I learned something new this week, about microwaves. No, the government isn't using them to send you secret messages, and you don't need an aluminium beanie. But guess what actually causes the most greenhouse gas emissions from your microwave? My guess was cooking with it (although microwaves are actually a very enegy-efficient way of cooking). But no! Over the course of a year, most microwaves cause more greenhouse emissions from the digital clock than from cooking with them! So, I've decided to turn mine off at the powerpoint when we're not using it - we really only use it to reheat drinks, heat up a wheat bag, or occasionally defrost some meat if we're really disorganised. We probably use it three times a week.
Going carbon neutral - there are many websites out there promising to plant trees, etc to make you carbon neutral. I am deeply suspicious of this process. I think it makes people think that they can carry on behaving as they were, and just pay someone to plant some trees and it will all be fine. But - even aside from any other issues - the trees take 30 years to absorb the carbon, and there are a LOT of other issues with the concept (there's a really good paper here, complete with illustrations from Chaucer, which it turns out are quite relevant). Basically, don't feel like you can carry on consuming at a rate of, you know, 10 planets per person, and think it will all be okay if you pay someone to plant trees. IT WON'T.
Dimmable CFLs. Most CFLs can't be used with dimmer switches as apparently they can explode. GE makes a special dimmable CFL, but so far I haven't had any luck finding any. However, my (evil mysoginistic) hardware shop called me to tell me they can order them in. Hurrah! The downside is, they cost (eek) $29 each. But I've ordered two of them, and once they arrive the non CFLs will be restricted to the one light in the hallway we can't reach, and, er, the bedside lamp (which uses this weird miniature bulb that's like a car headlight bulb. I think it's only about 7 watts anyway) and the teasmaid, which I think I can actually possibly get a candle-type CFL for, so I shall investigate that next week. Anyway, if you have dimmer switches and didn't want to put CFLs in them for fear of 'splosions, get your hardware shop to order GE dimmables.
The ultimate in recycling: organ donation. Sean just told me he had signed up to be an organ donor, and since that seemed kindofinspiring, I thought I'd give you all a nudge if you're not already donors (since I already signed up a while ago, so I can't add that to my recycling this week).
I'm actually thinking of doing an ultimate guide to recycling, that covers all the stuff not collected by the council. Something to ponder - and if anyone has any suggestions, leave them in the comments (Princess E, I am remembering your sneaker recycling tip!)
What else? Oh yes, the tea and coffee thing. Well, I just discovered that I'm an idiot. I had stopped buying my beloved Goroka organic espresso beans, and started buying PNG dark organic beans (also nice but not quite as nice) on the grounds that coffee from PNG is saving carbon miles. But then when I looked up where Goroka beans came from? Yes, Goroka is actually IN PNG, so not saving any miles at all and I can go back to buying Goroka (hurrah!) But I am a completely geographically clueless twit! On a slightly more positive note, I did buy some Australian loose-leaf tea, to drink at work instead of the individually packaged imported tea bags. Still going d'oh about the coffee though. But I would like to say that McIvers, at Vic Market, where I buy my coffee, has the absolute best coffee in Melbourne, and they use paper coffee bags, and if you take the bag back for a refill they give you 20c off your next bag of coffee. And they're committed to supplying fair trade and organic, so many hurrahs for them (plus they're all lovely, friendly and knowledgeable).
We're cleaning out our courtyard this weekend - the mini-skip awaits us - and next weekend we have our housewarming, hurrah. But during the week next week I may be starting work on our wormfarm - which I shall make from polystyrene boxes from the greengrocer. It's dead simple - you just make some holes in bottoms of the top ones, grab your worms, and off you go. Saving yourself quite some money in the process, since the bought ones are pretty expensive!
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