Change the World Wednesday Challenge - How recycled is your stuff?

Hello to all.

It's wednesday again and time for another Small Footprints "Change the World Wednesday Challenge" for you :

For this week's challenge:

Each time you shop for a non-food item, look to see whether a recycled version is available. If feasible, buy the recycled version. If there isn't one, but it's a category such as paper where you know recycled versions exist, ask the store to start carrying a recycled version.

OR

If you already buy recycled items regularly (or cannot afford to do so at all) then write a blog post about products made from reclaimed materials.

Now I have to say we do the best we can. We already buy recycled paper towels, toilet paper and tissues (when we can cause not everywhere has them!) but besides that, I'm more about buying the recyclable things than the recycled thing.

So I'm up for the challenge!

Over the next week, I'll be making a list of al the stuff I buy that I find that is made from recycled materials and post them next tuedsday!

Hope you'll jump in... What is some of your favourite recycled stuff?

Change the World Wednesday Challenge - Walk with a purpose!

Back (a few days late) with another great CTWW challenge from my friend Small Footprints :

Put on your walking shoes because this week we're going to walk ... not just idle walking ... we're going to clean as we go. Yep, this week, please go for a walk ... at least once ... and pick up litter as you go. If you're feeling ambitious, go every day. Once you've got your bag of litter, recycle what can be recycled before tossing the rest in the trash bin.

Do you have an idea where to start?

I've decided make it a week-end plan. Here is what I'm commiting to doing :

• On saturday, we will be going to our community garden and taking down our plot for the coming winter. I will walk up and down the aisles and pick up any trash laying about. Unfortunately, our community garden being near a very busy walkway, a lot of people think it's nice to walk through... most of them thinks it's just as nice to drop trash and cigarette butts. Blerk!

• On sunday, we are going hiking in a provincial wildlife sanctuary for snow geese. I will bring a bag with me and pick up the trash people seem to find it's okay to leave on the trails!

What will you do to make your part of the world a little cleaner?

Change the World Wednesday Challenge - Let your computer sleep!

Back with another great CTWW challenge is our friend Small Footprints :

"This week, put your computer to sleep or set it to hibernate when it's not in use.

Or ...

Typically, if you're already doing the first part of the challenge, I ask you to write about it on your blog. This week, however, we're going to do something different. If you are already in the habit of putting your computer to sleep or turning it off when you're not using it, look around your home and identify one other "sneaky" area that uses electricity. Come back here and, in the comments section, tell us what it is and how you'll either eliminate it or reduce it."

So share your thoughts and ideas with us!

Where do I save energy in the house?

• I have all my aquariums on timers so that they turn off automatically when we are not home to do so.
• As I take my shower, I gradually reduce the hot water so that the temperature gently decreases and I use less energy heating my water tank.
• When we have smaller stuff to cook and bake, we use the more efficient toaster oven instead of the conventionnal oven.
• Before the computer even goes into sleep mode, we turn off the monitor because the monitor takes up even more electricity than the computer does.

Where do you save energy?

Change the world wednesdays - Go meatless for a day!

Hello all.

As previously started, I'm sharing my blog friend Small Footprints "Change the World Wednesday Challenge" with you :

• If you eat animal products, then for one full day eat only meatless meals ... go vegetarian. Dairy products & eggs are permissible ... but no other animal products.

• Or, if you are vegetarian full time ... then, for one full day, eat only vegan meals. No animal products whatsoever.

• And finally, if you are vegan, full time, write an article about why meatless meals are good for the planet and perhaps include your favorite recipe.

So everybody shime in : Share recipes, share meal plans... share your thoughts and ideas!

Being ovo-lacto vegetarian, I'll be choosing a day with my husband and we will be back to write about our lovely vegan day! Hope you will all join in!

Plastic bags : Facts and why we need to stop using them!

