Waste Reduction Tips for the holidays

I get a weekly "tip" email from Clean Scapes and I particularly liked this one. I couldn't find it online* so I reposted it here. Happy Waste Reduction to you this holiday season!

During the holiday season there are many opportunities to go green. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans throw away 25% more thrash between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day than any other time of year, which translates into an extra one million tons of waste generated nationwide each week!

What can you do to reduce waste during the holidays?

Give Experiences. Support the local economy by purchasing gift certificates for experiences.  Look no further than local restaurants, museums, sporting events, concert halls, theater shows, and classes for everything from yoga to guitar lessons for a unique and special gift for every interest and age group. Or, give the gift of a shared experience and make a date to do something special together. 

Shop Sustainably. With local and regional holiday craft fairs, it’s easy to support local artists, farmers and merchants. Other ways to shop green include purchasing items made from recycled content or items made from renewable resources, such as bamboo. And when you shop, don’t forget your reusable shopping bags!

Re-Gift! Make it a white (elephant) holiday! The easiest 'shopping' can be done at home. “Re-gift” things that have gone unused or unopened and find these items a new home.

Re-Charge. When you purchase gifts that require batteries, consider purchasing rechargeable batteries and a charger. Each rechargeable battery replaces up to 1,500 single-use batteries.

Give Homemade. Get crafty! Save money this holiday season by making your own gifts and cards. No matter your skill level, the sky is the limit for do-it-yourself projects.

Donate. Instead of a gift, donate to a charity in a frien! d or family member’s name.  Holiday donations are a great way to support local non-profits and help the community.

Reduce Packaging. While shopping for holiday meals, consider buying in bulk, or purchase items with the least amount of packaging.

Bring Your Own. It's easy to reduce waste when you bring your own travel mug to the coffee shop, take your refillable water bottle with you for on-the-go hydration, and stash your reusable shopping and grocery bags in the car to carry your holiday purchases. Reusable bags also make wonderful gift bags, and provide an eco-extra for your special someone.

Around the Table. Before stocking up on single-use plates and cups, save money by using reusable and washable plates, cups, silverware, napkins, table clothes and serving dishes. For larger parties and a festive table, combine resources by borrowing tableware from friends. If you are looking to save money, purchase gently-used durable serviceware at local second-hand retailers.

Holiday Recycling! Encourage your guests to pitch in. Set out and clearly mark your recycling bins, and if you have food scraps collection service, help guests keep food waste out of the garbage by using a collection container for food scraps

*Clean Scapes-if there's a way to view your weekly emails online, please let me know!

Artist Profile #2: Half Moon Farms

Artist: Brenda Lee Calvert 
HalfMoon Farm 
Brush Prairie, WA 

Beekeeper & Artist:  
I am a self-taught artist working out of my studio at my flower and produce farm (HalfMoon Farm) in Brush Prairie. 

My work encompasses many recycled materials; glass, metal, clay, wood, and plastics. Working with such diverse materials lets my creativity and imagination soar. Several different lines of artwork have come from this mixed media including functional, garden and decor. My use of texture along with great attention to color and basic shapes add to the design element of my art.
 
Beekeeping:  I and my husband Bob took up beekeeping around 7 years ago and just love it because it fits into our misson for our farm. We grow a lot of heirloom vegetables, herbs and fresh cut flowers. We also run pasture chickens for fresh eggs. We have 15 Bee hives this year and hope to eventually keep 25-30.  All of our honey is sold in glass containers for better recycling and our honey is Raw. (not pasteurized)  Our goal is to be good stewards of our farm and respect it by using organic practices. 

And now, for some good news

The other day, I was on my soapbox about waste and the damage we're all doing to our beloved planet and I felt kinda bad for regaling my audience of one with all the doom and gloom. So, I later sent her a couple pieces of good news to try to make up for it.  This was one of them.

What a cool program!

Granola Bars: Product Review #6

This review is part of a series.

Product Name/Company/Price: Nature's Path Organic granola bars, Hemp Plus Raisins $1.99

The Good: Wheat free, low sodium, no trans fat, organic (every ingredient that can be is), 400 mg Omega-3 per serving, whole grain, company is in same state as me. These are pretty tasty. I can definitely see taking one of these puppies along on a hike or as a mid afternoon snack to ward off hunger. 

The Bad: They're almost *too* sweet, with the raisins and they're a bit sticky.

Would I buy again? Probably

Crackers: Product Review #5

This review is part of a series.

Product Name / Company / Price: R. W. Garcia 5 Seed Onion & Chive Crackers $1.99

The Good: Made with organic corn, wheat and gluten free, non-GMO, no trans fats. These little guys are pretty tasty. They sorta taste like the cracker equivalent of a tortilla chip.  Or, if tortilla chips and crackers had a little tryst, this is what would come of it.

The Bad: They're a little bland (I expected the chive/onion taste to be bolder) and only the corn is organic-the other ingredients don't seem to be. 

