How do YOU help save the environment?

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

What personally do you do that helps make this Earth a greener one?

For the options that you DID select, how easy were they to implement?

For those options that you did NOT select, why do you not do them?

 

[Ori]

I recycle and stuff, but i'm sure there's more I could do.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

The things I do, they just aren't that hard for me. Most of what I do involves where I choose to live and work; simply put, the less I drive, the less CO2 I put into the atmosphere. Another thing, we had a giveaway of fluorescent bulbs about a month ago at a local health food store, and I jumped on the offer; hell, my place honestly looks brighter with the new bulbs. Per energy, it really isn't that unbearable to turn the thermostat down in the winter or up in the summer; just put on a sweater when it's cold or wear shorts (or less ) when it's hot.

A new Prius is something I'd love to be able to buy, but it's going to be an awful stretch financially for at least the next year or so. I've seen offers for Green Power at a nominal fee, but I want to make sure that they are not buying this so that someone else gets more polluting power before I sign the deal. (Side note: Georgia may build a nuclear power plant within the next decade or two, and I'm cautiously in favor of that.) Energy-saving appliances are out of the question because I rent instead of buying. Unfortunately, I don't recycle (except for newspapers), and although it's not convenient to do so, I really ought to get my *** up and start doing it. Water-saving measures, I didn't pick, because frankly, some of them are rather inconvenient, but perhaps that too can change. Disposable paper, I could have passed on, but I go through paper towels like crazy.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

We recycle a lot of our garbage since our township has a great program. I also drive a fuel-efficient car. We've just replaced a bulk of our light bulbs with energy-efficient incandescent bulbs (they're more available now at places like Sam's Club and such). And we turn the thermostat down to 66 degrees in the winter and up to 75 degrees in the summer. Our energy bill is still not where we'd personally like it to be, but we're working on it.

There still is more that we can do, but one step at a time is still progress. These things are surprisingly easy to implement.




Peace,
Mystic

 

[Inky]

I live within walking distance from work, which helps. I'm recently getting into local produce, which is much better for the environment than trucking it across the country. Went to the farmer's market last week and everything is cheaper and tastier! :drool:

 

[Booko]

What personally do you do that helps make this Earth a greener one?

For the options that you DID select, how easy were they to implement?

Some were easier than others. Recycling in my area, until recently, was either non-existent or would require me to haul stuff miles to a recycling center.

I have always been interested in reusing things, however. One of my fellow Master Gardener's is known as the Compost Queen in our county, and I am her Compost Princess, because I'm the next most avid composter (sorry, don't do worm composting!). Composting is *much* easier than you think.

For your "other" category, my business is to help my clients xeriscape and use plantings wisely in a way that will support our local wildlife. It used to be you never saw, say, bluebirds around here. Now our area is full of them, because part of my work with the project to have our "city" (Chamblee) declared a National Community Wildlife Habitat (first in the SE U.S.!) involved...you guessed -- helping neighbors and businesses tweak their land to support the local wildlife.

We've had several years of droughts here in Atlanta, but my front yard, which is more a butterfly garden than anything, is doing just fine, and with no watering. When I do water one area, which is infrequently, I use a drip irrigation system that uses as little water as possible and delivers it only to the plants that require it. Very little water is lost to evaporation. NEVER EVER USE A SPRINKLER DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS!!! 80-90% of your water just evaporates. What a freakin' waste!

At some point in the next few years our kids will be out of the house and a smaller car will do for when I'm not on the job. I'm waiting with bated breath for plug-in hybrids to come out (like they are in other countries). Frankly, for an around town car, I should need to use very little fuel of any sort.

Here's a good site on that:

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=868185&posted=1#post868185

And by all means, watch the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car?"

Toxic household and garden chemicals: Well, first off I'm an organic gardener. As for the house, I'm a chemist and I'm cheap. I know darn well how the marketers manipulate us to buy their overpriced crap when mere soap and water would do just as well. In some case, isopropyl alcohol can be used where a disinfectant is absolutely necessary (think "raw chicken" ack). I have never seen the point of buying scads of cleaning materials and wasting my money and breathing toxic fumes.

Now, with the corn allergy, I'm even more careful about what I use.

Also, for those of you who use anti-bacterial soaps...STOP! The World Health Organization has been trying to get us stupid Americans to knock it off for years, but we're all too bloody scared of GERMS and are clueless that we are helping breed superbugs. sheesh. Just use good old soap and water and *friction* and it works just as well and won't harm anything.

Oh, by the way, that hand sanitizer stuff is very dangerous for children, since it's ethyl alcohol and about 120 proof. If you have gluten allergy, you are also poisoning yourself -- it's grain alcohol after all.

For those options that you did NOT select, why do you not do them?

