Trash Talk Contest Winner!

...plus wacky and wonderful conservation tips

The winner of our Trash Talk book contest--whose name was randomly selected from all the entries sent--was Karl Hennum. Mr Hennum will receive a copy of the award-winning waste conservation book Trash Talk by Dave and Lillian Brummet. Mr Hennum coincidentally also sent the most detailed set of conservation tips to us, as well as an insightful analysis of human wastefulness. Below are writings from him and a selection of others who sent in entries. If readers have conservation tips they'd like to share in future issues, please send them to WAfreepress@gmail.com with subject heading "conservation tip".

Karl Hennum:

Reduce Garbage, Consumption, and Population

I am 86 years old and live alone, so I don't create much waste. Yet everything that goes into the garbage or recycle bins is reduced to the smallest size possible; all vegetable residue is composted. All paper and cardboard boxes are KDF (knocked down flat); whenever possible, I remove the tops and bottoms of cans and flatten them. I nest together disposable plastic food trays so that they take up much less space than if thrown away separately. I thus reduce the number of truck stops by putting out garbage bins every other week (instead of weekly), and my recycle bin usually once every six weeks. My garbage is predictably mostly non-recyclable packaging material. A new way must be found to get products to consumers using recyclable materials.

I don't use very many dishes, so they go into the kitchen sink after meals and are soaked with some of the soapy water from the preceding day's dishwashing. After washing the dishes, most of the rinse water and dishwater are poured into a bucket and taken to the bathroom, and the rest of it I put in a one-gallon container for soaking next day's dishes.

All the water in buckets in the bathtub is used to flush the toilet. I save three to four gallons of water a day. Not very much, but if everyone in the greater Seattle area did that, it would save one to two million gallons a day.

Why save water? Except for a few wells, Seattle has been getting its water from a lake/reservoir in the Cascade Mountains, which is supplied by the slowly-melting snowpack. This process is put in danger by global warming, in the future leaving no snowpack to supply water for late summer and fall. The same conditions will affect Seattle City Light's ability to generate enough power in the mountain dams.

All sorts of signs of stress are beginning to show in terms of water shortages. Aquifers all over the world are being depleted beyond replacement. And conserving water would not be an adequate solution on its own, because even where water is available, much of it is becoming so heavily polluted that it requires extensive treatment and can't be used for drinking, fishing, or swimming. We're seeing our atmosphere becoming overloaded with heat-trapping and toxic gasses. We're seeing a population that prefers distilling its grains into automobile fuels, putting the automobile in competition with humans for food supply. 300 million Americans can do an awful lot of damage to our resources.

Mainstream economics either ignores the economy's relation to the environment or assumes that the environment is a subset of the economy (for example, the mining industry). But in fact, the economy is a subset of the ecosystem, which is finite, non-growing, and materially closed (no matter enters or leaves it). The ecosystem is a source for the economy's resources, and a sink for its wastes.

Sustainability requires that the flow of energy and matter through the economy should be within the regenerative and absorptive capabilities of the ecosystem. Renewable resources should not be taken faster than the ecosystem can replace them. Non-renewable resources should be taken no faster than renewable substitutes can be developed. Waste and pollution should not exceed the ecosystem's sustainable level of absorption.

We have passed the point where sustainable living is possible. But we could extend the time left on our only earth. to do so, we must change our way of thinking, and act immediately. Stabilizing population below carrying capacity is crucial, to a level which allows enough per capital wealth for a good life. What really must be stabilized is total consumption. Population and consumption both must be reduced.

Lindy Evans:

Pick it Up, Get Some Exercise, and Prevent Blood-Borne Disease

When I was chronically homeless ("home-free"), I had the feeling that where ever I was, was my home. To get more exercise, and to make my "home" nicer, I would bend down and pick up litter. I would go into the "Jungle" (or as the Latinos pronounce it, the "Yungle"), and I would pick up the old syringes and take them to the syringe exchange.

Carol Isaac:

Bottle Bath

OK, I will expose myself. I love baths. I walk four to eight miles a day (work related) and need to do something. Clearly a shower is friendlier to the environment, but we all know soaking is the way to deep clean anything. You wouldn't shower clothes: you soak them to really get the job done. So... I keep eight plastic bottles full of water, put them in the tub, fill the tub with water, and nestle in around these. I have to nestle carefully because they start bobbing if I just plop in. I don't drain the bath water until it is cool; it adds heat to the rooms around it.

This is a secret. Don't tell anyone (except a thousand readers).

Editor's note: Sorry Carol, I think there are at least four thousand readers!

Doug Collins:

Bathtub Flush

Before I had small children, whenever I took a bath I just left the water in the tub. I bought a large plastic scoop from a general store in Chinatown, and used it to fill a bucket, with which I flushed the toilet. I hardly ever used the flush handle on my toilet. I learned this trick from a Japanese-American, and it makes a lot of sense in American bathrooms, where the tub is usually right next to the toilet. When my children get big enough and I'm not worried about them playing with the water, I'll probably do it again. One downside is that the tub and toilet need more frequent cleaning, but it doesn't take long to do this, and I found that saving so much water feels fun. (PS, I'm the editor of this paper and I did not join the contest, but I thought I'd just contribute this tip!)

Florence Bliss:

Rainwater Carwash

Two years ago, after I had my car cleaned and polished, I decided to wipe down my car after it rained using old bath towels, and it still remains shining and clean without the use of soaps, etc. It also reduces the moisture in our garage. We live above Carkeek Park in Seattle and try to protect the environment there.

Steve Harbeson:

Rainwater Washing Machine

I have a rainwater tank (an old 60-gallon olive container) connected to one downspout from my roof, with a garden hose attached to it near the bottom (originally intended for watering the garden). I don't really need the water for my garden, so by drilling a small hole into my basement from the outside, I led the garden hose down to my washing machine. I bought a small brass on/off valve from McLendon Hardware to attach to the end of the hose, and I hang it over the basement sink near the washing machine, in case it ever leaks (hint: the plastic on/off valves that I've tried don't last--get the all-brass type if you can). Now whenever the tank has enough water, which is most of the year, I can just grab the hose and pre-fill my washing machine with rainwater for the wash cycle. I still have to use city water for the rinse cycle, which happens automatically, but I save half the normal water by doing this. The water comes out of the hose a bit slowly because it is not pressurized except by a bit of gravity. If you're not in a hurry or don't have huge loads, it works fine. If I had more of such rain tanks and time to build a system, I could probably save a lot more water with toilet flushing, and perhaps even showering. Of course, what I'm doing with the washer is probably illegal by plumbing codes, but it's harmless and easy to change if I ever have to.*