Would I buy again? Probably

Wafers: Product Review # 4

This review is part of a series.

Product Name/Company/Price: Helwa Organic Lemon and Vanilla Wafers, $.99/each

The Good: These are pretty tasty

The Bad: They're flaky-you end up getting crumbs all over you.  That's not really a deal breaker, but seriously...crumbs everywhere!

Would I buy again? Probably.

Chocolate!: Product Review # 3

This review is part of a series.

Product Name/Company/Price: Dagoba organic Chai chocolate, $1.49

The Good: The chai is an interesting addition. It's mild enough that the whole thing still tastes like chocolate, but a little spicy.

The Bad: It's not really "bad" it's just not necessarily my cup of tea-pun intended.

Would I buy again? Probably not, especially since Dear BF didn't like it at all. He made a face and said "Why would you mess with chocolate?"

We tried a second type, as well:

Product Name/Company/Price: Alter Eco Fair Trade Milk Chocolate Cajou, $1.49

The Good: The chocolate is very smooth. 

The Bad: I prefer chocolate straight up-completely unadulterated. I think I would prefer this chocolate that way.

Would I buy again? Maybe. If the chocolate didn't have any additives (cashews and raisins), I definitely would. All Dear BF said was, "Yeah, it was good."

Chocolate Chunk Cookies Product Review # 2

This review is part of a series.

Product Name/Company/Price: The first product I tried was Chocolate Chunk Gluten free cookies from Arico Natural Foods Company, $1.49 at Grocery Outlet

The Good: No trans fats, no preservatives, no artificial flavor or color, certified organic, Arico is local; the address is Beaverton, OR (about 20 miles away from where I bought the cookies.) Every ingredient that can be certified organic is.

The Bad: pretty much everything else. These cookies are not to my liking. They're pretty bland-for being supposedly chocolate "chunk" the chunks are more like small skimpy "chips." The texture is all wrong for me. I like cookies to be ideally chewy or barring that, crunchy. These have a somewhat dense cake-like texture. I've never had any other gluten free cookies to compare them to, so maybe they're good as far as gluten free goes?

Would I buy again? Absolutely not

One last caveat: I noticed just now while I was writing the post that the package I bought has a small slit in it (looks as though someone was using a box cutter to get into the package of these cookies and accidentally sliced it.) This may have changed the texture/moisture level of the cookies.

Organic plant starts: Product Review # 1

The very first items in my cart were actually outside the store. There was an impressive display of herb and veggie starts and I bought five in all; strawberry, yellow brandywine tomato, tomatillo, lemon balm and chives.

This review is part of a series.

Product Name/Company/Price: organic strawberry, yellow brandywine tomato, tomatillo, lemon balm and chives from Brentwood Park Organic farm in Estacada, OR. $1.29 for everything except the chives-they were $1.59

The Good: the chives are tasty and the lemon balm reminds me of my childhood home. All the other plant starts I'll have to mention later in the season, once they've been planted and hopefully are producing. The whole display looked pretty healthy.  Also, Estacada is pretty local.  It's about 30 miles away from the store.

The Bad: My strawberry plant already looks pretty dismal. It might be just fine, but it's touch and go for now. Otherwise, everything looks great.

Would I buy again? Definitely. I'm always on the lookout for good plant starts.

I'm still trying to decide whether a plant start being organic is important to me. What seems more important would be what you put on the plant once you get it home. On the other hand, it was nice to know the chives didn't have anything on them when I tried a little bit of them. Also, simple science seems to suggest that if they're organic starts, they'll be a bit more suited to life with me. (I'm mostly an organic gardener, so if the plants "needed" something to be healthy, they'd be out of luck.)

Shopping for eco-friendly products at Grocery Outlet

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting a series of product reviews. I was approached by Grocery Outlet and given a gift card to buy products and review them. While Grocery Outlet did indeed send me the gift card, all the reviews are solely my work. I was not given any parameters beyond "shop at our store with the gift card and review whatever you buy" I was not told to give favorable reviews of any of the products (and indeed I won't be for all)

So what did I buy? First of all, lots! I shop at Grocery Outlet probably on average 2-4 times a month. The selection is always very...varied. There are certain staples that you can find there pretty much any time, (for example, meat, cheese, milk, butter and produce.) but everything else is a complete mixed bag. The one consistent thing is low prices. Because they seem to often have close out items from other stores, (they call themselves a "remarketer of excess inventories") their prices are usually very reasonable.

In the past, I have noticed a fair amount of organic products (or products with some other environmental claim) at Grocery Outlet. For this project, I did my shopping at the Hollywood district store in Portland, OR.

They have the largest selection of organic products of all the Grocery Outlet stores. In fact, when I first started shopping, I thought I was going to have to carefully search every aisle for products, but as I neared the end of the first aisle, the PA system informed me that this particular store had an entire aisle (pictured below) dedicated to organic/eco-friendly products. My shopping then got a lot easier!