Weekly Eco-friendly Tip from Leaside United Church’s

Green Team for Global Wellness:

There is no doubt that the cancellations and isolation associated with preventing the further spread of COVID19 is having us leading significantly simplified lives. This gives us a chance to reflect on our daily routines and habits, and perhaps helps us realize that some of the things that we have been assuming are necessary to our lives, are not so necessary after all. We are cutting down on travel, commuting, shopping for entertainment, impulse purchases, and other habits that negatively affect our planet. When we come out of this, we can consider the benefits of this simpler life, and perhaps redirect some of our spending towards charitable causes, the arts, and culture instead of things that we may discover are not so necessary after all.
If you have your own green tip to share, please email janice.franklin@sympatico.ca.

“And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
“And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
“And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.”
~Kitty O’Meara

There is a lot of attention in the media about the need to reduce single-use plastics. To do this, we need to get used to bringing our own containers. The weight of an empty container is called the “tare weight.” When you go into a store, have them weigh your containers, label them with the tare weight, and then they will subtract the weight off of your purchase once it is filled. If you are a regular at the store, you may only have to do this once as long as you leave the weight on the jar. Some people suggest that a grease pencil works well for this. Make sure that your container is clean and free of chips and cracks. Otherwise, the store will not be able to fill it for reasons of health and safety. If you have your Mar 28 Mar 29 Mar 29 own green tip to share, please email janice.franklin@sympatico.ca.

There was much attention given to the fact that Jane Fonda wore a “recycled” dress to the Oscars. Of course, it was not actually recycled, but simply a dress that she had worn before. While most of us do not buy items of clothing that we are expected to wear only once, we can still learn from Ms. Fonda’s commitment to curtailing her purchase of new clothing as part of her commitment to reduce climate change. Every new product manufactured has an impact on the environment – the use of resources, waste created through manufacturing, use of water, transportation costs, storage costs, the constant leeching of pollutants through use (eg. the release of plastic into the water system every time laundry is done), and its eventual disposal. Before buying anything, pause to reflect on the true cost (ongoing maintenance), whether there is any alternative to buying it (borrowing, renting, making do, repairing what you have), if it will add value to your life, and if you can wait before buying it.

If you have your own green tip to share, please email janice.franklin@sympatico.ca.

It has been several months since the last series of green tips was shared in the bulletin. The author has been waiting for some inspiration. It has come in the form of the devastating wildfires in Australia. Social media has been filled with posts bemoaning the fate of the animals, criticisms of government resource allocation, and general fear and finger-pointing. While understandable, none of this is helpful.

What would be helpful would be for all of us to continue to make changes (the more the better) in our daily routines, rituals, and lifestyles, so that we can halt the effects of our misuse of the planet we have been gifted, and live in a way that is sustainable for our planet. Please read our upcoming weekly green tips and use them as your own inspiration to make a difference and help us move towards a planet that can be healthfully inhabited by generations to come.

If you have your own green tip to share, please email janice.franklin@sympatico.ca.

This will be the final ecotip of the season, with regular ecotips resuming in September. As many of us head off on vacation and travels this summer, we are at risk of leaving behind our good eco-habits with our regular routines. Please remember that wherever we are, we want to minimize our impact on the environment, especially the beautiful natural areas to which we are drawn in summer time. So pack your reusable bags, your refillable water bottles, your favourite walking and cycling outfits, and have a wonderful summer!

This is the final tip in our series on the environmental impact of the funeral industry: The embalming process requires the use of formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, phenol, humectants, dyes, anti-edemic chemicals, and disinfectants. Once these chemicals are buried in the ground, they eventually work their way into the soil and the water table. Please take the time to research and consider alternatives to traditional burial. (Statistics from https://safepassageurns.com/blogs/blog/environmental-impact-of-burial-funerals )

Here is another tip regarding the environmental impact of the funeral industry: Approximately 55.3 million people die worldwide each year. If they were all buried in a cemetery, that would require approximately 108 square kilometers of land each

year. It is estimated that 11 137 square kilometres of land are devoted solely for cemetery use worldwide. In addition, there are numerous sources of emissions associated with ground burials – cutting trees and transporting the materials, manufacturing the casket, digging the grave, not to mention all the ongoing lawn care emissions associated with maintaining a cemetery. (Statistics from https://safepassageurns.com/blogs/blog/environmental-impact-of-burial-funerals)

