The green Christmas theme continues

When I worked as a reporter, when it got near the holidays everyone was required to write an "evergreen" story that could run between Christmas and New Year's when staffing was light and news was hard to come by, so pages could still be filled with content. The evergreen was so named because it was a story that could run at any time. This year, there's a new family of green features: stories about how to have a green Christmas. I liked this article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, probably because it's my local paper. I now want to check out Bella Cosa Boutique, a Long Beach store mentioned in the article that sells items made from recycled materials, like cups made from discarded wine bottles and bowls made from melting down discarded glass. I like that it's not a store claiming to be environmentally friendly but still selling new items because even if something is made of bamboo or organic cotton, it's still using resources.

The article also talked about not using wrapping paper, which seems to be gaining popularity as our society becomes more conscious of the resources we're using. I've blogged about using used paper bags as wrapping paper. At my office Secret Santa gift exchange, we all used newspaper instead of wrapping paper. Laura even decorated her newspaper with holiday images cut out from a Trader Joe's paper bag (a girl after my own heart). She wrapped Mike's gift for him, taking tissue paper that had been in a gift we got from a student and twisting it so it served as ribbon. It was beautiful and rustic.

You can never have too many reusable bags

It was down to the wire, but I got my free bag. The frugal environmentalist in me is happy because today I got a reusable grocery bag thanks to the Brag About Your Bag campaign. The deal was: bring five plastic grocery bags to participating Ralphs, Albertsons and Top Valu stores and get a free reusable bag.

Last week my co-worker Mike gave me a few plastic bags because I didn't even have enough since I always have reusable bags with me when I shop. I forgot about it over the weekend but I stopped at the grocery store tonight, the last day of the campaign, to buy ingredients for the bread I'm making for back-to-back holiday parties on Saturday. I thought the cashier knew what I was talking about when I gave him the plastic bags. But all he was doing was scanning a barcode giving me "green points" for bringing me own bags. After he handed me my groceries, I didn't get my bag. So I asked again and he was about to give me one of the green reusable bags for sale at the register when another employee went behind a nearby counter and handed me a bright red bag. There were no signs that I saw of the campaign and I wonder how many free bags were handed out. I hope lots.

A quickfire-inspired sardines meal

I'm bummed that I'm not watching the Top Chef reunion on TV right now. The show, one of my favorites, usually comes on at 10 p.m. so after getting home from the gym at 9, I cooked dinner. When I finished eating I was all ready to watch my favorite chefs rehash the superb Season 6. But it came on at 9 instead of 10 tonight. So while the Top Chefers were reminiscing about surviving quickfire challenges and cooking with unfamiliar ingredients, I was doing the same in my kitchen. On a much more amateur scale.

And what was the secret ingredient in my quickfire challenge? Canned sardines.

Tonight I finally cooked the canned sardines that have been sitting in my cupboard for more than a month. I bought them after reading about the health benefits since sardines are full of omega 3s. I also had recently read about sardines being a good environmental choice because they aren't overfished or high in mercury. So I bought a can but was too afraid of what was inside to actually eat them.

Canned sardines, like canned tuna or salmon, are great in a pinch. Well, that's exactly how I used them tonight. I didn't have much to eat and wanted something quick. My first surprise was that they weren't slimy. They looked like canned tuna and smelled slightly like tuna too. When I first bought them I typed "how to cook canned sardines" into Google and there was no consensus. They could be eaten right out of the can (um, no thank you) or warmed up on the stove; remove the bones or leave them in because the bones are small and soft and therefore edible; eat them on a cracker with mustard or mix them up with mayonnaise like tuna fish. With that in mind, I threw them in a pan with some oil and their own juices. Then I put the warmed sardines on a toasted tortilla with mustard, topped with grape tomatoes and fresh basil (from my herb garden!). I pulled all the vegetables out of the crisper to see what I had and quickly cut up a carrot, zucchini, red pepper and celery to be steamed. Everything was done in 10 minutes. If this were a quickfire challenge I would have plated before the buzzer but talk about an uninspiring meal. 

The sardines weren't bad. They just weren't good either. They didn't have much taste. I felt like I was eating a dry white fish -- like tuna but with a less distinctive smell and taste. Thank god for the spicy mustard or else the whole meal would have tasted really bland. I'd buy them again because they're cheap and convenient. But I don't see any Top Chef wins in my future.

My finished meal. Think Padma would want to try it?

Green v. Consumerism at Christmastime

"In a world where people want to continue to aspire to middle-class consumption patterns, but they are also wanting to feel like they are responsible citizens who care about social and environment issues, how do they reconcile that? They go shopping for something that declares itself to be ecologically friendly."

Sadly, that quote from a UC Santa Cruz professor is true. It's from a Los Angeles Times article about retailers offering eco-friendly gifts for the holidays as a way to make money. The story says that according to a recent poll, nearly nine in 10 consumers identified themselves as "conscious consumers." Wow, that's a lot. More than I would have expected considering how few people I see using resusable bags at the grocery store (with the exception of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods shoppers, who have been on that bandwagon for a while now).

What's better for the environment? Buying gift wrap made from recycled materials or wrapping small presents in used sandwich bags you have lying around your house, cutting out the energy-using step of recycling the bags into other paper products? (I'm doing the latter.)

Buying presents I understand. It is Christmas after all and who doesn't want to do that? But I've been turned off by the Sunday circulars and TV ads that are pushing their great bargains on wrapping paper, gift bows and all that other crap. Sure, it made sense in the pre-global warming era to decorate our presents to the nines, but aren't we living in a more conscious time now (according to that poll, yes we are)?

Sure, use the wrapping paper you already have from years past, but let's not buy new bows and ribbon. And if you run out of wrapping paper, look around your house for something to use instead, like the Sunday comics, old paper bags and glossy pages from magazines. Have fun with it. If it's a clothing item, wrap it in the LA Times Image section. Heck, you could even use old pillow cases if it's a larger present (and then the recipient can cut up the linen into smaller cleaning rags for a gift that keeps on giving).

I've had fun wrapping my office Secret Santa present. I blogged earlier about how I planned to use paper bags to wrap my gifts this year, but would have to think of ways to make the presents look good despite my lack of artistic skills. So what I did was cut up a brown paper bag I already had, wrapped it in ribbon left over from a past Christmas and attached an old Christmas ball I bought this year at a thrift store. Then I wrote "Joy" in pen and, in a flash of brilliance, found a way to make use of those pesky circulars that inundate our mailboxes at this time of year. I cut out a cute bear from the Trader Joe's flier and glued it to the brown paper to make it look more festive. I knew any attempt at drawing something would look as bad as those terrible ornaments we made for our parents in elementary school (because my art skills haven't improved since then) so this was a way around that.

Let's think outside the proverbial Macys sweater box this holiday season to not just say we want to live green, but actually do it.

My Secret Santa gift, wrapped in a paper bag.

No second life for my energy bar wrappers

Talk about timing. While driving into work today I was listening to KPCC's Larry Mantle talk to the esteemed Dan Neil about the LA Auto Show. They were waxing poetic about the new generation of alternative fuel vehicles that are on display at the convention center. Then I caught a white van out of the corner of my eye with the Clif Bar logo. It said it was a biodiesel vehicle. I've got Dan Neil's voice coming out of my radio telling me about the technology of the future and I've got an example of that future two lanes over. Except I'm not ready to applaud Clif Bar yet. Why should Clif Bar get credit for being good to the environment when their wrappers are filling up landfills?

Energy bar wrappers aren't recyclable because of the inner foil lining that keeps the bars fresh. So Clif Bar has its Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade, an "upcycle" program in which used energy bar wrappers are used to make new stuff. I once tried to sign up but the trial program was full. Still, I was slightly hopeful because the website said they'd be expanding. I figured the best way to help the environment was to not eat energy bars at all so I drastically cut back. But when I did eat one, I kept the wrapper, hoping to one day be able to send them in so they could be used to make backpacks and purses. Well, here we are more than a year later and still no luck. I just checked the website again and there still are no open slots. I'm glad the company is committed to doing something, but the number of wrappers collected (about 650,000 so far, according to the website) is a drop in the bucket compared to how many are sent to landfills (millions every year). I understand that they have to cap the program because if everyone sent their wrappers in they'd have more than they could use. But it would be nice if they could pour the same enthusiasm they have for reducing their CO2 emissions into finding other uses for their wrappers. For a company that touts its environmental record all over its website, it seems disingenuous. The only other solution is for everyone to stop eating so many energy bars but I don't think Clif Bar will embrace that suggestion anytime soon. In the meantime, I'm having a funeral for all the wrappers that came with me when I moved but I've finally had to accept are destined for a landfill.

