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  • 6 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: June 19th, 2023
  • HanlonsButterknife@beehaw.orgtoEnvironment@beehaw.org•The quest to produce less trashEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’m fully on board with the idea of reducing plastic use, but I have some questions regarding use of and recycling of paper products. By my understanding, the vast majority of paper products are made out wood from fairly young-growth tree farms, where the trees are all cut down and then replanted so that they can be harvested again several years down the road. The paper products which are created from this process are primarily atmospheric CO2 which has been captured by the trees. Basically every proposed solution to the problem of greenhouse gases is some form of reducing emissions, or capturing greenhouse gases and sequestering them so that they can’t reenter the atmosphere. Landfills are largely anaerobic environments where materials are not able to break down for a very long time. Most of the trash in the US goes into landfills. If all of that’s true, then one of the more effective ways to sequester carbon should be to produce and use large amounts of paper products and then throw them into landfills. Paper recycling on the other hand to my knowledge at least requires a similar amount of energy to produce, but involves no new carbon capture. So wouldn’t it be worse to recycle paper than to throw paper waste in the trash?

    If the trees in these tree farm forests were not harvested, then they would continue to grow and capture carbon, but they would also release it back into the atmosphere as they died and were broken down by natural processes. It’s also my understanding that young trees grow more quickly and therefore capture carbon more aggressively than older ones…

    So what’s better? Recycling paper, or throwing it in landfills?

  • HanlonsButterknife@beehaw.orgtoFood and Cooking@beehaw.org•Pam cooking spray substitutes?
    2·
    1 year ago

    I have a small 8 oz “condiment squeeze bottle” that works great. It has a small nozzle so you don’t shoot out a ton of oil at once. If you are talking about cooking on steel or cast iron in a way that’s likely to have food stick, then you’re probably cooking something with a spatula of some kind. Squirt a little oil around the pan, spread it around a bit with the spatula (or a paper towel or something) and then get cooking. For best results, cook on a preheated pan, immediately after you put the cold oil in. I pretty much exclusively use avocado oil because it has a neutral taste and a very high smoke point so it’s great for frying or searing.