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Old 04-18-2010, 11:50 PM   #1
BailOut
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Lightbulb BailOut's Weekly Green Tips

Welcome to my "Weekly Green Tips" thread! Beginning in synchronization with Earth Day 2010 (which is this Thursday, April 22nd), for one full year I will post a new "green" tip each week. Some things you will have heard before but I promise to always try to provide some information, ideas, resources and/or challenges that are new to you.

Please feel free to interact on this thread. Questions and comments are most welcome but, as always, please keep things civil. Please post all non-contributing reactions and off-topic or otherwise potentially derailing comments in this companion thread.

Topics from the following areas will be covered throughout the coming year:

Energy
Food
General
Personal
Transportation

If there are any specific topics you would like me to present please send me a PM.


Here is a list of topics that have been covered thus far:

Week 1: General: The 3 Rs: Reduce
Week 2: General: The 3 Rs: Reuse
Week 3: General: The 3 Rs: Recycle
Week 4: Transportation: Driving Efficiently
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I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes
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Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.

Last edited by BailOut; 05-12-2010 at 05:43 PM.
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Old 04-18-2010, 11:50 PM   #2
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While we will traverse deep topics over the next 52 weeks we must start with the basics. The first 3 weeks will cover "The 3 Rs":

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

As this is the first week I will cover the first R: Reduce

Reducing the amount of resources we consume as well as the amount of waste we create as individuals is important because the Earth only has so many resources to offer. There is only so much arable land, fresh water, oil, metal, mineral and other resources upon and within it, and its atmosphere, oceans and waterways can only withstand so much contamination before they can no longer properly sustain us.

The United States contains just 5% of the world's population yet we consume 25% of its resources and produce 30% of its waste. While this has afforded us an unprecedented standard of living it has come at a tremendous cost to the planet and our fellow inhabitants in the developing world. This simply cannot last, and therefore will not last, but the less resources we use now the more there will be available for the future of all of humanity - including your own loved ones and offspring.

There are an innumerable number of ways we can reduce the amount we consume and waste, but I will give a brief list here:
  • Use reusable bags. Keep a few in your car, keep a few at home, keep one at the office.
  • Use reusable containers instead of foil, wax paper, plastic bags, etc. to store food and other items.
  • Avoid accepting anything disposable. Bring your own cup to the coffee shop, bring your own dishes and utensils to barbecues and other events, bring your own reusable container to the restaurant for leftovers. Never accept a bag at the checkout.
  • A tremendous amount of the waste we each generate is food packaging. Shop the bulk bins and reuse bags for it.
  • Produce doesn't grow in plastic bags and it doesn't need to go home with you in one.
  • Donate to thrift stores. Doing so adds nothing new to the waste stream.
  • Shop at thrift stores. Buying something that was already created and used by another takes nothing new from the resource stream. The coolest part of this is that the items at these places already survived at least one owner intact. This means the item will likely last you a long time, unlike most of what can be bought brand new today.
  • Think before you buy anything. Do you need it or just want it, and are you sure that you know the difference? Either way, does it have to be purchased new? Are you sure that the functionality and/or happiness it will bring you will last? Are you buying it from a place that treats its employees, vendors and everyone else it deals with fairly?

What are other ways you can think of for reducing our consumption and waste?


Please take a few minutes to watch a wonderful presentation on this topic: The Story of Stuff


Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: The next time you go grocery shopping bring home all of your items in reusable bags. If you already do so (yay!) then please measure and mentally categorize all of the trash your household produces in a single week, and come up with ideas for reducing it.
__________________
- Brian

Share the Road


I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes
or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference.
Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.

Last edited by tk-421; 04-20-2010 at 06:22 PM. Reason: Fixed link
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Old 04-26-2010, 02:34 AM   #3
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Welcome to week #2! We are continuing "The 3 Rs":

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

As this is the second week I will cover the second R: Reuse

It is important for each of us to reuse things whenever and wherever it is practical because new items always require new materials or re-manufactured materials and lots of energy to create. The harvesting or extraction of raw materials for manufacturing is often directly linked to ecological devastation, human exploitation, economic exploitation, loss of human and wildlife habitat, impacts to agriculture, impacts to fresh water sources, etc.

