Enviromental Impact in Purchase, Trash, and Recyclables

[Gonzo]

Awhile back I watched an episode of CSPAN's BookTV which aired an hour long presentation by Colin Beavan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Beavan) on his book and documentary No Impact Man (http://noimpactproject.org/) which describes his family's experiment trying to make no impact on the enviroment whatsoever for one year's time. If you click the link above the No Impact website has a lot of good information worth checking out.

As I was impressed with his work. I've wanted to become more conscious in my own actions towards the enviroment. Already I make few packaged purchases as I spend most of my money on marijuana, food, and books. I do not litter and try to discourage others from doing so and whenever I get the chance I will recycle paperwork, soda cans, and plastic bottles. I do not eat meat, which I hear does some good for carbon emissions or something, but it really was never my motivation in doing so. Last summer we began to grow most of our vegetables in the garden and stock up the freezer for the year. We even use those swirly Oprah endorsed energy bulbs, but still we have ridiculous electricity bills. It is still not satisfactory as I feel I can be unnecessarilly wastefull and excessive at times and wish to cut back even further. We currently have five people living in our home, including myself, and we usually fill the trash in about two days time. For some reason I am oblivious to, my father has always burnt our garbage in this big incinerator rather than sending it off to the junk yard - something very common in the area and our neighborhood, but something I have always found to be almost arrogant in nature. We are a family of fire bugs, really. We like to see flames. I have no problem with burning firewood, but as I grow older can not rationalize the burning of artificial substances like plastic, styrofoam, and rubber. I am also bothered by the use of cat litter, which is a substance that seems to have no appropriate disposal, as well as papers used to line my birdy's cage (you can't really recycle paper covered in shit). The worst has to be the amount of trips I take into town (a fifteen minute ride) in the car, as I can only imagine the great volumes of exhaust that have been blown out into the atmosphere just so I could get from point A to point B. I do not so much blame people as I do manufacturers for producing this shit in bulk, but obviously they wouldn't be pumping it out unless there was a demand by consumers. I know the human race will eventually perish, but I do not want to hasten the destruction of the planet along with us. I would like to see a cleaner world, that's all.

It was on some other CSPAN program that a pychologist (I don't recall is name) was on his soap box about climate change and was talking about this new iPod application which allowed a user to search for specific products and view on a numbered scale to what degree it impacted the enviroment. It took many things into account including stuff like production, packaging, shipping, and even human labor rights/ wages along with some other stuff. Sadly only participating company's were shown in the results and whether or not it was in complete honesty can be debated, despite it is a decent start. Anyway he was saying that there are pushes (probalay through lobbying/ special interests groups) for congress to enact a bill making something like this a universal system so that consumers would be allowed to view a product's enviromental impact right on the price tag. Imagine that! What a way to make it easier for people to be aware of their purchasing power. The trouble is corporations for the most part fear this because it means revolutionizing/ discontinuing all these products that are complete shit for the world and they just do not want to put up with the hassle of not killing us all for profit, so I won't hold my breath over it happening.

So here is a thread where we can share information on being less wastefull in general and feel free to describe your own ways and means of discarding your garbage.

For Mother Earth! :hurtearth:

[Deadlokd]

Depending on the brand you can bury cat litter. That's what I do. And you can bury the bird shit newspapers. Maybe stop burning shit, bury the firewood for future generations. We have seven in our home. All our lights are fluorescent or the small low energy fluoros. We only run one fridge and one deep freeze. We do have two desktops and a laptop on almost 24/7. We have two cars, a V6 wagon that we use for medium family trips and a 4 cylinder Tarago we use for running about and family holidays. We also live in the middle of a very large metropolitan centre 50km outside Brisbane, on a train line.

But really, it sounds like you're doing the right things. Think global, act local.

[wildernesse]

Pretty much, it's just little things that add up. We can't be perfect, but we can do what we can. Ask yourself whether you really need to do what you're doing. If the answer is yes, then ask whether you can do it in a more environmentally friendly way.

We recycle paper, glass, plastic, cans. I use re-usable shopping bags for most purchases and for produce. I try not to buy individually-wrapped/packaged items. I try to limit my exposure to advertising and shopping in general, since that increases my desire for new things that I generally do not need.

[Crumb]

Depending on the brand you can bury cat litter.
Where do you bury it?

