Waste by Confusion
Last week we talked about the craziness that 40% of food in the U.S. is never eaten, and on average a family of 4 throws away $1500 worth of food each year which results in a waste of fuel, water, and time, among others.
Most of us don’t go to the store to pick up what we need for that day, we stock up for at least a week. This means it’s important to store food correctly so you can use everything you’ve purchased. We don’t realize how much we are throwing away when it’s a bad egg here or a moldy strawberry there.
Storing food properly to keep it edible and knowing how long you have to eat it, are two great ways to combat waste, so let’s start there.
For fresh foods, check out the NRDC’s food storage page. Change the dropdown menu to select the type of food (fruit, meat, condiment, etc.) and the most common items are listed on each page with storage information. This page will also tell you how to freeze it if you can’t use it now AND how to revive it if it’s started to wilt, brown, or soften. Did you know placing celery in cold water crisps it back up?
Mistakes will still happen, and they are compostable. If you can’t compost, consider vermicomposting inside.
When chopping vegetables save the ends and pieces you don’t want to eat by tossing them in a bag in your freezer. Once the bag is full, make vegetable stock which can be used in numerous recipes.
Then there are those pesky dates that come on prepared food. “Sell by” or “Best by” or my favorite, just a date. How are we supposed to know if it’s still OK to eat??
As it turns out, most of those foods don’t spoil, they just don’t taste as fresh. If it tastes/smells OK, it’s good; if it doesn’t/ has visible mold, it’s not. Even if it started to turn, you’d have to eat a lot in order to get sick.
More good news, those dates will be standardized by 2020 for virtually all major food manufacturers with just 2 labels: a “best if used by” to indicate freshness and a “use by” on items that may become less safe to eat as they age, like shellfish.
We’ll continue to provide food waste strategies throughout 2018, stay tuned!
Photo credit: TSgt Samuel Morse, via Wikimedia Commons
Food Resolution
Did you know that around 40% of food in the United States is never eaten? Forty, 4-0, nearly 300lbs per person, per year! It’s absolutely crazy to consider that on average a family of 4 throws away $1500 worth of food each year. Even crazier when you consider 1 in every 8 Americans doesn’t have enough food to eat.
Eating that food instead would be like taking home an extra paycheck while saving you a couple trips to the store. Eating that food can be good for your personal health and it definitely helps the health of the planet. There’s that triple bottom line again…
Here’s few crazy stats, courtesy of the Natural Resources Defense Council:
- 20% of the food we buy goes bad before we eat it
- 90% of us throw food away too soon—we thinks it’s bad or the date on the package is confusing
- There is more food in landfills than anything else. It contributes more to climate pollution than all the cars in the state of Georgia.
- All food production requires water, whether it’s a whole food or processed. Did you know you’d have to run your shower for 42 minutes to equal the water needed for 1lb of bananas?
- 90 minutes for just 4oz of chocolate
- 104 minutes for 1lb of chicken
- A whopping 370 minutes for 1lb of beef
- Not to mention the other resources used (largely fuel) to procure-plant-grow-harvest-transport-package-transport, just to get it to you.
Food waste is not an easy issue, but there are many ways to tackle the problem and many resources to help you save. Throughout the year we will cover a lot of these so you can save your hard-earned money and reduce waste.
Lets’ start right now.
While it’s not surprising that food waste (all waste, actually) increases during the holidays, did you know that the 2nd most wasteful time is January? The University of Vermont found that resolutions drive people to purchase healthy food…but they still purchase the same amount of non-healthy/junk food as before. This leads to more food waste.
If you are one of the many people with a resolution that involves food, be honest with yourself. Then ease into changes, meal plan, and follow a shopping plan to help you achieve your personal health goals, while saving your money, and using less natural resources. Mistakes will still happen, compost them.
photo credit: freeimages.com/lenteui
Button Pushers
You rush up to a building and it’s so cold out that you hit that magical door opening button, also known as an ADA button, so you don’t have to touch the handle. The door swings open for you and you scamper inside.
