Green Daily

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I headed out to Lancaster County, to attend the wedding of some friends. It's about an hour and a half drive from Philadelphia, and when we were about halfway there, we stopped to use the bathroom and so that I could get a cup of much-needed coffee (in our hurry to leave that morning, I had neglected to make myself any).

One of the green choices I make on a daily basis is to always tuck a reusable coffee mug into my bag, so that I can indulge my caffeine habit without consuming throwaway cups. So when I walked up to the Starbucks counter at this particular service plaza, I had my reusable mug ready to hand over as I placed my order of a tall coffee.

The woman working the counter held her hands up as I tried to present my mug and said, "We aren't allowed to accept reusable cups. It's against health code." I was flabbergasted, as I had never in my life had my reusable cup refused (and I've been using them since 1993). Before I could turn away and cancel my order, they had a regular paper cup sitting on the counter. I didn't want it to go to waste (and sadly, I really wanted that coffee) so I paid for it and took it, feeling both a little dirty and outraged at the same time.

For those of you out there who are travel mug devotees, have you ever had your cup refused? Are there many other areas of the country that believe them to be a health code violation?

Trying to give up your paper towel habit? Used newspapers can take the place of paper towels in many situations.

Just because you can't find your travel mug, doesn't mean that you can't bring your coffee with you.

Last Sunday was the opening day of my favorite Farmers' Market in Philadelphia, the Headhouse Farmers' Market. Operated by the Food Trust, which works ensure that all people have access to fresh, healthy and affordable food, this market is largest one that Philly has. It started last summer and quickly became a fixture in my weekly food shopping. It closed down in December and ever since, I've been counting down the weeks until it reopened.

One of the reasons I like shopping at Farmers' Markets (in addition to the fact the food is always fresher, lasts longer and just tastes amazing) is that by shopping directly from the growers, I avoid consuming much in the way of packaging. The man who sells the eggs is always delighted when I bring back my carton from the previous week, and the folks who sell apricots, peaches, nectarines and apples are happy to reuse their green fruit boxes. I bring a couple of reusable bags and so when I get home with all my food, I hardly have a thing to throw away.

Last week, I bought a pound of locally produced turkey sausage that was frozen. I was about to refuse the plastic bag that the woman was offering, when I realized that it was going to defrost a bit while I walked around that a bag to insulate the condensation would be a good idea. However, when I got home and was unpacked, I realized that she hadn't given me just any bag. It was a BioBag! Made from corn, it is biodegradable and compostable. It was the first time I had run across one of these bags and I was thrilled to discover how sturdy it seemed. Here's hoping that we all see more of these going forward.

Going through lots of paper napkins eating lunch at your desk?

Looking to cut down on your container consumption? Bring your own!

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to treat myself to a fancy Starbucks beverage. I had a long afternoon of work ahead of me and needed a little something extra to motivate myself to get through to the end of the workday. I grabbed a reusable coffee cup (back in February, I made a commitment to myself to only buy coffee if I had a reusable mug) and headed over to the closest Starbucks.

Normally when I get coffee, I'm doing just that, only getting coffee. The exchange requires that I pass over my mug, watch as they fill it will coffee and then hand it back to me in trade for $1.66. However, the fancy coffee drinks have more steps and more instructions and the practice at Starbucks is that they write your order on your cup. Yesterday I placed my order and watched in horror as they took my mug and plopped it into a disposable cup, so that they could write down order (2% latte with an extra shot). When they were done making my drink, they pulled the disposable cup off my mug, tossed it into the trash.

Bring your lunch to reduce on plastic consumption.

Need a new media center? Scour used furniture stores instead of heading to Ikea!

On March 31st, 2007, people all across the city of Sydney, Australia turned off their lights, unplugged their appliances and did their best to lessen their draw of electricity for a single hour. This movement was called Earth Hour. People lit candles, had cookouts with their friends and managed to reduced Sydney's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour. That is the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour.

This year they are turning Earth Hour into a global movement, asking cities all across the world to sign on to participate. Currently there are 17 cities signed up and more are still welcome. If your community isn't currently participating, they have tools and documents to help make your city an Earth Hour participant.

Change the way you store your nuts and grains so that they last longer.

Want to find local, sustainable, organic meats and dairy products at good prices? Join a buying club!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few days, you know that the New York Giants won the Super Bowl on Sunday. In order to fully celebrate their unanticipated win against the New England Patriots, the City of New York is throwing a parade in the team's honor today (it started about half an hour ago)! As is the tradition, the parade will be a ticker-tape one (actually it will be mostly shredded newspaper, ticker-tape is hard to come by these days). The city is anticipating that approximately 5 tons of confetti will flutter down over the course of the parade today.

Elizabeth Berger, President of the Alliance for Downtown New York (a group that is distributing 1,000 pounds of shredded paper to buildings along the parade route) says that if those confetti strips were laid end-to-end, they would cover the distance between New York and the Patriot's home stadium.

I understand the need to celebrate the Giant's win, but it seems deeply un-green to spread that much paper around the city. The article in the New York Times doesn't say anything about how the paper will be cleaned up or processed once the parade is over.

[via The Morning News]

Bring along a metal or reusable plastic water bottle when you travel to cut down on bottled water purchases.

Any bag can be a reusable bag!