#GreenTips from the Environmental Stewardship Team
“We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.”
- Anne-Marie Bonneau @ZeroWasteChef
Holiday Season
Have you ever wondered which is “better”: an artificial Christmas tree or a live-cut tree? “The results of the assessment showed that one artificial tree used for 6 years requires less energy to produce than six live-cut trees. If it is used for more than 6 years, the artificial tree may be the greener option.” (Kerul Kassel, The Thinking Executive's Guide to Sustainability)
Be sure to recycle your live-cut Christmas tree after the holidays are over. First, remove all the tree’s accessories. Second, check the collection and drop-off dates for tree recycling in your area. Third, wrap the tree in a blanket for temporary transport to the nearest recycling drop-off. For an even greener option, live potted Christmas trees have been showing up in the Nashville area. Or, dig up a small tree in your own yard, and replant it after Christmas.
This Christmas season, try giving meaningful gifts or experiences instead of gifts that will never be used. See the Presbyterian Giving Catalog, the Heifer Gift Catalog, or Nicholas Kristof’s list of gifts that change lives. As Kristof says: “My point is that gift-giving can be exciting, even lifesaving. Most of us don’t need more neckties or earrings, and it’s far more thrilling to give a child a better brain, a malnourished family some protein-rich insect larva, or a hemorrhaging mom her life back.”
When wrapping gifts this Christmas season, remember that foil or glitter-decorated wrapping paper cannot be recycled. Instead of using paper for wrapping, think outside the (gift) box: use a dish towel, a reusable cloth bag, newspaper or your kid’s artwork.
If you had a live-cut Christmas tree, you can drop it off at Radnor Lake or a number of local parks to be mulched. Remove all the tree’s accessories, check the collection and drop-off dates for tree recycling in your area, and wrap the tree in a blanket for temporary transport to the nearest recycling tree drop-off.
Batteries
Even though today’s batteries contain less mercury than they used to, it is still good practice to recycle batteries instead of throwing it in the trash. Rechargeable batteries contain potentially toxic heavy metals and should always be recycled. Bring your batteries to church and put it in the labeled container in the café.
Alkaline batteries do not contain enough metals for recycling to be economically profitable. Metro only recycles rechargeable batteries. Since recycling batteries conserve our resources and helps prevent possible pollution when the heavy metals react with rain water in the landfills, the Environmental Stewardship Team sends all batteries collected at church to a company that will recycle all types of batteries. It costs about $110 per bucket of 55 lbs of batteries – we’ve filled two of these buckets recently. If you regularly drop off batteries at church and would like to contribute to this service, please donate to Second Presbyterian Church and write “batteries” in the Memo line. Thanks!
Refuse / Recycle
Do you have a green New Year’s resolution? How about trying to remember your reusable shopping bags whenever you go to the store! Currently, we use about 100 billion plastic bags per year in the US. On average, we recycle about 1 out of 200 plastic bags. While cleaning a stream in the fall, the youth found hundreds of plastic bags, busy disintegrating and floating in our water. Try to see how little, if any, plastic bags you can use this year!
Did you know that you can recycle milk cartons, (clean) tin foil and black plastic containers? As recycling technology changes, what we can put in our single-stream recycling bins changes. Curious Nashville recently had a very informative blog post answering questions about recycling and an episode about what happens when the wrong stuff gets in the recycling bin. The current landfill for Davidson County will be full in 3-4 years. We need to reduce our trash by refusing, reusing and recycling.
Styrofoam breaks down into tiny pieces and persist in nature, so it is best to avoid. But sometimes it is unavoidable and you end up with big pieces when you buy a new appliance. EFP Corp. accepts clean Styrofoam (with the exception of packing peanuts). Go to the front door and drop it off M-F 7am-3:30pm: EFP Corp., 1501 Corporate Place, Suite 100, LaVergne, TN 37086, 615-832-6222. Styrofoam from egg or small food containers can be dropped off at Publix.
Paper receipts are tiny items with significant environmental impacts and health risks for workers and customers. Every year in the US, 1 billion gallons of water, 10 million trees, and 250 million gallons of oil are consumed in the creation of paper receipts. Since these slips are generally non-recyclable, they create 1.5 billion pounds of waste. Additionally, thermal paper receipts made with BPA can contribute to human health issues. You can decline the receipt, ask for a digital receipt instead, fold it printed side in to lessen your exposure to BPA, or ask your favorite retailer to consider non-toxic and digital alternatives. Learn more about the Skip the Slip campaign at https://www.greenamerica.org/report-skip-the-slip.