I collected these wrappers for more than a year but now they're in the trash.

My own little apartment herb garden

A month or so ago a friend asked if I wanted to get a place with her. I was open to the idea because apartment living had me wanting -- dreaming of really -- outdoor space and all the things I could do with it. But as fun as it was to look at a house with a huge backyard with a garden already started, after thinking about it for a few days I had to accept that I preferred living by myself -- the whole "I can do what I want when I want" thing. But it was a wake-up call that instead of always looking for something better, I should work with what I have. A full garden brimming with tomato and squash plants was out of the question but apartment be damned, I could grow my own herbs.

I did research online and then headed off to a nearby Armstrong Garden Center, where I bought four baby plants: basil, thyme, oregano and rosemary. I planned to put them indoors on a windowsill but an employee said the 3-inch pots  I was going to buy wouldn't be big enough as the plants grew. So I ended up planting the herbs in two pots I already owned that are about 8 and 10 inches in diameter. I put them downstairs just inside the entrance to my apartment building. It's not as convenient as having the herbs right in my kitchen, but hopefully they'll fare better outside. I don't consider myself to have a green thumb so the test will be if I can keep them alive long enough to actually use them.

I was told that rosemary grows big so it should have its own pot.

How to have a green Christmas

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, Americans produce 25 percent more trash than normal (according to the EPA). I couldn't let the holidays pass without trying to reduce my consumption. My goal this holiday season is to reduce and reuse (and of course recycle), which means I'm not buying wrapping paper, bows or Christmas cards.

In lieu of wrapping paper I'm going to use brown paper bags I already had in my cupboard by decorating them as best as my minimal artistic ability allows. I have a few ideas for tags, one is that I might cut up colorful and sturdy retail bags -- like the pink striped ones you get from Victoria's Secret (maybe even incorporating the word 'Secret' into the tag). For an extra flourish, this week I bought a bag of old, small Christmas tree balls for $2 at the Assistance League thrift store on Long Beach's Retro Row. The snowflake design made them look especially decorative and they'll be a fun alternative to bows.

At the Goodwill I bought pine cone potpourri for $1. It didn't have any scent left but that was OK because I used it to fill up a bowl of four huge pine cones I brought back from a trip to Reno this summer. The bowl is always on display but adding the potpourri made it Christmas-y.

At first I figured I wouldn't send Christmas cards this year, but when I brought up my container of holiday decorations from storage, I found enough cards from years past to be able to send cards without having to buy new ones. Hopefully I won't send someone a card they got before. But if I do and you're reading this, it was for a good cause!

Granted, I'll still be buying gifts (with four nephews I can't avoid that) and I'm flying to Dallas to visit my sister and her family, but doing these little things make me feel better because I feel more aware of my consumption. It's easy to get sucked in and mindlessly buy, buy, buy at Christmas. But I feel more in the spirit reusing balls that decorated a family's tree decades ago and brought little kids joy than  rushing off to Target and filling my cart with cheaply-made decorations, paper products and stuff shipped from China. Reusing connects us with the past and isn't that what Christmas should really be about -- sharing memories, spending time with loved ones and and appreciating what we have instead of always wanting more.

Free reusable bags for LA County residents

I thought this was cool. Los Angeles County is trying to do its part to reduce the 6 billion plastic bags used by residents every year. Through Dec. 17, you can turn in five plastic bags and get a free (FREE!) reusable bag in return. The Brag About Your Bag campaign runs on weekends at participating Albertsons, Ralphs and Top Valus in cities throughout the county. I heard about it because my city, Long Beach, is participating and there was a brief story and column about it in our free weekly Grunion Gazette. Usually I blog about things I've done or plan to do (still haven't eaten those sardines, oops!) but I don't actually have five plastic grocery bags lying around my house because I'm really good about remembering my reusable bags when I go grocery shopping. But if I end up with five before Dec. 17, I'll be turning them in for a free bag. I already have eight reusable bags. Having so many guarantees there are always a few in my apartment and my car for my next shopping trip, but you can't have too many, especially since the two I have from Trader Joe's are a little worse for the wear.

The link for more information is www.bragaboutyourbag.com. To find out if your city is participating, click the Brag About Your Bag Campaign 2009 link on the left banner. Then click Partners and Sponsors along the top to see a list of cities.

Should I feel bad for eating meat?

Oh man, I should be a vegetarian.

That's what I thought yesterday after listening to Patt Morrison interview Jonathan Safran Foer about his new book, Eating Animals, and why the way meat is processed in this country led him to become a vegetarian.

The interview (listen to it here) grabbed my attention because of who Foer is. He's the author of one of the most original and brilliant books I've read in a while, Everything Is Illuminated. Since he writes fiction, I was surprised he was taking a stab at (no pun intended) nonfiction. And nothing in his previous novels hints at his environmental activism. But as he explained in the interview, after he became a parent he started thinking about the food he was feeding his son and where it came from. And that journey, which included spending time on factory farms, led him to become a vegetarian. (When asked by Morrison about the term "factory farm," he said it's accurate because the food industry views animals as widgets rather than living things -- well said, Jonathan!). He isn't an extreme health nut or an avowed environmentalist. As he said, he's just a regular, moral American and if everyone was aware of the suffering endured by the animals that become our food, more would chose this lifestyle, too. Which is why I thought, "I should be a vegetarian." If I thought about it as much as he did, I think I would reach the same conclusion.

He did say that he supports farmers who raise animals humanely but that it's hard to know exactly what you're buying because of misleading packaging. So for him, it was easier to become a vegetarian than to spend tons of time determining which meat is morally OK to eat. I've wondered about that when I've bought chicken at Whole Foods. The organic chicken is a whoppin' $9.99 a pound, so I've skipped that and bought "natural" chicken that is $4.99 a pound. The package says it's free of hormones (but all meat is by law, so that's meaningless), antibiotics-free and fed a vegetarian diet. That sounds good but in a squishy, what-do-those-terms-really-mean way. But still, I figure it's healthier than whatever I usually buy at Ralphs and ignorance is bliss. At least, for now.

A second life for my running shoes

Tonight I dropped off my old running shoes at a Nike store in L.A. to have them recycled. This is something I've been meaning to do since I found out about Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program and blogged about it (that post is here). Nike recycles the rubber, foam and fabric in running shoes to make new athletic surfaces like tracks, basketball courts and playgrounds. And they take any brand, not just Nikes.

For months my dirty Adidas running shoes have been in my trunk, waiting to be put to better use. Even though I work down the street from the Nike store at The Grove, walking there after a long day at work was basically the last thing I wanted to do. But today, my day off, I had to go to work for a few hours so when I got done at 6 I decided to finally drop them off to avoid traffic (Getting stuck in rush hour traffic on my day off? No way.).

It was super easy. They have a bin in the back of the store where you drop off your shoes. I was happy to see it was about two-thirds full.

This is the only shoe recycling program I know of, which is surprising since it's such a cool idea. So next time you're feeling the ground beneath your feet when you run and you know it's time to get rid of your shoes, instead of sending them to a landfill, you can donate them to a good cause. And if you don't live or work near a Nike store like I do, you can give your shoes to me and I'll drop them off when it's time to recycle my current running shoes. Just as long as they don't stink up my car because they might be there for a few months!

Canned sardines are on the menu

Yes, those are canned sardines in my cupboard. Most people's reactions would be "eww" and that's my reaction, too. But I keep reading about the benefits of eating small fish. Sardines are healthy (full of omega 3s), low in mercury (since they're at the bottom of the food chain) and sustainable (they aren't overfished). So this week after hearing an interview with a fisheries professor on Fresh Air, I blogged that I would try them.

Today at my local farmers market, I was heading out with a bag overflowing with produce when I saw the fish guy. I usually walk by his stand because the fish he sells is local and fresh ... ie: expensive. But today I stopped to see how much he was selling salmon for ($18/ lb). As I read the board listing the fish he had for sale, near the bottom I saw sardines. At $3 a pound they were a bargain. But thankfully "OUT" was written in red letters next to the name. I took that as a sign that I shouldn't try sardines this week.

But my next stop was the Whole Foods across the street to get the rest of my groceries. As I walked along the back aisle I came face-to-face with a display of sardines. I couldn't ignore the message: I had no excuse to not buy sardines.

But as with all shopping, there were choices and I didn't know what to buy. I tried calling my sister because she had told me she likes canned sardines, but she didn't answer. So I went with skinless and boneless over smoked and packed in water instead of oil. Then when I got home I noticed that they're from Morocco so they might not be as environmental as I thought. According to Seafood Watch, the "greenest" sardines are from the Pacific.

