Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Have you ever thought about how much energy it takes to get things to the store before you buy them? A lot of thought is going into that kind of thing and there is a term for it, embodied energy. Now lets apply that thinking to that morning fix so many of us have every day, our morning coffee, tea or caffeinated soda. Let’s compare drinking a pot of tea versus 24 ounces of soda every day.
I weighed a couple items around my house to get a start:
- 10 tea bags weighs 1 oz (30g)
- 15 sweetner packets (Splenda) weighs 3/4 oz (20g)
- 24 oz soda in plastic bottle weighs 1lb 10 1/8 oz (739g)
Using 2 tea bags and 3 bags of sweetener for a pot of tea, which is what we use in my house, and a pot a day for a year we end up with 8 lbs per year. Figuring that tea travels 1,500 miles to get to the store via a semi-truck with a 231,800 pound miles per gallon, that works out to 0.052 gallons per pot a day habit per year. Now let’s switch glasses to soda. More…
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
For those of you who are parents of young kids, or those that 
are looking to give a child a gift, check your attic before going to that mega store to buy some new mass produced molded plastic or electronic toy.
While visiting my in-laws this weekend with my 3 year old twins, it amazed me that the favorite new toy was something my wife played with as a kid 30 years ago. They have lots of new toys (i.e. those made in the past year or two) at their grand parents to play with as well as a bunch of toys from my wife and her sibblings’ childhood. Most of their favorite toys are not the new ones, but rather the well used ones. Maybe it is that only the favorite toys, like a Fisher Price School House or Seasame Street block, were selected to be stored for later use . Maybe it is that young kids aren’t exposed to as much mega media advertisement and so aren’t fixated on having the latest thing on TV.
Whatever the reason is, by choosing a used toy over buying a new one, you’ll help save the environment by reusing something that has already been produced, save a little money and make a little one very happy. If it has been in your closet or basement for a while, clean it well before making your favorite bundle of joy more joyful.
The photo of the tug boat is the actual toy that my kids have been playing with since arriving at their grand parents this weekend.
