Posts Tagged: green living

Sustainable lifestyles — No Comments
7
Jan 10

A green glossary

February, 2009

Alternative energy

Power generation without fossil fuels. Typically wind, wave, solar and geothermal. Plants, algae, human sewage and cow poo are being tested. But it’s not like we’re desperate or anything.

Biodynamic agriculture

Emphasises compost and lunar planting calendars, instead of chemical sprays and fertilisers. Practitioners stuff a cow horn full of cow poo and bury it to create super-powered fertiliser, honestly.

Bioaccumulation

Toxic substances which build up in plants, animals and us. The odd bit of pesticide may not harm you directly, but eventually Kiwi blokes may develop man-boobs and a fondness for Abba records.

Carbon footprint

The total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organisation, event or product, roughly equivalent to how guilty you are supposed to feel about it.

Carbon Offsets

A credit bought to negate part of a carbon footprint. Should cover the cost of additional measures to reduce worldwide carbon emissions, which come into effect as soon as possible. Described by author George Monbiot as akin to medieval religious ‘indulgences’ payments to atone for sins the sinner has no intention of giving up.

Carcinogen

Any cancer producing substance. So many are discovered each week it is increasingly likely that life gives you cancer the same way rain and time give rust to a bicycle.

Climate change

Long-term significant changes in expected patterns of average weather on Earth. Sometimes called global warming, although some places could get colder. Increasingly termed ‘Global Weirding’ as no one has much of a clue what’s happening.

Eco-tourism

A hotel with recycling bins. Rapidly becoming extinction tourism, as we race round the globe taking photos of things our children will never see because of all the pollution caused by international travel.

Eco-worrier

What we become when it takes 15 minutes for us to analyse the global ecological and humanitarian impact of buying a tin of spaghetti.

Emissions trading

Buying and selling the supposedly limited rights to emit greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. The modern, adult version of shuffling Brussel’s sprouts around your plate, or giving them to your little brother because you can’t face eating them yourself.

Extinction

Dead as a dodo. If the animal is cuddly or cute enough, humans will leave just enough of whatever it is for David Attenborough to whisper at. If it’s an insect – no chance.

Freecycle

Online jumble sale at www.freecycle.org, without the sale. Give away stuff you don’t need; claim free stuff you may or may not, on reflection, discover you need. If you are lucky, this may indeed include a free bicycle.

Fossil fuels

The P-pipe of the industrialised world. Coal, oil and gas, formed from the fossilised remains of plants and animals over hundreds of millions of years. Burning them has made life so easy we struggle to leave them alone, even though they keep us divorced from reality and wreck our health and relationships. (see greenhouse gases and climate change).

Greenhouse gases

Gases which trap the heat in the Earth’s atmosphere like a fart under a duvet.  Human activities are releasing more into the atmosphere than ever before – and our duvet is getting very stinky indeed. (see climate change)

Recycle (incorporating downcycle)

The separation and collection of materials for processing, remanufacturing and use as new products. What normally happens is ‘downcycling’, where the resulting product is less valuable than the one you started with. Upcycling, on the other hand, is about making more valuable products from less valuable pre-used materials.

Self-sufficiency

The ability to provide all of your needs yourself, without the help of others. Unlikely in a civilisation breakdown scenario: you have potatoes, your neighbours don’t have potatoes, they steal your potatoes when you’re not looking.

Sustainable

An activity which can be continued indefinitely at its current rate and scale. These days this is taken to mean without irreparable environmental harm or compromising opportunities for future generations. You can have your cake and eat it, provided you are growing all the ingredients to make another cake without polluting the garden.

Toxin

A poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms capable of causing disease. Some commentators on Radio Live qualify. (see also Bioaccumulation)

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7
Jan 10

Good food from the supermarket, without going off your trolley

If you want good food from the supermarket without agonizing over it or spending a fortune, ignore the mind control and keep it seasonal and simple.

June, 2009

For me, being an ethical food shopper can tricky. Is it Fair Trade? Organic? Rainforest Alliance? Does it come from a country with a dubious human rights record? Has it been the subject of a recent health scare? Does it contain palm oil not sourced from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil? How many food miles does it have? Does it contain potentially harmful additives and colourings? Is it tested on animals? Is the company owned by a global conglomerate with any subsidiaries which block cheap drugs to poor countries/push inappropriate baby milk powders to people without clean water to mix them with/ invest in arms/smash unions? And on and on and on.

Then I have to try to give this bewildering number of parameters some kind of relative value.What’s better: organic beans fair traded from the indigenous people of wherever, or the ‘conventional’ ones from just round the corner? This creates such a quantum level of complexity I’m lucky if I make it to the check-out before inflation pushes my purchases out of my price range.

I’m vegetarian, which tips the ecological balance sheet slightly in my favour and reduces my confusion by cutting down on the options. Sadly, it sometimes cuts the options down to the extent that there aren’t any, and a smug glow in the belly is not very filling at supper time. I have a vegetable patch. It currently contains three gigantic silverbeet, three spring onions, some lettuce and a rose bush, which is not really enough to live on.

