Blog Action Day
Since I didn't blog "green" yesterday and it is a topic of interest to me, I thought I would contribute to the conversation today.
Although I wouldn't consider myself a radical, I do care about the environment and preserving it by minimizing my impact on our limited resources. Here are some things that we do or try to do with an emphasis on a topic I love, cloth diapering. By the way, we don't do anything phenomenal and I am always looking to surrender more of myself to natural ways and I welcome your ideas.
1. Recycle - we pay monthly for a weekly curbside program. We put all of the acceptable materials in a bin and they collect it. Here are the things I wonder about. What happens when I don't get all the label off a can or all the peanut butter out of a jar? Why do we have to make a special trip for plastics #3-6? I would like to know if our recycle company recycles the inappropriate things people throw in (I might have thrown away a few yogurt containers in the wrong bin).
2. Tox Drops - we have a load of stuff waiting to go to the hazardous waste place. These items are things we inherited when we bought our house or have used ourselves like: paint cans, batteries, florescent bulbs, motor oil, aerosol cans, and insecticide.
3. I have been using more rechargeable batteries.
4. I try to run dishwasher only when full and do large loads of laundry.
5. We drink out of glasses or reusable bottles.
6. We are gradually switching to the lower energy light bulbs (although I am still trying to find ones that don't look so office-ish).
7. Our local power company offers a "green" option and for a few extra pennies on the dollar, you can get your energy from a clean, renewable resource. I just calculated our extra cost. Our budgeted electrical amount is $100.00 and 100% green power would only be an additional $3.12 monthly (I just enrolled - see, even just writing this post is increasing our greenness).
8. We live close to Nate's employer and do business locally. Since we live so close to Nate's job, he has the option to bike to work, and if he can't at least it's only 5 miles of driving. Also, I try and minimize driving by making several errands at once.
9. Unplug cell phone chargers (only 5% of the energy a cell phone charger uses actually goes to charging the phone) and other devices not in use (we are still getting used to this one). Does anyone know if a power strip in an off position still drains power?
10. We joined a CSA this year. We bought a share of organic produce from a local farm. Buying locally grown produce (and buying organic) reinforces good land management, better health, and best overall practice for farming and producing.
11. Composting - we loosely compost. We haven't built any structure yet or even made an effort to turn our debris, but we have been collecting our leftovers in a small corner of the yard to someday make into soil. I am still intrigued by the worm in container compost idea. Does anyone do this?
12. We keep our thermostat a few degrees warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter to use less energy and gas.
13. We use organic cleaning products (Shaklee) that don't add harmful chemicals and contaminants to our water. They are also much better for our children's skin and Violet's asthma. And, maybe the best part, they are surprisingly cheap!!!
14. I really want to say this and thanks to my blog-friend, Alyssa, paving the way, I feel that I can. If it's yellow, let it mellow and if it's brown, flush it down. Your toilet uses a lot of water especially if you flush it every time. I would also like to add that I don't shower everyday, but it isn't as much for water conservation as lack of time (too much information huh?).
15. We try to use native plants that don't require watering and we never water our grass. I am not kidding - this summer our lawn looked like shredded wheat with gigantic cracks in it.
16. Here are some other ideas from Alyssa's Green day blog. Stop using paper towels (use towels or rags that can be washed), reuse your own bags at the grocery store, and do laundry and dishes at non-peak times.
17. Diapers - ah diapers.... This is the one thing that plagues me. I was pretty good about using cloth with Vi until shortly before the adoption stuff started. I am fully aware of the millions of diapers that go to landfills daily and the fact that it takes 500 years for 1 to break down. Even the biodegradable ones won't really biodegrade with no light and oxygen getting to them. I have tried to use cloth with Anara but I haven't found a good way to keep her bladder from becoming irritated (it's so weird we can only use Huggies - not Pampers, not LUVS, not store brand, and not cloth). It kills me to buy disposable diapers especially at the rate she goes through them. This morning I bought some at the grocery without a coupon and they were .28 per diaper. Come on - for 30 cents a diaper, take a break with the diarrhea. I have tried the liners - they really irritate her bladder. I have tried fleece and cotton - both make her bleed. So, until Friday (Lord willing) she is in Huggies.
This morning I did a little math regarding disposable diapers. You can find diaper calculators on the internet, but I wanted to do it myself. Now, my numbers are ridiculously low because diapers are never this cheap at the grocery or a wholesale club even with a coupon. I found the diaper prices online, but they are lower than what we normally pay.
