Greenversations

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Fall is upon us: time to take out those rakes! As you prepare for cooler temperatures, have you thought about what to do with all those leaves, old plants, and other debris?

Do you compost yard waste and why?.

En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

El otoño se avecina. ¡Ha llegado el momento de sacar los rastrillos! A medida que se prepara para las temperaturas más frescas, ¿ha pensado en qué hacer con la hojarasca, las plantas viejas y otros escombros del jardín?

¿Usted hace compostaje y por qué?

About the author: Jeff Maurer manages Web content and does communications work for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He has been with EPA since 2005

We had a question of the week a little while ago about what type of bags people use at the grocery store. There were a lot of interesting answers, and a lot of creative ideas about how to reuse plastic grocery bags (dog owners, for obvious reasons, seem to be enthusiastic re-users of plastic bags). Our intern counted up the comments responding to the grocery bag question of the week, and posted the final numbers in a followup. Now, I realize that readers of this blog aren’t a random sample of the population, but I think we can still conclude: canvas grocery bags have gone mainstream.

This is great news. We’ve recommended reusable grocery bags on our list of environmental shopping tips for years. I started using canvas bags a couple years ago, and they’re becoming ever more common at my grocery store. For those of you who haven’t yet made the switch, let me share a few things about canvas bags that you might want to know:

Canvas bags hold a lot of stuff. As many of the commenters in the Q&A noted, canvas bags are sturdier than paper bags and hold more than plastic. As a member of a warehouse shopping club, this is a priority for me: a 10-pound tub of gummi bears will decimate your average paper or plastic bag. My canvas bags have a long strap that you can throw over your shoulder, and I’ve also got an insulated one that helps keep cold things cold.

The people working at the store are used to canvas bags. There was a time, long ago, when presenting a bagger with your own bag would unleash utter confusion. When you did manage to explain what you were doing and why, you were viewed as some sort of fringe naturalist, the type of person who lives in a cabin with no plumbing and makes their own clothes out of hemp. Those days are over; plop your canvas bags next to the register nowadays, and everyone knows what to do. Also – and this is in response to something my wife once wondered out loud – it is okay to use bags bearing a certain store’s logo at another store. The 16-year-old kid bagging groceries isn’t getting paid enough to bag groceries AND be the brand identity police.

Canvas bags save money. More and more places are charging a small fee for plastic bags. A couple of stores do it, and a few cities are considering it as well. All of Ireland does it. The charge isn’t much, but neither is a canvas bag: I bought mine for a dollar each. Considering that I’ll probably use them for several decades, it won’t take me long to recoup that investment.

About the author: Viccy Salazar joined EPA in 1995. She works in our Seattle office on waste reduction, resource conservation and stewardship issues.

I work for the government. One of the things that this means is that I spend a lot of time in meetings. Since I, or someone on my team, is often planning the meetings, my team decided to see what we could do to ensure that the meetings we host don’t use unnecessary resources.

The first thing we did was look on EPA’s website for green meetings. We clicked on the link for meeting planners and go directed to a list of 10 easy things to do – well, it didn’t seem easy to us but we were committed so we moved ahead. As a team, we decided that we wanted to 1) be as zero waste as possible, 2) minimize the amount people had to travel by providing options, and 3) track our result and savings.

We thought zero waste would be the easy one. We called up our local organic caterer and asked if they did zero waste. By zero waste we meant - no packaging, durable serving platters, plates, silverware, and cups, they would compost the food waste and any other non-durable items, and finally, they would carry away and wash everything. Simple, right? Well, not really. They said they did organic but not zero waste. We worked with them and finally got ‘almost’ zero waste. It required some work and the vendor had not done it before. One thing we learned was that it was important to be very specific with your food vendor and conference facility about what you want. Getting recycling at the event seemed easier but we still had to educate the meeting attendees to actually recycle!

We don’t always order out. Sometimes, we go and buy the food for meetings ourselves. When doing that, we learned some lessons like: buy from the bakery and take in your own platters. Almost all of the packaging provided by the shops is either plastic or has a plastic window in it – not zero waste. Provide drinks by making it up in a pitcher, serving drinks in cans (very recyclable) or making coffee/tea. Most other drink types had lids that needed to be disposed of. Fruits and vegetables work great – just be sure to carry in your own bags so you don’t end up with plastic bag waste.

The upshot of our lessons for providing food at meetings is:

1. be clear about what you want, ask for it – we want it to become part of their service package,
2. communicate to the meeting attendees what you are doing, they like it, and
3. do the best you can – you can’t always get everything you want.

