OK, remember this is the safe place, so you don't have to agree with me, but this is just silly. Listen to this guy try and justify this.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Cleaning your recycling....
Here is a great tip from this email subscription I get.
http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/lime_aid_bust_a_myth_week
Need help getting the lime wedge out of your beer bottle?
The Bite
Don't bother - you can recycle it with the lime still inside. In fact, none of your recyclables need to be spotless, since most "contaminants" get cleaned out or burned away during remanufacturing. We'll drink to that.
The Benefits
· Recycling's even easier. What will the waste management people think up next?
· Cheers for less water waste. It takes about two glasses of water to clean out a glass jar; you'll save a lotta water by not rinsing your recyclables until they're spick-and-span.
Personally Speaking
Bite team member Hilary used to suck the limes out of her Corona bottles before recycling them until we researched this tip and set her straight.
Wanna Try?
· Don't chuck a container full of moldy cream cheese into the bin - but you don't have to scrape and rinse it 'til it's totally clean either.
http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/lime_aid_bust_a_myth_week
Need help getting the lime wedge out of your beer bottle?
The Bite
Don't bother - you can recycle it with the lime still inside. In fact, none of your recyclables need to be spotless, since most "contaminants" get cleaned out or burned away during remanufacturing. We'll drink to that.
The Benefits
· Recycling's even easier. What will the waste management people think up next?
· Cheers for less water waste. It takes about two glasses of water to clean out a glass jar; you'll save a lotta water by not rinsing your recyclables until they're spick-and-span.
Personally Speaking
Bite team member Hilary used to suck the limes out of her Corona bottles before recycling them until we researched this tip and set her straight.
Wanna Try?
· Don't chuck a container full of moldy cream cheese into the bin - but you don't have to scrape and rinse it 'til it's totally clean either.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Compact Fluorscent and Mercury
NPR did an article on CFLs and Mercury here is the article:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198
This is just something to be aware of, as you shouldn't just throw them away when the burn out. Also there are precautions to take when they break.
The EnergyStar FAQ linked in the article was good and brief.
Thanks to Jim Wilkin for this link.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198
This is just something to be aware of, as you shouldn't just throw them away when the burn out. Also there are precautions to take when they break.
The EnergyStar FAQ linked in the article was good and brief.
Thanks to Jim Wilkin for this link.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
What to Eat?
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Hope you are still out there.
What should we eat? We have become so accustomed to having what we want, when we want it. The thought of oranges, broccoli, peppers, onions or tomatos not being available at the store is completely unimaginable in our time. This is all great, but at what cost? If I have to get my pears from Peru or some other country across the world, what impact is that having on the environment.
I am sure some of you remember what this type of access wasn't available. Was it horrible? Let us know.
So again I as what should we eat? Here is a link to 'sustainable table' and their eating seasonable page. http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/ Here you will find links to every state, lists of seasonable vegatables and local farmers markets.
Buy seasonable, buy local.
What should we eat? We have become so accustomed to having what we want, when we want it. The thought of oranges, broccoli, peppers, onions or tomatos not being available at the store is completely unimaginable in our time. This is all great, but at what cost? If I have to get my pears from Peru or some other country across the world, what impact is that having on the environment.
I am sure some of you remember what this type of access wasn't available. Was it horrible? Let us know.
So again I as what should we eat? Here is a link to 'sustainable table' and their eating seasonable page. http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/ Here you will find links to every state, lists of seasonable vegatables and local farmers markets.
Buy seasonable, buy local.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
What's in your stomach?
The World: Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler
Carol Fox sent me this and it is so interesting. We have started have veggie night once a week to cut down our meat intake, though we eat mostly chicken. We call it save a chicken night.
Carol Fox sent me this and it is so interesting. We have started have veggie night once a week to cut down our meat intake, though we eat mostly chicken. We call it save a chicken night.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Now this is alternative energy!
BioGas
I think this is so interesting. Using methane created from waste to generate electricity or power stoves is not new. There is a dairy farm somewhere that I saw that went from spending $1000 a day on electricity to selling $400/day back to the grid.
Now I read a book called A Fine Balance that was about India and the caste system. These people live/lived in some pretty unsanitary conditions. Check out this article.
