Go Greener Tips

Archive for the ‘Green Tips’ Category

I am planning to start a recycling campaign, a sustainable one, in our community. Please do give me suggestions on simple yet realistic recycling activities. Your suggestions will surely help. Merci beaucoup!

In this article are some simple, inexpensive tips to create your residence more eco-friendly. Establishing a eco-friendly house as well as way of life begins with making green home enhancements. Many are generally affordable, simple, and definitely very good for environmental surroundings.

Let’s begin throughout the backyard:

In our gardens all of us ought to remember to make use of organic plant foods and environmentally lawn fertilizers. Use Mother Nature pertaining to pest control. Bear in mind birds and beneficial insects eat the bad types within your flower beds and gardens. Get your total household engaged whenever this comes to planting your own garden. Permit everyone participate in what you plant and the taking care and upkeep regarding the garden. What is the reward, reap and enjoy your organic and natural fruits and vegetables collectively. A sweet reward for everyone’s difficult work! Conventional outdoor composting is excellent if you’ve the room. If you’re tight on space, try indoor composting. Straightforward indoor composting technique is cleaner and best of all odorless. Either way you won’t waste a thing plus your garden will appreciate it.

Yes you possibly can support with the All-America barbeques. You probably recognize right now that propane barbeques are finest for your surroundings. If you ever prefer to use charcoal, you will find several brands that burn greener compared to others. Appear for green burning charcoal if you shop.

Recycling:

This is one of the most beneficial eco-friendly things we are able to do and yet costs us nothing but diligence. Commence with your shopping trips.Use shopping bags rather than choosing paper or plastic and bring your own bag instead. They are relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated to find. You are able to purchase them on the net or even at some nearby shops. Most are created of recycled materials and save trees as well as stop plastic from ending up in landfills. Your nightly nearby paper need to be sure to recycle. Most local communities provide this service inside weekly garbage pickup. An even superior green option is to cancel the paper all together. The internet now has much a lot more than your regional paper can provide and it is free. Again verify with your local garbage service to see what programs they have obtainable for recycling , or simply do it yourself. Turning in recyclables at your regional recycling center can turn into additional cash for you personally or your kids.

In-Door Environment:

A lot of individuals don’t realize that some candles can in fact pollute the air as part of your property. Paraffin based candles are made from petroleum and give off toxic benzene and toluene. Clean burning candles, such as soy candles, are a little pricier, but can make a variation when it comes to indoor air high quality. You’ll be able to tell the variation mainly because these candles will burn from edge to edge appropriate down to the bottom with no black soot. They burn longer, so inside end they’re far more economical.

As you may notice these are merely a couple of basic items you can carry out in your house that can make a real difference to support the greener environment. Talk to your immediate and extended family about these items as well as aid them to institute an eco-friendly household. You can help make a big difference.

I would like to start a recycling program for just about everything that can be recycled. How does one go about this?

Keep in mind I have no city connections and limited funds for start up.

Recycling is a process – a series of activities, if you will, that includes: the collection and sorting of waste materials, the processing of these materials to produce brand new products, and the purchase and use of these new products by consumers.

Recycling is more optimized and efficient if we practice the three R’s of waste management: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reducing waste that otherwise get’s carted off to the recycling centers or landfills is achieved through an intentional decrease in our purchases and consumption,composting of organic waste, and flat refusal to use disposable items like polystyrene and plastic bags. Reusing materials serve to lengthen a particular item’s usage. Examples of this are: repurposing glass bottles into artistic lamp shades, giving your old cell phones to family or friends for reuse, and upcycling street trash bins into community swimming tubs.

But, why recycle? Why go through all the trouble of recycling your garbage? How does recycling benefit us and the environment?

Let’s review the benefits of recycling:

Recycling Helps Protect The Environment

Recycling sharply reduces the amount of waste that gets deposited in our landfills or burned in incinerator plants. Engineered landfills in most cities are designed to contain toxic chemicals leaking from decaying solid waste from reaching our water systems. But, for how long? Already, we’re getting reports of dangerous chemicals contaminating water supplies in some cities. Burning solid waste for electricity may be efficient, but we pay the price in terms of increased carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Recycling Helps Conserve Limited Resources

To put this benefit in proper perspective, let’s consider this statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection: “By recycling over 1 million tons of steel in 2004, Pennsylvanians saved 1.3 million tons of iron ore, 718,000 tons of coal, and 62,000 tons of limestone. Through recycling newsprint, office paper and mixed paper, we saved nearly over 8.2 million trees.”

