saving paper

Marykae:

At my work we get a lot of mail. Sometimes the mail comes in large, easy to open without tearing envelopes.

Now, while we can't re use those for clients (they would look unprofessional) I have been using them to send mail to our General Office and our service centers.

In order to do this I have to use an extra label to cover some information. But I think I save more than I am using.

COyou2 Saving the planet one breath at a time

thestovetop:
This site looks interesting, it's talking about personal carbon capture and storage as a strategy to prevent climate change:
http://cou2.com

"The COyou2 patented technology works by filtering the air you breathe out, capturing the carbon in a convenient lightweight backpack.

As you breathe out into the tube, the carbon dioxide passes through a solution of ammonium nitrate and the reaction allows the carbon to be isolated. The carbon is then stored in exchangeable inner bags that can then be sequestered in any nearby location including your own backyard."

I've just ordered a catalogue, it's definitely worth checking out, after all, every little thing makes a difference. I never thought about human beings as being responsible for major carbon emissions, but I'm always looking for ways to lessen my carbon footprint.

What do you guys think?

Lights in Public restrooms

Marykae:

I work in a rather small office building. The restroom on each floor is only shared by, hmm, less than ten offices.

It occurred to me as I walked in one day to change (I walk to work) that if the lights are off when I come in, why not turn them off when I leave? It seems to be accepted when you enter a public restroom that you should leave it in the state you enter it in. Why?

If there is a light switch in an easy to find place, and the restroom is not occupied, I am now going to try to remember to turn it off. It might stay off for hours.

Water Conservation

shawnaree
Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking on the topic of water conservation.

Here are some of the things I've implemented in my life that I find helpful when it comes to saving water (and energy!):

1. Taking shorter showers. As it is, I only shower about every three days (it's better for your body, in my opinion), but when I do shower, I sometimes even go so far as to turn the water on, get nice and sopping, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water back on and rinse. Saves hundreds of gallons of water a month.

2. Not pre-rinsing my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. This is a hard habit to break, but according to a lot of research, it uses much much less water to use the rinse function on the dishwasher. Here's some more tips related to dishwashers: http://www.aceee.org/consumerguide/dishwashing.htm#tips

3. Re-use water. This sounds silly, but... have you ever gotten a glass of water and not been able to finish it (either because you don't want to, or there's a cat hair or something in it that makes it unappetizing)? Well, what else could you use that water for-- watering plants, washing your hands, etc.

4. Turn off the faucet, and get that leak fixed. The average leaky faucet wastes around 10 gallons of water a day. Use this link to figure out how much your dripping faucet costs you: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sc4.html Running the water for an extra 5 minutes at full blast, while you brush your teeth, can be greater than that.

5. Catch your extra water. I don't do this, but during the drought last summer (in NC) one of my coworkers did this: she took a plastic bin/tub, and put it in her tub. She would 'catch' the water that would normally go down the drain that was still clean (for instance, while waiting for the shower to 'warm up'), and use it to water her plants/lawn. But you could use that water for a lot of things!

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

ETA: Also, this is /really/ interesting. How much water does it take to grow a hamburger? How about a car? http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sc1.html

CupKozy

Note from MK: This post was self promotion. But I am going to go ahead and re-post it over here anyways, because self-promoting environmental products is a good thing. I have found that D.I.Y.ers are good businesses to buy from, local or not.

agentaeonfiux

Hi, my name is Dinah and I just joined. I love seeing communities like this popping up all over LJ! Interest is growing and it's only a matter of time before we see some real results :)

I have a tip for those of you who are hooked on coffee, especially the people who visit places like Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Etc. every day.

Fact: Americans consume over 14 billion cups of coffee wrapped in disposable sleeves every year! Some coffee shops even practice the notorious "double-cupping".

I handmake an eco-friendly alternative to the disposable sleeve called CupKozy. If you're not quite ready to commit to using a thermal mug (I know I'm having a hard time with that), this is a super easy way to help reduce the amount of waste being generated.

For those who DO use thermal mugs, you are precious and few. On those days when you just plain forget to bring your mug home and it is now fermenting on your office desk and you have a paper cup emergency, don’t grab one of those disposable sleeves. You know the contraptions that keep you from burning your hands on that cup of essential morning elixir. Grab a CUP KOZY

You can also find me on Etsy :)

Thanks for all the green tips in here. Keep them coming!

Composting ideas

Missdotti
I live in an apartment with no way of doing any gardening aside from maybe some small planters on my window sills. But I hate that I have all this lovely stuff that I can use for composting and it would end up going to waste. So I started a compost bin with an old coffee can. Whenever it's full, I give it either to my parents or to a friend of mine. They both have large gardens with compost piles and really appreciate my little contributions. As a thank you, they'll often bring me some veggies from their garden.