Now that our reluctant spring is beginning to give us hope for summer, we will turn our ecotips to a topic many like to avoid – the ecological impacts of death. It is possible to plan to be more environmentally friendly, even after our earthly lives have come to a close. In a year in the US, caskets and burial vaults are estimated to use 30 million pounds of hardwood, 2700 tons of copper and bronze, 104 272 tons of steel and 1 636 000 tons of concrete. The amount of wood required is equivalent to 4 million square acres of forest containing enough trees to absorb 65 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. It is the equivalent amount of wood that it would take to build 90 000 homes. (Statistics from https://safepassageurns.com/blogs/blog/environmental-impact-of-burial-funerals ).

A final tip (for now) on the cost of convenience: I was standing in line at Whole Foods this week and the person in front of me was buying 8 bags of pre-popped plain popcorn. She joked with the cashier about how everyone in her family loved this popcorn and they couldn’t leave a bag unfinished. I wondered if, like many of us, that family might have an air popper or another kind of popcorn maker at the back of a cupboard somewhere. If they took a few minutes to pop their own corn in an air popper, they could buy the popcorn kernels in bulk or at a farmers’ market and create no waste at all, thus avoiding putting the 8 bags of non-recyclable and non-reusable packaging in the landfill. And the popcorn would be warm, crunchy, and fresh.

More this week on the cost of convenience: When you are grocery shopping take time to think about how long it actually takes to prepare some foods in relation to how long the packaging for prepared foods lasts. For example, it takes 2 – 3 minutes to tear up and wash a head of lettuce. If you buy pre-torn lettuce, the plastic packaging lasts hundreds of years. The same is true for grated cheese – a few minutes with a grater vs. several hundred years of grated cheese packaging in the landfill. When you prepare food yourself, you are also significantly decreasing the risk of contamination since the food does not get exposed to numerous people and other possible sources of contamination in a factory. Sometimes, it is difficult to make time to prepare meals from scratch, but we can usually find an extra few minutes to significantly decrease the amount of plastic that goes into landfill.

More today on the cost of convenience. When we don’t have time to cook, it is easy to pick up or have food delivered from a local restaurant. Very often, that food is packaged in a container with a black plastic bottom and a clear plastic top. We wash these out and put them in the blue box. However, black plastic is not recyclable because there is no market for it and because the optical sorters do not recognize it on the conveyor belt. (See Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rejected in the Globe and Mail, Saturday, May 11, 2019 for more detail.) Look for restaurants that use compostable paper containers or take a few minutes to grab your own containers before you leave to pick up your meal. In 2016 3.3 million tonnes of plastic were discarded in Canada and only 305 000 tonnes of it was actually recycled. We used to live without it and we can do it again.

Again, this week there has been another dire report by the United Nations on Biodiversity. It concludes that up to 1 million species (plants, animals, bugs, etc.) are facing extinction, many within a matter of decades under a “business as usual scenario.” The report underscores that challenges of Climate Change and Biodiversity Decline are inextricably tied together.

It identifies that this trend “can be reversed – but only with a coordinated international effort and “transformative change to the way humans draw food, water, energy and resources from the planet.”

While that transformative change may sound like it is aimed at corporations and governments, we must remember that we are the consumers of the products and services of both – each of us needs to make changes to reduce our impact on our home planet – Earth. As last week’s Eco Tip pointed out participating in municipal recycling programs may not always be a positive step for the environment. We all need to do more refusing, re-furbishing and reducing our consumptive habits. Putting an item in the blue recycling bin should be a last resort!

Janice and Margaret are still receiving positive support for their personal perspectives presented at the April 7th Lenten Services (see below). Many of us placed pledges in the collection plate to change our habits and actions. Copies of the green insert from that service are available in the office, at the sanctuary entrances and on the LUC website. Take one – or more to pass on to your family and friends. Planet Earth and the Green Team need your help.

Rethinking Recycling! There have been several news items in the past couple of weeks about recycling and the fact that a disturbingly large portion of what we put in our blue boxes is not, in fact, getting recycled. The recycling gets picked up by a gasoline powered truck, taken to a sorting centre, taken again by truck to a distribution centre, then transported (by truck, train, and ship, usually) to other countries where some of it is used and the rest is put in landfill or just dumped somewhere, depending on the country. The environmental impact of the transportation alone is staggering. So let’s remember to focus on the first of the 4 R’s – Refuse and Reuse. Focus on buying products without packaging and bringing reusable containers and bags whenever you possibly can.

