Consumers: Adopting Greener Behaviors Or Just Cheap?
This month, Consumer Reports is publishing the results of a survey of American adults asking about their adoption of "green" behaviors. Interesting, right? However, we can't help but wonder whether some of these behaviors are more about saving money than saving the planet.
Here are some of the actions they asked about:
- Drinking tap water instead of bottled
- Running full loads in the dishwasher
- Using a programmable thermostat
- Buying fresh food from a farmer's market
- Line-drying clothes
Of course, household behaviors that save both money and resources are a classic win-win situation, so we're not complaining. But how do you save money in ways that also save energy or waste, and could also be perceived as green?
Shades of green [Consumer Reports]
By the Numbers: U.S. consumers adopting some greener behaviors [Consumer Reports Home blog]
(Photo: miemo)
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Wolf Patties. I hunt my own myself. From a wing glider. And why is that russian screaming obscenities at me?
Can't it be both?
Plus, going green usually entails cutting the cord from corporate-type goods & services, so you're eliminating the extra, needless middleman.
As a Progressive, I get an extra spring in my step from the fact that the people who eschew such approaches are not only doing The Wrong Thing, but they're doing wrong to themselves, as well. Ha!
I'm probably... being LESS green... I don't have money for movies or expensive entertainment, so while there's less money and pollution spent on driving to the theater, or the mall, or less on DVDs and video games, I'm buying MORE books than ever before.
Sorry environment. :(
The term "Begs the question" is one of the most misused phrases in the English language.
To beg the question does not mean "to raise the question."
""Begging the question" is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself. When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place."
I've been walking/biking to work for 20+ years because I'm a cheap bastard.
@suburbancowboy: You're correct about this, but I have to wonder if "begging the question" isn't poorly named. The words "begging the question" DOES sound a lot like "raising the question." It's not without reason that people confuse these. Maybe "begging the question" should instead be called something else. There are other, better-named logical errors, such as "straw man." I'm sure someone can come up with something better.
@PsiCop: The term may be unclear now, but it was coined at a time when it fit the usual style of speech much better than it does today. And hey, what's so intuitive about a straw man anyway? ;-)
Seriously? There were people washing less than a full load of clothes?
@suburbancowboy: I love that there's an entire site about this.
I'm not sure what that phrase was doing in the post originally in the first place, and I've removed it.
Drying towels, bedding and heavy garments on a clothesline .... because I am a cheap son-of-a-gun.
Waiting to run the dishwasher... because I am a cheap son-of-a-gun.
Recycling bottles and cans... because I am a cheap son-of-a-gun.
Drinking Bottled Water at work because the stuff out of the faucet tastes like crap. Drinking water from the tap at home.... because I am a cheap son-of-a-gun.
Solar powered water heater... because I am a cheap son-of-a-gun.
Encouraging car pooling amoung employees ... becaus I am cheap son-of-a-gun (and employees who save a $ via carpooling don't have to be paid as much $).
I guess I do all of this because I am a cheap son-of-a-gun.
@BytheSea: It has been cost-effective the whole time, it's just that this is the first time anyone cares.
@Dondegroovily: Unless there's something in the washing machine that can't go with others... a heavily dyed item, skunked clothes, whatever... there's no damn good reason to do this.
I prefer the word 'frugal' rather than cheap. The less money I spend for fuel oil, garbage service, and electricity, the more money in MY pocket instead of a utility company's account. By recycling, I figure my garbage output is cut at least in half. And recycling is free, plus there's a drop off center less than a mile from my house.
I will be 5 for 5 in the list above once I install the new thermostat.
I go one step further with recycling aluminum - I crush the cans and store them, waiting for the price to go above 70 cents/lb at the local scrap yard, then I turn them in for cash.
@Dondegroovily: there is a difference between "full" and FULL. Like if I have a few big pots that need to be washed, I can put them in the dishwasher, but not much else, or I can was those 3-4 big pots by hand, and then load every other dish I have in there.
I normally do option 2, but have probably done option 1 in the past.
@Shadowfire: Ive thrown stuff in the wash on its own when it needed to be washed immediately, but I didnt have much else to go with it (like if I spill something on a shirt right after wash day... I may have a handful of things, but not a full load. )
@catastrophegirl: But the shiny new ones I want aren't used, and no used bookstores around here. I work in a bookstore, so I get a discount. Moral quandry!
@suburbancowboy: I gave up on this issue and am now trying to keep "very unique" from becoming ubiquitous. Probably too late.
I've been known to run the dishwasher when it's not quite full because I've run out of a specific item, such as all my teaspoons are dirty.
I've bought more silverware, though, so I haven't had that happen in a while.
@BytheSea:
You mean like how everyone was obsessed with saving gas last summer when it was $4 a gallon, but nobody cares anymore now that it's like $2.50?
econ 101 - people respond to incentives.
@madanthony: *taps nose* And glass bottles were expensive and impractical to collect a deposit on but many districts didn't have plastic recycling. And the electric car was a joke until the technology was available for a hybrid.
@Dondegroovily: I think the point is that while it has always been cost-effective, the cost effectiveness benefits haven't been large enough to outweigh the perceived benefits of the lazy, wasteful way of doing things. (I say perceived because things like bottled water only have benefits if you don't know better.)
I remember hearing comments during the dramatic rise in gas prices two summers ago that if gas hit 5 dollars a gallon, it would cross a threshold that would force people to dramatically alter the way people lived in this country. Not that it would necessarily all be positive change, but it would be change. Unfortunately, prices only got up around $4.50. The scientist in me wanted to see the experiment run.
The best way to effect change is not through people's hearts (the masses are unfortunately cruel) or minds (the masses are unfortunately stupid), but through their wallets (the masses are cheap).
