We tend to buy dishwashers to save time, but dishwashers can also save water, energy, and money. Hand-washing a full load of dishes consumes an average of 27 gallons of water. Conventional dishwashers average 6 to 10 gallons per load. An Energy Star-rated dishwasher uses less than six gallons (some use as little as 1.5 gallons).
The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that, compared with hand-washing, an efficient dishwasher can save you more than $40 in energy costs and 5,000 gallons of water per year. You can further reduce energy and water use by:
~Scraping food from dishes instead of rinsing them, which the DOE estimates can use up to 20 gallons of water per load. If you can’t fill your dishwasher right away, you can use the “rinse and hold” feature if needed to keep foods from sticking—this still uses less water than hand-rinsing.
~Turning off the heated-dry option, which increases a dishwasher’s energy consumption by 15 to 50 percent.
~Running the dishwasher only when full (but leaving room between dishes for water to circulate).
For more green tips go to http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/greentips/
Are you turning to energy-hungry air conditioning for relief this summer? These suggestions may help you save money/energy. If buying a new AC, select a unit that removes about 20 BTUs per square foot of space. Also, be sure to select an Energy Star unit -- the most efficient.
Room air conditioners should be installed in a shaded area, away from trees and shrubs. The unit should fit snugly in place and be airtight. Set the air conditioner's thermostat as high as you can comfortably tolerate, then supplement with fans. Draw blinds and be sure windows are closed. Ceiling fans are a great investment and often take the place of air conditioning all together!
To have a cool home when you return from work or a trip, install a programmable thermostat that can turn on a central air system 30 minutes before your arrival. Clean or replace the filter often (usually every three months.) On cool evenings, an attic fan -- another great investment -- will pull in air through open windows; then when you close windows in the morning the house will remain cool until afternoon on most days.
There are so many good reasons to buy organic, not the least of which is protecting our soil and water. Furthermore, not all of the pesticides and herbicides used in conventional agriculture will wash off under the tap. The best way to avoid this residue on your produce is to buy organic.
You can reduce your exposure by as much as 80% if you avoid the most contaminated foods grown conventionally -- the “dirty dozen.” Here’s the list for 2010: Celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes, grapes. When making decisions about produce, it’s a good idea to concentrate on those twelve because they are the most likely to have high pesticide residues. Thanks to Sharon & Randy Huber for this suggestion.
Go to http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/332/the-new-dirty-dozen-12-foods-to-eat-organic-and-avoid-pesticide-residue.html?pg=96 for more info.. Sharon has compiled a list of blueberry farms in our region that grow organic berries; contact her at sayhuber@yahoo.com
Make a joyful commitment to Ethical Eating for 40 days to honor the 40th anniversary of Earth Day (April 21.)
The Ethical Eating Core Team at the Unitarian Universalist Association invites us to take part in this campaign. Did you know that the world’s current consumption levels will have us raising 120 billion animals a year by 2050? This would require using more land for agriculture than exists. And even if we could, it’s unlikely the atmosphere, land and water could handle it.
If the idea of a plant-based diet scares you a little, try going to EarthSave International, www.earthsave.org. Their website is very helpful especially for those who are transitioning to -- or just trying out -- a plant-based diet. If you contribute to EarthSave you will receive a complimentary subscription to Vegetarian Times, a great resource for the novice or experienced veggie cook.
Thanks to Andrea Cohen-Kiener of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network (IREJN) for these great ideas:
For Holiday planning think of the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle, and the three Gs: good for people, good for the planet and good for communities. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking.
Planning a family get together? Instead of paper plates, use compostable or nondisposable dishes, cloth napkins or ones made of recycled paper; real silverware or ones that will decompose. Plan to go vegetarian or use range grown meats and eggs; stay away from growth hormones and preservatives. Serve organic milk and free trade coffee.
Instead of wrapping paper, use reusable cloth, recycled wrapping paper, newspaper, decorate a paper bag or hide gifts for children to discover. Use old cards for gift tags. Save energy by using LED lights; available at www.shopipl.org. Use rechargeable batteries and lead free candles.
