Energy audits

This past weekend I went to a seminar at my town hall that was about ways to save energy in the home. The focus for the seminar was energy auditing. An energy audit is when a specialist from Mass Save (for Massachusetts) comes and evaluates your home's energy efficiency free of charge. The audit is free of charge because you already pay a little in each bill towards programs like this. Most people are not aware that they are paying for this, so they are less inclined to get the audit! In my town less than 3% of residents have had their free audit done. That is a crazy small number!

They evaluate parts of your home including insulation, heating systems, water systems, lighting, thermostats, and windows. Their goal is to "tighten up" your home and make it as efficient as possible. This benefits the energy company because less demand on their generators means less chance that they will have to activate their inefficient back-up generators in order to supply the excess power. This benefits you because you save money on your energy bill. Plus, it benefits the environment because fewer power generators are needed, and since your home is using less energy it is also producing fewer greenhouse gases etc.

The day of your audit you are essentially guaranteed to receive up to hundreds of dollars worth of free items. These items include CFL light bulbs of all shapes and sizes, electronic thermostats, and rebates on things such as water heaters. C'mon, who doesn't love free stuff? 

Reduce, Reduce, Reduce

Recycling, Recycling, Recycling...yes it is a good thing and I have advocated for it in the past, but its not all good. It still uses energy, produces CO2, and involves plastic. 

I did a round of school recycling with my environmental buddy, and we were discouraged by what we found. The recycling bin quickly filled up, and probably 85% of the haul was water bottles. This means that if each person used a reusable water bottle instead of the plastic ones, we would have 85% fewer things that need to be recycled. Water bottles are simply used too much! 

We need to remember that recycling is not a end all solution. We still need to focus on reducing, reducing, reducing. The recycling bin is not a magic portal to a greener land. Someone has to deal with all of that waste, and so does the environment.

PS. When you do recycle please either finish your beverage or rinse out the bottle. It was amazing how many half filled bottles and cans that we found. If you aren't going to finish your soda, then don't buy it. Not only is this wasteful, but it is also just disgusting to deal with and inconsiderate to those that have to. Thanks :]

Give Paper a Second Chance

School and work take a lot of printing. So, we've taken steps to turn the printer off when we aren't using it, use online resources when we can, and try out recycled paper. Here's one more thing! You can reuse old paper and use it for something new. For example, my mom found a lot of waste paper (stuff that got printed for no reason and that nobody wanted) at work and stuck it back into our printer so that we could print on the other side. I know when I print things off of the web sometimes the last page that gets printed will have just one sentence or a dumb ad on it. I also get a lot of assignment sheets from school that I need for a week then get rid of. All of these things can be reused! Stick them back into the printer, NOT the recycling bin, and give them a new and more purposeful life! It is a second chance! Print something good on their other side!

Don't Can It!!!

I know that we all go to Dunkin Donuts a lot, seeing how America runs on it, so many of use have probably gotten a bagel in this white bag that's also in this brown bag. Both are made out of paper. Yes, including the funny inside bag that they put the bagel in. It feels kind of plastic-y, so it wouldn't be obvious that it is recyclable. I am sure that most of us crinkle the bags up and throw them in the trash like we're shooting hoops in basketball...and then miss the can. However, look in the corner! It actually says "please RECYCLE this bag!!!" Whoa. Look at that. Crazy stuff! So, don't be a skeptic and just do what the bag tells you to do!

Biodegradable Planter Pots

Plastics account for 25% of landfills. That's not cool. Plastics are a huge issue, so eliminating them from our lives whenever possible is great. Here is a new and interesting way: biodegradable planter pots! Instead of those crummy plastic pots, these ones are made of rice husks and bamboo scraps - i.e. other wise plant trash. These plants use the leftover odds and ends of already highly renewable resources. Double Green! Unfortunately this planter pot is clearly made in China which means lots of shipping and what not, but hey, no plastic.

