Sunday, May 25, 2008

Memorial Day Weekend, With a Light Footprint


What better way to honor Memorial Day Weekend than having respect for the nature you spend time in over the long weekend. Here are some tips to lower your impact:


1. Need to mow the lawn to make your yard look beautiful? If you're hosting a picnic at your home/apt. consider using an old school push mower to get the lawn ready.


2. Consider using lump charcoal instead of briquettes, which may contain coal dust and other additives. Try cow boy Charcoal at Lowe's, Trader Joe's, and under the Whole Foods 365 brand, which makes chunk charcoal out of wood leftover from furniture making and construction.


3. Re-think the beef. Beef is a key contributor to global warming. Either go veggie (veggie burgers, soy-dogs, grilled vegetables), or cut down on the meat and look for natural, humanely raised, small farm meat.


6. Try to purchase organic ingredients for the dishes you make and local fruits and vegetables if you can them at your local shops or greenmarkets. Organic is available in everything from ketchup to hotdog buns. Think about all the chemicals you are preventing from entering the ground and water and air. What could be more patriotic than that? As for local, it just tastes better and supports the living of your local farmers.


7. Dish it Out. Try to use reusable plates and cuttlery like greenware, or ask people to bring their own! Use recycled paper products like Seventh Generation so you're not using new trees to wipe your hands.


8. Bring plastic trash bags made from recycled plastic. Seventh Generation or Good Use both make them. This way you're not creating NEW plastic - just using whats already been made.


Sources: original content, Organic Mania
Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Brooklyn Green Team, thanks for linking to my post about 10 ways to go green for Memorial Day! Glad to know it inspired you.

And when we get the Bethesda Green blog up, I'll link to you as well - we're going to highlight action groups from other communities too!