Archive for February, 2010

Recycling : Several Good Reasons To Recycle Aluminum And Steel Cans

Each and every year thousands upon thousands of tons of trash is thrown into landfills. Though we are in no danger of running short on landfill space, this is expensive in terms of time, space, and energy invested, along with the sheer waste of materials that will not ever be used again.

With that in mind, consider the reasons below for keeping your aluminum and steel cans out of the landfill by recycling them.

– Aluminum that has been recycled is back in use again within a couple of months. In contrast, it would take 200-500 years for that metal to break down naturally in a landfill.

- Metal cans can be exchanged for cash at lots of places. Several states offer five cents for each can given to them, and certain centers offer between fifty cents and two dollars per pound of cans recycled.

- There are can crushing machines available, and you can even make a home-made one for free. Therefore, it is no excuse to say that recycling cans takes up too much space.

– Recycled steel and aluminum are have exactly the same composition as 'new' aluminum and steel. Recycled metals are simply melted down and mixed into lots to make new products, which can then be recycled again when they are finished being used.

– The United States presently uses steel that is more than 65 percent recycled. This is a good start, but there is definitely room for improvement. This proportion would go up significantly if more people were aware that they could recycle their steel cans.

– The 100,000,000 'new' steel cans produced on a daily basis contain 25% recycled materials. That equates to 25 million reclaimed cans versus 75 million completely new cans. If people recycled more frequently, that number would soon become 50-50 and a huge amount of energy and resources would be saved.

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Company Recycling Schemes : Don’t Forget That Recycling Bins Can Detrimentally Effect The Environment Too

There are many issues that need to be considered when setting up a new recycling scheme in your company. For example, what waste streams will be recycled, how much waste will be produced, how many, and what type, of containers will be required, and do these need to follow a particular color scheme? With all these different factors to think about, it is easy to forget to take into consideration the environmental impact of the recycling containers themselves.

A large proportion of recycling and waste bins are manufactured from durable plastic (polypropylene), and a approximately 9% of global annual oil production is presently used in the manufacturing of plastics. Extracting this finite resource requires vast amounts of energy, and the process of plastic production uses harmful chemicals, whilst emitting pollutants and greenhouse gases. It is easy to see how, despite being created for an environmentally beneficial use, the manufacturing of recycling bins has detrimental effects.

So, what can you do about this?

- Purchase second-hand containers. The optimal way to minimize environmental impacts in waste management is through re-use. If you can find good quality second-hand or unwanted containers then this prevents the bins from simply being discarded. It is surprising how many large corporations find themselves with redundant containers from an altered pilot recycling project or simple change in color scheme.

– Buy quality products. Look for containers that are well constructed and durable. Those used commercially will need to withstand far greater wear and tear than those used in the home. Opt for well made products which are less likely to need replacing and will last for years.

- Choose products manufactured from recycled plastic. Many recycling containers are now manufactured with at least some recycled plastic. This will reduce the need for extraction of virgin materials and also reduces energy consumption and emissions during the production process. For example, producing recycled plastic bags uses around 60% less energy, and 90% less water, compared to ones produced from just virgin materials.

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Using Solar Energy for Your Home

Many people talk about the future when energy will finally become free. However, the option of free energy is already available to most of the world. Solar energy provides this. As many home owners are coming to find out, there are far too many benefits of solar energy. Using the energy of the sun, solar energy units are able to convert solar energy into power. The use of solar energy power provides many important advantages. A few of these include

Reasons for Solar energy for your home

Significant energy savings: Once you have your solar energy system installed, you will find that you are paying much less for your power needs. This is because, outside the occasional maintenance requirement which is easily affordable, a solar energy unit can easily run itself. Thanks to the easy availability of sunlight, you will also not need to worry about running out of fuel at any point.

Cleaner energy source: When it comes to the advantages of solar energy power, its zero pollution levels is one of its most lauded qualities. Unlike most other sources which are found to negatively affect the environment, solar energy sources produce zero emissions. They are therefore a far healthier option for home owners and the planet in general.

Effective location: Thanks to the availability of sunlight, establishing a location for your solar panels is not a difficult problem. Solar panels can therefore be installed on the roof tops of your home where they will gain easy access to sunlight.

There are many by which solar energy units can be installed. A professional, for example, can be hired to provide installation services for some home owners. Other people opt to handle the installation themselves with the use of detailed DIY guides that provide careful instructions. Whilst critics sometimes speak negatively of initial high cost required to install a solar unit, this is more than offset with the minimal payment that is recorded thereafter.

With solar energy powering the panels of many of the satellites found in space, there is no question that solar energy is the future. The only question is whether you will evolve with it or not.

