Great Lakes Green Pages

This world is a fast moving place these days.  Modern convenience and throw away society has made it easy to do almost anything, find anything, consume anything.  But all of this technology and convenience comes with a hefty price tag: depleting ozone, greenhouse gases, burgeoning landfills, disappearing resources, and the wars and negotiations that we conduct to preserve this wonderful way of life.  But just because you want to live lighter on the earth doesn’t mean that you have to buy an yurt and move to the wilderness or join an ashram in the Himalayas.  There are plenty of ways to live a modern life, with its conveniences, and still reduce your impact on the planet.  Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Turn off the lights.  Simple, but effective.  Turning off the lights when you are not in the room means less kilowatt hours of energy that you will be using in general.  This concept goes to more than just the lights, though.  Turn off your television if you are leaving the room.  Don’t leave your TV or radio on for your pets while you are at work ( they really don’t want to listen to it anyhow).  Just be mindful of obvious waste of electricity.  Look for ways that you waste energy and try to find ways to reduce it.  Buy a night light instead of leaving the bathroom light on at night,for example.

2. Buy larger packages. While the convenience of individually wrapped items is great for kids lunches and the like, they come with a lot of extra packaging.  The 6 pack of individual applesauce cups has a tone of packaging that will likely not be recycled, vs the large jar that has 3 times the amount.  The cost savings of buying in larger packing will allow you to invest in reusable containers to put in those lunch bags.  For that matter, think about the throw away stuff that you get everyday.  Take your own mug for that morning coffee, use reusable bags for your groceries, buy in bulk when you can.  We are nearing two years of plastic bag reduction and I have only brought home one plastic bag in that time.  All without any inconvenience to me.

3. Buy only what you need. This is a biggie for me.  Most American households throw away nearly 500 pounds of food every year.  This can take a definite change of habit, but once it becomes a regular thing, you will find it easy to maintain and will save you money.  You will need to plan better, create shopping lists and stick to them, and buy perishables in easily usable quantities.  After shopping, you may need to break down larger packages and freeze some of your food.  Use your freezer as a way to prolong the life of food for short periods, not long term, as this will lead to less food surprises in the back of the box and less food wasted to freezer burn.  When it comes to things other than food, buy what you need and invest in better products that will last longer.  The more use you get out of products, the more money you will save and a better use is made of the energy put into making them. That $3 T-shirt is not such a bargain if it lasts only one wearing…

4. Drive less.  Walk more. Simple enough, but harder to do.  Plan ahead, combine trips, and use your legs and bicycle.  Take the first spot you see in a parking lot and walk a little more, rather than driving around or idling while you wait for that spot nearer the door.  The exercise will do you good.  If you are going to a strip mall, park once and walk between stops.  Don’t get in your car and drive to the other store that is 100 yards away.  Try to do more in your own neighborhood where you can get to by foot-at least when the weather is nice.

5. Recycle. Even if you don’t have curbside recycling, you can drop your plastic bags off at the store, your cans and bottles at a local spot, and many schools and churches take paper to recycle for extra funds.  But it really goes farther than that.  Try to buy products that use recycled content (or else why bother recycling?) and that use reduced packaging.  Furthermore, think about what the packaging is:  aluminum cans are likely recycled and back on the shelf in 60-90 days-shoos it over glass or plastic;  steel is heavily recycled due to casts and most steel used at all has at least 25% recycled content already; glass bottles are more heavily recycled than plastic; paper is a commodity that is easily recycled-a paper box is better than a plastic container if you are not going to reuse it.

6. Reuse. Simple.  Try to reuse anything that you can at least one time before throwing it out.  That plastic zipped bag that your food came it can easily be rinsed and reused instead of popping out a new Ziploc.  If something comes in a plastic tub, then will work jsut as well as Tupperware.

7. Avoid specialty use items. Why in the world does anyone need a special brush that is just for putting butter on corn when a knife will work just as well.  The more specialized a product, the less use it will get and the more resources are wasted in its creation.  We have been eating corn on the cob for plenty of years without those special little prong holder things to hold the ears with.  Don’t get me wrong, some items have a definite purpose, but most of us don’t need the tools of a butcher or pastry chef, no matter how much we think of our own cooking.

8. Print less. One of the joys of the modern era is the ability to share things digitally.  Use technology to your advantage and print things less often.

9. Buy Energy Star. When buying a new appliance always try to buy Energy Star rated appliances.  Yes, they will likely cost you a little bit more, but the energy savings will pay for itself in no time.  Look for rebates in your area for Energy Star.  While in Seattle, my mother had to buy a new refrigerator.  By buying Energy Star, she was able to receive 10% off at the store, get a state rebate, get a local utility company rebate, and she had it recycled for an additional rebate.  It was actually cheaper to buy Energy Star, before even turning it on.

10. Turn things off at the source when  not in use. Many appliances suck up energy even when you are not using them.  We have a big TV, but we use a master strip to cut the power when we are not watching it.  Same with the DVD player, VCR, etc.  It is estimated that over their lifespan, most appliance use 75 % of the energy that they use when they are not in use.  Same goes for portable devices: cell phone chargers draw power even when they are not charging anything, and cell phone batteries will last longer if they are not overcharged.  Timers and the like are for more than just heating.  Make sure that your computer is set to go into stand by mode after a set period.  This means that you can easily reduce the energy you use without having to remember to power it down.