Strawberries

If you are like me you want to get your strawberries from an Organic farm that doesn't use pesticides. Since strawberries have thin porous skins and you eat the whole thing, anything that is sprayed on them is going to end up in you.

Head to your local farmers market and but them by the crate.  They generally come in those little green plastic buckets.  You can save these and bring them back with you the next time you go. More often than not, the farmers will gladly take them back in good condition and re-use them.

PROS: Good fresh strawberries, builds community, supports local farmers, saves on packaging waste

CONS: Means an extra trip after the market if you weren't already going there, prices may vary more than at the store

Fruits and Vegetables

For starters, check your area for farmers markets. Overall, farmers markets will save you money, get you fresher produce, and you can rest assured that your food hasn't traveled 1000 miles to get to you and that all the money is going to the grower. Also, many farmers markets have specific organic sections now if that is something you are interested in.

PROS: Supports local farmers, generally cheaper, cuts down on carbon footprint from travel, fresher fruits and veggies, helps creates communities as you can establish connections with the farmers and local area residents.

CONS: Since everything is locally grown, out of season fruits and veggies may not be available. Requires a separate trip than the grocery store.

If you want to go one step further, join or start a local Community Supported Agriculture group (CSA). What you do is pay a monthly fee and every other week or every week, depending on their setup, a large box of assoretd fruits and veggies arrives at a drop off point where you pick it up.

PROS: Supports local farms, fresh fruits and veggies, cheaper than a store, may introduce you to new veggies, less packaging than buying in stores.

CONS: Need to pick the boxes up requiring some extra time, potential of a bug here or there, you may not be able to have exactly what you want when you want it.

Car Washing

If you need to head to a car wash, check in your area and see if there is a place that recycles all of it's water.

If you have a place of your own where you can wash it, use a biodegradable non-toxic cleaning agent like Simple Green so that it doesn't foul up the sewer water more than it needs to.  I pull the car up on the lawn so that the lawn gets watered at the same time, and when i can, will wash the car in the rain since I need to use much less water.  Also, avoid washing your car when it's sunny as you won't need to constantly be hosing down the car due to drying times.  For best results, get rid of your car...bikes have less surface area and are easier to clean.

Pros: Uses less water saving you money and if you wash in the rain, will make you a hit with the neighborhood kids.

Cons:  Means you can't wash when you want all the time if you are waiting for the rain to come, and your car will most likely end up with water spots

Plastic Produce Bags

Reusable Bags sells great cotton mesh produce bags that are durable, washable, lightweight and great. They run $3.95 but if you get together with friends and buy more than 10 they come down to $3.25.

As for storing in the fridge, most produce can be loose, but things like lettuce can be stored in tupperware like containers just fine. A friend mentioned tht she uses the heavy bags that bulk oranges come in to store apples and oranges which seemed like a good idea.

Another really good idea is to take old t-shirts that you don't want anymore and sew the bottom and arms shut. A great way to re-use and you'll most certainly have original looking bags!

PROS: Cuts down on the worst of the plastic bags as these are rarely reusable due their lightweight nature and fly away easily off of garbage/recycling piles easily, the make you look uber hip too!

CONS: Need to remember them (which will become normal quickly), initial monetary outlay is a bummer but in reality, the damage that the other bags are doing costs you much more, you just don't realize it.

Junk Mail

• For starters, check out Greendimes.com. Greendimes costs $20 a year, but for that price they automatically remove you from several lists, plant 10 trees, and continually monitor your account. I did this thinking the trees alone made it worth it, but the junk mail actually fell off from just that pretty quickly. In addition, when stuff does get through, you just go on the site, plug in the info, and they do the rest. I've heard pluses and minuses about them, but I'm a believer.
• Next was the mail from orgs that we give money to. I thought about this for a while and what i do now is call/email them and tell them that for reasons involving saving resources, I have decided to no longer give money to orgs that send me paper solicitations, but will gladly consider them if they send me email solicitations and give them my email addy. In every situation this has proven to be effective so far, and I usually get an email of thanks back.
• As for bills, I pretty much pay online and do auto withdrawal so after all is said and done, not much left. We do occasionally get a Penny Saver ad or something similar, but a call to the number in the editorial section takes care of that and eventually they stop showing up.

