Archive for the 'Environmentalism' Category

I came across an interesting blog…No Impact Man. It’s one man’s radical attempt to decrease his family’s “impact” on the earth over the course of a year. It’s inspiring and CRAZY. It’s been in the news lately, so you may have already heard about it…but I know that many of you will enjoy tracking his progress this year as they live mindfully.

Walk slowly…or quickly if you’re late. Just WALK! One of the reasons we fell in love with our new apartment was because we have so many amenities within walking distance. There is no reason to use my car to run errands. All of the following is within a 5 minute walk:

• 4 grocery stores (including the coop and another smaller health food store)
• Library
• Post Office
• Hardware store
• 8 coffee shops
• Children’s Museum (indoor playground)
• Park
• Ice cream shop
• Every restaurant imaginable (from sushi to pizza)
• Video rental store
• 3 Thrift Stores

And if I just have to go somewhere else…the bus stop is 1 block away. Of course, when it’s freezing cold, walking doesn’t sound so appealing, so I do drive sometimes…but I try to avoid it. I have been working on planning my week so that if I do have to drive, I can clump everything into one trip. I’ve also been trying to be more mindful of if I truly “need” something. For example, do I NEED to go to Costco to buy my bread? They carry a locally made brand that I like…but it’s on the other side of town on the busiest road in town. I can walk directly to the bakery that makes it and even though I’m spending a little more, I am saving on gas, emotional energy drained in traffic, and I would be supporting a local business. Or I could just make my own bread! But that’s another post. I would encourage YOU to examine your extra car trips and work on condensing them or eliminating them altogether.

This morning it was about 20 degrees and we bundled up and walked to our friend’s house for a play date. I was not really looking forward to the cold weather, but the rewards were many:

• Exercise. It feels so great to walk. Move those legs!
• Fresh air. Freezing cold fresh air. It was good.
• A slower pace…which results in you inevitably looking around at your surroundings. Today I noticed so many wonderful things on our walk…a family having breakfast around their table, cute houses along the way, majestic mountain views…things that I wouldn’t have paid attention to if I would have jumped in my car and rushed over there.
• Time to think. Check out this interesting essay on walking by Henry David Thoreau.

My entire life I’ve wanted to live in a city that I could walk places, but I’ve always thought I’d have to move to Manhattan to find it! Walkability will be at the top of our lists the next time we move (let’s hope that’s not for awhile). I feel so blessed that we have the opportunity to “stroll” to our destination. Next on my list…a sweet cruiser like this one. Wheeeeeee!

Photo credit: Flickr/KbH

Tree Hugger. Granola Girl. Eco-Freak. Crunchy Mama. There are lots of ways to describe me…and all of the aforementioned names are compliments in my mind. My path to “green living” has been slow and steady…definitely not an overnight conversion. Every piece of knowledge has led me in a new direction, and helped spark interest in other areas (i.e. I cloth diapered, so it was a natural fit to use cloth toilet paper). As a Christian, I feel even more compelled to be a good steward of the earth. It’s not just about stopping global warming or saving trees, it’s to honor God and to be wise with the resources He has abundantly given us. We live in a nation of excess and ease…we need to get back to the basics and “live simply so that others may live” -Gandhi.

After reading a great thread on Mothering, I thought I would do a quick overview of the things I do to reduce my footprint on the earth (and things I am still working on). It will be a reminder for me to remain diligent in them, and will hopefully encourage you to start or continue in your own journey towards natural/green living.

