Join us as we go Green, one step at a time
As of a couple of weeks ago, IKEA is now charging US shoppers 5 cents for each throwaway plastic bag - proceeds from Year 1 will be donated to American Forests, a non-profit organization I blogged about last month.
If you want to avoid paying 5 cents per bag, you can purchase one of their reusable bags for 59 cents (as pictured). [Or, bring your own!] IKEA hopes to change customer behavior and reduce plastic bag usage by 50% (70M to 35M) in the first year. Way to go!
Several months ago, I spent about 4 hours trying to untangle the jungle of wires I had sitting behind my entertainment unit, which houses a number of things, such as a TV, Tivo, DVD player, stereo + speakers, Wii, router, etc. The purpose? To get everything organized. During that time, I put about 12 or so different plugs into several power strips. The electronics that I don’t use frequently, I plugged into one power strip and powered off. The more frequently used electronics are powered through another power strip.
Well it turns out that my anal retentiveness is doing some good for the environment. Props to me! According to this site, in the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while products are turned off. The solution: unplug the appliance or use a power strip and use the switch on the power strip to cut off all power.
So get your ass over to the hardware store and pick up a power strip or two. Your wallet will thank you in the long run.
Did you see today’s article about how San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 to ban plastic bags at grocery and drug stores over the next 6-12 months? The legislation, which is expected to go under a final vote next week before being approved by the Mayor, would require stores to use either recyclable paper bags or compostable bags made of corn starch.
There are great reasons for reducing our consumption of plastic bags. Production costs are high - toxic chemicals used in manufacturing plastic bags cause pollution. Consumption costs are equally high, if not higher. Plastic bags kill marine life and land animals, who mistake the bags as food; plastic bags take up to 1000 years to degrade and break down into smaller particles which contaminate our land and water; and finally, they take up valuable space in our diminishing landfills.
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So what do you make of this? Some have argued that SF has more pressing social issues which need to be tackled (”We need to move on to address the larger issues in San Francisco,” says Edward Jew (Member of the SF Board of Supervisors)), and I agree. There is a crappy educational system, too many homeless, etc. But on the flip side, it is encouraging to see people becoming more action-oriented when it comes to the environment.
PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric for you non-Californians) has this neat tool on their website which allows you to track you gas and electricity consumption.
I rediscovered this little tool while I was paying my bill online last week (for the ghastly sum of $114 - eek). To my UTTER DISMAY, my little 1150 sq foot home is on the “uses most energy” spectrum of annual gas energy use. In other words, I am (way) above average in gas use.
Digging into this more, I discovered that almost 75% of my costs comes from heating. Now remember, I live in sunny California. It’s not like I’m freezing my arse off in the tundras of the midwest, where I used to live (Chicago, to be exact). And my place isn’t some 5000 square foot mansion. During the day, I keep the temperature at 68 degrees and from 6-12pm, it’s at 70 degrees. Clearly, this isn’t cutting it. I guess I’m going to need to lower the thermostat and start wearing more sweaters.
Well, there’s always a silver lining… even though I get an F in gas costs, I get an A for electricity costs. I am way below average compared to the average home. YEAH! My highest costs are from hot water. Yikes. But don’t worry - the solution is to stop bathing. Kidding…!
Anyway, I’m clearly going to have to work on this. I’d love to hear from you and see what’s worked - please feel free to leave a comment with some tips!
I recently came across a blog which chronicles a man’s journey on his quest to have no net environmental impact for one year. No Impact Man, his wife and young daughter, are four months into their “No Impact” experiment.
Some of the things they are doing include:
- avoid purchasing new products
- borrowing and renting wherever possible
- canceling magazine subscriptions
- eating locally grown foods
- refraining from using subways, trains, planes, cars and elevators
- finding replacements for throwaway items or throwaway packaging, including soap, shampoo, disposable pens, disposable razors and paper products - even toilet paper
Now I ask, is this really possible? I applaud his efforts to be “no impact” but I just don’t know how this can really work… I don’t know if I could personally live without toilet paper for a year. I have a hard time camping for 2 days as it is!
Anyway, No Impact Man has been getting a lot of press coverage recently - check out this NY Times article if you’re interested in reading more, or No Impact Man’s blog.