My numbers are based on the cheaper diaper prices, Violet's growth curve, and assuming the child is potty trained by 30 months (2 1/2 y/o). Obviously individual totals will vary based on number of diaper changes per day, size of baby, and brand of diaper used.
Size 1 - 8-12 diapers per day for the 1st 8 weeks of life. (1st number is 8 diaper and the 2nd is for 12 diapers) at $0.16 per diaper
Pampers - $71.68 - $107.52
Store Brand - $67.20 - 89.60
Size 2 - 8-10 diapers per day for 12 weeks at $0.18 per diaper.
Pampers - $120.96 - $151.20
Store Brand - $107.54 - $134.40
Size 3 - 8 diapers per day for 20 weeks at $0.20 per diaper.
Pampers - $224.00
Store Brand - $201.60
Size 4 - 8 diapers per day for 48 weeks at $0.23 per diaper.
Pampers - $618.24
Store Brand - $537.60
Size 5 - 6 diapers per day for 32 weeks at $0.26 per diaper.
Pampers - $349.44
Store Brand - $322.56
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Pampers - $1,384.32
Store Brand - $1,236.50
Cloth Diapering Costs - $413.07
And that doesn't include the environmental impact.
Here is my cloth diapering costs breakdown - $250.00 (that's pretty generous price for cloth diapers and covers) and 6,272 diapers at $0.013 detergent per diaper and $0.013 water/gas/electric per diaper. Also, you can reuse the same diapers on each child and you don't have to buy an expensive cloth diapering system (you can get flats and covers for approx. $50.00).
For anyone still reading this post, I want to reiterate that these disposable diaper prices are lower than what we actually pay. This morning I paid almost 30 cents per diaper for size 3's. Most importantly, I didn't write this post to make any disposable diapering folks feel bad but to remind myself why I should recommit to using cloth.
Does anyone have any suggestions, answers to my questions, or thoughts of your own???
9 comments:
2. FYI, water based paint is not considered toxic waste, and empty cans can be left open, and when dried, put in the regular garbage. (an employee at a tox dump told me this)
9. A powerstrip on the off position should shut all outgoing power off, and devices cannot drain, because the strip cuts the circuit.
I think you'll find if you dig up your compost, a lot of worms enjoying the food. I had a compost pile when i was a kid--except my only reason for having one was for the free worms!
Great info! We are actually recent converts to composting. ;)
Ok.. I didn't read it all...cuz, well, you understand...but I thought of this Green Idea. Before you go to turn up the thermostat, just do some jumping jacks and chase the kids around the house. You'll warm up quick and so will they. Brad's old principal had the saying, "I don't heat for T-shirts." Ok...just thought that would keep you warm! :)
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Thats from Owen...Much love!
Hey Amanda! :)
Geri Dyke does Vermicomposting. She was helping me get started with it this year and I was all excited until Laura Dyke told me that the worm boxes (which are in the basement at the church) were attracting fruit flies like crazy. Ugh. But maybe Geri can help you get around that??
Oh, I forgot to add... My parents used Shaklee products when I was little. :)
However, I make my own. The bookstore carries the book _clean home lean planet_ which is basically a recipe book for home cleaners. Really your basic ones only use vinegar or baking soda, castille soap and essential oils (optional). I could loan it to you if you want.
Good Lord Mandy!!! How do you remember all that stuff! I have a hard enough time to remember to eat let alone all of those statistics!!
"I don't heat for t-shirts, folks." Is the exact saying.
The clothes line situation is still frustrating me. Brad has tried all sorts of things to make it work for me. (It doesn't help that I try to dry 6 loads on it at a time). The last straw was when Laura came for lunch and walked in singing, "Does your underwear hang low." I have a love hate relationship with my clothes line.
As long as our green doesn't turn into brown, right? How many times can you wear pjs w/o washing, how many days should a towel be used before being washed? Maybe we cut back to washing our sheets quarterly? If we go back to the family bed, we can all downgrade to a single room house with a fireplace and outhouse. We'd only have one set of sheets to wash, no toilets to clean. The Jeromes must be extra careful not to go to extremes or we could find ourselves washing paper plates or cutting them in half :), right nate?
One more thought. I suppose this is another example of a genetic disorder, but sometimes I feel guilty about just putting envelopes and cereal boxes in the recycling without make further use of them. The backs of envelopes and reciepts could be used as scrap paper but I already have scrap paper up the wazoo from work that I'll never ever get used up (plus it just clutters up the house even more!). Or sometimes I feel guilty about not using empty cereal boxes for something (magazine storage, letting the kids use it for drawing on. Clarissa had a teacher who used them for "blinders." The kids put them up on their desks during tests to give them their own little cubby).
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