I buy as much stuff under the Fair Trade and various organic banners as I can, and it’s great to see that more and more of them are hitting the shelves. But since I am not an investment banker, the prime minister, or both, there’s a limit to that as well.

So, given that people like you and me still have to use supermarkets, how do we ensure we shop effectively without being a complete sell out?

Firstly, let’s arm ourselves with a little knowledge on how supermarkets work. From the moment we walk through the door, we are entering a carefully controlled environment designed exclusively to do two things – fill up our trollies and empty our bank accounts. Supermarket do this by spending truck loads of cash working out how people move through their shops, how they buy and when they buy.

It’s called Neuromarketing. The gorgeous aroma wafting from the bakery is not just a by product of bread making. It’s also there to make you hungry, so you will buy more food. The mellow in-store muzak is there to slow you down, so you will spend longer browsing the shelves. And the shelves are not stocked for your convenience, they are stocked to maximise income.

For example, the first thing you always come to in the supermarket is the fresh fruit and vegetables, which makes very little sense for shoppers. They can be easily damaged, so you spend the whole time digging them out from under your tins and bottles. But research suggests the experience of selecting good wholesome fresh food at the outset of a shopping spree makes people feel less guilty about stocking up on rubbish later on.

More expensive items, or items the store particularly wants to sell, will tend to be to the right at eye level or just above it, because this is where most people look first. Sumptuously branded product lines from the best known producers will hog the carefully designed, expensive and power-hungry limelight, while cheaper home brands will be languishing somewhere near your ankles.

This is partly because many producers actually pay for prime positioning. For the same reasons products intended for children will sport the colours of a nuclear explosion and just happen to be within reach of your offspring, or at their eye level.

Some items, even whole sections, are moved from one position to another in the store so that you keep moving, collecting other items as you search for what you originally wanted. Some Pak’n'Save stores even have a zig-zag course through the grocery section as the only method of entry, just in case you want some courgettes on your way to pick up a six pack.

Brightly coloured tags on the shelves might point you in the direction of a sale item, or they may just say something meaningless like ‘Everyday low price!’ to draw your attention to the items the store wants to shift. At the checkout queue either you or your children may be feeling tired and peckish, which is why there are shelves full of chocolate there.

None of this is to say that supermarket owners are especially evil or manipulative – they just have a lot of money invested and to invest and are good at their jobs. The good news is that knowledge is power, and you can fight back.

Firstly, stay out of the supermarket as much as possible. If you can do all your shopping in one go it’s easier to stick to a budget and avoid impulse buys. A great way to do this is to shop online. This bypasses the in-store neuromarketing, reduces the time and stress of shopping, and removes the need to drive to the store in the first place.

You can easily check what’s left over at your house, and if you have the time, you can Google the eco/ethical credentials of potential purchases before selecting them. And because the system adds up your bill as you go, you can stick to your budget without having to abandon things at the checkout. Once you have cracked the supermarket’s website you are more likely to discover other more ethical online choices. If you get hungry while online shopping, you make yourself a much cheaper snack than you would probably buy in the store.

If you have to go in, you could take own mp3 player to keep you going while you read all the labels, but you should definitely take a detailed budgeted list of what you want and ignore aisles you don’t need to go down.

Aim low, but keep in mind that even actual sale items are infinitely more expensive than not buying them if you don’t need them in the first place. Some of the ‘own brand’ products, as well as being relatively cheap, can be quite healthy, with less salt and sugar than goes into some of the more well known tastes. Look at the unit price, not the overall price. Buying in bulk can save you money, save on packaging and save the number of car rides to the store. But you obviously need to ensure that the product won’t spoil before it’s used in your home.

What do the experts recommend? Laura Faire recently worked with Kathryn Hawkins on the book Shop Local, Eat Well – Cooking with Seasonal Produce in New Zealand. She says the key is to shop for simple unprocessed ingrediants which are local and in season.

“The best way to shop ethically is to buy New Zealand grown,” she says. “If you can buy in season it is cheaper too, and if you think about it supermarkets have an incentive to source locally. It’s all about shelf life. They offer the options, it’s up to consumers to buy them. The more local produce we buy the more they will put on the shelves.”

Seasonality can vary from region to region and store to store, so you may need to search online for a local guide, or ask a friendly gardener. Things can get tough to find around spring time, when everything is growing but nothing is ready.

Green Party MP Sue Kedgeley has a similar approach. She has been campaiging on food issues for more than a decade, and runs her own ‘Shop with Sue’ sessions to help guide people around their local supermarket.

She says, “Currently I don’t think it is getting easier in most places to shop healthy and even ethically.”

She reckons it’s not fair that if we want to know what’s in things, we have to rely on a ‘nutrition panel’ which often requires a magnifying glass to read and a chemistry degree to understand.

“Things have got better with eggs, at least you can check whether they are caged hens, barn hens or free range. That is some progress,” she says.

In the absence of the mandatory and legally binding country of origin standards she is pushing for, the supermarkets have started their own voluntary system for fruit and veg.