Resources like oil and precious metals (gold, silver, bauxite, copper, etc.) are all finite resources that will be exhausted, sooner or later. Cell phone and computer manufacturers, like Dell and Apple, recognize the need for a steady supply of raw materials – most are active in buy-back programs to recycle materials from used products.

Recycling Promotes Energy Efficiency

Recycling is far more efficient, in terms of energy consumption, than producing something out of fresh raw material. Done on a nationwide scale, this could lead to significant reduction in our energy costs. The energy required to extract , process, and transport metal from a mine to a refinery is obviously much greater than what’s required to recycle metal from used products – it costs more energy to manufacture a brand new aluminum can from fresh material than to make 20 cans out of recycled materials!

Recycling Helps Build A Strong Economy

Every cost-reduction, energy efficiency, materials conservation, and job generation benefit of recycling adds up to help build a strong economy for our country. Recycling, done on a country-wide scale, has a huge positive impact on the economy. There was dip in the price of recyclables last year when the financial crisis started, but it is testimony to the resiliency of this industry that prices are now back to pre-crisis levels – a recovery that’s well ahead than most other industries. Jobs are being generated and city and town governments are enjoying huge savings in electricity, garbage collection, and landfilling costs.

Recycling Creates Jobs

Recycling generates more jobs than landfilling or incinerating waste. That’s a benefit we can’t lose sight of, in this time of recession and high unemployment rate. Let’s consider the disposal of 10,000 tons of solid waste: burning it for electricity will create 1 job; collecting and dumping this on a landfill will create 6 jobs; processing the waste for recyling will generate 36 jobs!

Recycling Builds Community

People band together and build communities around common causes, issues, and advocacies. Recycling is no different. In many neighborhoods and cities across the country, we see concerned citizens working together in recycling initiatives, environment lobby groups, and free recycling groups. If you’re new to recycling or environmental advocacy, go find a local group to work with. Staying the course is more fun and rewarding when you have other enthusiasts cheering you on.

Recycling Can Be Financially Rewarding

If you just want to make money to get by in these hard times or start a home business, recycling is a profitable option. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to start a home-based recycling business. You just need to plan on what material (cell phone, paper, or metals, etc.) you intend to collect, plan storage, contact the recycling plant for pricing, and you’re set to start collecting recyclables and reselling these to the recycling facility at a decent profit. The large recycling giants in the US all started as home businesses years ago – you can do it, too – those guys just recognized the huge potential of this business well ahead of the crowd.

The benefits of recycling to each of us, to society, and to the environment are our compelling reasons why we recycle. For many of us, recycling has become second nature – a way of life. It’s a small but extremely vital component of environmental protection – without recycling, all our efforts to protect the planet will be less effective, even futile. Let’s all continue recycling.

Michael Arms contributes articles on recycling and other topics to the Pacebutler Recycling and Environment blog. Pacebutler is a cell phone recycling and trading company in the United States. You can sell, donate, or recycle cell phones through Pacebutler.

Author: Michael Arms
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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GE (General Electric) released a TV ad promoting wind energy: Capturing the wind and putting it to good use – Wind Energy from GE, the cleanest renewable energy on earth. The ad has been nominated for the most outstanding commercial in the Emmy Awards 2007. The General Electric Jar ad was developed at BBDO, New York by chief creative officer David Lubars and Bill Bruce, creative director/art director John Leu, creative director/copywriter Brad Roseberry, executive producer Regina Ebel, assistant producer Filomena Lovecchio, executive music producer Melissa Chester. Filming was directed by Traktor (Pontus & Patrik) via Partizan with director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men). Editor was Gavin Cutler of Mackenzie Cutler. FX was done at Mass Market. Music in the ad is ‘Catch the Wind’, performed by Donovan.

I have a house plant that I inherited when I moved in, but was already dying. I am not taking care of it very well and would like to donate or recycle it. Who will accept old plants? How do I go about recycling it?

Spring 2010 is approaching and there’s a lot of buzz around topics like the economy, taxation, global poverty, restoration in Haiti/Chile, and lastly, green awareness. With spring, Earth Day also draws nearer (April 22nd); as individuals, we must remember and realize the importance of global warming and all of its implications. Subsequent topics discussed as of late include space travel/burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and green building. As nations like Haiti and Chile prepare for rebuilding and new construction, there are many things to consider when advancing. Moving towards cleaner, greener infrastructure is vital in ensuring a successful restoration campaign.

