To the readers of this and my other blog: I must start by apologizing for falling off of the face the earth last week. I came down with this pseudo-flu virus that might as well have been the flu virus--I was that sick. We're talking days of fever, days spent sleeping and not a useful bone in my body for blogging. So I'm sorry that I've fallen behind on the Green Boot Camp posts, but I hope to get caught up this week.
Now onto the review I started last week--and promptly got too sick to finish. It was a brief review of what we'd covered in the first nine weeks of Green Boot Camp. We got through Week Four, and that is where we will take off from now.
Week Five--Appliances
The focus of Week Five was learning how to make your home appliances become more energy efficient for you--even if you can't afford to just donate them to charity and buy all-new Energy Star appliances in one fell swoop. Some of the tips included:
* Washing all laundry on the cold-water setting. You burn the most energy when you have to heat hot water, and not so much in running the washing machine itself.
* Let laundry soak to get out stains instead of running the heavy-duty cycle, which likely uses more water.
* Never skip the spin cycle. It is what gets the extra moisture out of your wet laundry and lets them dry faster.
Which brings us the the dryer. You'll save the most energy by not using the dryer as much. I suggested that you put your laundry into the dryer, let it run for 10 or so minutes, then pull items out to hang dry.
Another appliance I discussed was your refrigerator and freezer--and how to make them run most efficiently. Two tips included keeping them both as full as possible at all times, and not leaving the door open so that cold air escapes. But you probably learned that tip years ago from your mother.
Week Six--Phantom Energy Suckers
This was all about those appliances and other electronic devices that you leave plugged in, even when you're not using them, which means they are sucking energy out of your house and running up your bill. The best way to deal with these suckers is to create a charging station in one or two areas of your home using a power strip. That way you can charge everything at once, in one place, and then turn off the power strip when you're done. A turned-off power strip will no longer draw power.
Week Seven--Reusable Bags for Grocery Shopping
The focus of this week was getting you into the habit of bringing your own bags with you when you grocery shop instead of relying on the disposable plastic bags at the checkout counter. Of course, you could buy the bags that many supermarkets are selling these days but why spend money when you don't have to? Some of the advice I shared included where to find free canvas bags that can become your reusable grocery bags. For example, I talked about how I dug out all of the canvas bags that I'd received as giveaways at conferences and events that I'd attended over the years. You could also ask your friends and families if they have canvas bags that you could take off of their hands or put a listing on Freecycle or Craigslist to find free canvas bags. In the meantime, until you've secured your canvas bag stash, take any of the plastic or paper bags you've received when food shopping, and reuse them until they are falling apart. It's better than not reusing bags at all!
Week Eight--Packaging Decisions
This week was all about rethinking the kinds of products you buy, based on how they are packaged. For example, I suggested that when you go to the grocery store, you try to find jarred items in glass instead of plastic, which, it turns out, is a lot harder than you might think. However if you must choose plastic, find the companies that are using recycled plastic for their containers.
Week Nine--All About Organics
We started this week with a quick review of what exactly qualifies a food as being organic--and why you might want to start adding organic items into your shopping cart and your family's menu as you attempt to live a greener life. Later that week I helped you figure out which foods you should choose when choosing organics. I wrote up a list of the Top 20 foods that absorb pesticides and, therefore, you should buy in organic form so that you are cutting down on your pesticide exposure.
For your memory's sake, here is that list again:
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes (imported)
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes
13. Carrots
14. Green beans
15. Hot peppers
16. Cucumbers
17. Raspberries
18. Plums
19. Oranges
20. Grapes (domestic)
In a few days I'll get you started on your Week Eleven habit changes. Again, thanks for your patience during my illness.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Week Ten--Time for a Review
Now that we've made it through nine weeks of Green Boot Camp, I thought it would be wise use Week Ten to pause and do a quick review of the major points we've already discussed. I mean, those course reviews in college helped you to study for a test and, I believe, always resulted in getting better grades, right? So why not apply the same tactic for Green Boot Camp.
