krissy's blog

Previously, I wrote a post about how much energy is used on wasted food.   With the beginning of the holiday season arriving, it's hard not to end up with lots of leftovers.  The green thing to do is to make sure you use up those leftovers!   Wasted Food says:  Be Thankful, Not Wasteful!  

First, don't make more food than you don't need.  Here's a chart of how much food will feed how many guests.  

Second, try to give as much to your guests to take home as possible.  Put together little doggie bags for everyone so they can enjoy the leftovers as well.

Even so, you might still end up with leftovers.  After your green Thanksgiving, you may choose to stay home on Black Friday instead of braving the crowds while enjoying all of that leftover turkey, pumpkin pie, and sweet potatoes.   But by Saturday, you might be tired of the same old turkey and mashed potatoes.  Time to get creative!... read more

Less than three weeks 'til Thanksgiving!  If you're having Thanksgiving right now, you might be thinking about ways to make your Thanksgiving dinner a little greener.

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• Look into getting a local free range turkey.  You may need to order one in advance, so start making calls now!  Lower your Thanksgiving's carbon footprint and support a local farm!
  
  
• Make as much at home as possible.  Things like cranberry sauce often come in cans, creating more waste.  Find some fresh cranberries and make your own sauce.  (And if you're near cranberry bogs, get some yummy local ones!)  
  
  
• Use up the whole turkey.  My husband loves those giblets, but I can't stomach them.  You can always use them to cook things like gravy.  As for the bones and stuff, consider making some soup the following day.  My husband is half Chinese, so his tradition is to make jook (Chinese porridge) the next day with the turkey carcass.  Check out this recipe.  
  
  
  

If it's your kid's birthday party and you don't want to fill up a plastic bag with little plastic toys and Tootsie Rolls, there are fun, practical, and eco-friendly alternatives to typical party favors.  Unfortunately, a lot of items marketed as a green party favor are prohibitively expensive.  Who can afford to spend $7 on a wooden toy car for each kid?  Before you know it, you'll be spending over $100 on party favors!  My ideas are much cheaper.  Plus, the kids will love them and they're not too expensive, either!  

1.  A craft.  It's a party activity AND something fun to take home.  For my son's party, we bought plain tote bags and fabric markers.   Kids can reuse the bag over and over again, so it's useful, too!  Another fun idea is decorating pillow cases...especially if it's a slumber party!  

2.  A book.  Little Golden Books are a perfect party favor!  They're inexpensive, but they have classic titles that we grew up reading, like The Poky Little Puppy, to more modern tales starring favorite characters, like Thomas the Tank Engine.  ... read more

Over the past few years, I've wound up with an occasional green "biodegradable" plastic bag, usually when taking home leftovers from a restaurant.    But are they actually biodegradable?  

As it turns out, no.  Alas, it's more greenwashing.  

Last month, the FTC sent warning letters to 15 additional marketers, informing them that their claims might be deceptive.   The FTC requested “competent and reliable scientific evidence proving that their bags will biodegrade as advertised."  The companies that manufacture these bags call them "oxo-degradable," meaning they supposedly break down after being exposed to oxygen for a while.  But the FTC isn't buying it and neither is Joseph Greene, the department chair and professor in the department of mechanical and mechatronic engineering and sustainable manufacturing at California State University, Chico.... read more

Happy Halloween!

Today's Fun Fact Friday is perfect for Halloween.  Tonight we'll be trick or treating, like lots of other families, and probably accumulating a lot of CANDY!   However, it creates a lot of waste and some people make the mistake of recycling candy wrappers.  Keen For Green's resident recycling expert Rob explained that he sees a lot of candy wrappers mixed in with recyclables on a regular basis.  He wrote:  "One, candy wrappers cannot be recycled in regular recycling programs and two, there is an amazing amount of waste created from enjoying candy bars, especially around Halloween."... read more