Challenge 13: Buy Used

As the summer heat starts to break, I am looking forward to an increase in local yard and estate sales. These kind of sales are great places to pick up used home goods. I like to buy solid things such as furniture, glassware and dishes, and books.

I love the retro look that you can easily and inexpensively achieve through buying second-hand.

The best thing about buying glassware at an estate sale is that people often stored their best stemware or dishes in a china cabinet and rarely used it because it was "too nice". These finds are in perfect shape and a true steal for someone in the secondary market, like me.

I look for local sales in the newspaper, on craigslist, and by just biking between the advertised sales and following street signs. I bike to sales for several reasons: it's fun and exercise for me, saves gas, and it keeps me from buying too much!

Reusing second-hand materials decreases the use of primary resources (often mined from the earth or cut from a forest) and saves the energy that would otherwise be used in the manufacturing process.

For anyone who holds a yard sale or donates items that they no longer want and keeps their old 'stuff' out of the landfill!


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Challenge 12: Make Sun Tea

I hope to enjoy the remaining summer days with an endless supply of sun tea. While the days are still long and the sun is still intense, I set out a glass jar with water and a few tea bags right before mid-day. The sun can make tea in a few hours with zero carbon emissions.

My favorite sun tea uses fresh mint leaves from my garden. After less than half day in the sun, I have minty-fresh water that tastes great when I add a bit of sugar and stick it in the fridge.

This costs me nothing and uses no energy, save for putting it in the fridge. I pre-cool my tea by adding a few ice cubes, so that the fridge doesn’t need to work so hard.



This REDUCES my overall use of electricity or gas, since the sun is heating the water. That little glass jug is a great way to harness solar power without any fancy equipment.

For other adventures in sun-cooking.


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Challenge 11: Drink Milk - From Reusable Jugs

I grew up in the rural part of Pennsylvania. Near our borough, there was a dairy that milked their cows, and pasteurized and bottled their milk on site. We drove to ‘the milk store’ once every other week, with a cooler in the car, to pick up our milk. Needless to say, with milk like that, I was a big milk-drinker.

I went away to college, and poured some watery white stuff on my cereal, and didn’t drink too many glasses of the stuff. On one trip home, anticipating a nice glass of milk, I found a plastic jug in my parent’s fridge. Sadly, the dairy couldn’t make it anymore, and stopped bottling their own milk and started selling to another company. If only they had been able to hold on another few years.

The use of re-fillable glass bottles in the dairy industry is seeing a resurgence. In the St Louis area, there are two local dairies that supply not only stores such as Whole Foods, but also the local ‘regular’ grocery stores, and my favorite locavore depot, Local Harvest Grocery. Basically, at any store from which I buy groceries, I can buy milk in a re-fillable glass bottle.

The store charges me a bottle deposit fee. This helps to ensure the return and reuse of the bottle. My husband and I joke that it’s our saving account, as we often forget to take the bottles back with us. Our last trip to return bottles, to one of the dairy’s stores, resulted in us paying 47 cents for two ice cream sundaes, because our bottle return was so ‘profitable’. See, savings account.

Buying milk in glass bottles also helps keep farms smaller, and accountable. The milk is labeled with their family name, not a generic store label. The dairy is also directly selling to the store, eliminating the middleman.

Glass bottles also do not leach chemicals into the milk and produce no off-flavors (think milk in wax cartons). The dairy collects them when they make a delivery to the store, wash and sterilize them and re-fill them at the dairy, likely very close to where the cows are milked. Yes, this takes energy, but reusing is better than recycling.

Hopefully, there is a dairy near you producing and selling milk in glass bottles. Make sure to buy re-fillable glass bottles, as that is more environmentally friendly than bottles that are only recyclable. If it’s not available in your area, be sure to let the store manager know.

Now if only the soda industry would return to this practice, as they still do in foreign countries.

Dairies Using Glass Bottles for Milk in US


Selecting the most environmentally friendly packaging should be part of my criteria for purchasing food, to REDUCE waste and to select containers that are REUSABLE.

To anyone who helps to bring milk to their area stores in re-usable glass milk jugs.
I hope to get a few green bonus points for myself by visiting the one dairy soon to see their operation.

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Challenge #10: Take-Out and Delivery

About once every two weeks or so, we don't feel like cooking and we don't feel like going "out." We opt for take-out or delivery. I've noticed that the restaurant often includes plastic silverware and paper napkins. If we are getting delivery to our own house, don't ya think we have utensils and napkins?

I prefer to use real "silverware" and my "good" cloth napkins, so we usually don't use their disposable items anyway. Next time I order take out, I will request no plastic utensils or napkins.

I will also ask Chinese restaurants not to include soy or mustard sauce, as the soy sauce we have at home is much better and less salty, and we never use theirs. We save all this stuff in a drawer, just in case we ever need it. Well, I did need it for this photo...

