Gotta Catch it All: Water Conservation through Rainwater Catchment

As the green building movement gains momentum within the United States and elsewhere, rainwater catchment systems are becoming increasingly common in both rural and urban environments.

Alternatively known as rainwater collection or rainwater harvesting, rainwater catchment refers to the act of collecting the run-off from a structure such as a roof or other impervious surface.

Rainwater catchment systems have a long history and are believed to have originated in the early civilizations of the Middle East and Asia several thousand years ago, according to John Gould and Erik Nissen-Petersen, authors of Rainwater Catchment Systems for Domestic Supply.

Collecting and utilizing rainwater runoff at its most basic level encourages water conservation and reduces demand on existing water sources. If you’re thinking that such conservation measures are unnecessary, think again. Despite a perceived notion of abundance and water security, the reality is that we are in the midst of a global water crisis.

As outlined by the World Resources Institute, this water crisis is characterized by changing climates, increasing demand for water, and unsustainable patterns of water use:
-With climate change, dry areas in the world are becoming increasingly dry and precipitation patterns are becoming more variable and extreme
-Increasing populations and incomes worldwide have led to increased demand for water-intensive products like meat and energy from fossil fuels
-groundwater supplies are being depleted at unsustainable rates for use in agriculture, drinking, and industrial processes
-water infrastructure worldwide is in a state of disrepair, leading to such inefficiencies as 6 billion gallons of treated water being lost daily within the US due to leaky pipes
-efficient water use is currently not incentivized, allowing wasteful, polluting, and unsustainable water consumption practices to continue unchecked and uninhibited

Such a crisis necessitates using our water resources wisely, and collecting and utilizing rainwater is one such way to do just that.

While the global water crisis is certainly a daunting, overwhelming, and dire environmental issue facing our world today, the act of domestic water conservation through rainwater catchment systems is a relatively simple and easily achievable method of water conservation that anyone striving toward greener living can implement.

In addition to supplementing individual and community water supplies, rainwater collection offers additional benefits including increased flood control, reduced river pollution, reduced demand on and overexploitation of groundwater, and cost savings on drainage infrastructure.

My interest in rainwater catchment systems was piqued upon my arrival to a sustainable off-grid permaculture farm in Puerto Rico. It’s currently the dry season in Puerto Rico, and agriculture and animal husbandry are notoriously “thirsty” enterprises. However, with a series of rain catchment barrels on the property, much of the water needs of the plants and animals on the land are being met entirely from rainwater.

These catchment systems are simple, repurposed industrial barrels. They are placed strategically throughout the property to be near the animals and plants. Some of the barrels catch rainwater runoff directly from the roof, while others are placed downhill from metal sheeting, which essentially utilizes gravity to channel the water into the barrel.

Here on the farm, we use the water collected to water plants and provide drinking water to animals. However, rainwater has many non-agricultural uses and can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
-watering lawns, gardens, and houseplants
-flushing toilets (keep a bucket of rainwater next to your toilet and pour the rainwater directly into the bowl when you need to flush. This can reduce household water use by 27%)
-adding water to your compost (Don’t have an at-home compost? Check out my earlier post on household composting!)
-rinsing vegetables straight from your garden
-washing cars, garden tools, lawnmowers, and other equipment
-washing pets
-providing drinking water for wildlife, pets,or livestock

Rainwater can also be used for drinking and cooking. As Care2 Healthy Living explains in their post on 10 uses for Rainwater, rainwater can actually be high quality enough for human consumption. Rainwater tends to be fairly pure and does not contain any chlorine or other chemicals often added to tap water. A filtration system or boiling the water can make rainwater safe to drink or cook with. If you do plan to use rainwater for drinking and cooking, it is best to collect rainwater directly rather than from a potentially dirty impervious surface such as a roof or gutter.

Additionally, rainwater can be used for bathing and laundry. To read more on the logistics of treating rainwater to wash in (or choosing not to treat it), check out this guide. Using rainwater for your laundry and bathing needs would reduce household water consumption by 40%.

With so many uses and so much conservation value, rainwater collection systems offer a simple, affordable, and easily achievable means toward greener living.

Your DIY rain catchment system could even be as basic as simply leaving a 5-gallon bucket outside and using the water collected to water your plants.

Another great method of water conservation we have here on the farm is a sink water collection bucket. The handled bucket sits in the sink and catches all of the water we use to wash and rinse our dishes. When the bucket fills, we dump it outside onto the numerous garden beds. Thus, water which would have initially only been used once is now put to a secondary use rather than being lost down the drain.

When it comes to water conservation, we can all do our part to live more sustainably. In conjunction with greening your hygiene and laundry routines, utilizing rainwater catchment systems can help significantly reduce our water consumption.

While many may not reside on a tropical farm and are perhaps hunkered down in the depths of a frigid and seemingly inescapable winter, rainwater collection is nonetheless something to keep in the back of your mind to put to use in warmer times to wash your vehicles, water your gardens, provide drinking water to animals such as chickens, and utilize in a multitude of ways in order to conserve water and practice everyday environmentalism.

It should also be noted that it is possible to winterize your rainwater catchment system. Learn how here.

So, this week, I urge you to consider implementing a rainwater collection system, or at the very least to do some research and start planning a system for once things thaw. This method of water conservation is simple, useful, and is quickly becoming commonplace. Don’t miss your chance to harvest, conserve, utilize, and preserve one of the earth’s most precious resources.

Have experience using rainwater catchment systems? Want to try flushing your toilet or watering your plants with repurposed sink water? As always, let me know how it goes in the comments section below and best of luck in your continuing journey toward greener living.

~Sam

Plastics Purge Part II: Sip Sustainably and Say No to Single-Use Plastic Straws!

Welcome to Part II of Greener Living’s Plastics Purge series. If you missed Part I on eliminating single use plastic bags, be sure to check that out here.

