zero carbon moreland

As much as making a change begins at home, it is great when governments take some initiative – and it seems the smaller the government the more they are able to do something about it.

As the Australian Federal government wrestles with their new emissions trading scheme to take to the Copenhagen World Climate conference, I have noticed some smaller but nonetheless important changes happening at a local level.

Moreland City Council here in Melbourne’s inner north has begun a Zero Carbon Moreland scheme to try and bring the council’s carbon usage down.

I think what a love about this initiative is the absolute bare bones practical advice for people. It shows the council is actually serious in attempting to do this.

no more bin

I have decided to do away with my kitchen bin.

There is so little waste going in to it and it is all dry, due to all foodstuffs being composted, that putting a plastic bin liner into the bin just seems a bit stupid. So now I just walk outside and put it in my council provided rubbish bin. It is actually only about 5 metres away anyway. It seems like such a big thing, maybe because I was always brought up with inside bins, but it seems unnecessary to have so much plastic lining what will definitely end up in landfill.

I have seen ‘biodegradable plastic bags’ around but can’t seem to locate them in a shop near to my house.

One thing I have become very aware of is how your house is set up, talking to my friend Nat Cursio, she was saying she lives in an apartment and so can’t compost her food (she did buy a prius which i love). My current rented house has a backyard so i can compost and is close to a great organic food shop. When and if I move again I will definitely be looking around the house and nearby suburb for the resources that will help me sustain these ideas.

the dopplr effect

i recently joined dopplr which is a nonsense social networking site for travellers. they call it ‘the social atlas’ which i think is a bit rank but anyway. there is a couple of great features, one being connectivity with ical for macs and the other being a carbon calculator for all types of transport.

this solves a really key element of zero martyn which is the carbon additions on the plane flights.

i can’t link to the page as one must be a member of dopplr but here are my results so far for what has been a mental year for travel;

failing

ok so here is the deal – as i have been going along on this experiment i have been not posting when i have been failing the rules. this is a failure in in of itself.

i really should be recording the problems of trying to live a zero life, surely thats where the interest is? but as my friend lara said to me – whats the point in becoming so stressed out about it so your life is a nightmare?

good point. however, i still feel like i have made significant changes to my consumption and my waste. for example I haven’t put my bin out in three weeks because there is not enough rubbish to put in it.

another important thing that has happened recently is that i have been riding my bike everywhere. the simple joy of this – both bodily and environmentally. it is a great irony that the transport of the future is a human powered machine of the past.

my biggest pressure in abiding by my rules is having the time to be organised to be able to fulfill them. i have been quite busy and this has been a struggle. however i am still managing to meet most of them, which is due to my house being set up now to do all this.

one mistake i possibly made was when i chose my new isp, i went with iinet (which is a godsend after the hell that was telstra). However internode I see has been marketing themselves as the green isp.

as i begin to store more and more information in harddrives or on the internet in so called data clouds and begin having less and less physical items then things like server farms become more relevant environmentally. How are these things going to be powered? And is it more expensive at a personal level to have everything in a data cloud? or to write it on a piece of paper?
(toyota’s server farm)

take away coffee cups

my weakness for coffee has meant i have been drinking the coffee in – but here is a new thing that may help for the quick getaway – Keep Cup.

a zero week

This is my waste for one week.
After all organics going into compost and recycling a very small amount (mainly milk bottles and cardboard and paper from mail) this is all that is left. And, surprise, surprise it is ALL plastic.

I stopped buying cheese this week as there is simply no option that is packaged without plastic.

Also one thing that annoys me a little is the little plastic windows they have in business style envelopes.

Why is it neccessary?

In another positive move – I bought a drink bottle, so no more plastic bottles – a lot like the New South Wales town of Bundanoon, which has completely banned bottled water, how amazing that a town has made this sort of decision.

And finally – I have started getting broccoli out of my garden!

addicted to plastic

Well now that I am back on the wagon, one thing has become clear is that the thing that is filling up my rubbish bin after taking out the organic matter for the compost, and recycling paper and plastics is UNRECYCLABLE PLASTICS.
Darebin is a great local council for recycling – they recycle number 1-6 plastics, which is rare for Melbourne. But there are still plastics that can’t be re-used, and this is the whole stuff that is in my bin that is eventually going to end up in landfill – and it is ALL PLASTIC, argh.

There is a great documentary coming up on ABC TV called Addicted to Plastic which unravels not only how unbiodegradable the material is but also the problems with recycling both as a non green industry but also as an incomplete ‘closed loop’ process.

green travel.

I begin a travel odyssey in November – so in preparation I am beginning to put together my kit, as I will be in a couple of places (Beijing and Iceland) for 2 months each I decided to buy a little coffee pot so as to cut down on takeaway rubbish madness and also to ensure the quality (I am a coffee tragic, melbourne is a coffee mecca, forgive me).

I am also on the lookout for a water bottle/thermos which is light, compact, but also green. I stumbled upon this great site for travelling green – Go Green Travel Green.

Check out the 25 Days to Green travel, very cool. I have been considering taking the Trans – Siberian railway from Beijing to St Petersburg – I think greenwise it makes sense…

back on the wagon…

It has been a while since I posted here.

I had a sustained period where I was travelling for work back and forth between regional Victoria and regional Tasmania, all of this was on non-carbon neutral flights unfortunately. Some of the smaller airlines (indeed i was flying on 10 seaters going into and out of King and Flinders Island in Bass Strait) don’t have carbon offset programs.

But in addition to this was regional centres with no dedicated organic food sections. In fact a lot of the produce had been shipped on a barge (taking a few days) to get to the island and was in pretty poor shape by the time it got there.

The good news is that my small vegetable patch is beginning to thrive – I get regular rocket, basil, parsely and spinach. I fear I may have made a solar faux pas though as it doesnt get as much sun as it probably needs to. Also snails seem to be eating my broccoli, very annoying. I have been looking for a no toxic solution to this. Apparently coffee grains are good and also sharp things like egg shells…this idea appeals to me as i do make coffee at home and also like eggs.

i think one of the reasons i have not written here for so long is the the guilt attached to not being able to do the right thing, to not be able to follow some simple rules of sustainable living. i don’t want to live in a guilt trap, but i also want things to be strict enough that i feel the pressure of it. already my ways of being have changed from this experiment, there is not a single thing i buy now without considering where it came from and where it is going.
having said all that, it is good to be back on the wagon.

travel is the death of zero living

this is a post which will be short, but will be added to – I have arrived back after a period of extensive travel around Australia for work. I would say that travel is indeed virtually impossible to be zero. plane fuel/hire cars/hotels/food on the run all add up to + in the carbon ledger.
more to come.