Here's a quick review of Weeks One through Four:
Week One--Paper Recycling
Right out of the gate I talked about improving your paper habits, including getting used to printing on both sides of a piece of paper before tossing it in the recycling bin. Other tips to retrain how you use paper include:d
* Turning dog-eared pieces of paper into scratch pads
* Using envelopes that come with credit-card offers in the mail for writing shopping lists (bonus: the envelopes hold your coupons, too!)
* Make it easy on yourself to recycle paper when necessary by setting up a recycling area of your home and keeping your shredder out at all times so paper doesn't pile up.
Week Two--Recycling Metal, Glass and Plastic
We started talking about the different kinds of plastics and how/where you can recycle these. For example, most curbside programs take plastic #1 through #7. (Flip over a plastic container or bottle to see its number.) But plastic jugs and bottles aren't the only plastic that you can recycle.
Instead of tossing plastic grocery bags, plastic wrap that boxed items like electronics are packaged in, and those plastic bags that come over dry cleaning, you can stuff them all in the "bag recycling bins" you find outside of supermarkets. They really are recycled into something else--sometimes the decking for Trex and other times into other plastic bags.
After that we talked about recycling aluminum, steel and glass. Basically, you always want to put these kinds of containers into your recycling bins, because they are the most easily recycled and most readily accepted items in the recycling stream.
Finally, if you live in a bottle-bill state and can take back cans and bottles for dough, do it. You earn a little bit of money, and you can rest assured that these returned receptacles end up getting recycled, not tossed in the trash.
Week Three--Recycling Everything Else
Just because your trash hauler doesn't take something in a recycling bin doesn't mean that it isn't recyclable. During Week Three we discussed how you can recycle the rest of the stuff that shows up in your life. Some examples included:
* Cell phones (look for cellphone recycling drop boxes at electronics stores and places like Staples. FYI, Staples is where my husband recently recycled his old cell phone battery, after we discovered that the Verizon store didn't offer this service, despite what Verizon's PR team had told me and which I'd written about on The Lean Green Family.)
* Printer cartridges (bring them with you to your favorite office supply store when you go to buy new cartridges, and most stores should be able to send the cartridges back to the manufacturer to be recycled. Some stores will even given you a coupon for money off your purchase, a way of thanking you for doing the right green thing.)
* Motor oil (if you're the DIY oil change kind of person, your local auto-supply parts store or gas station should be able to take that used motor oil off of your hands and recycle it through its government-mandated oil recycling program)
Week Four--Home Energy Expenditures, Light Bulbs and You
In Week Four we started talking about how to lower your energy bill at home by changing how you use electricity and other power sources. One of the first suggestions I made had to do with your light sources--specifically, the light bulbs you use in your lamps and the frequency with which you either leave them on or turn them off.
As far as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) go (those newfangled twisty kinds), they really can save you money in more ways than one--well, okay, at least two notable ways. First, they last 10 times as long as traditional bulbs, meaning you'll buy fewer bulbs over time. And second, they use significantly less energy. Case in point: when we made the switch to CFLs last fall, I watched our electricity bill drop each month.
Truth be told our electricity bill could have dropped because of another change we made--a conscious effort to turn out the lights whenever we left a room, even if we were just coming back five minutes later. We also changed how we lit a room--choosing the smallest light possible when we needed to turn a light on--a desk lamp versus and gigantic overhead light, for example. And we got into the habit of opening shades on bright, sunny days so we didn't have to use any lights at all. In fact, as I type this, I'm sitting in my brightly lit living room that is as light, if not lighter, than if I had all three lamps turned on. But I don't. I can thank Mr. Sun for this morning's free light source.
This review is something I hope to do every 10 weeks or so as Green Boot Camp progresses. If nothing else it will reinforce all of these green, habit-changing suggestions so that you will become more successful in your mission to live a greener life.
