My Fist Raising Tweets from Twitter

• It’s got bacon in it so it must be good! http://is.gd/eNk1p
• Wil Allen’s, Growing Power needs to branch out in Detroit. Sounds like they’re ready for some urban agriculture. http://is.gd/eD4rZ
• The Hard Sell on Salt via NY Times – The Salt Industry = zero social responsibility. Same tune, different industry. http://nyti.ms/9BLbrp
• The fight over salt: Big Food vs. Us http://www.grist.org/article/the-fight-over-salt
• Just got the iPad modulR case, stand, and wall mount. So far totally lovin’ it! Check it out: http://bit.ly/ac2IWs
• Homemade mosquito trap! Gonna try this soon and post results on my blog. Instructions here: http://bit.ly/bYZJ3v

Clotheslines are hip, sheik, and in vogue, right? I mean, all the cool kids are doing away with those hot buckets of wasted energy we call dryers and switching to the sophisticated and fashionable clothes line. Because that long stretch of rope hanging between two trees or specially designed poles is no longer synonymous with ghetto life and gutter punks. It’s green and trendy and…man, who am I trying to kid? Ninety percent of the U.S. population still uses clothes dryers and the electric dryers out there consume more power than any other household appliance. People may know air drying is friendlier to the earth and to the wallet, but that sure as hell isn’t having any kind of significant impact. Certainly not enough to enact any sort of clothesline movement.

But wait….what’s this? There’s actually someone out there leading the charge for a clothesline movement? Yep, and his name is Alexander Lee, founder and executive director of Project Laundry List, a non-profit organization whose mission is to “make air-drying and cold water washing laundry acceptable and desirable as simple and effective ways to save energy.” So this lawyer dude is out there preaching the good word about laundry, trying to enact some change. Now that’s impressive. So go check out what Project Laundry List is up to nowadays, because this Alexander fella is a good steward of the earth who deserves our attention. And if you’d like to catch a glimpse of what this movement is about, check out this clip from CBS News, but be warned…you may end up smacking your monitor when that old, crotchety lady with sunglasses shows up on screen.

And hold up, there’s a another dude out there pushing this whole clothesline thing. I can’t believe it. I had no idea clotheslines were making such waves. This other guy’s name is Steven Lake and he traveled the globe to expose the inconvenient truth about clotheslines and made a movie out of his journey. That’s right, a movie…about laundry. The film “explores our love affair with energy, the people who are campaigning against it and those who fight to pass Right-To-Dry legislation, making it illegal to ban clotheslines.” It’s titled, “Drying for Freedom” and it’s due out sometime this year. Check out the trailer below:

Okay, so there are a few folks out there passionate about this crazy idea of saving energy by altering the way we do laundry. And with grand ideas like these I can’t help but ask myself, “What about me? Can I do this?” And at that point I always fall back on my contention that the best way to enact change in the world is to be the change. So that’s it. I’m jumping on board with this (and so is my wife) to prove it’s cheap and easy to set up a clothesline and far from backbreaking work to hang and take down clothes.

As usual, before I begin any challenge I like to scour the web for some clues. But finding a decent tutorial on setting up a clothesline was hard to come by. The best I could find was from the Life, In A Nutshell blog. They documented how to build timber “T’s” that can be used to hang multiple lines. Not bad, but I wanted something simpler. We live among a forest of pines and there are two perfectly placed trees roughly 65 feet apart. Perfect. Now I just needed to acquire all the necessary parts.

Tree Clothesline Material List

• Two clothesline pulleys – $3.75 each
• 200 ft, 1/4″ clothesline rope – $9.99
• Two 4-15/16″ screw hooks – $.79 each
• Aluminum clothesline tightener – $4.05
• 6 clothesline separators – $1.79 each (the number will vary depending on the length of your line – place one every 10-15 feet)

Total Cost = $33.86

Once you have your parts then you’re ready to assemble. I’ll break it down for ya below:

And finally, here are some excellent tips for getting the most out of your low-tech clothesline:

• Place your line perpendicular to the rise and fall of the sun so the greatest surface area of your clothes will be hit by the sun’s warm rays.
• Hang darker colored clothes inside out to keep them from fading.
• Delicate clothing can be placed on a hanger and then hung on the clothesline.
• Keep your clothesline clean by periodically wiping it down with a wet cloth.
• Hang skirts, shorts, boxers, and pants right-side up and hang tops by the bottom so that upper portion, which has more material, will dry faster.

There you have it. Now get outta here and go dry for freedom!