[lisarea]

You can also compost your compostable stuff. My life cycle/hierarchy for vegetables is Primary Foodstuff --> vegetable or chicken stock component --> compost; so we pretty much never put vegetable waste in the garbage (just sometimes, when I'm being a stupid lazy jerk or like when we got that bag of potatoes that smelled like diarrhea and I couldn't be near it). You can also compost paper, lawn waste, things like that, too. Even since I had my epiphany that I HATE gardening, we've continued to compost just because I would feel like a dick sending compostables to a landfill.

And this is kind of region and weather dependent, but clothesdryers are a major energy hog, so I line dry just about everything in the summertime, which saves on energy costs, supposedly extends the life of your textiles, and as a bonus, line dried things feel and smell much better. Line dried sheets especially are about a million times nicer than ones dried in the dryer. (I am a giant, whiny, demanding fussbag about sheets.)

Also, you can sidestep lots of bad manufacturing karma by buying as many dry goods as possible from thrift stores. I draw the line at socks and underwear, but just about everything else, I'll at least look for in a thrift store first. If you buy something used, it's already been bought once, so the damage is done and not by you. So you don't need to worry so much about the means of production because you've sidestepped the 'demand' part of the equation.

And in general, I've found it helps to be kind of an asshole and develop a healthy disdain for consumerism in general. I totally think I'm better than people who do things like replace their electronics because they can't replace a battery or reflash their firmware, and people who always have to have matching sets of everything. I am not favorably impressed with their ability to conduct a retail transaction. I am contemptuous of their helplessness and their inability to adapt.

[freemonkey]

You can also compost your compostable stuff. My life cycle/hierarchy for vegetables is Primary Foodstuff --> vegetable or chicken stock component --> compost; so we pretty much never put vegetable waste in the garbage (just sometimes, when I'm being a stupid lazy jerk or like when we got that bag of potatoes that smelled like diarrhea and I couldn't be near it). You can also compost paper, lawn waste, things like that, too. Even since I had my epiphany that I HATE gardening, we've continued to compost just because I would feel like a dick sending compostables to a landfill.

I've cut way down on the garbage I send out of the house by composting. One thing though, most food scraps don't go in my backyard bins because we have rats and dogs in the area. But, Waste Management offers a yard waste service here, so all veggie kitchen scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc... go in that. Check to see if that's available for you, and if they accept kitchen scraps. You can also compost your bird poop paper.

[lisarea]

lol our dumb city does not have a waste disposal contract for curbside services, which means two big things: We have garbage trucks on our street every day, from different competing services; and as a rule, you pay extra for extra services.

Happily, we do have a really great recycling facility, which takes pretty much every recyclable thing you can think of, and does periodic collections for lawn waste, Christmas trees, etc, plus offers free mulch for residents. But as far as compost goes, we're on our own. It's not bad, though, because we do have plenty of fenced off space for compost. We get angry raccoons in there sometimes, but that's about it.

We save all of our bird poop paper for Secret Santa, though.

[livius drusus]

What kind of cat litter do you use? There are eco-friendly brands that aren't made from strip-mined clay. Shweat Scoop is made from wheat and is great at odor control. World's Best is made from corn, Feline Pine from byproducts of sawmills, and Yesterday's News (which I used to use for the ferrets) made from recycled newspapers.

If you use a biodegradable litter like that, you could compost it along with the bird poop newspapers. Lots of good nitrogen in there to make the flowers grow.

[Adam]

I use that Swheat Scopp stuff. I have read that composting cat litter is potentially bad for some reason related to virii in cat pee, but do not remember the details.

The iPhone app Gonzo mentioned is GoodGuide, I believe.

[Ymir's blood]

I love thrifting. Unfortunately my large purchases (car, 2 computers) have completely outweighed all the clothes, luggage and whatnot bought second hand, even if you counted the original price of the thrifted stuff. Plus my pea coat was bought new after not being able to find one at a thrift store.

Also unfortunately, my pile of clothes needing mending is greater than the ones in service at the moment.

[livius drusus]

I use that Swheat Scopp stuff. I have read that composting cat litter is potentially bad for some reason related to virii in cat pee, but do not remember the details.

