Little green steps

When green, organic, and natural living are the new “it” words, and when you are constantly asked to be environmentally-conscious - it is easy to get stressed and give up on this whole “green bandwagon”. Do not get discourage, there are many efficient ways in which we all can contribute to the well being of our planet. Inspired by the Canadian program “One million acts of green” PassiFlora is launching a series of articles describing green gestures that could be made by anyone on a daily basis. They are small and usually do not require much effort but what a difference they make! In this issue we describe nine green acts that Anya Sokolovskaya makes on her typical workday.


-Every morning I leave to work taking my purse, wallet, cell-phone, and my traveling coffee-mug. Although I work in the office settings and do not drink much coffee, I try to avoid contributing to millions of plastic and paper coffee cups that are being thrown in the landfills every day. I use my mug for take-out coffee as well as for drinking water or tea in the office.

-On my way to work I stop at a privately owned coffee shop and pick up a “2-milk-no-sugar” fair-trade cup of coffee. I like this little cozy place: they use local ingredients for their baked goods, the pastry is freshly made every morning, and, more importantly, they always have fresh fair-trade coffee. Even if your local coffeehouse is not carrying any fair-trade goods (coffee, tea, or chocolate) ask them if they are considering getting any. Fair-trade workers, as opposed to free-trade ones, get adequate compensation for their labor and the produce they are selling. With millions of liters of coffee consumed every day in North America alone, I think we owe the workers a fair compensation. Look for the black and white symbol to insure that the product is fair-trade.

-There are days when I forget my coffee-mug at home or times when I pick up coffee on the weekend. If that happens I make sure to recycle the little sleeve (the carton band that insulates the cup to avoid burning your hands). Although paper and styrofoam from take-out cups are not recyclable, little insulation sleeves are usually a paper product. Also, try to avoid using plastic stir sticks and even the plastic covers, since none of them are recyclable.

- I am finally at work, doing research and typing away. Just like any typical office, mine is very paper-oriented. We photocopy a lot, use printed material for our research, and end up going through several packages of printing paper per week. When I started working with this team there was no recycling bin available to us. I was also surprised to find out that our office was not an exception even though the University has a big recycling program. I requested such a bin, which greatly minimized our waste. By the end of the week, it is filled not only with papers but also with boxes from the microwave dinners, glass juice bottles, and empty soft drink cans. To help the colleagues get involved I printed out a guide, showing which objects can be recycled in our neighborhood.

-Another way to minimize waste at work as well as at home is to use paper that was printed only on one side for your drafts. I am an old school pen-and-paper girl; every article in this magazine is first being written by hand and then re-typed on my laptop. I use scrap paper from my office for this purpose. One of my colleagues cuts the one-side-printed paper in half or in quarters and makes little booklets by stapling them together. She uses those instead of post-it notes to jot down phone numbers, messages, and other bits of information.

-You can minimize the paper waste by printing double sided as much as possible. Certain documents require one side printing only, with precise margins and specific font size. When printing drafts or documents for personal use, minimize the margins and the font size. This allows more text to fit on the page and, coupled with the double sided printing, will cut the amount of paper used by at least a half.

-I enjoy time spent with my co-workers during the lunch and coffee breaks. There are several tea-drinkers on our team and we bring our favorite tea blends to share with each other. A lot of time we use single serving tea bags, which are very wasteful (just look at all the packaging). I like to share some loose-leaf teas so I brought a couple of infusers (metal perforated balls that hold the leaves) along with my favorite tea varieties. One of my co-workers enjoyed the loose-leaves tea so much that she got a mug with an infuser for her everyday cup of tea.

- We also try to minimize packaging waste by not using single serving milkers and sugar packets. Instead, we keep a carton of milk in the fridge and a recycled glass jar filled with sugar (similar to the one shown in the Craft section) next to the coffee maker.

- Plastic water bottles are another huge source of waste. Although practical, they take hundreds of years to degrade in the landfills. Re-using them or using a dedicated water bottle (aluminum or plastic) could solve this problem. People believe bottled water to be cleaner and better than the tap water but you will be surprised to find out how many cities and towns have drinkable tap water. Call your city and inquire about the quality of the water in your neighborhood. Another way to ensure clean and safe tap water is using water filters. You can install one directly onto your faucet or use the portable one for your water jug.

These are only few little green steps that I make during the regular workday. In our “Question of the month” we are wondering what green acts do you perform every day? Email us at passifloramag@gmail.com and the best of the answers will be incorporated into the next part of this article.

Text: Anya Sokolovskaya
Photography: Carlos Gustavo Curado (Stock.xchng)
Marcelo Gerpe (Stock.xchng)