Featured image via Grant MacDonald

My Fist Raising Tweets from Twitter

• Aquaponics – is it worth it and what is it anyway? http://is.gd/eBsl3 #
• iPhone app that let's you track wild food you find when you're out foraging. Cool use of GPS. http://is.gd/eBryw #
• Documentary coming out about the clothesline movement called Drying For Freedom. That's a crazy kind of cool. Trailer: http://t.co/4q1iLKN #
• Link found between pesticide exposure and ADHD in kids. http://is.gd/ezJVA #

My Fist Raising Tweets from Twitter

• Love this quote from Marion Nestle, “We have made cheap food a value rather than value good food.” So true…so true. http://bit.ly/bHEsti
• Cool video on the ins and outs of coconuts – cracking, scraping, milking…learned a lot from this one. http://bit.ly/92TAU0
• Funny interview with Stephen Colbert and the President of the American Meat Institute http://t.co/VkTWoLR
• Totally creative and unique eco reminder wall stickers from hu2.com, http://bit.ly/amGbTd
• Someone doesn’t want us to have the right to choose the foods we want – check out the Raw Milk Warfront at Chelsea Green http://t.co/g8qyjv1
• Love the “These Come From Trees” stickers. Great concept to help eliminate waste. Buy some for your work or school! http://bit.ly/aheUYw

So as I mentioned in my introduction to ditching disposable products, my goal is to gradually cross each item off my “Nasty Little List of Disposables.” And I’m going to start with what I feel is the biggest target – the kitchen. Now this isn’t rocket science. But I’m still gonna break it down for ya.

Suspect #1: Paper Towel
In America alone, the nefarious paper towel contributes 3,000 tons of trash to landfills each day. Based on our family’s use of a roll of paper towels per week (which is probably on the low end for the average family of four) we could save around $100 per year by using dishcloths and other various cloth rags instead. And even if we had to purchase new dish and washcloths we would still come out ahead, especially considering the lifespan of a cloth towel vs. paper.

Let’s start by taking a look all the ways we use paper towels on a regular basis. Here’s a quick list:

• Cleaning
• Napkin replacement
• To dry leafy herbs and vegetables after washing
• Covering food in the microwave
• Soaking up grease from fried foods (only occasionally when we have delicious bacon)
• To absorb moisture when storing herbs or other vegetables in the fridge

The first three bullets are easily addressed in step 1 below, but to keep food from splattering in the microwave we’re thinking of purchasing these reusable food covers. If we buy ‘em I’ll let you know how well they work – still need to research them a bit more. And to handle the issue with fried foods, one simple solution is to place a cooling rack on a cookie sheet and place the greasy food on the rack allowing the grease to drip off the food. Works pretty good. Finally, there is the issue of effectively storing herbs and vegetables in the fridge. With fresh herbs we tend to wrap them in a paper towel and seal them in a plastic bag in the fridge. This helps control the moisture and prolongs the life of the herbs. A little searching on the web led me to a new way of handling my herb storage. All you do is place your herbs in a jar of water and cover them with a plastic bag. Supposedly, they’ll last up to 2 weeks using this method, and it also forces you to look at your purdy herbs every time you open the fridge door. Hard to forget about them when they’re front and center. The other thing I’ll be doing is making sure all our herbs and vegetables are plenty dry before placing them in the fridge – using cloth towels to dry them of course.

For everything else, the solution to the problem is to replace the paper towels with cloth ones. I really liked simplemom’s idea of designating several different types of towels so when it comes time to grab one, you know right away which to use for the job based on factors such as quality, thickness, and type of material. So with that in mind, along with Lisa Wuertz’s idea of having a separate mini hamper for dirty cloth towels (hers was tucked under the sink), I came up with an ultra-bad-ass-smoke-’em-out kind of plan.

Step 1: Get the Gear

Here’s the type and count of towels and cloths we have on hand.

