complex supplementation might have set off autoimmune diseases in me.  And nutritional yeast has a lot of added b6.

aetherie

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #62 on: January 08, 2019, 10:24:42 AM »
I found potatoes at the grocery store that come in a paper bag, and they're cheaper than the plastic bag ones!

nessness

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #63 on: January 08, 2019, 06:48:50 PM »
Thanks @MicroRN !

Syonyk

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #64 on: January 09, 2019, 10:54:08 AM »
...which could easily have been solved by grinding the coffee the night before.

Or a manual grinder.  I have a hand crank grinder I use for my coffee, though admittedly this is because I'm the only coffee drinker - I use an Aeropress to make single cups at a time.  The kettle is louder than the grinder.  Though, to be fair, my daughter does pester me for coffee beans to eat whenever she finds me making coffee - I can't say I'm a huge fan of raw coffee beans, but she loves them.

Quote
Also, any recommendations for environmentally friendly cat litter?

A couple acres and an outdoor cat? ;)

A researcher at the local university who specialises in climate related LCA analyzis always says that he doesn't like goals of reducing the total amount of garbage. Instead, we should focus on getting people to deliver all their stored junk to the recycling stations so we get the resources back into the loop. If we recycled all the precious metals in phones and other electronics people don't use anymore, maybe we could remove the market for some of the worst mines in Kongo?

Cobalt and rare earths are somewhat hard to recycle out of electronics, sadly.  There's often no good way to split the stuff out, and electronics "recycling" is, more often than not, shipping them to some third world country where the valuable chips get removed and the rest gets burned.  We'd be far, far better off learning to use those things far longer, and repairing them as they broke instead of replacing them.

=======

I'm working towards reduced environmental impact, though via a somewhat different route - I'm one hell of a pessimist and am aiming to be able to produce a large amount of our own food/energy from our property (two acres, but I can expand to the land around it if I need - I shouldn't need to).  That has a side effect of reducing our environmental impact, because it involves locally produced energy/food.

The big project for 2019 is home solar.  After getting obscene quotes for a basic grid tied system that doesn't actually reduce grid use much, I'm building my own system.  Ground mount, battery backed (hybrid - I can export to grid if it's up, or run standalone if it's down or I feel like it), and designed to be flexible.  I expect my power company will eliminate net metering within the next few years, so I'm designing to be able to self consume a lot of energy and basically adapt to what comes down the pipeline.  It may or may not save me money, but it should dramatically reduce our energy use, and I should be "export only" for most of the spring, fall, and summer, if I choose to run that way.  We're a rural, pure electric house, so that covers water, heat, and a good bit of our transportation energy (we've got a Volt that covers most driving on electric, with a tank or so of gas a month in the winter, somewhat less in the summer as it doesn't need the engine for heat as much).  I work from the property, so my office impact is minimal (off grid/solar powered with lead acid, so fairly low embodied energy in the batteries).

What I really should do is get my long range/high speed e-bike built - I've got about half the parts, but have been lazy about building it.  It's a 20 mile round trip into town, and I live on a high speed rural road, so biking is a bit sketchy unless I take some long detours.  Being able to cruise at 30-35mph reduces the speed delta massively, and also gives me power for some good lighting, while consuming far less energy than a car or motorcycle.

I've been working on the waste streams as well.  Again, not as much for purely environmental reasons as for sanity and cost reasons.  I finally found a recycling center that takes most materials (and pays for corrugated cardboard and aluminum), though I still can't recycle glass anywhere.  I haul recycling if I'm making a Home Depot or Lowes run, so it's more or less free to haul, and it keeps material out of our trash trailer, which is slowly extending the fill-time.  It was 4 months, then 6 months, and I'm hoping to get a year on this fill (I'll probably haul it late in the year if it needs it or not, unless I think I can make it through winter - hauling it in the winter sucks).

The local food production side of things is a bit behind where I was hoping to be, but we have a garden, and will be expanding it.  I also intend to build some greenhouses for aquaponics, and some more sheltered garden beds (screen-covered sides to keep the birds out, mostly, because WOW they destroy the garden in a hurry when things are sprouting).  Compost bins exist, but are not working optimally right now - I need to do more work to get them up to temperature so I can kill seeds in our feedstock, which is heavily tumbleweed and cheatgrass.

It's a long project, but we've got the land area to be able to really reduce our impact a lot, and I'm working towards continuing to do so.

nereo

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #65 on: January 09, 2019, 11:07:08 AM »

The big project for 2019 is home solar.  After getting obscene quotes for a basic grid tied system that doesn't actually reduce grid use much, I'm building my own system.  Ground mount, battery backed (hybrid - I can export to grid if it's up, or run standalone if it's down or I feel like it), and designed to be flexible.  I expect my power company will eliminate net metering within the next few years, so I'm designing to be able to self consume a lot of energy and basically adapt to what comes down the pipeline.  It may or may not save me money, but it should dramatically reduce our energy use, and I should be "export only" for most of the spring, fall, and summer, if I choose to run that way.  We're a rural, pure electric house, so that covers water, heat, and a good bit of our transportation energy (we've got a Volt that covers most driving on electric, with a tank or so of gas a month in the winter, somewhat less in the summer as it doesn't need the engine for heat as much).  I work from the property, so my office impact is minimal (off grid/solar powered with lead acid, so fairly low embodied energy in the batteries).


I'd love to see you start a thread on this @Syonk (though of course I realize that it's one thing to want someone else to do something and quite another to take on the workload yourself).
I followed your build of your off-grid office and might do something similar when we get our next home; would love to follow your process of home solar with the option of taking it off-grid.

