10 Things Ziploc Bags Can Do Better Than Reusable Sandwich Bags

This post is very spur of the moment. I was originally researching an idea for a blog post, and while researching, I came across a blog post about 27 Smart Ideas For Ziploc Bags.

I'll admit, originally, my plan was to demonize ziploc bags and show that whatever a ziploc bag can do, a reusable sandwich bag can do better, but after reading the post, I realized there are some down and dirty things that you just wouldn't want something as pretty as a reusable sandwich bag doing! Besides, even if we all do switch to fabric sandwich bags permanently, we still have to find good uses for the ziploc bags we still have! We can't just throw them out, now, can we?

Here are the top 10 things you'd rather have your old ziplocs do than your precious sandwich bags:

1. Store toiletries in ziploc bags when you travel so you can avoid baggage leak disasters - ziploc bags have to win here - as awesome as reusable wraps are, 
2. Bring home dirty gym clothes in ziploc bags - I definitely don't want dirty socks anywhere near my LunchSkins!
3. If you have leaky boots, slide your foot into a ziploc bag(after wearing a sock, I hope), then put your shoe on - this way, your feet won't get wet. I don't really want to explain why my fabric sandwich bags aren't good for this.
4. Use ziploc bags for storing umbrellas so your other belongings don't get wet. I actually like this idea - and the reusable bags aren't 110% waterproof like a sealed ziploc is.
5. Fill with marinade to marinate your 
6. Fill up small ziplocs with paint so you can use them for quick touch ups. Yeah, this would pretty much ruin a LunchSkin. Besides, I don't think a ziploc is the best idea for this one, either. If you accidentally squeeze it too hard, you are going to have a lot of paint to clean up.
7. Using big ziplocs as makeshift diaper changing mats. Ziploc wins again.
8. Cut the tip off a ziploc to use as a makeshift icing bag - love the idea, but I don't want to ruin my sandwich bags!
9. Make bubble wrap by inflating a ziploc with a straw - genius idea - but that would mean packing it away - so ziploc wins again.
10. Fill up a large ziploc with scraps to make a nice mat to sit or kneel on when in the yard

In my next post, I'll try(with as many pictures as possible) to show you how reusable sandwich bags can do the remaining 17 things better than ziploc bags!

What ways can you think of to reuse your old ziplocs?

6 "Green" Turkeys For A Green Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again. November is upon us, bringing autumn colors and aromas of turkey wafting through homes. Yes, folks: it's nearly Thanksgiving! The holiday during which we celebrate family, friends, and everything good in our lives. After all, it is thanks-giving!

When I think about Thanksgiving, the first thing that comes to mind, of course, is turkey! That's why I thought I'd make my first Thanksgiving post of the season dedicated to America's favorite bird(after Big Bird, of course!).

Nowadays, sustainable turkey shopping has turned into a science. With all the different kinds of turkey available, it's no longer just "I went to the grocery and picked up a huge turkey!" It's more like "There are too many different types! Which is which?"

So I thought I'd put together a short list of eco friendly turkeys to help you decide which kind you want to go for this year. 

1) Heritage turkeys: While most turkeys are commercially produced by large farms, heritage turkeys are generally cultivated by small, independent farms. Heritage turkeys are bred with great care over generations. Instead of loading turkeys with steroids and growth hormones, heritage farmers instead combine the best breeds, so over the course of a few turkey-generations, the resulting turkeys are naturally stronger, better, and more immune to disease. Heritage turkeys are expensive, though, generally going for 3-4 times more per pound than regular supermarket turkeys. The best part? You can order your heritage turkeys online.   

2) Natural: USDA specifications state that turkeys that contain no artificial flavor, coloring ingredients, artificial preservatives, any other synthetic ingredients, and is processed a minimal amount may be labeled as "natural." The label on your turkey must explain how the turkey you are buying is "natural" - like no added colorings or artificial ingredients, no flavor, etc.

3) No antibiotics - If your turkey label says this, it means it was raised without any antibiotics. Antibiotics may transfer from the bird to you when you eat it.

4) Organic: Organic turkeys are free-range birds that have been fed strictly with organic grains. They contain no pesticides, chemicals, hormones or antibiotics.

And for those of use that are vegetarians, two vegetarian options. The second one really isn't a turkey(neither is the first one, it you think about it!) but it's a great way to celebrate the spirit of Thanksgiving and autumn.

5) Tofurky: If you ask me, the name sounds like a mouthful(pun intended)! Made from soybeans and stuffed with breadcrumbs and other herbs, tofurkys make for great vegetarian and vegan main courses. If you get a little creative, you can even dress it up as an actual turkey!