I found this article from The Atlantic about sardines becoming more popular for basically all the reasons I'm considering (I mean, going to) eat them. The author is a fan, so although he prefers fresh over canned, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. The box says "ready to eat" but even though I came home hungry, I didn't rip open the can and dig in. Besides the ick factor I'm trying to overcome, I don't know what to do with them. Should I eat them with a meal or as a snack? I'm waiting to hear back from my sister to get her advice. For now, they'll stay in my pantry.

Two takes on sardines

One of the things I really enjoy about blogging is the conversations it starts with my family on topics that don't normally come up. Like, I don't usually ask them about their fish preferences. But after my post yesterday about wanting to try eating smaller fish because they are healthier for you, my sister and dad both shared personal stories about eating sardines.

When my sister was in college she lived for two years in Portugal. The interview I heard on Fresh Air mentioned that grilled sardines are popular in Portugal, and sure enough she said she ate them all the time. In the seaside Vila do Conde, "The women used to walk through the town early in the morning with baskets of sardines on their heads. I can still hear them yelling, 'Sardinas, pecininas' (small sardines). They are quite delicious when grilled and I've even eaten them canned here because they are a great source of minerals, especially calcium."

All right, I'm sold. I'm so trying some sardines. Maybe I'll start with canned sardines since that would be easier. But wait, then I got an e-mail from my dad with a different take on sardines. I like the way he tells stories (maybe I got the writing bug from him), so I'm going to quote his whole e-mail.

"OK so here's a little story from when I was a yute, er, youtthh. I used to hang out over at David Sanford's house because they were a cool family and of course mine was not. Mr. Sandford ate canned sardines, so there were times when I was at the Sanford house and I would eat canned sardines too. Ugh. I can't believe now that I actually ate them. No to sardines. Double no to anchovies (they stink). And herring? - forgetaboutit."

Delicious versus ugh. Hmm, well I guess to each his own. I'll have to try for myself to see who I agree with.

Grilled sardines anyone?

Driving home from work today, I caught a segment on Fresh Air on a topic that is close to my heart -- or rather, stomach. Terry Gross was talking to Daniel Pauly, a professor at the University of British Columbia, about the best fish to eat both for your health and the environment. I wanted to embed the video but apparently I'm so computer illiterate that I couldn't make it work (or I need a new computer). But here's the link to her interview on the NPR site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120049590

I've blogged about this before so some of what he said was familiar: wild Atlantic salmon is best; eat fish low on the food chain like sardines and mackerel, etc. But I learned a few new tidbits, like the reason wild salmon is better for the environment than farmed salmon. He said salmon farms don't produce fish, they consume fish since salmon are carnivores and eat fish lower on the food chain. So in salmon farms they grind up fish to make food for the salmon, for a net loss of fish. The good news is that catfish and tilapia (which I like to eat) are herbivores so those are good farmed options, along with shellfish (oysters, mussels, clams).

He's concerned about overfishing and made the point that sushi and sashimi used to be only for special occasions but now some people eat it every day. He made the dramatic comparison that eating a tuna roll is as bad for the environment as driving a Hummer.

But the line that got me was: "I think we should act as citizens, not just as consumers." Now I kinda want to take a stab at eating those low-mercury, small fish that Europeans eat, but that have a stigma associated with them in this country like anchovies, sardines and herring. Anchovies make me think of greasy pizza and my only association with herring is the phrase "red herring" (which I learned from one of the best movies ever, Clue). And sardines, well ... canned sardines, need I say more? I'm embarrassed to say that I don't even know what these fish look like, even though I'm sure my eyes have passed over them in the fish counter. But I'm making a promise to myself that I'm going to try one of them. If Europeans like them, they can't be that bad. I'll let you know how it tastes.

The one-year Ziploc challenge

I moved into my apartment a little over a year ago, in mid-September 2008. My move has been a convenient way for me to keep track of how much stuff I use. I've realized what a good deal Mrs. Meyer's concentrated all-purpose cleaner is because I still have the same 32-ounce bottle I bought a year ago for $8 (it's about two-thirds gone, although I probably would have gone through it by now if I was better about washing my floors). But I'm most proud of my Ziploc bag habit. I've had the same two boxes of sandwich and freezer bags since I moved in and they are nowhere near being empty. I've used 18 out of the 54 freezer bags. Of the 125-count sandwich bag box, I've gone through probably 30 or so (don't feel like counting all of those).

How have I cut back? Well, about a year ago I wrote a post about an article I read that mentioned a family that used the same sandwich bag for a year by washing it every time. I knew that was too drastic for me but I did start washing and reusing bags more than I had before. My co-worker, who had told me about the article, said that as my New Year's resolution I should try to limit myself to one box (not one bag for god's sake) for one year. Instead of waiting until New Year's, I decided to keep track of how many bags I went through in my first year of living in my apartment.

I don't use plastic produce bags that often -- only when I'm buying loose items like green beans but never for things like apples or broccoli (I don't understand people who put their bananas in a plastic bag. Is that supposed to keep them fresher or something? Seems like such an obvious waste to me). But I usually have a few on hand so I use those instead of sandwich bags and I reuse them as much as I can. I also re-use bread bags several times before they eventually get a little too worn and then I recycle them. I've also been using more plastic containers to hold things like nuts I take to work or half an avocado that I stick in the fridge. Now my most common use of Ziplocs is for raw chicken that I store in the freezer. It icks me out to think of reusing a bag that held raw chicken so those are one-time-only bags.

I feel good that I've cut back because I remember how often we'd run out of sandwich bags when I lived with roommates. Even though we were recycling most of them, it felt like such a waste. And it's really not that hard. The only annoyance is the cluster of wet bags littering my counter as they dry. I now see the reason for the bare-tree looking bag drying rack that I saw in a Gaiam catalog. At the time I thought it was a ridiculous and unnecessary invention. Now I admit, I kinda want one. Convenient that Christmas is coming up. I think it would make an excellent stocking stuffer. Anyone, anyone?

Which plastic containers are best?

I talk to my mom every Monday morning because it's my day off and since she's in sales I can usually catch her at home while she's getting ready and answering calls. Like many mother-daughter relationships, our conversations can meander in numerous directions, often ending on a path I didn't expect. Today after we'd gotten the usual dating, work and rugby updates out of the way, we got talking about her weekend purge of old clothes and shoes, which led to our unanimous approval of discount stores like Marshalls, to her saying she bought glass food containers on sale the last time she was there. She finally got rid of her old Tupperware containers, some she's had for 25 years. Yikes, that's bad, but at least she knew they needed to be thrown away and were so old they could be leaching chemicals into her food. She doesn't microwave her plastic containers but she does pour hot soup into them so after many years of use, I'm sure they were not safe anymore.

She said she also wanted to buy new plastic containers since she didn't want to have only glass ones, but planned to do some research into which ones were safest and didn't contain the chemical BPA (bisphenol A). I remembered a useful article I read a year ago in National Geographic's Green Guide magazine. I bought the magazine when I moved into my apartment so I could find out which kitchen gadgets and items were the greenest. I still had the magazine so I just looked over the article again.

It recommended glass, ceramic and stainless steel, plus for lighter options that are easier to carry to work, it suggested "stainless steel or reusable storage containers made from #5 polypropylene plastic, but avoid exposing plastic to heat." The items they recommended included GladWare round #5 plastic bowls with blue lids and Ziploc "Twist 'n Loc" #5 plastic containers. I must have studies this article carefully because I have the Ziploc containers. I like them because they're the perfect size for storing leftovers and snacks for work, although a little small to pack a full meal into. But I also forgot the cautionary advice about using single-use yogurt and butter containers. They can get scratches that are hard to see, and you should store only cold food in them, not hot food (heat speeds deterioration). I've been collecting and using old yogurt, cottage cheese, butter and hummus containers since I moved in and since I've been here a year, it's probably time to rotate out the old ones with new ones.

I couldn't find that article on the Green Guide website, but I did find a handy plastic containers buying guide. So Mom, I've saved you some research time. Check it out before you hit Target (or Marshalls again) to update your kitchen.

Fishy business part 2

Two months ago I posted a blog entry that began: "Today I ate a tasty meal of catfish, corn on the cob and sauteed new potatoes." I am nothing if not consistent because today's blog entry could have began almost the same way: "I just finished a delicious dinner of pan-fried catfish coated in soy flour with broccoli and roasted potatoes on the side." My blog entry from August was about a Washington Post article on the "greenest" fish, based on fishing or farming practices, the energy used in transport and overfishing. But I commented at the end that while helpful, the article didn't take into account health factors like mercury levels. So today is the follow up.