How clean should my recyclables be? Am I wasting water by washing recyclables? If you’ve ever thought about these questions, this article explains that you only need to rinse them enough so that you don’t attract vermin, or contaminate the paper in your bin. No soap needed! Plastic gets heated during the recycling process, and a little bit of stuck-on food is fine. Recycling containers saves a lot of energy: recycling an aluminum can saves 95% of the energy used to make a new one. So recycle away!
Did you know that over 500 million plastic straws are used each day in the United States? Straws are too small to easily be recycled, and most become trash and end up in our streams and rivers, and ultimately in the ocean. You have the power to refuse plastic straws! When you order a drink say “Without a straw, please!”. Ask restaurant owners to switch to a “straws on request” policy. Carry your own reusable metal straws. See 5Gyres for other straw tips.
Cigarette butts are the most frequently littered item. It is not biodegradable, since cigarette filters are made of plastic. Your Environmental Stewardship Team installed a TerraCycle Cigarette Waste Receptacle on the patio, where anyone using our facilities can recycle their cigarette waste. The plastic part is recycled into industrial products such as plastic pallets, and the remaining tobacco is recycled as compost. If you have smokers at your workplace, consider exploring installing one of these receptacles so that a little less waste end up in our landfills or on our sidewalks.
The Environmental Stewardship team recently added 16 more recycling bins all over the church building. We added standardized labels to the recycling and landfill bins, because standardized labels increase recycling rates and lead to less contamination. Our trash goes to Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro. It will be full in 6 years, and we need to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot (compost). Ask Michelle or someone on the Environmental Stewardship team if you have a question about recycling.
Do you have a never-ending flow of junk mail to your house? DMAChoice.org, a tool offered by the Data & Marketing Association, lets you say no to multiple categories of mail. It costs $2 and lasts for 10 years. Catalogchoice.org is a free alternative, but only allows you to unsubscribe from catalogs one at a time. Sign up for OptOutPrescreen.com, a service offered by the major credit bureaus, to unsubscribe from preapproved credit and insurance offers. You’ll need to give them some personal information, but don’t worry — it’s a legitimate service, recommended by the Federal Trade Commission. You can opt out for five years online, or you can mail in a form to opt out permanently. Opt out of receiving the Yellow Pages books at yellowpagesoptout.com. Find more ideas for how to cut down on unwanted junk mail in this NYTimes article and this Washington Post article, and save some trees and your sanity.
You may want to think twice before replacing your cellphone every two years, because cellphone manufacturing has a surprisingly large environmental impact in the real world. The NY Times reported that producing a smartphone released the equivalent of 178 pounds of carbon dioxide, about as much as running a refrigerator for a year. Mining for the 60-plus metals that go into your phone, has quite an impact! Hang on to your phone for longer than two years, and when you need to replace it, recycle your old device and consider buying a used one.
We all know about the numerous benefits of recycling. Metro Public Works has a memo about the impact of international recycling markets on Nashville’s recycling. In short, none of our recyclables go directly overseas, but 29% of our recyclable material is contaminated and end up being landfilled. The biggest contaminants are plastic bags, and plastic bags full of recyclables. Do not bag your recyclables! If you aren’t sure if something can be recycled (called wish-cycling), do not put it in your recycling container. Visit nashville.gov/recycle to see what can be recycled. Read next week to learn how to become a super recycler!
Tips to become a super recycler:
· Collect your small plastic pieces like milk carton tabs in a larger plastic container with a lid for effective recycling. The small pieces of plastic can clog the system but plastic is shredded for recycling and then floated in water where the types of plastic float to different levels. That is why you can leave the plastic lids on your plastic jars/bottles even though it can be two different kinds of plastic.
· Unsure if those plastic bags, wraps or films in your home can be recycled? Here’s a list of some of the most common plastic film items that can be recycled, at a drop-off location at your favorite grocery store (Kroger, Publix, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart…)
More tips to become a super recycler:
· Most metallic items in the home can be recycled, such as empty spray cans and tin foil, and of course, all empty soda, fruit, vegetable and other food cans.