Consider celebrating the holidays in less commercialized ways: Try these:
Are you looking for great ways to recycle old things into new gift ideas for the holidays? Celebrate your holiday with little or no cost to you, and even better – a huge savings for the environment. For a few great ideas or some simple tips, contact Heather Reiss. Photocopied instructions are available from Heather upon request. Ideas include homemade incense burning bottles, felted items, and recycled candles, to name a few.
When temperatures rise, people instinctively resort to air conditioning. But that comfort comes at a price: in 2005, for example, household air conditioning accounted for about $24 billion in energy costs and 171 million tons of global warming emissions. Consider these energyefficient alternatives:
Whole-house fans installed in the ceiling pull cool evening and morning air into the house, while forcing hot air out through the attic. They use just one-tenth the electricity of a comparably sized air conditioner.
Ceiling fans help circulate the air, making it feel cooler. You can even run a ceiling fan in conjunction with an air conditioner set 4ºF higher than you otherwise would, with no change in comfort and less energy use overall.
Passive cooling strategies include planting deciduous trees on the south side of your home to help block sunlight in the summer but allow it through in the winter; using solar screens-this window-covering fabric blocks up to 90 percent of incoming solar heat without obscuring your view; placing awnings on west-facing windows which can reduce solar heat gain by 77%.
If you do decide an air conditioner is necessary, buy an Energy Star-rated model sized for your needs.
Most of at UUS:E are avid recyclers, but being reminded about items that are not recyclable is good occasionally. If you “contaminate” the bins you run the risk of your entire batch being shipped off to the dump. Be familiar with your town’s rules. Meanwhile here's the short list of common items that don't belong in the recycling bin, no matter what your zip code:
• Pizza boxes. The oil from pizza can contaminate cardboard boxes, making it impossible to process them into clean paper.
• Napkins and paper towels. It's not the paper goods themselves that present a problem, but the fact that they're typically used to wipe up food, cleaning products, and other "hazardous waste."
• Sticky notes. Their size, color, and the adhesive strip make them a better bet for the trash bin.
• Plastic caps. Curbside programs won't recycle them, but Aveda collects them and turns them into new packaging: Aveda
• Wet paper. Paper fibers that have been exposed to water are shorter and therefore less valuable to paper mills, making it unprofitable to collect and recycle.
Most of the eggs people consume do not come from hens roaming around a barnyard, but from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where thousands of chickens are kept in cages stacked several rows high. The resulting layers of accumulated manure generate high levels of air pollutants and health hazards. Various claims found on egg packaging imply that their eggs are produced under more humane or environmentally safe conditions, but this may or may not be true. Here’s what you should know when you see such claims in the grocery store: Only one label in the marketplace establishes government-backed standards that are verified by independent, accredited certifiers, and that is Certified organic. The stringent USDA standards require that the hens be fed with 100 percent organic feed that cannot contain animal by-products; they cannot be fed or treated with antibiotics; sick animals must be treated but then diverted from the organic food stream; the hens must have access to the outdoors. Other claims don’t necessarily mean much. “Free-range” means they have the “opportunity” to go outdoors. “Cage-free” means they are in uncaged hen-houses, but there’s no requirement for outdoor access. “Natural” simply means minimally processed and containing no artificial ingredients.* *Info from Union of Concerned Scientists at www.ucsaction.org/
Last month I shared a green tip about saving energy when doing the laundry, and I asked you, the reader, to share your ideas. Happily, we heard from Jay Stewart, who gives us this great tip: "We all know that a slow drip wastes water and a slow drip from the hot water facet also wastes heat energy. A year or so ago I realized I had a habit that wasted lots more heat energy than a slow hot water drip. I would wash my hands quickly and always use my left hand to turn on the water, which is usually the hot water side (at least for those of us that have two valves.) I seldom waited long enough for the hot water to reach the spigot, so I was just heating the pipes near the hot water tank. This action was equivalent to several cups of hot water drip. Now I (almost) habitually reach across to the right valve to turn on the cold water for the quick wash." Thanks, Jay. Let's hear from others out there.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could share our ideas for greening our lives? Are there little tricks you have discovered in your quest to be more sustainable? Here's an example of something I do that may not be "pure green" but it does reduce my carbon output. As you know the clothes dryer is a big gobbler of electricity, so the green solution is to hang the laundry to dry. This can be a problem for some of us. Perhaps it's inclement weather, or perhaps you live in a condo that doesn't allow clothes lines, or maybe you don't like the stiff-as-a-board result of line drying. So, you resort to the clothes dryer. Here's my little trick: If I put the wet laundry into the dryer and let it toss at high heat for ten minutes, then take it out and hang the items on hangers or a drying rack, the clothes dry soft and wrinkle- free. Any items that would have needed ironing if hung directly from the washer do not need ironing, and best of all, I have just eliminated about 40 or 50 minutes of running the electric dryer. This, by the way, also works for towels (yes, they'll be soft!)
