Your Enviro tips

[seacrestkristi]

savvytangerine Grayt thread, gull. I try to cut back on laundry by wearing some things twice. ...blue jeans,etc.
Use the same bath towel for a few dryings since your bods clean anyhow. I use cold water to wash clothes. The heat from the dryer kills germs. Colors stay lots brighter in cold too.;-) I quit getting the paper cuz I didn't read it always.
Still working on the light bulb changing. Anybody got any resources of where to get different varieties of these at a reasonable price. Don't they have more shapes than just the coils? The coil ones I bought are so bright they hurt my eyes so I put them in the hallway.they were only 60 watts. Do they come in the flame shape and lower watts yet?

 

[Caroling]

I was brought up green, I'm discovering these days. My parents came from farms during the depression and during WWII they adopted all kinds of saving practices. I don't do as quite well, but am trying. Joining Live Earth lists, I decided to unplug the chargers and reuse cloth shopping bags for groceries.

Today I stuffed my first blue recycling bags for the garbage. That's Walton County only, I guess.

I have questions about what can be recycled. They say corrugated cardboard. How about the boxes with color printing that so many things are packaged in? I suppose not. And what exactly does no "varnished/lacquered" paper mean? Do they mean no colored print items on slick paper? The bag says "Plastics"! I'm amazed. I've never been anywhere that all plastics are accepted. Cool.

 

[Kurt]

I was brought up green, I'm discovering these days. My parents came from farms during the depression and during WWII they adopted all kinds of saving practices. I don't do as quite well, but am trying. Joining Live Earth lists, I decided to unplug the chargers and reuse cloth shopping bags for groceries.

Today I stuffed my first blue recycling bags for the garbage. That's Walton County only, I guess.

I have questions about what can be recycled. They say corrugated cardboard. How about the boxes with color printing that so many things are packaged in? I suppose not. And what exactly does no "varnished/lacquered" paper mean? Do they mean no colored print items on slick paper? The bag says "Plastics"! I'm amazed. I've never been anywhere that all plastics are accepted. Cool.

Caroling - I believe the paper description means no glossy or coated stuff like magazines or slick product boxes. Also the plastics accepted is unclear. But everything in the bag will be sorted so it probably won't hurt to include what you aren't sure about as long as it's clean.

 

[Caroling]

Thanks for the tips, Kurt. Hmm, that still leaves a lot of paper/boxes going in the garbage. Just think of cereal boxes alone. We should do some research and find companies that would like that paper and invite them to submit a proposal to be in the local industrial park.

 

[30A Skunkape]

Caroling - I believe the paper description means no glossy or coated stuff like magazines or slick product boxes. Also the plastics accepted is unclear. But everything in the bag will be sorted so it probably won't hurt to include what you aren't sure about as long as it's clean.

Can you please clarify the sorting? I have a trash can lined with the blue bag that I put aluminum in, because my understanding was that was all we were supposed to be putting in blue bags...and I thought the county inmates sorted through regular garbage and fished out plastic, glass, etc. What is the official policy?

My green suggestion is good for the Earth and good for yourself-stop smoking! OK, maybe it won't dramatically save the Earth or anything, but wouldn't it be nice to not have to look at ciggy butts on the beach, at stoplights, sidewalks, etc? My impression is that chronic bronchitis, emphysema, COPD and lung cancer are not much fun, either.

 

[seacrestkristi]

You're right, butts stink, Skunkape.

 

[Beach Runner]

It takes a little getting used to, and I know some would rather die, but if many of us set our thermostats a few degrees warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter it would make all the difference in the world (for the world). America has become so incredibly soft when it comes to our own comfort.

And, almost every vacant house I go to photograph in the summer, whether for sale or for rent, is like an icebox with the thermostat set very low. PLEASE - owners and agents there is no need for that! Your sale prospects or renters aren't going to freak out if your thermostat is set on 80 or even 84 instead of 70. It will still feel cool to them when they come in out of the heat and humidity. Just this practice alone here and across the country would make a huge difference. Think about all the vacant homes, condos, warehouses, commercial buildings, offices, etc. that are sitting empty all of the time or half of the time with compressors pumping.

I have requested the heat on 65 in the cool months and the cool on 80 in the warm months. But every time I enter my house in the warm months, it's like walking into a meat locker. Not to mention the fact that lights (other than those I've requested to be on) and fans running full speed are left on. And pool heat left on at 103 degrees when we arrived the first week of April, two weeks after renters had left, wasn't exactly green. Fortunately for the environment, it blew out the pool heater at some point in time (we don't know when because we weren't there in between the renters' departure and our arrival), but unfortunately it cost about $900 to repair (but many thanks to the management company for subsidizing their failure to manage the pool heat).

 

[Mermaid]

Thanks for the ideas about using the shredded paper. I honestly don't know why recyling it never occurred to me because we recycle everything else under the sun in our house.

Kurt, yes yes yes to excessively artificially heated/cooled air! I grew up in New Hampshire and if you were cold, you put a scarf and hat on (in the house!). You didn't turn the heat up. Winter was cold, and you dealt with it. You didn't try to manipulate the wazoo out of it. Same thing in the summer. If it was hot, you found some shade. Or you used the box fan. There was no such thing as A/C. Even now I try not to turn the A/C on til at least the 4th of July. My family hates me for it.

 

[Smiling JOe]

I rarely turn on lights during the daytime, except in my bathrooms without windows. Sharing showers can be another good way to save some hot water, unless you stay too long in the shower. ;-) I also turned off the hot water, going to the washer. With today's detergents, one doesn't need hot water to clean clothes. For the dishwasher, I turn off the "heat dry" feature which also saves some power. In my shower, I replaced the normal shower head with a water-saver, which I think is the only way to go. I love those things, and the local water departments will usually give them to you for free. Also, turning off the heat and A/C, and opening the windows during nice weather saves greatly on power usage.

Skunky, if you recieved the County blue bags, they have instructions as to what should go into the blue bags. Caroling, I believe the terminology for the packaging which they will not recycle is plastic coated paper, which would include many magazines as well as 12 pack soda or beer containers.

 

[Caroling]

Can you please clarify the sorting? I have a trash can lined with the blue bag that I put aluminum in, because my understanding was that was all we were supposed to be putting in blue bags...and I thought the county inmates sorted through regular garbage and fished out plastic, glass, etc. What is the official policy?

Keeping recyclables in the bag helps the sorting and keeps the items clean. Look at what is printed on the blue bag. It says
"What goes in your blue bag:
1. paper
2. plastics
3. glass
4. cans
5. cardboard"