Everyone knows that plastic is bad for the environment. We don’t need to spell it out again, but some facts are important to know and since people respond to numbers, here are a few facts on plastic bags I found on LivingGreen that may help solidify your resolve :

• Less than 1% is recycled. It actually cost more to recycle a plastic bag than to produce one-there is no monetary incentive to recycle plastic bags.
• Many of our garbage bags are dumped illegally in our oceans. A study in 1975 showed that ocean going vessels dumped 8 million pounds of plastic bags annually.
• Billions of plastic bags also find their way into oceans via rivers, drains and sewage pipes where the effects on aquatic animals such as turtles, sea birds, whales, dolphins and seals are catastrophic. These animals ingest plastic or become entangled resulting in agonizing deaths. The unsuspecting creatures often mistake the floating plastic for food! Plastic bags are found in most oceans of the world. (World Wildlife Report, 2005)
• A study of albatross chicks on Midway Island, near Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, found that nine out of 10 birds had plastic garbage in their gullets.
• Plastic bags do not decompose! They break into smaller, more toxic petro-polymers which eventually contaminate our soil, our waterways. In time the toxic microscopic particles enter our food chain. (CNN.com/technology/Nov.6 2007)
• Plastic cannot be burned or buried safely. When it is burned it produces fluorocarbons which are carcinogens.
• When we bury plastic bags they block the natural supply of air and water to the soil. This affects plant life directly and the chain of life indirectly.
• Plastic bags can even cause landslides when plant life in mountains is reduced. Plastic bags clog the sewage pipes and often cause water to be stagnant. It reduces the water retaining capacity of the soil and this in turn affects the water table.

We all (I hope) try our best at reducing the amount of plastic that is used and thrown away. This is not only for our environment and wildlife, but for our health as well. Recently, new technologies in plastic bag production have led us to believe that maybe some weren’t as bad, but are they?

Traditional bags are made from petroleum products which can release toxic compounds into the air that are known to cause major health issues.

Now, more and more bags are made from polymers called polyethylene that are, for most part, recyclable. Great right? Not exactly. The problem seems to be that bags can be made of different types of resin that although look very similar, when broken down, can’t exactly be easily recycled. So if you ARE going to put plastic bags in the recycling, make sure that they have the recycling symbol with the numbers 1, 4 or 5, as other numbers may not be recyclable in your area.

What about the new trends of biodegradable bags? This seemed to be the greatest idea since the corn and potato starches are made to biodegrade or photo degrade when in contact with air or light in less than 18 months! WONDERFUL! Not… this will only work if you bag is on top of a free standing hill of trash and according to an amazing article on HealthGoods.com, 95% of all trash is land filled. “In landfills, garbage is buried beneath layers of soil that make it difficult for air or sunlight to reach discarded items. The fact is that most plastic bags just don't degrade, even in a compost pile. There are some new starch-based plastics that may be more degradable. But few grocery bags are made from that type of product.”

So, short of it is there really is no easy answer to plastic bags besides stopping using them. Carry around reusable bags in your car, buy little foldable bags to put in your purse or pockets, carry out small items when you know you don’t need to carry it very far and if you MUST, ask for paper bags when leaving the store! Those are easily recycled, are often made of recycled paper and can easily be transformed.

As a final note, here is the link to Thomas’s post, on Renewables at Home, that responded to my challenge and wrote an excellent article you all should read! Thank you for jumping in Thomas!

EDITED :

Here is another one of my readers (Harri Pao) that took the challenge and wrote about how they eliminate plastic bags in their daily lives.

How to make your conventional electric hot water heater more efficient – Insulate it!

Good morning everyone.

Very soon, my husband and I will be moving to a nicer, more recent apartment building (having outgrown the “college” setting we are currently residing in) and I will be, for the first time, paying all my utilities, including hot water. That one is very new to me since I’ve always lived in buildings where the hot water tanks were in the basement, gas heated, and I never had to worry about them.

But as of July 1st, we will have access to our electric water tank in our apartment and will have our own separate counter. Not only do we see this as a great way to start really paying attention to how much we use, but it will be a great start to us finding ways to making the adjustments and changes in order to make our conventional water heater as efficient as possible.

According to Natural Resources Canada and the Office of Energy Efficiency :

Storage tank water heaters are by far the most common type used in Canada. These systems heat and store water in a tank so that hot water is available to the home at any time. As hot water is drawn from the top of the tank, cold water enters the bottom of the tank and is heated. The heating source can be electricity, gas or oil.

