Recently, it was discovered that whale burps were discovered along Minnesota’s north shore near Duluth. 

My first reaction to hearing this story on the radio was “what the hell is a whale burp?”  Well, it is not a few air bubble that rise up and pollute the air with the smell of Old Milwaukee and Beer Nuts.  That was my first guess, or at least what I hoped it was, but I guess I was wrong.  “Whale burps”, also called “Surf balls” (which brings up a whole other set of hilariously odd visuals), are quite simply balls of vegetation and debris that wash up on shore.

The balls found in Duluth contained natural items, but also plastic and unnatural waste.  Obviously, if these whale burps are containing plastic, it is not great for the environment and would appear that these burps are nature’s way of trying to get rid of its debris.  That they are only now appearing in Lake Superior is concerning to me and wonder if this is just a random occurrence or if it is a symptom of too much garbage in Lake Superior.

I am not sure what the ramifications of “whale burps” are on the environment and not even sure if they really mean anything, but that our lakes and oceans are spitting out debris is certainly something to be concerned about.

Soon, we will be on vacation and although I know that we will create some additional waste on the trip, I still want to make sure to continue on my green quest.  This week’s green challenge is to find some green tasks to do while we are on vacation.  I think I know at least one thing we will while we are in San Diego… pick up garbage off of the beach.

We have been going to San Diego for several years to visit my parents and go on at least one walk a day.  I figured that we could take a bag on a few of our walks and pick up garbage to either put in the proper receptacle or recycle.  Although the Mission Beach area is a nice beach, I am sure there will be plenty of garbage to pick up.

Garbage on the beach might end up in the ocean or vice versa.  There is even a large area of garbage in the ocean that is called the great garbage patch.  This pile of garbage is the size of Texas.  Well, Ashley and I may not be able to clean up the entire ocean, but possibly we can take one small step to try and be part of the solution.

I am really looking forward to this trip and I hope that we can do a little to help with the environment also.  If you have any green activities you could suggest or interesting things in the San Diego area, please let me know in the comments area below.

If there is one thing that I have learned about household cleaners this week that shocks me, it is how potentially dangerous they are.  Most household cleaners are full of poisons that are toxic, potentially cancer causing and all around nasty stuff.  It has become difficult for me to understand the logic in spreading a thin layer of poison over everything in the name of supposed cleanliness.  We have made some changes and will hopefully explore this topic even more in the weeks to come.

We took the remaining “bad” cleaners we have and gave them to people who may be able to use these items.  I don’t really like the thought of passing poisons on to others, but since these families will use the cleaners anyways, I would rather it go to use rather than be wasted.  So, we have given away most of our traditional cleaners.

We have begun using cleaners that are supposed to be green alternatives.   Ashley has been using cleaners that are green and has experimented with homemade cleaners prior to this blog.  I have stopped using the other cleaners and will try to work with what we have.  Also, I would like to try to make more of our own cleaners since that seems to be the healthiest and most environmentally friendly option.

Beyond the potential health issues, there is also an environmental impact to using these cleaners.  Poisons end up going into the garbage and down the drain.  This stuff ends up in our landfills and the ground.  The containers are also wasteful and end up wasting space in the landfills.  If we can start using more homemade concoctions, this will help reduce our waste.

It has been a good week once again and I have learned quite a bit.  Please let me know your stories or tips on household cleaners below AND stay tuned for next week’s task.

This post is going back to an earlier task, water waste, because I notice we are indirectly wasting water without even thinking about it.  This comes from this weekend from when I was doing laundry.  I do notice how Ben and I both often times leave clothes on the floor because we are really tired and decide to do it the next day; typically we don’t even pick up the clothing then then.  After a few days of this and tons of animal hair later the clothes end up down the laundry chute to get washed.  I feel like if we can keep our clothes off the floor we will cut down our laundry by a load or a half per week. 

This has been a pet-peeve of mine for a while with Ben, but I noticed that I sometimes leave clothes on the floor too.  I figure if we work together on this issue we can save each other the frustration and also some water from being wasted.  This will also reduce our need to use additional laundry soap so we will also save money on that.  I stopped using fabric softener and dryer sheets because of artificial fragrances.  This ties into this week’s task because we eventually want to cut out all products that use chemicals.  If you have any tips on keeping laundry clean longer, please leave a comment in a comment section below.

The challenge that Ashley assigned to me this week was to become aware of and act on water conservation around the house.  During this past week, I have learned many facts about water conservation and have taken steps that will save 100s of thousands of gallons over the course of my life.   Once again, this blog (along with Ashley) has helped me to learn something about environmentalism, why it is important to be green and steps we can all take to help.  If I can do them with little or no effort, I think most people can do the same.  Come join me in this going green journey!