As with disposable plastic bags, single-use, disposable plastic straws are a seemingly benign product of plastic’s ubiquity and versatility. However, just like plastic bags, this seemingly minor and easily overlooked plastic product is unnecessary and has negative environmental ramifications.

Single-use plastic straws are typically made from polypropylene plastic and do not biodegrade in the environment. Once disposed of, these straws contribute to both macroplastic pollution (the straws themselves) and, more alarmingly, microplastic pollution resulting from the breakdown of larger plastics in the environment from exposure to sunlight and ocean waves.

Plastic straws, unlike some other plastic products, are not recyclable. They are too lightweight to make it through mechanical recycling sorters and therefore drop through sorting screens where they either contaminate the recycling stream or are disposed of as garbage.

The facts and figures surrounding plastic straw waste is a contested topic, with some outlets reporting that in the US alone, 500 million drinking straws are used and thrown away every day, while other sources note that plastic straws make up just 0.025% of the 8 million tons of plastic that enter our oceans annually. That’s 2,000 pounds of plastic pollution attributed directly to straw waste each year. Eliminating single-use disposable straws certainly won't be a cure-all to plastic pollution, but it is a good place to start.

Although the extent of their impact is debated, the fact of the matter is that plastic straws are an unnecessary source of waste that should be eliminated. It is this fact that has brought plastic straws to the forefront of many plastic pollution campaigns resulting in a series of plastic straw bans in cities and businesses across the globe. Seattle banned plastic straws and plastic utensils in July. California has issued a state-wide restriction on single-use plastic straws, requiring patrons at restaurants to ask for a straw rather than automatically receiving one. Starbucks has announced a plan to eliminate plastic straws globally by 2020, with similar policies being enacted in companies, cities, and countries all over the world.

However, we don’t need to wait for our cities, restaurants, and states to ban straws before taking action.You can act to combat this issue today by refusing to use plastic straws. Go without straws and lids when getting soft drinks to-go. Be sure to ask for your drinks at restaurants WITHOUT a straw. Or, if you like using straws, consider investing in an alternative to single-use plastic straws, such as straws made from paper, metal, bamboo, or glass.

In my self-designated role of Environmentalist-At-Large in my family, I took the step of gifting everyone a Final Straw, touted as being the world’s most bad-ass straw, and I’d say they live up to the hype. These straws are comfortable and fun to use, easy to transport, and they come with their own carrying case, drying rack, and a cleaning squeegee. The cases come in great colors and can attach to your keys, so you’ll never be caught out without your straw!

Says Final Straw-user (and my mother), Nancy: “I like it. It’s easy to clean. Very sturdy. And I can stick it in my pocket when I am done with it so I can bring it places.”

I also was gifted a set of reusable silicone straws from my Aunt (shout out to my Aunt Dawn who not only got me those straws, but also started composting at home and is fighting for her town to ban single-use plastic bags! Go Aunt Dawn!).

Both my Final Straw and my silicone straw are enjoyable to use, easy to transport in a bag, purse, or on key chains, and offer a way for folks to sip sustainably.

Of course, if you do find yourself out without your straw, or if you simply have no desire to spend money on a reusable one, you can always drink your beverages without a straw.

I’ll admit from experience that it can be tricky to remember to ask for your drink without a straw when eating out. I’ve been guilty of forgetting, and then what’s the point? The straw is already there. Already wasted. However, I can also tell you from experience that the post-refusal high and the satisfaction of enjoying your beverage knowing you’ve opted out of a wasteful and unsustainable practice makes it easier to remember to ask for no straw the next time around.

Whether you’ve been implementing these greener living practices from the start or you’re just now looking to do away with unnecessary waste in your everyday life and adopt more environmentally friendly practices, eliminating single-use plastic straws is a great first or continuing step.

Seriously, there is perhaps no form of waste so superfluous and unnecessary as the plastic straw. There is simply no reason for them to exist. If you do need or prefer a straw to drink with, there are plenty of non-disposable alternatives that can offer you all of the imagined or actual benefits and conveniences of drinking through straws.

So, please, let’s all come to the consensus that plastic straws suck! And we don’t need them. If you agree and you’d like to continue or start eliminating plastic straw waste in your everyday life, consider taking the OneLessStraw pledge started by enterprising teenage environmentalists Carter and Olivia Reis.

For anyone who is a regular reader (if those exist?), I apologize for my recent hiatus. My life was briefly and intensely consumed by frenzied preparations for my 3-month solo sojourn, on which I have just embarked.

This post comes to you from a remote, off-grid (yet wi-fi equipped) sustainable farm on the island of Puerto Rico. There are more Plastics Purge posts still to come, but in the meantime I may allow my current travels and experiences to influence my weekly topics, so stay tuned for a whole bunch of good stuff still to come!

Until later,
  Sam

Plastics Purge Part I: BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag)

Plastics are one of the most widely used materials in the world, with near ubiquitous application in our lives today. Used as far back as 1600 B.C. by ancient Mesoamericans to create figurines and bands, plastic has undergone a series of innovations and alterations over time, culminating in a seemingly infinite array of uses and applications. Consequently, the global production of plastics has increased steadily throughout history, reaching a staggering 280 million tons in 2016.

Plastics are light, cheap, and durable, making them widely used in a diversity of products. However, the cheap costs of plastics also allow them to be used only once before being disposed of, resulting in the generation of mass amounts of litter. This plastic litter ranges in size from macrodebris (such as plastic chairs and shoes) to microdebris (plastic fragments less than 5 mm in diameter) which accumulates in landfills, rivers, and oceans all over the world.

Although they are cheap, useful, and ubiquitous, because plastics are derived largely from non-renewable fossil fuels including natural gas and petroleum, they are inherently unsustainable and are sources of waste in our everyday lives that we should strive to avoid on our path toward greener living.

This week, I kick of a multi-part series I’m calling the “Plastics Purge” in which I highlight sources of plastic waste in our everyday lives and offer sustainable alternatives and strategies to avoid creating such waste in the first place.

