All Bottled Up (How Taxing)

I read this article a long time ago about an attempt in Chicago to tax bottled water, and I think it's brilliant.  Bottled water is one of my latest pet peeves.  By all means, filter your water - it certainly tastes better than a lot of our tap water.  But then put that water in a reusable bottle, like this SIGG bottle that I really want.

Disposable plastic water bottles just seem like such a waste to me, especially since I see so many of them end up in the trash can.  But trying to get people to stop drinking bottled water is a hard battle to win.  A tax measure can discourage people from buying so many water bottles, while at the same time generating revenue for a city.  Maybe a little financial incentive will convince people to stop their wasteful ways more than arguing with them will.

Powerful...like the wind

I've been meaning to do it forever and ever.  Since my name is on the electric account, I get a lot of the information that comes from our power company, so I've known about their wind power program for awhile now.  But I've never taken action on it.

Well, today I wanted to post on my blog since it's been a few months, and I was surfing around looking for something interesting, and I once again came across a green power Web site.  It served as a reminder to me about Avista's wind power program and I immediately followed through.

Basically, many utility companies are offering programs in which you can purchase alternative and renewable energy.  Avista's program, Buck-A-Block, allows you to buy 300 kW of wind power for $1.  From what I understand, your purchase won't necessarily bring that wind power directly into your home.  But you are purchasing that amount of energy to make up part of Avista's energy mix.  I went through and averaged our energy consumption - about 600 kW a month.  So by subscribing for 2 blocks of power a month, I'm making a small attempt to offset our energy use.

I believe strongly in speaking with how I use my time, money, and resources (although I certainly stumble in my "words" through each medium).  So I like the idea that I'm making a statement in how I'm investing a very small amount of my money, and hopefully as more and more people do so, the market will shift more and more towards renewable energy sources.

By the way, check out The Green Power Network to find out if there is a similar program somewhere near you.

Truly Small Things

Seriously, are staples that big of a deal?  I don't even use staples all that often.  But I am also seriously fascinated by staple-free "staplers."  They don't actually use any staples to attach paper together...they somehow cut little holes in the paper and then attach the sheets of paper together.  I'm not entirely sure how they work, but I still think I want one.

You never would think that staples make that much of an environmental impact, and truthfully, they probably don't.  But hey, we're again taking the small steps, and eliminating the waste from making staples as well as the tons of non-reusable metal in staples is one small step.

To Dine For

I don’t worry too much about my environmental impact when I eat out at restaurants…maybe I should, but it’s just not a priority right now. But I’ve been thinking a lot more about eating at home, eating at work on my dinner break, and getting take out:

1) Napkins: I’m trying to get into cloth napkins. According to Ideal Bite, it’s actually cheaper to wash and reuse cloth napkins than it is to buy paper ones. Not that I ever buy paper napkins anyways, but I do use paper towels when I need to. In particular, I use paper napkins all the time when I eat dinner at work. They’re just so convenient. I’m working on embroidering some cloth napkins…I’m hoping to eventually have a set for each season…so that I can combine my love for embroidery with being good to the environment. But it’s slow-going. At least my roommate has some cloth napkins that I can use at home. Maybe I need to have a work napkin as well – is that a little weird?
2) Plastic utensils: Plastic utensils are another one of those things that I use at work all the time, along with paper/Styrofoam plates. When I remember, I try to bring utensils from home, but I worry about losing a spoon or something and we have precious little of those. Maybe I need a little portable fork, knife and spoon set that I can just use at work – but then I’d have to wash them every day.
3) Take-out: I’ve been becoming more conscious of how my food is presented to me. For example, when you get your meal to go at Qdoba, they put the container in a (very large) plastic bag. I already hate plastic bags anyway, but I have no need for a plastic bag for the plastic box that I can very easily carry. I also hate being bothersome, so if they’ve already bagged my food, I just take the bag and figure I’ll recycle it. But if I can catch them, I tell them to skip the bag.

I work such hours that I very rarely eat a real meal at home, so I’m always going for the convenient thing…whether that involves bringing my lunch or all too often going out to grab some food. And I just want to be more and more aware of how I’m using resources when I’m eating some yummy grub.

But The Good News Is...

Now this isn't about eco-living, but I did give myself that out in my first post (that is, that this blog is a place where I can also "mull over other ways that making small changes can make big differences in other aspects of life").

Maybe it's partly from working in news, but sometimes I feel like all I hear is gloom and doom, death and destruction. It's one of the things that frustrates me most about news - obviously, we need people to be aware about problems in the world. But I think we also need people to be aware of the good things that happen in life as well. I can't remember how I got linked to this site, but I was so excited to find HappyNews.com. The site publishes real stories, but only positive ones. And I love their philosophy:

"Our basic belief is not that people should be insulated from bad news. Far from it. We encourage people to be fully engaged, fully informed citizens. That means we need to know the good and the bad. We just believe much of the traditional media has strayed from this course, and reports a disproportionate amount of negative news. We are trying to balance the scales back out. Plus, let's be honest, there are some days when we have just "had enough" and need a pick-me-up. Hopefully this site accomplishes that."