I've become a huge fan of No Impact Man over the past few weeks. I check his blog every day, because it is filled with great ideas for lowering one's impact upon the environment. No Impact Man walks his talk -- not taking elevators is just one of the ways he has changed his lifestyle.In today's entry, he talks about taking his own cloth napkin to restaurants instead of using the paper products that are invariably offered. What a great idea! He also takes them to shops and wraps his cheese purchases in the handy cloth instead of accepting a plastic bag or container.
In the days before paper napkins, tissues, towels -- everybody recycled their old fabrics. In the 50s, remember my dad had a pile of pocket handkerchiefs that were duly laundered and ironed every week. In centuries past, the English called them "nose rags." I will be cutting up old sheets and clothing and making a pile for myself. Thanks for the tip, No Impact Man!
This summer, I plan to redesign my lifestyle so that I am not purchasing food products in plastic containers. One of my major goals is to convince The Mustard Seed to either stop selling items in #5 plastic containers or else taking responsibility for what they are sending out into the environment by collecting used containers for recycling. Akron's recycle trash collection will only accept #1 and #2 plastics.
BTW, I stopped at the Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in Montrose for the first time, after reading about the chain in Peter Singer's The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter (to be reviewed here soon). Singer stated that this Mexican food chain has taken steps to provide cruelty-free pork and chicken (not yet beef) in its food. I ordered a vegetarian burrito, but didn't think to ask them to not put in a paper napkin. I did notice that the container of guacamole that came with my meal was made out of plastic #1 and did an excellent job of holding its contents without spills. Why can't The Mustard Seed provide #1 or #2 containers like Chipotle? I will be asking them that question, as I regularly purchase brewer's yeast from them and the only way it can be purchased is in the non-recyclable plastic #5.
So tonight -- we actually get to see No Impact Man on The Colbert Report! I'm looking forward to it and hope you all will check him out as well.