This week’s focus is on eliminating the use of disposable plastic shopping bags.

These plastic bags may be convenient, but such convenience comes at a cost.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity:
- Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture.
-The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year.
-According to Waste Management, only 1 percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling. That means that the average family only recycles 15 bags a year; the rest end up in landfills as litter.
-Up to 80 percent of ocean plastic pollution enters the ocean from land.
-100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags annually.
-Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes.
-It takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill! Unfortunately the bags don't break down completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment.

An arguably superfluous product with such extreme negative environmental impacts should be avoided at all costs. Luckily for all of us, reusable bags work just the same, if not better, than plastic bags and can eliminate a lot of unnecessary waste in the process. These bags can be purchased (directly at grocery stores or elsewhere) or crafted on your own.   

Alternatives include:
-Purchasing reusable cloth or canvas bags and keeping these in your car so they’ll always be on-hand when you find yourself at the store
-Crafting your own reusable bags from old textiles (reusing and reducing!!) 
Here’s a great tutorial for easy, no-sew t-shirt bags, but there are tons of other designs available online as well, so feel free to do some research and craft/upcycle to your heart’s content 
-When in a pinch without your reusable bags, go without a bag

-Bring reusable mesh produce bags to avoid using the plastic produce bags offered in grocery stores, or let your fruits and veggies roam free (like I often do when I’m without a reusable alternative in the store)
-if you do end up with plastic bags at home, be sure to reuse them (as small trash bags, for picking up animal waste, etc.) and look to recycle any bags you may have by returning them to participating grocery stores. If you’d like to learn more about this option, not only for grocery bags but for other  “bag-like” products that are not accepted in the general recycling stream, check out Recycle Coach’s useful outline of what you can and cannot drop off in plastic bag recycling bins
-Use your reusable bags when shopping for anything and everything! Groceries, clothes, books—you name it! Reusable bags are durable, versatile, and more sustainable than their disposable plastic alternatives.

Some countries, states, and cities have banned or heavily taxed the use of plastic bags, which is one avenue by which to solve this issue. However, an easier and more immediate solution to the plastic bag issue is for consumers to change their behavior and voluntarily choose to use alternatives to single-use, disposable plastic bags. To learn more about your state or city's plastic bag legislation, or lack thereof, visit NCSL's plastic bag legislation website and consider taking action to ban the bag in your town using the Plastic Pollution Coalition's tips for getting involved.   

As someone who has long since used reusable grocery bags, I can assure you they offer larger, sturdier, and less environmentally-destructive transportation of your groceries (or whatever you may be purchasing). Most stores will even offer you a discount (usually 5-10 cents off) for each reusable bag. With a little planning and forethought (i.e. remembering to bring your reusable bags when you go shopping), we can play a major part in reducing the harmful impacts of single-use plastics. 

If you’re not convinced that our pervasive use of plastics poses a problem, I encourage you to think again and check out this recent 60 minutes report detailing the issue—this eye-opening piece is definitely worth a watch!

In the meantime, craft or get yourself some reusable bags and take this important first step in purging plastics from your life. Stay tuned next week for my look into plastic straws! (Spoiler alert: they totally suck!)

Until then,
  Happy holidays and best wishes on your journey toward greener living.
~Sam 

How to Sustain Ourselves and the Planet: A look into the realities of a plant-based diet

“You can’t be an environmentalist and eat animal products.” Controversial? Most definitely. True? Perhaps.

This week, I endeavored to explore the realm of plant-based diets and the environmental benefits of abstaining from eating meat and other animal products.

My earliest memory of vegetarianism consists of my older sister announcing her intention to be a vegetarian at the dinner table, and my dad responding resolutely, “You can eat what I make or you can go hungry,” as he brought a plate of medium rare steak to the table as if to emphasize his point. A proprietor of a restaurant with a specialty in BBQ, my dad would ultimately come to loosen his staunchly pro-meat views, at one point accommodating two vegetarians and one vegan among his four daughters. 

I first became a vegetarian in the Spring of 2015 as a result of partaking in an immersive semester program focused on sustainability and sustainable food systems. My vegetarianism lasted for 1 ½ years before I was “back on the product,” as my dad liked to say. The why behind my decision to once again eat meat was a pretty weak one—it was easier and I wanted to. 

It was only recently, roughly two weeks ago, that I decided to reinstate my vegetarianism, inspired in large part by this blog. How could I, a self-proclaimed environmentalist, actively and willingly choose to participate in the single most environmentally destructive daily practice an individual can do? It may seem dramatic, but as someone seeking to explore and eradicate sources of waste in our daily lives, diet is a key factor that needs to be taken into consideration.
     
The leading cause of environmental destruction is animal agriculture. Animal agriculture, the process of raising animals for human consumption, is an environmental nightmare. The process is water-intensive, contributes significantly to global warming, promotes and necessitates deforestation, and produces huge quantities of animal waste that contaminate our waterways and oceans, contributing to ocean dead-zones incapable of supporting life. As food researcher, writer, and activist Michael Pollan describes it, it’s a “brutal system at every level” for the planet, the animals, and the humans involved in the animal agriculture industry.

This week, I further investigated the topic of replacing animal-based diets with exclusively plant-based diets by watching two documentaries on the topic—both available on Netflix.

The first, Cowspiracy, follows the journey of Kip Andersen, an endearing, man-bun clad environmentalist inspired by Al Gore’s 2006 An Inconvenient Truth, who is hell-bent on getting answers as to why the environmentally destructive impacts of animal agriculture were being overlooked and under-emphasized by environmental advocacy groups. 

The film ultimately showcases the dangerous corruption which runs rampant in our country’s oligarchical pseudo-democracy in which the rich and powerful (in this case, those profiting from Agribusiness and cattle industries) are able to influence government regulations and policies to operate in their favor at the expense of the health and wellbeing of individuals and our planet as a whole.

