Temple Beth El Blog

RECYCLE
Curbside Composter

Food waste in the landfill decomposes and produces the greenhouse gas methane, which is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, significantly impacting global warming.

Curbside Composter collects your food waste once a week for $7.50.You simply place all fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, nuts, breads, cereal, coffee grounds, and small quantities of meat, bones, and cheeses into the compostable bag that lines the bucket provided.

Reducing food waste is one of the most important things we can do to reverse global warming. More than 70 billion tons of greenhouse gases could be prevented from being released into the atmosphere. 

Wasted food that is composted can be used as a fertilizer on cropland, improving soil health and productivity, or anaerobic or methane digesters can convert the methane produced from decomposition of food waste into electricity. 

Curbside Composter also provides gallon bins for businesses. They can also work with you to make your event (think b’nai mitzvah or weddings) a low-waste or even zero-waste party.
 

REDUCE
Almond Cow Plant-Based Milk Maker

Dairy-free, plant-based milk can easily be made right at home in a matter of minutes with an Almond Cow or similar product. Making your own plant-based milk at home not only helps cut down on waste from not buying aseptic containers of your milks of choice (oat, almond, cashew, coconut, etc.) but also helps cut down our dependence on milk-producing livestock, such as cows and goats, and reduces transportation impacts from moving all those cartons of milk around. Over its lifetime, an Almond Cow will eliminate the need for 2,750 lbs of CO2 to be released into our atmosphere versus a shelf milk equivalent. That’s 1,379 lbs of coal that will never need to be burned. Your Almond Cow can prevent 500+ single-use cartons from polluting our planet. When compared against the average of buying two cartons of store-bought unsweetened almond milk a week, the average user can offset the carbon emissions of the production and transportation of an Almond Cow in just 2.25 months! 

Check out Almond Cow’s 2021 Sustainability Report.  

They also provide recipes for much more, including recipes for the pulp or other drinks like cider or non-dairy coffee creamer. 

REUSE
Rethink How You Use and Consume Products
How we use and reuse our goods is important. A longer life for an item means no one needs to pull new materials from earth to produce it again, and it keeps items out of our landfills. The beach towel at left is a great example of this. It was actually purchased over 25 years ago as a decoration for the bat mitzvah of Aleeza Hoffert, TBE’s program coordinator, as part of a dozen or so such towel decorations. Her family was also in the market for some new towels at the time. It not only served to decorate her party but also absorbed some of the music and conversational sound. After the party, it didn’t go in the recycling or trash like many decorations might have. Instead it went into her parents’ linen closet to be used over and over again. It traveled to college with Aleeza and now is one of the towels her family continues to use in Madison. Other towels are still in use at her parents’ house and have traveled elsewhere with her siblings. 

Can you do something more sustainable or use something in multiple ways? Simple acts like using a tablecloth that is laundered for reuse instead of using new disposable ones keeps items out of our landfills. Consider using cloth napkins instead of paper ones.  

RETHINK
“One: Pot, Pan, Planet” by Anna Jones
This book is the second by this writer bringing us easy, creative, and delicious vegetarian recipes. The book also includes informative sections on how to reduce food waste, how to eat sustainably, and how to save energy. In addition, the sections on individual vegetables, rather than showing a recipe per page, list a number of simple ideas that you can compare before deciding what to try. 

According to the publisher, Anna Jones “makes cooking mouthwatering meals simpler and greener than ever before. One: Pot, Pan, Planet delivers all the goods: delectable recipes that are easy to prepare and that keep sustainability at the center of every dish. And with Jones guiding the way, the variety and depths of flavors possible using just one pot, pan, or tray are limitless: Persian Noodle Soup, Carrot & Sesame Pancakes; Crispy Butter Beans with Kale, Lemon & Parmesan; Quick Squash Lasagna; Saag Aloo Shepard’s Pie, to name just a few.”
 

Browse Online and Plant Trees
Use a browser that helps the environment. Set your default browser to one like Ecosia that plants trees just for doing the normal searching you do.
https://info.ecosia.org/what 

Shop at Green Life Trading Co.
Located on Willy St., Green Life Trading Co. is a low-waste living store that's great for all your needs! Some Temple Beth El members use their soap bars, bamboo toothbrushes, dish scrubbers, and bulk cleaning supplies. And you can feel great for shopping local too! They also offer product refills, so you can bring your reusable container and fill it up. 

REPLACE
Swedish Cloths
These cleaning cloths replace paper towels and sponges to wash dishes, scrub counters, wipe up spills, and clean surfaces. They are 100% compostable, zero waste. They can go in the washing machine or top rack of a dishwasher to clean.

For each dishcloth sold, the company donates 1% for the planet.

Bamboo Toilet Paper
Every day, 27,000 trees are cut down to make toilet paper. Reel brand toilet paper is made from bamboo that is sourced sustainably and leaves the trees alone. 
Bamboo is an amazing eco-friendly product. In can grow 3 feet in just 24 hours; it is, in fact, the fastest growing plant on the planet. Bamboo can be harvested once a year, and it doesn't need to be replanted, for it grows back from its own root system in 3–4 months, thus growing 120 times faster than hard wood. 
Producing bamboo toilet paper uses 30% less water than making it from hard wood trees. An acre of bamboo gives out 35% more oxygen than hard woods. In other words, an acre of bamboo can fix about 25 metric tons of atmospheric CO2 per year. 