The heating season is upon us. Here are a few ways to cut heating costs and thereby reduce the carbon dioxide that causes global warming. Almost 50% of all heat escapes through glass. Just by adding insulating window coverings such as thermal-lined draperies you can save as much as $28 per window. You can also use clear, plastic sheets to insulate windows. Open shades and drapes on the sunny side during the day (not at night, of course) and let the sun help warm the house. When not home lower thermostat to 55; when home, no higher than 68 (with a heavy sweater or fleece jacket 65 works for me;) at night no higher than 60 (better yet, add another blanket and set it to 58!)
With the onset of the cold season we may soon be unearthing those "dry clean only" items
from storage. We mentioned before that there are a few earth-friendly dry cleaners around, but few
and far between. Now there are “Home Dry Cleaning Kits” available. This way you avoid using
perchloroethylene or “perc,” the potentially dangerous chemical used by most commercial dry cleaners.
Find out about the dangers of perc and how to order the home dry cleaning kits at
www.greenyour.com.
In fact, the website greenyour.com will
give you info on how to “green” just about anything you can think of. Book mark that one!
If you’re trying to be earth-friendly in your choice of fresh fruits and vegetables, then you know how frustrating it can be at times. Here is a great little tip (and “little-known” I suspect) about reading those tiny stickers affixed to the produce. There are numbers on there which are referred to as “Price Look Up” Codes or PLU codes. Here is the tip: If there are four digits in this number the produce was “conventionally” grown (i.e. the usual herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, etc. were used.) If the PLU code contains five digits it will mean one of two things: If the first digit is 8 that means the item has been genetically modified. If the first digit is a 9, the produce has been organically grown. Just remember, “nine is fine.”
Here is a list of energy-saving tips you can employ, showing the percentage of energy saved. Some you are already doing, others you can strive for. This is only half of the complete list. For more details and for the rest of the tips, go to www.coopamerica.org and click on “23 Steps Toward Energy Efficiency.”
There are so many ways you can help the earth with your
food choices. Here’s one: buying
locally-grown products keeps tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere
because so much of
what you find in supermarkets is shipped in from all over the world. Here’s
another: it takes ten
times more fossil fuel to produce a calorie of meat than a calorie of plant
food. Solutions: 1) Buy
fresh local produce in season and freeze or preserve for later use. 2) Eat
plant-based meals
two or three times a week.
Find Connecticut farmers’ markets, farms, farm stands, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture,) as well as restaurants and retailers that source from local farms at: www.buyctgrown.com. To find Connecticut’s organic food and farms go to www.ctnofa.org.
We all use toilet paper. Many of us use paper towels, tissues, and/or paper napkins (please consider switching to cloth napkins if you do ! ) Did you know that very few manufacturers make these throwaway products from recycled paper? Here is an interesting statistic from the Natural Resources Defense Council: If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees. Wow!
