Becoming less wasteful/more socially responsible

Actually, Lazy's comment about kids is very interesting to me. A lot of people I know who think that Global Warming is a vast anti-American conspiracy engineered by the UN, happen to have kids. I don't, yet I care about the environment. It sometimes makes me wonder why... After all, if people with kids don't worry about the kind of world their kids will inherit, then why should I? As long as earth remains livable for the next 60 years, I should be all set...
 
We've always tried to recycle as much as we can. Lately, we've done the following:

- Bought stainless steel water bottles for DW so that she doesn't use bottled water every day. Why stainless steel? She likes the taste better than the Nalgene type plastic bottles. We did this about a year ago and can't believe we waited so long!
- As with other posters, take totes to grocery store. Also, refuse plastic bags as much as possible if didn't remember to bring the tote since we can carry it in our hand, although we do look like we're stealing groceries!
- Researching bags for take for buying fruits and vegetables. I'm not talking about the plastic bags during checkout, I'm talking the clear small bags that are very hard to reuse. We found a great, lightweight drawstring mesh bag but they are totally overpriced.

Plastics use really bothers me, I know it's a very small amount, but I hate to see these things end up in the ocean. Packaging is especially frustrating. Costco sells a bunch of apples that are individually encased in a hard plastic thing, presumably to keep them from being dented. What a waste!

Also have thought about bringing a container to a restaurant in case we have leftovers. I think this will definitely put us in the "green weirdo" category! Some restaurants seem to use a tremendous amount of packaging for leftovers.

Even with this and driving fuel efficient cars and having a small house, I think our resource use is probably above average since we fly a lot and have an infant.
 
FIREdreamer said:
Actually, Lazy's comment about kids is very interesting to me. A lot of people I know who think that Global Warming is a vast anti-American conspiracy engineered by the UN, happen to have kids. I don't, yet I care about the environment. It sometimes makes me wonder why... After all, if people with kids don't worry about the kind of world their kids will inherit, then why should I? As long as earth remains livable for the next 60 years, I should be all set...
Click to expand...

We are in the no kids camp and I must admit that I find it frustrating that family members with kids seem to care less about what is going on with the environment than we do. For a brief while I did think who gives a toss as we don't have an investment in what happens to this planet after we pop our clogs, and it is easy to argue if everyone else is doing nothing why should I sacrifice. However, the bottom line is we enjoy doing environmentally friendly things when there is a good affordable option. There is some reward, some feeling of satisfaction when instead of taking out 3-4 bags of garbage every week, we now only have 1 due to our recycling.
 
ERD50 said:
I just think this whole plastic bag thing is blown way out of proportion. I just weighed out 10 bags - less than 2 ounces of plastic. Plus, we get a second use out of almost all of them. I suspect the time taken to discuss this is just distracting from bigger fish.
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I thought about this, would agree with you, and almost didn't post that, but here's why I did:

1. The sheer number of plastic bags used is phenomenal. Every time you buy something you get one, and every time you buy groceries you get several.

2. You're not giving up anything or sacrificing when you use your own. It's much better with cloth bags, but people just don't realize it.
 
FIREdreamer said:
Actually, Lazy's comment about kids is very interesting to me. A lot of people I know who think that Global Warming is a vast anti-American conspiracy engineered by the UN, happen to have kids...
Click to expand...

I agree, but I have three kids... hmmm....must rationalize...

My oldest is earning his degree in BioChem. He has already done work with the USDA testing bio-fuel production processes. Maybe he will go on to develop processes to reduce pollution, far in excess of what he has added as an individual? How did that sound? Do I get a carbon credit? ;)

TromboneAl said:
I thought about this, would agree with you, and almost didn't post that, but here's why I did:

1. The sheer number of plastic bags used is phenomenal. Every time you buy something you get one, and every time you buy groceries you get several.

2. You're not giving up anything or sacrificing when you use your own. It's much better with cloth bags, but people just don't realize it.
Click to expand...

I thought about that - no definitive answer, but sometimes I wonder, if you did a real 'cradle-to-grave' analysis of those tote bags, would they really be that much better than plastic film? I don't have one handy to weigh (they are in DWs car), but I would guess there is about 100x the 'stuff' in one tote vs a film bag. Cotton as a crop is an environmental disaster. They have to get washed (water and soap wasted, the soap came in packaging...), and eventually wear out, or get stained, and are tossed or lost. Probably still better, but I wonder how much - it's probably mice nuts compared to just about anything.

But my real point was that there seems to be so much more focus on the bag, rather than the packaging of the products *in* the bag.

If 'we' (as a society) were really interested in this, I could see where packaging could be taxed. Give different packaging materials a 'score' based on their energy consumption and recycle-ability, multiplied by it's weight. That would give the manufacturers some incentive to provide more environmentally friendly packaging. Give credits for effective in-store recycling, etc. As Dylan said, 'money doesn't talk, it SCREAMS'.

-ERD50
 
I actually agree.

I don't expect anything meaningful to happen regarding packaging. IIRC this was a cause of the month years ago (80's? 90's?), probably around the time individually wrapped cheese food slices came out, but nothing has been done, and the situation is worse.
 
TromboneAl said:
The sheer number of plastic bags used is phenomenal. Every time you buy something you get one, and every time you buy groceries you get several.
Click to expand...

They're everywhere - stuck in trees, blowing down the street... I was surveying a landfill once and plastic bags were everywhere - probably the most common item in a landfill. And they'll last for hundreds of years. Its good that people are starting to use earth friendly alternatives.
 
Last summer I stayed in a beach house in Costa Rica for 2 weeks. I was astounded at the quantity of plastic junk on the beach. You could literally shovel it. Everything that you can possibly imagine that is made from plastic was there. I don't know if this is typical around the world or if trash is dumped offshore there and washes in.

