We hear a million times in a million places to "just do X to live greener!" But we can't afford to, don't have time to, don't have the know-how to do ALL those things and how on earth do we figure out which ones have a meaningful impact and which ones are window dressing???
Well, here are five suggestions, some even free, that WILL make a real difference and are completely doable for just about any homeowner.
(1) Stop "vampire" appliances! Any device with a "ready" light, standby mode (i.e. clocks on microwaves and radios), or screensavers, are sucking up power 24/7. This can account for up to 25% of your power bill!!! You can either pull the plug, or you can get a "smart" power strip that will shut things off for you when not in use (
more here).
(2) Have an older toilet? These greedy buggers can suck down up to seven gallons with one flush. Now I am not a fan of new super low-flow toilets (some things you just NEED water to get rid of!!!) but more than two gallons is excessive -- just fill a two-liter bottle with water, put it in your toilet tank and you'll cut water use by 1/2 gallon with every flush.
(3) Programmable thermostats -- buy one and use one if you can! A nice one might set you back about $20 and can save you hundreds of dollars a year. By reducing energy demand when you are sleeping or not at home, you also pocket plenty of extra cash.
(4) Showerheads -- go low-flow. This doesn't have to mean low pressure, new models do a great job of using air to still give you a lovely water pressure during your bathing.
(5) Reuse greywater. Greywater is just any water that has already been used once -- most sink water can easily be reused, primarily for flushing toilets.
SinkPositive is a great product I've just discovered if you are looking to replace a sink in your bathroom. Drain water goes straight into your toilet tank and is reused for flushing -- no one needs drinking quality water in their toilet, what a waste!! Another (easier and cheaper, but slightly illegal according to most building codes so keep it to yourself) way to do this is simply replumb your sink drain with a flexible pipe that connects to your toilet tank. Very easy to do if the two are located close to each other.
There's lots of "low-hanging fruit" out there, wanderers, so get creative with ways to reuse resources and know that it doesn't have to cost you a bunch of money -- just adjusting an old habit or two and often even saving you money, which is something we all need these days!
Drugs. Good for you (and by this, I do NOT mean "recreational medication"). But bad for you.
Eh?
They are good for you when prescribed by your doctor and taken to address medical problems. Bad for you when you ingest someone ELSE'S drugs via your faucet.
You heard me right.
There are two ways for drugs to get into water. (1) The human body is obviously not 100% efficient at processing stuff. So some of whatever medication you might be taking comes out when you pee (I could say this more delicately, but what the hell for, everybody pees, right?) and goes into the wastewater system. (2) A common disposal method for leftover drugs is to flush them. And they then go into the wastewater system.
Problem: wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove the pharmaceuticals from the water, so most of the time, they go straight through and end up back in the stream, which is your drinking water source. And just in case you are thinking, "Oh well, too bad for the person downstream" -- that is exactly what the person upstream from YOU is thinking!
So, now we've got drinking water full of hormones (from birth control), anti-depressants, steroids, whatever else people take. This is already causing real changes in the aquatic community. A recent
study at NC State University placed native freshwater mussels in the stream below the wastewater outfall of a very ritzy Raleigh suburb. Turns out that water was chock-a-block full of fluoxetine (the active ingredient in Prozac -- I guess money can't buy happiness after all) and this caused the mussels to prematurely abort young and the young to suffer stunted growth rates and death.
"So what?" you say -- "I'm not a fish or a mussel." Well, what is going on here is that these substances are causing changes in reproductive and nervous systems and developmental problems. And you can bet that that can occur in people too. It's just that we are bigger and so will require bigger doses. But if we are constantly exposed, we may be able to build up those doses over time.
"Crap," you think, "this blog always scares me, I'm not reading this anymore." BUT, the point is that you can DO something about it. Ok, I'm not saying never pee, because obviously that would be a whole lot worse a lot faster than any drugs will be! But, you can dispose of your leftover prescriptions in a better way. Remove them from their bottle and mix them up with food scraps or put them in your grease jar so they cannot be stolen and reused from the trash. NEVER flush or pour down the sink.
Also, (and here's that annoying "BE HEARD" part again) contact your local wastewater authority and TELL THEM that they need to be finding out how to remove these substances from our drinking water because you do not like being dosed without your knowledge! You DO have power over your elected officials because YOU can get them voted out of office. They are supposed to be protecting your interests and making sure you have a clean, safe place to live and that includes having clean, safe water to drink and cook with!
