Green Links For The Week Of 9.30.12

Here are some more good stories from this week:

Tesla announces Supercharger network

Porsche Unveils Plug-in Hybrid Panamera Sport Turismo at Paris Motor Show

Pygmy Seahorse Discovered on Google Street View

Solar Energy Tax Credit May Be Saved By Washington Gridlock

Paper or Plastic? Some Communities Say Neither

Seven Generation Coupon

If you are on the emailing list for Seventh Generation you can save a $1.00 on select cleaning products right now. If not you should sign up

Book Review: Diet For A Small Planet

Diet For A Small Planet

written by Frances Moore Lappé

published by Ballantine Books

ISBN: 978-0345373663

41 years later can the information still be relevant?

Diet For A Small Planet looks at the meat industry, specifically the grain-fed beef industry, and how it negatively affects the planet from a climate change, economic, health, and worldwide hunger. After going through all of the various reasons grain-fed beef is bad for the planet (not to mention quite a few industry related horror stories), Lappé gives us possible solutions and tons of recipes that are protein rich and meatless.

Although this book was important at the beginning of the environmental movement when it first came out in 1971, is it still relevant? Yes and no. It is good to know where you came from so you can plot out where you are going. And it is good to know the history of the movement that join. But even though I read the 1991 version most of the information is either out of date or now fairly common knowledge. The whole complimentary protein thing has been disproven, though she does touch on this in the new book and acknowledges that it isn’t that important anymore. There have been substantial changes to the meat industry, but I think there are still plenty of bad things going on. I haven’t tried any of the recipes but I follow the basic guidelines of meat free eating.

All in all, it is a good read more from a historical reason than a current one. There are some good ideas about eating in it as well. Check it out from the library or pick up a used copy:

2.5 out of 5

Cheap Air Purifier

We all want clean air to breath whether we believe in climate change or not. We think we have clean air in our homes and if not we just open the window and let some “fresh” air in. Unfortunately there can be all kinds of pollution in the air in our homes. One we have too much of is formaldehyde for the insulation in our homes.

Now you can go out and plunk down some money on an air purifier that works and helps to keep your air clean but not only are they not cheap they have to have energy to run. A natural alternative, Plants.

NASA ran a study on the best air purifying plants, which can be found here. I chose to go with the rubber plant since it would need the least amount of work and survive the best in my home. I picked up a 10 inch at Home Depot for about $12. And if I can keep it alive I’ll buy one for each floor of my house

Strange looking, isn't it

A word of caution with rubber plants: their leaves can be toxic so watch pets and toddlers around them.

Bokashi Compost Update

We've been using the All Season Indoor Composter for 16 days now and it is full. There is a pickling smell from inside and there are white spots (which is supposed to be good. There is no smell unless you take the lid off. I used about 2/3 of a bag of bokashi but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. I'm going to give it a few days and then I'm going to transfer it to a 5-gallon bucket for two weeks before taking it to a compost pile.

It has made some 'tea' that I've been mixing with water and putting outside. The plants around where I dumped the tea have really perked up. We'll have to bury it in a compost pile in a couple of weeks and see if it breaks down like it should.

Book Review: Food Rules

Food Rules

written by Michael Pollan

published by Penguin Press

ISBN: 978-1594203084

I guide for eating? I think I know how to do that…nope I was wrong.

This very short book works on three basic principles that Pollan has come up with while writing his earlier books (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense Of Food). The three principles and the sections of the book are: Eat food, mostly plants, and not too much. Each section then elaborates on these ideas and how to work within them.

I think this is a fantastic little book! There aren’t a lot of new ideas floating around in it but it does help toe cement some of the things you know and should be doing. There are a few great gems in here such as: “”It’s not food if it arrived through your car window,” “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself,” and “Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.” The book also explains why it is good to avoid processed food and industrially farmed food.

Buy it for yourself and then give it as a gift to someone you know

5 out of 5

Loose Tea

I’m not much of a soda drinker. In fact, it has been 18 years since I had my last sip of soda. I like to think that I’m healthier for it. When people learn that I don’t drink soda I first get a look of perplexity followed by the question, “What do you drink then?” I don’t quite understand why this is so perplexing but I generally answer with the truth, “Water or tea.” I also drink milk, juice, coffee, and an occasional alcoholic drink (though I’m not much of a drinker in that sense either). But when people ask me the question it usually means what do I drink in relation to eating lunch and/or dinner.

Recently I’ve had to review my own policy of drinking iced tea. The greener I get the closer I look at the things I do and how they affect everything else. The main problem with the iced tea I was drinking was the huge amount of waste generated for a small amount of tea. In my case I was using 12 bags to make three quarts of tea. Each bag came individually wrapped and there was packaging in the box that seemed unnecessary.

I was ending up with a whole bunch of these:

I was recycling them but I was still feeling pretty guilty because the paper in them wasn’t really being used for anything other than a temporary wrapper that immediately gets thrown away or recycled. This isn’t even counting the tea bags themselves, which can be composted but are still a huge waste of resources. It would be better to just compost the tealeaves.

I went on a quest to find some bulk loose tea. The first thing was to figure out the best price and then buy quite a bit there. Since it was sold by weight I was quickly confused on how much tea it would make and what the total cost would be. While I wrestled with this not so big of a thought my girlfriend bought a bag of loose tea at Whole Foods for us to get started with.

On the inside:

So that eliminated a lot of the waste involved with packaging. We made a pitcher of tea using a coffee filter. It tastes great but I was still left with a bit of guilt over using a disposable coffee filter. I wasn’t sure how to fix this but again my girlfriend saved the day by buying me a cotton reusable filter at Park + Vine (pronounced Park And Vine). I can use it, compost the tealeaves, and then wash it with my towels and use it again. Very little waste.

I also found a source up the road where I can bring my reusable muslin bags fill them with as much tea as I want and not have to buy any packaging.

Not all problems are solved here. The tea still has to be grown, pulled, dried, and shipped to the store. It still takes a little bit of power to make the tea. And a little bit more power to make the ice. I’m not going to be able to eliminate all impact but I can reduce it considerably. And I so just drink filtered tap water more often instead of having tea every night.

Is there any thing you do regularly that you can “green streamline?