Columnists

I recently heard that at the end of November, Metro grocery stores will offer their customers reuseable mesh bags for their produce (four for $5) as an alternative to conventional thin-film produce bags. Metro has 484 stores across Ontario and Quebec, so there’s potential for a lot of plastic savings. The bags are reusable, washable and stain resistant, not unlike these Canadian-made bags I blogged about earlier.

Thin-film plastic is considered the worst offender among plastic bag material, since, among other reasons, it isn’t durable enough for multiple use.

I hope grocery chains will take additional steps, such as offering starch-based biodegradable bags, so they break down safely in soil, and allocate fewer rolls of bags around the stores to discourage people from using them for everything. After all, veggies should be washed before you use them anyway. (I use a tiny smidge of dish soap.)

Metro revealed results of a customer survey showing that 77 per cent are making efforts to limit their use of plastic bags when buying fruits and vegetables, while 76 per cent said they would be interested in buying reusable produce bags. According to the same survey, 87 per cent of customers prefer to buy individual fruits and vegetables instead of pre-packaged ones. I certainly think we could do without the plastic bags on celery, bell peppers heads of lettuce and more, and I really dislike buying packs of mushrooms, since they’re in a type of plastic that many municipalities don’t recycle, topped by cellophane.

I don’t blame food producers for wanted to add something to their products. Homemakers‘ nutritionist, Rosie Schwartz has mentioned that one the reasons we have a hard time eating healthily is that packaged foods have lots of enticing images and marketing copy on them, while the healthiest food – produce – does not.

How would you reduce shopping-related waste?

If you’ve ever done a home renovation project, you know that the project you intend to complete isn’t the one you need to start with.

For example, my partner and I would like to add additional insulation to our attic, so we can make sure we’re using as little energy as possible to heat our home. The attic currently sports a messy mix of fibreglass batts and cellulose. According to our energy audit the level of insulation there only amounts to R 19.9 (R level is a measure of insulation value), whereas the EcoEnergy program recommends R 50.

That project will involve us calling in some help in sealing tops of walls with foam boxes and blowing in more cellulose insulation. But first, before we can do any of that, we have to replace the bathroom vent, and make sure it’s vented it outside. You see, the existing bathroom vent, which is mounted over the bathroom in the attic, isn’t well sealed, and it wasn’t properly vented either, so it spewed warm, moist air into the attic. Yesterday a roofer came by to install a roof vent for the bathroom fan. Excited by the upgrade, my partner decided we should connect our existing bath fan to the roof vent right away. So off to the home centre we went. Half an hour later we had all the insulated ducting, tape and fittings to do the job, and thanks to my partner’s handiwork, the fan is now vented outdoors.

So now we can get on with the business of insulating the attic!

Well, after we have a look at the electrical…

Have you added insulation to your home lately, or are you trying to plan the job?

I’ll admit that I get more mail than I’d like in my mailbox. While I look forward to receiving my favourite magazines every month, and it’s a treat to get notes from friends, I also get notices, statements, bills and offers. While I’ve moved just about everything I can to digital billing, my partner and I still seem to make use of the shredder fairly often. (Hey, shredded paper makes great mulch, according to Homemakers.com!)

While I’ve moved some of my bank statements, magazine renewals and utility bills to digital notifications, and I pay my cell phone bill through ePost, I think I could do more to give a few more a reprieve. It’s time I called a few of the letter senders to see if I can get on an e-mail list instead of receiving so much paper. I’d love to be removed from some lists altogether, which always seems difficult, but Canada Post has a suggestion.

There’s addressed mail, and then there’s pure junk mail. While I have a note on the inside of my mailbox lid saying no to junk mail, it’s hard to catch the neighbourhood kids who deliver pizza fliers and the like – they’re quick!

At Homemakers magazine, you can sign up for your subscription online, and change your address renew your subscription digitally as well.

If you would like to see how much you could conserve in resources per year by cutting your paper mail, try this calculator at Pay It Green.

Have you been battling your analog inbox? How have you reduced the amount of paper mail coming your way?

In mid September I shared an image of the most perfect (and just about the only) tomato to come out of my garden. My doting on the little red fruit must have stirred something within the plant, because not long after, much fruit sprang forth. Well, about a dozen green tomatoes appeared on the vine. And that’s how they remained, until I picked them a week ago, fearing frost.

I tried ripening the tomatoes by wrapping them in newspaper. I tried leaving them in mild sunlight. Finally, I tried wrapping them in newspaper, then putting them in a plastic bag. Presto, they began to ripen overnight. And as this University of Minnesota fact sheet says, “To speed up ripening, place green or partially ripe fruits in a bag or box with a ripe tomato.” That’s because ripe fruit emit ethylene gas. Yes, I think the first to ripen will lead the way for the others.

Did you have some fruits and veggies left on the vine as the temperatures began to drop? Did you find a way to ripen them for one last summery feast?

It’s migration season, and as many species of birds are winging their way across the landscape, no doubt they could use a bite to eat and some clean water to drink. So far I’ve had visits from a downy woodpecker, juncos, lots of house sparrows and a pair of mourning doves. Last winter I had a pair of cardinals at the feeder as well.

I have a large hanging feeder (with anti-squirrel features, thanks Aunt Sue!) and a wire cage for a seed cone hanging in my backyard. I put a seed mix in the feeder that includes peanuts, sunflower seeds, corn and millet. I like to put thistle / niger seed bells in the wire cage, although the last one was greeted so enthusiastically it’s all but gone, so I better go shopping.

