Here’s The Story of Bottled Water; a brief look at how drinks manufacturers managed to convince us to pay for bottled water.
So in honor of World Water Day say “No!” to bottled water, grab a reusable bottle and home water filter, and lobby your local government to invest in our public water infrastructure.
On Saturday Plastiki, a boat made of 12,000 plastic bottles, set sail from San Francisco on its 11,000 mile voyage to Australia. Plastiki is a unique 60 ft catamaran made of post-consumer recycled plastic bottles and other recycled plastic materials. The main purpose of the voyage is to raise awareness of marine pollution.
On its route Plastiki will sail across the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive sea of rubbish floating just below the ocean surface between California and Hawaii. Stretching over an area the size of the continental US, the Garbage Patch is estimated to contain up to 100 million tones of trash. Most of the refuse consists of small particles, held in suspension just below the water’s surface. It is therefore hard to depict the scale of the problem with a simple photograph, so research together with high profile voyages like Plastiki’s are needed.
You can track the crews’ progress here; and read their blog guilt free, as their laptops are powered by an exercise bike.
http://www.theplastiki.com/trackplastiki/
(This page has “Fact: Roughly 50% of all plastic products end up in the ocean”. This seems very high to me – I can’t imagine a mechanism that would allow so much plastic would get from our landfills to the sea. Perhaps they mean 50% of all marine refuse is plastic. If anyone finds a source let us know in the comments)
The target
First things first – I’m in Ireland. The UK/Irish power system of 220V meant I had to go for a compatible power monitor. So I was out of luck with all the energy monitors I’d been reading about for the USA (T.E.D. The Energy Detective, Cent-a-meter, Blueline etc). I settled on the CurrentCost in the end, because it had a great community of people developing software.
So I bought a CurrentCost off the manufacturer’s ebay store, along with a serial to USB data cable I’d use to grab the data.
Setting up the CurrentCost is remarkably simple. Just plug the device in, attach the sensor to your electricity supply and you are done. Couldn’t be easier!
Here we have an annotated graph of a typical day in my house. Using data like this is a really useful way to keep track of what energy you are using, and pinpointing where you can make savings.
For example we can see the dishwasher usage at (J) and (K). The standard cycle on my dishwasher has a ‘heated dry’ part at the end. I never realized before just how much energy it uses. Having the heated dry on basically doubles the dishwasher energy consumption. From now on I think I’ll run the dishwasher before I go to bed, and leave off the heated dry.
Tip: Don’t use heated dry on the dishwasher.
The ‘resting’ electricity in my house seems to oscillate between 80 and 115 Watts. I think the change might be the fridge coming on every 90 minutes. Here is a list of what is on 24/7 in my house:
Of these the laptop is the only saving I can really make – it’s being replaced by a low energy alternative (more on that later this week).
Even without the CurrentCost/laptop the house seems to be drawing around 80 Watts, which seems like a lot. Anyone know how much their house uses so I can compare?
Tip: Before bed go around your house and switch off everything that you can.
The kettle draws a lot of power but for a short period. You can really see the difference between boiling a single cup (H) and enough for a saucepan (G).
Tip: Only boil the water you need.
As you can see from (I) there was 1.5 hours in the evening when I left on the kitchen lights. The lights in the kitchen are 6 halogen spot bulbs, and boy do they suck up the juice – 240W in total! If I did that every day I would be emitting 180 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere (0.24 kW * 1.5 hr/day * 365 days * 1.37 lbs per kWh).
Naughty!
Tip: Make sure you switch of lights when not in use, especially halogen/incandescent bulbs. Replace them with energy efficient bulbs when they die.
So apart from the power hungry kitchen lights nothing too surprising here. However, seeing the energy in graph form like this really shows where you can make savings, and I’m already changing my habits.
Yesterday I had to go across the Irish sea to England, to sort out some details for my wedding. I was away from 7pm on Sunday to 9.30pm on Monday, which you can see from my energy graph:
You can see the baseline energy my house uses – from the fridge, house alarm, cooker timer, and (mainly) the laptop I’m currently using to upload my energy data to the web (working on a replacement!). This is a background use of around 100-130W.
Except for 2.02pm, where the energy spikes to 1.38kW. What on earth is that?!
Looking back there have been no similar spikes at all when I’ve been out or asleep.
I know what it looks like. It looks exactly like the kettle. Did someone let themselves into my house, and make themselves a cup of tea? And then leave?
Weird.
Reduce, reuse, recycle should be the mantra for every eco-friendly lifestyle. However the order of the phrase is no accident. With so much talk about recycling it’s important to remember it should be a last resort. Rarely can 100% of an item actually be recycled, and the parts that can require large amounts of energy in transport and processing.
Let’s look at some simple tips to Reduce. We’ll follow-up with a Reuse and Recycle edition later in the week:
Half of food in the US goes to waste! The main culprit is household waste – US households discard 14% of the food they buy, adding up to a staggering $43bn a year. Reducing food waste will save you money, and reduce the environmental impact of intensive farming, landfill use, and food transportation.
To reduce food waste try the following simple tips:
In recent years the rise of massively discounted imported clothing has created a trend in disposable fashion. Cheap, poor quality, seasonal items bought, worn for a month or two and then thrown out. These clothes mostly end up in landfills, wasting energy that was used in manufacture and transportation. Good quality clothing may cost a little more upfront, but can last you for years and is much better for the environment.
Don’t forget to try and buy Fair Trade – can that $2 t-Shirt really have come from a happy place?
Reducing your electricity use saves you money and reduces your CO2 footprint. With a household electricity monitor you know exactly what items in your house are energy hogs, and make sure you turn them off when not in use. Studies show using an electricity monitor can reduce your electricity use by 5-20%.
See here for my experiences with my home monitor.
One third of the world’s mail is US junk mail. The Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Mail Preference Service lets you opt out of receiving unsolicited commercial mail from many national companies for five years. The one-time $1 fee will put your name and address on a delete file, and made available to all companies who use DMA’s data. See here for more details - DMAchoice.org.
Notice their Learn More section (here) has some dubious claims. Remember: they don’t want you to sign up!
‘Mail is made from a renewable resource.’ – perhaps, but almost no unsolicited mail companies use Forest Stewardship Council approved paper, much less post-consumer recycled paper.
‘Mail represents only 2.4% of America’s municipal waste stream.’ - only?! 2.4% is a heck of a lot of material to keep out of our landfills (most mail is junk mail; statistics seem to range from about 50-90%.)
It’s actually not that hard to go tree-free at home. Here are a few tips:
Bottled water is an unnecessary waste of energy and materials (and money!). Combine a water filter and drinks bottle and enjoy delicious, pure drinking water without the waste.
These are just the tip of the iceberg (enjoy that metaphor while there still are icebergs!). Share any more great ideas you have in the comments.
