Are you green?
 

Environmentally speaking.

I'm pink.

I'm more of a crimson.

I used to be olive drab, spent a lot of time in the environment, and always used catholes.

Purple.

I recycle twice as much as my neighbors, so, I think that I can say that I'm greener than most.

I'm wearing a green shirt today...

I put hippies in recycling machines.

I try constantly to go without, reuse, reduce, & recycle, but the cans/jars bin attracted mice in the garage and I set traps. That probably undoes all the positive effort, but we will be using a big covered waste bin (once we finish using it on another project) to save cans/jars/ and the future mice. So I'm cat-eye green.

Great way to be green is to stop throwing stuff away. Fix it instead. And buy stuff that can be fixed whenever possible.

I just repaired some old stereo speakers by installing new foam surrounds. Saved about 30 pounds from the landfill, saved the pollution associated with manufacturing new speakers in China, and saved a couple hundred bucks.

Am I green? No. But I try.

Recently moved from a town that still had a cobbler. We had several pairs of shoes and other leather items repaired or resoled at his shop, and only cost a couple of bucks. He was an old man, though, and is going to die with no apprentice to take over. It's a shame that old skills are going like that. We need Foxfire books for these times. Author! Author!

I use compact fluorescent bulbs, and I use my pressure washing machine and spin dryer, which uses soooo much less water and electricity. But I throw away too much stuff. Whatever happened to trash compactors?

I recently read a story (sorry, can't remember where) about a guy fighting his garbage bill because he generates -- NO -- garbage. None. I'm thinking, how is this possible?

I bet they could reduce waste drastically by charging by volume. (Or do they--dunno, I live in apartment.)

I put out one bag of trash every three weeks or so, but pay the same as my neighbors that put out five or six barrels every week.

We (HM & I) generate a small carrier bag worth of landfill between us every two weeks - mostly packaging that states it cannot be recylced, and a litter bit of cat litter.

I always take my own bags to go shopping and don't use any extra packaging in store (ie separate bags for fruit & veg, bakery items)
We use energy saving light bulbs and always run a full load if using the dishwasher, turn lights off when leaving rooms and (on my part) keep any heating to an absolute minimum.

I'm not very green, but I do try my best to consider the impact of my actions on the environment on a daily basis. Sometimes it takes someone else to point it out to me (like not running water while I clean my teeth) but I reckon I have the big things nailed.

The Sierra Club has a free Green Life tip daily email that I think is free for non-members. Knowledge is one commodity that can be reused, recycled, spread over a large area, etc. and it is good. Just don't reduce it!
Perhaps other organizations have a similar service - anyone know?

I used to think two trash pickups a week was a wasteful luxury.

Then we had kids! ;)

We are green in some respects. We recycle most things. My wife is more compulsive about it that I am. (Our town collects clear glass curbside but not brown or green glass, which you have to bring to the township building. I feel it's not worth the effort to drag them over. I willingly recycle newspapers, cardboard boxes, etc., but just don't really bother with toilet paper tubes and such. Mrs. Dallas makes sure it ALL goes in the bag to recycle.)

We've started using cloth bags for groceries--I never liked the little plastic ones much anyway.

I just invested in a Sigg aluminum water bottle. I've tried reusable bottles before, but I never had a plastic one that didn't taste disgusting after some period of time. The Sigg has a great reputation in this respect.

Thanks for all the responses, even the 6 less serious ones. :)

I never really thought about going green, but since the two large windows in my room provide enough light for me during the day, I don't even turn on my overhead light until it's absolutely necessary.

I've started turning off my PC before I go to bed, but I still don't really bother turning off the monitor or my DSL modem (which doesn't even have an off switch). I don't need my printer that much, so it's gonna start stayin' off, and I'm thinkin' about using the speakers that came with my PC. They're totally PC powered via USB...no plug.

As for recycling, I don't even bother. Paper comes from trees, a renewable resource. Water is also a renewable resource. I don't use glass products, for the most part, and my local Wal-mart now has a bin to put used plastic grocery bags in.

My aire conditioner has an energy saver, but it seems useless cuz no matter what the temp is in my room, it always turns back on about 3 minutes after it goes off.

Maybe you could kick off a Green Idea page. Might be interesting to learn what is being done on a world-wide, or at least Cellar-wide, basis. One thing we are all doing is communicating electronically instead of snail-mailing, and in this case I think the benefit of electricity outweighs the pollution from its production. It has to!

Also, sometimes I cut down trees so I can make protest signs.

I'm lazy, and somewhat anti-social, so I don't do very much. This means I consume less and have a lower carbon footprint.

However, to my shame, the entire house is kept at a decent temperature during the day, even though often nobody is there - heating in winter and AC in summer - so that the dog is comfortable.

The dog makes up for it: she shits all over the back yard, so the area is naturally and organically fertilized.

There is a new "eat local" movement and so I am converting to only coffees grown in my hemisphere. I must pass up my favorite New Guinea for something raised in Costa Rica. It will be missing some of the lively acidity of a bean grown in rich volcanic soil. But I'm willing to do my part.

