Ways to manage household waste

Americans face many challenges when it comes to finding ways to manage household waste.  Our consuming society practices to discard items when they are no longer “useful” and replace the old ones with the “new and improved” versions.  The waste we create affects our pocket books, our culture, our health, our resources, and it negatively impacts the environment for all life.  What can one person do to manage all this waste?

Andy Rooney talked about America’s waste on CBS's 60 Minutes in 2002:

“We're running out of places to dump things. We spent all that money getting to the moon, and we aren't doing anything with that. Maybe we could ship our junk up there. We can end up throwing away the whole Earth.”

The best way to manage waste is to limit the number of items brought into the home and reuse and recycle what you have.  Buy only what you need not what you want.  If the item still works, why should it be replaced?  Many people feel that if they replace everything with something which is “better”, not necessarily efficient and dependable, it is an improvement.  Is that also a reflection on how we treat people, resources, land, and life in general?

What happened to the days when something was broken we would get it fixed rather than replacing it?  Some may remember the days when there were TV repair men, furniture repair, cobblers to repair shoes, seamstresses to mend clothing, and other people who were hired to repair things around the home like appliances and electronics.  Will these jobs return during this downturn in the economy?

Think of all the things Americans have replaced that now actually create more waste and cost more money in the long run.  Can anyone find any new wind up watches or clocks?  The watches needed winding once a week and they lasted for years.  Now watches require batteries and in order to replace a battery a small ice pick device has to be used, making it near impossible to open.  Then when the battery is replaced many times the watch doesn’t work.  Sometimes we give up on our futile desire to conserve when the back of the watch refuses to come off, so we look at the new watches and think, “Wow!  A new watch is only a few dollars more than the battery.” Think of all the items in your home requiring batteries and learn more about batteries and the toxins they may contain here: http://www.grinningplanet.com/2004/12-21/battery-recycling-article.htm

This article will focus on ways for individuals to manage energy, water, and solid waste in the home.

Energy:

The best ways to save energy is by replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents, which according to Energy Star last ten times longer.  Yes, CFL’s contain small amounts of mercury, which makes it important to recycle the bulbs when they are burnt out and take them to Ace Hardware or Home Depot to recycle.  The LEDs are also even more efficient and have specific purposes.  For instance LED lights are easier on the environment and last even longer than the other two lights.  However the downside is the high upfront cost for these LED bulbs.  But on the other hand the operating cost for LEDs is far less than an incandescent or halogen.  Check out the results on Consumer Reports.

Turn off lights when they are not in use and place timers on lights that need to come on at a certain time (aquarium light, outdoor lights, etc.).

Use power strips for electronics with a surge protector and on/off switch to shut down phantom loads when not in use.

Change the thermostat to use less heat or air, this includes the water heater.  Insulation is the key to energy savings in any home, which is more important that replacing windows.  Considering air conditioning?  Try an evaporative swamp cooler first.  They are much more efficient with energy and you can earn rebates on them.

Turn off the dryer setting on your dishwasher.  Wash clothing in cold or warm water, not hot.  Hang clothes out to dry in the summer instead of using the electric/gas dryer.

The big question about ovens:  Which is most efficient on energy?  Is it the microwave, toaster oven, gas oven, gas grill, or electric oven?  Consumer Reports has some advice on these appliances and states that only 3% of our household energy is used for cooking.  Cooking is not the big energy consumer in our homes.  Look to heating, cooling, and lighting as the biggest consumers, besides people in the home.

Water:

When a toilet leaks, fix it and/or replace its parts.  If the entire toilet needs replacing replace it with a low flow or a composting toilet.  Composting toilets use no water and micro organisms eat our waste and turn it into compost to use in our gardens safely.  Many of the parks are using these composting toilets, which require no chemicals or water at all.  They don't stink like vault and chemical toilets.  You can learn more about composting toilets here: http://www.oikos.com/library/compostingtoilet/

Turn off faucets when they are not in use.  Replace washers in leaking faucets.  Replace shower heads with low flow shower heads instead. 

Reuse gray water to irrigate non-food crops, like lawns and landscaping as used here in Colorado, if it is used underground.  Collect all unused fresh water to water plants (melted ice from the last party). Aquarium water is excellent fertilizer to plants around the home.  While gray water use is not a question about water rights, it is about water safety (diseases, bacteria, etc.).  There are harmful micro organisms in gray water, particularly gray water that has food particles and bath water.  These include the products you use for hygiene and cleaning, which have chemicals that may not be environmentally friendly. 

Solid Waste:

When you are purchasing products, look at the packaging.  Buy products with minimal packaging.  Buy items that can be recycled or composted.  Purchase items made of biodegradable plastics that can break down in landfills, like waste bags, cornstarch based flatware, plates, cups, etc.  Make sure to compost and recycle waste.  Items made of cornstarch and “plant” plastics can be placed in the composter.  You can recycle: glass, aluminum (foil included), paper, steel, plastics (only with a recycling symbol), cardboard, and paperboard.  Compost the following items:  Food scraps (meat and dairy should be composted separately in this special composter), leaves, grass clippings, paper, cornstarch products, coffee filters with coffee, used tea bags, plants, and other vegetation.  Other food products can be composted, but they are not recommended for the compost heap do to the attraction of animals and the stench of these products.

Control your junk mail!  According to the Worldwatch Institute the U.S. spent $56 billion to produce 41.5 billion pieces of junk mail in 2005.  This practice destroys approximately 100 million trees a year.  It is rare to find anyone who enjoys receiving junk mail.  There is a fairly easy way to eliminate the waste we have everyday sitting in our mailboxes.  Learn more about getting off mailing lists.

Buy products that can be reused:  Gift bags, cloth bags, printer cartridges (take them back to where you purchased them), cloth diapers, plastic containers, foil, shower caps as plastic covers for food, non-leaching water bottles, coffee mugs, etc.

The other debate is whether it is better to burn waste and turn it into electricity or place it in a landfill and collect methane instead.  Incineration of waste is very hazardous because of the many products being released into the atmosphere.  Harmful poisons like dioxins, which cause cancers, are found when incinerating waste.  Collecting methane from landfills is a better way of collecting energy from our waste.  The downside to landfills is that space is limited and many dangerous chemicals can and do leech into the ground water, which we drink.  The debate lingers on solid waste management.

Hazardous Chemicals:

The best option to dispose of hazardous chemicals is to not buy them in the first place, but even the medicines we take can be hazardous to the environment.  What do we do with all the chemicals that are expired or we don’t want to use?  Where do we take them?  Just how harmful are they?

There are a number of hazardous waste disposal companies on the Front Range and places like Ecocycle will take electronics for disposal.  These usually have a fee. Some cities will take hazardous materials, so contact your municipality for more information.  The Colorado Department of Public Health offers a listing of hazardous household materials and how to manage their disposal.  Always read the label on the product on disposal instructions.  Items like propane containers can be refilled where propane is sold.  Even the little propane bottles made by Coleman can be recycled if they have a “green key”. Rechargeable batteries and cell phones can be recycled. 

Don’t flush unwanted drugs and medications down the toilet or into the trash.  These medications cannot be removed in waste water treatment and can leech into ground water posing potential hazards to wildlife.  Learn more about proper disposal here.

The goal to manage waste is to decrease the amount created by thinking before purchasing.  The questions to ask are:  What purpose does this product serve?  How will it impact my life and the life of my family?  Is this product efficient, ethical, and environmentally friendly?  Can it be reused and recycled?  Think about what improves quality of all life on the small blue planet called “Earth”.