When you know better, you do better. -Maya Angelo

• Use clothesline/hang clothes outside. Our landlord is going to build me a clothesline this summer…I could not be more excited! In the meantime, we do hang some clothes on a rack inside.
• Be mindful of what lights are on and turn them off when not in use. We do have lots of natural light in our apartment, so this is pretty easy.
• Keep the thermostat set low. This is so difficult for me to do because I LOVE being warm. Our utilities are included in our rent, so I’m not motivated by the money savings. I must decide to motivate myself for the pure ecological impact.
• Reuse clothes that aren’t dirty. This is another hard one, especially with Bella. She changes clothes about 5 times a day…and yes, they are all dirty. It’s so easy just to run a load now that we have our own washer and dryer. Luckily, it is an efficient front loader and the dryer has a sensor in it. However, still not a good excuse.
• Decrease garbage. With recycling and composting, this has become easier. We go through about 1 bag a week. Go check out “Garbageland” to understand the business of garbage better. I think it should be required reading for everyone!
• Use cloth bags at the grocery store. I have been out of my “routine” with this for awhile and need to get a system in place so I have them when I need them.
• Use hand dryers in public restrooms instead of paper towels.
• Carry stainless steel water bottles for drinking when away from the house. (Sigg or Klean Kanteen). I phased out all of our Nalgene bottles a few years back due to health concerns, especially regarding women. This is controversial, but when it comes to plastic, I don’t like ANY of it. Especially for food. They just haven’t been around long enough to perform long-term studies.
• Use cloth hankies/bandanas instead of tissues.
• Use cloth napkins.
• Use cloth towels for cleaning.
• Use cloth mama pads and The Diva Cup.
• Use cloth toilet paper/family cloth.
• Rinse/reuse plastic bags and aluminum foil.
• Use glass jars for storing food in fridge and for bulk items.
• Recycle everything.
• De-clutter and donate on a continual basis.
• Don’t buy anything new.
• If I must make a purchase, buy locally…from small stores.
• Shop at thrift stores.
• Buy more in bulk to reduce packaging.
• Use natural bar soaps with few ingredients for hand/body washing.
• Use all natural body care products.
• Would like to wear only natural fibers (wool, cotton, linen, flax, hemp…).
• Dreaded my hair. I am now able to use less products and less electricity.
• Use earth-friendly/homemade cleaners (my next blog will be about natural cleaning products…stay tuned).
• Would like to get rid of particleboard furniture in the house (off-gassing).
• Would eventually like to get an organic/natural mattress. I have my eye on one of these…they are locally made.
• Replaced all Teflon and similar cookware with cast iron and stainless steel.
• Replaced plastic containers with glass storage containers for food storage (dry goods and in the fridge).
• Compost! We are just starting to compost and I am amazed and saddened at how much food we have wasted in the past. I am very aware of how much food I toss because we don’t have a disposal either.
• Eat organic foods at home…we are at about 90%. When we are out and can’t choose our meals as much, I try very hard to avoid the “dirty dozen“. This is not only for our health, but for the health of the earth by reducing pesticides, etc.
• Eat more raw foods as a way to prevent disease, feel more alive, and save energy by not cooking. To learn more about raw foods, check out Alissa Cohen’s site. Eating raw food doesn’t have to be difficult…just add a smoothie for breakfast and a big salad for lunch and you’re on your way.
• Eat a vegetarian diet. Read “Diet for a New America” or “Food Revolution” to learn how your food choices affect more than just you.
• Buy locally grown foods when possible.
• Breastfeed Bella for optimum nutrition.
• I’d like to learn to can and freeze this year.
• Start gardening this summer.
• Walk more, drive less. Even in the winter, we can walk to the co-op to do grocery shopping, get coffee, etc.
• Ride bike more often. Obviously this will be easier when it’s not snowy and icy…but I am so excited to bike to my errands! Wheeeee!

This is by no means an exhaustive list..because it’s always changing and growing…but it’s amazing to me how adaptable humans are. Five years ago I would have laughed out loud at the thought of most of the things on this list. So, if you are just starting your journey, take heart! Just pick one thing at a time to change and keep moving forward.

I subscribe to very few magazines, but one of my favorites came this week. VegNews is packed with great recipes, vegetarian news, fun interviews, and more. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fabulous article on Daryl Hannah and her efforts to promote green living and other social issues. She has a website with “mini-documentaries” that I have fallen in love with. Each little movie is so rich with information. She covers a wide variety of topics…from bio diesel to hemp to bike culture. Go check it out for yourself!

