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Dear
EarthTalk: My New Year's Resolution is to reduce
my “carbon footprint” to help fight global warming.
Do you have suggestions for ways I can make good on my promise?
-- Carrie, via e-mail
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Taking
mass transit and leaving the car at home is just one
of many ways that individuals can lower their carbon
footprint and help fight global warming.
© Getty Images
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There's
never been a more urgent time to reduce your carbon footprint.
With the U.S. government still opting out of mandatory emissions
cuts, it’s up to every individual, business owner
and city or state government to take steps. So here are
10 ways to get you started in the new year:
(1)
Step-up Recycling and Composting. Recycling prevents carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions by saving the energy it takes to
make products from new materials and by saving the energy
it takes to incinerate or landfill what we discard. And
composting food scraps turns organic material back into
fertile soil, which itself is an efficient carbon “sink.”
To get started, see: Earth
911 and How
to Compost
(2)
Stay close or stay put: About half the CO2 we generate comes
from our car trips, so walk, bike or take mass transit instead.
Air travel also produces huge amounts of CO2, so the less
you fly, the smaller your carbon footprint. See: Culture
Change
(3)
Eat organic and local: Stick to foods produced organically
and you prevent harmful pesticides and fertilizers from
polluting air, waterways, soils and family members. And
if the food is grown nearby, thousands of pounds of CO2
weren’t emitted getting it to your grocery store.
See: 100
Mile Diet
(4)
Buy green power. Your power company might just source part
of its supply from renewable sources like hydro-electric
or wind, and will sell it to customers who know to ask for
it. See: Green
E
(5)
Change out your lightbulbs. A compact fluorescent lightbulb
(CFL) uses less than a third of the energy of an incandescent
bulb to produce the same amount of light—and it lasts
10 times longer. And some CFLs now have 3-way capabilities
and can be dimmed. Visit Energy Federation, Inc. at: EFI
(6)
Upgrade and unplug: Upgrading any appliances (including
computers and TVs)? Be sure to look for the “Energy
Star” logo, which only energy efficient models can
wear. Also, turn off appliances when not in use to prevent
wasting so-called phantom energy coming in off the grid.
See: Energy
Star
(7)
Adjust your thermostats: If you don’t need a sweater
indoors, your heat is too high. Likewise, in hot weather
turn down the AC. Also, keeping your hot water at no more
than 120 degrees—the minimum temperature to keep the
water bacteria-free—is another way to save energy,
money and the environment.
(8)
Plant a tree…or 300! An average tree stores 13 pounds
of carbon per year; a mature tree can absorb upwards of
four times that amount. Just 300 trees can counterbalance
the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that one person produces
in a lifetime. So get to work! See: American
Forests
(9)
Buy offsets: Many organizations sell “carbon offsets,”
whereby you pay a voluntary fee to offset your daily CO2
emissions. The money usually goes to develop alternative,
renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar. See: The
Climate Trust, Native
Energy and Sustainable
Travel International
(10)
Get involved: Donate time or money to groups working to
fight global warming. Just about all green groups devote
some work to climate change, and they need your help. See:
Volunteer
Match
Dear
EarthTalk: I can't understand why it is not
mandatory to recycle in the U.S. In my home we recycle 80
percent and toss 20 percent and I am trying to improve those
percentages. What needs to happen to make recycling the
law of the land?
-- Vicki, Geneva, NY
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Recycling
has not caught on the way many have hoped it would,
largely because landfills are still plentiful and
have considerable capacity. But as the cost of landfills
rises, recycling begins to make more economic sense
and more locales will likely mandate recycling as
a result.
© Getty Images
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Mandatory recycling
is a hard sell in the U.S., where the economy runs largely
along free market lines and landfilling waste remains inexpensive
and efficient. When the research firm Franklin Associates
examined the issue a decade ago, it found that the value
of the materials recovered from curbside recycling was far
less than the extra costs of collection, transportation,
sorting and processing incurred by municipalities.
Plain and simple,
recycling still costs more than landfilling in most locales.
This fact, coupled with the revelation that the so-called
“landfill crisis” of the mid-1990s may have
been overblown—most of our landfills still have considerable
capacity and do not pose health hazards to surrounding communities—means
that recycling has not caught on the way some environmentalists
were hoping it would.
However, many
cities have found ways to recycle economically. They have
cut costs by scaling back the frequency of curbside pickups
and automating sorting and processing. They’ve also
found larger, more lucrative markets for the recyclables,
such as in developing countries eager to reuse our cast-off
items. Increased efforts by green groups to educate the
public about the benefits of recycling have also helped.
Today, dozens of U.S. cities are diverting upwards of 30
percent of their solid waste streams to recycling.
While recycling
remains an option for most Americans, a few cities, such
as Pittsburgh, San Diego and Seattle, have made recycling
mandatory. Seattle passed its mandatory recycling law in
2006 as a way to counter declining recycling rates there.
Recyclables are now prohibited from both residential and
business garbage. Businesses must sort for recycling all
paper, cardboard and yard waste. Households must recycle
all basic recyclables, such as paper, cardboard, aluminum,
glass and plastic. Businesses with garbage containers “contaminated”
with more than 10 recyclables are issued warnings and eventually
fines if they don’t comply. Household garbage cans
with recyclables in them are simply not collected until
the recyclables are removed to the recycling bin. Meanwhile,
a handful of other cities, including Gainesville, Florida
and Honolulu, Hawaii, require businesses to recycle, but
not yet residences.
In perhaps the
most famous case of a city putting recycling to the economic
test, New York, a national leader on recycling, decided
to stop its least cost-effective recycling programs (plastic
and glass) in 2002. But rising landfill costs ate up the
$39 million savings expected. As a result, the city reinstated
plastic and glass recycling and committed to a 20-year contract
with the country’s largest private recycling firm,
Hugo Neu Corporation, which built a state-of-the art facility
along South Brooklyn’s waterfront. There, automation
has streamlined the sorting process, and its easy access
to rail and barges has cut both the environmental and transportation
costs previously incurred by previously using trucks. The
new deal and new facility have made recycling much more
efficient for the city and its residents, proving once and
for all that responsibly run recycling programs can actually
save money, landfill space and the environment.
CONTACTS:
Franklin Associates;
Recycling
in Seattle; Hugo
Neu Corporation.
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