first- I want to say that the alternative dry cleaner was satisfactory. I dropped off a lot of items and one fancy top came back with the stain still there, but I'm not sure that a traditional dry cleaner would have gotten it out either. So, I'll stick with the silicone-based dry cleaner!
second- I have been thinking a LOT about the bar soap I use in the shower. About a year ago I switched from liquid shower gel back to the bar soap I grew up with. This was a lot cheaper, I didn't run out as often, and the packaging seems a lot better for the environment. Shipping heavy liquid soap probably has higher environmental costs as well. Also, I use a washcloth with a much longer lifespan than the loofahs I used to buy. I believe using bar soap is a reduction in my harmful impact on the environment.
I am happy with using bar soap, but which bar soap? Soap was traditionally made of animal fat-- and America's biggest brands of bar soap are still made of animal fat! It surprised and shocked me that I was rubbing rendered beef fat (tallow, sodium tallowate, and some kinds of stearic acid are derived from beef fat) all over my body. But, I eat beef and support using the whole animal. They certainly aren't killing cows just for the fat.. but... but... beef fat in the shower?
The alternative is soap derived from vegetable fats. I'm apprehensive about automatically choosing this because doesn't it take more energy to make vegetable fat than to simply pick up waste-fat from a slaughter house? The other thing that makes this a "hard choice" is that animal-fat based soap is about $2 for 9 ounces. A soap made locally with vegetable oils is $2.95 for 3.5 ounces. The cheapest mass-produced vegetable soap I can find is 8 ounces for $2.84. I love the idea of the local soap and knowing my soap-maker, but it is so expensive! I'm going to try the cheaper vegetable-based soap and occasionally buy the locally-made soap, but this is not an "easy choice!"
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Reduce #3: dry cleaning
Dry cleaning has very nasty-chemical connotations for me, so I end up wearing my dry clean only clothes rarely and then do not get them to the cleaners very quickly. There are four dry cleaners in my immediate neighborhood, so I am blessed with choices! What is the easy choice? One of the dry cleaners uses the GreenEarth technology which cleans with liquid silicone (D5) instead of the typical Perchloroethylene (Perc).
Because it is a fairly new dry cleaning method, I am not yet convinced GreenEarth is 100% wonderful, but liquid silicone sure seems a lot better than Perc. For one thing, liquid silicone (also called dimethicone, polydimethylsiloxane, cyclosiloxane, and just siloxane) is a major component of things like body lotions and shampoos. In fact, I found it listed as an ingredient in my lotion, shampoo, and sun screen. I'm willing to shampoo with dimethicone every day, and I CERTAINLY would not shampoo with Perc, so my gut says that GreenEarth must be a step up from Perc.
So, I dropped my clothes off and will pick them up tomorrow and see how well they were cleaned. I am initially impressed with the business as well. They use GreenEarth for all their dry cleaning-- you don't have to pay extra for it. The person at the cleaners was nice and even gave me a 50% first-time discount. She also took all my old metal hangers for recycling even though they weren't from her shop (another local shop did this for me last fall, but only reluctantly). The dry cleaners has a website with coupons and info. on other helpful things like free delivery, so the easy choice was to give them a try! (update on quality of cleaning to follow...)
Because it is a fairly new dry cleaning method, I am not yet convinced GreenEarth is 100% wonderful, but liquid silicone sure seems a lot better than Perc. For one thing, liquid silicone (also called dimethicone, polydimethylsiloxane, cyclosiloxane, and just siloxane) is a major component of things like body lotions and shampoos. In fact, I found it listed as an ingredient in my lotion, shampoo, and sun screen. I'm willing to shampoo with dimethicone every day, and I CERTAINLY would not shampoo with Perc, so my gut says that GreenEarth must be a step up from Perc.
