There's a late night show here called The Hour hosted by George Strombolopoulos that is promoting a movement to support the ecological health of our planet.

THE HOUR website

I posted yesterday, bragging about some of the small gestures I have made to stop being so destructive to the biosphere.

Here's another: I use a mini-washer to save water and soap. It's not an automatic. First I wash dishtowels or clothing. Then I wash dirty work clothes, muddy socks, whatever. Then I use the water to clean the floor or my outdoor boots. I rinse by hand and hang to dry, just using the dryer to 'finish' the clothes nicely.

I do have a larger washer but all I use it for these days is bedding, that sort of thing. It's a small model, anyway. So when it packs in, I believe I will use the laundromat for big items.

Please boast about what you do in this thread. It can make a difference.

miniwasher.
Mine's a little bigger.

Whatever next? Hay box cookery? Do -it -yourself food rationing [Britain in 1948 would be a good start: little sugar, enough to feed an adult, very cheap,no imported food]. Allotments? Dig For Victory[turn all available green space, including your lawn, to vegetable growing] A pig club? [a group is allowed one pig for all, which you feed on potato peelings and waste] " Woolton Pie"? Snoek?

Seriously, our ancestors were wonderfully 'green' (and not only in wartime).Nothing was wasted.They used very little heat at home, too (as anyone American who stays in a big British house soon discovers, this tradition is retained ).

My mother kept books of 'Household Hints' which were fascinating.Many ways in which they got by without e.g. special cleaners for windows [a little vinegar and some newspaper figured instead] and had methods of utter simplicity for saving money [one odd one we all knew was topping and turning sheets: a sheet which was worn was 'turned', cut and resewn so that the ends were to the middle] could still be applied.

Allotments are suddenly all the rage with the middle class,as in this village.A good laugh for us, villagers who can remember allotments being for people who had no land to grow food (mostly poor town dwellers) and the few found in this region, near the towns, being closed years ago because there was no demand any more. Villagers all had cottages with gardens big enough to grow vegetables, so there were no allotments. Now the townies who've moved here all want allotments ("so much better than food from a supermarket") Naturally I suggested that they 'allot' some of their gardens to growing vegetables, as the French do, but apparently that's not the same Well, it would save them driving their Volvos half a mile to an allotment (they don't know how to walk or cycle)

I use only screw-in fluorescent bulbs. They really do last a very, very long time. Over 95% of the food I eat is unprocessed. (I do this mostly for health reasons, although I admit to a fondness for cheap frozen burritos.) At some point, I will start making my own bread. I no longer subscribe to any newspapers or magazines. I read the online versions. Most of my clothes are purchased from Salvation Army thrift stores or other thrift stores.

In the near future, AP will have a Green forum. This thread, and any similar threads, will be moved at that time.

I'm careful to plan my errands to be done all in a day to avoid multiple trips into town.

I do as much of my bill paying as possible by telephone and internet.


I have a collection of re-usable totes that I take to the grocery to avoid the Hobson's Choice of "Paper or Plastic".

I buy quite a few things from the bulk bins, couscous, rice, spices,cereal,etc and transfer them to my existing storage containers... the little produce bag is a bit better than a hard plastic jar.

I recently bought a side of beef from a local ranch and plan to keep doing so as needed- between avoiding the impact of transporting and storing the meat involved in grocery store purchase and the more sustainable methods used at the ranch vs a larger commercial stockyard, I get a healthier, less costly meat supply that did less harm in getting from the hoof to my table.

Fred pipes right up!

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Hay box cookery? Do -it -yourself food rationing [Britain in 1948 would be a good start: little sugar, enough to feed an adult, very cheap,no imported food]. Allotments? Dig For Victory[turn all available green space, including your lawn, to vegetable growing] A pig club? [a group is allowed one pig for all, which you feed on potato peelings and waste] " Woolton Pie"? Snoek?

Hey! Way cool!

For your penance you must say 3 Hail Mary's and write 500 times "I will not be an effete snob. I will not..."

Yeahhhh ! MsS!

One of my my neighbors has decided that she and her husband will eat their way through what's in the freezer rather than wait till spring till it's freezer-burned and then compost it.

This movement could be massive!

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Originally posted by babthrower:

For your penance you must say 3 Hail Mary's and write 500 times "I will not be an effete snob. I will not..."

I'll tell the new man, just arrived, to do it.His CV said he'd been something to do with 'hedge founding' so I've made him a gardener .He's just the type for that statement.