· Clean pizza boxes can be recycled – just dump out the crumbs and cheese before recycling. If the box has grease stains, tear off the grease-free top and put it in the recycling bin (the half with the grease stains can be composted).
More tips to become a super recycler: Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population but generate 30% of the world’s garbage. Keep recycling containers around your home near your regular trash cans or even better, replace your trash cans with recycling containers and keep only one trash can in the house. Make sure you have recycling containers in the bathroom, home office and the kitchen. If you have a yard, consider creating a compost pile for recycling your organic matter. If you have lots of bones or meat scraps that can’t be composted at home, keep it in your freezer and drop off in the church commercial compost bin (outside by the dumpsters) on Sundays.
More tips to become a super recycler: The first rule of recycling is to reduce your waste. Avoid disposables and choose products that use less packaging or is made from recycled materials. Look for zero waste/package free shops (Nashville has a new one! Look for The Good Fill in East Nashville), refuse the plastic bag when you are out shopping, and shop Farmer’s Markets to avoid packaged food.
More tips to become a super recycler: Sometimes your local retailer doesn’t have the sustainable gear you are looking for, and you need to order it from Amazon. Here are some tips to make your Amazon purchase as sustainable as possible:
· Start with emailing Customer Service (cs-reply@amazon.com). Ask them to make a note in your account to avoid plastic packaging or avoid extra packaging when possible. (No, there’s not a way to do this manually.) They’ll make a note to avoid plastic on your account, but it’s up to the distributors whether they do it or not. Definitely not a guaranteed method, but worth a try.
· If you’re ordering multiple items, be sure to request that they be sent together. It might take a few days longer to get your items, but you’ll get far less cardboard/plastic packaging with one bulk delivery.
More tips to become a super recycler: Instead of ditching your obsolete tech into the trash, first see if you can find a non-profit that can use it, or a retail location that has a “take back” program. Electronic waste is not allowed in the trash in Davidson County and should be recycled. East and Omohundro Convenience Centers take electronic waste. Check the Metro website for hours, since these recently changed.
More tips to become a super recycler: Do you have CFL lightbulbs or florescent tubes that you don’t know where to take? How about antifreeze, insecticide, oil based paint, or paint thinner? See the list of hazardous waste items that you can take to Ezell Pike or East Convenience Centers. Check the Metro website for hours, since these recently changed. Remember that latex paint is not considered hazardous waste. Either give it away to someone that can reuse it such as Turnip Green Creative Reuse, or dry it out and place it in your regular trash.
For a printable 2019 "Lent Reflection-Action Calendar” click here.
This Lent, the Environmental Stewardship Team invites you to tread more lightly on the earth by cutting down on your plastic use. This week, take a walk to appreciate the earth’s natural beauty. Remember why preserving the earth is crucial for the health of our children and grandchildren, as well as for the animals that roam the earth.
As we consider how to reduce our reliance on disposable products, this NPR article has some great ideas on how to create a more environmentally friendly and sustainable kitchen. Plastic is a part of modern life and it is impossible to totally get rid of plastic in our everyday lives, but we can make thoughtful decisions, think before we buy and recycle everything we can.
This Lent, the Environmental Stewardship Team invites you to tread more lightly on the earth by cutting down on your plastic use. The 4 R’s are: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle – and in that order of priority. Try to refuse something this week: a straw, a plastic giveaway, a plastic bag, a plastic cup. We are not going to recycle ourselves out of our plastic problem!
This Lent, the Environmental Stewardship Team invites you to tread more lightly on the earth by cutting down on your plastic use. You may have figured out how to shop (nearly) plastic-free in Nashville: you know which Farmers’ Markets to go to, which grocery stores have good bulk sections, and you know about The Good Fill: a pop-up shop where you can refill your own containers with personal care products or cleaning products. But what about when you travel? Pack a cloth bag or two, and use the Zero Waste Home Bulk locator or the Litterless Where to Shop page to find stores where you can purchase food and household staples without packaging in your own containers.
