Monthly Archives: November 2010

Slow Travel

I'm enjoying a staycation at the beach.

Hsinya and I are flying to Taiwan this December on Eva Airlines. As a result, I have been thinking about eco-friendly travel a lot recently. Even though flying is mass transit, airplanes get only mediocre mileage. On average, planes get the same passenger fuel efficiency as cars (1). However, the simple fact that planes travel much further than cars means planes waste a lot more gasoline. Planes also fly at high altitudes, so their effect on climate change may be greater. We’ll be flying overseas from Los Angeles to Taipei, which is a distance of 6800 miles one-way. For two people, the total round-trip distance is 27,000 passenger miles. Given that airplanes average around 50 passenger miles per gallon, our trip will waste a total of 500 gallons of gasoline. Burning 3000 lbs. of gasoline each year to carry two people across the Pacific Ocean and back is definitely not sustainable.

As of today, sustainable travel doesn’t exist. Solar-powered airplanes look promising, but these inventions aren’t ready for mainstream use yet. So until green travel becomes mainstream, the next best thing is minimizing our impact.

The most effective tactic is to not travel at all. Today, with modern technology, it is often possible to work long distances without traveling by using the internet. Video conferencing tools let you conduct virtual business meetings and collaborate online, saving you money and time while using less fuel.

If you do decide to travel anyway, travel slowly. The Slow Travel movement is dedicated to helping people better enjoy tourism by traveling at a more leisurely pace. Most tourists try to blitz through a laundry list of famous attractions in a few days. Slow Travel activists argue that you’ll better savor the experience by traveling slowly and living like the locals. Coincidentally, slower travel tends to be more fuel-efficient. By traveling less frequently, but for longer durations, you save a lot of gasoline. For example, when we travel to Taiwan this year, we’re going to stay for 3 months. This helps us save money, gas, and time by not flying twice this year.

Choosing slower modes of transportation helps as well. Slower vehicles tend to be more fuel efficient: trains and buses get better mileage than planes or cars. It takes longer, but you can bring a laptop or a book along the ride. Unlike airplanes, which give me nausea, trains are the most comfortable way to travel. Many experienced, round-the-world travelers prefer trains because they are roomier, have no luggage limits, and have wi-fi internet. Train travel can be cheaper than airfare, so give it a check out. I personally would love to travel cross-continent by rail someday to enjoy the scenic landscape.

For overseas travel, however, I couldn’t find any real substitute for the airplane. Some environmentalists have suggested traveling across the ocean by boat. A pass on a cargo is expensive, costing $1200+ for a one-way trip across the Pacific Ocean (I only paid $1000 for a round-trip plane ticket). Cargo freighter travel is a hassle, and I don’t know if it’s much more green than flying. So unless you’re looking for a unique travel experience, I would probably just take the plane and travel less often. You’ll get there much faster in half the price.

I hope you will consider alternative travel before you book your next flight. As for me, I’ve decided to only take vacations close to my local neighborhood (staycations). Besides that, I commit to replacing all domestic flights with travel by bus or train. For family visits overseas, I’ll stay for several months and reduce the frequency of visits. If we all join together, these small changes can make a big difference.

Does slow travel work for you?

We calculate efficiency based on passenger miles per gallon (pmpg). To obtain pmpg, take the miles traveled per gallon and multiply it by the number of passengers. For example, if a car gets 25mpg, but it carries two passengers, the car gets 50 passenger miles per gallon.

Share, Don’t Own

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We tried car sharing for a year before going car free.

When I was in college, I spent more than $2000 on books.

I was always the bookworm of my family. Because I value self-education, I make reading a priority in my life. Today, I still make a habit of reading around two new books each month.

When I was a college student, I used to buy my books rather than borrow them at the library. People have different reasons for why they buy books new. Some people love the new book smell, the feeling of freshly minted pages, and the shine of a beautiful, glossy cover. Maybe you enjoy grabbing a cup of coffee while you browse the bookstore. Still others are irrationally scared of acquiring germs from used books. As for me, I hated constantly having to return books I hadn’t finished.

Once I became a Greenimalist, I started thinking about the financial and environmental costs of buying new. Producing a new book requires money, paper, and energy. Most books, however, are only read once or twice, if read at all. Afterwards, you’ll either get rid of the book, which is emotionally painful, or store it, which can clutter your house. My dad chose to store his old college textbooks because he couldn’t bear to part with them. For two decades, he hauled over 200 lbs. of dead weight each time we moved.