More efficient storage tank water heaters can perform as much as 40 percent better than conventional models. An energy-efficient model will typically have one or more of the following features:

• extra tank insulation for better heat retention and less standby loss (loss of heat through the walls of the tank)
• a better heat exchanger to transfer more heat from the energy source to the water
• factory-installed heat traps, which allow water to flow into the tank but prevent unwanted flow of hot water out of the tank

So if you are shopping for a new water tank and cannot afford green power like solar panels for water heating, look for the more efficiently rated ones.

But if you are like me, renting and don’t have a say really over the tank that you have or not able to get a new tank, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it!

Our tip is to go to a place like Home Depot or Lowes and buy a hot water heater blanket. Now be sure you take all your measurements because not all water heaters are the same! But these places will sell most conventional sizes for under 30$.

The U.S. Department of Energy has posted a very comprehensive guide to installing an insulation blanket that I plan on using to make sure our tank is well fitted. According to them, “adding insulation to it can reduce standby heat losses by 25%–45%. This will save you around 4%–9% in water heating costs.” Not too bad for a 30$ investment. And less water heating means a lesser carbon footprint which is once again the ultimate goal.

Hope this was useful!

What ways do you use to save on your energy bill?

Heating through light : Another reason for using CFLs in your home

Good morning everyone.

With the warmer weather approaching, the time to think about a greener and energy efficient summer is upon us. That is right; it is time to find alternative ways of cooling our homes that won’t leave an insane carbon footprint on the world. So while I was reading back issues of Green Living magazine, I found an article by Mary Teresa Bitti that was published last summer entitled “Cool it : 7 ways to chill without warming the planet” that had a lot of good ideas like :

• Getting rid of the air conditioning units (or if simply cannot live without them, go for Energy Star rated ones)
• Using ceiling and floor fans that use up a fraction of the energy to run.
• Closing windows drapes and blinds during the warmer days and opening them up at night.
• Create patterns of cross-ventilation by strategically opening and closing specific windows to create “wind paths” in your home.
• Make sure your insulation in your attic and basement doesn’t have any gaps and holes so that the cool air stays inside your home.
• Add natural shade to your yard and home by planting trees or by not removing too much of the natural canopy that will provide your home with cooling shade.

All great ideas! But you are probably thinking “there are only 6 tips there!” That is because I wanted to talk more in depth about one of them that surprised me and intrigued me more than the others :

• Replace all you incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)!

Did you know that more than 90% of the electricity used to power a traditional bulb is lost through heat?

According to Natural Resources Canada, only 4 to 6 % of the energy used to power a traditional bulb goes towards producing visible light. Which means everyone of your old traditional bulbs that is glowing is not only using up a lot of energy, creating more waste buy having a shorter life span, but is also heating your home when you are desperately trying to keep it cool! CFLs produce 75% less heat when lit up.

So as an extra green step to a cooler home this summer, if you hadn’t already made the switch, replace your old traditional bulbs with CFLs.

Thank for reading!

What will you do to lower your carbon footprint this summer?

My last sign in : HAPPY EARTH DAY EVERYONE!

Since one of our Earth Day activities is to have a electronics-free day, I will sign off until thursday.

I wish all of you a wonderful day. I look forward to reading about all the ways you celebrated!

Lets really make EVERY DAY EARTH DAY! And lets start with tomorrow as our new beginning.

Yanic

Your refrigerator : A few ways to make it more energy efficient

Good morning everyone! I was reading a little bit about home appliances and decided to share a few thoughts with you.


If you are like me, you want to be on top of your energy consumption and buy all Energy Star rated appliances, but it’s not always so easy. Everybody’s budget is different and even though we do eventually plan on changing all of them, we have been going at it one at a time. We started by the washer-dryer because to us, that was the first one to come in. With all the water wasted in conventional washing machine, which was a no brainer.

Thinking of which one to buy next is my inspiration for this blog.

Did you know…

That according to Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency, the average refrigerator sold in Canada used up 487 kWh?

