Before I buy something new, I like to consider: How to dispose of the item at the end of its (usually short) life The type of material the item is made of—I avoid buying any new plastic The (usually excessive) packaging that accompanies the item The resources that went into manufacturing the item—water, energy, labor […]
sustainability
5 Ways to Persuade People to Break Free from Plastic
Perhaps you recently watched Blue Planet II and learned about the catastrophic effects of plastic pollution on our oceans and marine wildlife, you heard a story on the radio about plastic microfibers in almost all drinking water or you read today’s British report which predicts that plastic debris in the oceans will increase by threefold within the […]
Welcome to the Church of Zero Waste
I was raised in a devout Catholic household, although we kids could skip mass if we felt sick enough to warrant a trip to the ER. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten all the way through the end of high school (I did love my kilt). We knelt around the living room regularly to say […]
How to Assemble a Zero-Waste Kit That Costs Zero Dollars
My daughter Mary Katherine rarely writes posts on the blog she started as a teenager, The Plastic-Free Chef. She did however write one a couple of weeks ago on how, as a busy, cash-strapped student, she finds the zero-waste lifestyle inaccessible. I’m simply too poor. We need more solutions to deal with waste that don’t […]
Go Plastic-Free This Year (Or Close to It)
If you’ve arrived at this blog, you’re probably aware of the plastic pollution problem so I won’t spend time discussing it. You can read recent news on that here, here and here. Instead, I’ll discuss changes we can make in our own lives. Individual choices may not seem like much in the face of this disaster but […]
Take Food Waste Off the Thanksgiving Menu
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), over the 2016 Thanksgiving holiday in the US, “six million turkeys—a value of roughly $293 million—ended up in the trash.” Producing that much discarded turkey “requires an estimated more than 100 billion gallons of water (enough to supply New York City for 100 days). And when it […]
Convenience vs Community
I am doomed. I started making homemade pasta regularly and I no longer want to eat store-bought and have created more work for myself. Store-bought simply can’t complete with the hearty, toothy, delicious and filling homemade version. But in addition to pasta, I also make bread, crackers, granola, kombucha (five bucks a bottle in the […]
22 Tips to Slash Energy Consumption in the Kitchen
Updated 01/05/24 Here in the U.S., food-related energy accounts for about 16 percent all the energy we consume nationally. That energy includes all the steps in the food supply chain—growing and processing the food, packaging it, shipping it, storing it, preparing it and handling all that food we waste. This post focuses on reducing food-related […]
Solar-Dried Tomatoes
I made literal sun-dried tomatoes. And I mean literal in the formerly correct sense of the word… I used a solar dehydrator for these. I haven’t tried dehydrating tomatoes in my oven. I feel I should use the solar dehydrator since I have access to one but tomatoes should turn out well in the oven. […]