EIA Kids Page - Waste to Landfill

This is a great site for learning how landfills work. It is geared toward kids but if you are an adult...don't let that stop you. It's good for you too.

A Kids Page - Waste to Landfill

So where do I go from here?

The more I see how my "American way of life" is subsidized by other people's suffering, the more I am offended by the way things are. I know I can't change the world, I can't even change another person, but I can change me. I am not obligated to participate in causing another persons suffering though my actions...or purchases. Even if it is the accepted norm.

I ran across another blog quite by accident, about a week ago or so, which summarized exactly how I have been feeling for the last few months. I have reprinted one of the posts here, in it's entirety, because it's so well written and I didn't feel a small excerpt would have the same impact. I reprint it here with the authors permission. I have also given the link below in case you want to read the rest of his blog. Most of his blog is not about resource conservation, but it is some really good stuff about life and living compassionately. I recommend it as a must read. Be warned though, it is very powerful and quite an emotional read. Here is the excerpt I promised from Weblog "Spirit Poor".

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Think about the drink

I washed my hair by a mountain stream once. We were backpacking for an entire week and I stunk. So I took an impromptu bath, rinsed my hair in the stream, and watched the bubbles drift downriver.
Didn't give much thought to the hikers who would be collecting water from that same stream down below.
We live our lives with that same thoughtlessness. "I can live any way I darn well please. To hell with the rest of you."
We wouldn't say that out loud, or maybe even think it. But it's how we live.
It's what we do when we buy clothes made in third-world countries at the expense of someone else's near-slave labor.
It's what we do when we sip rich coffee grown and harvested by the sweat of people who will see almost no income for their efforts.
It's what we do when we buy products that can't be easily recycled. When we carry them home in plastic bags. When we toss away the glossy packaging and eventually the item itself with its non-degrading plastic and toxic chemicals.
It's what we do when we treat the waitress that way. Or the co-worker. Former friend. Husband. Wife. Child.
What's your trickle down? What are you dumping in the river for others to drink? What lives are impacted by your actions? Take a long, hard look downstream.

Spirit Poor: Think About the Drink

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I am aware that sometimes my blog or comments probably sound like I have jumped up on a high horse and don't know how to get off. It's really not that way exactly. At least I hope not. I do have a bone dry sense of humor that is sometimes missed or misunderstood and that often gets me in trouble. I also tend to rant about things that are really just hitting me square between the eyes and I would like to change in myself. I am truly a novice when it comes to using resources correctly so I give myself challenges and put my thoughts out there in cyberspace so I have a higher standard to live up to. But in the end, I do believe I have still missed the mark a bit.

So back to my original question, "Where do I go from here?"

I have reasonably determined that if I stay mindful of what is leaving me in the form of trash, garbage, refuse, water, wasted food, hydrocarbons, methane?, recyclables--and anything else I might have forgotten in the list-- then I will be making headway. However, having given this careful thought, I don't think it is enough to just think about my waste stream. I also must think about where what I acquire comes from.

As I look around my house I find things that most likely were made by another man's poorly compensated sweat in a third world country. There are other things too that used an extreme amount of resources to produce or probably created a great amount of pollution in their manufacture. When I buy these goods, do I not perpetuate suffering or extreme pollution and also share in the blame?

There is a hidden price for cheap goods that someone else pays instead of me. I can only live cheaply because the cost to produce my goods is kept low by cheating someone else out of the right to pursue happiness. Is that fair? I have the right to pursue happiness but those in "developing" countries don't? That's arrogant and piggish and I don't want to be that way.

I plan on being more mindful of what I purchase. I am with No Impact Man on buying used but that is not always possible so here are some points I am going to consider on every new purchase. I am sure I will revisit this list later and add to it, but this is the list for now.

1. In which country was this product made?
2. Were the persons that manufactured or assembled it paid a decent wage, and did they work decent hours? Is there a chance they were kept locked in their place of employment for long hours with no breaks? Were they forbidden to use the restroom for long periods? Is it Fair Trade?
3. How far did this product have to travel to reach me? How much oil was consumed in it's manufacture and shipment?
4. What air /water /soil pollution occurred when this product was made?
5. How many tons of resources did it actually take to manufacture any metals in the product?
6. Did anyone die to extract the resources necessary to manufacture the product?
7. How much plastic is in the product? If there is plastic, is it recyclable or will it end up in the landfill?
8. Is the packaging excessive? Can the packaging be recycled or will it just end up in the landfill?
9. How long will this product last? Can it be renewed or repaired? Is it manufactured specifically to be disposable?
10. Do I really NEED it, or do I just WANT it?
11. Does my use of this product create any additional pollution?
12. When I am through with this product will it be difficult or impossible to dispose of?
13. How long will it take for this product to decompose? Will it ever decompose?
14. Will this product harm me, or those around me?
15. Can this product be purchased from a local manufacturer instead of an importer?

