Archive for disposables

jon-kate-plus-8You probably know them. It’s been hard to ignore them (however hard you may try). They seem to be everywhere and have infiltrated pop culture at an alarming rate: they are Jon and Kate Plus 8.  This is not a salacious story about the state of their divorce or about them as people.  This is rather innocent by comparison but needs to be addressed nonetheless.

Kate was one of those self-proclaimed green gurus who espoused the merits of eco-friendly living at every turn. In the past Kate organized a family outing to an organic farm to buy an entire side of beef for her family so they didn’t consume any hormones. Kate and soon-to-be-ex-husband Jon brought in experts to teach them the art of eco-friendly living, which included how to cook organic and reduce their ecological footprint. They even had a special called “Jon and Kate Go Green”, where they took eco-friendly living to a new level by having solar panels installed on their home, and other energy saving measures. Now, these are all things that I applauded them for as they had an influence on many people; but now it would seem that they are not as green as they pretend to be.

My gripe comes from something I have observed, while taking part in this very public guilty pleasure – they use a lot of paper plates. They do not just use paper plates; they seem to use the cheapest thinnest paper plates possible.  How do I know this?  Well, anytime Kate makes an organic meal or they miss organic food while on one of their many vacations she comments on it.  The plates have never been referred to as anything but paper plates and you can plainly see that they are very flimsy.

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Categories : Eco Friendly
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waste-free-lunchesThis green tip of the week simply involves packing a waste-free lunch for your kids or for your day at work.  Did you know that the average American school-age child throws away 67 pounds of packaging a year?  This includes plastic water bottles, sandwich baggies, and juice boxes.  With the population of kids in the US alone accounting for over 70 million, that’s over 4.6 TRILLION pounds of packaging.

Here’s some other lunch waste facts courtesy of globalstewards.org:

Plastic Bottles:  U.S. citizens discard 2.5 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR

Aluminum Foil:  More than 20 million Hershey’s kisses are wrapped with 133 square miles of foil every day

Aluminum and Tin Cans:  In the time it takes you to read this sentence, more than 50,000 12-oz. aluminum cans were made

Juice Boxes:  Most inorganic trash retains its weight, volume, and form for at least four decades

Paper Bags and Napkins:  It is estimated that 17 trees are cut down for every ton of non-recycled paper

Styrofoam:  U.S. citizens throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups EVERY YEAR

It’s time to cut down on lunchtime environmental impact and pack waste-free lunches.  Here’s the uncomplicated part, it’s as easy as these 5 steps:

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Categories : Go Green, Green Living
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