Later this week I'll review Weeks Five through Nine. Stay tuned....
Here's a quick review of Weeks One through Four:
Week One--Paper Recycling
Right out of the gate I talked about improving your paper habits, including getting used to printing on both sides of a piece of paper before tossing it in the recycling bin. Other tips to retrain how you use paper include:d
* Turning dog-eared pieces of paper into scratch pads
* Using envelopes that come with credit-card offers in the mail for writing shopping lists (bonus: the envelopes hold your coupons, too!)
* Make it easy on yourself to recycle paper when necessary by setting up a recycling area of your home and keeping your shredder out at all times so paper doesn't pile up.
Week Two--Recycling Metal, Glass and Plastic
We started talking about the different kinds of plastics and how/where you can recycle these. For example, most curbside programs take plastic #1 through #7. (Flip over a plastic container or bottle to see its number.) But plastic jugs and bottles aren't the only plastic that you can recycle.
Instead of tossing plastic grocery bags, plastic wrap that boxed items like electronics are packaged in, and those plastic bags that come over dry cleaning, you can stuff them all in the "bag recycling bins" you find outside of supermarkets. They really are recycled into something else--sometimes the decking for Trex and other times into other plastic bags.
After that we talked about recycling aluminum, steel and glass. Basically, you always want to put these kinds of containers into your recycling bins, because they are the most easily recycled and most readily accepted items in the recycling stream.
Finally, if you live in a bottle-bill state and can take back cans and bottles for dough, do it. You earn a little bit of money, and you can rest assured that these returned receptacles end up getting recycled, not tossed in the trash.
Week Three--Recycling Everything Else
Just because your trash hauler doesn't take something in a recycling bin doesn't mean that it isn't recyclable. During Week Three we discussed how you can recycle the rest of the stuff that shows up in your life. Some examples included:
* Cell phones (look for cellphone recycling drop boxes at electronics stores and places like Staples. FYI, Staples is where my husband recently recycled his old cell phone battery, after we discovered that the Verizon store didn't offer this service, despite what Verizon's PR team had told me and which I'd written about on The Lean Green Family.)
* Printer cartridges (bring them with you to your favorite office supply store when you go to buy new cartridges, and most stores should be able to send the cartridges back to the manufacturer to be recycled. Some stores will even given you a coupon for money off your purchase, a way of thanking you for doing the right green thing.)
* Motor oil (if you're the DIY oil change kind of person, your local auto-supply parts store or gas station should be able to take that used motor oil off of your hands and recycle it through its government-mandated oil recycling program)
Week Four--Home Energy Expenditures, Light Bulbs and You
In Week Four we started talking about how to lower your energy bill at home by changing how you use electricity and other power sources. One of the first suggestions I made had to do with your light sources--specifically, the light bulbs you use in your lamps and the frequency with which you either leave them on or turn them off.
As far as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) go (those newfangled twisty kinds), they really can save you money in more ways than one--well, okay, at least two notable ways. First, they last 10 times as long as traditional bulbs, meaning you'll buy fewer bulbs over time. And second, they use significantly less energy. Case in point: when we made the switch to CFLs last fall, I watched our electricity bill drop each month.
Truth be told our electricity bill could have dropped because of another change we made--a conscious effort to turn out the lights whenever we left a room, even if we were just coming back five minutes later. We also changed how we lit a room--choosing the smallest light possible when we needed to turn a light on--a desk lamp versus and gigantic overhead light, for example. And we got into the habit of opening shades on bright, sunny days so we didn't have to use any lights at all. In fact, as I type this, I'm sitting in my brightly lit living room that is as light, if not lighter, than if I had all three lamps turned on. But I don't. I can thank Mr. Sun for this morning's free light source.
This review is something I hope to do every 10 weeks or so as Green Boot Camp progresses. If nothing else it will reinforce all of these green, habit-changing suggestions so that you will become more successful in your mission to live a greener life.
Later this week I'll review Weeks Five through Nine. Stay tuned....