Now here was the surprising part : Most models that are sold with the Energy Star label only cut the energy consumption by an average of 10%.

After reading this, I started thinking that although 10% less is 10% less, there had to be ways to make my existing fridge more efficient itself.

Here are a few tips I found in a book titled 365 gestes pour sauver la Terre (365 things you can do to save the Earth) by Philippe Bourseiller that will help me, and hopefully you, cut down on energy use :

• Don’t position your fridge near a heat source like a the stove or a radiator.
• Do not position your fridge in the light of a south facing window.
• Don’t put in the fridge foods that are still hot. Let them cool down to room temperature before placing them in the fridge.
• Do not overheat your kitchen. Keep the ambient temperature a few degrees lower than the rest of the house. Cooking and baking will easily make up the difference anyway.

I hope these little hints will help in making your kitchen a bit more energy friendly!

What steps do you take to make your appliances work better and more efficiently?

EARTH DAY - April 22, 2009

So 7 days and it will be Earth Day.

Now I know what you all are thinking : "Everyday should be Earth Day!" and I truly do agree. But to make it more official and to make an extra effort, my husband and I sat down tonight and decided on actions we would take as a couple to make the day's impact more. I thought I would share them with you.

• Now although my husband and I already are a one car household (my husband taking the car because of his crazy / pre-bus schedule) and I carpool to work everyday, we have decided that April 22nd would be a good day to cut-the-car-taking all together! My husband has decided to make Earth Day his first "Ride-my-bike-into-work" day and I have decided to walk. Now I admire my husband because for him it is a 40 kilometers (24 miles) round trip when it is only a few miles back and from work for me, but I think it will be a nice gesture and help us get back into our summer swing where we walk and bike everyday.
• We have also decided that it will be an electronics-free day : That is right! No computers, tvs, radios at all. We have decided to truly embrace the simple quiet of our home and take the time to catch up on the things that we never find time to do. My husband has been teaching me to play chess and with an evening's practice, I just MAY finally beat him! *Now keep in mind that we will still be using computers at work, we can't exactly go into work and say NO! But I figure for all the electronics that will not be working at the house for 24 hours, we will still make an impact!*
  
• We have also decided all foods eaten that day will be organic and uncooked. Raw simple foods are good for the body, mind and soul. Plus, not running ovens, microwaves, grills, etc., will lower your carbon footprint.

If I could make a suggestion : For all of you that are not vegetarians, try going without meat for Earth Day! Did you know that, according to Défi Climat 2009, eliminating 4 meals containing meats a week will reduce your carbon footprint by over 400 kg (almost 900 lbs) of CO2 a year! For a family of 4, that is almost 2 US tons a year!!!

I hope you are all going to take the time and think of things you can do to help with lowering your own carbon footprint for the day and that you will join us in trying to make a difference!

Although everyday should be Earth Day, April 22, 2009 is a great place to start!

Happy greening...


What actions will you take on Earth Day?

Turning out the lights to fight Climate Change : Earth Hour 2009

EARTH HOUR - SATURDAY 28, 2009 - 8 H 30 P.M.

"Earth Hour is a symbolic event. Turning off our lights for an hour won’t stop climate change but it does demonstrate that our individual action is important and adds up to make a big difference. More importantly, it sends a very powerful message to government and world leaders that people want policies and regulations put in place that can achieve meaningful emission reduction to help fight climate change." - www.wwf.ca

Hi everyone!

So, this is something I'm proud to be a part of this year and I invite everyone to join in! Last year, 30 countries participated and over 150 coties across the globe signed up. In Canada alone, 10 million people turned off their lights in a planetary stand, sending a message to everyone that Climate Change and Global warming is something we all play a part in and have to work to overturn.

IT'S JUST ONE HOUR!

At 8 h 30 p.m., turn off the light and light some candles. What are we doing? My friends and I are coming together at my house and having a chess tournament by candle light... I have a feeling it may last longer than an hour for us! LOL!
What will you do?

SIGN UP!