Another celebrity that I have come to love is Woody Harrelson. Woody isn’t afraid to speak the truth, and I think anyone who is actively trying to educate others about living “greener” and more simply deserves respect. I first learned of his activism when I found the documentary “Go Further” on Netflix. The film shows Woody’s bicycle trek down the West Coast. He makes stops along the way to educate students and anyone else who will listen about bio diesel, the sustainable uses of hemp, deforestation, raw foodism, and more. There are tons of “extras” on the DVD, including a little clip of Julia Butterfly Hill, whom I also admire. You can check out more of his work at his website, Voice Yourself. If you decide to watch the movie…you will also love the companion book, To Go Further: A Guide to Simple Organic Living. It’s a favorite on my bookshelf.

I’ve been thinking about trash.

Moving to a small apartment with a small garbage can has made me very aware of what I throw away. Having to walk the garbage bag down 3 flights of stairs, then down another to the basement, out the back door…and a short walk to the ally makes me not want to make much trash! We usually fill up one small garbage bag a week…but even that seems like so much! I’m still trying to figure out where I could take my food scraps to reduce that even further. One of my goals during The Compact is to buy groceries/food with little to no packaging. This drastically reduces the amount of trash one produces. I’m amazed by how much trash we can throw away just by ordering take-out one night! Wow.

A movie that is closely related to this topic is “The Gleaners and I” (thanks Ali!). I just finished watching this quirky little French film about modern day gleaners and urban scavengers. It was incredibly interesting to me…I’ve always been curious about the lives of experienced dumpster divers and people who live completely off of the trash that others create. The movie goes far beyond that and delves into the world of found object art and into the lives of those making a difference in their neighborhoods. I can’t say enough about this movie…I think everyone should see it.

The Compact has me on the lookout for items that I can re-use or use in a different way. In my research about these things, I came across some fun Flickr groups dealing with this topic:
ReUSE Project
Tips for Recycling and Reusing
Junkin’
Trashion Nation

There are also some great sites dealing specifically with re-fashioning items of clothing:
Wardrobe Refashion
Wardrobe Refashion (Flickr)
Little Brown Dress ::: Recycling Project

And more sites discussing found object (trash) art:
Metroactive
Art from Trash

Books to check out:
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things

Today, when you throw something away…ask yourself if it could be recycled, re-used, or given to someone who needs it (Freecycle!). In a disposable culture…it may feel weird at first, but it does the earth GOOD!

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman

Neither! Because…

1. Both use up valuable natural resources for a single-use, disposable product
2. Both have negative impacts on wildlife and pollute our environment
3. Both create significant toxic by-products during their lifecycles
4. Neither is effectively recycled

If you’ve ever tried to decide which one was better for the environment, look no further. Read this great info from Reusable Bags and switch to cloth today. Someday in the near future, you might just save a lot of money by doing so. Ireland, and many other countries are already implementing taxes on plastic bags…and the U.S. isn’t far behind.

I know that a lot of people will argue that they use the plastic bags at home for various purposes (I do this as well right now). Even though it’s better than throwing them straight in the trash, it’s still better to just avoid them altogether. Honestly, what did people do before we had those annoying bags? I’m going to begin phasing mine out and not get any more.

I have blogged about my cloth bags in the past…and this is your friendly reminder to start using cloth today!

When we first moved into our new apartment, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to set up my “recycling center”. It took me a few days, but I found a solution that works great. This slick little drawer system fits perfectly in my hall closet (no, it doesn’t sit in the middle of my kitchen as shown in the photo). It can comfortably hold about a month’s worth of recycling. I have a separate basket for newspaper/office paper.

I didn’t realize how wonderful curbside recycling really was…until now! When we lived in the house, I had 2 huge bins in the basement that I could throw stuff into. Every 2 weeks I would set it out, and poof! The recycling fairies would come and take it away. Now, I have to carry these drawers down 3 flights of stairs to my car and drive it to the metro recycling center (about 5 minutes away) where I hand sort it and throw it into the appropriate containers. It’s too bad I don’t have one of these nice reverse vending machines in my neighborhood. However, it does give me a great opportunity to talk to Bella about recycling while we’re driving there.

If you’re reading this and you aren’t a recycler…give some thought to the following:

1. Recycling conserves our valuable natural resources.
2. Recycling saves energy.
3. Recycling saves clean air and clean water.
4. Recycling saves landfill space.
5. Recycling can save money and create jobs.