Promoting an anti-meat / anti-animal product platform while challenging individuals in their everyday habits and lifestyle choices is an unpopular, and even dangerous, thing to do. However, this film does just that, while using an impressive array of statistics to back up their claims.

I’ll highlight some of the most compelling, here:

1. Animal Agriculture is responsible for 51% of human-caused climate change from loss of carbon sinks via deforestation, animal respiration, and methane production:
-animal livestock produces 65% of nitrous oxide emissions worldwide—a gas with a global warming potential 296 times greater than CO2
-agriculture emissions are projected to increase 80% by 2050 (due to global increase in meat and dairy consumption)
-raising livestock produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all of transportation combined

2. The animal agriculture industry accounts for a massive amount of water consumption:
-Raising livestock, in the U.S. alone, consumes 34 trillion gallons of water each year
-A 4oz hamburger requires 660 gallons of water to produce
-1 pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce
-55% of total water usage is attributed to raising livestock as compared to 5% for domestic water used in the home (e.g. taking showers, washing dishes)
-An average dairy cow consumes 30-40 gallons of water every day
-1 gallon of milk takes upwards of 1,000 gallons of water to produce
-raising animals for food is responsible for 30% of the world’s water consumption

3. Animal agriculture is resource-intensive and socially irresponsible:
-Animal agriculture occupies 45% of earth’s land
-on average, dairy cows eat 140-150 pounds of feed per day
-world cattle populations drink 45 billion gallons of water and consume 135 billion pounds of food every day
-50% of grains and legumes grown worldwide are fed to animals
-82% of the world’s starving children live in areas where food is fed to livestock that are then consumed by more affluent individuals in developed countries
-The world’s cattle eat enough grain to feed 8.7 billion people (grain used to fatten cattle could feed malnourished populations all over the world)

4. The livestock industry is the leading cause of deforestation worldwide and accounts for massive amounts of pollution:
-1 acre of rainforest is cleared every second to graze animals and grow their feedcrops, with a staggering 136 million acres of global rainforests lost to date due to livestock grazing and feed production
-As global rainforests are deforested, many plant and animal species are lost along with it 
-116,000 pounds of farm animal excrement is produced every second in the US
-Pollution from animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones and is responsible for the creation of more than 500 nitrogen-flooded dead zones completely devoid of life in our oceans

The bottom line: animal agriculture is a resource-intensive, polluting,  environmentally destructive enterprise that is not sustainable. 

The alternative? A plant-based diet.

On any given area of land, you can produce 15 times more protein from plant-based sources than from meat. Meat has an energy conversion of 38:1 (on average, one calorie derived from animal sources requires 38 calories of energy to produce) as compared to a 2:1 ratio with plant-based alternatives, making a plant-based diet the clear winner in terms of being a more efficient, less energy-intensive system of food production.

You can still be healthy and thrive without consuming any animal products, and veganic farming (food production requiring no animal inputs) has the benefits of being the more efficient and the more compassionate option.

-To feed a person on a vegan diet for a full year requires ⅙ of an acre of land.
-A vegetarian diet, including eggs and dairy, requires 3 times as much land
-A high-consumption diet of meat, dairy, and eggs requires 18 times as much land
-You can produce 37,000 pounds of veggies on 1.5 acres of land, but only 375 pounds of meat on that same plot of land

You can also cut a substantial amount of CO2 emissions in altering your diet:
1.4 tons annually by eating no beef
1.6 tons vegetarian
1.8 tons vegan

A vegan diet produces ½ as much CO2 as that of an American omnivore, uses 1/11th the amount of fossil fuels, 1/13th the amount of water, and 1/18th the amount of land.

Per day, a vegan diet can save:
1,100 gallons of water
45 pounds of grain
30 square feet of forest
10 pounds of CO2
1 animal’s life

These savings are every day for every individual choosing to eat a plant-based diet in lieu of animal products.

If you’re not convinced on environmental ramifications alone, there are also significant personal health benefits to consuming a plant-based diet, as showcased in the documentary, Forks Over Knives.

This documentary explores the obvious, but often overlooked and neglected, link between food and health. With diet-related health expenses costing our country over $120 billion each year in procedures and medications associated with heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, the film explores a whole-foods (non-processed), plant-based diet as a solution to the multitude of health problems resulting from the highly-processed, animal-based diet that pervades much of our country.

The film ultimately highlights the “revolutionary” conclusion of the two nutritional researchers featured in the film that “Many of our most crippling conditions could be greatly reduced, if not completely eradicated, simply by eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet” (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes) and avoiding processed food (refined sugars, bleached flour, oils, and animal products including meat, dairy, and eggs).

It may sound far fetched, but the film highlights interesting findings, research, and testimonials to back up this claim.

For example, research featured in the film found that cancer cells in mice grew more rapidly when fueled by animal proteins than by plant proteins.

Similarly, mortality from Cardiovascular Disease in Norway underwent a dramatic decline in 1939 when German occupiers confiscated all livestock for their consumption, and Norwegians had to eat a primarily plant-based diet. The mortality rate subsequently increased in 1945 following cessation of the occupation.

The American diet has changed dramatically over the years, marked specifically by a rise in the consumption of meat, dairy products, and processed sugars. Near the beginning of the 20th century, Americans each ate about 120 pounds of meat annually, but that figure has since risen to 222 pounds.

Such a diet provides the protein that many folks use to justify their meat consumption, but it also brings with it an increase in dietary cholesterol levels that can build up in arteries and cause restricted blood flow to the heart, contributing to a variety of life-threatening cardiovascular diseases.

In reality, all the protein you need can be obtained from whole-food, plant-based sources such as rice, potatoes, grains, seeds, nuts, legumes, and vegetables.
Consider checking out this list of the 17 best sources of protein for vegans and vegetarians to learn more about non-animal alternative protein sources. 

