Category Archives: Green Ideas

Car costs

Are you one of the millions of Americans who jumps in your car alone every day?  Click here to calculate the cost of your commute.  I’ve heard of some people where the cost was as over $14,000 a year!  That’s a lot of money.

And the calculator does not take into account other “costs” of driving, including environmental and health impacts.

Is it worth it?  Are there other ways you can get where you’re going?  What about carpooling, to cut down the number of days you drive your car?  What about making some trips by bicycle?

What would you do with the money you save?  At $14,000/year, you could buy a very nice bicycle and still have lots of money left over 🙂

Green disputes

What happens when you’re ready to make green lifestyle changes and your spouse or partner is not on board?  Or is your spouse trying to make green changes that are driving you crazy?

Apparently, you’re not alone.  See this NYTimes article for more information.

I recently commented on the question of who is greener in our relationship over at Tiny Choices.  I only gave one example there (related to food), but, fortunately, we are pretty evenly matched when it comes to green choices.  The differences we do have push us both to be more eco-conscious, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Green 3D

About a year ago, we made our biannual trek to the movie theater to see Coraline in 3D.  I enjoyed the movie, but not the thought of thousands of pairs of plastic one-time use 3D glasses headed to the landfill.

After the movie, we held on to our glasses.  Given our infrequent movie viewing, I was highly skeptical about whether it was worth keeping them.  Would we even be able to find them the next time we went to a 3D movie?

Enter Avatar.  I was on the fence about seeing it for a couple of weeks but, after hearing a coworker rave about it, I decided to give it a chance.  Lo and behold, I located our 3D glasses with minimal effort.

We purchased the 3D tickets, paying the additional charge for the glasses we didn’t plan to use.  I suspected the glasses we had were identical to those they were distributing, but, just to be safe, we both accepted a new pair as we entered.  We compared the old and the new, careful to avoid opening the sealed plastic packaging, and found them to be identical, so we returned the unopened packages.  (Real-D, the company that makes the glasses, had changed the packaging a bit (intentionally??), but the contents were equivalent.)

After the movie, I faced the dilemma of recycling my 3D glasses (which had not been available when we saw Coraline), or keeping them for my next 3D movie adventure.

Assuming that they were truly recycling the glasses (i.e., using energy to destroy and melt them to become some other plastic product) and not reusing them (i.e., handing out the still perfectly good glasses to future movie viewers), I opted to save my glasses for future personal use.

In my dream world, the movie theaters would get on board with this and offer a cheaper ticket to those who bring in their own 3D glasses, but I’m sure somebody’s making a killing (and killing the earth) off of that $2-3 dollars per pair.  So next time, I may just have to take matters into my own hands.

Cool tool

Head on over to walkscore.com to determine the walkability of your neighborhood.  If you’re looking to rent or buy a new place, use this tool to find a highly walkable neighborhood.  Location matters — some places are more conducive to active living than others.

Our current location rates a 66.  One of my addresses, in the Tower Grove South neighborhood, fared even better, at 72.  I’m dreaming of a 90+.

Here is the rating scale:

  • 90–100 = Walkers’ Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
  • 70–89 = Very Walkable: It’s possible to get by without owning a car.
  • 50–69 = Somewhat Walkable: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
  • 25–49 = Car-Dependent: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
  • 0–24 = Car-Dependent (Driving Only): Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!

One BIG caveat — this only shows a small part of the walkability picture: distance.  For example, if you live in a neighborhood alongside an interstate, and there is a grocery store, library, restaurant, and school directly on the other side of the interstate, say 1/2 mile on the map, this system would give it a high walkability rating.  However, you can’t just mosey across 8 lanes of 60 MPH traffic to get to those destinations.  In reality, you may have to travel 2+ miles to actually get to a point where you can cross the interstate.  In other words, NOT so walk friendly.  The system also does not take into account the presence/absence of pedestrian friendly street design, such as sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.

Trashed: A Correction

All this time I have been under the mistaken impression that the city composted the contents of the “Yard Waste Only” bins. Well, you know what they say about making assumptions! Click on over and see the comment from the City of St. Louis Refuse Division.

All my beautiful, clean, mostly organic vegetable and fruit trimmings that would make such lovely compost when mixed with leaves and grass clippings? Straight to the landfill. My dumpster diving? Not necessary.

The upside? This revelation provides that extra bit of incentive I apparently need to move from contemplation to action (please excuse the nerdy health behavior theory reference) on vermicomposting. I just requested Worms Eat My Garbage from the library. With any luck, I’ll have the book in my hot little hands by the weekend.