6) Pumpkins: Nothing says fall like the orangey goodness of pumpkins. Autumn's favorite gourd is incredibly versatile and you can fashion it into sweet and savory dishes. The best part? You can find pumpkins nearly anywhere, and they are wholesome, filling, and hearty. Quite the Thanksgiving meal, don't you think so? 

Check out some pumpkin recipes.

Whether your palate likes turkeys or tofurkys, try and make sure your big dinner has as small an impact as possible on the environment. After all, it is the environment that gives us our hearty turkeys, pumpkins, veggies, and fruits!

I'll be posting more ideas to green your Thanksgiving over the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. If you have any thoughts about turkeys or Thanksgiving that you'd like to share, please leave a comment! Thanks!

The Easiest Way To Go Green

The easiest way to go green is "keeping it simple." When you go back to the basics, you're green. Whether your definition of simplicity is replacing disposable diapers with simple cloth diapers, or having larger windows to let in more sunlight so you use lights less during the day, the key to eco-friendly and sustainable is simplicity.

I think there are a lot of things that have become incredibly commonplace in our lives that are just too complicated. If we could somehow simplify them, our lives would become a lot more relaxed. That's the reason Apple fans are so die-hard for Apple products: Apple makes all of their stuff just so simple and easy to use. I know I digressed from eco to tech, but the Apple example was the best and commonest I could think of to illustrate my point.

Sometimes reusing is as simple as refilling a bottle. We often buy bottled water and throw out the bottle after it's empty. But wouldn't using a food-safe refillable bottle be a lot simpler than buying a new one every time? Water fountains are nearly everywhere: they are in all public places, malls, and parks, and they all have clean drinking water.

Some other really neat examples of simple eco-friendly ingenuity:

Solar power - this one has literally been staring us in the face for as long as humans have been around! We've used steam, burned coal, fossil fuels, and even done something as complicated as split atoms to get energy: but the simplest one by far has to be solar power! Just put up a cell to collect the energy, charge up, and you are good to go!

Reusable shopping bags - I remember helping my grandmother reorganize her closet and drawers - everything she had was neatly sorted and wrapped up in cloth bundles - she didn't need plastic boxes and trays. Isn't that what a reusable shoppingbag is, after all? A piece of cloth sewn like a bag that we use to store stuff!

Bamboo utensils - When given a choice between bamboo and plastic, which do you think is more basic? Plastic, which is the result of animals and plants becoming fossilized over millions of years, slowly turning into crude oil, then processed in a factory and molded into utensils? Or bamboo, which takes less than a month to grow, after which it is cut and carved into a utensil?

Organic foods - organically grown/produced foods are also simple at heart. They don't have any of the pesticides, chemicals, or genetic engineering that non-organic foods have. In fact, they were grown just as nature has been doing for the past few billion years! Of course, we can streamline the process by farming, but otherwise, it's up to Mother Nature to do her thing!

Maybe it's time we looked a little bit inside ourselves and tried to simplify"green" our lives. Let's look back at how we used to do things, put a modern take on them, and see what kind of cool ideas we can come up with. What are some ways you have simplified to make things easier or more "green?"

10 Ways To Reduce Your Plastic Footprint

Well everyone, the month of October has come to an end, and so has the Surfrider Foundation's Raptoberfest challenge! The challenge was to try and significantly reduce your plastic consumption for the month of October(in the hope of it becoming a permanent habit).

They gave some pretty shocking statistics on their website:

• In some places in the ocean, there is more plastic than plankton
• Around one million birds and one hundred thousand marine mammals die from plastics each year - either by entanglement or by ingestion
• Except for a very small percentage that has been incinerated, all of the plastic ever manufactured still exists in some physical form

These statistics are staggering. One million birds die every year because of plastic waste! It's crazy. What about the fact about there being more plastic than plankton? Plankton are so small and so plenty that creatures as big as whales make regular meals out of them!

To this end, the folks organizing Raptoberfest came up with a really nice list of 10 ways to reduce unnecessary plastic consumption:

1) Don't use use-and-throw plastic bottles - tap water is just as safe, if not safer than bottled water. Even Poland Spring says it's from Maine!

2) When possible, buy food in bulk - buying in bulk effectively reduces the amount of packaging necessary. I remember seeing a blog post somewhere about a grocery store selling peeled, pre-packaged bananas - ridiculous, right?

3) Buy movies/music electronically - now that most of our digital media is in the cloud., this one is a no-brainer

4) Use reusable grocery bags - another no-brainer. Every trip to the grocery store results in bringing at least 10-20 plastic bags home. Use folding shopping bag sets to save space and to help you remember to take bags with you when you shop. How many times have you seen plastic bags being blown around by the wind? They ultimately end up in the ocean!

