Go Green for Free

Going green is often done by those who are thrifty in method, it can be a great money saver over time, but one of the biggest problems is start up costs.  Not everyone has $35,000 laying around to buy a Prius and not necessarily everyone can afford to buy from a CSA.  I would definitely argue that both of these things are worth the money, but that is beside the point.  I wanted to present some ways to go green that won't cost a penny, and hopefully will have a positive impact.

1) Reuse - Reusing stuff is one of the simplest ways to go green for free.  Need rags?  Don't buy them from Target, cut up old threadbare shirts or sheets, these make perfect rags.  Storage containers?  Reuse old grocery bags, beer crates, produce boxes!

2) Recycle - Take your old bottles and cans to be turned to cash in bottle deposit states, something that I think should be expanded.  In those states you will make 5-10 pennies per can.  Even if you don't live in one of those states, recycling require minimal effort, especially in single stream recycling communities.

3) Borrow - Before you go out and buy something new, especially a book or media, ask your social network if they have it available for you to borrow.  Maybe you can repay them buy letting them borrow one of the many things you already own, or trade another service such as cooking or watching their children.  Libraries are a great resource, not only for dusty old books, but DVDs and Blu-Rays are available in most towns.

4) Re-gift - Giving green gifts is an extremely effective way of saving money.  You can bake, cook, build or create online tons of gifts that will be appreciated.  You can also let your extended family know that you would prefer they not purchase you any items for upcoming events.  Let them know your philosophy about buying frivolous things and the impact it has on the environment.  They might think you a little eccentric, but will respect you.  If you have something that you received as a gift, don't feel bad to re-gift it to someone else, just make sure you don't give it back to the person who gave it to you!

5) Exercise outside - Don't get me wrong, I love to exercise in the gym, but that $30 a month that Gold's gym takes from you each month really adds up.  Not only that, but they keep the lights, TVs, and legion of machines on 24 hours a day at many gyms, no need to support that!  Get outside, take a hike, run, walk, play.  It's free!

I hope I can come up with more cost-free tips to go green, but feel free to check out my list of 20 Effective Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference.

Buy Food in Bulk

This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal. 

The modern food industry is a topic that fascinates me and is often the subject of posts here.  There are many ways we can make this industry greener and it is very important to consider changes, as this is one of the industries that affects every single person in the world.  We all need to eat, and if we can make green improvements in this industry, the scale will make a big impact.

One of the biggest problems is packaging.  It is very wasteful and in most cases unnecesary.  Preservation of food is one thing, but the excess packaging favored by marketing types to "differentiate" processed foods is completely excess and unnecesary. 

We do not need food wrapped tightly in plastic, then stuffed into a cardboard box. Many of us simply see this as more garbage, and promptly deposit it into the trash barrel.  This could be recycled, which would be better, but what would be best is simply avoiding it at all.  I have mentioned my "deposit theory" and I believe if there were a deposit on cardboard boxes and plastic bags, it would incentivize people to reduce consumption or increase recycling, any excess money would go to recycling programs to sort the actual garbage to find deposits which were not redeemed. This would create more jobs and would improve the environment, a win/win if there ever was one.

One way individuals can go green is by buying their food in bulk.  Not just granola is available, although feel free to buy that in bulk as well.  Beans, rice, nuts, candy, flour, sugar, spices, vegetables, coffee, meat, syrup, honey and many other commodity goods can be purchased with simple bags (that you will re-use) and priced by the pound.  You may want to consider bringing reuseable containers right to the store, to avoid wasting bags.  Another way to buy in bulk is by purchasing a large side of beef direct from a farmer or a fish from a fisherman and wrapping it minimally before putting it directly into your fridge or freezer.  Bring back old egg cartons and fruit boxes to the farmers market and re-fill them.  There are many ways to go green in the food packaging world, so be creative.

A related topic is the packaging of commercial foods.  Although 100 calorie snack packs allow you to keep your portions of crappy processed food in check, they are mainly vehicles that allow food companies and their marketing teams to make a few more percentage points of profit from you.  Avoid pre-sliced food that is then packaged and sold in smaller containers (for a higher price).  When buying deli meats, have them weight your meat and cheese separately, then put into one deli bag.

These changes may seem small, and on an individual scale, they might not make a difference.  However over the course of a year they certainly will.  Every human on the planet needs food and if they bought in bulk, it would cause a huge shift in the food industry and cut down on waste and pollution.  I also bet everyone would have a few more bucks left in their pockets!  Green and cheap, a solid combination.  Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma is a great read if you want to re-think the food industry.

