Going Green: Stepping Up Your Recycling With Very Little Effort

We are very fortunate to have a trash and recycling company that collects a huge amount of recylables (paper, all plastics 1-7, cardboard, aluminum, steel, junk mail, glass, etc.) However, they do not collect plastic bags or styrofoam.

Although I do have six reusable grocery shopping bags, which I use almost all the time, I still do seem to come home with the occasional nefarious plastic grocery bag. I stick one of these in my laundry room (behind the door). Over the period of about two weeks, I add all the plastic grocery bags, produce bags, newspaper bags, and any other recyclable bags that come into the house. I also stick in foam produce trays and egg cartons.

When this bag gets full, I pick it up on my way to the grocery store. My usual store has bins right out front for paper bags, plastic bags, and styrofoam. Fortunately my kids help me, since my arms are full with reusable shopping bags, coupon box, and grocery list! One kid will pull out the styrofoam items, and another will wad up the bags into the appropriate bins.

Earthbound Farms estimates that if everyone in the US used one reusable grocery bag once per week, it would keep 16 billion plastic bags out of landfills every year. Whole Foods states that in 2007, Americans threw out "100 billion plastic bags annually, according to the Worldwatch Institute, and only 0.6 percent of them are recycled."

More recycling, not much effort.

Healthy Eating: Super Scrumptious Lentils & Rice

One of my favorite ways to pump up our family's nutrition and to reduce our grocery bill at the same time is by preparing a vegetarian dinner once per week. Meat is usually one of the highest dollar items in our grocery budget. Vegetarian meals are usually based around low-cost protein such as whole grains, legumes, and eggs. Vegetable-based dinners are packed full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants. Most Americans are sorely lacking in at least a few of these departments.

I also find that going vegetarian once per week helps to add more variety into our diets, so there is less of, "Mom, why do we have to have chicken again?" or some similar complaint. I find that by adding a little shredded cheese atop most of our vegetarian fare makes the dish delectable (or at least palatable - LOL) to my young ones. Additionally, teaching our children to eat healthy vegetarian foods, like beans and rice, paves the way for healthy eating habits into adulthood.

There is another benefit to eating vegetarian once per week, it reduces the amount of energy consumption and thus greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere. Bringing meat to our tables includes a long energy-intensive, and frequently chemical-laden, chain of raising livestock on farms: Animal feed and fertilizer to grow the feed, big transportation energy consumption, meat processing, etc. According to New York Times food writer Mark Bittman in his new book Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, "Switching to a vegetable based diet only one day a week is equivalent to driving 1,160 fewer miles in a year." So next time you savor a forkful of beans and rice, know that you are doing something good for your body, good for your wallet, and good for your planet!

Savory Lentils & Rice

1 c. lentils

1 c. brown rice

2 c. vegetable broth (or chicken broth, or water plus bouillon granules)

1 c. water

1/2 chopped onion (or 1-2 T. onion powder)

2-3 T. olive oil

Bring water and broth to a boil, add lentils, rice, onion, and seasonings. Reduce heat to simmer, and cook 45 minutes.

Top with cheese or homemade salsa. I made the salsa in the photo above from tomatoes from my parents' garden. Super-duper delicious.

Thrifty Tip: Going Green by Doing Away with Paper Products!

Here is one of my favorite ways to go green and save money too.  About a year ago I gave up paper napkins for cloth ones.  Originally I started using cloth napkins everyday because I thought they looked more elegant for our evening meals, and then I noticed how much fewer paper napkins we consumed, which also meant less paper waste going to the landfills.  

I also switched out paper napkins for cloth ones at breakfast and lunch.  I even pack a cloth napkin in my kids' lunch boxes.  It's funny.  I still have half a package of paper napkins in the top of one of my cabinets.  It's over a year old.  we will probably use it up on our camping trips.

I love using cloth napkins.  They seem so much nicer to wipe your mouth on, and they make the table so much more appealing.  Another surprising aspect of using cloth napkins is that they actually do not take any more work to use them.  Since I am doing at least one load of laundry every day, I just add the used napkins to that day's load.  I do not iron them (except for special occasions) and just pop them back in the drawer right next to the kitchen table.  (I have a set of napkins in the washer right now!  LOL!)

Hand in hand with using cloth napkins, I also love to use cleaning cloths instead of paper towels.  I find them to be more absorbent and better at those things that need a little more scrubbing power than paper towels.  I keep a few stashed in each bathroom for handy cleaning.  When they are wet or dirty, I just lay them on top of the washer to wait for the next day's laundry load.  

I do still use a few paper towels.  I still find them handy for really greasy jobs such as cooking sausage or bacon.  I bought a six-pack of paper towels last summer, and I still have half of them unused.

Have you substituted cloth for paper in your home?

Another Benefit to Frugal Living

I just know y'all want to look at my garbage cans!!

I am posting these silly photos to show one of the greatest advantages to Frugal Living.  Frugal Living is Green Living.  Us thrifty moms who reduce, reuse, and recycle not only save all the trash and packaging from going into the landfills, but it also saves us money, too!

My trash pick-up only comes once per week.  We have a huge recycle bin (the yellow-lidded one), and diligently recycle paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, aluminum, steel cans, etc.  It is usually at least half to 75% full.  

This week, I kid you not, there is only one kitchen garbage bag and one household trash bag (tissues, floss, etc., which my son faithfully collects each Monday from the wastebaskets around the house). 

Just think how much trash you throw away every time your family goes to a fast food restaurant:  cups, lids, straws, sandwich wrappers, styrofoam containers, greasy fry containers, paper napkins, etc.  What about all those take-out convenience foods ... lots of packaging that goes in the garbage!  

So next time you decide to eat at home instead of go out, or if you cook ahead for your kid's sports practice days, remember that not only are you saving your own hard-earned "green,"  you are going green and saving the landfills, too!

Blessings!