I was thinking about this in the shower this morning and I realize that many of you might not have friends or family nearby that could make it easy for you to give the compost to them. Especially those of you who are newly transplanted to where you are. My solution was FreeCycle. I have used it successfully to trade of any number of things I don't need, and I thought "Why not compost stuff?" I'm sure SOMEONE in your area could use it. Give it a try.

Check the codes

Marykae
From a book I am reading "Green Living"

Look at the PLU on your produce.

If it starts with a 9, it is organic
If it starts with a 4, it is conventionally grown
If it starts with an 8, it is genetically engineered.

Say no to paper plates

Me:

Last night I had some people over for a game of Apples to Apples.

Even though a couple of my plates are plastic and kind of embarrassing, and even though I have only a few sets of matching cups, I refused to buy paper plates and plastic cups. I also used my own non matching forks. Some of my cups were even re-washed cups from the Chevron station.

No one complained and if they thought less of me for it, they said nothing.

The one thing I did not consider were paper towels/napkins. I ended up having to steal some napkins from my boyfriend. (he only keeps them so he can grab a handful on his way out the door because he blows his nose a lot).

I think I will do what was suggested in the past and buy real napkins. It may surprise people when they ask for a paper towel and I hand them a cloth napkin. But I can always take the opportunity to explain that I rarely use disposable anything.

There was a glass Sobe bottle left over that someone brought. I will be washing that and re-using it. Mostly for carrying water when I am out and about.

Anyway, that is my small contribution to the environment this weekend!

Apartment Recycling

From: fortytwostars

Okay. Recycling when you live in a house and have everything-in-one-bin curbside pickup? Easy. Way easy. I never really appreciated it until it was gone. Now that we're in an apartment with no recycling service (LAME), we have to sort it ourselves and take it to a recycling center. Fortunately, there's one about two minutes away from home, plus another right by work if the need arises. UNfortunately, recycling bins take up a lot of space if you have to sort things, and SUPER unfortunately, we have a teeeeeeeeeeeeeny tiny kitchen with no room for ANYTHING, much less four different bins.

But yay for my subscription to Ready Made.
I got THIS idea while flipping through an issue a few months back.
It's easy, it's light, and it takes up no floor space at all.

We have a few more bins than the one in the magazine because our recycling center accepts a LOT of stuff that has to be split up. Ours is also slightly more heavy duty, simply because we used the materials we could find in one trip rather than running all over town.

From the middle hook on the top there, we hang a plastic bag to collect plastic bags, which our local Kroger recycles. We do use cloth bags, but, yeah. There are forgetful days. Plus, Kroger accepts almost ALL overwrap and plasticy packaging, so we take that in, too.

It was a teensy bit of work to put together, but it makes recycling in a small space MUCH easier, and it's especially nice that it doesn't take up valuable room. The bins can be washed out in the bathtub if we forget to rinse something well enough and it leaks on the bottom, plus we have the lids for the bins off to the side to keep things from flying out if they're in the back of the truck.

07/31/2008: Suggestions.

Here is a list of suggestions for improving the environment in small ways from some of the members of my community.

I started the community out with it's first post yesterday. Here were my suggestions:

Carry reusable containers when you go out to dinner for leftovers.
Cut a few minutes off your shower.
Don't take free stuff you will never use. (fliers, postcards, t-shirts, etc.)
Don't take more food than you can eat if it is an option.
Re-use plastic cups and bottles that are made with plastics #4 and #5 (but don't microwave them).

fortytwostars has been an AMAZING contributor so far. Here are the ideas from her first post.

- egg cartons make great bead sorters

- take a cardboard milk carton, punch teensy holes into it, fill with water, and lay in garden beds for easy summer irrigation

- clean out Chinese or sushi take-out containers really really really well (I spray on a vinegar solution to remove smells); the carboard containers make cute planters; the sushi trays are fun for wrapping small gifts

- I don't know as much about plastics as marykae, but we definitely save any plastic container that has a lid (yogurt, some lunchmeat containers, butter, etc)

- zippered baggies (i.e. Ziplocks) that are used for dry or non-food items can be reused until they fall to pieces, which takes a lot of time and abuse

- keep those silica gel packets that come in purses and shoeboxes and electronics; drop them into coolers to keep them from getting musty in storage, or distribute them into your camping gear (we keep a bunch in our tent, plus in our equipment tote) to take care of dampness

- and finally, those lids on big glass jar candles? You can mail them to me. Postage due, even! I have uses for them. ;)

Zhyymy captured the true spirit of the community, which is to save the environment while doing yourself good.

