What Decisions Can Make You Live Greener?

"Living green means considering not just landfill space or carbon emissions but also energy, water and raw materials that go into the products we use daily" (Honan, 2006). In an article from Wired magazine, Mathew Honan sets out to clarify perceptions on greener living, concerning the American household. The writer looks into four common concerns for the average family and what decision is best for the environment.

For families with babies, Honan asked what type of diaper is environmentally the best. Three factors were reviewed; 1) how many gallons of water per year were used? 2) How much annual energy was consumed? 3) How many pounds of solid and water waste was produced annually? The two diaper choices were cloth or disposable. The cloth diapers were either home washed or sent out to be washed by a service. The largest amount of water consumption (17908 gallons) was by the cloth diapers which were sent out to be cleaned; followed closely by home washed cloth diapers at 6946 gallons of annual water consumption. However, both home and service washed cloth diapers used almost the same amount of energy (home-699 vs. service-686), where disposable used almost double the amount of energy. Honan contributes the higher amount of energy consumption for disposables to the fact that "disposables use a lot of energy to manufacture…" Both home and serviced cloth diapers produce no solid or water waste, where as disposables produce 751 pounds of waste annually, because they "hog space in city dumps". Honan's verdict on cloth versus disposable was clear, cloth, as long as parents or caregivers wash them at home. The exception? Drought-prone areas, in these cases, disposables are the best option.

The next household decision was the age old question of paper or plastic. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 1.6 million tons of plastic bags and 1 million paper bags are disposed of yearly. Although close in terms of waste, paper uses 19 more BTUs of energy to produce just one bag. With this information, either bag seems like a poor choice, which is why many American's are now using reusable cloth grocery bags. Honan points out that paper bags are biodegradable but use much more energy to produce and take up more room in the landfills compared to plastic. The issue of landfill space however is not that concerning when dealing with paper because "paper is recycled at a higher rate" than in the past.

For the coffee lovers in America, Honan asks "which coffee cups sip the fewest resources"? Comparisons of paper and polystyrene cups versus ceramic mugs were used. One would think that using a ceramic, reusable coffee mug would save on potential waste; not according to the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. A person must use their ceramic mug 294 times before making up for the amount of energy used and pollution made to produce it in comparison to a paper alternative. If you think that is bad, you would have to use your mug 1800 times to make up for the waste produced by that mug compared to a polystyrene alternative. It almost makes you feel better about splurging on that morning cup of Starbucks coffee, doesn't it? What was Honan's verdict? "If you already have a ceramic mug, use it", if not, I'd stick with Starbucks.

The final household decision considered by Honan was everyone's least favorite chore, dishwashing. For those of you feeling environmentally guilty every time you use your dishwasher, you may be pleasantly surprised by these statistics. The US Department of Energy (and the EPA) reports that when washing dishes by hand, with the water continuously running, that household is using up to 5974 gallons of water annually. Where as, rinsing your dishes then loading them into a standard dishwasher uses only 3473 gallons of water yearly. If you are using the newer high-efficiency dishwashers, you are using even less, at 2778 gallons of water yearly; almost half of that when doing dishes by hand. To be at the top of the dish washing game, don't rinse the dishes before loading your dishwasher and you're using a cool 276 gallons a year, not too shabby. As for the amount of annual energy consumption of a dishwasher compared to hand washing, the high-efficiency dishwasher uses the least amount of energy at 276 kilowatt-hours. Hand washing however is the highest at 1243 kilowatt-hours. Honan's verdict was to "scrape dishes, sans water, than clean them in a high efficiency dishwasher". If you are the "dishwasher", I'd suggest filling the sink then scrubbing dishes with the water off, running it only to rinse.

Honan makes some good calls on running an efficient household. Just taking a few small measures to save energy and waste will do a big part in the challenge to create a more environmentally friendly America.

Honan, Mathew, Wired Magazine, Pg 62, October 2006