Eco Green Environmental News

It’s an epidemic. It’s a problem that has been spiraling out of proportion for 70 years. It’s called over consumption - or overeating. Americans are famous for it, as it shows in our obesity statistics year after year. What we don’t really consider about this issue is the other side of it - food waste. Overeating means we are consuming extra food. The average American wastes an absolutely insane amount of food every single year. The average person doesn’t even feel guilty about throwing away food, either.

I’ve been seeing people take a couple bites of something and toss it for far too long, and I need to just yell from the top of a mountain about it.

When people start complaining about the rising cost of food, I can only smile and reply “well it’s your fault.” That never gets the reaction in should. When I explain what I mean, people tend to nod their head but I can see nothing has stuck - they won’t be changing their ways. Imagine the money you would save if you only ate what your body needed. Imaging ordering only what you knew you would eat - that goes from lunch at the office to grocery shopping at a local Whole Foods (or other organic/trendy store).

So how can you help the Earth and your wallet at the same time and stop wasting food?

1. Purchase only what you know you will eat. That means planning meals, or ordering food from a menu you know you will like, and be able to eat all of. If you DON’T eat it all, take the leftovers home and eat them as a snack or a meal.
2. Don’t order food just because it is free. An example is I went to Rain Forest Cafe and I got a free appetizer. I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat it, so I ordered it but bagged it right away and ate it as a snack that night. Most people would just nibble at it and toss it because “It was free so who cares?”
3. If you eat out more than at home and you keep tossing out veggies, just stop buying the things you waste. Don’t double up just because you think you MAY need it.

The benefits of wasting less food will come back to help your wallet and on top of it all stop the vicious cycle of throwing away Earth’s blood, food. A nice bi product of all of this is you’ll probably drop a few pounds if you start watching your food intake. So we really hit a 3 in one with this idea. So go do it!

A side note you should consider is that about 25% of all food produced is WASTED and sent to a landfill. This not only fills up our landfills but when the food decomposes it emits greenhouse gasses.
Also be aware that some of the food we consume such as SEAFOOD is not so easy to produce. Some of the stocks of seafood have been shrinking for a hundred years due to overfishing/catching. Who knows, maybe eating 25% less seafood would mean we’d end up having crabs for awhile which would be nice.

I have compiled a few sites and tools I have found to be invaluable during my research online. Hopefully you get some use out of them also.

1. Carbon Footprint Calculator find out how much you damage and where you can save.
2. 30 gas Saving Tips that really work
3. Make your own Diesel and save $3+ per gallon in fuel
4. Recycle regularly because the amount of glass we toss into landfills is disturbing.

These are just 4 of thousands of sites and tools out there to help you get going. Next I am going to catalogue a bunch of very small changes you can make in your life to make a MAJOR impact. I want to share my day to day ideas on recycling, saving money on gas and electricity and much more.

I was doing a random search today and I ran into a sign that suggested motorists shut off their engine when idling at long rail crossings. I come from farm area and 150 car trains are not uncommon and they do take forever to pass. Sometimes 5-10 minutes. You could save yourself some coin and the air by turning off your engine during planned or unplanned LONG idle periods.

I think we need to begin adopting more ideas like this to place green ideas inside of people’s heads without them thinking about it.

“Yea, so what if I am accelerating way too slow? Don’t bother me, I am hypermiling.”

This is my tone recently, as I begin to notice the gas crunch on myself. My father always said “Fuel and food is part of life, I just put it in and deal with it.” but even he is frustrated with prices not matching inflation.

As a result of the recent spikes in everything in life, I find myself on a diet and hypermiling. This is simply a fuel economy maximizing behavior that people have been doing for years, but only recently has it hit the mainstream media. So what exactly is it?

Using inertia as your ally. Slowly reach optimum cruising speed by shifting at the low end of your gear spectrum and not braking. Braking causes you to need more energy (fuel) to bring you back up to speed. At cruising speed you maximize MPG. This means you need to be more aware of your surroundings. Don’t tailgate. Don’t accelerate too fast. Don’t stop and go.

This behavior leads to better gas milage and in my opinion a better driving experience. Anyone with common sense knows racing to the next light doesn’t get you anywhere any faster and is stressful. For one tank, try hypermiling and ignore the angry drivers around you. See how many more miles you can stretch that tank. You probably will never want to brake again.

One thing that I have discussed a lot with friends and family is the cost of going green. Many people have a problem with making a full switchover because the cost of organic goods is much too high (not enough supply  and demand) or because it is not easy enough to purchase items or services to maintain the lifestyle.

I do want to put out a warning out there: Watch out - going green can be expensive.

Now I know what everyone is thinking which is “Why on Earth would an Eco-fan warn people against being good to the environment?” when in fact this really isn’t what I am saying at all.

Green is now a trend. The last 2 years have seen a massive boom in the industry and as such there are people out there trying to capitalize on this trend as with everything else on the planet. When you are making purchases, ensure what you are buying is

1. Needed. Don’t just buy a handbag because it is made of hemp. Part of going green is only using what you need and even if it’s an eco-friendly purchase if you don’t need it don’t buy it.
2. Going to a Real-Green company. Many companies have an arm or branch division that makes friendly products. But if you look at the rest of their product line you find 99% of what they manufacture is bad for the environment.
3. Will actually help in some way. For example a great purchase is switching from a Hummer to a Moped for you 8 mile commute. Buying 12 individual bottled water because the new packaging uses 30% less plastic, instead of using a tap filter… not so smart.

These are just some common sense tips and it’s sort of difficult to expand too much without sounding exceptionally boring. Just consider what you are buying and using and ensure you aren’t overspending just for the sake of being trendy and green. Having to eat ramen for a year because you just installed solar panels on your roof is a noble thing to do, albeit stupid because sure you saved the Earth a small headache but you’re now killing yourself.

Any more thoughts on this? I’d love to hear them!

This blog was started as a way to help vent how easy it is to make a small difference. Many green or eco websites these days are trying to make you feel too guilty. Some of the people who run the sites are vegans, don’t walk on grass and have 0 carbon footprint.

That’s nice and all, but for the average person who just wants to do a small part and feel good about helping reduce our impact on the world - where do they turn? I am hoping that GoEasyEco.com will be your website of choice and you will enjoy reading a daily RSS feed from it.

Since I was a kid, my mom was always about recycling. She insisted on turning off power drains whenever we were not using them. We never had lights on in the house in rooms we were not in. We never used heat or AC if we didn’t need it. I didn’t really think anything of it and neither did she. She did these things because they benefitted US. Turning off idle power sources and lights meant 20-50% in power savings. Being from the great white north of Canada, that could be the difference between a $80 bill and a $150 bill which is a major difference. Little did she know she was actually helping the environment at the same time.

I kept this attitude as I grew up and moved to the USA. It was here in California that I noticed why our world is being abused and decided to help do my part to change that. The sheer amount of waste that is produced on a daily basis is staggering. It’s not only staggering but depressing at the same time.

As I researched ways to conserve, save and help do my part I ran into biodiesel, composting and many other topics that I hope I can share my passion for with you. I will scour the net finding news worthy of posting and I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

Enjoy, and remember that going green can be easy and in some cases fun!