We are going green!
But what the hell does that mean?
And why should I care?
(A haiku 4 you by Jordann)
Living in an extremely wasteful, profit minded culture makes it difficult to live a simple lifestyle that isn’t devastating to the environment. Ultimately, corporations need to take responsibility for all of the waste, pollution, and crappy stuff they produce and try to sell to us. In the meantime, here are some simple ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
PLASTIC
Nearly every piece of plastic ever made is still in existence today. This is because plastic can take between 50 years (a cup) and a million years (a milk jug) to decompose. Although Americans generate about 10.5 million tons of plastic waste each year, they only recycle 1-2% of it. Of those millions of tons, about 150 thousand tons of plastic garbage end up in the ocean and are responsible for the death of about 1,000,000 million sea creatures each year. Plastic trash is synonymous with death, it seems. Importantly, recycling saves twice the energy than burning plastics in an incinerator, and it keeps the stuff out of our lovely landfills. So here are some ways to minimize the amount of plastic you are consuming, and hopefully whatever plastics you do use are at some point recycled or reused.
B.Y.O.B: Bring your own bag everywhere for everything. Keep some in your car or in your bike-basket for when you go to any store or restaurant. They don’t function as only grocery bags, but they can also actually hold whatever you purchase, anywhere. Imagine if everyone did this, there would be no more plastic bag industry (but a new canvas bag industry!), no more piles of plastic bags stuck behind your refrigerator, no more plastic bags blowing around getting stuck in trees, and no more plastic bags making their way to our planet’s oceans.
B.Y.O.C: Bring your own cup. You could buy yourself a lovely coffee mug or Nalgene and bring it to all those places you get drinks (your office, coffee shops, restaurants, the gas station, Burger King, whatever). I get discounts a lot of times for bringing my own cup, because I get charged only for a refill (bad a!). This is especially important because many to-go cups are made of Styrofoam, the most environmentally unfriendly product in the universe. It does not biodegrade and will sit in our landfills forever. Casey & I actually were too lazy to buy cups for a keg we had at a party, and used all of our own regular cups and told people to bring their own. Even though we had to wash some the next day, there was no trash anywhere! It was beautiful.
B.Y.O.T.: Bring your own Tupperware. Use it when you go out to eat for your leftovers, or when you are buying things in bulk or at a salad bar or deli or something. Then you can put it in your canvas bag next to your special cup that you brought with you. I have done this, and it may seem a little weird / tacky but really it’s not. And maybe your friends will think you are so brilliant and so thoughtful that they will all copy you (let’s hope). This saves plastic bags, Styrofoam boxes, and plastic containers all in one little gesture. Basically, the amount of garbage being handed to you by restaurants and stores is minimized very much.
Bulk up. I don’t have any more good acronyms. But buying things in bigger amounts minimizes the amount of plastic trash you are dumping. There are a thousand ways to minimize packaging, and here are a few for starters: buy one huge bag of chips instead of one huge plastic bag with 40 miniature bags of chips inside. Buy a 3-liter of soda instead of 12 20 oz bottles. Buy a nice razor instead of 500 crappy plastic ones in a plastic bag. Buy tampons without the plastic applicators (like o.b. brand). In general, go for things that aren’t packaged in plastic (glass bottles of salad dressing, etc.) or buy things made in recycled packaging.
Get rid of your baggage. If you are like me, you have 10,000 plastic bags in your house. Finally, many grocery stores now have a place to drop them off for recycling (say goodbye forever in a nice way). Here in Lubbock, all of the United Supermarkets do and so does Lowe’s (26th & Boston).
M.Y.O.S.: Make your own stuff. Most of the plastic in my house comes from shampoo bottles, cleaning products, and the like. You can actually make all of these products at home really easily for cheap, and store them in your own (not plastic!) containers. We are working on getting some of our own best household recipes up for your experimenting pleasure.
PAPER
Paper accounts for 25% of whatever is in landfills. Half of the world’s forests have already been cleared or burned, and the paper industry accounts for about 45% of harvested wood. Everybody knows that paper is made from trees. Trees are vital to our atmosphere, as they absorb carbon (the leading culprit of greenhouse emissions that causes global warming) and release oxygen (so that we can breathe easy), and vital to the ecosystems of which they are a part, as they provide food, shade, and cover for millions of animals all over the world. Still, reducing paper waste is one of the hardest areas for me because I am in school and I also make lists incessantly for everything (like these here). But here are some things even I can handle.
Recycle, always and forever. Don’t ever throw away paper. Take it to the recycling bin, seriously. Or use it for a fire, keeping it out of our landfills.