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Week Nine--All About Organics
In response to my recent posting about choosing organics at the supermarket as part of Week Nine of Green Boot Camp, a reader posted this comment:
"Some foods are more important to buy organic than others, because some foods absorb more pesticides during their growth period than others. I've heard that peaches, apples, strawberries, and potatoes are particularly concentrated in pesticides and are best to buy organic."
I've heard the same thing, too--which is why washing your fruits and vegetables is so important. But choosing organics goes beyond just a good scrub in the sink. You should find foods that don't absorb chemicals as readily as others, which is why this reader went on to ask:
"Do you know a way to find out which foods you should prioritize buying organic?"
Actually, I do.
According to the Environmental Working Group (a not-for-profit environmental research organization dedicated to improving public health and protecting the environment by reducing pollution in air, water and food), there is a clear priority list when it comes to produce and asking yourself, "Should I buy organic?" On its website, it lists the top 20 produce that is mostly likely to absorb pesticides--meaning, you should choose organics whenever buying them. They are:
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes (imported)
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes
13. Carrots
14. Green beans
15. Hot peppers
16. Cucumbers
17. Raspberries
18. Plums
19. Oranges
20. Grapes (domestic)
A recent New York Times blog posting discussed organics and basically said, if you're going to make the switch to organics, do so with the following five foods:
1. Milk
2. Potatoes
3. Peanut butter
4. Ketchup
5. Apples
Do they even make organic peanut butter and ketchup? That's a new one on me.
Considering I have peanut butter toast for breakfast nearly every morning, I'm going to have to go check this out. In the meantime, as you consider making small steps towards adding organic products to your shopping cart, I hope you find this information to be helpful.
"Some foods are more important to buy organic than others, because some foods absorb more pesticides during their growth period than others. I've heard that peaches, apples, strawberries, and potatoes are particularly concentrated in pesticides and are best to buy organic."
I've heard the same thing, too--which is why washing your fruits and vegetables is so important. But choosing organics goes beyond just a good scrub in the sink. You should find foods that don't absorb chemicals as readily as others, which is why this reader went on to ask:
"Do you know a way to find out which foods you should prioritize buying organic?"
Actually, I do.
According to the Environmental Working Group (a not-for-profit environmental research organization dedicated to improving public health and protecting the environment by reducing pollution in air, water and food), there is a clear priority list when it comes to produce and asking yourself, "Should I buy organic?" On its website, it lists the top 20 produce that is mostly likely to absorb pesticides--meaning, you should choose organics whenever buying them. They are:
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes (imported)
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes
13. Carrots
14. Green beans
15. Hot peppers
16. Cucumbers
17. Raspberries
18. Plums
19. Oranges
20. Grapes (domestic)
A recent New York Times blog posting discussed organics and basically said, if you're going to make the switch to organics, do so with the following five foods:
1. Milk
2. Potatoes
3. Peanut butter
4. Ketchup
5. Apples
Do they even make organic peanut butter and ketchup? That's a new one on me.
Considering I have peanut butter toast for breakfast nearly every morning, I'm going to have to go check this out. In the meantime, as you consider making small steps towards adding organic products to your shopping cart, I hope you find this information to be helpful.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Week Nine--Organics in the Supermarket Aisle
The first time I remember becoming aware of organic food was back when I was pregnant with my first daughter and this news broke about alar on apples. Alar is a common pesticide used on crops, and everyone was all a twitter that delicious apples might have well as come from Snow White's evil queen. That is, one bite will kill you.
As someone who ate apples daily, this news made my stomach more queasy than my morning sickness did. Nonetheless, I decided to stop buying apples at my local grocery store and pick up my produce instead at the local Wild Oats. Problem was apples (and everything else at Wild Oats) seemed to be so much more expensive than at Kroger, where I normally shopped. (We lived in Michigan at the time). While there was no way I could justify paying this kind of price for produce, I wasn't willing to risk my health (or my baby's) so I stopped eating apples all together for quite some time.
