Change the World Wednesday – 16th Jul

Remember my green tomatoes from a couple of weeks ago?

Well, a couple of them actually turned red, small but ripe.

Ripening before the plant died off

And this was their fate…

A blurry pizza

Yes, they were sacrificed in the name of football (soccer) during the World Cup.

A couple of weeks ago, three actually, I harvested my chilies. Here is the bush again this week.

Ready to harvest again

I also have fresh ginger to pull when I need it.

This is one lot of ginger, there is another

And my guava are guavering…

Bunches of guava, soon for the plucking

I have so many guava, that I have been giving them to the neighbourhood kids, which prompted one of them to comment, “Você não é tal velho caduco),” (You’re not such a grumpy old man at all). Made me grin.

The produce shop has closed permanently, sadly 😦 It is becoming a neighbourhood pizza place…

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On with this week’s CTWW,

Plastic Bags!

Those evil things.

This week, ban plastic bags. Carry a reusable bag, use a box, or simply carry items loose. Say NO to plastic bags and don’t allow them into your home.

 

OR … If your home is plastic bag free, please refuse to buy anything which is packaged in plastic (I know … it’s truly a challenge … but I have confidence in you).

 

OR … Look around your home for plastic items and then, research non-plastic alternatives. If you are ready to replace the item, please do. If not, make plans to do so when the time comes.

 

I don’t qualify for parts 2 & 3.

But I do try to minimise my plastic bags. I try to take reusable bags, but don’t always find myself in a position to do so, my visits to the supermarket are often spontaneous, a decision made while out.

At the moment, one of my supermarkets is out of the paper option, and the girl at the checkout was packing my stuff. Sometimes she would put just two or three items in a bag, I complained bitterly, unpacking and repacking more items to reduce the number of bags.

My haul of bags from the supermarket

This girl had no idea. I might have been talking Portuguese (actually I was) and she still couldn’t grasp the idea that I wanted less plastic bags. The concept was totally beyond her. I reduced the number of bags by more than half had I let her do it alone.

I complained to the owner. We have spoken on many occasions, mostly complaints; Brazilians don’t complain, I do. I told him of my experience, and suggested that his staff training was lacking when it came to environmental issues. He agreed, and said he would look into it, and I know he will, he’s not Brazilian, but rather Portuguese and sees management from a European point of view.

So while I suffer plastic bags, I don’t do it lightly.

In this case, I hope that I have raised some awareness.

All those bags will be reused. Mainly as rubbish bin liners; buy plastic trash can liners, that I’d never do, our rubbish collections are not designed for trash cans. Also they are used for my recyclable items on Tuesday’s recycle collection. If I have a surplus, I give them to the botequim for take-aways, so he doesn’t have to buy plastic bags for customers to lug away their bottles.

Oh, and the people who use them to take away their beer, they’ll use them as trashcan liners. Triple and double use is better than single use.

Here in Brazil the lack of education, especially in environmental issues is almost non-existent, although small changes are being made in schools now, but it will be a generation before we see any real improvement.

Public utilities like rubbish collection need to change their ways before these horrid things become unnecessary. Park maintenance rakes up the leaves and mown grass and packs it kerbside in huge plastic bags for collection, the dice are loaded against us.

Meanwhile, here there is no escape from the ubiquitous plastic bag.

So while I fail at the CTWW this week, I do take remedial action.

Update:

Plastic bag use rises for fourth year

 

Change the World Wednesday – 12th Sept

These do NOT make coffee, they produce dirty water

A week ago, I started my CTWW with coffee and no teeth, today, I have neither, but the pondering continues.

I am waiting for the water to boil for my coffee, and before that, you’re not going to get a lot.

People in the First World need gadgets. They have machines to do everything. If everybody just spent 10 minutes more of everyday in the kitchen and made coffee the old fashioned way, straining water through ground coffee beans you wouldn’t have the millions of coffee makers that are around the world. Now you add up all those coffee makers, all that plastic, metal, elements and glass that would never have to be mined, manufactured, transported and eventually thrown away.

That equals a lot of raw materials never extracted, refined and processed. All that petroleum saved, all that electricity never produced and used.

Fresh ginger

My kitchen smells deliciously of ginger this morning. Yesterday I marinated my steak in soya sauce and coarsely grated ginger root and today the kitchen still smells  fresh and clean.

I have a clump of ginger rhizomes in the garden, every now and then I break off a hunk for the vege bowl.

I must break the clump up and spread it out so that it will grow again this season.

My compost tomatoes haven’t ripened yet, but a couple are showing that yellowish tinge, so it won’t be long now.

My passionfruit vines had their first flower during the week, so hopefully they will be more successful and I will have passionfruit for this season.

Change the World Wednesday for this week is a great one. Apt for today because I am off to the supermarket after class.

This week, pick a food item which you normally buy in a package (especially a plastic package) and find a better alternative. For example, rather than buy beans in a plastic bag, look for them in the bulk isle of the market and fill your own container. Rather than buy produce in plastic “clam shells”, see if you can find them loose, without packaging. If you typically shop at a supermarket (where almost everything is packaged in plastic) consider shopping at a farmer’s market, food co-op, wholesale market or organic food store for better options. The idea, here, is to find at least one “green” alternative to plastic packaging … and, while doing without might be an appropriate alternative, we’re more interested in finding the food in acceptable/no packaging for this challenge.

 

Or … If, in your area, you find it nearly impossible to buy food which isn’t packaged in plastic, please speak to your market’s owner/manager to see if they can offer any alternatives. Talk to neighbors and members of the community to search out options.

 

Or … If none of the above works out, please write letters to your government officials and/or start a petition asking for plastic free food packaging.

Farmer’s markets, etc are the answer, but I have explained that is not feasible for me, so I am stuck with the supermarket.

They have many products prepackaged in polystyrene with wrap. For example they have shredded cabbage, I prefer to buy a small cabbage and it takes about 30 seconds to shred enough to use, so I wouldn’t even entertain the idea.

I have managed to get the fresh produce guy to put fruit in a simple plastic bag for me rather than buy a tray with wrap. But it’s got to be in a bag for ‘security reasons.’

These trays are really so unnecessary

They have prepackaged meat as well, but I always go to the counter and get my meat in a simple plastic bag, or get my bacon cut fresh and not use their cryo-vacced stuff, besides it always looks pale and insipid. A hunk cut fresh from a side is much more appealing.

So that takes care of the second part of the challenge. I am always on the look out to at least reduce packaging if I can’t eliminate it.

Today I will check around and see what else I can reduce, and then I will do an update.

Update

I failed.

Apart from the fact that the supermarket didn’t have many of the things I wanted, which is becoming all too often these days, I saw some wonderful filled pies, they were open topped, sort of like little 4″ quiches. The soft pastry would have been destroyed if they had been packed in anything but a polystyrene tray and covered in plastic wrap. There were four different fillings, I just had to have one of each… I felt so guilty when the girl in the deli section wrapped them.

But I managed to assuage my guilt over morning coffee…

They were scrumptious!

I’m off to the other supermarket in a couple of days, I’ll try again then.