Individuals interviewed and chronicled in the film who made the switch to a whole-foods, plant-based diet reported losing weight, gaining more energy, and having better health (lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels) as a result of changing their diet.

With the two-fold environmental and personal health benefits offered by an alternative whole-foods, plant-based diet, making the switch should be a no brainer!

However, as humans, we rarely do what is best for ourselves or for our environment. I’m an ice cream-loving vegetarian who is slowly but surely committing myself to a vegan lifestyle. I’m not suggesting everyone needs to cut out all animal products from their diet immediately, but I am suggesting that you at least give it a try. Start out by cutting out red meat. Or try instituting “meatless Mondays” (if you end up watching Cowspiracy, you’ll find one commentator who is vehemently opposed to the idea of meatless Mondays, but I’m a huge proponent of it as a useful stepping stone on the pathway to plant-based diets). Challenge yourself to eat vegan for one day. One week. One month. You can even sign up for the free 30-day vegan challenge and access lots of resources on Cowspiracy’s website.

Plant-based diets are a viable solution to climate change that can have immediate positive impacts on the planet. Moreover, it’s a diet that is kinder to our bodies, our planet, and our fellow living creatures. Changing our diets is unmistakably the most profound thing we can do, as individuals, to help the environment. 

If you’re planning on trying to change your diet to be more sustainable, let us know how it goes in the comments section below. Likewise, if you refuse to even entertain the idea of trying, I’d be interested in hearing the reasoning behind your refusal. Are you already a full-blown, committed vegan? Feel free to impart some wisdom, insight, tips, and recipes!

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to follow Greener Living by clicking the blue “follow” button at the top right of the page. And please share with any of your family or friends you’d like to challenge to follow a path toward greener living.

Until next week,
~Sam 

Staying Clean While Being Green: A how-to guide for greening your hygiene routine

We’ve discussed how to clean our clothes more sustainably and how to clean our homes more sustainably, but what about cleaning ourselves more sustainably?
From reducing your water usage, to buying responsibly, to avoiding harmful PCCPs (personal care and cosmetic products), there are so many things you can do to greenify your basic hygiene practices.

We’ll start with an easy one: toilet paper. According to an article in Scientific American, Americans use 36.5 billion rolls of toilet paper every year, which requires the pulping of 15 million trees, over 473 billion gallons of water to produce the paper, and 253,000 tons of chlorine to bleach it, as well as significant amounts of energy and materials to package and transport the product to retail outlets.
In my endeavor toward greener living this week, I switched my household to using toilet paper made from recycled paper. I purchased a 12-pack of Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Bath Tissue for $9.99. Raised in a house with strong Scott toilet paper brand loyalty, the recycled bath tissue has proven to be stronger and softer than what we were using before. And, it was the less expensive option at the store. Not to mention its significant implications for sustainability.

If every household in the U.S. replaced one 12-pack of 240 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissue with recycled bath tissue, we could save over 2,400,000 trees. This simple act of choosing to wipe our butts with recycled rather than virgin paper can have massively beneficial environmental impacts! And it requires next to no effort to implement such a change. Simply purchase bathroom tissue made from recycled paper the next time you buy. It works just the same as the non-recycled stuff, but is a lot gentler on our planet. Also look for toilet paper rolls without a cardboard roll (which I couldn’t find at my local store) or be sure to recycle the cardboard rolls rather than tossing them into your trash. 

Of course, toilet paper use can also be eliminated altogether with the use of a bidet—a plumbing fixture or accessory that uses a stream of water to clean you after using the restroom as opposed to toilet paper. Bidets are utilized widely all over the world, except in North America where they remain unpopular and underutilized.

In addition to their environmental benefits in reducing water consumption and waste generated in the production and use of toilet paper, bidets are also a more hygienic alternative to toilet paper. A top-of-the-line bidet featuring heated water and air drying mechanisms costs $549. However, less advanced
models can be installed yourself and cost less than $100. On average, a family of four will purchase twenty 12-packs of toilet paper throughout the year (based on average consumer use of 57 sheets of toilet paper per day). As I took a closer look at the toilet paper offerings this week in my local grocery store, 12-packs ranged from $8-$12 in price. This means that an average family of four spends approximately $160-$240 dollars on toilet paper annually, which is significantly costlier than the one-time expense of purchasing a bidet.

If you end up incorporating a bidet into your bathroom routine in the future (which I highly encourage folks to do!) or you are simply interested in learning more about bidets, consider reviewing these tips on how to use a bidet.

Toilet paper is but one small part of our daily hygiene routine. From brushing our teeth, to flushing the toilet, to washing our face, to showering, the task of keeping our bodies clean and healthy requires an extraordinary amount of water. According to the USGS, each person in the United States, on average, uses 80-100 gallons of water each day. Here are some quick facts and tips on how to reduce your personal water consumption in the quest for a greener daily hygiene routine:
     1. If it’s yellow, let it mellow.
          -I know from personal experience that this can be a controversial and unpopular method of water conservation. However, the average toilet flush uses 3 gallons of water! That’s an insane amount of water to be wasting every time you pee. If it grosses you out, invest in deodorizer or keep the lid down. I’m a huge proponent of the yellow mellow strategy of water conservation, but I do understand it may not be everyone’s “cup of tea.” Other ways to reduce water use with your toilet include:
          -Installing a low-flow toilet, which uses only 1.6 gallons of water per flush, on average
          -If you can’t replace your higher-volume toilet, then put a plastic bottle filled with water in your toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used per flush
          -Check for toilet leaks (and repair them) by putting food dye into the tank. If the color appears in the bowl without flushing, then there’s a leak that should be repaired
     2. Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth or washing your hands or face.
          -Newer faucets use 1 gallon of water per minute, whereas older ones use over 2 gallons. The simple act of not letting the water run unnecessarily while you brush your teeth, wash your face, or wash your hands can save a lot of water
     3. Take a shorter shower and use a low-flow showerhead
          -Older showerheads use up to 5 gallons of water per minute. Water-saving showerheads cut that down to 2 gallons per minute. Regardless, cutting your shower time by only one minute can have significant water saving impacts!
          -Time your showers so you are aware of how long you’re spending in there. Challenge yourself to cut your shower time down. If you usually spend 10 minutes in the shower, using an average of 3.5 gallons of water per minute, you’ll use 35 gallons of water per shower. Cutting your shower time by only two minutes bumps that down to 28 gallons and saves 7 gallons of water each shower or 2,555 gallons of water annually
          -Additionally, shut off the water while shaving, sudsing up, lathering your shampoo, etc.
          -As for my favorite water-saving tip when it comes to showering: DON’T DO IT! The best way to reduce water use from showering is to not take showers in the first place. Of course, I’m not suggesting you never shower. However, I am recommending that you consider doing so less frequently. For example, if you shower every day, consider trying to cut that down to six times per week.Skipping just two showers per week has the potential to conserve a whopping 3,640 gallons of water annually.  It’s a tough habit to break, but once you do, you may find yourself being quite content with showering as little as twice per week.

