Yummy sustainability in the cereal aisle.
My blog post “Have I Peaked?” listed my 2011 Ordinary Environmentalist resolutions, and #3 is to Buy Sustainable Products and Packaging.
With that in mind, I was at the grocery store looking for instant oatmeal that wasn’t laden with sugar and artificial ingredients and I came across a product that caught my eye because it was a small box of organic instant oatmeal. Creative and eye-catching I thought, but probably 3x as expensive because it looks like a specialty item. Nope, it worked out to be priced similar to other brands. What the heck, I thought, and tossed a box in my shopping cart.
Yum! The BetterOats Organic Raw Chai Spiced oatmeal is very good and I’ll buy it again, for a number of reasons:
PACKAGING – There are four great things about the packaging:
1. The box uses up to 35% less packaging then other brands.
2. It takes up 35% less space in my cupboard – a surprisingly nice benefit.
3. The box and the paper envelopes are both recyclable.
4. The oatmeal packet is cleverly designed to measure your liquid so you do not need to find a measuring cup, or guess the right amount – a great benefit if you bring this to work).
SUSTAINABILITY – BetterOats purchases wind energy credits – a sustainable resource.
HEALTHY – whole grain, flax, no artificial anything, and organic.
TASTY – it has great texture and plenty of flavors. It has to taste good, or it isn’t worth buying!
Ordinary Environmentalists are not extremists, we simply make everyday choices that promote sustainability and reduce our impact on the environment – like buying yummy oatmeal with an eco-friendly slant.
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Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Will there be a rum shortage soon?
Sugar Cane based paper products are introduced.
I just learned that Emerald Brand is making paper plates and toilet paper using 70% - 100% less trees in their products. They are replacing wood pulp with sugar cane.
What??!! I immediately began to think that if this takes off, there could be a shortage of sugar cane – the main ingredient in rum! Will there be a shortage? What will we do without our daiquiris, rum ‘n cokes and mojitos this summer?
Relief washed over me when I kept reading and learned that the paper products where actually going to be made from the by-product of sugar cane juice pressing. Whew – it’s the juice that goes into the rum!
According to earth911.com, “Rather than using virgin or even recycled paper, the new products use Bagasse, the leftover residue from sugar cane juicing. Using Bagasse in new products reclaims an agricultural waste material and prevents the polluting gases created during Bagasse’s usual disposal – burning. It also takes less energy and fewer chemicals to produce Bagasse-products than it does to manufacture tree-based paper products.”
This is an excellent example of how we can rethink our production processes and see how we can leverage existing waste materials to create products, instead of negatively affecting our environment.
This change agent saves trees, reduces air pollutants and minimizes use of energy and chemicals – and doesn’t affect rum production. Cheers to all Ordinary Environmentalists who support products like this!
I just learned that Emerald Brand is making paper plates and toilet paper using 70% - 100% less trees in their products. They are replacing wood pulp with sugar cane.
What??!! I immediately began to think that if this takes off, there could be a shortage of sugar cane – the main ingredient in rum! Will there be a shortage? What will we do without our daiquiris, rum ‘n cokes and mojitos this summer?
Relief washed over me when I kept reading and learned that the paper products where actually going to be made from the by-product of sugar cane juice pressing. Whew – it’s the juice that goes into the rum!
According to earth911.com, “Rather than using virgin or even recycled paper, the new products use Bagasse, the leftover residue from sugar cane juicing. Using Bagasse in new products reclaims an agricultural waste material and prevents the polluting gases created during Bagasse’s usual disposal – burning. It also takes less energy and fewer chemicals to produce Bagasse-products than it does to manufacture tree-based paper products.”
This is an excellent example of how we can rethink our production processes and see how we can leverage existing waste materials to create products, instead of negatively affecting our environment.
This change agent saves trees, reduces air pollutants and minimizes use of energy and chemicals – and doesn’t affect rum production. Cheers to all Ordinary Environmentalists who support products like this!
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