Some parts of life are better shared than owned. The more possessions you own, the more money you spend, and the more you worry about protecting, storing, fixing and maintaining those possessions. Ultimately, you’ll need to figure out how to dispose of them. Throwing your old junk into the dumpster contributes to landfill, so it’s more responsible to recycle or donate when you can. This involves the hassle of driving to a local charity or recycling center. If you had never bought it in the first place, you’d save yourself a lot of stress.

Books aren’t the only things you can share. Magazines, DVDs, and video games can all be borrowed for free at your local library (1). You can borrow tools or gardening equipment from a neighbor or the store. Gym membership, in a way, is a form of sharing expensive fitness equipment, such as treadmills or swimming pools. You can share a ride by carpooling, or you could share a bus or train. You could share land for gardening by renting a community garden (2). Better yet, share your living space by renting an apartment instead of buying a large house.

Our culture is obsessed with property ownership partly because advertisers encourage us to buy in excess. Businesses won’t advertise the benefits of sharing because it hurts their profit. Instead, marketers focus their time and effort on manipulating you into purchasing stuff you don’t need. Your local library can’t afford to waste money on advertising, but that’s where you get the best deals.

If you already own an abundance of possessions, consider sharing them with others. I donated most of my possessions to reduce clutter and stress. Sharing and giving is a great way to build community and reduce pollution. All it costs is something you never use.

What could you share instead of own?

I was surprised to find Super Smash Bros. Brawl at the Newport Beach Library.
Do a search in your local zip code: http://www.communitygarden.org/

Never Pay For Storage

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Do you waste money storing useless clutter?

Resist the urge to get more storage.

During my high school years, our old house started to feel cramped. Our possessions began to compete with us for living space, so my parents decided to get more storage by upgrading to a bigger house. I now realize that getting more storage was more of a knee-jerk reaction than a true solution to our problem. Junk is like a gas: it expands to fill the volume of its container (our house). The bigger our house, the more stuff we fill it with. Unless we change our shopping habits, no amount of space can possibly contain all the clutter we can collect.

Expanding storage space is expensive. If you’re spending $100 a month renting storage, you’re wasting $1200 a year for the privilege of storing useless clutter (useful items would not be in storage in the first place). Buying a bigger house costs even more money. You could save a fortune by living in a smaller house if you could cut down on your possessions.

Instead of paying for storage, here are four simple steps to rid your life of clutter without paying for storage.

Four Steps to Clutter-Free Living:

Stop shopping. If you absolutely need something, borrow instead of own so that you can return an item when you’re done using it.
Sell your valuables. Find rarely used valuables and sell them over classifieds sites like Craigslist. Sell everything: old cars, kitchen appliances, furniture, computers, monitors, and television sets.
Donate what’s left. Inspect your remaining possessions: if you rarely use something, put it in a cardboard box to donate to charity.
Recycle the rest. Whatever the charities won’t take, recycle.

The first step is the most important. If you don’t stop shopping, your cleaning efforts will be in vain: whatever you get rid of today will be replaced by something new tomorrow. Make an effort to avoid purchasing anything from a store again. If you need something, borrow it instead. This allows you to avoid the hassle of storage and disposal.

Next, determine what you will keep among the items you already own. My personal goal is to fit everything I own in the trunk of a compact car. This gives me freedom to move apartments and travel with ease. Your personal goal could be to keep only items you use at least once a week. Sell your valuables, then donate the rest. What you choose to sell depends on how much you value your time. For me, if something is worth $25 or more, I sell it on Craigslist, and anything less I give away.

You are far better off giving your stuff away than hoarding it in storage. Possessions you give away cost nothing to store and can benefit someone else. Charities will take non-perishable food, clothes, appliances, bicycles, cars, tools, furniture, and electronics. Items that charities won’t accept can be given away for free on Craigslist or Freecycle. If the item cannot be used anymore (e.g., broken electronics), recycle it or send it to a waste disposal center.

Many people would cringe at the idea of giving away something valuable for free. If you paid $50 for an old mp3 player, it might seem crazy to give it away to a total stranger. However, if you can’t sell it, and you never use it, you’re only wasting more money by storing it. The money can’t be recovered, so the best you can do is to cut your losses by donating it to someone else who might benefit from it. I’ve given away valuable possessions like tables, lamps, chairs, and kitchen appliances in order to save space and money. This painful experience taught me to never waste my money on unnecessary stuff again.

In a way, storage is like a drug addiction. Increasing storage temporarily solves your problem by putting your clutter out of sight and out of mind. But the more you rely on storage, the more you allow yourself to shop, and the more storage you will eventually need. The only way to permanently clean your house is to fight the shopping addiction and curbing the impulse to buy more storage.

What could you stop buying to avoid clutter? What could you sell or give away?