Ubiquitous Recycling, anyone?!

Last year I traveled to Montreal on business.  Everywhere I went - to restaurants, in business offices, in my hotel room - there were multiple bins for recycling.  It was ingrained into their nature.  And we wasteful Americans use styrofoam plates and plastic flatware that we throw away each trip to the buffet (my lunch today).  Ugh, reprehensible!

We need to urge EVERYONE, that is every place of business we frequent, to provide recycling.  The American hotels I stay at frequently - they have these placards in the room purporting to be environmentally aware: if you hang up your towel we won't wash it.  That is pathetic!  The only reason they do that is because it saves them money, and that's the only reason (that and they hope it gives them good PR).

Write letters to the business owners!  I wrote e-mails to Starbuck's on Monday, and they agreed it is a great idea to put them throughout their stores (responded yesterday) and that they would bring up the idea in the next meeting.  Crazy that people use the stir sticks for a moment then toss them - and napkins, lids, cups, plates, and more.

If you don't say something, write letters, speak out - you are the problem.

The 3 R's and your Scout Troop

Tonight, my wife Lisa just did an activity with her Brownie Girl Scout troop that the kids were just totally involved in. They did a Reduce, Recycle, Reuse night. They spent perhaps 50 cents on vinegar, a few dollars on plastic spray bottles, and they made their own non-toxic, biodegradable spray cleaner. They were so thrilled they could make their own products, and were amazed at how well it worked. In fact, the girls were so excited, the parents had to stop them from cleaning the entire school!

They learned all about recycling. This really made an impact - usually, Lisa and her friend Lisa have to go around collecting water bottles. This time, the kids saved the bottles for recycling, and were pressing their parents to do so. They learned about energy consumption, and what leaders like Oprah Winfrey suggested for reducing energy use.

If you want to know more, please e-mail me, and I will forward your contact information to Lisa.

Reduce Shower Water Usage

One of the large consumers of energy is fresh water. If you have municipal water like me, the water has to be processed and pumped by the municipality, heated, only to spend a brief moment flowing down the shower drain. In fact, as I sat showering, I noticed that the vast majority of the time I spent doing activities like soaping, washing, and shaving, that the water just ran for no reason. If you have a well, you are still drawing groundwater from the environment, from the water table.

So, I thought back to the pleasant memories I had sailing in the Caribbean with my family. Showers on the boat were limited, because we only had so much fresh water on board. If we ran out, we had to dock at the yacht clubs, which were trés expensive! So, the showers were designed only to run water when you pulled.

For a week now, I have been letting the water warm up, rinse off, and turn off the water while I soap up. Brief blasts to rinse off my hands, face, etc. I figure I use perhaps 10% of the normal shower water.

And, do I really need a shower every day? Every once in a while (probably a couple times a month) I skip, like when I don't have any outside activities (and don't have to appear in public). Every little bit helps - and it seems decadent and wasteful to run a shower of hot water for more than 30 minutes, when I probably spend a total of 5 minutes of that time actually washing & rinsing.

What do you think?

Use Every Scrap

My daughter has liked Little House on the Prairie for a long time. I have always been impressed by the mindset, fostered long before the Crash of '29 and the Depression, of being frugal. The settlers would take scraps of old clothing (after being repaired too may times and no longer wearable), and make quilts out of them. Just like the children's story about the Bubbie (grandma) who takes a boy's ratty jacket, cuts off the sleeves to make a vest, then cuts it down to make a scarf, then a tie, etc. They did not have this mindset of throwing out anything that was no longer "useful" - oh, and by the way, they didn't have these landfills! (Incidentally, has anyone seen the landfill by the Palace of Auburn Hills? A few years ago, it was approaching the height of the Palace. It is now double the height. My predictions? a) When it is closed, it will become the newest ski attraction in Michigan, and b) We will call it the Auburn Hill - it's in Auburn Hills, MI).

OK, in today's lifestyle this is not always so practical. However, as a goal and a mindset, I think it will work very well. Try to keep & reuse every scrap. How have I applied it, and how has it made a difference?

