The store clerk at my local store asked me the question again today. "Paper or plastic?" I know from doing a little research that neither is a good solution. Paper is expensive to produce and damaging to the environment on the front end, but plastic, while cheaper to produce, damages the environment and takes hundreds of years to biodegrade, leeching chemicals into the ground in the process.
I decided to make a list of a few things I could do to reduce my carbon footprint. Initially inspired by Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" movie, I've discovered that there are literally hundreds of little changes that I can make.
Here are the ones I've chosen to implement in the next year:
1. Buy some canvas shopping bags and start using them for groceries and other purchases.
2. Stop running the air conditioner in my car as often and open the windows.
3. Reset the automatic timing device that controls the air conditioner and furnace in my house to ensure energy is not being wasted while the house is empty.
4. Replace my trusty old energy-wasting washing machine with an Energy Star appliance.
5. Begin to replace my incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.
6. Replace as many of the old windows I can afford with Pella windows.
7. Turn down the thermostat on my water heater.
8. Recycle more product packaging and all my junk mail.
9. Buy fewer bottles of water, and recycle the bottles I do buy. (Many cities are encouraging residents to buy less bottled water)
10. Unplug appliances while not in use.
I'm sure there are other ways I could reduce my carbon footprint, please chime in and tell me what you've done to reduce yours.
Claire,
First, welcome to KMM! Its good to have you, even though we're on the opposite ends of the political spectrum (I'm slightly to the right of Attilah the Hun).
I write the evil capitalist sales and entrepreneur blogs here.
Two things caught my eye about your carbon footprint post:
* On item #2, you will burn more gas - not less - by rolling down your window. It creates a tremendous amount of drag on your vehicle, which reduces gas mileage.
* On item #5, there was just a big news piece on how scientists are re-thinking the intelligence of the new lightbulbs, since they have a very high level of mercury. As they find more of them showing up in trash and landfills, all of a sudden they are realizing the hazard.
Have to go now...I need to listen to the Rush Limbaugh podcast from today so that I can get my marching orders.
:-)
- Dan
Posted by: Dan Tudor | June 13, 2007 10:58 PM | Permalink to Comment