Earth Week

[dragonlady7]

Seems silly only to do it for a week, but anyway. Thought I'd collect some thoughts on things I do to be as environmentally-friendly as possible. Though for me it's all wrapped up in thriftiness too. I come from Unconventional People, so a lot of these things I have always done, or when I didn't do them (college, first years on my own) I felt really weird. These aren't things to do just on Earth Day, they're habits to get into so as to be less wasteful.

A lot of them are really only feasible if you have a yard. My yard is miniscule, but there is enough room in it for a few little garden beds and a compost pile. That's a luxury, I know. So I'll try to throw in some don't-need-a-yard tips.

1. Hang clothes to dry. This worked even when I had a fire escape and no washing machine; I hand-washed a lot of things, and hung them on hangers, on a drying rack, and on the curtain rods above the radiators. It saves an enormous amount of electricity and your clothes smell wonderful.
   Tip: Add vinegar to the rinse cycle, cheap white vinegar, to keep clothes from getting stiff. It also helps if it is a sunny, breezy day, as the clothes will dry too quickly to get stiff.
   
2. Separate your garbage. Don't just recycle, though that's important. Put garbage that will smell into a smaller container and empty it more frequently so as not to use too many garbage bags. (If the garbage is always half-empty when you take it out cuz it stinks, that's a lot of extra plastic going to waste.) Make sure that what you're throwing away can't be recycled, reused, turned in for a deposit, etc. My municipality won't take plastic containers like you get at the olive bar, so I reuse them around the house and only throw them away when they're really grody.
   
3. a) Compost. You can get those designer plastic composters for around $30, or make one yourself out of chicken wire or cardboard. The plastic ones are nice because they're self-contained and somewhat foolproof, and basically odor-free. The one I have takes up about a two-foot circle, so it would really fit almost anywhere even in a tiny yard, and doesn't have to be far away from areas where you are often. It is so easy to compost, and saves so much stinky messy stuff from going into your garbage and making you take it out more often. I save my compost in a bin that kitty litter came in; I keep it under the sink, and it holds a lot so I don't have to empty it much. I'm really lazy and don't like emptying the compost bucket, so I like this. I leave the lid ajar sometimes, and I don't have mold issues. It doesn't smell much, if at all; if it gets smelly, I shred newspaper and throw that in there to kinda soak things up. You can compost Kleenex, paper towels, newspaper, and the like-- just shred it small. Look online for good compost tips. It turns into potting soil, people. Free potting soil. Even if you only have room for like four flowers, how rad is that? They'll be enormous and healthy. You can even use compost in potted plants, though you might want to add vermiculite or peat moss to help with aeration.
   More on composting: this actually prevents a tremendous amount of yard waste. Grass clippings and leaves are two tremendous components in good compost, that it makes my brain hurt to see them all bagged on the curb. You're throwing away fertilizer. Are you nuts? We're facing a global food crisis because we're using petroleum to make fertilizer, and you're putting grass clippings into the dump? Really? If you have a yard, and don't compost, you're the crazy one, not me!!
   
4. Turn down your water heater. If you always have to turn on the cold faucet as well as the hot because it's scalding otherwise, your water heater's up too high. If you need really really hot water for something, boil it on the stove instead of paying to keep your hot water heater constantly maintaining a temperature you rarely use.
   
5. Insulate your pipes. I admit I haven't done this one, but was yelled at by my father to do it, and bought the insulation, and it's sitting there. I know I need to do it. If your basement's heated, fine; just insulate the hot water pipes. How do you know you need to do it? If you turn on hot water, turn it off, come back in ten minutes and turn the hot water on again and have to wait for it to get hot, then your pipes aren't insulated well.
   
6. Close your curtains. Insulated curtains aren't just for winter. In summer, the curtains on the sunny side of the house can be closed while direct sun is coming through, to keep the solar gain to a minimum. I have the stuff for insulated curtains and haven't finished them, and keep saying well I won't need them in summer, but then I look at the big east-facing picture window and think how I can't sit in my living room on summer mornings: oh yeah. Insulated curtains to the rescue.
   
7. Keep your fridge full. A full fridge is more efficient than an empty one. In the summer, lots of us locally have a secondary beverage fridge, making things even worse. Fill empty juice or soda bottles with cold water and leave them in the fridge if there's extra room. If you fill up the fridge, take the cold water out and drink it! (In winter, you can set them outside to freeze overnight-- never thought of that one! Freeze one at night and let it slowly thaw in the fridge and you can use less energy keeping the fridge cold.)
   
