Happy EARTH DAY!

[Marc Chevalier]

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It's a good day. http://www.earthday.net/


Hope that my fellow Southern Californians are taking shorter showers today, at least.


Seriously, is anyone here involved in environmentally friendly activities? I know that Jamespowers and some others have their own organic food gardens, which is great.


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[Paisley]

I have a xeriscaped yard and I ride the bus. I use a clothesline, too. But it's mostly because I'm cheap and I hate mowing a lawn.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... it's mostly because I'm cheap and I hate mowing a lawn.

And in Third World countries, it's the very poor who recover and bring in cardboard, cans, etc. to be recycled. Not because they love recycling: rather, it's a source of income for them. However, the result is the same: some 'disposable' things get reused rather than dumped, and that's good.


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[SpitfireXIV]

i grew up doing all that sort of stuff... turning off the water when you're brushing your teeth, using the Tupperware for lunches instead of plastic bags, turning off lights when you leave the room.... using a drying rack, all that good stuff.

so, it's like any other day for me.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

i grew up doing all that sort of stuff... turning off the water when you're brushing your teeth, using the Tupperware for lunches instead of plastic bags, turning off lights when you leave the room.... using a drying rack, all that good stuff.

so, it's like any other day for me.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

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[MPicciotto]

i grew up doing all that sort of stuff... turning off the water when you're brushing your teeth, using the Tupperware for lunches instead of plastic bags, turning off lights when you leave the room.... using a drying rack, all that good stuff.

so, it's like any other day for me.

Same here!

Paisley,

Same here threefold!

Anybody else strike a match under a ballpoint pen when the tip dries out? Quick way to get more life out of those pens they give away at the county fair.

Matt

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Anybody else strike a match under a ballpoint pen when the tip dries out? Quick way to get more life out of those pens they give away at the county fair.

That's a hot tip (literally). Didn't know it. Thanks!

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[Foofoogal]

I have been saving all my plastic bottles and milk jugs and turned them in today.
God Bless the earth. I love all the beauty to behold. I am so excited as it is just getting to be Spring and I am finding all kinds of flowers here in Arkansas that I have never seen before. I am like a kid in a candy store.

 

[Viola]

I bought a plant for my organic vegetable garden. It's a beautiful day. So many neighborhood trees are blooming (magnolias and cherries and pears, mostly) and so many gardens have a least a little clump of bulbs in flower.

 

[JennyLou]

I recycle like crazy and try and use reusuable cloth bags when shopping. When I shop, if I can carry my purchase without using a bag I do that- I just have to make ure to keep the receipt so people don't think I stole the items.

 

[Paisley]

And in Third World countries, it's the very poor who recover and bring in cardboard, cans, etc. to be recycled. Not because they love recycling: rather, it's a source of income for them. However, the result is the same: some 'disposable' things get reused rather than dumped, and that's good.


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Even around here, if you put anything metal in the alley, it disappears.

 

[MPicciotto]

Even around here, if you put anything metal in the alley, it disappears.

Prices have come down to earth now But last summer scrap metal prices hit record highs... for ALL kinds of metals. In the news was copper pipe and wire at nearly 4 dollars a pound. But not so much in the news was scrap steel. Yup good ole steel like in the scrap drives in WW2 bringing as much as $16 every 100lbs or $1.60 a lb. More then copper is bringing right now. Not only was it good for people trying to make a buck to fill the gas tank when gas prices were in the ceiling. But it was good for the earth too in that a lot of very useless junk cars (Not classics, but 80's and 90's mini-vans etc) rusted out culvert sections, broken swing sets etc went to the scrappers and out of vacant lots. Around me two summers of free market economics had the same effect as a super concentrated Earth Day cleanup. Admittedly the concentrated cleanup would have had the job done in one day and not 600 days. But either way it happened. Funny thing is the people towing junk cars into the scrap yard with a piece of rope, trunk and rear seats stuffed full of rusty fencing and old iron piping probably never imagined themselves to be ecological crusaders

Current steel prices are still up around 5 or 6 dollars a hundred pounds. And steel adds up really fast. That old boiler in your basement that your HVAC company left behind when installing your new one because it was too heavy to take up the stairs...300-600lbs!

The flipside is I've seen stuff just destroyed at the Crumpton, MD auction by people obtaining the scrap metal. Too ignorant or arrogant to care that the object they are destroying for a buck in scrap would have brought them 20 or more on eBay or at a flea market.

Matt

 

[tuppence]

We have a tiny bin for rubbish now (compulsory)and a big one for recyclables.
It's illegal to water your lawn. We have to use a dripper system to water our garden beds, maximum 4 hours a week and only allowed at some ungodly hour of the morning.
Many people are putting in rain tanks.Install a tank or/and solar panels and you get a government rebate.
They are exchanging our shower heads for water saving ones ( I very much regret this decision). A lot of people use washing machine water, known as grey water on their gardens and keep a bucket in their shower.
They are planning on a 10 cent charge for plastic bags.
We don't have much choice anymore down here.

And as for copper, we actually had Chinese gangs, and others stripping the copper wiring from our railway lines a few years back.

 

[MPicciotto]

Many people are putting in rain tanks.Install a tank or/and solar panels and you get a government rebate.
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Can you tell me more about the rain tanks or point to a good website? I did some work with some in the Dominican Republic six years ago. And have considered installing a system here. I tried a barrel under my downspout once for the wife's plants. But it was quickly overtaken with algae. With a little plumbing ingenuity a rain water collection tank would be GREAT for flushing toilets. Domestic toilets do not rely on water pressure to flush. Therefore anything that can fill the toilet tank up, even a slow trickle from the low pressure of a rain barrel will refill the toilet tank for the next flush...

Matt

 

[Mike1939]

The air gets a bit thick in 1948.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103359330&sc=emaf

 

[SpitfireXIV]

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

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it was just common sense; a virtue i think is quickly disappearing lately...

as a side note....

i was shocked to visit my kin down in Georgia & ask where their recycling bin was. i got the "you're not from around here, are you?" reply. imagine if more people were more concerned with conservation; what we could accomplish!

 

[MPicciotto]

Not everywhere has recycling programs.

Matt

 

[tuppence]

Can you tell me more about the rain tanks or point to a good website? I did some work with some in the Dominican Republic six years ago. And have considered installing a system here. I tried a barrel under my downspout once for the wife's plants. But it was quickly overtaken with algae. With a little plumbing ingenuity a rain water collection tank would be GREAT for flushing toilets. Domestic toilets do not rely on water pressure to flush. Therefore anything that can fill the toilet tank up, even a slow trickle from the low pressure of a rain barrel will refill the toilet tank for the next flush...

Matt

People around here tend to chose really ugly plastic tanks.
The tanks are their purely to water the garden.Here's an Aussie site.
http://www.enviro-friendly.com/metal-water-tanks.shtml
I forgot to add that a lot of people use the toilet several times before they flush. And it was even recommended to put a brick in the cistern to lower the amount of water.

 

[MPicciotto]

I have noticed a European toilet design with two flush valves. One does a "half-flush" and one a full flush. I first came across these in a business hotel in Ivanovo, Russia. I have since seen a similar toilet for sale at Sam's Club.

Matt

 

[tuppence]

Most of the toilets here have dual flush. I'm a bit amazed that it's a novelty in America.