Every Friday, my school orders 20 pizzas. They come in a cardboard box. It's not coated with wax, so no worries there. We pass out tons of pizza and then toss the boxes in the trash (gasp!) OR we have this kind of face-off:
Rule Girl: Pizza boxes can't be recycled.
Green teacher: We can tear off the tops and recycle them. Those don't have any cheese or grease.
Green mom: Some of the bottoms don't have any grease either. Let's recycle those too!
After Green mom left, Green teachers (there were 3) were getting the cardboard ready for the bin and found several boxes that did (!) have grease on them. Ahhhh... the slippery slope. So I thought I'd find out what the real deal is on pizza boxes.
According to Earth911, pizza boxes CAN be recycled as long as you tear off any parts that have grease or food on them. The top of the box can usually be torn off and recycled with no problem.
According to the City of Austin recycling website, pizza boxes and any cardboard with food residue, should go in the garbage. I also checked another City of Austin site, in which you can look up things alphabetically. Under "P" for pizza, it says:
"Solid Waste Services cannot recycle pizza boxes due to food and grease contamination. Please put pizza boxes in your garbage cart."
Hmmmm... what a quandry.
Apparently, the people who sneak in contaminated boxes cause a problem. The grease and food contaminates the materials, causing wasted materials and money.
While searching around, I happened upon a pizza chain called Pizza Fusion, which offers a discount if you bring back your pizza box. Reusing. Interesting.
The conclusion seems to be that the City of Austin does NOT accept pizza boxes. Having seen what happened at school last week, I understand why. But it still seems okay to me to pull of the clean tops and recycle those. Of course, the boxes could be shredded or torn up for compost. But that's a lot of tearing during a 20 minute lunch period.
Any thoughts?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Green Daisy Scouts
Yesterday was our first Daisy Scout meeting of the year. Last year I struggled with the bottled water issue. This year, my co-leader and I just decided to be up-front about it and tell the snack moms what we wanted.
So, I sent out an e-mail saying something like this:
....in an effort to reduce our impact on the earth, we would like to eliminate the use of disposable plastic bottles at meetings. The troop will be providing cups for each girl and the person in charge of snack can send a pitcher of something to drink (such as juice) or the girls can drink water from the fountain.
Maybe some of the moms rolled their eyes. Who knows. But yesterday, the snack was grapes and apple slices with caramel sauce. The troop provided cups for each girl (I brought a selection of 8 from home) and the girls drank water. There was no trash created from the drinks. Yeah!
So, I sent out an e-mail saying something like this:
....in an effort to reduce our impact on the earth, we would like to eliminate the use of disposable plastic bottles at meetings. The troop will be providing cups for each girl and the person in charge of snack can send a pitcher of something to drink (such as juice) or the girls can drink water from the fountain.
Maybe some of the moms rolled their eyes. Who knows. But yesterday, the snack was grapes and apple slices with caramel sauce. The troop provided cups for each girl (I brought a selection of 8 from home) and the girls drank water. There was no trash created from the drinks. Yeah!
Newsweek Ratings
Newsweek released a list of the "greenest" companies. Here's some of the highlights:
#1: HP
#10: Starbucks
#59: Walmart
#67: Whole Foods
Huh. I think it's odd that Walmart is scoring higher than Whole Foods. Even more interesting is that the reputation score (which is 10% of the overall score) is 100 for Walmart and only 50.41 for Whole Foods. What is this score based on? Advertising? It has to be.
Granted, Walmart has made great strides in reducing ts impact, but geez.
Starbucks is #10? With a score of 91.63 overall and 82.01 on green policies. How about all those cups? With the plastic tops? How about all the stuff in plastic bottles that they sell in the stores and then the store has nowhere to recycle the bottle? Hmmm?
How about the Starbucks near us that throws away all their pastries at the end of the day?
True, they do offer hormone-free milk now, but.... #10? Wow.
This list is bizarre and doesn't seem to really mean anything. I guess that it might encourage some companies to make changes so that they can move up in the lists, but maybe they just need to make people *think* that they are a green company, improving their reputation score, rather than actually make hard core green choices.
