Guest Post by Jared Diamond

As the world economy continues to lag, cost cutting, more than a trendy activity, is an emerging necessity for most.  When one considers the expenses of homeownership, the expenditures mercilessly pile.  From mortgages, property tax, maintenance and bills, any sort of expense reduction measure is a highly welcomed dose of relief.  What many are unaware is that one of the best-kept secrets in cost reduction happens to be the “in” way for going green in 2012.  Consider the climate that will surely accompany the upcoming year and this reality grows ever apparent.

When window tinting is installed, it acts as a barrier between exterior elements and the home’s interior.  On top of absorbing potentially hazardous elements such as UV light, window tint is highly effective in absorbing thermal heat.  When less heat is introduced into a home, the propensity for cooling declines considerably. When the usage of air conditioning is slashed, households generate less energy.  On top of paying dramatically reduced energy bills, what is also being shrunk is the home’s environmental footprint.

It’s no surprise that residential (and commercial) energy usage is one contributor to greenhouse gasses.  While window tinting alone will most likely not save our planet, it is one of many collective steps that ought to be seriously considered by home (and business) owners interested in making a difference for a sustainable future.  It can be enticing to imagine what type of carbon footprint reduction would be possible if window tinting were universally adopted.

In many ways, it may seem like a silly question to ask.  With so many other sources of emissions, how could window tinting in homes and businesses be of much significance? It’s a fair question to ask, leading us to consider why it is the collective actions we take, such as window tinting, that is so dramatically important.

It is virtually impossible for environmental preservation to be a winning effort if only some are involved.  Truly successful emission reduction comes as a result of collective action.  Think of it as world citizens playing their part; we may elect to recycle, carpool – or even eliminate plastic bags from our shopping routine.  While one of these efforts alone may not be enough to tip the scales, together they can be quite a formidable force.

What is so unique about window tinting, however, is that there is a “selfish” incentive involved as well. And as much as it may be a cringe-worthy thought, it is far easier to initiate collective action with individuals who are personally incentivized. While it may be inconvenient to ditch plastic bags or to carpool, it seems that window tinting is synergetic with what most people want: To save money, and as much of it as possible.

That’s why window tinting is the “in” way for going green in 2012.  With environmental awareness more abundant than ever, along with our economic environment, it only makes sense.  Window tinting is the perfect form of collective action to be taken by home and business owners.  While saving on expenses, individuals have the opportunity to save something a whole lot more important.

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Jared Diamond is a content contributor with Detail Wiz Window Tint.  He enjoys automotive restoration as well as raising environmental awareness.  

Guest Post by Madeline Binder

Solar energy is rapidly being integrated into American culture as an accessible source of low cost electricity. However, many people are intimidated about converting their homes to a solar energy home. There are two problem that really are keeping people from converting to solar energy, (1) ignorance about the process and (2) concerns about the aesthetics of the panels.

Getting to Know Solar Energy

The first problem that is keeping Americans from converting en mass to solar energy is a simple lack of common knowledge about solar energy. People are concerned about the price and the practicality of converting to solar energy. Fortunately, both concerns can easily be resolved.

What you first need to know about a solar energy conversion is that it is practical for nearly any location in the United States. The conversion process involves installing enough solar panels to meet your energy consumption needs, installing a circuit breaker that connects the solar panels to your homes central grid and installing either a battery or a special transformer that will allow a bidirectional flow of power from your local utility provider.

If you want to be totally off the grid then you will need to select a battery backup for your solar energy power system. This will allow you to store energy that is produced while the sun is out so you have power at night or when the level of sunlight is insufficient to generate enough electricity to meet your needs.

If you want to utilize your solar energy as a supplement to the energy produced by your utility company then you will need a special electronic set up installed which will allow power to be brought in to serve your home as needed and that will also allow your extra electricity produced by your solar panels to be fed into the general power grid. The power that you feed into the grid will be purchased by your local power company, providing you with extra income.

The cost of setting up your solar energy system will depend on a number of factors. For example, the location of your home, the number of panels you set up and the contractors that you select. However, keep in mind that this cost can be somewhat offset by special tax breaks and financial incentives offered by local power companies.

Aesthetic Appeal

Solar panels have a modern design aesthetic that can be integrated into most homes seamlessly. The key here is to find a way to make the panels a part of your home’s architecture, as opposed to a competing visual element.

