Environment: Reduce -- Commercial Cleaning Supplies

So my next challenge is to start making all-natural cleaners for the house. This is going to be a big change for us, so I'm going to go ahead and use up the stuff that we have, and instead of replacing it with my normal cleaner (from a store), I'll go ahead and make some "all natural" stuff -- vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, all my friends... we'll see if it cleans better (or at least as well).

I'm a little nervous about trying to replace two things in particular: dishwasher detergent and Clorox wipes (we have an old dog who has frequent accidents). I'm guessing the Clorox wipes won't be that hard to replace when I actually sit down to figure something out, but the dishwasher detergent may take some doing.

I'll post the recipes as I come across them.

Status Report: Diapering Baby B

Wow. So in my last post, I discussed our quandary as to how we will diaper our eight month old son. On Sunday, we visited our friends Kathleen and Jim and Kathleen graciously lent me some of her cloth diapers (and inserts, and covers) to try out.

Holy cow! There are just a ton of options in the cloth diapering universe! In contrast to the ones my parents used (plastic covers, tri-fold diapers, safety pins), the cloth diapers today are amazing. I have hemp inserts, bamboo diapers, wool covers, fleece diaper covers that go inside the "actual" cover. It is almost overwhelming. But, Kathleen was patient and I have a (pretty) good idea as to how to get them on poor Baby B without too much in terms of hysterics.

Unfortunately, Baby B does not seem to agree with our attempt at waste reduction ... last night I tried a cloth diaper around dinner time and he fussed for about two hours. Until I took the cloth diaper off. One thing that I think the disposables have going for them is that they have much less bulk. Baby B is a mobile sort of boy, and the cloth diapers seemed to impede his crawling. I might need to go for less absorbency and more mobility... hopefully that will keep the little monster from screaming!

Environment: Reduce (?) -- Diapering Baby B

We now come to the point in the journey where I'm at a loss as to what is the "right" thing to do. We currently diaper our eight-month old bouncing baby boy in disposable diapers. We tried cloth diapers with his older brother (who had allergies, in defense of the cloth diapers), with catastrophic, poopy-everywhere results. It was bad. So we're a little concerned about going back to cloth diapers with Baby B. At the same time, chucking diapers into a landfill (that will stay in the landfill for hundreds of years) is not that compelling.

In doing the research as to what type of cloth diapers we might want to check out, and in looking to see if the "green" disposable diapers are a better alternative, I stumbled across a bit of a quandary: there's no agreement as to whether cloth or disposables are better for the environment. The problem is that a green diaper chucked into the landfill isn't going to break down -- nothing breaks down in a landfill; the conditions aren't right for things to "degrade" or compost naturally. Cloth diapers require more water to clean. So, it seems that what really matters is what resource constraints you have in your area -- if you live in LA, which has water constraints, disposables might make more sense. If you live in a place where there's little room for waste, but plentiful water, then cloth might make more sense.

The research seems to confirm this hypothesis: this article from Wired by Elisa Batista (here) comes down that there's no clear "winner" on either health or environmental claims. And if you really start reading, the diapering business as a whole seems to prove out that there are no easy ... or even "right" ... answers (check out this article, which is a reprint of an Ohio State University Fact Sheet). And I will admit, I'm not ready to potty-train my eight-month old.

After reading maniacally, I called a friend who went through a similar soul-searching when her son was about one. Her son is now about two and a half, and she offered to let us take some of her cloth diapers on a test-drive. So, in good news, we're reducing the number of disposable diapers during the cloth diaper experiment, and if they work out, we'll see if we can transition to cloth at least part-time. That being said, I'm potentially signing myself up to launder dirty diapers, but it can't be much worse than what I'm washing now!

Preparing for Recycling

I have been thinking a lot about recycling lately. Portland is incredible for recycling because we have curb-side recycling with roll carts that don't, for the most part, require sorting of recyclables. The only thing is that you have to put your glass in a separate container, which even I can handle.

