brands are most efficient and emit the least gases and particulate. Also, wood
stoves must be used carefully and maintained properly to avoid inefficient
operation, excessive emissions, and leakage of carbon monoxide into the home.
The best way to minimize the amount of fuel-produced heat your home requires is
to insulate it properly. Insulation is the most important factor in the amount
of energy required to heat your home. Consider a hypothetical home with 100%
perfect insulation. This home would need to be heated only once, and never
again. This puts into perspective the idea that we only need to heat our homes
as much as heat escapes to the outside. Most houses in America are poorly
insulated at best; only one in four houses have insulated walls. Consider the
fuel savings if you increased your home’s insulation quality by even 20%, which
in many cases is a realistic goal. Initially, insulation costs time and money,
but it pays for itself quickly in reduced fuel costs and a warmer, more
comfortable home. Unfortunately, the finer points of insulating a home are
beyond the scope of this article. An excellent resource on maximizing your
home’s insulation is Home Insulation by Harry Yost. Your local library should
have, if not this book, several books on insulation that will at least get you
started. Beyond updating your furnace and insulating your home, consider your
personal use of heat in the home. The average American household’s temperature
during the winter is slowly rising because of increasingly sedentary lifestyles
and lighter dress. The healthier we eat and the more exercise we get, the more
internal heat our bodies will produce. The more above the outside temperature a
home is heated, the less efficient its heating system becomes. If we simply wear
more clothes, we will need substantially less heat. Wearing sweaters and
slippers, eating nutritious food, and getting plenty of exercise are simple but
frequently overlooked ways we can reduce our heating energy needs. Next to
furnaces and stoves, the air conditioner is the second most energy-hungry
appliance in American homes. Unfortunately, air conditioners rely on lots of
electricity, the most polluting form of energy available. The use of air
conditioners should be avoided at all costs. If you live in a climate with
extreme heat, consider your air conditioner and its placement carefully. The EPA
has outlined efficiency standards for most household appliances, air
conditioners included. Make sure, if you buy an air conditioner, that it has the
EPA’s Energy Star mark of approval. This does not mean that the air conditioner
is good for the environment, but that it uses its electricity efficiently
instead of wasting it as many older models do. If you must have an air
conditioner, purchase a small, efficient model and place it in a small,
closed-off room where you spend most of your time. Make sure this room does not
contain any heat-producing appliances like a washing machine or clothes dryer,
and that sunlight does not enter through windows. Under these conditions, air
conditioning can be relatively efficient and economical. Central air
conditioning, on the other hand, is extremely inefficient and usually goes
largely unused. Outside of heating and air conditioning, almost all of the
energy used in our homes is electricity. Many Americans take electricity for
granted, leaving unused lights and appliances on without thinking. A simple
awareness in turning things off can greatly reduce our electric bills. Further,
choices can be made in the kinds of lights and appliances we use, and whether
they need to be used at all. As for lights, there are several high-efficiency
bulbs on the market that, for slightly more money than a typical light bulb, can
get by on a fraction of the electricity. Fluorescent lights, for instance, are
five times more efficient than incandescent (typical) lights. Standard
incandescent light bulbs use electricity to heat a filament that glows to create
light, whereas fluorescent lights send very rapid and brief charges of
electricity through a filament. The days of flickering long tube fluorescent
lights are over. According to Edward Harland, new Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs)
flicker at more than 20,000 cycles per second (compared to 60 in tube lights),
are 30% more energy efficient than tube lights, and come on almost instantly.
These lights, while more expensive, will significantly reduce your electricity
bill and last five to ten times longer than standard light bulbs. Before even
turning on the lights, make the best possible use of natural light in your home.
