Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Water Conservation

When some people find out that I’m trying to conserve water they find that strange, especially when they hear that I don’t pay for water. Why would you want to conserve water if you don’t have to pay for it.

"Growing populations will worsen problems with water," says Peter H. Gleick, an environmental scientist at the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a research organization in California. He fears that by the year 2025, as many as one-third of the world's projected 8.3 billion people will suffer from water shortages.

While NASA and the World Health Organization have different figures (4 billion people will face water shortages by 2050) it’s still disturbing to me. It’s important to note that only 2.5 percent of the worlds water is fresh water. If you were to Google “why conserve water” you would find there are a number of reasons to do so. Since it’s not my intention to convince anyone to conserve water I will leave it at that.

What am I doing about it? Since it’s estimated that 75% of the water we use is in the bathroom I started there. I made my toilet “low-flow”. They may not be accurate but I purchased a toilet tune-up kit that allows me to adjust the amount of water held in the tank. After a little fiddling I was able to adjust it so it has just enough water to flush solid waste. I estimate this saves roughly 30% of water for each flush. Since I no longer flush the toilet every time I would estimate I’m using less than half the water I used to in my toilet.

I recently purchased a low-flow shower head that uses 1.2 gallons of water per minute. It also has a “pause” button that will stop the water flow while you soap up (for those Navy showers). It hasn’t arrived yet but I received an email this morning stating that it’s already shipped. The only thing left to do for water conservation in my bathroom is to get an aerator for the sink faucet.

The bathroom isn’t the only place I’m conserving water. I’ve started combining loads of laundry and I’m only using the “extra large load” setting when I really have an extra large load. If you’ve read my previous posts you might already know that I’ve started filling the sink in the kitchen to rinse my dishes rather than keep the water running.

I wonder how much water I’m actually saving.

Water Conservation

When some people find out that I’m trying to conserve water they find that strange, especially when they hear that I don’t pay for water. Why would you want to conserve water if you don’t have to pay for it.


"Growing populations will worsen problems with water," says Peter H. Gleick, an environmental scientist at the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a research organization in California. He fears that by the year 2025, as many as one-third of the world's projected 8.3 billion people will suffer from water shortages.


While NASA and the World Health Organization have different figures (4 billion people will face water shortages by 2050) it’s still disturbing to me. It’s important to note that only 2.5 percent of the worlds water is fresh water. If you were to Google “why conserve water” you would find there are a number of reasons to do so. Since it’s not my intention to convince anyone to conserve water I will leave it at that.


What am I doing about it? Since it’s estimated that 75% of the water we use is in the bathroom I started there. I made my toilet “low-flow”. They may not be accurate but I purchased a toilet tune-up kit that allows me to adjust the amount of water held in the tank. After a little fiddling I was able to adjust it so it has just enough water to flush solid waste. I estimate this saves roughly 30% of water for each flush. Since I no longer flush the toilet every time I would estimate I’m using less than half the water I used to in my toilet.


I recently purchased a low-flow shower head that uses 1.2 gallons of water per minute. It also has a “pause” button that will stop the water flow while you soap up (for those Navy showers). It hasn’t arrived yet but I received an email this morning stating that it’s already shipped. The only thing left to do for water conservation in my bathroom is to get an aerator for the sink faucet.


The bathroom isn’t the only place I’m conserving water. I’ve started combining loads of laundry and I’m only using the “extra large load” setting when I really have an extra large load. If you’ve read my previous posts you might already know that I’ve started filling the sink in the kitchen to rinse my dishes rather than keep the water running.
I wonder how much water I’m actually saving.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Baby steps to habituation

I’ve spent roughly half a lifetime living in a disposable nation. I’m accustomed to convenience and waste. It’s all I really ever known. If it doesn’t work then throw it out and get a new one. I never realized how much waste I produced. I’m trying to habituate myself to living green, or at least living more green. I do slip up from time to time though. One of the ways I’m trying to conserve water is to not flush the toilet every time. I read that 75% of water waste in the average American home occurs in the bathroom. By not flushing the toilet after every use I’m saving gallons of water each day. Sometimes I forget and reach for the handle to flush. I’ve done it all my life so it’s a hard habit to break.

