Lifestyle Update: Goods & Services II

Continuing from last week’s blog, this week I’m writing about improving my spending habits and disposable habits, specifically, the money I spend on dry cleaning services. Since I already use biodegradable detergent and dryer sheets and dry about 50-75% of my clothes on a drying rack, I was able to move forward and focus on how I clean my “dry clean only” clothes.  Prior to this blog, I never really knew what happened when I took my clothes to the dryer cleaner, all I knew is that my clothes came back clean, ironed, and a little stiff and scratchy. 

After doing only a few minutes of on-line research, I found that the typical solution used for dry cleaning is toxic, and not something I want to pay to have the clothes rolled around in,  and I don’t want to support a practice that is clearly harmful to the environment.  So, switching from a typical dry cleaner that uses the solution perchloroethylene (perc) to clean my clothes was an easy decision.  Basically, perc in liquid form is composed of chlorocarbon, which is an effective solvent or organic materials, however, perc is a common pollutant found in our water,

“it has been classified by the EPA as a toxic air contaminant, a hazardous, likely carcinogenic substance and one of the top four contaminants found in drinking water. It can enter your body when you inhale its vapors or touch it. Perc can irritate your skin, eyes, nose or throat, and affects your brain much like alcohol does (e.g. dizziness, headache, nausea, loss of balance or coordination, etc.). California has recently banned the use of perc; other states have proposed similar legislation.”http://www.greenearthcleaning.com/flash_earth.aspx

A well accepted alternative to using perc is what’s called “wet cleaning,”which, ironically, is dry cleaning with a water-based solution. Clothes are immersed in a machine that carefully controls the solution to break down stains. There are some downsides to wet cleaning, like it uses a considerable amount of water and it can shrink clothing.  Another alternative is to use liquid carbon dioxide, which is considerably less harmful than perc.  I couldn’t find any downsides to liquid CO2. Unfortunately, both these alternatives require equipment that is very costly for the regular dry cleaning business.

I found a third alternative, petroleum-based silicon, to wash clothes. And, lucky for me, Presto Valet, which is on my way to work and uses silicone. So off I went Thursday morning before work, to drop off one turtleneck, two pairs of pants, and a dress. Inside Presto, other than the giant sign hanging above the transaction counter that reiterated the green cleaning claims on the website, it seemed like a typical cleaner.

Presto’s website claims that it uses methods that are safe for its employees, customers, as well as the environment. It also states that the business is a certified Green Earth Cleaning company, which essentially means that the dry cleaner uses a modified silicone cleaning agent that is a non-toxic, biodegradable solvent that poses no health risks, they pay an annual fee to the organization, and use their patented equipment and cleaning solvents.

I was disappointed to find out that Green Earth doesn’t require their certified dry cleaners to use recycled hangers, biodegradable plastic bags, or energy efficient machinery. Currently, there aren’t any federal, Virginia, or local government standards for green dry cleaning.  If there were more standards and more incentives for dry cleaners to go “green” it would result in higher standards for certification companies like Green Earth and would encourage others to incorporate green practices.   While searching on-line, I found some “green washing” or rather “not-so-green washing” happening at dry cleaners claiming to be environmentally friendly.  When in fact, they only use slightly less toxic solvents to remove stains, which can mislead a customer into spending considerably more money while thinking they’re doing the right thing.  Even though Presto doesn’t go above and beyond Green Earth’s standards, I still felt relieved knowing I chose non-toxic over toxic.

It was a Tuesday morning when I went back to Presto to pick up my garments. I was the only customer at the small shop on Quaker Lane.  A tall, neatly dressed lady working the register took my ticket and retrieved my clothes.  She shouted to her her friend in the back of the store about whose turn it was to pick up their morning coffee. She told me my bill was $42, shouted some more about how it was too cold to walk to the coffee shop, and then apologized for giving me the wrong price, it was actually $35.  At that point, I was relieved it was $35!  But as I got into my car reality set in and I realized I paid more than double my usual dry cleaning costs. It was a quite a shock, especially that early in the morning before MY first cup of coffee. If I were someone who uses dry cleaning on a regular basis, that kind of money would put a big dent in the bank account. I would be hesitant to choose the green cleaner over the conventional one. Luckily, I usually dry clean my clothes no more than once a month. If the frequency of my visits to the dry cleaners is my justification to spend big bucks at a green cleaner, then I will continue to splurge at Presto.  What’s more, my clothes turned out great and I didn’t feel guilty about contributing to pollution.