We reuse and recycle and generally only generate about two grocery bags of landfill a week -not too bad for a familly of 5. I hate the light from the fluorescent bulbs so we mostly use regular ones and we keep our house at a comfortable temperature. We grow our own veg in summer -but mostly because it's fun.

Water and paper may be "renewable" , but it takes energy and creates pollution to recycle the water and make the paper. Renewable is not necessary green. Also putting paper into landfill trash instead of recycling increases the amount of land needed for landfill and the time before land used for landfill can be reused. (Obviously not such a big issue if you live in an area where trash is burned or where there is so much ugly countryside that no-one cares if you render it uninhabitable).

I hate taking the children to the bus stop on trash day. I feel like such a garbage nazi because I hate to see people's trash cans filled with compostable garden waste, styrofoam, cardboard boxes etc. because they are too damn lazy or too stupid to care. It's not like we don't have free curbside recyclables pick-up at the same damn time -all they had to do was separate it out...... :mad: (I have yet to go so far as to interfere.....yet....)

Yeah, there are people on our block who never put out any recycling at all.

We have to pay $60 per month for trash pick-up. If we want curbside recycling we have to pay an additional $60/month. When I do recycle, I take it to work.

I've become a plastic bag nazi. I mean fair enough if someone has one or two bags - they've done what I do sometimes, gone in for one thing and remembered other stuff they needed.

But when someone has a trolley full of shopping in 10-15 disposable bags, that is going to the car, then from the car to the house... It just seems such a waste of materials, energy and space in landfill for the sake of a few minutes use. Especially now it is such a hot issue - no-one can plead ignorance, surely? I think supermarkets should issue plastic bags without handles. If the free bags are really inconvenient you'd soon find people were willing to bring their own bags, or pay 10p for a reusable one.

I am not sure if we have recycling service. I dunno. I pay for trash pickup. We try to re-use jars for stuff like paint solvents...I am really good about conserving those because of their high cost. Also, I re-use jars for storing things like change, popcorn, flour, sugar, random crap...you know. I also try and re-use butter/margarine containers for packing lunches. (Until they get melted down by the dishwasher, that is.) Since we make most of the food we eat, the paper bags from flour are usually just tossed...we don't drink pop and we have very little pre-packaged food in our house. I do need to get some of those cloth bags for groceries.

I save the plastic bags to give away vegies from my garden, a-holes won't bring the buckets back. Oh yes I save beer cans, for someone else. Who every great once in awhile helps me in yard.

Aaah..I've worked in the green industry, and my husband is now working in the green industry. Not only do we have to be green..but we have to be green.

I reuse plastic bags for all kinds of things around the house. Usually only once, though.

I give the long skinny plastic bags our newspaper comes in to the neighbors so they can pick up the copious amounts of dog crap in their yard. Oh, and I recycle the papers.

I'm peeing green. Is that bad?

Why recycle something nature can renew? Can you even recycle water? I need some explanation here.

After reading this, I would have to agree that recycling paper is better.

dunno, but CSI tomorrow supposedly has a bunch of people with green blood. stay tuned.

That's a good idea.

Don't feed the troll Cloud.

He's not a troll - he's a comic.
he's genuinely contributing to the cellar community, just not necessarily staying entirely on-topic.

Ha, thanks, I'm no troll. Dealt with those fuckers on other forums, I'm glad there's none here... I just have an aversion to hippies. I eat steaks just for the purpose of spiting them. But here, yay Earth!

don't be bigoted. hippies eat steaks, too.

Poser.

You were, no doubt, trying to get laid by a hippie chick. I know all about that, trust me.

It's true :( She married my best friend.

Yeesh, bad pic of her... But hey, same pose... Think 'hotter version of Tina Faye'

More earth day pics!

Yay earth!

Ok, I actually stopped caring after 2006...

(Actually, I never cared, I'll be dead by the time it affects the planet)

Yes you can recycle water.
Water reuse is a way to turn septic into either drinkable or groundwater for your yard. This is actually great if you have septic inspections because people with these types of systems usually pass because it insures that no septic water seeps into the groundwater and a proper leech fiield. It doesn't take that much energy, just microbiotic bugs. I think it's fascinating. Of course my husband does this for a living so naturally I would.

See Fuji systems, the slud*ehammer etc. Water recycling can be done on larger scales with very little energy consumption. That is the way they are designed and their selling point. They can also be used at your business like rest. etc. to clean your grease traps or home. Governments are going to start using the small scale systems to create larger systems for areas that have trouble even getting water, or water that is not potable. They are going to start selling plants to 3rd world areas at a price point (loan) so they will be able to then, sustain themselves.

Here's a water recycler for septic tanks...It's better than a tank oozing with crap. Cleans up your shit...and Tom Cruise's apparently.
http://www.sludgehammer.net/Press/Su...tMagazine.html

Not everyone has great access to potable water. Not like we do here...it's going to become even more scarce for lots of states even in the US and worse...the people who can't afford to even waste it.

Nature can't renew septic water. lol! Silly schmutz. Some of it is full of human disease.

I like their tag line: Nature called. We answered.