As for me, I left my car behind when I moved away to grad school, so no insurance or gas; got rid of the cable; have focused on making bigger batches of food and freezing them; no A/C in the new apartment, not planning on buying one. I don't think of it as being frugal or green; it's just being sensible.
Laura,
"To beg the question" is an informal logical fallacy. It is when one submits as evidence for ones argument, the very point that is being debated.
"To beg the question" does NOT mean, "It makes one want to ask...", though it is frequently misused colloquially as such.
I started riding my bicycle to work four and a half years ago.
A little over a year ago, my truck got rear-ended, and we decided not to replace it and went down to one car.
Save a pile of money on gas and insurance...
We've done all of those for as long as I can remember. Unless its raining or too cold on laundry day, its on the line. Sometimes, it drys quicker outside than in the dryer.
The real test will be after teh economy improves - will people go back to their wasteful ways, or will they keep these new habits?
Please don't BM in a grocery bag...remember...when you miss the garbage can someone has to clean it up.
@aaron8301: This is actually a war induced economic downturn (or wars). Happens every war regardless of who wins. Would've figured we'd learn something about this but guess not.
@Eldritch: Books have a pretty low environmental impact, especially relative to other forms of entertainment. Mass market paperbacks are mostly recycled paper anyway. Your choice of what to eat for dinner tonight can have a bigger environmental impact than whether you buy a new book.
I like to think of books as a form of carbon storage :)
Actually Econ 101 was how people respond to supply (or demand) and the effects of restricting a money supply. Incentives would be more or less Macro Econ 400 at least or possibly one that included taxation in it.
@gStein: I dry them on the line and then throw them in the dryer for about 5 minutes. Gets rid of a lot of the crunchiness without using too much energy.
@BytheSea: PS...there's nothing truly GREEN about the GREEN stuff that people are gulping up.
Turbo diesel isn't green and get's similar or better mileage than some hybrids. Recycled products are made in different countries with laxer environmental standards (ie china, mexico) causing more pollution than in the US. Garbage recycling isn't actually recycled but ends up in the dump.
I'm also getting sick of people who don't understand that waste is not just garbage...waste is garbage AND water AND electrical, etc. (off the top of my head that's the best I can come up with). All can be toxic especially to children...and can certainly poison a water supply, the people that use that supply, and the animals they eat.
It's a sin of the second order (right below Murder, Rape, Betrayal) with which we are guilty of when we refuse to hold companies accountable to environmental standards in foreign operations targeted for US consumption.
I can go on...it's just a fascade to make people feel good about themselves and lessen their douchebaggerism.
@INsano: Linguistics 101: Language is defined by actual use, not by how someone who thinks they're smarter than us thinks it should be used. The two meanings of "beg the question" are two different ones, not a right and wrong one.
@nstonep: It's not a war-induced downturn. First and foremost, the deficits that go with war usually raise economies, as long as the country isn't being destroyed - WW2 ENDED the Great Depression, it didn't start it. And the deficit spending connected with Iraq/Afghanistan is ongoing.
@Dragonis: I put a line up on our back porch this spring. Enough room for 2-3 loads and I didn't have to worry about all the rain we got this summer AND I don't have to trek up the hill to the line out back. When it gets cold enough to freeze them they'll go in the dryer. The clothes bar set up in the tub just isn't large enough for more than a few sweaters.
Frankly, I don't really care. If someone decides to go green because it saves money, that's great. In fact, if being green were touted more as a cost-saving measure than an earth-saving measure, I think more people would sign on. Pockets mean more than ethics in this country.
@BytheSea: It's my belief (not cited, but it makes sense) that California demanding zero emission cars by (forget the date) had a large role in the creation of first the electric vehicle, then the hybrid.
CA is one of the largest markets, and so when our state set a % of these by a certain date, it forced the car companies to devise some way of meeting this challenge.
As a result, it kick-started it by decades, or potentially even made it possible.
So, yay! government intervention! It got us to a point today that we need to be, and probably wouldn't have been had not CA mandated "crazy" standards.
@nstonep: You're using semantics to bolster part of your argument (Green is either/or/both diesel, hybrid or electronic vehicles if the result is less energy burned to reach the same goals).
You're also using a poor first draft, or sloppy implementation, to attack the main goal. If rich nations are simply dumping their toxic goods to poorer countries, then measures can (and are) be taken to address these issues afterwards. But the notion that since Mexico City junkyards are poisoned by mercury from US e-waste, we should throw in the towel is absurd.
It'd be like saying that since, somewhere, child labor exists, we may as well reinstitute slavery.
I can see your point about Greenwashing, though. Or the tendency for some people to think that because they recycle their junk mail, it makes up for buying a second Hummer. Or the thought that it's not a long-term, ongoing, ever-revising process (balanced, of course).
@Dondegroovily: No, it just means that someone (or several of them) are using it wrong. There's a reason why English has both "beg" and "raise". They're different.
Those of us who're knowledgeable can let us in on what they know. Those who are not get a chance to learn something that day. Both sides, a glorious day!
@nstonep: At *your* school maybe. The lowest ECON at my uni was 130 - Macro, and Micro was 131. Go figure ...
@gStein: I don't mind the crunchy feeling so much, but you can do like kalaratri says and pop them in the dryer for a few minutes, and/or add some vinegar to your rinse cycle as a softener. (I put mine in a Downy ball.) I sometimes put things in the dryer for a while if they're linty. I have a bunch of black ribbed t-shirts that are prone to that.
I vastly prefer the feel of line dried sheets and dishtowels and things like that. I go all Captain Fuss-a-Lot when I have to dry those things in the dryer.
Guh. why do you think it took a financial disaster to get people to care about the environment? Activists have been screeching about the environment for 30 years but it hasn't been cost effective until now.