I came across a great website by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. Their "Fish List" tells you which fish pregnant women (and as an extension everyone in general) should avoid because of high mercury levels. I searched for "catfish" and was disappointed that it fell under the "eat no more than one serving per month" category. Good thing I haven't eaten it since that August entry!

These fish have low mercury levels:
Blue crab (mid-Atlantic)
Croaker
Fish Sticks
Flounder (summer)
Haddock
Trout (farmed)
Salmon (wild Pacific)
Shrimp

In cross-referencing the EWG list with the Seafood Watch list of ocean-friendly seafood, I'd say the big winner is ... (ding, ding, ding) ... wild Pacific salmon. It gets high marks for being an excellent choice in several categories. It's good for the environment, has low mercury levels and is recommended by doctors because it's high in healthy omega-3 fats.

I was sad to see canned tuna on the EWG "avoid" list because that's been a staple in my diet my whole life. I remember many Sundays when my mom would make classic tuna sandwiches with mayonnaise, onion and celery. For some reason they always tasted better when she made them. Then when I became an insolent teenager I'd make her set aside some of the tuna in a bowl so I could make it less fattening with mustard and just a little mayonnaise. As a college student and later as an adult I experimented with new ingredients like curry, raisins and nuts. I can't imagine how many tuna sandwiches and tuna salads I've eaten over the years, thinking I was being healthy.

But how much canned tuna is safe to eat? I plugged my weight into the EWG's handy tuna calculator and the result said that women of child-bearing age should eat no albacore tuna. Chunk light tuna is lower in mercury.

But as an alternative, the fish besides wild salmon that both lists consider the best choice are blue crab, farmed trout, flounder and shrimp (as long as they are not imports). I haven't cooked with crab, trout or flounder before so I have some new types of fish to experiment with. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. There may be more blog posts in the future that begin with a scrumptious menu.

Tasteless avocados have me pining for the farmers market

I've been a bad blogger. It's been over two weeks since my last post because it's harder to find the time now that rugby season is in full swing. I'm also not doing as many good things for the environment that would be worthy of a post. I'm in my daily driving routine to work and on the weekends I've had rugby games so I haven't made it to the Sunday farmers market in a few weeks. My routine is pretty much wake up, get ready for work, drive to work, drive to rugby practice (or go running), come home, cook something that resembles a meal in under five minutes because it's late and I'm hungry, maybe take a second shower of the day, go to bed. Then wake up, repeat. Sorry, Earth.

I wish I had made it to the farmers market this week because I accidentally bought avocados from Chile at the grocery store and am now feeling the guilt. To make it worse, the one I cut into tonight was TERRIBLE. I was too excited by the 65 cent price to notice the country of origin. I also didn't realize that the two bright green avocados I picked out weren't ripe yet so it was like trying to cut plastic. And it might as well have been plastic since there was no taste either. I'm hoping that the other one will taste better if given a few days to ripen but I'm not holding out much hope. How fresh and flavorful can a vegetable be that came all the way from South America? I've gotten pretty good about reading country of origin signs when I'm buying seafood, so this is a reminder that I need to pay closer attention in the produce department too, and not get sucked in by the sales price.

In a related topic, I liked this story in the Sunday LA Times about a woman who planted a vegetable garden in her front yard a year ago. It reminded me of my sister, whose husband planted a garden along the side of her house in Temecula. They moved last year and I hear (via her blog!) that he's planted another one at their home in Dallas. I'm jealous of her abundance (or what I presume is an abundance based on the success of her garden in California) of tomatoes, squash and basil. It's sad that it's not easy to get reasonably priced fresh produce without having a garden of your own. No wonder eating healthy is so hard. Who wants to eat an avocado that tastes like plastic? Not I, not I.

30 years of farm food in LA

A few days after I railed against a Times op-ed criticizing foodies who encourage people to eat at so-called pricey farmers markets, it was nice to see a positive farmers market story in today's paper. The story, about Los Angeles County celebrating 30 years of farmers markets, was written by Mary MacVean. It said that L.A. is soliciting ideas for how to make farm food more available, with the winning idea being a central hub where farmers could bring their produce to be distributed by electric trucks to neighborhoods. I know what my suggestion would be: longer hours. OK, that may be unrealistic (how long do tomatoes stay fresh sitting under a tent in the bright sun?) but with Long Beach's Sunday farmers market closing at 2 p.m., I can't always get there in time, or forget about it until 1:30 p.m. when it's too late to go. So even though I didn't make it to the market this week, it was nice reading this article and dreaming about the meals I'll make in the future with farm fresh food.

In defense of farmers markets

The problem I have with this snarky editorial in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, besides the insinuation that liberals and environmentalists hate poor people, is that the writer claims that farmers markets are more expensive than the grocery store. That hasn't been my experience, so I'm betting that the writer has never actually shopped at a farmers market. The editorial attacks my hero Michael Pollan and Alice Waters (who I don't know much about) for encouraging people to eat locally grown and raised foods, particularly those that are organic. She also goes after people who believe cheap, mass-produced furniture and clothing hurts the environment and fills up our landfills. Her point is that with times being so tough, these people are snobby and unrealistic, that cheap products are good for families that can't afford to shop at farmers markets, where "organic tomatoes go for $4 a pound. "

It seems to me that she's always been against these people and is using the economy and the recent release of a book called "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture,"to make her views newsy. OK, I concede that organic is expensive. But when I go to the farmers market, I can buy non-organic produce (that's still fresh and from family farms) cheaper than at the grocery store. Like a 50 cent cucumber and 25 cent red pepper. Last week I bought mixed salad greens for the same price I bought them at the grocery store today (I'd wanted to shop at the farmers market but I was being lazy and it closed before I could get there. Now there's a valid drawback to farmers markets ... limited hours.). I'm bringing this up because I think there is a perception that the farmers market is expensive. Some things are, but you don't have to buy organic peaches at the farmers market, just as you don't have to buy them at the grocery store. There is plenty of non-organic, reasonably priced produce. And it's also cheaper in that you're not tempted to buy all the crap they sell in the grocery store. Granted, you can't do all your shopping there. I still have to go to the grocery store to buy meat, milk, etc., but with less items to buy, I'm in and out quickly and don't get as distracted by the end-of-aisle crap that's cheap but has no health value. So yes, I will take Michael Pollan's advice and try to eat healthier, and leave the Häagen-Dazs to narrow-minded people like this writer.

Freshness: the key ingredient in a farmers market salad

I just wanted to update Sunday's post with a pic of the beautiful salad I made today with my farmers market bounty. I really liked the spinach and mixed greens. Buying lettuce is a pain at the grocery store because the bagged mixed greens are limp and go bad quickly and the loose kind gets wet from being constantly misted so it doesn't last long either. And sometimes, I admit, I'm lazy about having to wash and cut the good ol' romaine or green leaf. But my farmers market mixed greens were dry and fresh. My non-waxy cucumber was crispy and the red pepper that cost 25 cents was sweet. All around, a good salad day. I added black beans, rice I'd made earlier and a Trader Joe's chicken sausage pulled from the freezer. And there you have it ... a filling lunch. What can I say, it doesn't take a lot to make me happy!

A sprint through the farmers market

I've discovered another reason why I love shopping at the farmers market. Speed.

As I was driving down Ocean to Trader Joe's today after meeting someone for a late morning/early afternoon coffee, I saw signs for the farmers market. I glanced at my car clock: 1:58 p.m. The market closes at 2 but the row of white tents were still up, so I quickly turned around and cut through the Whole Foods parking lot.

I parked, grabbed the cotton bag from my trunk and rushed over as sellers were packing up their stands. They didn't mind me being there as they loaded boxes onto their trucks, although I didn't get any great last-minute bargains (except a free lemon). In 10 minutes for just under $10, I bought:

-- a cucumber: 50 cents (sans slick wax coating. The woman working the stand told me the wax helps them last longer, so those cucs in the grocery store could be a few weeks old.)
-- bag of four red peppers: $1 (perhaps the best deal of the day)
-- bag of fingerling potatoes: $3
-- loose mixed salad greens at $3.50 for 1/2 lb: $2
-- two tomatoes at $1/lb: 75 cents (also a good deal)
-- green beans: $2 (the organic ones were $3)
-- a small lemon from the 3 for $1 pile: free!

