AttemptGreen.com

I was on the phone with my mom tonight, and she had a fantastic idea.  She said she was looking for a collapsible bowl but hasn’t been able to find one.  So I did some searching and found some.

Let me back up and explain.  When you go out to dinner, the portion sizes are usually way too big.  I at least try to control my portion sizes to be healthier, but that means there are always leftovers.  Most restaurants will put those leftovers in a “nice” Styrofoam container for you to take home.  It is hard for those of us that are trying to control what we eat and be better for the environment.  This is where my mom’s idea fits in.  A collapsible bowl will easily fit into purse and can be expanded at the end of dinner to bring home those double portion sizes.

I first found a really cute set of bowls at Crate & Barrel that really weren’t that expensive.  As I thought about those, they won’t work for this particular situation because there is no lid.  However, I found that Rubbermaid is making collapsible bowls with lids.  Check out the website, they also list places where you can buy them.  Several grocery stores are listed that you can find here in Philadelphia and in Phoenix.  There are also some national chains that carry them like Target and Kmart. I also found a similar product made by Foldtuk at Target.

A friend of the family, Bryan, emailed me the other day with a link to a blog post over at The Coffee House.  If you ever need inspiration or motivation on why you should be trying to manage the amount of waste you simply throw away, you definitely need to check out this post!  It really highlights how plastic waste really affects marine life, and most of that only exists as packaging of products.   And it isn’t just packaging, but also the plastic bags so many of us get at the grocery store to bring home the products we buy.  You could think of it as packaging of packaging of the products we buy.

The video talks about turning in those bags so they can be used in other products.  However, you could go another step further and use reusable bags.  I did a post about reusable bags before, but I don’t think we can say enough about it.  I said it before, if there is one thing you do to attempt green, this should be it.  The one thing that has helped me on my little trips and remembering to bring the bags into the store has been a small bag I bought at Target.  This bag zips up to be about the same size as a female’s wallet, easily fitting into a purse so I always have it with me.

Go watch the video that the Coffee House has posted, and any time you think that it just doesn’t matter, watch it again.  I’ve added it to my favorites and will likely be watching it a few more times.