8. Get a couple of canvas bags. Keep them in the car. Get one of the kind that are nylon and roll up tiny and snap/button closed and keep it in your purse, if you carry one. Otherwise you just end up with all these plastic bags. Don't throw them out, of course; collect them and bring them back to the grocery store or drug store to recycle them-- most have a bin to collect clean plastic bags. (Dispose of soiled ones in the garbage, so as not to contaminate the recyclables.)
   
9. Get a rain barrel. Did you know that in many municipalities, excess water from storm drains causes the sewer system to overflow into streams and rivers? I did not know that. Helping to reduce the flow into storm drains by putting up a rain barrel alleviates this problem. And then using the water you've captured to water your lawn instead of turning on the sprinkler all day helps conserve drinking water. The rain water is better for your plants, and since no energy was used processing it, it conserves that way as well.
   
10. Walk more. Yeah, everyone says this. I don't always. It depends on your neighborhood. Google Maps has walking routes as an option and it's actually kinda handy-- in my experience the time estimate is pretty good. So next time you're running an errand that's not far away, Google Map it and click "walking" as your mode of transportation and see what it tells you!
    
    And here's one I admit I'm not sure I can bring myself to do: urine is a tremendous source of nutrients and contributes immensely to a number of ecological difficulties. Unlike feces, urine contains no bacteria (in fact urine kills bacteria). It is high in nitrogen and potassium, two nutrients plants need. In Denmark urine-separating toilets have been introduced, and some municipalities process urine separately from other sewage. In Jamaica and Mexico City there are programs in place teaching poor households to grow their own food using the household's urine as fertilizer. And so I am told that if I pee in a bucket and dilute it with water to apply to plants, or put it directly onto my compost pile, this will be a great thing. And yet... something inside me balks at being The Crazy Lady That Saves Her Own Urine. So I suppose this is one I'll have to consider: am I willing to do this? And am I willing to admit that on the Internet? Stay tuned, folks. I may not be quite committed enough to the planet's survival to do this one.
    
    
    Well, that's all I could think of off the top of my head. (I'm waiting for one load of laundry to dry enough that I can finish the other one-- I let the next load soak for a little while so the first one has a chance to get pretty dry, since my laundry line is very small.)
    These are the things that I already do that I don't feel put me out much or impact my lifestyle negatively.
    How about anyone else-- got some good tips to add to this one? Bonus if it's something I hadn't thought of yet. And yeah, about that last one, I dunno.

Comments

[rensreality101.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about the 'week' thing. We do a lot of the things you listed because they save money. And nothing else smells like sheets hung out to dry in the sun. (I love 'line dried sheets' smell)

When we first moved here we insulated our pipes and we put one of the water heater blankets on because our house gets so cold in the winter. Our house is raised and open underneath but our pipes never freeze.

As for the urine...I just can't even contemplate it. ;)

[rensreality101.livejournal.com]

Oh...*wakes up* We recycle our milk cartons and coke bottles. I keep several in the freezer filled with water as part of my hurricane emergency kit. I also use them as seed starters and as watering bottles for my larger pots and my herb bed. (I poke holes in them and then bury them in the beds.) We also recycle furniture. If we have a couple of wooden pieces in bad shape I will salvage the still good parts and use them to either make a new piece or repair other pieces. I have also been known to strip still good areas of fabric off a dying couch or chair to make pillows or cushions.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I have a bunch of milk cartons saved for this kind of thing- I get milk in gallons so they're plastic. I have two buried in one of my new beds and am not sure I put the holes in the right place! I haven't tried this before, but think I'm going to-- I'll be going away this summer right when the heat is at its height, and I think I'll have more luck getting my house-sitter to refill a couple of jugs than getting them to water every day!
I am not entirely positive how to do it just right though.

I forgot to mention in this post that I am a crazy hoarder.
I am still really considering that last one. I had no idea it was such a problem. Hmmmmmmmm. I can't think of a not-totally-gross way to do it, though. Pee doesn't gross me out, particularly, but like a jar of it? Man that's just Crazy Lady territory.
If only I could come up with some kind of, like, direct solution. But there's no way I'm going out and dropping trou on my compost heap. (Still, that would be way less nasty. Not as far as my neighbors know, though. Obviously what I'm hung up on is the collection phase of it... I cannot conceive of a way of doing it that's not TOTALLY INSANE sounding. If I went to someone's house and they had a pee bucket????? OMG. This is a cultural barrier.)