3 offer you their green ideas
It can be a bit tricky to figure out how to celebrate Earth Day. Depending on how you interpret the holiday — which started in 1970 and marks the beginning of the modern environmental movement R
3 offer you their green ideas

Published: April 22, 2008

Oklahoma can seem a dangerous minefield for weaving, shoulder-hugging bicyclists. Karen Miles totes a car-strength horn on her commuter bike and wears six flashing lights and an orange safety vest to make sure those hulking sport utility vehicle see her.

But it's worth it, Miles says, both for the heath benefits and for the fact that she feels like she's "saving the planet one bike ride at a time.” She's disabled and walks with a cane, so her eight-mile commute each way is one of the few times she feels up to speed with everyone else.

•Protect yourself: Miles' gear list includes a horn, a headlight, a head lamp and goggles with three sets of lenses. You don't have to go that far, she says, but make sure you have a good helmet and, if you're going to ride at night, adequate lighting. A rear-view mirror is a big help, too, she says.

•Ride like you're invisible: You never know when a car might pull out of a driveway or a street parking place. Just pretend those drivers don't see you, Miles says, because they probably don't.

•Go rugged: Miles has a mountain bike because she says riding the streets in Oklahoma City can feel like off-roading. "I've even been through floods and everything on this bike — over railroad ties,” she says. She suggests going to a bike shop and finding out what's right for you — but avoid those skinny little road-bike tires, she says.

•Assert yourself: Miles says an Oklahoma City police officer once pulled her over — flashing lights and all — for allegedly causing a traffic jam with her bike. She blames heavy traffic on the other side of the road, but says bikers have to know their rights: "You have just as much of a right to the right-hand lane as the cars do. You're just supposed to stay over as far to the right in the lane as is practical.”

After reading that the average meal travels 1,500 miles to reach her dinner plate, Stephanie Jordan made what at first seemed like an intimidating goal: eat one local meal each week.

She wouldn't allow herself to buy food that had traveled more than 100 miles.

To her surprise, she has found that eating local foods — which cause less pollution and are often free of pesticides — is easy and rewarding in Oklahoma.

It just takes a bit of planning.

•Frequent the farmers markets: That's where you'll find the healthiest local meats and produce. Plus, you can make a friend, Jordan says. When she eats a meal, she thinks about the place and people it came from — and that makes it taste all the richer. "I'm cracking eggs and I'm going, ‘I know these eggs; I've been to their barn!'” she says.

•Brave a buffalo burger: "Buffalo chili is the best thing ever,” Jordan said. This from a woman who once met the off-beat meat with a degree of fear. Same with leeks. Now she loves them. If you shop local, you can only find foods that are in season. That means they taste better, she says, but it also means you can't be overly picky.

•Grab whatever's close: Some things you have to buy at the grocery store, she says. But to make closer-to-home food choices at grocery stores, she glances at the back of food packaging — and then picks the product that traveled the shortest distance to the store. Shipping food puts greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and adds "food miles” to your impact on global warming.

•Start small: Jordan started out eating one local meal per week. She does much more now, but she says newbies to the local food scene need not be intimidated. You can start by buying prepackaged meals at some farmers markets, like the one on Saturday mornings at Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City, 900 N Portland Ave. Organic eggs grown in Oklahoma also are available and make for an easy switch, she says.

Ever wish you could throw your banana peels and coffee grounds in the recycle bin instead of the landfill? Sick of piling all of those grass clippings into the city trash? Well, you're in luck. With the help of science (and a few tips from Allen Parleir), you can turn much of your home waste into fertile soil. All you need is a compost bin.

•Know your ingredients: Composted soil is made of three ingredients: "brown stuff,” "green stuff” and water. The green stuff comes mostly from your kitchen — moldy bread, coffee grounds and unused vegetables. Brown stuff can be raked leaves, shredded newspaper, paper or cardboard — anything that's mostly carbon. Put the green stuff and the brown stuff in a pile, hose it down regularly, and you've got a compost bin that will yield fertile soil in as little as a month's time. And avoid too much green: Put about 10 times the amount of brown stuff in your compost bin as green stuff, Allen says. It's best to add to the pile in layers, so your compost looks like a layer cake with green-stuff icing.

•Save up: To start a compost bin, you'll need raw materials. Keep the leaves and grass you bag from your yard. Pile up your pizza boxes and newspaper. And consider getting a lidded container for your kitchen to store kitchen waste you might otherwise toss out.

•Feel the heat: When the compost pile is working, microbes break down the trash you toss in. They give off heat — sometimes up to 140 degrees. Check the compost heap's temperature and add more water and green stuff to remedy a cool pile.

•No meat: Don't put meat or dairy products in your compost pile, Allen says. That includes the waste of animals who eat meat products, like pet droppings. If you happen to have cows close by, they're vegetarians, so their manure is fine in small doses. Make sure you add enough brown stuff that your compost won't smell.

•Contain it: You could just start piling your trash in your back yard. But for a tidier pile, consider a frame made of wood or wire fencing, Parleir says. A 3-foot-by-3-foot compost bin is the best size, he says. And if building just isn't your style, hardware stores sell premade bins that come in many shapes and sizes.

Staff Writer John David Sutter; Photos By Nate Billings, Matt Strasen and Paul Hellstern

Comments