One Small Change

How do you Bag It?

I watched Bag It over the weekend. The movie begins as a “regular guy,” Jeb Berrier, wonders about the plastic bag he uses to carry a yogurt home in. As he researches and learns more about the environmental impact of choosing a plastic bag, his questions lead to more questions. What about plastic bottles? How does buying plastic impact the earth and our health? And what about the new baby he has on the way? I found the movie to be reminiscent of a Michael Moore documentary. The horrifying facts presented are balanced with a sense of humor (which I think helps viewers refrain from freaking out over the content). We particularly enjoyed the exchange between Jeb and the fast food restaurants as he tried to convince them to put his order in containers he brought from home rather than the disposable ones. The restaurants wouldn’t do it, due to cross-contamination issues. Jeb noted that they didn’t mind the cross-contamination that happened when money (is there anything dirtier?) to pay for the meal came through the window. As someone who’s trying to avoid BPA in our diets, I found it really interesting when Jeb strayed from his usual...

Save Energy, Water, and Time by Using Towels More than Once

By Kris Bordessa

Less laundry = more time for other activities, plus it saves energy and water. Instead of getting a fresh bath towel every time you shower, hang your damp towel up to dry and use it several times before you toss it in the laundry pile. Bonus: your towels will last longer meaning you won’t have to replace them as often.

Switching from Boxed and Canned to Homemade

By Kris Bordessa

Basing my assumptions on a trip through the grocery store, it looks like much of America begins the process of “cooking” with something that comes in a box or a can. Mother Nature does not produce food that comes contained in a box; this is purely a human invention to a) speed up the process of getting dinner on the table and b) make tons of money for the company that produces the product. Cooking from scratch is really very easy, and I’ve found that once I learn a new recipe, it doesn’t take that much longer than using the store bought shortcuts. The deal is, you have to make a recipe several times before it becomes as second nature as opening a box or can. Wondering what recipe you can switch to homemade without losing hours of time to prep work? I’ve eliminated these convenience items from my cupboard with very little trouble. Pancake mix: I grew up on Bisquick and Krusteaz pancakes, but started making my own from scratch twenty years ago and never looked back. Following the recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook, it might take me a full minute longer to follow the recipe than...

Save that Water!

By Kris Bordessa

Instead of pouring the water that you’ve used to cook hard boiled eggs, vegetables, or pasta down the drain, allow it to cool and then use it to water some of your outdoor plants. Alternatively, you can use the boiling water to kill weeds. Just pour the hot water onto driveway cracks or other weedy areas (NOT near plants you’d like to keep!) for a chemical free weed killer.

Egg Carton Conundrum

By Kris Bordessa

If you don’t raise chickens for eggs, you can make a more sustainable choice at the grocery store. For goodness sake, stop buying eggs in Styrofoam! You may pay slightly more for eggs in fiber cartons but those cartons can be composted! And if your neighborhood egg sellers are offering you eggs in plastic (one of the dumbest things marketed to egg people), let them know that you’d prefer yours in a basket.

Soup Smarts

By Kris Bordessa

When it’s time to clean up after dinner, we often have small amounts of vegetables or sauces left in the pan. Not quite enough for a leftover lunch, but enough that I don’t want to waste it. Instead of storing these little bits in the fridge, only to throw it out a couple of weeks later once it’s gotten suitably moldy, I keep a container in the freezer where I collect these odds and ends. Green beans, sliced onions, mushrooms, pasta in marinara sauce – it all gets tossed into the same container. When I use a jar of marinara sauce, I rinse the jar with a little bit of water and pour it into my freezer soup pot. When I make pesto sauce, I add a cup of water to the blender and run it to clean off the remaining sauce and I pour in, too. The trick is to make sure you’re not mixing flavors. I wouldn’t, for instance, mix leftover enchilada sauce in the same container that I’ve saved pesto. Instead, I keep an “Italian style” container and another for “Mexican style” flavors. When I make soup, I simply add my container of leftover bits (never...

Use Your Spatula

By Kris Bordessa

Don’t count on a butter knife or spoon to get the last little bits of food (think: peanut butter and applesauce) out of the container. When you think you’ve gleaned the last of the tasty goodness from the jar, grab a spatula (those pictured are silicone with bamboo handles) and give it another go. Surprise! You’ve stretched that jar of peanut butter one sandwich further.

Less Waste, Cheaper Salads when you Make Your Own Salad Dressing

By Kris Bordessa

My local grocery store has about twelve linear feet, shelf upon shelf, dedicated to nothing but salad dressings. If you’ve stepped foot inside a supermarket recently, you’ve probably walked past a similar display without giving it a thought. Thousand Island, Italian, French, Ranch – you name it, they’ve got it, ready to use and probably laced with an unpronounceable ingredient or two. A few brands come in glass, but most are sold in plastic bottles. Plastic bottles that we buy fully intending to add them to the waste stream. (Doesn’t that just make you wonder how we came to this??) Sure, maybe you’ll recycle, but that still requires fossil fuels for transportation and the reclamation process. Just imagine how many bottles of dressing one store must sell in a day. It’s kind of mind-boggling, really. Especially when making salad dressing is such easy thing to do. I think Breaking the habit of buying salad dressing is probably harder than actually making it. So, first step: next time you find yourself ogling the vast array of options, step back and think about the waste and the fact that you are fully capable of making a lovely salad dressing at home...

Choose Unbleached Flour

By Kris Bordessa

The difference between bleached and unbleached flour in the final product (and cost) is negligible, but by purchasing the unbleached version you will eliminate chemicals and toxins from your food and our environment. Using chlorine, bromates, and peroxides in processing our food seems crazy, doesn’t it? Especially when there is a better alternative sitting right next to the bleached flour on the store shelf.

Skip the Bubble Mailers

By Kris Bordessa

Instead of mailing or shipping items in bubble mailers or those indestructible Tyvek envelopes from the post office, switch to a more environmentally friendly option. Envelopes that use recycled newsprint as padding are a much better option for the earth than those plastic laden shippers. Of course, if you’ve received something in a bubble mailer, reusing that rather than buying a new envelope is fair game, too.

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One Small Change

How do you Bag It?

Save Energy, Water, and Time by Using Towels More than Once

Switching from Boxed and Canned to Homemade

Save that Water!

Egg Carton Conundrum

Soup Smarts

Use Your Spatula

Less Waste, Cheaper Salads when you Make Your Own Salad Dressing

Choose Unbleached Flour

Skip the Bubble Mailers

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