#1: HP
#10: Starbucks
#59: Walmart
#67: Whole Foods
Huh. I think it's odd that Walmart is scoring higher than Whole Foods. Even more interesting is that the reputation score (which is 10% of the overall score) is 100 for Walmart and only 50.41 for Whole Foods. What is this score based on? Advertising? It has to be.
Granted, Walmart has made great strides in reducing ts impact, but geez.
Starbucks is #10? With a score of 91.63 overall and 82.01 on green policies. How about all those cups? With the plastic tops? How about all the stuff in plastic bottles that they sell in the stores and then the store has nowhere to recycle the bottle? Hmmm?
How about the Starbucks near us that throws away all their pastries at the end of the day?
True, they do offer hormone-free milk now, but.... #10? Wow.
This list is bizarre and doesn't seem to really mean anything. I guess that it might encourage some companies to make changes so that they can move up in the lists, but maybe they just need to make people *think* that they are a green company, improving their reputation score, rather than actually make hard core green choices.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The best laid plans....
of mice and men go oft awry.
The longer that I'm a mother (8 years now), the more I realize how little is really in my control. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had a birth plan. That got thrown out the window almost immediately. I thought I would train him to sleep on a schedule. Hah! I thought I would make his baby food -- he had no interest in baby food. Who knew?
I chilled more with my second. And even more with my third. I ended up nursing all over the place because I didn't want to hide or have to leave wherever I was. I nursed my third for more than two years, surprising even my more "granola" friends. It was easier... honestly... but it wasn't what I planned.
Other moms had told me that even though you think the work will get easier when they're in school, it doesn't. I never really understood that. But now I have all three in school (Hallelujah!) and I feel run off my feet. They get home, there's homework, extra reading, patrolling computer time, taking them to friends' houses, fixing dinner, wrangling them into some state of semi-cleanliness and then bed. Gah... it's exhausting. And I get off work by 2 pm everyday. How do people who work a 9 to 5 (or 6?) schedule do this?
It's satisfying and fun to watch them grow. I love them. And they're growing into little people who have more and more of their own personalities every day. But not necessarily what I planned. Of course, you can't plan what someone will be like.... but you get what I mean.
My oldest is maybe the most like me in personality. I feel like I really understand him. He does naughty stuff and I see where he's coming from.
My girls remind me a lot of my mother -- both the things I loved about her and the things that drove me crazy -- and sometimes those things were the same.
You have dreams for your children before you are born. But you can't really plan anything. You have ideas about being a parent -- but again, you can't really know what you'll be like until you're doing it. As a child, I never thought that I'd go crazy about a kid's messy room, but there I am. And now I look back on the way my parents raised me... and I think that they must have been amazingly patient and probably pretty tired.
The longer that I'm a mother (8 years now), the more I realize how little is really in my control. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had a birth plan. That got thrown out the window almost immediately. I thought I would train him to sleep on a schedule. Hah! I thought I would make his baby food -- he had no interest in baby food. Who knew?
I chilled more with my second. And even more with my third. I ended up nursing all over the place because I didn't want to hide or have to leave wherever I was. I nursed my third for more than two years, surprising even my more "granola" friends. It was easier... honestly... but it wasn't what I planned.
Other moms had told me that even though you think the work will get easier when they're in school, it doesn't. I never really understood that. But now I have all three in school (Hallelujah!) and I feel run off my feet. They get home, there's homework, extra reading, patrolling computer time, taking them to friends' houses, fixing dinner, wrangling them into some state of semi-cleanliness and then bed. Gah... it's exhausting. And I get off work by 2 pm everyday. How do people who work a 9 to 5 (or 6?) schedule do this?
It's satisfying and fun to watch them grow. I love them. And they're growing into little people who have more and more of their own personalities every day. But not necessarily what I planned. Of course, you can't plan what someone will be like.... but you get what I mean.
My oldest is maybe the most like me in personality. I feel like I really understand him. He does naughty stuff and I see where he's coming from.
My girls remind me a lot of my mother -- both the things I loved about her and the things that drove me crazy -- and sometimes those things were the same.