Did you know that 1 kg of cotton uses 10 000 – 20 000 litres of water in the manufacturing process. However, a synthetic t-shirt (polyester is made from plastic, which is made from oil) has twice the carbon footprint that cotton does. There is the added problem of little bits of plastic separating from our beloved fleece clothing when it is washed, contributing to the plastics in our water system. So what is a dedicated environmentalist to do, when everything we wear has such a negative environmental impact? Buy as few clothes as possible. (Most of us wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time.) Only wash your clothes when they are actually dirty. Buy clothes that last for years, rather than weeks. (The average piece of North American clothing is only worn 7 times before being discarded.) Buy second hand. Research your retailers and buy from those who work to minimize their environmental impact in the manufacturing process. Wear clothes until they are worn out and then have the material recycled.

Earth Day Reflection by: Janice Franklin April, 2019

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

Buying local food supports more humane practices in the raising of animals used for meat. You do not have to do much research to realize that the conditions for animals raised in commercial feedlots are inhumane. Most grocery store meat comes exclusively from commercial feedlots. If you choose to eat meat, buy it from a local farmer whom you know and trust. Find someone who respects and values their animals as sentient beings, allows them to live outside, move around freely, eat the foods that they are intended to eat, and be a part of a natural grouping of animals. And, work towards having several meat-free meals each week.

FROM OUR GREEN TEAM FOR GLOBAL WELLNESS:

Purchase carbon offsets to reduce the climate impact of my activities; e.g. flights, yearly mileage, etc. (Google Less Emissions).

Reduce your energy costs by turning down the heating temperature in the winter and turning up the temperature setting for your air conditioning in the summer.

Bicycle or walk to the grocery store when I can carry what I need to purchase.

Reduce phantom electricity usage by unplugging appliances (e.g. toasters, kettles, etc.) when not in use. (Google Vampire Power also Toronto Hydro and Hydro One for energy conservation tips).

Eat more plant-based proteins in lieu of animal based proteins.

Instead of tossing gently used items in your garbage bin, set them out on your pick-up day for someone to pick up OR Google Kijiji to sell more desirable items OR donate to LUC Awesome Sale.

Buy less stuff, particularly cheap clothing. (Google the story of stuff).

Plant a Butterfly Garden. (Google Planting a butterfly garden in Ontario).

Plant a tree or help with a community tree planting. (Google Tree planting and stewardship events in Toronto).

Avoid planting invasive species – for example Phragmites. (Google Invasive species in Ontario).

Organize a ravine or park clean-up to pick up garbage that has accumulated over the winter.

Stop using bottled water and other plastic items. (Google Rethink Plastic).

Remember the 4 R’s Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and then Recycle!
Refuse excess packaging and unnecessary items,
Reduce your energy consumption and excess food waste,
Reuse grocery bags, cloth dishcloths instead of paper towels, and
Recycle items when all else fails.

Books to read and television programs to watch:

A Harvest of Thorns by Corban Anderson.
A novel that addresses the question of “Who made my clothes?” (initial chapter provides insight into the November 2012 fire at Tarzeen Fashions, Djakarta Bangladesh).

www.assetcampaign.org

www.eco-age.com

www.betterwork.org 

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (winner of CBC Canada Reads 2018).

A fictional journey of indigenous peoples who must keep moving in a world nearly destroyed by climate challenge.

Fire Storm – How wildfire will shape our future by Edward Struzik.

A non-fiction account of the lessons learned from recent wildfires, including the Fort McMurray fire in 2016.

Sea Sick by Alanna Mitchell.

A non-fiction account about the health of our Oceans.

Television programs that focus on environmental issues and how to mitigate and adapt to their consequences: TVO, Nature of Things.

Key websites that explain Carbon Pricing:

Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission www.ecofiscal.ca 10 Myths about Carbon Pricing in Canada.

Canadian Environmental Law Association www.cela.org/blog for an interview with the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Dianne Saxe.

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

Buying local food supports more humane practices in the raising of animals used for meat. You do not have to do much research to realize that the conditions for animals raised in commercial feedlots are inhumane. Most grocery store meat comes exclusively from commercial feedlots. If you choose to eat meat, buy it from a local farmer whom you know and trust. Find someone who respects and values their animals as sentient beings, allows them to live outside, move around freely, eat the foods that they are intended to eat, and be a part of a natural grouping of animals. And, work towards having several meat-free meals each week.