5) Avoid single-serve packaged food - these products top the list of unnecessary plastic waste generators

6) Reusable containers - when it comes to food storage and lunch, reusable containers are much better options than traditional tupperware or styrofoam

7) Buy a reusable travel mug - reusable travel mugs help save so many styrofoam/wax paper cups and plastic drink lids - even though there are biodegradable options available, reusable options are ultimately more cost-effective. There are even steel bottles available that have filters so you can brew on the go

8) Look for alternative packaging - many goods come in packaging like cardboard and aluminum which are much easier to recycle than plastic

9) Buy and sell secondhand - many consumer goods are available second-hand on sites like eBay, craigslist, and other classifieds - and most are just as good as new in terms of functionality. Second-hand items don't have the plastic packaging on them that a new item would

10) Recycle! - of course, there are certain things that plastic is inevitable for use in. In these cases, recycle as much as possible!

What are some other effective ways of curbing plastic waste?

Go Green With Reusable Gift Wrap This Year!

The holidays are upon us again: a time of sharing, caring, loving, and giving. The best part is exchanging gifts! The excitement felt when we open up each colorfully wrapped mystery is amazing! It gets more and more as we open up each present to the next!

The only downside, however, is the amount of wrapping paper we have to throw out. In all the excitement and rush, we usually rip off the wrapping paper in such a way that even a few scraps left seem like a lot! The tape takes off large strips, and we manage to rip up the rest. None of that can be used again(unless you are a super-organizer who carefully and meticulously opens up each present).

The reason I was inspired to write this post is because of a great company called VZwraps that I came across while browsing online. On their website, they give a statistic from the Clean Air Council that 5,000,000 additional pounds of waste is generated in the United States during the Christmas holidays! Five million pounds over the period of say 2-3 weeks!

VZwraps strives to provide a reusable alternative to conventional wrapping paper: reusable fabric gift bags. The design is so simple it's brilliant! It's an eco-friendly recycled-cloth bag that you place your gift in, and it comes with a ribbon made of recycled materials that you tie the bunched-up top, and voila! You have a neat-looking decorated gift! The best part? It's easy to open! You will still get the thrill of ripping apart the wrapper: just pull the ribbon off with a zing!

The wraps come in different colors, shapes, and sizes, and are even themed to specific occasions like Christmas, Hanukah, birthdays, and more.

The only thing is that the wraps need to be re-circulated again by the person who receives the gift to really get their full eco-friendliness. Of course, when it's a group of friends or family that exchanges the gifts between each other, the wraps can just be packed away and stored for the next occasion.

I think that just the wrap itself would also be a neat idea for a gift! How often do you receive something as cool and unique as that?

What's the most unique packaging that you have ever received a gift in?

Rise Above Plastics Video

Plastics have a really nasty effect on our oceans - we don't usually see this because we rarely go out into the ocean as such. I suppose if we were to ask a fisherman or a sailor, they would be better informed. The Surfrider Foundation has started a "Rise Above Plastics" program, which I found really moving. I will write more about it in future posts, but today, I'd like to share a video I found particularly riveting:

As always, shares and comments are appreciated!

The Extra Push To Go Reusable

The basics of economic theory say that humans have unlimited wants and humans react to incentives. An incentive is basically a reason for someone to do something. For example, to get a child to work diligently, the teacher may put up stars on the board for good work. The star on the board is the child's incentive to work hard. Similarly, a negative incentive is when a teacher gives detention for poor conduct. The prospect of getting detention is a child's incentive to not misbehave.

Many prolific economists(chiefly the authors of Freakonomics - Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt) are big believers in incentives and their effects, and that is one of the main points in their books. They argue that many times, incentives would be more effective than laws at curbing or promoting certain behaviors.

Many governments have combined incentives and laws with good results. In Toronto, Canada, for example, waste has to be split up into food waste, recyclable waste, and other waste. If there is any mistake in sorting, there is a fine. Also, trash is only collected once a week - this creates the incentive to produce less trash, since you would have to keep the extra bags in your home or garage.

Similarly, to reduce the usage of plastic baggies and promote the usage of reusable sandwich bags, there needs to be an incentive. Schools, for example, can have clubs and societies where members using reusable sandwich bags would get a small percentage of extra credit to their final grade. Even local city councils and municipalities could offer some sort of benefit or bonus to people who recycle and reduce waste with diligence.

This is the theory behind ReusableBagStore.com's Referral program. It is a referral program that offers two incentives: one to the potential buyer going reusable to buy with a discount on the purchase, and second to the referrer to refer as many people as possible, since they get rewards according to how many people they send our way.

Some stores also offer programs where the customer receives $5 in store credit to that very store. ReusableBagStore.com decided to break the mold, be bold, and offer a gift card to any store that the customer likes!

Incentives will always remain powerful motivators for people to do things. Eco friendly and green companies can really take advantage of this to create greater awareness and excitement about their products and services.