Stop talking green and start doing the little things. (solar, mpg, plastic)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think just as with frugality/wealth building forums I see the same kinds of naysayer answers:
--Hyperbole "I'm not going to never flush the toilet" (even though that wasn't what was said. Similar to "I'm not going to eat beans and rice my whole life" in frugality/wealth building forums.
--Nitpicking. Another form of black/white thinking whereby someone picks one or a few of the suggestions they don't like and uses them to dismiss everything that's said.
Just an fyi, every body donation agency I've encountered as a hospice worker eventually cremates the remains after they are done using it.Therefore, donation is kind of a moot point.
2. You actually can set a timer on your hot water heater and fridge, thus saving more.
3. Maybe they went hunting...Or they bought a whole cow. My mother once did, we had a freezer that could hold 4 adult males. That cow fit nicely.
4. Once it's built, it's built.
5. Then the slip and falling of individuals will increase. Thus causing logjams at hospitals and urgent care clinics.
6. I have priced items from stores. Either I pay $25 for a item online for $17.... Box from Amazon repurposed for gifts...Or burned for ehat in stove.
11. Reload your ammo. The majority are made of brass. Copper is too weak to be reused or even used.
12. Garden and hunt. The less food processing and packaging and shipping is needed the better..................So NOW you want that extra freezer or not?
14. You really do not need a new pair of fancy sneakers every fall.................I buy usually one pair...Then replace it as that pair has been killed basically.
15. Exercise. Even if you make a tiny effort. Walk ten blocks twice a day, you improved health will conserve all sort of different resources and reduce pollution................Exercise after 50 has been shown to not improve a person's health or life. If you start before 30, then good. But start after 50, forget it.
16. Exercise outside. Health clubs use power, eat up resources for equipment, etc. Join a hiking club, or a walking club, or a dance class, or. . . Yeah, let's workout in the pouring rain...
18. Stop buying every new smart phone that comes out................Bought a used one for $250. Refurbished. Not bad.
19. Shower with a friend. Conserve water and have fun...................That sounds so gay....
Personally, I live out of my van. Many of these things make me laugh as you might guess.
Well at least the OP's list got people talking haha. Yes it seems very "in your face" to do everything listed but there are some good ideas.
My small efforts:
1. Remember to bring my cloth bags to the grocery store. Habit improved 95% since starting.
2. Keep things out of landfill by donating them to non-profit thrift stores or offering "free" on craigslist.
3. Eat less meat. Buy chocolate and other products that don't use child or slave labor and don't decimate the rainforest (palm oil) or remove animal habitats.
4. One car for 2 of us, easy now we're retired.
5. No irrigation or chemicals for yard. It took a while to get this right but worth it.
6. Eliminate petro-chemicals from household cleaning. Healthier for me.
7. Go to library for best seller books, patience required for waitlist
My bigger efforts to make larger improvements:
1. Contact my elected officials about specific laws being presented I want them to support.
2. Donate to political campaigns on local, state and national levels that support clean energy, environmental protection.
3. Speak up without being rude and let others know where I stand. On Facebook, letters to the editor, letters to people of influence. I am 60-something now, retired and won't lose my job for doing this. I have to do it because many cannot speak up.
But that's how change happens. Lots of people making small changes adds up.
Even here, there's a fast-lane at the grocery for those using their own bags. We reuse almost all our plastic bags or containers. I wash out ziplocks and reuse paper towels.
Using power strips makes it easy to turn off devices when not in use.
We do laundry just once a week, and watch our water consumption closely.
It's just awareness, not so hard to do.
I do garden on my condo balcony, but with only a handful of beans or peas, it didn't add up to much. Got lots of squash, though. It is fun, to me.
Not having a car is our main "green" contribution.
Doing little things makes you feel good. Doing big things is hard, but moves the needle.
All things you listed are realistic and not difficult to do. i am on it. I take up your torch.
Stop expecting someone else to be responsible for greening. If you just pick one thing and do it religiously you are making a positive impact.
1. Plastic bags are a big enemy. Make an effort to take your recycled fabric bags to carry your purchases. Leave them in your trunk. If everyone would recognize that convenience is damaging to our planet they would be using cloth bags instead. Some businesses now offer alternatively paper bags. Even if you don't remember every time you shop you are still making a positive impact by doing it even just once. But you can do better than that.
2. Did we not stop using paper bags because we wanted to save the trees? Well today we are better at reusing with recycled paper products. Support businesses that stop plastic and compliment them for it. Write a good review for example.
3. People overuse water resources. A shower every other day is fine. Sponge baths work and hair washed in the kitchen sink is good if you need to wash your hair everyday. Don't leave taps running unnecessarily. Management in our apt building tells us to leave water running if we don't have hot water as soon as we open the taps. Bad idea. So wasteful. Water is not infinite.
4. Don't flush chemicals like medication, paint. Dispose meds at your pharmacy and paint at your eco-station. Limit flushing leftovers in the toilet. Use biodegradable garbage bags for waste. Just think that what you flush is what you end up drinking at some point even in bottled water. Watch what a water treatment and a waste water treatment plant looks like. https://youtu.be/0_ZcCqqpS2o
5. Write to companies that over-package. If enough of us do it and persist, change will happen.
6. Don't be lazy and toss your pop cans in the garbage. Return them to a bottle depot or a recycling drop in your work location or grocery store.
Stop talking about it and take action. You can do meaningful things today. They may seem like little things but doing these things will accomplish far more than protesting (especially if you drive to the protest) or posting memes. The solution is for everyone to move in tiny increments that are easy to do and not really all that inconvenient. If you start a trend, it will have a significant impact.