In addition to all that water we are using, we should also be conscious of all the products we are washing down our drains along with that water. In general, you should strive to use products that won’t wash harmful dyes, fragrances, chemicals, and microbeads into our water supply (or put those things into contact with our bodies!) The use of personal care and cosmetic products (PCCPs) of course has overarching environmental implications, but they also have potentially serious impacts on our individual health and wellbeing.

In order to make your beauty routine the healthiest it can be both for you and the planet, consider these tips when deciding which products to buy/use:
     -skip the microbeads / microplastics commonly found in PCCPs. An estimated 8 trillion microbeads enter streams and oceans every day in the U.S. and upwards of 360,000 microscopic plastic particles can be found in a single bottle of face or body wash. These microplastics cannot be filtered out of our wastewater systems (they’re too small) and subsequently enter, pollute, and degrade our waterways. You can know if a product contains microplastics by looking for polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, or nylon in the ingredients list. Instead, look to use products with natural exfoliants such as apricot, sugar, or salt scrubs
     -avoid antibacterial cleansers containing triclosan (commonly found in hand gels and hand soaps) as this can create bacterial resistance to antibiotics
     -avoid soaps/shampoos/cosmetic products with added colorants and chemical additives including fragrance, sodium lauryl sulfate / sodium laureth sulfate, polysorbates, polyethylene glycol, potassium sorbate, and many other ingredients that can be harmful to you and the environment

The stark reality of the situation is that there are thousands of chemicals in our products which are being absorbed into our bodies. For a more in-depth list and explanation of chemicals frequently found in PCCPs that you should be avoiding, consider checking out this HuffPost article or conducting further research of your own

The best way to know what is in your facewash, shampoo, and soap is to make it yourself. This is what I did this week, and it was honestly so much fun! I made my own face wash using this recipe  consisting of castile soap, chamomile tea, water, and essential oils. It was quick to make, smells great, and has been leaving my skin feeling refreshed, moisturized, and glowing.

I also made DIY foaming hand soaps using castile soap, water, and coconut oil.

In what was truly a green hygiene renaissance for me this week, I also started brushing my teeth with natural toothpaste and began using a Dr. Bronner’s “All-in-one” bar of castile soap to wash my body, hair, and face. The bar was a reasonable $4.49—a fraction of what it would cost to buy separate shampoo, soap, and face wash. I have also utilized baking soda shampoo and an apple cider vinegar rinse as DIY shampoo in the past and highly recommend giving that a try as well.

Just know that it does take some time (usually about 2 weeks) for your hair to adjust to a change in cleaning regimen, but in the long run, you, your hair, and our planet will better off because of it. Feel free to research DIY shampoos on your own, or peruse this thorough Dr. Bronner’s guide for additional insight and ideas.

Last but not least, hygiene products like toothbrushes and razors can have a big impact on how your routine is affecting our planet.

Those who know me well know that I have a tenuous relationship with my local dentist, but all animosity aside, I still believe in the importance of oral hygiene. However, I don’t believe we need to destroy our planet in the process.

The standard toothbrush is made of a hard plastic handle and nylon bristles. Most come in plastic packaging. These petroleum products do not biodegrade, they release toxic chemicals when incinerated, and they utilize non-renewable fossil fuels as explained on Recycle Nation’s website. An estimated 850 million to one billion plastic toothbrushes are thrown away in the U.S. every year, generating 50 million pounds of waste. And that doesn’t even account for the additional waste created by packaging, toothpaste tubes, dental floss, and other oral hygiene products.

I would never recommend ceasing to brush your teeth. However, I do recommend seeking more sustainable alternatives to the conventional plastic toothbrush.

These sustainable alternatives include:
-bamboo toothbrushes (whose handles will decompose and biodegrade)

I ordered a four pack (which will last me the year). I like the brush a lot, and it came in a recyclable box made from 100% recycled material. When I’m done with the brush I can pop out the nylon bristles and compost the handle simply by jamming it into the ground. How exciting!
Believe it or not, it’s actually quite a nuanced topic, trying to find the right “sustainable” toothbrush. I found The Zero Waste Backpacker’s insight into the topic to be quite enlightening and informative.
-toothbrushes with replaceable heads (such as Ecodent or Radius)
- toothbrushes made from recycled plastic
The company Preserve makes an array of products—including toothbrushes and razors—from 100% recycled plastics, thereby diverting plastic from the wastestream and repurposing it.

When it comes time to dispose of your plastic toothbrush, look into recycling your toothbrush—along with other hard-to-recycle products like toothpaste tubes, dental floss containers, and toothbrush packaging—through programs like TerraCycle. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you may even advocate for your local dentist to join Terracycle’s toothbrush recycling program. You can also keep your old toothbrush to use as a useful scrubber for household cleaning tasks! 

