Gunj & I have been thinking about "green"-ing our lives for a while now. And, we just watched a show in which a guy re-models a home and makes it greener and more energy efficient. While most of the changes the guy did are not possible in our high-rise apartment, we've decided to do the best we can and reduce wastage.
For the past few months, we've already been recycling all & sundry. And, it's really surprised us. We put out huge bags of recyclable stuff each day. More than 50% of the daily waste that we produce are things that can be recycled- talk about American wasteful packaging. And, this, in spite of us carrying our own shopping bag.
Dinner in Chicago restaurant- $20 (yeah, we eat in cheap places)
Riding home with the boxed leftovers - $10
Forgetting about the leftovers and buying Chipotle the next day- $10
Following the stench emanating from the fridge, taking 2 minutes to empty the leftovers in the wet garbage (bio-degradable), rinsing the box and recycling it- PRICELESS.....
And, now that the limerick is done and we are both grinning and happy for having achieved our cheap thrill for the day, let's get down to the list of things that we plan to do henceforth.
1. Reduce Water Consumption: For the past 10 months, we've been living with a faulty water shower which sprays as much on us as on the shower wall. This simply prolongs the daily ablutions process. Our aim is to (a) replace the shower-head and hence, reduce wastage (b) get into the habit of turning off the shower, while soaping/shampooing ourselves ( now now, don't let imaginations go wild!!!) (c) make sure that we have more hot tub soaks together, as opposed to showers- double advantages, as you can all see!! (2 people well bathed and happy with one tub of water is definitely more eco-friendly). Alternatively, if Gunj agrees, I want to stick to my plan of bathing once a month!
Further, we want to make sure that we use the kitchen tap sparingly while washing utensils (B***v-- your dishwasher conked off for a reason; couldn't stand being used to wash 5 utensils each time) Also, conscious efforts to make sure that we fill a full load of clothes each time we use the laundromat will save a fair bit of water.
2. Reduce Electricity Consumption: This is the big one- in terms of taming our laziness.
(a) Cell phone chargers, laptops, rice-cooker, toaster are all perpetually plugged in in our cozy home. We've made one earlier effort to turn off the computers at night. But, it lasted for just a few days. This time, we want to make it stick.
(b) We also plan to replace our energy-sucking bulbs with more energy-efficient ones (compact fluorescent bulbs). Try to keep single bulb lamps on- as opposed to our hideous 4 bulb chandeliers.
(c) Stay off the internet, as often as possible, and keep the idiot box/computer switched off ( I plan to stick to this strategy at work too!!).
(d) We are also looking to buy solar cell phone chargers (taking baby steps towards using solar energy)- and take advantage of our south-facing bay windows.
(e) Use the heat from the windows, a hot cup of tea and a jumper to keep warm during the day instead of keeping the heat switched on 24-7. This will definitely not work in the Chicago winter but, can definitely be implemented in late winter, early spring.
3. Reduce Fuel Consumption: Thankfully, we don't own a car. That's one less thing to worry about.
(a) We stick to public transportation. It's still some fuel per person-so, our goal here is to walk shorter distances (especially in the gorgeous summer months).
(b) Make grocery trips regularly- this allows us to carry our bags home. I have a feeling that fewer things in the fridge reduces the load on the fridge (just a hunch).
(c)Try to rent a hybrid car, when we can. Not too many hopes pinned on this one, though. We just found out that there are about 4,000 hybrids in a fleet of millions of rental cars in the US. But, we shall definitely try.
(d) Shop locally. In our opinion, tonnes of energy is consumed in transporting goods across the country, and in many cases globally. We can definitely get rid of this, at least in the summer months, by frequenting the local farmer's market. Higher prices are a given in these places but, we at least know where our food is coming from and who went through the effort of cultivating it.
(e) Air Travel. Unfortunately, in this day and time, it's unimaginable to think of life without air travel. Be it for leisure, business, emergencies or any other reason- flying is here to stay. But, we plan to offset/reduce our carbon emissions by taking more local trips and donating money to plant saplings (it's easy to calculate one's carbon emissions for a trip on websites these days. Orbitz and Expedia have partnered with carbon off-setting services to enable users to purchase offsets with their travel).
(f) Accommodation. Plan to stay in eco-friendly hotels/lodges when we travel (we already did it in El Yungue Rain Forest- we stayed at a place called Casa Cubuy, which recycled its water and recycled its garbage to act as fertilizer for its modest fruit plantation).
4. Reduce Waste Production. Use loose tea instead of tea bags; cook, instead of ordering as often as possible; check for the recycle code (1 to 6, with 1 being the easiest to recycle and 6 being the most difficult-read as never recycled) on the back of plastic or glass bottles, plates and containers.
Other simple ideas include buying natural products for household use which are non-toxic, free of chemicals, biodegradable and non-animal tested (already underway and going great guns- look at Gunj's blog for an update on this shortly), using home-made shampoos (shikakai and reetha anyone?), scrubs (gramflour/besan), potpourri and using products which are as unindustrialized as possible (raw vs processed goods).
While most of the afore-mentioned points are really simple, the tougher part is putting them into practice and following them religiously. We plan to give an update in a week's time of what we've changed and what savings may be quantified.
Till then- practice green!
Much has been said about the fact that India ranks a lowly 94th in this list of 117 countries. Much has already also been said about the fact that the authors of the report state that GHI > 20 is "alarming". India's GHI is 25.03. Half-way between alarming and extremely alarming!!!
