If you are like me, you may want to be as green as possible but your bank account just won’t allow it. I have tried to find at least 10 ways you can contribute to the environmental effort without breaking the bank…
1. USE CLOTH DIAPERS – Now your initial investment will run in the $200-$400 range, depending on the style of cloth diaper you choose and how many you decide to purchase. This may seem like a lot of money, but if you do the math of what it will cost to put your child in disposable diapers over the period of 3 years ($1800-$2880), you will see that this is not that much money. Plus, you can use the diapers over again for another child or re-sell them to recoup some of your investment. Granted you will need to factor in the cost of laundering, if you do it yourself or use a diaper service, but this cost will not be as much as using disposables. The other aspect to consider is obviously the environmental impact. Some argue that the energy used to wash cloth diapers is just as much of an abuse on the elements as disposable but I just can’t see how putting something in a landfill is less harmful than an extra load or two of laundry a week. Here is some food for thought on that argument:
It is estimated that roughly 5 million tons of untreated waste and a total of 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills annually. It takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers for American babies alone. Although some disposables are said to be biodegradable; in order for these diapers to decompose, they must be exposed to air (oxygen) and sun. Since this is highly unlikely, it can take several hundred years for the decomposition of disposables to take place, with some of the plastic material never decomposing.
2. USE COMPACT FLUORESCENT LIGHT BULBS – This is another item that is a little pricey but if you attempt it bit by bit or room by room its not as hard on the wallet. Focus on rooms that get the most use : living room, kitchen, family room or office. To start, take note for a few days to figure what one room you seem to use the most and change out those bulbs. Then try to find the second most used room and when you can afford it change out those bulbs. Its all about small steps that in time can be very effective. Here are some statistics I gathered from the Energy Star website:
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime. CFL’s Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
3. UNPLUG APPLIANCES WHEN NOT IN USE – Here is a way to save energy that costs you nothing and can save in the long run. I’m sure we all have some appliances that are plugged in and are drawing electricity even though we are not using them. Do you shut your computer down every night? Do you have a clock in every room? Do you have a VCR or DVD player with a clock and memory to maintain? Did you know that even if your TV is off it is still drawing electricity to power a memory device? Coffee makers are another culprit. A good rule or thumb is to ask yourself what appliances need to be re-set after a power outage. These are items you need to address. If you are unsure of any particular appliance, unplug it. If its not plugged in, it can’t draw electricity.
4.HAVE AN ERRAND DAY – I try to schedule all my errands for the week into one afternoon. It may take some time to find your ideal day, but once you do, the best way to coordinate everything is to write a list, factor in when places are open, where everything is located in relation to one another, nap and mealtimes. For example, my post office closes midday for some reason so I need to keep that in mind if I need to send out a package or buy stamps. I found its best for me to go out after my daughter’s nap and lunchtime, this allows plenty of time to get all the things done before dinner which makes sense if I need something from the market for dinner and the post office is not only open at that time but it is on the way to the market and other places I need to stop. Another way to optimize this idea is to park in a central location and walk to as many of your destinations as possible, weather permitting.
5.USE CANVAS BAGS FOR SHOPPING – This is may sound easy enough but you would be amazed at the number of people who won’t/don’t do it. My suggestion is to buy a few and keep them in the car (I have a knack for forgetting them). Most supermarkets have displays of them for $1.99 with a lower price if you buy more than 3 or 5 . Not a big investment and I have to say it makes unloading the groceries much easier. It is so nice to have 2 nice strong bags instead of a dozen flimsy plastic ones and you can get everything into the house that much faster. Here are some great facts I found about plastic shopping bags:
- Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
- Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade – breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways.
- As a part of Clean up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected.
- Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has developed using the harvested bags to weave hats and bags. According to the BBC, one group harvests 30,000 per month.