Buying local food supports biodiversity. When food has to be shipped thousands of kilometres and have a long shelf life in the grocery store, we are limited to a very few varieties (often genetically engineered and controlled by a few corporations) that fulfill these requirements. However, when we buy local food, we have the opportunity to have a much wider variety of fruits and vegetables with different flavours and sometimes of a higher nutritional quality. This encourages greater biodiversity, which creates a stronger ecosystem.

Buying local food boosts the local economy beyond just supporting farmers. When you go to a farmers’ market, you might also buy some baked goods as a snack, or purchase something created by a local artist. Thriving farms with a focus on sustainability create jobs, which then feeds money back into the local economy. Many people mistakenly believe that sustainable living is often at the expense of the economy, when in fact the opposite is often true.

Buying local food creates more accountability in the food system. When you know the farmer who grows your food and they know you, a mutual respect is created. The farmer has a vested interest in providing you with good quality food that is grown with sustainable agricultural methods (it is their livelihood) and you have a vested interest in ensuring that the farmer makes a good living and their land is maintained and protected. Many CSA programs (community supported agriculture) are taking orders for the summer season now. This week, plan to do some research and find a CSA that suits your needs.

Buying local food uses less packaging. When food is grown on corporate farms and shipped around the world, it needs to be packaged to prevent spoilage as well as maximize shipping efficiency. This is why we so often see vegetables packed in single-use plastic blister packs that will remain in landfill for hundreds of years after your spinach salad is finished. When you buy from local producers, you can take your own reusable packaging and buy only what you need, instead of the overpackaged economy size, which often goes bad before it can all be used.

Buying local food creates less food waste. When food is shipped around the world, it is guaranteed that some of it will go bad before it reaches its destination. When it comes from a local farm, it is picked within the previous couple of days, does not spend time in storage at the food terminal or grocery store, and gets to your kitchen before it has a chance to go bad. We tend to buy in smaller quantities when we buy direct from farmers in addition to being more conscious about planning meals that use all the ingredients, so there is less wasted at the back of the fridge as well.

Buying local food produces considerably less pollution. When food is grown in South America, Africa, China, or even California, it has to be put on a ship to cross the ocean or flown in a plane, then put on a truck or train to a food distribution centre (Ontario Food Terminal), then taken in another truck to be delivered to various grocery stores, likely to be put in a car to get to your house. On the other hand, when a small truck drives from a farm in Uxbridge to a local farmers’ market and you walk or ride your bike, there is not so much pollution created at all.

Buying local food keeps local farms healthy. When we hear about farmland in the Greenbelt being developed for housing, we have to think about what efforts we have made to ensure those farmers can earn a reasonable living so that they do not have to sell their land. The best way to do that is to find ways to buy directly from them (usually through farmers’ markets and CSA farmshare programs) as small farms cannot sell their produce to grocery store chains.

The news in recent weeks has included both information about the environmental impact of meat consumption (particularly beef) as well as a new version of Canada’s food guide that is encouraging us to use plant-based proteins to replace meat more frequently. An article in The Guardian on May 31, 2018 reports that beef production results in up to 105 kg of greenhouse gases per 100 g of meat, while tofu produces less than 3.5 kg. This week, make a pledge to plan not just one but several meals that focus on plant-based proteins such as legumes and pulses, nuts, seeds, quinoa, and tofu.

If you have an eco-tip to share or would like to be involved in the LUC Green Team for Global Wellness, contact janice.franklin@sympatico.ca or margaret.casey@sympatico.ca

It is easy to get discouraged in the face of the news of the climate crisis and the refusal of our governments to take real leadership in making the required changes. If we cannot rely on our political leaders, we might just have to rely on ourselves. As you go about your business this week (maybe when you are out building your relationship with the natural world), take time to listen to the following podcast. Of particular interest are the comments on the role of faith communities in addressing ecological challenges. Listen to CBC Radio’s Tapestry: Finding Hope in the Climate Crisis to hear Margaret Atwood and ecological activist Vandana Shiva who have been outspoken advocates for the environment for decades. They don’t sugarcoat the enormity of the climate crisis humanity faces, but they do manage to find hope. It can be found at https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/artsculture/tapestry/.