Place your reading chair by a sunny window instead of in a corner facing out a
window. Consider adding skylights to your home. These can create a surprising
amount of natural light during the day, and contribute to your house’s heat
during the winter. Mirrors strategically placed on walls can also make better
use of light and heat from the sun coming in through the windows. Use only what
electric lighting is necessary: low-wattage task lights for individual
applications instead of high power lights to illuminate a large area. If you
must use outdoor lights, consider purchasing a motion detector that will turn
the light on and off only when it senses movement. When purchasing appliances,
check to see that they are EPA Energy Star approved. These appliances use energy
more efficiently than others. Most refrigerators, for instance, have compressors
at their base which produce significant heat and cause the refrigerator to work
against itself. During fair weather, consider drying clothes on a line outside
instead of using a dryer, which inefficiently uses electricity to heat cold wet
clothes. Your clothes will last longer, and you’ll see the difference in your
electric bill. When undressing at night, ask yourself whether your pants can be
worn again before washing. Americans, in particular, tend to balk at this sort
of a suggestion. Allowing ourselves to think logically beyond social qualms and
customs will allow each of our personal environmental movements to transcend
many of our unsustainable habits. If you work in an office or at home, chances
are your clothes aren’t that dirty at the end of the day. You’ll be surprised at
the decrease in your weekly laundry load. The last big source of energy
consumption in our homes is our favorite appliance of all. The average American
household television is on 7 hours and 20 minutes per day, and 98% of all
households have at least one television. At 170 watts per hour, that comes to
452,965 watt hours (or 453 kilowatt hours) of television use per year in an
average household using one 25" television. Look at the breakdown of your
electricity bill to put this number into perspective. You’ll see that America
could save a lot of electricity and money by simply turning off the television.
Instead, we can read a book, go for a walk or hike, work in a garden, or talk or
play a game with our families. Quite simply, the less television we watch, the
richer our lives will be, the less we will spend on electricity, and the more we
will be doing for the environment. All of the information in this section has
focussed on minimizing the use of energy in the home. Imagine if you could use
electricity in your home without burning any fossil fuels and without any
monthly electric bills. This is not only possible, but a reality for thousands
of Americans. With one initial investment in a photovoltaic system (silicon
cells that convert the sun’s light into electricity), you can end your
dependence on polluting power companies and begin a new life of clean energy
self-sufficiency. You can get started with a simple photovoltaic setup for a
single zone of your home for less than one thousand dollars, or go all out with
a top-of-the-line fully self-sufficient photovoltaic power center for about
$13,000. If these prices sound high, consider the savings. If your monthly
electric bill is $100, a top-of-the-line system that requires only a moderate
degree of energy efficiency would be paid for in less than eleven years. And
there is a whole spectrum of cheaper systems that can easily power a typical
home. For less than four thousand dollars (paying for itself in about 3 years)
the Real Goods Trading Corporation sells a system "designed to handle all
the lighting, entertainment, and small kitchen appliances for a modest,
energy-conserving household of one to four people in a full-time home."
This description is taken from the Real Goods Solar Living Source Book, 9th
Edition. This seven hundred page tome covers everything from taking care of the
land to water conservation and every alternative form of energy from solar to
hydro to wind. It is a must-have for anyone who wants to live lightly on the
earth, and is available at most major book stores and libraries. Recycling and
Waste Management There is no environmentally sound method of dealing with the
200 million tons of municipal solid waste produced in America each year. There
are many things we can do, however, to minimize, if not eliminate, our personal
4 1/2lb-a-day contribution to that figure. The now ubiquitous threesome, Reduce,
Reuse, and Recycle, still defines what we all must do to bring our personal
trash production down to a sustainable level. With the media and certain
high-positioned nay-sayers claiming that recycling is worse for the environment
than it is good for it, and laws making recycling just another stupid rule
rather than a social imperative, perhaps a redux of America’s trash situation is
called for. Households and other residences produce 100 of the 200 million tons
of annually produced garbage in the United States. Most of that goes to
land-fills, where it is covered up (if not purposefully sealed to prevent
leakage) and starved of the oxygen needed for biodegradation. Here is just a
taste of some garbage statistics from Geoffrey C. Saign’s well-researched book,
Green Essentials: More than 1/2 of U.S. landfills have closed in the past 10
years, and nearly 1/2 of the remaining 5,800 landfills do not meet federal or
state standards for human health and environmental protection. More landfills
are being closed as they fail to meet 1993 and 1994 guidelines and as
communities resist allowing new landfills in their area; 22 states will run out
of landfill capacity within 10 years or less. The nation’s 10 largest cities use
a land area for their garbage that is larger than the state of Indiana. And this
