Daily Impact: August 13, 14, and 15, 2011

This is the fifth posting in my blog.

I had a busy weekend, and therefore I did not post individual updates for Saturday or Sunday. Here is an update of the impacts I had on the environment.

Friday: I rode my Honda downtown to meet with some friends for dinner. We went to Too Jays, and I had a nice Bistro Steak Salad. There was about 7 ounces of steak on this salad, and that gave this otherwise benign meal a fairly large carbon footprint. The amount of grain that a cow eats, the methane produced from cow farts, he processing, and transportation all add up. The meal was served on porcelain plates with stainless flatware and a plactic drinking glass. All of these had to be washed, and the paper napkin thrown into the trash.

The round-tip ride on the Honda that night was about 24 miles, and therefore consumed about 0.2 gallons of gas for 4 pounds of carbon dioxide. I also shared a piece of cake with a friend, and that put a plastic fork into the trash. The total power use for the house on Friday was 18 KWh.

Saturday morning, I rode the e-scooter to downtown to meet with some friends for our weekly walk. On the way, the back tire started to go flat, and I put some fix-a-flat into it. That stuff is nasty. It is hard to get it into the tire without getting a bunch of it onto my hands. It has a petrolium stink and a sticky feel. Yuck. It did get me to the parking garage where I plugged in for about 150 watt-hours of juice.

When I returned to the scooter, the tire was flat again. More fix-a-flat and some compressed air from the firehouse and Mears bus maintenance facility got me about half-way home. The other half was pushing the scooter along the side of the road. I got some good excersize that morning, but also spread some nasty fix-a-flat along my path. Other impacts included some sugar packets form Panera for coffee in my mug, and two plastic stir sticks into the trash. Food was PBJ and cereal, and one paper plate into the trash. I rode the Honda to Kenny's where we took his car to Royce's house for a card game. Carbon dioxide was about 20 pounds from his car, and about 4 pounds from the Honda. Total grid energy use from my house was 15 KWh. This was a little lower thanks to some afternoon rain to cool things down.

Sunday was a lazy day. I woke up at about 8:45, and took Astro for a walk. Astro is responsible for some global impact of his own which I try to minoimize. He pees and poops along the street in my neighbor's yards. Every so often, I take a shovel and bucket and collect his droppings which are then burried in my yard. I buy his food in the largest bag possible, and try not to over-feed him. Astro was a rescue from the pound, and even though he has some impact on our planet, he is very much worth it.

Breakfast was two eggs fried with cheese. The Publix eggs are most likely from a nearby farm, but the cheese probably has a few miles on it. I tried to make some grits, but the supply that I had left in my cabinet went bad, and had to be thrown out. I threw the grits into my yard because they are bio-degradable. I rode the Honda to downtown again for dinner with Kenny, and that 21 miles put about 3 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Our Dinner was a sub sandwich with roast beef served on a plastic tray lined with wax paper. There is that meat thing again, and the transport of all of those ingredients included in my sub. Total grid energy use for Sunday was 16 KWh. This number was again helped from some afternoon rain. I alos have put up the shade curtain for the front window; the light of the sun has changed to where it shines on the front of the south part of my house.

Today (Monday) I had some OJ and a banana, and fixed the scooter tire. I had ordered a new tire and tube about two months ago, and nursed the old patched tube and balding tire along since then. It sucked having to handle that tire and wheel with old, dry fix-a-flat all over it. I washed the wheel and old tire off, and installed the nice, new tire and tube on the scooter. I kept the old tube and tire for possible re-use. The tube has a patch and a new leak, and the tire is pretty bald. I will have to weigh my options whan deciding weather to re-use either of them.

I Rode the scooter here to Panera, and it seems fine. I ordered my bagel today, and it came on a reusable plastic plate (which Panera will wash). I did not get a plastic fork or a napkin because I asked that I not get them. The person who prepared my bagel just smiled when I pulled out my own knife and napkin. I did use a paper towel in the bathroom, and that will go into the trash with the napkin I brought from home. There are also the four sugar packets which went into the trash after the contents went into my two cups of coffee. If I was at Ikea, there would have been sugar from a jar, and hand drying from a jet blower.

What About Using The Toilet?

When I am at home, I use water from my rain barrels to flush my toilet. It took some practice to get the right technique down, but I can usually get a good flush with about 3 gallons of rain water. I also use toilet paper. I use it sparingly, but I use it, and will continue to do so. My friends at Dancing Rabbit use it too, and it is just plain cleaner than the left hand and a bowl of water (yuck!). I do admire our Indian friends for not using paper, but I will stick to my Charmin!

My house happens to have a septic tank. I try to take good care of it (by using only minimal amounts of bleach), but I do now know how it affects the water quality around my house. I know that the Rabbits way of reuse is much better, but I am not quite ready to do that either. I am lucky to be a man, and to have a private back yard. That really saves a lot of flushes.