In any case, it certainly made a lasting impression on me. :p
 
I think littering should carry the death penalty.

There's simply no excuse for it. If someone can't put forth the miniscule amount of effort required to carry their junk to the trash, I have to wonder how they approach their other responsibilities to society that carry a heavier burden. It just strikes me that people like that must be a drain on society.

Fry 'em, says I! (and I'm only half joking, only 1/4 joking on some days....).

OK, I'll compromise - 80 hours community service work, picking up litter. Save the chair for the third offense.

Put 'not returning the shopping cart to the cart corral' in that category, too. I wish COSTCO would rescind the card of any shopper that leaves the cart loose in the lot. We don't need people like that, probably the same ones who abandon their cart , blocking the middle of the aisle!

-ERD50 (in a generous mood this AM)
 
The worst is when you see someone littering. When you see a family of four at a rest stop just toss their McDonald's trash out the window, you lose all faith in humans. I'll pull the switch.
 
TromboneAl said:
The worst is when you see someone littering. When you see a family of four at a rest stop just toss their McDonald's trash out the window, you lose all faith in humans. I'll pull the switch.
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't go so far as advocating capital punishment. But in these parts, it's not uncommon to shoot out their tires. No jury would convict you. :)
 
TromboneAl said:
I'll pull the switch.
Click to expand...

So what is the most energy efficient way to execute someone?

Electricity vs lethal injection? Solar powered electric chair (All executions to take place at high noon?).

Soylent Green?

-ERD50
 
TromboneAl said:
The worst is when you see someone littering. When you see a family of four at a rest stop just toss their McDonald's trash out the window, you lose all faith in humans. I'll pull the switch.
Click to expand...

:D I remember visiting Wisconsin when the first littering laws were in place growing up and hearing people say that they didnt want to litter because the fine was so high...things looked clean...now the ditches are full of trash and they need volunteers every year to pick the stuff out...I suppose more signs and higher fines would do the trick...
 
ERD50 said:
So what is the most energy efficient way to execute someone?

Electricity vs lethal injection? Solar powered electric chair (All executions to take place at high noon?).

Soylent Green?

-ERD50
Click to expand...


Gravity?
 
FIREdreamer said:
Actually, Lazy's comment about kids is very interesting to me. A lot of people I know who think that Global Warming is a vast anti-American conspiracy engineered by the UN, happen to have kids. I don't, yet I care about the environment. It sometimes makes me wonder why... After all, if people with kids don't worry about the kind of world their kids will inherit, then why should I? As long as earth remains livable for the next 60 years, I should be all set...
Click to expand...


Good point. After all, Al Gore has 4 kids, doesn't he?
 
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youbet said:
Good point. After all, Al Gore has 4 kids, doesn't he?
Click to expand...
Yes; and self-appointed environmental crusader David Suzuki has five children. Bunch of hypocrites.

People are free to have as many kids as they wish. But since overpopulation is the number-one cause of damage to the earth, Gore and Suzuki have absolutely no moral right to lecture the rest of us about our choices.

Another sign of hypocrisy by the above-mentioned global warming zealots:

(1) Gore lives in a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville. He also has a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, and a rural getaway in Carthage, Tennesse.

FWIW, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research reports that his Nashville home alone uses more electricity monthly than the average American household uses in a year [see further Tennessee Center for Policy Research].

(2) Suzuki lives in a beachfront mansion in Kitsilano (a pricey Vancouver neighbourhood) and also owns a large estate named 'Tangwyn' on British Columbia's Quadra Island.

Talk about environmental footprints! And of course both of them are inveterate jet-setters who love world travel.

P.S. This site is satirical: Al Gore's Hummer Club (Gore actually drives a Mercury Mariner hybrid). But Suzuki really does cruise around in a huge diesel-burning tour bus [see further winnipegsun.com - Tom Brodbeck - Eco-icon not so green]. Incredible! :rolleyes:
 
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Nords said:
If there was an easier way to cook pasta in the convection microwave then we'd do that too.
Click to expand...

Ahem...don't know nothing about solar panels or composting, but I can offer a very efficient method of cooking pasta in the microwave! This little plastic cooking box was invented by a Delphi engineer here in Michigan and offered for sale at a local market. I bought it on a whim -- thinking it wasn't going to work. I was wrong. Perfect pasta from the microwave. Really.

Here's their website: Fasta Pasta - Microwave Pasta Cooker
 
Achiever51 said:
Ahem...don't know nothing about solar panels or composting, but I can offer a very efficient method of cooking pasta in the microwave! This little plastic cooking box was invented by a Delphi engineer here in Michigan and offered for sale at a local market. I bought it on a whim -- thinking it wasn't going to work. I was wrong. Perfect pasta from the microwave. Really.

Here's their website: Fasta Pasta - Microwave Pasta Cooker
Click to expand...

The Fasta Pasta gizzmo looks good....... Trying to get pasta boiled just right from the time I hear the garage door opening until DW steps though the door is tough. With this thing, it would be easier to disguise the fact I've been playing around on the computer instead of getting her dinner ready!

Nords...... Have you looked at sun ovens? Bake, boil, etc., by converting sunshine directly to heat bypassing the electricity stage?
 
youbet said:
The Fasta Pasta gizzmo looks good....... Trying to get pasta boiled just right from the time I hear the garage door opening until DW steps though the door is tough. With this thing, it would be easier to disguise the fact I've been playing around on the computer instead of getting her dinner ready!

Nords...... Have you looked at sun ovens? Bake, boil, etc., by converting sunshine directly to heat bypassing the electricity stage?
Click to expand...

I have a solar oven I've never used. Where can I find specific instructions on cooking (pots, times)?
 
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