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There has been much debate and many studies done weighing the factors of the packaging of wine.  I find this debate to be troublesome based on the fact that when I buy a wine, I’m looking for taste, not necessarily packaging.  So I decided to do some research to see if there was some compelling reason to change my ways.

Franklin Associates has done a very informative study (search for “tetra pak”) on the comparison of glass bottles, tetra paks, and PET bottles.  Based on who paid for the study (sponsored by the manufactures of tetra pak), read the numbers carefully and with a grain of salt.  However, they make a compelling argument for tetra paks, weighing factors like manufacturing of the packaging, transportation to the winery, transportation to the distribution center, and how the product is disposed of.  With all those factors being equal, the packaging with the lower weight will always win.

As a consumer trying to make a better decision, there were some assumptions that bothered me though.  The comparison was done assuming the winery was in northern California and had to ship 1500 miles to a distribution center.  With that fact, the tetra pak beats the glass bottle hands down, as it should.  But I wanted to see if buying a tetra pak from a California winery is better than my local (Ohio) wine in a glass bottle.  Apparently this study was trying to sway the wineries to make the change, not the consumer forcing the change with buying power.

Unfortunately what I was looking for isn’t available.  So my assumption (using just my brain to come up with this) is that almost all the transportation effects on the environment have been eliminated and therefore local is a great choice.  Additionally, it has the added bonus of supporting your local economy.

My conclusions: If you are going to buy wine from a long distance winery, try to get one in a tetra pak.  I personally will stick to local wineries (and likely buy it directly from the winery).  Regardless of which way you go, always make sure you recycle or reuse the packaging.  I’ve found tons of craft projects using wine bottles and corks… Do a search and find out.

I was talking with my mom the other day about my parents flying back to Ohio soon.  With everything my parents have been through in the last few months, this is quite monumental.  So I got to thinking, with my new green choices, what would I do differently on my next trip that would make it more green and came up with this top 10.

1. Bring your own food on the plane.  Carrots, energy bars, celery, bananas, trail mix.  This way the food can be more natural, healthier, and with so many airlines now charging for food, it can save you some money too.
2. Bring your own empty water bottle.  Once you get through security, fill it up at a drinking fountain.  This way you won’t be tempted to buy a bottle of water and have to deal with that cheap plastic to dispose of and save some money while you’re at it.
3. Pack a canvas bag for shopping to avoid getting all those plastic bags while on your trip.
4. Use refillable toiletry bottles filled from larger packages you already have.  You don’t need to buy travel size products if you just fill travel size containers with what you already use.
5. Bring books with you from the library instead of buying a new one at the airport that you are likely to dispose of.  Or consider bringing a favorite book that already exists on your bookshelf.
6. Bring your own headphones to watch the movie on the plane.  You won’t be stuck with headphones that only work on the airline and reduces packaging waste from the headphones.
7. E-Ticket to eliminate the paper.
8. Use recycled or scrap paper to print out your boarding pass or check out the new paperless boarding passes!
9. Pack light. The heavier your bags are the more energy it takes to transport them.
10. Use rechargeable batteries for any of the electronic devices you’ve brought onboard to keep you occupied.  Just remember to pack the charger so you can have charged batteries for the return flight.

Next time you take a trip, what are you going to do to reduce your environmental impact?

If there is only one thing you do to attempt green, this should be it.  This is a new trend that I’m very excited about.  Many of my friends have emailed me (thank you) with various articles related to using your own shopping bag at grocery stores.  Many countries, including Ireland and China, now have laws that either prohibit the use of plastic bags or require that plastic bags are charged for.  And it isn’t just countries that are making better strides than the U.S., it is even happening in the U.S. (San Francisco).  On top of that, stores like IKEA and WholeFoods charge for plastic bags (note to self for next IKEA trip). 

The consumption of plastic bags is unbelievable (think about how many you use every time you go to the grocery store).  The environmental impact is just scary.  The plastic is not biodegradable.  That means that the plastic doesn’t break down, it becomes smaller and smaller bits of toxic waste.  With this process animals, mostly marine life, eat these bits of plastic.  To make this more personal, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t see an abandoned bag blowing down the street.

I mentioned that this is a new trend.  Most grocery stores now carry fabric grocery bags that you can buy (usually about $1/bag).  I’ve read that Target is also selling fabric shopping bags that are red with a white tree that has the Target logo all over it.  I personally like the new bags that Walmart is going to be selling, with the design “Paper or Plastic? Neither.” (pictured above).  I’ve heard, but have not been able to confirm that Home Depot will also be carrying fabric shopping bags, if orange happens to be your favorite color.  Before you know it, everyone will be bringing their own shopping bag with them.