You’ve done a good deed, right? You kept your hands cleaner, used a button that is meant to be used, and in the case of the DOC and Clarkson, didn’t use the big revolving door to sweep cold air into the building. Those are all good thoughts, but unfortunately, wrong.
ADA buttons are designed to be used by people who cannot hold the door open for themselves while safely getting through the doorway. They can also be used in areas where large items, generally carts or beds, will be taken through and the door needs to be held open.
So, let’s dispel some myths:
ADA doors are still designed to be used manually. Even if you can hear the gears moving, you are not damaging them. If you are still concerned, use the door on the other side.
Our EVS staff cleans door handles and ADA buttons regularly as part of infection control. However, the area you touch on a door is larger and you are more likely to touch a different area there, than you would on an ADA button. Not necessarily dirtier, but definitely not any cleaner.
ADA doors are often used by individuals who believe they need to use them and doors stay open much longer than they would otherwise, letting in a lot of cold/hot air. In addition to making people in the adjacent areas uncomfortable, we use a LOT of energy to counter that change in temperature.
In the case of the DOC or Clarkson revolving door, that door actually helps maintain pressure in the building and does not bring in a lot of outside air. The ADA door stays open and allows air to be sucked right into the building, making the lobby and atrium cold/hot until our system can catch up.
Who knew such a little action could have such a big impact? Think before you hit the button next time, and only use it if you need to; you’ll save energy and make spaces more comfortable for employees and visitor. Plus, you don’t turn out like this guy!
Holiday Cleanup
By Melanie Stewart
We provided ways to reduce waste and recycle during the holidays; as cleanup begins there are many ways reduce the amount of waste heading to the landfill and you can help others.
Christmas trees can be reused in your own yard; whole to provide birds some shelter or branches can be cut off and placed over perennial plants to protect again frost heave. Omaha provides recycling locations, click here for rules, updated locations, and hours. Volunteers will be there December 30th & 31st and again January 6th & 7th from 10am-4pm to help unload.
If you would like pickup, consider the BoyScouts in both Lincoln and Omaha metro area. The “Scouting for Trees” program is available online and you can have them pick up the trees from your curb and take them to be recycled. They continue this later than the dropoff sites and it is a free community service.
If you are taking down outdoor lights and find they are dead or you don’t need all that you have, take them to Scrap Central, for free recycling. Remove all packaging, bags, twist-ties, and rubber bands and Scrap Central will recycle them, donating the proceeds to local charities.
While recycling is great, reducing and reusing is the best way to go. Did you or your kids get battery operated gadgets? Rechargeable batteries are worth the up front cost, both for your budget and the environment. If you upgraded your electronic devices, remember to repurpose or recycle the old ones.
Did you struggle to buy gifts for people on your list? Get gifts you don’t want or need? Maybe you have leftover canned or packaged goods bought for holiday cooking you didn’t end up using? Or struggle to find time to get it all done? Start talking to your family now about ways to make changes for next year; focus less on presents and more on your time and happiness.
Speaking of the gifts you don’t need, don’t throw them away or let them clutter up your home, donate them. Lots of people donate items during the holiday season, but the need is there year round, and especially when it’s cold outside.
Unopened toiletries (including hotel/travel size), scents, clothing, functional items, electronics, and non-prepared food can be donated to a variety of shelters and charities, including the VA Medical Center, Youth Emergency Services, Siena Francis House, Food Bank for the Heartland, Salvation Army, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Open Door Mission, just to name a few. Check out Donation Town to find a charity near you.
If you or your child received books and you need to make room on your shelf, don’t forget the Little Free Library!
photo: freeimages.com/BobSmith
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
In the sustainability world, most of the conversation revolves around carbon dioxide, but this time of year it’s important to remember that indoor air quality can be dramatically impacted by the presence of Carbon Monoxide (CO), with serious health consequences.