Syonyk

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #66 on: January 09, 2019, 11:32:43 AM »
I'll consider tossing a build thread here - I haven't decided if I want to bother keeping multiple build threads going at various places, or just document it on my blog when it's done.

I suppose I should also mention, for completeness, that my office goes through a couple gallons of propane and about 5-15 gallons of gas a winter (propane for cloudy day heat, gas for the generator for inversion weeks, though I'm getting better at using less gas as I learn what my battery bank can actually handle).

Linea_Norway

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #67 on: January 09, 2019, 01:35:29 PM »
I intend to walk to work and back tomorrow. I meed to wear spike soles.

gaja

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #68 on: January 09, 2019, 01:51:19 PM »


A researcher at the local university who specialises in climate related LCA analyzis always says that he doesn't like goals of reducing the total amount of garbage. Instead, we should focus on getting people to deliver all their stored junk to the recycling stations so we get the resources back into the loop. If we recycled all the precious metals in phones and other electronics people don't use anymore, maybe we could remove the market for some of the worst mines in Kongo?

Cobalt and rare earths are somewhat hard to recycle out of electronics, sadly.  There's often no good way to split the stuff out, and electronics "recycling" is, more often than not, shipping them to some third world country where the valuable chips get removed and the rest gets burned.  We'd be far, far better off learning to use those things far longer, and repairing them as they broke instead of replacing them.


I do agree that repairing and reducing consumption is better. And yes, some things are more difficult to recycle. But we do need these technologies to be developed, and that won't happen until we (the consumers and voters) show businesses and politicians that there is a need for it. It has happened before with a lot of other materials, there is no reason it should happen with metals from electronics too.

Syonyk

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #69 on: January 09, 2019, 02:02:51 PM »
I do agree that repairing and reducing consumption is better. And yes, some things are more difficult to recycle. But we do need these technologies to be developed, and that won't happen until we (the consumers and voters) show businesses and politicians that there is a need for it. It has happened before with a lot of other materials, there is no reason it should happen with metals from electronics too.

I'm going to guess you don't work with lithium batteries terribly often - they have an annoying tendency to burst into flames with violently toxic fumes when you start mashing them up.  In theory, they can be recycled and reused, but it's not nearly as easy as most recycling processes, which tends to mean a lot more energy is required (or a lot more hands-on labor - recycling electronics is harder when you have to individually remove the battery pouches from the units before they can be recycled, and that's the sort of thing that involves regular fires from damage).

More repairable electronics would help quite a bit, as they're easier to both maintain in service and disassemble for recycling, but that's not the trend we've seen.  Sadly.

On the plus side, costs for electronics are going to be trending up with the tariffs, so maybe we'll get less crap coming out in the first place.  A thundering global recession would be great for the environment.

gaja

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #70 on: January 09, 2019, 03:34:50 PM »
I do agree that repairing and reducing consumption is better. And yes, some things are more difficult to recycle. But we do need these technologies to be developed, and that won't happen until we (the consumers and voters) show businesses and politicians that there is a need for it. It has happened before with a lot of other materials, there is no reason it should happen with metals from electronics too.

I'm going to guess you don't work with lithium batteries terribly often - they have an annoying tendency to burst into flames with violently toxic fumes when you start mashing them up.  In theory, they can be recycled and reused, but it's not nearly as easy as most recycling processes, which tends to mean a lot more energy is required (or a lot more hands-on labor - recycling electronics is harder when you have to individually remove the battery pouches from the units before they can be recycled, and that's the sort of thing that involves regular fires from damage).

More repairable electronics would help quite a bit, as they're easier to both maintain in service and disassemble for recycling, but that's not the trend we've seen.  Sadly.

On the plus side, costs for electronics are going to be trending up with the tariffs, so maybe we'll get less crap coming out in the first place.  A thundering global recession would be great for the environment.

Not personally, but I have chatted a bit with the national center for battery recycling and other recycling people about these topics. They are planning a new plant for lithium battery recycling, to get better control of it rather than shipping it abroad, and also have plans for reuse of the larger battery packs. The waste industry as a whole are changing, and they are moving fast. They have recently launched a center for circular economy (webpage is ncce.no, sorry for the language), and one of the projects they have received research funding for is how to drain energy from batteries and reuse that energy.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #71 on: January 24, 2019, 07:15:42 AM »
I thought I would share a little story from my workplace.

A couple of years ago the bosses started buying plastic cutlery for the staff lunchroom. So, this week I brought some extra metal cutlery that I had at home, and also went to the thrift store and bought more, so now there is plenty of metal cutlery. I was telling this to the receptionist (C1), who also supports green living, and there was another co-worker standing there, let's call her C2. C1 was very much in favour, and thanked me for doing that. C2, on the other hand, gave a bunch of lame excuses as to why she prefers to use plastic spoons at work. I tried to remain neutral and just said it's up to her, she can do whatever she wants, but they are there for whoever wants to use them. BTW, we have a dishwasher at work that we run once a week.

There are still a lot of people that just don't get it. But it starts with one. I can't change the world, but I can change what I do, and hopefully the word will spread.







nessness

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #72 on: January 31, 2019, 01:12:05 PM »
One month in, how's everyone doing on their goals?

I've been doing well with my "buying less" and "buying used" goals, and somewhat well at eating fewer animal products. I've tried introducing the potty to my almost-2-year-old but haven't made any real progress on training her.

I haven't put enough effort yet into my goals of reducing food waste and food packaging waste - I've been super busy so my husband's been doing more of the food shopping and cooking, and he's not much for meal planning, and tends to buy a lot of single-serving snacks. I don't want to nag him constantly, so I think I'll need to find time to do more of these to make real progress - probably by using my crock pot more.

gaja

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #73 on: January 31, 2019, 02:11:47 PM »
There is a lot of travelling planned at work, but I've managed to avoid booking any plane tickets yet. That means driving 1500 km to a meeting in Brussels  (and the same distance back) end of February, and probably skipping a meeting in Scotland in April.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #74 on: January 31, 2019, 03:03:21 PM »
You're so die-hard @gaja! Much respect for your no-flying efforts.