But a key point for Sue is your choice of which supermarket you go into in the first place. She recommends New World, Pak ‘n’Save and Four Sqaure, as they are all owned by Foodstuffs – a 100% New Zealand operation owned by a co-operative of the shop owners themselves.

Finally she asks: “If you have 50c for food and it’s a choice between a single vegetable and a packet of Maggi instant noodles, what’s it going to be?”

Erm…I’ll get back to you.

Innovation / Sustainable lifestyles — 1 Comment
7
Jan 10

Bringin’ in the rain…

August, 2009

Freshwater is one of the world’s most precious resources. So it’s handy that so much of it falls out of the sky in New Zealand. All we need to do is collect it.

The benefits

Collecting and using rainwater is one of the easiest ways to add a touch of eco-friendly self-reliance to your home and help preserve our environment. And if you are on a metered supply, it will save you money too.

Most areas of New Zealand have a pretty good supply of fresh water, but it’s not always in the right place at the right time. Like the components of any complex long distance supply system, mains water storage dams, pipes, and treatment facilities are costly and come with inherent environmental impacts, including the potential to damage the health of our river ecosystems through excessive extraction and pollution.

The mains system is also susceptible to occasional failures which leave you, or at least your precious vegetable patch, high and dry. This is particularly true in hydro-power areas like Auckland, where in dry periods water and energy authorities have to strike a delicate balance between supplying fresh water and power.

Even small roof water systems can take a huge load off of the mains supply and inspire you to be much more conscious of the water you do use, and how you use it. And they help slow the flow of water in our urban areas, improving storm water management and reducing the risk of flooding

The paperwork

You may need a minor plumbing consent from your council, or a building consent, especially if you are planning anything larger than 25,000 litres. You will also need to fit a backflow prevention device if your tank is being topped up from the mains supply, to keep the two types of water separate.

If you plan to drink roofwater, some councils require you to treat it. Others require an annual inspection of your system. On the plus side, some local authorities offer cash rebates to encourage rainwater use.

Watch out for…

Cleanliness: keep the roof and guttering clear of overhanging branches and regularly inspect and clean them. Consider fitting one of the many guttering filters on the market. The ministry of health recommends disinfecting roof water with small amounts of chlorine, but for those of us who dislike that ‘fresh from the swimming pool’ an ultraviolet light filter system costs about $1,500, plus installment.

Contaminants on the roof: You will need to unplug the system from your roof and find an alternative for a while if you use chemical paints or moss killers up there. Don’t collect from a roof which has lead, chromium or cadmium materials or is unpainted metal. Any paint used should be labelled ‘suitable for potable water supply’.

Your intake: Rainwater is naturally ’soft’ water, meaning it does not contain the dissolved minerals, like chalk, lime, calcium and magnesium mains water in some areas picks up as it percolates through the ground and into our waterways. Getting the right amounts of these minerals is important to our health, so its worth cross-referencing the decision to switch to rainwater with our dietary considerations. This is especially important if we choose a vegetarian or vegan diet, where obtaining the right mineral levels can be more challenging.

Small people: For the same reason, as well as the risk of possible contamination, some doctors advise that even filtered rainwater may not be ideal for pregnancy or for bottle fed babies.

The sums

You only need about five litres of drinking-quality water for each person a day, for cooking, drinking and food preparation. The rest – about 160 litres per person in an average household per day – is used for toilets, showering, washing, the garden, and other uses.

There are many variables, but as a very rough guide each metre of roof space you get hooked up to your system provides around one litre of water in an average year. Even in relatively dry areas, an average home with 120-150m2 provides the potential for at least 100,000 litres of free water each year. A smaller household should get by on a 25,000 litre (5,500 gallon) tank. A larger household may need two.

Metered mains supply of water costs about $1.50 per 1,000 litres, plus a couple of hundred dollars a year for water testing and meter reading. If you are in an area which is not normally metered, you may have to pay $500-$1,000 or more to get one installed. This, plus the cost of your system, suggests a payback time of somewhere around 10 years.

Unless you have a lot of roof, a lot of rain and a plenty of tank space, or you are very frugal with water use, you will probably want to keep a mains back up, to avoid costly water truck deliveries through dry spells.

Innovation / Sustainable lifestyles — No Comments
7
Jan 10

You are my sunshine

September, 2009

Aliens are probably laughing their tentacles off at our approach to energy generation. We spend our days fighting wars over a dwindling supply of black sludge, beneath our very own giant free fusion reactor.

Many homes in New Zealand have 20 – 30 times more solar energy hammering down on them each year than the owners use in electricity or gas.  We have, at least, got as far as developing photovoltaic cells to convert this energy into electricity. But with the average Kiwi household using about 8 kWh of electricity per person per day, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority calculates that to supply all the needs of an average family of four would require a system costing between $60,000 and $170,000.

So reducing power use remains the first priority if you want to save money and protect the environment. But the tantalising prospect is that if every New Zealand home had a 3kW photovoltaic solar panel array, they would generate enough power to satisfy more than a quarter of New Zealand’s residential electricity needs.