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Last week, we asked what you think about when you buy a new computer. Now we want to know about the old ones. You can “ecycle,” donate them to charity, give them to a friend, etc. Some people store them because they’re not quite sure what to do.

After you buy a new computer, what do you do with the old one?

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En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

La semana pasada, le preguntamos sobre lo que piensa al comprar una nueva computadora. Ahora queremos saber qué hace con las viejas. Puede reciclar los aparatos electrónicos al donarlos a entidades caritativas, o a algún amigo, etc. Algunas personas las almacenan porque no tienen claro qué hacer con ellas.

¿Después que compra una computadora nueva, qué hace con la computadora vieja?

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Lea la versión en español a continuación de esta entrada en inglés.
Some links exit EPA or have Spanish content.

We’ve been living in our “new” house for nearly 14 years. With the normal wear and tear of daily living, we’ve made our share of repairs, plus we’ve purposely made some changes for energy and water saving purposes.

Several years ago, we bought all new major appliances with the Energy Star label. In our effort to reduce our carbon footprint, we took the pledge and changed all the lights to Energy Star light bulbs. (In the kitchen alone—we have 12!) That didn’t seem to be enough to cut the energy bill, so last summer, we changed all the windows at home to high performance Energy Star windows. The draftiness had been sealed. We did experience greater temperature stability in the home, yet those energy savings were not yet there. Forget about the rising electric bill costs, that was a whole other issue. So after some procrastination, we finally purchased a new air-conditioning/heating system with the Energy Star label AND the Energy Star programmable thermostat. Combined with our previous updates, that really made the difference! We are finally feeling at home and in our energy bills the long promised and awaiting benefits. Our energy consumption has dropped about 40 percent.

Having addressed the electric bill, we had to tackle another area—leaking toilets. Yes, I know it’s not an appealing subject, but, we have five toilets at home and three were leaking quite often. According to our stats, “a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water per day”—you do the math. That’s a LOT of water wasted.

I learned about the WaterSense program through EPA and found out that the new toilets with the high-efficiency WaterSense label were finally available in the Maryland area where we live. We studied various options. We considered the dual flush toilets that we’ve seen in Europe and more recently in EPA’s Potomac Yard green building, but we finally opted for single flush toilets that use 1.28 gallons per flush and we couldn’t be happier. They do the job and we’ve put a stop to those leaky toilets, finally.

So, with the repairs in the home and greenscaping techniques in the garden, we’re trying to assume our green responsibilities starting at home

Haciendo reparaciones verdes

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

Hemos estado viviendo en nuestra casa “nueva” por casi 14 años. Con el ir y venir del diario vivir, hemos tenido que hacer algunas reparaciones y nos hemos propuesto a hacer algunos cambios a fin de lograr ahorros de energía y agua.

Después de unos años, compramos todos nuestros principales enseres electrodomésticos con la etiqueta de Energy Star. En nuestro esfuerzo por reducir nuestra huella de carbono, asumimos la promesa—– y cambiamos todas las bombillas (o focos) a bombillas de la etiqueta Energy Star. ¡En la cocina nada más tengo 12!) Eso no fue suficiente para reducir la cuenta de electricidad y el verano pasado cambiamos todas las ventanas en la casa a ventanas de alto rendimiento Energy Star. Logramos reducir escapes de aire alrededor de las ventanas. También mejoramos grandemente la estabilidad en la temperatura en la casa, pero los anticipados ahorros todavía no habían sido realizados. (Dejemos aparte las cuentas de electricidad en alza, ese es un tema aparte.) Después de posponer la decisión, compramos finalmente un nuevo sistema de aire acondicionado y calefacción de Energy Star Y el termostato programable de Energy Star. ¡Combinado con las mejoras que habíamos hecho con anterioridad, por fin vimos la diferencia! Finalmente estamos sintiendo en la casa y en nuestras facturas de energía los beneficios prometidos y tan anticipados. Nuestro consumo energético ha bajado en un 40 por ciento.

Después de abordar el tema de la cuenta eléctrica, entonces abordamos otra reparación importante—los inodoros que estaban perdiendo agua. Sí, sé que no es un tema atrayente, pero, con cinco inodoros en la casa, y tres que estaban perdiendo agua frecuentemente, se imaginan. Según nuestros datos, “un inodoro con fugas puede desperdiciar 200 galones de agua al día, saque las cuentas. Esa es MUCHA agua desperdiciada.