I totally failed on the no-flying part by booking two trips in the past week. One is with a friend visiting from overseas. I suggested several destinations within bus/train distance, but due to him wanting to make most out of his trip he'd be 'too far to bus to' on the limited number of days I could join (I couldn't take more than 3 days off, otherwise I wouldn't mind a long bus/train ride).

There was also a 'too good to be true' deal to the country where I used to live and after talking with some friends from there I decided I wanted to go this year anyways so I better take the good deal.

Seems like I'm hopeless regarding flying this year. For both trips I'll pay for CO2 compensation though. On the long flight that'll mean a painful extra charity contribution.

No-meat is going really well. Haven't visited my parents in a while so that makes it easy. Have been eating too much cheese recently though.

Raenia

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #75 on: January 31, 2019, 07:26:44 PM »
It's been surprisingly easy to cut down poultry and fish meals, we're actually having more vegetarian days than I originally 'budgeted' for without trying too hard.  The last two weeks I didn't like the price of chicken, so we just skipped it.  My DH does worry about getting enough protein, but we do still eat plenty of eggs and yoghurt as well as plant-based sources.

Looking like this year will be no-fly (barring family emergencies).  Last year we had one trip to England to visit DH's relatives before our wedding, since they would not be able to attend, but we didn't go on a honeymoon, and we are not planning any trips this year.

I'm honestly not sure how we're doing on plastic packaging.  I'm trying to buy things with less packaging, no single serve packs, or glass or paper packaging, but I'm not noticing much difference in our trash/recycling quantities.  I have been good about remembering my reusable bags when shopping, so no plastic grocery bags so far.

The nasty cold snap has kept me from longer walking/biking trips, but I do walk to my closer errands and I have been making sure to never have single-purpose car trips, always combine at least 2-3 errands in the same direction.  We also bought a new-to-us car early this month that gets better gas mileage than the old one (this decision was not related to environmental impact, but it still counts I think).

Malaysia41

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #76 on: February 01, 2019, 02:19:20 AM »
It's been surprisingly easy to cut down poultry and fish meals, we're actually having more vegetarian days than I originally 'budgeted' for without trying too hard.  The last two weeks I didn't like the price of chicken, so we just skipped it.  My DH does worry about getting enough protein, but we do still eat plenty of eggs and yoghurt as well as plant-based sources.

Looking like this year will be no-fly (barring family emergencies).  Last year we had one trip to England to visit DH's relatives before our wedding, since they would not be able to attend, but we didn't go on a honeymoon, and we are not planning any trips this year.

I'm honestly not sure how we're doing on plastic packaging.  I'm trying to buy things with less packaging, no single serve packs, or glass or paper packaging, but I'm not noticing much difference in our trash/recycling quantities.  I have been good about remembering my reusable bags when shopping, so no plastic grocery bags so far.

The nasty cold snap has kept me from longer walking/biking trips, but I do walk to my closer errands and I have been making sure to never have single-purpose car trips, always combine at least 2-3 errands in the same direction.  We also bought a new-to-us car early this month that gets better gas mileage than the old one (this decision was not related to environmental impact, but it still counts I think).

This may be something to investigate.  Ask himself what exactly is motivating his concern about protein. Dr. Garth Davis's book, called Proteinaholic, has some interesting data and facts to consider.

tl;dr -  In America, no one is dying of protein deficiency, yet nearly everyone is concerned about getting adequate protein.

Meanwhile, the top 14 of 16 killers in the US are all related to eating too many animal products - meat, dairy and eggs all included.

Eating plant based isn't just good for the environment. So long as you eat a wide variety of plants, and get adequate calories, you can't be protein deficient. Just look at all the body builders and elite athletes like Rich Roll (check out his podcast) who outperform their competitors. Or read Penn Jillette's account of eating nothing but potato for IIRC 3 months. (not that I recommend an all-potato diet - it's simply instructive about how complete the nutrition is in a lot of plants).

Nice on no-flying. I have one big trip on an airplane coming up, but other than that it's trains all the time. I'm giving about $100 a month to activists and organizations as my 'self imposed carbon tax'.

On plastic - the following article made my brain and heart hurt. I hate that it's nearly impossible to buy anything without creating plastic waste. And our acceptance of that seems to have largely been due to an ad campaign :(.  https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/pft/2017/10/26/a-beautiful-if-evil-strategy

Let me know if you guys look into protein - and what you conclude about the conventional obsession to 'get enough'
« Last Edit: February 01, 2019, 02:22:37 AM by Malaysia41 »

Raenia

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #77 on: February 01, 2019, 06:32:56 AM »
It's been surprisingly easy to cut down poultry and fish meals, we're actually having more vegetarian days than I originally 'budgeted' for without trying too hard.  The last two weeks I didn't like the price of chicken, so we just skipped it.  My DH does worry about getting enough protein, but we do still eat plenty of eggs and yoghurt as well as plant-based sources.

Looking like this year will be no-fly (barring family emergencies).  Last year we had one trip to England to visit DH's relatives before our wedding, since they would not be able to attend, but we didn't go on a honeymoon, and we are not planning any trips this year.

I'm honestly not sure how we're doing on plastic packaging.  I'm trying to buy things with less packaging, no single serve packs, or glass or paper packaging, but I'm not noticing much difference in our trash/recycling quantities.  I have been good about remembering my reusable bags when shopping, so no plastic grocery bags so far.

