Raising Green Kids in a Juice Box World

Ah, the juice box. Made with paper, aluminum foil and wax, it’s too complicated to be recycled in most areas, and cannot be reused. (Unless you want to make yours into a DIY iPod holder, as someone else did. Google it and marvel at the kind of crap that gives DIY a bad name.)

But kids love juice boxes.

They also spill, which means lots of paper towels. And some parents seem to live in fear of leaving the house without a snack, which means lots of cheese sticks or one-serving pretzel bags or the like, most of which uses packaging that also cannot be recycled.

The result is that each American kid is a one-person environmental disaster, even before mom and dad drive him or her to Rockville because that’s how far you apparently need to go these days to find eight other kids to kick a ball around.

So, let’s fix all this.

First to go is the juice box, cheese stick and one-serving snack pack.

Each parent should think to themselves -- are there times that we can leave the snack behind? As the kids get older, they should snack less but by then the habit is so engrained that we just keep feeding them hourly. Ask regularly, can we cut it back? Another upside for fewer snacks: less crap for us to schlep.

But the answer will sometimes be yes, we should bring snacks -- an afternoon at the park is nicer if the kids don’t fall apart and beg to go home because their stomachs are gnawing with hunger.

So, buy a couple of reusable plastic bottles, some small Tupperware containers and a big jug of juice and a big bag of pretzels. Refill the containers as needed. Or, better yet, forget the juice altogether and instead throw a couple of apples in the bag and a paring knife. Buy a block of cheddar cheese, and let the toddler cut it up with a dull knife. Voila, a really nice snack. Wash it all down with some of Takoma’s finest -- and free -- tap water in a refillable and stylish bottle. (Shopping at REI is more fun than buying juice boxes, am I wrong?)

And it all goes in the dishwasher.

Now to the paper towels.

Next time you go to Safeway, look at the huge tower of paper towels and think: six months ago, that was all trees; in two months, that will all be in a landfill.

Yes, kids don’t notice when their cereal bowls overflow. Yes, aging pets toss their cookies way too often. Yes, coffee spills on the floor when the kids joggle your arm to get your attention.

But you don’t need paper towels; get the resident rug rats to fix you up with a rag bag.

Go to the rag bin and pull out a few old T-shirts, flannel sheets or other absorbent cloth. Show the resident elementary school kids pictures of baby polar bears trying to make it to the next ice floe in a slowing warming polar sea, and tell them that they can help save the baby bears by cutting the cloth into paper towel sized rags. (This is actually a pretty good Cub Scout service project.)

Or just tell them it’s a fun project, and you’ll put the money you save in their college fund. Mine happily cut up 10 or so rags, which we put in a bag under the sink and have used and washed repeatedly over the last few months. We do throw out rags used to clean up particularly disgusting messes (thank you, cats) but most get tossed in the laundry and used again the next week.

Since this has been a serious and frugal column with lectures against merrily tossing large amounts of crap away after one use, I hereby make it up to you with a recipe for apple crisp, the best fall food ever.

1) Find a baking dish, size is unimportant. Fill it with slices of peeled, cored apples, the spotted ones that you can buy for a song at the Farmers Market.

2) Dump the apples in a bowl. If the bowl is large, toss in a 1/2 cup of flour (any kind). If it is small, toss in a ¼ cup. Toss to coat the apples with flour, and then pour them back in the baking dish.

3) Next, use a pastry cutter to mix equal amounts of brown sugar, oatmeal and softened butter. Use about a ½ cup of each for a small baking dish, or a whole cup of each for a larger pan. Add between a teaspoon and a tablespoon of cinnamon, depending on how you feel about cinnamon. Sprinkle the delicious concoction on top of the apples.     

4) Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, until apples are tender when pierced with a fork.

Eat the same day because it doesn't stay crisp for two days.