Green Group discussion

Lifehacker has a few handy articles on the age-old vexing questions. Like, should I really rinse the recycling stuff? Doesn't that waste water? The obvious answer is to use cold water rather than hot, and to rinse in a bowl rather than a flowing tap... then you have the option of re-using the water in the garden too.

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-rinse-y...

For summer, try to cut out plastics, especially single-use ones.
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-waste-l...

Ravelry, a site devoted to crafts like knitting and crochet, can be your source for ideas on using strips of plastic bags to make plastic bag yarn.
I'm not a member so no link, but google it.

The title of this thread is backwards. It should be: buy less, recycle more! Remamber that the mantra is: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in that order.

Hi Anne, thanks for chipping in to the discussion. Personally I have stuff already, so I figure if I get more use out of the stuff I already have, and recycle it well at end of life, I will not need to buy more stuff.
For instance my van was bought new in 2001.
Another instance, my phone is now a few years old and I keep getting more and better use out of it.
I do not buy a lot of stuff, but for those who do, I can see that buy less would be a good first principle.

A few tips on keeping your vehicle running longer.
If you are the first owner that helps a lot. Otherwise you do not know if the oil was ever changed.

Change the oil every year (more often if big mileage) and if diesel engine, the oil filter too. When you start the engine, don't rush off. Sit for a few seconds. The oil has sunk down into the sump. Running the engine brings the oil up again to protect the engine's moving parts before you ask it to do any work.

Add carbon cleaner to your fuel tank every year; more than once a year if you do a big mileage. This cleans the engine internally, and the fuel injectors in a diesel. The exhaust fumes will be cleaner and the running smoother.

Keep your tyres at recommended tread and inflation pressure and do not brake hard - also, avoiding short bursts of speed with stamping on brakes saves you fuel. Carrying tools and boots and clutter adds to the weight and fuel use.

That de-icer rots the paintwork and causes rust. Try not to use it. Cool or slightly warm water is better for the windscreen and paint. Not hot water, which might crack the glass.

Put rubber mats or carpet on the floor of the footwell to stop wear on the floor.

Touch up any paintwork scrapes early to avoid rust. Fix any small issue as it quickly becomes a big issue.

If you tow anything this will put added wear on the clutch. When the clutch plate goes (you will know as it gets harder to get into gear and only the lowest gears work) ask for a heavy-duty clutch plate to be fitted, which will allow you to tow.

Parts, even if they are not in general production, can usually be made by the manufacturer, provided a main dealer for the car brand asks them. Otherwise you can try for reconditioned parts (with a warranty) and look for secondhand parts on line. Specialist parts can be made by specialist workshops, for classic cars etc. Three-D printing may soon make hard-to-find parts.

If you do have to part with your vehicle, make sure you buy something less polluting.

Small or small engine cars are being made with cheaper materials and this is to keep the weight down, which means they look like they use less fuel. To this end, some no longer come with a spare tyre. That would not be my choice.
Hybrid petrol/ electric cars are a good idea if you are nervous about going all electric.
Fully electric cars only need the wipers, windscreen water and tyres changed, and pollen filter cleaned. So maintainance should be cheaper in the long run. They may also get you a motor tax break.

I buy less and most books I get are used.

Robert wrote: "I buy less and most books I get are used."

Amen. Thank god for library book sales! ;-)

I'm in three libraries including college. I buy books every way, but new titles often are not on the shelf for more than a couple of months, so secondhand is the only way to get them.
And don't forget e-books.

Yesterday my husband and I went out to the back garden and produced paper bricks from the last few months' worth of newspapers. All it takes is paper, water and a handy brick maker which I bought from The Irish Times years ago.
The bricks will dry in the strong sun we're getting now, and maybe next week we'll make some more. The fuel lights easily, burns nicely and leaves a small bit of residual wood ash which goes on the garden. We'll use a couple of bricks per night as well as wood when we're lighting fires over winter.

I love using my old clothes that can't be modified to something I'll keep wearing, into napkins, cleaning towels, purses, coasters, dog toys. anything I can think of.

Great tip!
My old t-shirts tend to go for dish cloths and floor cloths. A handy way to make a cat bed is to stuff an old pillowcase with cloth... not too much so the cat can settle down into the centre.

