Monthly Archives: November 2008

How to Plan a Green Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a fun holiday for getting together with family and eating a really impressive meal. But then you have all the leftovers and mess to clean up.

thanksgiving

I suppose it’s a good thing that only the eating part is heavily commercialized. At least, I don’t know anyone who decorates for Thanksgiving the way people do for Halloween or Christmas.

Planning a green Thanksgiving isn’t too complex. It’s about thinking about your choices and not going overboard. Here are some of my ideas.

1. Decorate with things you have on hand.

Odds are you already have plenty of decorations that will make your table look nice for the holiday dinner. A tablecloth, your good dishes and so forth will make a very nice presentation.

If you haven’t started using cloth napkins, now is a great time to start. They look more elegant. Organic cloth napkins can be an excellent choice if you need to buy some. They really aren’t that much harder to deal with than disposables.

2. Add in natural decorations.

If you live in an area where the fall leaves have some great color, they can make wonderful Thanksgiving decorations. You’ll need to pick carefully for any that you put on the table, of course.

3. Think about your turkey.

If it fits in the budget, go for a free range or organic turkey. These cost more, so don’t feel too bad if you don’t feel up to buying one.

However, you can be sure to use up as much of the turkey as possible after the holiday. Yes, the turkey leftovers can get boring. However, you can freeze the excess to spread things out a little.

Don’t forget to really mix things up. In my family there’s a recipe we call Quitting Cold Turkey. It uses turmeric to help the flavor, along with various vegetables. Very simple to make.

And of course there’s turkey soup to be made from the bones and scraps. You can get a lot of soup from one turkey, and know that you aren’t wasting anything you can eat. I generally freeze my excess soup in batches so I can take out just enough for daily meals when we want it.

There’s also the option of having something other than turkey. Some families prefer something else for the main dish. Others cannot stand the thought of skipping their annual turkey. If you really aren’t that enthusiastic about turkey, what would you like?

4. Buy organic produce for side dishes.

Whether or not you were able to buy an organic or free range turkey, try to go organic or local for your side dishes. This will be more challenging in some areas than in others, but it’s a step worth taking.

5. Make less excess food.

Yes, people love to overeat on Thanksgiving. It’s one of those days that few people worry about their diet. But if every year your family is groaning about how long it’s going to take to finish the leftovers, you’re probably cooking way too much. Cut back a little.

6. Borrow rather than buy.

My sister called me the other day, and while we were talking she mentioned that she needed to get a new mixer before Thanksgiving. She always makes a lemon meringue pie, but her mixer doesn’t work anymore.

I pointed out to her that mine is just fine, and I am a very short detour on her way home from work (less than a half mile). She was quite delighted that I am willing to loan my mixer out. It saves her a bit of money and lets her get the job done.

7. Plan travel carefully.

This is a huge travel season. Many people will drive long distances to have a family Thanksgiving, and many will fly.

If you fly, consider buying carbon credits or even just planting a tree in your area. There’s not a lot you can do about the emissions created by airplanes otherwise. At least at this time of year you can be fairly certain of a full flight.

Driving is better. Check your tires, get your oil changed if it’s due, and be sure your car is overall in good working condition. Don’t pack more than you need to bring, as this will bring your mileage down.

If you have the time, there’s always the train. The time required can be a bit hard to deal with, but if it’s practical for you, trains aren’t a bad way to go.

8. Consider having Thanksgiving at home.

No, not as exciting as seeing all the family you get to see at the big gatherings, but sometimes celebrating Thanksgiving at home is plenty of fun too. You may be able to invite friends over who also aren’t traveling to see their families.

If your family has a strong tradition of getting together for Thanksgiving this can be a hard one to break. But it can also take a lot of stress out of the holiday.

9. Recycle and compost.

Do your best to keep the trash in the trash can and separate out all the stuff that can be recycled or composted. If you’re preparing fresh vegetables, there will probably be plenty of bits for the compost bin. You may also have cans and other containers for the recycle bin.

10. Be thankful.

If you have the money to celebrate as you like, if you have a roof over your head, even if you’re struggling financially, you’re doing much better than many others.

If you’re away from family, give them a call. Write a letter. Even just send an email to let those you love know how much they mean to you.

11. Give to the less fortunate.

No, nothing really green as such, just one of the best ways to show that you care about those who are less fortunate at this time of year. There are plenty of food drives going on at churches and even grocery stores. Our local Henry’s, for example, has pre-bagged foods for their food drive. You just pick the one that has the amount you’re willing to pay and they ring it up for you.

Don’t forget the food banks the rest of the year. Many of them struggle to provide food to needy families during other times of the year.

Will Amazon’s Frustration-Free Packaging Be Frustrating?

I have to admit, I love the concept behind Amazon’s new Frustration Free Packaging. When you’re buying online you certainly don’t need the box that lets you look through plastic to see what’s inside. And I detest trying to open most toys these days.

I just hope they get a better selection in there soon.

Only a very few toys and electronics are available so far in plain boxes. Some of course use less plastic than others, but all the toys involved so far do appear to be plastic themselves. And of course some will save more packaging than others.

They do hope to get more toys into this kind of packaging. I hope so too. It takes some effort to get manufacturers to go along with this, but Amazon certainly has the clout.

I hope to see wooden toys and such in better packaging too. I’ve seen that sometimes, although it wasn’t marketed as such. When I bought my kids a wooden train set last year, the tracks came in plain brown boxes. It was really nice, even if it took a moment for the kids to get excited.