That would mean we could shut down the Huntly coal fired power station, assuming we didn’t need it to back up our renewable sources on those still winter evenings…

The dark side of the sun?

There’s no such thing as free electricity, either economically or environmentally.

The glass, plastic and metal fittings in PV systems take energy, water and a wide range of chemicals to make. Some of these are toxic or hazardous. PV modules also use palladium silver, nickel, nickel chromium or tin for metallic contacts and usually a tin/lead solder for electrical connections. Not to mention small amounts of cadmium, which is toxic and has a tendency to accumulate in the food chain.

The resulting cells are generally only good for about 20 years. And although the cells are more or less benign in use, disposal of dead cells is also problematic. Recycling programmes are being developed, and some manufacturers will take back old panels to recover the more valuable materials.

There are some other, unavoidable, limitations. Because PV cells only produce power during the day, and relatively little when it is cloudy, even the most super frugal electricity user will need some sort of backup if they don’t want to be left powerless from time to time.

Other renewable generation options like wind can help to iron out the peaks and troughs if you have the right conditions, but for most people off the grid, lead acid batteries containing sulphuric acid are the most useful option. Nickel-cadmium batteries are less common and much more expensive, but last longer. Depending on the system and how it is maintained, the batteries you use will last somewhere between 3-15 years.

As PV technology advances the costs are falling and the efficiency of the panels is increasing, making it a more viable option. However, as things stand, when you take into account the costs of installation and maintenance, and even once you have negotiated with your local energy company to sell power back to the grid, you will almost certainly be paying more for each watt of electricity than if you plugged into the mains. And whether your system adds its full value to the cost of your house depends on the temperament of the potential buyer.

While there are 100% renewable energy providers like Trustpower and Meridian around, even the overall environmental benefits of having your own PV system are difficult to quantify. But wind farms are a blot on the landscape, and there are benefits from reducing our hydropower use to reduce the pressure on our water systems. There’s no doubting the added self sufficiency and resilience provided by your own personal power generation. And if you can’t get on the grid, or don’t want to, PV is less polluting than gas.

The paperwork

Building or resource consents may be required for photovoltaic systems that penetrate the roof or are considered by neighbours to affect their property. Any grid-connected photovoltaic systems need to be agreed to by both the lines company (for the connection) and the electricity retailer (for pricing arrangements). And you need to get an installer who knows what they are doing as the system must meet the AS/NZS 3000:2007 electrical installations wiring rules.

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7
Jan 10

The new soap opera

February, 2009

A quick glance under the sink is usually enough to demonstrate how confused most of us are by the choice of cleaning products out there. We tend to have dozens of different bottles, sprays and jars of varying vintages secreted away, when three or four good ones could do the trick. Our guide to what to put on your sponge, what you might want be wary of, and why, should help you keep a clean home and a clean conscience.

As with most of today’s potential environmental pollutants, the direct risk from normal use of individual cleaning products is relatively minor. The amount of potentially harmful ingredient used tends to be small and the product is generally dissolved in large amounts of water in use and disposal. The main environmental concern is the indirect cumulative effect of so much of it being produced and used, considering so much of it is made of stronger chemicals than are usually required.

Millions of tonnes of cleaning product chemicals are being produced and released into the environment, largely unnecessarily, every year. Combined with other pollutants that stream out into our rivers and oceans, they are altering the chemical make-up of our soil, streams and river, which risks detrimental effects for every living thing on Earth. Add to this the effect of all the plastic packaging and the impact of transporting the goods around the world, and you begin to realise that we may be cleaning up our homes, by dirtying up our planet.

There are very good health reasons for using effective cleaning products. But ads featuring seemingly limitless and diffuse ‘risks’ posed by dirt have convinced many of us that our homes must be so clean you could serve finger food on the toilet seat. There is growing evidence that this drive towards a hermetically sealed lifestyle has actually increased some health risks, including asthma, allergies and immune system malfunctions.

Some studies have suggested links between certain conditions and prolonged exposure to some cleaning compounds. Others point to the possibility that a lack of exposure to everyday germs can lead to hypersensitivity in later life. There is also concern that indiscriminate use of antibacterial cleansers may be contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistant germs.

In light of this, one of the greenest and most sensible things you can do is use cleaning products safely, sparingly and efficiently. There are obvious risks from powerful cleaning chemicals getting into your eyes and mouth, or even touching your skin directly. So at the very least we should read and follow the instructions on the packet, instead of just dumping a load of whatever in our bucket and hoping for the best. Using concentrates or refills cuts down the need for packaging, storage, and buying Kiwi-made brands reduces CO2 emissions from transportation.

We should also try and avoid using overly powerful chemical cleaners as a substitute for one of the most powerful cleaning substances in known to humanity – elbow grease. It’s not really cool risking your health and polluting the local water supply just because you would rather skip the scrubbing. Even if you can’t face the thought of putting your chemical weapons out of commission, softening up your target with a damp cloth, clothes brush or duster may well reduce the payload required.

