As Green As You Can Be

In this time of economic uncertainty, “going green” is probably the last thing on the mind of some people. Feeding ones family, protecting ones future, these are probably much more common thoughts today. But there are a few things you can do to go green and help your economic situation at the same time.

Mmmm Toasty

Ride your bike to work! Okay, the winter is a bit cold to start peddling to work, but if you look at the money you save on gas and auto repair, you can but some pretty sweet bicycling gear that will keep you nice and toasty on your new healthy commute.

You may even get a tax break if you forgo the comforts of the gas guzzler, depending on where you live. I understand that Europe is already doing some sort of tax break and the U.S. is soon to follow.

Maybe you are thinking of an entirely new line of work? One that doesn’t require a commute at all. The internet is full of “work from home” offers, yes most of them are scams, and many more are grossly overstating what you can make, but there are a few things you can do from home. I wrote another post about working from home a while ago that showed some of the environmental benefits to working from home.
Maybe you are the next Perez Hilton? Maybe you are an amateur photographer looking to go pro? Either way you’ll need a website.

Do a search and you will certainly find web hosts are a dime a dozen.  How can you choose among a hundred hosts that all have very similar prices?  Well at least one host out there is powered entirely by the wind and sun.  That is certainly as green as they can be! When you add the fact that they are the same price as any of the other big hosting companies, there isn’t really much to think about. They’ll even plant a tree for each new client!

As our economy plummets into the toilet, Ill be sure to update you as to the best ways to stay as green as you can be.

More and more clothing manufacturers are recognizing the need for a more sustainable farming practice.  The “new” farming practice uses up to 73 percent fewer chemical inputs than conventional cotton and that directly benefits the local environment.

Sustainable Cotton encompasses biologically-based, IPM, and organic farming practices in the production, manufacturing and use of cotton. The Sustainable Cotton Project’s grower programs help move farmers through the changeover from chemically-dependent to more biological sound approaches. Composted manures and cover crops replace synthetic fertilizers; innovative weeding strategies are used instead of herbicides; beneficial insects and trap crops control insect pests; and alternatives to toxic defoliants prepare plants for harvest.

The ultimate goal of “sustainable cotton” is to move sustainable production, manufacturing and use practices throughout the cotton value chain in order to create a healthy and profitable industry for growers, their communities, manufacturers, retailers and users of all cotton products.

Another good thing about the organic clothing, unlike organic foods, is that the price isn’t much different than non-organic clothing.  Here are a few examples of shirts that I found online.  A $10 t-shirt is a pretty good deal where I come from, and if it helps me be as green as I can be, all the better!

Organic Arthur T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Horizon T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 11.98	Organic Logo T-Shirt, Long Sleeve, Men’s Price: 12.98
Organic Ice Axe T-Shirt, Long Sleeve, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Stance T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 9.98	Organic Boot T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 9.98
Organic Vision T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 9.98	Organic Moose T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Hawksbill Turtle 2 Organic T-Shirt, Women’s Price: 14.98
Pra Piping Plover Organic T-Shirt, Women’s Price: 14.98	Henslow Sparrow Organic T-Shirt, Women’s Price: 14.98	Organic Acadia T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98
Organic Joshua Tree T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Yellowstone T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Long Trail T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 11.98

The absolute best thing you can do to reduce the amount of garbage you send to the landfill is composting. We have been recycling for years but just started composting last week. When we started the recycling program, it cut our trash volume by two thirds at least! Now that we have a compost bin, our trash collector only picks up very small bag of non recyclable/non compostable items. And it was so easy!

Composting, for me anyway, has always been the “final frontier” in green living. It was always too complicated or too gross to deal with. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Its easy as having a separate, small trashcan with a lid next to your regular trashcan. We put everything organic in there, banana peels, food scraps, paper towels, even coffee grinds and filters. Don’t put meat scraps or dairy items in there, you will invite bugs and or a really bad smell. Neither of these things are welcome in my house so we avoid them.

We used an old “Rubbermaid” storage bin with a tight fitting lid and some holes poked in it. You want some ventilation, but make the holes small enough so that a lot of bugs cant get in there. You don’t want flies in your compost bin, they will lay eggs and nobody wants to deal with maggots. I don’t anyway. We punched a screwdriver through the plastic bin to make the holes.

In my opinion, too much emphasis is placed on the “layering” of the proper composting materials. I think this might even be why some people might be apprehensive about starting. Its really no big deal, if you start with the “proper” layering, it may break down a little faster, but its not a race, and its not anything to stress over either.

That being said, I think its best to keep the correct approximate ratio of different materials in your bin. We compost lawn and tree clippings, food waste and paper towels, you wouldn’t want too much of any one of those things in there because that will really slow things down. It will all break down, but it may take a while.

Chances are, you will have more grass clippings than food waste at any given time, If you are wondering what to do with it, just put a pile of clippings next to your compost bin and put some in every time you put in some food waste.

Some people have a compost pile or a very open container made with pallets or wood. There are a few reasons why we didn’t go that way. The first reason is that we live in a development where the neighbors would certainly have something to say about a pile of rotting waste in the yard. Another reason is the bugs like I mentioned before.

Animals can also be curious about your pile of waste, raccoons are notoriously curious and will make a pretty big mess if given the chance. Open piles also don’t breakdown as fast as a closed bin because they don’t get as hot and when it rains, all the good nutrient rich stuff gets washed away from the top of the pile. Our little compost bin is tucked neatly under our deck no mess, no smell, no worries. I don’t know why we didn’t do this sooner. Now if I could get our town to allow us to stop the trash pickup all together we could save a ton.