Presto

A simpler and more effective approach to lessen my environmental impact is not to switch from the conventional to the green dry cleaner, but to reduce or even eliminate my trips to the dry cleaners. I can choose to buy clothes that don’t require dry cleaning. Instead of spending $8.75 per item at Presto, I can spend $2.00 to wash and dry a load of laundry in my apartment complex. I can choose the kinds of clothes I buy. Instead of buying the delicate fabrics that require professional care, I can choose to wear durable textiles that can be cleaned at home for very little cost. I’ve also found that clothes that require dry cleaning are usually the ones that are more expensive. I would be spending less on garments that require less maintenance. Granted, it’s not realistic to eliminate the dry cleaners from my life altogether, but if I can reduce the frequency in which I use them, then I’m that much ahead of the game.

In two weeks, I’ll write about chemicals in the everyday products we use and their health impacts.

Lifestyle Update: Goods & Services I

Shopping at Diva

One chilly Sunday afternoon, following two hours of Hoover Ball and a quick bite at an Irish pub, my boyfriend and I went to the Diva thrift store in Old Town.  We were greeted with a friendly “hello” and a proposition to sell us warm jackets.  Diva was converted from an old town house and it seemed the woman behind the counter could be living upstairs.  The smell of stagnant perfume that usually accompanies worn garments filled the air.  The clothes were neatly organized on racks against the walls and costume jewelry was displayed in the center of the room. We took a look around and proceeded down the hallway and found two more rooms filled with clothes.  I soon realized it was slim pickins for my taste.  There were great deals, like Liz Claiborne dress pants for only $20 and Ralph Lauren sweaters for only $30—my mother would love to shop here!  We left the Diva empty handed but I felt good about giving it a shot. 

Not quite what I was looking for... 

Shopping at thrift stores is one habit I’m trying to acquire in order to reduce my ecological footprint.  Goods and services was my second worst category, which means my spending and waste disposal habits need improvement.  The ecological footprint calculator basically told me:  

• My buying habits are poor—buy used. 
• My eating habits require too many resources—eat less meat and more fresh vegetables AND cook at home more often. 
• My dry cleaner is polluting the earth with chemicals—use a “green” dry cleaner 
• I’m throwing away too much waste—use a food composter. 

So what did I change?  It came down to the amount of time I could dedicate to making these changes.  Between working long hours at my day job and spending my weekends doing homework, I didn't have a lot of time to research how I could improve on these four poor habits.  So, over the last three weeks, I shopped at thrift stores for my clothing, I tested out a green dry cleaner, and I researched food composting options.  I’m moving in the summer to a townhouse, so I decided to hold off on a small composter that could sit on my balcony.  I’ll instead wait until I have a yard to buy a bigger one.  I’ll also have more time to tend to it this summer because I won’t have classes.

I visited three local thrift stores, Diva Designer Consignment & Other Delights, Current Boutique, and Prevention of Blindness Thrift Shop.  Of the three stores, Current Boutique had the most clothing that I liked, but overall Current was more expensive.  The Prevention of Blindness shop had more house ware items than clothes and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone looking for clothes.  So what did I buy?  A $25 gray cashmere sweater from Current Boutique. I have to admit, my experience was a little disappointing.  I searched through these stores and only found one item of clothing.  I’ll continue to shop at Current Boutique but not the others. 


Next week, I'll blog about alternatives to dry cleaning and my experience with one local "green" dry cleaner.

What's all the hype about?

Date: Christmas 2007

Location: Northwestern Pennsylvania

Michelle: “I almost bought everyone in the family carbon offsets for Christmas!”

Uncle Jim:  “Aahh, Michelle, are you ‘going green?’” “It’s all hype, it’s just another way to make money. Don’t buy into it.” 

Michelle:  “Umm…the sea levels are rising! We’re all going to be under water soon!”

Uncle Jim: “It’s just the natural cycle of the Earth.”

Cousin Justin: “Duh, Michelle, don’t you know the Earth has cycles, why do you think the dinosaurs went extinct?”

Michelle: “Well, I didn’t buy the offsets. It would have been expensive buying for eight families…”



From left to right, Kyle Petty, Me, Uncle Jim, Justin.
In 1991, Uncle Jim took us to get
Kyle Petty's autograph!
p.s. I no longer support NASCAR.



 How do you react to people who don’t support your  lifestyle?  Was I wrong to not argue back?  The conversation was all quite jovial, but in the end we disagreed, and each holiday some type of green argument arises.  I continue to check up on Justin to find out if the engineering program he is enrolled in at Penn State is incorporating sustainability into his courses, and in return he taunts me about going green.

