Being a conscious and vocal consumer

I recall that when I was younger I thought it ridiculous that people would write letters to companies to voice their thoughts. I thought it was an antiquated notion to believe that a giant company would care about the tiny voice of the little old lady who sat down with her stationary and a shaky hand to tell them that she thought their old recipe tasted better, or that she didn't like the new spout on their bottle, or some such minor concern, and that at most they'd send the lady a $1 Off coupon and call it a day. It seemed to me that you either buy a product or you don't, and that companies will make their decisions based on market research and tracking actual sales.

So perhaps it is simply a sign that I am turning into a little old lady, but recently I have begun writing to companies about things that I feel it important to voice. I may be a tiny voice but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't speak, and in this age of Twitter and Blogs and Social Networks I feel that companies are finally starting to see the consumer's voice as another avenue of market research and one that they should listen to. But beyond that I find that with so many choices to be made every day in our consumer-driven lives it is more and more difficult to find a decision I am truly happy with and that I can fully support. If I boycott a product because of over packaging, use of Styrofoam, or factory-farmed eggs how does the company know the reason for my boycott? How can they know that if they make the changes I desire I will return as a customer? And if I'm no longer their customer why should they care about my opinion?

So sometimes once a month, sometimes more, I see or use some product or service which I feel could benefit from simple changes. Would I go to Dunkin' Donuts more if they offered me a non-Styrofoam cup? Would more people use the "House Mugs" or bring in their own if Starbucks made those options more visible? Will I ever get to attend a party without cringing over the number of non-recyclable plastic cups scattered about the room? Does Lucern realize that putting their Cage-Free eggs in plastic instead of cardboard cartons makes me buy their competitors eggs for $1 more per dozen? A quick look on their website in most cases will provide a comment form that will save me from any stationary-depleting, shaky-hand syndrome while letting me voice my concerns. Yes, I know that my letter is probably read by some intern who has the option of sending me a $1 Off coupon, a form letter, or a cease and desist form, and that I may be wasting my time, but somehow to do nothing would seem an even greater waste.

If you've ever seen me ask the host of a party for a glass, or bring my own, you'll understand why I wrote the following letter to Solo today. (Who, by the way, has a new line called "Bare" with more recycled content and renewable resources that will be available at most Target and Meijer stores.) And I hope that you'll consider joining my Old Lady Brigade when you see products in need of change.

"I am writing to you today as a concerned consumer. The Solo red and blue cups, in my experience, are the most popular and widely-used cups for parties, outdoor events, and networking events in need of single-use products. From your website I can see that you are aware of and concerned about the environmental image and impact of your product. This is of great concern to me as well and I try, whenever possible, to use products that are either re-usable or recyclable; this is made difficult at social events where I am uncertain what products will be available and whether there will be recycling disposal for items on-site. I would like to suggest that in major metropolitan areas like Chicago it would be useful to include recycling information either on the package or, when possible, as part of the sales display. A simple "Chicago Blue Bin Recyclable" could go a long way towards thousands of cups finding their way out of the trash and into a recycling bin. A small amount of education could go a long way. And I for one know that a simple statement like that would make my purchasing decision for me.

Thank you for your consideration,
Valerie Brown"

Do you know this man?

This man leaves me speechless. Had I been there for the actual event he wouldn't have gotten away with it and would probably have heard a bit about it from me. (Perhaps a good thing as he is a very large man and doesn't look too friendly).

Now many of you know how much I HATE litterers. Drives me crazy. It is, to me, one of the most disrespectful acts I can imagine to throw your garbage on public property. You might as well be shouting at the world "I'm important and I find ALL of the rest of you so unimportant that I feel it appropriate to throw crap in your face." Because really, whether it is on the train, or on the sidewalk or on the street, this is MY space and Your space and Everyone's space and we have a right to have it as clean and beautiful as possible and have gone through the trouble of developing an intricate method of disposing waste that most find quite easy and convenient to use--and at NO COST! We don't charge you to throw your garbage away in public trashcans and we try to have lots of them out and available for anyone who needs to use one. In reality we ALL pay for these trashcans and the people who remove the garbage from them. We, as a society, consider it important enough that we devote our tax dollars to it; it is there in the same category with road repair, water mains, public education and national defense.

And in recent years we have learned that over half of our waste can avoid going to our already overcrowded landfills, and can reduce our (already too large) energy consumption, and can provide alternatives to using new materials, and can reduce our toxic emissions through recycling. It is another thing that we as a society have come to accept as an important and vital change that we must embrace and that we expect our government to enable and allow us participation in.