This Lent, the Environmental Stewardship Team invites you to tread more lightly on the earth by cutting down on your plastic use. Now that the Tennessee legislature is poised to pass HB1021/SB431 – a ban on local governments passing plastic bans – we have to shift our focus from asking our local governments to tax/ban single-use plastic, to asking local establishments to minimize plastic. Write to your favorite grocery store to ask that they use less plastic packaging and phase out plastic bags. If you frequent a certain restaurant and notice that they automatically put straws in all the drinks or give Styrofoam for takeout containers, talk or write to the manager and ask for more earth-friendly options. Together we can make changes to our community.
This Lent, the Environmental Stewardship Team invites you to tread more lightly on the earth by cutting down on your plastic use. Not everything is recyclable, but some companies specialize in recycling solutions for hard-to-recycle items. You may have noticed the two containers on the patios for cigarette waste: Terracycle recycles the cigarette butts and packaging into new products such as plastic pallets, and composts the ash and tobacco. Now Terracycle also has free recycling programs for oral care products (toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, and floss containers), razors, snack bags, and many more. If you are ready for the next step in recycling, check out companies such as Terracycle and local non-profit Turnip Green.
This Lent, the Environmental Stewardship Team invited you to tread more lightly on the earth by cutting down on your plastic use. We hope you tried a new habit: taking along takeout containers when going out to dinner, refusing a straw at your favorite restaurant, recycling more. Choose one or more of the practices from this Lent that may be meaningful to you to adopt for the year ahead, as a way to show your care for all God’s creation.
Nashville Metro Public Works recently announced changes in what can be recycled in the Curby bins. If you live in the Urban Services District and have city pickup, please note these changes: no Aluminum foil, no plastic take-out containers, and please make sure everything you put in the recycling bin is clean. The main reason for these changes is our extremely high level of contamination here in Nashville. Ask Michelle if you have questions! If you have private recycling pickup, find out directly from them if their rules changed. For instance, EarthSavers no longer takes Styrofoam. Unfortunately, recycling rules change as the markets change. I’m undertaking to take my own containers to restaurants for leftovers and minimizing plastic food containers coming into our house.
In light of the changes to Metro Nashville’s recycling system as described in last week’s green tip (no more plastic to-go containers or aluminum foil in recycling), the Tennessee Environmental Council and Zero Waste Trash Talk have developed a campaign to acknowledge Nashville restaurants who are already using compostable materials and to encourage those using single-use plastics to switch over to compostable materials where applicable. Here's how you can help: When you notice a Nashville restaurant giving out compostable materials or single-use plastics, take a minute and submit what you notice through this Restaurant Sustainability Form. Then, write to the restaurant (or post a photo to social media and tag the restaurant) either thanking the business for choosing compostables or politely asking them to do better. As data gets compiled, the group organizers will offer guidance to these businesses on how they can switch over to compostables and start composting. It is important to remember that compostable products whether plant-based plastic or fiber are not recyclable with regular recycling. You can drop it off at church in our green Compost bin, outside by the dumpsters!
Balloons released into the air eventually burst or run out of helium and fall back to earth. The balloon and the ribbon pose a huge risk to wildlife since animals mistake them for food, eat them, and can die. Balloon releases also litter our environment. Some ideas of what to do instead of balloon releases: blow bubbles, plant a tree, release flowers into the ocean, do a random act of kindness, or make and spread wildflower seed bombs.
Take your wine corks (only the natural cork ones) to your nearest Whole Foods Market and drop it into the convenient Cork ReHarvest box! You can read more at this link about the program and what happens to the corks.
Composting
Used coffee grounds is a great addition to your compost pile. You can also add used coffee filters. You can also use the coffee grounds as fertilizer and work the coffee grounds into the soil around your plants. For more composting tips, join us this Sunday for a composting workshop during Adult Education time.
We now have commercial composting at Second Presbyterian! Compost Nashville will pick up our compost every week. There is one smallish green bin in the café, and one in the office/house kitchen. These will get emptied out into the large compost bin by the dumpster and recycling bins. Please compost your leftovers from committee meetings, coffee hour, youth group dinners (greasy pizza boxes!)… The list of compostable items includes paper plates, cut flowers, soiled napkins and paper towels, all leftover food, coffee grounds and tea bags… So compost away!
Energy Efficiency
Have you considered replacing your lights with LEDs? Where CFLs use 25-35% of the energy used by incandescent bulbs, and has a typical life of 10 years, LEDs use less than 25% of the energy used by incandescent bulbs, and last 15-25 years. You won’t be spending your weekends changing bulbs and you will save money on your electricity bills!