You'll notice I didn't buy any fruit. I knew I could get cheaper in-season fruit at the grocery store by buying what's on sale (for example, grapes for 77 cents a pound at Ralphs compared to $2 a pound at the farmers market).

But I love how quickly I bought the produce, putting together meals in my mind as I saw what was available. I'll be able to make a few salads this week with the wonderful mixed greens, plus the green beans and potatoes will go with the chicken I bought afterwards at Trader Joe's. In just a half hour, I got most of my shopping done for the week. Check and check. Now I just have to cook it!

Fishy business at the grocery store

Tonight I ate a tasty meal of catfish, corn on the cob and sauteed new potatoes. I haven't cooked with catfish before, so I was pleasantly surprised that it was flaky with no fishy taste at all. I bought it because it was a good price.

But the week before at the grocery store, I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out what fish purchase would be best for the environment and my wallet. I couldn't believe how many choices I faced: salmon from China, Chile, Canada and the US. Shrimp from Indonesia. Chilean sea bass. US snapper. I must have looked a little odd staring at the fine print on signs and scribbling notes on my shopping list, to eventually settle upon farm-raised salmon from Canada that was $4.50 for a six-ounce piece.

That was a compromise. Decent price, neighboring country. The best deal was farm-raised salmon from China (on sale for $3.99 a pound). Or I could have splurged on the deep red Sockeye salmon from Alaska's Cooper River for $24.99 a pound.

That variety of price and origination demonstrates the complexity of something as simple as buying fish in the grocery store. A while back, my coworker forwarded a Washington Post article to me about the "greenest" fish to buy but I only glanced at it because the answer made my eyes glaze over (avoid species that are overfished, but also consider the carbon footprint from feed production and fishing methods, avoid fish that has been flown in from far away). Reading it over again, according to the article, the pricey Alaskan salmon would have been the best choice. The article noted that the Seafood Watch program gave high marks to wild-caught Alaskan salmon, canned albacore tuna (I do buy that!) and farmed rainbow trout.

But that's not realistic for most people, especially families on a budget, even though I'm sure that Cooper River salmon tasted great (I was almost a bit of an Alaskan salmon expert since I worked one summer in a fishing cannery, but at the time I didn't like salmon and never ate the fresh King salmon cooked for us on Fridays. Oh youthful ignorance.).

Beyond salmon, this paragraph was insightful, although following it would require changing my fish-eating habits (Sardines? Uh, do I have to?): "For an easy way to cut your seafood-related emissions, try to shift your diet toward farmed oysters, mussels and clams, shellfish that don't require processed feed. (They eat plankton instead.) Many experts also recommend that you make like a European and learn to love smaller, schooling fish such as sardines, anchovies and mackerel. They're easier to catch than big bottom-dwelling carnivores such as cod and haddock, meaning less fuel is expended to harvest them. (Plus, since they're lower on the food chain, they're naturally more energy-efficient.) Generally speaking, fish with abundant populations are easier to harvest, meaning that choosing fish from well-managed stocks is likely to cut your emissions as well."

So for now, I'll try to do more research into this confusing subject (the article didn't take into account mercury levels, for example) but in the meantime I think US or Canadian farm-raised salmon might be the best compromise.

The art of consumerism

The toothpicks in this piece by Chris Jordan represent the number of trees used in one month for mail-order catalogs

Tonight I caught the last minute of a news story about artist Chris Jordan, who uses Photoshopped images to depict American consumerism. He turned to Photoshop when he realized that his real images weren't shocking enough to get across his message. A snarl of cell phone chargers didn't scream out mass consumption, it just looked beautifully futuristic. But an image of 8 million toothpicks to represent the number of trees used in one month of mail-order catalogs, well, it makes you pause and think while also being beautiful. This statistic reminded me of my earlier post about calling Gaiam and asking to be taken off their mailing list. Not two days later another catalog arrived in my mailbox from some company called Viva Terra. I hadn't gotten their catalog before and didn't ask for it. I suspect Gaiam sold my name to the company since they both sell eco-friendly products. So many trees wasted on junk mail we don't want.

Another of Jordan's images was a bluish sea with hints of color dotted throughout. The statistic he shared was that the U.S. consumes 2 million plastic bottles every five minutes, which is enough to fill eight football fields ... every five minutes. These wall-sized images are meant to create an impact. From far away it's a pretty picture but as you walk closer you see that it's made up of thousands upon thousands of items (his focus is not just environmental. As you walk closer to a row of orange vertical panels, it turns into folded prison uniforms representing every person in jail in the United States). His point is that the collective is made up of individuals. "It's each one of us," he said in the interview.

His images are beautiful, while also making the statistics that accompany them feel more real. The reaction is "Wow, that's a lot of (fill in the blank)." I thought that was pretty cool. See images from his project, Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait.

Will too much carbon consumption make me fat?

On Monday I listened to a personal trainer talk about how to train properly for the new rugby season, which started tonight. He said that if you're working out hard, you need to eat enough calories to give you energy and quicken your recovery. Then he wrote a shockingly large number on the white board: 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day.

With rugby season underway, my calories are not the only number going up. My carbon consumption is also on the rise. No longer will I be taking public transportation to work once or twice a week. No, from now until November when the season ends, it'll be zero times a week. I need to drive to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I can drive to practice afterwards. And on Wednesdays, I need to drive so I can get to the gym in time to meet my workout partner and have enough energy for a good workout. No more jogging three miles from work to the train station and calling that my exercise for the day. Now I've gotta kick it up a notch and spend my evenings at practice or the gym or at the stairs or doing sprints.

Oh well, c'est la vie. My summer public transportation habit was nearing an end anyway. In about three weeks we'll start getting busy at work and I probably would've stopped taking the train then. It just came sooner than expected. So starting now, let the carbon counting begin!

Reducing junk mail one call at a time

What's a good definition of waste? Catalogs that go directly from your mailbox to your recycling bin, perhaps with a brief stay on a side table, ignored amid the other catalogs full of things you don't need.

That's why I called Gaiam today and asked to be taken off their mailing list. A year ago I ordered curtains off their website and have been getting their catalog since. Initially I'd look through it and saw things I considered ordering, like composting trash bags. But every catalog has the same items so after a while I stopped looking at it. I'd meant to call them when I got their Summer 2009 catalog. Then they sent me another Summer 2009 catalog merely a month later. I guess I was supposed to get excited by 20 percent off their already-overpriced organic cotton sheets and bedspreads. No, it just bugged me that it came while the first one was still being ignored (on my side table). The catalogs say they are made with 30 percent recycled material but still, for a company promoting green living, the word hypocrite comes to mind. The slogan on the cover says "Simple Choices Make a Difference." Yes they do. I called the 800-number on the back and it took just minutes to be taken off their mailing list. And now both catalogs are in my recycling bin.

But on a good note, I brought my car to the Toyota dealership today for an oil change and they told me they were no longer mailing their coupon flier. It came up when they asked for my e-mail address. I always hesitate before giving companies my e-mail because I don't want my inbox to be inundated with "special deals" every week that really just involve them getting you to spend more money. They probably are trying to save money during the recession but I liked that they were reducing their paper waste ... and that I didn't have to do anything to get one less thing I don't care about mailed to me (and no, I didn't give them my e-mail address).

Sunday is a pro-Earth day

Bunches of basil come big at the farmers market

I had a good environmentally friendly day today.

First off was a 25-mile bike ride along the San Gabriel River trail. The path starts three miles from my house so I biked to the start and didn't have to use my car. To get to it, I went past the Sunday farmers market at PCH and 2nd Street so on the way back, wanting a break, I stopped and figured I'd pick up some fresh produce. I had only a small backpack with me so I couldn't fit a whole lot. I picked up a $1 bunch of basil (which at the farmers market is huge ... I had to squish it to fit it in my bag) and a tomato. My favorite stand was one selling juicy and flavorful organic strawberries, blackberries, nectarines and peaches. I knew I couldn't bike home with a pint of strawberries -- at least if I didn't want them to turn into mush at the bottom of my bag by the time I got home -- so I bought a nectarine and ate it as a snack before I got back on the bike. Organic isn't cheap, not even at a farmers market, so it cost 90 cents, but it was a good fresh treat to refuel me before the last three miles home. I hadn't been to the farmers market in forever, probably since last fall, and it was busier than I remembered it. I overhead someone say that it was the busiest she'd seen. It was probably the combination of all the fresh summer produce (lots of bright red strawberries and tomatoes) and the great weather. Luckily it had been cool during my ride but by 11:30 the clouds had burned off and it was a sunny day in the high 70s, low 80s.