Some tips for using up all the odds and ends of food - everything from citrus peels to breadcrumbs that might get composted; which is a good final alternative.

We tend to compost and feed the birds, but we also use up leftovers and some of the food scraps mentioned, like celery leaves.

https://www.care2.com/greenliving/way...

Found this on a UK site called Supersavvyme, which is run by and promotes various brands of home products and beauty goods.

"Most of us know that you can recycle paper, certain plastics, cans and glass. However, some people go the extra mile, and know they can recycle so much more.

The pupils at Wooler First School in Northumberland, for example, know that you can recycle all aircare and homecare product packaging – even the knobs and nozzles!

This is because their school is signed up to the Air and Homecare Recycling Programme. This means they have special boxes where pupils can drop packaging that is not usually recycled locally, and send it off to Terracycle. Here, the waste is reused, upcycled or recycled, instead of being incinerated or sent to landfill.

Their efforts even won their school a playground, which is made from recycled plastics such as milk bottles, plastic drink bottles, plastic food trays and containers."

Do you have something broken, awkward to use or on its way out? Lost the manual? Need a spare part? Google is your friend.
Google 'repair' or 'user manual' for your item and you may be surprised by how people will have put answers to your queries on line.

I once googled a lightbulb cover in the bathroom because I could not get the globe shaped cover off the fitting. Straight away I got a discussion on a forum called 'The Straight Dope' in which guys who know how to mend things chat about how to mend them. I got my answer, which was that a vacuum had formed inside and I should just keep rocking it gently to break the seal.

My husband googled replacing a particular bit of plumbing and found a YouTube video in which a pair of plumbers demonstrated how to do exactly what we needed. We were able to carry out the work with no hassle.

We had a query about an electronic item and the manual was on line. (This is also an excellent way to check out prospective purchases using terms 'faults and returns' )

If you are not sure what kind of glue to use, whether an item is recyclable or how to upcycle something, the answer will be awaiting you.

This lady, Jen Gale started a blog to document a year of buying nothing new. She learnt how to make do and mend.

https://www.care2.com/greenliving/mee...

Personally I often go a year without buying more than a couple of items new.

Apple is making efforts to recycle materials from their phones. This reduces mining, though they presently are only re-using tin. So they encourage trading in old phones.

They also donate to keep mangroves protected, reducing carbon.

Of course the best way not to contribute to phone rubbish is not to keep changing a perfectly usable phone for a different one; also an easily repairable phone would be nice. https://www.care2.com/greenliving/3-w...

Clare wrote: "Apple is making efforts to recycle materials from their phones. This reduces mining, though they presently are only re-using tin. So they encourage trading in old phones.

They also donate to keep ..."

I hear you, Clare. I have the oldest iPhone of any "IT geek" I work with. It's slow... but it still works. (Kind of like me... ;-)

When we do have a dead phone on our hands, if it's not acceptable for trade-in, we take advantage of the free recycling option:

Take Back Electronics

We're on Android, Brian, and I have only ever used Windows and DOS on PC. So in college the other day I was suddenly faced with a bank of Apples. "Oooh, shiny"!" I said and had to start getting acquainted. It's a pain. Even the mouse scroll works the wrong way for me. Though it might be the right way for you.

On the replacement of computers issue -
Some members may not be aware that bloatware is commonplace in the computer industry, in other words new programmes and games require bigger memory and more powerful power units and graphics cards. This forces most users to trade up for better computers.

More recently, makers of phones have been castigated for releasing internet updates of their older makes of phone which make that phone work more slowly.
The couple of days after a new iphone was released, Google searches for 'iphone slow' went through the roof.

https://lifehacker.com/why-your-iphon...

Here is a more technical version from Vox, also more recent, as Apple was presented with proof and admitted it was slowing down older phones as they had older batteries which could not cope.

"Poole said the battery explanation is legitimate. Lithium-ion batteries age over time. That wear and tear makes them less capable of meeting the power and processing demands in the same way as a youthful iPhone. This is also intensified with the iPhone, which has a particularly speedy processor — which puts even more stress on the batteries.

“I have a feeling this is a weird confluence of Apple’s desire to have very thin, very sleek phones coupled with also having the fastest processors in the industry,” Poole explained.

“The fact that Apple is using these very fast, very high-end processors that they design — whereas Android phones might use slower processors — these fast processors are putting a greater demand on the battery,” he added. “I think that’s why it’s a problem that’s particularly unique to the iPhone.”