I am aware that the biggest problem with take-out is often the packaging. A few of the places we order from have recyclable containers, such as a #1 for the soup. I think I will also try to ask the restaurants to use recyclable containers if they have them. I will note, and keep ordering from, those take-out places that use the most environmentally-sound packaging. Maybe the restaurants will also respond to these questions from customers like me and start their own shift to recyclable packaging. This is change at the grassroots level!

Along these lines, may I suggest that any of my readers who regularly buy take-out coffee purchase a refillable travel mug and keep those coffee cups out of the landfill!


Selecting restaurants based not only on their food but also on their packaging will help increase the amount of recycling that I do!


to anyone who can help get restaurants to change their packaging.

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Challenge #9: Paying Bills Online

A few years ago I started a bank account at a bank that has an online feature to pay bills. I have found this service to be convenient, secure and timely. The best thing, I save money and paper: on checks, stamps, return address labels and envelopes. Every bill I have gets paid online.

About 8 years ago, I had tried receiving and paying bills online. At this time, I had to go out to each company’s website, download the statement, and pay the bill on their site. It was a terrible system to try to use that was stressful and time-consuming, and I messed up or missed quite a few payments. I gave up and went back to paper bills for everything, although I still paid many bills online.

With the current system, you can actually get the bills downloaded into your bank account. I am going to try this with my utility bills, as I don't worry about unknown charges on these bills.

I am not ready to try this yet with my credit cards, as I like to look at each charge to be sure it is legitimate. But, I will start with the bills that I can and start reducing the amount of paper I receive in my mailbox.


By receiving and paying my bills through the exchange of bytes instead of mail, I will REDUCE the amount of paper that is used by my household.

to anyone who can decrease teh amount fo junk mail that they receive. Try donotmail.org to find some tips and to sign a petition to instate a nation "Do Not Mail" registry.

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A Tour Around the GreenUP Challenge Blog

If you visit this blog at the main site (as opposed to reading feeds), you may have noticed that I recently adding some new features. I wanted to point out some of these, both for those of you who are new to "web 2.0" and to entice those who use a feed reader to come visit the site!

Leave Comments
I have changed the settings to allow anonymous comments, at the risk of getting slammed by spammers. If I see an increase in comments from my readers, I will continue to allow anon. comments, which means you won't have to login to Blogger or have an account. So, if you want to leave comments, here's your chance- and do it so that I know you want the service!

The Side Bar
On the left, under the "Archives" and "About me" are three links that help to promote this blog. I want people to read this blog so that I can share ideas on easy things they can do (heck- even I can do them) to bring a little green into their life. And, it helps my ego!

1. Plurk is a social media site that allows real-time conversations to take place with other users from around the world. It is a cross between the more-famous twitter and the old discussion forums. It is certainly not for everyone, but check out my page to see if you like it.
   
2. Stumble Upon is a site that allows you to recommend pages to other users. It requires you to have an account, but I really like it for true take-me-anywhere web surfing, but with filters for your interests (like "environment" or "science"). If you like my pages, be sure to "Stumble" them! Here's a link to pages that I have enjoyed or learned from and then Stumbled!
   
3. This link is the social bookmarkers best friend: It gives you quick access to the most common website bookmarking and sharing pages, like FaceBook.

The next set of buttons are there to make your consumption of the GreenUP Challenge blog easier: they give you an easy way to subscribe to the blog and to stay up-to-date with the comments to blog posts, so that you can follow along in the conversation. The conversation that happens in the comments following a post is one of the really great things about blogging - for both me, the writer, and you, the reader.

Under Links and Blogs are webpages that I have found that do a better job than I at explaining green issues and advising you on how to be green. I will add more as I find them.

That little merit badge is from a site that offset 350 lbs of carbon just by me putting it on my blog! How easy is that? Go check out their page when you've got a second.

At the very bottom of the sidebar is a box labeled "Site Sponsors." These are advertisers that I select because I think they offer products that may offer green alternatives to an item or service.

The companies I have on there now include a book and audio book rental company and a camping equipment rental company. I could see the book rental company being good for anyone who lives in a rural area that does not have a library. For myself, I love to buy books, even though I know it is not the greenest choice. Would renting books that aren't available at my library be a greener choice? As for the camping and outdoor equipment, I think this is a great idea! We bought a tent a few years ago, and I think we've used it once (I can't really count the practice set-ups in the yard, right?). They also rent GPS units, so now I can take part in geocaching, if I ever get the chance!

Please keep you eye on this box, and hopefully I've picked green ideas for you to check out. If anyone knows of an affiliate program that offers green companies, please let me know. The program I am using now has limited choices. I am also trying to get a company that sells fair trade coffee. Check back here in a few days and the ad should be up.

Within each Post
Within each post are several useful buttons or links, after the "content" of the post.

1. The bookmarking link is here again, if you want to specifically bookmark or share the individual post.
2. The "## comments" link is where you can talk back to me. Yes, I do want your 2 cents worth. Just click here for a pop-up window that allows you to join in on the GreenUP Conversation.
3. The next button is for sharing the post with your friends via email. Don't worry, I won't get their address or anything, so share if you like.
4. The "Links to the Post" will show you any comments and any references of my post on another blog.
5. The Labels are descriptors that I add to each post. If you wanted to find similar topics within my blog, these labels allow you to easily sort my posts by topic.

