Green Dining in NYC: GustOrganics and Dos Caminos!

What a week. On Wednesday I met a friend for dinner at GustOrganics and last night I had dinner at Dos Caminos. Both are green certified restaurants by the Green Restaurant Association!



Gusto is also America's first all-organic restaurant. We're talking 100% organic. How amazing is that? Plus when I was there they had just gotten a liquor license so our wine was 30% off :)
I didn't see a single piece of plastic.. and they use non-plastic takeout containers (I think it's cardboardy like what they use at Whole Foods) except for salads which come in PLA containers and their take-out utensils are PLA. The containers and utensils are "recycled, tree-free, biodegradable and organic." Sweet.

• These are some of Gusto's sustainable practices:

  • Recycling and composting.
  • Using only wind energy.
  • Use of solar lighting.
  • Energy efficient kitchen equipment.
  • Water conservation equipment.
  • Biodegradable take out containers, cups and flatware.
  • Environmentally friendly packaging (Most is biodegradable).
  • 100% recycled paper, bags and boxes.
  • Printing with soy ink.
  • Green cleaning practices including biodegradable products.
  • Built our restaurant with recycled woods and eco friendly materials.
  • We wear all organic uniforms.
  • Use of organic flowers.


• Green word of mouth:
  • We use our restaurants to interact with our Guests and create environmental awareness.
  • We learn and collaborate within our communities to improve our attitude toward the planet.

Can you believe this is happening right in Union Square? very exciting!

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. And how you eat. So how can you change the world one meal at a time?

A cautionary tale about tea

Tea: a beverage made by steeping leaves in water.
How simple and quaint you are my morning beverage.
How can you possibly be messed up with plastic?
Oh let me count the ways....
Some tea has plastic cellophane on the outside of the box you buy it in, some has the bags individually wrapped in plastic on the inside...some tea has BOTH! Really it is too much. In the store I have opened boxes to look inside and then put them back on the shelf, I have shaken boxes to listen for a paper sound or plastic sound on the inside. Some individually packaged tea comes in those little tear open envelops that seem plastic-y as well as paper-y...what is this miracle material? I give up. Nicely packages tea bags are wonderful, but I think today was my last purchase of this modern convenience. It is all loose leaf-all the time for me (after I finish what I bought today :).

Cough cough sneeze sneeze

I knew this day would come...I have a cold :( Boo-hoo. I know, I know, we all get colds no big deal, BUT what kind of cold remedies are out there that don't come in plastic? I have been a user of Airborn, Zicam, NyQuil, etc. ...but I want to find some good (likely home remedies) for the common cold that don't come in plastic. What do you suggest? My first non-plastic remedy recommendation comes from my sister-in-law. She suggests: sleep! I love sleep so I am all over this, but the reality is it's hard to get much more sleep than I already do and get everything done that needs to get done. But since I only have 5 NyQuil doses left I slept in an extra hour today :) I still have a cold :( I think I'm going to go buy some oranges now. Please any good plastic free home remedies are highly appreciated. Thanx.

plastic free alarm clock

I emailed Erin today wailing that I need to buy a new hair dryer and alarm clock.

My hair dryer sounds like it's about to explode and/or set me on fire.

And I use the alarm on my cell phone, but ever since I got a new phone... it's not reliable.
9 times out of 10 the alarm fails to go off. not a good situation!

But then I got to thinking instead of buying another appliance.. maybe there is an alarm clock feature on my macbook.
I did a google and why yes, there are many options!
I downloaded this one:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ipod_itunes/alarmclock.html

I changed the settings so the computer can wake itself up from sleep mode and start playing Party Started by Cat Empire. I'll let you know how it works out!

Thank you plastic diet for saving me money!

Go plastic free, bring your own.

I went to a party tonight. I brought and used my own silverware and glass. No one noticed the fork I used, but as I pulled the glass out of my purse I caught myself apologizing, "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't use plastic" I said as I passed my friend the glass to fill my water. I even said this to someone who knows I don't use plastic and thinks it's great, so obviously I had no need to apologize. It's funny, people really don't mind (or notice) that I bring my own stuff yet I keep apologizing. In fact, I think (at least for now) I am a fun quaky plastic-free-oddity at parties. Kind of like 'not using plastic' is my new party trick (I also have double jointed elbows to fall back on if the plastic thing doesn't wow them). One thing is for sure, not using plastic is always a conversation starter, and more and more I find I'm not the only one starting that conversation.

ignorance is bliss?

hi everyone! sorry i've been quiet this week.
don't take that to mean i've been using lots of plastic-- i have not!
here's a post from the blog "love your city," that i thought you might like
(http://loveyourcity.wordpress.com/)


ignorance is bliss?

September 16, 2008, 10:49 am
Filed under: trill

i am currently taking a class called ‘culture & the environment,’ which is essentially about how those two are, have always been, and will always be, inextricably tied. yesterday the teacher asked, by show of hands, how many people think that we are in an environmental crisis. FIVE people raised their hands. FIVE. out of a class of maybe 40 or so? 1.2.3.4.5.

the question that followed asked the opposite, how many people thought that this whole environmental crisis thing is non-existent, just a trend.
and someone actually put up their hand.
“uhhh uhh well it’s not that there isn’t a crisis, i just think its toootally blown out of proportion.”

THERE IS FUCKING FLOATING PILE OF GARBAGE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN THAT IS THE SIZE OF TEXAS*!

*696,241 km…don’t mess.

vice magazine did an article on it a while ago, which spurred hours upon hours of internetting on my part. i needed to know more and i was honestly a bit disappointed in myself for not having had any idea that such a thing existed. i would just read the vice article if you don’t know, because they will explain it better than i, and they have pictures.
nevermind that animals are dying because of they plastic they are eating.
nevermind that plastic is now at the bottom of this food chain that we are on top of.
plastic is forever.
forever and ever and ever.
one day when we destroy all of this beauty, it will just be plastic and diamonds, straight chillin.
even “biodegradable” plastic doesn’t go anywhere. it just gets broken down into the tiniest of polymers that get ingested by the tiniest of creatures. plastic is not food. it makes animals sick, it makes them die, it makes them change their gender. what the fuck son.

all the plastic that has ever been created is still on this earth.

digest that.
literally.

now i’m all riled up and off-topic, so i will just leave you with a link to this great blog called plastic is forever. it’s these two women who are on a “plastic diet,” basically trying to cut out as much plastic as possible. feed your mind.

help meee.

No more nail polish.

I gave up getting my toenails polished back in June. It has taken them that long to recover from all the damage incurred from years of nail polish, but today I looked at my toe nails and thought "Wow, my toenails look great, even without nail polish." The truth is they look healthy.
I heard there is latex in many types of nail polish (it is my understanding synthetic latex is a type of plastic-y substance) and of course the top of the nail polish bottle is plastic. So nail polish needed to go. I loved getting my toenails done, and I have had them done once without the polish (not the same). But this luxury had to go out the door with some of those other plastic luxuries. Really it wasn't too hard a thing for me to give up. What really amazes me though is when I look around a room of sandaled feet and see I am the only women in the room without shiny painted toenails (okay this is LA maybe in other places I wouldn't be the ONLY one). What is amazing to think about is how 'getting your nails done' has become so common in such a short period of time/history, and yet how unnecessary it really is. It is this way with a lot of plastic related items I think.