So, I dropped my clothes off and will pick them up tomorrow and see how well they were cleaned. I am initially impressed with the business as well. They use GreenEarth for all their dry cleaning-- you don't have to pay extra for it. The person at the cleaners was nice and even gave me a 50% first-time discount. She also took all my old metal hangers for recycling even though they weren't from her shop (another local shop did this for me last fall, but only reluctantly). The dry cleaners has a website with coupons and info. on other helpful things like free delivery, so the easy choice was to give them a try! (update on quality of cleaning to follow...)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Recycle #1: caps and lids
Can you recycle bottle caps and jar lids? May you recycle them? I was under the impression that you were not supposed to recycle these bits of containers and that they could disrupt the recycling process, so I did some research. Here is what I found out:
* My city DOES recycle caps and lids as long as they are off of the containers, but not all towns do.
* The tops must be off the containers for two reasons. First because they are made of different materials, and secondly to encourage good rinsing of containers (food contaminants can get a bunch of material trashed instead of recycled).
*If your town does not recycle caps, you can bring some of them to: http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp... if there is a convenient store, although these does not seem like an easy choice because you would have to collect all the caps separately.
*Soda bottle caps are made of polypropylene (#5 plastic, PP) while soda bottles are made of polyethylene teraphthalate (#1 plastic, PET).
Here is a great website for looking up what your town does and does not recycle: http://earth911.com/. I know bottle tops and lids are small, but I hate the idea of all of them sitting in the landfill for decades or even centuries to come. Easy choice: leave the lids and caps off of empty containers and recycle both pieces!
* My city DOES recycle caps and lids as long as they are off of the containers, but not all towns do.
* The tops must be off the containers for two reasons. First because they are made of different materials, and secondly to encourage good rinsing of containers (food contaminants can get a bunch of material trashed instead of recycled).
*If your town does not recycle caps, you can bring some of them to: http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp... if there is a convenient store, although these does not seem like an easy choice because you would have to collect all the caps separately.
*Soda bottle caps are made of polypropylene (#5 plastic, PP) while soda bottles are made of polyethylene teraphthalate (#1 plastic, PET).
Here is a great website for looking up what your town does and does not recycle: http://earth911.com/. I know bottle tops and lids are small, but I hate the idea of all of them sitting in the landfill for decades or even centuries to come. Easy choice: leave the lids and caps off of empty containers and recycle both pieces!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Reduce #2: printing
I have been wondering for awhile now about the power consumed by electronics that are plugged in but not turned on. I started doing research and found out that this is called "vampire power" or "standby power." My first appliance to tackle is my HP Deskjet D4260 inkjet printer.
I use this printer for about 40 minutes a month. I love the convenience of being able to print boarding passes, the occasional map, resumes, and typed letters/papers. I found two places to research the power consumption of my printer. The "Reference Guide" which came with the printer says that the power consumption is <1 watt when off but plugged in, <3 watts in power save mode, and 44 watts when printing. Product specifications at the HP website give the extra information that the printer uses 7 watts when fully on and ready to print, but not actively printing. In the following calculations, I use 1 watt for off and 3 watts for power save.
Estimated monthly use:
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
24 hours in power save mode (forget to turn off)=.072 kWh
24 hours off (forget to unplug)=.024 kWh
Total: .119 kWh
What if I left it on and plugged in all month?
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
30 days in power save mode=2.160 kWh
Total: 2.183 kWh
What if I left it off and plugged in all month?
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
30 days plugged in=.72 kWh
Total: .743 kWh
Easy choice: My printer uses a small amount of electricity, but I can still take action to minimize the electricity use. The easy choice is to do all the printing that I want (.023 kWh), and to unplug the printer when not in use. If I forget to unplug the printer for just one day, I double the amount of electricity it uses in the month! The plug is easily accessible, so this is an easy choice to unplug it when not in use. The most irresponsible use (leaving it plugged in and in power-save mode) of the printer could waste more than 2 kWh a month or 26 kWh a year.
Thanks to HP for publishing power consumption information!
