What Can One Household Do?
A Pinetree Drive Couple Shares Ideas
by Chris Carroll and Maria Helena Dolan
What can one household in Decatur do to shrink its contribution to the greenhouse gases that threaten our planet? Here’s what we did:
• Compost much of our food waste, thus saving water from going down a garbage disposal.
• Recycle paper, plastic, glass and aluminum. (In our two-adult household, the total garbage thrown away averages one “green” bag a week – for a yearly total of $32 in disposal costs.)
• Pre-cycle, consciously buying products in recyclable containers, buying in bulk, bringing cloth bags to stores, and reusing plastic bags.
• Limit energy use by using an indoor drying rack instead of the dryer for some of our laundry. (A moving ceiling fan in a heated or cooled room dries clothes quickly.)
• Enjoy bicycling and walking, and make an effort to use non-motorized transportation for short trips into Decatur. • Keep our cars regularly tuned up, oil changed, and tires properly inflated in order to improve gas mileage and limit the pollution that automobiles generate.
• Maintain highway driving speeds of less than 65 mph, since fuel efficiency deteriorates exponentially at higher speed.
• Ensure that interior winter heat doesn’t exceed 68° when we are home, and set it lower when we are out.
• Use ceiling fans, whole-house fan and open windows when possible during the rest of the year. When A/C can’t be avoided, we keep the temperature above 74°.
• Mulch and mulch again so that our trees and bushes can better survive drought. (The plants sequester carbon dioxide, emit oxygen, and mitigate against the Urban Heat Island Effect.)
Why do this? Our philosophy is that payback on a lower carbon footprint is measured not only in utility bills, but also in cleaner air and water. We believe the dollars spent are well worth the investment in the future.
Other Things We’re Working On:
Lightbulbs. Almost all have been changed out with compact fluorescents, driving down our electric bill about 10 percent, or $5 a month.
Attic. We improved attic insulation by building “Styrofoam boxes” installed over the pull-down stairs and a whole-house fan, thus preventing air infiltration that drives up HVAC costs. (The boxes are constructed from rigid insulating foam and insulating tape.)
Plumbing. Both toilets are now low-flow models and both showers have water-saving devices installed along with buckets to catch some of what does rain down.