I "work" at home or if I work elsewhere, it requires a spacious vehicle to haul plants and equipment. Taking public transport with trees and shrubs is not much of an option. And it leaves me with a vehicle that doesn't get 35+ mpg. I do get 25mpg in town though (I always beat the mileage ratings, even when the car is old, because I know how to minimize gas usage by how I drive.)

We did choose to live where we do because it was close to where we worked at the time. It's a 5 minute drive -- well that's grown to 15 minutes for where my husband is now. Still, for Atlanta that's a very short commute. He mostly works upstairs these days anyway, but occasionally he has to show up on a client site.

As for other reasons why I don't walk or bike, anyone living in Atlanta could probably tell you it's hardly set up for pedestrians. The grocery store a mile from us closed, and even if it were open I'm stuck with shopping at a variety of health food stores and markets to find things I can actually eat, so that gets interesting. I certainly make my shopping trips most efficient by clustering them, but then I've always done that. It's just a more efficient use of my time (not to mention gas).

I don't dishwash by hand at home, but I selected the dishwasher I have to use the most minimal amount of water. Frankly, I make up for that bit of water loss by using grey water in my landscape. It's amazing how much water gets wasted in the shower just in the process of getting wet all over. Stand there with a bucket and collect it, and move it away when you're rinsing the soap off.

Oh my...this is rather long. Uh...sorry sometimes I type too fast for my own good, and this is a subject rather dear to my heart.

 

[Booko]

Energy-saving appliances are out of the question because I rent instead of buying.

It depends. Using a good quality toaster/convection oven instead of the oven that comes with your kitchen will save you energy. And when you move, you can take it with you.

I don't have one myself at the moment, but when the kids are gone it'll be first on my list. Cooking 2 chicken thighs just doesn't require turning on the entire oven, you know?

Even now, I use the crock pot where possible and a Foreman grill instead of the broiler. It puts out less heat in summer (a big deal here) and is just easier on the energy bill.

Water-saving measures, I didn't pick, because frankly, some of them are rather inconvenient, but perhaps that too can change.

Well, in an apartment, what you can do with water saving is somewhat limited. You might be able to change a shower head, maybe, but renters are like "and why should I be using my cash to improve YOUR property?" :yes:

Disposable paper, I could have passed on, but I go through paper towels like crazy.

It takes my family of four easily over a month to go through a roll of paper towels. Dishrags are just as good, and often better. The thing we use them on most is...kitty hairballs. :kat: Some things you just don't use a dishrag on, you know??

Handiwipes are a good stand-in for paper towels, because you can wash them.

 

[Booko]

Oh dear, my pet peeve in non-greenness:

Swiffers!

Honestly folks, why are we paying for the privilege of saving 10 seconds to toss away a one-use specialty rag rather than just rinse the bloody mop? And we're filling landfills with this crap...for what?

Heck, I don't even fetch a bucket to mop my kitchen floor. I have a sink right there. Piece of cake.

 

[Bishka]

Re-use everything!

 

[Mathematician]

We recycle a lot of our garbage since our township has a great program. I also drive a fuel-efficient car. We've just replaced a bulk of our light bulbs with energy-efficient incandescent bulbs (they're more available now at places like Sam's Club and such). And we turn the thermostat down to 66 degrees in the winter and up to 75 degrees in the summer. Our energy bill is still not where we'd personally like it to be, but we're working on it.

There still is more that we can do, but one step at a time is still progress. These things are surprisingly easy to implement.




Peace,
Mystic

Mystic, can you PM me details to your city's program? I've been looking at my town's relationship with recycling, and for the past few years it has been getting little attention by the representatives.

I answered the poll.

 

[painted wolf]

We (srturtle and myself) recycle what we can and compost our food waste. Well, we compost what the neighbours don't eat.

Now that the warm weather is back, our friends are planting the 'communal' garden, and we will be visiting the local food growers to get our fruits, vegtables and in some cases meat and eggs. I have a co-worker who raises chickens (as pets mostly) and he sells the left over eggs to the rest of us. Nothing beats farm fresh eggs.

All our light bulbs are fluresant, though I'm bothered we can't recycle these in our area yet... they have a lot of murcury in them, so thats a problem.

I work in a laundromat and I get to do my laundry there for free. We have high effiency machines that use very little water and require very little soap. I havent bought any soap for years, I use the little bits of soap that customers leave behind, this way there isn't any waste.

Just about the only things we can't do just now is take mass transit... it doesn't exist in our area, and drive a car with 35+ mph. We have a big truck. We need it for the unpaved, "unmaintained" mountian road we live on. I say unmaintianed because the town doesn't plow or sand the road in the winter, but a few of our neighbours have plow trucks and they do the job for the rest of us. Its good to have nice neighbours.

