I love getting mail. I love, love, love, opening the mail box and finding something addressed to me that is fun and entertaining. Sometimes that is a letter or photos. Sometimes it is gorgeous inspiring fabric. Sometimes it is chocolate. (Note, in the winter only do I mail order chocolate. Melted goodness in the summer, or that pesky extra rush shipping fee are no fun.) Sometimes it is magazines.

I love foodie magazines, natural living magazines, and personal finance and business magazines. Gotta keep up with those tech entrepreneur trends! Okay, maybe not that important, and isn’t it interesting I didn’t list any crafting, sewing, or knitting magazines? Hummm.

Anyway, you ask, what packaging do magazines require? Well, mine come either enter my abode with an extra paper outer to protect it’s front page, like one above, or with plastic shrink wrap packaging stuffed with offer and subscription mailers that just go in the recycling bin. Most of my magazines also end up in the recycling bin, minus a few pages that were torn out and inserted into my crafting binder or recipe folder.

So why retain only the knowledge from the printed pages and toss out the entire stack of inked paper you pay for each year? Why not go to your library or the internet for the same information? You’d save some money and you’d throw out a lot less paper.

Next week, stay tuned for more packaging discussions about choosing to consume less paper and plastic. Maybe at the end of all this, my family will throw away less too. Have a great weekend!

Meat, meat, meat. Hummmm. This packing competition is perhaps a toss up if you look at from one point of view.

Meat from the grocery requires:

• plastic wrap,
• a styrofoam dish
• maybe a plastic baggie to keep bacteria from getting all over everything else the package touches
• and that weird suck-up-the-moisture pad thingie I try to avoid touching all together.

Meat from your local farm requires:

• a plastic vacuum freezer pouch (and the one in this picture also has a piece of freezer paper wrapped around the cut bone so it doesn’t puncture the plastic.)

Okay, the plastic freezer pouch weights more than the plastic wrap you get from the store, but my local farmer didn’t give me any styrofoam packaging. In terms of waste weight, I’d say this packaging conundrum is equal. In terms of avoiding styrofoam, the local meat wins out.

There isn’t always going to be a less-packaging winner. Sometimes the product that requires more packaging just fits your lifestyle better. Sometimes, different types of packaging have different trade offs. Just use the brain and think about what you are consuming. Conscious consumption is always best.

My January One Small Change inspired by Hip Mountain Mama was to cut our paper towel usage. You can read about our cut-the-paper-towel-usage-journey here. To make a long story short, we were successful, and we don’t use nearly as many paper towels. (Although, I must confess, I do use them to clean my beloved Le Cruset 12-inch cobalt blue cast iron fry pan.) But, our severely decreased usage means we still have this; see above.

What do we throw away when we use all 1080 paper towel sheets?

• 12 shrink wrap wrappers
• 12 cardboard tubes
• one HUGE plastic wrapper that held all 12 rolls and is large enough to picnic on.
• oh, and one thousand and eighty (1080) paper towels!

What do we throw away when we use dish towels, miracle cloths, washies, and cloth napkins?

• The cardboard box that holds 42 loads of detergent.

42 laundry loads is a lot of dish towels which, unlike a paper towel, we use to clean up more than one mess. Some of what we toss out is recycleable or reuseable. However, I can only tolerate so many paper towel tube telescopes, loud speakers, and brandishing weaponry that seeks to threaten my wall decor. Why even choose to consume more packaging if there is a good-for-your-lifestyle option that means less paper and plastic in your shopping cart?

After this stash, I don’t think we will be buying that much throw-away packaging ever again. And that feels pretty good.

Stay tuned for 16 more days of discussion about choosing to purchase less packaging. Up next, meat…

Day 3 in a discussion about packaging.

How are you thinking about the amount of packaging you consume?

It must seem to you that all my family does is drink liquids. Chai tea, frozen popsicles, and now juice. It is just that our family seems to consume tons liquid that made its way into our home inside of a package.

I think this choice is a bit obvious.

Toss:

1 plastic juice container (or 48oz can)

or toss:

8 small non-recyclable juice boxes or juice pouches,

and 8 little plastic straws that came inside 8 little plastic liners

and that plastic shrink wrap or cardboard box everything came inside.

Sure many of these items are recyclable, or reusable, but their production and recycle processes require energy. Why not bring less of this packaging into your home and throw out less too?

For an on-the-go family taking drinks with is a necessity. We have Camelbak sippies and Kleen Kanteens but I don’t like to put juice in these for fear it will sour and mold will grow on the inside of our drink holders. Maybe we should just forgo the juice and drink more water. Oh, wait, our county has some of the worst municipal water in the country. We’ll save that for another post…

Day 2 in a discussion about packaging.