So when a member of our community has the level of disrespect and gall to take a recycling container, meant to allow the public the option of recycling their waste, and takes the bag off the container and throws it away in the trash--in order to make more room for his comfort, it is beyond sad, beyond upsetting or disheartening. It makes me angry. I have no words for the pain such a slap in the face causes. Not only is he obviously not going to recycle his own waste, but he is removing from countless others the option that they had to recycle.

If anyone knows who this man is, please dump a large bag full of garbage on his desk. Because this is the space that was filled in a landfill with materials that COULD have been recycled had it not been for his disrespectful act.

And please, feel free to print out a picture of him and put it wherever those who might find him could see it. People like this need outed.

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Panera

In my transition into becoming one of those old ladies who writes letters when they're not happy about something I wrote to Panera Bread--one of my favorite restaurants for a quick soup and salad. I told them how disappointed I was that although so many of their procedures are earth-friendly (reusable dishes and flatware & paper lined trays instead of disposable items) I was a little put-off when I realized my choices for drinks were between a plastic water cup and a styrofoam cup. They were good enough to write back:

Dear Valerie,

Thank you for taking the time to contact Panera Bread. We are actively
seeking ways our company can support the environment, from the materials
we use, to how we recycle and what kinds of products we serve in our
menu items. Although we do not currently have a company-wide standard
recycling program, our bakery-cafes do recycle on a regular basis. We
are also increasing our use of products made from recycled materials
including: our Via Panera catering boxes are made from a certified
renewable resource; we are replacing our cups with certified sustainable
paper; and, we are in the process of replacing our soup containers with
paper containers. Several of our menu items also feature organic
ingredients.

Thank you again for contacting us. We appreciate your business and value
your comments.

Sincerely,

Isabella
Customer Comment Coordinator

Good to hear Panera...I'll see you soon!

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Shopping Guide

So....having survived the scourge of dust and junk laid upon me by my old roommate and having successfully passed up on taking various items that I "kinda, sorta, maybe might like to have" and instead sending the lot on to Goodwill, I am now in the midst of transporting my belongings from one room to another and am trying to find things to lose along the way.

Along those lines I bring you a handy guide to help you reduce your clutter from its very source:

Some time ago Natural Home magazine featured a guide for how to see through “greenwashing” that asks all the right questions to help us buy less in general and buy greener when we do buy. These are best answered in terms of the product and its packaging:

1. How was it made? Are the materials sustainable? Did it take a lot of energy to make?
2. Is it locally made or did it require a huge amount of energy to get to your local store?
3. Is it built to last for generations and would you want to see it around for generations?
4. Is it recyclable or biodegradable?
5. Is it made of recycled materials?
6. Is it natural and nontoxic?

If after answering these questions, you still want to make the purchase, try one more test. Wait 24 hours and see if you’re still thinking about it. If you aren’t, skip it.

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Cool things I've been reading

From a cool article on the renovation of an old farmhouse using as much 19th century technology and know-how as possible:

Architect Marina Huissoon tells the Star that people used to only heat the rooms they were occupying rather than the modern wasteful habit of heating the whole house. "We looked at the way the original settlers lived and tried to bring those concepts forward. "

Huissoon notes that earlier generations had little choice about practicing conservation ethics. "It's a very old-fashioned notion, taking care of what we have – we've gotten out of that practice in the last few decades. It's time to get back to that approach to living."
The Star.com

From Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"

"*Glucose is a sugar molecule that is the body's main source of energy; most carbohydrates are broken down to glucose during digestion. Fructose is a different form of sugar, commonly found in fruit. Sucrose, or table sugar, is a disaccharide consisting of a molecule of glucose joined to a molecule of fructose....

*Fructose is metabolized differently from glucose; the body doesn't respond to it by producing insulin to convey it into cells to be used as energy. Rather, it is metabolized in the liver, which turns it first into glucose and then, if there is no call for glucose, into triglycerides--fat..."

When technological advances allowed for the mass production of white flour (removing the bran as well as the germ) white rice, and corn flour, which were far more popular, more long lasting, and less nutrient rich than their brown counterparts, devastating epidemics of pellagra and beriberi soon followed (caused by a vitamin B deficiency) Nowadays we try to add back in some of the things taken out that have proven necessary--fiber, bran, folic acid, vitamin #, phytic acid, iron, zinc, mangnesium, manganese...but with thousands of micronutrients in every natural food source how can we possibly believe we can add back in all the "needed" things?