Me enteré del programa WaterSense — mediante la EPA y encontré que los nuevos inodoros de la etiqueta de alto rendimiento WaterSense por fin estaban disponibles en el área de Maryland donde vivimos. Estudiamos varias opciones. Consideramos los inodoros de cadena dual que habíamos visto en Europa y recientemente en el edificio verde de EPA de Potomac Yard, pero finalmente optamos por un inodoro sencillo que utiliza 1.28 galones por tirada y estamos muy satisfechos. Están realizando su labor y por fin terminamos con los escapes de agua en los inodoros.

Por lo tanto, con las reparaciones y las técnicas de jardinería verde en el jardín estamos tratando de asumir nuestras responsabilidades hacia el medio ambiente empezando en nuestro hogar.

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Paper or plastic? We take shopping bags for granted, especially at the grocery store, and it’s easy to fill up several bags per trip. Both paper and plastic bags use resources, multiplied by the billions of bags used annually worldwide. You can reuse and recycle both paper and plastic types, which delays their being thrown away, or you can reduce waste with permanent bags.

What do you use: paper, plastic, or reusable bags?

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En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

¿Papel o plástico? Damos por sentado las bolsas al momento de comprar, especialmente en el supermercado, y es fácil llenar varias bolsas en cada compra. Tanto las bolsas de papel como las de plástico utilizan recursos, multiplicados por miles de millones de bolsas usadas anualmente a nivel mundial. Usted puede reutilizar o reciclar tanto las de papel como las de plástico, lo cual puede aplazar el tener que disponer de ellas. O también puede reducir los desechos con bolsas permanentes.

¿Cuáles utiliza: bolsas de papel, plástico o reutilizables?

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Lea la versión en español a continuación de esta entrada en inglés.
Some links exit EPA or have Spanish content.

Modern technology enables us to be connected 24-7. Whether it’s via a computer, a PDA or a cell phone—most of us have some portable device to connect with family, friends, or work at a moment’s notice. Some of us rely on modern technology to be “connected” to the office even while away. (I recently committed that egregious act—repeatedly– during a recent family vacation). Others rely on the cell phone to text to or chat with friends about their daily comings and goings.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have four daughters. My 6 year old still does not have a cell phone, but she’s quite tech-savvy for her early years. She often surprises me with her technology skills. On the other hand, my other three daughters are avid Internet and cell phone users. Each with her own personality and cell phone needs. That brings me to today’s issue. How do you keep up with your mobile needs without hurting the environment?

I pose the question because many of us discard our unwanted cell phones after a couple of years even though they still are in good condition because we want the latest in mobile technology or perhaps we want a battery with more durability. These unwanted cell phones and accessories often clutter our drawers or, in worse cases, landfills. These discarded e-devices are made with precious materials that can be recycled. So why don’t we?

There are many ways to donate or recycle these used cell phones and other used electronics. Learn more about our Plug-In to eCycling program as well as our cell phone recycling campaign in English and Spanish. Let’s teach our children more about the life cycle of a cell phone, perhaps they’ll have a greater appreciation for these communication devices to limit e-waste—and unnecessary text messages as well.

¿Qué hacer con su viejo teléfono celular?

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

La tecnología moderna nos permite estar conectados las 24 horas del día. Sea mediante la computadora, un PDA o un teléfono celular—la mayoría de nosotros tiene algún dispositivo portátil para estar conectados al instante con familiares, amigos o el trabajo. Algunos de nosotros dependemos de la tecnología moderna para estar “conectados” a la oficina cuando estamos de vacaciones. (Cometí ese pecado mortal repetidamente durante unas vacaciones recientes con mi familia) Otros dependen de su celular para enviar mensajes de texto o simplemente conversar con amigos sobre el quehacer diario.

Como he mencionado antes, tengo cuatro hijas. La pequeña todavía no tiene un celular, pero se maneja muy bien con la tecnología moderna pese a su edad. A veces me sorprenden sus destrezas tecnológicas. Por otra parte, mis otras tres hijas son empecinadas internautas y usuarias de móviles. Cada una tiene su propia personalidad y gustos de telefonía móvil. Eso me lleva al tema de hoy, ¿cómo podemos adaptarnos a nuestras necesidades de telefonía móvil sin hacerle daño al medio ambiente?

Planteo la pregunta porque muchos de nosotros descartamos nuestros celulares usados dentro de un par de años a pesar de que todavía están en buenas condiciones o porque simplemente queremos la última tecnología móvil o buscamos una batería con mayor durabilidad. Estos celulares y accesorios indeseados muchas veces son arrinconados en nuestras gavetas o peor, amontonados en nuestros rellenos sanitarios. Estos aparatos electrónicos descartados tienen materiales preciosos que podemos reciclar. ¿Entonces, por qué no lo hacemos?

