Green Living

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I have zilch respect for Al Gore, but on the other hand I have zilch respect for conspicuous consumers (many of whom think Gore is the shizzle, but they won’t give up their energy consuming life styles).

Me - I recycle plastic, aluminum, paper, and other metals. I don’t buy clothes that have to be drycleaned. I use airconditioning as little as possible. I drive a small car. I don’t fly. I am much easier on the planet than Gore (did I mention I have a very low opinion of him?) You can add most celebrities and congresscritters to that list as well.
 
djrakowski said:
This thread touches on one of my favorite topics. Here’s a few of the things we’ve done:
  1. Use compact fluorescent lightbulbs wherever possible. They use about a quarter of the electricity consumed by standard bulbs.
  2. Recycle - our city has two drop-off recycling centers, so to avoid using extra gas, I load up the back of my Saturn VUE with our recycling bins and make a stop on the way to the grocery store.
  3. Use petroleum-free household and personal care products as much as possible. For hosuecleaning, Seventh Generation makes some outstanding products, including a chlorine-free dishwasher detergent that’s scented with essential oils of lemon and green apple, and they add a pleasant scent to the kitchen while the machine is running. For personal care, we’ve replaced all shower soaps with JASON Naturals shower gel, which is also scented with essential oils, including lavender, apricot, aloe and tea tree oil. Our very sensitive 7-year old daughter can now take a bubble bath with no, ummmm, irritation.
  4. Combine errands into one trip to reduce fuel consumption, especially in winter.
  5. Buy organic any time the price isn’t too unreasonable, or when our budget can handle it.
  6. Keep the cars maintained - change the oil every 3000 miles, and ensure that the tires are filled to the recommended pressure level. This increases fuel economy.
  7. Use a digital thermostat to control heating/cooling during times of day you’re not in the house. There’s no need to heat and/or cool an empty house.
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Just curious, why not go 5,000 miles on an oil change? A few years ago I read that 5,000mi was about optimum so I tried it. Best I can tell it works fine. Toyota and Honda recommend it for all their cars not driven under adverse conditions. At $25 to $40 a pop you can save some money and use less oil.
 
tjm8 said:
Just curious, why not go 5,000 miles on an oil change? A few years ago I read that 5,000mi was about optimum so I tried it. Best I can tell it works fine. Toyota and Honda recommend it for all their cars not driven under adverse conditions. At $25 to $40 a pop you can save some money and use less oil.
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Saturn also recommends 5,000 miles between oil changes, but I do a lot of city driving in stop-and-go conditions, and I remember reading and/or hearing somewhere that those conditions cause engine oil to break down more quickly. Too, my dad was a mechanic, and he’s always recommended a 3,000 mile schedule.

Dan
 
Maria29, a million thanks for letting us know about freecycle.org!!!

There are 782 members in my town, and I’ve already responded to a woman who wants homeschooling materials, which I have in abundance.

I just advertised my used magazines on there, too, and the fabric as you suggested.

What a really fantastic idea and I hope others will take advantage of it, too.

Peace,
 
meeshy said:
Just saw something interesting on the National Geographic “Green Guide” website:

In answer to the question whether warming Arctic temperatures can be attributed primarily to greenhouse gases, the following information was given:

According to a study just released in the Journal of Geophysical Research, soot from burning coal, inefficient cook stoves and forest fires is carried up to the Arctic, where it darkens the snow. The dark snow then absorbs sunlight, more so than clean snow, and radiates more heat back into the air. The study’s authors have theorized that this effect has contributed anywhere from 0.5 to 1.5 degrees C of the Arctic’s overall 1.6 degree temperature increase. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is key to stopping warming across the globe, but reducing particulate air pollution is important for the health of the Arctic.

thegreenguide.com/quizzes/global_warming_on_the_brain_
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If we’d like to stop coal burning then we’d need to go nuclear. Unfortunately for us, environmentalists don’t like this either. It is the cleanest most efficient form of energy we have. We’ve go millions of cubic tons of coal dust we’re breathing in but we don’t want one cubic foot of nuclear waste. It’s just silly. Europe figured it out long ago.

As far as forest fires go…We can’t really stop those. Most of them are naturally occurring events and environmentalism has actually made this worse because we can’t touch the old growth which has made more fuel for the fires. I’ve actually had not one but two park rangers tell me the same thing. Outright bans for logging are bad for the environment because when a fire hits the fire is much bigger due to the fuel.
 
a little humor

Our lives are nothing but green…

Dad can I have a few dollars to put gas in the car?
Dad can I have some money to go to the movies?
Dad can I borrow (and I laught at that phrase) some money for pizza?

