Today I went through my apartment and checked all of our light bulbs (all 31 of them) to see if I needed to buy CFLs (compact flourescent lights). Of the 31, I need to replace 18. Supposedly our apartment managers (names shall not be mentioned...) have gone through the apartment and made it more energy efficient, but as far as I can tell, they changed the bulbs in the common area and ignored the ones in the back of the apartment. Actually, that is pretty typical of the follow-through in our apartment's office (except for the time I got stung on the butt -- but that's a different story!). Anyway, the light fixtures were more difficult to check than I thought. A lot of them were sealed really tightly and I had to enlist help from a roommate's boyfriend to do the last one for me. Sadly, reciting the childhood phrase "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" does not mean you can untwist anything!
When will I buy the CFL's, you ask? Considering my schedule in the next week, I have no clue! But very soon! Or ... actually, maybe after my next paycheck. Finances are looking pretty slim after that Sam's Club run.
I need to come up with future projects to further this experiment, so here are a few I have thought of (with a little help from David Bach's book Go Green, Live Rich):
--Use greener make-up. I have always heard about all the toxic chemicals in make-up (here is an article from the Huggington Post) and David Bach says there are affordable brands of toxic-free make-up, so why not? Plus, aren't a lot of them tested on animals?
--Unplug appliances. I know this one is supposed to be easy, but my outlet is behind my desk! I can't reach it without contorting myself and shifting half the furniture in my bedroom around. I wondered if surge protectors still use ghost energy when switched off, but I think they do. There are, of course, special surge protectors you can buy...if you have extra $$$ to spend on a new surge protector. Also, does this extend to things like the living room lamps? Because I can see my roommates getting frustrated if I start unplugging those regularly. On the plus side, even though I use my coffee pot daily, I unplug it all the time!
I'll let you know more when I am struck with another genius idea!
I recently noticed some "green" nail polish in the Foods for Living store in East Lansing. I'd never really given much thought before to the harm nail polish (or other cosmetics) could do to our environment but it can actually be pretty potent. (http://bit.ly/3IpOum.) Of course, as a recent college grad, my difficulty is affording the good stuff. Most “green” polishes run $4 or $5, and even before I was aware of the environmental/health consequences of common nail polish, I was already forced to pass up the better quality brands for the $.99 stuff, which usually lasts about three days max. Now when I buy shoddy polish, I not only feel cheap but guilty as well. The joys of being a broke, would-be environmentalist.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! :) I hadn't considered nail polish, but I do sympathize. I also have difficulty with affording the good stuff (well, really, any stuff in general). I'll let you know if I stumble across a cheaper and greener brand though!
ReplyDeleteWhy does all the stuff we know is the right thing to purchase cost so much? It's backwards from the way it should. A lot of it is about consumer demand -- if there is enough demand, the price goes down. But a lot of it is wrapped up in the complexities of our capitalist, fast-paced, production-oriented society. I enjoyed the cosmetics article -- it was very thorough. And, don't forget to learn how to recycle those CFL's properly! You probably already know, but if you don't, let me know. Google CFL disposal. One way is to take them to Home Depot, but there's another vehicle trip!
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