Fifty Ideas and Me.

I've been having a hard time coming up with idea's for how to lower my footprint. Any ideas I find either don't apply to me or are not feasible. In an attempt to find something to to I'm going to go through the 50 suggestions on the website (http://www.50waystohelp.com/) suggested by Amy and evaluate each suggestion in relation to my life.

Here it goes:

1. CHANGE YOUR LIGHT

     I took a quick look around my house and we're using compact florescent bulbs in every part of my living area.

2. TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT NIGHT

     I always make sure to shut off my computer whenever I'm not using it however my laptop could be drawing power to charge that I am not aware of. Due to phantom load, unplugging devices could gain me extra power savings with a small effort. 

3. DON'T RINSE

    Although I agree with the premise of not washing dishes before placing them in the dishwasher, not rinsing often leads to improper washing, clogging the dishwasher with food, and can require more energy to wash them a second time. 

4. DO NOT PRE-HEAT THE OVEN

    I consider myself to be an amateur cook and from my knowledge, failing to preheat the oven can wreck many pies and breads because the initially hot oven is requires to seal in the moisture. However preheating is not required when cooking meat that has already been browned, or when using the broiler. 

5. RECYCLE GLASS

    My household collects all recyclable glass, plastic, and paper and recycles it through a combination of the municipal recycling collection program and trips to the bottle recycling depot. 

6. DIAPER WITH A CONSCIENCE

     I don't wear diapers very often anymore. 

7. HANG DRY

     I currently hang all of my shirts and pants to dry and only use the dryer for socks, underwear, and bedding. Do to the season and space constraints I am hang drying all that I can. In the summer I hope to put up a clothes line as I love the smell of clothes which have dried outside in the summer. 

8. GO VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK

    At the moment I go vegetarian at least three times a week. I do not consider meat to be central to my diet but I do need to eat it a few times a week. Perhaps one of my challenges could be to eat only vegetarian foods for a week to try something different.

9. WASH IN COLD OR WARM

    I do my laundry in cold or cool water using a cold water detergent. 

10. USE ONE LESS PAPER NAPKIN

    I don't have any paper towels or napkins at home, we entirely use cotton clothes and towels and wash them with our laundry. 

11. USE BOTH SIDES OF PAPER

    I am very guilty of this when taking notes in a notebook. I neglect to use the backs of pages because I cannot write very close to the metal book binding with my right hand. I should start to use more of the back of the pages to extend the lives of my notebooks. 

12. RECYCLE NEWSPAPER

    I currently recycle newsprint and paper products. 

13. WRAP CREATIVELY

    I tend not to wrap presents for birthdays and friends however I waste a lot of wrapping paper at Christmas time. Wrapping in newsprint or other recycled papers would drastically reduce the amount of paper waste from gift giving in the holiday season and I will keep this idea on my radar for next year. 

14. RETHINK BOTTLED WATER

    I do not often purchase bottled water, I usually have access to a water source wherever I am and drink from water fountains or cups. 

15. BAN BATHTIME!

     I don't have a bath.

16. BRUSH WITHOUT RUNNING

    I'm not guilty of this, I don't run the water while brushing my teeth or shaving. 

17. SHOWER WITH YOUR PARTNER

     Anytime I've tried this I've stayed in the shower for at least twice as long as I normally would have. 

18. TAKE A SHORTER SHOWER

     I am very guilty of this, maybe not in shower duration but certainly in shower frequency. I average two showers a day because I tend to shower when I get out of bed in the morning and again when I come home from my job smelling like a kitchen. If I did not shower before going to work I could drastically reduce my water use. This might be a good idea to try during world water week. 

19. PLANT A TREE

     This is an excellent idea, I may try this. 

20. USE YOUR CRUISE CONTROL

     I do not have a cruise control device on my bike and do not do enough highway driving for it to be practical. 

21. SECOND-HAND DOESN'T MEAN SECOND-BEST

     I shop at value-village for things such as kitchen tools and some clothes. I love finding a great deal on something that would have cost much more new. 

22. BUY LOCAL

    This is something I wish I was doing more of, due to time and money constraints I often end up doing the bulk of my shopping at supermarkets and making food choices based upon price.