The nasty cold snap has kept me from longer walking/biking trips, but I do walk to my closer errands and I have been making sure to never have single-purpose car trips, always combine at least 2-3 errands in the same direction.  We also bought a new-to-us car early this month that gets better gas mileage than the old one (this decision was not related to environmental impact, but it still counts I think).

This may be something to investigate.  Ask himself what exactly is motivating his concern about protein. Dr. Garth Davis's book, called Proteinaholic, has some interesting data and facts to consider.

tl;dr -  In America, no one is dying of protein deficiency, yet nearly everyone is concerned about getting adequate protein.

Meanwhile, the top 14 of 16 killers in the US are all related to eating too many animal products - meat, dairy and eggs all included.

Eating plant based isn't just good for the environment. So long as you eat a wide variety of plants, and get adequate calories, you can't be protein deficient. Just look at all the body builders and elite athletes like Rich Roll (check out his podcast) who outperform their competitors. Or read Penn Jillette's account of eating nothing but potato for IIRC 3 months. (not that I recommend an all-potato diet - it's simply instructive about how complete the nutrition is in a lot of plants).

Nice on no-flying. I have one big trip on an airplane coming up, but other than that it's trains all the time. I'm giving about $100 a month to activists and organizations as my 'self imposed carbon tax'.

On plastic - the following article made my brain and heart hurt. I hate that it's nearly impossible to buy anything without creating plastic waste. And our acceptance of that seems to have largely been due to an ad campaign :(.  https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/pft/2017/10/26/a-beautiful-if-evil-strategy

Let me know if you guys look into protein - and what you conclude about the conventional obsession to 'get enough'

Honestly, this may be one of those things that I can't really convince him on.  DH was a full vegetarian for 10+ years when he was younger, so he's done way more research on nutrition than I have, and I think he actually did have trouble with deficiencies when he was younger and still growing.  I know his nutritional needs are different now as an adult, and there's a lot more reliable information now than then, but I can't really argue with his experience.  His concern is mostly about when we have a meal with no meat, no dairy, and no bean/legume.  I like to make vegetable soups (leek+potato, carrot+ginger, mixed veggie, etc) and he worries if we have more than one meal like that within a few days.  I can combat this with more bean/lentil meals, but I have a limited repertoire of bean-based recipes - all of which he loves, but he also doesn't like to eat the same thing many days in a row.  I've been learning more Indian cooking to combat this, but it's a work in progress.

Besides, that's why I'm on this thread - looking to make improvements this year.

JoshuaSpodek

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #78 on: February 01, 2019, 10:40:04 AM »
So here's a question for you all regarding plastic and social events:

Yesterday we went to a New Year's brunch and the hosts had disposable cutlery, plates, cups, napkins.  The plates and napkins were paper, but everything else was single use plastic, not compostable, clearly headed for the landfill.  My husband and I shared a fork, in retrospect I wish we had at least brought our own travel mugs for coffee (we have done this in the past when invited to events at parks).  How socially weird would it be to show up at someone's house also bearing your own plate and fork?  On the one hand we live in a "crunchy" enough area that I think people might not be too bothered if I said, oh we are trying to reduce single use plastic.  On the other hand, seems a little judgy?  Has anyone done this?  Did it lead to social ostracization?  I guess for events like this it might also not be too hard to just show up and hang out but not eat,

I only use cutlery and plates I bring if what's there is not reusable. On top of that, when I see someone take a napkin and not use it, which is standard at work events, I bring it home and use it.

If I can't avoid causing landfill waste, I skip the food. Sunday at an event I spoke at I brought cutlery, a plate, and a napkin. Everything they served was individually wrapped. I just didn't eat anything there. I let a friend use the cutlery so at least he could avoid using their plasticware since he still ate their food.

I haven't seen an issue of sanctimony. If there is any, it's from the person, not the cutlery. A sanctimonious person will be that way with or without their own silverware. A supportive, nonjudgmental person will be that way with or without silverware too.

I'll keep bringing my own things. I don't make a show of using them. I just use them. If people ask I answer.

JoshuaSpodek

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #79 on: February 01, 2019, 11:24:05 AM »
One month in, how's everyone doing on their goals?

I've been doing well with my "buying less" and "buying used" goals, and somewhat well at eating fewer animal products. I've tried introducing the potty to my almost-2-year-old but haven't made any real progress on training her.

I haven't put enough effort yet into my goals of reducing food waste and food packaging waste - I've been super busy so my husband's been doing more of the food shopping and cooking, and he's not much for meal planning, and tends to buy a lot of single-serving snacks. I don't want to nag him constantly, so I think I'll need to find time to do more of these to make real progress - probably by using my crock pot more.

Still haven't filled a load of garbage since September.

Still haven't flown since March 2016.

Still haven't eaten meat since 1990.

Nearly zero packaged food for about four years.

Still only public transit and walking around New York.

Most of all, happier, more convenient, saving more money, more connection with community than ever.

I'm redoing my floor, but keeping all the trash produced to take a picture of. Probably my biggest waste in a few years.

Still looking to improve my life yet more by continuing to reduce consumption of unnecessary stuff. I end up buying things online maybe once a month, which I'm still reducing, for example. Too much packaging.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #80 on: February 01, 2019, 12:35:29 PM »
I'm in. Goals:
- minimize air travel
- eat fewer animal products
- if we have to buy something, get it used
- minimize single-use plastic (I'd love to hear what you figure out for that, @BlueHouse!)