Baby Tomatoes

This picture is so pretty. Not just because of the colors, but because homegrown food is such a wonderful thing! Obviously operating a farm is no small feat, but homegrown food is probably easier than many think. Things like herbs and tomatoes are good examples. These plants might not be perfect, but they are awesome. Homegrown food eliminates transportation - no driving is necessary to get the food from a farm to your house. No transportation means no CO2 put into the atmosphere. Also, small scale gardens are typically not treated with any harsh chemicals etc. So try it out! Start with something simple, like basil, which you can even grow inside. Maybe one day you'll make homegrown, no carbon footprint spaghetti sauce...

Plant Smoothie

Plant bottles are not usually 100% plants, but often a significant amount of plant material is used (around a third) and therefore replaces a significant amount of petroleum based plastic material. And even though there is plant material in them, they are still totally recyclable! These bottles reduce CO2 output by the tons! Plastic is our worst enemy so anything that uses less plastic is great. Stonyfield yogurt is pretty great and delicious too.

Bag the Box

Americans eat a lot of cereal, and for every box of cereal that we buy, we also buy a lot of packaging. Bag the Box is a organization looking to reduce the amount of packaging for cereal. Their theory is that the box is unnecessary, since there is a bag inside the box. This double packaging system is too wasteful. Therefore, all of their cereals come in simply a bag. This uses 75% less material, and saves energy, money and pollution along the way. Check them out at www.bagthebox.com and be sure to watch the video that is right on the homepage. It is really cool and works as a great summarizer. And after that, feel free to browse their website! And after that, look for these types of bags at the grocery store! Bon appetit!

A Whole New Whirl

I got very excited when I was visiting a public restroom and discovered that the toilet gave me two flushing options: flush up for less water or flush down for more water. This is awesome because you don't always need to whole tank to flush in order to get the job done. A very simple concept that saves a lot of water! I was smiling from ear to ear, but never thought that I could have that technology in my own home. So when my friend told me that she had bought one and installed it in her toilet by herself, you can imagine my excitement. Flushing scary bugs might have never been so green! It is just a little kit that you stick in the top of your toilet and a flusher to replace your old one. No tools, no sweat, and it should fit any style toilet. $18-25 at you local hardware store and you are ready to go! So are you ready to start saving?

Unexpected Art

This is not a picture of a heartfelt card, this is a picture of a hall pass. I was confused when my teacher started writing on what I thought were student art projects. It turns out that this teacher's husband designed these cards, and this one came from a box that got wet so he couldn't sell the set anymore. She had a whole folder of them waiting to become passes or notes. I am pretty sure that this lady had no idea what she was doing for the environment. She just saw a whole lot of her husbands valuable paper get destroyed and wanted to make them useful for something. I am not expected you all to start writing hall passes on cards, (although it does make for a nice touch), but just to think about things in a different way. Her box of ruined cards was not trash, but new note, pretty note paper. I was pleasantly surprised to find innovation in such an expected place, and it was so refreshing I just had to write about it.

I am an Energy Star

My family just bought a new washing machine, and I actually find it kind of fascinating. We bought an Energystar model (which you should do if you are buying any appliances ever!). And this is a very brief description of why:

• Energystar washers use up to 25 fewer gallons of water per load, which helps protect our water resources
• these washers are more gentle as to prolong the life of clothing
• these washers use significantly less energy 
• since they use significantly less energy they save you significantly more money (enough to cancel out the cost to run the dryer)

The thing I found most fascinating is that the estimated cost of running this washer is only $15 per year. I definitely expected a much higher number. The 140 kWh would probably be much more significant to me if I understood that number better. If you do understand it, admire it!