Another great search I’ve found on Amazon is to search under “made in USA“. There are a lot of wooden and organic toys listed there. Some plastic too, but mostly not, at least in the pages I checked.

With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, now is a great time to start thinking about what kinds of toys you’re going to pick for your kids. If you can consider both their wants and the environment, why not? It might be the slight improvement from Frustration Free Packaging, or a more deliberate selection of environmentally friendly, creative toys, but you have a lot of options.

Have You Picked Up the Reusable Shopping Bag Habit?

Grabbing a reusable shopping bag as you head out to the store sounds like such a simple thing, but in reality it can be a very difficult habit to pick up. All too often I head out to the store to realize that my bags are still at home.

Reusable shopping bags do quite a bit for the environment if you can remember to use them. Plastic bags are hard on the environment not only in terms of their manufacture and distribution, but in that so few are recycled. They’re terrible for wildlife. They break down very, very slowly.

Paper bags are a problem as well, although they do generally come from wood from managed forests. But they are heavier than plastic and can actually have a higher environmental cost than plastic in terms of manufacture and distribution. On the plus side, they break down nicely.

Reusable bags can even save you money. Some stores charge customers for bags, while others give a small discount for bringing your own. Either way the cost difference is small, but it can add up over time.

There are many ways to get reusable bags. You can buy them at your local grocery store, often for about $1 a bag. They’ll have the store’s logo or something along those lines on them, but they’ll get the job done. On the other hand, you’re a walking advertisement for that company. They may also not be terribly durable.

You can sometimes find them free at events. One of mine came from a local fair. The city’s information booth was giving them out.

You can also shop online for them. This is the most expensive option, but if you want the most durable and attractive bags, this is probably the way to go. You may also spend less in the long run. Many of the store bags and free bags are poorly made and won’t last through that many uses if you load them too heavily.

The key to building up a good reusable bag habit is to find something that works for you. Here are some ideas:

1. Keep them in the car.

Reusable bags are light, and take up very little room when empty, so they’re a good choice to just toss in the trunk. Do so after each time you use them, and they’ll make it to the store with you every time you drive over.

2. Buy bags that fold up into your purse.

If you carry a purse, this can work well for you. Some varieties fold up very small, and you can just have them with you all the time. No more forgetting them even in the trunk!

3. Put it at the top of your shopping list.

Just be sure you go over your list right before you leave. This won’t help you much if you don’t look at your list until you’re actually at the store.

Get Out and Vote Today!

If you haven’t already, at least.

I was hoping to vote early, but didn’t quite get around to it so I guess I get to experience any local lines in person. Not especially looking forward to that part. I don’t like standing in line. My sister suggested that I might get ahead in line due to pregnancy, as they would allow for disabilities, but I don’t think I feel that bad. Just achy.

I’m hopeful for the results, although dreading the possibilities of some outcomes. And here in California I know that if things such as Prop 8 (no gay marriage) fail this year, they will return to haunt us year after year. One of the problems with the proposition system is how easy it is for that to happen. I do get tired of seeing certain topics repeatedly.

I don’t pay much attention to the results as they come in. Only results I care about are the final ones. So I’ll probably be avoiding all news tonight, and checking on results early tomorrow morning. Hearing who won what can be exciting, especially in a campaign like this, but it’s just as interesting to hear about a little later as it is right away.

Go vote!

Green Propositions in California Are Frustrating!

California is great for going green in a lot of ways. Lots of sunshine for those who want solar power. Often good incentives for it too. Curbside recycling in many areas.

Unfortunately, the statewide propositions we have to consider aren’t so great.

I have a love/hate thing for the system of state propositions. On the one hand, it means the votes can decide on things the legislature isn’t going to bother with. There’s a more direct say.

On the other hand, some propositions end up really being on things the legislature should have taken care of, because they require so much research to make an intelligent decision on.

The two big ones are Prop 7 and Prop 10.

It pains me to be against Prop 7. It really does. But I see its goals as unrealistic. I’d love to be able to meet those goals, but generating 20% of the energy created by government owned utilities from renewable sources by 2010 strikes me as highly unrealistic. It’s nearly the end of 2008, after all! Add in that opponents include the Sierra Club, the California Democratic Party and the California Republican Party, as well as many other groups.

But does it ever hurt to oppose it. I love the idea! Especially since the goals keep increasing. But I worry about the potential impact on smaller companies, and how we develop our use of renewable energy sources. This looks too likely to be a solution that will slow progress down, not speed it up.

When my family got together to discuss the propositions, we at first thought Prop 10 sounded good. But my mother works for the state and while she doesn’t deal with the budget in her job (she’s in worker’s comp), she certainly feels the pinch when the state can’t settle on a budget and stops paying for a time. For those of you out of state, that’s happened a lot of years lately. They get the back pay eventually, but it’s a pain.

She always gets mad when they say a bond issue won’t increase taxes. It won’t that year, but how exactly do people expect the bonds to be paid back?

Opponents also say this is mostly to fund natural gas vehicles. Not nearly so much hybrids, electric cars and so forth. These vehicles don’t even necessarily pollute less than regular ones!

As you can imagine, being against these two nominally environmental propositions is really hard for me. It would be so much nicer to have something that could be supported as a step in the right direction, even if it weren’t perfect. These two are so far beyond perfect I can’t support them.