- No air travel yet. We had one trip in January from VT to MD and took Amtrak.
- Still cooking 100% vegetarian at home, and trying new vegan recipes when I find ones that look appealing. Tonight's dinner will be tempeh/spinach/tomato/avocado sandwiches.
- Everything we bought in January was consumables - food, cat litter, etc - except for a pair of headphones and a box of greeting cards, which were both new. So we failed at this one but it was a small fail.
- F's dad gave us a set of beeswax food wraps for Christmas and I've used them instead of plastic bags/saran wrap three times so far, so that's something.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #81 on: February 01, 2019, 02:42:05 PM »
-eat more small ruminants (sheep, goat)
-buy goat milk cheese instead of cow milk cheese
-renew summer vegetable and egg CSA
-carry stainless steel straw in purse
-buy second Yeti cup since work is providing only paper cups until new kitchen is complete; carrying one back and forth didn't work out well enough
-use silverware at work (even if it means washing them by hand since office dishwasher isn't connected yet)
-pick up a piece of trash every day
-keep reusable plastic bags in car to avoid "oops left them at home" syndrome
-cluster errands to save gas
-print double sided when possible

Malaysia41

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #82 on: February 01, 2019, 09:46:22 PM »
-eat more small ruminants (sheep, goat)
-buy goat milk cheese instead of cow milk cheese

-renew summer vegetable and egg CSA
-carry stainless steel straw in purse
-buy second Yeti cup since work is providing only paper cups until new kitchen is complete; carrying one back and forth didn't work out well enough
-use silverware at work (even if it means washing them by hand since office dishwasher isn't connected yet)
-pick up a piece of trash every day
-keep reusable plastic bags in car to avoid "oops left them at home" syndrome
-cluster errands to save gas
-print double sided when possible

What's leading you to switch from cow to small ruminants? My understanding is all ruminants - small and large alike - emit methane.

zee dot

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #83 on: February 02, 2019, 06:28:25 AM »
I have no interest in eating less meat; small ruminants have smaller footprint

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #84 on: February 02, 2019, 06:52:03 AM »
One month in, how's everyone doing on their goals?


 - Commuting for January was three bike/bus round trips and the rest just bike. Oh and one bike/train to a dIfferent office. With everything else I just scraped over 400 miles of purely transport cycling (no 'just going for a ride').

 - 96 miles on the family car, which isn't massive, but is a bit frustrating because they were almost all trips that we'd cycle in the summer but which are too far to keep the kids warm on the bike.

 - Weekly meal plan is now 100% vegetarian for the whole family. That covers everything but #1's school lunches. The main remaining non-vegan stuff is #1/OH having cow's milk at breakfast (#2 and I have soya), cheese and soft cheese in lunches (I usually have hummus/peanut butter), and ice cream/yoghurt for desserts a few times a week (I can have something else).

 - Stuff I bought in Jan: a bike light, a pair of in-ear headphones, a couple of batteries to resurrect a cordless drill my BIL gave me (because it didn't work), and a lidded plastic box so we can store some of our dry foods in the garage/utility without worrying about rodents. OH has bought a few things, but I think they were all second-hand. We've donated or freecycled a load of stuff this month too.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #85 on: February 02, 2019, 10:12:16 AM »
Eh.  I've been working outside on the warmer days, but haven't gotten the solar build going - I still need to finish the permitting paperwork for it.

The Volt (car) is working well - we're running around 150 miles per gallon of gas used, and that's including the cold winter weeks - the car runs the engine for heat if it's cold enough.  I need to get another charger so I can "charge out" at a few places in the evening.  I'm trying to get an outlet run around the side of our church office building so I can charge there, and if I've got another charger, I can charge in the evening when gaming at a friend's house (tabletop).

Recycling is going well, and I'm attempting to convince my inlaws up the hill that if they toss recyclables in a box, I'll deal with it for them - they have burn barrels, but the subdivision up the hill has been a bit cranky about burning, so they've just been hauling it un-burned, and they're having to do that more often than they like (a couple 55 gallon drums last a long time if you're burning, less so if you're not and not recycling either).  So, we'll see how that goes - eventually, if our trash production goes down enough, I may just offer to combine trash services (which is to say, "they put trash in the trailer I haul every now and then").  Diverting to recycling has radically reduced volume into the trailer.

I... feel a bit stupid for having just worked this out, but I realized you don't have to put produce in a plastic produce bag at grocery stores.  You can just toss a potato or onion in the cart, buy it, and carry it out without bags.  We have a surplus of produce bags in our house, so they can get reused.  I'm considering putting together some reusable mesh ones at some point, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

We could stand to actually use the reusable grocery bags as well.  They don't get used, and I'm just as guilty as my wife on that front.

So, slow progress.  Not having evening sun yet (sun goes down around 1745 or so right now) inhibits a lot of evening projects outside, but once we get longer days, I'm planning to be spending my evenings outside working on the solar install and related property tech.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #86 on: February 04, 2019, 08:31:26 PM »

...I realized you don't have to put produce in a plastic produce bag at grocery stores.  You can just toss a potato or onion in the cart, buy it, and carry it out without bags.  We have a surplus of produce bags in our house, so they can get reused.  I'm considering putting together some reusable mesh ones at some point, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

That popped in my head a few years ago, and for the most part the grocers think we're weird but otherwise don't mind. One or two accused me of trying to steal, which made no sense since the food was in the cart clearly visible to everyone. I got mad, the manager came, and finally they let us buy the food. Never went there again. My point being...be prepared for an argument!

nereo

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #87 on: February 05, 2019, 05:35:34 AM »

...I realized you don't have to put produce in a plastic produce bag at grocery stores.  You can just toss a potato or onion in the cart, buy it, and carry it out without bags.  We have a surplus of produce bags in our house, so they can get reused.  I'm considering putting together some reusable mesh ones at some point, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

That popped in my head a few years ago, and for the most part the grocers think we're weird but otherwise don't mind. One or two accused me of trying to steal, which made no sense since the food was in the cart clearly visible to everyone. I got mad, the manager came, and finally they let us buy the food. Never went there again. My point being...be prepared for an argument!