Go Green: Beer Growlers

As anyone who reads my other blog, A Terrific Life, knows that I love beer.  Specifically, good, local craft beer.  The beer brewing process uses an unfortunately large amount of resources, specifically water, grains, and electricity.  The beer must then be stored while it ferments, and then packaged and shipped to the consumer.  Then the cans or bottles are often discarded or thrown in the trash, rather than recycled.

Growlers present a great alternative that will hopefully limit the environmental impact of the packaging and distributing activities involved in beer.  Growlers are large jugs, often 32 or 64 ounces, that can be filled directly from the tanks or kegs and sold directly to customers.  This cuts out the distributor, since consumers can buy the beer directly from the brewery.  Also, there will not be electricity wasted on packaging, storing, and shipping the cans or bottles that are traditionally used in the beer market.  In addition, the nature of a growler means that you will be getting fresher beer, often from a local brewery.  This is important, because beer tastes better the fresher it is, and there is not as much energy wasted in storage between the time produced and ultimately consumed.  Finally, supporting local businesses is something we always encourage.

Another point that I like about growlers is the higher bottle deposit. This is something that I have advocated in the past and stand by firmly.  Many people who do not recycle, would, if it was in their own selfish best interest to do so.  This can be accomplished by raising recycling deposit limits.  People will have to shell out extra money for the container when purchasing, and then be refunded upon return.  Growlers are large containers, and I am sure expensive to buy, so they charge $1.50-$5 bottle deposits.  Of course, once you pay it once, you can re-use the growler or bring it back and exchange it at the brewery for a new one. 

Selling growlers makes good business and environmental sense, as the middle-man distributors are cut out, and there is less waste as a result of packaging beer into 6-36 packs of bottles and cans, and the recquisite packaging for individual retail and wholesale cases.  Of course growlers can not serve every single consumers needs, but using them more, as well as increasing bottle deposits on smaller vessels will help to lower the environmental impact of one of my favorite beverages.

Drink Craft Beer!

Single Stream Recycling

After a very green Thanksgiving, spent volunteering at the local homeless shelter, our family's 10th year of the tradition, I came home and watched some NFL football at my parents house.  Tony Romo and the Cowboys were given quite a scary by the wily Miami Dolphins squad, but they pulled it out in the end.  My father asked me to take a bag of garbage down to the trash and next to his garbage barrel, was another one marked "single stream recycling."  This was news to me, so I decided to research more.

Single stream or "fully commingled" recycling basically means that all recyclable materials: papers, plastics, glass, metals are combined, and then sorted at the recycling facility.  Traditionally, separate collections of paper and other materials was the norm, and required separate containers.  I think the new single-stream method is far superior and offers significant benefits, but obviously these come with added costs.

The benefits end up making recycling more attractive.  People are busy and if a process requires too much time, it will simply be cut out, even by those with the best intentions.  Separating and maintaing different locations for different types of recyclables is a time consuming process and many people may simply opt to throw everything into the garbage instead of bothering with sorting.  Single-stream makes it much easier, since all recyclable material is combined, making recycling much easier for people to implement.  Collection costs go down as well since trucks can simply combine all materials together, instead of needing separate locations for paper or glass only. 

The downside is that all new things come at a cost.  There is the capital investment required to produce new containers and to educate people about the new system.  Then there are extra ongoing costs for processing the combined recycling into separate piles.  Another legitimate concern is the fact that the recyclables will be contaminated by extra dirty things being thrown in due to careless recyclers.  For example, if paper is contaminated it can only be recycled to a lower quality use.

The chance to increase recycling, by making the process easier, far outweighs the added costs.  The costs could be funded by other recycling taxes such as bottle deposits or a small tax.  Any reasonable measure to increase recycling participation should be considered and gradually implemented.

Conserve Water in Everyday Situations

 This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal.

Conservation of resources is one of the tenets of going green.  Society has made possible many luxuries that are quite affordable, but can have far-reaching costs for the environment and our future.  Running water is taken for granted by many, as it is nearly universal and affordable.  However, wasting this water is not green and should be avoided, no matter what.  Some of the earlier tips including running full loads will save both electricity and water.

 One simple way that I try to employ and think will be incredibly easy to implement in your lives is taking shorter and less frequent showers.  I am not advocating any stop bathing completely and become a dirty hippy, but certainly there are ways to shorten your showers so you can save valuable water.  Showers use gallons and gallons of water, and at minimum 25% of the water used is probably wasted.  There are water conserving shower-heads available as well, for those who want to take the next step.

