Saving Money and the Environment
Improving the environment takes all of us evaluating for ourselves what we can each do to reduce our own personal carbon footprint. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa.
Often my pro-environment techniques come out of a desire to save money. One simple way to save money and the environment is to stop using paper towels. I’ve had a paper towel free home for years now. When my parents would come visit me from Oklahoma they’d always bring a roll of paper towels because they knew I would not have any. It seems everything they did in the kitchen required a paper towel.
I have a couple dozen basic cloth napkins for use at the table. These were purchased either on sale or in a thrift store. They last forever. When heating, say, a frozen burrito that recommends being wrapped in a paper towel I go for one of these napkins instead. After having friends over for a meal these just go right to the washing machine for the next load.
I keep dish towels around as well to replace paper towels for uses like wiping off the counter. Paper towels, of course, replaced cloth items in the kitchen.
If you have raw chicken in your kitchen or other sources where it is important to stop the spread of germs do some investigating before giving up paper towels. Using a dish towel to wipe up raw chicken juice is fine as long as it goes into the wash immediately (I guess). I’m a vegetarian so I don’t have this issue.
Friends this weekend said they often have left-overs when eating out so they take their own containers with them. This doesn’t save money but it does cut down on the amount of garbage you have. As we apprach Earth Day 2009 (April 22nd), what are things you do that both save you money and help the planet?
The #1 method of saving money, improving one’s health, and protecting the environment is to replace auto travel with cycling. The costs (purchase price, gas, insurance maintenance, etc.) of operating a car (SUV higher) over one’s lifetime ranges from $200,000 to $300,000. If these funds were conservatively invested in an IRA or other qualified plan, the value at age 65 would be between $450,000 and $750,000.
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Of course these figures are conservative estimates as they do not include the costs of maintaining local streets, the costs associated with death, damage to property, EMS expenses, etc. Of course other unaccounted and large expenses are the destruction of our clean air and the destruction of civility/neighborhoods to cater to the whims of the car culture.
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The first step to cash in on this opportunity is to go car light. Then demand cultural respect for cyclists and pedestrians. The strategy for this is illustrated by a pyramid and explained at: http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/03/17/strategy-for-a-cyclist-friendly-community/
I have nothing insightful to add, I just laughed a little when you mentioned your parents appetite for paper towels. There are so many things in my parents generation that seem to resemble every other person from their time ( I know about exceptions ). But I find the selfishness of my parents age to be kind of funny in a way, because that is not how they perceive things.
“Drill Baby Drill” could only have originated from someone of their age and it did. Guess what, my dad agreed. I posed a simple question to them when that was a topic. What gives us the right to take every bit of oil from this planet and burn it your 14MPG V-8 Jeep? Why do we have the right to take something in 2-3 short human lifetimes that took billions of years to gather?
I know there are more intelligent question to ask, but that one seemed simple enough without creating a huge debate. I have to remind myself sometimes that you cannot judge people out of their respective time period.
But again thanks for the paper towel story, I am still amused by it.
Another piece of good advice is not to buy or use plastic food containers. During the heating process, the chemicals contained in the plastic tend to leech out into the food. There are various kinds of these resins, but most of them contain some variety of phthalates. Glass containers (Pyrex or Anchor Hocking) are best. Oh, and don’t allow anything resembling PVC or one it’s cousins into your home. PVC is a poison. Don’t believe me? Just read an MSDS for this vile product. I used to work for a company which extruded PVC. Nasty stuff. Really, our world is FUUUUULL of synthetic poisons, upwards of 95+% we have no idea how they react to other chemicals or conditions in the environment. Ya’ know, the environment we live in as humans. Don’t be too worried about the planet, though. It’ll still be here after we’ve killed ourselves off by a million slow deaths, the tectonic action of the Earth’s crust driven by the residual radioactive heat from our planet’s origins 4.5 billion years ago will continue, and so will all of the processes which rely on that action. Who knows, perhaps after another 245 million years or so (approx. the time since the Permian-Triassic extinction, which killed off 90-95% of marine life, and 70% percent of land species), another species of “intelligent” life will evolve. Boy, talk aboot a tangent.
^or check this movie called Blue Vinyl. it’s quite eye opening.
I do have paper towels in the house though I have never been much of a user. That’s the way I was raised. We just used them for things like cleaning up doggy diarrhea. Really, the only thing I use mine for today (I use the “choose a size” kind) is to wipe out my cast iron skillet that I use frequently since you can’t wash with soap and water or you lose the “seasoning.”
I have developed a number of habits around basic things like: consolidating car trips, driving a reasonably fuel efficient car, reusing containers as “tupperware,” recycling the easy stuff, not wasting food, and use canvas bags at the grocery store. I am not militant and I give myself a little slack if I, say, forget my canvas bag when I go to the store. It just doesn’t make any sense to use the time and gas to go home and get it. In such a case I typically opt for paper. But I have found that most retailers are “bag pushers.” I don’t need a bag for a single item. I don’t need multiple bags for just a few items. I go to Shop n Save or the self checkout at Schnucks so I can bag my own. Certainly there are people with less physical ability than I or that are walking long distances that may need many of these little plastic bags with handles but unfortunately most of them wind up in the landfill, in the combined sewer, or stuck in tree in my front yard.