For anyone thinking that placing produce in those plastic bags keeps it cleaner - take it from someone who's stocked shelves, it's not.  Produce constantly hits the ground - in the fields, on the truck, in the storeroom and on display.  A half dozen people have probably handled that head of lettuce.  So wash everything regardless.

As for the bags - I've noticed a shift in a lot of regions lately (coinciding with single-use plastic bag bans).  Clerks used to look at me weird for not placing everything into plastic bags and putting those in the cart.  Now I pile everything into my reusable bags and unload those at checkout (no need for a cart/basket).

Oh - and we now use a set of reusable fine-mesh bags.  Not only will they hold produce but are great for bulk items like rice.  Completely washable.
The one thing I haven't found a good substitute for is bulk packages of meat.  I buy from the butcher to eliminate that stupid tray of styrofoam, but even then it's inside a plastic bag and wrapped in butcher paper.  Maybe I can bring my own tupperware?

JoshuaSpodek

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #88 on: February 05, 2019, 06:18:49 AM »
The one thing I haven't found a good substitute for is bulk packages of meat.  I buy from the butcher to eliminate that stupid tray of styrofoam, but even then it's inside a plastic bag and wrapped in butcher paper.  Maybe I can bring my own tupperware?

You can bring your own container for meat and cheese. Here's Bea Johnson doing it: https://youtu.be/y583QTbetsQ

Another useful video from her: https://youtu.be/CSUmo-40pqA

This video describes her technique to get meat and cheese without packaging (about 7:10): https://youtu.be/kWnsmzSSgdI

chaskavitch

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #89 on: February 05, 2019, 06:21:30 AM »

...I realized you don't have to put produce in a plastic produce bag at grocery stores.  You can just toss a potato or onion in the cart, buy it, and carry it out without bags.  We have a surplus of produce bags in our house, so they can get reused.  I'm considering putting together some reusable mesh ones at some point, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

That popped in my head a few years ago, and for the most part the grocers think we're weird but otherwise don't mind. One or two accused me of trying to steal, which made no sense since the food was in the cart clearly visible to everyone. I got mad, the manager came, and finally they let us buy the food. Never went there again. My point being...be prepared for an argument!

For anyone thinking that placing produce in those plastic bags keeps it cleaner - take it from someone who's stocked shelves, it's not.  Produce constantly hits the ground - in the fields, on the truck, in the storeroom and on display.  A half dozen people have probably handled that head of lettuce.  So wash everything regardless.

As for the bags - I've noticed a shift in a lot of regions lately (coinciding with single-use plastic bag bans).  Clerks used to look at me weird for not placing everything into plastic bags and putting those in the cart.  Now I pile everything into my reusable bags and unload those at checkout (no need for a cart/basket).

Oh - and we now use a set of reusable fine-mesh bags.  Not only will they hold produce but are great for bulk items like rice.  Completely washable.
The one thing I haven't found a good substitute for is bulk packages of meat.  I buy from the butcher to eliminate that stupid tray of styrofoam, but even then it's inside a plastic bag and wrapped in butcher paper.  Maybe I can bring my own tupperware?

I've tried bringing tupperware to Sprouts to the butcher and deli counter once.  I think the butcher I talked to hadn't had anyone do that before, because he couldn't figure out how to tare the tupperware before adding meat.  He ended up weighing it out on that waxed paper, then plopping it in the container, which is better than nothing.  Same at the deli - they still sliced it onto their waxed paper, but I avoided the plastic bag that usually is the final container. 

I definitely forget to bring secondary containers for that purpose most of the time :(  It's a good thing to start up again, thanks for reminding me!  We also have a butcher down the road who uses actual paper, but his hours are unfortunately limited.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #90 on: February 05, 2019, 10:09:21 AM »
Oh - and we now use a set of reusable fine-mesh bags.  Not only will they hold produce but are great for bulk items like rice.  Completely washable.

What did you make them out of?  I'm planning to build a set of those, but haven't gotten around to it yet - advice is welcome.  My wife is onboard, especially since I understand the mesh bags tend to help reduce "rotting in the fridge" that plastic seems to encourage.

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #91 on: February 05, 2019, 10:39:38 AM »
Oh - and we now use a set of reusable fine-mesh bags.  Not only will they hold produce but are great for bulk items like rice.  Completely washable.

What did you make them out of?  I'm planning to build a set of those, but haven't gotten around to it yet - advice is welcome.  My wife is onboard, especially since I understand the mesh bags tend to help reduce "rotting in the fridge" that plastic seems to encourage.

I'll come clean and confess we bought them.  If I were to make them myself I might try the really robust reusable cheese cloth.
Design is pretty straightfoward - cut a rectangle, fold in half and sew up two sides.  Add a drawstring.  Would take 5 minutes on a sewing machine to make a couple of them.

ETA: what we have looks a lot like this.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 10:44:26 AM by nereo »

Syonyk

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #92 on: February 05, 2019, 11:55:26 AM »
Awesome, thanks!  I'm not sure I could build them cheaper than I could buy them, but I'll still probably build a set. :)

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #93 on: February 05, 2019, 12:11:04 PM »
I need to crowd-source.  I want in on this but I am kind of at a loss of where to go next.  My husband would be a passenger on almost any changes that I would like to do but he maybe a reluctant passenger.  Older kids in the house (not raised by us) are more than happy to watch the ride go past them.  Little kids in the house (ours) I want to try to teach not to be wasteful and to be mindful of the environmental impact of their actions but I am kind of at a loss of how to proceed.

