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The maxim "reduce, reuse, recycle" is well-known in our house-hold but, as the article points out, the reduce part is hard. Many don't realize how little actua
by smoyer 7y ago
The maxim "reduce, reuse, recycle" is well-known in our house-hold but, as the article points out, the reduce part is hard. Many don't realize how little actually ends up recycled but a recent trip to Cuba was informative.
Cuba doesn't provide recycling in even the major cities, but our guides instructed that plastic bottles (e.g.) should be placed next to the trash-cans on the street because someone would reuse them. When she was packaging up gifts we brought to give to school children, she tore shrink-wrap into strips and tied them around small bunches of markers. Later when we visited a family run coffee farm, we were able to buy small amounts of roasted coffee produced on that farm. Those beans were packaged in recovered water bottles that had been washed and dried.
A couple other interesting examples ... we were instructed to bring along water bottles because they'd supply filtered drinking water in bulk, reducing the amount of plastic ever purchased. When we visited a family-run tobacco farm, we could purchase cigars. The were wrapped in the hard lower leaf of the local palm trees which of course is compostable and renewable.
Reuse in Cuba was also very evident - the best example is the person we saw in Havana who "repaired" umbrellas. People would drop broken umbrellas on his street corner and he's produce working umbrellas. Repaired is in quotes because many times, the finished, working umbrellas were made of the parts of multiple donor umbrellas. Another example is the classic cars that you see everywhere (it really is that impressive) - it was a little disconcerting to hear a '57 Chevy fire up with the sound of a European diesel engine. On the outside, these cars are kept in pristine condition but a collector here would be horrified at how they're kept on the road.
- reaperducer 7y agoI grew up in a household that never really got over the Great Depression or the austerity of World War II, so a lot of this "reuse" thinking is in my brain. Especially when it comes to containers and cooking fat. But my wife had the opposite upbringing, so she thinks I'm old and stupid because I wrap her Christmas presents in old newspaper and string. But you know what? A lot of those pages from the New York Times are more colorful and decorative than any wrapping paper. Plus, they're unique, and once you learn to tie string well, it's an incredibly useful skill.
- Jagat 7y agoHaving grown up in small town India where in the 90s $100 per month was the norm for most and $500 per month would quality you as the top 5% in that town, I still find it hard to throw away things like empty bottles or cardboard boxes or paper towels (and that's with a silicon valley engineering wage). I'm just getting used to being ok with wastage as I constantly have to force myself out of my old mindset in order to think bigger.
- smoyer 7y agoI usually try to find a recipe to cook that uses the rendered bacon grease before it gets too old. We don't generally fry our food so I'd love to know how you store and filter the cooking fat between uses.
- ikawe 7y agoI typically filter through a fine metal sieve. It’s not 100% effective, but it gets out most of the big bits that would burn. I sometimes use a coffee filter or paper towel in the sieve if I’m filtering enough oil to be worth the paper consumption. It’s key to have an in-jar that you add to and an out-jar that you cook from so that you can properly rotate through the oil rather than continuously adding new oil on top of old. A teaspoon on sautéed greens gives a divine mouthfeel.
- reaperducer 7y agoHonestly, I don't do much to it. I have one pickle jar that I use to store old bacon fat. I just pour it into the jar and put the jar in the refrigerator when it cools. I use that fat for things like eggs, meats, and certain vegetables I want to add bacon flavor to. The other pickle jar I use to store leftover frying medium for things like potato chips and french fries and such. I fry in lard because that's what I grew up with. I don't filter or refine or anything. I just pour the liquids in their jars and scoop out what I need when it's time to use it. I don't know how long it's possible to keep doing this because my wife throws the jars away every few months and I have to start over. But there's a restaurant in Philadelphia (Bookbinders?) that is famous for re-using its cooking fat for decades.
- 7y ago
- Cthulhu_ 7y agoI think the important distinction is that it's worthwhile (financially) over there. People don't modify an old car to put a diesel engine in it in the US outside of hobby because it's a $1000 operation and nobody thinks that's worth it. You only see modifications like that in, well, car modification places, and they intend to turn a big profit on a classic car. Umbrellas and packaging material is too cheap and bountiful to even bother trying to repair it.
- smoyer 7y agoI think the umbrella guy was a genius ... part of the problem with repairing "your favorite umbrella" is a lack of parts. Umbrellas tend to be fragile and his operation really only worked because of volume. He seemed to be repairing an umbrella every 5-10 minutes and was selling them for $3-$4 CUC each (about $1.13 US per CUC) so he was exceeding even the US minimum wage while offering a cheaper product - both these are amazing in a country where the official average income is around $80 US. Yet his business would have been impossible without the stockpile of donor umbrellas - which is precisely why we can't (economically) repair one umbrella at our house.
- nabnob 7y agoThat's a big part of the problem - commodities made with third world labor are so cheap to replace, that it doesn't make sense to fix it with labor at first-world rates.
- gowld 7y agoH&M has a sustainability campaign "Rewear, Reuse, Recycle". How's that for evil?
- smoyer 7y agoOT: I think H&M has better ways to be evil - https://www.salon.com/2015/03/22/the_slave_labor_behind_your_favorite_clothing_brands_gap_hm_and_more_exposed_partner/ https://www.salon.com/2015/03/22/the_slave_labor_behind_your...