Then this evening I carpooled to a meeting, picking up two of my teammates. It was at a park, which added to the happy-being-outside theme of the day. We went out to dinner afterwards, which I'm not sure is good or bad for the environment. We'll call it green neutral except that I put the rest of my salmon Caesar salad in a styrofoam to-go container. But all in all, a good Earth friendly (and healthy friendly) day.

Not every day is a good day to take the bus

I thought about taking public transportation to work three days this week but decided against it on Wednesday because I planned to go to the gym after work and didn't want to get home too late (it's a bit slower than driving). So Tuesday and today I took the train to work, but Wednesday I drove and got a flat tire. Hmm, maybe there's a message in that.

Jokes aside, I'm proud that I took the train twice this week. When summer rolled around, I started sporadically taking it again, as I'd done last summer, and this week is my first double. If I'd gone for the triple maybe that mysterious nail or whatever it was wouldn't have lodged itself in my front passenger tire. But luckily the tire just needed to be patched and not replaced. It took a half hour after work and I got to the gym late (irony noted), but all in all it wasn't so bad.

What I really learned this week is that I need to plan out my public transportation days better. I forgot about my book club meeting when I decided to take the train on Tuesday, so by the time I got home I was going to be late so I decided not to go. Then today I planned to run from my office to the train station after work, which saves time because I get my exercise as I'm commuting home. But I'd forgotten that I'm starting tomorrow at a school and needed to bring some stuff home with me. So instead of heading out for a three-mile run at 6 p.m., I sprinted to the bus stop (carrying my bag with my unused running clothes in it). I got stuck in the no-bus dead zone and caught a 16 bus 10 minutes later. I swear that was the slowest bus ever so by the time I got home I was hungry but still had to run. I definitely got that message. I'm not going to take the 16 bus in the evening because it's so unpredictable. It saves time to run to the train station and take the Red Line to the Blue line. So next week, I'll try to plan better.

Do my actions really make a difference?

That's a common question in the debate over protecting the environment and stopping global warming. The refrain we hear is yes, everyone's actions make a difference. Drive less. Take shorter showers. Use reusable bags. Recycle. These are the actions I've discussed in my blog as I've chronicled my attempts to "do my part." They're the changes that while small and fairly easy, make me feel good that I'm making things better. Today after taking a quick shower, I took the train to work. I ate lunch, pulling a cooked chicken sausage out of a reused Ziploc bag. I bought a can of Sprite and meant to recycle it (oops, I left it behind but I have faith that someone else recycled it instead of throwing it away), and then I took the train home at the end of the day.

Then tonight I read an interesting article on alternet.org, a website featuring stories with alternative and progressive viewpoints that don't get covered in the mainstream press. The article, "Taking Shorter Showers Doesn't Cut It: Why Personal Change Does Not Equal Political Change," written by Derrick Jensen, an environmental activist, and originally published in Orion Magazine, had some sobering statistics about how our individual actions make little difference in the grand scheme of things. As the headline suggests, taking shorter showers won't save our water supply because 90 percent of water use is by agriculture. I thought a valid criticism was that An Inconvenient Truth focuses only on the solutions individuals can take to stop global warming. This statistic summed up Jensen's argument well: "Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide."

The writer didn't intend to leave us feeling hopeless, he wants to wake us to the reality that we need to change our society and not just our individual habits. So tonight will I leave my computer turned on because it doesn't make a difference? No. But at the same time I can feel less guilty about the bath I want to take.

I'm not sure what to take away from this. I feel good about the changes I've made to my lifestyle because it's better than doing nothing but I'm not working toward larger, community-wide changes. I think cities (or even better, the state and country) should require businesses to charge customers for plastic bags, which would get more people using reusable bags, but I'm not writing letters or attending city council meetings or joining activist groups to fight for it. It's easier to be responsible for just myself and blog once a week about my latest small victory or stumble. In the short term, it's refreshing to know I don't have to carry the burden of the world on my shoulders. But in the long term, am I going to make a bigger commitment? It's something for all of us to think about.

McDonald's McCafes: a gamble with the environment

On my two-mile drive down Long Beach Boulevard from the train station today, I passed four reminders from McDonald's that I should be drinking its coffee. That would be three McDonald's restaurants telling me "Now serving McCafe" and enticing me with giant posters of mocha lattes topped with whipped cream, plus a billboard in case I missed the ads plastered across the stores. I think McDonald's really wants us to buy its "specialty" espresso drinks.

Even I am not immune to the powers of good marketing (the commercials are funny). Last week I decided to try a McCafe because if it tasted good but was cheaper than Starbucks or another coffee chain, then it would be a good option. I went through the drive-thru and ordered a small iced latte. I shouldn't have been surprised that in McDonald's super-sized world, a small would be 16 ounces of seriously strong coffee. It was so potent I saved half for the next day, which did make the $3 price a good deal, although it wasn't as cheap as I expected (iced drinks are more expensive; their hot lattes are cheaper).

Then the very next day, after I'd enjoyed my day-old latte, I read an article in the Los Angeles Times about McDonald's coffee investment and I felt bad about supporting what will likely lead to an increase in milk consumption, if McDonald's gamble pays off. The article quoted a dairy expert saying, "When per capita milk consumption rose in 2006 for the first time in 20 years, McDonald's was a prime reason." Why? McDonald's had started offering milk in plastic containers, which became so popular that other fast-food chains followed its lead. "The dairy industry is counting on the same sort of effect from McDonald's espresso coffee drinks," the article said, and then had this shocking statistic, "which can contain up to 80 percent milk." If (let's be real ... when) McCafes become popular, that's a lot of milk -- 1 1/2 cups for a 16-ounce drink. That means a lot of milk production, which is not good for the environment (cows are a source of methane pollution, plus concerns over the amount of water used on dairy farms).

But when I made this argument to my coworker, she played devil's advocate and said "So are poor people not allowed to buy coffee but rich people who can afford Starbucks can?" No, of course not. I know that Starbucks and other coffee chains have led to more people drinking coffee and thus consuming more milk, but my concern with McDonald's is that it's even more pervasive in our culture and its coffee is cheaper, which could lead to people buying coffee more often, no matter their income.

I think the solution is that everyone should buy less coffee and try to make it at home more often. I'm not saying I'm a saint. I buy coffee about once a week, the last time being on Sunday after a run. I felt like I deserved to indulge and since I'd gotten up too early to make coffee, I decided to splurge on an iced latte at Seattle's Best. But was my impulse buy worth $2.80 for a measly 12-ounce drink that also wasted a plastic cup? In the time it took me to wait in line, I could have gone home and made my own coffee. And I would have been happier with it. They were out of vanilla so I flavored my latte with cinnamon, which doesn't taste so great. And when I make coffee at home, I use a half cup of milk, probably less than what was in my McCafe or Seattle's Best drink.

And let's face it, making your own coffee saves money too. McDonald's may be promoting their drinks as a cheaper alternative to Starbucks but MyCafe beats out McCafe any day.

Saving water in the shower

One of the sacrifices I'm making for the environment is publicly sharing my personal life in this blog. So here's my second post about showering. Yes it's about hygiene, but water -- and will we have enough of it in the future -- is a big issue so I feel it's justified.

In my first post I timed my showers for a few days and found that when I tried, I could get them around five minutes long. Not under five, which was my goal, but not too shabby either. One other trick to saving water would be to turn off the water when shaving. But call me a spoiled American, but that just didn't sound pleasant. Today I thought of this halfway through shaving so at that point I sucked it up and reluctantly turned off the water. I expected immediate goose bumps and my core body temperature to take a nose dive. No water diva here, it wasn't that bad. It may help that it's summer, but I didn't get cold. And I shaved faster, theoretically saving time but here I am blogging about it before I leave for work so the time saving is a wash (oh that was bad I know).

I once had a roommate who was from France and I could hear him turn off the water mid-shower, presumably to shave, so my guess is that this is common in Europe but hasn't taken hold in wasteful America. I'm not going to make any grand promises, but I'll try to turn off the water again. If I can get it to become habit, it may become second nature, liking turning off the water when I brush my teeth or wash my face. Now I'd better go because the clock is ticking and my drive to work isn't getting any shorter.

Oh, and coming up, a post about McDonald's. ...

