Compost

We started composting Saturday! This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but we knew we were moving, then we knew we were moving again. Our son was very excited to help, especially since he's been watching Curious George compost.

Here's a clip from Mulch Ado About Nothing:

New David Attenborough Film

Star Wars

BPA in Receipts!

I saw on The Daily Green the other day that the major source of BPA in our environment is not from plastics, but from sales receipts! They had cited a Science News article discussing the work of John Warner, the developer of carbonless copy paper and thermo paper. Take some paper, slap some BPA on it, then cover it in invisible ink. Then, when heat is applied, the BPA and the ink together form color.

That was a couple decades ago. So now that BPA is in the news as being an estrogen-mimic (which is what makes it so horrible), he has analized the free BPA content of cash register receipts. You know the concern about BPA in baby bottles and other plastics. Well, most of the BPA has been polymerized, but there's still some free BPA left -- we're talking nanogram quantities. But because there's no polymerization on thermo paper, there's 60-100 milligrams of free BPA per receipt! And it just dusts right off. 100 milligrams is 100,000,000 times as many as 1 nanogram.

And what do you do with receipts? Pick them up, put them in your purse or pocket. Then maybe eat the food you just purchased. Or get in your car and drive away. It comes off your hands onto whatever you touch to be spread about more later. Or you digest it immediately, if you're eating. Then maybe you get it all over your hands again when you organize your receipts or throw it away. And it continues to spread. -- Or worse, you're eating in a restaurant where the servers are bringing your food to you after having just printed out the previous customers receipt. Oh, and it's all over your table.

What's the solution? Well, it's going to take a bit for someone to come up with a new way of printing reciepts so conveniently, and then all the cash registers will have to be replaced, or at least the printer part. But in the meantime, all we can do is request no receipt. I just feel really sorry for people who work at registers.

No High Fructose Corn Syrup Ketchup - A Condiment Review

Amy and I were discussing eliminating as much high-fructose corn syrup from our diets as possible.

I went out for some shopping the very next day and ketchup was on my list. Lo, and behold! Our local grocery chain, H.E.B., had 'No HFCS' ketchup for sale. I grabbed a bottle.

Aroma - Smells just like normal ketchup

Color - For some reason I was expecting it to be brown and nasty-looking. I have no idea why. It was a lovely bright red, just like regular ketchup.

Texture - At the risk of sounding like a broken record: It was just like regular ketchup.

Taste - Aha! A difference! It was a bit tangier/spicier than ketchup containing HCFS, which is to be expected since HFCS is generally used as a sweetener. I think I like it better this way.

So, all in all, a slight improvement. If you see some in a market near you, give it a try! Apparently, Heinz organic tomato ketchup contains no HCFS, so if you don't live near an H.E.B. (which are only in San Antonio I think) you can try that.

Update

Wow, it's been almost a month since I wrote anything here! I've been very busy at work, though, and I've had to work some in the evenings. Several little things to report:

The Geekdo/BGG team on CarbonRally isn't doing as well as I'd hoped. We've got six members, but I was hoping for more. Please join our team!

We got some dishwasher powder from Seventh Generation, and it's doing much better than Cascade, even. We've also changed the setting on our dishwasher, reducing the energy used both to wash and dry the dishes.

Gaiam is running a sale until mid-October where they're only charging 99 cents shipping on everything (unless extra shipping normally applies). They've also reduced the price of their Seventh Generation items permanently.

I don't remember if I've posted this before or not, but we've started saving on laundry by rewearing a shirt once if it's not dirty. We've noticeably cut the volume of laundry.

Someone has recently sold my address, and I'm getting at least ten new catalogs a week in the mail. I'm hitting Catalog Choice pretty hard, and they've stopped appearing -- and I'm not getting any repeats.

And finally, we're continuing the waste-free lunch. Once you get started, it's not that difficult to keep it going!

Waste-Free Lunch: Days 3 and 4

Yesterday, I went to work with Jeff, since I was starting class. We had turkey wraps, pretzels, and fruit, with water to drink. Today, I'm having left-over beef pot pie again.