While I was there I tried to keep my eye out for budding signs of environmentalism and green policy, as well as other environmentally salient parts of the Hong Kong landscape. Below is a collection of pictures representing that search. Most of them are of recycling bins that I found (which are few and very far between), but I have also included a picture of the coal-fired power plant on Lamma Island and some other notable images.

If anyone in San Diego wants to feel what 60 watts is like first hand, check out the global warming exhibit at Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. They have a little display set up where you can turn a hand crank to power both a 60 watt incandescent and a ~13 watt (if memory serves) compact fluorescent. I’m not sure what the efficiency of the hand crank is, but the task takes more effort than one might assume.

I should also mention, now that I’ve become more accustomed to the electric shaving process, that it takes a good deal less time to shave with an electric razor as compared to a safety razor. I would imagine that same relationship would hold between electric and straight razors, and perhaps be even more pronounced. I guess the time savings don’t have a direct environmental impact, but they do free one up to spend more time saving the whales.

Most of my mileage was spent either going to meet friends at places difficult to reach via public transportation, picking up and dropping off people at the airport, and driving to stores when I planned on buying unwieldy things. I also took some fairly long walks during the eight weeks, including a trek with my sister from Hillcrest through Balboa Park to downtown, and a 10 mile hike with a friend from my house up to UCSD, down La Jolla Shores Drive to La Jolla and ultimately all the way through La Jolla to Pacific Beach. It’s actually pretty entertaining to ogle all the things you don’t normally notice when you’re driving through an area.

My grandfather gave me an electric razor for Christmas noting that he felt it was a good fit with my environmental goals. At first this seems unintuitive—shouldn’t something that uses electricity be worse for the environment than something you power yourself? After thinking about it for a while, however, I think one can make a pretty strong argument for an electric razor. Here’s how I see it breaking down.

Electricity: The electric razor obviously has a disadvantage here, but the amount of power it draws is quite small. Charging the razor after taking it out of the box only drew 4 watts from the outlet. After completely charging, the total power draw didn’t even show up on my Kill-A-Watt’s meter (it still read 0.00 kWh). The razor may have come partially charged though, so I’ll update if the subsequent charge produces different results. My grandfather says he gets about a month’s regular use out of a charge.

Water: Here both straight and safety razors have a substantial disadvantage—they require quite a bit of water (normally hot) to get the job done. Besides just the use of water (which in San Diego we’re always trying to conserve), heating and pumping the water probably takes more energy in one shaving session than the electric razor takes for a month’s worth of charge.

Shaving Cream: Electric razors don’t use shaving cream, a product that takes materials and energy to produce and ship.

Waste: Electric razor blades are supposed to be replaced every year (though my grandfather says he’s never replaced his, but I’ve also heard he had a cavity filled without anesthetic…). This replacement rate is much less than safety razors, but the item replaced is slightly larger. Straight razors just need to be sharpened and maintained. Both straight and safety razors create waste through discarded shaving cream canisters, a problem electric razors avoid. The real stinger for electric razors though is the replacement of the whole unit. Obviously there’s quite a bit to electric razors, including a toxic battery, which is a knock for them in this category (though highly dependent on how often you replace them). Due to the battery they should probably be disposed of as household hazardous waste and not just thrown in the trash.

Cost: This isn’t an environmental factor, but one to consider. Up front a high quality straight razor and a nice electric razor can both be around $100, with the electric razor having greater recurring costs for occasional blade replacement (vs just buying shaving cream for a straight razor). Safety razors are normally very inexpensive or free up front, but as we all know, the blades can be pretty expensive. Lifetime I’d guess the straight razor has the advantage.

I looked in to getting a straight razor during my first eight weeks and ran in to lots of horror stories about people cutting strips off of their faces due to nicked or bent razors. That and the high cost for a quality kit dissuaded me from taking the plunge. I still haven’t fully adjusted to the electric razor, but I think when you take into account water, shaving cream, shaving cream canisters and blades, electric razors actually make more environmental sense than safety razors.

Before putting the soil in the bin, I added a layer of ripped up paper bedding and sprinkled some water on it. I also enlarged the holes at the bottom of the bin to make sure that liquid could escape. I then put in the soil and added the worms. After just a few moments almost all of the worms had quickly scampered under the surface. Daniel told me to wait about a week before adding new organic material to the system, so I have a few days left before starting the composting process in earnest. In the interim, I have been accumulating veggie clippings and other compostable material in a bag under the sink. (Quick note: I have heard from several sources that one should be careful not to add citrus or meat products to the compost.)

