[FiniteQuantity]

I will feel a lot better about people preaching conservation when they can add population stabilization to their words. As long as population increases, population growth will eventually negate any reduction in consumption brought about by conservation.

Heard an NPR piece over the weekend that talked about Connecticut's garbage collection. They have landfills in the state (I think they said that) but they send 400,000 tons of garbase out of the state each year to be landfilled in Ohio, Massachusetts and New York. They have a recycling program which saves some percentage of their garbage from having to be landfilled. However, the Connecticut government employee involved in Waste Disposal said said that they hoped to double the amount of recycling they were doing. But then he added (and as per usual, not denouncing the fact) that they would need this increase in recycling just to keep their landfilling constant due to the fact that both consumption and population were increasing.

[kpeavey]

The MSM have an inherent need to NOT spread the word for conservation. They are corporate, their revenue depends on advertising. The consumer spends money, the companies make money, spend it on advertising, the press stays in business.

It is the fiduciary duty of the directors of news organizations to tell the people to consume.

[AbbieT]

Good Point FiniteQuantity. I agree, the world can't handle the population at the growth rates we are seeing. Population stabilization is key. I'm always amazed that in many third world countries where there isn't enough food to go around that couples have 8 or 9 children and then they starve. I can't imagine having that many kids if you can't feed them.

Kpeavey, I also unfortunately agree with your statement. It would be great if MSM would cover these ideas. But, you're right. Their very existence is based on advertising, and advertising exists to convince us to buy and consume:-(

[mommy22]

As far as the population issue goes, I hope that whoever takes the White House in 2009 reverses Bush's stripping money from family health clinics from offering birth control, just because they offer abortion services there.
I wonder how many extra hungry mouths there are now because of that decision.

[Duze]

Here's a better way to stay clean with less water. Bring a 1.5 to 2 quart teakettle of water to boil. Take it to the bathroom and set it on a hot pad. Prepare for your bath--disrobe, get two hand towels ready, and a bath towel. Have a basin with you in the shower stall or nearby. Pour 1 gallon of cold water into the basin. Now add half or so of the boiling water, to suit your preferences. Add soap of choice. Add one of the hand towels (larger than a wash cloth, smaller than a bath towel). Begin your bath by lifting the hand towel now completely soaked with soapy warm water, from the basin and apply to your body. You will find that you have plenty of warm soapy water as you repeatedly dip into the basin and apply the towel and water to your body, wringing it out on your body before each trip back to the basin. After that water is used up, refill the basin with cold water and the rest of the teakettle water and add the second hand towel. This is your rinse cycle, and you will find that it is as satisfying as a shower stream of warm water and more effective.

[eastbay]

From the tales of a indiffernet housekeeper : I never understood why anyone would run a dishwasher unless it was full. Ditto on a clotheswasher.

Of course, wait until the dishwasher is full. I take it one step further. When the dishwasher reaches the 'dry' cycle, I twist the dial to 'off'. The 'dry' cycle accomplishes absolutely nothing other than wasting energy and money.

Never, NEVER use a clothes dryer. I mean NEVER! The one we have came two years ago with the house and is almost 5 feet tall, for crying out loud... it must have cost over $1,000 and we've never turned it on. I think it's electric, but I'm not even sure how to turn it on. I do know it takes up a lot of space and might come in handy if we decide to sell the house someday.

[GeoUSA]

I have 2 additional tips related to laundry:

If you are unable to line dry, spinning your laundry an additional time in the washer can remove large amounts of additional moisture without a large energy impact. We have been doing this with our top loading washer for 3 months. It's saving more energy than any other change we have made since installing programmable thermostats. Our electric bills have been 20%, 18%, and 19% less than the same months in 2007.

My brother drys his laundry in his attic. Other than potential moisture/mold issues to the home, I can't think of a downside.

[BaBaBlackSheep]

A good modern dishwasher will use less water then washing by hand.
I have just never seen the truth in this. I haven't had a dishwasher for 5 years now, and maybe they have made some super efficient ones, but I think the last one I had used 11 gallons of hot water for the standard cycle.

No way I use 11 gallons of hot water to do a large compilation of dishes by hand. I start out with some dishes in the sink, usually the stack of plates and a few cups and bowls and run straight hot water on them with the necessary squirts of detergent. This takes about 2 gallons to cover the dishes. Each dish that gets washed gets rinsed with a splash of hot water from the tap, not leaving it running and the splash of rinse water goes in to the wash side of the sink, keeping it hot. It also adds to the water level in that side. The other side of the sink has the drainer in it, where the rinsed dishes will air dry. When I am done (usually 3 meals worth of dishes for the 2 of us) the wash side of the sink is not yet full to the brim and if it were it would be 4 gallons of water. So 4 gallons of hot water is the max of my water use.

Never leave your hot rinse water running while you wash each dish--just as you don't leave water running while you brush your teeth.
Just another add-on:
Cooking pasta: Bring the water to a boil, add your pasta and when it comes back to a rolling boil, turn off the burner and let the pasta sit tightly covered for the same number of minutes you usually like it boiled for. Don't forget it though. It is as likely to turn to mush as over-boiling it would!

[jtsmama]

We used to have a toploader washing machine.When it came time to buy a new one we did our homework and bought a frontloader. The toploader we had used 44 gallons of water per load, the frontloader 14 gallons per load.Also, the frontloader can wash 3x the amount of clothing in one load so the number of loads has decreased.
In the same month we decided to get our first dishwasher, it uses 7 gallons per standard cycle.I did end up going to the thrift store to buy more dinner plates and glasses as I didn't want to run it unless it was full and sometimes we would need those two items before I ran the dishwasher.
We were amazed to see our water/sewer bill drop from around $80 per month to around $45 per month.

[GeoUSA]

While I like the savings of spinning the laundry in the washer for an additional cycle before moving to the dryer, I am ready to start line drying again. I managed to find clothesline in several stores. Of the four stores I have checked none have had clothespins. Wal-Mart stocks them but was sold out. I can find them online, but shipping cost is more than the price of the product. I guess I'm not the only person in my area moving in this direction.

Update: while not the sturdy clothespins I remember from youth, I did find clothespins from China a couple of blocks walk from my office at Family Dollar. These are smaller and with thin metal connectors.

[GeoUSA]

Does anyone know of specific instances where a city or state has taken conservation steps?

For years I have been thinking of the tremendous amount of power consumed by street lights. In many cases along stretches of highway I suspect a significant savings would be accomplished even if every 2nd or 3rd light was deactivated.

Likewise, I see a lot of unnecessary street sweeping. Don't even get me started on blowers. I'm convinced these idiotic devices contribute greatly to people's allergies since they simply blow stuff from one place to another and send much of it airborne.

I know little about California's response to the Enron blackouts several years ago. Did cities take steps to eliminate unnecessary street lighting, etc?

[patience]

On a night drive through rural Indiana, my wife and I noticed the amazing number of home "security lights". Looks like every home has one going dusk to dawn. I wonder how long those will stay on? The cost is $7 or $8/month, and rising. Eventually, they will go out. A dubious benefit at best, easily replaced with a light on a motion detector.

[dolem98]

A friend and I started a web site that just went into public beta, http://www.trackmyconsumption.com. The idea is that you can record how much resources you use each month (power bill, water bill, gas bill etc) and then compare that to other people in your area/nationwide. It might help for people looking for a little more motivation to conserve, as you can try to get a better score as each month goes by.