Yet Apple had not been forthcoming about slower speeds until this week, and, as CNN points out, the company doesn’t regularly notify you if your iPhone 6 battery is in poor health. (The company did alert some iPhone owners and replaced batteries for certain iPhone 6 users whose shutdown issues couldn’t be fixed by the software upgrade.)"
https://www.vox.com/2017/12/22/168070...

So this comes down to replacement batteries which, we hope, will be recycled, rather than necessarily replacing phones. Apple made specific batteries available at a discount.

Have a good festive season and if you only manage to trim waste or power use in one area, one is better than none. Next year you may be able to keep up to a few of these tips.

My simplest tip is no wrapping paper- re-usable gift bags or re-usable shopping bags.
Got a tip to share?

https://www.ecowatch.com/waste-free-h...

More tips for a cleaner greener 2019, including clothing, plastic and food.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90287147/...

Apple is trying to up its recycling rate but the recycled aluminium it uses is the scraps from its own floor. Some help but that won't end mining.
Try post-consumer-use metals.

Apple also uses many rare earths and scarce metals in its computers and phones; this article explains how progress is coming along at recovering them from scrap items and whether the firm wants to make items that last longer.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/behind-th...

Baking soda is currently mined but can be recovered from the air, especially near power plants.
Here is a list of uses for baking soda around the home so you would not need to buy chemical products.
They include cleaning dentures, deodoriser, putting out small fires.

https://www.care2.com/greenliving/51-...

100 Things to Recycle and Make



Recycling and keeping kids happy at the same time. See my review.

Sticks and Stones: A Kid's Guide to Building and Exploring in the Great Outdoors

Have fun outdoors, recycling dead wood and other materials into constructive play.

I have to hand it to these guys at Make Use Of; this is an Australian website for computer users - which is all of us nowadays. They suggest ten projects to recycle, re-use etc. your old computer instead of dumping it. And they explain how, so you won't need to buy a web server, or a home security system, or wall mounted art.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/creativ...

Earth Overshoot Day; earlier than ever, in July.

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-an...

Here on a great site called Make Use Of, which is about personal tech, I found a list of 12 sites offering how-to guidance. How to do everything from car maintenance to paper art.
Anyone wanting to recycle, upcycle, repurpose, make from scratch instead of buying and so on, can get a fantastic start.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-ho...

The EU is bringing in regulations that home appliances must be easier to repair. Bless the EU which brought in the rule that all the firms had to make the same kind of chargers - remember every phone and other kind of gadget had its own particular charger with its own shaped stick-in part? Now we are using USBs.

The comment is made in this article that firms might make spare parts too expensive to be worth the repair.

https://www.ecowatch.com/electronic-w...

This list of five tips from RTE includes buying an e-car and insulating your house, but goes on to look at other ways to save and go green. While grants mentioned apply to Ireland, the principle of checking for grants or cheaper home-repair loans applies anywhere.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2019...

Recently, I read How to Give Up Plastic: A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time, which includes many helpful resources, including websites. I particularly like this one:

http://www.sustainablebabysteps.com/r...

Candice

The good folks at Make Use Of have put together an article of explanation about what actually uses power inside your computer, how to save power, and why you should buy new hardware for efficiency or scale down to a different machine.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/much-en...

Definitely buy less fashion. In case you need persuading, this article from Gizmodo tells us that fashion has at least four seasons now, some brand many more.

"According to the United Nations, the clothing industry is responsible for some 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. Producing clothes also pollutes rivers and streams normally used for drinking water or agriculture."

https://earther.gizmodo.com/new-york-...

In my day we used cardboard boxes for every purpose. Samsung has decided to make shipping boxes ready to convert to cat homes or furniture.

https://gizmodo.com/samsung-redesigne...

Clare wrote: "In my day we used cardboard boxes for every purpose. Samsung has decided to make shipping boxes ready to convert to cat homes or furniture.

https://gizmodo.com/samsung-redesigne...-..."

Ha! We have several boxes spread around the house for our cat to play with / in. She loves to launch sneak attacks whenever unsuspecting people wander too close to a box she's hiding in.

