This is Kaoru, Jamie’s wife. I thought I’d take the opportunity to write an article on Curmi the Blog, to break up the monotony of Jamie’s nerdy ramblings. This is my first article, so I hope you find it both interesting and thought provoking.

Kaoru

Do you know how long it takes paper to decompose in a landfill? Do you know how long it takes cans, bottles & polystyrene to decompose?

The goal of this article is to leave you with at least one piece of new information about sustainable living. I am not an expert but did a bit of research, so hopefully you will have an “Oh, I didn’t know that!” moment.

Things I would like to talk about are recycling, buying electricity and eating smarter for the environment.

To answer the earlier questions, it takes up to 1 year for paper to decompose, up to 100 years for steel cans, up to 500 years for aluminium cans, over 1,000 years for plastic bottles, and probably never for glass bottles and polystyrene.

Recycling

Things like paper, cans and bottles are our valuable resources and can be used again. For example, glass is 100% recyclable and can be reused again and again. If we throw them out as general rubbish, they will be sent to a landfill and simply stay there being useless forever. What a waste!!

Making new goods out of recycled material saves energy. For example, making new aluminium cans from recycled cans uses 20 times less energy than making cans from raw materials. It makes so much sense to recycle doesn’t it?

Recycling also reduces the need to chop down trees or mine new raw materials, which often damages the surrounding eco-system.

So I strongly recommend recycling because it saves our valuable resources, saves energy and protects our environment.

Electricity

Do you know how you could dramatically cut your greenhouse pollution at home? It’s to purchase what they call “accredited Green Power”.

In Victoria, over 90% of electricity generated comes from burning coal. It’s the most greenhouse intensive method of electricity generation.

Reducing electricity consumption does reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the most effective way is to buy electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, water and organic materials.

With accredited Green Power, you are guaranteed that your electricity supplier will buy the equivalent amount of nominated electricity from renewable sources. For example, you may consider purchasing 50% of your electricity from renewable sources. You will pay a little more for Green Power but it will result in a direct contribution to the construction of ‘additional’ renewable energy generators for our future.

Eating Smarter

Do you know what you choose to eat can also have an impact on the environment?

Production of animal products such as meat and dairy has a larger negative impact on the environment compared to plant products such as vegetables and beans.

Additional water and other resources are required to grow grain feed for the animals. The air and water is polluted by the animal waste. Much of the world’s deforestation is a result of clearing and burning to create more grazing land for livestock.

I am not suggesting that everyone becomes a vegetarian, but you may want to consider eating one less serving of animal product each week.

If you are buying seafood, a better choice would be fish caught from the wild, compared to fish grown in fish farms. Especially carnivorous fish such as prawns, salmon, snapper, barramundi and tuna can take up to 12kgs of fish meal caught from the wild to produce only 1kg of themselves. It makes so much sense to have 12kgs of caught fish ourselves, doesn’t it?

The more processed a product is, the more additional energy & resources required in the process and therefore more negative impact it has on the environment. The further a product has travelled to get to you, the more fuel has been burnt and therefore more negative impact it has on the environment.

So you might consider choosing fresh carrots over canned, and local cheese over imported.

You now know if you didn’t already about the benefits of recycling, Green Power and eating smart for the environment. The next step is up to you.

Kaoru