- Plastic bags are among the top 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation
6. USE NATURAL CLEANING PRODUCTS – Now don’t go and throw out all of your cleaning products, that would defeat what we are trying to do. Use up what you have and before you run out go through this list, stock up and prepare your solutions so you’ll be ready to go. I would advise to purchase some new plastic spray bottles rather than try to reuse the old ones from the other cleaners, there will be some residue left behind that would require a lot of rinsing to remove. I don’t use everything on this list but I do use a lot of white vinegar and baking soda as well as some commercial enviro-friendly products that I purchase from a reputable company. You can find their link on my resources page.
Baking Soda – Baking soda is a great all-purpose, non-toxic cleaner. It cleans, deodorizes, scours, polishes and removes stains. (Note – There’s a great article on this site about baking soda, “The Manifold Magic of Baking Soda“)
Borax – It deodorizes, removes stains and boosts the cleaning power of soap. It also prevents mold and odors. Great alternative for those who do not want to use bleach.
Cornstarch – cleans and deodorizes carpets and rugs, and can be used in place of baby powder.
Ketchup -cleans copper.
Lemon juice – great for whitening items and removing grease and stains on aluminum and porcelain.
Pure Soap – cleans almost anything and is mild.
Salt – regular table salt makes an abrasive, but gentle, scouring powder.
Washing Soda – Cuts grease and disinfects.
White Vinegar -great for whitening, cleaning hard surfaces and windows, and shining metal surfaces. Also removes mildew, stains, grease and wax build up
For even more helpful and natural cleaning products go to www.frugalfun.com/cleansers.html
7.SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS MARKET – If you are planning your errand day set aside some time to check out your local farmers market. Not only will you be supporting your neighbors, you will be supporting natural/organic farming and most likely you’ll be saving a bundle on produce compared to the supermarket.
8.STOP USING PAPER TOWELS – This is a tough one when you have little ones, I know, but I found some great alternatives. Cloth napkins are one way to at least cut back on paper towel use and if you bargain shop you can usually find some decent ones for less than .50 a piece. Another great product is those chamois style towels that suck up so much liquid. I have a bunch and love them, they wash up easily and hold up well too.
9.ONLY RUN A FULL DISHWASHER – It can be tempting to run a partially full dishwasher but try to avoid it. If used properly, using a new energy efficient dishwasher in an average household uses half the energy and one sixth of the water consumed when hand washing dishes. Now, one warning here, you need to use eco-friendly detergent to have the full effect of this tip. Granted this detergent may be more expensive than the average Cascade or what have you but will still be an energy savings in the long run.
10.LINE DRY YOUR LAUNDRY – For some of you, like myself, this is not a year round option. For others it may not be an option at all if you live in an urban area. But, even an indoor drying rack can help the cause.
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Excellent article! Wipee! I’m the first to leave a comment.
Here in Thailand, we do a lot of this stuff more or less because we have to. Like we always line dry our laundry, because we don’t have a dryer. Most people don’t. No dishwasher, so we all clean our dishes as soon as we’re finished. Big grocery stores are still much more expensive than the farmers market, plus the local farmers produce is much nicer, and right around the corner so we get what we need every couple of days. Not to mention our refrigerator is too small to hold much. Regular light bulbs are actually hard to find here, most everything in the stores are florescent.
For most Thais it seems, it just doesn’t make sense to consume in a way that produces so much trash. They reuse just about everything. It’s pretty neat.
Some of your suggestions I hadn’t even thought of though, like unplugging or flipping off the surge protector for devices that aren’t in use, but still consume energy like the TV, computers, and such.
Finally, another thing I like, is that most bathrooms here have a small water heater mounted on the wall in the bathrooms, that do a pretty good job of warming the water for showers. Every other faucet just runs cold, like in the sinks. It’d be interesting to hear your thoughts on hot water. I know some new houses come equipped with some kind of water heating mechanism that conducts heat from underground. Also, gets me thinking about water conservation.
Again, great post! Keep it up!