Don’t waste that water your fish have enriched with nutrients. When cleaning the fish tank, use the water on your plants and trees. You think it’s scummy; they think it’s yummy.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
That’s how much money is wasted every year by discarding perfectly good milk. That’s 34 pounds of safe-to-drink milk per person. And mostly because of the carton’s confusing date label, which isn’t even regulated by law. We look at it as an expiration date, when it’s really just the date the manufacturer thinks the milk is at its highest quality (tastes best).
Milk is the most wasted food in the U.S.–by weight, 12% of all food products wasted.
There is an easy fix. Ignore the date and let your eyes and nose be the judge of whether the milk is still safe to drink. You’ll see a color or texture change, and your nose certainly knows. If you take a swig and it’s sour, remember that experts tell us that drinking sour milk won’t make us sick. But the land and water it takes to produce that much lost milk does take a toll on our Earth.
So much bread goes stale, then into the garbage. It’s a waste of money and natural resources to grow the grain to make it. Check out the video How to Waste Less Bread. It gives tips on keeping bread fresh and on ways to use it when it goes stale.
ANOTHER DARN ELECTION! It never comes out the way I’d vote. It’s just a waste of time and money.
Actually, it will be a waste if you don’t vote. Even if there’s only one issue or candidate you really care about, make your voice heard. Better still, take some time to get acquainted with more of the propositions and candidates. They will determine how we treat our fellow human beings—family, workers, the poor, even us voters. Find out about them from impartial sources who have thoroughly researched them, like the League of Women Voters (www.smartvoter.org), and carefully read through the official Voter’s Guide from the Registrar of Voters. Think carefully, not emotionally or following what any other person or biased group says. Make up your own mind, then vote.
Why bother? Because not voting would let a small handful of people (those who DO vote) make decisions you’re forced to live with.
Want to save money on your food bill and be kinder to the Earth at the same time? You’d be surprised how much good food we just toss away.Take the I Value Food challenge to find out where the food waste is in your home and what changes you can make to reduce waste and save money.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
“Consumption has become a habit, a hobby and a sport” (Evy McDonald, Spending Money as if Life Really Mattered). True. I recycle but don’t always buy items with the “chasing arrows”/recycled content label. I should prepare more of my own meals (cheaper, healthier, less wasteful). Then there’s all those gadgets in my kitchen—what do I actually use and which really make life easier? I can go through my home and give away stuff that’s no longer useful or that I’m keeping out of compulsion or the status I think they give me. I can use the library rather than accumulating books. And visit museums, art exhibits, etc. instead of buying more dust-collectors. As an experiment, I plan to set aside a time in which I try not to waste a single thing all day. That will help care for both me AND the Earth.
Look at the mess (before and after Christmas)--tossed gift wrap (can’t burn the wrap with wax or metal in it), lots of leftovers (can’t eat it ALL), cards to toss into the garbage (pretty and thoughtful, but…), bubble wrap to get rid of (after the fun of popping all the cells), an empty gas tank (the sales! the sales!), a droopy tree (now a fire-hazard)…. It’s all quite a downer, spoiling the season.
Take heart. There’s help. Read (and follow) the suggestions in the article 10 Ways to Feel Less Guilty About Waste this Christmas.
[Thanks to Lynda DeManti for sending me this.]
Have a merry–and guilt-free–Christmas!
What happened in Puerto Rico can happen anywhere in the U.S. A law–the National Environmental Policy Act–is helping people who already suffer with an epidemic of asthma. Watch this video to learn about what you can do when you realize that the problem affects you, your family, or others who need protection.
Anne Frank lived–and hid–in an unbelievably harsh, cruel world. Yet even she had hope for the world, as today’s Thursday Thought quote shows.
[For more easy, money-saving, earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]