You have dreams for your children before you are born. But you can't really plan anything. You have ideas about being a parent -- but again, you can't really know what you'll be like until you're doing it. As a child, I never thought that I'd go crazy about a kid's messy room, but there I am. And now I look back on the way my parents raised me... and I think that they must have been amazingly patient and probably pretty tired.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Packing for Family Camping
I never really found a packing list that I liked for the kind of trip that we took over the summer -- an extended car camping trip. What made it a little more complicated was that we drove from Texas to Maine, and we needed clothing appropriate for heat and cold.... and LOTS of rain.
Here's what we brought as far as camping supplies. Actually, no .... here's what we USED:
*tent -- large one-room tent (Hobitat 6 man tent from REI -- but we have camped in a large tent from Target and it was great)
*tarp -- we put the tarp inside the tent. It worked great. It POURED rain
*inflatable mattress for the parents
*pump for the mattress
*Sleeping pads for the kids:
nap mat -- sort of worked -- easy to clean (and there was a peepee accident in the night)
roll-up Thermarest sort of pad from Target -- not great -- never felt very fluffy
egg crate mattress cushion cut in shape of sleeping bag -- terrible -- absorbed moisture -- yuck!
I would recommend legitimate Thermarest cushions -- I have seen friends use these and they blow up really nicely -- or buy 2 queen air mattresses and a tent large enough to fit them both. Have 3 kids sleep sideways on the mattress in their sleeping bag.
*One large Maglite flashlight -- awesome
*2 small flashlights -- less awesome, but good for kid use
*Coleman 2 burner stove -- propane
*Storage container for all the cooking stuff
*silverware rolled up in a 3 zippered jewelry bag
*spatula
*corkscrew, bottle opener
*salt and pepper
*small bottle of oil
*all purpose seasoning mix
*5 plastic plates -- I'm sorry! -- I already had them -- I tried metal plates but they got hot and burned our hands.
*5 stackable cups -- useful for drinking & for eating cereal/soup
*3 sippy cups -- for drinks along the way -- I would probably use water bottles next time b/c the kids are getting too old for this
*waterproof box with matches & lighter
*A small package of fatwood for starting fires in times of desperation
*dish towel
*dish soap
*sponge
*3 camp chairs -- we didn't have room for more
4 sleeping bags -- one of them was really only a sleepover bag -- terrible!
3 small towels (kid size) for bathing
Along the way, we acquired:
*paper napkins from various stores & restaurants
*shredded paper to use in starting fires (we usually shredded the campground map from the last place)
*camp chairs -- my husband insisted we didn't have room for them, then we couldn't take it anymore and bought them along the way
*sticks -- to roast marshmallows :) I just sent the kids to find a straight stick and then we "sterilized" them over the fire. We all survived.
*a blanket -- you'll notice we only brought 4 bags and we are 5 people -- my husband left his sleeping bag behind and then did not want to buy one -- so he bought a blanket and wrapped up like a taco. This was fine for a while, but chilly in Maine.
More lists to come -- clothing & food.
Here's what we brought as far as camping supplies. Actually, no .... here's what we USED:
*tent -- large one-room tent (Hobitat 6 man tent from REI -- but we have camped in a large tent from Target and it was great)
*tarp -- we put the tarp inside the tent. It worked great. It POURED rain
*inflatable mattress for the parents
*pump for the mattress
*Sleeping pads for the kids:
nap mat -- sort of worked -- easy to clean (and there was a peepee accident in the night)
roll-up Thermarest sort of pad from Target -- not great -- never felt very fluffy
egg crate mattress cushion cut in shape of sleeping bag -- terrible -- absorbed moisture -- yuck!
I would recommend legitimate Thermarest cushions -- I have seen friends use these and they blow up really nicely -- or buy 2 queen air mattresses and a tent large enough to fit them both. Have 3 kids sleep sideways on the mattress in their sleeping bag.
*One large Maglite flashlight -- awesome
*2 small flashlights -- less awesome, but good for kid use
*Coleman 2 burner stove -- propane
*Storage container for all the cooking stuff
*silverware rolled up in a 3 zippered jewelry bag
*spatula
*corkscrew, bottle opener
*salt and pepper
*small bottle of oil
*all purpose seasoning mix
*5 plastic plates -- I'm sorry! -- I already had them -- I tried metal plates but they got hot and burned our hands.
