Truly Small Things

Seriously, are staples that big of a deal?  I don't even use staples all that often.  But I am also seriously fascinated by staple-free "staplers."  They don't actually use any staples to attach paper together...they somehow cut little holes in the paper and then attach the sheets of paper together.  I'm not entirely sure how they work, but I still think I want one.

You never would think that staples make that much of an environmental impact, and truthfully, they probably don't.  But hey, we're again taking the small steps, and eliminating the waste from making staples as well as the tons of non-reusable metal in staples is one small step.

To Dine For

I don’t worry too much about my environmental impact when I eat out at restaurants…maybe I should, but it’s just not a priority right now. But I’ve been thinking a lot more about eating at home, eating at work on my dinner break, and getting take out:

1) Napkins: I’m trying to get into cloth napkins. According to Ideal Bite, it’s actually cheaper to wash and reuse cloth napkins than it is to buy paper ones. Not that I ever buy paper napkins anyways, but I do use paper towels when I need to. In particular, I use paper napkins all the time when I eat dinner at work. They’re just so convenient. I’m working on embroidering some cloth napkins…I’m hoping to eventually have a set for each season…so that I can combine my love for embroidery with being good to the environment. But it’s slow-going. At least my roommate has some cloth napkins that I can use at home. Maybe I need to have a work napkin as well – is that a little weird?
2) Plastic utensils: Plastic utensils are another one of those things that I use at work all the time, along with paper/Styrofoam plates. When I remember, I try to bring utensils from home, but I worry about losing a spoon or something and we have precious little of those. Maybe I need a little portable fork, knife and spoon set that I can just use at work – but then I’d have to wash them every day.
3) Take-out: I’ve been becoming more conscious of how my food is presented to me. For example, when you get your meal to go at Qdoba, they put the container in a (very large) plastic bag. I already hate plastic bags anyway, but I have no need for a plastic bag for the plastic box that I can very easily carry. I also hate being bothersome, so if they’ve already bagged my food, I just take the bag and figure I’ll recycle it. But if I can catch them, I tell them to skip the bag.

I work such hours that I very rarely eat a real meal at home, so I’m always going for the convenient thing…whether that involves bringing my lunch or all too often going out to grab some food. And I just want to be more and more aware of how I’m using resources when I’m eating some yummy grub.