Another pet peeve of mine is when people leave the water running while brushing their teeth.  This is completely unnecessary and pure laziness.  Simply turn of the water while you are brushing, and turn it on and off to rinse off.  This also applies to washing dishes by hand, turn off the stream while you are scrubbing!

I truly believe that water will and should become much more expensive in the next years.  Whether this is from a "green tax" imposed by governments, which would go to providing for other green pursuits, or if it is due to dwindling resources.  Like the bottle deposit, there should be a high cost for wasting water, which will cause people to reconsider their water usage.  Punishment, especially financial, works a lot better than rewards.  The people who decide to continue wasting should suffer a much larger penalty and some of those dollars diverted to other ways of going green.

Reusable Water Bottles

This is part of my series: 20 Ways to Go Green that Make a Difference. This series discusses practical ways we can go green in our lives, that will have a measurable effect on the environment.  This is an alternative to the many lists that offer 100+ suggestions, many of which are not easily applied to our lives or the impact is minimal.

 This tip may seem pretty obvious and simple to many of you readers, yet everyday I see discarded Poland Springs, Dasani, and Smart Water bottles all over the place. First of all, buying these bottles is a raw deal, the markup is insane! Even when bought in bulk (which is bad for the environment) the cost is still high considering it's just filtered water. Don't even get me started on the LA restaurant Bazaar's "water bar".

The solution is to buy a reusable water bottle, I have a Sigg and Nalgene, and my wife has a Camelbak, I'm sure there are other quality vendors like Klean Kanteen, etc, but that doesnt really matter. The point is to get one, it should be available locally for under 20 bucks. Wash it out and start carrying it daily. 

Fill it everywhere you go, the tap at home, if your water is good, or through a filter such as a Brita. Public water fountains and many workplaces offer filtered water, the bubbler at the gym, whatever. Every time you refill it you are saving .25-2$, and you are not potentially creating waste and by limiting reliance on plastic bottles lowering pollution!

If you do have to resort to buying water, buy a large gallon or other container, return it for a bottle deposit where applicable, or put it with your other plastic recyclables.  Then when you are done with it, re-purpose it, like used shopping bags, as its own reusable water bottle (consider BPAs which many water bottles have)

Go Green Idea: Reduce Trash, Increase Recycling

A friend of mine @GoGreenMorimoto and I were discussing the problem of recycling in America on twitter the other day. We debated a couple methods that the government could use to increase recycling. Obviously there are two ways to encourage a behavior, either rewards for good behavior or punishment for bad behavior and we discuss both methods to solve this particular problem.

Currently, there is a small reward/punishment in place, on a state by state basis, most commonly in the form of a bottle deposit. This means the state tacks on 5 cents to the cost of a plastic bottle, but allows you to return it and recoup your nickel. The idea is that people will want to get their own money back, lest they pay an additional 5 cents/bottle. This also encourages others to grab discarded bottles and recycle them to claim the 5 cents.

I think this method is a great step, and definitely a good model, however I believe it is not enough. 5 cents is just not enough money to convince people to go out and recycle. Instead, states should raise the bottle deposit limits to 25 cents, which would make the bottles much more valuable. Nobody can claim that it is too expensive, because they will get the money back as soon as they finish the bottle! This encourages people to recycle, and for those who just throw the bottle away, a quarter is enough motivation for someone poor to go through the trouble of obtaining these discarded bottles.

However, I do not think we should stop at plastic bottles. I think that cardboard/glass/metal food packaging is important and should be recycled as well. To do this, the FDA would have to standardize packaging sizes or offer a number of templates (which is hardly a hassle) and then states would force food producers to package in these containers to be able to sold. The deposit would be something less, say 10 cents/box. This is better than the 5 cents, and since many people buy lots of packaging, they should have to pay the deposit temporarily. If they decide that they do not want to recycle, they should have to pay a dear price. If it is only a few cents (like under the current system) then many people will simply just consider the deposit as part of the cost of the item! Biodegradable boxes of course would not be charged the deposit, because they will decompose, this is only for those items that need to be recycled through the traditional channels.

A final, more extreme step, would be to have a trash/recycling compliance inspector. This person's job would be to monitor trash and make sure citizens are complying with the recycling policies set in the place. Their wages would be paid through unreturned deposits on packaging and the fines they would surely impose on those not in compliance. Even if the state ends up having to supplement their salaries, it would be for a great cause. Go green folks!