is just landfills. Incineration is quickly becoming the chosen method of dealing
with garbage. Incineration actually concentrates the toxicity of garbage by
mixing volatile chemicals at high temperatures and reducing its harmless biomass
content. Approximately 1/4 of the ashes produced in a typical incinerator escape
into the atmosphere, where they combine with the toxic gases emitted to cause
acid rain, smog, and global warming. The remaining ashes are highly toxic and
dumped in landfills or stored in toxic waste facilities. A few states mix this
ash with pavement, where it will slowly decompose and leach into the ground. The
simple fact is that most of this waste could be recycled or composted instead of
burned or buried. Green Essentials offers this breakdown of garbage ingredients
by weight: Ingredient % by weight Alternative disposal methods available Paper
and paperboard 34% Recyclable Yard trimmings 20% Compostable Plastic 9%
Recyclable Food waste 9% Compostable Metals 8% Recyclable Glass 7% Recyclable
Wood 4% Compostable, can be used as fuel Rubber and leather 3% Recyclable
(tires) Textiles 2% Donate Other 4% ??? As this chart displays, 58% (not
counting the 3% for rubber and leather) of our garbage is recyclable; 33% of the
remainder could be composted. That means that 91% of all the garbage produced in
this country (that’s about 182 million tons annually) could be kept out of
incinerators and landfills. Even a fraction of this ideal estimate would have a
profound impact on the environment. Despite the amazing potential for waste
reduction that recycling makes possible, The New York Times joined the media’s
misinformed recycling myth extravaganza in their June 30th, 1996 article,
"Recycling is Garbage." From the beginning, pessimists and
special-interest industries have spread incorrect "myths" about
recycling. These claims frequently charge (among other things) that landfill
space is abundant and cheap; there is no market for recycled goods; and
recycling doesn’t pay for itself. Consider the facts on these three points:
Landfill space has become a precious commodity in the U.S., with many states
paying to export trash to other states or countries. Recall Geoffrey Saign’s
statement that "22 states will run out of landfill capacity within 10 years
or less." The market for recycled goods, while fluctuating like any
burgeoning market, has increased with the amount of recycled goods available to
create a powerful new industry. According to the Environmental Defense Fund,
"U.S. pulp paper manufacturers have voluntarily built or expanded more than
45 recycled paper mills in the 1990’s, and are projected to spend more than $10
billion on such facilities by the end of the decade." To argue that
recycling doesn’t pay for itself is like arguing that landfills and incinerators
don’t pay for themselves?of course they don’t. Recycling plants, even in the
industry’s infancy, cost about as much to operate as conventional disposal
methods, but are considerably more environmentally sound (costing less when
environmental damage and cleanup costs are considered) and reduce pollution from
manufacturing and mining for new production. Recycling is an easy thing to do,
and good habit to get into as many towns and cities are requiring their citizens
to recycle by law or charging by the pound for non-recycled garbage. First, find
out what your town recycles by calling your local waste management facility. If
your town or city doesn’t recycle or recycles only a few materials, consider
getting a "recycling-only" dump permit for a near-by pro-recycling
town or city. Next, reorganize your home’s main trash area to include
receptacles for all the different materials you will recycle. Food containers
like tin cans and bottles should be rinsed to keep your recycling receptacles
from smelling. You’ll be amazed at the decrease in waste the next time you take
out the trash. If we make a commitment to recycle our garbage, we must support
the effort on the other end by buying recycled goods. Many products’ packaging
claims "100% recyclable." This is good, but keep in mind that it
doesn’t mean the material is recycled. Look for the percentage of
"post-consumer waste" to tell you if it is and how much of is
recycled. Recycled products like paper and cardboard have come a long way in
quality and price. Seventh Generation, a producer of a full line of 100%
recycled and earth-friendly household products, posts a convincing advertisement
on the side of their bathroom tissue packages: If every household in the U.S.
replaced just one 4-pack of 430 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100%
recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees, 4.1 million cubic feet of landfill
space (equal to 4,618 full garbage trucks), and 427 million gallons of water (a
years supply for 12,300 families of four). About 33% of the garbage we produce,
like food scraps and yard trimmings, can be composted. Composting is nature’s
answer to garbage control, converting organic waste back into the soil it came
from. While many people compost to create nutrient-rich soil for their garden,
you don’t have to be a gardener to compost your organic waste. You should cover
your compost pile, but not suffocate it. The organic waste needs plenty of
oxygen to feed the microbes that decompose the matter. You can build a box for
your compost, or buy one pre-made at your local garden shop. Look for an organic
gardening book at your library for instructions on building a composting
container. While recycling and composting can help many of our waste management
problems, the Reduce and Reuse methods are still more environmentally sound.
Recycling does take energy and cost money, and material quality (especially
plastic) typically degrades each time it is recycled. Avoiding garbage