I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas

I grew up addicted to paper. Luscious cards, velvety papers, indulgent gift wraps. In my house, gift wrap was a sort of status symbol and Christmas cards were always sent out to all 100+ of the extended family. Needless to say, Christmas is a very eco-unfriendly time of the year.

I was sitting down wrapping presents the other night and I cringed at the thought of the number of boxes that will not be reused (all of the ones we have are reused since, oh, I don't know, 2003), the bags that will just be trashed, and the paper that will not be recycled. It almost made me cry.

So I spent the night cutting old Christmas cards into cute gift tags, using salvaged tissue paper from other shipments/gifts, and checking the post-consumer recycled content of my wrapping papers. When we unwrapped presents (Jeff *said* we could!), I salvaged what I could and recycled the remainder.

It got me thinking how we could continue on a green Christmas. I now have some presents wrapped in fabric bandanas, I'm using yarn scraps in those clear glass ornaments to dress them up, and we haven't sent cards out (okay, so that's also procrastination, but let it never be said that being a slacker isn't occasionally eco-friendly). I'd like to, someday, switch back to a real Christmas tree. They are more eco-friendly - they're grown specifically for that purpose, so they don't contribute to deforestation, they don't have a manufacturing process like the artificial ones do (and who knows what the impact of *that* is), they provide wildlife habitats until they are cut down, they provide oxygen and CO2 reduction while they are alive, and they can be chipped into mulch when they retire. A wonderful cycle. If I could just figure out how to get rid of our fake tree...

I know there are other ways of reducing the impact, some of which I already employ. Giving experiences instead of gifts (like tickets to a game instead of a team hoodie), sending emailed cards (okay, I think this is tacky, but maybe it'll grow on me), thrifting for presents (guilty as charged), not wrapping presents (can't bring myself to do that), reducing wrapping (I started by buying a to/from stamp so we don't waste a tag/sticker), and countless others. But for now, we'll start where we are, and hope to improve next year.

Yub-a-dub-dub; Thanks for the grub!

Today we're going to chat about food... And I'll provide some interesting tidbits of info I've discovered... First off... Why talk about food??
I've been kicking around the idea of going vegetarian for a while. I'm not talking full blown vegan, but ovo-lacto vegetarian. I love cheese far too much to give it up. I'm not a huge egg fan, but so much is made with eggs, I'll keep them in the diet.
I just can't take the slaughter of animals anymore... I also can't stand the damage to the environment. It's such a waste! It doesn't make sense to me. What about the dairy cows, you ask? Well... Again, this journey is about convenience. I guess to me, the killing is worse than the environmental impact. It's a catch-22. I can't avoid it, and I can't really explain it. So, lets leave it at that, okay??

So... Going the way of the fast-food vegetarian...
I found out the following in order by restaurant:

Arby's

• Turnovers are vegan
• Shakes are made with carrageenan, not gelatin
• They use 100% vegetable oil
• The cheese products are made with microbial rennet, not calves rennet

Baskin-Robbins

• The plain and sugar cones are vegan

Burger King

• Some places carry veggie burger, but they are usually cooked in the same oil that is used to cook meat.
• Hash browns are cooked in the same fryer they use for meat products.
• On their Web site Burger King states "Burger King Corporation makes no claim that the BK VeggieTM Burger or any other of its products meets the requirements of a vegan or vegetarian diet."

Chili's

• The French fries are cooked in the same oil that meat products are cooked in.

Domino's Pizza

• The pizza sauce is vegan.
• Only a select number of stores carry one crust which is vegan.
• Their cheese is made from non-microbial enzymes.

McDonalds

• Fried and hash browns contain beef flavoring (unlike Burger King)
• Vegetarian items include: Granola, shakes, Butter Biscuit (but not the biscuit dressing), McDonaldland ® Cookies (contain honey and sugar), buns, and McSalad Shaker salad.
• Some of their salad dressings contain anchovies.
• The special sauce contains eggs.

Panera

• The Broccoli Cheddar Soup contains a chicken base.

Pizza Hut

• The pizza crust, regular pizza sauce and marinara pasta sauce are vegetarian.
• The French, Italian, Fat Free Ranch and Creamy Cucumber dressings are vegetarian (don't contain eggs).

Uno (not "fast" food, but good)

• The regular and Uno pizza sauce, breadsticks Marinara Sauce Pasta and the House Salad are all vegan.
• The grilled vegetables are cooked on the same grill that meat is grilled on.
• The Muenster, cheddar, and mozzarella cheeses do not contain animal rennet.

Taco Bell

• Vegan dishes are Bean Burrito (without cheese), Bean Tostada (without cheese), nachos without cheese, Mexican Rice (without cheese), Seven Layer Burrito (no sour cream or no cheese) and the Guacamole.
• Vegan sauces are mild, red, hot, fire, Soft Tortillas, Pizza Sauce and Green Sauce.
• Corn tortillas (hard tacos), burritos tortillas and wheat tortilla (soft tacos) are vegan.
• The soft burrito tortillas are not vegan, they contain non-fat dry milk.
• Both the refried beans and pinto beans are vegan.
• Their supplier during the production of the cheese uses a non-animal genetically engineered coagulant (an enzyme) derived from a genetically engineered strain of dairy yeast, Kluyveromyces Lactis (and the cheese is kosher).

Wendy's

• Taco chips, applesauce and French fries are vegan.
• None of the cheeses contain rennet derived from animal products.
• The French fries are normally cooked in their own oil, but if demand is high for them they may be cooked in the same oil that chicken or fish is also cooked in.
• All the sauces normally put on the pita sandwiches are non-vegetarian.
• The baked potatoes and some of the salads (side salad & deluxe garden salad) are vegetarian.

Source: http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net

Hmmmm... Now what to do with that pork roast that's sitting in the fridge.
-S

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

Yep. It's been a while since I posted anything up here... I've been busy, but not busy enough to not post. I guess I ran out of steam for a little while... Maybe it was getting caught up with the holidays... I dunno... Anyway... Here I am, once again! Lucky you...

I do have some god news! We received a notice from our apartment complex that they will begin a recycling program at the beginning of 2008! It's great news! I hope that no one abuses this, and we can keep it. I understand that they've had some issues in the past, and have had to discontinue the program before. This leads me to my next topic (and rant)... Trash.

Let me start a quick rant about something that's not exactly Eco-related, but still touches on the topic.

I walked out to our dumpster area last night to throw away our garbage... Our dumpster area is maybe a 10'X20' cement block "room". 4 walls, no ceiling (it's outside) with maybe 5 or 6 dumpsters... So, I open the door and try to walk in, but someone has dumped all of their plastic trash and shopping bags right inside the door. Now, sometimes the dumpsters get full and there's really no where to throw your trash other than on someone else's trash on the ground in our "dumpster room".
This wasn't the case last night... The dumpsters were not even half full. So, I have to step over someones trash to get to a dumpster so I can throw mine away, properly... Why are people so damned lazy??? I admit that I'm pretty lazy, but this was ridiculous... What would possess you to just throw your shit right inside the door, and not have any courtesy for anyone else??? I guess that's the world we live in, and the reason our landfill is full of recyclable materials.

I'm going to be really bummed if people start throwing their garbage in the recycle containers that are being provided; just so they don't have to walk the extra 20' to the dumpsters...

Anyway... I'm very happy that we get to recycle on-site, and not have to drive our recyclables around, anymore...

-S