Lazy Environmentalism: Tips for Going Green

This isn't exactly a "lazy" one, but it is one that intrigued me. My friend Erika, who is way more environmentally friendly than I am (and I totally commend her for it) told me about an email she received from one of the listserves she was on about cooking in your dishwasher. Yes, that's right. You simply wrap the salmon in foil, place it next to the dirty caked on left over macaroni and cheese pan, and that plate with leftover grilled cheese, or is that lasagna, wait didn't i make that last week, why is that plate just now getting cleaned? And then you run your dishwasher, and you have clean dishes and a delicious salmon dinner. Apparently you can also make Lasagna Florentine. http://www.partselect.com/JustForFun/Dishwasher-Lasagna.aspx

When I figured this one out, I was ecstatic. I hate doing dishes. Well, I like the feeling of the hot water and letting my arms sit in the warm water, and watching the bubbles form. But the the disgusting pieces of food start to float in the water and that smell mixed with the water and really I have to pick up those pieces of egg now floating in the water are enough to make me throw up in my mouth. And I also hate when I rinse off the dishes before I put them in soaking water, forget about the dishes cause I got distracted catching up on Lost and have to pull all the dishes out of the cold water with the floating rice all around. And when I had roommates and they would put their plates or bowls with food still in them (food that should have been put into a Tupperware container and saved, or thrown out) just right into the soaking water.

Dishwashers use energy. True. But the amount of water you waste waiting for the sink to fill up and the water running while you rinse off every dish, is far more than the amount of energy the dishwasher uses. So load it up, go watch some tv or read a book (that you got from the library) and then don't put the dishes away and just use them straight out of the dishwasher.

You really don't need to be that clean. If you want to really be hardcore you'll use Dr. Bonner's all in one soap and use that to wash your hair and body and then clean the tub afterward. And if you ever spent time around hippies, you know we should all take our hygiene tips from them. But seriously just taking 5 to 10 minute showers saves a lot of water. Really you could aim for less.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Others include the sounds people make when they're eating. Also incessant throat clearing is equivalent to nails on a chalkboard. Anyways, this one, bothers me because it's so unnecessary. And I'm by no means an environmental extremist. Fine, you don't recycle cause it's not available in your neighborhood or you hate the earth or think global warming is a conspiracy theory. Whatever. You drive everywhere, even to the store that is 2 blocks from your house. Okay I'll let it slide. But when your brushing your teeth, put that toothpaste on the toothbrush, put a splash of water on there. Turn the faucet off. Brush your teeth. For 2 to 5 minutes (yes, that's the ADA recommendation) then spit. Turn faucet back on and rinse your toothbrush off. Done. If the water's running while you are brushing your teeth, it's such a waste because it serves no purpose. At least the water used in rinsing dishes off is doing something, this is just pointless.