Hippified

May 2, 2008 - 10:37 am PDT

Corey and I have changed a whole lot since we started living together, and have become a lot more aware of the things that we buy and eat. I think that it all started with an increased awareness of what makes food good, and our obsession with the Food Network (especially Good Eats). We went from typical consumers to people that have reusable grocery bags, are label readers avoiding chemicals we don’t recognize, high fructose corn syrup, and trans fats, wishing we could ditch all containers and buy everything in bulk.

Now we didn’t make these lifestyle changes overnight, and a lot of the things we do now we couldn’t have imagined doing a year or more ago. There’s one thing I’ve learned that’s necessary to being an aware consumer. You have to take things one small step at a time, and don’t beat yourself up when you think you’re not doing enough. One small lifestyle change is better than nothing. Now, I don’t care if you believe in global warming, and I don’t care what you think that means. What I do know and don’t think anyone can reasonably deny is that producing more waste and putting harmful chemicals into the environment is bad. We’re running out of places to put our waste, and a lot of the chemicals we use and throw away are harmful to us.

I thought I would use this post to share some of the things that Corey and me try to be aware of in our lives. First, we don’t recycle, but remember we’re not going to beat ourselves up about the things we don’t do.

1. We don’t get plastic bags anywhere we shop. When grocery shopping, we use reusable bags or paper when we forget. I’m crafty so paper bags will provide some use later on down the road. When we’re buying things at a place that doesn’t have paper bags (drug store, convenience store, etc) we tell the clerk we don’t need a bag. If you have one just stick it in your purse, or set it in your car. If we absolutely can’t avoid using a plastic bag, we save them and use those instead of trash bags in our bathroom bin. On a slight tangent, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I go to a store and buy one small hand sized item and they automatically stuff it in a bag. Is it really that much easier to carry?
2. We refuse credit card receipts as we don’t use them. I love it when clerks/cashiers ask me if I want a credit card receipt, because I never do. It doesn’t prevent a whole lot of waste that once, but if they’re doing it all day they’ll save about 80% of the waste. OK that statistic was made up, but when I was working at a bagel/coffee shop I asked every customer using a credit card if they wanted a receipt. The vast majority of people say no.
3. We avoid high fructose corn syrup. It’s bad for your body and for various reasons (which I’m not educated enough to tell you) increasing our corn crop may be bad for us in the long run. This is going to be difficult, because once you decide to be aware of this ingredient in your food you’ll find it’s in nearly everything. Ketchup, anything sweet, most unsweet foods, and the vast majority of processed foods have high fructose corn syrup.
4. We stay away from trans fats. A nutritionist will be able to tell you exactly why trans fats are bad for you, but I’ll just tell you stay away from them. Anything with hydrogenated oils will have more trans fats.
5. We avoid ingredients we don’t recognize. First of all, it’s a whole lot cheaper to buy real foods as opposed to processed prepared foods. Second, you’ll eat a lot fewer chemical preservatives and things that would probably make you ill if you knew what it was. We didn’t decide overnight to avoid foods with lots of unrecognizable ingredients, but the end result is that we eat a lot better now. Knowing what ingredients are good and bad for you takes some time to learn. We started with one or two things that we’d learned to avoid, and we’ve been looking at ingredient lists for a while now so it really doesn’t take any more time. If we see a long paragraph of things, we generally put it back. If you start being more aware of the ingredients of foods you buy, you’ll find it incredibly refreshing when you can recognize every ingredient and probably have most of them in your kitchen (like Goldfish!).
6. We use eco friendly cleaning products. There are several companies that produce cleaning products that are more bio-degradable, better to be released into the environment, and less toxic for you ([Seventh Generation](http://www.seventhgeneration.com/) being one). We also generally avoid products with scents or color additives because they really aren’t necessary (and the scents bother Corey).
7. We reuse containers and buy in bulk when we can. Whenever we finish spice bottles, or containers that can be used for storage we wash and save them. Since we do a lot of cooking from scratch, we tend to have a lot of staple/base ingredients in the cabinet. We also use a lot of spices and herbs in our cooking, and it’s nice to have a place to store them without having to buy more plastic. Buying in bulk allows us to reuse those containers as well as not getting more. We’re still getting better about this, but we’re lucky to have a great source for bulk foods at a nearby coop.
8. We try not to use paper towels. I’m a knitter, and I love knitting useful things. This means that we’ll always have a steady supply of dish rags and cleaning rags. We try to use cloth to clean up whenever we can, and only rarely use paper towels. You don’t have to be a knitter to do this either; just buy more rags or reuse old towels by ripping them into cleaning sized rectangles.
9. We use the long lasting low wattage bulbs. They really do last longer. We rarely change our lightbulbs. Fewer lightbulbs to throw away, and less electricity use.
10. We like reusable toiletries. OK that may sound wierd but it was the best way I could put these two things together. First, Corey has been looking at safety razors (non disposable old-fashioned) and learning about the process and materials he’ll need. Second, recently I made a purchase of what is generally called a menstrual cup ([wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cup) scroll to the bottom for company listings). For some of you that may be TMI, and as recent as 6 months ago I would have told you no f%$@ing way. If you’re curious just click the wikipedia link. Just think of how much money you spend each month on feminine products and what else you could be spending that on.

Categorized: General