Whoa, that's a big list, you might be saying. Well, it should be. I would call it mindful consumption rather than impulsive and it is what I should be practicing. If it takes me a few days or hours to determine if I should buy something...that's good! Stores are set up for impulse purchases. If I must run myself through a checklist before I purchase, I will be less prone to buy on impulse. And I do love to buy on impulse. It makes me downright giddy. Until I leave the store. Then it just makes me less rich.

Peace.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

If you wander around long enough you can usually find a garbage can, probably one that is stuffed and overflowing, emblazoned with the slogan "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". I think this slogan was developed in the 70"s and actually meant something back then. Now it is just a conscience buster. It is OK to load up the can as long as you read the slogan and promise next time to try and reuse something. But I really got to thinking about this slogan again. This really is the order we should think about things in.

Reduce--This is probably my biggest goal. I have cut back considerably but recently signed up for the Yahoo Group Riot for Austerity, 90% Emissions Reduction Project and apparently have a long way to go. I'm not sure what they propose is readily possible for a city or burb dweller. This group has the simple goal to reduce what we use by 90%. Here are the austere goals they have in mind to save the planet followed by my own comments.

Gasoline:

• 50 gallons per PERSON, per YEAR

It is my goal to "Divorce my Car" and move closer to where I shop. work etc. but right now that is an impossibility. When I am finally able to accomplish this, I will have met this goal. At least directly. Must not forget that every single thing we buy leaves a fuel footprint as well. We often think this stuff grows like mushrooms in the stores. No...it is trucked in.

Electricity:

• 1,100 kWh per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR

To be honest this one is a little difficult to figure out for the average Joe like me. I need to get out my bill and see what I am using now. Living in an apartment I also don't think they would take kindly to me punching a chimney through the wall and putting a wood stove in the corner. So...this may be unrealistic at the time. At least in the winter. However, we have stopped turning the heat on at every slight chill in the air and wear sweatshirts a lot more. We also have a good supply of blankets in the living area and use them quite often. Nothing like cozying up under the blankets too for a little book reading before bed. There are also other ways to stay warm but this is a family blog.

Heating and cooking energy:

• If your home uses propane or natural gas, 100 therms per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR
• If your home uses heating oil, 75 gallons per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR.
• If your home uses locally and sustainably harvested wood: Unlimited
• If your home uses unsustainably harvested wood, 5 cords per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR

Everything in my home is electric. Everything! Hey, it's the Northwest and we are proud of those fish kills we have labeled hydroelectric dams. Except all that power runs off to California now to run the AC instead of sticking closer to home. Which brings me to a good point. Why would anyone need AC here in the Northwest. We see what, two 100 degree days per year. Give me a break. Even if my apartment had it I wouldn't turn it on. But yet I see AC compressors all over the place. And AC uses a lot of energy. On the really hot days why not just turn on the fans and pretend it is a vacation in the desert for a couple of days. How did we all become such wimps?

Garbage:

• 0.45 pounds of garbage per PERSON, per DAY

Wow, I guess I will have to weigh my garbage now. We take about one bag a week to the dumpster and so I think we might be getting close to this one but I really have no idea. I buy all I can in bulk and we eat strictly plant-based so most of the stuff leaving in the trash can is biodegradable anyhow. I realize that is not necessarily good for the landfill and am looking for a place to take it for composting. I have no real backyard that is mine for a bin and my wife hates worms so an inside worm bin is currently out of the question. Rumor has it that the county is going to start a composting drop and when they do I will be first in line. We create a lot of compost and I really hate to see it go to waste. If we can find a place with a backyard then I will start a composting bin. Hopefully that will be soon.

I should mention that it is only because landfills are essentially buried and sealed off from the air that biodegradable waste is an issue. It is my understanding this actually converts the decay into a greenhouse gas. and if the dumps were open air then the stuff would just rot on its own and not be an issue. However the volume of garbage we piggish Americans produce every day is more than can be left in the open. We actually truck and barge the stuff around looking for a place to put it. Read "Garbage Land." It is a real eye opener.