We decided to save water, so we no longer launder clothes. Instead we buy new cloths and toss out the 'old' dirty ones. While this may be a tad bit more expensive at the store, It surely must be green with all the water we are not using in laundry.

We decided to get some solar gain to heat the house, we only needed to cut down 6 trees, now we get direct sunlight all winter long.

Upon learning what catalytic converters are made out of, we decided to save the environment, so we switched to older cars without those pesky converters.

I used to compost stuff, until I found out how much CO2 is released from a single compost heap. Now I triple bag my organic materials and throw it in the black trash can (the one that goes to land fill). I'm certain we have cut back our CO2 emissions.

I switched out all the florescent tubes and bulbs, I discovered that they use mercury, mercury is highly poisonous to the environment. Of course incandescent burn a lot of electricity, so we switched to kerosene lamps - I only need 5 lamps to every light bulb to get the same amount of light! I only use a gallon of lamp oil a day.

We had the old natural gas central heat removed to save natural gas, we switched to a coal burning stove. Coal being a natural product must be green compared to the processed natural gas.

We no longer shop for food from a store, since most of the produce is shipped from exotic places, instead we spend a few days a week driving around to individual 'local' farms to buy our produce. We are lucky, every type of farm can be found within a 500 mile radius.

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Originally posted by DvdGStwrt:
We no longer shop for food from a store, since most of the produce is shipped from exotic places, instead we spend a few days a week driving around to individual 'local' farms to buy our produce. We are lucky, every type of farm can be found within a 500 mile radius.

There's a book out at the moment called The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, and it was picked as our local 'One Book, One Community' selection for 2008. Most of the feedback I got on it was that the idea seemed great in theory, but in practice would take almost all of one's time to implement. The general consensus was that for the average family with children, with both parents working full time, it's totally unrealistic.

Thanks for a very witty post, David. We can certainly all do things to help the environment, and live a 'greener' life, but this thread was in danger of sinking under the weight of its own smugness.

My best friend in Vancouver is looking for someone who needs a car to get to work. She said she doesn't want it, because it's a temptation, and she needs to walk more for health reasons. Also it's tying up material which could be useful to someone who needed to drive to work. She has been using public transport for long trips, and walking the rest of the time; but she was using the car for heavy-duty shopping.

Then she heard of this program called CANcar, and if you donate your old beater to them, you get a credit for up to $1,000. This credit can be used to buy a 'greener' vehicle (through an arrangement with certain retailers) or even for public transit tickets!

Also the cars can be rented by members very cheaply, if they need one from time to time.

CAN cars

I really love her spirit. She just had a terrible battle with cancer, which she won. I was absolutely in awe of her attitude and her courage.

And this latest move on her part reminds me of these words, said of another great lady: "She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness."

I agree that it's hard to make good choices. My own most disappointing experience was with energy-saving light bulbs. They don't last as long as advertised, and when discarded they pollute.

And polluting the environment is nothing new for us humans. From at least the bronze age we've been doing it. But with our rapidly-growing world population, and our greatly-enhanced ability to manipulate the material world, we're getting truly dangerous now.

But people of good will continue to do what is in our power to reduce the impact.

And you know what the payoff is, from a selfish point of view? A healthier lifestyle.

My latest target: eat meat only once a week. (Wish I could go veggie, but I do love meat. So, small stages.)

I recycle in accordance with our city's program, having a barrel of my own and the city being kind enough to pick up the results.

I re-use almost all bags, whether from the store or containing my newspaper, for either trash disposal or storage.

Also I only heat my bedroom (just before crawling into bed) and the dining room, where the cat lies directly in front of the small electric space heater (she is too old for a colder house). Otherwise I layer as needed.

I let my trees and lawn die in order to not use the water. It looks like hell, but it is not worth the maount of water that the desert requires.

That'a about all I do at the time. I really am too lazy to be very green.

Yesterday, I bought a copy of Putting Food Byand plan to begin canning and drying foods at home, in reusable glass jars- I'll save money,avoid the cans (though I will have to buy lids) and have a better handle on where my food came from and what's in it.

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Originally posted by MrsS:
Yesterday, I bought a copy of Putting Food Byand plan to begin canning and drying foods at home, in reusable glass jars- I'll save money,avoid the cans (though I will have to buy lids) and have a better handle on where my food came from and what's in it.