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7
Jan 10

Thinking and driving

April, 2008

Cars are battling it out with airplanes and cows for the title of environmental enemy number one. But the vast majority of New Zealanders still need their own vehicles. So how can you minimise the damage without resorting to a horse and cart?

Minimise the amount you drive, the size of your vehicles and their engines, and how many vehicles you own. You don’t need a 4×4 unless you regularly drive off road in wet conditions, or a powerful sports car unless you wish to look very selfish. Every time you jump in the car, look in the mirror and ask yourself honestly: do I really need to drive, or is this habit, laziness or lack of planning? Could I use this journey to do more than one thing? Do I need more than one vehicle, or better co-operation and vehicle sharing with family and friends?

Hybrids are a more eco-friendly choice than a new conventional vehicle with a similar-sized engine. But you can’t floor it up the moral high road just by joining the hybrid owners club alongside the likes of Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio. Hybrids are not made of organic hemp and fairy dust. They include lots of plastics and synthetic materials, and require a lot of energy to manufacture. Despite the development of lower polluting battery packs of lithium and nickel rather than lead, you will need to look after your eco-car and drive it efficiently to ensure the benefits of your new vehicle outweigh its environmental cost.

Downshift into the second hand recycled car market. If you sell your oversized vehicles they may stay on the road for a while with somebody else, but you will reduce your consumption of resources and help to undermine demand for brand new versions of these cars. But you need to shop around for quality and get any potential purchases thoroughly tested, as fuel efficiency and emissions can worsen over time.

Your car does not need to be a substitute lounge. Whether buying new or second hand, seal the deal with a KISS – Keep It Simple and as Small as possible. According to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, the maximum optimum engine capacity for a family of four on longer journeys is only two litres. However, fuel consumption varies widely within each engine size. For example, the most efficient three litre engine on the market uses fuel more economically than the least efficient 1.6 litre engine.

Finally, be wary of false measures of efficiency. Remember that anything measured in money is unlikely to include the full environmental costs, which motorists are not paying at the moment, despite heavy taxes. However, keeping a record of your fuel use and costs will help you weigh up your motoring options. It may also inform decisions about where you live and work. With the cash you save you can green up other areas of your life.

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7
Jan 10

As the worm turns

August, 2008

The humble worm is a superhero.

Spiralling food prices and global soil depletion are leaving people to starve abroad and making it harder to make ends meet at home. The industrialised world’s response is to massively over-use petrochemical based fertilisers, ship food products all over the world, and send tonnes of unwanted food to fester in landfills.

This wastes nutrients, causes pollution and drives climate change.  Enter the worms to save the day. By getting to know your worms, recycling your scraps and adding the result to your veggie patch, you can help solve all these problems at a stroke.

So here’s how to help save the world – one mouldy potato at a time.

Building your worm HQ

When you picture worm farms, you may be thinking of a sprawling, evil smelling, squirming heap. But it needn’t be so. A properly maintained farm does not smell, and these days there are indoor and outdoor worm farm designs to match even the most refined designer tastes.

The scale of your worm farm will depend on the space you have available and how much food waste you want it to deal with. The first thing to do is to work out the average amount of scraps your household generates in a day. Collect all your potential worm food (see below) in a container for one week, weigh it, and divide the weight by seven. This irons out those Sunday blow out fluctuations and the times when you might eat out. Allow approximately 2m² surface area (or a volume of 60 litres) for every 200 grams of food waste per day. Don’t be daunted by the size of your scrap heap. It’s not compulsory to worm farm all your food waste, and every bit helps.

Making the farm as easy and convenient to use as possible will radically improve your chances of success. Consider the location of your worm farm carefully. It should be relatively near the kitchen and/or in a spot which you pass often, so you can drop off food easily and check in on the team. Think about how big it can be if you want to be able to move it without unloading it.

Worms like temperatures between 10 – 25ºC. Ideally, your bin should be in a sheltered spot that gets some sun. You will need to ensure it doesn’t get too hot, and insulate it well if it is outside in colder seasons, otherwise the may freeze to death. Old carpet on top of the contents is ideal for this.

Commercial worm contraptions are on the market for around $150, but it’s more creative looking for a container and converting it for the purpose. Old bath tubs are perfect as they are a good size and come complete with drainage. Old recycling bins, where they have been replaced with newer models, are also good, but wooden containers are better as they provide good insulation and have the added benefit of absorbing excess moisture.

Worms need to breathe, and like to work near the surface. Your warm farm needs to remain damp, but not waterlogged. Whatever you use should only be 20 – 40 cm deep with a relatively large surface area (about 40×40 – 60 cm). Also, if your farm is too deep it can prevent the necessary air getting in and make it awkward to work on. A shallow container also allows for better aeration of the bedding.

