CEC Blog

Hello bloggers, This is Keith, current resident (with my wife, Sarah) of the Sustainable Living Demonstration Home at the Cope Center. We are loving our new digs and I decided I wanted to share a bit about how we are adjusting to “living sustainably”.

The biggest difference I have noticed is how recycling and composting have reduced the amount of waste we are producing. When we lived in Richmond we recycled but didn’t compost. The composting has been surprisingly easy, there is no odor and we’re actually growing green onions in our compost pile from the scraps we’ve thrown out. We empty the small bucket (kept under the sink) about once a week and we are slowly developing some great dirt.

The recycling bin fills up at least twice as fast as the trash can. This is due in part to the fact that the Cope Center recycles with Best Way which takes plastics 1-5 as well as cardboard. City of Richmond only does plastics 1 &2 and newspaper. We are also washing many of our ziploc bags (and ocasionally plastic silverware, Chuck!) and reusing many of the plastic food containers purchased at the grocery. Oh yeah we also bring the groceries home in reusable fabric grocery bags. By changing these simple and relatively easy parts of our routine we have reduced our garbage output to around one 18 gallon (recycled) bag per week.

If you have other thoughts about reducing waste around the house I would love to hear about them. If I get back around to it I’ll try to post more about our own efforts including (mostly my wife’s) laundry efforts as well as transportation issues, eating locally and my efforts to reduce my meat intake and live closer to the bottom of the food chain.

Hope you enjoyed this beautiful weekend!
-Keith

Bob said,

August 6, 2008 @ 1:31 pm · Edit

Hello – I am involved in sustainable development and want to pose a question that has been posed to me. Some people over 50 who experienced Earth Day I and have seen other surges and resurgences of attention to sustainability wonder whether the current spate of attention is merely a fad or whether it is here to stay. I am curious what evidence others can point to that would show this round is more than a passing fad.

Thank you Chuck!  That is a great challenge.  i am working to introduce more people to the blog and this is great way to help with those efforts.

I am posting a website that I read today about plastics in toys.  Yet another challenge to become more environmentally responsible!  This is a hard one – everything is made of plastic.  A big thing is for people to challenge themselves to use less – something easily accomplished by buying goods in bulk or larger size packages and avoiding single use throw away products.  We are fortunate to have Clear Creek Coop in town that allows members to purchase a VERY LARGE variety of goods in bulk.  A few folks are also working to start a buying club to make purchasing large quantities of items such as flour and grains more managable.  Check you local cooperative food stores or natural food stores for opportunities to purchse in bulk!

Here is the article regarding plastic in toys etc.  http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/Mag2/summertoys

And one on bpa in our plastic food and beverage containers.  http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/114/bpa

Looking forward to learning more ways that others are working to be environmentally responsible!

In the near future I will blog about diapers!

Hello Everyone,

We recieve several calls about recyclign each week.  People want to know where to recycle and what can be recycled.  While recycling is a wonderful service provided in many communities and Richmond has a fantastic curbside program and the Best Way dumpsters provided in the county in many places are factastic – we also must ask the question – How do I reduce?  Recycling typically means that the packaging being recycled will actually be “down-cycled” into either a lesser quality product or another product made from recycled materials that does displace that same product being made from virgin materials.  For example, many recycled beverage containers are then recycled into the one-use plastic bags.  However, there are many plastic containers that may be turned into recycled lumber or other products, but is does take a lot of recycled plastic and energy to make a 2X4 of recycled plastic lumber!

Of course there a zillions of ways to reduce what we use.  I am going to begin today with a pet peeve – junk mail!

Catalogchoice.org helps you to remove your name from unwanted catalog lists.  You may also call those catalog companies as well.  catalogs are a bit

Too many mailings from an organization, college, or business? – Remove yourself from mailing lists -use those pecky return envelopes and the company or organizatio will pay the postage!

When ordering over the phone – request that your name not be added to the mailing list or traded or sold to other comapnies.

Use those return envelopes for mailing other items instead of using a new one.  Take an old address label or tape a scrap piece of paper over the return information and use as your own envelope.

Choose to recieve your magazine subscriptions on-line – many magazines now offer an on-line subscription option.

Use the blank second sides of junk mailing as scrap or in your printer for printer paper.  most is high quality and works well in typical printers and even copiers!

Encourage your office to collect paper that has only been used on one side and use it in office printers and in the second drawer of your copier for interoffice memos, notes, minutes, etc.

Please feel free to post other ways to reduce junk mail or save or reuse paper.

Remember – recycling comes after you have already reduced what you use and re-used what you are able to re-use!!

Thank you everyone!
Stephanie

Welcome to the CEC Blog!
This blog is set up to share the latest information about Cope Environmental Center in Centerville, Indiana and any cutting edge new ideas, technologies or happenings in the world of sustainability and environmental stewardship in Wayne County, Indiana, and the world.
Please post comments here to help educate people on how to take the next step towards sustainability. This is for those of you who have bought your CFls, take your own bags to the store, hypermile or own a hybrid, buy energy efficient appliances, recycle, and are looking to go a step further towards conservation and being a good steward of our resources!

First tip – use cloth napkins on a regular basis and not just for the fancy dinners!
Second tip – eliminate plastics #3, 6 and 7 from your life! read more at http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/realmoney/articles/plastics.cfm

I look forward to hearing from all of you!
Stephanie