Madeline Binder, the author, encourages students to explore the importance of doing solar science fair experiments to raise the awareness of this important aspect of using green energy. Exoerimental size solar panels are an important materials used for science fairs.

EarthTalk® is a weekly environmental column made available to our readers from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: ​There are a number of companies out there now doing “energy audits” for the home, after which they try to sell you attic insulation and other products and services. Is this just a scam or would it be wise for me to look into this?  – Bill Richards., New York, NY

For the most part, companies offering energy audits are reputable and legitimate and will help you both save money and reduce your carbon footprint if you follow their advice in regard to upgrading things like insulation, windows and appliances. “A home energy assessment, also known as a home energy audit, is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient,” reports the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). “An assessment will show you problems that may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time.”

“During the assessment, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy,” adds DOE. “Energy assessments also determine the efficiency of your home’s heating and cooling systems [and] may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity.”

You can conduct your own energy audit if you know where to look for air leaks (drafts), water waste and other key areas of a home’s inefficiencies. The DOE’s energysavers.gov website has guidelines to help homeowners conduct their own do-it-yourself home energy assessments. For instance, DOE recommends that homeowners make a list of obvious air leaks, such as through gaps along baseboards or at the edges of flooring and at wall and ceiling junctures. The potential energy savings from reducing drafts in a home can be as high as 30 percent per year, reports DOE. (The DOE website also provides information on other ways to save money and resources through less obvious things such as outdoor landscaping. It also posts guidelines for energy-efficient designing and remodeling.)

You should also check the filters on heating and cooling equipment to see if they need to be changed so as to keep your furnace and air conditioners functioning at maximum efficiency. And if these or other appliances over 15 years old consider replacing them with newer models that meet federal EnergyStar efficiency criteria. Also, swapping out older incandescent bulbs in light fixtures with higher efficiency compact fluorescent or LED bulbs will save money and energy.

A professional energy auditor with dedicated assessment tools and the knowledge of how to use them will in all likelihood carry out a more comprehensive assessment than you can do yourself. “Thorough assessments often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.”

If you are concerned about enlisting a for-profit firm that upsells its own energy efficiency upgrade services based on a “free” energy audit, check with your utility to see whether it offers unbiased, independent energy audit services (which it may do for free or for a nominal cost). The assessor from your utility may be able to recommend window and door replacement companies, heating and cooling specialists and other vendors nearby that do reputable work to make your home is not only energy efficient but warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

Contacts:
DOE Energy Savers
EnergyStar

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (). Send questions to: earthtalk[at]emagazine.com.
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Guest post by John Tarantino

Who would have ever guessed that a person could go green in so many different aspects of our lives? If the recent recession has taught us anything, it taught us that we can be green and save money by consuming less and becoming more efficient with what we have. This rule of thumb definitely applies to our plumbing systems in our homes. Conserving water not only saves on water bills, but also reduces the impacts of major environmental issues such as protection of drinking water resources and protection of aquatic life. Conserving water also simultaneously reduces the need for energy in pumping, heating and treating of water.

Like many other sustainable strategies, green plumbing is the most effective way to reduce energy consumption. Green plumbing aims to achieve energy efficiency while conserving water. Since cold water does not lose or waste energy, hot water plumbing systems are the main focus when it comes to energy efficiency.

Sources of Heat Loss

Usually pipes in a hot water system function by fully heating after every use, which subsequently cools off. The on again, off again heating of the entire plumbing system to water fixtures wastes a huge amount of energy. If the source of hot water is far away from the point of use then one could expect some heat loss due to the length of the piping system.

Solutions:

1. Proper Layout of the Plumbing System
   During pre-construction of a plumbing system, it is best to have an efficient layout. For example, locate fixtures and piping routes in such a way that there is minimal travel distance of water, especially from heating systems to hot water pipes. It may be best to contact a green plumber to aid in providing the right solutions for the layout of a plumbing system.
2.  Insulate Pipes
   The longer the length of pipes, the greater the heat loss through the piping system. To reduce heat from escaping through the pipes you can have pipes insulated with a special material to help keep heat in the pipes. This helps the water to stay hotter and thus lessens the need to waste energy to reheat. It also has the added benefit of preventing your pipes from freezing if you live in an area where temperatures reach below freezing during winter.
3.  Types of Insulation
   There are 5 major types of insulation with different levels of insulation ratings. The lowest rating type of insulation is spiral-wrap fiberglass; it has a rating of about R-1.6 but can a little complex to install. One of the more effective and popular types of insulation is foam tubing. Look for a type that doesn’t have a sticky strip. Many hardware stores offer foam tubing in various sizes for different water pipes. They easily fit on your piping with a slit found in the side of the insulation. Most sizes such as the ¾-inch pipe will have an R-4 insulation rating while a 3/8-inch will have a lower rating but still be over R-2.

