It's my favorite day of the year-December 31rst- when I do my annual carbon output reckoning.  

What I count: planes, trains, automobiles and natural gas home heating. 

What I do not count:  electricity, as not only is Seattle City Light, powered by 93% renewable wind ,bio-as and hydro-power, but I also have ownership in the Seattle Community Solar program, which kicks back a certain percentage of power-and money-every year. 

 I also have a solar/electric hot water system on my actual house.

I also do not count my food choices (though I should) as I   have not figured out a way to  accurately calculate my food  footprint. So far, all the food footprint calculators either over-estimate my meat consumption, or under-estimate it.  I realize I should quit meat, and though I have cut way down, I haven't kicked the habit.


  So, for 2017:

Planes: 11,309 lbs.
Trains:  35 lbs.
Automobiles: 156 lbs.  (I drive electric cars 100% at home- the gas is from travel car rentals)
Nat Gas: 213 lbs.          
Total: 11,678 lbs.   ( 5.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide)

 This is 25% of what the average American produces which is 20.5 metric tons CO2-equivalent per person. (University of Michigan) (4.7  metric tons of  that is from cars alone.  (EPA)

If I made made no plane trips in 2017, my carbon output would have been 369 lbs. Wow.
(Until you factor in meat, clothes, water, etc,)

So- while in comparison to 2010 and 2014, 2017 for me sucks as far as output goes, I am still proud of what I have been able to do over the last 10 years.  


HOW  DEB DOES THE MATH:

Air Travel: 
(I forget where I got this formula I will  update post when I find it again)
Short haul <727.45 miles   0.64 lbs/mile 
Med haul <2575 miles       0.44 lbs/mile 
Long haul >2575 miles       0.39lbs/mile

Gasoline: 
(www.epa.gov)
1 gallon of gasoline = 19.4 pounds of C02 

Natural Gas:
(www.scientificblogging.com)
1 therm= 11.7 pounds of C0

Electricity: 
(www.seattle.gov/light/) 
1 kWh in Seattle= 0 pounds of CO2 ​

#carbonfootprint#carbonoutput #greenhousegasses #zerowaste #noplastic #zeroemissions #electriccars #airtravel #garbagefootprint #waterfootprint #foodfootprint #noimpact #leavenotrace #climatechange #globalwarning #350Challange 

This is my  2017 trash:-)

 It’s everything I could not refuse, reuse, repair, recycle, or rot (compost).

The major problem areas are:

• medical waste
• cat food bags,
• sticky tape from packages in the mail
• unexpected plastic packaging
• fruit stickers
• tags off products that *look* like paper but are actually coated in plastic
• unwanted straws
• plastic seals around glass bottles
• dental floss
• take out food surprises (for example Taco Bell wraps it’s burritos in paper but then throws in a plastic container full of cheese whiz even when I didn’t ask for it.

While I wish there were fewer of these jars I’m proud of myself for sticking close to my goal of one jar a month: there are 13 jars worth here.

The other thing I’m proud of myself is that I did two trips to Europe this year and still manage to make very little waste while traveling.

The April Europe trip is contained in 2/3 of the April jar. But sadly, I made more trash on my September Europe trip (threeZiploc bags worth) and unfortunately,I  didn’t have enough room my suitcase to pack back all three bags.

 I am going to try and slash my 2018 trash output in half-six jars. (I almost managed that in 2015!)
 Who will join me in the one jar every two months challenge for 2018?

P.S.I know it’s not quite the end of the year yet but there still a little bit of room in the top of December jar, so I’m covered!

I was recently asked by someone at a party whether if my recycling output went up, at the same time that my trash output went down.  The answer is no. 

As you can see over the last nine years, the more conscious of a consumer I have become, the less of everything I have to put at the curb. You can see the shapes of the graph lines mimic each other.

The one odd peak in recycling was last year: my mom died, and I received dozens of shipments from her house to mine holding inherited furniture, books and family mementos.  The understandably generated a whole lot more cardboard and packing paper recyclables. 

You'll note my garbage output also went up in 2016.  cleaning out after the death of a loved one is not only emotionally hard and sad, but also hard on being "zero-waste"...though if you re-frame that as using and reusing favorite family heirlooms and furniture (rather than buying new) perhaps it all cancels out.

#zerowaste #Refuse #Reduce #Repair #Reuse #Recycle #Rot #Compost #LeaveNoTrace #NoImpact #ReduceCarbonFootprint #ReduceGarbageFootprint #PlasticPollution #PlasticFreeLife #0WasteHome #NoLandfill #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #ReviewSingleUsePlastic #PlasticPollutionCoalition #zerodechets #sansimpact #bio #refuseplastique #recyclage #refuse #repairer #charbon #ecomodedevie ​

Being an electric vehicle enthusiast (I own both a TESLA Model S and a Nissan LEAF), I'd been anxious to experience driving GM's latest EV, the Chevy BOLT.  So, in the name of Investigative Reporting, my  cousin Caroline and I rented a BOLT  from TURO.com (the Air BnB of spare cars) and did an overnight trip from Seattle to Bellingham, WA.

The morning of December 7, I  drove my LEAF down  to Renton, parked it at the BOLT's owners house, and after a quick intro, went back to Seattle.   This was after I stopped off at the Kia dealership to charge up the car, which the owner had only given me 50% charged.  After correcting this at the EVGO SAE combo fast-charging station at Renton Landing, I picked up Caroline and  we  took off.