• Food scraps. First, we order all of our poultry from a local farmer, Steve & Jackie Goode of Cloverlawn Farms, Sandusky, MI. We order them whole, so that I can cut them up & use the backs, tails, and feet to make stock. I take scraps from good stock veggies that we cut up during normal cooking activities, things like carrots, onions, garlic, celery - keep them in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Then I pull out the scraps bags (veggie & chicken), dump them in a big pot of water, and boil them for about 3-4 hours with some salt and 1-2 TBS vinegar. The vinegar helps extract nutrition from the bones. I end up with a nutritious stock that gets sort of gelled in the fridge, and throw it in the freezer in containers. Similar with beef, but I roast the soup bones first and takes about 12 hours on the stove. Now, we haven't bought beef or chicken stock from the store in several years, and boy, you would not believe how good the soups are here!
• Plastic & glass - our recycler only takes #1 and #2 plastic, so some of the other containers if they are a good size, we wash in the dishwasher, then use. For example, the yogurt tub makes a good container for nick-nacks (marbles, kids chalk, etc.). Glass jars we are constantly using for all the pickled foods we make. We bought a FoodSaver vacuum packer about 10 years ago, one of the best things we ever bought. Those bags are normally reusable several times, so we wash them by hand (soap & water), dry them out, and stack them on a shelf in the cupboard. The "EvertFresh" green vegetable bags are also reusable, so if their integrity is still good and the food in them was in good condition, we wash & reuse them. I figure, if we use it twice, that's 50% reduction in material usage. More than that, gravy.
  
• Refrigerator technology - there are some awesome breakthroughs in refrigerator technology to help keep food longer. We have a Maytag wide-by-side fridge, with the temperature/humidity control drawers. These drawers each have their own thermostat and humidity control, to keep meat, cheese, fruits & vegetables longer. However, there are cheaper items as well: There is a green hockey puck thing you put in your fridge, available at a lot of supermarkets and Whole Foods / Wild Oats, that absorb food gasses and reduce spoilage. We also use the Fridge Smart containers from Tupperware - now I can't say enough about these! The containers have ridges on the bottom, a special lid to prevent condensation from dripping, and closable vents to control humidity. We have kept fresh berries in them for 3 weeks or more, and they come out almost as fresh as just-picked!! No joke! We've reduced our use of plastic containers a lot, but I'm a big fan of Fridge Smart and EvertFresh (that's those green bags that have some special minerals in the plastic that absorb food gasses, so it keeps veggies longer).
• Computers - since I am a computer guy, it's no big deal for me. Perhaps if you don't know too much about them, you could sell your old equipment either whole or as parts to a local computer store. I cannibalize old equipment, pulling out the useful items like DVD & CD drives, hard drives, memory, CPU, expansion cards, network cards. Now, I have about 6 computers in my house, running things like a Windows server, web server, etc. So, every now & then something breaks, or I could use additional hardware, so I can do repairs or add-ons with little or no cost. Or, I can sell items I no longer need (oh, the wonders of eBay).

I challenge you - what can you come up with?

Easy steps to improve fuel economy

OK, one large consumer of fossil fuels definitely is automotive transportation. Are we as Americans willing to change our habits, so that we are not such hogs? That remains to be seen. However, there are some easy things we can do without impacting our lifestyle much.

If you have any suggestions, please post! I am very interested in building the list.

• Air Filters on your vehicle - I am at an automotive supplier customer right now (they make hybrid battery systems) - one of the engineers suggested that I buy a K & N air filter for my car. It gives increased oxygen intake, so it improves your mileage, and is available at any auto parts store. My experience with auto parts stores is that those guys can usually tell you how to put it in yourself, or of course next time you get an oil change, you can hand them the filter and ask them to do it.
• Inflate your tires - NHTSA studies have shown that most people drive around with underinflated tires. This leads to faster wear on your tire, as well as reduced fuel economy. I bought a power station from Costco for about $50 or $60, that has a tire gauged pump, work light, battery jumper, and 110 volt inverter. We have already used it 3 times to jump a low battery, and many times to inflate tires, and it still shows a full charge! Typically, if you open the driver's door, there is a sticker on the edge of the door, or the door frame, that indicates the pressure to inflate your tires to. If not there, it should be in the owner's manual. If, like my 1998 Buick, you still can not locate it, a good rule of thumb is 30-32 Pounds per square inch (or PSI - 207 kPa) on a car, 35 PSI (241 kPa) for a van/SUV.
• Reduce your acceleration - keep to around the speed limits (really, does a few minutes saved in driving really matter?), don't floor it from a stop, hang back as you approach a red light, etc. Acceleration is where most of your fuel is spent. (Thanks, JB!)
  