We have always composted, recycled, controlled the thermostat, turned off lights, reduced shower times, purchased "greener" items, brought our own bags, use cloth diapers, use cloth napkins (vs paper towels), buy in bulk, shopped at consignment store (my brother owns one), etc.  Here are some of the bigger changes we have made recently.

2016 - Replaced the Prius (>300k miles) with a Leaf (husband drove the Prius until kid numbers required more seat belts)
2017 - Installed solar panels for the house + the Leaf
2018 - I went dairy, soy, egg free (due to allergy/sensitivities). Joined a fruit/veggie co-op. Installed an outdoor wood boiler for winter heat and hot water. Started to carpool

Things I know we/I could do but without the buy in from the family I am not sure that I would be successful in making the change.

COMMUTE - I commute a long distance and have reduced the impacts of the commute as much as I can (carpooling & electric car) without moving.  The family (including me, most days) is very happy in our current house/town. Any other suggestions besides moving or a new job?
DAIRY - I don't see the family ever agreeing to dairy free. Most of the time husband (does all the cooking) uses alternatives in his cooking so I can eat it too but sometimes I just eat something different than everyone else.  I was able to give the 5 year old chocolate almond milk the other day without any comments so maybe I can just make small changes this way.
MEAT - I might get to a meat free lifestyle but would need to figure a few things out as soy/tofu is not an option. I don't think this would be something the family would agree to.  I have been thinking about raising our own backyard meat chickens, maybe I can push for that this summer/fall?
PLASTIC - This one might be something that I can actually have an impact on in our house.  I have been looking at a shampoo bar lately and I have already started to switch to bar soap. I recently purchased glass containers for my lunches instead of plastic ones.  Our produce almost all come from the co-op at this point so that is good. I think I have room for improvement on this at a personal level, even if the family is not on-board.
ENERGY - This has been a big focus for me the last couple years and 2019 should be dramatically lower than 2018 due to the wood boiler (installed Dec 2018).  I should mention here that we live on 18 acres and will be able to selectively harvest our own "fuel" for this at the same time as we are maintaining our wooded parts of the land. I also purchased one that had better emission controls vs one with no emission controls and not approved by EPA.  I want to add insulation to the house, maybe I can get that done before next winter.
TRAVEL - There is not really any travel in the plans for 2019 but most of it is done by car.  Although husband is having to take the older kids to a funeral (2 states away) this week and we chose to utilize Amtrak vs him driving. I have to fly 6-10 per year for work, I have been trying to figure out if they would let me drive for at least half of these.
FOOD - I have been wanting to start the garden back up but need to clear the spot and just do it. I have "brown" thumb but I really want a garden, is it too late to start planning this?  Did I need to dig it up last fall?

Any suggestions.  I am a full-time working mama with a long commute and 4 kids in the house and am taking classes for a Master's,  I want to continue to improve my environmental footprint but the time/money/energy bandwidth is pretty low at this point.  Does anybody want to weigh-in on 1-3 things they think will give me the "biggest bang of my (personal energy) buck"?

Hirondelle

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #94 on: February 05, 2019, 12:36:30 PM »
Wow, that's some awesome changes you've made @Slow&Steady!

Regarding diet/meat; beef has the highest footprint followed by pork, then turkey, then chicken. I'm not sure what your current diet looks like, but you could consider replacing some of the high carbon meat by lower carbon options (so use beef instead of chicken). Another option is to just make portions smaller. Also note that not all meals necessarily need a meat-replacement. Especially in chilis or curries I don't feel the need to add any meat or meat replacer and just eat veggies/beans/rice. Many people worry about protein intake, but most are actually already on the high end of the recommended range (you can calculate your own easily on several websites).

For the other areas I don't have any quick or easy suggestions. I think you've already made great efforts! Keep rocking it and try to inspire others to make similar changes if you can!

Slow&Steady

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #95 on: February 05, 2019, 12:58:46 PM »
....
TRAVEL - There is not really any travel in the plans for 2019 but most of it is done by car.  Although husband is having to take the older kids to a funeral (2 states away) this week and we chose to utilize Amtrak vs him driving. I have to fly 6-10 per year for work, I have been trying to figure out if they would let me drive for at least half of these.
...

I just pulled up Amtrack and they have a stop near the very remote town that I have to travel to (by plane) the most often.  It would be a LOOONG travel day but it might be worth it, wonder if I can get work to agree?

Slow&Steady

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #96 on: February 05, 2019, 01:18:43 PM »
Wow, that's some awesome changes you've made @Slow&Steady!

Thank you.  Most of the time I just look around and know there is some much more that I could do, I forget there there is a lot that I have already done.  I should mention that my career is in environmental compliance so I feel that I am also able to have a positive impact on the environment by making sure that the companies I work for operate below their permitted limits and at least occasionally challenge themselves to do better.

Regarding diet/meat; beef has the highest footprint followed by pork, then turkey, then chicken. I'm not sure what your current diet looks like, but you could consider replacing some of the high carbon meat by lower carbon options (so use beef instead of chicken). Another option is to just make portions smaller. Also note that not all meals necessarily need a meat-replacement. Especially in chilis or curries I don't feel the need to add any meat or meat replacer and just eat veggies/beans/rice. Many people worry about protein intake, but most are actually already on the high end of the recommended range (you can calculate your own easily on several websites).

Chicken is probably our largest meat component but it is followed (probably closely) by beef and then bacon.  I forget about turkey but replacing ground beef with ground turkey is very doable and would drastically decrease our beef consumption!  I do love a great bean/veggie/green chile burrito but usually when burritos are on the meal plan there is either chicken or ground beef in them.  I will remind my husband (our cook) that they do not always need to have meat in the to be yummy.

