Great Lakes Green Pages

Sometimes the challenges of living greener can be difficult.  We live in a society that embraces convenience an profit, and our whole lives have been built on that. Our homes are built faster and cheaper, rather than built to last for hundreds of years. When demolished, they are put into landfill, instead of salvaged for all the parts. It is cheaper to buy new than to repair appliances. We buy new cars every few years: the whole leasing program is built on changing the vehicle that you drive on a regular basis! In Cleveland, not all neighborhoods even have curbside recycling (yes, my biggest pet peeve.) In the face of this kind of environment, it can be difficult to stick you your convictions and do what is right. It often feels like no one person can make a difference. One thing that has come our of the recent election cycle is the realization that one person CAN make a difference-just look at Minnesota elections as a prime example. One person added to another, added to another, etc and the results are staggering. We took a long time to get into this mess, and now we can all take some steps to get us out of it.  Just to keep you in the right frame of mind, I am including some interesting perspectives on how we are affecting the planet.

For every incandescent bulb that you replace, you will save about $30 a year in energy costs. If everyone in a city the size of Chicago replaced just one main light bulb with a CFL bulb, we would save the greenhouse gas emissions of about 200,000 cars on the road. If everyone in the country did it, we would save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes for a year and it equates to the emissions of over 3/4 of a million cars.  Replacing just 16 bulbs is like not driving your car for a year.  Trade out one in four bulbs in your house and the amount you spend on lighting will be cut in half.  Only 10% of electricity used in an incandescent bulb is given off as light, the rest is heat:  a big waste on a hot summer night!

Americans can’t stand to wait a second for an appliance to warm up.  We installed a new breakthrough technology called “stand by” mode.  This allows everything from your TV to your microwave to be ready and at your fingertips at a moments notice.  Unfortunately, that means that when you are gone, asleep, or just not using these items, they are drawing power.  Chargers are no different.  We now have more people with cell phones than land lines in this country.  That means millions of cell phone chargers.  When these guys are plugged in, they are drawing power even though it isn;t going anywhere.  Unplugging your cell phones and appliances can save you energy and money.  It is estimated that “vampire appliance” energy use results in 12 tons of CO2 emissions every year.  40% of electricity used by electronics is consumed while they are off-that is about 17 coal power plants that could be eliminated in America.

We waste paper at an alarming rate.  Paper accounts for 40% of the solid waste in America every year.  That is about 72 million tons.  Making a ton of paper from recycled stock saves 50% of water used and 17 trees.  For every 38,000 bills paid online, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.  Stop your junk mail!  17.8 tons of junk mail is delivered every year by the postal service.  44% of that goes unopened and less than 25% is recycled.  Over 48 % of the Earth’s surface was once covered with forests.  Half of those forests are gone and only 1/5 of native forests are left.

We drive too much.  Think about combining trips and making the most of your car miles.  Every 10 miles you save a week is a savings of about 500 pounds of co2 emissions.   We drove enough miles in 2002 to go to the sun and back 13 1/2 thousand times.  Every gallon of gas used emits 20 pounds of co2, so no idling and stop that warm up from inside the house!  Remove that roof rack when not in use, it can reduce efficiency by 5%.

Support renewable energy!  Most of the mercury contamination in the world comes from coal burning power plants.  In the US, over half a million miles of streams rivers and coasts and 12 million acres of lakes and wetlands are contaminated.  Every wonder why fish is bad for you these days?

Recycling saves resources, energy and money.  we genrate 4.5 pounds of trash every day, per person, on average.  That is twice what we used in the 60′s.  In the last 40 years, residential and commercial waste together has tripled.  The recycling industry creates 1.1 million jobs in the US.  Recycle your water bottles, about 80% end up in landfill.  Better yet, buy a permanent water bottle and switch to tap-a third of water brands tested contained contaminants like arsenic and bottles themselves can leach chemicals.  Buy items in aluminum cans.  Recycling cans is cheaper and easier than plastics and recycled cans are back on the shelf in as little as 90 days.  It takes 95% less energy to make a recycled aluminum can than from scratch.  Buy products with recycled content.  If every household switched to recycled napkins for one package, we would save a million trees a year.

Think about water.  The world is running ourt of clean water.  We don’t think about it much in the US, but in some countries clean water is a luxury.  One billion people (that is one in 6) do not have access to clean drinking water.  A family of four using a low flow showerhead can save as much as 20,000 gallons of water a year.  The average American uses 100 gallons of water a day and 40% of clean drinkable water used in the average home is flushed down the toilet.  By 2016, it is estimated that 36 states will be having a water shortage.  A leaking faucet can wste 20 gallons of water a day.

Think about these fun facts.  It  would be easy for us to save significant amounts of resources and energy by making some simple changes.  Remember them, too.  You can show off your Green IQ at parties!