One website I saw suggested that by not rinsing my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher I would save water. That may work for many people but I have a habit of leaving dishes out over night so sometimes food remnants get stuck to my dishes. I really need to rinse my dishes before they go into the dishwasher or they’ll likely need two or more runs to get them clean. Instead of leaving the water running while rinsing my dishes I now fill the sink with hot water and let them soak a bit. I’ve found that I can rinse about two sinks full of dishes with one sink full of water. I roughly timed how long it took to rinse all of my dishes and compared it to how long it takes to fill the sink. I would estimate that I’m using about 70% to 80% less water this way.

This morning as I was making my second cup of coffee I threw the coffee grinds from the first cup in the trash. This is another habit I’m trying to break. I keep a container on the counter for my coffee grinds. Worms love them and now that I’m composting my food scraps I need to habituate myself to putting the grinds in the container and not the trash. I instinctively throw the cardboard tube from toilet paper and paper towels in the trash. Since it’s recyclable I need to remember to put it in with the recycling or save it for worm bedding. I’m sure that after doing these things for a while they will become habit. As I start to develop better habits living a greener lifestyle will likely seem effortless.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

My GPS is helping me be green

I didn’t realize how much paper and ink I used. I recycled all of my paper in the mixed paper bin out by the dumpster in my apartment complex. I wonder if I would have done that if it wasn’t so convenient. Maybe I would just throw my paper in the trash. Either way, it just doesn’t matter anymore. Most of the paper and ink I used was to print directions. I’m a network engineer and as such I spend quite a bit of my time traveling from client to client. At 2-3 pages for directions for each client it added up to quite a lot of printing. I had thought about saving the directions for each of my clients but then I’d be carrying around a trunk load of paper. Besides that, it would likely be just directions from either my home or my office to the client site. What would I do if I was going from one client to another? I’d have to print new directions.

As I was getting lost on my way to a client in Yonkers I realized that it didn’t matter how many pages I printed. It was just too tough to look at paper and drive in heavy traffic when you’re hopelessly lost. I saw a retailer that I don’t like to admit I shop at but it was the only thing around so I popped in and picked up a GPS. I didn’t spend a lot of money but it turned out to be a really wise investment. I got to where I was going and I no longer need to print directions. I have a small pad where I write the contact information, the phone number and the address. When I go out to my car I punch the address into my GPS and away I go. I can fit 6 clients on a single 5” X 7” piece of paper if I use both sides (and I do). Do you know how many pages of 8.5” X 11” I would need for that if I didn’t have my GPS? Too many.

When I realized how much less printing I’m doing I decided to power down my printer. What used to be continually on in now continually off. I don’t know how much electricity it saves but it’s one less of those constantly glowing lights in my life. Not only am I saving on electricity but I’m also saving on gas. Hardly any printing means hardly and trips to my local retailer to pick up paper and ink. It also means a reduced cost in transportation from the manufacturer to my retailer. And if that weren’t enough, it also means reduced costs from driving around trying to find out where the hell I’m going and how to get there.

So you see, my GPS is actually helping me to become more green.

Polystyrene and take-out food

In my previous post I mentioned that I bought a fancy worm bin for composting my food scraps. The bin arrived on Monday with instructions that told me I should have my worm bin set up and ready to go before my worms arrived. Well, that wasn’t the case. The worms arrived two days later and although I had the bin set up I didn’t have the bedding ready to go. Not a big deal but I decided I would just order some take-out from my favorite Chinese/Tex-Mex restaurant while I prepared the bedding for my worms. I don’t normally eat take-out but it’s sometimes a convenient time saver when you’re hungry but don’t care to spend the time fixing something to eat.

My food arrived promptly as it usually does but I was stunned to find out that my Mexican rice came in polystyrene instead of the plastic container they used to use. This was disappointing for two reasons. First, I reuse the plastic containers. The second reason for being disappointed was that now I have to dispose of the polystyrene. My first reaction was “I can’t order from this place anymore, what will I do for those rare occasions when I decide to order take-out?” I’ve decided that I actually have a couple of options. Stop ordering take-out all together, find another place to order from that doesn’t use polystyrene, order something that doesn’t come in polystyrene, or a final option that I was surprised had even occurred to me. Instead of having my food delivered I could pick it up and bring the containers I have from previous deliveries. I’m betting that if I ask that they put my food in my containers or lose my business they will likely comply. I’ll let you know how this works out next time I order.

Vermiculture (worm composting)

I’ve heard that 15% of everything that goes into our landfills is food. I’ve also heard that the average American throws out a pound of food a day. I haven’t verified this information so I can’t really say if this is fact or not. Since food that decays in our landfills produces methane gas and since methane gas is supposedly more detrimental to global warming than CO2 I’ve decided to do something about my food scraps.

