Our family has taken up vermiculture, or worm composting, the primary composting method that can work in an apartment.
Basically, it consists of a plastic bin, some shredded, damp newspaper, a supply of red worms, and our fruit and vegetable waste. We obtained our bin and worms from Flowerfield Enterprises, the company founded by the late Mary Appelhof, aka the "worm woman," and author of "Worms Eat My Garbage," which came with our bin. I recommend them highly.
Worm composting can work indoors because it is aerobic, rather than anaerobic, and thus does not produce the offensive odors we usually associate with rotting food. We started our bin about 10 days ago. Since then we have added such yummy articles as mushy carrots, soggy lettuce, old basil, roasted pepper skins, moldy fruit, tomato cores, corn husks, and watermelon rinds. Unlike our garbage can, which in the summer heat smells horrendous after one day, the worm bin smells almost poetically pleasant: phrases such as "a forest after the rain" come to mind.
Worms are extremely low maintenance--for example, you can easily go on vacation for a week or two without worrying about feeding them. You must make sure that the conditions in the bin are okay--not too wet or too dry and adequately aerated. Every few months, you must harvest your worm compost, either by dumping out your worms and separating them from the compost, or by putting new bedding and food on one side of the bin, allowing the worms to migrate, and then removing now mostly-worm free compost.
here is a short list of some of the environmental benefits of worm-composting:
1. it reduces amount of garbage sent to landfills, (including fuel needed to take waste to the dump)
2. it eliminates the methane produced when organic matter decomposes in anaerobic conditions: methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases with more than 20 times the heat-trapping capacity of CO2; a principal source of methane emissions is dumps
3. worms produce compost which increases the organic matter (and stored carbon) in soil, matter that in many parts of the world is being rapidly depleted through soil erosion
4. worm castings are a form of organic fertilizer that can reduce or eliminate the need for traditional fertilizer, which is energy-intensive to produce and causes serious environmental problems from run-off
Earth 911 has an excellent article about the benefits of compost for your plants.
While these benefits are real enough, the environmental effects of a single family's composting efforts are pretty modest. In the scheme of things, it is probably more important--in the sense of directly beneficial to the planet--for people to cut their electricity and gasoline use than for them to compost 500 pounds of vegetable scrapings each year.
Actually, I think the more significant benefits may be mental, but I think these also need to be articulated and defended.
Our worm bin is an ongoing biological experiment that is (to say the least) educational for the children and adults in our house--there is a good reason these bins are popular in schools. It helps educate my children about waste, ecology, "bugs," and the life cycle, among other things.
Even a few short days of composting has made us all newly conscious of what is going in our garbage can and how much we toss out every week; this awareness is a necessary first step to reducing our waste.
Most importantly for me, composting has enabled our whole family to recognize that our vegetable scrapings are not worthless--they do not have to be garbage. They can be put to use. As a society, we treat many things as garbage that actually have value: we just don't bother to discover and acknowledge that value. Rainwater is another example of this--in NYC we literally mix it with our sewage.
We need a new way to think about waste: one meaning of waste is "by-product," whatever is left over from a process--in this case carrot peels from dinner and worm castings from our bin. But another form of waste--the one that injures our minds in the deepest sense--is the destruction of potential.
These kinds of mental shift are absolutely key if we are going to adapt as a society to confront the challenges ahead of us.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Campaign Against Engine Idling
From the EPA:
Combined, truck and locomotive idling consumes over 1 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually. Long-duration truck idling consumes approximately 960 million gallons of diesel fuel annually and locomotive switcher idling consumes 60 million gallons of diesel fuel annually.
Long-duration truck idling emits 11 million tons of carbon dioxide, 180,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 5,000 tons of particulate matter annually. For detailed information about idling nitrogen oxide emissions view EPA's Study on Long-Duration Truck Idling, above.
Health impacts of idling
Carbon dioxide is only one by-product of fuel combustion – the vehicles Canadians drive every day also generate other toxic substances that are fouling our air, contributing to urban smog and threatening our health.
Studies by Health Canada and community health departments and agencies have shown a direct link between contaminants in vehicle emissions and significant respiratory health effects. These studies have concluded that poor air quality and smog – caused in part by vehicle exhaust – are resulting in increased hospital admissions, respiratory illnesses and premature deaths, particularly in urban areas.