To help keep us motivated to save our planet, it is important for us to remember to nurture our relationship with the natural world. In spite of the cold and dark, it is important to pause long enough to appreciate the cycles of nature. Marvel at the way plants appear to die off in winter, only to burst forth with new life in spring. Admire how city wildlife finds space to stay warm and survive the winter. Notice the sunrise and how the clouds are illuminated in different shades of pastel.

Notice the sound of the wind rustling the pine trees. Winter is a time when the natural world pulls back, restores itself, and gets ready for the next phase of growth. If we can occasionally focus on and be amazed by creation, we will remember why it is worth a little extra effort to save it.

Did you know that less than 10% of the plastic in North America actually gets recycled? Much of it was being shipped to China, but China is now refusing to accept plastic waste from other countries. The best way to address the situation is not to use or buy unnecessary plastics (packaging, straws, coffee cup lids, single serving containers, etc.) However, there are times it is difficult to avoid. In the case where you have to dispose of some plastic, take time to learn what can go in your recycling bin and the required condition – everything must be clean! A glob of peanut butter in the bottom of a container can contaminate a tonne of paper that ends up in the landfill instead of being recycled. “Blue Box Error” causes about 25% of Toronto’s recycling to end up in the garbage.

Are your recycling and garbage bins overflowing with the excesses of the Christmas season? Let’s use the new year to renew our commitment to reducing our use of disposable and often unnecessary packaging. Take the time to find products that come with minimal or no packaging, and do what you can by providing your own bags and containers at the store.

Many people really look forward to an opportunity to shop the Boxing Day sales. However, we often end up making impulsive decisions to buy things we don’t really need because we think it is a good price. Most of these items will end up in the landfill. Before you buy anything, pause to ask yourself who made it, the environmental impact of the manufacturing process, how far it had to travel to get to the store, the environmental impact of the packaging, the difference between want and need, how much you will actually use it, how long you will have it, where it will end up after it is no longer being used, and the environmental impact of its disposal (especially with electronics).

Over the next couple of weeks, many of us will have a lot of Christmas-related errands to do. Take some time to plan so that you are minimizing the gas that we are using. Plan a menu and make a list before going to the grocery store so that you have fewer quick trips back to the store to pick up forgotten items. Try to shop locally and walk or ride your bike to do as many errands as possible. If you have multiple places to go, set aside a half day and do them all in one loop rather than making many trips. A little extra time planning can save a lot of gas and time.

Many of us will be hosting family and friends for meals this Christmas season. When you plan your menu, stop to consider the “food miles” of your meal as well as the potential packaging waste of prepared foods. Food that travels thousands of kilometres has a huge environmental impact, as does food that has been processed, prepared, and packaged. Think about all the delicious recipes that can be made from food purchased at your local farmers’ market – squash soup, roasted brussel sprouts, locally raised, free-range meat, roasted root vegetables, among many other possibilities.

As we begin to decorate our homes for the Christmas season, we are surrounded by opportunities to buy multiple trinkets and doodads that promise to put us in the festive spirit. Please stop to consider the environmental impact of our Christmas decorations. Instead of commercially made decorations that are ultimately destined to become landfill, think about decorating with elements from nature, food that can be decorative and also delicious, and high quality items made by local craftspeople that will be used for many, many years and outlast the decorating trends of a given season.

As you begin to consider purchasing gifts for friends and family as a way to celebrate Christmas, pause to think of the environmental impact. Statistics vary, but the vast majority of goods we buy are no longer in use after only 6 months. Instead pf buying “things” consider gifts of your time (snow shoveling), gifts of an experience (trip to the museum), gifts of consumables (homemade soup), or if you really want to give an object, a gift made by a local business or crafts person that will be both beautiful and useful for the recipient for many years to come.

Our eco-tips of the last two weeks have focused on the benefits of higher gas prices. Part of the cost of gas is due to the taxes on gasoline. The burning of fossil fuels has costs to our society, such as increased respiratory illnesses due to air pollution, environmental damage, costs to build pipelines and the other infrastructure required to pull fossil fuels out of the ground and transport it to consumers. The taxes on gas will keep the costs high enough that we will think twice about how much gas we can afford to buy, as well as help pay for the medical costs created by air pollution and the costs of environmental clean-up.

Last week’s eco-tip encouraged you to think about the benefits of higher gas prices. Low gas prices means that it is cheaper to ship food and other goods thousands of miles than it is to buy our food from local farmers. This hurts our rural economy, gives us less control over the chemicals put on our food, and interferes with biodiversity as strains of plants that are easily packed and shipped are preferred over other varieties. Let politicians know that higher gas prices have benefits for us all.