As I began to open my eyes, and notice all the printed cardboard, plastic shrink wrap, and packing peanuts coming through my front door, I started to wonder, where does this come from, how can I lessen it, and why is it necessary? I am perplexed and slightly in awe of how our society has transformed life into a face-paced, disposable, never-look back hamster wheel. And I wonder how I landed squarely on that wheel that spins round and round and doesn’t go anywhere. Sometimes you even get a bit behind; backed up between the 9 o’clock and 6 o’clock sides. Maybe this is why we consume so much packaging. Maybe this is why we don’t know what to do with it, so we throw it out.

Well, this month, spurred by Hip Mountain Mama’s One Small Change challenge, I plan to lessen the paper, plastic and Styrofoam we throw away everyday; for our environment, for our bodily health, and for our sanity.

Yes, we are a year-round popsicle family. Well, the kids do the consumption here. Sensitive teeth kind of get the better of me personally. In the throws of a bad toddler stomach illness, I snuck into that I-am-convenience-with-tons-of-sugar-and-preservatives-section of the grocery store, aka the frozen food section, and popped a bit of frozen liquid delight  into my cart, hoping that these babies would somehow calm and hydrate my son’s poor little body.  Well, he loved them. Red no. 40 and all. Since, we have switched to a more natural brand that doesn’t add artificial ingredients, but we still come home with

• 12 little plastic wrappers,
• 12 sticks of wood,
• a cardboard box,
• and sometimes even a piece of shrink wrap large enough to erect a greenhouse for a hedgehog.

How to eliminate this extra throw-away? Make your own popsicles.

I snagged these molds at Ikea. Plastic I know. Not the best, but hey, the food isn’t going to be on contact with this plastic for that long. Little popsicle-vores. I simply make a smoothie in the blender, or pour a bit of 100% juice into the mold, replace the stick-top, and freeze. To un-mold, run the container under warm water and the popsicle will slide right out. Home-made popsicle throw-away:

• Juice container (we get ours in those tin-48 oz cans which you can recycle, or reuse…I made punched lanterns out of these things as a kid. MS has a good how-to here. Or Google the phrase.)

Make-your-own (MYO) is the less packaging route hands down. It doesn’t take too much time to open a container of juice, pour, and freeze. The kids aren’t yet brand-sensitive-consumers, (but they will be) and like this frozen version just as much as the boxed kind. I wash the molds in the sink with a bottle brush, or some versions maybe dishwasher safe. I think MYO wins out here in the packaging throw-away challenge.

Why is MYO the poll-winning answer so far here on 20 Days of Packaging? Time versus money I get. Time versus the environment…my jury is still out on this one. Is it just another horn sound alerting me that I should “slow-down” a bit for the world around me?

Update: found another wonderful tutorial for a tin can punched luminary with pictures here!

I love chai tea lattes. Got hooked on these in grad-school when I was perpetually holed-up at that green-fairy-from-Seattle-logo place with my corporate merger and acquisitions tax review textbook cramming in a bit of studying.

Though I don’t get to the coffee shop much anymore (oh, but if they had drive-thru….) I do so love these cardamom scented, sweet, caffeinated, creamy delights. So when I discovered the above in the grocery, I plopped one in my cart pronto. Just one taste of this honey-sweetened, warm-you-through goodness reminded me that I have my degree, don’t need to study, and that I wanted more. I wanted so much more, I was throwing away a carton a week. That is 52 of these non-recyclable cardboard, plastic-lined, plastic-spouted, rather large, doo-hickeys a YEAR going in our landfills, to be buried and haunt the living population for centuries to come.

Okay, there is an alternative, brew your own chai tea.

Is this brewing at home more economical? I don’t know. Is there less packaging? Definitely.

I can reuse

• the cardboard box and the tin my tea came in
• the twine and cheese cloth I use to brew the spices and tea
• glass and plastic spice containers
• the glass or plastic honey container
• I can use a reusable produce bag to carry home my fresh ginger root

I throw away

• the 1 plastic Ziploc bag that held my peppercorns (1 baggie holds a year’s supply, or 1 lb, of peppercorns)
• the plastic milk jugs that make my tea a latte!

A note about these 20 days of packaging: Fossil fuel consumption is certainly a valid measure of green-ness, but I am not going to use it here. I am simply going to discuss the packaging I choose to bring into my home, and that which I discard. I think there is enough fodder here for discussion without going down other avenues.

So, does it taste the same? Definitely. And I can make the taste my own. I like more honey-sweetness, and a bit more cardamom spiciness. Here is my recipe.

***Chai Tea Latte Recipe***

Gather the following in a cheese cloth and close the top with a length of kitchen twine.