In fact, Health Canada estimates that more than 5000 Canadians die prematurely each year because of air pollution, and thousands more become unnecessarily ill. Children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution because they breathe faster than adults and inhale more air per kilogram of body weight. Air pollution also causes unnecessary difficulty for elderly people and those with respiratory problems, such as asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Comment: Diesel engines are the biggest culprits, but all engine idling wastes gas, causes unnecessary carbon emissions, endangers respiratory health, and even damages engines.Friday, August 24, 2007
Aluminum Factoids #2
From Earth 911 and the Aluminum Association:
* Over 50% of the aluminum cans produced are recycled.
* A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days. That’s closed loop recycling at its finest!
* Aluminum is a durable and sustainable metal: 2/3 of the aluminum ever produced is in use today.
* Every minute of everyday, an average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled.
* Making new aluminum cans from used cans takes 95 percent less energy and 20 recycled cans can be made with the energy needed to produce one can using virgin ore.
* Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours.
* Last year 54 billion cans were recycled saving energy equivalent to 15 million barrels of crude oil - America’s entire gas consumption for one day.
* Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can’s volume of gasoline.
* In 1972, 24,000 metric tons of aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs) were recycled. In 1998, the amount increased to over 879,000 metric tons.
* In 1972, it took about 22 empty, aluminum cans to weigh one pound. Due to advanced technology to use less material and increase durability of aluminum cans, in 2002 it takes about 34 empty aluminum cans to weigh one pound.
* The average employee consumes 2.5 beverages a day while at work.
* The empty aluminum can is worth about 1 cent.
Comment: We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year, half of which we currently recycle.
* Over 50% of the aluminum cans produced are recycled.
* A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days. That’s closed loop recycling at its finest!
* Aluminum is a durable and sustainable metal: 2/3 of the aluminum ever produced is in use today.
* Every minute of everyday, an average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled.
* Making new aluminum cans from used cans takes 95 percent less energy and 20 recycled cans can be made with the energy needed to produce one can using virgin ore.
* Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours.
* Last year 54 billion cans were recycled saving energy equivalent to 15 million barrels of crude oil - America’s entire gas consumption for one day.
* Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can’s volume of gasoline.
* In 1972, 24,000 metric tons of aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs) were recycled. In 1998, the amount increased to over 879,000 metric tons.
* In 1972, it took about 22 empty, aluminum cans to weigh one pound. Due to advanced technology to use less material and increase durability of aluminum cans, in 2002 it takes about 34 empty aluminum cans to weigh one pound.
* The average employee consumes 2.5 beverages a day while at work.
* The empty aluminum can is worth about 1 cent.
Comment: We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year, half of which we currently recycle.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Garbage Truck Factoids
Here are some factoids on Garbage Trucks from Inform, an organization dedicated to "pushing the boundaries of green innovation":
- An estimated 136,000 garbage trucks, 12,000 transfer vehicles, and 31,000 dedicated recycling vehicles haul away America’s garbage (179,000 vehicles in total).
- An average garbage truck travels 25,000 miles annually, gets less than 3 miles per gallon, and uses approximately 8,600 gallons of fuel each year.
- Over 40% of garbage trucks are over 10 years old, making it the oldest fleet in the US.
- The average diesel-powered garbage truck costs over $170,000 and is not retired for 12 years.
- Over 27,000 organizations in the waste industry employ over 280,000 people.
- 82% of collection services are carried out by private companies, and 18% by public entities.
- Industry revenues for 2000, including waste hauling and recycling, exceeded $43 billion.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Recycling in NYC
Here are some waste Factoids from the Council on the Environment of New York City:
NYC residents produce 12,000 tons of waste every day.
Non-recyclable waste generated in New York City is packed on long-haul trucks and driven to landfills in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia.
Much of Manhattan’s waste is incinerated across the Hudson in Newark, NJ.
Paper waste that is properly separated from regular garbage is recycled locally or is processed for further recycling overseas. Glass, metal and plastics collected at the curbside are sent to New Jersey, where they are processed and sent to various recycling markets.
Waste in New York City
- New York City residents currently recycle only about 17% of their total waste—half of what is possible to recycle under the current program.