Politicians and social media talk a lot about wanting to lower gas prices for consumers. As much as we like to pay less for things we want, we need to consider whether lower gas prices are worth the cost to the environment. When gas prices are low, sales of bigger, less energy efficient vehicles go up. Low gas prices make it easy for people to drive instead of taking alternative, more ecologically responsible methods of transportation. Car companies have less incentive to develop ecologically-friendly vehicles. They make it reasonable for people to commute long distances from large homes in the outer suburbs, rather than living in smaller homes closer to where they work. Consider advocating for higher gas prices as a way to encourage people to get out of their cars and save our planet.

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

The recent UN report on climate change is a stark reminder that we need to make some significant lifestyle changes in order to save our planet. Cycling is a great, environmentally friendly way to get around the city. It often takes less time to cycle than it does to take public transit. People who cycle to work arrive feeling alert and energized, as well as reporting better mental and physical health than their non-cycling peers. It is a fantastic way to incorporate fitness into your regular routine without much of an additional time commitment. If more people get out on their bicycles, it becomes safer for all cyclists. It is possible to cycle year-round in Toronto. Remember, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. Get involved in advocating to make our city safer for cyclists through www.cycleto.ca.

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

The recent report from the UN on climate change is telling us we must make significant changes now in order to save our planet. Voting “green” is one important action we can take towards environmental well-being. Before you vote in the municipal election on Monday, find out where the candidates stand on important environmental issues. Do they support the creation of bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly streets, and significant improvements to public transit access throughout the entire region? Do they support development that creates affordable housing for families close to where they work? Do they support venues that allow local farmers to sell produce directly to the consumer, reducing food miles and supporting the local rural economy? Do they have the courage to raise taxes, if necessary, to ensure that our region is part of the climate change solution? Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) is ranking Candidates on their policies and identifying the greenest one. Please consider these factors and please take the time to vote.

ECO TIP from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

If your summer plans include heading out of town to a waterfront destination, please remember to do what you can to preserve the clean, fresh water of our Canadian lakes. Opt for wind or paddle power instead of a motor boat. If a motor boat is a necessity, opt for an electric motor or the smallest, cleanest, most well-maintained gas-powered motor you can manage. Make sure your garbage gets into proper garbage receptacles or take it home with you. If you are camping, dispose of all dishwater, cooking water, soap and shampoo, and human waste well away from the water’s edge. Use reusable containers rather than single-use plastic packaging that seems to find its way into our lakes. Pause regularly to appreciate the tremendous beauty and good fortune we have in Canada with our access to clean, fresh water that we can use for recreational purposes. Have a wonderful summer!

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

Another way to preserve our valuable freshwater resources is to keep pollutants out of storm drains. Most storm drains go directly into our rivers and lakes without any treatment. This includes road salt, garden chemicals, and those mysterious containers in the garage that we decide to dump in the drain at the end of the driveway. Please ensure that only rain runoff and snow melt go into your storm drain and minimize the use of chemicals and road salt you apply to your property.

ECO TIP from LUC Green Team  for Global Wellness

One of the best ways to preserve our limited supply of fresh, clean water is to cut down on our consumption of red meat. According to an article on our water footprint in Huffington Post, it takes 1847 gallons of water to create a single pound of beef, 718 gallons/pound for pork, 518 gallons/pound for chicken, and only 395 gallons/pound for eggs. Pulses and legumes use less water per gram of protein that meat sources of protein. If you are a regular meat eater, try to replace a couple of meals per week with more water-friendly protein sources.

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

We are continuing with our series of tips to preserve our valuable, life-giving resource of fresh, clean water. Gardening season is here! If you have a lawn that needs to be watered, remember to water early in the morning so that the water does not evaporate in the sunshine before it gets to the ground. It is better for the root development of the grass to water deeply once a week than to water a little every day. Try to place your sprinklers so that there is as little run-off onto paved areas as possible. If you are replacing plants in your garden, choose plants that are a native species which can more easily adapt to the growing conditions in your garden and survive a period of drought.