The U.S. Green Building Council is a 501(3)(c) non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everybody. It’s one of the many organizations playing its role in green progression. Heavy discussion lies on green topics, especially the more recent ones like space travel; others include deforestation, green crops, clothing, energy, and much more. It’s important that we as individuals/citizens stay up-to-date on important global topics like warming. As organizations like the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative), AFH (Architecture for Humanity), and the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) conducts sustainability campaigns and enforce strict green constraints, our world will continue to become a better, cleaner place. Machines behind the CGI, Doug Band and Former President Clinton have been pursuing an emission reduction plan in the San Francisco Bay area. Meanwhile, GEC (Globetrotters Engineering Corporation) is underway with green building projects in Chicago, IL. Despite these few national examples, green infrastructure, particularly in places like Haiti, has become an integral part of restoration and construction.

This aligns with the implications of “economic viability” and long term sustainability, posing the questions, “Can Haiti really make it through all the costs of repair and reconstruction?” Infrastructure can take a toll on any economy, especially if the funds aren’t there. This goes hand in hand with meeting modern day LEED standards and approaching this in a “greener” sense. Organizations like Architecture for Humanity will make this possible. Architecture for Humanity (1999) is a nonprofit design services firm building “a more sustainable future through the power of professional design.” It was formulated through a group of building professionals whose overwhelming passion for construction drove them to provide a way for underdeveloped, suffering countries to rebuild. Through their dedication and hard work, these people will be able to not only create new buildings and infrastructure, but make them bigger, better, and greener.

To touch on just some of the things that AFH covers:

ï Alleviating poverty and providing access to water, sanitation, power and essential services
ï Bringing safe shelter to communities prone to disaster and displaced populations
ï Rebuilding community and creating neutral spaces for dialogue in post-conflict areas
ï Mitigating the effects of rapid urbanization in unplanned settlements
ï Creating spaces to meet the needs of those with disabilities and other at-risk populations
ï Reducing the footprint of the built environment and addressing climate change

As polluters continue to buy their way out of Carbon Cuts globally, and large organizations continue to dump their waste into lakes, ponds and rivers, communities and must play their role in ensuring sustainability; organizations like the CGI, AFH, and USGBC provide repercussion and policy change for acts such as the above. Most of the results from warming and climate change are miniscule and unnoticeable now, but our youth and earlier generations will experience firsthand the effects of pollutants and unsustainable efforts. Feel free to visit http://www.earthday.org/ to learn more about what you can do to support your world.

A Public Service Campaign of the American Advertising Federation 4th District.

I would like to impart a few tips about how to save a few bucks with your clothes dryer and at the same time conserve energy.

Lets look at how a clothes dryer works. It sucks in surrounding air and heats it up. It blows the heated air through a spinning drum, which your clothes are in, and forces air through a pipe to be vented. The process is really simple and there are factors that you cannot control but there is a lot which you can.

The air that your dryer is sucking in should be as dry as possible and while you have no control over the humidity don’t use your dryer when the humidity spikes. Usually during or directly after a rainfall. Often times the washer dryer combination’s are in a small area. If you’re using the washer at the same time then it raises the humidity of your laundry. Try to keep it ventilated so that the damp air can escape from you clothing.

Next you’re going to want to look at the clothes that you’re drying. If just pull them out of the washer and throw them into the dryer you’re making the dryer work a lot harder. The final rinse cycle tends to crumple your clothes into little balls. If you give each item a shake before you put it in the dryer it improves the airflow throughout the garment allowing it to dry faster. Another trick is to throw a clean dry towel in with each load. This will pull the moisture out of the clothing and since the towel is already dry whatever moisture it picks up will evaporate quickly.

Clean your lint trap after every load. This will allow the damp air to escape improving overall efficiency. Dryer lint is blamed for thousands of home fires yearly. If lint comes into contact with the heating element it can easily ignite. Also make sure that your screen doesn’t become clogged. Screens can be easily cleaned with toothbrush and warm water.

Finally check your dryer hose that attaches to the outside vent. The first thing is to make sure that it is firmly attached to your dryer and the outside vent so your not blowing damp air into back into your laundry area. Another major mistake that is often made it the hose itself is way to long. You can tell if you look behind your dryer and the vent hose is snaking around back there. When you purchase the hoses they usually come in lengths about six feet long but the connection from the dryer to the vent is often less than a foot. You should cut the hose to make the connection as direct as possible but make sure that you leave a little extra so it won’t come off if your dryer shifts a little. This will optimize the airflow out of your dryer and also eliminate a good place for lint to build up.

We go through so much waste where I work. We have trash bins full of paper and numerous bottles from the soda machine. I hate watching it all go to the dumpster. I want to recycle, but I have no idea where to start. Where can I find recycling bins? Would the city pick it up? And most importantly, how can I get my mechanic co-workers to help?