Waste Not, Want Not
By Jeremy Kahn
(Fortune Magazine) -- Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation.
Sintex's digester uses bacteria to break down waste into sludge, much like a septic tank. In the process, the bacteria emit gases, mostly methane. But instead of being vented into the air, they are piped into a storage canister.
A one-cubic-meter digester, primed with cow dung to provide bacteria, can convert the waste generated by a four-person family into enough gas to cook all its meals and provide sludge for fertilizer. A model this size costs about $425 but will pay for itself in energy savings in less than two years. That's still a high price for most Indians, even though the government recently agreed to subsidize about a third of the cost for these family-sized units. "We want to create a new industry for portable sanitation in India that's not available now," says S.B. Dangayach, Sintex's managing director.
Government officials plan to end open defecation by 2012 (hundreds of millions of Indians use railroad tracks or other outdoor locales instead of toilets) and say biogas plants are part of the solution. A.R. Shukla, a scientific advisor in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, says India could support 12 million such plants, but only 3.9 million - mostly pricier models big enough to accommodate entire villages - have been installed to date. And last year the government fell far short of its target for new installations.
The future can be glimpsed on a dusty, rutted road in a poor South Delhi neighborhood. Here 1,000 people use an immaculately clean public toilet constructed by a nonprofit foundation, the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. The biogas digester attached to toilets provides cooking gas for a 600-student school and vocational-training program the foundation runs. In the past, nongovernmental organizations like Sulabh were the only ones offering biogas digesters.
But Sintex is hoping cities, real estate developers, building managers, and hospitals will jump at a ready-made way to harness the same energy.
Biogas digesters are just a small fraction of Sintex's business. The company has installed only about 100 of them. But it plans to increase investment and production tenfold in the coming year. That growth potential has helped Sintex stock more than double this past year. Human waste may be a stinky business, but to investors it smells like money.
I think this is so interesting. Using methane created from waste to generate electricity or power stoves is not new. There is a dairy farm somewhere that I saw that went from spending $1000 a day on electricity to selling $400/day back to the grid.
Now I read a book called A Fine Balance that was about India and the caste system. These people live/lived in some pretty unsanitary conditions. Check out this article.
Waste Not, Want Not
By Jeremy Kahn
(Fortune Magazine) -- Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation.
Sintex's digester uses bacteria to break down waste into sludge, much like a septic tank. In the process, the bacteria emit gases, mostly methane. But instead of being vented into the air, they are piped into a storage canister.
A one-cubic-meter digester, primed with cow dung to provide bacteria, can convert the waste generated by a four-person family into enough gas to cook all its meals and provide sludge for fertilizer. A model this size costs about $425 but will pay for itself in energy savings in less than two years. That's still a high price for most Indians, even though the government recently agreed to subsidize about a third of the cost for these family-sized units. "We want to create a new industry for portable sanitation in India that's not available now," says S.B. Dangayach, Sintex's managing director.
Government officials plan to end open defecation by 2012 (hundreds of millions of Indians use railroad tracks or other outdoor locales instead of toilets) and say biogas plants are part of the solution. A.R. Shukla, a scientific advisor in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, says India could support 12 million such plants, but only 3.9 million - mostly pricier models big enough to accommodate entire villages - have been installed to date. And last year the government fell far short of its target for new installations.
The future can be glimpsed on a dusty, rutted road in a poor South Delhi neighborhood. Here 1,000 people use an immaculately clean public toilet constructed by a nonprofit foundation, the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. The biogas digester attached to toilets provides cooking gas for a 600-student school and vocational-training program the foundation runs. In the past, nongovernmental organizations like Sulabh were the only ones offering biogas digesters.
But Sintex is hoping cities, real estate developers, building managers, and hospitals will jump at a ready-made way to harness the same energy.
Biogas digesters are just a small fraction of Sintex's business. The company has installed only about 100 of them. But it plans to increase investment and production tenfold in the coming year. That growth potential has helped Sintex stock more than double this past year. Human waste may be a stinky business, but to investors it smells like money.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Managing the risk of Global Warming
Jim Maloney sent me this. This argument isn't perfect, but pretty interesting. Take a look...
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