Today we barbecued with the neighbors, and it brought up a few of the green issues that always come up with picnics/BBQs:
1. Should we bring our own plates/silverware or use the disposables provided by the host? (If I know ahead of time, I always bring my own stuff). I try not to make a big deal about it, but sometimes I really stick out.
2. What should we eat? Normally, we only eat "happy" free-range meat, but that is not usually the fare at a BBQ. We bring our own, but everyone shares. On this issue, I would feel sort of weird refusing to eat other people's food (but having them share mine...I'm not going to refuse to share it). What do you do? Maybe the health benefits of friendship outweigh the badness of the antibiotics etc. in the meat? I like to think so.
3. Recycling? Few people recycle at BBQs here. This evening we collected the recycling and brought it home. Some of it was already in the trash, but the trash was mostly styrofoam plates (pretty clean ones), so it wasn't really gross. C said "I'm really weird about this... do you mind if I recycle the bottles?" It led to a little chat about recycling, but no one seemed to think we were freaks or anything.
Any comments or suggestions? I'm curious to see what other people do. One thing that did cut down on the waste at this BBQ was the fact that it was almost entirely finger food. Now that's pretty smart. Not something you could do every time, but really handy, especially with little kids.
Dishwash
ingOf course, once you bring those plates home from the BBQ, you have to wash them. BLAH! It's my most hated chore. We don't have a dishwasher, so we wash them all by hand. But if we had a choice, is that the best choice?
Dishwasher vs. Hand-washing
Treehugger posted about this a while ago and found that using the dishwasher uses less energy and less water (unless, perhaps, your dishwasher is very old). For this to be the case, you should not pre-rinse the dishes and should not use the dry cycle.
Hand-washing:
So what do you do if you don't have a dishwasher (or yours is not efficient)? How much water is used during hand-washing really depends on how you do it. There are 3 methods (that I can think of):
A. Run the warm water. Wash each dish with a sponge, rinse it off.
B. Fill a sink with warm soapy water. Wash the dishes. Rinse in another sink (or refill the sink).
C. Wet the dishes. Wash them with soapy sponge. Rinse in sink.
Method C is what my husband does. He is amazing at conserving water. I honestly do not see how a dishwasher could use less water. Method A is the method I use. It is a terrible wasteful method, but pretty fast, and I do not have to put my hands in funky water. Next time I wash the dishes, I will try method B -- the full sink method -- with a pair of gloves.
Another important factor is the type of dish soap used. Most dish soap is phosphate free, whereas most dishwasher detergent is not (point for hand-washing!). You can also avoid plastic packaging by using a bar of soap to wash the dishes. Just dab the soap with a wet sponge and voila! -- soapy sponge. I thought this was totally revolutionary, but then my husband told me that's what he grew up doing. (He's from Central America and thus is wise in water conservation and not wasting stuff.)
Any suggestions on dishwashing? What do you do?
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3 comments:
Well, we live in a throw-away society. Eat fast food and trash everything. I've often spent much time at a party collecting, rinsing, and salvaging bottles to fill the trunk of the car. I stick out too. Just like C said about asking to take the recyclables, as long as we don't make a huge scene, people only notice that someone cares, and it might make them think a little. There are times when you can't collect everything, or don't have a car to bring it back. What people who care must avoid is feeling bad/guilty for not doing everything. We just try our best, do our little part, and hope for a superhero like Captain Planet.
Everything on this post gets me to thinking...about the happy meat, healthier, "non hormonal" really expensive meat and going to BBQ. Wealthy people can afford to bring free-range meat for everyone, but they are also ones that don't care. I vote for bringing your own, but not dropping lots of $$$ to serve happy meat to people to whom it doesn't matter, and not to worry about occasionally eating less-happy-healthy food offered to you by others (at a party or function) b/c most people live on that all the time. Same as not tackling the bartender when he takes out the "trash" ie recyclables...sometimes we just have to accept that we live in a world with established ideas. We can change our own ways, and maybe influence others to do the same, but no need to give up on life and refuse to ever socialize or travel or eat food or drink drinks. (Well, I mean, I refuse water bottles, but not apple juice even though we can't track all the pesticides and procedures in all the countries that contributed to the apple juice concentrate itself.)
Last comment for today...dish washing. If I do use my dishwasher, it on "conserve water" and "no heat" dry, and I try and stop it before it dries at all. By hand, I also use Method C. My brother in Denver (drought land) and my sister in L.A. (before that lived on a boat) use it as well. I've a couple times resorted to Method D, which is Quite Awkward, when a non-regular visitor is over for food and starts to wash a dish, or a couple dishes, and has the water running and I CAN'T STAND IT (this also when I am at someone else's apt). I try and just say "thanks I'll do those" or "No, I really want to do the dishes" or "stop I don't mind" but sometimes it's come to me just turning off the water and grabbing the dish. yeesh. Hopefully it seems like I am just really serious as a hostess, and not a maniac about running water. I am about hand washing, toothbrushing, dish washing, and short showers, but a single bath overrides my other efforts. Alas.
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