Mom Goes Green

Before my pursuit of green, I was a serious offender… I was one of those people who used to leave the charger for my cell phone plugged in AT ALL TIMES!

I’ve since learned the err of my ways.  The Department of Energy estimates that 20-25% of the energy used in our homes is actually consumed by electronics that are in stand-by mode or even “turned off”.  Just because it’s not actively being used DOESN’T mean we aren’t using electricity… they still pull and consume energy if they are plugged into an outlet.  They also estimate that this collectively costs us $7 billion per year and would require 37 power plants to produce this volume of “unused” electricity!  And this energy waste amounts to approximately 97 billion pounds of CO2 emitted into our atmosphere… a major environmental offense!

The best way to avoid this useless consumption of energy is by plugging the worst household offenders into a power strip.  Simple as that.  I’m talking about computers, printers, scanners, monitors, TVs, DVD/VCR players, TiVos and DVRs, game systems, chargers, stereos (are those “so ’90s” now?!?!) and just any of those electronics and large appliances that don’t need a constant power supply.  In fact, up to 75% of the energy they pull is actually consumed when they aren’t being actively used!

I have also learned that while small household appliances do pull a very small amount of electricity if they have a clock or power indicator, they aren’t the major culprits, so you don’t need to get neurotic.  But if you do have a microwave, radios, clocks, etc. that you don’t often use, unplug them.  Even consider unplugging your electric washer and dryer. And when you do need them, just plug them back in.

With power strips, a flick of one switch can often nearly eliminate this “phantom” power use.  Even if you only plugged in your TV and all of its associated systems, it could save about 2% on your energy bill, since the power strip reduces approximately 15 watts of power down to two watts! And if you want to make it zero, flip the switch and just unplug the power strip!

So, “strip” those bad boys, flip the switch, unplug it and cut the waste.  (Some days I wish my kids were on a power strip so I could unplug their energy too!)

So the whole “dead washer” thing got me thinking about other washing… dishwashing.

For some reason, ever since my daughter was a baby, I have felt compelled to wash my kids’ dishes, cups, utensils, etc. by hand. I suppose my logic has to do with the feeling that when I scrub them by hand, I can insure they get really, really clean, and they don’t sit around in a dishwasher, picking up cooties from other stuff.  Yeah, may be ridiculous, but it’s made sense to me for the past 6-1/2 years!

So I set out to see how wasteful that really is.  Lo and behold, in my newest quest of dishwasher vs. hand-washing, I learned a lot.  So, here I am to share this with you too!…

First, and most compelling:  newer dishwashers use only half the energy, one-sixth the water and much less soap, compared to hand-washing.  The cleanliness factory also favors dishwashers (BAH! I’m wrong again!).

Just think about how much water you waste waiting for the right temperature when you’re hand- washing?! I was guilty of that, big time.  And my husband is NOTORIOUS for wandering around the kitchen, doing other things, while water is still running! (… that remains a small (huge) pet peeve of mine, dear husband!)

You can also make your process more eco-friendly by skipping the pre-wash cycle, only running full loads and skipping the heat dry (that ALONE, saves 50% of the energy use!).

I understand that there may be methods of hand-washing that use very small amounts of water.  I also know that, in order to get truly clean items out of the dishwasher, they do need a degree of cleaning and elbow-grease before they reach the dishwasher, but this should be done quickly and immediately, before all of the food gets dried on … (oh yummy! It’s that “cootie factor” I always feared!)

So, SHOCKER!  Appliance wins this battle!  I’m going to give so much hand-washing a break and try to use the appliance exclusively for a while and see how it goes.  “Dishwasher” is one of the ‘Mom titles’ I’m willing to give up.

Yep…dead.  It was loaded up with my kids’ laundry and the damn thing wouldn’t spin.  It was such a joy to wring every item by hand so I could put them in the dryer (so, wringing?  That’s how they used to do it, huh?).

Of course, it was only one year beyond warranty(!), and the repair would have been so costly the only choice was to buy a new one. Fabulous.

The irony of the whole event is the education I received in my quest to find a new washer.  Did you know that top-loading washers require massive amounts of energy and water?… something I never thought about for a second, and I walked into the store expecting that’s what I would buy.  Was I ever wrong.

Front-loading washers are such an environmentally-conscious choice and I had no idea. I’ll wrap this in a nutshell:  They require 60% less water, 50% less energy to heat the water, hold larger loads (because there’s no agitator – so you will need to do fewer loads) and they spin faster (extracting more water and reducing the dry time in your dryer) and in turn, consume less dryer energy.  I love it!

If every U.S. household replaced their washer with a front-loading washer, the water saved each year could fill more than one million Olympic-sized swimming pools. ONE MILLION.

Meet my new washer…isn’t she pretty?   Sure, it cost more, but over time the savings in water and energy will balance it out, and now that I “know what I know”, I wouldn’t dream of NOT making the environmental choice.

Of course, one of my concerns was what happens to my poor, old, dead washer.  I am happy to report that the retailer has a local contract and it will be picked up and all recyclable parts and materials WILL be recycled.  Whew!  Without that kind of answer, I don’t think I would have bought from them…

…so, I just got greener…and since I am a green mom, I suppose the death of my “water & energy sucking” washing machine was destiny, with a splash of fate.  No problem.  I’ll take that wake-up call.