Month: January 2009

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Plastic bag update

Well it’s almost the end of January and we have changed lots of our plastic bag behaviour so far this year. Today I added a new idea that we hadn’t tried before. Not only did I bring our shopping bags with us to do the shopping, I also brought with us our small plastic bags that came from the fruit and vegetables last week. We will just continue to use these same bags each week.

 

We are also sharing our wheeli bin with my mum as now that we are trying harder to reduce our waste there is very little rubbish in the bin each week. My mum saves money as the price of plastic rubbish bags has risen to $2.16 per bag and it also means one less rubbish bin bag a week gets bought.

 

We could probably share our bin with at least 3 other people in the street and share the cost, rather than all of us putting out our bins and bags each week! It’s a pity that we don’t really have that sense of community in many of our streets anymore as grouping together often makes sense economically.

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Fish decisions as a consumer

Reading Saturday’s newspaper from front to back (apart from just glancing at sport and the motor section) is one of my weekend pleasures. The review of a local sushi bar (Dominion Post 24/01/2009) sparked my interest for two reasons – one I like sushi and two the reviewer (David Burton) made reference to the fact that he should have asked the waiting staff whether the tuna was blue fin or yellow fin, as blue fin is an endangered species. It reminded me that I have been meaning for a while to obtain a copy of the Forest and Bird Best Fish guide. If you’re downloading the guide also have a look at their site – Sea Week is at the start of March and there are lots of activities being organized around NZ for people to get involved in.

 

So having downloaded the guide I was shocked to see how far down in the Red Zone Hoki was – a fish I sometimes buy for the freezer. My husband will be pleased as he much prefers John Dory which is up near the top part of the list. While I was looking at fish I also downloaded the Greenpeace Red Fish Guide which has 12 types of fish targeted to make it easier for the consumer to remember. GreenPeace cites that during the Hoki season hundreds of fur seals and seabirds are being killed. In addition some Hoki stock are being depleted. With regards to tuna Greenpeace recommend not purchasing any tuna other than SkipJack tuna from NZ or poll, line or troll fisheries in the Pacific.  

 

David Barton made a good point that sushi bars need to explain the fish species they use in greater detail so that their customers can make better informed decisions when choosing their sushi.

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Pikelets and Popcorn

One of our usual Sunday activities is going out to the local bakery for breakfast. In a no takeaway zone Sunday’s have had to change a little. So today I whipped up pikelets in a few minutes – my first made from scratch pikelets since my cooking classes at school when I was 11 yr old. (Actually I think I may still have that recipe – I remember making pikelets with yoghurt, I’ll have to search for it). Previously I have always made my pikelets from pre-prepared pikelet mix or bought pikelets already made but I am trying to cut down on manufacuring, packaging and cost if I can. A few more weeks of practice and I should be perfect hopefully!

 

Recipe: 1/4 cup sugar and 1 egg beaten together. Add 1 cup sifted self-raising flour, 1 pinch salt and about 3/4 cup milk.     

 

 

 

One of the best things about writing is that it makes you stop and think about the decisions you make in your day to day life. I know for me sometimes things are so busy that lots of decisions especially my purchase of items just happen on autopilot.

 

So how does the popcorn fit in to the story? Well looking at my pantry this morning while getting my ingredients out for pikelets I noticed my box of microwave popcorn. I remember clearly buying the popcorn, I wasn’t under the influence of alcohol or anything when I bought it! I just didn’t think about it. Looking at it now, however, I’m asking myself what on earth was I thinking? Why would I buy a product that is shipped all the way from the USA, has each bag individually wrapped in cellophane and when you make the popcorn the bag itself has to be thrown away because it is covered in this revolting yellow looking butter substance that coagulates very quickly. On top of that it costs $4.38 for a box of three popcorn bags. Why haven’t I just being buying plain popcorn and putting it in my popcorn air popper? It would be considerably less cost and less packaging.  

OK – one of my projects for next week, get my popcorn situation sorted out. And keep looking at the products I ‘automatically’ buy just from habit and keep questioning my purchasing of them!

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Plastic bags in the news

Well we’ve just finished a dinner of home cooked hamburgers – 4 hamburgers came out at a total of $7.20 plus electricity costs. I’m happy with that. Once we’ve saved enough money to landscape our property I’ll be able to grow some of my own vegetables and hopefully get the price of my meals down a bit more.

