The environmental impact of single serve coffee

Single-serve coffee (pods & k-cups) has a hefty environmental impact.

K-cups, -- the ultimate in convenience. A single serving of tea or coffee in under a minute with no waiting for the kettle to boil or the coffee to drip through -- how perfect is that? When I was first introduced to this single-serving coffee system I was totally seduced by the variety and convenience but I could never brew my k-cup of English Breakfast Tea without thinking about the waste.

The environmental impact of the pods stares you in the face each time you toss a spent k-cup in the garbage. Even before I dug up the data on this coffee craze I knew the picture wouldn’t be pretty.

How to eat well and reduce your exposure to pesticides

 

An apple a day…just might increase your pesticide exposure, according to this year’s Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen analysis by the U.S.-based environmental research group, Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The organization does an annual analysis of pesticide residue on produce based on data gathered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration. EWG uses this data to compile of list of the 12 fruits and vegetable which carry the highest pesticide load when they reach your plate.

It’s not all doom and gloom - EWG also publishes a list of the 15 fruits and vegetables that contain the least amount of pesticide residue.

How to give your diet an eco makeover this Earth Day

Six ways to give your diet an eco makeover this Earth Day

 

The new “eating well”; being deliberate about what food you buy, where your buy it, and then ensuring that you eat it all.

I consider Earth Day a celebration, a launch party for a new way of doing things. The annual event challenges Canadians to make changes to our day-to-day lives in ways that benefit the planet and if we want to take up that challenge, April 22 is the kickoff day.  

One of this year’s challenges is to give our kitchen tables an eco-makeover by making more sustainable food choices and wasting less. It’s a very green thing to do since where we buy our food, what we buy and what we do with our leftovers has such a big impact on the environment. Regional food security comes into play as well since we’re so dependent on food from faraway places.

So where to begin? Earth Day Canada presents six suggestions for what we can all start doing today to make a meaningful impact through our daily meals.

Why teaching kids to cook is so important

Over the March Break my husband and I met a woman who told us that when her kids were growing up each was responsible for preparing one evening meal a week for the whole family. They learned to cook by cooking and were completely capable in the kitchen even at the age of 12. She said it taught them an important kind of independence and a sense of responsibility.

As someone who happens to believe that cooking wholesome food from scratch is one of the most important things that you can do for your family, it’s probably no surprise that I’m particular about what I feed my kids. But it occurred to me that I’m putting a lot of effort into teaching my kids about good food, but I’m not teaching them how to prepare it.

Learning to cook is a life skill, and as parents our job is to teach kids to become independent. You can’t very well go out into the world if you don’t know how to feed yourself. Teaching our kids how to feed themselves well should be our goal. We want our kids to succeed in life, why should we lower our standards when it comes to food?

How to choose eco-friendly flooring

Eco-friendly flooring options abound, for basements, kitchens and the rest of your home. Here are some great options.

Renovations are not my favourite thing to do. I love the idea of renovating but it’s all the decisions, the final decisions, that I find difficult.

Take our current project: We’re in the process of finishing a room in our basement. It’s almost complete but we’re stuck on the flooring and have been for nearly a year.

We want something that is durable, suitable for a basement and eco-friendly.

Finding options that are both durable and suitable for a basement are easy enough, but figuring out what options are the most ecofriendly are more of a challenge.

How to avoid toxic flame retardants

Eight easy tips for avoiding or reducing toxic flame retardants in your home.

I have never been one for dusting. Just ask my mom. I was the child with the room full of knick knacks, an aversion to cleaning and great tolerance for dust and clutter. I’m the person most likely to write in the dust on the mirror: “A clean house is the sign of a wasted life.”

But I’m starting to change my tune.

Dust isn’t just dust. It contains tiny particles of stuff that includes a lot of undesirable chemicals. In particular flame retardants that are still in use today and others that have been banned from newly-manufactured items but are still everywhere in our homes.

Green living lessons from the 2013 Christmas ice storm

The ice storm taught us that we can get by with less water and less electricity.

Challenging times have a way of teaching us life lessons. Although I wouldn’t wish another outage on anyone I’m happy to admit that I learned a lot during our two (half) days in the dark.

For most it was an exhausting reminder of our dependence on power, it exposed how self-sufficient we are (or aren’t) and proved how we can call get by with less.

How to avoid toxic food colouring




Food colouring is toxic. Instead, choose natural, plant-based food colouring. http://www.indiatree.com



Christmas is the season of candy and colour. Brightly tinted cookies and colourful holiday candies seem to suit the season. They’re fun and festive. But if you do a little research on food colouring you start to wonder about how healthy it really is to be eating foods that are so unnaturally vibrant.

Wrap rage - how to reduce packaging for a more eco-friendly home

Choosing products with less packaging is a way to support companies that are more eco-minded.

Have you ever experienced “wrap rage”, that feeling of extreme frustration when trying to open a new purchase that is secured in the Fort Knox of packaging? It isn’t limited to those of us challenged to open the packages on children’s toys, all manner of products, edible and otherwise are heavily packaged – over packaged some might say – and it takes a good pair of kitchen scissors and a dose of patience to open them.

Shop outside the box for eco-friendly gift giving

Supporting local, independent shops is an enjoyable way to keep your Christmas shopping eco friendly. 

Uptown Saint John has a great ad campaign running right now. It’s called “Shop outside the box” which I think is a clever way to remind people that they can find unique gifts for family and friends at a variety of independent retailers in uptown Saint John.

I prefer to support local businesses throughout our region during the Holiday shopping season. I find that shopping in small, local stores keeps the joy in Holiday shopping, making it a pleasurable event rather than a chore.

Personal preference aside, buying local keeps four-times more of our shopping dollars in our communities, compared to shopping at chain stores. It’s a way to invest in our community and to grow our economy.

Shopping “outside the box” can have an eco slant too.

Considering the environment when you’re choosing gifts is a way to lower the carbon footprint of the Holidays while giving meaningful gifts that can be put to good use.

Gift certificates:

We love to give gift certificates to Imperial Theatre, Harbour Station events, or local restaurants. It’s a nice way to treat the recipient to a night out. Or you can make a donation to a local charity in someone’s name.

If you prefer to give something that’s more wrap able here are a few more ideas, large and small, that are fun, practical and ecofriendly.

• If you know someone who is a fan of good quality dark chocolate give them a stack of organic, fair trade chocolate bars wrapped with a pretty bow. This premium chocolate is pricier than your average bar so can be a sweet treat.

• For the coffee lover – a pound of best quality coffee beans and a handmade mug makes a great gift. (Java Moose and Beamer’s Creek coffee is roasted locally, Just Us! Coffee is roasted in Nova Scotia).

• A basket of specialty food is another unique gift that the recipient can put to good use, especially during the Holidays.  Markets and many specialty shops carry a great variety of gourmet products, homemade and otherwise. Or you could fill a basket with your own homemade treats.

• Almost everyone could use an eco-friendly electronics charger. The Green Zero charger uses zero stand-by power and shuts off the power supply to a device when it’s fully charged, so you don’t need to worry about wasting power when you recharge overnight.

• Soda Stream is a simple home system for carbonating tap water. It's a countertop gadget with CO2 cartridges that are refillable (at Sears, Staples). Carbonate to your liking -- lots of bubbles or few -- and nix the cans and bottles of mineral water and club soda. (It takes about three litres of water to create one litre of bottled water and about 250 ml of oil -- includes oil used to make the bottle and gas to ship the filled bottle.)

Whatever gifts you choose to give, considering the impact your shopping can have on your community, and the environment, is another way to make your shopping, and the Holiday season, meaningful.