Five Green Things

Wash your laundry in cold water. Especially if you're in a college apartment and it costs $1.25 to use the washer. You're gonna load the dark sheets in with your nice white blouse, set it on cold, and pray. (It's amazing how money seems to influence greenery. You don't have to be a genius to notice that Going Green became popular right about the same time gas prices shot up.)

As for tapwater--my suspicion of it hasn't worn off after my time in Kenya. At least I no longer panic when I see someone fill a glass and drink, though ...

I was over at kengr's place the other day, and she played for me a song by Tom Lehrer, I think it was, that was sung with a fake Spanish accent with the man singing apparently being a travel agent, advising people that when they visit America, "don't drink the water and don't breathe the air."

That is Tom Lehrer's Pollution.

Ah, yes. Thanks!

On the one hand, I have never understood this latest thought-fad about Duuuhhhh.. bottled water...bad. Maybe it is, but people are going bugnutz about bottled water while pop, juice, and such in little plastic bottles get a pass. Why is drinking water from a bottle and tossing the bottle worse than drinking pop from the same bottle and tossing the bottle? And here in Michigan people go nuts about shipping Great Lakes water, in bottles, out of state. But nobody cares about the pop etc. Don't they know that contains water too?

But bottled water costs. So I started bringing five-gallon refillable jugs of filtered water home from the store. Filtered water was 33 cents a gallon.

That contributed to my back problem. Hoo boy, did it ever. So I bought something called "Zero Water," a filter system the size and shape of a water cooler bottle. Goes right on your water cooler. Not bad.

Not a moral trip or anything, but there are a couple alternatives to save a buck or two, maybe.

These are easy enough to do, apart from the laundry in cold water idea. I would say my biggest environmental sin is the weekly/fortnightly wash and dry cycle.

As for water, I figure if there are people who have gone through the trouble of piping and filtering my tap water, I owe it to them to drink it from the tap. Of course the water for Dublin City and outlying areas like Bray would largely come from a reservoir up near the mountains which would be pretty clean.

I do 4 out of 5. I won't give up the bottled water because we get our water from a well, and I don't like the taste, and our car is all ready fuel effeciant as it's a KIA. But we plan on buying a hybrid for our next one. We're just waiting to see which type of hybrid comes out on top after the dust settles.

The only problem with bottled water is you never know where the water is coming from. There are not that many 'pure spring water' fountains hiding in the mountains. That, and people just throw the bottle away instead of recycling it. For shame. But then I'm a recycle/compost nut. :P

The tap water in our area... well if anyone who wonders why we don't drink it could SEE the sticky red gooey buildup we constantly get from it (on showerheads and sink taps, in the tub, in the shower shelves and on the tile, even in the washing machine detergent basket, it's a never-ending battle), they might understand. We do have recycling in our area, though (actually, the recycling center is just up the block, though it smells closer on some days ;D), so we make sure to separate and sort things.

I liked the site! Thanks for the link! Great suggestions to use when possible. We do like our compact fluorescent lightbulbs!