Timers Schlimers, who needs 'em

One commonly-said tip is to take shorter showers. There are devices to help us with this, such as timers that count to 5 minutes and then you are supposed to get out. However, I know (from my morning experiences) that I am often not one to listen to alarms. So, instead, I thought of a different mechanism. Listen to music! Many of us already do that so this one is easy. Most songs are about 3 minutes, so with each song that goes by add 3 minutes to your shower time. I always feel like my showers could be 30 minutes. I have no sense for time when I'm in the shower. However, when I did this I found that my showers tended to last only about 1.5 songs. That's about 4.5 minutes! So this trick may work even better than the shower timer! Of course we are all different and different things work better for different people, but this one seemed like a pretty good solution. You might try making a playlist of songs that drive you nuts so you want to rush out of the shower to shut it off. I am not sure. But any ol' song seemed to work just fine for me.

Act Naturally

Ever heard of bamboo socks? Me neither. 

Bamboo is a growing trend in "Green" being. It is fast-growing, herbicide/pesticide/fertilizer-free resource that produces more oxygen than a tree. How awesome is bamboo! So it is an awesome resource that is being incorporated into everything...even socks! These socks are hypoallergenic, highly-breathable, and have weird benefits like anti-bacterial qualities. Nifty. My mom bought some and loves them. So give 'em a try! Christmas present, anyone?

Cheddar Bunnies...mmmmm...

I am a huge fan of cheddar bunnies. That's right, cheddar bunnies. Annie's products are my weakness! So I was eating this entire box the other day when I started to read what it said on the sides. The entire side panel is dedicated to ideas for reusing the box responsibly. Some were things I'd never thought of. For example a box could become a bookmark, an art project, or scratch paper. Whatever you may need it for! There are things that we can do besides recycle! And who knows where you might find the inspiration.

Zippy Zip Ties

I personally am not a huge fan of zip ties, but I am sure that they are useful. However, they're also plastic. Don't throw them out if you get them/have extra. Keep 'em, reuse 'em...for whatever crafty reason you may have. And store them in a re-purposed container too. But no worries, you don't need to sort them by color, too.

Rags to Riches

Do you ever clean out your drawers and throw out old socks and cruddy T-shirts? When your dish cloths get old and stained do you throw them out? Don't. You can't really donate them for charity, but you can use them as rags. My dad reuses socks and tees to clean grease and dirt off of his bike. He also uses them as packing material sometimes when he ships bike parts and other things. These rags can replace paper towels, new cloths, packing peanuts, etc. Keep them in a little box in your basement or closet so they're out of the way but you'll always have some on hand. Rags can be more useful than you may think!

A Fresh Step

If you have a cat you know that you use a lot of kitty litter, which also leads to you using a lot of kitty litter buckets. Don't throw away these buckets! They are perfectly useful for cleaning purposes. For example, use them as a bucket when you mop your floors, wash your car, anything. If you are a gardener use them to collect weeds or transport dirt and plants, whatever! Use it to hold your baseball gloves or tennis balls in the garage. A bucket is probably one of the most versatile things, so there is not harm in having a lot. A kid could probably find plenty of uses for a bucket. Since you already pay for the litter, you might as well get your money's worth out of the entire package!

CAN You Do it?

Soup cans: they have a use! Metal cans can also be reused to store things: pencils, buttons, toys, silverware, batteries...whatever you need it to store. However, metal cans can be more fun than other containers because they are easier to decorate. Reuse craft supplies, paint, and/or nail polish to decorate your cans and make them look nicer and seal out rust. Kids will love this activity, and proudly display it in their room. These particular cans are my friend's from when she was younger, which proves that they will last long as well! Soup, beans, veggies...you name it! These cans can get a new life if you give them a chance.

Romaine: 4640

Do you ever get lettuce with those Velcro ties on them? Do you immediately throw them out? 

Do you always trip over your electrical cords? Do you find them in a tangled mess whenever you need one?

Look no further: I have a solution. Keep your lettuce ties, and then reuse them as cord ties. You can actually buy cord Velcro ties, but why bother when you already buy the same thing (disguised as a lettuce tie). You would almost never think that there was a practical reuse for those things, but there is! There may even be other uses out there that I am not aware of yet. This simple object may make your life much easier, and will help keep a little bit of waste off of Mother Earth. 

