New Ground

Getting More out of Your Coffee… and Your Cup

Until yesterday, I didn’t even know that foam containers were a poly (petroleum-based) product.

Did you know that foam containers aren’t really styrofoam? Styrofoam is a Dow Corporation trademark for its blue polystyrene thermal insulation. Foam containers are made out of expanded polystyrene beads. Because they are expanded by being injected with air, foam containers are almost 99% air, making them the most difficult form of plastic to recycle. According to Californians Against Waste, the California Department of Conservation reports that the costs of recycling polystyrene is over $3000 per ton—meaning that foam containers have a negative scrap value.

Does this mean you should forgo your morning Starbucks or Kwik Trip Karuba? No! But there are some things you can do to stop the waste that may even enhance the flavor of your coffee.

Many places such as Starbucks and Kwik Trip have reusable mugs for sale and some will gladly fill your mug from home for the same price as a fresh foam cup of coffee.

But what if you gather with friends for breakfast at local bistro? Here in Winona, the local Hy-Vee deli is a popular morning gathering spot. They have great cheap breakfasts and several flavors of coffee to delight your palette. They also have a huge mug tree that is filled with the mugs of their regular patrons.

If you do gather for coffee with a group of friends that solve all the world’s problems before breakfast (or after lunch), using your own cup will help to solve one of them. Encourage your favorite bistro to install a mug tree or find one that already has a place for you to keep your cup. Of course, if all else fails, you can always bring a cup from home. Besides, doesn’t coffee always taste better when it’s in your own, familiar cup or mug?

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Plastic Bags

Did you know that plastic is a petroleum-based product? I didn’t until a couple of years ago. Here in Winona, recycling is generally pretty easy. No need to sort cans, glass, and bottles. But one thing that the recyclers won’t take is plastic bags

Don’t they pile up?

So your garbage bag looks half full of your plastic bags. What a waste!

We’ve found that Wal-Mart and Hi-Vee here in Winona will take plastic bags for recycling. They both have big bins in their foyers where you can dump your plastic bags. I don’t know what they do with them, but I hope they have a way to recycle them.

A few years ago I worked part-time at a produce outlet. We had one customer that never wanted his items bagged. When I asked him why he joked, “Because I don’t want the mall plants to become extinct.”

Back then it was funny, but with gas prices today over $4.00 at a national average, throwing out good petroleum is just throwing away good cents (yup-pun intended)! If they’re making new bags out of old bags, it saves a little on petrol… and in this economy every penny counts, especially at the pump!

Even if it doesn’t add up in gas, it does make a dent in my garbage. A little less waste from me—a little more room at the landfall.

Recycle your plastic bags. (There must be a Wal Mart somewhere near you!) It’s another little small step you can take for yourself and for the environment.

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What’s Really Important

I’ve been away too long.

Today I got really miffed at CNN when they broke into Al Gore’s environmental speech to broadcast John McCain’s new boring campaign speech (that’s right—I’m for Obama but I would’ve been miffed anyway!).

My thought was, “Don’t these people know what’s important?” And then I remembered this blog.

You see, I’m a writer and I’ve been really busy lately, trying to earn some green… and forgetting about the green that’s really important. Because it won’t matter one lick if I earn a million dollars if we can’t stop the environmental change that’s happening today. I won’t have anywhere to spend my green.

So today I joined We Can Solve It and I hope that we can.

Just my small step for today… but I’ll be back tomorrow. Because this is what’s really important; my little part to show the common people, like me, that we can help solve the environmental problems and by doing so, build a better life for ourselves and our children—one small step at a time.

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Breaking Up the Environment

The other day a friend sent me an email detailing all of the environmental mistakes they are making in China. He said it was very important and no doubt, it is.

Wish I could help, but living as a private citizen in Minnesota USA there’s little I can do about the Chinese environment.

I think we too often focus on the environment as a global, if not universal, thing and while it is both global and universal (a meteor could hit any day you know!), most of us private citizens can do little to change the environment as a whole. Yet, if we break up the environment into smaller chunks, we can do something to change our personal environments… the quality of life in our homes, towns— maybe even our regions.

Although I’ll probably be posting more in depth about many of these ideas, I Stumbled Upon good place to find what I can do and maybe somethings you can do to change our personal chunk of the environment: It’s 100 Ways to Save the Environment, a page at SEQL.org.

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Boxing Day

Several years ago a Canadian friend sent me a Boxing Day greeting. I emailed back and asked him where and when he wanted to put the gloves on. Well, oops!

A Day of Good Will

Boxing Day(1) isn’t a day for fighting nor is it a day for throwing out your empty Christmas Boxes. Boxing Day is a holiday that is celebrated in many countries round the world. Although, in many countries, Boxing Day has become a day of after Christmas sales, the definition I like best comes from South Africa– “a day of Good Will”(2). My Canadian friend described it as a day when you can pass on part of your good fortune.

Do you really need Four Calling Birds⁽³⁾?

Did you get yet another scarf for Christmas, too many packages of new socks, a new comforter for the bed for which you just purchased a new comforter, an extra toaster, blender, 6 boxes of Chocolate Covered Cherries, one too many poinsettias or something that just isn’t your style? Instead of fighting the crowds to return unwanted items or throwing them in the trash, consider using one of those empty Christmas bags or boxes and giving a Boxing Day gift as a Random Act of Kindness. Take it to a rest home, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, your church or your local Good Will.

Here in Winona, MN there’s a special place on the web, Winona Shares, an online resource where you can list free reuseable items. Maybe you have a resource like that in your area?

Boxing Day is your chance to make the Holiday Season a happier Christmas for both you and someone else (but if you can’t do it today, there’s always tomorrow!).

Boxing Day is just one more small step you can take to enrich your personal environment.

Resources

1. Barbara Mikkelson. Urban Legends Reference Pages: Boxing Day. 26 Dec 2007 “Snopes.com” 26 Dec 2007 <http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxingday.asp>
2. Boxing Day. “Wikipedia”. 26 Dec 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_day>
3. The Twelve Days of Christmas. “Christmas Carols”. 26 Dec 2007. <http://www.carols.org.uk/the_twelve_days_of_christmas.htm>

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First Steps

Holiday Shopping! We must have driven over an hour through different parking lots, looking for close-to-the-door parking places.

“Wait! They’re backing out… oh no, they’re waiting!”
“There’s a spot over there… oh no, they beat us to it!”

I don’t know about your gas mileage, but after an hour of driving stop and go, the needle in my car’s fuel gauge heads towards empty. Just as bad as wasting my gas was the realization that I was frittering away the precious time I had set aside for shopping. Finally we found a close parking spot and trotted the 30-or-so feet to the mall entrance.

In Minnesota, folks often walk through the malls and large stores for winter exercise, but not “today”. It was no less crowded inside. Both hallways and aisles were so crowded that breathable air seemed to be at a premium. Walking was just as stop and go as parking had been. I felt myself quickly running out of steam.

How does this effect environmental change and improve your quality of life?

Taking the first available parking spot would have:

1. Saved me some gas which would
2. Save me some money and
3. Give me less time driving and more time shopping

The longer walk to the store is

1. Healthy exercise and
2. Would have helped me punch up some extra steam, giving me more shopping endurance (not much, but believe me every little bit helps during the Holidays!)

Simplistic? Yes.

Idealistic? Maybe, but that’s what New Ground is all about. Finding simple answers that effect positive change both for the environment and the people who share it. If enough folks walk those few extra steps we’ll all save some gas, some money, some time, and feel better for doing it.

Will you join me in finding more ways to take small steps into New Ground?

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