Depending on size, drill or punch eight – 12 holes about 10mm diameter in the bottom of the container for aeration and drainage. If contents become too wet, drill more holes. Raise your container up on bricks or wooden blocks to aid air circulation and drainage. Place a tray underneath to capture the excess liquid. It can be diluted one part juice to 10 parts water to make an excellent liquid plant fertiliser. Worms do their thing in the dark, so you will also need a cover, but one which does not seal out the air. This preserves moisture and prevents scavenging animals from tearing through your scrap collection. Weighted down corrugated iron is a popular and effective option.

It’s not hard getting the staff these days. Two species are especially suited for worm composting, Tiger Worms (Eisenia fetida) and Red Worms, (Lumbricus rubellus) also known as red wriggler or manure worms. For each 400 grams of food waste you will need between 500 grams – 900 grams of worms. That’s between 1,000 and 2,000 of the little fellas. But don’t worry, you can always start small, and wait for them to breed. In the ideal conditions they will double their number every 40 days or so.

The easiest way to start your crew is to buy worms direct from specialists. You can find them on Trade Me and in the Yellow Pages. 1,000 worms cost about $30, but some council run schemes offer them at a discount. A cheaper, more fun, but more haphazard way is to collect them from mature manure heaps. Or if we want to economise and socialise you can get some from a fellow worm farmer. Members of Permaculture in New Zealand (www.permaculture.org.nz) are good people to try. You can pick up your worms and pick the experts’ brains at the same time.

To bed your worms down, tear or shred paper, make it damp and add it to your container with a little soil until it is 10-15cm deep. This layer shouldn’t be too wet – it is there to help air circulate. Then load in your worms and the appropriate amount of food scraps, and your planet saving work has begun!

Worms prefer their meals crushed up as small as you can be bothered. They ‘don’t do spicey’, garlic or onions. Other than that they will eat most kitchen vegetable/fruit scraps or peelings, shredded paper, tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds and filters, crushed egg shells, bread scraps, leftover cereal, cottage cheese, plate scrapings, biscuit crumbs, even ice cream.

Avoid adding too much left over citrus or acidic fruits, like oranges, lemons, grapefruit and kiwifruit. These make conditions too acid for the worms. Deal with garden waste in a normal composter – otherwise the heat can kill your wriggly friends. Meat/fish scraps can only be included in moderation and should be buried (not too deeply) in the bedding to stop odours and discourage flies. Also avoid adding oils, as they turn things to slime. It can help the process to add a little semi-mature compost once it is past the heating stage, or aged horse manure. The micro-organisms they contain help soften up the waste for the worms, as well as providing additional food.

If your worms end up eating their own castings, they will die. So your worm farm will need refreshing about once every three months. If you have a suitably large container, you can make this easier from the outset by feeding the worms at only one end of the bin for at least a week before clean-out time. Then take the bedding/castings out of the unfed end of the farm and add it to your garden. (This will remove about half to two thirds of the material and some of the worms.) Place the remaining material in a separate container while you clean the bin and add new bedding. Then replace it and add some scraps. The worms will move out of the old bedding in a couple of days, ready for next time.

You can put the castings you remove from your worm farm, and the diluted liquid fertiliser, directly on your garden. Watch it grow, eat the contents, put the scraps in your worm farm. Repeat.

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7
Jan 10

Your place, unplugged

February, 2008

There’s something very James Bond about the idea of having a home which generates all its own electricity. But is it realistic to dream of making the switch to renewable energy?

Too many discussions about the potential for alternative energy are hobbled by a false assumption. The energy we “need” is not the amount of power we are roaring through at the moment. If it were alternative energy would always fail hopelessly to keep up with our insatiable demand. But then so, eventually, would almost every other resource on the planet.

Let’s get things into perspective. The average New Zealand home currently consumes about 8,000 kWh of electricity per year, which is priced at about $1,600 from the conventional grid. This, however, is not the true cost. The real cost of creating this power – about a third of which comes from fossil fuels – in terms of the damage done to our local and global environment, doesn’t show up on our bills.

In choosing to generate our own electricity through environmentally friendly means, we are also aiming to accept the real costs of and responsibility for our consumption. So the first thing to do is to conduct a rigorous audit of the energy use in our home and reduce it as far as possible. Everyone should do this anyway, whether we intend to generate our own or not. You know the drill: energy efficient lighting and appliances, switch things off, keep the fridge closed, full washing machines on low temperatures, insulation…

Energy reduction measures will almost always generate greater economic and environmental savings, per dollar invested, than installing wind turbines and solar panels. So we need to fully explore designing-in energy saving features like solar water heating to a purpose built home or retrofitting them, before investing in generation. It’s not efficient to generate your own power just to cook your dinner and warm your house, so a wood burning stove and/or LPG cooker should be used instead.

The cost of any generation system you may decide to build will largely depend on how much power you need at peak times. A comprehensive energy efficiency drive has the potential to lower our electricity requirements to about 35% or less of that in an average home. Only once we have all this sorted, and ingrained into family life, should we consider generating our own power.

To design a system for your home, you will need to talk to an expert who can help you calculate your energy needs and the energy resources of your site accurately. For urban homes in New Zealand, this will probably mean considering the installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, which convert sunlight into electricity. For those with more space around them, wind turbines and micro-hydro generation may also come into the equation.

