Green Tips from the E&B Committee

Check Ya Later

More like “Check ya never”! Who writes checks anymore? Save a tree and go paperless.

Nearly every bank and bill has a paperless option these days, including IPL and Citizen’s Gas (hopefully Citizen’s Water is soon to follow?). Even Republic Waste and Recycling has a new email invoice and automatic payment system.

Going paperless with my bills has not only saved a few trees, it’s saved some precious time. Most of my bills are paid with a simple click these days. Sure beats writing a check, paying for a stamp, and licking an icky envelope.

According to research on creditcard.com, approximately half of consumers use online bill payment services, but only about 15% have opted out of receiving paper bills and statements. C’mon now…

The only checking you should be doing is to see which of your bills have paperless invoice and payment programs in place.

Ordinary Joe

When you’re livin’ green, an ordinary cup of joe simply won’t do. Us treehuggers, we like our coffee fair trade, organic, bird-friendly, single-origin, shade-grown, locally-roasted, artisanal – with room for real cream and raw sugar.

According to Green America, coffee is second to oil in US imports. So, we have an opportunity to make a real difference with our purchasing decisions.

But making Earth-friendly coffee choices isn’t just about where it comes from – it’s about how it’s packaged.

A recent NY Times article states that single-serve coffee is now the second most popular method of preparing coffee after drip brewers. In the 13 weeks leading up to Christmas 2011, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters who claims to be “Brewing A Better World” sold more than $715 million in K-Cup packs. That’s roughly 715 million little plastic cups that are not recyclable (straight from Keurig’s “Commitment for a Better Planet” web page: “The polyethylene coating of the foil – as well as the process of heat-sealing the various elements – makes recycling difficult.”).

If you already own one of these wasteful machines, don’t let it become yet another item to discard. Apparently now there are K-Cup reusable filter baskets available so you can pack your own coffee, preferably from a local roaster who cares about their impact on the planet.

For those who think buying organic coffee means spending more money, compare Bjava’s house-roasted 12oz bags of organic coffee for $12-$14 to typical K-Cups that come out to be about $50/lb – and not because it’s better coffee.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.