Recently in Conservation Category

So as part of my PB&J lunch campaign I've been buying fresh-crushed peanut butter at the grocery store (so much cheaper, fresher, and tastier than the commercial crap that's filled with preservatives and sugar...), and for lack of better knowledge of my jam options I've been buying Smucker's Simply Fruit, which is pricier than its compatriots but really is just fruit, juices, fruit syrup and pectin.  While this is good from the "no extra sugar and preservatives" standpoint, I figured I should look around some and see if there are other options available that better meet either the 'buy local' effort, or are a better price for quantity if I'm going to stick with a large commercial brand.  Besides, it's not as if this stuff is really all that great -- they add fruit syrup (probably pear and grape since those are cheap) to sweeten it and take up bulk, but it is still at least pure fruit and pectin, instead of high fructose corn syrup, when all is said and done.

Imagine my surprise to see this a few feet over on the same shelf...

Admittedly Knott's Berry Farm isn't much better than Smuckers in terms of corporate crap but it's a much larger container for the same price... great, right?

Let's take a peek at the back side of the container, shall we?  (Sorry for the blurriness, but that's my awesome cameraphone at its finest...)

Shoppers: It's BYO bag in China

BEIJING -- Declaring war on the "white pollution" choking its cities, farms and waterways, China is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old - steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers on Wednesday.

Despite the fact that we're already nine days into the new year, here's my resolution (effective whenever the last few pieces of deli-sliced turkey in my fridge are finished.)

I'm joining the PB&J Campaign for lunch, because every step counts.

As an aside, although a few of the items from the original post are no longer accurate (no more worm bin, garden or CSA produce for me at the moment due to current living arrangements), others have improved:

• nearly all lighting is now CFL
• walk to nearly every store I shop at
• reusable totes for most groceries
• Jasper's litter is now corn-based and 100% biodegradable
• Moved my websites off-site so the computer (my main power drain) is now off when not in use
  

In the process of mucking around with some of my Google Account settings this morning, I stumbled upon the old Blogger-powered TCZ group blog (unfortunately, the link to the blog itself is currently dead) that saw its heyday from June 2004 through June 2005, and then faded out slowly after that. I'd totally forgotten about most of the posts I made there, including a hilariously out-of-date post from Aug '05 that simply read "I saw regular unleaded for $2.90 a gallon this morning. (several blank lines) Good."

Reading back, it's interesting to see how my writing style has evolved over time and how parts of it now make me wince... especially where I really forced the dryly humorous side of things. I'm going to go through and post some of them here over the next little bit, in part because the old blog is now dead and thus my readership finally out-paces theirs at one-to-zero.

Back in June 2006 I wrote a draft of the following post, but never actually published it... it's still sitting in the Blogger control panel in draft form, over eighteen months later. I've put it into the extended entry here in its entirety, with only minor style revisions.

Amazon's Top 100 most registered-for Wedding items, as retrieved this morning.

As the blog I found this mentioned on comments, it's nice to see people thinking a bit more creatively with wedding requests now, although there's still a ton of waste and items requested that get virtually no use because people think that they have to ask for stuff, rather than considering more esoteric things like this, or even better, donations in their name.

It's not always so much "do we want it" as "do we need it?" At least the Wii should get some people in better physical shape...

I'm not sure whether to be worried or hopeful...

Even carrots taste better at McDonald's, kids say

Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the children when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

I see a brilliant plan in the future to feed kids McTofuburgers and Carrot McNuggets. Toss in a few toys that the kids haven't played with in years and have forgotten about, and we could solve the obesity epidemic thanks to one of the key causes!

Composting is growing at the UW

Kitchens at the UW have been composting their food waste for some time -- but now composting is coming out front, and becoming everybody's business.

The gathering of food waste from kitchens is called "pre-consumer" collection. That's been under way since 2004 and now includes virtually all restaurants on campus. Recently, The Rotunda Café, in the Health Sciences Complex, as well as Eleven 01, McMahon 8 and Ian's Domain, have been collecting "post-consumer" compost -- plate waste, biodegradable cups, plates, napkins and stir sticks.

The entire article goes into a fair bit of discussion about finding bodegradable alternatives to one-use products such as plastic cutlery, coffee cups, and take-out boxes. Corn-derived cutlery is on the way, and a sugar cane, reed and straw mixture is being developed to make foam-like take-out containers. How cool would it be to finish a delicious meal (well, since we're talking about campus food "delicious" might be the wrong word) and then be able to eat your silverware or the container? They could add flavorings to them to make a high-fiber dessert! It reminds me a lot of taco salads that come in the giant corn-chip bowl, and clam chowder that comes in a bread bowl.

Food-trash recycling at homes to be required by Seattle in '09

All single-family homes in Seattle must sign up for table-scrap recycling in 2009, the City Council decided Monday. ... Reducing food trash was a piece of a larger plan the council unanimously approved Monday to reduce the amount of garbage sent to the landfill.

This is good, but it certainly needs more. For one, apartment buildings and businesses are exempted from the requirement (though they can voluntarily sign up, just like the current system in place for everyone in the city) and the setup as currently envisioned is sure to upset many people. Instead of simply supplying a yard/food waste bin similar to our current recycling bins, the city is going to offer multiple sizes of bin and charge different rates for each, similar to the current garbage can system.

That part is ridiculous in multiple ways. First, it's absurd to charge people additional fees to reduce the city waste stream. Unlike regular garbage, which must be disposed of in a landfill, all the food and yard waste is sent to a regional composting facility, which then sells the resulting product in stores. This is akin to recycling, where companies buy recyclable materials and turn them into new products which they sell to industry and consumers. The city simply includes any recycling costs (pickup, transportation and maintenance) in the standard household utility bills, so why should mandatory composting bins be any different?

Similarly, why are we encouraging people to select smaller bins for cheaper rates? This is likely to encourage people to just get the smallest bin available and dispose of any extra food or yard waste in their regular garbage can, just like they currently do... which negates the entire purpose of mandating food scrap collection!

The most logical plan of action here would be to provide "free" composting cans to all households (and by all means make multiple sizes available since households do vary in waste production!), then increase the cost of garbage can collection to cover any additional fees this new collection requires.

This would encourage people to select smaller garbage cans (thereby saving them some waste collection costs), which will likewise encourage them to separate out more of their recyclable and compostable waste. Some fine-tuning of costs and collection will probably be required as the system comes into full use and people adjust their waste habits, but that's to be expected and should be fairly transparent to the end user if done correctly.