Water:

• 10 gallons per PERSON, per DAY

I guess I will have to stop showering and flushing the toilet. How do I meet this rule in an apartment? I don't think it is possible. They suggest buckets of sawdust instead of using the toilet but what do I do with it then? Throw it out the back door? This is an impossible goal for an apartment dweller I think.

Consumer goods:

• $1,000 worth per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR.
• Used goods count only ten percent of their purchase price (so you could buy $10,000 of used stuff).
• Used goods that were donated to Goodwill or the church rummage sale, etc, can be bought in unlimited amounts (since might otherwise just end up in landfill).

OK, this is one that I may be able to manage easily since I am basically broke anyway. And I actually do love shopping at Goodwill type places. There are some real treasures to be had if you look. We live in a disposable nation and it is amazing what people give and throw away. I recently discovered that if you need furniture just wander around the dumpster areas of apartment complexes. People throw perfectly good stuff away every day when they move. Actually, I worked in an apartment complex years ago and some people would leave out the front door and never look back. Leaving behind literally everything. Clothes, furniture, shoes, refrigerators full of food. Amazing.

Food:

• No less than 70% of food purchases should be organic and be grown within 100 miles.
• No more than 25% of food purchases should be bulk, dry goods (flour, pasta, etc) from more than 100 miles away.
• No more than 5% of food purchases should be wet goods (meat, fruit, shampoo) from more than 100 miles away.

This is a goal we are moving toward. We buy about 95% organic now and are working on the "local" part. One of our goals this year is to buy as much as possible at the farmers market. That should solve the "within 100 miles" conundrum, at least in the growing season. When shopping at the grocery store I try to buy as much as possible from Washington and Oregon growers but winter usually gets a little lean in the local department. I am much more conscious of the ramifications of buying lettuce from Mexico now. That is a lot of fuel spent for my salad. Certainly we can grow enough lettuce locally to sustain us. Once I move I will start a garden and produce as much of what we eat as possible. I think we meet the 25% and 5% goal mentioned already.

Mind you now, we all must meet these goals, every single person on the planet, to stop our self-destruction. I assure you most in developed nations are not that motivated. I do fear though that nature is much stronger than any of us, and always seeks a balance to force sustainability. We have mickey moused around with nature so much, eventually it is going to strike back. And then, we will have no choice but to make these changes. Forget the Alamo. we should all remember the dust bowl of Oklahoma and the potato famine of Ireland instead.


Reuse-This is a difficult one. Most of the crap we have now is not made to be fixed. For example, I have a small appliances I use daily to grind flax etc. The only parts that are sturdy are the contact parts. The rest is cheap plastic and over time that plastic is cracking, simply from age and vibration. When it finally cracks all the way the motor will be out of line with the shaft and that will cause it to wear out. Can I fix it? Well, if there were a place to buy parts I guess I could. But, there is no place to buy parts. When I was a kid there were small appliance repair shops, but not anymore. Now we just throw it away and buy another cheap one. Even the computer that sits on my desk that I use for writing this blog is mostly disposable. Hard drive crashed? Buy another one. CD not working, buy another one. No one fixes these things and then puts them back in. You just pop down to CompUSA and buy it again. Convenient, yes but right? Not really.

Recycle-Ah, I love this one. I have become really good at recycling. I have stuff stacked all over which I run to the recycling places on a regular basis. Most of my garbage gets recycled. Any batteries I use get recycled. Anything I can recycle gets recycled. I have become very aware.

This fall I am planning on completing the Master Recycler" program. Why? Because this is the jumping off place into awareness. If you can make people aware of complete recycling you can get them thinking about reducing and reusing too. I'm not talking about the yellow curbside box recycling. That in some ways is a cop out. I mean thinking about everything that can be recycled. Batteries, compost, clothing, old electronics, etc. Things that are not necessarily picked up at the curb but can still be recycled with just a little effort. If you can keep it out of the landfill, then do! It is much easier than one thinks. It just takes a little practice and it becomes second nature. So much so that when my wife and I attended a Sustainability Fair and were handed a sample in a plastic bottle we could not bring ourselves to throw it away in the trash. And guess what? The Sustainability Fair had no recycle bins. We both found that very weird.

Well, I have really rambled on this time. Check out the 90% project. I'm not sure it is attainable for everyone living in the middle of the burbs but it has some worthwhile goals to strive for. The link is over there to your right.

