What's Greener?

When it comes to being green, everyday choices affect the most. Which of the following is more eco-friendly?

1.Organic or Local Food?

Organic food means that no one uses farmers don't use harmful pesticides to the plants or feed hormones to animals. But not all organic food is nearby. Some organic farms ship their products far and wide which uses a lot of fossil fuels along the way.

A average North American meal travels about 2 400 km before it reaches our stomachs. Local food is a meal that's grown within 160 km of where we live. Food that's grown nearby doesn't generate the same pollution that comes from flying, shipping and trucking food thousands of miles.

The Greener Choice: Food that's both organic and local is the best. But when isn't available, go local. However buying locally means that we would have to cut out certain foods we need that are in our diet. For example, a Canadian family on a local diet can't eat bananas because they're only grown in tropical areas.

2.Leaving the computer on or off?

Some people say that leaving the computer on lasts longer. They say turning it on and off a lot times a day can stress its components because of the heating and cooling of the CPU(central processing unit). A broken down computer would end up in the landfill where it would probably be there forever.

A average PC computer uses 300 watts an hour, which equals to 7 200 watts are used every 24 hours. A family may use a computer for only up to 4 hours a day, wasting 6 000 watts of energy. Plus, the TV have many of the same components as a computer has and it's not on 24 hours a day.

Greener choice: Turning the computer off. But some computers are hooked up to networks or are used as web servers. These computers need to be on or they can't do their jobs.

3. Hand Dryer or Paper Towels?

Hand Dryers can last 5 years before being thrown away into a landfill. Also they need electricity to work so they use non-renewable resources.

Trees are cut down everyday just to produce paper towels. Energy is used to transport and manufacture the towels, which are only used once and then thrown away. Since used paper towels can't be recycled, they're then headed to the landfill.

Greener choice: Hand Dryers. But some say that these are health hazards because some people walk away before their hand are completely dry. This leads to the water transferring bacteria onto other surfaces.

Hope this helps. Got information off Owl Magazine, September 2009 issue.

Emma S.