The only things that we throw away now are meat and dairy food waste and items that our recycler doesn’t want. That really isnt too much. So I’m feeling even better about our impact on the environment. We can afford a huge solar array or a wind farm (yet) but we can do something, and the feeling you get when you are as green as you can be, makes it all worthwhile.

Well, I received a few emails at asgreenasyoucanbe.com requesting a Rain Barrel how-to so here it is.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous to start this because I thought it might not work, or be leaky, but it was simple and doesn’t leak a bit.

The first step is to acquire a barrel, preferably a plastic one.  There are several sources you can get these for very cheap and sometimes even free.  Our local soft drink bottler sells them for $5, but I got mine free from a friend who works at an industrial plant.  You have to be wary about what it was used for. Mine was used for some kind of cleaner, I might not drink out of it but I think its okay for plants.  The barrel I got was bright screaming blue (ugg) so I got some tan spray paint specifically for painting plastic (low VOC of course) and gave it a good coat so it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.  Then, off to the home center!

At the home center I picked up a brass spigot that was threaded on both ends and a brass garden hose female to female adapter.   These were both the same size threads.  I also picked up one of those flexible plastic downspout extenders.

I drilled two 1 inch holes in the sides of the barrel.  One at the top and one at the bottom.  When drilling these holes, try to keep in mind the bottom hole is where the water comes out and the top hole should be directed to where you want the overflow to go. Hopefully the pictures will explain this better.

With the 1″ holes drilled, I threaded the spigot right into the hole.  I was tight but the threads were tapered a bit so they cut right into the plastic and made a water tight seal.  Same thing for the F to F adapter, just thread it in and be done with it.  You may need a wrench, because it was pretty tough to screw it in all the way.  I planned on adding some silicone sealant but it wasn’t necessary, that sucker is tight!

Next you have to cut a hole in the top large enough for the flexible downspout extender to fit in.  I used a jigsaw, but you could use a hacksaw blade or a circular series of drilled holes. This doesn’t have to be exact, but the tighter you get it the less chance you’ll have of foreign material getting in there, like leaves or sticks that can clog up the spigot.

Now you have to give the barrel a nice stable, level place to sit, next to your downspout.  I used a couple of 6×6 cut offs that I had lying around to raise the barrel up a bit so I can get a watering can under the spigot.  In hindsight, I would have raised it up a but more, maybe a foot off the ground.   It is important to dig the ground level under the barrel supports because a 40 gallon barrel full of water will weigh over 350 pounds and you don’t want it sliding off! You can use cinder blocks to raise it as high as you’d like. They are very cheap and easy to come by.

Place the barrel where you want it to go and put one end of the flexible downspout extender into the hole in the top of the barrel.  Now stretch the other end over to the downspout and mark a place on the downspout to cut.  You can easily cut it in place with a hacksaw.  Remove the lower piece of downspout and hook up your flexible downspout, I put a little screw through the plastic to secure it to the metal.

Make sure you close the spigot and wait for the rain!  You can hook up a length of hose to the overflow and direct it where ever you want.  You could even direct the overflow to another rain barrel and have a series of them.  When the first one fills up, it will start filling up the second.  Pretty cool, just make sure you have spigots in them or you won’t be able to get the water out.

There you have it, this is easily done in an afternoon. All you need now is a decent rainstorm and it will fill up very quickly.  Now it wont run a lawn sprinkler but I use a soaker hose or sometimes I just squirt the grass.  We also fill up a watering can when ever the garden needs a drink.

I hope this helps you on your journey to be as green as you can be.

Here are just a few simple things that nearly everyone can do to be a little greener.

Make a Rain Barrel. Its actually very easy to make a rain barrel.  I got my 40 gallon plastic barrel from a local bottling plant for a few dollars and a flexible downspout extender from the home center.  That, combined with about 7 bucks worth of hardware and 1 hour made me a rocking rain barrel.  Now I am thinking about daisy-chaining multiple barrels together to collect more water.  I can water my lawn, garden and flowers with this water, and its FREE!  Its very simple check out my simple How-to on creating a Rain Barrel.

Composting. I have to admit that I haven’t done this yet.  My wife keeps saying we should and she is right, but I just imagined a big, stinky eyesore in our backyard.  With a little research we’ve found that they don’t have to look bad at all.  As soon as we get ours up and running Ill post a few pictures and a how-to. (Edit: check out my new article on Starting a Compost Bin.)

Recycle!!! If you aren’t recycling by now what are you waiting for?!  Our local municipality offers a recycling service. They supply us with a great big container on wheels and they pick it up every week.  The first thing we noticed is that our volume of trash was reduced dramatically.  So much in fact that we are contemplating canceling our trash pickup all together.  Especially once we get into composting! If your trash collection service doesn’t offer a recycling program, do it your self!  Get a couple plastic bins and start collecting glass in one, paper in another and so on.  Click here to find a recycling center in your area, and dump it off. This is easy stuff!

Replace your light bulbs. Come on now, you mean you haven’t done this yet?  That’s the first thing everyone recommends to save money as well as the environment.  Its the easiest way to be as green as you can be!  the bulbs are getting better all the time too.  The first one we bought was very harsh, but we just got some recently that have a nice soft white light. They have a couple different types at The Green Office, go check them out!

Grow your own veggies! I know I know, “but I only have a quarter acre lot, how can I have a garden“.  Its not that hard at all.  Look into raised beds, you be surprised how much you can get out of a small corner of your yard.  Tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, even corn can all be grown in a suburban development backyard, depending on your geographic location.  Its fun too, and your kids will love helping with the garden.

There are many others that Ill touch on in the future but these are just few that you could easily do this weekend.  After all, don’t you want to be as green as you can be?