Be mindful of energy use when cooking. A six-inch pan on an eight-inch burner will waste more than 40 percent of the stove's energy. Use pots the same size as your burners. Use lids when possible so you can cook at a lower temperature. Most vegetables, casseroles and meats don’t need a preheated oven. Just turn on the oven, add your food, and bake it a little longer than the suggested recipe time.
Believe it or not, the tiny holes in your electrical outlets let cold air into your home. You can remove the outlet covers, insert insulation pads underneath, and then replace the cover. The pads can be bought at any home improvement store such as Home Depot or Lowes.
When we were kids, our parents probably told us all not to leave the lights on. But now that most lights are CFL or LED, does it really matter that much? If you are into the details, you can read here about which bad energy habits are costing you the most. The winner: leaving on the air conditioner when no one is home. The EPA estimates you can save $180 per year by using a programmable thermostat. So save some money by using less air conditioning, but do keep telling your kids to turn off the lights too!
Change the direction of your ceiling fans depending on the season to save energy and money. During the summer months, the fans should be blowing straight down (blades turning counter-clockwise as you look up at it) to help you cool off, and fan speed set to medium or high. During the winter months, the fan speed should be set to low and the direction reversed (blades turning clockwise) to help draw the air upwards and force warm air down. Make sure you turn off the fan when you are leaving the room for maximum savings.
Heating our homes accounts for about 45 percent of the average American family’s energy bills, according to the Energy Department. Experts recommend that you hire a technician to tune up your heating system once per year so that it runs more efficiently. It is also important to make sure you are not overheating your home. Program your thermostat to around 68 degrees Fahrenheit when you are at home, and slightly lower when you are out. Overnight, you can lower it to 65 or lower and pile on the covers. You will reduce your bills and do the earth a favor.
According to the Energy Department, water heating accounts for about 18 percent of a home’s energy consumption. If you are building new or renovating, choose a tankless water heater, which is more expensive to install but uses less energy because it heats water on demand. High-efficiency appliances and low-flow fixtures use less water, reducing the demand for hot water. You can also adjust the water temperature from the water heater down: the Energy Department recommends setting it to 120 degrees. By reducing your hot water use, employing energy-saving strategies, and choosing energy efficient appliances, you can reduce your water bills (and do the earth a favor).
Even turned off, many appliances keep drawing power. This “vampire” energy accounts for up to 10 percent of all household electricity use. Obviously, there are some appliances and electronics that are not practical to unplug, but others are worth the effort. If you can, unplug electronics when not in use. Think chargers for your phone/laptop/toothbrush/electric drill. If you are going out of town for a few days, also unplug your television/entertainment system, and see your savings grow!
Food
The 4th Annual CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Fair will be held on Saturday, Feb 24, at the Nashville Farmers’ Market from 10am-2pm. The event gives everyone a chance to meet farmers servicing the Metro area. There will be a workshop on what a CSA is and how it works. There are several different CSA models in the Nashville area, so this is a great chance to find one that fits your life. Eating seasonally is better for our health and our planet!
Help the oceans by eating sustainably harvested seafood. Countless species such as Bluefin tuna are in danger of extinction due to overfishing or pollution. See Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch (or the Seafood Watch App) for a list of recommended seafood. Greenpeace ranked the 20 well-known canned tuna brands from the best to worst choices for sustainability. Choose seafood that’s fished or farmed in ways that have less of an impact on the environment and help cherish the health of our ocean.
We all waste food, but reducing food waste helps your budget and the environment. As a nation, we throw away between 30% and 40% of all harvested food, while 1 in 7 Americans use food banks. It has been estimated that the greenhouse-gas effect of growing, transporting, cooling, cooking, and letting that food go to landfill and rot is equivalent to that of 39 million cars annually. Let’s try to plan more, waste less and donate to hunger organizations when we can.
Eating organic produce is better for our health and for the environment, but perhaps you feel that it is too expensive or inconvenient to eat everything organically. If so, you might consider eating organically those fruits and vegetables that, when grown conventionally, absorb and retain the most pesticide residue. Consult the Environmental Working Group website for a complete list.