Other types of insulation are self-sealing foam tubing, fiberglass-shell pipe covers and regular fiberglass attic insulation.

• Point-of-Use Tankless Water Heaters
  Tankless heaters are effective in eliminating the need to have hot water travel long distances. Be mindful that tankless water heaters have limited temperature rise and that is why it is best to have them located near the fixture where it will be used. When a point-to-use tankless water heater is not a viable option due to spacing issues, it may be best to consider having a pumping system instead.

Green plumbing helps address environmental issues while helping homeowners and renters become energy efficient. If all households and business establishments used green plumbing best practices, it could have a positive impact on entire ecosystems. Make sure to ask a qualified green plumber to do your plumbing system to make sure that everything is designed and done properly. Remember the famous quote by Albert Einstein “We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”

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Author Bio: John Tarantino is an active volunteer in the environmental movement in Portland, Oregon. He writes for The Environmental Blog and loves spreading green news to people who will listen. 

Photo Credit: Some rights reserved by Hryck

EarthTalk® is a weekly environmental column made available to our readers from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I would like to make my holiday gifts matter this year. Where can I find ideas for green gifts? – Mary Baumgartner, via e-mail

The holidays are a great time of year to share your enthusiasm for protecting the environment with family and friends. One meaningful gift—a fashion-forward t-shirt from Rain Tees—can help fight environmental destruction far away while raising awareness here at home. Every Rain Tee is hand-made in the U.S. from eco-friendly fabrics and features original artwork created by children living in countries facing rampant deforestation. For every t-shirt the company sells, proceeds help the cause and Rain Tees’ charity partner, Trees for the Future, will plant a tree in a critically endangered part of the world.

Another way to link your gifting and philanthropic tendencies is to donate to the Paradigm Project to help purchase clean burning stoves for poor families in Africa. Your donation goes toward reducing deforestation and respiratory disease in a developing country, and the Paradigm Project will send you a unique holiday ornament in exchange.

Many other non-profits also provide holiday season incentives to donate to their causes in the name of a friend or loved one. To wit, the NRDC Green Gifts website offers dozens of gift opportunities related to various campaigns the organization is conducting around the world. By donating through the Green Gifts program, you and your gift recipient can help defend polar bears, protect clean water, revive rainforests or promote renewable energy, among other options. Similar land and species “adoption” programs that can be leveraged as holiday gifts are available from groups such as the Nature Conservancy, WWF, Defenders of Wildlife and the Whale Museum.

If not spending money is a priority this holiday season, you can make artwork or functional items out of leftover materials otherwise headed for the trash can or recycling bin. Handmade gifts in any form are always appreciated and will likely be cherished for much longer than anything store-bought.

But if making your own presents isn’t your thing, a wide range of green gifts, large and small, can be found online. Some companies that specialize in fairly traded, sustainably sourced gift-worthy items include The Hunger Site Store, Branch, Low Impact Living, BGreen Apparel, A Greener Kitchen, Green Heart and Organic Bug, among many others. And once you’ve completed your green shopping, wrap up your gifts in the festive designs of Earth Presents, which sells 100 percent recycled/recyclable gift wraps. For still more ideas on where to source that perfect green gift, check out the website of the non-profit Green America, which provides links on its website to dozens of firms that sell sustainable wares.

No doubt it feels good to go green over the holidays, given the excess we typically associate with gift-giving. And given the poor state of the economy, it makes sense to give gifts that will last, whether they involve furthering important environmental work or providing items that haven’t caused unnecessary environmental destruction in their manufacture and that won’t break down once the holidays are over.

Contacts:

• Rain Tees
• Paradigm Project
• NRDC Green Gifts
• Nature Conservancy’s Holiday Giving
• WWF Gift Center
• Whale Museum’s Orca Adoption Program
• Green America

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EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine. Send questions to: earthtalk[at]emagazine.com.

