Pet peeves
Aug. 7th, 2013 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterI have pet peeves on my mind this morning. Three of them:
1. Improperly sorted recyclables.
Not too long ago, China started a campaign, called "Operation Green Fence", turning back cargo ships full of recyclables if the recyclables were too contaminated. Contamination ranges from unwashed items to incorrect types of plastic and poorly sorted items, and the Chinese have come to expect around 20% contamination in the bales of mixed plastic they buy from the US.
Granted, keeping track of which items recycle and which do not can be complicated. Recycling in my city is not particularly easy, either, so if I am to go to the trouble of hauling everything over to the Drive-in Recycling Center, I want to be sure the stuff I'm hauling actually goes somewhere useful and not into a landfill. In a lot of ways, I prefer the Drive-in system over home pick-up; I can directly ask the employees at the drive-in center about items I'm unsure of, and get instant feedback, whereas curbside pickup is more anonymous.
Still. Spend a few minutes getting educated about what goes where. Most cities put together educational posters to help with this. Read them. It's a pretty safe bet that plastic caps won't recycle (there are exceptions in Seattle, though), nor will stainless steel. And plastic bags will be a hassle; a good reason to avoid accumulating them in the first place.
2. Produce stickers.
Produce stickers happen as a convenience for grocery stores, so they know where the produce comes from and what plu code to enter in to the computer. They do not break down in compost, and if left unattended they'll reappear as little plastic flags in one's soil. Gross. I really, really hope that laser-etched produce catches on at some point. In the meantime, I'll try to keep buying as much produce as I can at the farmer's market. The farmers have a pretty good idea of where their produce has come from, and have no need for produce stickers.
The worst form of this is what I've taken to calling "organic punishment." That's where a big grocery chain that sells mostly conventionally-grown produce decides to distinguish between its conventional produce and the organic stuff by wrapping the organic produce in additional layers of plastic - either plastic tape or shrink-wrap. Try peeling that off of onion skins and zucchini.
3. Inappropriate dampness.
I dislike inappropriate dampness because it usually provides ideal conditions for bacterial growth, and the bacteria that thrive in inappropriate dampness tend to be stinky. Gross. Also, the best way of dealing with this is NOT to try and cover up the source of the smell with other smelly stuff, it's to get rid of the smell's cause. Eliminate the inappropriate dampness.
Some time ago, I posted a link to the WikiHow on How to Wash Dishes somewhere - probably on the Book of Face. Re-reading it now, I don't see the section I was looking for, which is about the whole concept of leaving dishes to soak. There's a delicate balance that must be maintained when it comes to managing dishes and soaking. On the one hand, some items, like rice cookpots and oatmeal pots, get a lot of stuff caked on, and a brief soak makes washing them much easier. But that only takes three minutes or so. Pots where something has burned to the bottom also take additional attention, but soaking for 24 hours is not the solution. Otherwise, the vast majority of dirty dishes really don't need much soaking time at all. Even if the ketchup dries on the plate before the plate is washed. The crusty ketchup will breed fewer bacteria than a puddle of ketchupy water sitting on the plate all day.
In my present living situation, I can't really leave dishes in the sink for too long, anyway. They quickly lead to fruit flies and cockroaches in this climate.
I also hate it when water runs underneath items sitting on the counter and just sits there, growing slimy. Bleagh. A good reason to minimize the stuff that sits on the countertop (i.e. why my blender lives in a cupboard, and why produce mostly goes in a hanging basket).
I'm not even going to say anything about dishes left in the sink in the laboratory for "someone else" to wash.
Also, it's hot and humid here, so I'm damp all the time. Also gross.
1. Improperly sorted recyclables.
Not too long ago, China started a campaign, called "Operation Green Fence", turning back cargo ships full of recyclables if the recyclables were too contaminated. Contamination ranges from unwashed items to incorrect types of plastic and poorly sorted items, and the Chinese have come to expect around 20% contamination in the bales of mixed plastic they buy from the US.
Granted, keeping track of which items recycle and which do not can be complicated. Recycling in my city is not particularly easy, either, so if I am to go to the trouble of hauling everything over to the Drive-in Recycling Center, I want to be sure the stuff I'm hauling actually goes somewhere useful and not into a landfill. In a lot of ways, I prefer the Drive-in system over home pick-up; I can directly ask the employees at the drive-in center about items I'm unsure of, and get instant feedback, whereas curbside pickup is more anonymous.
Still. Spend a few minutes getting educated about what goes where. Most cities put together educational posters to help with this. Read them. It's a pretty safe bet that plastic caps won't recycle (there are exceptions in Seattle, though), nor will stainless steel. And plastic bags will be a hassle; a good reason to avoid accumulating them in the first place.
2. Produce stickers.
Produce stickers happen as a convenience for grocery stores, so they know where the produce comes from and what plu code to enter in to the computer. They do not break down in compost, and if left unattended they'll reappear as little plastic flags in one's soil. Gross. I really, really hope that laser-etched produce catches on at some point. In the meantime, I'll try to keep buying as much produce as I can at the farmer's market. The farmers have a pretty good idea of where their produce has come from, and have no need for produce stickers.
The worst form of this is what I've taken to calling "organic punishment." That's where a big grocery chain that sells mostly conventionally-grown produce decides to distinguish between its conventional produce and the organic stuff by wrapping the organic produce in additional layers of plastic - either plastic tape or shrink-wrap. Try peeling that off of onion skins and zucchini.
3. Inappropriate dampness.
I dislike inappropriate dampness because it usually provides ideal conditions for bacterial growth, and the bacteria that thrive in inappropriate dampness tend to be stinky. Gross. Also, the best way of dealing with this is NOT to try and cover up the source of the smell with other smelly stuff, it's to get rid of the smell's cause. Eliminate the inappropriate dampness.
Some time ago, I posted a link to the WikiHow on How to Wash Dishes somewhere - probably on the Book of Face. Re-reading it now, I don't see the section I was looking for, which is about the whole concept of leaving dishes to soak. There's a delicate balance that must be maintained when it comes to managing dishes and soaking. On the one hand, some items, like rice cookpots and oatmeal pots, get a lot of stuff caked on, and a brief soak makes washing them much easier. But that only takes three minutes or so. Pots where something has burned to the bottom also take additional attention, but soaking for 24 hours is not the solution. Otherwise, the vast majority of dirty dishes really don't need much soaking time at all. Even if the ketchup dries on the plate before the plate is washed. The crusty ketchup will breed fewer bacteria than a puddle of ketchupy water sitting on the plate all day.
In my present living situation, I can't really leave dishes in the sink for too long, anyway. They quickly lead to fruit flies and cockroaches in this climate.
I also hate it when water runs underneath items sitting on the counter and just sits there, growing slimy. Bleagh. A good reason to minimize the stuff that sits on the countertop (i.e. why my blender lives in a cupboard, and why produce mostly goes in a hanging basket).
I'm not even going to say anything about dishes left in the sink in the laboratory for "someone else" to wash.
Also, it's hot and humid here, so I'm damp all the time. Also gross.