I like to think the way I live my daily life offsets some of the environmental damage my traveling around the world by jet produces. I am certain it doesn’t come close to offsetting the suburban lives of my brother and sister with their SUVs and bottled water.
I choose to do the things I do because I think they make a difference and that makes me feel better. I am also glad that it may save me a penny here and there.
Dustin, You are right about some stores being bag pushers. For example, a carton of eggs always goes in its own plastic bag. I usually take my bags with me, but sometimes forget to bring them or decide to buy some groceries when I had not intended to do so. Since I usually am not driving, I don’t have a trunk to load up with canvas bags.
Taking bags along when you are on transit or walking, just in case you might buy something, is a problem. The canvas bags are heavier than you would think. I know there are very lght nylon bags that are small enough to just carry anywhere that I should get.
I know this has been brought up before on this blog (I think I recall): air dry clothing when appropriate. I find my husband’s shirts need less ironing when air dried in the sun; sheets of course are lovely off the line, and cloth diapers (another cost saving device in my case but can be expensive for those who choose to make it so) bleach out in the sun. I do a lot on the line–I don’t presume I’m saving the earth by doing so, but I know I am saving myself some money (and time, ironically, with the shirts ironing thing).
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are a great, inexpensive way to reduce electricity consumption. They cost a little more than incandescent bulbs up-front, but last four to five times longer, use less than a quarter of the electricity, and don’t generate nearly as much ambient heat (remember the heat source in the original Easy-Bake Oven?). Of course, LED bulbs last much longer and use much less electricity than CFLs, but LED bulbs are currently rather expensive and hard to find.
Another inexpensive way for some people to save money and the environment is to plant wisely around their houses. Planting deciduous trees to the south and southwest of the house provides summer shade, reducing the need for air conditioning, while letting winter sun reach the house. Evergreen trees and shrubs to the north and northwest block harsh winter winds. Foundation plants insulate, and vegetable and herb gardens are cheaper in the long run than all those trips to the produce section.
@Cheryl: Target has some nice reusable bags, which are lightweight but strong and which fold up very small. I keep one in my backpack just in case. It’s been a while since I bought mine, but I think they were only about a dollar each.
It’s a amazing when you start to watch yourself as you go about ordinary day to day life what you can all do to cut down on waste. The paper towel thing is so easy. I use them, but a roll lasts me three times longer than it did before I started watching what I’m doing. You don’t have to grab a whole yards worth just to wipe up a small spill. To wipe jelly of a knife before you stick it in the butter only takes a little corner of one piece. If you have kids in the house your paper towel holder should be the old fashioned type that squeezes the ends of the roll tight so they don’t just yank and get too much at once.
Next time you go into McDonalds, or any fast food joint for that matter, watch how many people put a lid on their drink even tho they eat in. Is that really necessary? And while your people watching, notice how many packs of ketchup the servers hand out when someone ask for it, and then how many of those packs just get tossed.
Bridgett, when you hang shirts out on the line, if it’s early in the day and you have plenty of time to get them dry, hang them up soaking wet. They’ll need almost NO ironing at all. The spin cycle of the washer gives them a head start on wrinkles, so dunk them in cold water and hang them dripping wet.
The cheapest and most eco friendly setting on your air conditioner or heating system is OFF!
Your refrigerator will run less if you make sure the coils are clean. The modern day fridge usually has them on the bottom next to the floor so they need to be cleaned about as often as you change your furnace filters. Use a long handle bottle brush to get under your fridge, but don’t just push and poke without looking. Use a flash light to see what you’re getting at. Brush the dust and dirt loose, then pull the fridge forward so you can vaccum all the dust and dirt you worked loose.
Can anyone top my record on the use of an Aldi bag? I have one that’s 3 years old. Looks it too! It’s a heavy plastic with handles. I’ve had to reinforce the bottom with packaging tape.
Jeem, I couldn’t agree more about the shade thing. And if you can’t plant trees for shade do whatever you have to to shade a window. If you don’t have thermal windows having a shade between the storm window and the regular window really cuts down on heat in the summer. Awnings are a big help too. Especially if you get the canvas kind that you can take down in winter so you get the sun then.
My household hardly ever uses paper towels, though we’ve not totally abolished them. We use them for two limited purposes: 1) soaking up grease after frying food in oil, 2) putting in a bag of greens or fresh herbs, to soak up the moisture and keep the greens from wilting so quickly. You can reuse the paper towel for the last purpose by leaving it out to dry after you’re done with the greens.
In college, I had a roommate who used paper towels like they were going out of style, which was expensive and wasteful. Plus cloth towels are more absorbent and stronger anyway.
Paper towels are yucky. There are lots of sources of cloth that can be used instead.
I’d just add bottled water to the list of expensive, unnecessary, yucky things.
Another excellent Frontline program. I hope you enjoy as much as I did. Heck, it kept me up, thank god I took a nap after work. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/view/