Being a single guy who lives alone it’s tough to keep produce fresh. Most people probably just throw their food scraps in the trash. I know I used to. Banana peels, broccoli stems, etc. When I realized how much food waste I was throwing out I decided to compost it instead.

I bought something called a “Worm Factory”. It’s just a fancy worm bin used for vermiculture or worm composting. Now there are a plethora of websites that will show you how to make your own but I decided just to buy one. It was pretty easy to set up and my worms arrived just the other day. The red worms that I’m using will consume half their body weight each day of food scraps. Since I bought two pounds of worms I should be able to dispose of a pound of food each day. I’ll keep you posted on that.

I’m not really surprised by people’s reactions when I tell them I have a bin of worms in my apartment that I use for disposing of my food scraps. There are a lot of misconceptions about the whole process. My purpose here is not to dispel these misconceptions but I will tell you that if you think a worm bin will smell bad or attract pests you can do a search in your favorite search engine and find out that’s not the case. A properly maintained worm bin doesn’t smell like rotting food or attract insects or rodents.

I’ll post some pictures of my “Worm Factory” in later posts. Making your own worm bin is a very easy and inexpensive endeavor. If you’d care to see what’s involved just do a search. I would also be glad to post some links if anyone is interested.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Fluorescent light

Most of the electricity we use is produced by burning fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of energy reports that more than 85% of the energy we use comes from fossil fuels and since they are not a renewable source of energy I am looking to reduce my dependence on them. One of the ways I’m trying to do that is by reducing the amount of electricity I use.

I started to replace my incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Compact fluorescents use roughly 26% of the wattage as a comparable incandescent bulb. If I understand this correctly (and I hope that I do) this means that I should use 74% less electricity to light my apartment with using nothing but compact fluorescent light as opposed to incandescent light. I’ve noticed that there is a slight delay between turning on my light switch and the light actually coming on. I’ve also noticed that it takes a few seconds for a compact fluorescent light to give off the maximum amount of light when it’s turned on. I can live with that.

Some folks that I’ve talked to about using fluorescent light in the home feel that it doesn’t give off the same kind of light and for them that’s enough of a reason not to use them. I’ve also talked to people that use fluorescents that can tell the difference in light but don’t seem to mind it. I honestly can’t tell the difference. I was out to dinner with my parents this evening and after dinner we went back to their place. They had also started to replace their incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. I hadn’t noticed but my mom said she was able to tell the difference in the light given off by each type of bulb. It didn’t seem to bother her though. Well, long story short (or short story long) I don’t think that compact fluorescent light bulbs are the same as the shop lights with the long tubes that we’re all familiar with. I am quite content using my fluorescent lights.

One final note here…compact fluorescent light bulbs can last up to eight years but they do contain mercury. Although they can save electricity and therefore reduce the amount of fossil fuels I consume I realize that I will need to dispose of them in a responsible fashion after they have outlived their usefulness.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

A Greener Me - The Introduction

I never thought I'd be a blogger.

I've recently become a Planet Green junkie. My favorite show is "Wasted". After watching the show I started thinking about my own carbon footprint. It's pretty scary to think what I'm doing to the planet. I decided that I was going to be more conscious about my lifestyle and the choices that I make.

I'm an apartment dweller so there's some definite disadvantages to living green. I don't have the option to install solar panels on my roof or install a solar hot water heater. Purchasing 'Energy Star' appliances isn't really an option for me either. Rather than throw my hands up in the air asking "what can I do?" I decided to find out what I can really do to make a difference given my current circumstances.

Aside from the usual things like turning off lights when I'm not in a room and adjusting my heat and A/C there must be more I can do. The purpose of this blog is to document my findings, adjust my actions and share them with anyone that's interested. I'm not looking to change the world, I'm just looking to change me. I have absolutely no intention of forcing my views and opinions on anyone else but I sincerely hope that others will share their suggestions of living green with me.

Americans account for 5% of the world's population yet consume nearly a quarter of the world's resources. I find this appalling. You may not. If you're of like mind and/or are looking to change the course of things I invite you to share your ideas and suggestions with me. You may or may not be able to change the world but there's a good chance you'll be able to change this American.

I hope that my efforts here will at least offer an interesting diary of one individual's attempt to tread more lightly on the planet that we all share.

I guess I'm a blogger now.