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Environmentally Aware Company Checklist

Being an environmentally aware company not only looks good to customers and the community, it can also significantly reduce costs. So, what can be done to make a company greener and cleaner?

Reduce wastage – Assess your company processes to see where waste could be reduced. For example, can invoices be sent electronically and goods ordered in bulk to reduce packaging waste? Waste reduction should be the top priority of any waste management scheme as this is where the most cost effective and positive and environmental changes can be achieved.

Purchase Recycled Paper – Producing one tonne of recycled paper saves 3000 liters of water and 78% energy use. Air emissions of gases such as CO2 are cut by 95% and there is less pollution because recycled paper is not bleached with chlorine. As for purchasing recycled paper, it is no more expensive than virgin paper, and nowadays the quality is as good.

Re-Use Plastic Cups – Plastics are harmful to the environment both when they are produced (various chemicals are emitted) and when they are disposed of (taking hundreds of years to decompose). Therefore, it really is inexcusable to not re-use the same plastic cup throughout the day, or to even do away with plastic cups altogether and just use mugs instead.

Recycle Printer Cartridges – Around 2 million printer cartridges are discarded every year. Recycling cartridges is easy as many suppliers offer a return scheme for used cartridges. Using recycled toner cartridges reduces demand for raw materials and they can be purchased for as little as half the price of non-recycled cartridges.

Ware 4 Recycling Bins Ltd have been promoting cost effective bins, trolleys and waste containers for over 5 years. For more info, visit Ware 4 Ltd.

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Environmentally Friendly Cruise Ship Development

Cruising companies have recently felt the persuasive powers of various governments, who have asked them to clean up their act and develop ships that are more sustainable and environmentally viable. The extent to which cruise ships damage the environment really entered the public's consciousness a few years ago with a number of critical expert reports released to the media, and this is something cruise companies wish to put behind them. Add to this the fact that many governments are now charging cruise companies extra in tax for high carbon emissions, and cleaning up cruises suddenly seems like a good idea to companies. Here are 3 of the latest ‘green’ cruising developments.

More Efficient Ships. Not only are ships now being made from more sustainable materials and but they are also being designed and constructed to more efficient specifications. The materials are getting lighter so less energy is needed for propulsion, soft sails are often being included, and a company in Ireland have pioneered a biogas-powered engine, set to soon be used by Cunard cruises. The very same Irish company are also working on hydrodynamic hulls that actually convert wave energy into forward momentum.

Hybrid Vessels. Automobiles that rely on both fuel combustion and battery power have been around for a little while now and have proved very popular. Now ship builders such as those making boats for Silversea Cruises are getting in on the action and making boats that couple the traditional diesel power with electrical power. When berthed, a ship simply plugs in to the shoreside power supply and charges its batteries, what could be easier

Cargo-Pooling. A great idea being trialled by Oceania Cruises is ‘cargo sharing’. When a cruise ship has spare room onboard, they effectively rent it out to companies wishing to transport cargo to the destination on the ships path. A few extra bucks are earned by the cruise companies who would have otherwise wasted space, the company who are shipping the cargo massively save on costs and less pollution is released into the environment. Everyone's a winner.

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Biological Life Style And Your Attitude Towards It

Several of us who are leading a decent life may be interested in a green life style but unable to come to a decision on how to go about it. There is a simple suggestion for you; obtain a choice that only the nature friendly goods will be obtained from the day one onwards. Not only of purchasing environmentally friendly goods but we will have to determine how to go about of recycling the probable products too.

Daily, we purchase canned food items, while purchasing a can of tuna fish have we ever considered of how enormous scale catching of tuna fish are going to affect the  natural world of the dolphins? When we purchase cotton clothes, how the large cotton farms eject the synthetic waste to the nearby rivers, which are taking them down-stream where they are in excess. Just try to understand these facts and without any doubt they are not really pleasant.

The major problem is the production of non natural environmentally friendly items. If you look at the commercial farming which is the key contributor of chemical waste to the local rivers. For an ordinary outlook this may not be posing great many problems but it is the most significant destructive aspect for the eco system.

These chemical nutrients containing the genetic substances give a speedy spurt of growth but are not sustainable. When this excess thing goes to river the algae consumes it which results in its death and the piles of dead algae come together to form a phenomena known as ‘algae bloom’.

This creates a situation for zero oxygen in the water. This will further result in large scale death of fish and water animals or they progressively drift away creating an imbalance in the eco system. It will be a death blow for fast moving fish like salmon.

The chemicals like bleach causes havoc in the similar manner in the rivers, forests and the earth itself. Once it gets saturated in the rivers and earth, the reclamation would be impossible or will take years. We have to lower this contamination by going for nature friendly alternatives.