Love those kids

The green just flows like water…
 
A couple of things. First, on oil changes. Yes, 5k miles is totally fine on practically all modern cars using a brand name conventional oil. You can easily go up to 7k in many but if you have a slight head gasket leak that you’re unaware of your oil could severely thicken and sludge. Using the top tier synths, many folks are going up to 10-15k no problem.

Second, regarding the shampoo mentioned with tea tree oil and lavender extract. Both of these have been found to stimulate estrogen production in men and potentially cause gynecomastia (aka unnatural male breast enlargement).

Just food for thought.😉
 
We buy as much of our produce as we can in-season from the local farmers’ markets May-October. Many of the growers are pesticide-free, even if not certified “organic”. I think it cuts down on fuel use, not buying things out-of-season shipped in from 5000 miles away. And there’s no comparison between a fresh, locally grown tomato, and one of those hard pinkish orbs bred specifically for their ability to survive a cross-country journey in a crate.

But we do still like our bananas and the occasional pineapple or papaya, which unfortunately don’t grow so well in the continental US.

That, and I cut my small lawn with a push-reel mower, and edge with hand shears. I read somewhere that your average gas-powered lawn mower puts out as much pollution (probably particulates, uncombusted hydrocarbon, and carbon monoxide) as 60 modern cars. Because the mower doesn’t have a catalytic converter.

I would bike to work, except it’s 20 miles, up-and-down about 1000 feet, with no bike lanes, and people drive the winding mountain pass roads like complete reckless maniacs.:eek:
 
Well, we use cloth diapers on the baby. Perhaps on the toddler as well once we have the money to buy them.

We use non-disposable paper towels (heavy cloth wipes - we just use them as we need and toss them in the wash). This is because I noticed how wasteful I was using paper towels - one sheet to wipe a spill, one for a face, one for a nose blow, one to dust the windowsill, etc. So we figured we’d just go cloth and wash 'em.

We use cloth (butt) wipes on all the kids.

We use cloth toilet paper as well.

Ha! Gotcha on that one! :eek: 👍

We only buy wood toys (though we have plastic toys in the house from earlier purchases and gifts, we just don’t buy plastic anymore - one exception: Legos and some day, Playmobil).

And we barely use any heat in the winter.
Spring and Fall - windows are open for air rather and the thermostat is turned off.

We breastfeed.

That’s all I can think of. 🤷 I must admit, I don’t do all this to be “green” but to save $$$.
 
Cloth toilet paper, awesome!!!

I saw the PBS show “Pioneer House,” and they used cloth toilet paper in the outhouses. I guess everyone did, until toilet paper was marketed in the U.S. in 1857. (Supposedly they had it in China in 1391!!)

Cloth, I’m sure, cleans better. Can you tell us how you store it, etc.?

Peace,
 
meeshy said:
Cloth toilet paper, awesome!!!

I saw the PBS show “Pioneer House,” and they used cloth toilet paper in the outhouses. I guess everyone did, until toilet paper was marketed in the U.S. in 1857. (Supposedly they had it in China in 1391!!)

Cloth, I’m sure, cleans better. Can you tell us how you store it, etc.?

Peace,
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No - I was kidding about the cloth toilet paper. 😃 (read the line below it in my post)
 
Awwwww… I was really looking forward to reading your answer!!! And I’ve been thinking, all weekend, how a family of five would work out using cloth toilet paper! 😃

Peace,
 
meeshy said:
Awwwww… I was really looking forward to reading your answer!!! And I’ve been thinking, all weekend, how a family of five would work out using cloth toilet paper! 😃

Peace,
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Same way you’d deal with cloth pads or baby wipes. Not much difference between wiping baby’s butt with a cloth wipe and wiping an adult’s. I’ll tell you how it could work. Have a little basket of cloth wipes on the back of the commode and a little mini-pail next to the toilet to put the used ones in. Wash like you’d do cloth diapers. Good luck and let us know how it works out for you 🙂

Sancta, you had me going too! When you said “Ha, gotcha” I thought you meant you had everyone else beat on how “green” your family was 😃
 
CatholicSam said:
Sancta, you had me going too! When you said “Ha, gotcha” I thought you meant you had everyone else beat on how “green” your family was 😃
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Meeshy and Sam, you two are killing me. I’m actually sitting here at the pc with a red face 😊 , thinking that the entire CAF universe thinks that Sancta uses cloth toilet paper. I’ll bet no one’s dying to visit me, that’s for sure!!! 😃 😃 😃

This was the best laugh I’ve had in a long time…

Oh goodness!!!
 