Toxoplasmosis. There's already plenty of that in the ground from outdoor cats and the rodents/birds who give it to them, though, so it's not going to harm your plants.

[Watser?]

I don't have a car and I don't have any furniture that I bought new, not the tv either or the computers. The only things I bought new are recent things like a new dvd player and new speakers for the desktop (which I also use for my record and cd player now). And I don't think I have bought regular lightbulbs in years, I only use the low-energy things. I regularly have more than one computer on at one time though. And I often play music while watching tv, so I still waste a lot of electricity...

Books I buy more second-hand than new and I sometimes sell or give away books to thrift stores as well. Same with cds and lps. I do buy most of my clothes new lately, but I don't really buy much of that either. I do buy foodstuffs with a lot of packaging though.

They don't have landfills for garbage anymore here btw. The city's waste goes to a plant where they burn it to create electricity.

[Gonzo]

I don't have a car
They don't have landfills for garbage anymore here btw. The city's waste goes to a plant where they burn it to create electricity.

That is awesome beyond imagination. You people have really got it figured out. :)

[ITSOZAZ]

take public transit to work if you can!!!!

[ITSOZAZ]

oh and...SOYLENT GREEN!

[Watser?]

I don't have a car
They don't have landfills for garbage anymore here btw. The city's waste goes to a plant where they burn it to create electricity.

That is awesome beyond imagination. You people have really got it figured out. :)

Well, it's a mostly flat country and heavily populated so I can go almost anywhere by either bike or train/bus. I have some friends who don't have cars either, but most people I know do. But they still take the bike when they go out and stuff.

[Deadlokd]

Depending on the brand you can bury cat litter.
Where do you bury it?

In the garden near a palm tree. The tree is still alive so it can't be that bad. It's flushable too so I flush the chunks and then replace it when necessary. It's made from recycled bits and pieces.

[Dingfod]

You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get myself a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, hot pink, with whale skin hubcaps and all leather cow interior and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights. Yeah! And I'm gonna drive around in that baby at 115 miles an hour, getting one mile per gallon, sucking down quarter pounder cheeseburgers from McDonald's in the old-fashioned non-biodegradable Styrofoam containers! And when I'm done sucking down those grease ball burgers I'm gonna wipe my mouth on the American flag and then toss the Styrofoam containers right out the side, and there ain't a God-damned thing anybody can do about it!!!

[Gonzo]

You, sir, are a REAL AMERICAN.
YouTube- hulk hogan Real American

Interesting statistic I heard on ABC World News today... they said that Americans burn through the same amount of oil as has been pumped into the Gulf of Mexico (34 million gal) in five minutes time. I wonder how accurate that really is, but it really makes you think about damage to the atmosphere as opposed to damage to our water. We're fucked both ways. Giggidy.

[Dingfod]

20 million barrels per day, 42 gallons per barrel is 840 million gallons, or 35 million per hour.

[Gonzo]

MOAR BOOKTV

Peter Gleick gives an insightful talk on his book Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind our Obsession with Bottled Water (http://www.booktv.org/Watch/11661/Bottled+Sold+The+Story+Behind+Our+Obsession+with+Bottled+Water.aspx), how only 30% of all recyclable plastic bottles are actually recycled, and it's consequences.

[Watser?]

I just read about a campaign to get the Dutch to stop drinking water from bottles and drink tap water instead (the quality of Dutch tap water is higher sometimes than that of the bottled water): We Tap Water | Drink Tap Water when you can | WeTapWater (http://www.wetapwater.com/index.php?/en/)

The main objective is to make restaurants offer you tap water instead of bottled.

[godfry n. glad]

I'm a former professional recycler.

I think we need to stop wrapping every fucking thing we purchase in several layers of packaging, most of which are plastic. Plastic products in plastic bubbles in plastic coated boxes, placed in disposable lightweight plastic bags for the ride home from the store.

For a cogent overview of the issue, I recommend Derrick Jensen's What We Leave Behind.

Remember, Nature always bats last.

[Clutch Munny]

I ride my bike instead of driving.

And when I buy shit, I try to buy nice stuff that will last a while, rather than cheap crap that will fall apart in 11 months and go to the landfill.

[Dingfod]

You sanctimonious douches.

[Qingdai]

My son wants to "recycle everything" if you don't see me around anymore, just assume he's gotten to me.