Lessons of a Clogged Toilet

This week I am diverging from politics to continue with the theme of waste. I could of course come up with many apt toilet metaphors for politics, but I will spare you.

For the holiday break (yes I work at a University and actually got a two week break), I went home to Florida and spent part of the time staying with my folks.  My parents home, built when I was in utero, is as old as I am. About 7 years ago there was a fire which left the structure intact but led to the replacement of everything else. Because of this it has more up to date insulation, wiring, HVAC, etc than most 30 year old homes. The plumbing though is still original.

After the fire, my parents installed new 1.6 gallons per flush toilets, which combined with old and poorly installed plumbing in places, has created a clogging machine in the guest bathroom. This toilet will clog every time if spartan toilet paper management techniques are not employed. It is so bad my wife refuses to use it no matter what.

The upside is and the point to this post (took me a while huh) is that this toilet forces the user to use a lot less paper. This is not scientific and I assure you no actual measurements were taken, but I think I cut my tp use by about 90%.  This dramatic improvement was not at the expense of good hygiene, it just took a little conscious thought.

Of course now that I'm home and using a "properly" working toilet, I am back to my old wasteful ways. Sure I try to remember what my parents clogging toilet taught me, but I often forget. This is where businesses come in. I as a consumer want to use and purchase things that are designed to limit my stupid mindless wastefulness. Let's face it, the world is too complex and we are too busy to ALL do the right thing. I am one of the ones who try and I still am an uber waster. Government needs to regulate wasteful behavior and business needs to provide affordable and effective solutions. This is the answer, expecting people to do it out of the good of their hearts is not.

(On a side note, I stole this picture from the Treehugger blog and read this old but interesting article on how archaic and dangerous water based waste removal systems are. Makes you rethink the worst green product ever as posted by Mike way back.)

Good Move HP

Image courtesy of art_es_anna via flickr

You all know what electronic waste is, but did you know that since 2005, it is the fasting growing category of solid municipal waste in the US? According to the EPA, in 2006, we generated 2.9 million tons of e-waste in the US alone. Of this amount, only 330,000 tons (11.4%) was recycled. Part of the problem of the low recycling rates is that not all of the material used in electronics is recyclable, but some think the bigger problem is that there is no incentive for people to recycle their old cell phones, PC's, and printers. I have half a closet full of outdated electronics that I never use, and according to these stats, I'm not alone.

Hopefully those e-recycling rates will change for the better when more companies follow HP's lead, and actually offer consumers cash back or credits for their unwanted electronics.

Screw ebay, I'm going to clean out my closet this weekend: www.hp.com/go/ConsumerBuyback

Revolution in Consumption

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame sets forth some thought-provoking ideas in his latest blog post:  "Sign of the End Time."  His fundamental premise is that...

"...we're on the cusp of a change as fundamental as the industrial revolution. But this time the change will be on the consumption side, not the production side."

He continues by saying...

"...The coming consumption revolution won't be strictly for the benefit of the environment. It will be an economic necessity, driven largely by the huge numbers of retired poor. There simply won't be enough stuff for everyone if waste is allowed. "

Waste.  That word is so important to me.  As a advocate of both Lean & Green, waste in any form is inherently evil to me.  Doesn't matter if it's the waste embedded in a business process or the wasted energy of an inefficient automobile.  It's all evil.  Imagine how much better our lives would be if we could snap our fingers and eliminate all the waste around us.  Imagine if at work you never had to fix a screw-up or wait around for an answer.  Imagine if all our shopping destinations were within walking distance.  Not that it's possible to snap your fingers and make it happen, but it's something we should strive for in the long-term, for the sake of the environment and for our own sake.

Later in his post, Adams concludes...

"This is the sort of change that could never happen if the economy was in a happy bubble and it seemed that money was abundant. But as the reality of our economic situation settles in, unthinkable options become thinkable. The good news is that the unthinkable options will have lots of advantages."

This is very often the case with waste elimination.  Most people fear change...they truly dread it.  But, when external factors force us to change, we come up with smarter, more innovative ways to do things.  I think the big winners in a future such as that envisioned by Scott Adams will be those who can eliminate the most waste.  If you're a homebuilder, you better be able to design & build sustainable homes in an efficient manner.  If you're a lawyer, you better invest in some good video-conferencing equipment so your clients don't have to drive across the city to give a deposition.  If you own a restaurant, you better develop relationships with local farmers and ranchers who can provide their products quickly and efficiently.  What do you need to do to become a change leader in your industry?

Portland, Oregon - Land of amazing microbrews, great music scene, and lots of green!

In my never ending search for "green" investments I began to wonder what type of investments are major cities making in green? I came across this little nugget from the Office of Sustainable Development in Portland, Oregon.

City of Portland and Energy Trust of Oregon offer $425,000
for innovative, high performance green buildings

I am hoping that there are many more programs like this one out there that I just have not come across as of yet. What a tremendous opportunity this program provides to green building innovators in the Portland area.

On this same topic I found a full article from a Portland Architecture blog.

OSD seeks Green Investment Fund applicants and feedback for new High Performance Green Policy

Do any of you know if there are similar programs in the metro areas where you live?

An Inconvenient Check

Mark Graban over at the Lean Blog posted this "tweet" on Twitter:

"Going to ask my credit card bank to quit mailing me 'convenience checks.'  Convenient only for ID thieves."

That got me thinking about how truly annoying and wasteful those stupid checks are. You get them too, right?  They usually come in the form of an unsolicited full page of five or six blank checks that nobody ever uses.  You probably do the same thing that I do, you immediately tear-up or shred those suckers and throw 'em away.  Waste of paper, waste of ink, waste of the mailman's time, waste of my time, and as Mark mentioned, a risk for ID theft.  What the heck?  I'd bet that the statement on the photo below is true...