There are a couple of places where I think we can improve our recycling efforts:

1. We can't recycle some plastics (for example, clam shells and plastic container lids), so I'd like to find some options to address those.
2. I've posted before about my dismay with our composting efforts, and how those efforts frequently fall short. So I did something a little outside of my norm: I asked Hubby to *make* me compost barrels that I think would better suit our purposes for my birthday (which is coming up in March). He was a bit shocked at my request... it was fun, in fact, to watch him wrap his brain around the request. The request might be pretty easy for him to fulfill (and may be another bit of recycling). Apparently, we have an extra water heater in our basement, and Mother Earth News has some great plans for compost bins using a water heater (link: here). I was rather excited when I saw that the bins could be made for less than $10, until I realized that their cost estimates were from 1979. I'll have to wait for my birthday!

Environment: Reduce -- Shopping

Having reduced the amount of mail coming to our house, our next goal is to make conscious, thought-out purchases with as minimal packaging as possible.

While we're not big shoppers generally, we do periodically find ourselves with "stuff" that isn't as useful, or as used as we might hope it would be. We also find ourselves sometimes over-buying groceries and find ourselves not being able to eat all the vegetables by the time they go past their prime.

In looking at impulse shopping, I've found some solid pieces of advice, namely:

1. Make a list - and stick to it. Don't go in a store just to "browse" -- it is my (personal) kiss of death and a large bill!

2. For grocery shopping, the following tips sound like they just might work for us:

• Write things down as you run out of them
• Plan your meals (and keep in mind what you already have in the pantry when planning your meals)
• Buy fruits and veggies in season (this is consistent with our reduce-our-impact-on-the-environment project)
• Sketch our my shopping list to go with the layout of my grocery store in mind. If I group all the veggies and fruits together, and all of the canned goods together (etc), I'm much less likely to wander aimlessly through the store and see something I don't need on sale
• Don't be starving when you go to the grocery (also good for weight loss). If I'm taking kids with me to grocery shop, I bring a snack for them, as well. Nothing as miserable as two kids with low blood sugar shrieking through the store (nor as likely to make be buy all sorts of over-packages, nasty treats to make them be quiet!)

3. Have a cooling-off period. For all purchases other than groceries (assuming I have a written grocery list), have a three-day cooling off period. For purchases over $100, make that a seven-day cooling off period.

Since we grocery shop once a week, and shop for other things less frequently, the status reports and updates are likely to be spaced a little further out.

Status Report: Mail Reduction, Round 2

The Red Plum direct mail circulars are no more! I met our mail carrier by chance this morning and asked him if we were required to get the Red Plum weekly circular (and mentioned that we just recycle it the second it gets to the house anyway). He said he wouldn't put it in our box anymore!So much better than having to recycle -- not getting it in the first place! I'll be honest, it's not like I'm saving the environment because I don't get a little circular, but it's a start.

I am going back and rechecking a few of our opt-outs, as I've received mail this week that I would have thought we opted out of. However, it has been such a short time, I am guessing that the mail we received would have already been at the mailers when I started opting out of things.

Status Report: Mail Reduction

Well, that only took about 30 minutes. I opted out using the DMA, called the credit card number and opted out with them, as well. I also signed up for electronic delivery of all bank, investing, and utilities bills/statements and notices. That was surprisingly easy. I will be interested to see what our mail volume looks like in the upcoming months.

I think that the more difficult challenge will be significantly reducing the mail associated with my business. I am on every list known to man (or spam), and it seems like it's going to be difficult to undo that. However, I did contact the Bar Association to start the process. Here we go!

Environment: Reduce -- Starting with Mail

Ah, so many possibilities. But we're starting with waste reduction today--specifically mail. No, I'm afraid it's not that sexy. Honestly, mail is pretty much the most consistent influx of waste we have (daily).

Some interesting factiods I found about junk mail:

• In 2005, 5.8 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. Less than 36% was recycled. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
• The production and disposal of direct mail consumes more energy than 3 million cars. (New American Dream calculation from U.S. Department of Energy and the Paper Task Force statistics)
• Americans throw away 44% of bulk mail unopened, yet still spend 8 months per lifetime opening bulk mail. (Consumer Research Institute) [Holy cow! Ridiculous, and yet likely true...]