These days you don't have to make a special trip to a "natural" supermarket to find organic choices. I see them all the time in regular supermarkets. Also, these days you don't have to take out a second mortgage to afford to shop organic. Granted, organics still cost more but not by that much. For example, yesterday I went food shopping and could choose between regular bunches of celery and the organic kind. The organic bunch cost only 50 cents more so that's the one I bought.
If you want to live a greener life through how you food shop, choosing organics at the supermarket is a good way to start. I don't think that you have to put everything and anything organic in your shopping cart, especiallly if you want to stay on budget. But when organics are available and they don't cost that much more than the "regular" item, why not make that choice?
FYI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines something as being organic if it fits with certain definitions, as they appear in the USDA Organic Food Standards and Labels. Some of definitions include:
* Food that is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.
* Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products that come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.
* Food that is grown and produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation.
* Food that comes from farms that a Government-approved certifier inspects to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. (Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.)
Keep in mind that a product need only be 95% organic to pass muster with the USDA and call itself organic. When it comes to packaged goods, they need only be 70% organic to have the right to say "organic" on the box. And something that is said to be "natural" or "hormone free" or "free range" doesn't necessarily mean that it's organic.
I'm not trying to scare you or give you information overload about organics. I would like to see you adding a few affordable organic items to your shopping cart from time to time, but I just want you to be knowledgeable and informed when you make that choice.
Let me know your thoughts on organics and tricks or tips you may have found to make buying organic food affordable.
As someone who ate apples daily, this news made my stomach more queasy than my morning sickness did. Nonetheless, I decided to stop buying apples at my local grocery store and pick up my produce instead at the local Wild Oats. Problem was apples (and everything else at Wild Oats) seemed to be so much more expensive than at Kroger, where I normally shopped. (We lived in Michigan at the time). While there was no way I could justify paying this kind of price for produce, I wasn't willing to risk my health (or my baby's) so I stopped eating apples all together for quite some time.
These days you don't have to make a special trip to a "natural" supermarket to find organic choices. I see them all the time in regular supermarkets. Also, these days you don't have to take out a second mortgage to afford to shop organic. Granted, organics still cost more but not by that much. For example, yesterday I went food shopping and could choose between regular bunches of celery and the organic kind. The organic bunch cost only 50 cents more so that's the one I bought.
If you want to live a greener life through how you food shop, choosing organics at the supermarket is a good way to start. I don't think that you have to put everything and anything organic in your shopping cart, especiallly if you want to stay on budget. But when organics are available and they don't cost that much more than the "regular" item, why not make that choice?
FYI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines something as being organic if it fits with certain definitions, as they appear in the USDA Organic Food Standards and Labels. Some of definitions include:
* Food that is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.
* Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products that come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.
* Food that is grown and produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation.
* Food that comes from farms that a Government-approved certifier inspects to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. (Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.)
Keep in mind that a product need only be 95% organic to pass muster with the USDA and call itself organic. When it comes to packaged goods, they need only be 70% organic to have the right to say "organic" on the box. And something that is said to be "natural" or "hormone free" or "free range" doesn't necessarily mean that it's organic.
I'm not trying to scare you or give you information overload about organics. I would like to see you adding a few affordable organic items to your shopping cart from time to time, but I just want you to be knowledgeable and informed when you make that choice.
Let me know your thoughts on organics and tricks or tips you may have found to make buying organic food affordable.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Week Eight--Packaging Decisions
Last week we talked about changing habits with regards to reusable shopping bags. This week we're staying with this notion of shopping as it relates to product packaging. For now I'll be focusing on the kinds of packages you might find and the choices you can make in the grocery store.
For example, when I was a kid, nearly every condiment in the supermarket came in a glass bottle. These days, not so much. On a recent food-shopping trip, I wanted to see how much I could avoid items in plastic. Why? Because I now know that it takes a ton of petroleum to make plastic. Also, while recyclable, not all plastics end up getting recycled.