Probably the biggest change I made this week was the discontinuation of a longtime habit.  I stopped taking two baths a day.  I have to admit, I cannot stop taking baths altogether, but am only showering or bathing once a day now.  I suppose I may occasionally shower twice if I ever find myself Jell-O wrestling or in a spaghetti eating contest, but that has not happened to date.   Basically, I am trying to religiously follow the previous post 5 Super Easy Ways to Conserve 54 Gallons of Water Today!  So far, each of these items have been very easy to follow and think they will be a regular part of my future.

Sure, it has been reported that Americans are using less water today than in 1975, but we can do better.  There are many simple things that we can all do to put a little less strain on the water treatment plants and overall water consumption lifecycle.  Little things like turning off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth can end up making a big difference.

So, as this week closes, I am feeling pretty good with how this whole venture is going.  Not only did I learn how to conserve water, I also learned how to save a few trees by stopping junk mail and also learned about some of the cool green news websites.  Let me know any advice in the comments area below and keep watching for this next week’s task.

This week, guygoesgreen has been focusing on water conservation around the house.  I may not be the greenest guy in the world, but I am learning and already making a positive impact on the world around me.  Today, I am going to highlight some interesting links that I found relating to water.

Tapit – I just recently found this site.   Tapit is a grassroots sort of operation where they are trying to build a network of café’s and locations where people can refill their water bottles.  The network is still relatively small, but I love the idea of helping people find locations to fill water.  This can help reduce the number of plastic bottles that end up in the landfill.

H2OUSE – This gives users a graphical interface where users can select different areas of the house to learn how they can save water.

100 Ways to conserve water – This is a detailed list of things you can do to save water.  There are 100.  J

Enjoy the links, and please let me know if you have any great water resources in the comments area below.

While researching this topic, I found that there are a ton of all encompassing lists about “how to conserve water” on the internet, so I thought I would narrow this down to a list that a regular guy or gal can easily follow and accomplish with little or no effort.  I present “5 Super Easy Ways to Conserve 54 Gallons of Water Today!”  There are certainly several ways to conserve water that can get rather extensive.  I have learned that some individuals even save their shower water to use in the garden.  This is certainly noble, but right now this is not a practical step for me.  For me, today, I want to learn how I can make the biggest difference possible.  Here is my list of 5 super easy ways to conserve 54 gallons of water today:

1.  Reduce your bath/shower intake.  The average bath is between 25 and 50 gallons.  Shower heads can emit anywhere between 1 gpm and 10 gpm (where the motto is ‘the best thing since Niagara Falls…. Kind of funny to me, but seriously), but on average about 2.7 gallons per minute.  If you shower or bath more than once a day, cutting this down can save 5-50 gallons of fresh water every day.  If you shower, you can cut a minute out or if you bath, don’t fill it up all the way.  On average, I am going to say that this can ultimately save 25 gallons a day.
2. Don’t flush.  No, I am not saying you should let a big ol’ Charleston Chew lay when you are at work, but when you are at home there is nothing wrong with the old phrase “Yellow ,let it mellow. Brown, flush it down.”  According to the Dual Flush Toilets blog, the average person uses 19 gallons of water a day on the toilet.  In other news, I am amazed that there is enough material to make an entire blog about Dual Flush Toilets.  Seriously though, being a little easy on the flush lever I can cut out 10 gallons a day.
3. Once you finish drinking a bottle of water or pop, refill it with water and put it in your toilet tank.  According to the Daily Green, this can save up to 10 Gallons a day.
4. Turn off the sink when you are brushing your teeth.  According the Greener People, turning off your faucet while you are brushing can save you 5 gallons a day.
5. If you are a guy, when you shave do not let the faucet run continuously.  Fill the sink basin.  A member of the NY assembly indicates that this can save up to 4 gallons a day.

By following the 5 simple steps, you can save 54 gallons of water… today.  This assumes that you are reading this post early in the morning and have not already flushed your pee down.    Here is the kicker; many of these tips will actually take you LESS effort than if it were business as normal.  To add this up, these 5 very simple and easy actions can conserve almost 20,000 gallons of water in a year.  We can all make a difference, it does not have to take much effort and it can start today.  Please let me know any other ideas you have in the comment area below.

As you may know from my previous posts, I have been somewhat of a pig when it comes to taking baths.  I typically have been taking 2 a day, but with this week’s challenge of conserving water, I have stopped.  I only shower or bath once a day and no longer twice.  I thought it would be interesting to see how much water will be saved by doing this.