You will need to consider local geography, weather and the suitability of your building and its location. In New Zealand PV panels should ideally be placed at unshaded north-facing locations. Wind turbines require a minimum annual mean wind speed of more than four metres per second. This needs to be fairly consistent, since they will not generate in extremely high or low wind at all. To install a micro-hydro unit, you will need your own consistently flowing stream or spring. The system will also need to be backed up with batteries if it isn’t plugged into the grid.

Check the rules and regulations. There are instances where new buildings must be wired into the mains as a condition of their consent. PV panels will usually not require consent, but some wind turbines produce noise and all of them should be at least 10m high. This means they must be carefully sited and require resource and building consent. Micro-hydro systems require a building consent and a resource consent. To avoid damage or risk of fire, appropriate New Zealand standards and regulations need to be observed, including those relating to the installation of batteries and wiring.

Forget any ideas you may cherish about ‘free’ energy; these systems cost money to install and maintain. The sort of generating system, whether PV, wind or a combination of the two, which is likely to make an energy efficient home in New Zealand completely self sufficient will cost between  $35,000-$45,000 to install. At the moment it is highly unlikely this sort of system will pay for itself during its 30 year life expectancy, during which time there will be other costs from wear and tear and battery maintenance.

But there are situations in which it can be highly cost effective. If you are putting a new building up in a remote area, you might be saving yourself the cost of grid connection in the first place, which can be between $18,000 and $24,000 per kilometre. And if you are still connected to the grid, it may be possible to sell electricity back to the power retailer, but they will usually pay less than they sell electricity for. You will need to do a deal with them and comply with the safety and technical requirements of whoever owns the lines to your property.

In economic terms you are balancing the cost of installing and maintain your system, against the present and future cost of grid power. With the energy industry the way it is, this is tough call. In the end it all comes down to how much you are willing to invest in the future of the Earth’s atmosphere, a cleaner conscience, and for the chance to be a lifestyle pioneer.

Sustainable lifestyles — No Comments
7
Jan 10

Any colour, so long as it’s green

October, 2007

Painting on walls is arguably humanity’s longest running DIY task. For most of our 30,000 years on the job we took scant regard to the risks to our health and environment, but these days only a caveman would ignore them.

What’s the problem? Aside from watching out for remnants of old lead based paints when renovating, you should be aware that Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) including benzene, formaldehyde, toluene, and xylene are used as solvents in some modern paints to make them flow properly, and in most paint strippers. These give off potentially harmful gases into the atmosphere during production and at room temperature – your room temperature. They can continue to do so long after they are dry.

So? VOCs do occur naturally. But you should take the headache, dizziness and sore throat from painting all day with the windows closed as a timely warning: scientific studies suggest increased exposure to VOC’s may cause effects which will mean more than a couple of paracetamol and a lie down.

The risks include possible damage to the liver, kidney, and your central nervous system as well as an increase risk of asthma.Some organics can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected of causing cancer in humans, and their release may also contribute to climate change. And if you don’t check, it may be that VOCs aren’t the only nasties lurking in your paint pot. Other potentially toxic substances in there include heavy metals, formaldehyde, ammonia, acetone, odour masking agents and the proven carcinogen, benzene.

Want paint without the pong? Water-based paints, sometimes referred to as latex paints, have become the norm across New Zealand’s $250 million decorative paint industry, making up about 75% of the most popular lines.They have a lower VOC content than solvent-based paints, and brushes, rollers etc used with them can be cleaned with ordinary soap and water rather than white spirit.

What’s the downside? Water-based paint must be protected from freezing and applied at a minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. It can also rust steel and adversely affect some aluminium surfaces. It may have lower chemical and solvent resistance and reduced temperature resistance, meaning the paint may give a finish which is not quite as tough as its more toxic alternative. Its sensitivity to humidity also means that low humidity can cause it to dry extremely fast and even crack, while high humidity can cause very slow drying times.

The levels of VOCs vary in paints depending on their ingredients and the finish they are designed to produce. The tendency is for glossier finishes to require higher levels of VOCs. As a guide, UK-based DIY giant B&Q has developed its own company-wide labelling system, which defines VOC levels as:

  • Minimal: 0 – 0.29%
  • Low: 0.30 – 7.99%
  • Medium: 8 – 24.99%
  • High: 25 – 50%
  • Very high: more than 50%

B&Q stipulates that the the term ‘VOC’ in the labelling phrases used must relate to the total VOC content of the product, and they use the term ‘minimal’ rather than ‘No-VOC’ or ‘VOC free’, otherwise VOCs can be present in the tints of paints marketed as having no VOC in their solvent.

Always read the label. The VOC content may also be expressed as grams/litre (g/litre). To convert this into a percentage on the B&Q scale, divide by 10. Look out for paints with the Environmental Choice NZ stamp. Including their tint they are between 5-10% VOCs, depending on the finish, which would put them in B&Q’s low and medium categories. These also comply with additional standards on heavy metals, packaging, consumer information, product stewardship, waste and energy management. But you may need to ask the manufacturer to be sure, since no standard compulsory VOC labelling system exists.