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Guest post by Lewis Davies

Stock up on eco-fuel for winter by recycling autumn leaves

Autumn is a spectacular season heralding the end of summer with a cascade of red, brown and golden falling leaves. Most of us appreciate nature’s beauty at this time of year, but consider the task of raking up and bagging the leaves to be a painful chore with little benefit. However, the leaves that fall from the trees in this season are a great source of carbon-neutral fuel that we can stock up on to last us through the winter.

Bagging up leaves (and other so-called “garden waste”) for the refuse collectors to take away, and pile on top of already heaving landfill sites, is a tragic and unnecessary end to their lifecycle. For those of us with a stove, cast iron or clay chiminea or firebowl we are passing up on the chance to do a little bit for the environment – and for our wallets.

Rather than add to the problem during the autumn we can simply recycle the leaves into eco-logs. All you need to do this is to get your hands on a log maker, which are available from most good garden centers or through online eco-stores.  These handy little tools basically compact the waste into logs with the use of a sheet of newspaper. Of course, you are not limited to just recycling leaves. Any recyclable household or garden waste can be recycled so the benefits of the log makers can be utilized all year round.

This leads on to the benefits of the fuel, which is both eco-friendly and free. It’s eco-friendly because the carbon that it emits when burnt is exactly equal to the carbon it absorbed over its lifetime. In essence you cannot get a more carbon neutral fuel. You may consider, therefore, that logs bought from the local garden centre to also be carbon neutral, but you must also consider the amount of energy which was used to both cut the trees down and then to transport them. This may add up to quite the carbon footprint, which is something you can avoid altogether.

Secondly, there is the matter of cost. If you have trees in your garden, or in a local park, then there is no cost in simply using these as raw materials for your logs. Indeed at this time of year you can often see bags of garden waste piled up next to houses waiting to be taken away the next time the refuse truck drops by. Why not do everyone (and the earth) a favour and ask if you can take them home to make yourself some free chiminea fuel?

In my experience with my kids this can become a very enjoyable way of teaching the value of recycling in a way that children can see the benefits of getting involved. A roaring fire by the chiminea in winter is a great reward for doing your bit for the environment and your wallet.

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Lewis is an outdoor living eco-living enthusiast and writes for Chimenea UK

Guest post by Greg Tornga

A renewable energy primer for the home

Coal, oil and gas = fossil fuels = nonrenewable = will one day not exist

Solar, wind, plant, hydrogen, heat, ocean and flowing water = renewable energy = is constantly replenished by the earth’s atmosphere.

Introducing Solar Powered Energy Into the Home

The term ‘solar powered’ means powered by sunlight.  Scientists have found ways to convert sunlight into electricity through the creation of Solar Photovoltaic Technology.  You must be seeing solar panels popping up in all sorts of locations – homes, businesses and even lined up in big fields. This is a way to create renewable energy and bring us one step closer to removing the need for non-renewable materials on which to live.  Typically, 10-20 solar panels are used to electrify a home.  They are mounted at an angle facing the south or they can be installed to track the sun’s movement.  You can find additional information and resources on how to install solar panels at your home at the website for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Harvesting the Wind

Do you think those big windmill farms you see across the United States are for decoration?  No, you probably, at least, know that the wind turbines catch the winds’ energy and then converts it into electricity.  You can turn to small wind turbines as another renewable energy source for your home.  If you live on one acre of land you can reduce your energy bill by 50%-90% with a small wind energy system.   They are also used on farms to pump water.

Using Plants as Fuel

Energy converted from plants is called biomass energy or bioenergy.  You have probably done this without even realizing it by burning wood in your fireplace to give you heat and light or to cook a meal.  Other forms of bioenergy are found in food crops, grassy and woody plants, oil-rich algae and even fumes from landfills create natural gas and can be used as biomass energy, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.  Biomass can be converted into liquid fuel for transportation.

Using the Earth’s Own Heat as Energy

Geothermal energy – heat from the earth’s surface can be used to produce electricity by utility companies for the homes they service while others provide energy for heating and cooling from the heat directly pulled from the ground.

