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There is something about resetting the clock on a new year that makes people believe in new beginnings. The hope that if we can just get our life in order, we will live a better life leads to our repeated pursuit of resolutions each year.
Resolutions are nothing more than a pledge to alter habits — usually the bad ones. Old-school thought says it takes three weeks to break a habit. But regardless of how long it takes, the journey of change begins with a single step. My family’s journey to live plastic bag-free is an ongoing challenge, and many of the steps have been uphill.
When I pledged to my family we were going to live plastic bag-free, I almost had a mutiny. “No flippin’ way” was the mildest response.
I started first with education — knowledge is power, right? I explained how single-use plastic bags were a bane on the environment and would live in our landfills for hundreds of years, well beyond their minutes of practicality. But the pull of the familiar habit had them doing the same thing — using single-use plastic bags — over and over again.
We did, for a short time, try to wash and reuse them. Logistically, that proved impractical, as we ended up increasing our supply of plastic bags, as some were reused but others were new.
After struggling with trying to effect a change in my family’s bad habit of using these bags and getting nowhere, the solution was simple in its elegance. I simply stopped buying them! (After all, when you are breaking a bad habit, getting rid of the culprit helps with willpower.)
There was a lot of grumbling, slamming of drawers and threats to go and use their own money to buy them. But nothing materialized — no one, it seemed, was willing to spend money on something they said was important, but really wasn’t.
My family survives without single-use plastic bags. The bad habit of using something for minutes and then throwing it away was changed, and a more sustainable solution was achieved. For sandwiches, I bought a number of different type and size containers. My favorite was the Wrap-n-Mat from Reuseit.com — a handkerchief-size piece of fabric lined with BPA-free plastic that wraps around sandwiches. It is easily wiped down or washed.
However, there was the crushability factor, so I did buy more plastic containers that are fully recyclable.
To avoid my family’s laziness and use of single-use grocery bags, I bought each family member a stuff sack. It is a full-size grocery bag that stuffs into a little pouch the size of your hand, so it can be carried in a purse or backpack. I bought mine from Cost Plus World Market. They come in fun shapes like animal faces, sunflowers and even a banana.
To avoid the use of cling wrap, I have bought elastic food covers — think a shower cap for your open container. They come in three sizes: small to cover open cans, medium for plates and large for oversized bowls. They are washable and, therefore, reusable.
Do we live completely free of the one-time-use plastic bag? To be honest, no.
There are occasions when we are reusable bag-less, there is no paper alternative and we can’t carry our items without a bag. There are restaurants that package in plastic, such as Taco Bell, which gives conscientious consumers no choice about alternatives.
However, we do take all our plastic bags, including bread bags, to grocery stores for recycling.
But we have stopped buying single-use reclosable bags and have saved money every month doing it.
Living sustainably doesn’t need to be accomplished all at once. Like a resolution, take it one step, one bad habit at a time. Why not resolve to live a more sustainable life for 2012? You will be surprised to find it will align with all your resolutions.
For a change: Recycle all your plastic grocery bags. Avoid using them for pet waste or garbage pail liners, as they will still end up in a landfill.
To make a difference: Take reusable bags to the grocery store. Even if you don’t have enough for the full purchase, you will be avoiding some plastic bags.
To make a stand: Stop buying reclosable plastic bags. Find an alternative that avoids throwing the container away after a single use.
• Christina D.B. Frankel has lived in Tracy for more than 20 years and is an architect and mother of three. Her column, Living Green, runs every so often in the Tracy Press. She can be reached at cdfrankel@sbcglobal.net.
If you want a really green living space, don’t build it!
The greenest square foot is the one you don’t build – this is the motto of the Tiny House Project, an undertaking by students at Northwestern University to construct a minimalist off-net house providing all the necessities of a home, and none of the frills. The 12 square meter (128 square foot) Northwestern house is unique compared with other tiny houses in that it may be the only one that is 100 percent off the electric grid while meeting all of its water needs through a sophisticated rainwater collection system.
Many of us in the renewable energy business are familiar with the work of architect Sarah Susanka, who has championed the “Not So Big House” through numerous books and lectures. The tiny house movement takes the not-so-big concept a step further by creating the smallest possible space someone can live in while still having enough room to cook, sleep, and relax. Many of these small houses are only around 50 square meters (538 square feet) in size, and some are actually less than 10 square meters (108 square feet), about as roomy as a standard bathroom. The Northwestern students were inspired by social activist Jay Schafer, founder of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, one of the original tiny house manufacturers.
The Northwestern house has just about everything anyone would need to live “comfortably” – a small kitchen, bathroom, living room, storage area, sleeping loft, and even a fireplace! The house also features an awning for shade, a shower, multiple windows, and a composting toilet. And while the photovoltaics (four 72-cell MEMC panels rated at 280 Watts each) don’t come anywhere close to satisfying the energy requirements of typical home, they provide sufficient power for a small refrigerator (NOVAKOOL R-4500 rated at 480 Watt-hrs per day), for lighting, and for a laptop computer.
Built by students, the Tiny House Project nears completion on the Northwestern Campus in Evanston, Illinois (US).
A unique feature of the house is its rainwater collection system, which provides, on average, about 32 liters (8.4 gallons) of water per day throughout the year. The roof and awnings collect rainwater, and a gravity-fed gutter system transfers the water to a 1,500 liter (400 gallon) “storage pillow” located beneath the house. A small 8 liter per minute (2 gallon per minute) pump then moves the water through a filtration system and into a pressurized tank that feeds a solar hot water heater. By using the awnings to help collect rainwater, the effective collection surface is increased to about 30 square meters (320 square feet), two and one-half times the house’s footprint.
All the necessities of a home are squeezed into the space above a 12 square meter (128 square foot) footprint.
While the house’s design has many unusual and innovative technological features, the design team also points to the teaching value of their project:
Beyond the technology is the philosophy our home teaches. It internalizes the production of resources, which means you become part of the resource generation methods. It forces you to understand the processes included in the luxuries of our lives. It lifts the veil and makes you respect the blessings we’ve been given.
In other words, if you live in a tiny house, you become more aware of our affluent society and the resources we consume, and perhaps, you appreciate more the luxuries that the rest of us take for granted.
Next time you are contemplating how to reduce your carbon footprint by downsizing your living space, don’t just think small – think tiny!
[For more information on the Northwestern House, see Living Little: Tiny House is a Model of How Every Inch - and Lack of Inches - Matters in Sustainable Living. And for an excellent New York Times story on small houses, seeThe Next Little Thing.]