- 7.5% of our waste stream consists of plastic film such as bags from the grocery store
- Clothing and textiles make up 5.7% of our garbage.
Does Recycling Work?
- Paper recycling makes money for NYC, netting $7.5 million after the costs of collection, though almost 15% of our paper is still thrown in the garbage.
- Exporting municipal waste for disposal in other communities will cost New York City taxpayers $290 million in 2007.
Food Recycling?
- 39% of NYC’s waste is organic material, like food scraps and yard waste. Instead of burying this waste in a landfill, it can be composted. Compost is a nutrient-rich, soil-like material made from broken down (i.e. “recycled”) organic material and is a cost-effective, better-quality alternative to chemical fertilizers.
- Each year, the world mines 139 million tons of phosphate and 20 million tons of potash to replace the nutrients that crops remove from the soil.
- When New York City collects trees and yard waste for composting, we offset the cost of collection by saving money in landscaping--the program pays for itself!
Waste Less, Breathe More
- Diesel trucks carry Manhattan’s garbage 7.8 million miles every year. That’s the equivalent of driving more than 312 times around the earth!
- Landfills are responsible for 36% of all methane emissions in the US, one of the most potent causes of global warming.
Close the Loop – Buy Recycled
- More than 90 percent of printing and writing paper still comes from virgin tree fiber
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
How much will we have to cut?
Writing for Celsius, Bill Chameides, chief scientist at Environmental Defense, provided this helpful overview of what might be called the Green consensus on what we are going to have to do:
Model calculations indicate that to avoid a temperature increase of 3.6oF, we must stabilize CO2 concentrations at about 450 parts per million (ppm) or less.
This turns out to be a tall order. Today, CO2 concentration is 380 ppm. The rate of increase is about 2 ppm per year, and is expected to accelerate. If we follow a "business as usual" course, we could cross the 450 ppm tipping point well before 2050.
Naturally, the more CO2 we produce, the higher CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Four gigatons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere will raise CO2 concentrations by 1 ppm (see CO2 Arithmetic, Science Magazine). Worldwide, 7 to 8 gigatons of carbon are emitted into the atmosphere each year.
To avoid the tipping point, global CO2 emissions should peak no later than 15 years from now, and then begin to decrease. By 2050, emissions must be about 50 percent less than today, and by the end of the century 75 percent less. (Note that this is a reduction in total emissions, not the reduction relative to projected business-as-usual emissions that President Bush referred to in his 2007 State of the Union address.)
Reducing CO2 emissions by 75 percent will require a profound change in the way we produce and use energy, but there is no need for panic or despair. If we get started now, we can make this transition slowly, a percent or two each year.
Comment: Every bit helps. Changes in habit can be especially useful if they become permanent. The U.S. is incredibly wasteful. Many people pay no attention to their energy usage, running their air-conditioners round the clock, idling their cars for no reason, leaving lights on when they leave the house for the day. Changing these bad habits will yield a big dividend immediately, buying us time to put in place more complex changes such as improving efficiency standards for appliances and gas mileage for cars, and building up our renewable energy capacity.
The Sierra Club has created the 2% solution campaign to help us get started. It helps people set a reasonable goal for themselves and encourages them to become aware of their actual energy usage. See my series on Understand Your Electricity to figure out which electricity cuts will have the most impact.
Model calculations indicate that to avoid a temperature increase of 3.6oF, we must stabilize CO2 concentrations at about 450 parts per million (ppm) or less.
This turns out to be a tall order. Today, CO2 concentration is 380 ppm. The rate of increase is about 2 ppm per year, and is expected to accelerate. If we follow a "business as usual" course, we could cross the 450 ppm tipping point well before 2050.
Naturally, the more CO2 we produce, the higher CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Four gigatons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere will raise CO2 concentrations by 1 ppm (see CO2 Arithmetic, Science Magazine). Worldwide, 7 to 8 gigatons of carbon are emitted into the atmosphere each year.
To avoid the tipping point, global CO2 emissions should peak no later than 15 years from now, and then begin to decrease. By 2050, emissions must be about 50 percent less than today, and by the end of the century 75 percent less. (Note that this is a reduction in total emissions, not the reduction relative to projected business-as-usual emissions that President Bush referred to in his 2007 State of the Union address.)