If you are not a vegetarian, you can still help the planet by observing “meatless Mondays” – or by going meatless any day of the week. One pound of beef takes more than 25,000 gallons of water to produce, and requires more than eight times as much fossil fuel energy to produce as plant protein. Kick it up a notch by leaving off dairy on your meatless days.
Have you thought about how to green your morning cup of coffee? Here are some things to consider:
· Buy coffee with a certification such as organic (grown without pesticides) or Fair Trade (better treatment of workers and communities) or both!
· Single-serving pods require more packaging. If you already own a single-serving coffee machine, check out possible ways to recycle such as Nespresso’s take-back program and the K-Cup recycling program Grounds to Grow On.
· Remember that the coffee grounds are compostable!
The Nashville Zoo has posted information about palm oil and why we need to look for sustainably produced palm oil. This handy guide from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo makes it easy to choose orangutan-friendly Halloween candy.
Health
You may know to look for cans that are ”BPA bisphenol A free”. Thermal paper used for receipts, various tickets and airline tickets also contains BPA which has been linked to serious health problems. Decline paper receipts when possible and wash your hands after touching them. They should not be added to your recyclables.
Gardening
It is irrigation season again! Did you know that it is better to water your lawn deeply 2-3 times per week, than every day? Too much water can lead to fungus and a shallow root system. Water as early in the morning as possible, since water evaporates quickly during the middle of the day, and if you water in the evenings, water can stay on the grass overnight which can cause lawn diseases. If you have an in-ground sprinkler, investigate adding a rain sensor so that you don’t water during or after a rainfall. You can save water this summer while enjoying a beautiful yard!
Cut your lawn at the highest recommended height for your grass. Higher cut lawn grasses are more stress tolerant. Leave grass clippings on the lawn after cutting the grass. It will provide a ready source of fertilizer while helping the soil retain water which promotes root growth. This simple practice, called “grass cycling”, helps grow a healthy lawn.
Let the Nashville Public Library Seed Exchange help you on your gardening journey! Visit Belleveue, Bordeaux, Donelson, Edgehill, Edmondson Pike, Goodlettsville, Green Hills, Hermitage, Inglewood, Looby, North, Old Hickory, Richland Park, Southeast and Thompson Lane branches or the Main Library for seeds, workshops, and gardening books. Read more about the (free) Seed Exchange and upcoming workshops here – including a workshop about beneficial insects for your garden at the Green Hills library on June 19. Most of the 2PC vegetable garden by die choir practice room has been grown from these library seeds!
Do mosquitoes bug you during the summer time? Please don’t spray your yard with unnecessary chemicals to kill mosquitoes. Misapplied chemicals can result in more toxins reaching your pets or kids, it can harm your plants and nonthreatening insects such as honeybees, ladybugs and butterflies, and it can breed insecticide resistance, which will make existing insect problems worse. Start with eliminating standing water in your yard. Put up a bat house in your yard – a bat eats 6,000 to 8,000 insects each night! Plant plants that naturally repel mosquitoes on your deck and in your garden. And try a natural spray repellent when you go outside. The bees and the butterflies will thank you!
This fall, instead of collecting and removing tree leaves from your lawn, use your mower to mulch the leaves when you mow the grass – it is less work and provides a free fertilizer! You may need to mow more frequently, or it may require several passes with the mower to mulch the leaves sufficiently. The finer the leaves are chopped up the better, as it will break down more quickly to give your lawn a shot of nitrogen.
Transportation
Did you know you can get paid to carpool in Middle Tennessee? Good for your wallet, good for the air! Learn more about the new company Hytch and how to participate.
Nashville’s network of bikeways and greenways is growing. Check out the Greenways map, the Music City Bikeway and Metro Bikeway Network map, and the map of upcoming Bikeways projects, to see what is available in your neighborhood.
PARK(ing) Day 2018 is on Friday, September 21. This international event is celebrated in Nashville throughout the downtown core, where parking spots will be transformed into pocket parks and parklets. PARK(ing) Day calls attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban space. You can read more about Nashville’s spots here. Go check it out!
