A Season of Waste

 

‘Tis the season…  The season of what, exactly?

 

I no longer celebrate Christmas.  This is partially for religious reasons – although it can be reasonably argued that many modern Christmas traditions were based (or blatantly usurped) on a variety of Pagan customs.  A persuasive case can also be made that Christmas is no longer a truly religious holiday, but has been widely mutated into a commercialized, secular one.

 

Religious holiday or not, the thing that has severely turned me off as of late is the amount of waste generated by “The Season.” 

 

The first thing one notices in my town is Edward’s Street.  Each home for an entire block is lit with innumerable lights, starting the day after Thanksgiving and running through New Year’s.  The illumination is bright enough to read by and it doesn’t end there.  Bathed in the garish, colored, flashing lights are dozens of blow up Santas, Homers, Grinches, mechanical reindeer and six foot tall snow globes all making the electric meters spin in crazed unison.  The power draw is so significant that anyone on Edwards Street who decorates gets a discount on their December electric bill.  In a climate where experts are saying we are experiencing an energy crisis, all this extra lighting seems improvident to me.

 

I won’t risk the wrath of a consumer driven society by saying that holiday gift giving is profligate, but how many bits of plastic do we need to buy in order to show our families and friends that we love them? Growing up Catholic I was told that three gifts were good enough for baby Jesus so three gifts were good enough for me.  My parents are in the minority though, and all those millions of gifts need to be wrapped.  Gold, and red, and green, the paper and ribbons are ripped from the packages without much notice in the frenzy of opening and promptly discarded, only to eventually find their way to landfill.  Bye-bye to thousands of trees all for a moment of pretty packaging that no one actually appreciates or remembers. (Often our homemade/garden grown gifts are wrapped in tea towels or scrap cloth – they are pretty, functional and reusable!)

 

Speaking of trees – what’s environmentally responsible about cutting down a perfectly good evergreen tree, propping it up in the house, covering it with more lights and more bits of gleaming plastic, and then tossing it out on the curb in three weeks? At least when we had goats we were able to pick up the leftover trees – the goats and sheep loved to nibble off the scrumptious green needles like children gobbling ice cream. Our neighbors were kind enough to do without the tinsel & spray snow at our request, as they are not very advantageous to goat/sheep digestion. Later the naked limbs and trunks fueled our winter bonfires; warming sliders and unsuspecting victims of spontaneous snowball wars.    

 

And don’t forget the overindulgence in holiday food. I’m not advocating ceasing the flow of holiday treats all together, goodness no! (Especially since we love to eat at my house!) However, at nearly every holiday gathering I’ve attended or hosted, there is an excess of food far beyond the guests’ abilities to consume.  Statistically nearly half of the leftovers get thrown away, while 33 million people in America will go hungry this holiday.*

 

Finally, there is a prevailing “over the river to Grandmother’s house” mentality. It seems like all people do is traipse around during the holidays; consuming copious quantities of gas running from store to store to find the perfect gift.  No one has bothered to make a list; no one has even given it much thought, although everyone is sure they’ll know the unrivaled, perfect gift when they see it.  (Even though it wasn’t in the last 20 stores they looked.)  Then there are all the parties and visiting to attend to.  Before we know it we’re running around in a frenzy, barely enjoying the people we are seeing just so that we can make the next venue on time. So much for the joy of friends and family…

 

So call me a Grinch, I don’t care.  I just can’t be a party to such squandering activates.  Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the occasional indulgence, (in fact I believe it is an emotional necessity!) but an entire month of environmentally negligent behavior is repulsive to me….

 

 

  

 

Instead – on the Winter Solstice close friends as well as strangers will gather for one evening; candles will be lit; voices will join together in unity – lifted in song and prayer; we will share company and food, then go home with smiles on our faces and love in our hearts.  What more can one ask?

 

 *http://www.bread.org/

“The End of Food”

When I used to commute 2 1/2 hours a day to work, I got into the habit of listening to audio books in the car.  It makes the time pass faster and decreases road rage.  Now that I only drive and hour a day, I still listen.

I just finished “The End of Food,” by Paul Roberts.  It was an extremely fascinating, well researched explanation of the modern food economy.  Focusing on agribusiness as well as the economics of the marketplace, it illustrates that the world food system is not only unsustainable, but also clearly failing.  The author claims that at the current production rate and agricultural/husbandry practices, we will not be able to feed the entire population within the next decade or two.  Considering that over a billion people are already malnourished, I tend to agree.  (Ironically, Roberts tells us that an equal number of people are obese, partially due to our consumer driven society, where more is better, combined with processed, high fructose corn syrup laden, easy to prepare foodstuffs.)

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in food and where it comes from.  It may be an eye opener for some, but I think it makes some very valid, if frightening points.  I makes me glad, for one, that my thumbs are green!

Do You Believe in Magic?

We had tenants move out who left behind a box of Mr. Clean® Magic Erasers.  I would normally never buy something like this, as we usually try to purchase natural cleaning supplies.  However, the penny-pincher in me couldn’t just throw them away.  Besides, I am admittedly a reluctant victim of a consumerism society.  I’ve seen the commercial and curiosity leads me to wonder if it really works like “magic.” 

 

In our kitchen we have a bar where very often guests in our home sit on tall stools and visit; especially when Chef Glenn is creating some delectable this-or-that.  Unfortunately, the white backdrop underneath is a bear to clean.  People kick it with dirty shoes, the stool legs rub up against it, etc.  It is one of the places in my home that I am always embarrassed about (even though I know it is silly.)

 

So, last night, in a fit of cleaning boredom, I decided put the Magic Eraser to the test.  I’m flabbergasted and a bit distressed.  First and foremost, it worked beyond my wildest imagination.  The back board is as bright at the day I painted it.  I barely even scrubbed; no effort, no elbow grease involved.

 

At first I was pleased.  Then I started thinking, what in the world is in this thing that makes it work so well? It looks like a sponge, but as you wet it and with use, it slowly disappears.  It’s a little bizarre.  No help from the package; there were no ingredients listed, no “how it works,” nothing. It was as if the distributor wanted to imply that the sponge actually had magical properties.   

 

So I put on my research hat and discovered, through the glory of the Internet, that Mr. Clean® Magic Erasers are actually made of a substance called Melamine foam.  Open cell foam, with tiny interconnected bubbles (reminiscent of fiberglass, as opposed to standard foam) melamine has been used as insulation and soundproofing for over 20 years.  However, more recently it has been used as a cleaning substance, because it is not only microporous, but its polymeric substance is also extremely hard, meaning that it works like sandpaper but on a smaller scale. 

 

So what is Melamine foam? It is a foam-like material consisting of a formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer.  (Did I just hear you say “hugh?”)

 

According to the manufacturer, formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite is not formaldehyde, and does not pose any health risks.  (Think sodium = dangerous, sodium chloride = salt.)

 

However, the MSDS states: “Hazardous Decomposition/By Products: Oxides of carbon, oxides of nitrogen, oxides of sulfur, aromatic compounds, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide.”  It demonstratively breaks down very quickly, so despite the fact that P&G claims it is ton-toxic, I am not a believer.

 

It also recommends keeping it out of water supplies and sewers.  (Yet you have to wet it to make it effective.)

 

 

Needless to say, I’ve kind of lost the “magic”…