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10 Every-Day Ways to Reduce Your Oil Use
Posted on July 5th, 2010 10 comments
Do you recall the striking Gulf oil spill images depicting the environmental devastation caused by deep water oil exploration? Each picture spoke to the anger and sadness many of us felt (and still feel) about the situation. Yet each image also begs the questions, “Do my choices make a difference?” and “What can I do to help prevent future catastrophes?”To quote the deeply inspirational Mahatma Gandhi, “It’s not too late at all. You just don’t yet know what you are capable of.”
In that vein, here are 10 every-day ways you can lessen your consumption of crude and lead a more sustainable life:
- Skip the meat. Compared with plant crops, meat requires eight time the fossil fuels to produce. Following our current path, world meat consumption is expected to double by 2050. Imagine the impact this will have on oil demand if we don’t act today.
- Drive less than 65 (or 60). In most cars, gas mileage drops off above 60 mph. Lower gas mileage translates to higher overall gas consumption. Try using cruise control when possible, which also helps to use your car’s overdrive gears, saving even more fuel.
- Pack away plastic bags for good. Roughly 430,000 gallons of oil are used to produce 100 million plastic bags. And each year, 500 billion to 1 trillion of these bags are dispensed globally! Most bags are used only once and only a tiny fraction of them are recycled. Each bag counts.
- Leave aggressive driving to someone else. Your car’s gas mileage can drop 33 percent on highways and 5 percent on city streets through swerving, sudden acceleration and braking. Revving your engine while stopped will cause your oil use to climb even more.
- Live like a localvore. Since packaging and shipping food long distances requires lots of fossil fuel, buy locally grown food. What’s more, patronizing local businesses (like Greenerprinter!) keeps $0.43 of every $1.00 spent in the community, compared to only $0.13 out of $1.00 when you shop at a national chains!
- Take the train. Most people fly or even drive across country at least once a year, yet few realize that trains have higher fuel efficiency per passenger than hybrid cars. Instead of the air or roads, choose rail for business shipping or personal travel when possible.
- Don’t get hot under the collar. Wash your clothes on the cold or warm setting. Washing every load on the hot/warm cycle in a top loading machine (using an electric water heater) for just one year is equivalent to burning over 180 extra gallons of gas when you drive. Avoid the hot water cycle – your close will be just as clean and bright.
- Wave goodbye to water bottles. Did you know that 17.6 million barrels of oil are used to produce the 28.6 billion PET water bottles manufactured in the U.S.? Or that roughly 86 percent of empty plastic water bottles (about two million tons of PET) lands in landfills instead of new plastic products? Learn more through Food & Water Watch’s Take Back the Tap campaign.
- Avoid idling. According to the Hinkle Charitable Foundation, the average driver wastes half a cup of gas per day for a small car or one cup for an eight-cylinder engine through five minutes of unnecessary idling. This works out to 10 gallons of gas for a small car or 20 gallons for a larger vehicle per year. If you need to idle longer than 10 seconds, cut the engine and cut your oil consumption.
- Clean the old-fashioned way. Many commercial cleaning products (and many other every-day items, for that matter) are derived from petroleum. You don’t need oil to take grease out of your way. Use cleaning products made from natural materials such as vinegar, soap powder or baking soda. A quick web search will uncover many home-made cleanser recipes.
To round off this list, take one more step by sending a petition letter to your senator. Ask her or him to pass energy legislation that will prevent future oil spills. Big oil companies have a strong voice in the government. But through our collective voice and daily actions, we can all do right by the planet.
10 responses to “10 Every-Day Ways to Reduce Your Oil Use”
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justmeint July 6th, 2010 at 03:36
Just how anyone in the sciences or government, currently dealing with the huge environmental disaster occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, can intimate all is well with the air we breathe, the food caught in those waters and eaten and the rain falling from the sky, is beyond my comprehension.
http://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2010/07/toxicologic-synergy.html -
First the BP Gulf oil spill, now we see that the second one has blown up in Louisiana. I sure hope that this doesn’t mean more environmental damage. On the other hand, this nation needs this domestic energy. This such a complex scenario to figure out. I’m not sure what the answer is.
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Robyn Erler October 11th, 2010 at 09:05
Thanks for the kudos! We’re delighted that you enjoy the Greenerprinter blog — and that you’re inspired to reduce your oil consumption.
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I have been to your posts before. The more I read, the more I keep coming back!
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Robyn Erler November 12th, 2010 at 09:16
Thanks for the great feedback! Glad to hear that you are finding the Greenerprinter blog posts useful.
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Julie Nunn November 29th, 2010 at 17:11
So glad you found us! Please do not hesitate to call us if you have any questions. We would be happy to answer any questions!
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I reckon something really special in this site.
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