They’ll take my Charmin when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.😛
 
I live with Mr. I’ve-had-it-with-loony-environmentalists, so anything green in our house has to be cost-effective and fairly easy.

And BTW, apparently sun spots and solar winds have a lot to do with exactly how much solar radiation reaches us; they are on a very long cycle and we’re at a point in the cycle that would seem to indicate increased radiation, which is why global warming is real… even on Mars! (I dunno, maybe it was the Mars Rover’s carbon footprint…)
  1. Garden! (note name…) Hubby hates veggies, but loves the lettuce I grow (because it hasn’t been bred for truckability… it may not travel well, but it tastes and looks better and you’ll eat more of it) We grow figs, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, beans, and lots of flowers and plants to give away to our parish and a local convent. And our milk, butter, and eggs are delivered on Tuesday morning by the local dairy. (yet another reason my parents think I’m beyond weird. 😛 )
  2. Compost and recycle. Use a mulching mower instead of one that bags the clippings; the clippings will fertilize the soil and break down without any more work from you, plus you don’t have to drag bags of stinky grass clippings to the curb.
  3. Air dry clothes. Ok, Hubby usually walks past the patio doors and comments, “Oh, look, the redneck clothesdryer is up again…” And if it isn’t windy enough to keep them from getting stiff, give them ten minutes in the dryer when they’re barely damp and everything fluffs right up.
  4. Whole house fan. You turn it on at night, it sucks in lots of good, cold air, then you shut it off and shut all of the windows first thing in the morning. Depending on your weather (and allergies), you can gain weeks of a/c free living in the spring and fall.
  5. Be happy with what you have! We drive our cars until they’re just about ready to quit. Cell phones don’t get replaced until they break. Ditto on the TV. Yes, we buy plastic toys, but we keep everything for the next baby instead of tossing it. And we send anything we dont’ want/can’t wear anymore to the local charity thrift store. Why sell the good stuff at a rummage and dump the junk on the charity?
  6. Think about your recreation. Don’t litter when you’re hiking. Rent the kayak or canoe instead of the jet ski (they spew like half their fuel into the water because of the way their engines are designed, plus people tend to tear up sensitive areas that are vital to marine life by screaming through shallow water on those things).
  7. Do a cleanup day or other activity. Save the Bay does water grass planting days. Several local organizations participate in waterway or park cleanups. This is great for kids, too. “Eeewww… there’s like a million cigarette butts over here!”
  8. Cloth diapers.
  9. Reuse whatever you can. Cardboard boxes get reused as packing boxes, play houses, paint drip catchers, etc. Plastic freezer bags get washed and reused. Scraps leftover from the new deck were turned into blocks for the kids and some nifty plant collars to keep the rabbits out of the bean seedlings next year.
  10. Turn off unused lights, don’t leave the water running while brushing your teeth, use cold water in the washing machine whenever possible, take shorter showers. Have houseplants to help filter out some of the off-gassing from paint, furniture, cleaners, etc.
Most of all, though, help your kids understand why it’s wasteful to have two trashcans and no recycling bins, why you think jet skis should be banned, why they should take care of their stuff so it lasts longer, etc. But don’t make the entire planet your problem, either; do what you can and don’t push the “green” until everyone is uncomfortable and resentful.

If I recycle, that’s one person. If I get my kids to understand it and do it, I’ve had a much longer impact.

“If everyone swept in front of his own house, the whole world would be clean.” Goethe
 
My wife and I recently started using FreeCycle (part of yahoo groups); there’s probably a group for your town/area. People post items they no longer want and are willing to give away for free; you just have to be quick to claim the items you want.

Organic produce is out of the question-way too expensive where we live, and in pretty poor condition when it reaches the supermarket. We would buy produce from our farmer’s market, but 5 tomatoes cost $10…I DON’T THINK SO!

We drive a 15 year-old car with 190,000 miles and keep it maintained. If a destination is within 1-2 miles, we’ll walk instead of drive (unless it’s below 32 outside). We rent an apartment close to where I work, so I can walk-we only need one car that way. Also, we buy used/second hand when possible. Ebay, Half.com, and Amazon have saved us $1000’s of dollars over the years.

Banking is done online, reducing paper. It’s also much more efficent and allows you to monitor your accounts for identity fraud.

Lastly, my wife makes clothes for our family using a vintage cast-iron sewing machine (we’re hardcore).
 
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