Why try to remake a carrot? Why try to process foods until they are unrecognizable and then try to add back in the chemicals and ingredients you've destroyed? It is impossible. But no one got rich selling carrots, they got rich selling Vitamin Fortified Fruit flavored water.

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My money= My ballot, continued...

So where was I? Right...I was feeling guilt over my consumerism, my consumption, my needless purchasing of things that I thought little to nothing of and of which I had never even stopped to consider all the "real" costs.

In my last post I mentioned all the time I've spent NOT shopping. Although I was surprised at how much time that actually was I have since found out that I am far FAR below average. The average American apparently spends 6 hours a week shopping. I assume this is mostly browsing time, as I think we'd be even more insanely in debt on average if we actually purchased for each occurrence of shopping that totaled that 6 hours. I'm not sure that includes time spent doing online shopping. (I'll double check Big Green Purse where I read this statistic). Anyhow... I found myself with more time on my hands.

For anyone who doesn't know I work in a furniture store and have been there almost 5 years. Over the course of this time I have brought home box upon box of discontinued fabric swatches (about 13"x16" pieces of upholstery fabric used for custom ordering.) I could never bear to throw out this fabric and always figured I'd either use it myself, donate it to an artist or art group or I'd sell it on Ebay after leaving the job. With some extra time on my hands I started organizing these fabrics a bit and made a couple of simple bags. My simple bags were lovely. Beautiful fabrics made the bags gorgeous with little effort on my part, but I have a degree in art so that wasn't enough for me. I started making more complicated bags, using different combinations of solids and prints with contrasting lining. I started making them reversible bags...way cool. But I didn't get far before I realized that handles and closures would be a problem. I didn't have any supplies on hand for handles and most of the fabrics I used were far too bulky to make a nice handle out of. I went to the craft store and looked at handles. $7-$10 for a mass produced handle? for a unique bag made for free, and out of repurposed fabric? It seemed to me like a lot of money and waste, especially since I had no real intention to go into business selling them. And so I looked for alternatives for making handles. I went thrift store shopping, I thought perhaps I could scavenge some handles from other bags or perhaps find some other alternatives.

Most of my thrift store shopping in the past few years has been for one type of item--nice wool sweaters that have some problem or are just ugly, but can be unraveled, wound into a ball, and used again as a cheap, eco-friendly knitting yarn. So when I went shopping for handles I already had a good idea where my favorite thrift stores would be and where I might find good supplies. But when I went I was disappointed. Most of the handles on purses were either already worn, or attached to purses that were far too nice to be scavenged. I came home with nothing (except more sweaters).

So while I was still trying to figure out my handle dilemma a friend told me about her favorite thrift store. I went and was amazed. I found a lovely selection of beautiful, stylish clothing sorted neatly and priced cheaply. I came home with a new winter coat and about 7 shirts, blouses and sweaters, most of which were work appropriate and half of which were brand name items (Banana Republic, Kenneth Cole, Anne Taylor, etc.)I spent around $16.

I've been stingy my whole life. I admit it. I kept quarters my parents gave my brother and I for arcade games and said I was going to put mine in the bank rather than waste it on two minutes of forgettable fun. I ration things; once a box of pop is half empty I start slowing my consumption so it will last longer. I like getting a good bargain; if you compliment some jewelry or piece of clothing I'm likely to smile and tell you how little I paid for it. So it shouldn't really be a shocker that I like thrift stores and that I've shopped at them my whole life and continue to do so even though I can afford not to now. But then again, how does one define what they "can afford"? I may not have to count every penny and worry if my limit has been exceeded if I splurge on some clothes here and there, but student loans and credit card debt still eerily lurk in the background reminding me that whatever I spend is keeping me from being able to pay off debt and start my savings. I occasionally remind my ever-broke coworker that with her complete lack-of-debt she is far richer than I am.

So I find myself in thrift store bliss... Lovely, right? Buying pre-used clothes and other items guilt free? Ah, but there's a catch...my closet is already full and I already have way too much stuff...and did I mention my roommate is moving out and I'm faced with the possibility of either having to move all of stuff (a very hefty task) or finding a new roommate willing to live with all of my belongings?