23. ADJUST YOUR THERMOSTAT

     DONE

24. INVEST IN YOUR OWN COFFEE CUP

     This is a good suggestion, I order take out coffee 3-4 times a week and would be able to reduce waste by bringing a reusable mug. 

25. BATCH ERRANDS

    I'm pretty good at planning trips to the store. I find the key is to always have a list. 

26. TURN OFF LIGHTS

    My household does an excellent job of keeping lights off in areas that are not occupied. My landlord has installed nightlights for us to use so that we do not need to keep the lights on to navigate the halls at night. 

27. GREENER LAWN CARE

    I do not have a lawn

28. PICNIC WITH A MARKER

     This is a neat trick for a problem that I do not run into very often. 

29. RECYCLE OLD CELL PHONES

     I am guilty of never having recycled my electronics but I do not currently have any eletronics to recycle. I would suggest that on top of disposing of electronics it is often very easy to find someone else who could make use of them. I gave my old cell phone to my sister and set my room-mate up with my aging desktop computer which I had replaced.  

30. MAINTAIN YOUR VEHICLE

    I'm great at maintaining my vehicle. It is not well known that having your tire pressures even a bit too low can cause a big impact on the fuel economy of your vehicle. 

31. RECYCLE UNWANTED WIRE HANGERS

    I don't have any. 

32. RECYCLE ALUMINUM AND GLASS

    I currently do this. 

33. TELECOMMUTE

    If I had a job where this was possible I would try to do it as often as possible. I always prefer to work in my underwear and this is not always well received at the office. 

34. KEEP YOUR FIREPLACE DAMPER CLOSED

    I don't have a fireplace

35. CUT DOWN ON JUNK MAIL

    This is something that I need to do. The biggest offender are the newspapers which we receive, stuffed full of unnecessary junk. Sometimes the newspaper contains twice as much junk in the middle than in the actual paper. These papers are seldom read and could be easily replaced with a local on-line news source.

36. CHOOSE MATCHES OVER LIGHTERS

    This is something which I wouldn't have thought of. I considered a disposable lighter to be better than matches but I did not take into account the materials used. I would suggest that a well-built refillable lighter might be the best solution in the long run. 

37. LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING—ONLINE

     I haven't used a phone book in more than 5 years, however some members of my household still rely on it. 

38. GIVE IT AWAY

    I don't have anything to give away but if I did I would most likely try to sell it on an online classifieds website or give it to a friend. 

39. GO TO A CAR WASH

    I question whether building an entire facility dedicated to washing cars which uses many hazardous detergents and industrial powered dryers could have less of an impact than washing a car with a garden hose, a soft cloth, and some mild soap. 

40. PLASTIC BAGS SUCK

    I do all of my grocery shopping with my backpack on my motorcycle or on the bus. I do not take plastic bags and instead just load everything into my backpack. When I do bring plastic bags home for whatever reason, they are put into a cupboard and reused for other needs. 

41. FLY WITH AN E-TICKET

    I will try this next time I fly.

42. DOWNLOAD YOUR SOFTWARE

   I haven't bought a physical copy of software in years. Everything from games to office software is readily available online. 

43. STOP YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE

    I don't have an answering machine but turning my cellphone off at night could save energy that would otherwise be wasted powering a device when I don't need it. 

44. SKIP THE COFFEE STIRRER

    The coffee shops I purchase from do not use disposable stirrers. 

45. FIND A BETTER WAY TO BREAK THE ICE

    Good idea, but it does not apply to me. 

46. USE COTTON SWABS WITH A PAPERBOARD SPINDLE

    I had never payed close attention to this before but I will the next time im in the market for some cotton swabs.

47. PAY BILLS ONLINE

   I currently do this for all of my bills.

48. STOP PAPER BANK STATEMENTS

   I currently do this for every statement that my bank is allowed to offer online. 

49. USE RECHARGABLE BATTERIES

    Surprisingly I have no devices which require removable batteries. All of my portable devices have built-in rechargeable batteries. 

50. SHARE!

    I'm trying to do that right now!

In summary, the areas where I could have the largest effect would be: reducing phantom load by unplugging my devices, try to adopt a vegetarian diet, make better use of paper, reduce the amount of showers I take, buy local, use a re-usable coffee mug, and cut down on junk mail. 

This week I will purchase a re-usable mug and begin to unplug all of my devices nightly. I will save some of the larger challenged for later weeks.