Ideal Bite

Is the old fire dying out?

12.21.2007

Submitted by tmeronek on Fri, 12/21/2007 - 1:03am.

The Bite:

Maybe it's for the best, if you're using lighters to flame up. Light up your life with sustainably produced matches, which don't run on petroleum, are biodegradable, and use fewer resources than your average igniter, refillable or otherwise.

The Benefits:

Sustainable wood. Some matches come from well-managed forests, which means timber companies aren't cutting down trees faster than they can regrow them.
Less landfill. About 1 bil lighters are sold in the United States each year; 9 out of 10 of these are disposable and end up in dumps.
Lowering our dependence on oil. Unlike matches, lighters run on oil, and once the world's petroleum supplies are gone, they're gone.
Lighting your fires, baby. Beeswax candles don't just light themselves.

Personally Speaking:

Matches are an obvious choice for Jen, who singed her eyelashes off at age 8 playing with her father's non-Jen-proof fireplace lighter.

Wanna Try:

Diamond Matches - the biggest producer of matches in the United States also happens to harvest its wood from well-managed forests ($2/box of 250).
Swedish Match - if you're in Australia or Europe, its three brands are widely available and use sustainable wood (prices vary).
Zippo - if you gotta stick with lighters, get a refillable one (prices vary).

Cocktail Fact

Kazakhstan's tallest building, a 38-story skyscraper known as "the cigarette lighter" due to its shape, caught fire last year thanks to its highly flammable paneling.