I’m an avid recycler, and I was shocked today when I went on my daily walk that I noticed lots of cans, bottles along my path and I didn’t do anything about it.  What shocked me even more is how many people also walked past this waste and also didn’t do anything. 

Going forward, I vow to leave my walking path cleaner than it was before I walked by.   I will pick up cans/bottles and dispose of them in an eco-friendly way.  If we all did our best to pick up one piece of  garbage on our walks, just imagine how clean our city would get?

A few weeks ago, Ashley wrote about electronic waste and how I had collected a box of cords and “crap” that we no longer need.  I think she took a few things out of the box to bring to good will, but I just recently took the rest to Best Buy.  I am here to report that it is very easy and there is no reason that you cannot bring in your electronic waste for recycling.

Probably, the most difficult thing for me was actually getting to Best Buy.  Although I like buying gadgets and whatnot, I am not the biggest consumer in the world.  Basically, I drove around for a while with my box of recyclable whatnots in the back in my car.

This post is going to be a short post and the reason is that recycling electronics was so easy.  All there was to it is walking into the Best Buy, they tagged my box of recycling and I brought to the customer service desk.  It was honestly a five minute process and I was out of there.

If time or hassle is your obstacle to donating electronics, please don’t let it hold you back.  It is easy and fairly hassle free.  PLUS, you help save the world!

I wanted to give you all an update on our new NatureMill composter and that it is working out well.  For those who have not been reading our blog, we had a Naturemill composter that we kept out in our garage.  Ashley, my wife, mostly took care of our first composter, but since we started Guy Goes Green, the amount of food in the garbage has decreased and the amount that needs to go into the composter has increased.  A new composter was in order.

We had originally thought that composting food indoors would be a stinky matter, so we decided to keep our first in the garage.  With the second Naturemill, after I ‘got on board’ with the green lifestyle, I was ok with keeping one in the basement to see how it went.  So far, it has gone really well.

There have been two situations that were slightly annoying, but temporary.  First, one day I came home and the basement smelled ripe with old food.  This was a week or two after we first started running the machine, but I think this was our inexperience with the device indoors rather than a problem with the machine.  We added a handful of brown leaves to the chamber and the next day it cleared right up. 

Also, we noticed that the device’s churning became rather loud when it was getting full.  It even woke me up a few times.  Now, we are in the midst of transferring the compost from the chamber and the noise has been reduced.  I suspect that this will go down after all the gear willeys and knob things get settled, but we will see.

Overall the benefit has far outweighed the negatives and we have been very happy with our NatureMill composter.  Stay tuned for some pictures of our newly created dirt! If you happen to own one or have any questions about them, feel free to add them to the comment area below.

It has been a few days now since we have started learning about greywater and its impact on the environment.  As part of this week’s challenge, I have turned off the water to my toilet and have been filling it with the greywater from my bath/shower using a bucket.  Having done this for the past few days has shown me the light on just how messed up our bathrooms, as a society, are.  Why don’t bathrooms have a direct line from the tub/shower to the toilet?

In my bathroom, the toilet tank is literally 4 feet from the bathtub drain.  So, instead of moving water extremely long distances (sometimes hundreds of miles) to just go down the toilet, why can’t it make the 4 ft journey from my drain to the toilet tank?  The current system is not only environmentally unfriendly, but also a burden on the water bill and plain old wasteful.  If I am flying from LA to NY, there is no reason to go the long way, is there?

I just don’t think it needs to be that difficult.  Where are the products that are under $1000 dollars to do this?  Where is the tube that goes straight from the tub to the pooper?  Maybe you, my readers, can fill me in on this ‘technology’ that I am missing out on.

This product could be out there and I just have not seen it yet, but it should be made available all over the place.  Possibly, I am over simplifying this… but am I?  It seems much simpler to have a device move 19 gallons of water (average toilet water used by a family) over just a few feet than hundreds of miles and through numerous chemical processes.

My rant is over and please let me know if you know of such a device.  Well, I know of such a device and it is called “a bucket” and it works on “me” power.  Let me know your story or advice in the comment area below.

