Getting Back on Track with Plastics and Packaging

I was truly humbled last night when I watched Bag It! with my kids. I have strayed! Since going back to work I have become so lazy with my environmental convictions and actions. I have fallen into the quick and convenient trap that consumerism lures one into. Watching the film reminded me of the mission I had been on to reduce our packaging and use of plastics. I have slowly been allowing plastic and packaging to seep back into our  lives over the last two years, mainly for convenience, but also because it is so easy to forget the evils of using it. I was reminded watching Bag It! of the extreme pervasiveness of plastic in our society and of my desire to reduce it in our household. I was also reminded of the need to reduce waste and how by purchasing so many prepackaged goods, I am contributing to the exponential amount of trash we produce. Not to mention the inanity of the single use plastic products like drink bottles, coffee cups, paper napkins, trash bags, and shopping bags to name a few.

As Earth Day has just passed I am pledging to renew my efforts to reduce waste and unecessary consumption. I think I will begin with purchasing our milk in glass bottles again, and making my own yogurt, not using plastic produce bags and buying laundry detergent in a paper box. That will reduce two gallon size jugs of milk each week, one large container of yogurt, 1 large laundry jug each month, and three plastic produce bags each week. So in a year – 52 plastic containers of yogurt and 104 plastic milk jugs and 12 plastic laundry jugs, and 156 plastic produce bags. I will also stop buying coffee and other drinks in paper or plastic cups, and using anything that comes in a plastic bottle. It is so hard to do it, but I need to reteach myself and my family to bring our own containers for liquids when we got out. My longer term goal will be to reduce the bags we use for breads.

We are Going Solar!

This is where the panels will be placed on our property.

We are taking the plunge and going solar! It took us a long time to make the decision but, we finally signed the paperwork and are moving forward with it. We decided to go with a ground mounted array, which will be owned and maintained by SolarCity. We will pay them a lump sum up front and then nothing else for our electricity for the next twenty years. If anything goes wrong with the panels they will take care of it. The one downside is that if our power goes out, we do not get the benefit of having solar power. The panels will be feeding into the grid, so our electricity won’t be directly from the panels, and we won’t be able to use it when the power lines are down. It would be nice if it was an option to use the solar panels as a backup if the main power lines are down. If they had some kind of switch that turned the flow of electricity off to the grid in the event of a power outage, and turned it on for our house. Alas, that is not so!

The SolarCity truck on the day of our site audit.

The first step in the process was to sign the papers with the sales rep. Then they sent out site auditors who came and spent four hours checking out the house and the property to make sure that the site and the house really would work with the panels. We passed the site audit and they marked off certain trees that needed to come down in order for the panels to get adequate sunlight. They also marked off where the array is going to go on our property. We then had the trees removed and cleared in the area where the array will be. We are now waiting for them to come back and photograph the area and take new solar readings. Then hopefully they will begin construction in the early spring. We are hoping that the panels will be in by March or April at the latest, so that we can take full advantage of the long (hopefully sunny) days in the spring leading up to the summer solstice.

Once the panels are in place, they should cover 100% of our electricity usage. If we go over the amount that they can cover, then we have to pay a per kilowatt amount, but we are pretty confident that we will be able to stay within the allotted amount. Stay tuned for more as we continue in the process to go solar!

Adding Space to the Small House

After moving in to the small house in May of 2010 and living with the reduced space for six months, we decided that we wanted to find a way to give ourselves a little more space. In Andover it is very common to see additions that are twice the size of the original house, or to see the original house torn down completely and a 3000 + square foot home built in its place. The large American home is not a sustainable model and yet it continues to be increasingly the norm. We wanted to find a way to add more space, without creating a huge environmental impact by using a large amount of new building resources. Ultimately we decided that using the existing space in the basement to create a family room/guest room and a 3/4 bathroom would be the most effective way to accomplish those goals. We would be utilizing existing space and resources, and still increasing our living space.

We had been using the basement to store a lot of outdoor gear, craft supplies, photo albums, ect… and realized that we would not be able to use it for this if we made it into a living space. So we had to figure out where those items would go, but again we wanted to find a way to utilize our existing spaces. The attic was an unused space, but had only a little square in the ceiling to access it, so we decided to add a pull-down stair case, reinforce the beams and put in a plywood floor. The work was done throughout March, April and into May of 2011. When it was completed we had not changed the footprint of the house, but we had gained a family room, which doubles as a guest room, a 3/4 bath, a utility sink area,  and storage in the attic.

The basement family room

The deck with the awning retracted.