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

Fresh, clean water flowing from our taps is something we take for granted in most of Canada. However, the more it cycles through our systems, the harder it is to keep it clean for us and the natural ecosystems. It is essential that we protect this vital resource. This week, challenge yourself to use your washing machine as little as possible. Wait until you have a full load before you run the machine. Be aware that with today’s colour-fast fabrics, it is not necessary to separate laundry into several smaller loads. Most clothes can be washed together in one load. And to save electricity, hang the laundry to dry in the beautiful spring sunshine!

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

As we all know cars and trucks use lots of energy. One way we can make our municipal tax dollars go further is to put out our garbage bin, recycling bin or green bin when they are FULL. Every time the city garbage/recycling truck has to stop and start up it uses a lot of gasoline and contributes a lot of green house gases and pollution into the air. Since all your food wastes go into the green bin, your garbage bin and recycling bin should not be attractive to racoons! If you put your compost in a plastic bag before putting it in your green bin and it is only half empty on pick up day perhaps you and a neighbour can combine your contents and eliminate a truck stop! I know that many green bins in the neighbourhood are often at the curb with only one small grocery bag of compost. Think of all the energy we would safe if a truck made only 1 stop instead of 2, 3 or even 4 stops!

Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

As hard as it is to believe, air conditioning season is coming. Air conditioning places a huge demand for electricity. Here are some ways to limit the electrical power you use: Close your blinds during the day to keep the sun out. Keep the temperature set no lower than 25 degrees. Otherwise, it can be uncomfortably cold when you come in from outside. Turn off the air conditioning and open your windows overnight. Spend as much time as you can outside, in the shade of a tree, and you won’t need air conditioning at all.

If you have a tip to share or if you would like to be more involved in this effort, please contact margaret.casey@sympatico.ca or janice.franklin@sympatico.ca

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Eco Tip from LUC Green Team for Global Wellness

While we often have our routines figured out at home, we may need to take extra effort when we are somewhere else. Wherever we go, we find a selection of bins in which to place our waste. However, a quick glance in the bins shows us that we are not always sure what goes where. The City of Toronto website toronto.ca/wastewizard tells us what goes where.

Here are some commonly confused items:

Green Bin: paper plates (soiled), facial tissue (Kleenex), paper napkins/serviettes.

Garbage Bin: all black plastic bags; black Styrofoam trays; compostable plastic utensils; coffee cups (even compostable ones); all coffee pods.

Blue Bin: all non-black styrofoam containers, all non black coffee cup lids.

If we put items in a green bin or the blue bin that don’t belong there, the City’s processing system is contaminated and everything will go to landfill. Since each municipality is responsible for determining its own waste collection system and each municipality has its own characteristics, it is important to try to learn and follow the rules for each municipality we find ourselves in.  Check the 2018 Waste Management Guide provided to every house by the city or check the Waste Wizard online. The LUC Green team has installed a poster in the Hearth Room kitchen to help us all “Put Waste in its Place.”  Contact janice.franklin@sympactico.ca or margaret.casey@sympatico.ca.

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SPRING IS COMING USE YOUR SOLAR DRYER!

 

The LUC Green Team encourages everyone to reduce their energy use:

 

 

• • Spring is coming so use your solar dryer – dry your laundry in the sunshine (and on rainy or cold days hang it inside).

• • Wash your laundry in cold water.

• • Unplug appliances when they are not being used: e.g. Toasters and coffee makers with lights that show you the (toasting) time; this avoids phantom power!

• • Only put the dishwasher on when there it is fully loaded.

• • Turn the radio and TV off when you leave the room.

• Sign up with a reusable power producer, e.g. www.bullfrogpower.com

TIME FOR A CHANGE!

• East less meat
• Walk, cycle or take transit more often
• Turn the car off rather than idling
• Turn off lights when you leave a room
• Replace old incandescent light bulbs with LED ones
• Buy less stuff

Feb. 21, 2018
Over the past few months, these eco-tips have focused primarily on reducing our use of plastic. We are not alone in this quest. The Church of England has suggested that its members give up plastic for Lent. Scotland is banning all plastic straws by 2019. The major Icelandic supermarket chain called “Iceland” has pledged to eliminate plastic packaging from its in-store brand products within five years. There is no doubt that plastic is a significant threat to our ecosystems, especially marine ecosystems. So please, review our tips and think about all the ways you can reduce your use of plastic, especially single-use plastic, and put them into action this week.

