Celebrate Earth Day: Rent an RV

Most people celebrate Earth Day by exploring ways to reuse, recycle, and restore in order to reduce their impact upon the environment. In 2000, my family spent Earth Day doing what many would think is a sacrilege: we rented a 28-foot RV.

Granted, we didn't deliberately plan this ironic scheme to rebel against our well-intentioned neighbors; however, the RV taught us how the infrastructure of our houses and communities hides how much waste we produce and how much energy and other resources we use. Spending time in an RV, where we are responsible for monitoring these conditions, lifts up the lid, so to speak, on this equation.

Here's what we discovered when we rented a Class C RV for a week's vacation around Nevada and Utah:

1. Weight issues required us to choose what we needed to take along. Even the weight of liquid in the tanks effected the RV's mileage.

2. Water was limited and curtailed routine activities.

3. Packaging built up and needed to be disposed of in some way. This wasn't free, however, and the cost was passed on to others.

4. Handling human waste disposal became a problem we couldn't just flush and forget.

5. Normal use of appliances became a complicated choice rather than a mindless routine.

I can hear the "eew's" and "yucks" now, as well as the clicking of mice everywhere. Obviously this subject is disgusting on many levels, but an RV experience can focus the light on this "out of sight out of mind" dilemma.

A Few Figures to Play With

Just three of us took this journey around the interior West: me, my husband, and our high-school-aged daughter. Our Itinerary started in Truckee, CA, and followed Highway 395 down the eastern Sierra Nevada to Bishop. Then we cut across the desert to Highway 95 and on to Las Vegas. From there, we turned northward again and visited Zions and Bryce National Parks. We returned home by way of the Extraterrestrial Highway through Nevada, camping in Rachel, NV, before closing the loop in Truckee.

That's approximately 1500 miles.The dealer informed us that the cab-over Class C averaged 8 miles per gallon, so we probably burned over 187 gallons of gasoline. We soon discovered that cruising on level highways or climbing mountain roads effected the mileage, as would the weight of the RV and everything on it. Our own bodies added an accumulated weight of over 600 pounds just for starters.

While I don't want to bore readers, or myself, with tables full of numbers, here are a few to give an idea of how much these liquid weights could swing the mileage.

The gross dry vehicle weight is roughly 14,500 pounds. Then you add the liquids.

The fuel tank held 55 gallons of gasoline at about 6.42 pounds per gallon: 353.1 pounds.

The freshwater tank carried 42 gallons weighing 8 pounds per gallon: 336 pounds.

The two waste water tanks each carried 41 gallons, weighing about 328 pounds each for a total of about 656 pounds. (There's undoubtedly a difference in weight between the two tanks, but I don't want to go into such graphic detail.)

As you can see, there's a 320-pound difference between the water tank and the two waste water tanks. To begin, one is full while the other two are empty, but that changes over time. The amount of gasoline also varies. With those changes, the mileage goes up or down. That eight-miles-per-gallon is, shall we say, fluid.

Monitoring the Daily Output

There is a small meter on the wall inside an RV that shows the levels in each of these tanks. We filled or emptied them accordingly along the route. This little exercise in monitoring taught us lessons of resource and waste management that we didn't normally get at home. There, water comes out of the wall and goes down the drain, and we forget about it. What's more, we don't have to handle it! When living in an RV, it's a good idea to keep a box of latex gloves handy.

It's Just a Small Load

We took a week's worth of clothes because we didn't want to spend time and money doing laundry somewhere along the way. It didn't even dawn on us the amount of water we would use and how that would effect our destination communities.

Since our RV didn't have laundry appliances, the water systems would not bear this burden. People in our various destinations, however, would provide resources and disposal facilities for this common activity. As we pumped quarters into an appliance that, after a while, seemed more like a Vegas slot machine, we had to remember the operator, as well as the community, pays for this infrastructure. It kept us from complaining too loudly about exorbitant prices at laundromats.

A Return to the Past

As our trip progressed, we started to see how much water was required just to wash our faces. Our daughter eventually rebelled against our demand for economy and took a shower in the cramped, kid-sized shower. With only six gallons of heated water available, she made it a quick one. Imagine taking a shower and washing your hair in six gallons of hot water. Perhaps submariners can do it, but it's not an easy task for a teenage girl.

Good thing the RV didn't have an adult-sized shower or the water usage would have been mind-boggling. I did re-learn the tingling pleasure of an old-fashioned basin-bath: a washcloth, a bar of soap and about a quart of water in the sink. This took me back to my childhood when baths were a once- or twice-a-week event. I didn't come from the generation where whole families gathered around the galvanized tub of stove-heated water, taking their turns until the tub was filled with sludge; but the daily shower wasn't expected of people until the 1970's. Somehow, people managed to bear each other's company during those aromatic times.

You Want That Lasagna Heated?

We also had to decide how to live within the limitations of electricity use. Power comes from somewhere beyond that magical little plug in the wall. On an RV, the battery stores a limited amount of energy that must be replaced. Driving the RV is how the batteries are recharged. Ah, but driving the RV also uses more gasoline.

It helps that most RVs these days have small solar panels to augment the power, but even that trickle of electricity is limited. The same is true for the little solar panels that can be purchased to charge cell phones, iPods, and other gadgets. A charger can suck up around 6 watts of power just by sitting there, whether it's recharging a devise or not. On an RV, those watts would soon limit night-time activities, unless, of course, we fired up the generator.

The on-board generator is required for the TV and microwave and runs on the propane that also fuels the gas stove. That's a double whammy in energy supply usage right there.

Once we became aware of the energy generation technology in our RV, we needed to decide how to cook our dinner: on the gas cookstove or oven, or in the microwave. This is usually a no-brainer, but not in an RV.

We turned on the generator to heat up our dinner one night. As this gas-guzzler roared into use, we cringed at the colossal energy output just to cook a tray of lasagna. But how long does it take to nuke a meal as opposed to heating it up on the stovetop or in the gas oven? As energy-hungry as microwaves are, they take far less time to do the job; thus they are much more efficient. Instead of twenty to thirty minutes of stove heat, which also slips around the pan and into the room, the microwave concentrates its energy upon the food in a small, contained space in a few minutes.

Paper Paper Everywhere!

Another issue that got our attention was the amount of paper waste collected from all the convenience foods. The close confines of an RV emphasized just how much paper, plastic, metal, and other packaging we usually throw away every day. We couldn't just stow that garbage bag in a cupboard. It sat there, big as an elephant, in the middle of the room.

It swelled larger and larger as each day passed. We thought perhaps we could burn some of this refuse in campfires at some of the parks, but many such places put stern limitations upon igniting anything outside a small covered BBQ. Gone are the days of roasting marshmallows over an open campfire. Or burning your trash in one, for that matter.

A Sanity Check

So, as we parked the RV in our driveway upon our return, we all realized more clearly just how much waste we generate and how much in water and energy resources we use. In our normal home environment, these conveniences are hidden inside the walls and under the ground.

When we have to account for every separate resource and its usage, and the disposal of waste, our impact on the environment on a daily basis becomes overwhelmingly clear.

Of course, this RV vacation took place over a decade ago. We've come a long way in learning to save energy, conserve resources, and redesign packaging to solve so many of these problems. But let's do a sanity check on our individual living habits to see how we've improved over the past decade.

Celebrate Earth Day this year with a trip to your favorite outdoor environment in an RV. Crank up that microwave. See how long you can survive without a TV and other electronic gadgets.

Oh, and don't forget to bring a box of latex gloves.