le plastique, ce n'est pas chic

Translation: plastic is out. Reusable is in. Reusable cotton bags, to be exact, courtesy of Eco-Chic. Eco-Chic, an Israeli company, recently began marketing it's reusable, compact, strong, natural cotton string bags through stores (mainly health food stores) and it's website with the purpose of reducing plastic bag consumption in Israel. According to Eco-Chic's website, the cotton bags are strong enough to hold 2-3 plastic bags' worth of items but are compact enough to fit in your purse without taking up too much space.

According to the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, 430 million plastic bags are distributed in Israel every month. These bags, which far outlive their users by hundreds of years, end up polluting rivers, waterways, landfills.... It's an ugly situation. A law has been proposed to the Israeli Knesset to levy a fee on plastic bags that would have to be paid by consumers, but who knows if that'll go through. Either way, it's obvious that the reduction of individual plastic consumption is up to individuals.

Eco-Chic bags are available in stores all over the country - their website lists where their bags can be found in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Petach Tikva, Gadera, Zichron Ya'acov... and the list goes on. But if these bags aren't for you and you're feeling creative, you could make your own bag from cloth scraps or follow No Impact Man's advice and make shopping bags out of old tank tops.

crunchy granola, crunchy greenola style

A few months ago I decided to stop eating cold cereal. Cold turkey. Don't get me wrong, I love cereal - especially a combo of multi-grain Cheerios, Special K with dried fruit, and maybe some BranFlakes for good measure. But I couldn't justify all the garbage and energy associated with this small morning meal. Even though you can recycle the paper cardboard box that the cereal comes in, there's still that nasty plastic sleeve that holds the cereal. Not to mention, most cereal is produced far, far away meaning it has to travel a long way to make it to my bowl. I decided I could do without it.

Which lead to a search for the alternative, and tracking down my boyfriend's mother's amazing granola recipe which she's been making for years. Whenever my boyfriend visits her in the US she always sends a big bag of her homemade granola over. It's easy to make, most of the ingredients can be bought in bulk (for a list of places to buy bulk dry foods in Tel Aviv, click here), and most importantly - it's delicious. And nutritious. Added bonus: your kitchen/apartment/home will smell amazing when you bake the granola.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (she uses spelt flour)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup almonds, chopped
1/3 cup maple syrup (you could also use honey)
1/3 cup oil (preferably sunflower oil)
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of sea salt
1/2 tsp. cinnammon

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well-coated. Spread on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius (325 degrees Fahrenheit) for 35 minutes (depending on oven).

Eat.

don't leave a paper trail...

... or a paper footprint. Everyone knows the basic paper things that you can recycle - newspapers, old school papers, magazines... But what about all of the other paper products that we don't usually think of recycling? How about recycling your cardboard cereal box, your empty toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, gum wrappers, wrapping paper, cardboard boxes? All of these can be recycled as well.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, paper waste constitutes 25% of the volume of all waste in Israel, and annual paper consumption is 700,000 tons. Only about 30% of all consumed paper is currently recycled. Recycled paper is used in order to produce products such as new paper, toilet paper, cardboard, and egg cartons.

The paper recycling companies in Israel include Amnir, KMM, Tal-El, S.G. Grisa, and Amek (08-5793489). If you don't know where to recycle paper in your area, or if you own a business and would like to arrange to have your paper waste picked up and recycled, contact one of these companies. Many of them offer pick-ups from businesses.

know thine enemy: plastic

In order to conquer the enemy you have to know the enemy. And enemy, your name is plastic. We may live in a small country, but there is nothing small about our consumption of plastic here in Israel - especially in recent years. Approximately 600 million large beverage bottles and 300 million small beverage bottles are consumed in Israel each year, with a 10% - 15% annual growth rate. Plastic constitutes 28% of the volume and 11% of the weight of Israeli waste.

In 2005, the average Israeli citizen produced 1.8 kg of garbage every day - a total national waste of 4.2 million tons during that year. This amount increases by 4% - 5% each year and by 2010 the space used to bury waste will be all used up.

Pretty scary stuff, right?

There's an upside, though. Separating and recycling your waste at the source (meaning, in your house before you take out the trash) could lead to a 60% reduction in the amount of waste transferred to waste burial. Only 20% of the plastic bottles produced in Israel are currently recycled, but if more of them were recycled it would make a big difference in the amount of space required to dump our garbage. (Or, alternatively, you could stop drinking bottled water altogether and get a Brita, whose filter can also be recycled.)