 

An article in the national paper’s Greenzone section today (Dominion post) was looking at the NZ plastic bag situation. It brought up some points that I have been discussing in the last few weeks regarding what happens when you stop taking plastic bags and therefore run out of them in your house!. The article gave the statistic that sales of heavy kitchen rubbish bags rose 15 per cent last year presumably because of people no longer having plastic bags to use in their rubbish bins. So one form of plastic is reduced while another is increased!

 

The article also noted that although biodegradable bags are available in NZ they are not available in supermarkets for shoppers to easily purchase. This is something that I have been noticing about a lot of products that are more enviro – friendly. Many of them require the consumer to order from websites or to go to special shops. If we know of good products I guess we really have a responsibility as consumers to start asking supermarkets for them to see if we can bring about a change.

 

Update on my no plastic bag project: I am still using newspaper to line my kitchen rubbish bin and it’s going great but I think it works well because we have a small rubbish bin so the paper lines it really well forming a sort of paper bucket.

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Things in the mailbox

Today one of my tasks was bill organisation and payment. Although I pay my bills electronically I realized recently that I don’t receive my bills electronically.  Looking at some of my bill companies I found that Genesis electricity allows you to get electronic bills instead of having it posted to you so I’ve arranged for this. Telstraclear lets you lookat bills online but doesn’t seem to offer the option of not getting paper ones – I may drop them a line to see if it is possible.    

The other thing that arrives in my mail box is junk mail. I know I have to give it up but I have to admit I do like reading some of what comes in the mailbox! It is only once in a blue moon that I ever buy something from the junk mail though so I don’t know why I’m finding it so hard to put up a “no junk mail’ note on my post box.  I will make a commitment to put one up by the end of this month. There! I’ve written it down in black and white.

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January Paper Towel Challenge

A week ago I wrote about one of my small projects which was trying to reduce my use of paper towels  Informed Consumer | Small ‘projects’. Today I came across a green website http://www.greendaily.com/category/green-challenge/ with a monthly challenge. Kelly’s monthly challenge for January is reducing her paper towel consumption. I’m glad to read that my husband is not the only one who can’t comprehend such a concept as no paper towels!!  

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“One recession combo, please”.

This was the heading of an article in today’s paper (Dominion Post). The article was discussing that fast-food sales typically increase in an economic downturn. McDonald’s NZ has enjoyed a record New Year period. It seems McDonald’s Britain has also reported 2008 as one of its best years for two decades (Timesonline). The paper linked the fast food trends to restaurant diners looking for cheaper options which to me sounds bizarre. I can’t imagine choosing to get takeaways instead of going to a restaurant that I can no longer afford to go to. I would rather go and buy similar food to what I might have had in a restaurant and cook it myself. Tonight we are having a meal which will cost us about $9 in ingredients plus the electricity. There are very few takeaways that would come close to $4.50 for a meal and taste that good. It’s not that I don’t eat fast food but in an economic downturn one of the few things I can try to control is my food budget. We’re not likely to get many pay rises during an economic downturn but I can award myself a ‘pay rise’ by reducing my food costs.

 

My husband admitted to me yesterday that he really likes our food planner, he said he likes being able to see what is for dinner, it gives him something to look forward to when he’s working during the day. I was surprised because he is a big takeaway guy but he really has been enjoying all our meals. Not sure how long he will last in our takeaway free zone but he’s doing well so far!

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Takeaway Free Zone (Part 2)

Yesterday I wrote about how our home at the moment is working on a grocery budget. I was thinking about this again this morning and came up with some more positive aspects to this change we have made.

 

  • I noticed this morning that this was the first time I had to empty the rubbish in 4 days J. The rubbish bin in the kitchen is a very small bin so our efforts to reduce food wastage by planning meals better is having a noticeable reduction on our rubbish production.
  • This reduction in waste has an economic spin off as well. In a few months time when our wheeli bin contract expires I will be able to look for a much more money efficient option as at our present rubbish production rate it will take us weeks to fill up a bin!
  • Our freezer is packed to the seams with food which energy wise (and therefore cost wise) is the best way to have it. I’ve always known this but have not ever really thought why this is the best way. Here is a good explanation below

“The first and easiest step is to ensure that the refrigerator is as full as possible. This initially seems counter-intuitive. However, every time the refrigerator is opened all the cold air in it falls out of it towards the floor and it is replaced with warmer air from the room.

