It’s so expensive to be eco-conscious!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use the sheets because they're convenient, but you can be eco conscious with a cardboard box of Oxyclean powder. The most effective change has to happen at corporate levels - manufacturing, packaging, power plants - and the most effective things we can do individuals are buy less stuff (reduce reuse), eat less meat, and fly less. Compost if you want to but putting food scraps in landfill is not hurting the earth.

I think what you wrote is incorrect. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wasted-food-turns-into-huge-amounts-of-greenhouse-gas/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. We got a plug in electric car during the pandemic and paid a lot for it. I still love it. We almost never need gas. But not sure it was a financially sound move since we had a paid off newish rav 4 we traded in.

I want to get solar panels, but thats so confusing.

Also will change gas fireplace to electric. We’ll keep our gas stove but naybe get an electric kettle.
I grew up vegetarian but my kids and husband eat meat. I need to convert them slowly.

It’s not eco conscious to buy a new car when your old one is still working. That’s actually environmentally wasteful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep getting slammed with ads for these eco laundry detergent sheets. Finally clicked and my they are pricey! Like everything else compared to its mainstream brand. Added all together it’s too much. I feel guilty but just can’t stomach the cost. Is it price gouging or it actually costs that much more?

Yes, they are more expensive because there is a small market and no economies of scale. If these sheets work well, then maybe they will catch on and the price will come down as they are produced in larger quantities. BUT I tend to be wary of "green" products and services. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors in terms of the extent these items are better for the environment. And frankly a lot of times its a marketing tactic with an equal or worse impact to the environment than what is out there.

You don't need to spend lots of money buying green things. Try to minimize the amount of stuff/crap you buy. I buy wool clothes because they are natural fibers, last a long time, and are great in both hot summers and cold winters. I kept my first car for 10 years, and my current car is 16 years. Manufacturing a new car is a huge GHG output - so much better to keep cars as long as you can. Minimize chemical use, particularly any type of pesticide outdoors. All of these things save you money.

[Anonymous]

Buying less is the most eco-friendly thing of all, and it's definitely cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think about this all the time. We'd like to compost but getting all the bins can be expensive and I don't know if we have the time to take it to a compost center ourselves, but the services that come to your house can be pricy. A lot of more eco-friendly products are more expensive. I'd like to reduce the amount of red meat we eat, but making filling meals without meat takes more time and the ingredients can be more expensive. I'd like to switch more of our short car trips to walking/biking, but this would work best with an electric-assist cargo bike and they are pricy, too. And on and on.

Some eco-friendly things are more cost-effective though. I try to go hard on those as much as I can. We've really reduced how much we buy in general in the last few years, almost entirely eliminating new clothes (we buy used and try to do so locally whenever possible), new kids gear (buy nothing groups and soliciting hand me downs from friends), books (library and used book stores), and other consumer items. We choose to live in a small home (condo) that is walking distance to a lot of stuff (school, store, public transportation) which reduces our carbon footprint. All that stuff costs less than the less "green" alternatives, for the most part. The main thing it costs is time and effort.

But everyone has their limits. There is only so much we can do. What we really need is the political will to make policy change. Individual choices are nice but I'm not even sure how much they move the needle unless you get many others to make the same choices.

We compost and don't have any fancy bins. But we have a large (for suburban NoVA) yard. We have a garden fence staked into the ground (roughly 3' x 3'). We put food scraps, drier lint, cardboard, coffee grounds, etc. in it and layer with leaves, old potting soil, etc. Chop the food scraps smaller to have it break down faster (or not). Keep it moist (we have a rain barrel and so predominately keep it watered with that) and mix from time to time. We are going to have so much "free" dirt next year for gardens and potting.

We also keeps some leaf piles over the winter in the less used corners of the yard, and the rest get raked into the beds for winter. We have not had to purchase mulch in several years--saving money and sweat. Bonuses: the leaf cover keeps weeds minimal and, b/c they are nesting spots for lots of insects and animals, we've seen the return of lots of moths, fireflies, and other insects. With those food sources, we've seen an increase in songbirds. It all goes together.