Also, be sure to recycle the cardboard boxes these sustainable alternative toothbrushes and toothpaste brands come in.

The potential for greener living is vast and ubiquitous. Our daily hygiene routines are no exception to that. I know I inundated you with information in this blog, but there was a lot to cover. And I wanted to cover a lot in the hopes that readers will find methods, tips, and tricks for greening their routines that work for them. Not everyone is going to want to give up their shampoo brand. Not everyone is going to want to take shorter showers. Not everyone is going to want to adopt a yellow mellow flushing policy. However, everyone should be able to commit to one change. Whether it’s turning the faucet off while brushing, buying toilet paper made from recycled paper, making your own soaps and shampoos, installing a bidet, adding a water bottle to your toilet tank, or buying a more sustainable toothbrush, let us know how it goes in the comments section below.

I won’t be able to blog next week, so hopefully the extent of this one can help you make your greener living fix last. Two weeks from now I’ll be back with another topic. Stay tuned to see what it is!

-Sam

Good Clean Fun: A Look into Nontoxic Housecleaning

On average, an individual spends 9,672 hours cleaning during their lifetime—that’s the equivalent of 403 days!

Whether you like cleaning and find it to be a cathartic, productive use of your time, or you view it as being an arduous, obligatory task, I’m sure if there’s one thing we can all agree on it’s that we don’t want to expose ourselves, our loved ones, or our environment to unnecessary toxic chemicals whilst cleaning. Ironically, in cleaning our homes using conventional cleaners, we are doing just that—exposing ourselves and others to toxic chemicals and polluting our surfaces, air quality, waste streams, and waterways in the process.

Green, nontoxic housecleaning recipes and products offer a safe, environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional chemical-laden, toxic cleaners. 

One of the greatest benefits of greener cleaning products is their ability to improve your home’s air quality. The average person spends 87% of their time indoors, but according to the EPA, the air inside a typical home is 200-500% more polluted than the air outside due in large part to toxic household cleaning products.

Additionally, more than 184,000 tons of household cleaning products are dumped down the drain each year nationwide. That’s equal to over 1,000,000 pounds per day of cleaners containing toxic chemicals that can subsequently pollute our water table, kill wildlife, and pose health risks to the people and pets living in your home.

53% of chemical cleaning products contain ingredients that can harm your lungs. While conventional chemical-based household cleaners are effective and efficient, they are also poisonous if ingested, harmful if inhaled or touched, and contribute to indoor air pollution. Their convenience comes at a price that is too high—both for your personal health and wellbeing and the health and wellbeing of our environment.

Making the switch to alternative green cleaners offers a multitude of benefits such as reducing exposure to airborne toxic chemicals, reducing the incidence of respiratory issues caused by chemical allergens, and reducing the negative environmental impact of toxic household cleaning products. If you choose to make your own green household cleaners rather than purchasing green cleaners, you gain the additional benefits of saving money and reducing packaging waste by reusing spray bottles and containers.

This week, with help from my fellow environmentalist-at-large sister, Kim, I transitioned my household from conventional chemical cleaning products to green alternatives. Kim spearheaded the homemade cleaners while I purchased green alternatives from the store. In crafting homemade cleaners, Kim utilized a copy of Amy Kolb Noyes’ Nontoxic Housecleaning of the Chelsea Green Guides series. This book provides recipes and tips for making your own green cleaners including air freshener, all-purpose kitchen spray, appliance cleaner, bathroom spray, dish soap, disinfecting spray, furniture polish, glass cleaner, scouring powder, and wood floor polish.

Kim started her DIY cleaner journey by purchasing two spray bottles—one for glass cleaner and one for kitchen cleaner. (Note: you can also re-purpose conventional cleaner bottles as long as you rinse them out thoroughly).

For the all-purpose kitchen spray, she mixed:

1 Tablespoon castile soap
3 cups water
1 cup vinegar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

For the glass cleaner, she mixed:
¼ teaspoon castile soap
1 ⅔ cups water
¼ cup vinegar

Both cleaners have worked great! The all-purpose kitchen cleaner has gotten a lot of use. The vinegar component of it cuts through grease, and the lemony scent leaves our kitchen smelling nice and clean.
As an additional waste-saving measure, use reusable dish rags for cleaning rather than single-use paper towels.

With the glass cleaner, using a small swath of old newspaper, a squeegee, or a lint-free cotton cloth are all viable alternatives to wasteful single-use paper products. I used newspaper when using the glass cleaner and
it left my mirrors squeaky clean and streak free. Best of all, I didn’t feel panicked when some of the spray dripped onto my hands and sprayed into my face.

When searching for the best soap to use in your homemade cleaner, Dr. Bronner’s is an ideal brand of castile soap because it is widely available, made with organic oils, is certified fair trade, is not tested on animals, and is available already scented with essential oils (if using unscented castile, soap, add 8-10 drops of your favorite essential oil per batch).

Generally speaking, main ingredients you need for household cleaners include baking soda, white vinegar, soap, borax, lemon juice, water, club soda (great for getting out stains on clothes, carpet, and upholstery), and salt. You can look to a guide like Noyes’ Nontoxic Housecleaning or find a lot of ideas and recipes on the internet.

If you’re not one for doing it yourself, you can also seek pre-made green cleaning products in stores. This week I purchased green dish soap and dishwasher pods. The key in searching for green cleaners is to look for products that are dye and fragrance free, chlorine free, phosphate free, made from plant-based ingredients (rather than petroleum-based ingredients), and are biodegradable. If the products contain warning labels such as “Caution!” “Danger!” or “May cause burns” they are neither green nor safe to bring into your home.

For additional insight, information, and product recommendations, consider taking a look at this Green Guide to household cleaning supplies from the Organic Consumers Association

Our homes should be places of solace, respite, safety, health, and relaxation—not places coated in and polluted by caustic, toxic cleaning agents. A clean home is a happy home, but a green/clean home is a happier home!

