Beth Terry's Blog, page 4

Fourteen-Year-Old Student Spearheads Plastic Pollution Awareness Day in Georgia

Hannah Testa, a 14-year-old student in the state of Georgia, has joined the ranks of other influential kids raising awareness of the plastic pollution problem.  In fact, she’s managed to get the State of Georgia to declare February 15, 2017, Plastic Pollution Awareness Day.  Here’s her story, in her own words.

People always ask me how I ended up getting February 15, 2017, declared as Plastic Pollution Awareness Day in the state of Georgia. After all, this is a major eco-event and I am just...

How to Buy “New Shoes” without Buying New Shoes

Last year, I was trying really hard to buy nothing new, andwhile I fell short several times (more on that in a future post), I did pretty well in the shoe department. Nearly all shoes have at least some plastic components. Buying them secondhand or repairing the shoes you already have are great ways to get “new shoes” without actually buying new shoes and new plastic.

Buy Secondhand Shoes

I’m not one of those people who won’t buy secondhand shoes. You can find some pretty great, almost ne...

Homemade Plastic-Free Beef Jerky

It’s super easy to make your own beef jerky. But before I get into how, let me explain why. Beef jerky (or any kind of jerky, for that matter) is not something I normally eat or even think about. Butin 2015, while planning for the annual Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert, I wantedto find a good source of protein that would hold up in the weather without refrigeration or plastic packaging. And knowing that I would be camping with Zero Waste guru Bea Johnson(a very exciting story...

DIY Plastic-Free Ironing Board Cover and Natural Wool Pad

Last November, I decided it was time to get rid of the small, ratty, and possibly toxic table-top ironing board we’d been using for years. And by we, I mean Michael. Still haunted by memories of ironingmy dad’s shirts in the dank basement laundry room while the crickets chirped and imaginary mice scurried from corner to corner, I avoid ironing as much as possible. Michael, on the other hand,irons his work shirts every week, and I wanted him to have a nice, full-sized boardwith a non-toxic...

Homemade Broth and Better Broth Concentrate

Back in April I promised a post about making broth. Well, here it is. Actually, this is more like two posts in one. There’s broth that you make from scratch in order to get all the nutritious goodness out of the food scraps you have left, and then there’s broth (or stock) that you needin a hurry for a recipewhen you don’t have time to make broth from scratch and you don’t have any on hand.

(The word broth is starting to sound really funny after saying it in my head a whole bunch of times i...

An (Almost) Plastic-Free Thanksgiving Holiday Meal

Thanksgiving came and went. We gathered with friends, gave thanks, ate food, and took lots of pictures. Well, I took lots of pictures to share with you. Because the only thing better than preparing and eating beautiful food is looking at pictures of it, right? I mean, just ask your Facebook friends.

Our Thanksgiving meal was not entirely plastic-free and zero waste, but it was as close as we could get and still have a turkey. And while Thanksgiving won’t be back for another year, Christm...

MOM’s Organic Market Wants You to Bring Your Own Containers

This story starts with a car wreck. A few weeks ago–the week before the U.S. election, to be exact–I was in Maryland visiting my dad. Riding shotgun on the wayhome from my brother’sbirthday dinner, I caught a glimpse of the sign for MOM’s Organic Market and shrieked, “HEY, THERE IT IS!”

Unfortunately, myscream startled dad enough for him toswerve into a curb that had suddenly jutted out into the middle of the road. (Who put that there?) We ended up with a flat tire and had to wait in...

Californians, Don’t Be Confused by Competing Plastic Bag Bans on Ballot!

A few weeks ago, I did something completely out of my comfort zone. I signed up and then showed up to phone bank with Clean Water Action in support of Prop 67, a statewide plastic bag ban on the upcoming November ballot, and against Prop 65, a competing measure that could completely undermine efforts to eliminate plastic bag pollution across the state. I also dragged my friends Nancy and Corbina along with me since, you know, misery loves company and all that.

What is Prop 67?

In 2014, the...

If you care about clean air, please VOTE next week!

I have to admit, the current election cycle has me wanting to hide under my covers with a bottle of wine and a few choice edibles until the madness is over. It’s been weird and ugly, and I’m sure quite a few of us are exhausted and tempted to just stay home on November 8.

PLEASE DON’T DO THAT.

November 8 is not only about electing our next president, which is important in itself, but also electing the representatives and passing the propositions that will impact the state of our air, water...

Guest Post: Why I love having to take my stuff to the Transfer Station myself

The following is an email I received from readerSusan Siu about how much she loves having to take her recycling to the local transfer center instead of having curbside pickup. I loved it so much, I asked her if she would send me pictures and let me post her email here. Don’t get me wrong: I still want curbside recycling to be made available so that people who wouldn’t otherwise recycle will comply, but I love her enthusiasm for her local transfer station. So, please enjoy this post about r...