What fun! The Bolt is a fast and zippy drive! The BOLT does zero to 60 MPH in 6.5 seconds, as opposed to my LEAF which takes 10.7 seconds  Of course, all electric vehicle are: the lack of gears and high-low end torque always deliver a punch pickup and acceleration.  (My TESLA, of course, wins this competition by going zero t 60 in 5.4)

The BOLT handles really well and gives a smooth ride. Not much road noise.  The range, of  course, also beats the LEAF: 238 miles per charge as opposed to my LEAF's 105.  Plenty of head, leg and cargo storage in the BOLT as well.

The two major things I didn't like about the BOLT: the SAE fast charging standard as opposed to Chadamo  and the less-then-intuitive "infotainment" interface.  

At the moment, there are twice as many Chadamo stations in Washington as SAE Combos. Of course, the LEAFS, Kia SOUL EVs and Mitsubishi i-Mievs that use them have a much lesser range than the BOLT, and thus need to be charged more often is part of that reason. However, there being only *one* SAE combo charger between Seattle and Bellingham  (in Marysville, WA)  was anxiety-provoking: should that *one* station be out of order, we would have been stuck searching for the much slower Level Two. There were also no SAE combos in Bellingham (whereas there are several Chadamos). 

The Infotainment interface seemed to have all the touch-screen buttons and read-outs where I least expected them. This could be jsut because I am used to my own cars and thus biased. I also found The Bolt's OnStar Navigation confusing to use, but again that is probably because I didn't have enough time to really stuffy how to use it during one, short overnight trip. Plus, I am personally spoiled by my TESLAs voice-command, Googe Map-linked system.  Needless to say, I just used my iPhone mapping tp get us where we needed to go.

Would I buy the Chevy BOLT? Most likely yes...at some point, but not now. I would like to see more SAE options and I would mostly definitively NOT be able to drive the BOLT easily across the US as those Stations are still mostly on the West or East Coast. (Again, I am spoiled by my Tesla)

But I will say again, that the BOLT is really  fun to drive! Especially its acceleration and handing.
Thank you to the BOLT's owner, Zale, for listing his baby on TURO, and thanks to the TURO app for even existing- it's a great way to rent electric vehicles (and gas vehicles too) in a way that supports individual owners as as opposed to faceless corporations.

Oh, and did I mention the BOLT is a very good-looking car?

Merry Christmas!  But is it really?  According to Stanford University, Americans throw away 25% more trash during the holidays than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week! Ugh.

Even as a kid,  I had mixed feelings about the paper waste generated. I loved the bright, beautiful Christmas wrapping paper as much as I went happily nuts over the gifts from Santa. I would beg my Mom to let me save the prettiest for my crafts box tools. I hated watching her burn up all the used wrapping paper in the fireplace.

But it does not have to be like this. You can have a festive, gift-filled, decoration-filled and colorful holiday without stressing your budget or the planet! Here are some tips to "go zero-waste" at Christmas and be light on the earth (and the landfills) without feeling deprived:

1. Re-think  your Christmas Tree.

While live trees grown on farms do add oxygen to the air and absorb CO2, they take  tens of thousand of gallons of water to grow. Added that most folks do not compost their trees, you have a lot of added landfill. Fake Christmas trees can be reused after year, they are usually made of toxic plastic that eventually ends up in the landfill and waterways.  Why not get creative and make a "tree" out of something different?

2. Re-think buying virgin paper gift-wrap.

Approximately 4 million tons of paper gets wasted  on holiday gift-wrap alone.  While much of this paper can be recycles, paper with glitter, sparkles  or metalics cannot.  Why not grt creative and  reuse other paper to to wrap your gifts?

3. Don't use paper at all, but wrap gifts in cloth!

Furoshiki is the  Japanese art of wrapping items in fabric. Talk about reusable! I don't think anyone can argue that the fabric-wrapped gifts above are dull and un-festive! You can wash and re-use the fabric year after year. Even better? Make the cloth a a gift as well, like a dishtowel or a scarf!

4. Look for reusable advent calendars

My mother bought this adorable Advent calendar over 25 years ago from the Boston Museum of Modern Art. It show no sign of wear and, miraculously, none of the cloth Creche figures have been lost! It strikes me that one could make a similar-style calendar, but fill the pockets with candies or other small goodies. 

5. Give experiences, not stuff.

Humans crave love, time and attention more than anything bought in a store.  Give the gift of an experience you can share together over lots of cheap, plastic stuff.  My boyfriend makes custom coupons for his nephews and God-children every year for "A Day With Uncle Jason: Good for One Meal at Your Favorite Restaurant, Your Choice of a Movie, and an Excursion to the Bookstore for One New Book".
(OK- the book is a thing, but it's a part of the whole time with Uncle Jason deal)

Some ideas for gifting experiences:

-Theater tickets to a live play
-Going up in a hot air balloon
-Camping excursion
-A cooking class (kids or adults)
-"Good for One Hour With Mom/Dad" coupon
-A "Get Out Of One Chore " coupon.
-A "Control The Remote" for one evening
-Bird watching expedition
-Go to the Beach Picnic, Food Provided
-Museums tickets
-Reataurant Coupon
-"Be a Tourist In Your Own Town For The Day" 

...and the list of ideas  goes on and on and on!

Merry Christmas!    -Deb