Tips for city dwellers who
want to ease their impact on the environment
How to
Save the Earth From Your Apartment
by Ryan Jones
Since the end
of the bubonic plagues in Europe, people have been pulling up stakes
from the country, moving to cities, settling down in cramped,
multi-unit dwellings, and relaxing into the stresses of city life.
Until recently, it was acceptable to just dump your chamber pots out
the second story window. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the
new environmental trend necessitates that we flush our waste down
the toilet, and package our garbage for disposal. But with so many
people living in cities these days, is that really enough?
Definitely not. It is very easy to be environmentally friendly in a
house, where you have a yard and somewhere to store vast quantities
of recyclables, but in an apartment, saving the planet can be a bit
of a tricky proposition. But there are some simple things apartment
dwellers can do to ease their impact on the earth.
Back to Basics
Reduce, reuse,
recycle. We all heard it repeated like a mantra through grade
school. The three R's. It's almost guaranteed that if you went
through the public school system in the last twenty years, you have
a chipped coffee mug or tomato sauce can holding pens on the desk
beside your computer, and a paper recycling box underneath. Just
remember to keep doing those three things and it's a good start.
The Cloths
Make the Man
If you live in
an apartment, chances are the grocery store isn't too far away and
you can walk to get groceries and save on fuel. But how many times
have the thin plastic handles on grocery bags cut into your fingers
just blocks from home, or ripped the bottom out while stepping over
a puddle, unleashing a dozen eggs onto the unsuspecting sidewalk?
Get yourself some cloth bags. You can carry them on your shoulder,
they are strong, and best of all, no plastic waste.
Pulp
Non-fiction
Anyone can
just throw paper into the recycling bin, but it takes commitment to
recycle your own paper. If you are a painter or visual artist,
homemade paper can provide custom texture and shape that you are
unlikely to find in any art store. Just get some old paper from the
recycling bin, throw it in the blender and puree it with some water.
If you get an old picture frame and staple some window screen over
it, you've got yourself a paper factory. Put the pulp on the screen
and press out the water with whatever you've got handy, a board,
cookie sheet, or textured things, like your hand or a potato masher.
This not only recycles paper, it reduces the weight in the back of
the recycling truck, increasing fuel efficiency.
Bottles and
Cans, Just Clap Your Hands
Give your
bottles and cans to a homeless person. They know where the depot is,
they know how to get there, and they don't use a pollution-mobile to
drive it all there. Plus it will make you feel good, because you
just helped a guy out. It also means you don't have to save up a
huge quantity in your tiny apartment to make it worthwhile to take
them to the depot yourself.
Dirty, Rotting
Scoundrels
You know that
smell when the salad has been salad for a little too long? Can't
bear to keep it inside any longer? Try deck composting your food
scraps. A good design can be found at
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/garden/urbancomposting.php. To take
it one step further and speed decomposition, try grinding your waste
with an old hand crank meat grinder, available from second hand or
commercial kitchen liquidation stores. The increased surface area
will allow you to add things that normally don't break down very
well, including non-recyclable papers, Kleenex, coffee filters, and
pizza boxes). Chances are, there is a park nearby where no one will
notice you dumping a small amount of dirt, or use the nutrient rich
results in your own flower pots as fertilizer.
Water, Water,
Everywhere
Many
apartments these days include free heat and hot water. This makes it
pretty easy to leave the furnace on full with the windows open and
take half hour showers. But even a ten minute shower can use up to
190 litres of water (www.bchydro.com/powersmart/elibrary/elibrary699.html).
So, either cut down on time under the rinse cycle, or install a low
flow shower head. Most apartment companies will allow this as long
as you approve it with the manager first. Also, stop taking baths.
Put a plug in the next time you shower and look how much less water
is in the tub compared to how full it would be if you jumped in the
bubbles.
As for heat, just put a sweater on. Seriously, not
all of this is rocket science.
Power to the
People
Yeah, yeah,
turn off the lights, we've all heard it before. But normal household
lighting is one of the lowest power consumers in your apartment.
Resistance heat, like ovens and stoves and toasters, those are the
real electricity guzzlers. So what can you do? Eat more raw food.
Cultures around the world have developed many completely raw,
delicious dishes and now, thanks to globalization, the ingredients
are widely available in cities where people live mostly in, you
guessed it, apartment buildings. Check out
http://www.living-foods.com/ for recipes and information.
If you can't give up hot food, replace your
appliances. This applies especially to those who live in condos or
semi-detached dwellings where they own the appliances. Energy Star
rated appliances normally use 10-15% less energy than federal
regulations require (http://www.energystar.gov/),
plus they work better and look a lot nicer.
Was Al Gore
Right?
Above all
else, consult the internet. If you think there is a way to help the
environment by changing something in your apartment, someone else
has probably thought of it already. Hit up the web for tips and
tricks, just remember to turn off your Energy Star monitor.
Technology will be our salvation, as long as we keep it from
becoming part of the problem.
About the
author: Ryan J. writes articles and resource information for
AboutMyPlanet.com About My Planet is a site that is encouraging
people world wide to keep our planet clean and safe. Read more about
the
Enviroment at
AboutMyPlanet
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