Travel
Airplane flights account for around 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions, with the industry growing rapidly. You can try to fly less to reduce your travel emissions, or another option is to offset your carbon emissions by purchasing carbon offsets. The easiest option is to offset directly with the airline when you book your flight. You pay an extra fee on top of the flight cost which is donated to a carbon offset program. Alaska Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, United, and British Airways all offer such a carbon offset program. Another option is to estimate your carbon emissions with an online calculator such as BlueSkyModel’s air mile model, or a more detailed calculator such as Atmosfair. Then search for a high-quality carbon offset project that is certified and verified, by looking at listings on Gold Standard, Green-e or Climate Action Reserve. If you want more information, read this article about carbon offsets for your flights.
Water
There are over 600 miles of rivers and streams in Davidson County. Of the 500 assessed miles, 51% are considered unhealthy by the EPA. There are 74 rare terrestrial and aquatic species in the Nashville area, including the Nashville Crayfish. Rivive! Nashville is the combined effort of 5 influential conservation groups to inspire communities and leaders to act on ensuring clean water and healthy streams for current and future Nashvillians. See what you can do to help and what small, positive changes you can make in your daily life to help Nashville’s rivers.
Almost 50% of bottled water is just reprocessed tap water. 36 ounces of water is needed to produce one 12-ounce plastic bottle. Only 1 in 7 plastic water bottles is recycled. The FDA rules about testing tap water are more stringent than for bottled water. If you drink 8 glasses of water a day, bottled water will cost you about $1,750 (at $1.50 per 20 oz bottle) while tap water will cost you less than $1. See the Metro Water Services Consumer Confidence Report and drink our tap water with confidence!
Dispose of your medication safely: Traces of pharmaceuticals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and personal care products have been detected in many drinking water supplies. Safe drinking water is critical to all of us. That’s why we need to dispose of our unused medication safely and not just flush it down the drain. Learn how Metro Water Services can help you with their Safe Medication Disposal program at certain Metro Police Precincts.
Wash your laundry in cold water. Water heating consumes about 90% of the energy it takes to operate a clothes washer. Unless you’re dealing with oily stains, washing in cold water will generally do a good job of cleaning. Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut energy use in half. Using the cold cycle reduces energy use even more. https://www.energystar.gov/products/laundry_best_practices
More laundry tips: Clothes washers use about the same amount of energy regardless of the size of the load, so run full loads whenever possible. Use the high spin speed option to reduce the amount of moisture remaining after washing, to decrease the drying time. Air-drying clothes instead of using a dryer saves energy and helps clothes last longer.
Fix water leaks immediately. Small household plumbing leaks can quickly add up to gallons a day. In large cities, the biggest draw on electricity is supplying water to residents and cleaning up the water after it has been used. So fixing leaks not only saves water, but also electricity. Take a good look at your water bill every month since unusually high use could mean you have an undetected leak.
Top Ten climate strategies from the book Drawdown
Over the next weeks, we will highlight some strategies to reverse climate change from the NY Times bestselling book “Drawdown” by Paul Hawken and a team of researchers. The project identifies the 80 most effective solutions to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years. The #10 recommendation is rooftop solar: the analysis assumes rooftop solar can grow from 0.4% of global electricity generation to 7% by 2050, avoiding 24.6 gigatons of emissions. Read more about solar in Nashville in this blog post.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #9 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is to create more silvopasture. From the Latin for “forest” and “grazing”, silvopasture is a system for raising livestock, essentially in a forest. Integrating trees and grazing sequesters 5-10 times the amount of carbon compared to treeless pastures. By changing our conventional beliefs about how to raise livestock, we can help build a resilient system for both animals and trees.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #8 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is to build more utility scale solar farms. When their entire life cycle is taken into account, solar farms curtail 94% of the carbon emissions that coal plants emit and completely eliminate emissions of sulfur, nitrous oxides, mercury, and particulates – thus leading to cleaner air and healthier people. Consider subscribing to Nashville’s first solar farm for your home or business, and ask NES to build more community solar farms.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #7 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is family planning. For women to have children by choice rather than chance and be able to plan their family size and spacing is a matter of autonomy and dignity. The #6 recommendation is to educate girls: women with more years of education have fewer, healthier children. Malala Yousafzai has famously said: “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.” Synchronizing investments in girl’s education with those in family planning would nurture the promise of each girl and woman and can shape the future for us all.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #5 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is to stop deforestation and to restore tropical forests. Tropical forests once covered 12 percent of landmasses, but they now cover only 5 percent. Restoration needs to be collaborative process done with and for local communities so that the root causes of forest damage are addressed. Even if we can’t easily be actively involved in tropical forest restoration, we can still be involved locally with planting trees and being a champion for all forests.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #4 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is to eat a plant-rich diet. Conservative estimates suggest that raising livestock accounts for nearly 15% of global greenhouse gases emitted each year. If cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Making the transition to a plant-based diet may well be the most effective way for an individual to help stop climate change.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #3 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is to reduce food waste. At least a third of food raised or prepared does not make it from farm to factory to fork, while hunger is still a part of life for nearly 800 million people worldwide. We can do a better job of buying only what we need, asking our restaurants and grocery stores to become part of the Nashville Food Waste Initiative and rescue surplus food, and only composting food scraps as a last resort.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #2 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is to install more wind turbines. Our energy mix from TVA currently consists of 2% wind and solar, about 10% hydro, about 40% nuclear, and the rest coal and gas. Wind power provides the lowest cost course of new energy capacity. The Nashville area is not the best for wind energy, but we can ask TVA to install more turbines in the windy eastern areas of our state or to buy wind power from elsewhere.