That's all folks!
I hope that you have enjoyed the tour around the GreenUP Challenge blog. Blogging is fun and easy, and I hope any hesitation you've had in participating more has gone the way of x-ray machines in shoe stores or radium on watch faces. Those were bad, everyday choices that caused unnecessary harm. This blog is here to help you!

I will post later this week on another simple change that you can adopt in your own life to get that much closer to being green. I am not trying to completely remake my life over night, but to slowly add habits that I can keep up and that my family will participate in too. Comment on this post with any topics you'd like to suggest or just to introduce yourself.

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Challenge #8: Every Watt Counts

I've been wondering if it is more energy-efficient to turn my computer off or to let it got to sleep. I already have it set to turn the monitor off after 10 min of inactivity, with no screen saver, and the computer set to go to sleep after 20 min. Since I didn't know, I did some reading on the 'net to see if I could find some answers about simple habits I could do around the house to save some electricity.

First off, I didn't realize how many seemingly innocuous things are sucking electricity. I saw estimates around the web that standby power squanders 5% of the total electricity used by residential customers. Not only do these sneaky transformers and appliances cause the senseless burning of coal, it costs me money!


Here is a short list of some energy wasters:

• Cell phone chargers (anything that has one of those big boxes on a plug) draw a bit of electricity even when the phone is not being charged or the attached electronic is turned off. I am going to keep these unplugged!
  

• The TV always draws electricity as it is waiting for the remote's signal ALL DAY and NIGHT! It's been suggested to plug the TV into a power strip so that it can be flicked off when no one is not watching the tube. On an aside, I know that my DVR sucks electricity all the time (I often hear the fan running). The problem with unplugging it is that it records shows throughout the day, which is kind of the point of having a DVR. Hm, ethical dilemma here, because I really love not watching commercials. Well, I guess I am saving electricity when I spend just 40 minutes to watch an "hour-long" program sans commercials (that's what I am going to tell myself).

• Clocks on appliances use electricity. Yes, it's kind of obvious, but worth the reminder. I looked in my kitchen and counted four clocks (and I still never know what time it is). I've unplugged the coffee maker, as I'm not really drinking much coffee anymore, and I can always plug it in when I want to brew up a cup. I guess I could unplug the microwave, as we don't even use it on a daily basis. The stove is impossible to unplug. The fourth clock is a decorative one that is run by a battery- and is hopelessly always on the wrong time. I guess I'll climb up there and remove the battery.

Wow. I am doing pretty bad so far. All of these electricity leaks can really add up. We've spent a lot of time and effort to increase the weatherization of our old, creaky house, but we've let these small, bad habits undermine our efforts.

• I am also going to get back to hanging my laundry to dry. I've got two lines down in the basement, and I used to be pretty good at hanging clothes on them, but I have gotten lazy. Line drying my clothes not only saves electricity from the dryer, but also cuts down on the heat input into the house, and thus should reduce my cooling requirements. I hung up some laundry yesterday; it was rather relaxing. I can hang the laundry just to hang the laundry (a la Thich Nhat Hanh)

• These last few weeks I've been trying to not turn lights on every time I walk into a room. Sometimes I really think it is more of a habit than a necessity. If the sun is shining outside, must I turn the light on when I run into the bathroom? It's not like I actually need to see what I am doing (I do know where the toilet is, after all). Yesterday, my husband came home, and I was chopping the veggies for dinner without the kitchen light on. He knew I was up to some new habit-shift, and jokingly asked me if we would now be cooking in the dark. In my defense, it was pretty sunny when I got into the kitchen, and he had walked in from the bright outdoors. And yes, I still have all my fingers.
  

• The computer is a big thing for me. I work here for a bit, go off and do something, then come back. Since I let it go to standby, I think it is not really drawing that much electricity. I am going to set a limit for myself: if I plan to be away from the computer for more than 1.5 hours, I will turn off the computer. Last night, I also switched off the power strip. This is something that I remember doing back in the day when a computer was still a new thing in the home. I think we did it in case it stormed, so that the computer would be protected. Now, I plan to get back into the green habit of switching my power strip off every night to reduce the leaky electricity going to my computer peripherals.

• To update you on my refrigerator-opening challenge, we wrote down that we open our fridge an average of 11 times a day. This is calculated from the 10 days that we remembered to jot down our ins-and-outs and this is while we were trying to consciously open the fridge less! I am astounded by how much we open this cold box and let hot air in. Although I will admit, I have decreased the number of times I just open the fridge just to see if there is anything to eat...so maybe it's helped with my diet.
  

I found two sites that contain good information regarding wasted electricity in the home. I like the now banished term "leaking" electricity. Maybe if it was still called leaking electricity, it would have more impact on consumers, and that's how I am going to think about it.

Electricity Use by Computers

Standby Power

1-Watt Plan

Conscientious electricity use will REDUCE my household's carbon footprint.


All around for anyone that can reduce their "standby" energy use!


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