The raw materials must be shipped to a processor and/or on to a manufacturer. Once a new item is created even more resources and energy must be used to create the packaging for it, and then to ship it. With much of North America's consumer goods being produced in China those goods are often shipped thousands of miles to reach us, then are railed and trucked all across the country to depots, then are trucked to your retail store. We then burn through yet more energy to get to the store and back.

Using the above paragraph as a model, let's walk through an example. We'll watch a pair of new pants from seed to your home.

1) A farmer in Brazil grows cotton which requires lots of fresh water. When harvested she ships the cotton to a gin operation 200 miles away using big trucks and lots of fuel. The gin uses huge amounts of electricity to separate the seeds from the fibers.

2) The cotton fibers are bailed, which requires some metal, and is then sent to Pakistan on a big ship which uses metric tons of fuel for the voyage and must skirt the southern coast of Africa on the way there. Once in Pakistan workers, often underage and underpaid, spin the fibers into thread.

3) Huge spools of cotton thread are then sent around the southern coast of India to Sri Lanka on another ship, using more fuel. Once in Sri Lanka the cotton thread is woven into cloth, again by underpaid and often underage workers. It is then dyed a desired color using dyes shipped to them from Egypt in conditions that are often toxic.

4) The dyed cloth is bailed, using some metal again, and shipped around Singapore to China, using more fuel. Near the coastline yet more underpaid workers are exploited to cut and sew the clothing into a pair of pants. Buttons made elsewhere in China from Russian oil or metal are added. To hold the size during shipping the pants are washed in toxic chemicals, then dried, boxed in cardboard that came from a nearby clearcut forest, then shipped thousands of miles to the west coast of the U.S., using another huge amount of fuel.

5) Once in the U.S. the boxes are railed and trucked to near their destinations, then trucked to retail outlets, using more fuel along the way. The retail outlet displays the pants on a hangar made in Mexico from Canadian oil. You then drive your vehicle to the store, interact with a low paid employee or two, then drive back home with your purchase.


All along this path people have been exploited and unimaginable amounts of fuel have been consumed. I didn't even touch on the economics of the farmer or the impact her pesticides and fertilizers have on not only her local environment but also on things a large distance away thanks to water always running downhill, nor the discharge of toxic sizing chemicals right into the ocean, nor the waste created during cloth cutting, nor product losses during shipping, nor the energy your local big box retail outlet goes through each day.

All of that just so you can buy a pair of pants for $19.95 at some big box store. Astounding, isn't it?


Now let's look at gaining a pair of pants from a second hand store:

1) A local person donated the pants so no new farming, processing, nor manufacturing is needed, nor is any round-the-globe fuel drain.

2) You still make a trip to a local store but that store is smaller, requiring less energy. The pants are displayed on a hangar that may have likely been reused dozens or even hundreds of times, and may even be older than you are. You then make the trip back home.


Tada! You just bought a great pair of pants that already survived one owner, proving some toughness, for just a few dollars, and you did not directly contribute to any new human/resource/economic/political exploitation. Thrift stores are my favorite places to shop!


There are simple ways that folks reuse things every day. Reusable shopping bags, plastic food storage containers, using old socks and t-shirts as rags, composting, etc. I am always looking for other ways to reuse such as offering my wife's mint tins on CraigsList for free (I used the first stack of them to organize my spare parts in the garage, and now they are always quickly snatched up by folks involved in crafts), replanting the pots I get seedlings in (when my own seedlings fail), donating my old cellular phone each time my employer provides me with an upgrade, etc.

What other ways can you think of for reusing items that come into your life?