Ah ha, the truth is out. You've been hanging around for a year and a half just waiting for a chance to spam for Sludgehammer.:haha:

Seriously though, that sort of thing is going to become critical, as the Ogallala aquifer gets drawn down faster than it can recover.

What do I have to do with anything? I will not endorse your product.

Schmutz:full of questions and no answers.

I don't have a product. I was answering a dumb question.
:p

And please, do not try and endorse that for anyone!! You may refer to the link but don't talk. And every time you do you owe me 10 dollars.

Yes, Bruce...there are lots of reservoirs even in the united states that experience trouble, and only get worse every year. Water shortages are not uncommon...

You're shitting me? You don't even know the basics? I thought you liked all those educational tv programs.

How does nature "renew" water? What do you think happens to the water that goes down your drain? There is not an infinite amount of water sat up in the sky waiting to fall to earth, or buried underground waiting to be pumped up. Oh, you know what, here: http://www.kidzone.ws/WATER/ Water is finite. it follows a cycle and is used time and time again. Therefore it is recycled, right? Now, do you put all your waste in the back yard for the liquid to evaporate? No you sent it somewhere else to be cleaned and release back into the cycle. Recycling. Water is not a "renewable" resource in the sense that paper is. You don't just grow more. it is recyclable. It's the best example of recycling around. When nature does it. But modern human water use dirties/contaminates it, requiring cleaning that is not as "green" as not dirtying it in the first place.

:eek:

I don't believe you just said that! For so many reasons i'm not going to bother listing them.

research is your friend. in sooo many situations.

Wow.
Look who's silly now. I was answering Dingle when it was Drax who said that...

Hey guess what?!?Screw today! I am going to have an early Heineken.

It's ok, it's the first time I've ever been called a troll.

Well see, I'm a bit surprised that here of all places, a thread that I started actually produced some serious conversation, and I just wanna keep it that way. :)

BTW, Dingle, cute pic. ;)

Mmm.

I think I'm probably like the vast majority of Americans... make it fast and easy, and I'm willing to do it. Buy a hybrid car? Sure! Chuck my paper products into recycling at work? Yup. Use energy efficient light bulbs that last 3,000 times as long as regulars? PLEASE! Buy the stupid little self-pump olive oil sprayer from Pampered Chef so as not to use aeresol cans? Yay!

I don't think I do as well as I could, though. I COULD recycle my trash at home, but I live in an apartment complex where there is no recycling.... so I don't. :( I am an environmental sinner. And it's not because I don't care. It's because I'm lazy.

Yeah, I'm all for saving mother earth, but not if it infringes on my chosen lifestyle in any way.

I'll be dead before it has any effect.
And I have no-one I want to pass this world onto.

But I deplore waste, and will continue to do everything I can as my conscience dictates that is the right way to live.

And my regrets to those who follow that the majority of people did not see things the same way I did.

Ok...so..
I think if each person commits to doing something a little differently each day, even if it is just buying a car that doesn't emit so much toxins, we might have a chance. Even if it is just buying energy saving light-bulbs for their house...

People don't do anything differently until they see how it effects them positively, but if they do just that one thing, it effects everyone positively.

I'm not all nazi about being green. If each person commits to something the collective will reap all those bebnefits amassed together.

I was talking to a friend on video that he brought to an event, and he tried to put me in a corner, trying to paint me with a hypocritical brush because I'm not green about everything. I had to do it back, and embarass him on his own tape because it isn't about doing everything in your life, green. (Impossible right now) It's about doing something. Anything at all.

Don't try to say someone else is a hypocrite about being green, when you are in a new pair of Nikes.
:D

Just one thing is not too much to ask. Maybe it's just one choice to save your grocery bags to use them again....anything.

My narrative is different, I think most conservation you have to think actively about isn't going to do all that much.

Some of it may even be a well-intentioned mistake, exchanging one poison for another. You can change out all your light bulbs only to find that their mercury content will poison your fish, or whatever -- while running an inefficient furnace for another 3 years burns through more energy than all those bulbs put together.

A much greater savings could be have if we'd enact a BTU tax or something like that, because that would encourage uniform changes across the economy. More people would do the math and learn that they could buy that furnace earlier and save more money. What would be really innovative would be to exchange our income tax with a BTU tax. What say you to terrible inflation for a while, in return for no IRS? I'd take that deal.

But in the long run, the biggest gains will still be in continued innovation in all forms of energy usage. Make all furnaces, transport, and appliances more efficient, that's the biggest form of conservation of them all.

And some of it isn't. Nay sayer. :D

Conservation is easy to grasp, it isn't hard. Don't buy and waste too much food or crap..That's really easy to grasp and doesn't seem to have any negative impact whatsoever.

If something is running and you aren't using it, turn it off. Easy. No negative impact.

As a corporation, buying your way out in the form of credits sucks. They already do that. Money gets shifted around and it is paid. I fail to see how it changes anything about the actual pollution and waste.

I thought we were talking about how to be green personally anyway. Keeping up with your furnace works environmentally and practically because you can also poison yourself if you don't. That is one change you can choose to make. Definitely.

I like this idea a lot.