Posted by: cgamble, for Portland.1thing.us

By Solvie Karlstrom

Last year Americans spent nearly $11 billion on over 8 billion gallons of bottled water, and then tossed over 22 billion empty plastic bottles in the trash. In bottle production alone, the more than 70 million bottles of water consumed each day in the U.S. drain 1.5 million barrels of oil over the course of one year.

Ban The Bottle

Though the sale and consumption of bottled water is still on the rise, certain policy makers and activists have taken steps to reduce it. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in June that bars city government from using city money to supply municipal workers with bottled water, and New York City, where residents consume nearly 28 gallons of bottled water each year, launched an ad campaign encouraging residents and tourists to forego the bottled beverage for the city's tap, long considered some of the best water in the country. Even upscale eateries in Boston, New York and San Francisco have taken bottled water off the menu, offering filtered tap instead.

Improve Your Health

Posted by : CGamble on Portland 1 thing

If you have a reusable grocery bag you take to the grocery store, great. However, you might have a larger family and be purchasing a lot more than a couple of reusable sacks worth of groceries per trip. So what to do with all those extra plastic bags you accumulate? You can’t put them in with your recycling. A lot of us find new purpose for the bags. Take one to the park and pick up any trash you create. Still, those plastic bags can pile up and there’s nowhere to take them, right? Actually we just discovered a place. Shaws stores have a bin for recycling plastic grocery bags. So if you absolutely need to grab plastic bags at the store, now you have an inside tip where to unload them sustainably.

Courtesy of: cgamble on Portland.1thingus.com

Enjoy a quick and delicious pizza, easy enough to throw together any night of the week.

Courtesy of Vegan, published by Hearst Books/Sterling Publishing 2007.

SERVINGS
4

INGREDIENTS
Pizza Base:
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for greasing
1/2 cup self-rising wholegrain flour
1/2 teaspoon chopped marjoram
2 scant tablespoons rice milk
1 teaspoon wine vinegar
1/4 cup vegan yogurt
Salt and pepper

Courtesy of:  cgamble on Portland.1thingus.com

by Jeff Yeager

I'm always struck when I travel outside the United States how rare it is to see large expanses of lawn in residential areas in most other countries. Americans are truly grass crazy. We're downright sod-o-maniacs, you might say.

But our dandelion-free, putting green-perfect lawns are tough on the environment and tough on our wallets. Between the water they require, the pesticides and fertilizers, and pollutant spewing, four-cycle lawnmowers, our lawns really aren't as green as they look.

May is National Bike Month in Mass!!  I am very excited for this. There is a "Bay State Bike Week" from May 11th - May 17th!  Riding your bike is a great way to stay healthy and lower your carbon footprint. I get a bit nervous riding when its dark out, so sometimes I will ride my bike one way and take the T home. Fabulous!  When I was visiting my friends in Newport I brought my bike to go get coffee the next morning!

There are three key events that happen:

I have made a couple changes on my own to be green and I wanted to share them!

First, you can see my huge water container that looks like a mini cooler. Picked it up for three dollars and It holds the recommended 8 glasses of water you should drink a day. So I know, once I have finished it, that I am good to go!

Also, in regards to coffee, not only does it create a ton of trash (think of all the coffee cups you have used!) it also isn’t always organic and natural. It effects your nervous system and instead of giving you good, long term energy its just giving you a quick jolt. This is fine for a Saturday night, but not good for sustained energy all week! So I have made the switch!!

I now drink Yerba Mate tea. It is organic, very good for you, and doesn’t leave you with horrible coffee breath. It has 1/3 of the caffeine you find in a cup of coffee, so have three tea’s and your at the same level!

I am drinking “Guayaki Yerba Mate” that is organic and fairly traded. There are a couple benefits that are on the box and I wanted to share them with you.

- Vitality/Clarity/Well-Being

- Traditionally used to support weight loss programs that include a balanced diet and exercise (which is not a bad side effect!)
 

There are also other flavors of yerba mate. I try to drink mine with Almond Milk, (putting milk in it gives it a little more sustenance and makes it feel like a cup of coffee) instead of regular milk because it’s a little healthier for you. I’m on one of my health kicks again (which will probably only last a week) but every time I go on one a couple habits stick with me. I think the Yerba Mate is going to be one of them!