Did you know calls to the Poison Center concerning CO have already exceeded last year’s exposures, even with the mild weather?
Did you know the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranked Nebraska as one of the states with the highest mortality rate from CO?
They also note that each year in the U.S. there are more than 400 deaths and approximately 15,000 ER visits due to CO poisoning. Understand the dangers, symptoms, and prevent your family from being effected.
Get the facts on CO:
Who: A silent killer
What: Carbon Monoxide
When: Highest risk of danger is in November, December, January, and February
Where: It could be in your home, right now
Why: CO is produced when fuels burn incompletely
What you should do if you see CO? You won’t. CO is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. That’s why it’s so deadly. Symptoms of CO poisoning include sleepiness, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, vomiting, shortness of breath and convulsions. Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning resemble those associated with other health conditions that are common among the elderly, especially in the winter. The carbon monoxide death rate is highest among people greater than 65 years of age.
If you or a member of your family have any of these symptoms, get the victim outside to fresh air ASAP and then seek medical attention.
As always prevention is the key. The Poison Center offers the following suggestions to prevent CO poisoning:
- Install carbon monoxide alarms on every level of your home.
- Inspect all fuel-burning equipment yearly.
- Vent fuel-burning heaters to the outside.
- Do not use a gas range or an oven for heating a room.
- Never use a charcoal or gas grill inside.
- Never leave a car running in an attached garage, even with the garage door open.
- Run generators a safe distance from the home – never next to a window, door or vent.
- Have vehicle muffler and tailpipes checked regularly.
If you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning or have any questions, contact the Nebraska Regional Poison Center toll-free at 1-800-222-1222. Nurse Specialists are available 24/7 to assist you.
Effective January 1, 2017, a Nebraska State Law requires carbon monoxide alarms in all residences that are sold, rented or remodeled. CO monitors are relatively inexpensive, but if you need assistance, your local fire station may be able to provide one at no cost to you, including free installation. {They will also replace smoke detector batteries at no cost, especially nice if you have one in a hard to reach spot or shouldn’t be on a ladder!}
The Nebraska Regional Poison Center encourages all residences to have a carbon monoxide alarm.
A Sustainable Holiday Season
By Melanie Stewart
Americans continue to say they would prefer to reduce the focus on gifts during the holidays, with a recent survey showing 69% would agree to forgo gifts entirely so they could save money and spend more time with loved ones. Even if that’s the desire, the reality is that consumption is still a focus, and this causes waste to increase by 25% (1 million tons/week more to landfills) between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Not really surprising when you starting thinking about all the shopping, eating, and traveling.
Seemingly little actions add up and there are lots of things you can do to reduce your waste and have a happier, healthier holiday season:
- Reduce the focus on gifts and concentrate on the things that really matter, especially your sanity.
- If you exchange gifts, consider buying experiences, like museum/zoo membership, or donations instead of stuff. Consolidate your shopping trips to save gas, take reusable bags, consolidate online shopping to save on shipping, and look for products that contain recycled content and responsibly sourced materials.
- Wrap gifts in reused materials; if every American household wrapped 3 gifts in reused materials (brown paper packages tied up in strings…maps, Sunday comics, cloth bags) enough paper would be saved to cover 45,000 football fields! For everything else, use recycled content paper and reusable gift-bags, boxes, and bows.
- Recycling old lights helps local groups now or recycle them any time of year, and replace with new, efficient, LED lights…which use 70% less
- Hosting? Buy food in bulk to reduce packaging waste, but menu plan to reduce food waste, and serve with reusable plates/cups/utensils/napkins.
- Make it easy for guests to recycle, and recycle everything you can’t reuse.
- Consider sending E-cards; saving trees, your time, and money. Recycle or reuse (for decoration, future gift tags, or craft projects) any cards you receive.
- If batteries are needed, buy rechargeable—they’ll save you money and trips to the store in the long run. Recycle single use batteries.
