Friday, April 25, 2008
Manky's Recycling is Under Investigation
I thought I was good with the recycling because I take everything out to the recycle bin that they will let me put in there (they won't let me put paper in there - I should do something about paper). But then I heard some ugly rumors about how plastic recycling isn't actually recycling plastic. And it depends on what number plastic it is. Like the manufacturers tell you it works, so that you will buy their plastic things, and the truth is it only works 10% of the time, the rest doesn't get recycled. Uh oh. I'm doing research, both on my individual recycling company and on plastic recycling in general. Manky's recycling is: under investigation. Greenliness to be determined.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Green Electricity
Manky's electricity is green.
Lights: As the old lightbulbs burnt out we've phased in those stupid CFL bulbs that save so much electricity by training you not to turn on the lights - every time you do: AGGHH!!! negative reinforcement. After a few weeks you're totally trained to work in dim light. No really, since I've put one in my office I only use the light half as often. They contain mercury so if I ever drop one (and you know I'm a klutz) we'll have to call Poison Control and evacuate the neighbors before they go into convulsions and die. We drive out to IKEA to recycle them properly, burning gas all the way. Is this really green?
Renewable Energy: We've always paid extra to have 100% of our electricity come from renewable sources (or pay to build renewable sources in the future, or whatever). They tell us that 76% of our electricity comes from wind turbines and the rest comes from Biomass - burning garbage (is that really safe?)
Fewer kWh: We've cut our consumption of electricity. Saves wear and tear on the wind turbines. I did that last month because I was broke. But it's green, anyway! We're down to 11kWh/day for the whole apartment. Our bill is only $21.25 per person. Our March usage in a 4 room apartment with two people, is the same or lower than my March usage in a two room apartment by myself. Having a roommate saves electricity! (Especially when that roommate insists on using CFL's.)
The changes we made used 6kWh less per day, and saved us $20 this month. The thermostat used to be set at 65*F - last month we turned it off. Even when it was 48* outside at night. We studied sitting in our beds with quilts over us, or brought laprobes to our desks. My feet are always cold and cold air sinks so I wore two pairs of socks. When it got hot we refused to turn on the AC. (Our best estimate is that AC uses about 20kWh per day - more than double our current consumption.) We opened the windows at night to cool down the apartment and closed them during the day, drew the shades against the sun, and pointed box fans at ourselves - we even shut off my little oven-room for two days when it got really hot. So we haven't run the climate control all month. Strangely, it wasn't that bad. It sounds bad - but it's totally comfortable to snuggle with a quilt while doing my homework. And if you've got the fan pointed at you while you're sitting at your desk, you doan really care that the kitchen is approaching 100*F. It's going to cool off tonight when you open all the windows, anyway.
A long time ago I had, in a fit of romantic folly, bought tons of candles and, since I live in the real world, never used them. When we were both here studying I would light a candle in the bathroom and we wouldn't turn on those lights at all. That wasn't really burdensome - showering by candlelight actually feels nicer than showering by cheap white florescent light.
Phantom Power: I've totally protected my office from Phantom Power draws. My computers / lamps / speakers / printer are on a power strip on the desk that I turn off at night, and when I'm in class. All my gizmo chargers and the bread machine are on a table with a power strip and don't get plugged in at all, unless they're working.
To Do List:
Lights: As the old lightbulbs burnt out we've phased in those stupid CFL bulbs that save so much electricity by training you not to turn on the lights - every time you do: AGGHH!!! negative reinforcement. After a few weeks you're totally trained to work in dim light. No really, since I've put one in my office I only use the light half as often. They contain mercury so if I ever drop one (and you know I'm a klutz) we'll have to call Poison Control and evacuate the neighbors before they go into convulsions and die. We drive out to IKEA to recycle them properly, burning gas all the way. Is this really green?
Renewable Energy: We've always paid extra to have 100% of our electricity come from renewable sources (or pay to build renewable sources in the future, or whatever). They tell us that 76% of our electricity comes from wind turbines and the rest comes from Biomass - burning garbage (is that really safe?)
Fewer kWh: We've cut our consumption of electricity. Saves wear and tear on the wind turbines. I did that last month because I was broke. But it's green, anyway! We're down to 11kWh/day for the whole apartment. Our bill is only $21.25 per person. Our March usage in a 4 room apartment with two people, is the same or lower than my March usage in a two room apartment by myself. Having a roommate saves electricity! (Especially when that roommate insists on using CFL's.)
The changes we made used 6kWh less per day, and saved us $20 this month. The thermostat used to be set at 65*F - last month we turned it off. Even when it was 48* outside at night. We studied sitting in our beds with quilts over us, or brought laprobes to our desks. My feet are always cold and cold air sinks so I wore two pairs of socks. When it got hot we refused to turn on the AC. (Our best estimate is that AC uses about 20kWh per day - more than double our current consumption.) We opened the windows at night to cool down the apartment and closed them during the day, drew the shades against the sun, and pointed box fans at ourselves - we even shut off my little oven-room for two days when it got really hot. So we haven't run the climate control all month. Strangely, it wasn't that bad. It sounds bad - but it's totally comfortable to snuggle with a quilt while doing my homework. And if you've got the fan pointed at you while you're sitting at your desk, you doan really care that the kitchen is approaching 100*F. It's going to cool off tonight when you open all the windows, anyway.
A long time ago I had, in a fit of romantic folly, bought tons of candles and, since I live in the real world, never used them. When we were both here studying I would light a candle in the bathroom and we wouldn't turn on those lights at all. That wasn't really burdensome - showering by candlelight actually feels nicer than showering by cheap white florescent light.
Phantom Power: I've totally protected my office from Phantom Power draws. My computers / lamps / speakers / printer are on a power strip on the desk that I turn off at night, and when I'm in class. All my gizmo chargers and the bread machine are on a table with a power strip and don't get plugged in at all, unless they're working.
To Do List:
- Brian is going to do the power-strip thing to stop phantom power from his huge desktop, speakers, television, and four gaming systems. Right Brian?
- Manky is going to stop taking the elevator just because because she's tired.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Day One
The problem with Going Green is deciding WHAT you want to Go Green WITH. What am I really worried about? My Carbon Footprint? Plastics consumption? Sustainable harvesting? Organic food? Locally grown food? Chemical / hormone / carcinogenic-free food? Cruelty-free products? Fair-trade products? Environmental preservation? Endangered animals? Biodiversity? Air pollution? Water pollution? Water conservation? Unfair labour practices, sweatshops, and child labour? Do I care if it took 2/3 pound of toxic pesticides to produce this t-shirt I'm wearing? Do I care that the subsidies that allowed its American production are seriously and intentionally damaging huge swaths of the Developing World? Do I care that a six year old chained to a loom made it for me? What about politics? Should I avoid goods that send money to people who have bad human rights records or fund terrorism? (No more diamonds and heroin for me! - And nothing made in China!) Should I be a weekend eco-warrior? Should I pick up trash on the highway? Should I firebomb mink farms? Do I want to be a vegetarian? What if the fair-trade cruelty-free tofu comes in a plastic container? What if the byproducts of tofu production are bad for the local watershed? Is technology the enemy, or our savior? Should I move to a farm and slaughter my own hamburgers? How do I balance this with my other developing lifestyle - taking better care of my body? Do I have to give up the gym? No more Luna bars? How will I find sugar-free cookies? Do I want to buy carbon offsets and call it a day? Do I want to join the Compact and go a year without buying anything? Do I want to be No Impact Manky?
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