Now some people will balk at paying to not have something you haven't asked for not be sent to you in the first place, and I can't really blame you. It's wrong and the problem should be theirs, not yours. That said, it's a question of time versus money. So if you want to go about it on your own, here are some tips.

• Head over to The Direct Marketing Association and for $1 (I think that's a legal requirement) they'll get you off a whole mess of lists. Your request will be active for 5 years at which time you'll need to renew.
• Catalog Choice is a free service that will help get rid of unwanted catalogs for ya.
• Optout will put an end to most unsolicited credit card and insurance offers.
• If stuff continues to come in, rather than recycling it right off the bat, call the 800 number and asked to be placed on their "do not mail" list. Legally they have to and most will oblige.
• Apparently the USPS sometimes sells forwarded address lists to solicitors, so if you are moving, mark your forward preference as temporary for six months rather than permanent. As a result, your addy won't be sold and you won't bring all that junk mail to your new house.
• Any time you fill out a warranty card or subscription, you are giving advertisers the right to buy that information. To keep this from happening, write "Do Not Rent, Sell, or Trade My Personal Information, Name or Address" on the bottom of the card in big block letters.
• You can also check out 41 lbs which gets it's name from the average amount of junk mail an adult receives in a year.

Bottom line is don't give up. Some things will stop right away, and some will take up to two months as that's how far ahead they plan their mailings, but eventually you'll see a big difference. I kind of treat it like a game and it actually keeps it fun in a weird way.

Coffee

If you're like me, cutting out coffee is not an option.  So here's what i've come across to make it a little easier on the environment.  I should point out that these thoughts mainly concern home brewing.  If you buy coffee at the store by the cup, realize you are getting ripped off, but at least bring your own mug.

• For starters, buy fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee.  This will insure that the coffee was grown in an environmentally responsible way and that the growers actually received a fair share of the money.
• If you are using an electric coffee maker don't leave it plugged in all the time (the clock uses energy all day long) and consider using a metal re-usable filter rather than paper filters.  If you do use paper, consider the brown filters over white as the white generally are bleached....yuch!  Paper filters can hit the composter when finished.
• Better than electric coffee makers, look into a good french press coffee maker.  You'll need to get a grinder or grind at the store, but you don't need filters (cuts down on consumption and waste) and I think the coffee tastes better, but that's me.
• When buying coffee beans, get them bulk from the store and take them home and put them in a container. Then fold the bag up nicely and you can re-use it the next time you need beans. This way you'll cut down on all those metallic plastic coated bags and you're waste stream will be diminished.
• Once you're done with making coffee, you can put the grounds in the garden or the composter (amongst other things) and they'll work wonders, especially on roses!
• Coffee filter uses...who knew?

PROS: Cuts down on waste stream, money gets to the farmers who deserve it,  saves on electricity, helps out your garden.

CONS: Can't set it and forget it, may require getting rid of your present maker (craigslist) and buying a french press maker (craigslist), cleaning the french press uses a bit more water and takes a bit more time, fair trade coffee may cost more, but the real question should be whether "conventional" costs too little rather than whether fair trade costs too much.

Related Links: Home Brewing Waste Solutions

Bread

Instead of buying bread from the supermarket, which results in accumulating at least one, or possibly two plastic bags per loaf, head to your local bakery and get fresh bread. If you establish a relationship with the folks there and explain that you are trying to cut down on waste, they may allow you to bring your own plastic bag to use.  You can also explain to them that this will save them money in the long run and assure them that you will only bring clean bags that have only been used for bread. This way, you can use the same bag over and over and cut down on waste.

PROS: Fresher bread, supports local businesses, potentially cheaper, develops a relationship with a local merchant and fosters a community atmosphere, saves on number of plastic bags that head to recycling.

CONS: A separate trip may be necessary if the baker is not located near your supermarket.  Also, the potential for weight gain is increased due to proximity to desserts, but this could be seen as a PRO as well.