• Americans throw away 44 million newspapers everyday. That i’s the same as dumping 500,000 trees into landfills each week
• Paper products make up the largest part (approximately 40 percent) of our trash.
• Paper products use up at least 35 percent of the world’s annual commercial wood harvest.
• People in the U.S. throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
• Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every two weeks to fill the 1.350-foot towers of the former World Trade Center.

Recycling is much more than just tin cans and newspapers. Recycling just means “to use again” or “to adapt to a new form or function”. We live in a disposable-obsessed culture…and we tend to think we can only use things one time. There are many things around the house that can be re-used. I recycle my tin foil. I recycle plastic bags (check out this cool contraption). I recycle the envelopes/packaging that people send me. I recycle jars in my kitchen and use them for food storage. I wear recycled clothing.

Whenever you recycle, you are not just saving that item from being thrown away. You are saving all the resources involved in making a brand new item from scratch. For example, recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch. That means you can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one can out of new material.

One of the greatest things ever invented is a recycling network called Freecycle. Freecycle’s mission is to keep stuff out of the landfills. See if your town has one…you’ll love it.

You may be overwhelmed and not know where to start with recycling. Call your local recycling center and find out if they provide curbside recycling in your area. Most will provide free bins. Then, start with just one item. Then move to other items. Cereal boxes, cans, plastic bottles, glass containers…there are so many things that you can keep out of your trash by recycling. Start today…every little bit helps.

Find this information and more fun facts about recycling here.

No, not your shoe size. Your ecological footprint. I’ve taken the footprint quiz before…but Jessica’s blog reminded me how much I love to try to lower my score. Right now, my footprint is at 5 acres. In comparison, the average footprint in the U.S. is 24 acres. Worldwide, there are enough resources for each person to have 4.5 acres.

So that puts me .5 over my “allotted” acres and now I must REDUCE so I can stop using up more than my share of the resources! Here are some other changes that I would like to make:

• Eat a completely vegan diet. I have eaten a vegetarian diet for a little over 2 years now, but have gone back and forth between vegan and vegetarian. For those of you that don’t know, a vegan is someone who eats no animal products at all (no milk, eggs, butter, etc.)
• Walk more. This is a little harder in the wintry cold and ice…especially because our neighborhood is very hilly! I will implement this more in the summer. It’s so easy because we are within walking distance to everything.
• I have always wanted to use public transportation more. However, Des Moines has a really poor system. I have contacted the metro transit authority with route questions, etc. and I want to try it soon! I am definitely not used to riding the bus, so it will be an experience. It takes more time and planning, but I love the idea of it. Much more relaxing than driving myself. There is a possibility that we will park the bus this winter and become a one-car family again, so the bus may be a necessity!
• Focus on buying only package-free foods and less processed foods. Right now our only “processed foods” are chips, bread, almond milk, and cereal. I’m not counting condiments. I would like to start making my own bread again, make my own almond milk more consistently, my own granola, and my own chips. Does anyone know of any good tortilla chip recipes!?
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… I am learning more about this everyday. I am actively reducing my belongings and I am reducing the amount coming in (The Compact). I am re-using plastic bags, jars, clothes, I use cloth everything in our household, and I recycle everything that is allowed.
• I would like to be even more conscious of my energy and water consumption.

There will always be something to “work on” when you’re living green…but that’s what makes life fun!

Photo credit: Flickr/pingnews.com

Last year I discovered a delightful, but disturbing, little book…called Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things (by John Ryan and Alan Thein Durning).

The book goes “behind the scenes” of your “stuff”. Where did it come from? Who made it? What type of working conditions did they have? What components went into making that item? What kind of environmental impact did it have? It’s an eye-opener to see how complicated and wasteful making “stuff” really is. The different items it examines: coffee, newspaper, t-shirt, shoes, bike, car, computer, hamburger, french fries, and cola.