Eco Watch gives us a good long list of recycling and making projects, and creatively using skills, while stuck at home.
Plenty of links to follow to demonstrations and tips.

https://www.ecowatch.com/ecofriendly-...

Science projects are also able to recycle previously held data rather than go out and burn carbon and waste people's time constructing or providing new datasets.
Example:

"A pair of researchers with New York University Abu Dhabi has found a connection between the location of post offices in the formative years of the United States and modern crime rates. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jeffrey Jensen and Adam Ramey describe collecting data on early U.S. post office locations and mapped them with data from modern crime statistics and what they found."

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-link-ea...

"To find out, the pair collected data on early post offices, finding their locations in 1890 and comparing them graphically with modern data. In mapping their data, the pair took note of possible factors that could impact the history of an area that was the site of a post office, such as racial makeup, degree of manufacturing in an area, railway connections and even how many people in a given area turned out for presidential elections. They then added modern crime rates to the maps to see if there might be anything that stood out.

The maps showed lower crime rates on average in the areas surrounding the former post office sites—most particularly, murders and rapes. They also found that people who live in those areas in modern times tend to live longer on average than the general populace and tended to be more likely to vote in the 2012 presidential election."

What used to be near post offices, because they started out as also telegraph offices? The newspaper offices.

"They suggest that the local presence of the newspapers may have helped to push governments to put in place local laws to keep crime rates down—and that could have been perpetuated through the years to the present day."

Make Use Of shows us ideas for re-using scrap printer paper rather than just recycle. Fun ideas like learning to draw optical illusions - practical like shredding and using for packing - origami including a wallet - kid's costumes too. Go for it!

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/dont-th...

Taming the carbon output of your computer - which these days, means your phone, tablet, laptop, work computer and cloud computing.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tech-carbon...

"1. Sort Your Emails
It’s true that every piece of tech, whether hardware or software, draws electricity. This includes the process of sending and storing emails. What you can do is take an active interest in cleaning up your folders, from your inbox to your junk file.

No matter how boring, this can keep your carbon footprint in check. Delete old emails, unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read any more, and block spam as best as you can.

2. Use a Laptop and Take Care of Its Battery
Plugged in devices siphon electricity more than anything else. On average, a desktop computer can consume between around 60 and 250 Watts per hour when on—a laptop at least 15 Watts. Even sleep mode needs some power to function.

The answer here is to unplug, which makes mobile devices the best option, especially those with good battery life. The longer they can go before you need to charge them, the better.

So, if you need a computer, invest in a good laptop—and use it remotely as much as possible. Also, learn how to take care of it, the battery in particular—starting with not leaving it plugged in after it’s fully charged."

Ten good tips, including getting offline more!

Tips from the United Nations on sustainable living. Just 5 tips, probably nothing you haven't heard previously. But worth reading.

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories...

For instance:

"Humanity produces 2.24 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, of which only 55 per cent is managed in controlled facilities, according to the World Bank. In this era of overconsumption, experts say consumers must change shopping patterns to consider what they need, prioritize products that last longer, and opt for sharing and repairing goods – while still ensuring people can meet their basic needs. These practices can reduce the use of high-footprint materials like plastics, paper and textiles, reducing waste and associated emissions."


You may also sign up for a three-hour, free, online course from the UN. Once you sign up you'll get a e-mail and then it's up to you.

https://www.unssc.org/courses/sustain...

Recycled, swapped and reused items in Ireland last year.

https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monit...

"Figure 1 shows both the total weight and the number of items reused in Ireland over a 12-month period, per EU reporting category. The graph highlights the relative difference between the weight of a category and the number of items reused in that category.
The textiles category shows the highest number of items reused at 12,652,000 but the lowest total weight at 3,771 tonnes.

Electronic and Electrical Equipment (EEE) items which includes a range of products from small consumer electronics up to larger household appliances such as ovens and refrigerators shows the highest total weight of 16,778 tonnes and one of the lowest total quantities of items reused at 1,392,000. "

Problem One: Every loaf of bread came in a single-use plastic bag.
Problem Two: Every bottle of ginger ale was a single use plastic bottle.

Solution One: I bought as bread-maker machine. Haven't bought a loaf of bread since - all those hundreds of plastic bags avoided. Machine cost a bit but home-made bread is way way cheaper and the amount we use it, it will pay for itself soon.