Many grocery stores are offering discounts when you bring your own bag.  While I haven’t found any official statement from any grocery store chain, I have found many people commenting on blogs that they are saving typically $0.05 for every bag they use.  This includes the Kroger chain of grocery stores (including Ralphs, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith’s, Fry’s, QFC Quality Food Centers, Baker’s, Owen’s, JayC Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Pay Less) and Supervalu chain (including ACME, Albertsons, Bigg’s, Bristol Farms, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacker’s, Jewel-Osco, Shaws/Star, Shop’n'Save, Shoppers, sunflower Market).  I did a couple of random checks and Pathmark, Safeway, and Shoprite also give discounts. Sadly, Giant Eagle (the chain here in Cleveland, OH) does not offer a discount. So now the bags are even cost justifiable.

I’ve purchased 4 bags from Giant Eagle and that actually is enough for most of my shopping trips.  I think maybe two more should even handle my really big shopping trips.  Now, I’ve been doing this for the past few weeks and I have found one minor difficult part to all this. Several times I get halfway from my car to the store and realize I forgot to bring the bags with me and need to go out to my car to get them (I always leave them in my car, so that partially helps).  One of my friends was telling me about Chico Bags, which fold up neatly into a pocket so they are small enough to fit into your purse or even clip on to a D-ring which can snap on to your purse strap (assuming you carry a purse).  So I’m planning to get a couple so that when I make that urgent RiteAid run, I always have my bag.

So I recently received an email from Verizon offering me a brand new cell phone for free.  Well, that’s just the hook and they just want me to extend my contract again.  I don’t foresee not using Verizon since almost all my family and many of my friends are also on Verizon, making the majority of my calls free.  This provides me an opportunity to get a new cell phone for free.  As I contemplated this, as much as a new phone would be cool, what would I do with the old phone?

Most major cell phone service providers have nice donation/recycling programs.

• Verizon – HopeLine donates your old phone to support victims of domestic violence
• T-Mobile – will recycle or reuse old devices and all proceeds go to their charity programs
• Sprint – will recycle or reuse old phones and proceeds go to Internet Safety for Kids, they additionally have a buy-back program for old Sprint PCS or Nextel phones
• AT&T – is a complete recycling program for phones and accessories

As I was looking into other options, I found this article called 50 Ways to Leave Your Cell Phone with many other options. So for those of you that might have one (or 3) older phones that you don’t use (you know who you are), take that step and donate/recycle those devices.  One of the cool things about most of these donation options is that they will also take batteries, phone accessories, even PDAs.

My final decision on this whole new cell phone thing goes back to the three Rs.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  In this case, I’m choosing to reduce.  This means that I have decided to not get a new cell phone at this point in time.  My current cell phone works just fine and ultimately the newer cell phones don’t provide features that I can’t wait to get my hands (except the iPhone, but that won’t work with Verizon anyway).  So until there is some compelling reason for me to get a new phone, I’m sticking with what I have.

I have always been one to recycle.  I remember as a small child getting our first recycling bin (it was red) and many times having it overflowing with recyclables.  I was surprised that according to the EPA, only 32.5% of our waste is recycled. So I decided to reexamine what I was recycling and what could be recycled.  I admit that over the years I have gotten lazy with recycling.  This is sad because I even have curbside recycling.  The last few years I typically would recycle all pop (soda) cans and sometimes food cans, like those vegetables come in.   I guess I have been contributing to that 32.5% being so low.

How do you know what can and can’t be recycled?  I did a google search for my city and “recycling program” and the city has a website listing services, including what can be recycled.  I also went to Earth911 and typed in paper (a usually accepted item in curbside recycling) and my zip code and it came back stating my city’s curbside recycling as an option.  I thought this was so cool because anyone could type in paper and their zip code and it would list if there was curbside recycling.  I tried out a few zip codes that I know have curbside recycling and got mixed results.  My zip code and my one brother’s listed it properly.  My parents and my in-laws did not list the curbside recycling, yet both of them have it available.  So it doesn’t have 100% of curbside recycling listed, but it does have many.  The additional cool thing is that when you click on the curbside recycling program it will show you what items are accepted and when pick up is.

The curbside recycling in my city accepts tin, steel and aluminum cans (as I have done in the past).  Additionally, glass (clear, brown and green) is accepted and newspaper (which I actually don’t even receive).  I always find the plastics to be the difficult one to understand.  On the bottom of a plastic container it will have the recycling logo, and inside that logo will be a number.  In my city, if it is the number 1 or number 2 plastic, it is recyclable.  There are still many more items that are recyclable, just not through the curbside program but I’ll save that for another post.

With this information, I have been paying closer attention and recycling more. I even had to switch some of the garbage cans in the house around so that the recyclables had a larger can to go in.

When was the last time you looked at what you are recycling? Or more importantly what you are not recycling but could?