So I stare into my closet and try to see space, try to see how perhaps I might find more room in the crowded and already overstuffed area...And I fail. I imagine giving away all of the clothes I hardly wear and all of the items around my room and around my house that I don't really NEED and I feel elated, freedom sweeping over me. I imagine how I could pick-up and move to another city, just one suitcase full of belongings to my name...ah, sweet bliss it would be to be relieved of the burden of my belongings.

Then I crash. The reality of my belonging to my belongings pull me down. I OWN this stuff. I am responsible for it--like a puppy: I have accepted ownership and agreed to take care of it for the rest of its days. If I give up on the old worn jeans and the slightly outdated dresses and the acrylic paints and the bottles of household cleaners and the old computer towers and the folding chairs and the hair products and all the other countless things crowding my house I will have to choose their fate--do they end up in a landfill or is there someone I can trust to put them to use? I've seen the dumpsters at the Salvation Army, I know that a large number of items are unsold and dumped, I can find no redemption there.

....big long pause...

...So now what?...Well, I'm not sure. I'm buying a bike and am trying to cut down on my driving. I'm trying to think of ways to re-purpose all my old clothes (rugs? quilts? sculptures?). I've found the recycling drop-off point where I can recycle all plastics #1-7 except 6. I've kept up with the composting. I'm sure I'll find new stumbling points as I go though, new obstacles to trying to live my green and footprint free life.


...I'm sure there will be more to come but most of this bit has been sitting waiting to be published for far too long, keeping me from posting anything more frivolous or not on-topic (and I like frivolous and love off-topic)

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Money, the root of evil or the biggest ballot you can cast?

So all my piracy has left me with a large gap in my life...no, it's not the lack of human contact, that was there already. The large gap was/is the time I'm spending NOT shopping.

Now you are probably thinking horrid thoughts about how much I must have BEEN shopping in order to now have so much time filled with non-shopping. All perfectly deserved, but even so, I was never as high an offender as most. I may have to rewind a bit to explain.

I don't know where I should start, with my overcrowded closet and the moment that I felt my heart soar as I contemplated what it would be like to just get rid of it ALL, or with the visit to the thrift store that made me realize I could NEVER buy a "new" outfit again and be completely and sufficiently clothed for the rest of my life by way of other people's cast-offs, or with the website The Story of Stuff that made me re-evaluate my contribution to environmental harm not just in terms of what I brought home, but by the effects and environmental expenditures production and transportation put into those items, or should I start with my first knitted shopping bag?

I knit my first shopping bag about a year ago. It was cotton and pretty and stretched really big to fit groceries in it. But I needed more bags for the amount of groceries I was buying. So I started bringing my knit bag inside of a tote bag...and then another bag, and then I got a thermal bag...and now I probably have about 7 or 8 "grocery bags". Baby steps. I loved not taking bags while I was at the store, and even more I loved not having huge bags of bags growing each week in my recycling pile.

Then I started doing "Eat to Live" during the summer. The diet is largely vegetarian/vegan and the staple foods are lots and lots of veggies and fruits. So as I began doing this diet I began visiting the grocery store once or twice a week instead of once or twice a month. But instead of increasing my garbage I was actually reducing it. I started a compost bin and would go out every week or two to bury the compost in the garden. I put all the plastic containers, tin cans, and cardboard boxes in with my recycling and reused the thin produce bags whenever I could. Very little excess packaging remained. My trash bin filled up once a month rather than once a week. It was inspiring. I started looking at what I was still throwing away and despising it. I began looking at styrofoam trays and plastic bags that had to be thrown out from the corner of my eye--they were personally offensive, they were making me look bad by creating an environmental footprint where I wanted there to be none.

I began noticing that when I went out to eat and was given plastic utensils, Styrofoam cups, plastic containers for salad dressing, cheese, sauce, etc. it was usually without my permission and forcing me into creating a footprint from one meal that might equal a normal week from my at home eating, or a month from people in other countries.

Then I watched The Story of Stuff. And honestly it made me snap out of a delusion I was in. I felt I was doing well. I thought "well look here, I'm conscientious, I reduce, I reuse, I recycle, I don't buy animal products as much, I'm shopping at places that are supporting local and organic farming. I'm way ahead of everyone I know, so surely that's enough, right?"

Oh.My.Gosh.

Let me tell you a side story: When I was in Africa I stayed a number of places with a number of people and usually when first arriving offered some money or food to help facilitate my stay. I was never asked for this, but offered anyways. It was only after I had been in Malawi for 5 months or so that someone asked me how much I had given and I had said "as much as they would take". I was then told that I was supposed to have INSISTED on giving them more, and that most likely the people I stayed with in villages suffered hardship in trying to feed me for the amount of time I had stayed. My heart hurt. I was crushed. People already poor and already burdened suffered without telling me. How could I possibly make up for this? It was truly impossible.