We also shop used clothing stores from time to time, not only to save money but to keep good clothing from ending up in the landfills.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

wa:do

 

[CaptainXeroid]

I selected:
Use mass transit/walk/bicycle to work. - At least I did until my work changes this Thursday.
Live within 10 miles of work or your transit stop to work. - Both of us!
Own energy-efficient appliances. - And we're replacing our central A/C & furnace this fall
Turn down thermostat in winter and up in summer. - Living in a central townhome with trees covering the south helps.
Avoid toxic household and garden chemicals. - This just takes reading labels.
Use disposable paper sparingly at home. - We keep a good supply of clean kitchen towels to limit paper towel usage.
Take measures in addition to these. - We only run the washing machine and dishwasher with full loads.

Among those not selected:
Recycle at least 2/3 of your garbage. - Condo has a dumpster for trash & only newspaper recycling.
Drive a vehicle with 35+ mpg, or don't drive at all. - Not driving is NOT feasible in metro ATL, & a 35+ MPG car is not logistically nor economically practical at this time.
Chiefly use fluorescent and not incandescent bulbs. - In recent years, we're had electrical gremlins including frequently blowing bulbs. Now that the surges are under control, we'll look into it.
Use water-saving practices, such as dishwashing by hand - We do conserve water, but washing dishes by hand uses more water than running full loads in a modern dishwater.
Use clean, renewable electrical energy. - This option has only recently come on line, so I haven't had a chance to investigate it yet.

 

[Booko]

Re-use everything!

Reuse toilet paper? :thud:

 

[Booko]

Own energy-efficient appliances. - And we're replacing our central A/C & furnace this fall

Our furnace is relatively new. Our A/C is ancient and inefficient and we will replace it this winter.

Know anything about heat pumps? They seem sensible for our area, but I'm not at all used to them.

Turn down thermostat in winter and up in summer. - Living in a central townhome with trees covering the south helps.

We have a whole house fan. Even in the South we don't turn the A/C on until late June. We pull in the cool night air (when there is some) at night and shut our very energy efficient windows (triple panes on the south and west) to keep the heat out during the day. I don't know how anyone lives without one, unless they live in Canada maybe.

Use water-saving practices, such as dishwashing by hand - We do conserve water, but washing dishes by hand uses more water than running full loads in a modern dishwater.

It depends on how you rinse them. If you use the old Scout method of filling a sink or tub with hot water and rinsing, rather than run water individually on dishes to rinse, you will still use less water.

I still save more collecting grey water and dumping it on the landscape where needed. That and I have a front load washing machine. It uses very little water and is easier on the clothes too. I love it!

Use clean, renewable electrical energy. - This option has only recently come on line, so I haven't had a chance to investigate it yet.

It has, here by us?

I'd love to rig the house with solar panels. A roof seems like such a waste.

I think there are still some state regulatory hurdles to connecting to the grid, though.

 

[lilithu]

I'd say the primary difference between the things that I do and the things that I don't do the things that I don't do is that the latter cost more money.

- I don't own a fuel efficient car because I can't afford to buy one. I rarely drive, since I live in a city and am walking distance to work and church, but sometimes I do.

- I don't own energy efficient appliances because I rent, so the appliances that I use are those that are already here.

- I don't use green energy because the last I looked into it, it was significantly more expensive.

- I don't typically buy the household products that are marketed as "environmentally safe." Again they're significantly more expensive, and frequently don't work as well. I'm also not going to go out of my way to some specialty shop. If they don't sell it at Target, I'm probably not going to buy it.

If the environmental movement wants to make headway on these things, they're gonna have to find a way to make them cheaper and more readily available.

 

[Caina]

The company I work for is certified by the EPA as zero waste and we recyle technology mainly, but everything else as well. Its kinda nice to be able to take my home waste to work with me and drop it off. Now if I can just get over the hour comute

 

[Valjean]

You failed to include the one act that, in comparison, make all your other categories -- even the combined benefit of all of them, appear trivial -- Not Breeding.

Delete the carbon footprint, the ecological impact of a single offspring, and you've done more to ameliorate your ecological impact than a lifetime of scrupulous observance of all your categories combined.

 

[Willamena]

I was a bit baffled by the notion of turning the theromstat "up in the summer" as an energy saving device. But then I realised, that applies to homes with air conditioning controlled by the theromstat. Am I right?

 

[Bishka]

Reuse toilet paper? :thud:

The rolls

 

[Aqualung]

I recycle and compost. I ride a bike (but not on purpose ). I have my thermostat way down in winter and high in summer. I use environmental energy sources. I don't use paper towels sparingly or wash my dishes by hand. I also don't have energy efficient appliances or florescent lights.