We're just one family but if others made small changes it would help. Though I also agree that it is the corporations that need to make changes to effect big change faster.

This what we do and have done. I grew up composting and leaving areas of the yard with leaves etc. We just continued the practice as we became adults.

[Anonymous]

There used to be a book called ‘50 ways to save the planet’ and it was used by cost conscious groups as a guide. Most of the suggestions save money.

This has most of them : https://www.50waystohelp.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buying less is the most eco-friendly thing of all, and it's definitely cheaper.

+1 Many Americans' buying paradigm is:

I want it.
I can afford it (or at least have more purchasing power on my credit card).
I will buy it.

The world would be a lot better off if that were changed to:

Do I need it?
Okay, I will buy it.
(With occasional allowances for luxuries, which, it seems to me, would never include dryer sheets.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. We got a plug in electric car during the pandemic and paid a lot for it. I still love it. We almost never need gas. But not sure it was a financially sound move since we had a paid off newish rav 4 we traded in.

I want to get solar panels, but thats so confusing.

Also will change gas fireplace to electric. We’ll keep our gas stove but naybe get an electric kettle.
I grew up vegetarian but my kids and husband eat meat. I need to convert them slowly.

No, you really need to get rid of your gas stove too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think about this all the time. We'd like to compost but getting all the bins can be expensive and I don't know if we have the time to take it to a compost center ourselves, but the services that come to your house can be pricy. A lot of more eco-friendly products are more expensive. I'd like to reduce the amount of red meat we eat, but making filling meals without meat takes more time and the ingredients can be more expensive. I'd like to switch more of our short car trips to walking/biking, but this would work best with an electric-assist cargo bike and they are pricy, too. And on and on.

Some eco-friendly things are more cost-effective though. I try to go hard on those as much as I can. We've really reduced how much we buy in general in the last few years, almost entirely eliminating new clothes (we buy used and try to do so locally whenever possible), new kids gear (buy nothing groups and soliciting hand me downs from friends), books (library and used book stores), and other consumer items. We choose to live in a small home (condo) that is walking distance to a lot of stuff (school, store, public transportation) which reduces our carbon footprint. All that stuff costs less than the less "green" alternatives, for the most part. The main thing it costs is time and effort.

But everyone has their limits. There is only so much we can do. What we really need is the political will to make policy change. Individual choices are nice but I'm not even sure how much they move the needle unless you get many others to make the same choices.

We compost and don't have any fancy bins. But we have a large (for suburban NoVA) yard. We have a garden fence staked into the ground (roughly 3' x 3'). We put food scraps, drier lint, cardboard, coffee grounds, etc. in it and layer with leaves, old potting soil, etc. Chop the food scraps smaller to have it break down faster (or not). Keep it moist (we have a rain barrel and so predominately keep it watered with that) and mix from time to time. We are going to have so much "free" dirt next year for gardens and potting.

We also keeps some leaf piles over the winter in the less used corners of the yard, and the rest get raked into the beds for winter. We have not had to purchase mulch in several years--saving money and sweat. Bonuses: the leaf cover keeps weeds minimal and, b/c they are nesting spots for lots of insects and animals, we've seen the return of lots of moths, fireflies, and other insects. With those food sources, we've seen an increase in songbirds. It all goes together.

We're just one family but if others made small changes it would help. Though I also agree that it is the corporations that need to make changes to effect big change faster.

This what we do and have done. I grew up composting and leaving areas of the yard with leaves etc. We just continued the practice as we became adults.

Feeling like I'm doing something wrong here - only money we've spent on composting is the big bin we paid about $40 for 14 years ago. We don't actually garden so every few years its been too full so I fill a large bucket with some of the stuff at the bottom and empty it in a large community composting bin at a community garden across the street from where my kid plays baseball.

Perhaps I am doing it wrong but composting has been incredibly easy and cheap.