Our downstairs can feel very cramped at times and we have this wonderful large deck off the back, but in the summer it gets too hot to use. We thought about putting on a screened-in porch, but that would be resource intensive and costly. So we found that a low impact/low cost way to go about that would be to buy a retractable awning. It is not the most attractive option, but it is economical and versatile. We have it up all summer when it provides shade for the deck and the

kitchen, and in the winter we can put it away and get the passive solar heating in the kitchen. We also now have more living space utilizing the existing deck because of the awning.

Going Solar? OnDemand hot water? Sustainable Living in the Small House

Life in the small house has been good. We continue to adjust to living with less and finding new and more creative ways to utilize the space we have. We have been looking at ways to make the house more energy efficient as well. The house is pretty energy efficient as far as having insulation in the walls and attic, it has new windows, and uses a hot water heating system. We installed attic vents and programmable thermostats last summer, and we are looking into putting in new windows in the basement and several new doors. This winter we replaced our tank hot water heater with an on demand one and we are looking into putting up solar panels to provide our electricity.
In November we realized that our hot water was looking very brown. The shower curtain was brown, the fixtures were tinged brown, yuck. We had a plumber come to look at the water heater and were advised to replace it. We had looked into On Demand Hot Water Heaters a few years back while still living at our old house and decided to look into them again. The gas company was willing to give us a standard water heater for $800. Our plumber came and gave us a quote for the Rinnai On Demand water heater for $2950.00. From that, we could subtract $700 from the gas company rebate and then another $885 from the federal energy credit (as long as it was installed before Dec. 31, 2010). So, minus the $1585, it would cost us $1365. Considering that the On Demand would save us money in gas costs, and last close to twice as long as the standard tank water heater, we figured we would be coming out ahead financially AND getting to put in a more efficient water heater, that would use less fossil fuels! We went for it and have been so happy with the choice. We were warned that the On Demand hot water heater can take longer to get the hot water to the tap, but this has not been an issue for us. It does not seem to take any longer than our tank water heater did. Plus it never runs out of hot water! Although, I must note, that Aaron said he had a shower the other morning where it stopped working mid-shower. It was a first, and hopefully a last. Another bonus is that it takes up far less space in the basement and in a house that is not so big, any extra space is welcomed.
In December we had a representative from GroSolar (now SolarCity) come out to talk with us and give us a quote for solar panels on our house or an array out in the back yard. The rep took a look at our house and told us that the roof panels would not be ideal, unless we cut down a row of trees on the south side of the house. We are not in a position to do that at this time, so we asked her to take a look at the property to see if a freestanding array would work. We have almost an acre of property and the back half of it is a briar patch so we thought it might be the ideal spot. She took a look and indeed it is a great spot to put an array. The array would be 20 panels and would produce 4.6Kw, which she told us would cover close to 100% of our electricity needs. They have three plans which you can choose from. One is a low down payment ($2500) with a fixed monthly cost ($78). Then there is a plan where you pay a lot more, but it allows you to get the solar energy credits each year and they will maintain the array for you. The third option is to buy the array outright for even more money, but you get the federal credits, state credits, and the yearly solar credits. We have been trying to figure out which plan is going to work the best for us, but now GroSolar has been bought out, so we will have to find out what plans the new company is offering. We have figured out though that between the fixed energy rate with solar, and the solar credits it is a really good investment with as much as a 15% yearly return. It would be so nice if money was not the issue with all of these “green” choices, but alas it is. At the moment we are heading in the direction of getting the solar array, it is just a matter of choosing the plan that is going to work best for us. It feels very exciting to think that we could be getting our electricity from the sun and making a choice that is going to benefit future generations.

We Finally have a Walk/Bike to School Day!

It was very exciting to get an email from the school that announced we were going to have a walk to school day on the 11th of June (I am a bit behind in my blogging efforts). The school had it all organized so that there were various drop off points closer to school for children who lived farther away. The could meet at the drop off closest to their home and walk as a group to the school. We chose to ride our bikes because I did not want to have to drive to the drop off point and we are just far enough that it would be hard for the kids to walk the whole way. I talked to the kids about it a day or so before and Graham was so excited. He loves riding his bike so any excuse is wonderful for him. While we were getting our bikes ready the bus came by and the kids happily waved it on and told the bus driver we were riding bikes. Our road is not terrific for kids riding bikes because it is a narrow country road and cars can be going as fast as 40 mph on it. Just as we were leaving Aaron showed up, he had forgotten something at home, so the kids asked him to ride with us to their school. I was relieved because it meant one of us could be in front and the other in back of the kids. It was a beautiful morning for riding to school and as we passed the kids waiting at the drop off point we cheered for walk to school day!