Bamboo fibers make a softer paper than many recycled papers and have a high tensile strength.

Reel toilet paper is biodegradable and contains no inks, dyes, or BPA. Its packaging is plastic free and biodegradable as well. Also, the company provides access to clean toilets around the world, thus protecting water, removing waste from communities and helping prevent the spread of waterborne diseases.

Photo: Mara Seligman Crespo and Lielle Seligman Crespo with Who Gives a Crap bamboo toilet paper

Sun Leaf Bar Shampoo and Conditioner
These products are made with organic biodegradable ingredients and no preservatives, synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals, or plastic bottles. Simply apply to wet hair, lather, and rinse.

Sun Leaf company donates 5% of profits to protecting fresh water.

Household Cleaning and Laundry Products
Making small swaps for life’s everyday tasks can have a big impact.

Laundry waste is a huge problem. Over 700 million plastic jugs end up in landfills and oceans each year. “Plastic Island” in the Pacific Ocean is over 1 million square kilometers. Only 8.4% of plastic actually gets recycled, so even when we recycle, hardly any of it is reused.
It is time to make a change. Small changes lead to a big impact. Consider the packaging of your projects and opt for more sustainable choices, such as those from Meliora. Rub a wet sponge on Meliora’s dish soap bar and use it to wash dishes. No more plastic bottles.

By using Dropps you are turning the tide against toxic pollution and plastic waste. Dropps makes dishwasher detergent and laundry detergents that are dye free, phthalate free, and phosphate free. The water-soluble dissolvable pods are plastic free—so no micro plastics are put into the water. Their compostable packaging keeps plastic out of the landfill; they claim to have kept 3,500,000 plastic containers from being created. And all of their shipments are 100% carbon neutral.

Earth Breeze and Tru Earth Eco Strips are two additional zero waste laundry products that keep plastic jugs out of landfills and oceans. Strips or sheets of liquidless detergent are simply tossed into the washing machine. The sheets are packaged in a plastic-free compostable cardboard sleeve that doubles as a shipping envelope, further cutting back on waste. The products do not contain dyes, phosphates, or parabens and are biodegradable. The companies participate in ocean cleanups, planting trees and donating their products to those in need.

Dryer Balls
Wool dryer balls are sustainably designed, reducing drying time, thus reducing energy consumption. They last for hundreds of loads and mechanically soften your clothes. They are 100% biodegradable. You can even use your favorite essential oil on them.
Conventional dryer sheets are a single-use product, contain a thin layer of fabric softener, and may contain harsh chemicals and added fragrances that adhere to fabrics, vent into the air, and rub off onto your skin.
Cosy House Wool Dryer Balls

Reusable To-Go Utensils
These bamboo utensils are great to take on a picnic or to eat on the go. Bring your utensils to minimize the need for plastic or even compostable flatware, keeping more items out of our landfill. Wash and reuse them, and bring them again next time. If you don’t want bamboo, try a portable metal set.

Planet Box
Consider a stainless steel Planet Box for your kid and yourself. Cut down on the number of plastic lunch boxes or containers and use this metal one that comes with compartments and a few metal and silicone containers for sauces or soups. You can give it a new look each school year with new magnets or use the same ones. You won’t need another lunch box. The Rover is great for kids in preschool and elementary school. For adults and kids with bigger appetites, the Launch is great.

V-dog Plant-Based Dog Food and Treats
Switching to a vegan diet can make a world of difference. When you choose not to consume meat, eggs, and dairy, you are preventing animal suffering and greatly reducing the depletion of natural resources. This is true for humans and our pets. Plant-powered pooches save the planet! A vegan dog, like a vegan human, leaves behind a much smaller environmental "paw print." Consider vegan food and treats such as those from V-dog, a California-based company.

Due to the carbon dioxide and methane emissions associated with raising, processing, transporting, and storing animal products, animal agriculture is a massive contributor to climate change, not to mention deforestation, pollution, water consumption, and biodiversity loss.

Last Tissue
Six 100% organic cotton washable, reusable tissues come in a silicone case that is dishwasher safe. The package is an amazing feat of engineering: Pull a new clean tissue from the slot at the bottom. Tuck a used tissue on the top, where it is separated from the clean ones. Keep trees from being cut down, reduce global warming gases emitted by the paper industry, and save water.

Reusable Straws
Metal straws are reusable, durable, nontoxic, and recyclable. Keep single-use plastics out of the landfills and ocean and away from marine life. According to Sir David Attenborough, author of “Life on Earth,” by 2050 there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish, and it can take over 200 years for a plastic straw to break down.

Worldofbamboo.org 
Fabiola Hamdan’s son Nabil was featured on the Today Show as a young entrepreneur. He makes environmentally-friendly bamboo products like straws, toothbrushes, soap dishes, and chopsticks. Use his products and help reduce the use of plastics! Help support this young businessman and protect the environment at the same time.

Silicone straws are also great for kids who like to chew on their straw (bamboo might crack if chewed on).

Mesh Bags
Replace grocery-store plastic produce bags with reusable bags. The mesh bags can also be used to store produce in the refrigerator.