• Big stack o’ rags – for the really gross and messy stuff. And the bigger the stack the better as far as I’m concerned. For me something just doesn’t feel right about using a perfectly nice towel to wipe up some foul cat barf or sloppy, wet stuff from the floor. Without fail, I end up wiping loose cat hair and other floor dwelling “things” along with the mess. I can tolerate that kind of cleaning much more when I’m using a cloth that’s already fairly worn. What can I say? I’m anal with that sort of thing.
• 4-6 bar towels – these are thick and heavy hand towels that are great for keeping around the kitchen all day long to wipe down the sink and counters and clean up spills. they are highly absorbent so they are the go to towel for most of our above ground cleaning needs.
• 6 scrubber washcloths – These washcloths have a honeycomb looking web on one side that acts as a scrubber. Nothing too abrasive, but it’s rough enough to handle nearly all stuck on grime in our kitchen. We haven’t been using these for very long but so far they’ve been working well for our needs. And they have also nearly eliminated our need for scrubbing sponges in the kitchen.
• 24 casual cloth napkins – For our family of four (two under 5 yrs.) we can usually get by with using four napkins a day total, unless it’s pasta night and our three-year old is feeling hungry. Some meals, the napkins are hardly touched so we just reuse them. This might be gross to some people. If so, you’ll want to plan to have more of these in stock. With 24, we have eight per day available and we’ll wash them every few days.
• 8-10 nice/formal cloth napkins – These are used when company comes over. If you do a lot of entertaining, you’ll probably want to have more of these on hand.

Step 2: Organize Your Stuff

This step is key because if it’s not organized properly then you may never use it. Your towels and cloths will stay tucked away inside some closet or drawer and those rolls of evil paper will continue to infiltrate your home. How to go about organizing them? Well, start by going cold turkey and not have any paper towels in your home. If you don’t have them, you can’t use them and suddenly reaching for your drawer full of towels instead of reaching for that roll of evil paper will become habitual. It’s hard to forget about your cloth towels when that’s all you have to clean up a mess.

Keep cloth napkins out in the open too. On your dining table in a nice basket perhaps or if you have to put them in a drawer then keep then close to your silverware. That way, at your next meal you can grab your fork along with the napkin hanging out nearby.

As for the rest of the towels? Well, my preference is to keep the bar towels and washcloths in the same drawer and the funky rags go in a cabinet in our laundry room, which is just off the kitchen.

Step 3: Commit to Quit

This means you can’t hang around paper towels anymore. Not in the store. Not at home. They’re a bad influence. Don’t invite them in your cart, car or home. If they’re not within arm’s reach, you can’t use or abuse them. Oh, and don’t make excuses why you need paper towels. You don’t.

And for those of you out there who think this switch is an insurmountable challenge that will cause riots in your home, all I can say is – let it go. These are paper towels we’re talking about here…PAPER TOWELS! It’s not like you’re telling your family they can’t bathe with soap anymore. You’re just asking them to use cloth instead of paper. That’s it. They can still wipe their faces and clean up messes. And not using paper towels is kinda like giving the earth a big, narly high-five. So be the leader and role model that you know you are and kick those paper towels to the curb for good.

One last thing…if cost is a driving factor for you then you’ll want to take a look at the cost-benefit analysis of paper vs. cloth products at the Growing a Greener Family Blog. Love Jennifer’s straight talk on the subject. She breaks down napkins and paper towels in uber detail.

Please note: The paper towel cartoon within my mugshot mashup is from nataliedee.com. Very funny artist.

My Fist Raising Tweets from Twitter

• Woah…Solar powered toothbrush could make toothpaste obsolete. Keep an eye on this product to see if it makes it to market. http://is.gd/evvQf
• Diamond-tipped razor blade lasts years. I’d still rather have a straight razor.  http://is.gd/evvEj
• Bowls made from coconut shells. Wonder if this could be a DIY project… http://is.gd/evvc6
• I Want to learn more about these hand mills so I can make some totally-from-scratch tortillas. http://is.gd/evunM
• Great reference material – A Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, http://is.gd/evu5y
• Gotta get the book, “Holy Shit – Managing Manure to Save Mankind.” Explains how to safely compost cat poop! http://is.gd/evtRB
• Any article about focaccia bread is a good one. Check this one out. http://is.gd/evtp6

Former standout high school and college athlete (who had a brief professional basketball career), Will Allen runs a 2 acre inner city farm in Milwaukee next to one of the nations largest low-income housing projects. At 6′ 7″, and over 200lbs, Will stands tall in his signature sleeveless hoodie and inspires local citizens and others around the globe to join his Good Food Revolution. Much has been written about his history – his long journey to food hero stardom. But it’s worth repeating that Will’s rise to notoriety began when he merged his small, experimental farming operation, Farm City Link, with a teen organization, called Growing Power. A joint effort brought teens who needed work, together with an experienced farmer who had a small plot of land ready to be used for all types of farming practices. Will created an opportunity for inner city youth to grow and sell affordable and healthy food to their underserved community. He trains them in aquaponics, horticulture, vermiculture, composting, beekeeping and other farm-related jobs. He’s a motivator and a mentor who leads by example.