Feb. 14, 2018
When choosing toys for children, be conscious of both the packaging and the material used for the toy. Most toys are used for a few years at most, and a few more years if passed on to younger children. Then, a plastic toy will spend the next several hundred years in a landfill site. The plastic packaging around the toy is torn off and discarded immediately only to, again, spend the next several hundred years in a landfill site. Choose toys made of natural materials with minimal packaging.

Feb. 7, 2018
When we make presentations or want to reuse posters or papers, we often choose to protect the paper by laminating it. Keep in mind that once we have plasticized paper, it can take hundreds of years to decompose in a landfill. Before you laminate anything, stop to consider whether it is really necessary to have that piece of paper available in the landfill for future archaeologists to find in 500 years. If not, it is probably a better choice to use better quality paper that will last through several presentations and just replace the paper when necessary.

January 30, 2018
This week, we are pleased to have a guest post from our own Allison Hough, currently living in Panama.

“Sad to report, that living here in Panama, we are getting fish that are filled with plastic pieces. We do weekly clean ups on the beach and the plastic is monumental! Most times I go to the beach with a garbage bag and exercise by bending and picking up plastics. People have to be educated to stop using, throwing this stuff in our “nest”. My tip for your team: If I have to purchase something in that heavy duty sealed plastic, I go to the service desk and ask them to open for me. I then leave the plastic garbage there, and the store must dispose. They pay for garbage disposal. The more people that do this, the higher their bill, the more they will demand suppliers NOT to package that way.”

January 24, 2018
Even when we put plastic in our recycling bins, there is no guarantee that it will not end up in a landfill somewhere. We are also learning that many of our recyclables are shipped long distances to be processed, which is not ecologically sustainable. Let’s work towards eliminating the use of clear plastic produce bags at the grocery store. Try buying some small bags made of a sheer material to use instead of the plastic. Avoid double-bagging meat or using a bag for things like broccoli or lettuce, which you are going to wash anyway. If you use a plastic produce bag for something like fruit, save it and reuse it many times.

January 16, 2018
The disposal of plastics continues to be a huge environmental challenge, with 8 million tons of plastic making its way into our oceans each year. Microplastics or microbeads are less than 5 mm in diameter and found in toiletries – products intended for the cleansing or exfoliation of hair, skin, teeth, or mouth. This microbeads are turning up at many levels of the food chain. Canada has banned the use of microbeads as of July of this year. In the meantime, seek out products that do not contain microbeads.

January 4, 2018
With the start of 2018 each household in Toronto should have received a new 2018 Waste Management Guide & Collection Schedule. Make sure you have it handy and spend some time reviewing it to ensure you are up-to-date on what I items belong in which bin! I just learned that the following go in the garbage bin:

• coffee cups (regardless if the container says it is recyclable) and
• stand up pouches (currently popular for cereals, snacks and other food items).
Another great resource to help you make sure that you are not wasting your tax $ that manage our waste, composting and recycling materials is the City’s Waste Wizard – just google waste wizard and click on the first entry. This site can answer your questions about what item goes into which bin! Congratulations for helping to make our tax dollars used efficiently!

December 20, 2017
According to the David Suzuki Foundation, between late November and early January, household waste increases by more than 25 per cent, from extra food waste, packaging and trashed old items replaced with newer versions received as gifts. As you celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, think about ways that you can reduce this waste. If you are making New Year’s Resolutions, try to include at least one resolution to reduce the amount of plastic you are throwing away each week.

December 12, 2017
Here’s a Christmas eco-tip – Wrap gifts in reusable fabric bags or sturdy gift bags that can be used year after year. Skip the plastic bows and ribbons and avoid shiny foil wrapping paper that cannot be recycled. Use fabric or raffia ribbon and a cutting off an evergreen for trim.

December 6, 2017
Never ever use a plastic water bottle. They are usually filled with tap water which already comes through several taps in our homes and places of work. Bottled water is at least 500 times the price of tap water for the same product. In addition, there is the added pollution associated with transporting water bottles from the bottling facility to the storage facility to the store to home. Bottled water does not have to undergo the rigorous testing that municipal water does.

November 28, 2017
According to www.plasticoceans.org there are more than 8 million tons of plastic dumped in our oceans every year. This is one example of the damage that we are doing to our environment with our excessive use of plastic. Here is one simple first step to reduce the plastic that is discarded. Stop using straws. In a restaurant, ask for a drink without a straw. For more information, check out the article “Plastic Straws Suck” at www.davidsuzuki.org.