[Anonymous]

A neighbor and I got over 100 houses in our neighborhood to sign up for Compost Crew and they gave us a big group discount so we pay $16/month for curbside weekly compost pickup. And as PP noted, food scraps in landfills DO harm the environment.

https://lomi.com/blogs/news/food-waste-in-landfills#1

And I assume you are putting the food scraps into a plastic garbage bag….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buying less is the most eco-friendly thing of all, and it's definitely cheaper.

+1 Many Americans' buying paradigm is:

I want it.
I can afford it (or at least have more purchasing power on my credit card).
I will buy it.

The world would be a lot better off if that were changed to:

Do I need it?
Okay, I will buy it.
(With occasional allowances for luxuries, which, it seems to me, would never include dryer sheets.)

Nobody's talking about dryer sheets. They're talking about laundry detergent, which you do need in some form. So the question is not Should I buy it? it's Should I spend more for the green version of this product I need and am buying?

[Anonymous]

You buy the expensive eco products to support the companies making them in the hopes that they can scale up. Not because it makes such a massive difference for your family to use them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think about this all the time. We'd like to compost but getting all the bins can be expensive and I don't know if we have the time to take it to a compost center ourselves, but the services that come to your house can be pricy. A lot of more eco-friendly products are more expensive. I'd like to reduce the amount of red meat we eat, but making filling meals without meat takes more time and the ingredients can be more expensive. I'd like to switch more of our short car trips to walking/biking, but this would work best with an electric-assist cargo bike and they are pricy, too. And on and on.

Some eco-friendly things are more cost-effective though. I try to go hard on those as much as I can. We've really reduced how much we buy in general in the last few years, almost entirely eliminating new clothes (we buy used and try to do so locally whenever possible), new kids gear (buy nothing groups and soliciting hand me downs from friends), books (library and used book stores), and other consumer items. We choose to live in a small home (condo) that is walking distance to a lot of stuff (school, store, public transportation) which reduces our carbon footprint. All that stuff costs less than the less "green" alternatives, for the most part. The main thing it costs is time and effort.

But everyone has their limits. There is only so much we can do. What we really need is the political will to make policy change. Individual choices are nice but I'm not even sure how much they move the needle unless you get many others to make the same choices.

We compost and don't have any fancy bins. But we have a large (for suburban NoVA) yard. We have a garden fence staked into the ground (roughly 3' x 3'). We put food scraps, drier lint, cardboard, coffee grounds, etc. in it and layer with leaves, old potting soil, etc. Chop the food scraps smaller to have it break down faster (or not). Keep it moist (we have a rain barrel and so predominately keep it watered with that) and mix from time to time. We are going to have so much "free" dirt next year for gardens and potting.

We also keeps some leaf piles over the winter in the less used corners of the yard, and the rest get raked into the beds for winter. We have not had to purchase mulch in several years--saving money and sweat. Bonuses: the leaf cover keeps weeds minimal and, b/c they are nesting spots for lots of insects and animals, we've seen the return of lots of moths, fireflies, and other insects. With those food sources, we've seen an increase in songbirds. It all goes together.

We're just one family but if others made small changes it would help. Though I also agree that it is the corporations that need to make changes to effect big change faster.

This what we do and have done. I grew up composting and leaving areas of the yard with leaves etc. We just continued the practice as we became adults.

Feeling like I'm doing something wrong here - only money we've spent on composting is the big bin we paid about $40 for 14 years ago. We don't actually garden so every few years its been too full so I fill a large bucket with some of the stuff at the bottom and empty it in a large community composting bin at a community garden across the street from where my kid plays baseball.

Perhaps I am doing it wrong but composting has been incredibly easy and cheap.

Just dump the finished compost on your own flower beds or areas without grass. Then if you decide to take up gardening in your old age, you'll be all set.

[Anonymous]

The greener version of this is indeed powdered detergent in a paper box.

[Anonymous]

I find quite the opposite, actually. It's far cheaper and saving us about 10k a year.