From the book “Drawdown” edited by Paul Hawken: the #1 recommendation to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years is refrigerant management. Refrigerants, used to chill food and keep buildings and vehicles cool, can be from different families. CFCs and HCFCs were found to cause a hole in the ozone layer and are being phased out due to the Montreal Protocol (1987). Currently we use HFCs, but it causes climate change. The Kigali Amendment was supposed to start the phasing out of HFCs for a new kind of refrigerant, but it is not clear that our government supports the Amendment. Refrigerants cause emissions throughout their life cycle, but their damage is the greatest at the point of disposal. Make sure there are no refrigerant leaks in your a/c, car or fridge, and when it reaches the end of life, make sure you recycle it with a reputable company that will capture the refrigerants to recycle and reuse it.
The Green Tips had previously described the top ten recommendations from the book “Drawdown” by Paul Hawken on how to lower carbon emissions over the next 30 years. Read this article for a great conversation with Paul Hawken and a summary of the book. Get inspired about all the options to reverse climate change!
General
When our kids were little, we watched hours and hours of Planet Earth. Netflix now has both Planet Earth I and II, as well as other BBC Earth series such as Africa. We recently watched the Netflix movie Chasing Coral, which describes how the corals are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. If you are looking for something to watch this week, I can highly recommend Chasing Coral. What is your favorite nature documentary? Let me know! ~ Michelle H.
Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist, an evangelical Christian, and a professor at Texas Tech. Read this powerful NY Times op-ed Dr. Hayhoe wrote about climate change not being a belief system, but we know that the earth’s climate is changing thanks to observations, facts and data. She writes: “I chose what to study precisely because of my faith, because climate change disproportionately affects the poor and vulnerable, those already most at risk today. To me, caring about and acting on climate was a way to live out my calling to love others as we’ve been loved ourselves by God.” If you sometimes wonder about faith, climate change, and how these go together, do read her op-ed. “Being concerned about climate change is a genuine expression of our faith, bringing our attitudes and actions more closely into line with who we already are and what we most want to be.”
Why do a significant number of Americans not believe that human-driven climate change is occurring? PBS has a great video about the psychology behind it all: watch the video to learn why we respond more easily to problems that represent PAIN: problems that are Personal, Abrupt, Immoral, and that affects us Now. Climate change is a different kind of problem: it may or may not affect us personally, it happens gradually, it is caused by all of humankind, and it will affect us more in the future. Watch the video for more insights into why so many people don’t believe in the science of climate change, even while scientists overwhelm us with observations, facts and data.
Many of these weekly Green Tips are assembled from the NY Times Climate Fwd emails. You don’t need to subscribe to the NY Times to subscribe to these emails! The Environmental Stewardship Committee especially recommends the “One Thing You Can Do” segment. Some other social media to follow for tips for a greener life are Green America and Zero Waste Nashville on Facebook, and SocketNashville on Instagram!
Church specific
The Environmental Stewardship Group has a space on one of the bulletin boards in the hall. Check it out for environmental news, recycling tips, issues of sustainability, ways to help the environment, and even some good news!