Goodness, if this goes on, everyone will be hunting in the attic for grandma's Kilner jars ! A Kilner jar is a glass jar used for jams and preserved fruit.The product is put in the jar when it is near boiling hot and the jar is sealed with a rubber-ringed glass top, which clamps tight.Years ago [in our house this was being done for years post World War II], everyone in the countryside had these.It was quite a ritual to get the Kilner jars out every year , to use for preserving plums and other fruit.In those days, some people canned food at home, too.

I would LOVE a couple dozen of those Kilner jars or the very similar ones made by Ball-but I'll have to settle for my boxes of Mason and Kerr jars- alas, the clamp jars are all but impossible to find.

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I let my trees and lawn die in order to not use the water. It looks like hell, but it is not worth the maount of water that the desert requires.

Mee toooooo! I forgot about that one.

It's natural for grass to go dormant in summer. So what I did was plant around the dry-grass area with orange drought-lovers like crocosmia and California poppies. The colors are quite pleasing against the beige background. My south lawn stays green because there is a natural spring just above it and the area is not well drained. (It squishes underfoot this time of year!)

Shana, I have a problem getting sugar-free preserved fruit to keep well in jars. I guess I just don't kill all the mold spores on the fruit. I don't really want to get a pressure-cooker, but maybe it's necessary, to get a higher temperature. Our summers are not hot and dry enough to dry fruit outdoors, plus the flies gross me out. If I cover the fruit, it won't dry at all. Maybe an electric dryer is necessary too!! Right now, I give most of my fruit away. (I have to pick it or the bears wreck my fruit trees!)

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In the near future, AP will have a Green forum. This thread, and any similar threads, will be moved at that time.

What a great idea! Thank you, DG!

Putting Food By, the book I mentioned buying yesterday, is widely considered to be "the bible" for food preservation and has wonderfully detailed information about canning, freezing, drying and curing foods... I bought my copy new but I've seen it often in used bookstores.
Among other methods, they discuss oven drying, which might be a good option for you if you don't want to go to the electric dehydrator.

If you use wood heat, you may be able to dry some fruits and vegetables on racks near the stove (Apples dried this way make the house smell amazing )

I've never canned anything without close supervision and even that was 20 years ago and more, so I'm not (yet) any sort of source for canning advice, though I'm looking forward to learning enough to be able to share reliable information.

What I do always seems like a lot to me, when compared to my friends and family, but like so little in the grand scheme of things. I guess we all just do what we can and hope that the smallest gesture helps in some small way...

I recycle religiously, so much so that I bring home recyclable items from work that would otherwise have been thrown away. I compost as well, and we end up with so little garbage I only have to put out a bag a month. We donate a lot of stuff, too, rather than keep it or throw it away.

I bring canvass bags to the grocery store, and return all the plastic bags and wrappings that I do end up with to the store for them to recycle.

I have CFLs in every lamp that will take them (I haven’t found the types for enclosed or dimmer fixtures, yet, but everything else has them). If you’re worried about disposing of these at the end of their life, Home Depot stores are accepting them for recycling.

I do use the washer, but I line dry as much as I can, and I do have a drying rack for the winter. One of my winter projects is to get laundry lines up in the basement.

I save the plastic screw caps which are not recyclable in New York State and I return them to an Aveda salon for repurposing.

I have a Nalgene bottle instead of plastic bottled water, and have a Brita filter at home (which will also be recyclable starting at the beginning of the year!). I bring my own silverware and cloth napkin to work instead of using disposables, and use rags instead of paper towels (for most things).

I try to buy organic, local, fair trade products whenever I can, and I try to keep the processed foods to a minimum -though someone in the household keeps demanding Pop Tarts and Coco Puffs. I do try to buy in bulk when it makes sense, but sometimes that doesn’t seem to cut down on the packaging at all. The meat I buy is raised on farms in my community. Luckily, Wegmans buys a great deal of local products and does a good job of providing organic alternatives for their clients, so I don’t have to rush all around town to different shops to get what I like. My mother and I do go to our local co-op, though, about once a month.

I do have a small garden, which is pretty cheap to keep up. It only required a bit of water, but we don’t water the lawn at all so I figured we could afford it. I don’t do a lot of preserving yet, but that’s on my project list, too.

Sometimes, trying to do everything right just makes me exhausted. Especially when the research contradicts itself so often. I guess we just have to do our own research and make our best guesses, and do the things we can manage and not worry about the rest.

Looking forward to the Green forum, Dorian! Have you heard of [URL=http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_Green ]the Green Wikipedia[/URL]?

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I try to buy organic, local, fair trade products whenever I can...

I should do better at that.

It must be about time for a green commercial:

Use an Energy Efficient Lightbulb