FUN FACT: these lettuce ties are being stored in an old mayonnaise jar. Double reuse!

Is it a Container, or Something More?

So you can look at a diaper box or frosting container and think, "That's just a ____ container". But what if it was more than that? The plastic containers that we get at the grocery store are often so reusable, we just don't think of them that way. Yogurt cups, frosting containers, peanut butter jars, butter tubs, mayonnaise jars, diaper/wipes boxes, dried fruit & nut containers...the options are endless! Those could all be easily washed and reinvented as pencil cases, workshop part containers, toy containers...you could organize your basement or kids bedroom entirely with old food containers. This is idea seems so obvious to me now, but I never thought of it before because I never opened my mind to the possibilities. If we don't think creatively and practically about the things around us then we will never see them as anything other than what we are told they should be. So next time you clean out the refrigerator or want to organize your shelves, think about what you really have at your disposal...and save some waste, energy, and money in the process.

Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish

After I upgrade to a new cell phone I tend to keep the old one around in a drawer somewhere, unused. It's good to keep one around as backup in case your new phone breaks at any point, but keeping 3 old ones around doesn't make any sense. They're essentially going to waste. However! There are two options that I know of for putting your phone to good use. 

1. Cell phone collection bins: donate your old phone to a collection box so it can be reused as an emergency phone by someone else who cannot afford one or simply doesn't want one. I know I post about Whole Foods a lot so I really wish that I had a picture of the collection box at the local public library, but it was in too difficult of a location to get! So basically they are in lots of places, but I know for sure that there is one in the public library by the door on the first floor, and one at Whole Foods just inside the Out door. For a change (since Whole Foods also collects everything else) try the library!
2. Some companies buy back old phones. I shattered my iPhone, and when I went into the Sprint store to get a new one they bought back my shattered one (and saved me 70 bucks on my new one!!!) Once they buy it back they refurbish it (make it like new again) and resell it for a discounted price. Pretty cool! And it was an absolute life saver for me. I am not sure which companies do this, but Sprint will make your day for sure! Ask your service provider if you don't know.

Milk From the Past

Try glass milk bottles! They seem old-fashioned, but they're actually pretty cool! Glass milk bottles don't get recycled, they just get reused. If you return the bottle to the store (supermarket, local farm/dairy), the dairy where they came from will sterilize the bottle with hot water (no chemicals), and then refill and resell them. No recycling, minimal waste, minimal energy, minimal process. Just simple, fast reuse! And for those of you who drink a lot of milk, that's significant! All glass milk bottles come with a bottle deposit, so if you've already been buying milk but putting them in your curbside bin, you've not only been wasting energy but money too!

It is also just fun to step into the past a little bit. Some companies still deliver!

Scraps as Scrap Paper

Ever cut something out of the middle of a paper then don't know what to do with it? Use thin strips for things such as bookmarks, and use the wider, more substantial scraps for scratch paper. Recycling it is a decent option, but using the full sheet is the best way to go. It is still perfectly good paper, right? Don't waste it. So when you cut stuff out for school projects and what not, be aware of your scraps! There's always some use for them.

Cleaning Messes, the Recycled Way

Paper towels are a lot like tissues. We wipe gross stuff with them once, then throw them away. So again, why do we need to use brand new trees to make them? We don't. 100% recycled paper towels are the smarter way to go! They're the only kind that you find at Whole Foods Market! You can also find them in other stores and online as well. They look, feel, and work just the same as regular paper towels too!

Now of course, using a non-disposable towel for cleaning would be best, but that is not always how it works. So, for when you need them, go recycled!

