Food Waste

Millions of pounds of food is wasted everyday in America. We are all to blame when it comes to food wastage. Everyone of us, waste food in some form or the other, or at some level, directly or indirectly. Over buying, over consumption, over ordering are all to blame for.

Today - When you order lunch or dinner at a restaurant or take out - be sure to order only portions that you really can finish, and really 'need' to full fill your nutrition goals. If the place does not carry the portion sizes you want, make sure you order something that you can actually save for later. - A soggy sandwich will not make a good leftover. Think about all the food we throw out of refrigerators. All those leftovers from dinner and lunches, that we never eat. Best bet is to avoid buying too much food.

When you do carry out food, try to use places that offer paper or recycled paper food containers. If you bring your food in plastic containers, be sure to rinse them out and recycle them. Storing food for a longtime in plastic containers or reheating the food in the plastic containers in a microwave should be avoided as well.

Detergents

Reduce the use of harmful chemicals in the house. Start with the most used products - detergents, hand soaps, floor and surface cleaning products, cosmetics etc.

Lets look at Laundry Detergent today. Its not that expensive to go green with detergents - a lot of people think they have to go to some fancy green store and buy some fancy detergent - only to find out they paid tons of money for baking soda and water. But, there are reasonable products out there, you will surprised to see how much you will actually save by reducing the user of harmful chemicals - in terms of other costs like medical conditions and such.

Here is a resource to understand the Laundry detergent options out there
Comparing Green Laundry detergents

Polystyrene (styrofoam)

Styrofoam (a trademark name for Polystrene) is a type of plastic, made from petroleum products and a harmful toxin called Benzene is used in it as well.

Styrofoam - probably the most common use we see as packing peanuts and other packing materials. This is actually a very hazardous material, and if ingested by animals, it can prove to be very harmful to their digestive system. Not mention, the years it takes to breakdown this material - so not a landfill material at all.

Polystyrene is NOT a good material to package food products. It can be toxic and is in fact banned in several states in the the US from being used as food packing material.

So, make sure you dispose the polystyrene material responsibly in the proper recycling program. Make sure you do not dump these in the trash. There are several ways to recycle polystyrene

1. Recycle bin
2. Donate to craft stores - they use a lot of this in their projects
3. Avoid packing peanuts and use alternative materials when possible
4. There are some mail back options available now that take polystyrene back

So, today, pack up all those packing peanuts, and get rid of them the right way!

Paints and Chemicals

Don't put batteries, antifreeze, paint, motor oil, or chemicals in the trash. Use proper toxic material disposal sites. Never buy more than you need.

Charity organizations are always happy to take extra and left over paints. So, please do round up all that extra paint sitting in the house, call a charity today or drop it off at a local charity location.

Used stuff

A great way to go green - go used!

Look around the house, if you have tons of used CDs, vidoes, DVDs that you have not used over a few months, the chances are, you will never use them. There are great ways to now sell, donate these items. Craigslist & FreeCycle are great resources. You can also buy used materials as much as possible. Using MP3 players and purchasing mp3 music online, can also reduce use of disc plastics.

Today , jus take 20 mins to clear out that stack of media and books you have been hoarding for years.

Real Juice, Your Way

Everyday people spend money on plastic bottles filled with 'juice', which is really juice concentrate powder and mostly water. The packaging is plastic and non-biodegradable, the water is heavy and adds tons of fuel wasted to ship the juice to our grocery shelves, not to mention hauling it home after we've purchased it. Why do manufacturers do this? Because you pay them $$$$ for WATER -- which increases their profits! Also you have no control over the ingredients, and it's funny to read some of the packaging which says 100% juice, but then lists a ton of other ingredients on the label. Read your labels, you might be surprised to find food coloring, sugar, and/or preservatives listed.

Instead, buy concentrated juice powders directly, and make as much or as little juice as you want, right at home in a reusable container. The juice concentrates are higher quality, you have control over the ingredients, and the juice powder has a much longer shelf life dry, than pre-mixed in your fridge. And per unit, it's much less expensive too!

I haven't done much searching, but this company came up while I was looking for organic concentrates, I'm sure there are others out there as well:

http://www.naturesflavors.com

• Mixing the juice in a re-useable glass pitcher (with a lid) avoids 'plastic' chemicals leaching into your drinks, and there is no plastic bottle to throw away or even haul to the recycling center.
  
• Avoid juice boxes & pouches in your kids lunch box, instead mix juice and pour into a reusable capped bottle.
  

CFL Bulbs

The most common, effective and easiest way to reduce energy use, is using Energy saving light bulbs. We have heard this a hundred times, yet , we all sometimes miss out replacing a few regular bulbs around the house like inside appliances, closets or garage door openers, look for these spots that you may have missed and change them today!

An interesting and commendable approach by Mr.Sanjayan
Quote (Mr.Sanjayan's article on Nature.org)

"...So I take energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) with me on my trips, and I give them to someone at my destination — swapping them for existing incandescent bulbs that illuminate a small shop or local restaurant or school....."

Kudos to Mr. Sanjayan for taking this approach to replace light bulbs:
Read the entire article at :http://www.nature.org/activities/art23429.html

Material from one of our readers:
"Use Energy star light bulbs,Be aware of energy conservation.

Energy Star lights use low voltage, especially compact fluorescent, contributes more lights
using less power. By simply changing the light fixtures we can take a major step forward in the commitment and pursuit of energy conservation.

Changing the world starts with simple actions. If every American home replaces just one light bulb with an Energy Star qualified bulb, We would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year and prevent green house gas emissions."