 In a recent essay, “What the Earth Knows” written by Robert Laughlin, the co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics, Laughlin claims that small things people are doing to reduce their carbon use and energy consumption are hardly making an impact on the earth and the planet will continue on long after humans are gone.  He takes the stance that Earth doesn’t care about our hybrid cars or turning off our computer monitors or wearing more layers of clothes instead of turning up the heat. He states,

“These actions simply spread the pain over a few centuries, the bat of an eyelash as far as the earth is concerned, and leave the end result exactly the same:  all the fossil fuel that used to be in the ground is now in the air, and none is left to burn.” 

 He is saying that all of the government regulations, laws, mandates, etc. that countries around the world are implementing are futile.  So is my Uncle Jim right, then?  Is it truly all hype and a way to make money off of people’s love for the earth? In other words, is it all just an elaborate and well-orchestrated scheme to fleece hundreds of hard-earned dollars annually from my bank account?



Laughlin supports his argument by debunking the IPCC climate studies and squashing the green movement.  Here are some of his reasons:

·  The studies are subjective.

·  The studies have had trouble showing global warming occurring in the present-day.

·  A problem greater than decreasing greenhouse gases is “human population pressure.”

·  Scientists are providing a lot of data but people are having trouble understanding the data. A problem he states is common for climatology in general. 

·  Finally, he provides two and a half pages on geological time, “Climate change…is a matter of geologic time, something the earth routinely does on its own without asking anyone’s permission or explaining itself.”



Projected global surface warming published by the IPCC.

I get his argument and I believe it.  More articles like his are necessary to get the truth out to the public.  The IPCC studies are both respected and questioned by many. For the most part, I believe global warming is occurring, but can also see the earth in the big scheme of things. The carbon footprint calculator I used a few weeks ago now seems to me to be irrelevant.  But the ecological footprint, a tool that is not a know-all, end-all, yet does goes beyond just carbon; looks at the overall affects of human’s actions from water to goods and services.  And that’s were my beliefs are really held…beyond carbon—living on a healthy planet.

Even though the earth has natural cycles where climate changes, species go extinct, etc, it doesn’t mean that people should create an unhealthy environment for the inhabitants. IS IT all just an elaborate and well-orchestrated scheme to fleece hundreds of hard-earned dollars annually from my bank account?  Maybe not directly, but industries have benefited from the climate change propaganda. I myself have blurred the lines between sustainability and climate change.  Having respect for life is the drive behind my beliefs and moral stance on being more sustainable.  I don’t want to preach about my beliefs, but I feel as though it should be mentioned in my blog since they are the basis of my decisions to try to be more sustainable. I respect other people’s beliefs, including my Uncle Jim’s (snicker) and I think it’s learning about our differences that actually pushes us to search for what works for each of us.

Three simple things I believe:

1. I grew up on the land some (I’m one-eighth Seneca) of my ancestors inhabited.  They gave thanks to people (society), earth mother, waters, fish, plants, food plants, medicine herbs, animals, birds, four winds, thunder, sun, grandmother moon, stars, enlightened teachers, and creator. Living in harmony with each other and giving thanks were important to their culture.  A famous quote my mom used to share with me growing up, “…chiefs consider the impact of their decisions on the seventh generation yet to come.” I want my nieces and nephews to be able to have kids who are healthy and can drink the water, eat the food, and breathe the air without fear of ingesting harmful chemicals.
  
2. For the first 11 years of my life, I attended a Christian church, and I was taught that everything on earth is a blessing and to treat it with respect, e.g., don’t put nails in trees—something my parents had to tell me repeatedly while building forts in the woods near my house.  I see how ancestors' culture and beliefs conflict with my Christian upbringing, but I'm a Christian who has found some common ground with the Senecas—respect and consideration for others. 

   

   Sled riding with friends and a blow-up whale
   can be enjoyed at any age. 
   Just don't eat the acid rain snow!

   
   
3.  I spent my childhood playing in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania.  Nature was what I had access to and what I loved.  Each spring my dad would take me and my two brothers hiking in the forest. We would drink water straight from the streams.  We'd cross country ski down empty trails in the winter, enveloped in the soft quiet snow.  In the summers my friends and I would lay in the fields for hours looking at the stars and talking about life. It's hard to imagine what the Alleghany will look like twenty years from now.  The natural gas industry has already started to pollute the land and water. I love the outdoors and would hate to see beauty of The Allegheny destroyed by industry. Furthermore, I don't want pollution to affect my general health.While this is what I believe, I am a typical American, but am striving to be better.  I take really long showers and can occasionally be found on the golf course (a huge water consumer and pesticide user).  I think Laughlin has a tremendous argument, and that people have BOUGHT into “going green” but it’s more than just that; it’s about having respect and compassion for life on earth. 

For more specific information on chemicals and pollutants, please see the page “Chemicals and Pollutants” at the bottom of the blog (updates to come November 8, 2010).