Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Count Your TP
It makes a difference.
Nothing like good old-fashioned, self-inflicted, Catholic guilt to keep a guy honest when he’s doing his business.
That’s right, I started counting the squares of toilet paper I’d use each day. Got a problem with that?
I posted a piece of scrap paper right there next to the toilet, kept a pencil on hand, and tallied those suckers up before I even got off the pot. Kept me busy.
I did it with the full intention of making it an open-ended project (no horrifying pun intended), but ended up stopping after two weeks. The cool thing is, the record-keeping may be over, but the always positive enviro-guilt continues! I may not be keeping exact tabs on my wiping habits anymore, but I still pay attention to how much I’m ripping off with each swipe at the roll.
Ahhhh, yes… I can hear the forests sigh with pleasure every time I approach that glorious porcelain throne in the rear end of the house. That is the forests sighing, right?
So many things today are considered disposable. Think about it, disposable razors, paper plates, plastic ware just to name a few. Considering how cheap things are, especially kids toys that are made of plastic in China, we even consider those disposable. When a toy is broken, as commonly happens with kids stuff, try fixing it before pitching it.
A lot of people enjoy watching TV and movies at home. My family really does. Most folks have some variation of entertainment system setup at home. Some basic components that almost every entertainment system include are TV, DVD Player and/or VCR and cable box. Some larger entertainment systems include a stereo receiver, CD player, DVR (e.g. TiVo), MP3 player and more. What most people don’t realize is that each of these components draws power even when turned off and it can be a considerable amount when you combine all the components in your entertainment center. 
How long does it take to get clean in the shower? Is it 10 minutes? Did you know that a 10 minutes shower with a non-low flow shower head can use upwards of 80 gallons of water and generate up to 4 pounds of CO2, not to mention the cost of the energy to heat the water.
Sometimes recycling things takes a little work, but thankfully a little effort can go a long way. Every week in the summer time, I play softball. The captain of the team brings a cooler of ice cold bottled water to the game, bless him. Unfortunately, there are only trash cans near the softball fields. For the past couple weeks, I have started collecting the empty water bottles and bringing them home to put in our recycling bin, which the town picks up. Except for my teammates trying to move my collection of bottles to the trash barrels, last week I had to intercept two of my teammates who had kindly picked up the bottles to throw away, this has been really easy. I load a dozen or so empty bottles 
How many books are on your bookshelf?
Ahhh, “reduce” and “reuse” — the poor stepchildren of “recycle.” Truth is, the grand green triumverate starts with “reduce” and “reuse” for a reason.
Think of all the energy that goes into producing new clothes. Especially nowadays, when most of the clothes we buy in the Gap or Old Navy are made in Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, Malawi, China, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Taiwan, Nepal… you get my point.
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. 
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. 