I encourage you to make the switch to green cleaning agents—not only for the environment, but for your health and wellbeing as well. Reducing your waste and exposure to chemicals by making your own cleaning products or investing in green alternatives feels immensely satisfying. It’s a switch we should have made years ago, but it’s better late than never.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts, experiences, homemade cleaner recipes, and more in the comments section below. Nontoxic housecleaning is just one step, but an important one, on the journey toward greener living. 

Join me next week as I endeavor to green my hygiene routine: from beauty products, to water usage, to toilet paper—it’ll be a blog you won’t want to miss!

~Sam

The Great Napkin Debate: Cloth vs. Paper

The napkin. A commonplace element of daily life that many of us don’t think twice about. When we get some food on our hands or face, we reach automatically for a napkin to clean ourselves up. We may even preemptively handle spills and protect our clothes by tucking a napkin into our shirt or draping it across our lap before eating.

The world of napkin etiquette is admittedly a mystery to me. I come from a “non-napkin” family where I became accustomed to wiping my hands on my pants, the kitchen chair, or an errant dish rag while eating. It’s not that my family was opposed to napkins, we just used them rarely. On the occasion when someone would need a napkin, we’d simply head to the roll of paper towels and make do. When we’d have guests over or be hosting a party, a pack of paper cocktail napkins would inevitably appear, pulled from the depths of some drawer. While my personal experience with napkins may be a bit thin, I have still had enough experience to identify paper napkins as being an avoidable source of waste in our daily lives.

As with many single-use disposable paper products, a lot of energy and resources go into the production of paper napkins. When you factor in harvesting the material, processing and bleaching, packaging, shipping, and transportation to and from the store, paper napkins are about twice as energy-intensive and create more greenhouse gas emissions than their cloth napkin counterparts, according to the Mother Nature Network. Despite all the energy that goes into this product, paper napkins are used only once for a matter of mere seconds or minutes before being thrown away.

And paper napkins ultimately should be thrown away. Yes, paper napkins are made of paper (no surprise there), but because they come into contact with food waste, grease, and possibly bodily fluids and cannot be adequately “cleaned” during the recycling process, they should not be recycled.

So, we once again find ourselves in the position where recycling and reusing are not viable options to combat this source of waste. That leaves us with reducing! And the best way to reduce paper napkin use is to avoid it altogether by switching to reusable cloth napkins instead.

My first experience using cloth napkins (aside from encountering them in restaurants) came, appropriately, while I was participating in an immersive abroad program in college focused on sustainability. There were roughly nine of us living in an old farm house, and we each had a clothespin labeled with our name in the kitchen on which we hung a reusable cloth napkin. The napkins were collected and washed weekly and then redistributed to be used again. It was great! However, due to my family’s “non-napkin” tendencies, I hadn’t thought to implement such a measure at home until now.

When I decided to initiate the switch from paper napkins (or in my family’s case, no napkins supplemented by the occasional paper product) to reusable cloth napkins, I spent some time trying to figure out which cloth napkin was the best choice.

Factoring in water resources used and gas emissions produced to grow the raw materials, manufacture the napkins, and launder them weekly (for the cloth napkins), setting the table with a year’s worth of paper napkins produces 7.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and uses 24.5 gallons of water. Alternatively, using cotton napkins produces 3.9 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and uses 43.3 gallons of water, while linen napkins produce only 1.9 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and use a mere 8.9 gallons of water.

Ultimately, these calculations from environmental consultant and columnist Pablo Paster conclude that linen napkins are the most sustainable option. This is due in large part to the fact that cotton is a highly irrigated crop with heavy pesticide use as compared to linen that is made from the more eco-friendly flax plant. Unfortunately, linen napkins are also the most expensive option. However, for a one-time investment in something that you could use every day, it may be well-worth your money to invest in the pricier but more sustainable linen option.

Given my circumstances (living at home with limited income and a family that generally does not use napkins), I opted to purchase a 12-pack of vibrant, colorful cotton napkins. I know my family will be washing these much less frequently than once per week, so some water usage will be saved there. It’s also important to note that how you choose to launder your reusable cloth napkins does have an impact on how much they reduce your resource consumption (see my previous blog on greening your laundry routine). Generally speaking, to make the greatest environmental impact with your cloth napkins, they should be washed in cold water, using eco-friendly biodegradable detergent, and should be air dried.

I ordered my napkins from Amazon, which generates additional waste in transport and packaging, so ideally you would buy your reusable cloth napkins from a local store (declining both the plastic bag and the receipt if offered). In my defense, I did try to do this, but the one kitchen/linens store near me did not have any cloth napkins in stock. For the craftier among us, cloth napkins can also be made from recycled fabrics/textiles.

When my napkins arrived in the mail earlier in the week, I was ecstatic! I opted to buy a colorful pack and was greatly encouraged when my dad, a previous cloth napkin naysayer, asked excitedly, “Can I be the yellow one?!”

My napkins also arrived just in time for the holidays (in which feasting is generally a main event). I’m excited to add some style and sustainability to our traditional Thanksgiving meal this year when I set the table with my new reusable cloth napkins.

That’s another great aspect of cloth napkins—they can spruce up and fancify even the simplest of meals, adding a classy and stylish touch to your everyday eating. You can also take your cloth napkins on-the-go to avoid generating waste while eating out.

Overall, I have really enjoyed making the switch to reusable cloth napkins. As infrequently as we use napkins, my family now has an environmentally-friendly alternative to paper napkins that will help us reduce our waste over time. If you decide to join the winning side of this debate and switch your household from paper to cloth napkins, remember to shop locally, purchase linen napkins, and wash responsibly to have the greatest impact in reducing your waste and resource consumption. If you are unwilling or unable to forgo paper napkins, then consider switching to using napkins made from recycled paper.

Whatever you end up doing, let me know how it goes in the comments below! And stay tuned next week for my look into greener cleaners as I try out homemade all-natural cleaning products.

~Sam