Three more renewable energy sources include:

• Hydrogen – ‘Reforming’ hydrogen by separating it from its hydrocarbons (organic compounds formed with hydrogen), can provide heat, generate electricity and power vehicles and, coupled with electricity, it can move energy from one source to another.
• Flowing water = hydropower or hydroelectric power can create electricity if you have access to flowing water.  The US Department of Energy states that you now have the opportunity to buy clean electricity from hydropower plants, especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest.
• Oceans – With ocean energy, heat from the sun, the gravitational pull from the moon and wind can generate thermal and mechanical energy with the ocean.

Renewable energy is on its way into our lives to save the day!

Sources:  Nrel.gov, Energysavers.gov

Citations:

• By NASA. Photo taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans (of the Apollo 17 crew).[see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons

About the Author: Greg Tornga is the owner of Reliable Glass, a Phoenix window repair company.  He can help you replace your energy efficient glass to keep your home’s electricity bills as low as possible.  To receive a free glass replacement quote, visit www.reliableautoglass.net or call 480-283-8222

We were sick of the excessive pills and willy-nilly use of antibiotics, sick of the doctors who didn’t look us in the face. We wanted a kind woman with comfy clothes to feel our pulse and tell us what tea we should drink to help our headaches. We wanted the massage therapist to work some magic and cure our sciatica; we wanted the kind gentleman at the herbal shop to whip up a tincture that could get rid of that nasty poison ivy rash. But somewhere along the way, we realized that we could go to our local CVS and get St. John’s Wort supplements or beeswax lip balm. Finally, the main stream was beginning to get it, right?

On one hand, this shift is an amazing opportunity to experience many forms of alternative healing. It is fabulous to be able to choose between seven acupuncturists and exhilarating to have a different yoga class to attend every night of the week. It’s as easy to find a bottle of Goldenseal supplements as it is to find a bottle of aspirin. But where did these alternative medicines come from, and how do they work?

It is a question that is no longer asked by many people who use these supplements daily. They may not know what St. John’s Wort looks like, but they know it helps with seasonal depression and comes in easy-to-swallow pill form. They aren’t sure where to find Goldenseal, but they are pretty sure that they should take it with Echinacea as soon as they feel sick, or once they are already sick, and what’s the difference? The problem is that this mentality is turning herbalism and alternative medicine into the very thing we hated about Western medicine to begin with.It has to do with roots; it has to do with experience. If you are feeling depressed and grouchy, you could indeed take the bottle of St. John’s Wort out of your cabinet and pop a few pills. Or, you could take a walk to the woods. You could find a trail that was made by deer, and you could feel the earth under your feet as you walked. You could then close your eyes, feeling the shadiness of the trees around you, smelling the soft mud and ferns. You would realize that you had to find a clearing; some sunshine, in order to find the plant you wanted. You would walk up a hill, moving closer to a sunny patch that you feel is ahead. Then you would come across those nearly fluorescent yellow flowers beaming up out of the ground. You would pick one and smell it, smooshing it in your fingers and marveling at how the yellow turns so quickly into a blood-red. You would gather some and put them in a jar that you brought along, making sure to leave many flowers on the plant. When you got home, you could make a tea, or soak them in some alcohol to make a tincture. You might even put some into olive oil, as long as it hadn’t rained in the last three days; because in that case the oil would most likely go rancid from the water left on the flowers. You would know these things.

In either case, you would be ingesting the hypericin; which is the constituent of St. John’s that scientists have found to be so useful. However, when you pull it out of your cabinet, you are missing out on several key things that you would have experienced had you walked to the woods. If you went and found this plant on your own, you would be getting fresh air. You would be feeling the joy of finding a plant you were looking for. You would feel it on your hands, which would also cause you to absorb some of the constituents. You would be getting exercise, and you would, most importantly, see the plant in real life and consuming the entire thing rather than an extract of what some scientists have been looking at in a focused way.

Herbal medicine has a history that would be impossible to pin down completely, no matter how hard you tried. Because plants differ from region to region and country to country, there is no telling where certain bits of information and uses of specific plants originated. They are like folk songs, or grandma’s recipes. However, one thing is fairly certain. When people used to use plants, they found them in the woods around them. If they went to an herbalist, the herbalist had found them and made the medicine by hand. Human error and human energy came into play in a way that they just cannot when you are buying mass-produced supplements from a corporate grocery store. You didn’t see the St. John’s that went into those pills; and neither did any human, potentially.

