Passover Day 4

(Darby) OK, now that the seders are over, my pace of cooking and cleaning has slowed down considerably and it gives me a little time to blog!! Phew, much easier!

The first few days of actions on the carbon footprint list were thankfully easy, because I was pretty wiped out after the seders and going back to work. So it was easy enough to store my leftover food in reusable containers, and to use real plates as much as possible.

Unfortunately we don't actually have that many place settings of dishes for Passover, so it means we're either doing a lot of washing at the sink, or running the dishwasher every night (which we don't normally do). I guess it makes me wonder whether it's relatively better for the environment to use paper plates and recycle them, than to keep running my dishwasher!

OK, I think the best solution of all is to hoof it on over to Target and buy myself some more glass plates. I'll have to add that to my list for next year.

I did get smart (well, sort of) last year, and I bought a bunch of those Gladware containers specifically for Passover, so that from year to year, I don't need to worry about having the right size containers for the leftovers. Now, if I could just find a matching lid!

Anyhow, what I really wanted to write about today was recycling. Here's a little quiz for our readers to see how much you know about recycling in your community. Do you think each of the following is, or is not recyclable in your community?

Junk mail
Magazines
Cardboard boxes
Books (hard and soft cover)
Catalogs
Computer paper
Gift boxes
Cereal boxes
Greeting cards
Aluminum/tin foil
Pizza boxes
Paint
Hangers
Lightbulbs
Styrofoam
Milk cartons
Aerosol cans

Now, each community is different, but if you were to take a big red pen and draw a line below tin foil (above pizza boxes), most of the stuff above the line would be recyclable, and most of the stuff below the line is not. Here are some links to some of our community's rules on recycling.

http://www.solonohio.org/PublicWorks/serviceInfo.html
http://www.pepperpike.org/service_rubbish.asp
http://www.beachwoodohio.com/rubbish.html#recycling
http://www.shakeronline.com/services/collection/Recycling.asp

We just learned a few weeks ago that Beachwood changed its rules and now accepts a lot more items for recycling. So, now we have put our recycling bin right next to our garbage can in the kitchen, and are filling up the big blue bag about twice a week, rather than once a week. I just love that we can recycle junk mail!!

OK, enough blogging for tonight. The next couple of days should be pretty easy too -- the weather has been gorgeous so we haven't had our thermostat on at all, and have been opening windows and curtains to let the sunshine and warm breezes fill the house. How's that for saving energy?

Our next big challenge -- buying organic fruts and veggies for Shabbat dinner. What, it isn't enough to be buying Kosher for Passover foods, now I have to buy organic too? Who came up with this list?

Just kidding. More later!