In Canada, you stand a chance to win a Trip for 2 to Chruchill Manitoba to go visit the Polar Bears. Did you know that only 25,000 polar bears are left on earth? Multiple countries are banning together to try and finally put them on the endangered list. Here is a wrap up of the effects of global warming on the polar bear population according to Nature Canada :

"Global warming is melting the polar ice caps, robbing polar bears of the ice floes they need to hunt prey. As the annual sea ice melts, polar bears are forced ashore to spend their summers fasting. If the Arctic ice cap continues to melt sooner and form later, polar bears will become too thin to reproduce and they will become extinct by the end of this century.

The polar bear's home – the Arctic – is experiencing the effects of global warming more than any other place. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at almost twice the rate of that of the rest of the world, and this is threatening to place the entire Arctic ecosystem in jeopardy.

Arctic sea ice is shrinking by what appears to be a greater rate every year – sea ice that not only provides hunting ground for polar bears, but shelter and transportation for seals, walrus, arctic foxes, and the Inuit people. The underside provides a surface for algae that support cod, char, beluga, and narwhal. The white sea ice also has a cooling effect on climate by reflecting light away from Earth's surface. As it melts, the global warming advances even more quickly. "

SO PLEASE TAKE A STAND WITH US!
Share with me your thoughts and ideas and please join us on satruday night!

Understanding our carbon footprint.

All of us, no matter how green we live, play a part in greenhouse gas emissions. But how many of us truly understand the concept of the carbon footprint? I decided to take a look and figure out how I could take steps towards lowering mine.

When we think carbon, most of us automatically think cars. And it is true that cars play a big part. In the United States, according to the Nature Conservancy, 20 % of carbon emitted comes from cars. So taking steps towards traveling lighter and getting more miles per gallon is a good place to start for sure. Hybrids, carpooling, public transportation, these are all solutions that have been pounded into our heads for saving the world. But what if the people that drive their hybrids around constantly buy imported foods and produce? Or what if a person takes his or her bike to work in the morning and then comes home and runs the air conditioning unit at full throttle all night.

Every little thing we do, whether it be using a compact fluorescent bulb or buying produce from a local farmer, reduces the impact we have on climate change.

Did you know ...

• That if you replace incandescent bulbs by compact fluorescents, you will save 100 pounds of carbon for each bulb over its life span?
• That by installing programmable thermostats in your home and keeping the air at a constant temperature year round, you could save a great deal of money on your power bill and at the same time, help lower your emissions from overworking your utilities?
• That one ton of carbon is released by planes for every 5000 miles (8000 kilometers) of travels? Which means that every time you buy a package of strawberries that have been flown in from Chile to your supermarket, you are contributing to putting tons over tons of carbon in the atmosphere.

These are only a few examples of how every little thing we do has an impact, for better or for worse.

The first step to understanding that impact is to have an idea of our footprint.

If you live in the United States, a great place to go is on the Nature Conservancy Carbon Calculator and fill in their little survey to know the average footprint of your household. It is very thorough and takes under consideration states that have cleaner energy sources in the calculations.

Another very complex but well done calculator in the USA is the one for Carbonfund.org that actually calculates with a dollar figure how much your carbon offset would cost and offers the possibility of donating to the cause. At 10$ per ton of carbon offset, you can fund projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation everywhere in the world.

For Canada, I've found a few sites that have varying degrees of precisions, but that are still good indicators and can help you make cleaner and more ecologically sound decisions. Here are a few that I've found interesting :

The EcoNeutral Carbon Calculator focuses on both transportation and home energy use. It has a country selector so you can use this calculator no matter where you live.

Tree Canada has a fun little calculator that shows a CO2 offset versus trees needing to be planted to compensate result. For this one, you need to know your average kWh (kilowatt-hour) usage for the year, but it gives a good idea of the importance of trees for the natural balance of our air and environment. Donating to this organization helps with the planting and maintenance of trees in urban and rural Canada and to planting trees for environmental, non-commercial purposes. For every 4$ you donate, one tree will be planted and cared for.

These are of course just a FEW of the programs and sites that are out there for you to start really getting active with carbon offsetting.

I hope that you will go and check out these sites and look for more like them.

Happy greening!