- Check your thermostat: more people and more cooking means the temp can be lowered. Every 2 degrees lower saves $100 a year, saves the equivalent carbon emissions as driving a car 3,000 miles, and people get to be comfortable in their (reused) ugly Christmas sweaters.
- Reduce junk mail by contacting Catalog Choice to remove your name from marketers’ databases.
- As soon as it’s available, LiveGreen will provide information on recycling trees. Stay tuned!
Fall Finale
By Melanie Stewart
With above average temps throughout November, winter may be sneaking up on you.
Thinking about cleaning up your yard? Stop right there! Delaying your cleanup until spring helps birds and beneficial insects by providing seeds to eat and an area of shelter. If you need to clean up some of your yard, consider leaving other sections untouched. If you do clean up, collect seeds and leave those out for birds over the winter. If you have seeds that need to cold stratify (like milkweed) you can plant them now so they will come up in the spring.
Now is a great time to remove turf-grass and have a new place to plant in the spring, by sheet mulching.
That process uses leaves, which need to be to collected! Did you know leaves can clog storm inlets and sewer pipes causing water in basements? Leaves in local waterways decompose, remove oxygen from the water, and change nutrient levels which can be damaging to plants and wildlife that depend on that water. Farmers are impacted too…with big economic impacts.
So rake them up, use them as mulch in your yard/garden, compost them on site, leave a pile in a corner for birds and insects, or if nothing else dispose of them with yardwaste.
This is also a good time to make spring garden plans. While you may be planting spring bulbs, I’d like to recommend planting natives that will benefit early arriving bees. These native bees (not honeybees) need nutrients to get going and count on high-quality nectar and pollen from specific plants to survive. Consider planting native willows, ephemerals, and other early bloomers to help them.
Native plants are the most sustainable plants as they have survived here for thousands of years and are adapted to water conditions, hot/cold temperatures, pests, and soils. This means easier care for you, no toxic fertilizers or insecticides, and a better plant for wildlife and the environment.
Need help finding the right plant while surviving the cold winter nights? Check out OmahaPlants.org You can search by various criteria and when viewing a plant you will learn the color of the bloom and stems, when it blooms (vary this to provide for pollinators all season long), what pollinators it attracts (if any), if it’s native, and if it will work in a bioretention/rain garden. The National Wildlife Federation has a native plant finder too.
Compostable To-Go Containers
By Melanie Stewart
In 2016, the Student Senate from all four University of Nebraska campuses passed a Styrofoam Free resolution, representing student concerns about the use of Styrofoam on campus. The proposal was echoed by the many staff concerns about Styrofoam, especially in the dining areas.
Sodexo is officially replacing the Styrofoam to-go containers in the Nebraska, Clarkson, Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, and Bellevue Cafés with a compostable container.
While polystyrene (or Styrofoam) containers are financially inexpensive, their health and environmental costs far outweigh that of their paper or bio-based counterparts. Polystyrene is made from petroleum and contains chemicals that are known carcinogens. At the end of their one-time use, these containers go to the landfills, where they will take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to decompose. Historically, over 400,000 Styrofoam to-go containers have gone to the landfill every year from the Medical Center.
A month ago, a new, compostable, to-go container was piloted in both the Nebraska and Clarkson Cafés and feedback was collected via online and in-person survey. The feedback showed an overwhelmingly positive response, with the large majority of respondents satisfied or very satisfied with the new container. Due to the positive feedback, the pilot container was selected.
While the overwhelming majority of responses were positive, Sodexo recognizes that this is a change in the dining experience and will continue to be open to feedback on the new containers.
You will still see Styrofoam containers in the short term as purchased stock is used up. The vendors within the Cafés (Mein Bowl, Oh Oh Burrito, etc.) are also currently reviewing options to make the switch
Many have been asking about Styrofoam-free floor stock options, specifically cups for patient/visitors. This is currently being reviewed, as it impacts budgets that have already been set, and we will provide information as soon as it’s available.
