Are you green?

[sweetwater]

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?

[SteveDallas]

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.

[Drax]

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.

[sweetwater]

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!

[Dingleschmutz]

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

[Undertoad]

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.

[monster]

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...... (I have yet to go so far as to interfere.....yet....)

[Drax]

Originally Posted by monster

Water and paper may be "renewable" , but it takes energy and creates pollution to recycle the water

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

Originally Posted by monster

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.

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

[Cicero]

Originally Posted by Drax

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

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.

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

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

[Dingleschmutz]

Originally Posted by Cicero

lol! Silly schmutz.

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

[monster]

Originally Posted by Drax

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

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.

[SteveDallas]

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

[HungLikeJesus]

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.

[Sundae]

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.