Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Reduce Your Grocery Footprint!

Thinking about reducing your grocery footprint? Here are some simple ways that can help you contribute to the environment:

Reduce the amount of plastic bags used in grocery stores. Using cloth bags that can be used over and over are a more green way to control the amount of plastic bags given in the grocery store. They are also bigger so you can carry more items in one bag. Be careful about putting certain foods together (For example: chicken and lettuce).


Fact:
The average global citizen has a global footprint of about 5.56 acres per year
.

Global Footprint: Is the measurement of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems, and it compares to the Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the human consumption of resources and their waste.

Purchase foods that are the most affordable, available, tastes the best and have a low impact on the environment.

Try: Local groceries!

Reduce the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging. Select food items with the least amount of packaging to reduce waste.

Fact:
Plastic is very hard to breakdown the molecules it is made of, and takes years to do so!

Make sure that you follow your disposable instructions for your region. If you don’t have specific instructions to dispose of your garbage use a compost when applicable and remember to try and reduce reuse and recycle all products.

Purchase foods that are seasonally available. These food items will more likely be from local farmers.

Fact:
"Food Miles"- the distance that the food travels to get to its destination. By decreasing the
amount of food miles, you are contributing to the reduction of fossil fuels.


Choose food items that are packaged or processed closer to you, rather than across the country.

Fact:
Food items imported from other countries are less envrionmentally friendly, this uses high
amounts of gas, which gives off large amounts of "greenhouse" gases.

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