Friday, October 16, 2009

Mmmm, butter

You know how every so often you have an idea that you cannot believe you didn't come up with it earlier? Well I had one of those a couple of months ago.

I like to imagine that I'm pretty environmentally aware for the average person*. I use modern cloth nappies. I've always been committed to recycling as much as possible. While I still have too many clothes, I tend to wear things until they're really dead (which makes the whole refashion from my own wardrobe thing a bit complicated). I try to buy things that have a lower environmental impact than some of the alternatives, in terms of processing and packaging. I've boycotted Nestle since first year uni (which has it's challenges - they keep buying brands without me realising, grrr). But there's still a whole lot of room for overhaul, as I am regularly discovering!

Like butter. Until recently, we used an olive oil based margarine for all of our spreading requirements. Then I had an epiphany. Marg comes in plastic tubs that I assume can be recycled, whereas butter is wrapped in a small piece of greaseproof paper. Which I assume is also recyclable. So aside from the recent research suggesting that butter is not as evil as we'd been led to believe (and marg is far more so), it's a much better choice from a packaging perspective.

Implementing the change was easy. I toddled off to the local homewares shop and bought a mini casserole dish for $5 which seemed far more suitable than the official, much larger and much more expensive butter dish. It doesn't fit the whole block, but that's a good thing around here because we're notorious toast crumb leavers! This way it gets cleaned out regularly ;-)
Mmmm, butter.

*I'm in the process of re-evaluating this self-perception in light of the genuine low impact live-ers floating around blogland.

6 comments:

CurlyPops said...

Mmmm I prefer butter simply for the taste and that it's a bit more natural (even though its higher in fat). But now I can add better packaging to the list. I have a pretty vintage butter dish and all the toast crumbs are just mine...hee hee

M* (Melanie) said...

Yes, we are a butter household and have been for quite a while now. The casserole dish is a great idea because butter dishes are hard to come by!! I have had a lot of trouble and had to turn to my friend ebay

Leonie Guld said...

When you are out and about pop in to some oppys and keep an eye out for a "depression Glass" butter dish. you wont regret it!!! Some of them come in green and they are STUNNING!!

lol my word verification is Penis.....WHATS THAT ABOUT!!

Unknown said...

I'd say you are doing your part!!! We are a butter household too, I will have to give that a go :)

Sally said...

Butter consumers in this part of the world too... our primary reason is due to the preservatives, artifical flavours and colours in most margarine and butter spreads. Just awful stuff. Butter tastes best!

Gina said...

Yay for butter. Let's all clog our arteries together. Haven't been able to eat margerine or other fake things for years... just the thought of how the manufacturers solidify oils into solids, and all the synthetic stuff in them, makes my stomach churn. Think I'd rather eat duck fat!
But I think your paper point is a good one. I read recently of someone who keeps the paper in the freezer to grease cake tins with! Now that's recycling. I don't think margerine containers ARE recyclable via council recycling in my suburb at least...