It was a similar feeling, of being crushed by the notion that I was a burden, that I AM a burden, when I watched The Story of Stuff. It was all there. I was buying things...lots of things, here and there, random things, little things, cheap things, unimportant things...and those things were having social and environmental tolls that I could not see or possibly calculate. Every little piece of junk I had ever bought had some price that I had NOT paid. A price not necessarily in dollars, but in fuels burned, natural materials squandered, labor exploited, toxins released into the air and the water, and that those items still had within them more toxins and more material for the landfill unless I could keep them in use. And I have a house FULL of this stuff

Ouch.

...continued later

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13 years!

Some facts that make me happy to be vegetarian and consider being vegan:

-Cost of hamburger meat if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by US taxpayers: $35/pound
-A report by the USDA estimates that 89% of US beef patties contain traces of the deadly E. coli strain. Reuters News Service 8/10/00
-Antibiotics allowed in cow's milk: 80
Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13%
Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1988: 91%

I've been looking into vegetarianism more and more lately and the reasons behind why I do not buy or eat meat. My number one reason has always been the environment; the large scale production of meat and meat products is one of the leading causes of deforestation and ruining of land, as well as being incredibly harmful to waterways, a large source of methane gases, extremely wasteful use of grains, water and land, and detrimental to the healthfulness of both the animal products produced and the vegetables produced on shared farmland or within the plume of factory farming waste.

I do not come from the viewpoint of it is immoral or wrong to kill an animal for eating, nor do I believe that occassional consumption of meat is detrimental to one's health. Yet the more I read about meat production in the United States today the more I feel that the way animal products are being produced today is morally reprehensible. From chickens that live in tiny cages for years on end never seeing the light of day or able to move their limbs, to the purposeful maiming of animals (beaks cut off or legs broken), to the yanking of a one day old dairy calf from its desolate and crying mother, I can't help but feel that mass production has led farmers to become the keepers of generation upon generation of tortured and tormented victims, rather than the farmers of old who reared animals for necessity and allowed them as natural a life as possible and as quick and clean a death as possible, with as much of the animal used as possible and very little wasted. That manner of honoring the life of the animal is long gone.

Not only have these industries suffered animals to live in a horrible manner, they also hurt the very consumers they sell to. Slaughter houses in particular have neglected the quality of the end product in favor of the quantity of the end product, with more meat than ever improperly handled and contaminated with e-coli. More eggs than ever are infected with Samonella and the amount of hormones, anti-biotics, dioxins, carcinogens, bacteria, and other toxins and contaminants found in animal products only continue to increase.

In the past my viewpoint was that I would not purchase these products and therefore would not support the industry that produced them. My feeling being that the only reason they treated animals worse and worse was to make the bottom line more profitable and that the only way I could make a significant statement would be to make it less profitable by refusing to purchase meat. Yet I see how this fails in certain ways. If I am no longer purchasing from the meat industry I am for all intensive purposes discounted-- I have no effect on them. I am NOT one of their customers, and as such why would my opinions hold any sway?

So I've been doing research on what I would consider to be more responsible farming. Organically grown, free-range, and pastured farmed animals neither live the horrific life, nor as dramatically contribute to the ecological decay that factory farmed animals do. Although there is little to say that the pasture raised animals are slaughtered more humanely or safely, it is still an improvement that I would like to support.

I've done a little (I plan to do more) research on companies supporting organic/environmentally conscious farming and ethical treatment of animals, and will be making an effort to support them...I will not be purchasing meat there, but will be buying other products with these companies. In this way I will not be supporting the grocery stores that support the unethical companies. Primarily I've found that Trader Joe's has been acting in a very pro-active manner regarding these issues, and perhaps even to a greater extent Whole Foods has been supporting it as well. In supporting these companies I am refusing to support those companies that buy, distribute, and in turn contribute to the prosperity of companies that put production and profits ahead of the environment, animal welfare and their own customer's health.

If you're interested here are some excellent articles on Trader Joe's & Whole Foods' efforts towards better animal treatment:

Whole Foods Market's "Compassionate Meat
Trader Joe's Goes to Cage Free eggs only

And for excellent info on Vegetarianism/Veganism and its related issues GoVeg is an great resource and is very interesting reading

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