I’ve attached a picture of the worms just after they were deposited in the bin. Pretty cute stuff.

I’m taking a class that involves a weekly dinner at a rotating set of professor’s houses, and on the first week I decided to go to the dinner and just eat what I could. Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily clear what the contents of any particular dish are. I had a suspiciously creamy hummus as well as a very tasty mushroom pesto. Both dishes could’ve had had some small amount of dairy in them, especially the pesto, which I’m pretty sure in retrospect had some Parmesan cheese. In these situations I don’t want to tell the host that I’m being vegan because I don’t want to be a burden on someone who is being so gracious to host a large group. Since that dinner I’ve just eaten before the class at home in order to avoid any trouble.

I’ve only been out to eat once, to meet up with some friends at Pizza Port. I called ahead to Pizza Port and confirmed that their sauce and dough were both vegan and then just ordered a pizza without cheese and with tons of tasty veggies.

The vast majority of my eating has been home cooking, and it’s in this domain that I have really been enjoying myself. There’s one recipe that I love and have been using all the time that I thought might be fun to share with the readers of this blog. I got the recipe out of a book by Mollie Katzen called The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without that my mom got me for Christmas. I’ve now made several dishes out of the book and I can recommend it highly. Here’s the recipe (at least my slightly modified version of it):

Arugula Pecan Pesto

Put 4 packed cups of arugula, 1 cup of pecans, 2 teaspoons lemon juice and a pinch of salt into a food processor and blend. Once a portion of the items have blended, push the unblended material on top to the side and add 2 tablespoons of golden raisins down near the blades. Cap the food processor and slowly dribble 6 tablespoons of olive oil through the cap while continuing to blend. In my experience the golden raisins cause the processor to kick a little bit, helping items that haven’t yet migrated down to the blades get blended. You might want to stop at some point and push anything that splattered on the sides back down towards the blades. Once the mixture is fully blended, put the pesto into a container with a top and enjoy either on pasta or with bread. If you live in the San Diego area, I particularly recommend thin slices of the Seedy Sourdough baguette from Bread and Cie bakery in Hillcrest (they sell it baked fresh daily at Whole Foods).

Here’s a shot of the arugula pecan pesto in action for a recent lunch, along with some Seedy Sourdough as well as some strawberries and an orange from my CSA box. Very colorful!

Obviously buying nuts, grains and raisins in bulk helps cut down on packaging use, but there are actually financial disincentives for doing so. If my memory serves me, pecans are 11.99 per pound in bulk and 8.99 for a 1 pound package in a thick plastic zipper bag. Even when buying in bulk, one is encouraged to use a disposable plastic bag to hold one’s purchase. I have personally been reusing these bags (and the little twisty ties), but it would be nice to see a proper reusable bag with a known weight (to subtract from the weight at checkout) for bulk items. While Whole Foods is loudly proclaiming its intent to eliminate plastic grocery bags on Earth Day this year, I imagine the produce/bulk disposable plastic bags will remain.

I went down to Sears and picked up an 18 gallon plastic storage bin in Christmas colors for $2.50 on sale from $5 (I guess they are clearing out their Christmas storage bin inventory). Once I got home, I used a nail to punch some holes in the bottom of the container. These holes allow any liquid that accumulates in the worm bin to seep out. To collect this seepage I placed the bin on top of its plastic lid and replaced the lid with a piece of cardboard from an old box. The cardboard will serve as a cover and allow a little bit more ventilation than the plastic top would have. I’ve put some pictures of this process at the bottom of the post.

Next step: acquiring worms. I’ve already struck out at one nursery, but I’ve found a place in Escondido that will ship worms (you can buy them online). I’m a little anxious about having worms shipped, but if I don’t find another source after looking around little bit more I guess I’ll give it a shot.

With these thoughts in mind, I’m going to set a goal of 40 miles per week during my eight weeks (320 miles total). If I am driving a carpool somewhere I’ll count only my share, so if the trip is 90 miles and there are three people in my car, I’ll charge myself 30 miles. At the start of my experiment my odometer read 166,067 miles and so far I’ve driven two miles. We’ll see how it goes…

I think this kind of goal can be an interesting exercise for anyone. Calculate the number of miles that you have to drive every week (to work, for example) and then give yourself a mileage “budget” above that. If you beat your goal, take yourself out to dinner in celebration with the leftover miles. I’m sure anyone can find innovative ways to string trips together, carpool, walk/bike/take the bus and otherwise reduce his or her driving.