I'll tell you, it wasn't easy finding glass containers once I started looking for them.
Did you know that most ketchups no longer come in a glass bottle? In my mind ketchup should be packaged in those almost beer-shaped glass bottles like the one from the classic Heinz commercial where someone tips a bottle of ketchup on its side and waits patiently for that thick and delicious ketchup to land on a burger. I can still hear strains of Carly Simon's "Anticipation" running through my head as I type this. Even diners rarely carry glass bottles of ketchup. No, on this shopping trip I had to settle for one of those flip-top, shaped-for-you-refrigerator-door bottles of ketchup. Thankfully, you can still get mustard in glass bottles. I was able to stock up on glass bottles of both Grey Poupon and my supermarket's generic yellow kind.
Staying in the condiments' aisle, you're likely to be able to choose glass bottles for your vinegar, pickles and olives but not your salad dressing. Like special toppings on your ice cream or flavored syrup in your milk? U-bet still sells its chocolate sauce in a glass jar but Hershey doesn't. Smuckers continues to keep most of its jams and jellies in glass jars (I'm partial to the sugar-free strawberry preserves for my morning toast) but its ice cream sauces tend to come in plastic.
Over in the dairy aisle, I'm reminded that I grew up with milk in glass bottles--and not because we had a dairyman who came to deliver milk to our house. Where I grew up, we had the forerunner to the convenience store, and it was called Dairy Barn. It was always a small storefront shaped like a red barn (silo and all) with a drive-through "door" on each side of the building. We would buy our milk from Dairy Barn, and bring the glass bottles back when we needed more milk. Dairy Barn didn't refill the milk on the spot--I'm sure they sent our used bottles off for a good cleaning--but they did give us new glass bottles of milk to take home for the week. What a brilliant way to bring reduce, reuse and recycle--and with something as simple as milk. I've always wondered whatever happened to Dairy Barn, and it turns out that there still are Dairy Barn locations on Long Island, where I grew up. Our green and busy world could use more stores like this all over, not just on Long Island.
Anyway, back in the diary aisle, I know you won't find milk in glass bottles in most supermarkets, though you might find orange juice in a glass bottle. While good for recycling purposes, some studies have shown that orange juice loses its nutrients when it's not packaged in an opaque container.
Now of course there is the debate that while plastics come from petroleum, glass is heavier and bulkier for shipping. That means that glass might cause companies to use more trucks--and therefore more gas--to transport these products from production to the supermarket aisle. I wish someone would come up with a petroleum algorithm that lets consumers like me determine which is the lesser of two evils--the plastic packaging or the heavier glass containers? If you've got that formula, please let me know.
Glass versus plastic isn't the only packaging debate that might be raging inside of your head as you green your grocery shopping habits. There is also the plastic versus cardboard conundrum. I'm thinking about things like laundry detergents.
I'm thrilled that many more companies are using recycled plastic for their liquid detergents--and concentrating these detergents so that they have to use smaller packaging overall (you can read my Continental Magazine story on green packaging here for more on that). At the same time laundry companies that use cardboard boxes for their powdered detergents are also using recycled paperboard for their packaging. So its win-win all around in the laundry aisle, assuming that you can recycle both plastic and cardboard with your trash. Unfortunately, I can't. My recycler doesn't take cardboard or paperboard of any kind. That means for me, plastic is often my eco-friendly choice for detergent because I'm not forced to throw it out. However, whether or not Allied Waste actually ends up recycling these plastic jugs on their end is beyond me.
I understand that everyone has got to shop, and you don't always have the greenest choices at the local supermarket. But once you become aware of what you could be choosing, I hope you'll discover that you don't always have to bring home items which packaging has to end up in the trash. Ideally, it should all be able to go in the recycling bin.