I have found several different statistics for how much water a bath holds.  The range I have found is from 25 gallons to 50 gallons.  For the sake of this post, I am going to say that the average bath is 35 gallons of water and the rest of the bath displacement would be 15 gallons of glistening man bath filler (me).

I have been taking 2 baths a day and now I am only taking one. Given that 35 gallons is one bath:

35 gallons * 365 days  = 12,775 gallons of water that I will be conserving in the future.  Nearly 13,000 gallons of water!

What does 13,000 gallons equate to?

1. Enough to keep a single person alive for almost a lifetime (assuming 8 cups/day and 72 year lifespan)
2. About the amount of water to fill a 24’ round pool.
3. According to this very unscientific answer, it would be the number of gallons cried by approximately 722 men in the span of their life.   650 men if they are lifetime Minnesota Viking fans.

In summary, it is a huge amount of water.  These were the stats I could come up with in the time I had to work with, but please let me know in the comments area below if you have any extra information.

Ben has been talking about reducing the household use of water for a more personal use, but I’d like to go into it from a health standpoint.    Everyone needs water to survive.   We drink it every day as a beverage and also in the food we eat.  We need to because it supports our body.  Up to 70% of our bodies are made up of water, and this water is required for us to live.  Water does everything from removing toxins from the body, cures common ailments and suppress’ our appetite. 

Now how do we get water?  Most of us take it straight from the tap, which is the most economical way to get water.  However, too many of us buy bottled water and maybe not enough of us remember a particular bottled water company that fills from the tap anyway.  There are a couple of negative aspects of buying bottled water.  One, which is a green-blogger’s nightmare, is the horrific statistics that I pulled from online stating that in 2005 “approximately 30 billion plastic water bottles were purchased, with only about 12% recycled.”  That is a staggering number!  You can view a video representation of this statistic here.

Another negative from buying water in a bottle is these pestering claims that BPA contaminate the water we drink.  BPA which stands for Bisphenol A, is a compound that is used to produce plastic products.  Wikipedia states that, “Bisphenol A is used primarily to make plastics, and…have been in commerce for more than 50 years” and has some potentially harmful health effects.  Bisphenol A “is an endocrine disruptor, which can mimic the body’s own hormones and may lead to negative health effects.”  To put it simply, this may affect infants and fetuses while their brains are developing, may create an earlier state for puberty for females and may also increase the risk of breast cancer in women.  This is startling; BPA, “may be an underlying cause of the increased incidence of breast cancer observed over the last 50 years.”

Okay, this isn’t the end of the world.  We have options.  Ever since I started hearing about this plastic additive I started making a few changes in my life.  A couple of years we purchased a Brita Pitcher, and I must say was probably our best purchase.   It filters out 98% of lead and reduces the amount of Chlorine and several other elements in your water.  It just tastes so much fresher.  It also reduces the amount of plastic water bottles that are used each day. 

Another product that I purchased, and see advertised all over now are these aluminum water bottles.  These are just as convenient as plastic water bottles except you don’t have to worry about any waste you create by using it.  It is a reusable bottle that you simply fill up at home.   Plus there are so many designs now that you can better reflect your personality by use of your water bottle.

So maybe this blog won’t help reduce your consumption of water, hopefully not anyways, but at least you can make smarter decisions when it comes to drinking water.  Most, if not all of this information is not new to anyone, but I think statistics help make more apparent that there is a problem in our usage rates.  If you have any additional ideas or comments to help promote healthy water consumption, please post in the comments section below.

Week three is here and I have a new task.  I knew this one was coming and have dreaded it.  I know this is a personal indulgence and completely understand it to be wasteful.  Ashley’s challenge for me is to reduce personal water usage.  This includes water for baths, showers, the toilet and water used throughout the day.  Green Guy is going to have a tough week.

This is going to be a tough one for me because I love baths.  To me, a bath represents complete relaxation.  I take two baths a day.  Part of the issue (or at least this is my excuse) is that my sinuses are a bit wonky and soaking in hot water seems to open up my nasal passages for me to breath.  It feels very good to be able to breathe unobstructed every once in a while.  I do have a prescription for this, but am not too fond of shoving unnecessary medications in my body.

Ok, all excuses aside, I will reduce the number of baths I take, the length of time I spend in the shower and also stop running the water while brushing my teeth.  I do not think I can completely give up baths, but I will reduce this to one a day per Ashley’s request.  There may be other items, but I am not knowledgeable enough on the topic yet, so I best get started.

Let me know in the comments area below if you have any suggestions for me on this topic.