Product Review: Gorilla Silicone Storage Bags

You all know I have been on the reduce waste, especially plastic waste, kick for a while.

A while back I bought a set of glass storage containers, which had silicone seals. I thought to myself, is silicone really any better than "regular" plastic? The answer is "Yes." Plastic is made from oil; silicone is made of silicon (a naturally occurring element), oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. However, it does take a lot of heat to extract silicon from quartz, so there is still some fossil fuel used there.

Silicone is less toxic than plastic, a great thing when storing food. And you can wash and reuse the silicone many times.

I have been debating for a while buying some silicone storage bags. They are pretty pricy. But I finally worked up the nerve to order a set of Gorilla Sandwich Storage Bags from Amazon to try out. As you can see, they are not cheap. With the coupon applied and Amazon Prime, they come to about $4 each, so they had better last a long time.

Aside from the cost, they are great. I have been using them for leftovers. A small bag holds 4 blueberry muffins, 4-5 oatmeal pancakes, or two large packages of blueberries, which I froze. The slide closures were a little stiff the first time I used them, but they slide on and off easily after that. The bags are heavy duty and the slides are also sturdy.

My only complaint? Each bag is wrapped in plastic and then all of them are put together and wrapped in plastic again. Getting rid of plastic is why I bought these in the first place. I plan to make a comment to the manufacturer and see if they can change that.

The bags came through the dishwasher fine and are ready to go again. I plan to buy some more at some point.

An Earth Day Challenge

By NikoLang - Own work (Screenshot), CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=913338

Here we are, another Earth Day anniversary tomorrow (April 22.) I am among those old enough to remember the first Earth Day in 1970. The amount of energy and enthusiasm to be better stewards of the Earth was amazing. Now, there is barely a whimper, especially here in Wichita Falls.

So what happened?

Part of it is probably that it seems we have made little progress in the 47 years since. However, that is not true. In spite of recent reversals in many areas, in the United States is far ahead of where we were then. Many pieces of landmark legislation have been made since. The Clean Air Act (1970); The Clean Water Act (1977); and The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Recovery Act (Superfund) (1980), among others, were a result.

Some of it may be that we seem to have a "day" for just about everything, most of which seem to be driven by the retail industry (like Valentine's Day). There are plenty of days that seem to be just for fun, like Grouches Day on October 15. But it seems the more designated days there are, the less significance they have.

There are a few things happening in Wichita Falls and the surrounding area that relate to Earth Day over the next couple of weeks. Those I have come across are posted on the Living Green In Wichita Falls Facebook page, but there is certainly no special community events centered around this day. We will have to celebrate individually to have some collective impact.

Here's my Earth Day challenge to people living in Wichita Falls and the surrounding area. Pick something that you can do to be good stewards of the earth going forward. It can be something you already do (just do it again or more of it), a special event, or something you have been meaning to. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Start a compost pile (or vermicomposting bucket for those of you in an apartment)
• Order an organics bin from the city and let's agitate to have the organics picked up every week (see Recycling Options in Wichita Falls)
• Plant a pollinator-friendly or bird-friendly native plant in your yard
• Ditch the one-use plastic shopping bags and plastic produce bags (Did you know you can buy reusable produce bags? I have no trouble using mine at Market Street)
• Make more food from scratch--it tastes better and is less expensive
• Make an insect hotel--most can be very simple
• Stop spraying poisons in your yard
• Plant your own vegetables--even if it is one plant in a pot
• Use compost and other natural fertilizers
• Mulch like crazy--the summer is coming
• Buy local when possible
• Let's get rid of styrofoam--purchase a To-Go Ware or similar and let restaurants know there are more environmentally friendly ways to package food
• Eat more vegetables (especially local) and a little less meat
• Get outside--walk, bike and take the kids. We have a wonderful trail system. Use it.
• Join an organization that is related to environmental issues, especially those that are local 
• Buy a Texas Parks Pass and visit our state parks--you can get in free to any of them for a year with a pass and you get reductions on camping fees. You also send a much-needed message to the state legislature that the parks are important.
• Hold a neighborhood cleanup. Did you know the city sanitation department will deliver one of those big dumpsters to your neighborhood and pick it up again for a very small fee (I think it is $25)? That will save having to haul things to the transfer station and everyone can benefit. Many people do not have a way to transport. Do you have an elderly or disabled neighbor who needs help cleaning up their yard? This would be a good time/place to do it.
• Pick up trash wherever you walk. This town is awash in little. 
• Vote "yes" on May 5 to finish our Circle Trail and improve Lake Wichita.

There's a short list. Feel free to add your own. Post a comment about what you've done or more ideas about steps individuals can take. Feel free to post some pictures on the Living Green Facebook page too.