It is a new week and Ashley has assigned me a new green challenge.  This week the environmental task is to learn about grey water and make some changes that can help reuse, recycle or reduce.  I am vaguely familiar with the term ‘grey water’, so this should be an interesting week. 

The internet defines grey water as “Greywater, also known as sullage, is non-industrial wastewater generated from domestic processes such as dish washing, laundry and bathing.”  So, I guess my task for the week is to learn about the waste we produce in these household tasks and try and implement changes that can help reduce or recover this water.

I was hoping not to be one of those crazy people who fill buckets from bathwater for household use, but I think I just might cross that line this week.  Who am I really kidding anyhow? I have been slightly crazy from the beginning.  I hope you join me on this week’s green journey learning about, and acting to recycle, grey water.  Please let me know if you have any stories or tips on how you use your greywater.

When given a new green challenge by Ashley, I have found it a useful exercise to examine why following the given task is a good idea.   This week’s green challenge is to reduce the amount of packaging I use and try to eliminate as much packaging as possible.  To eliminate packaging completely is pretty much impossible, but it is certainly a worthwhile endeavor to use as little packaging as possible.

In a previous week, and with the help of our NatureMill composter, we worked to reduce the amount of food waste we produce.   Besides the food that cannot be used or composted, what else is there that goes into the garbage?  Some people put diapers in the garbage.  Most of us have paper waste, but hopefully we are trying to recycle what we can.  What is left?  Packaging.

A good chunk of the packaging in our landfills is Styrofoam.  25% of our landfills are made up of Styrofoam.  I am sure part of this 25% is Styrofoam coffee cups (which could generally be avoided), but part of this is the packaging that we send and receive.  Everything from the Styrofoam eggshells to molded Styrofoam packaging goes straight into the garbage.  This material cannot be disposed of in an eco-friendly way (that I am aware of) and should be avoided.

Besides Styrofoam, which I am learning to be evil, there are other reasons to avoid as much packaging as possible.  If Styrofoam takes up 25% of the landfill, I wonder what the percentage is for all packaging waste.  Even if you buy a product that uses recycled packaging and you recycle it yourself, it still takes resources to recover that material.  Somebody needs to pick up the item in a carbon emitting vehicle, go through an industrial (and likely carbon emitting) process to change the item into whatever, then turn around and transport the item back out to the public.  A recycled product is a way BETTER way to consume, but avoiding the waste packaging product altogether is BEST for the environment. 

Avoiding packaging will always be better for the environment.  I already have some ideas on great ways that we can avoid packaging further and sure I will have a list coming up in the near future.  Please let me know any information you have or what you do to reduce your packaging waste in the comments area below.

Our new Nature Mill

Congratulations Ben and Ashley!  We have reduced the amount of garbage put out on the boulevard dramatically which is great for the environment.   Unfortunately, we have run out of room in our NatureMill composter because of all of the additional food waste we have been saving since we started Guy Goes Green.  So….. We got another one!

Now we have added a NatureMill Pro XE Compost Bin in our family.  Ok, so it might be going a bit far saying that it is a part of our family, but our current composter is something that we utilize every day and I suspect this one will continually used as well, if not more.  There is a difference on how we will use this composter in comparison to the other.  Currently, our other NatureMill composter is kept in the garage and I think we are going to try and keep this one inside so we do not have to run outside as much.

I have to say that the NatureMill has been a really great product for us.  Since we live in a very cold climate (Fargo, ND), traditional composters are not a very good option and the NatureMill composter can be ran inside or outside(even in our cold climate)… as long as you have a plug-in.  We already like the one we have and have been happy with the product and the company.

I am happy we have our new NatureMill composter and might occasionally give you guys a few updates on how it is working, but will definitely give you a full review on how our new Pro XE Compost Bin is working at some point in the future.  If you have a NatureMill or have any questions about it, let me know in the comment area below.