There is world wide awareness for green products. The creation of dead zones as it is in Gulf of Mexico, has further activated the process of environmentally friendly products by all who are responsible and concerned about it. Now most of the companies are going for environmentally friendly products, by doing this they get ample publicity and increased demand for their products.

You can do your own way to go for eco friendly products. Internet has brought the world at your finger tips, and you can order your items from the comfort of your home.

Timothy Greensland

Find additional facts regarding environment friendly products and enviromental friendly.

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Can You Use Technology To Be Environmentally Friendly?

What do you associate with the latest high technology gadgets? It will differ from one individual to another. Some may think that they’re trendy. Others might think that they’re more trouble than they're worth. Some almost certainly feel that they’re confusing and can be difficult to operate. It very much depends on your own individual viewpoint. However, it’s probably a fair bet to say that you almost certainly don’t associate the latest “must have” electronic gadget with doing your bit for the environment – but electronic devices can, in the right circumstances, be environmentally friendly.

Digital photo frames for example have become very popular over the last two or three years. Due to competition in the market, prices have fallen dramatically and you can now pick up perfectly serviceable examples for around about the same price that you might pay for a conventional photo frame. Digital frames have a number of perceived advantages, one of which is their ability to display hundreds of different photographs using a single frame.

Much will depend upon just how many photographs you usually print out in a typical year, but if you are in the habit of taking a lot of snaps, then the use of a digital frame to display your photo collection could have a positive environmental impact. Whether you remove the need to have hard copies of photos developed at a processing lab or if you just print out less using your computer, you will wind up consuming fewer materials.

Another good, and very topical, example is the current trendy gadget – the e-book reader. E-book readers have actually been available for quite some time, but they really caught the public's imagination in 2009 and now seem poised to increase sales even further in 2010. The Kindle reader is currently the most popular by a long way and Sony have also established a good market presence.

125 million trees are cut down every year to provide the paper required to supply the U.S. book, magazine and newspaper industry sector. Huge amounts of water, energy and a whole host of chemicals are also consumed to feed the nation’s reading habit. What's more, books being a physical product require to be delivered from the publisher's warehouse to the book store – typically using road transportation. The gas used by customers who drive to and from the retail outlet is also a factor in determining the carbon footprint of a typical book.

Electronic books of course, do not consume large amounts of paper, ink etc. in their production. Additonally, since they are not a physical product, it's possible to deliver them over the internet rather than by using the road transport network.

Of course, as both e-book readers and digital photo frames are themselves physical products, they do require both materials and energy for their production. They also require delivery to the point of sale or direct to the final customer. Even so, according to studies have shown that, even when the materials consumed are offset against the savings in paper, energy, ink etc. that devices of this type can be better for the environment (though it will depend, to some extent, on the number of books you read or how many photos you usually print each year).

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Learning About Biological Movement And Understanding It

Many of us are quite alien to the concept of environmental movement. To understand this we have to get a hold of a few moments of our time and evaluate the functioning of our day to day life.

If we can acquire a moment to consider about our normal life style in a particular day, we can simply find that we can replace so lots of items which we find so basic in life with the nature friendly products. If you are positive that our generation has to live in a pollution free environment, be prepared to change our life style in a small way to commence with, as small as changing the bleach to a herbal alternative, the latter indeed will have a better effect.

Now that we have decided to go for natural friendly initiative we have to take few steps towards that end. Acquire a moment and concentrate on at least 10 items which we are frequently used in our daily lives. Maybe we are using too many toiletries, then try to make a list of all such items and against each item indicate the equivalent green and eco friendly items. Thus putting it down in piece of writing will remind you right away of how much eco destruction you have already done in your day to day life.

Similarly you evaluate your energy consumption. Are you keeping your computer idle for long hours? Are you keeping an electric stove unattended for long? Or are you are using a washing machine which is a little outdated? Please evaluate such small details and get an idea about how much it will be better for your local power generating units.

Yes, you can do more, if you are at least one step ahead that is the solar panels. By using the electricity from solar panels you are returning the same quantity of electricity back to the power grid. This way you are supporting your appliances free of cost. The solar panels are on your roof there by you are not using the space too.

If you have creative imaginations there are even many other ways to be nature friendly person. You may get hold of one or two pets to care and support the specialized agencies who are taking up the task of spay and neuter the straw dogs and cats.

These stray and dump animals are the creation of man only and obviously we have to control their multiplicity. Uncontrolled multiplications of these animals are a threat to the eco system. We can also study and support the efforts the other NGOs who are engaged in the purification of water ways throughout the world.

There are lot of opportunities to show that we are eco friendly and our aim is to visualize a pollution free and eco friendly earth.

Timothy Greensland
Find further news regarding eco friendly clothing and environment eco friendly.

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