The Medical Center will review options for reusable plates and silverware in early 2018.
Healthy, Sustainable, Holidays
By Melanie Stewart
For the last two weeks we have talked about the connection between health and sustainability, both from a community perspective, as well as a personal one.
We didn’t have time in the last article to talk about consumption and stress…and what better time to talk about that than the holiday season?!?
So much of the holidays are focused on ‘things’ and subsequently the time it takes to shop for, transport, and wrap, those things. They can create a lot of waste; manufacturing, packaging, shipping, driving to the store, wrapping, and using, all while the useful life of items seems to be decreasing. For a quick look at this process, check out the “Story of Stuff”.
Instead, consider giving experiences (zoo membership, sporting even tickets, etc.) instead of physical items that will be used and/or forgotten. If you are looking for additional ways to save money, time, and reduce waste, read this.
Regardless of how you celebrate, you likely have more to do during this time of year. Don’t forget to take time to reduce stress. Exercise, yoga, and meditation are all great ways to reduce stress, and it can actually help you be more sustainable and meet your personal wellbeing goals.
One of the topics being brought up more frequently is mindfulness. This is often associated with meditation, but doesn’t have to be. While there are many variations on the definition, the Foundation for a Mindful Society broadly defines it as something every human already possesses: “the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.” That sounds good, right? (and almost anti-holiday!?!)
Mindfulness resources:
(Some of) the science and research of mindfulness
Side note, it takes practice, especially if you are accustomed to multitasking. Don’t get frustrated; practice makes perfect.
So what does stress reduction/mindfulness have to do with sustainability? Being mindful, that fully present awareness, means we make better choices because we are choosing things purposefully, not mindlessly or because of emotion. This can reduce consumption, everything from that impulse-buy to your 3rd piece of pie. Reduced consumption decreases waste/helps the environment, saves your money for the things you actually need, and most importantly can keep you healthier.
photo credit: freeimages.com/xxlawrence
Sustainability and Personal Wellbeing
By Melanie Stewart
Last week we talked about the connection between sustainability and healthcare—why Nebraska Medicine & UNMC spend time on sustainability. As some of you have noted, “That’s great, but what about me?”
Last week I had the privilege of being a panelist at WELLCOM’s symposium on sustainability and wellness. We spent most of the day talking about just that.
First, sustainability involves safety, health, and welfare for individuals, and is a one of the seven dimensions of wellness and part of EMPOWER your wellbeing.
Second, sustainability does not have to be something that is an add-on…it’s not necessarily something extra you have to do.
When we discuss sustainability it’s very easy to imagine a non-sustainable world and future, and it’s not too pretty. Instead, imagine a sustainable future. What does that look like for you and your family?
If I was going to guess, the picture that just popped into your head makes you smile. You are likely to be in a place that makes you happy, doing something you enjoy, with the people you love. The people you picture are likely happy too; not ill, suffering, or stressed, and the backdrop is probably clean…most of us don’t picture trash blowing down the street, or smog.
When you make decisions, keep that vision in mind. Don’t get that confused with perfection or start to compare to others–your picture of a sustainable future is yours. You can make intentional decisions that can help you reach that picture in your head, and in doing so, you are likely making healthy and sustainable choices.
For example, in order to be healthy you may be trying to eat more veggies and drink more water; healthy for you and the environment. You may be trying to reduce indoor toxins by cleaning with fewer chemicals, or saving gas by running errands all at once; again, better for you and the environment. Recycling prevents toxins from entering the water we drink; using active transportation increases activity and reduces pollution; using less plastic reduces crude oil drilling… the list goes on.
Making a healthy choice for yourself almost always leads to a more sustainable future. Feel good about the steps you have already taken and gradually add more. That picture in your head is a great place to start, why not strive to achieve it?
photo credit: freeimages.com/luntzer
