Enviro Update

Back in October, I wrote this post about wanting to do a better job of making environmentally conscious choices.  We are making small but lasting changes to our habits.

I started actually thinking every time I would grab for a paper towel or plastic, how I could make a different choice.  There are still a couple of instances where I need to use a paper towel (like soaking up the grease from bacon or sausage), but I've really eliminated a lot of their use and we use cloth napkins instead.  And we have lots of reusable things for covering and saving food so I can use those instead of foil or plastic wrap.

I've also stopped lining pans with tin foil when I cook something. I would do that to make clean up easier, but most of the time it's not necessary and if it is, parchment paper works just as well (although I am still trying to limit use of that too).

Then I realized that I do a good job of using reusable items at home, and then I'd get to work and use a ton of paper towel, even for something dumb like carrying my hot dish to my office to eat my lunch.  So I started bringing a tea towel or cloth napkin to leave at work for the week and use it for various things and then bring it home at the end of the week to wash.  I also bought a reusable mug for when I want to buy a coffee downstairs and I won't have to use their paper cups.

Another simple thing is bringing a water bottle with me when travelling. As long as it's empty when going through airport security, it's fine, and then you fill it up on the other side.  This really cuts down on having to buy water wherever you go.  And when you're at a hotel, it's so much nicer to drink from a big bottle than their little (sometimes plastic) cups.

We also got some Norwex cleaning cloths from my mom for Christmas and we can dust and clean the mirrors with these clothes (rather than using paper towel as we used to do), and they use just water, nothing else, so that's a bonus.  She also gave me some cloths that remove make up and mascara without using a cleanser, and they work really well too.

I know we still have a ways to go, but small steps are better than nothing!  Any other tips out there?

Friday Favourites

Was this the longest week ever, or was that just me?  I can't believe I still have to go to work today!  E has the day off though, and I will likely try to leave work early and pick him up from the YMCA early too.  

Last week I wrote about things I'd like to start doing that could help the environment, no matter how humble they are.  In that post I asked how one would freeze meat without using plastic.  Well I figured it out.  I bought some large reusable zipper bags (like the photo below, but larger), and I plan to wrap the meat in parchment paper and then place it in the bag to freeze it, simple! 

Yesterday I said I would tell a story about Peter Mansbridge's podcast, The Bridge.  I have been listening faithfully since it began and last week I thought I would write in with a question, and on last Friday's episode he read it!! I was so excited! My question was about how Canada thinks of itself vs. who we may be elected Prime Minster (I know we don't technically elect the PM, but that's just semantics).  I like to think our country is fairly (small l) liberal, open to different ways of life, progressive, etc. but I do live in (big l) Liberal Toronto so that's just my view.  But if people are not going to vote for the Liberal Party just because they are sick of Justin Trudeau and Andrew Scheer winds up PM, then what does that actually say about us? I wrote it much more eloquently, and it was more of a stream of consciousness rather than a question for Peter, but he said it was interesting and that he would the to think more about it.

(Peter as "Peter Moosebridge" in Zootopia)

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you all have some yummy food and if you feel like you've indulged too much, just start the healthy eating again on Tuesday, no real harm done :)

Climate Change

I tend to get pretty discouraged about climate change and wonder what can I possibly do to make a difference. But something in the sermon at church this week resonated with me.  We will all have to make changes and if we do, we can fight this.

There are some things that we already do to help the environment, but plenty of things we could improve on.  I'll start with the things we do right:

I take the subway or bike to work.

We bring our own bags/bins to the grocery store, and rarely use the produce bags.

We don't waste a lot of food; we eat what we buy thanks to meal planning.

We use our green bin.

We have reduced our meat consumption.

We use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances.

But things we could improve on:

Recycling. I am really lazy at cleaning our recyclables because I have been told that they all get sent to the landfill anyway so what difference does it make?  But what if that is not true?  What if the "good" recyclables, like the ones that are cleaned out and dry actually do get recycled but it is the dirty ones that get sent to the landfill?  In that case, if I clean mine out, then mine will get recycled.  See what is acceptable in Toronto's blue bins here.

Using less plastic ziploc bags and paper towels.  We have lots of plastic containers and cloth napkins so I should use those more often than we do.  Any ideas for how to freeze things using reusable containers? Right now I wrap things in plastic and then put them in a freezer bag.

Eating less meat, or at least trying to find local meat.  We get a lot of chicken, ground turkey, and salmon from Costco, but it's a little discouraging when you think of the volume of products they go through, that level of consumption can't be good.  We could do better to buy local meat when we can.

Order less online. There is so much packaging that comes with Amazon and other online places.  Sometimes it's unavoidable, but if we can buy it in an actual store, perhaps that is better. 

Consume less overall.  Buy less things, use what we have around the house, buy used items if possible. A little anecdote on this.  It was Q's birthday on the weekend and we invited 11 of his friends to his party.  They each brought a gift, obviously, but I kind of felt bad about that.  We have tons of toys, and although the gifts he got were awesome and he really enjoyed digging into them and playing with each one, we didn't really need more things.  I tried to placate my guilt by saying, shouldn't kids get to have tons of presents just for them, isn't that the fun of having a birthday?  I remember that feeling when I was little and it was one of the best parts of having a birthday party (or at Christmas too).  But I thought further on it, and realized that just because this is how it used to be, doesn't mean we get to continue like this.  Perhaps the new reality is that there are not piles of presents, along with their packaging and wrapping, and instead we get to enjoy one or two things, or experiences.  I know that Q would have been happy with the first present he opened, instead of all 11, plus the ones from family.  I hope I am not sounding ungrateful, rather trying to be conscious of the unnecessary consumption.

So instead, I will try to think twice about consuming something. If I can make a better choice than the one I've always made, then I should. We can recycle all we want, but the focus should just be on reducing and reusing. We may not be perfect but we don't have to be.  It's better for everyone to be trying and executing imperfectly than not doing anything at all for fear of not being perfect and wondering what's the point. 

It's also important to become educated on the topic.  These are just some ideas I've come up with off the top of my head, but I know we could do more.  In fact I saw an article today about how Toronto processes its organics that was very interesting.

Thinking about their future.