My protein levels are something that I have to pay attention to but beans are a great protein source for me.  I have been fighting hypoglycemia for about 20 years and know that if I want to keep my blood sugars in check I need to pay attention to carbs vs protein intake.

chaskavitch

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #97 on: February 05, 2019, 01:19:16 PM »

PLASTIC - This one might be something that I can actually have an impact on in our house.  I have been looking at a shampoo bar lately and I have already started to switch to bar soap. I recently purchased glass containers for my lunches instead of plastic ones.  Our produce almost all come from the co-op at this point so that is good. I think I have room for improvement on this at a personal level, even if the family is not on-board.

FOOD - I have been wanting to start the garden back up but need to clear the spot and just do it. I have "brown" thumb but I really want a garden, is it too late to start planning this?  Did I need to dig it up last fall?

Any suggestions.  I am a full-time working mama with a long commute and 4 kids in the house and am taking classes for a Master's,  I want to continue to improve my environmental footprint but the time/money/energy bandwidth is pretty low at this point.  Does anybody want to weigh-in on 1-3 things they think will give me the "biggest bang of my (personal energy) buck"?

Not that these are the biggest bang for your buck, but the only ones I have input on.

I have found shampoo bars at Ulta and at Vitamin Cottage.  The ones at Ulta have plastic in the packaging, unfortunately, but not nearly as much as a bottle of shampoo.  I've been using the same shampoo bar for >6 months, but I only wash my hair once a week.  I also follow up with an apple cider vinegar rinse (2 tbs in ~2 cups of water) to reduce the buildup I was seeing and to condition my hair.  I think my hair looks pretty much the same as it did when I used regular shampoo and conditioner, maybe even better, and no one else has complained yet, so...

Good luck with the garden!  Is there anything in particular you want to grow?  We've been trying to streamline what we grow so we don't waste as much (although we usually give overdone things to our chickens to eat).  We're in Northern Colorado, so it's pretty dry, but we have good luck with tomatoes, sometimes hot peppers, cucumbers, greens, green beans, snap peas, and zucchini/summer squash.  Beets and carrots are super easy, and our raspberry bushes are giving us a lot of good fruit after two years.  We're in a Zone 4, and we usually plant seedlings (tomatoes, peppers) a week or two after Mother's day, or direct sow (cucumbers, squashes, root veggies, beans/peas) in April or May, depending on the weather.  You're not too late! Pick something you know your family eats and start with that, so you don't have to figure out water requirements and soil nutrition for 15 different plants at once. 

Chickens in general are pretty easy, if a little smelly.  Once you have a coop and a run, they're very cheap to keep.  Definitely not cheaper than buying the cheap eggs, but not expensive to keep up either.  Meat chicken breeds, from what friends have said, are really stupid, and once they reach slaughter weight actually really need to be slaughtered, as they start having heart attacks during thunder storms or getting too heavy to walk.  Sad and ridiculous.

cats

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #98 on: February 05, 2019, 03:48:18 PM »
Slow&Steady, are you okay with gluten?  If so, seitan might be a good high-protein meat substitute.  I make my own and it is also very cheap if you can find a bulk source of the vital wheat gluten that is the primary ingredient.  I use this recipe as a template but play around with different spices.  Also, I make 5x what that recipe makes and shape into 5 large sausages, which fits perfectly into our pressure cooker (I cook them in the pressure cooker instead of steaming).  It freezes well so if I make a large batch we then have it around to pull out as an easy protein add-on to our meals.

If I were just cooking for myself, I would probably be vegetarian with a lot of vegan meals, but like you I have family members who feel differently.  The solution for us has been less frequent meat consumption (we eat meat about 3x/week) and also keeping the portion sizes to <4oz/person.  In terms of protein, it is also (I think) worth paying some attention to the protein content of your more carb-y foods and also veggies.  Some vegetables are quite a bit higher in protein than others, and while you aren't going to get 100g of protein/day from kale alone, getting a couple extra grams here and there from making sure you get some leafy greens, eating beans instead of potatoes, etc. does add up.

With regards to gardening, I also work FT and I find I don't really have the time to keep up with a big fancy garden, but I do keep some herbs in pots and I plant a few things each year.  I focus on either things that are fairly resilient in the face of my periodic neglect, or that are a bit delicate and thus more difficult to transport home from the grocery store via bike.  In the former category I find things like peas & beans are pretty mindless once they get going.  In the latter I have had good luck with stuff like kale, arugula, fancy lettuces, and chard.  I notice when I buy a bunch of kale at the grocery store it's often got ice mixed in, which suggests to me that it's probably rather resource intensive to transport to the store (if it's arriving in a refrigerated truck with a bunch of ice).  Remember also you don't have to clear out an entire garden this year.  Dig up a 3x3' plot and plant some peas this spring.  Expand and add a second crop next year or whenever you have time.

nessness

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Re: Reduce your environmental impact 2019
« Reply #99 on: February 05, 2019, 04:30:12 PM »
@SlowAndSteady congrats on the progress you've made already! These aren't necessarily the biggest changes, but some that don't require much bandwidth:

- Buy clothing used, for yourself and the younger kids at a minimum. Unless you need something super specific, buying used clothing isn't really any more effort than buying new (there are even online options now!) and textiles are a huge source of waste.
- Switch to reusable menstrual products - better, cheaper, and zero waste!
- Don't think of going meat-free as an all-or-nothing thing. Start by mixing in a few vegetarian meals per week, and some others that have only a small amount of meat (e.g. a pasta dish with 1 chicken breast for the whole family, or a stew with a few ounces of ground turkey). You might get less resistance from your family this way, and you'll still be reducing your meat consumption by a significant percentage.