Energy savings = Earth savings

My power bill each month is outrageous, so I'm constantly looking for ways to keep energy costs down. Please note most of these tips are geared at people living in warmer climes ... Here's what you can do:

-Buy compact flourescent bulbs. The lighting difference isn't noticeable after a week, and you will save money. Replacing one 60 watt bulb will save you $30 in energy costs over 5 years. If you, like me, have around 30 light bulbs in your house...well, do the math. :)

30x$30 = $900 / 5 = $180 / 12 = $15 a month. And a new law has been passed that will require light bulbs to be 30% more energy efficient by 2012, 70% more by 2020. So you're getting a jump on things already.

-Get, and use, a programmable thermostat for your heating and cooling. I knocked my power bill down at least 30% with this one!! Set it (depending on your personal comfort, of course) at 75 during the time you're home, 83 when you're not during the summer, 68 when you're home and 60 when you're not during the winter and you'll see drastic savings. 1 degree can save you or cost you 3% of your heating/cooling cost of your power bill.

-Ceiling fans. If you don't have one in a room, put one in there. Run it on medium speed all the time. It will circulate the air and relieve the pressure on your h/ac by 20%.

-If you have an electric stove, avoid using it during peak power times (11a-2p, 4p-9p). Doubly so for the oven! If you have a propane grill, this is an ideal substitute!

And some non-energy, but green tips:
-Get reusable grocery bags. Most stores sell them for about $1 each, and they hold more than a typical plastic grocery bag.

-Use a re-usable plastic water bottle - the kind that's dishwasher safe and is designed for sports or camping. Fill it from your filtered water dispenser on your fridge or water dispenser at work. You'll be amazed how much you save by NOT buying bottled water for a month.

(Marykae's note: not to mention that most bottled water uses plastic that will poison you to death. Most new reusable bottles are good, just look on the bottom for the number 4 or 5)

And fortytwostars is back to talk about saving energy! Which, again, saves money AND the environment.

Another Easy Energy Saving Tip

Those little red stand-by lights on your television and DVD player indicate a drain (albeit small) on electricity. We try to counterbalance this by connecting our entire entertainment system (which isn't much; TV + XBox + surround sound in one room, TV + DVD player in another, but STILL) to a surge protector. Not only could this save our "toys" in the event of a lightning strike, but it makes it easy as pie to just flick off the switch on the surge protector when the items aren't in use, cutting off the power and putting a stop to that wattage trickle.

Urbanfictions enters to talk a little bit about some of the stuff they do in their own life.

some of what we do

-shop second hand; donate to second hand. not just clothes- books, art, furniture, etc! we get a lot of fabric bags that we dont need, so we keep one hanging on a doorknob to put our unwanted stuff in, and when its full, we drop the whole bag in the donation bin.

-eat one vegetarian meal a week, "eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined" and buy local produce- less energy was used to get it to you! [im totes a carnivore, im not pushing we all go 100% veg]

-dont dump your magazines in the recycling; take them to drs offices- waiting rooms NEED them, heh!

-take your old books and leave them at the laundromat!

-if you gotta take one of the plastic bags for produce [we buy apples by the dozen so we totes need to have them], stick the empty bag back into your reuseable grocery bag and use it til it falls to dust.

aaaaand more fortytwostars. Really! Paper towles and paper products in general should be reduced whenever possible. If you are having a party and you KNOW everyone, that is, no one is going to steal your shit, you should really try to use something reuseable.

Paper Towels

We are trying to wean ourselves. We got a whole pile of cloth napkins (which make every meal *special!*, but that is neither here nor there), and we have a rag bag that we use for cleaning. We still do use some paper towels, but we keep them in a high cabinet behind things, so we really have to WANT to use one before we dig it out. (And yes, want =/= need, but we are working on it.)

I for one, always find alternative uses for grocery bags. And so does Missdotti:

Grocery bags

mood: creative

I work at a day center for mentally impaired and disabled adults. If we have to change disposable briefs, we have to make sure they're bagged in plastic bags before discarding them in the trash for health reasons.

Although I'd much rather use the reusable tote bags that many stores now carry, I will often get the plastic bags when I buy groceries so I can take them to work and use those in the bathrooms. This recycles the bags and saves Hope Network a few pennies now and then. I've talked one of my coworkers into making us bag dispensers for each of our changing areas so that they're easily accessed. What's more, random people have stopped stealing the trash bags that we'd normally use instead, and we've saved almost $500 in two years doing this.

Intro.

This is an offshoot of my blog at Marykae.net

It is also the blog where the livejournal community The Small Stuff will post some of their better ideas for helping the environment with little or no inconvenience to them.

Being raised in the U.S.A. it can be pretty difficult to consider the environment. Our society is just not set up that way.

The purpose of this blog is to give you ideas for little things you can do to help.