Reducing CO2 emissions by 75 percent will require a profound change in the way we produce and use energy, but there is no need for panic or despair. If we get started now, we can make this transition slowly, a percent or two each year.
Comment: Every bit helps. Changes in habit can be especially useful if they become permanent. The U.S. is incredibly wasteful. Many people pay no attention to their energy usage, running their air-conditioners round the clock, idling their cars for no reason, leaving lights on when they leave the house for the day. Changing these bad habits will yield a big dividend immediately, buying us time to put in place more complex changes such as improving efficiency standards for appliances and gas mileage for cars, and building up our renewable energy capacity.
The Sierra Club has created the 2% solution campaign to help us get started. It helps people set a reasonable goal for themselves and encourages them to become aware of their actual energy usage. See my series on Understand Your Electricity to figure out which electricity cuts will have the most impact.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Getting Rich Going Paperless
It took me a long time to come round to electronic statements and e-bills since I am neurotic about filing and had an irrational fear of computer clutter, irrational because we are utterly drowning (or whatever the metaphor) in paper clutter. But in doing my research for Green Factoids, I realized that if I had gone paperless way back when, I would have been able to check out my old electricity bills so that I could more accurately track our kWh use. Then I discovered some cool factoids about going paperless.
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, here are some of the benefits if all U.S. households viewed and paid bills online:
o Saves 2.3 million tons of wood, or 16.5 million trees.
o Reduces fuel consumption by 26 million BTUs - enough energy to provide residential power to San Francisco for an entire year.
o Decreases toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion pounds of CO2 equivalents (greenhouse gases), akin to having 355,000 fewer cars on the road.
o Reduces toxic wastewater by 13 billion gallons, enough to fill almost 20,000 swimming pools.
o Lowers solid waste generated by 1.6 billion pounds - equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.
o Removes 8.5 million particulates and 12.6 million nitrogen oxides from the air - on par with taking 763,000 buses and 48,000 18-wheelers off the streets.
But imagine this cheapskate’s amazement when I realized that some fund companies, including mutual fund behemoth Vanguard, will waive their yearly fees, now about $20 per year for small investors, if you agree to electronic statements and prospectuses.
So pulling out the old calculator, or actually Quicken’s investment planner, I decided to play with some numbers, and that amazement quickly turned to tears of joy.
Let’s say I treat the fee savings like a $20 investment, to which I add $20 each year. That $20/year is the “principal.” Assuming an 8% investment return I will make:
5 years: $146 (“principal”: $100)
10 years: $332 (“principal”: $200)
20 years: $1008 (“principal”: $400)
PER FUND!!! That’s the miracle of compound interest.
Obviously the environmental benefits are more to the point. But going paperless is yet another powerful example of how eliminating waste also saves money.
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, here are some of the benefits if all U.S. households viewed and paid bills online:
o Saves 2.3 million tons of wood, or 16.5 million trees.
o Reduces fuel consumption by 26 million BTUs - enough energy to provide residential power to San Francisco for an entire year.
o Decreases toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion pounds of CO2 equivalents (greenhouse gases), akin to having 355,000 fewer cars on the road.
o Reduces toxic wastewater by 13 billion gallons, enough to fill almost 20,000 swimming pools.
o Lowers solid waste generated by 1.6 billion pounds - equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.
o Removes 8.5 million particulates and 12.6 million nitrogen oxides from the air - on par with taking 763,000 buses and 48,000 18-wheelers off the streets.
But imagine this cheapskate’s amazement when I realized that some fund companies, including mutual fund behemoth Vanguard, will waive their yearly fees, now about $20 per year for small investors, if you agree to electronic statements and prospectuses.
So pulling out the old calculator, or actually Quicken’s investment planner, I decided to play with some numbers, and that amazement quickly turned to tears of joy.
Let’s say I treat the fee savings like a $20 investment, to which I add $20 each year. That $20/year is the “principal.” Assuming an 8% investment return I will make:
5 years: $146 (“principal”: $100)
10 years: $332 (“principal”: $200)
20 years: $1008 (“principal”: $400)
PER FUND!!! That’s the miracle of compound interest.
Obviously the environmental benefits are more to the point. But going paperless is yet another powerful example of how eliminating waste also saves money.
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