Full bicycle rack on campus

I see changes on this campus. People are commuting by bike a lot more than they have. A year ago, it would be rare to see this many bicycles on our campus. I applaud those who can and choose to do so. 

So, bike riders, who are you? Why do you ride? How far do you travel? Tell us your story.

–Christine

I just took a 3 minute test to get my estimated carbon footprint. Carbon footprint numbers are meant to give us an indicator of our impact on the earth in terms of our enery use. This “van-driving, frequent flier, recyclable-bag carrying mom” registered a 280 on this test. I’m feeling pretty good about my number since the average score in America is 325. How do you rank?

Since I’m not a scientist (and don’t play one on television either) can anybody tell me how significant this number is? Should I be worried that my number isn’t smaller?

–Christine

Have you heard of this guy? He is actually saving all of his garbage for a year in order to find out exactly how much waste he creates and what he could avoid. Terrific idea! I applaud his family for accomodating his project. Does he keep everything? Almost. (Dog waste and medical waste is noted and disposed of properly). He dumps paper and kitchen waste in the worm composter. Eveything else is collected, documented and stored in the basement (even the recyclables).  If we took a look in his basement, we would see items such as:

• 1 piece of chewed gum
• 1 Chips bag
• 1 plastic ice cream wrapper
• Milk containers
• Beer bottles
• and many others

According to Dave Chaimedes, the guy who is saving his trash,  the average consumer has created about 850 pounds of garbage this year already. At this point, he thinks he has 30 pounds. (Wow!) What a difference already. He now brings containers to restaurants to bring home leftovers.

I won’t be jumping on the “saving in my basement” bandwagon soon, but in perusing his list of saved items, I have begun to think about what I would have in my basement…Frightening to say the least… Take a look at his blog, 365 Days of Trash. He chronicles a daily list of his garbage and also finds and links to other sites regarding recycling, composting, plastic bags, etc…

–Christine