Living Green(er) in 2016

It's that time of year again. A new year is just around the corner. I have been thinking lately about my New Year's resolutions for 2016. Yes, I am one of those people who make New Year's resolutions, and generally, I tend to stick to them. Mostly because I frame them as goals, not aspirations.

Anyway, in thinking through 2015 and looking toward 2016, I decided that I needed to include one or two goals relating to living more sustainably. I have been doing that the last few years, so this is nothing new, but if I don't include it as one of my goals for the year, then I'll lose focus.

One event that has me really looking at this area a little more is the recent decision by Progressive Waste to stop single stream recycling in Wichita Falls. This means there really isn't a good place to recycle plastics. I have heard Wal-Mart will take most plastics. I am going to check that out and if so, that will be a help. However, wouldn't it be better to reduce at the front side? So my focus for 2016 is going to be to reduce trash. We do reasonably well at this already. We were putting out 1 curbside trash bin a month because we could put most of our waste either in our own compost bins, the city's organics recycling and the single stream recycling. The amount of waste we are putting out has jumped dramatically--mostly in plastics, although there are some metal food cans. I can see that if I don't take control, the amount of trash we put out will double. That's not acceptable. That means I need to look for non-plastic packaging options and ferret out recycling options. I am going to try to can more--I can now, but not enough to make a big dent in the metal cans going in the trash. I can reuse my canning jars.

So that is focus #1.

The next item is this blog. I post fairly regularly to the Facebook page, but have been woefully lazy about this blog. However, many people who have access to this blog do not have Facebook accounts. I can always share the link from the blog to Facebook, but it would be difficult for blog readers to check Facebook posts. I plan to still do a lot of sharing of interesting articles to the Facebook page, but will do a better job of having some more detailed information about topics of interest here.

Lastly, I plan to do more gardening. This is another carryover from previous years. I have a good-sized garden for a residential lot and I have been gradually introducing permaculture. I haven't been very disciplined about it though. So I am going to finish my permaculture course on line and raise a higher percentage of my own food this year. Good exercise, better tasting food and at the same time, removing more of the environmental toxins from our family.

So those are my 3 sustainability goals for 2016. What are yours?

Plastics

At the Rolling Plains Texas Master Naturalists meeting tonight, Terry McKee gave a short program on plastics and plastics recycling that was very informative. I am going to share a few of the highlights here--if anyone notices a mistake, please post a correction!

A few of the major points from the talk:

• Plastics are made from petroleum, natural gas and in some cases, renewable plants.
• Plastics are highly prone to contamination with their contents, making plastics relatively difficult. Plastics cannot be recycled into the same plastic, but only to a lower grade of products--frequently the plastic lumber. Incineration of plastic releases a variety of toxic gases.
• The number on the bottom of the plastic container indicates the type of plastic. Some are more easily recycled than others and have different uses and dangers.
• All plastics have bad chemicals that can leach into food and drink contents, especially if the plastic container is reused or heated. Once you have used the plastic container, dispose of it unless it is designed for reuse.

I really work at using as little plastic as possible, but I do end up with plastic drink bottles that I have reused multiple times because I just hate to throw them away after one use. But Terry lectured me (again) during the talk, so I suppose I am going to have to be more careful in the future.

And remember the post on Green resolutions? Another reason NOT to use styrofoam to go containers is that the chemicals in the plastic is known to leach into food, especially when the food is hot or oily. Remember, To-Go Ware (or similar).

So look for products that use as little plastic packaging as possible. Do not reuse plastic containers if not made to be reused. Do not heat food in plastic or put hot food into plastic containers unless the packaging is specifically designed for that purpose.

Thanks, Terry, for an informative program.

New Recycling Service in Wichita Falls

I have been out of town for a couple of weeks for vacation and it seems like I am having a hard time reconnecting now that I am back.

I did receive an email over the weekend from Jan Herzog by way of Kelly Maestas. All of you who have been agitating for a way to recycling plastics, pay attention.

Apparently a Jason Tucker has started a curbside recycling for aluminum and plastics, called Greenco. I am sending him an email this morning in hopes of talking to him directly and getting more informaion to share. In them meantime, here is the information in Jan's email:

Accepts all types of clean plastic containers--doesn't have to be sorted
He will supply the bins--a small deposit may be required
$8 for once a month service, $10 for twice a month, and $12 for weekly

This is a startup, so Jason currently works another full-time job. You can reach him by email at jacyn5200@aol.com or 940-257-7257. Since he does work another job, he may not call you back until the evening.

For those who have been wanting curbside recycling and plastics recycling, this would be a good way to get on board. However, as a reminder, you can greatly reduce the need to recycling by reducing your waste stream. It's not entirely possible to eliminate plastic and aluminum waste, but we can cut it down considerably. But I encourage you to recycle what you have and consider contacting Greenco about their services.

I will post more information when I get it.