1/8C South African Rooibos Superior loose tea (actually this is a bark that brews a wonderful red tea, you can also use a straight black tea of your choice)

1 1/2″ long knob of ginger (I use one that is about as wide as a quarter)

20 black peppercorns (my favorite are tellicherry from India)

10 whole allspice

(1) 3″ large cinnamon stick

1t cardamom seeds (or use the green cardamom pods)

Put 6 C of water in a sauce pan and float your cheesecloth bundle. Bring to a boil over medium heat uncovered and then turn off the heat. Let cool. Remove the cheesecloth bundle and discard contents (in your compost if you have one!)

Decant into a pitcher and place in the fridge. Use with in 1 week.

To make your latte: mix 1/2 tea, 1/2 milk and microwave this until hot. Sweeten with honey to taste and enjoy. (I use about 1T of honey to 12 oz of latte.)

* * *

So what kind of packaging do you consume on a weekly basis? Is there away you can substitute another product, make something at home, or use a reusable bag to decrease the amount of packaging you bring through your front door? Is the substitute economical? Is it affordable? Why is it that we “consume” so much cardboard, ink, plastic shrink wrap, disposable re-sealable bags, and tin foil lids? And where does this all go when it leaves our home? I plan to discuss some of these in the coming posts as I weave my way through 19 more tales of an on-the-go-suburban family striving to be more responsible consumers.

Next up: popsicle packaging…yes, we consume these in the dead of winter. Have a wonderful weekend!

So this was the picture two nights ago. Two toddlers passed out after an evening of fun, and one less sleep-able bed in the house. You see the grandparents came by with an early 2nd birthday present for Sydney; a dresser/mirror and twin bed set. Very cute, nice flower wood carvings on the head and foot board, mostly wood, and full of very stinky adhesive fumes (that pass US law standards but gave me a headache and made me feel sick to my stomach.) And no mattress or bedding.

We had been hoping that she would keep her crib converted day-bed for a bit to get used to some new freedom, and learn to not roll out. And we have some other big budget purchases we are planning this year and thought we might purchase a new big-girl bed, mattress, and bedding for her next year. So when a new bedding set was dropped at our front door, we set it up, and then panicked…are we going to be able to afford an eco-friendly mattress and bedding set?

Eco-friendly mattress would never have crossed my thoughts had it not been for very mindful, and thoughtful bloggers out there reminding me each day that our home, earth, is special, unique, and non-renewable in a whole sense, and that each family should learn to treat her with loving care.

Well, eco-friendly mattresses are expensive!! Conventional poly-filled, flame-retardant chemical saturated, adhesive fume leaching mattresses can run from $250-ish up to the thousands. Eco-friendly mattresses are constructed with Real latex, the kind from the tree, real wool that has its own natural flame retardant properties, no chemicals needed, and organic cotton coverings that don’t use pounds of pesticides that pollute our waterways and kill off wildlife. These, wonderful beds cost $900 and up for the mattress and then another $200 or so for the solid wood base, sustainably harvested, mind you.

And then the bedding. I searched the Internet for organic cotton sheets (pesticide and chlorine bleach free), down pillows (naturally hypoallergenic), and down comforters, oh so warm filled with something from nature, not made in a factory. Expensive, expensive, expensive. I am sure we could buy a polyester bedding set for a few hundred dollars, made of plastic and chemical dyes that would tear, loose it’s stitching, feel like sandpaper, and be tossed out in a few years. But even after the January White Sales, the more eco-friendly bedding cost more like $600.

Since we weren’t prepared for an almost $1800 purchase this birthday, we just decided to take down her bed, and set up the non-eco-friendly crib for a bit until we decide which bedding to purchase and have saved up enough cash to do so. The night before we put up her crib again, she slept with Oppa. Soundly…to wake up happily at 6:04 AM.

In my heart of hearts, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a poly-based mattress that I knew was so toxic to our earth. I guess it is just because I was thinking about it…$1200 over a 10 year+ use, isn’t that expensive, and is certainly a very small investment to keep our earth and our bodies healthy.

I came across this very nice web blog Hip Mountain Mama and decided what she was writing about just made sense especially in light of the arrival of a brand new year. I have been thinking about consumption and wondering how I am going to curtail some of our waste, excess, and unnecessary consumption in the new year. Hip Mountain Mama is hosting a challenge to make “One Small Change.”

Once a month, between January 1st (or whenever you decided to embark) and Earth Day, April 22, 2010, you decide to make One Small Change in your life that will have a green positive impact. Then blog about it and share it with the growing community of bloggers who are also choosing to make One Small Change to green their lives.

If you feel inclined to make a few small green changes to your life, check out this challenge. Hip Mountain Mama even offers a wonderful list of ideas to get you started. For January….my One Small Change is to not use a single paper towel (and this will be for the entire family.) Okay, now that I have actually written that, I wonder if we will be able to do this…tune in the side bar for periodic updates and February 1st for the results post! Happy new year!