the world is not enough August 29, 2009

A few more thoughts on “How much is enough”… another place to look for an example of excess built into our society is our food portions - go to any family restaurant in the US and one entree could easily feed two people, forget the appetizers and desserts. It’s an interesting phenomenon that may not be entirely coincidental; Michael Pollen explores western eating habits in his book “the Omnivore’s Dilemma” which among many other interesting things considers why portions have become so huge.

an ocean freighter ready to be dismantled

 But this mentality of more is better, or perceived bang for the buck in many cases, seeps into everything we do – even laundry. A natural whitening agent like sodium percarbonate (also known as oxygen bleach or “Oxy Clean”) is so effective that only a teaspoon per gallon of water is needed to do its job. What you buy off the shelf is full of fillers like talcum and perfumes, just so the “consumer” can use the larger scoop they’re used to. (Does anyone else get annoyed by being referred to as a “consumer”? just a pet peeve of mine.) We get sucked into this mode of thinking that if a little is good, then a lot must be better… liquid laundry detergents are all in concentrate form, but who among us actually uses the recommended 1/4 cup? As much as I’d like to point to the manufacturers with evidence of some nefarious conspiracy – I can’t. Ultimately it may be as simple as habits and human nature… which is why an intentional life consists of constant observation and evaluation of our habits. What is working for us and doing that consistently, and noticing what is not working for us, and taking the effort to make changes. Intentions count! 

Examples like food portion or laundry detergent seem trite and inconsequential when talking about aligning your life with your values, and when talking about “saving the planet” (saving life as we know it, actually). But what is life but a series of choices connected by (and made by) emotions, needs, and desires? 

A few tips you can use today to start reducing your contribution to the landfill:

• Don’t take the garbage out for a week, for a lesson in what you really throw away (or a year, like David Chemeides) .
• Recycle: while recycling isn’t a panacea, it does have a tremendous impact on reducing volume going to landfills, and reducing pressure for virgin material. Do it now, and do it often!
• Precycle: 60lbs of plastic per year (per person!) is made to be thrown away
  • bring your own bag when shopping
  • avoid additional bags where possible (ie, produce bags at the grocery)
  • prefer products in minimal or recyclable packaging
  • buy in bulk, and reuse the containers where possible
• Avoid bottled water (or prefer those in glass containers)
• Stop junk mail; while you’re at it, opt-out of telemarketers and credit offers: 1-888-567-8688
• Reduce your use of disposable objects: plates and napkins to razors and pens to one-use items like cleaning wipes… what else can you replace with reuseable?

 For more things you can do now to change the world, see the resource section of my website, www.rethinkyourworld.com  

How much is enough? August 17, 2009

With the addition of the latest page on my website – facts and resources about trash (exciting! ha ha), I’ve been thinking a lot about “how much is enough?” http://www.rethinkyourworld.com/waste.html

 I marvel at the blessings and bounty in my life, yet the socially accepted norm for “enough” often seems extravagant to me. In buying our first home, my husband and I fought our own assumptions that we needed a house with a yard (which led us to a townhome, though in the end we knew it was much larger than we needed). Though we never “filled” that house, we were certainly on the path of acquiring furniture and accessories to fill the space we had. Only after living with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a finished basement for awhile did we realize how wasted it was… we’d go for days, even weeks without occupying some of the rooms, yet we’d find ourselves spending 3 – 4 hours every week dusting and vacuuming.

8000 pounds of construction waste is generated for an average 2000 square foot house

 More recently, I felt the raised eyebrows when my husband and I decided to move from that home in Atlanta to a 1 bedroom apartment in San Francisco. (Interestingly, many of our friends expressed a desire to “de-junk” their own homes as well, and envied our large steps to actually succeed.) Downsizing from nearly 3000sf to not quite 900sf is rather drastic, but after the initial shock we both agree it is enough; meaning, we have a place for everything we need and want, but not enough space for “stuff.” Sure, on some days one or the other of us will fantasize about an extra bedroom or office, but when we’re done cleaning and straightening up in about an hour, with the rest of a beautiful day ahead of us, we’re grateful we chose less over more.

 You’ve probably heard this before: the average new American home is over twice as large as those built 60 years ago. These numbers were reported in an NPR article in July 2006. In it, John Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, an organization that tries to protect open spaces and agricultural land says “I worry about the future of a culture and a society that has this extent of excess in it [speaking of 30,000sf homes]. I think there is a disconnect, and we are in a bubble. Somehow, we are just not experiencing the realities that the rest of the world is.”

 But wasted space may seem like an abstraction when talking about the conservation of resources  - until you realize that construction of a 2,000sf home results in an average of 8,000 pounds of construction waste (according to the National Association of Home Builders). Most of this material is lumber, drywall, and cardboard, and goes to landfill unless the home owner or developer insists on a construction waste management plan.

 The good news is – there are more and more “green” builders out there, and lots of resources to find them or do it yourself. Clean drywall is recyclable in many areas (a desired soil additive for many farms and gardens), and some municipalities may take clean, untreated lumber for mulching, it’s worth calling your local trash collection agency. Salvage yards are another good resource for moving unwanted construction “leftovers” or demolition to somewhere other than a landfill.