*5 stackable cups -- useful for drinking & for eating cereal/soup
*3 sippy cups -- for drinks along the way -- I would probably use water bottles next time b/c the kids are getting too old for this
*waterproof box with matches & lighter
*A small package of fatwood for starting fires in times of desperation
*dish towel
*dish soap
*sponge
*3 camp chairs -- we didn't have room for more
4 sleeping bags -- one of them was really only a sleepover bag -- terrible!
3 small towels (kid size) for bathing
Along the way, we acquired:
*paper napkins from various stores & restaurants
*shredded paper to use in starting fires (we usually shredded the campground map from the last place)
*camp chairs -- my husband insisted we didn't have room for them, then we couldn't take it anymore and bought them along the way
*sticks -- to roast marshmallows :) I just sent the kids to find a straight stick and then we "sterilized" them over the fire. We all survived.
*a blanket -- you'll notice we only brought 4 bags and we are 5 people -- my husband left his sleeping bag behind and then did not want to buy one -- so he bought a blanket and wrapped up like a taco. This was fine for a while, but chilly in Maine.
More lists to come -- clothing & food.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Too Tired to Cook
So, a new school year is upon us, and once again, I'm wiped out in the evening. Monday evening, in particular, is brutal. I work two jobs, the kids go to school, I help with homework, help my daughter with her reading, miraculously find the right outfits, and then send kids off to ballet and gymnastics. God help me.
At least all the activities happen on Monday, but sheesh! The last thing that I want to do is cook.
So, I looked into a number of companies that offer sort of homemade prepared meals. There is one nearby me, Dream Dinners, in which you go in and assemble the meals. It seemed sort of pricey and it was a big up-front financial commitment for meals I wasn't sure my family would eat.
Why not just another night of quesadillas? Well, to be honest.... I'm sick of quesadillas... and pretty much everything else I cooked all summer long. I wanted something a little fancy from time to time without dragging all the people out to a restaurant.
Then I got an e-mail at work. It seems there is a group of people who get food delivered from the Soup Peddler. This is an extremely cool concept. It all started with this guy in Austin who started selling soup and delivering it (in reusable containers) on his bike.
Now it's bigger, but still not too big. It's a little hole in the wall store. With incredible customer service. And the best soup ever.
The soup tastes homemade because it is. Only problem is -- the containers aren't the greatest. The soup comes in a plastic bag. Boo. The salads and quiches come in a recyclable plastic pie container. Recyclable, but plastic. Boo.
But I am a soupie. I can't help myself. And it's not just the soup. I just had the strawberry rhubarb crisp and it's so good that it makes me want to cry.
Does it help that I recycle the recyclables and it keeps me from running to the store at lunch time?
At least all the activities happen on Monday, but sheesh! The last thing that I want to do is cook.
So, I looked into a number of companies that offer sort of homemade prepared meals. There is one nearby me, Dream Dinners, in which you go in and assemble the meals. It seemed sort of pricey and it was a big up-front financial commitment for meals I wasn't sure my family would eat.
Why not just another night of quesadillas? Well, to be honest.... I'm sick of quesadillas... and pretty much everything else I cooked all summer long. I wanted something a little fancy from time to time without dragging all the people out to a restaurant.
Then I got an e-mail at work. It seems there is a group of people who get food delivered from the Soup Peddler. This is an extremely cool concept. It all started with this guy in Austin who started selling soup and delivering it (in reusable containers) on his bike.
Now it's bigger, but still not too big. It's a little hole in the wall store. With incredible customer service. And the best soup ever.
The soup tastes homemade because it is. Only problem is -- the containers aren't the greatest. The soup comes in a plastic bag. Boo. The salads and quiches come in a recyclable plastic pie container. Recyclable, but plastic. Boo.
But I am a soupie. I can't help myself. And it's not just the soup. I just had the strawberry rhubarb crisp and it's so good that it makes me want to cry.
Does it help that I recycle the recyclables and it keeps me from running to the store at lunch time?
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