But first you have to know what you can recycle. Most people already know that you can recycle empty bottles from water, soda, etc. But did you know that you can also recycle the empty bottles from your shampoo, cleaning supplies, cosmetics, and cooking supplies? In fact, you can recycle any plastic container marked with one of the triangular recycling symbols above except for the yellow symbol with the number 3 inside. The stamps are usually imprinted on the bottom of the bottles.

For more information about plastic recycling in Israel, see the Aviv Recycling website.

what would buddha do?

I've been a vegetarian since I was 7 years old, but I never thought of vegetarianism (or veganism) as an environmental issue. I just didn't like the thought of eating cute little cows and chickens. But I've recently become aware (partly thanks to a recent NY Times article called "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler") of how much energy and space is required to raise animals for meat, and what terrible effects this has on the environment.

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one fifth of the world's greenhouse gases are the result of livestock production (making it a larger contributor to climate change than transportation). The world’s total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it was estimated to be 284 million tons. Nevermind the ethical issues related to raising animals in order to kill and eat them, but there just isn't enough land to support our planet's hamburger habit. Livestock production leads to deforestation (just in the past five months, 1,250 square miles of rainforest in Brazil were lost to livestock production) - both to raise the livestock and to produce the feed for the livestock.

But what if we decided we could do without the meat, or, at least, eat less of it? Even if you switch one meat meal for a vegetarian meal every week, that's a big difference. The National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

So here's my meat substitution suggestion for those of you living in Tel Aviv: Buddha Burgers. Delicious, "meaty", and totally guilt free. This vegan burger place has two branches - one on 21 Yehuda Halevi (which is bigger and has more seating room) and one on 86 Ibn Gvirol. Along with a variety of vegan burgers, Buddha Burgers offers healthy juice drinks, salads, and vegan desserts. Who said trading in your ground beef burger had to be a sacrifice?

the incredible bulk

Hulk, bulk, shmulk. He's green, so it sort of counts. And he rhymes, too.

In an attempt to reduce the amounts of garbage that my food consumption generates, I've started buying as many of my dry foods in bulk as possible. Not only does this reduce the packaging (and garbage) associated with the food I eat, but it also means that the energy used to get my food to me (such as the gas used to transport the food) is more efficient. It is much more efficient for a truck (or van, or whatever) to transport large bulk bags of a product as opposed to a much lesser quantity of individually packaged products. Plus, since it is much more efficient means of food supply, it is way cheaper to buy food in bulk.

If you live in Tel Aviv, then your average AM:PM definitely won't have a bulk food section. But if you go to some of the health food stores that are all over Tel Aviv, it's easy to find a wide variety of foods offered in bulk. My favorite is Nitsat Haduvdevan at 58 Ibn Gvirol. They have a really big selection, and the products that I get there in bulk are always a fraction of the price of their packaged counterpart. Their bulk products range from grains to dehydrated vegetables, to all kinds of flour, legumes, nuts, and dried fruits. Teva Castel, which has stores all over Tel Aviv (including a really nice new one on the corner of Dizengoff and Frishman), also has a big bulk selection that includes spice blends and granola. The Organic Market at 59 Sheinkin Street has a small bulk foods section, but they offer organic bulk products. It's definitely the yuppiest store of all three.

Buying in bulk means you need to figure out your own means of packaging the food, though. I keep a bunch of reused plastic bags for buying bulk foods in my bag so that I have them whenever I want to go shopping. Then I transfer the food into reused glass jars and containers when I get home so that I can reuse the plastic bag instead of consuming another one the next time. A little fanatic, but plastic is bad.

recycled toilet paper (it's not what you think)

I promise you, it's definitely not what you think. I'm not going to go into what it is you might think recycled toilet paper may be... but trust me, it's not that. Emphasis on the recycled paper and not on the recycled toilet paper.

Toilet paper is a product we use constantly, and most brands are made from virgin paper. Meaning, lots of trees are cut down so that we can use toilet paper. If you calculate how many trees that means for your own personal consumption, I don't know the math, but it's gotta be up there. And it could be easily avoided.

Shmurat Teva (שמורת טבע) toilet paper, which is available in most supermarkets, is made of quality paper fibers that were specifically sorted and collected for the purpose of making toilet paper. Although it comes in plastic packaging (for packages of 32 rolls), the company emphasizes that the minimal plastic wrap can be recycled. I made the switch about a month ago, and can't really tell the difference (except for that it doesn't smell like pineapples or roses like some other brands of toilet paper which, frankly, I think is a very good thing). And it's definitely not gross... if the whole "recycled toilet paper" thing still freaks you out. I promise.