I’d love to attract other types of birds, such as nuthatches and chickadees, so I’d better go looking for a suet ball. To protect the birds from the legion of cats that prowl through our yard, I hang all of the feeders from a clothesline, away from the reach of fences and branches.

I’m sure that the little guys build up a thirst after flying hundreds of kilometres, so although it’s been wet lately, I have a couple of dishes of water out. I’m keeping my eyes out for a larger black dish, something that will heat up a lot in the warmth of the sun, so there’s water for the birds even on sub-zero winter days.

A bird’s life can’t be an easy one, but they are so darn cute, they’re fun to watch. A sack of bird feed makes for some very affordable entertainment, and hopefully supports the little guys through the cold months.

Have you seen any interesting birds visit your feeder lately?

When it comes to saving water, I think we can use all the help we can get. Although I haven’t tried it for myself, I really like the concept behind this new “Dorsey Eco-Performance” water-saving kitchen faucet. Moen has built in three water-volume modes. When you just need to give something a rinse or a gentle soak, there are two lower-flow rate modes, including one with an aerated spray, that run at 6.6 litres per minute, but are designed to wash better than simply opening your tap part-way. But for those times when you need to fill a pot or blast some icky scrap of food off of a pan, there’s a high-volume mode at 8.3 litres per minute.

No doubt water-saving showerheads have saved Canadians loads of water from being wasted. It makes sense that the kitchen tap would be the next in line.

I just found out about a tour of green roofs on in Toronto this week, part of a program called Cities Alive. The tour is part of a push to show how helpful green roofs can be in reducing resource use.

Green roofs and green walls absorb heat (reducing cooling costs in summer), insulate (reducing heating costs in winter), capture carbon dioxide, emit oxygen, and even create a sense of serenity among the hard surfaces of urban landscapes. While planning a green roof may be easier in creating new buildings, the Cities Alive tour features the YMCA’s green roof retrofit project. Thanks to a $250,000 grant from TD Bank, as well as thousands of hours of volunteer time, the YMCA was able to build a new green roof as part of their running track at the Metro-Central YMCA at 20 Grosvenor Street, Toronto. YMCA members will be able to go for a run or take a yoga class on the green roof, a little green oasis in the city!

To read more on how the YMCA green roof came together, have a look at the project blog.

Last night I breathed a sigh of relief as I walked down the paper products aisle of the grocery store. It wasn’t because I was about to sneeze — it’s ’cause in every category, from paper plates to toilet paper to paper towels to tissues, green options are now available.

Considering the volume of paper we use in our kitchens and washrooms every year, backing off our need for trees by switching to products made from 100 per cent post-consumer waste will make a huge difference in preserving forests, and thus habitat, not to mention the carbon savings. I’ve been buying PC Green toilet paper for years, but in the last year or so I’ve found that many other companies are stepping up to the plate with 100 per cent recycled, sometimes even EcoLogo certified products, including the Canadian company, Cascades, Seventh Generation, Selection, White Swan and now Kimberly-Clark brands including their “EnviroCare” line of Cashmere bathroom tissue, Scotties tissues and Sponge Towels. Now that it’s really easy to make a good choice (and even a soft, cushy choice!), let’s just hope that everyone does.

The next step: changing over entire product lines to EcoLogo-certified products, rather than considering them an option.

Are you also finding it easier to find green paper products?

Out for a walk in the Thousand Islands area last weekend, I noticed what looked like a light snowfall drifting across my path. Except it was around 10 degrees C outside. Much (much!) better than snow, it was wafts of milkweed silk, seeds in tow, tumbling across the tops of the shrubs and grasses.

Considering how much anxiety goes into planting fall bulbs (when I do it – how deep should they be? How do I protect them from squirrels?) it amazes me that milkweed’s lofty white drifts result in well-planted seeds. But, having seen telltale bits of the white fluff attached to people, pets and most anything that moves, milkweed seeds do get around.

And that’s a good thing, considering that milkweed is a principal source of food for the monarch butterfly. As I noted in an earlier post, I didn’t see many monarchs this year. I resolved to plant some milkweed in my garden in an attempt to be a small part of the solution. So right now, as the milkweed pods dry out and pop open, releasing their tufts of silk and seeds, it’s time to put some of those seeds in the ground. I planted several seeds this weekend, and of course a few got away.

I hope the neighbours don’t mind. After all, with “weed” in its name, perhaps milkweed isn’t valued by everyone. But it does produce bright pink flowers – and entice our orange and black friends.

Have you tried to help out birds, butterflies or other species? For more tips on doing just that, check out this article on Homemakers.com.

A lot of books come in for review here at Homemakers magazine. I recently received a copy of “Clean Breaks: 500 new ways to see the world.” Penned by Rough Guides Richard Hammond and Jeremy Smith, the travel book featuring international destinations promises to share “…unusual holidays and alternative ways to travel that make a real difference to the lives of local people and the planet.”

The book offers a nice mix of volunteer opportunities (help monitor whale and dolphin behaviour in the eastern Mediterranean), unusual accommodation (dome homes in Patagonia) and hundreds of ways to see interesting global communities (follow an arts and crafts route in South Africa) and natural spaces (the Tarkine region of Australia).

The first person to comment with an idea for traveling more sustainably wins the book!