Bagel Thursdays

My mom's office has Bagel Thursdays every Thursday morning where a coworker buys a couple dozen bagels and some cream cheese for the office to share. It is a nice idea! But it seems to also waste a lot of food. My mom often brings home a bagel or two, and a full, usually unopened container of cream cheese. She does this because she doesn't want to waste them. We never really have a purpose for the cream cheese, but why throw out brand new, unopened food just because no one at work was interested? This week she was talked into bringing home a whole dozen bagels! Now I know that I am not going to eat a dozen bagels before they go stale, so what can I do? Recycle them! No, do not put them in the recycling bin! Find another group of hungry people to give them to. My recipients of choice were the boys soccer team. (They'll eat anything!...kidding, maybe). I also know that back to school means more meetings and celebrations similar to bagel Thursday, so work-party waste may be on the rise!

Did you know that America wastes FOURTY percent of all food by throwing it in the trash? That is a HUGE percentage, and an unnecessary one! A family of four can waste over $2,000 on food each year. So that's not just a lot of wasted food, that's a lot of wasted money too!

So, whatever gathering that you find yourself at, pay attention to the food! Even if you don't want to take it home, take it elsewhere. Don't just throw it out. 'Cause that'd just be a shame.

Full Circle: #5

So remember my post about how you can turn your #5 plastic in to cool and useful things? Well did you know that not only can you help create those things, but you can also purchase those things? And it might be easier than you thought. Whole Foods markets sell dozens of preserve products including toothbrushes and tableware. These products are also sold in miscellaneous locations such as some Trader Joe's, markets, and pharmacies. If there is not one of these locations near you, you can order these products online. There is even a mail-back program that allows you to send in your used products when you are done with them and re-recycle them. It feels awesome to be on both ends of the cycle!

Glass From Home

Back to school means no more eating at home. However, you can still eat from home. Typically, bringing lunch from home can save money and use less waste: if you do it right. Try to bring your food in reusable containers, rather than bags and wrappers. Even better yet, try to bring food in glass containers. Why?

1. Glass will last longer than plastic. It may be more expensive than plastic, but you will probably only have to buy it once. Longer-lasting containers means less plastic waste in landfills.
2. Glass is generally easier to clean than plastic. Cleaning uses water, paper, soap, chemicals, whatever. Less cleaning means less resources used.
3. Glass recycling is more efficient than plastic recycling. Glass recycling also does not compromise quality or produce toxins, unlike other recycling processes.

Virtual Studying

Flashcards and study guides are extremely useful study tools, but they can use a lot of paper. Try something new: try online study tools! There are dozens of study-aid generators out there! I sometimes use Study Blue and Anki. Study Blue is a website that allows you to create and SHARE study guides. This sharing is really cool because then your whole class can see/use the study guide as well (if they are on Study Blue). I also use Anki, a downloadable flashcard generator that actually tracks your progress and helps you review in the best way possible. These resources will save paper, but they are probably more organized and portable then stacks of flashcards also. If you are unhappy with these two examples, keep looking. There's tons out there. Some of them even have apps for studying on the go (Study Blue and Anki both do). Happy studying!

Go Rechargeable

If you are buying new batteries (let's say its for your graphing calculator since it's back to school time) choose rechargeable batteries. A British study has shown that rechargeable batteries have a significantly smaller impact than disposable batteries on non-renewable resources, air pollution, and water pollution. They also produce less waste! Think of how many batteries are bought each year, and how almost all of them (and all of their packaging) will end up in landfills. So save some money and some waste and go rechargeable!

Tear It Out

I used to buy packets of new paper to fill my school binders with, but then I discovered a plentiful source of paper right at my house. Between my brother and I we have purchased many notebooks for school. However, we don't always get to the end of those notebooks. We didn't really know what to do with them so they have sat around our bookshelves for a little bit. However, I realized that the paper inside the notebooks is exactly the same as the paper that you buy in packets. Once again: save yourself the trip and the money! Just tear out the paper (carefully of course) from the back of your old notebooks and use them in your binder. I get bored doing a ton a once, so just tear it out as your need it if you're like me. It might sound annoying but it is good and it works. You avoid wasting paper and money.