“I work 18 hours a day, seven days a week. One day I might just drop dead in the worm bin, but I’ll be happy.”

This is a man who loves his work. Who loves spreading the word about good food. Lately he’s been spreading his Good Food message on national and international levels and people are taking notice. They’re seeing the value in teaching urban agriculture and making healthy foods accessible to low-income populations. In 2005 he received a Ford Foundation leadership grant. In 2008, he received a Genius Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation valued at $500,000. And just last year he received a $400,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation to create urban agriculture jobs in Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit. He also took home the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Growing Green Award.

Yeah, he’s on fire. Growing Power now has 10 farms on over a 100-acres in the city of Milwaukee. Watch below as Will Power explains how his organization supports the Good Food Revolution.

And like any good food hero he believes in the power of the people and places a great deal of responsibility in their hands when it comes to getting out of our current processed food epidemic.

“And while many of my acquaintances tend to point the finger at the big agro-chemical conglomerates as villains, the fault really is with all of us who casually, willingly, even happily surrendered our rights to safe, wholesome, affordable and plentiful food in exchange for over-processed and pre-packaged convenience.”

So contrary to popular belief, it’s not the hero’s responsibility to save us. A hero is born to show us what’s possible. To inspire and act as a catalyst for all things good…including good food.

My Fist Raising Tweets from Twitter

• Thought provoking Starbucks and McDonalds infographic from Princeton University, http://bit.ly/gUKWC
• Interesting water shortage infographic from Princeton University, The Coming Water Wars, http://bit.ly/12AlPA
• Proper food storage guide for everything in your kitchen, http://bit.ly/cvzrvz
• Food Hero, Will Allen’s ‘Good Food Revolution’ ABC News video clip, http://t.co/T4CuM64
• Inspiring words about food from Winona LaDuke at Slow Food International’s 2008 Terra Madre Conference, http://bit.ly/8WZRS0
• Great interview with Grace Lee Boggs, “We need to embrace the idea that we are the leaders we’ve been looking for.” http://t.co/jPBr2Dt
• FREE! 133 Ways to Save the Planet eBook http://is.gd/ekQ1S

My Fist Raising Tweets from Twitter

• Amazingly well thought out guide to eating organic on a budget with loads of great tips by growingagreenfamily.com, http://bit.ly/b5w1WY
• How to create a paperless kitchen – great article by simplemom.net, http://bit.ly/4v5MRA
• Reusit.com – Great site to buy reusable products so you can dump the disposables for good! http://bit.ly/bh8JzC
• Solar hot water panel that also generates electricity. Dual purpose but expensive. http://is.gd/ejxe7
• A craigslist for building and landscape materials. We need more of these…too cool. http://is.gd/ejx05

Trash. Is. Depressing. Ever seen a landfill? It’s depressing. How about a New York street on trash day? Depressing. Or what about the overflowing cans of rubbish in a stadium on game day? Yeah, that’s depressing too. And why is it depressing?

This is why, and this, and this, and those disposable razors too.

You see, the people and companies who could actually do something about this problem aren’t doing anything. Well, they are doing something, but instead of helping they’ve become a hindrance. A pain in the ass, if you will. And they do this in the name of convenience and ironically, sometimes in the name of cleanliness. So they come off as helping to make our lives easier and better when in reality they’re just making a mess.

And I get it, these are businesses and they’re all about the bottom line. So they sell products that have to be bought over and over again. We use it, throw it away, and buy another one, and they love it because they figured out a way to keep us tossing cash in their direction. In an entrepreneurial sense, it’s a brilliant concept. The problem is that it’s not the least bit socially responsible. And yes, I do demand a certain level of social responsibility from the commercial industry. After all, they have a great deal of command over our lives – from government and media to our everyday living. Proctor & Gamble, Swiffer, Clorox, BIC, the list of companies that perpetuate the idea that throwing things away is better and healthier is ridiculously long. Makes me a little sick, actually.

And what can I, as a single, living being do to rectify this? Make a list, of course.

So here it is. My list of disposable items that make up the most amount of trash in our home, in particular our kitchen and bathrooms:

And naturally, the purpose of having a list is to feel the joy of crossing items off that list. So over the next few days I’ll be focusing on one or more of the listed items, sharing my thoughts on ditching the disposables and going with a more permanent solution. Others have written about this type of thing on the web, but it tends to come from a mom’s perspective and I think a topic as important as this deserves a few words from a dude who cares just as much about the planet as the many well-respected, enviro-moms out there.

So no more foolin’ around. It’s time to get medieval on all this trash…