I haven’t tried these recipes yet, but this set of 52 vegetarian recipes looks tasty and healthy. In general, these recipes use common ingredients that can easily be found when in season in your area. Using exotic ingredients that must be imported long distances is not eco-friendly. Try some of these next time you plan a meatless meal.
https://www.bonappetit.com/gallery/40-vegetarian-recipes-for-summer
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Packaging is a nearly inescapable part of modern life. Unless an item originates from local materials and is only transported in reusable containers, the item or its components have been packaged at some point. Even if you don’t see the packaging, it may be lurking just out of sight. Baked goods may have been made onsite or transported and stored in reusable containers, or they may have been individually packaged for transport or storage before being unpacked for sale. Either way, the ingredients are likely to have been packaged before use. Some packaging is reused, and some is recycled, but large amounts of packaging are discarded in the trash or into the environment.
I buy a breakfast cereal that comes in a bag rather than a bag inside of a paperboard box. According to the label on the bag, this saves 942 tons of paperboard per year, along with the resource costs of producing the boxes and recycling/disposal. Is there hidden packaging associated with transporting the bags of cereal? Yes, but perhaps not as much as if each bag was sold in a paperboard box. And buying the cereal in the “EcoPac” lets the manufacturer know I care about reducing packaging. Some countries have requirements that items such as electronics must be sold in recyclable packaging, but many don’t – yet. I try to watch for opportunities to buy items that apparently have less packaging. When possible, if I cannot avoid packaging, I try to buy items in recyclable packaging that meets my local recycling processor’s requirements for acceptance. A few ideas:
Mercury is one of the basic elements found in nature. While it is useful for many things, it is also a neurotoxin with serious health effects. It easily evaporates and becomes an invisible, odorless, toxic vapor. When combined with specific other chemicals, it can become highly toxic in the environment and accumulate in the food chain. In your home, mercury is found in many older products such as thermometers. Newer products including compound fluorescent lightbulbs and some kinds of batteries contain mercury. All mercury-containing products should be disposed properly to prevent the mercury from escaping, so you may need to do a bit of research to find both an appropriate disposal method and location. The article at the link below has a lot more information including recommendations on disposal methods and suggestions on finding disposal locations.
https://earth911.com/home-garden/steering-clear-of-mercury-hazards |
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