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: Go through your possessions and trim the excess out for donation to a local charitable thrift store, then visit that thrift store if you have not done so at any point in the last 3 years or longer. If you have visited that shop more recently please visit a different one. If you already have a habit of visiting thrift stores for your durable goods shopping then the next time you go please take a friend that has never been to one, and help them find something they can and will use.


Helpful links:

Reuse Trash Ideas: http://www.recycling-revolution.com/...ash-ideas.html
Recycle This: http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/
Reuse at Green Living Ideas: http://greenlivingideas.com/category...e-living/reuse
Trash to Treasure Crafts: http://familycrafts.about.com/od/cra...rashcrafts.htm
Craft Ideas for Recyclables (for kids): http://www.solidwastedistrict.com/fun/crafts.html
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Share the Road


I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes
or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference.
Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.
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Old 04-26-2010, 03:16 AM   #4
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Thank you. Great resource.
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Old 04-26-2010, 07:57 AM   #5
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You should really provide specific links (unbiased, and from actual facts - not some activists site) for your resources for this information. When you go into claiming facts instead of stating a simple personal opinion, you should include the information for how you discovered this to be true.

It's pretty one-sided to say that every pair of jeans we buy comes from some poor farmer in Brazil wasting away for cotton because it's just not true. There are still cotton mills right here in the US. Fort Payne, Alabama has very few factories left (a great deal of them have closed down over the years, sadly - I know, because I grew up in that area) but they still spin cotton there also.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/30/blu...ill/index.html

http://www.mvmills.com/

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Old 04-26-2010, 10:13 AM   #6
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Hello JBougie,

I understand your meaning but I challenge you to look through all of your clothing to see how much, if any, of it is made in the U.S.A., or even claims to use fibers from the U.S.A. Everyone I know, including myself, has great difficulty with this as almost nothing we own from the clothes on our backs to the plates we eat off of to the linen we sleep in to the cars we drive are made here at home.

This is why I chose to use the example that I did. It is the most common way that things are done today.

And regarding a bibliography, I debated that within myself. Spoon feed or let people take their own journey and find their own resources? Folks alway seem to understand and take as their own the resources that they find and filter for themselves. Besides, it's not like any of this is hidden knowledge. You've likely heard talk of it since you were a child.
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Share the Road


I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes
or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference.
Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.
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Old 04-26-2010, 12:38 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Loren View Post
No time to read all of this right now, but I read most of the first two posts. Really good stuff, but just one comment. You're losing your focus on the topic at hand and drifting into things like how employees are treated and how fairly a company deals when discussing "Reuse", and like workers possibly being underage and underpaid in Pakistan when discussing "Recycle".

Skipping the political commentary would make your articles more focused and a little less lengthy, which could lend them greater impact with a larger audience. Inform and educate, don't preach.
this

and also, fuel use on ships ? sheesh

ships have an average BTU per ton better than trucks

don't preach to us about shipping until you can tell me all the tonnage
that ship is carrying

BTU per short ton mile
Waterborne 510
Heavy Trucks 3,357
(this is just a general number, actual varies based on actual ship)



I agree. 52 weeks of sermons. someone need attention ?

------

here is a real green tip.

Do you have a common shopping or errand route you drive ? can you modify the route
to eliminate as many left hand turns as possible ? this can save gasoline in many circumstances.

Last edited by 127.0.0.1; 04-26-2010 at 01:33 PM.
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Old 04-26-2010, 02:32 PM   #8
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Some people don't want the truth. That's fine, they can turn a blind eye to reality. We have violated spaceship earth and our future is uncertain. A voice in the wilderness cry out and is shunned. But, let that voice have his say.


"The United States contains just 5% of the world's population yet we consume 25% of its resources and produce 30% of its waste. While this has afforded us an unprecedented standard of living it has come at a tremendous cost to the planet and our fellow inhabitants in the developing world. This simply cannot last, and therefore will not last, but the less resources we use now the more there will be available for the future of all of humanity - including your own loved ones and offspring."
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Old 04-26-2010, 02:49 PM   #9
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Big fish in little pond

If we're trying to save the world and spread the truth by such formidable means, devoting a years worth of pent up energy by handing out green tips in a Yaris MB with so few members isn't a very economical way to go about it.

