Eco Design + Living

 Share the Love.

Locals and not so locals share their efforts to go green and lessen their impact on the environment. Read their comments and stories below and share your own.

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We almost always buy beer in cans, since bay county doesn’t recycle glass.

lt from pcb

Smart thinking lt, since cans are lighter to transport than glass and aluminum is a high recovery recyclable material. That means it’s one of the best materials to recycle.  Read more below from this website.

Aluminum

Recovery of aluminum for recycling has dropped from a high of 68% in 1992 to just over 53% in 2002.  While aluminum recovery has fluctuated, it has a long history of recycling primarily because recycled aluminum provides significant energy savings compared to the use of virgin raw materials (mainly the ore bauxite).

Although aluminum is a nonrenewable resource, it can be recycled indefinitely. Recycled cans  are melted into ingots weighing up to 60,000 pounds-enough aluminum to make 1.6 million new cans. It takes 60 days for a can to journey from the recycling bin through the recycling process and back on store shelves.

Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy needed to produce new aluminum from raw materials. Energy saved from recycling one ton of aluminum is equal to the amount of electricity the average home uses over 10 years. The value of aluminum also typically covers the cost for its collection and reprocessing.  Recyclers paid nearly $1 billion for aluminum beverage cans in 2002.

Besides cans, other aluminum products that can be recycled include foil wrap, food cans, pie plates, frozen food trays, lawn chair tubing, storm door and window frames, residential siding, and auto parts.

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Dear Eco Design + Living,

I would like to keep my identity anonymous for reason of personal and family security. You see, I live in a rural area in Northern Alabama and I fear that if the local authorities got wind of my activities, they may see fit to contact child protective services. This I find to be amusing and frightening at the same time. Our family made a decision a year ago to participate in the Riot for Austerity Project, which was a call by Sharon Astyk for citizens to actively work to reduce their emissions by 90% as indicated by George Monbiot in his book _Heat_. According to Monbiot, Americans need to reduce their emmissions by over 90% (their fair share) in order to arrest catastrophic climate change.  I can see already that I’ll be exceeding the 250 word limit. Forgive me.

Some may ridicule us as eco-evangelical kooks, though we agreed as a family to put our beliefs into practice for the good of the Earth and ultimately humanity. To summarize, we permanently unplugged the refrigerator, sold one of our cars, keep the heat at 55 degrees in the winter, and the air conditioning we forgo. We put in a 1/2 acre kitchen garden, acquired a dozen chickens, canning equipment, a hand crank grain grinder, bicycles, a solar oven, a composting toilet, and the list goes on. Of course, this all happened over the course of a year - not all at once. We are not isolated from our community as some would thing, we have actually become MORE involved with community. We have drastically reduced our monthly expenses, I’ve lost some weight and everyone in the family has learned new survival and home economics skills. I feel that we are better prepared for an uncertain future at the least and at most, more in touch with the bounty that this Earth provides. The benefits of this lifestyle choice go beyond what I can express here.

Thanks for allowing me to share and I hope this is indeed an inspiration to others.

Somewhere near Steele, AL

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I have a system of using vegetables and other non-meat products that allows for very little wasted food. First tier is a human edible quality level of foods, what I don’t eat goes to the next level, my animals.

The birds get things like outer leaves of lettuce, the seeds from cantaloupe, green peppers, pumpkins, etc. and when the other veggies I have for the parrots get past prime I use these and other produce scraps, such as broccoli stalks, carrot peelings, sweet potato skins, some fruit, etc. for animal food.

I save it all and at the end of the week I lightly steam all and run it through the food processor to add to my home made dog food patties. I also reuse the pulp from some juicing in my dog food. I get my money’s worth out of my vegetable food dollars spent and have healthier animals as well.

I also recycle newspaper to use in the bird cages, then I will recycle the soiled newspaper into the compost pile. I reuse quite a lot of paper towels from household use to use in my studio to clean up paint brushes.

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• I buy local produce as much as possible to avoid both the cost of shipping and the packaging which I hate.
• I plant a small container vegetable garden
• I use cloth napkins and real dishes to avoid paper products
• I have researched and use “green” cleaning supplies
• I drive a car that gets 32 mph; next car will be electric I hope
• I attempt to recycle–Walton County makes this more difficult than it should be IMO
• With the help of my five year old granddaughter, I have found a thermos and given up juice boxes
• I bought a water filter pitcher and do not buy plastic bottles of water anymore
• I have changed out all my light bulbs
• I have a dehumidifier and use the water it collects from the air to water my plants and garden

Glenda Wood
Santa Rosa Beach

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