Here are some excerpts from the intro:

“Made in Taiwan”. I’d seen thousands of such stickers in my life without ever giving them a second thought. Taiwan. Taiwan. Not just a word on a sticker. It’s an island. A country. A real place with real people across an ocean from me. Suddenly, the overloaded shelves around me looked different. I was stripped of the illusion that stuff comes from stores and is carted away by garbage trucks: everything on those shelves came from a real place on Earth and will go to some other place when I’m done with it. Everything had a history — a trail of causes and effects–and a future. Everything had a life, of sorts. If you tried very hard, you could put a “Made in __________” sticker on each car wax bottle, speaker component, or old magazine on those shelves.

I started wondering where the things in my life come from. As coffee beans, newspapers, and soda cans make their way toward me, what wakes do they leave behind, rippling outward across the world? And what had to happen for millions of people like me to go about our ordinary business…using lots of stuff?

What happens around the world to support a day in the life of a North American is surprising, dramatic, and even disturbing. Multiplied by the billion members of the world’s consumer societies, it adds up to stresses greater than the world can withstand. The first step toward solving any problem is recognizing it. I’ve started by looking at the things in my life in a new way and learning what I can about their secret lives.

One of the reasons why the Compact is so appealing to me, is that it forces me to find new avenues of acquiring things. I am becoming more creative and more patient as I search for an item that I need. When you buy something used or someone gives you a used item…you are helping to stop the need for NEW resources to be tapped to replace that item you bought from the store.

A great example of this from the book is the chapter on the life of a T-shirt. If I went to the mall to buy a new t-shirt (instead of the thrift store), the following resources would be used (paraphrased from p. 20-25):

• Oil: the polyester in the shirt started as a few tablespoons of petroleum (they go on to talk about all the effects of oil drilling, environmental concerns, etc.)
• Cotton: to get the 2 oz. of cotton needed for the t-shirt, 14 square feet of cropland in Mississippi were harvested. The soil was first fumigated with aldicarb, one of the most toxic pesticides applied in the U.S. The cotton seeds were also dipped in fungicide.
  
• Dyes: Regulated by the EPA as hazardous substances.
• Sewing: the fabric was shipped to Honduras. Honduran women cut and sewed it into a T-shirt and earned 30 cents an hour. After it was completed, the box of t-shirts went to Baltimore, by train to San Francisco, and by truck to Seattle. It was unpacked on a department store shelf under a 150-watt floodlamp. That’s where I found it. I bought it because I liked the earth-tone color. And I brought it home by car in a bag of low-density polyethylene from Louisiana.
• Laundry: I spilled coffee on myself and had to change…and I threw the other one into the laundry chute. Later I washed it in water heated to 140 degrees by natural gas flames. Boxed powder detergent and chlorine bleach from a high-density polyethylene bottle removed the coffee from the fabric. The coffee, detergent, and bleach washed into Seattle’s sewer system. An electric dryer evaporated the water from my shirt. The greatest environmental impacts associated with my T-shirt arose in my own laundry room: washing and drying the shirt just ONCE demanded 1/10 the energy as manufacturing it in the first place.
  

What can one person do to make a change in this process? Well, let me tell you. Little things make a big difference. In the case of the t-shirt, you can…

1. Buy USED or vintage clothing.
2. Wash only full loads of laundry.
3. Use warm instead of hot water when you can.
4. Wear your clothes more than once before washing.
5. Look for organic cotton apparel.
6. Encourage others to do the same.

If anything, I hope this has encouraged you to THINK about the secret life of your stuff.

This is a common sight in our living room. We’ve started to air dry our clothes. This handy dandy drying rack holds smaller items, jeans, Bella’s clothes, etc. and we hang shirts on hangers and hang them on the shower rod. You could also use a retractable line like this. Or one of these beauties. By hanging our clothes to dry, I am accomplishing several things:

• Our clothes last longer when they aren’t dried in a dryer. Less shrinking, fading, etc. Dryers break down elastics, distort the shape of clothing, and they eat socks! Because the clothes last longer, you don’t need to buy them as often…thus saving money and time.
• Less energy consumption…the dryer is one of the worst.
• Saving money … $1.00 a load.
• Eliminating static cling
• Cutting down on ironing
• It causes me to realize how many clothes we actually own and makes me want to downsize our wardrobe even more. It’s a more purposeful experience…as I take each item, one by one, and straighten it, hang it, dry it, and take it off.

Stop using your dryer today!