If you want really green biodegradable paint in virtually any colour. You can go for paints made from blends of plant oils, tree resins and earth clays. The ingredients list for these tend to read more like a half decent fruit cake than a hardwearing substance you spread on your wall.  It is best to ask the retailer which one to use for areas which need regular washing or a particularly tough finish. Given proper maintenance, they should last as long as the more toxic paints and come complete with highly valuable peace of mind.

And if you don’t think that is the way of the future for paint, what about this? Oxford University scientists have been researching the possibilities of using single cell algae to make eco-friendly iridescent paints that shimmer into different colours as you move around the room. Each tiny organism has a silica shell with tiny holes that only allow some colours of light through. The plan is to use a low energy process to grow huge amounts of the algae, and then kill them off with heat or mild acid to leave the shells for use in the paints.

Paint instead of heating? Insulating and thermochromic paints, which change colour with differing temperatures, may become an integral part of a home’s internal atmosphere control system. In 2001 at Tongji University in Shanghai scientists began developing paints able to reflect heat when the weather is hot, to keep your house cool, and absorb heat in cold periods to help keep you warm inside. It also changes colour to match the seasons. But the challenge will remain to produce these products in ways which don’t help make our seasons even more erratic, or place our long-term health at risk.


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7
Jan 10

Water, water everywhere?

Conserving water was once an instinctive part of being a Kiwi. Since water shortages are becoming a regular feature of summer all over the globe and water rates seem to be attached to an ever rising balloon, perhaps it’s time to revitalise a fine tradition?

The greatest hurdle to water conservation is our delusion that water is an infinite resource. An island surrounded by water, where water falls from the sky at the most inopportune moments, should be able to keep a relatively sparse population from going thirsty. But in some regions our personal needs, combined with farming, hydroelectricity, industry, recreation, tourism and more, are sucking up more water than there is available.

Minimise water usage and wastage before splashing out on expensive recycling systems. Leaking taps waste up to 90 litres a week. Put some drinking water aside in the fridge so you don’t have to wait for the mixer to run cold. When dishwashing by hand use a bowl or a plug, and use the machine on full loads only.

How does your garden grow? Watering plants accurately and in the cool of early morning or evening is most efficient. Careful planting, landscaping and mulching can remove the need for additional watering altogether. Spas and swimming pools are a real luxury in today’s climate, so at least make best use of them by inviting the neighbours round, look into water treatments which require less backwashing and keep them covered to reduce evaporation.

You don’t have to be dirty to have a clean conscience. Share a bath as a weekend luxury and shower during the week.[ii] The average washing machine load takes 95 litres, so choose an efficient model when buying, use a water-saving cycle and make sure it’s full every time. Brushing your teeth with the tap running instead of rinsing with a tumbler wastes almost 9 litres a minute.

Go check your flow. Tests for the Australian water efficiency standards and the Consumers’ Institute suggest taps and showerheads needn’t deliver more than nine litres of water per minute to work efficiently. You can test yours by running your tap or shower into a bucket for 15 seconds and then multiplying the result by four. If the flow is too high you can fit flow restrictors for about $20 a tap, or contact your plumber to restrict the whole system. This will also reduce condensation levels in your home

Using pure drinking water to flush the toilet is a crap idea! You don’t need Niagara Falls in the smallest room to deal with the situation. Adjust the flow or reduce it with a brick or specially designed space-filler in the cistern. Home builders and renovators should consider a water-saving model of toilet. The truly committed should investigate the possibilities of composting toilets, or live by the phrase ‘when it’s yellow, let it mellow, when it’s brown, flush it down.’

Toilets, cars and plants can all re-use ‘grey water’ you have washed clothes or yourself in if you use mild, vegetable based cleaning products. If you can’t convince the kids to stagger around with buckets all day, fit a gravity or pump fed grey water diversion system. But check with your local authority first. Some promote diversion, but there are restrictions in certain areas, particularly if you plan to store your grey water, rather than let it flow straight out to irrigate the garden.

You can keep the costs down by Doing-It-Yourself, but it’s not for the faint hearted. You can have the Watersmart Gully, which allows you to manually direct grey water into the garden, installed for about $2,500, or one that diverts at the touch of a button for about $3,300. For a couple of hundred extra dollars you can get an automatic Ecoplus system installed, which cleans and stores grey water for toilet flushing as well as the garden, but you may have to work harder to get the bureaucrats to agree.

Rainwater tanks are still a familiar site in rural areas. But they can also be used in urban locations on a smaller scale for use on plants, cars and/or the toilet. The Ministry of Health recommends mains water supply is used instead of rainwater for drinking and food preparation where it is available, but presumably they enjoy that hint of chlorine taste. Install a water filter for peace of mind, keep your roof and gullies clean and remember where your water comes from when considering using any anti-fungal sprays or paints up there.

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