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We ran out of paper plates two days ago. In those two days, the dishes have at least doubled. I emptied the dishwasher this morning and by noon - after we all ate lunch - the sink was full again. Also, there may or may not have been pygmy marmosets living in there.
Part of me feels better using real plates. Even though we use the recyclable paper plates and buy in bulk at BJs, I feel like I'm making less waste and thereby a smaller carbon footprint by using our regular plates. Which, considering we drive two SUVs makes me Hypocrita Von Asshole.
But then this conundrum starts rolling around in my head: How is it any better for the environment if I'm not putting paper plates (that would biodegrade, mind you) into the world's landfills, but instead am running twice as many loads of dishes, thereby using twice as much water and adding twice as much chemicals into our water with the detergent? (For what it's worth, we have switched all of our soap/detergents to Seventh Generation and LOVE them but still, the point stands.)
The same thing with cloth diapers. I get the concept that disposal diapers are bad and take eons to degrade but, again, what about the extra laundry to wash all the dirty cloth ones? Which by the way, after this past week of Puke and Flowers I could never do.
We also use our own bags almost every time we go to the store and I've been so good at remembering or using paper (also excellent fire pit fodder) that we completely ran out of the plastic store bags all normal humans keep under the sink.
This would be a good thing except those are what we use to line the bathroom garbage cans, the diaper bin, collect cat litter, put wet bathing suits into, etc., and now what? I had to use a regular garbage bag - easily three or four times the amount of plastic in a Target bag - for such tasks. Now how does that make sense?
I just have to be careful not to run out and when I do, make sure my next shopping trip I "forget" my bags, which I then feel BAD about. Ugh.
I just feel like no matter what I do in my family and my home to try and do good for the environment, there's always the flip side. Which is the lesser of two evils? Where is the line drawn? How can I know in the grand scheme of things I'm doing the right thing?
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Green
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12 comments:
damned if you do, damned if you don't, right?
With paper plates, it's not only the trees to make them, and the waste they produce, but also the energy expended to produce and distribute them. So real plates are better for the environment, even if you wash them in the dishwasher. In fact, using the dishwasher is better than the type of hand washing that most people do, which involves running the water the entire time.
Same thing applies with reusable diapers, although I still can't talk myself into them.
We looked into the reuse vs disposable issue way back in the day [snort]. It seemed that it was a wash [dbl snort] in that on the one hand, you fill the land fills, but on the other, you use A LOT of water.
The conclusion was (based on whatever it was that we were reading. Warning: it might have been the National Enquirer) that since it was a wash, it depended on the greater issue where you lived: space for land fill vs availability (and expense?) of water for washing.
The other thing that was a wash was the cost, IF you factored in using a diaper service. If you wash them yourself it was cheaper to reuse.
Of course, through all this research, I was very biased, as there was no fucking way I was going to ever be using cloth diapers. I think my husband was just looking up things to be able to fire back at my green-zealot family.
I actually do use cloth diapers part time. I use disposables overnight, when we're away from home or if Flowers are involved, otherwise, he's in cloth. They're actually not as bad to wash as you'd think. But I wash them twice (once cold, once hot) so I'm sure I'm using way too much water to be able to say I'm being green. Mostly, I think I'm just being cheap. Plus, cloth diapers are REALLY cute!
Where I live, they make you pay $0.05 for every bag you use (at the retailer, grocery, etc), so you start to remember your cloth bags more easily.
As for the wash vs. dispose question, there's a bigger picture. Whether you use the green stuff or the not-so-green stuff, all of your waste water goes to the same place (in other words, unless you're flushing green toilet cleaner down and using only green shampoo, your dishwasher and laundry soap aren't necessarily doing as much as you think): a wastewater treatment facility. The effluent (exit) of that plant has strict guidelines to be met in terms of chlorine levels, TOC (total organic carbons), turbidity, fluoride, conductivity, etc. These guidelines are determined at the outlet, not the inlet, and are maintained by how they (your municipality) neutralize the content of the wastewater.