I use this printer for about 40 minutes a month. I love the convenience of being able to print boarding passes, the occasional map, resumes, and typed letters/papers. I found two places to research the power consumption of my printer. The "Reference Guide" which came with the printer says that the power consumption is <1 watt when off but plugged in, <3 watts in power save mode, and 44 watts when printing. Product specifications at the HP website give the extra information that the printer uses 7 watts when fully on and ready to print, but not actively printing. In the following calculations, I use 1 watt for off and 3 watts for power save.
Estimated monthly use:
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
24 hours in power save mode (forget to turn off)=.072 kWh
24 hours off (forget to unplug)=.024 kWh
Total: .119 kWh
What if I left it on and plugged in all month?
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
30 days in power save mode=2.160 kWh
Total: 2.183 kWh
What if I left it off and plugged in all month?
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
30 days plugged in=.72 kWh
Total: .743 kWh
Easy choice: My printer uses a small amount of electricity, but I can still take action to minimize the electricity use. The easy choice is to do all the printing that I want (.023 kWh), and to unplug the printer when not in use. If I forget to unplug the printer for just one day, I double the amount of electricity it uses in the month! The plug is easily accessible, so this is an easy choice to unplug it when not in use. The most irresponsible use (leaving it plugged in and in power-save mode) of the printer could waste more than 2 kWh a month or 26 kWh a year.
Thanks to HP for publishing power consumption information!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Reduce #1: using a drying rack
I made my first easy choice today! I did two loads of laundry and chose to put one load onto a drying rack instead of using a dryer. I am going to try to stick with this plan whenever I do laundry. This way, I can use the dyer for things like jeans, sheets, and towels that I really like tumble-dried while still saving some energy.
The environmental benefit of not using the dryer for half of my laundry is reducing electricity and natural gas use. The easy part is that I save money ($1.50 per cycle in the dryer in my apartment building), and it only takes a few minutes to hang up a full load on the enormous drying rack I found in a give-away pile. The drying rack was from Ikea and would have cost $19.99 new (see it here)-- still a good deal!
How much can I save in one year?
With the commercial dryer in my apartment building, one cycle of drying takes 60 minutes and uses 24 cubic feet of natural gas (24,000 BTU/hour* 1hour/1000 BTU per cubic foot of natural gas), .720 kWh of electricity (6Amps*120Volts), and 6 quarters.
I do about 52 loads of laundry in a year and am committing myself to dry 26 of those on a drying rack. These 26 loads of laundry dried on a rack will save:
18.72 kWh of electricity
624 cubic feet of natural gas
$39.00
*admittedly, I am not considering the cost of the drying rack in terms of the environmental impact of manufacturing or the monetary cost (because I found one for free!).
The environmental benefit of not using the dryer for half of my laundry is reducing electricity and natural gas use. The easy part is that I save money ($1.50 per cycle in the dryer in my apartment building), and it only takes a few minutes to hang up a full load on the enormous drying rack I found in a give-away pile. The drying rack was from Ikea and would have cost $19.99 new (see it here)-- still a good deal!
How much can I save in one year?
With the commercial dryer in my apartment building, one cycle of drying takes 60 minutes and uses 24 cubic feet of natural gas (24,000 BTU/hour* 1hour/1000 BTU per cubic foot of natural gas), .720 kWh of electricity (6Amps*120Volts), and 6 quarters.
I do about 52 loads of laundry in a year and am committing myself to dry 26 of those on a drying rack. These 26 loads of laundry dried on a rack will save:
18.72 kWh of electricity
624 cubic feet of natural gas
$39.00
*admittedly, I am not considering the cost of the drying rack in terms of the environmental impact of manufacturing or the monetary cost (because I found one for free!).
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
why the blog?
I am starting this blog because I love nature and want to live a lifestyle that has a low negative impact on the environment (or maybe even a positive impact...?). Unfortunately, I also love living in a city, long hot showers, having access to a car, and eating processed foods that come in crinkly bags. Can I have the best of both worlds? Are there some easy choices I can make that will help the environment? Which "green" choices actually have a positive impact? These are the questions I am setting out to research and share, one choice at a time.
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