Recycling my running shoes

I run, therefore I am ... constantly going through running shoes. Before my environmental awareness was kicked into full gear, I would throw away my old (dirty, smelly) running shoes. But a few months ago when I bought a new pair of my favorite Adidas Supernovas, I held onto my old pair because I vaguely remembered hearing about shoe recycling and donation programs. For weeks and weeks now, they have been sitting in a pile of "things to blog about" as a way of reminding myself to look into that. So today when my co-worker asked the "Urban Dieter" if I knew what to do with old shoes, I didn't have an answer. My other co-worker quickly found information online about shoe recycling offered by Nike (making me feel a little embarrassed for dragging my feet on this). The Reuse-A-Shoe website says the rubber, foam and fabric in your old shoes is shredded and then used in the manufacturing of sports and playground surfaces.

I admit I've never been a Nike fan, especially since my college days when the company was accused of operating sweatshops (although in retrospect I'm sure Nike wasn't the only culprit). I've never worn anything Nike but they take any brand, not just Nikes, and they have a drop-off location down the street from my office at The Grove.

A quick search of "shoe recycling" found some other programs, although Nike's seems to be the biggest. There are a few donation programs that collect newish shoes to give to people in the US and other countries, like Soles4Souls and One World Running, which is based in Boulder, Colorado but my local running store Runners High is a drop-off location. However, I'm not sure if my shoes are too old to be reused.

Either way, this seems easy enough. I can now check blogging about recycling my shoes off my list. The next step is to get around to dropping them off.

Bus blues

I have failed yet again in my quest to find the "magic" public transportation route to work that takes no longer than driving. Today I scratched the 720 Rapid bus off my list of options, at least in the way I took it today.

Let me start by saying that the MTA uses the term "rapid" loosely. It was only 10 or so minutes faster than the plodding 16 bus. But with the extra walking I had to do, it ended up taking longer.

I've got the first leg of my journey down because there's only one option. I take the Blue Line lightrail train from Long Beach to downtown LA. But once I get off the train, I've got options galore. Too bad none of them involve a car waiting to whisk me to my office six miles away. My regular route is to walk three blocks to 5th Street and grab the 16 or 316 bus, which runs along 3rd Street and drops me off in front of my office. It takes about 30 minutes and on a good day I get to work right at 9 a.m.

Today was what I call a "bus fail day" and on the way home it turned into a "train fail day," but that I'll get to later. I decided to experiment because I'd always wondered if taking the 720 would be faster. The problem is that the 720 runs along Wilshire, although the downtown stop is on 5th Street. So I walked my usual few blocks to a different part of 5th Street where I caught the 720, but then 20 minutes later it dropped me off at Wilshire and La Brea and I still had to walk another 15 minutes to my office on 3rd (if you're familiar with LA, yes I basically walked several blocks north of Wilshire twice). The good part is that I got to walk more, the bad part is that walking is unfortunately the slowest mode of transportation possible. It didn't help that I had been a little late arriving at the Blue Line station and was running 10 minutes late to begin with, but I got to work close to 9:30 this morning. Oops.

But I don't give up that easy. The 16 bus may be the slow and steady option for me, but a girl's gotta play the field before she settles down! So I have one more route to try, which is taking the Blue Line to the Red Line, then briefly taking the 720 from Western and Wilshire to La Brea and Wilshire, then walking. OK, that may sound crazy, especially to people who live close to their office or don't live in L.A., but when you live 30 miles from work in a city with a pathetic public transporation system, you're willing to work with things as best you can for the sheer joy of not having to drive, not putting miles on your car and not paying $3.15 a gallon for gas.

So I promised to explain why I failed on the way home too. This was all my fault. Things started out fine. I ran from work to the Red Line station at Western and Wilshire again, which I'm liking, but then feeling tired after the run, I spaced out on the train and missed my stop at the 7th Street Metro Center. I ended up taking the Red Line all the way to Union Station. I jumped out of the train and jumped into a waiting train heading in the other direction, barely getting in before the doors closed. I'll have to remember to pay more attention next time.

We had a former student stop into our office today who grew up in LA but didn't know anything about the rail system. She had just returned from a semster studying in Paris and loved taking the Metro because she felt more connected to the city and the people. I don't get that same satisfaction using L.A.'s system because it fights you all the way. And so few people use public transportation that I don't feel like part of something greater. The Red Line train was empty today (in both directions, oops) from around 6:45-7:15 p.m. I would expect it to be popular since it's in the heart of LA but apparently not, although maybe it's busy earlier. It's too bad more people don't try out the train and bus, although I can't say I blame them either.

Taking the bus out of the equation

I had a great experience taking public transportation today. And no, I'm not referring to the verbally abusive woman asking for money on the Blue Line train this morning (raise your hand if you think calling someone -- no it wasn't me -- a b**** will get you a free handout). No, it's because I saved time and killed two birds with one stone by running part of my commute home.

At 6 p.m. I changed into my running clothes, put my bus pass, ID, credit card and some emergency cash in my back zippered pocket, grabbed my cell phone, iPod and keys and headed out the door, feeling light and unencumbered. The distance from my office to the Red Line station is three miles so I ran through the neighborhood streets of the mid-Wilshire district, into the tree-lined streets with million-dollar homes in Hancock Park, then into Koreatown, turning down Western for the last quarter mile to the Red Line station at Wilshire. It took about 30 minutes but I saved time because I'd gotten my exercising out of the way. And it put me in control of my commute because I didn't have to wait for the bus and be at its mercy. I know the Red Line train comes at 6:41 and by changing up my pace, I can make sure to get there in time.

I took the Red Line to downtown, where I switched to the Blue Line and pretty much slept until my stop. But it didn't matter that I was tired or that it was late (7:45) because I didn't need to find motivation to run or go to the gym. I parked my car at my apartment at 8:01 p.m. and felt so good. I had plenty of time to cook dinner (not reheat a meal or nuke a veggie burger, but actually cook) and even treated myself to a beer.

This is a good option for me in the summertime, when it's still light out when I'm running and it feels safe being on the train a little later than I normally would be. Sure, I would have preferred the city planners to have some foresight and extend the Red Line farther west when it was originally built, but this isn't a bad backup plan.

Back to the bus

I took public transportation to work today for the first time in, well, so long I can't remember. It was like riding a bike. It all came back to me ... what time I had to leave my place, what time the Blue Line train arrived to take me to downtown LA, and where to walk to catch the bus to my office.

The trip to work was pretty uneventful and the train and bus were surprisingly uncrowded. On the way home it was a little hairier but that's always the case. I never know when the bus will arrive so I sometimes rush out of the office only to sit at the corner and wait 10 minutes, like today. But I got home at my usual "bus" time and got some exercise in the form of speed walking from the bus to the train (only to sit another 10 minutes) so I can't complain.

It takes longer to take public transportation to work so sometimes I grudgingly do it, but one great benefit is that I have time to read the newspaper cover to cover ... I even inspect the ads. Bumping along Third Street on the bus this morning, I read on A9 about a digital camera class at Samy's that I decided to take on Sunday. However, tomorrow it's back to my car because I have to drive somewhere for work. I'm definitely not complaining.

City limits

The type of TV I watch all depends on the company. With others or my old roommates, I gravitate to shows that spark conversation like reality TV (Biggest Loser, Top Chef, and Project Runway and Top Model for a while until I got bored of them ... and of course the big cheese Jon Stewart). But I've noticed that when I watch TV by myself I can really nerd out. The lowest moment was when I didn't have cable and during the presidential election I got into -- I mean, really got into -- CSPAN. These days my 100-plus channels mean my choices are broader (Jon and Kate anyone?) but I still have a soft spot in my heart for those oft-ignored channels I used to frequent, such as PBS. This is all to explain why I found myself watching an episode of American Experience on KLCS about the history of test tube babies. I was enthralled as soon as they started talking about the first test tube baby born in England in the not-so-distant year of 1978, when the procedure was highly controversial. So I stuck around to the end of the show, and thank god. Because the next show was even more interesting. It was about Portland, a city I'm not that familiar with but am intrigued by because of its green reputation. And since Facebook tells me it's where I should be living, I had to watch. Maybe it was the nerdy TV watcher in me, but it was fascinating.

If you know a lot about Portland, this probably won't be new to you. All I knew was that it's a bike-friendly city with progressive residents in a beautiful location (I marveled at the pine trees -- real trees, not palms or god forbid, giant billboards! -- that ran alongside a freeway on my last and only second visit there. It was for a rugby tournament so I didn't get to see much of the city. My only other visit was very brief a decade ago). But what I learned is that Portland's bike culture and it's embracing of public transportation is tied to a 30-year-old decision to limit growth (and good land-use policy). Wise Portlandians (is that what they're called?) stopped urban sprawl in its tracks (er, tires?) with its "urban growth boundary," which put a border around the city and restricted development on the other side. The boundary has grown by only 12 percent in the last 30 years. This means the city is surrounded by farms, wineries and nature. This has had all sorts of positive effects, including dense neighborhoods with good public transportation, a downtown resurgence, farms just 20 miles away and lots of farmers markets with local produce. They have a network of streetcars and lightrail, making it possible to travel from north Portland to downtown in 20 minutes. For someone living in sprawling, freeway-filled, car-congested LA, this was heaven. Those Portlandites (is that what they're called?) are a proud people. This quote was a dagger to my heart: "“We’re not driving 34 miles a day.” Try 60 a day, roundtrip.