For example, when I was a kid, nearly every condiment in the supermarket came in a glass bottle. These days, not so much. On a recent food-shopping trip, I wanted to see how much I could avoid items in plastic. Why? Because I now know that it takes a ton of petroleum to make plastic. Also, while recyclable, not all plastics end up getting recycled.
I'll tell you, it wasn't easy finding glass containers once I started looking for them.
Did you know that most ketchups no longer come in a glass bottle? In my mind ketchup should be packaged in those almost beer-shaped glass bottles like the one from the classic Heinz commercial where someone tips a bottle of ketchup on its side and waits patiently for that thick and delicious ketchup to land on a burger. I can still hear strains of Carly Simon's "Anticipation" running through my head as I type this. Even diners rarely carry glass bottles of ketchup. No, on this shopping trip I had to settle for one of those flip-top, shaped-for-you-refrigerator-door bottles of ketchup. Thankfully, you can still get mustard in glass bottles. I was able to stock up on glass bottles of both Grey Poupon and my supermarket's generic yellow kind.
Staying in the condiments' aisle, you're likely to be able to choose glass bottles for your vinegar, pickles and olives but not your salad dressing. Like special toppings on your ice cream or flavored syrup in your milk? U-bet still sells its chocolate sauce in a glass jar but Hershey doesn't. Smuckers continues to keep most of its jams and jellies in glass jars (I'm partial to the sugar-free strawberry preserves for my morning toast) but its ice cream sauces tend to come in plastic.
Over in the dairy aisle, I'm reminded that I grew up with milk in glass bottles--and not because we had a dairyman who came to deliver milk to our house. Where I grew up, we had the forerunner to the convenience store, and it was called Dairy Barn. It was always a small storefront shaped like a red barn (silo and all) with a drive-through "door" on each side of the building. We would buy our milk from Dairy Barn, and bring the glass bottles back when we needed more milk. Dairy Barn didn't refill the milk on the spot--I'm sure they sent our used bottles off for a good cleaning--but they did give us new glass bottles of milk to take home for the week. What a brilliant way to bring reduce, reuse and recycle--and with something as simple as milk. I've always wondered whatever happened to Dairy Barn, and it turns out that there still are Dairy Barn locations on Long Island, where I grew up. Our green and busy world could use more stores like this all over, not just on Long Island.
Anyway, back in the diary aisle, I know you won't find milk in glass bottles in most supermarkets, though you might find orange juice in a glass bottle. While good for recycling purposes, some studies have shown that orange juice loses its nutrients when it's not packaged in an opaque container.
Now of course there is the debate that while plastics come from petroleum, glass is heavier and bulkier for shipping. That means that glass might cause companies to use more trucks--and therefore more gas--to transport these products from production to the supermarket aisle. I wish someone would come up with a petroleum algorithm that lets consumers like me determine which is the lesser of two evils--the plastic packaging or the heavier glass containers? If you've got that formula, please let me know.
Glass versus plastic isn't the only packaging debate that might be raging inside of your head as you green your grocery shopping habits. There is also the plastic versus cardboard conundrum. I'm thinking about things like laundry detergents.
I'm thrilled that many more companies are using recycled plastic for their liquid detergents--and concentrating these detergents so that they have to use smaller packaging overall (you can read my Continental Magazine story on green packaging here for more on that). At the same time laundry companies that use cardboard boxes for their powdered detergents are also using recycled paperboard for their packaging. So its win-win all around in the laundry aisle, assuming that you can recycle both plastic and cardboard with your trash. Unfortunately, I can't. My recycler doesn't take cardboard or paperboard of any kind. That means for me, plastic is often my eco-friendly choice for detergent because I'm not forced to throw it out. However, whether or not Allied Waste actually ends up recycling these plastic jugs on their end is beyond me.
I understand that everyone has got to shop, and you don't always have the greenest choices at the local supermarket. But once you become aware of what you could be choosing, I hope you'll discover that you don't always have to bring home items which packaging has to end up in the trash. Ideally, it should all be able to go in the recycling bin.
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