Hay muchas maneras de donar o reciclar estos celulares u otros aparatos electrónicos usados. Aprenda más sobre nuestro programa “Conéctese al reciclaje electrónico”, así como nuestra campaña de reciclaje de celulares en español. Enseñémosle a nuestros hijos sobre el ciclo de vida del teléfono celular, quizás tengan una mayor apreciación por estos aparatos de comunicaciones y así limiten los desechos electrónicos—y los mensajes de texto innecesarios también.

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Most Americans have safe tap water and drink tap water fresh from the kitchen faucet. Others choose to buy more expensive bottled water. But bottling and transporting water can carry environmental costs and use energy and resources, and bottles contribute to littering if not properly disposed of.

Why do you drink bottled water or tap water?

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En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

Muchos estadounidenses tienen agua potable sana y beben agua fresca del grifo de la cocina. Otros optan por comprar agua embotellada más cara. Sin embargo, el embotellar y transportar agua conlleva costos medioambientales y el uso de energía y recursos. Asimismo, las botellas contribuyen a los desperdicios si no se desechan adecuadamente.

¿Por qué toma agua embotellada o del grifo?

About the author: Tami Fordham joined EPA’s Seattle office in June 2001 and moved to Anchorage, Alaska to join the Alaska Operations Office in September 2003. Tami serves as the Alaska Resource Extraction Tribal Policy Advisor and is the Tribal Coordinator for Tribes in Western Alaska.

The last time I was visiting with my family in Washington I learned that my parents decided to start making canvas shopping bags. They were noticing plastic bags everywhere littering the streets and hanging in the trees, you may have seen this in your local area, and so decided to start making the canvas bags to sell at their local store and to their friends. I have one of their bags and when people ask who made it, I get to proudly share their story of making a difference in the environment.

I have the great honor to work in partnership with Tribal Governments in Western Alaska along the Lower Kuskokwim River. Plastic bags are often seen throughout the tundra and so many of the communities I work with have worked to ban plastic bags in their village. The environmental programs have made canvas bags available to the tribal members in the place of plastic bags. There are many people that are now taking plastic bags and crocheting them into purses and bags that can be re-used. To find out more, check out their website. Just a few weeks ago a woman all the way from Florida called our office to find out about different re-use projects that could be done because she wanted to find projects that made a difference for the environment.

One person can make a difference, just imagine if we all made one change in how we live our lives the ripple effect it would have in our world.

About the author: Ken Sandler is Co-Chair of EPA’s Green Building Workgroup. He has worked for EPA since 1991 on sustainability issues including green building, recycling and indoor air quality.

At EPA, we strive to help people make the environment part of their everyday decisions. But how can we tell when we’re succeeding?

In truth, we often can’t. But sometimes the evidence of change is hard to miss.

Take green building (Web site or video) – making buildings and their sites better for the environment and health. It’s an issue on which I’ve worked for a decade, and I’m now leading efforts to establish a new EPA strategy on the subject.

Yet for years, I would draw blank stares when mentioning “green building” in conversation. Some people would even ask if it meant painting buildings green.

And then, suddenly, nearly everyone had heard of it. My Dad was sending me articles on green building from Newsweek. I would mention it at a barbecue and people would come up to me and say, yes, we’re looking to green our homes, tell us how!

Green building seems to have reached its tipping point. But how do such things happen? If there’s a formula to make sustainable practices bloom, we’d like to get our hands on it.

In fact, we’ve seen such phenomena before. Take recycling. In 1988, only 1,000 communities in America had curbside recycling. Just 8 years later, that number had leaped to 9,000. Why? One reason was that in 1989, responding to public concern, EPA set a goal for the US to recycle 25% of its municipal waste.

This helped set off a competition among states to set their own recycling goals. In response, systems were established to recycle a variety of materials. The engine of recycling got going – and keeps on humming.

With green building, the story is different. Since the early 1990s, EPA has successfully pushed voluntary programs covering many aspects of the built environment – energy, water, indoor air quality, products, waste, smart growth and more. Other groups began to put these pieces together in holistic, market-based programs.

The U.S. Green Building Council, a leading non-profit, has its own eye-popping numbers on the transformation they helped bring about. From 2000 to the present, their member organizations went from 570 to over 15,000, the number of buildings registering to use their LEED green building rating system from 45 to 21,000.

So does this mean our work is done? Hardly. The green building field has needs that range from research to stronger standards to more public education and partnerships. We plan to work with a wide variety of groups to help tackle all of these challenges.

But there are many advantages to reaching a tipping point. Those years of struggling in obscurity have given way to lots of new doors opening up. And it’s nice to get fewer blank stares at parties.