All this being said; there is definitely an advantage to buying your herbs in the form of supplements at the store. For one thing, you are mostly sure that you at least have the right plant. To the untrained eye, St. John’s can look an awful lot like Goldenrod or Dandelion. Furthermore, not everyone lives within walking distance of a St. John’s patch, and it is not always middle to late summer.

However, nothing is stopping you from learning about the plants that grow where you live. If you begin to learn about these things, even in a very basic way, you will see that your relationship to the herbal medicines you take changes drastically. All you need to do is be sure that you are finding the right plant, which can be the hardest part at first. If you work with an herbalist, you can check with them. Once you do this one time, for fun, you will see that there is a lot that goes into making herbal medicine ; and this is part of the healing process in many cases.

If you can learn about even one plant, such as Dandelion or Yarrow, you will see that you can look at the bottles of pills differently. Suddenly each one is not filled with a magic cure; it is filled with a ground-up and extracted plant. A plant that you could have found yourself, possibly in your own back yard. This is an important thing to acknowledge, as it can prevent you from starting to use herbalism as just another type of western medicine.

These herbs are not there to give anyone a quick fix, or to allow them to live a life full of toxicity and ignore their problems. They are there to be used, found, and respected. If you can bring yourself to take part in the experiences that using herbs allows you, such as walking in the woods and looking at many plants in order to find the ones that are going to help you, then you are going to be one of the few who has not simply substituted their mass-produced ibuprofen for mass-produced Feverfew and kept a straight face.

Dear EarthTalk: I love to cook and when I have the time I make soups, stews and pasta meals in large batches and freeze them.  I use leftover plastic containers, but I know this is not good. What kinds of containers are safe for freezer food storage? -  Kathy Roberto, via e-mail

Reusing leftover plastic food containers to store items in the freezer may be noble environmentally, but it might not be wise from the perspective of keeping food safely frozen and tasting its best when later heated up and served. Many such containers are designed for one-time use and then recycling, so it’s not worth risking using them over and over. Likewise, wax paper, bread wrappers and cardboard cartons should not be used to store frozen foods; these types of containers don’t provide enough of a barrier to moisture and odors and also may not keep food fresh when frozen.

Luckily though, many other materials are suitable for use as freezer-safe storage containers, at least according to the National Center for Home Food Preparation. To qualify as “freezer-safe,” the Georgia-based non-profit maintains, food storage containers must resist moisture-vapor, oil, grease and water as well as brittleness and cracking at low temperatures, while being durable, leak-proof and easy-to seal. They must also protect foods from absorption of off-flavors or odors. “Good freezing materials include rigid containers made of aluminum, glass, plastic, tin or heavily waxed cardboard; bags and sheets of moisture-vapor resistant wraps; and laminated papers made specially for freezing,” reports the group.

As to the leaking of unsafe constituent chemicals (BPA, phthalates, etc.) from certain plastics into foods, freezing is generally less of a threat than heating, but it is better to avoid plastics known to be problematic anyway just to be safe.  Polycarbonate plastic, marked with #7, contains BPA while polyvinyl chloride, marked with #3, contains potentially harmful phthalates. If a plastic item does not bear a recycling number on its bottom, steer clear as it may well be a mix, which classifies it as a #7 polycarbonate.

Of course, the majority of plastic containers designed for freezer use are safe and, since they can be washed and reused, are a better choice than disposable freezer bags and wraps. For those still leery of using plastic at all, glass containers designed to withstand large temperature extremes, such as Ball Freezing Jars (Mason jars) or anything made by Pyrex—regular glass containers could break when frozen or if thawed too quickly—can be a sensible alternative. Also, beware of loading up glass containers to the brim before freezing; some foods expand when frozen so leaving a little extra room between the top of the food and the bottom of the (airtight) lid is always a good idea.

However you store your frozen delicacies, keep in mind that freezing food may inactivate microbes like bacteria and mold but may not destroy them. According to dietician and author Elaine Magee on the MedicineNet website, just thawing out frozen foods doesn’t necessarily mean they are automatically safe to eat. Foods that require cooking still require cooking for health’s sake after thawing. Also, Magee recommends quickly labeling and dating any foods you are freezing to facilitate purging of potentially spoiled or tasteless food down the line.

Contacts:
National Center for Home Food Preparation
Pyrex
Ball
MedicineNet

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Image credit: Johnathunder, courtesy wikipedia