1. Take the stairs whenever you are travelling ten floors or less (I have be knees is not an excuse. I have bad knees too, go slow at first it will get better with practice). It takes too long is also not a valid excuse. You are talking about a minute or less difference from riding in an electric elevator. The exercise will also make you healthier and result in less demand on medical resources.
2. Unplug everything in your house except clocks and refrigerators when not in use.
3. Get rid of that extra fridge or freezer. You really do not need to store that much in cold storage unless you have five or seven children. Why is all that stuff in there?
4. Do not buy new houses. There are more than enough used homes right now. They work just fine. No need to waste resources and labor building unneeded new homes just to have new. Also don’t buy new cars unless there is a specific valid reason for doing so. Buying a new Prius is actually less "green' than buying a used impala. Yes some new cars need to be made and someone will buy them. It does not need to be you.
5. Walk or ride a bicycle for any trip that is less than five miles unless you need to haul things. Yes you can walk or ride in cold or rainy weather - bundle up. The exercise will also make you healthier and result in less demand on medical resources.
6. Don’t recycle – it is pointless (the recycled stuff goes into landfills or incinerators anyway). Instead, reduce the amount of trash you produce. Buy things with less or no packaging. Buy in bulk. Re-use/re-purpose whatever you can. Buy things at stores rather than ordering boxes from Amazon.
7. Turn your thermostat down or up. 66 is warm enough. 71 is cool enough. People survived without central heat and air for decades. You can do it too. Put on some socks.
8. Conserve water, even if you live in really wet places, it still has to be processed. Take military style showers, flush toilets once. When the time comes to replace your toilet innards, install a dual flush system (costs about $30 rather than about $14).
9. Plant a tree in your yard. Make sure it is s decent type of tree that will nto create problems and need to be cut down.
10. Carpool. Whatever happened to carpooling? My father (89 years old) still had friends from his work carpool.
11. Reload your ammo. Collect the cartridges and reload them Copper is a limited resource and requires all sorts of mining and processing. There is no need to throw them away. You can do this while or instead of watching TV.
12. Garden and hunt. The less food processing and packaging and shipping is needed the better.
13. Stop watering your lawn. If it was meant to live, it will live.
14. Keep your clothing longer and/or shop at Salvation Army. Tons of perfectly serviceable clothing is tossed into landfills daily. You really do not need a new pair of fancy sneakers every fall.
15. Exercise. Even if oyu make a tiny effort. Walk ten blocks twice a day, you improved health will conserve all sort of different resources and reduce pollution.
16. Exercise outside. Health clubs use power, eat up resources for equipment, etc. Join a hiking club, or a walking club, or a dance class, or. . .
17. Donate your body when you die. You do not need it but someone else does. Even if they do not use it for spare parts, they need corpses for study, experiments and teaching. Burial or cremation is a waste of resources. Those left behind do not really need a box of ashes that might or might not be what remains of you body. It is not you.
18. Stop buying every new smart phone that comes out. If your phone still works – it is fine. Even if the screen is cracked – you new phone will have a cracked screen in a few months and you will be back where you started. You do not need a new state of the art phone. They all do the same things.
19. Shower with a friend. Conserve water and have fun.
Your ideas?
No excuses. No talking about it. Pick ten things from the list and do it. Or add some more things and do those. Forget the "big' stuff and blaming companies etc. Do something you can actually influence.
Though I prefer older houses, I don't think your suggestion not to buy new houses makes sense. As population grows, we need new housing or increasing numbers of people won't have a place to live.
A better suggestion would be to not buy or live in a bigger place than is necessary. The average size of American households has dropped even as the square footage of houses has grown. That is the wasteful trend that could be reversed.
Which ones aren't viable, other than unplugging everything? Slow down and you're out-what does that mean?
Other than the one above and showering with a friend I think it's a good list that's practical and feasible.
Don't agree about not recycling, though reducing/reusing is obviously preferable.
Unplugging is bizarre and silly in the extreme.
But not recycling may have been the best advice with the caveat that it applies primarily to small and/or lightweight stuff.
Take a trip to a recycling plant and you'll see how much resource is devoted to SORTING thru tons of 'recyclables' to remove little improper or mixed-material things.
Repurpose, definitely! Recycle copper pipes, iron and steel, definitely.
But most of the stuff people recycle is really garbage and should be incinerated to generate electricity.
"1. Take the stairs whenever you are travelling ten floors or less (I have be knees is not an excuse. I have bad knees too, go slow at first it will get better with practice). It takes too long is also not a valid excuse. You are talking about a minute or less difference from riding in an electric elevator. The exercise will also make you healthier and result in less demand on medical resources."
As somebody who actually does this (for exercise) I need to point out a few things. 1) Stairwells in large buildings aren't climate controlled. It's not unusual for it to be 100 degrees in one. Nobody is going to get dressed for work and then walk down 10 flights of stairs and get all sweaty and ruin their clothes / makeup. 2) Stairwells are usually empty. If you slip and fall in one you might not be found for a very long time. 3) The ones that aren't empty typically have creepers or crackheads in them. If the stairwell smells like urine, don't use it. 4) Elevators are counter weighted. The amount of energy that is saved by having 9 people in it instead of 10 is so small it probably cannot be measured.
Frankly, I quit reading the suggestions after this one.
7. Turn your thermostat down or up. 66 is warm enough. 71 is cool enough. People survived without central heat and air for decades. You can do it too. Put on some socks.
71 for AC? I’m going to assume that’s a typo. That’s colder then most people keep it now and is a ridiculous waste of electricity. The energy star recommendation is a minimum of 77.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