Bottom line: the washing question's answer is dependent not on what you're using, but how strictly your municipality adheres to the guidelines and/or how closely the EPA monitors them.
To paraphrase SciFi, you worry too much!
Besides, if you are using the "reusable" bags, you risk introducing bacteria to you new food from you old food via the bags. All it takes is one leaky chicken (or other meat product) and the bag will soak it up and reintroduce it to your new food. So I get the plastic bags (I pay for them anyway, via the cost of groceries) and look at them as food prophylactics.
Then I can reuse them to pick up dog poo (why BUY plastic bags to do that?), or I recycle them.
We've stopped buying paper, too. I feel better running the dishwasher - it's more efficient, as stated above, than all the resources necessary to produce paper plates. Although I think I need to buy more plates to avoid the marmoset situation you mentioned!
I have the reusable bags too, but I forget them often. I'm working on it - I keep them in my car now, so that's helping.
I have a lot of guilt about this too, like I should be doing more... but it's really about the baby steps and being aware, I think.
As the first comment stated, there's not just the landfill aspect, there's the amount of energy needed to cut down that tree (and there's the fact that you're using a virgin tree to make a plate that you're then throwing out...), transport that tree to the plant, turn that plant into a plate, transport that plate to your store. That's a lot more energy expanded per disposable plate than what your dishwasher requires to wash each plate. So as long as you're only running a full dishwasher, and not half loads, your carbon footprint is smaller that way.
As for the plastic bag angle, if it makes more sense for you to use some plastic bags, maybe get them from someone who's not as green as you and has more plastic bags than they know what to do with? Like a neighbor, your mom, etc. That way, you're helping them get rid of them, and you're not feeling guilty about not using your re-usable bag.
And as far as the contamination issue, clearly, you should wash your canvas bag if you've had meat leak in it...
Kudos to you for at least looking into how you can lower your carbon footprint! We do the same here, and I'm really hoping that my next vehicle can be a hybrid (please let there be a mid-size SUV that's a hybrid and doesn't cost $50K by the time I need a new vehicle...)
I didn't do cloth diapers. The kid I use to take care of his, Mom was ALL about the cloth. Even on days his ass was growing more Flowers than a greenhouse. Given *I* was the one to rinse them and wash them, my hatred of cloth was HUGE.
As for plastic bags...I use them. I had chicken leak in my cloth bag once and I was digusted at it possibly happening again. But, my bags are used for bathroom garbage cans and I always used them for Poop Patrol for Baylee. As Morgan outgrows clothes, I pack them in the plastic bags and pack those into a tote.
We both drive SUV's and neither of them are the cool new Flex Fuel or BioFuel ones. My next car will be a Hybrid, but that's about 4 years down the road (haha. Down the road. Man, I'm funny. Sort of.)
I switched, too, to Seventh Generation detergents/soaps. My dishwasher is run evey other day, but I run it at night when it's a bit easier on the electric and it's a high rated Energy Star efficient dealio.
Whatever. I'm not too good, I guess, at being green. I eat organic. Mostly. Does that count?
:)
Hey - pat on the back for trying. That is more than most. We often struggle with the paper vs. real plate dilemma too, so you are not alone. Just keep doing your part because it does matter!!! :)
Yes - I have these same struggles (although I still use antibacterial Lysol and Clorox with bleach) and I use my plastic supermarket bags to sort the recycling (pats self on back) but I just purchased 3 reuseable shopping bags which I love and which I just have to remember to actually bring with me when I go to the store. Whoever said it's easy being green, lied through their flipping teeth!
I think with plates, real are better because paper use energy and water to grow the trees, cut them down, process them, distribute them and get them to your house, PLUS the landfill thing.
That having been said, no one is perfect, and if everyone tried as hard you are to figure things out, we wouldn't be having this problem.
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