Solution Two: I bought a soda-stream machine. No more single use fizz bottles and I found a brand of ginger syrup that comes in a glass bottle. (The soda-stream brand ones are plastic.) My brother had an excess supply of soda stream re-usable bottles so I didn't even have to buy those. He gave me three which is plenty. You exchange an empty gas cylinder for a full one.

Local grocer provides a refillable service for shampoo and detergent. I refuse to buy veges wrapped in plastic if I possible can.Limits our choices of veg but one day they'll get the message if enough of us do the same.

Great work, Tui!

We got a bread maker during a closedown sale last year. We have bought loaves since, but very few indeed, and only when reduced for sale. Home baking is also a much healthier way to eat bread, as we know what all ingredients are, and we can add interesting ingredients (just polishing off the plate of oat and fig bread for breakfast.)

Online tips and recipes for everyone with a bread maker. My husband likes this site. They send a newsletter if you wish.

https://breaddad.com/

What we didn't know:
Every site says follow your bread machine instructions as to adding ingredients. They also say, add liquids first. Our machine instructions says dry ingredients first. I figure it was translated badly at some point, because adding dry first means you are left with unmixed flour in a corner.
Use strong flour as this has extra proteins for bread making not needed in cake baking.
The dough rises (proving) quicker if the room is warm and the milk / butter was warmed in the microwave before adding.
Too much yeast means the dough rises too fast and collapses to make an uneven top.

To anyone reading with a private jet at your disposal.
Maybe you shouldn't be flying privately, if reducing climate change harm is a concern.

From Eko:
"Private jets cause 14 times more pollution than commercial flights.

Yet billionaires get massive tax subsidies that help them fly private all over the globe. They're getting a bargain for destroying the climate.

But new laws to tax private jets are being introduced around the world, and momentum is finally building to shut down this billionaire free-ride."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...

"this July, I introduced the Fueling Alternative Transportation with a Carbon Aviation Tax (Fatcat) Act with Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez.

Private air travel is the most energy-intensive form of transportation. For each passenger, private jets pollute as much as 14 times more than commercial flights and 50 times more than trains. Despite their sky-high emissions, private air travel is taxed considerably less than commercial air travel.

My legislation changes that. Because the 1% should not get a free ride while destroying our environment.

At the moment, billionaires and the ultra-wealthy are getting a bargain, paying less in taxes each year to fly private and contribute more pollution than millions of drivers combined on the roads below. Just one hour of flying private negates the climate benefits of driving an electric car for an entire year. That is unfair and it is unacceptable.

For the sake of our environment, it is time to ground these fat cats and make them pay their fair share, so that we can invest in building the energy-efficient and clean public transportation that our economy and communities across the country desperately need. We cannot continue to ask frontline communities – disproportionately low-income, rural, immigrant, Black and brown Americans who are bearing the weight of the climate crisis – to subsidize billionaires jet-setting the globe.

Our legislation would increase fuel taxes for private jet travel from the current $0.22 to nearly $2 a gallon – the equivalent of an estimated $200 a metric ton of a private jet’s CO2 emissions – and remove existing fuel tax exemptions for private flight activities that worsen the climate crisis, like oil or gas exploration."


https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexleds...

"France, Europe Eyes Heavy Taxes Or Bans On Private Jets
Forbes. 4 September 2022."


I understand some people buy timeshare in a private jet. They would use it for two weeks or one week a year, just enough to experience the travel and get bragging rights. This means fewer jets and servicing, but a flight is still a flight. And the trip could be undertaken by commercial flights.

Private jets cause 14 times more pollution than commercial flights.
I never knew that until I read this post. Amazing what you discover on Goodreads.
Next time I'm considering splashing out on a private jet, I'll re-think. But seriously this has to stop.
I wanted to travel the length of the country recently, to visit my daughter at the other end of the land. Hate flying but everything else was too expensive so I stayed home. Haven't seen her for years.

When you see people driving these huge four-wheel drive vehicles, just to pick up the shopping or the kids from school. In my concern for the environment I would die of shame to be seen doing that.
They think those vehicles are a status symbol. I curl my lip in contempt whenever I see one.
Perhaps, since social pressure is so powerful, we ought to somehow make our contempt for these vehicles more obvious.
Social pressure can be applied in ways that do no physical harm. It can also be so much more effective at changing behaviour.