For more interesting factoids, and the source for the above, check out: http://www.newdream.org/junkmail/facts.php

Junk Mail. Goodness, I hate junk mail. There doesn't seem to be a sure-fire way to rid us completely of the junk mail. There are a few options, and they are a good start (but time will tell):

• The Direct Marketing Association can be used to remove your name from certain junk mailing lists.
• Tired of credit card offers? You can call this number to be removed from all three credit reporting agencies' mailing list (which is where a good number of credit card offers originate): 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688)
• If you have a business that gets junk mail, this link might be of use: http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/nwpc/bizjunkmail.htm

Bills. Most of our bills can be delivered electronically, with the odd exception of our water bill. We can get bills online easily enough. We pay for bills electronically anyway, why not make the entire process paperless?

Bank Statements. Both of our banks have the option for electronic statements. Signing up for electronic statements should be easy.

Investments. We have some investments, and we get a ridiculous amount of paper from them -- ironically, although we invest electroncially, we receive paper confirmation of the investments *and* additional investment coupons. Let's see if we can go paperless all around.

I will be interested to see if our mail volume decreases (fingers crossed!), or if I missed categories.

Starting Assessment -- Environmental

So before starting our little experiment, I want to have good idea of where we are starting from. This month, I'm focusing on environmental issues.

We live in the suburbs in Portland, Oregon, primarily because the house is close to where the hubby works. I work from home, so my commute is nonexistent. We previously lived in North Portland, but after I started working from home (cutting out a 30 minute commute), hubby's 40 minute commute also started to seem a little foolish. We moved to the suburbs to be closer to hubby's work. The area we live in is within walking distance to a grocery, library, and restaurants. Our oldest son, A, goes to preschool three blocks from our house. When the weather is marginally decent, we walk to school.

We have access to tremendous recycling facilities -- we have a big rolling bin that we just put everything in (except glass). The only drawback is that they pick up recycling only every other week. We recycle pretty much everything that I know can be recycled.

We compost, but in all honesty, we end up putting a lot out in the yard debris for pick-up (which is composted at a municipal composting facility), just due to the size of the yard and number of trees. I sort of hate composting -- the compost bins are down a flight of stairs, and through a bit of soaked grass (we are in Portland, after all). The composting needs some serious attention at our house -- and I'll be honest, some food waste ends up in the garbage because it tends to get overwhelming.

Hubby and I were concerned about the amount of energy our house uses, so we did an energy audit earlier this year. We've implemented pretty much all of the weatherizing recommendations (caulking, insulating vents, energy-efficient curtains, etc.), but not things like replacing windows, furnaces and whatnot. Those we will replace when things need to be replaced, but at this point everything is in good working order.

We have a second son who is in diapers (he's about 7 months old). We are using disposable diapers, as the research I did indicated that cloth diapers use a significant amount of water while disposables are a waste issue. We started out using "environmentally sensitive" diapers, but couldn't find any in Baby's current size. We went to the regular disposable diapers just because the kid needed something on his bottom.

Making the world better? Really?

This blog originated from an Amazon book review of Gretchen Rubin's book, the Happiness Project. The reviewer lamented that Rubin should have focused on making the world a better place instead of focusing solely on her personal happiness.

My knee-jerk response to the reviewer was that making the world a better place was naive and idealistic. How could one person actually make a substantive difference in the world, with all its issues -- environmental degradation, wars, famine, climate change, injustice... it seems like the work of a lifetime of millions. Not a year-long project of one.

Then the self-recriminations began. My cynical attitude and sense of being overwhelmed in the face of all the world's issues is very likely an exacerbating factor in the world's woes -- we do nothing because we're pretty sure whatever we do won't matter. Well, this little blog is going to attempt to test whether the cynical attitude is justified or ridiculous.

This blog is going to go on a three-year arc, as opposed to the one-year arc that is so currently fashionable. I can not really see making a substantial contribution to the "world's well being" in the course of a year, but am going to do my best, and maybe see if I can find some friends to do so as well. Each week, I'm going to undertake a goal/action item geared toward improving the world. I will try to logically group things together and explore certain themes as part of the project.


We'll see where this takes us...