Welcome-I am a resource pig

I am a resource pig and I know it. I'm trying to change. Honest. In this blog I hope to document my steps away from my own resource over consumption and on toward more sustainable life practices. Nothing like a little transparency to do the trick, huh.

One of my favorite past times is hiking. I have always followed the cardinal rule of hiking "leave only footprints and take only memories". It just seemed like the right thing to do. A day came that I realized as soon as the hike was over I was right back to trampling good old planet earth without care. I thought to myself, "Self, shouldn't you try to leave the least footprint you possibly can all the time? Not just when recreating? Hmm...good point. So, before I recycle myself back to soil and feed the dandelions, marigolds and lilies I decided it was time to clean up my act.

After my "conversion" I discovered that society in general views my goal of trying to live more sustainably as being very uncool for the most part. I sometimes find myself lumped together with being a "new ager", "hippie leftover" or sometimes even viewed as being "unpatriotic". "What do you mean you avoid the mall? It's your patriotic duty to shop and keep the economy humming. Waht about the corporations? What will happen to the stockholders? The economy will crash if we all start to live sustainably and stop buying more stuff."

OK, that may be all true. But, economy collapses are survivable. It's happened many times before and we all just went back to eating worms or something while we looked for a good farm and then waited for a good crop of broccoli and carrots. Ice ages and total desertification on the other hand are probably not as easily survivable. Mabybe if you have some good Eddie Bauer gear and a basement full of canned food. Wait! Did someone turn up the heat? Water, I need water!

Another example of falling outside the mainstream is when I chose to begin eating a plant-based rather than an animal-based diet. To be perfectly honest my first intent in changing was health and not sustainability but the ecology bandwagon rolled by soon after and I just jumped right on. My choice was severely questioned by nearly everyone I mentioned it too though. With great concern they would ask, "How on earth do you get your protein if not from a dead cow or chicken?" The answer, of course is that I get it the same place the cow and chicken did before they died. From plants, nuts, seeds, etc, etc. etc. Also, since I gave up mothers milk about fifty-one years ago I decided, very late in life, to give up cow's milk too. I mean it is true I do have calves but I use those mostly for walking and not drinking. And yes, I get my calcium the same way believe it or now. Plants. If somenone out there does find any carnivore cows or chickens please let me know and I may reconsider this choice.

It takes a lot of work to move toward sustainability since the choices are many and it may not be for the faint of heart. One of the easier choices to make is; do I use a paper bag that consumes a tree and saves oil or do I opt for the plastic one that consumes oil and saves a tree? I recently opted for the reusable plastic bags as they seemed to leave the least footprint.

A move toward sustainability may be difficult but it does have a very positive result. It will cost a lot less to live, life will become simpler and less stressful,and I will be much healthier. Admittedly I have taken just a few small baby steps, but it is a start. Each week (month?, year?, decade?) I plan to move a little closer to my goal as I read, learn, adapt and apply. Here are a few of the things I have done so far.

1. I recycle anything I possibly can and end up dumping very little in the dumpster.
2. I eat low on the food chain. That means I eat a very sustainable plant based diet and have eliminated all animal products from the menu since they consume resources at an alarming rate. I do use honey from time to time but mostly agave nectar.
3. I strive to leave the car parked as much as possible and walk or take the bus whenever I can. I'm still working on that one and have considered selling the car and using Flex Cars or a rental whenever I really, really, really need a car.
4. I have taken steps to reduce the junk mail I receive. Here are some instructions on how to do that: Stop the Junk Mail
5. I buy organic when it is available and shop local as much as I can. I am also trying now to eat with the seasons but have not yet fully refined that goal.
6. I read. Books, blogs, websites, anything I can to learn and adapt. Society it seems has moved so far away from sustainability in the last one-hundred years much of our knowledge of living with the earth has been lost. I know I certainly did not grow up in a sustainable household. There are still a few persons in the U.S. that live simply and it is from these I hope to learn how to return.
7. I do not sell my "allotment for polluting" by buying "carbon credits" so I can continue to pollute. I would much rather reduce my own consumption, educate others to do so as well and reduce the carbon emissions that way.

Well, that is my story for now. I hope to keep this blog going and document my progress. I actuallly hope to make quicker progress now than before and I encourage others to join me and post suggestions, good books to read and most of all encouragement. As time goes on I also hope to expand this site and offer select books for sale that will help others move toward co-habiting peacefully with the earth. The way we all did for thousands and thousands of years.

Please recycle this blog properly in the right bin.