Before I delve into the specifics of this green challenge I have found it fruitful to look at WHY I should investigate any given task.  This week’s green challenge is to look into the environmental impact of the cleaners most of us have in our cupboards.  The biggest reason this is important, and seems most obvious to me, is all of the toxic chemicals that are in cleaners.

A quick look at the ingredient lists of most cleaners reveal a long list of stuff that does not sound good for you.  Typically, there are poison labels and a label of what you should do if you ingest these chemicals.  These are not the kind of things a normal person would consider healthy. Most of us (or at least those of us that are alive) do not eat these things, but yet it seems perfectly normal to spray or wipe them all over our house?  I might be crazy, but it does not seem like a good idea to spread a thin layer of poison over everything we encounter through the day.

So the layer of poison all over our house does not sound disgusting enough?  What about all of the cleaner waste that ends up going down our toilets, sinks and in the garbage? Not only the packaging of these items, but also the chemicals themselves.  Although I do not know enough about it yet, I imagine that millions of households sending poison down the sink has some kind of bad impact on our potable water and our landfills. 

The way I see it, we need to change out the cleaning chemicals in our household for a few different reasons.  First, and most important, it seems to be the healthy thing to do.  The thought of poisons covering everything in my house disturbs me.  Also, these chemicals are ending up in the waste system via our garbage and down our drains.  Please let me know if you have any good information for me in the comment area below.

New week and a new challenge in my year long journey to learn about and make changes that will make me green.  Although I had asked Ashley to allow me to investigate phantom or vampire charges this week, Ashley ended up going through our cleaners this week and we both decided it would be a good week to look at cleaners.   The task for this week is to learn about cleaners and why they are, or are not, environmentally friendly.

Although I do not know a great deal about how cleaners effect the environment, I have a sneaking suspicion that all of the toxic stuff in many cleaners is bad.   My feeling is that many cleaners are not only bad for the environment, but also bad for our health.  Well, I guess that is a bit more than a feeling since most cleaners have clear warning about health hazards.

So, please join me this week in learning about the environmental qualities of cleaners and lend me any expertise or knowledge you may have on the subject.  If you have any information or comments for me, please let me know in the area below.

The bag was just there

This week’s green challenge was to avoid using plastic bags and it has been a difficult one for me.  For those just joining us, I have a new green task to complete over the course of a year.  My green wife chooses what they are and my un-green self must research and act.  I have had some successes and also some failures this week, but am glad that Ashley gave me this task and will continue to work on training my brain to say no to plastic bags.  Although this task has been somewhat challenging for me, I have certainly learned quite a bit and think I am in the process of making a change along the way.

I learned that the world consumes an unbelievable number of plastic bags (500,000,000,000), a good amount of natural resources are needed to create these plastic bags, only a very small percentage of plastic bags are recycled and finally that plastic bags kill animals.  Overall, the production of the bags and waste produced is harmful to our environment and to the planet.  That being said, I need to minimize my use of these bags.

Even though I know that these things are bad for the environment, I learned that it was difficult for me to minimize my use.  It was not difficult to choose whether to take a plastic bag or not, but it was difficult to remember to say no.  Too often this week, I walked out of a store and realized, after the fact, that I had a bag.  As a consumer, I have been trained to go through the shopping process and take a bag without thinking about it.  I recognized this problem early on and have taken steps to retrain my brain.

First, I wrote “No Plastic” on my hand in ink.  OK, this might be a bit silly and a little dramatic, but I was slightly upset with myself for not being able to kick the plastic habit.  This made me look at “No Plastic” before I grab a bag.  I also placed one of our canvas bags in my car so that I can bring this into the store if I have to shop.  These steps, along with my wife’s help, have led to a few successful scenarios where I did not take a bag.

It has certainly been an interesting week and will continue to work on un-training my brain.  Even though I may not have completed the task to a Tee, I have recognized that a big part of being green is daily habits.  These habits and daily decisions can have a big impact on the long term environment.  Let me know any of your plastic bag tips in the area below and stay tuned for this week’s task coming up shortly!