The city boundary is not without its critics. Landowners say the city is taking away their rights to sell their land to developers and make money. Some also say it's hard to find the American dream of a suburban house with a yard. The most valid concern is the lack of affordable housing. The city works best for professional singles like yours truly, who want to be near a lively urban core.

It was surreal watching little girls filling up the same red Trader Joe’s bags I own with organic, freshly picked produce like summer squash from a farm 25 miles from their house. I carry my Trader Joe’s bags to the grocery store and fill them with pathetic, wilting produce, passing over the organic produce because it’s so expensive in the grocery store ($3 for a cucumber, really Ralph's?).

And if that wasn't making me salivate, then I learned they actually tore up a freeway that was built alongside the river in the 60s and replaced it with a downtown riverfront park.

I know that even though the show covered concerns over the boundary and a recent ballot measure that would have allowed more development outside it, this was a rosy view of the city. But it made me want to visit to see for myself what it's like and if it truly is a dream city for someone wanting to decrease their carbon footprint, eat fresh foods, use public transportation to get to work, walk to restaurants and shops, and live in a place that's exciting and easy. Long Beach has a lot of those attributes but it's part of a greater metropolis. I don't work in Long Beach so I do that 60-mile commute every day. And as much as I love my city, it's still trying to create a vibrant, culture-rich downtown, the kind that Portlanders (that's what they're called) can take advantage of every day.

BYO Bag

I just came back from shopping and it's so nice that bringing your own bag is so accepted now. Before I left my house, I grabbed an old Express shopping bag and used it at the Gap and the bookstore. Both times the salespeople didn't think anything of it. I don't see a reason for taking home a new bag again, as long as I plan my shopping trips in advance. It's the spur-of-the-moment trips that get you. I keep a few bags in my car for the grocery store, but sometimes they're still in my apartment from my last trip so I am caught bagless. But still, it's a vast improvement over how many bags I used to use (er, waste). I'd collect them in my pantry for those occasions when you need a bag, but that didn't occur very often so the pile kept growing and growing. Now I think it's been months since I brought home a new shopping bag. Not only is that better for the environment, but it means less clutter. And that always makes me happy!

Biodegradable trash bags seemed like a good idea

Sometimes it feels like Americans create so much waste. I found statistics online that showed that while we're recycling more, we're still sending more to our landfills because our waste has almost tripled in the last half-century as our population has grown and society has gotten wealthier, resulting in buying more packaged goods. I think about this a lot. We recycle at work and it's hard to keep up with the bags of plastic containers that topple over in the kitchen and our personal bags of paper next to our desks. It's good that we're recycling but it's still just a lot of stuff. If I'm producing this much as just one person, how do we even have room in our landfills anymore? Then I think about all those plastic bags holding our trash that are sent to landfills. What happens to them? So I decided to do my part to reduce waste, both my recycling more but also cutting back on trash bags. Let me explain ...

When I moved into my apartment, I had to buy trash cans, one of many silly decisions to be made during my grand shopping spree to Target. I wanted a smaller can for trash because when you're conscious about recycling, your recycling container actually fills up faster, with all the plastic containers, beer bottles, newspapers, circulars, etc. My trash is mainly food scraps and those odd items that can't be recycled, like energy bar wrappers (and bottle caps? I've never been able to figure that one out). So after much internal debate and staring at cans trying to imagine the right size I needed, I ended up buying a 13-gallon can for recyclables that sits next to my fridge.

For my trash, I couldn't find one that would fit under my sink so I ended up using a wicker basket I already had. I knew the plan was flawed because wicker and liquid don't mix (I bet you never learned that in driver's ed). I wasn't happy about the occasional leaky trash bag, but it worked well enough. The bigger pain was my determination to not buy trash bags. I used a Trader Joe's reusable shopping bag in my recycling can and it would fill up quickly, but there was still room in the can so the bag would overflow and be a pain to take out. For trash I had no choice so for a while I used the occasional plastic bag I ended up with or the bags holding my newspapers on days when there was a chance of rain (they definitely erred on the safe side because I got those bags a lot, way more than it rained).

But I had planted the seeds of a better plan, one that involved no plastic sent to a landfill, when I saw biodegradable bags for sale in a catalog for Gaiam, which sells eco-friendly items like overpriced organic cotton yoga pants. I was like a child at Christmas pouring through the Sears catalog. I want, I want! I waited for a while and finally last month I decided to order them. They're for composting -- small ones for kitchen compost containers and larger ones for yard waste. But I figured I could use the small ones for my trash, so the bag I sent to the landfill would eventually biodegrade. They're pricier than regular trash bags (about $6 for 25 3-gallon bags) but I wouldn't go through them that quickly. When I did some research online, I found out they sold the same brand, BioBag, at Whole Foods. That made things easier, since I didn't have to pay for shipping.

One person had left a comment saying that the only drawback was they started to decompose a little if left too long before being taken out. The box says "BioBags are shelf stable yet biodegrade quickly when exposed to nature's elements and micro-organisms." They weren't kidding. The first week was fine but the second week there was some liquid in the bag so after five or so days the thin green plastic started to melt right into my wicker basket. Ewwee. The minute I discovered this I rushed the bag off to my apartment's trash bins.

This is where fate comes in, or perhaps the earth sending me a sign to chill out a little. I had just reluctantly bought trash bags for a weekend beach party. I couldn't have opened the box any faster. I put a bag in my larger trash can, converted it to holding my trash, and moved my recycling in the TJ's bag to next to the trash can. No wicker basket. This is a much better plan. No fear of melting bags, plus it's been easier not having to open the cabinet door and lean down to throw away cucumber peels.

I tried making an everyday part of living more environmental, but it's easier and more convenient the old-fashioned, more wasteful way. I'm not sure what to do now with my biodegradable trash bags. The box recommends using them to store produce in your fridge because your veggies will stay fresher longer. But maybe I'll keep them for when I decide to make my life less convenient again and attempt to compost!

A travel mug in the hand is worth ... nothing if you don't use it

Saving the earth is hard work.

My original inspiration for starting this blog was my desire to share the funny things that happened as I attempted to help the environment. In that vein, I present to you my latest gaffe.

I've been trying to not use paper cups when I buy coffee since they aren't recyclable. And in the last year I've made good progress. I used to take my own cup when I bought coffee from the Coffee Bean downstairs from work. And recently I came up with a better system and brought a travel mug to work, so I can order my to-go coffee in a container with a lid. But mainly I try to not buy coffee too often and instead make it at home. I've cut back on my Saturday morning ritual and now just buy coffee whenever I feel like I need it. This morning was one of those days. I had to leave extra time this morning for voting in California's special election (which is another gripe entirely) so I figured I'd buy coffee at the local coffee shop around the corner from my polling place. And I actually remembered to grab a travel mug from my cupboard. Aww, so proud of myself!

What happened next is mostly a blur. I entered an empty polling place, took 10 seconds to vote, was told afterward that I could get free coffee with my "I voted" sticker, grabbed my travel mug from my car and was on my way. Free coffee and no waste. Score! OK, not so much.

In line I got distracted eavesdropping on the kids in front of me talking about an funnily inappropriate song on YouTube using the word f** (but impressed that the kid ordering hot chocolate -- a middle school boy at that -- said "I can understand why gay people don't like that song"), then I completely forgot ... where I was going with this sentence. Just joking, but seriously, that's what happened to my memory. During the two minutes I stood in line, I forgot I was holding my travel mug and ordered my coffee without handing over my mug. I walked away from the counter happy that I didn't have to pull out my wallet. But when I had to put my travel mug down to put milk and sugar in my *** nonrecyclable *** paper cup, well, that's when it hit me. I sheepishly walked out doublefisted -- hot coffee in one hand, empty container in the other. This is where good intentions go to die. I had good intentions by voting, I had good intentions by bringing my mug, I just couldn't quite make it happen. No one said saving the earth was easy, so I'll leave it to the Prius-driving, bus takers of the world. In the meantime, I put my coffee in my cup holder and drove 30 miles to work. I'm blaming Schwarzenegger for the whole thing.