waste

I had a call this week from a reporter at the Daily Mail in London who wants to interview me about having an ethical, green Christmas. I laughed at the irony of calling the day after Thanksgiving, usually the last Friday in November, Black Friday. It's the day Christmas shopping supposedly begins, and there are sales to attract people to the big box stores at 5am (in the UK, this kind of thing takes place during the January sales, I think). "US shoppers rush to Black Friday" The simplest way [...]

I came across a terrific new book the other day, at a lovely new bookshop called the Stocbridge Bookseller, which has a considerable selection of green titles. The book is called Green Remodeling, Chaging the World One Room at a Time. It's written by a Boulder-based professional green builder David Johnston. This means it's geared more to substantial remodeling projects, the kind you're likely to need a professional for, but there's plenty of advice that can be used by the DIY (Do It Yourself) home remodeler. My husband David and [...]

I just read an article about how much food we waste. According to a BBC study, "the average British household throws out ?420 of food a year," which apparently means that 33% of the food we buy is wasted. I've often looked at all the fresh vegetables for sale, things that require peeling and cleaning and cutting up, and wondered how much of what people virtuously buy actually gets eaten--given that almost none of the people I know seem to cook at all. And my own family wastes far more [...]