• Drive less - that's right, be judicious. Not too easy for us Detroiters - heck, we get in our car to go to the end of the driveway & get the mail!! (OK, maybe not that bad, but you get the point.)
• Car pool - ever see those car pool signs on the side of the freeway?

So, I know there are other less-radical items than the last 2, let's discuss your ideas.

WAIT! Don't throw THAT out - it's toxic!

Do you have any idea A) what kinds of household items are toxic, and B) how to properly dispose of them?

Is anyone aware that Oakland County has 3 dates each year they collect Hazardous Waste??? I don't think anyone is - apparently they have a web site (http://www.nohaz.com), but other than that, I have never heard anyone make mention of it. The way I found out about it - I called our garbage contractor and asked them how I dispose of old computer equipment. Their answer? "Give us $5 per computer and we'll haul it away."

Me: "Where do you put it?"
Them: "In the landfill."
Me: "What about the toxic components in electronics: lead, mercury, etc.?"

That's when they told me about the NoHaz hotline: 248-858-5656.

So, lesson learned! What do they take? All kinds of stuff: all types of batteries, gasoline, oil, computer & electronics, household cleaners, etc. (http://www.oakgov.com/waste/nohaz/nohaz_accepted.html).

I think this is a VITAL service - the fact that it is not publicized on every newspaper, TV station, radio station, etc. should be considered a criminal negligence of responsibility!

If you don't live in Oakland County, please contact your county or garbage collector and find out what to do with your household hazardous material (check that second link for a list of what is hazardous - it is pretty long and we have most of it in our house).

Buy Local

We Americans comprise about 5% of the world's population: 300 million out of 6 billion. Yet we consume about 25% of the worlds goods and services. Think about this: China and India, EACH with about 20% of the world's population aspire to our lifestyle, and their economies are poised to enter First-world status (almost 1 in 5 people are Chinese, 1 in 5 are Indian - the other 3 are the rest of the countries!). Now, if that doesn't scare you, I don't know what will - Alien invasion???

Because so much of the products purchased in this country are shipped around from long distances, it takes quite a bit of fossil fuels to bring these in. We are talking about California producing 99% of the country's Almonds, most of the country's produce, oh and what about Washington and Florida? If we but make a simple effort A) to find local sources for food and goods, and B) tell others about it, this will open up a HUGE amount of benefits! Think about this:

1. Reduction in fossil fuel use because they don't have to truck the goods around.
2. Strengthen local economies (one farmer we know said that if you spend $1 on food at the supermarket, about 19 cents goes back to the farmer; but if you spend $1 on food at a Farmer's Market, farm stand, Co-op, or other way of buying locally, $1 goes to the farmer - and that $1 shows up about 5 or 6 times in the local economy). That's right - in stead of fattening the wallet of some Wall Street banker or executive in some other state (or even another country), we could keep our money in the local economy.
3. Increase food nutrition - numerous studies show that the nutritional value of food is directly related to, among other factors, the amount of time it spends growing before being harvested, and the amount of time between harvest and consumption. Fresh-picked, local foods are fresher and have better nutritional value.
4. Reduce the threat and impact of foodborne illnesses. According to the US Government Center for Disease Control's own statistics, the vast majority of foodborne illnesses (E. Coli, Salmonella, etc.) occur in the larger farming operations (a.k.a. Factory Farms). The largest number of people are affected because these large operations have large customer bases. Small operations are less likely to have an outbreak, have fewer customers, and thus are likely to infect a small number of people. Don't irradiate or Pasteurize, for God's sake! That ruins the nutritional value of food. Just get it from a source you trust!
5. Many products purchased in third-world countries support non-desirable practices. These range from money going into the hands of criminals or criminal governments, to unfair trade and labor practices, to drug cartels or political extremists (a.k.a. terrorists). Again, purchasing from a small, local operation reduces this risk.

So, next time you dig into that banana from South America, the Mango, the Australian pear, or whatever food - did you think first about buying a local version, or if not, then just doing without? Am I saying to completely cut out coconuts, bananas, mangoes - items that can't be produced locally or even domestically? No. But they don't have to be a staple, consumed every day. Buy American second - but before that, buy Local first.