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Consumption and Waste

Well I got the ball rolling on this blog. So after just two posts, I’m going to shift a bit into a little more general topic of consumption and waste. This topic does fit with “halve it all” because if we reduce our consumption and our waste, we (and our world) will be better off for it.

We are a society of consumers. In the U.S., we have 5% of the world’s population and yet we consume 24% of all the world’s energy. Seems a little lop-sided, huh? If we consume less, we will waste less.

On the website Mindfully.org, Americans consume 815 billion calories of food a day (about 200 billion more than we need — enough to feed 80 million people). We also throw out 200,000 tons of edible food each day.

Remember yesterday’s post about restaurant food portions? Have you ever done the “doggie bag” thing of your left over extra food, brought it home, put it in the frig and then tossed it a week later because you forgot about it?

I had coffee with a friend today and we had a good discussion about consumption and waste. He mentioned about how we need to start looking beyond just the waste we produce and really evaluate the embodied energy in things. That means considering where something is made, how much energy is used to make it, etc. You see, it’s more than just what we throw out. For a really interesting video about all this, check out The Story of Stuff.

My city (Eugene, Oregon) is developing a Climate and Energy Action Plan. Interestingly enough, the next public meeting topic is Consumption and Waste. It will be at the Eugene Water & Electric Board on January 6, 2010 from 6 pm to 9 pm. These public forums are a great way for you to get involved and share your opinions.

So as you work to “halve it all”, put this next meeting on your calendar; they are enjoyable and informative.

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Eating Out at Restaurants

Here’s another area where we consume too much and really don’t need to. Our favorite restaurant in Eugene is a great little place with grass-fed free range humanely raised beef in their burgers. Pepper Jack cheese, green chilis… yum.

BUT, these burgers are 1/2 pound! Plus fries. And the bun. They don’t post the calories, but one order probably exceeds the minimum daily requirement of something. But they’re SO good! What to do?

Well, my wife and I split one of these burgers (with fries, of course). That’s still 1/4 pound of beef, we still are full when we leave and we’ve accomplished two things: first, we’ve saved about $10 and we’ve eaten half as much food. We also haven’t contributed to our personal obesity (at least not as much).

Obesity in America is a huge issue (pun intended). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, some cancers and type 2 diabetes. In 2008, in the U.S., only Colorado had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty two states were at 25% or more and six states were at 30% or more.

It’s all about calories and activity. We as a culture tend to do too much of the calories and not enough activity.

So back to the restaurants. Next time you’re going to eat out, eat with a friend and share an order. You may not leave absolutely stuffed (it takes your stomach about 20 minutes to get the signal to your brain), but you will likely be satisfied and comfortable within a half hour.

Give it a try and halve your next restaurant meal!

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Where This All Began

The idea for this blog came about from water spots on our dishes. Yeah, really.

You see, my wife and I were having trouble with our dishwasher leaving water spots on our glasses. So, we did what most people do: bought some Rinse Aid. You know, the very expensive blue liquid that keeps your dishwasher from spotting your glasses.

But what was troublesome to us was that we live in an area with very clean, normal, soft water. Not in an area with high mineral content or hard water. Plus, after a while of this, the glasses started spotting again.

We thought, well, the dishwasher is about nine years old, so maybe we’re going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new dishwasher. So I called my friend who sold us the dishwasher; then my wife and I went down to his store and said, “We’re probably going to have to buy a new dishwasher”. He asked us how much detergent we were using and I said, “We’re using what the dishwasher owner’s manual says to use”.

“That’s your problem,” my friend said, “You’re using too much detergent.” We looked at him and said, “Huh?” (we were kind of left speechless). He replied, “The dishwasher companies are tied in with the detergent companies, so they always recommend more than you need. Try using about half the detergent.”

So we did. And it worked! Our dishes still got clean, we didn’t get sick or anything. PLUS… I thought, “Do I really now need the very expensive blue liquid spot stuff?” So we stopped using the very expensive blue liquid spot stuff. And it worked! Our glasses didn’t spot. And we’re still using our original dishwasher (it’s now about eleven years old).

So not only do we now use half the detergent, we have stopped using the blue liquid additive and are saving a boat-load of money. That also got us thinking about what other areas of our lives and homes could this principle of using about half apply?

There are quite a few; and that’s what has inspired this blog. I thought there might be other people out there who have discovered the principle of halves. So we’re looking for your input too. I’ll be posting my thoughts and discoveries and I encourage you to post yours, too. Hey, I might even turn this into a book.

Now if I could just disable the “Rinse Aid Empty” light on our dishwasher…

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Our Lot – circa 1948

Just found out a friend of ours lived in the house that was on our lot when she was in high school in 1948. She was gracious enough to scan some of her old pictures.
This is the original front porch.
Small world.

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We’re Inspired to Downsize

OK, we have to admit, theSAGE has inspired us. Actually, we’ve been looking for a while and have found an urban infill lot here in Eugene and we’re ready to downsize. Our kids are grown and gone (almost) and the house we have lived in for the last 11 years is now too big.
So it’s for sale. See it at Zillow.
And… our smaller house will absolutely be LEED Platinum. We’re even going to try and beat our score on theSAGE. Gotta keep raising the bar!