Please consider buying only products made from recycled paper; we do it here at UUS:E as part of our Green Sanctuary status. Also consider sending a message to paper giant Kimberly-Clark, maker of Scott, Cottonelle, Kleenex and Viva, telling them to stop using virgin wood for throwaway paper products. It saves forests and helps reduce global warming pollution.
Are you sending flowers for Easter and Mothers Day? Did you know that you can purchase “fair trade” bouquets? Similar to Fair Trade Coffee, you can purchase “fair trade” flowers, or VeriFlora certified flowers. VeriFlora growers don’t use pesticides that sicken flower workers, and they agree to respect local labor rights and environmental regulations. We’ll spare you the horror stories, but the production of most of those lovely bouquets we buy are grown and processed offshore and require painful, low-paid labor by a largely female workforce. It may not be easy to find Veriflora certified flowers, but their website www.veriflora.com encourages consumers to ask for them and to request local florists to offer them. (This would at least raise awareness of the problem and perhaps even result in local availability.)
Is bottled water better? According the the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), tap water is held to more stringent quality standards than bottled water, and some brands of bottled water are just tap water in disguise. Our increasing consumption of bottled water fuels an unsustainable industry that takes a heavy toll on the environment. Approximately 1.5 million gallons of oil annually are used to make plastic water bottles, while transporting these bottles burns thousands more gallons of oil. In addition, the burning of fossil fuels used to generate the energy that powers the manufacturing process emits global warming pollution into the atmosphere. More bad news: Only about 10 percent of water bottles are recycled, leaving the rest in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose.
The next time you feel thirsty, forgo the bottle and turn to the tap. You’ll lower your environmental impact, save money, and if you wish you can buy a pitcher or faucet filter to remove trace chemicals and bacteria. . Finally, limit your bottled water purchases for those times when you’re traveling in countries where water quality is questionable.
Home electronics with digital displays, remote controls or wall-cube plugs suck enough electricity 24/7 to power your entire house for a month if you unplugged them all. This "phantom load" is the energy consumed by home electronics 24 hours a day, seven days a week-even when they're turned completely off. These devices continuously draw electricity. The list includes (but is not limited to) TiVos, coffee pots, cordless and mobile phones, toaster ovens, modems-even nightlights and baby monitors. Some appliances, such as VCRs, can actually use more energy when in standby mode than when actively playing! Fight back: unplug appliance or turn off surge protector when device not in use!
More info at www.thedailygreen.com.
Buy organic cotton!
Conventionally grown cotton requires about 1/3 lb. of pesticides to produce a cotton T-shir; also between 200-300 lbs. of chemical fertilizer is used on one acre of cotton in the U.S. About 90 percent of that fertilizer washes off the plant, ending up in water supplies and habitat. Since growing organic also requires crop rotation, a field that is used for cotton this year could be used for the food the next. So, if we get a large amount of cotton production moved to organic we may help expand the world's access to organic food supply. And for added bonus, organic cotton is getting trendy! Are your ready to be part of the trend! Send your green tip idea to Kat Dargan.
Did you know that a car left running for more than ten seconds burns more gas than shutting it off and restarting it? It’s true. And, in Connecticut, there are state laws that prohibit vehicles from idling for more than three minutes when not at a traffic signal. In fact, if left running for the same amount of time, an idling car causes more pollution than a car traveling at standard speed. This applies to all vehicles, not just diesel buses and trucks. (I think those big rigs at truck stops haven't got the message!) Anti-idling regulations were developed as a way to improve air quality and immediately reduce our exposure to the health impacts of exhaust because 1) Idling vehicles create emissions that contribute toward smog and ground-level ozone, and produce carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas;) and 2) Engine exhaust contains toxic air pollutants which can cause lung damage and aggravate respiratory conditions including asthma and bronchitis. So, remember, idling gets you nowhere (except deeper into environmental and respiratory trouble.) Learn more at www.ct.gov/dep.