The kids at the bike rack

When we arrived at school there were bikes already on the bike rack – so exciting for us because their other school had an empty bike rack all year round. There were many other kids and some adults putting their bikes in the racks. We said goodbye to the kids and then Aaron and I parted ways at the entrance to the school. As I was riding home I passed all the kids walking together and it just gave me the best feeling inside to see all those kids and parents supporting walking to school. I know they had a few other walk to school days throughout the year, so that it is not just one isolated event. Even though I have been walking my kids to school in all kinds of weather for the last four years in Haverhill, there were only a handful of others who also walked their children. It felt very good to be a part of this new community that values getting children out and exercising and reducing the use of fossil fuels.

Check out all the bikes!

Life in the Small House

We have now been in the small house for two weeks and we are settling into life with less square footage. There are some distinct advantages to living in a small house. They are:

1. It only took a few days to unpack all the boxes, and put the things where they should go.The boxes made the house feel so crammed that we had to just unpack and put stuff away as fast as possible.

2. It forces you to be very organized and creative about where things will go. Even though I had purged a lot of stuff before moving, I have already made three more trips to the Salvation Army with more items that don’t have anywhere to go here. Because we don’t have any storage other than the basement, which is also our laundry room, workout room, playroom, and tool room, we cannot hold onto stuff that we “might” use later.

3. It does not take very long to vacuum it. With only one bathroom it is very quick to clean that too.

4. We are spending a lot more time outside where there is more space to move around! The kids are outside more to be in the backyard playing croquet, basketball, street hockey, soccer, 500, tag, football, ect…

5. It does not take that long to paint the rooms because they are not very big.

6. The kids are learning to share more and spending more time together in their tiny room. They do bicker a little more, but they also seem to be even closer friends than before.

7. It will cost less to heat in the winter and will use less energy. One bathroom means less water is being used.

Of course there are disadvantages too but they seem a little petty…

1. We have to get rid of some stuff that I would like to keep and has sentimental value.

2. I cannot put up all of our photos and pictures that I like.

3. The kids do seem a little crammed into their room with all of their Legos, but I just cannot bring myself to make them get rid of any of the Legos.

4. At some point, although it has not happened yet, there will be an issue over the bathroom use. Especially when the boys get old enough to want to sit on the toilet with their computer or a magazine and hang out there for twenty minutes.

5. In the winter, when we cannot use the deck and go outside as much, it will be somewhat close quarters in the living room and dining room.

6. It requires more thought and planning to find a spot for everything.

7. We cannot have a wood stove at the moment, but we are trying to figure out how and where it could go.

For the most part we are really happy with our decision and are adjusting to the reduced square footage. I love that our yard is big enough to have a compost bin and at some point a nice sized garden.  At the moment we are using a gas powered mower, which pains me, but hopefully we will move to a “greener” mower soon.

Green Classroom Activities

This week Graham’s first grade class is having a paperless week to celebrate Earth Day. His teacher asked the kids to bring in the following items;

1. paper bag

2. newspaper

3. magazine

4. egg carton

5. container with plastic lid

6. 2 liter plastic bottle

They have been using the materials all week to do different activities in the classroom. The newspaper was used for a center where they were to find certain vowels and consonant combinations in the sentences. The egg carton was used to make a math game. The numbered the wells and then used three pebbles in the box. They shake up the box and then open it. They then write down the three numbers that the pebbles are on and have to add them up. The container with the plastic lid is used to make a piggy bank, which is decorated with the magazine pages. The plastic lid has a slit cut in it for the money to go through. The paper bag is used to make a book, which they then write a story in of their choice. The plastic bottle is cut in half and soil is put in the bottom and the kids plant sunflower seeds.

His class has also been asked to bring lunches and snacks that do not create waste. So, no prepackaged foods. I don’t know how well this has been able to be enforced, but I love that it is emphasized, even if just for a week. They have been using white boards to write on in class instead of using paper and they are asked to remember their homework each night, because it is not in worksheet form this week. One night his assignment was to do something good for the earth (we walked home from school instead of using the car), another was to tell me a story he had learned in class called “The Kapok Tree”. He had another assignment where he was suppose to show one of us how to play his egg carton game, and on another night he was to read a story to us from his reading book about being a nature detective.

These activities are a wonderful way to introduce the concepts of reduce, reuse, recycle to kids. I am so grateful that both my sons had a teacher (Graham actually had two), who take the time to do these kinds of thoughtful activities in their classrooms. Thank you Mrs. Kozlowski!