Prior to moving to Austin back in July 2006, I had always considered myself a friend to the environment, well, maybe more a casual acquaintance. Sure, I recycled, but that was about it. In Maryland we had these small blue recycling bins, and were pretty limited as far as what could go in them. I put mine out dutifully each week and that was the end of it.
Upon first glance at arriving in Austin, it seemed much the same. We still had those little blue bins. But it was different. Austin strikes me as fairly progressive on a number of fronts:
1) In addition to just regular recycling, you can put out an unlimited amount of brush, i.e. cans of leaves/yard debris or bound branches and they would be picked up each week. Yard debris is "recycled" to produce dillo dirt, an EPA-certified soil conditioner (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/yard.htm). A similar program is in place for recycling Christmas trees each year though instead of producing dillo dirt, the city produces mulch which is distributed for free to those who want it.
2) Austin garbage services are pay-as-you-go. Three sizes of trash can are available to each homeowner. The bigger the trash can means the more you can throw away and also, the more you pay for the privilege.
3) Unlike some cities, where you could just put out an unlimited amount of trash, Austin charges you for every bag that does not fit inside your trash can. Nothing crazy, i.e. you can prepay for extra trash bag tags at $2/bag or the city will charge you $4 for untagged extra bags on trash pick-up day. Point is though, it's not free. You can't just produce endless amounts of trash and not have to pay for it...
4) Austin recently entered the world of single-stream recycling. We now have these HUGE recycling bins, larger than our trash can in fact, where you can recycle seemingly everything: Plastics #1-7, newspapers, cereal boxes, cardboard, box board, glass, etc.*
* I know some will debate the merits of recycling, citing concerns over how much energy it takes to recycle, the fuel spent to pick up/deliver recycling materials to a sorting center, etc. I'm not an expert on these points, so I'll leave the details to those of you who want to dig through the internet for them. The city of Austin has its own thoughts on the benefits of recycling (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/benefits.htm). Regardless, to me it just seems logical that it's more efficient to reuse what's already out there as opposed to producing anew. And as technology improves every day, the sorting, transporting, and processing - it all gets easier and more efficient. The most important thing - we have to change our mindset...
Maybe it's strange to be excited about this kind of stuff, but I think that as a society we produce too much trash, period. And sadly, it seems that many people don't care. It's great to see a city taking steps to help people reduce their footprints. In fact, if you'd like to read more about Austin's drive to zero waste, check out the following link: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/0waste.htm
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On a more personal front, I feel that Mary and I have become more acutely aware of our environment footprint since Katie was born. And we're taking steps to make changes. I'm not telling you about these to make us sound good (we're oh-so-far from perfect on this and I won't pretend that there aren't things we could, and probably should, do better), or to make you feel bad. But if every person could make small, incremental changes in their lifestyles, the results can only be positive...
> We've recently started composting. Amazing how much of a difference this makes in terms of what is thrown out in the trash. Austin is actually encouraging all of its citizens to engage in this practice. Easy enough to make your own composting bin/pile - you can find instructions all over the place on the internet. To read more about the benefits of composting: http://www.composting101.com/how-it-works.html
> Katie has recently made the shift to Gdiapers (http://www.gdiapers.com/). Some of our friends have used them religiously since their children were born, but it took us a little while to catch on. We're only 1 week in, but so far so good. The highlights: diaper pants are reusable/rewashable and diaper inserts can be flushed or if they are pee diapers only, composted. And don't worry about using too much water to wash the diapers. Our washer is high-efficiency and only uses the amount of water necessary for each load. Rumor has it that the higher-than-normal cost of high-efficiency appliances such as washers/dryers is quickly offset by the savings in water and energy bills.
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We're always looking for other ideas on how to live more simply and earth friendly. So if you'd like to share your thoughts, we'd love to hear them.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. For those of you who may be worried (and you know who you are) don't worry, I'm still a Republican. But that doesn't mean I can't care about the planet I leave behind when I'm gone... :)
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