Buy recycled products. Paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less energy, produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50% less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and 100% less wood. Generally, recycled products (such as computer paper, toilet paper, tissues, tampons, etc.) are not more expensive than regular products. So do it to it.
Treecycle has just about every office and household product made from completely recycled products for cheap.
Make the most of your paper: If you are taking notes for a class or meeting, use the whole paper. Don’t make bullet lists in the middle of the page with your huge handwriting. If you are printing, print double-sided and use the smallest margins possible.
Cloth: Yes, the fabric of our lives. It is not only for wearing! Cloth napkins reduce so much paper trash, and they are reusable so you don’t have to go buy more all the time. This will encourage you to be a more elegant eater as well! Cloth towels are wonderful as well. Cut your old towels up into rags and use them for when you are cleaning. I know sometimes you don’t want to get your towels dirty by using them to dry up spilled wine or cat pee or whatever. So here is the compromise: because you are using so many less paper towels, you can afford to buy one or two rolls of recycled paper towels, and use those when whatever you need to clean up is too nasty to use a rag or towel. You are going to have to do laundry, period.
Cleaning, Old School: Use a mop or a rag instead of a Swiffer or a Clorox wipe. Mops and brooms and rags actually do work, and they are reusable so you don’t have to spent 20$ on new cleaning products every couple of weeks.
Paperless: if you can, switch to paperless billing and things like that. I get all my bank statements and bills online, and this means not only am I not receiving as much junk mail, but I also don’t have as much paper waste.
ELECTRICITY
About half of the electricity in the U.S. is generated by coal burning power plants. They emit thousands of pounds of greenhouse gases like carbon and nitrogen, as well as releasing toxins like mercury into the air. Many of the gases fall back down, contaminating our water systems and food supply. Not only are these emissions devastating for animals, they are also very dangerous for people. And so minimizing the amount of electricity you use will not only save you money, but will contribute to a better, safer, cleaner atmosphere.
Unplug: you use energy when things are plugged in even if they are turned off. If there are appliances that you rarely use (in our case, our toaster and coffee machine), leave them unplugged and only plug them in when you need them. For everything else, the easiest way to work this is to have a power strip that you unplug whenever you’re leaving a room (and not going back in for a while). And always turn things off when they are not being used.
Cleaning, Old School (Part 2): Hang your clothes to dry on a rack or outside (it is getting nicer out every day! Yay spring!). Washers & Dryers are two of the biggest electricity consumers in American households, and you can really cut into your electric bill by doing this. If you must, throw your clothes in the dryer for a few minutes after they’ve nearly dried hanging up to “fluff” them or whatever.
Lights: Use a low-watt bulb, as you have a 100w bulb with a huge lampshade over it because it is too bright. Even better, use an energy efficient bulb as they really do last a million times longer than regular bulbs and they’ll reduce your electric bill. And in the daytime, open your windows, you’re your doors, open your blinds, and soak up the sunshine.
Hot/Cold: I grew up in a house built in 1924 with no central heating or cooling system. In the summer, we opened our windows and turned on the fans. In the winter, we wore sweaters and used blankets. If after all this you are still dying of discomfort, adjust your thermometer slightly, and always turn your cooling/heating off when you leave the house. Also, a space heater works great for people like me who get freezing cold really easily. It uses a lot less electricity and keeps you hella warm.
GASOLINE AND OTHER FUMES
Do you want to die, really? The average vehicle produces about 400 grams of toxic emissions per mile. And there are over 2,000,000 cars on the road in the U.S. alone. And so that is a lot of toxins. Aside from buying an electric or hybrid car, there are other ways to minimize how much gasoline you are burning through each and every day of your driving life.
Get out of your car and:
Get onto public transportation if it is available. It is not scary, I promise. It is actually fun and relaxing, because you don’t have to think about driving or traffic or any of those things. Here in Lubbock we have citibus, and it can pretty much take you anywhere you want to go in town.
Get onto your bike. Riding bikes is really fun. And you burn 300 – 1000 calories per hour that you ride, depending on how intense you are.
Get onto your feet. Walk! I love walking. If you are going a short distance, hit the streets. And sometimes it seems like it might be impossible to walk somewhere, but it isn’t. I’ve walked all over this town and it’s really honestly not bad.
Get into your friend’s car. If you and 10 of your friends are going to the same restaurant, same concert, same house, drive together and chip in for gas. I see so many huge trucks SUV’s with one little tiny person in them. This is silly.
And when you and your ten friends are all in a car together, roll your windows down instead of using the a/c, and this will improve gas mileage.