This means that the temperature inside the refrigerator rises sharply and it has to work extra hard to cool the new air. You will have heard the refrigerator start humming after you have opened it; this is the reason why.

For every cold, space occupying object in the refrigerator there is less cold air to be lost when the door is opened. So putting the potatoes in the fridge rather than in the cupboard will help reduce the energy cost of running the machine. The same goes for fruit, drinks and so on. While these objects take a while to be cooled, this is easily offset by the energy you save by not losing extra cool air each time the door is opened. Even if you do not regularly drink cold water, placing full bottles of water inside the refrigerator when there is spare space will lighten the load on your electricity bill.”

Source: http://www.green-planet-solar-energy.com/energy-efficient-refrigerator.html

(I now have to go and get my fridge sorted out also! It will reduce some of my cupboard space which is great as some areas are a little packed)

 

  • Old recipes from childhood are starting to come out again to be used. It made a nice holiday activity to read through the old recipe books and reminisce about how amazing some recipes used to taste. I won’t ever be the kind of person who makes preserves etc but my organic blueberries this morning were stewed with apple and frozen in reused plastic containers ready for desserts over the next few weeks so I’m quite proud of myselfC.
  • And of course there has to be health advantages to eating a good balanced home cooked meal rather than a takeaway!
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Takeaway free zone (for now at least!)

Xmas has gone and the family has been on a grocery budget the last few weeksJ. I figure that it will not only help pay the mortgage off quicker, but wiser food buying will be better for the environment as it will mean less food purchased and wasted.

 

So here are our steps so far:

 

  • We have made a commitment to try and go to the grocery shops only once a week to help with budgeting and reducing petrol.  
  • We go with a list, which is something we never have done before, and the list is planned around possible meals so we know the purchases we make will end up being used. We can be better consumers by making informed purchases rather than random purchases on the spot at a usually crazy grocery store.
  • We bulk buy if it’s a good deal and bulk cook where we can and freeze food in plastic containers that have come from other food purchases so we are not wasting money/resources buying plastic containers or bags.
  • Once we have shopped we create a meal planner sheet on the fridge so we don’t get tempted to go for takeaways as what is planned for dinner has already been written on the planner.

 

The result of this is that over the last two weeks we have found that we are throwing away almost no waste food as we plan meals to make the most of the ingredients we have in the house at the time. Also because we plan ahead we can now defrost meat slowly in the fridge rather than wasting power defrosting meat at the last minute in the microwave. And of course with no takeaways there are no takeaway containers.

 

We’ve even started to barter! We went to dinner last night at the in-laws. We brought the dinner, bulk cooked and frozen from our big Bolognese cook up the previous week. The plastic containers came home with us again! We got organic blueberries in return to take home with us picked from the Blueberry Farm. I then shared some of these blueberries with my Mum who in return brought around cold ginger beers from her fridge.

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Small ‘projects’

One of the side effects of saying ‘no’ to plastic bags has been that I am running out of plastic bags in the house. On reflection I decided that rather than getting biodegradable bags to line the bin it would seem more sensible to use newspaper. We have lots of newspaper as my husband insists on getting the paper daily ( non – negotiable!). With purchasing biodegradable bags there is the manufacture of the bags, transport from the manufacturer to the internet company and then delivery of the bags to me. So one of my projects last week was to try out lining my bin with newspaper. I have just emptied it and everything worked well, no leaks, the bin is clean – success!

 

One of my other projects has been to reduce the amount of paper towels I use. I noticed during my record of my trash week that there were too many paper towels in my rubbish. So I have created a rag bag from old cut up t shirts. I can now do many of my cleaning and wiping tasks using rags. These then go into a bucket in the laundry and get washed when the bucket is full – they are all out fluttering in the wind at the moment. I still have a way to go though on reducing my use of paper towels – I will need to continue to work on more strategies to stop myself reaching for paper towels so often.