Common Cuisine |

Let me start by sharing that for me, going green is about fulfilling the original mandate entrusted to all of mankind: Rule over the earth, and take care of it. Essentially, we were given the role of stewards of this planet. Someday, there will be an accounting for how well we used the resources contained here.

So, whenever I speak of going green, I am referring to my personal understanding that the earth is a resource, and I will someday be asked to account for my use of it. I use the word green because it seems to convey a universal meaning. In this instance, I think people can have many different underlying reasons for their conviction, yet we can all agree on the importance of intelligently occupying this planet on which we live.

I am sure many of my readers have already embraced the green lifestyle. I salute you. For whatever reason, I became environmentally conscious when I lived in California, where the dense population brings a constant awareness of consumption. And I was a recycling maniac when I lived in Salt Lake City, and had curbside pickup and city-owned bins for all recyclables as well as green waste. Not only that, I was given the option to purchase wind energy credits, and I did.

Living in the country in my my new home state of Texas has challenged my private activism, and somewhat cramped my sense of civic pride. I suppose it is easier to participate in any activity when the community around you supports that activity. Of course, the city itself does offer curbside recycling, but we are outside the city limits.

So, my “greenification,” if you will, has had to start over from the inside. Recycling is no longer just a matter of sorting the trash into two different piles. I did some research and found that there are a dozen places all over town that will each receive one or two types of recyclables. And they seem to all have different hours of operation. You do the math, but if I make several trips into town to recycle items, but use extra fossil fuel to do it, have I really made a step forward?

I decided to choose the one location that takes the best selection of items. I can take newspapers, plastic bottles, brown or clear glass, and any kind of metal food cans. In this new paradigm, I have to clean and sort each type of item, even down to the brown glass from the clear. It’s a bit more work, and also leaves me with multiple sorting bins.

Call me a complainer, but that’s actually a lot of work! And now that I know exactly what this valley has facilities to process, I am realizing that the plastics and glass I used to throw indiscriminately into the recycle bin probably never actually got recycled after all.

I still struggle with our country recycling program. When I get a carload, I can drive it all a half hour away to the facility. But the bins don’t fit well in the house, so I don’t get many carloads recently. I find it difficult to commit to all the sorting and storing when each item requires a separate trip outside to the garage.

I realize I need to recommit myself to going green. Just because it has become inconvenient, or because we live in a low population area, does not give me permission to abdicate the sense of environmental responsibility I feel comes from an authority higher than myself.

More than just a list of “100 ways to go green,” I will try to share practical ways each week that I am actually incorporating green ideas into my daily life. I think there probably are about a hundred ways that come first before I start considering high-cost ways such as building a windmill or installing solar panels. It seems to me that many food topics are related to green, or stewardship, issues. Some of the ways are small, some are large.

This week I present the first two ways I am making better stewardship decisions, to contribute to a greener planet:
1. I bought local lettuce at the farmers market, that did not need to be imported or trucked across the country.
2. We have started replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs. We discovered that our local energy company is offering a $3.50 credit per year on a compact florescent 4-pack! Seems pretty paltry, but after laughing about it we decided that at least it is a step in the right direction.

This week’s goal: get back in the groove of sorting and storing recyclables.