Reality is, might need to try this at a more wasteful, reckless...and mainly a larger MB, or even a MB that is already devoted to the subject, but it might get lost in the shuffle.
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Old 05-01-2010, 12:19 PM   #10
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Welcome to week #3! We are continuing "The 3 Rs":

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

As this is the third week I will cover the third R: Recycle

Once we have reduced the amount of items we bring into our lives and reuse as much as is practical our remaining waste stream must be dealt with. Most people are good about throwing things away, but "away" is a place, usually a landfill or incinerator which are both great at releasing harmful chemicals into the local environment.

Each locale usually has their own recycling program and the items they will accept vary wildly. It often takes effort to understand what you can and cannot recycle, and what the turn in method and schedule is, but any recycling is better than no recycling. Aside from the obvious benefits such as natural resource conservation here are some facts to support that statement:
  • Glass is infinitely recyclable, meaning no material is lost in the process.
  • Aluminum cans are also infinitely recyclable and are generally only in the recycle stream for 60 days before being turned into a new can and placed back onto store shelves.
  • It takes 60% less energy and 50% less water to recycle paper products than to create them.
  • While plastic bottles are only 15% recoverable the global population goes through almost 3 million tons of them each year. This means that if everyone recycled plastic bottles it would cut annual extraction and conversion requirements by over 400,000 tons!

While your local recycling setup may have a highly limited acceptance list they may not be your only source. For example, several of my local metal smelters pay cash for bulk metals. CraigsList regularly has posts from folks that pay cash to pick up large metal objects from people such as junk cars and engine blocks. A local composter takes all bottom-of-the-barrel paper products such as egg cartons.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: Call your local government to inquire about recycling programs that are available to you, and use them. If you already do so (yay!) take a look at the things you cannot currently recycle and try to find a business or organization that will accept some of it.


Related reading:

Plastic Recycling Facts: http://earth911.com/recycling/plasti...cycling-facts/
Recycling More Obscure Materials: http://www.obviously.com/recycle/guides/hard.html
Paper Recycling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_recycling
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Share the Road


I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes
or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference.
Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.
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Old 05-12-2010, 05:40 PM   #11
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Welcome to week #4! This week's topic is driving efficiently.

Oil is a precious, energy dense and finite resource unlike anything the world had seen before it, and unlike anything we are likely to find on our planet again. The current world economy runs on it, wars have been fought over it and ecological devastation has been its byproduct at varying degrees since the first time our species learned it was flammable.

Most experts agree that we have achieved peak oil, meaning we cannot pump the oil out of the ground any faster than we currently are and that the rate of production is entering a terminal decline. The more of this precious resource that we conserve now the longer it will last for everyone.

Even the intolerably slow U.S. government is coming to realize these things and has recently enacted the first overhaul of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in 30 years, with the new target each automobile manfufacturer must meet (as an average of all of their vehicle offerings) at 35 MPG by 2020. This is a tremendous increase over the 18 MPG previously mandated by the 1978 CAFE standard.

Driving efficiently is easy, it saves you money and is both relaxing and surprisingly addictive. Please see the links below for ideas on how to get started.


Related reading:

Fuel Effiency and the Yaris: http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5979
Using DFCO to increase your MPG: http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4248
Hang Time: Exploiting ECU Fuel Maps for Fuel Efficiency: http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9422


Additional resources:

Book: "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock" by Matthew R. Simmons
Documentary: "The End of Suburbia"
Documentary: "A Crude Awakening"
Pseudo-fictional movie: Syriana
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Share the Road


I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes
or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference.
Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.
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Old 05-12-2010, 06:24 PM   #12
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Subscribed!

Thanks for sharing :]
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