Love the Earth. Treat it Well!
16 years ago
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Thank You!!!!
Wanted to send a huge thank you to the person responsible for getting the recycling trailer delivered to the middle school today!!!!!!!!!! We desperately needed to load our paper and cardboard and thankfully we were able to do that today. We appreciate it so very much. Thank you again!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Recycling at the Middle School
Due to the ice storm the county is unable to bring the recycling trailer to the middle school on Mondays when the Green Team recycles all the materials we have collected the previous week. Recycling will have to be suspended until further notice unless we can find a volunteer who will come and help us over this hump.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Soles for Souls
Americans are shoe-crazy: We go through so many that stores import eight pairs for every man, woman and child in the country each year. By comparison, the average in Mexico is three pairs of shoes per person, and an unfortunately large number of people there have none at all.
Finding shoes for the unshod is a task that first electrified Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO of Soles 4 Souls, during the 2004 tsunami, which destroyed villages and lives across Southeast Asia. From his position as an executive in the shoe industry, he coordinated an effort to ship hundreds of thousands of shoes to those who lost their belongings. In 2005, Elsey did the same in New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama after Hurricane Katrina, and shortly thereafter, in 2006, he founded Soles 4 Souls to transform an ad hoc effort into an institution. All told, the nonprofit has distributed 3.6 million pairs of used and new shoes, donated by average citizens and shoe companies alike, to people in 61 countries.
Taken from greenguide.com Feb. 2009
Finding shoes for the unshod is a task that first electrified Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO of Soles 4 Souls, during the 2004 tsunami, which destroyed villages and lives across Southeast Asia. From his position as an executive in the shoe industry, he coordinated an effort to ship hundreds of thousands of shoes to those who lost their belongings. In 2005, Elsey did the same in New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama after Hurricane Katrina, and shortly thereafter, in 2006, he founded Soles 4 Souls to transform an ad hoc effort into an institution. All told, the nonprofit has distributed 3.6 million pairs of used and new shoes, donated by average citizens and shoe companies alike, to people in 61 countries.
Taken from greenguide.com Feb. 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Greener TV sets
With the changeover from analog to digital TV signals less than a month away, many of us are looking at TV upgrades to match. Given the choice between an LCD or a plasma, however, it's hard to know which to pick. Both use more energy than older CRTs (cathode ray tubes, the onetime standard for television technology), and both are made with nitrogen trifluoride, a chemical that lingers in the air for up to 550 years and one some climate scientists say has a bigger impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power plants. The most earth-friendly decision you can make is to stick with your old CRT until it bites the dust, but when it's time for a new one, is there a truly greener flat-screen TV?
LCD TVs
What they are: Images are created when electricity passes through liquid crystals, a process that prevents screen burn (a problem with plasmas) and also reduces waste heat. The technology works at any size, allowing for smaller, less energy-consuming TVs. However, LCDs contain a fluorescent bulb, and a blown bulb means the end of the TV. As with all TVs, LCDs have plastic shells treated with brominated flame retardants and wiring that has various toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, antimony and beryllium.
Health: Brominated flame retardants, which attach to dust and get inhaled or ingested, have been found to trigger learning problems in children and to interfere with certain hormones. The other toxic materials are well enclosed and should pose little risk to users, but they could be released into the air or waterways during manufacture or disposal.
Life span: 60,000 hours
Screen size range: 12 inches and up
Energy Use: .12 to .37 watts per square-inch in full operation (about 106 watts for a 27-inch LCD); .32 to 76.11 watts on standby
Disposal: LCDs have the same disposal issues as plasmas (see next slide).
Plasma TVs
What they are: Electrically charged phosphors generate the extremely high resolution images and superior picture quality that make plasmas so popular. These TVs, however, generate excessive heat and have the potential for screen burn. And, like LCDs, the plastic cases and wiring contain brominated flame retardants and heavy metals.
Health: The health issues with plasmas are the same as with LCDs.
Life span: 30,000 to 60,000 hours, depending on the quality
Screen size range: 37 inches and up
Energy use: .18 to .62 watts per square inch while in operation. That's about 234 watts for a typical 42-inch plasma and up to 609 watts for larger screens. On standby, they use anywhere from .3 to 25.12 watts.
Disposal: Although more states now require electronics recycling, little attention is paid to where, exactly, all these recycled electronics are sent. Of those TVs that are recycled, half wind up in Africa, China or India, to be taken apart by poor families, including children, who are exposed to the lead, cadmium and other hazardous substances in TVs. According to U.S. News & World Report, nearly 80 percent of children in some major e-waste hubs suffer from lead poisoning.
Winner
It all comes down to screen size. On a per-square-inch basis, plasma energy consumption is just barely higher than an LCD's. But LCDs come in smaller sizes, and those small screens use less energy (both in production and at your house) and contain fewer hazardous chemicals than larger plasma screens. They'll even cost you less to operate—in some cases, $115 less per year than a plasma TV. Opt for an LCD in the 27-inch range; screens larger than that start using about the same energy and resources as plasmas.
When you do your shopping, look for the Energy Star label. Energy Star's recently updated television ratings judge TVs according to how much energy is used in full operation rather than how much it uses in standby only. Requirements vary depending on screen size, but any 42-inch Energy Star–rated TV, for example, must use less than 208 watts.
LCD TVs
What they are: Images are created when electricity passes through liquid crystals, a process that prevents screen burn (a problem with plasmas) and also reduces waste heat. The technology works at any size, allowing for smaller, less energy-consuming TVs. However, LCDs contain a fluorescent bulb, and a blown bulb means the end of the TV. As with all TVs, LCDs have plastic shells treated with brominated flame retardants and wiring that has various toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, antimony and beryllium.
Health: Brominated flame retardants, which attach to dust and get inhaled or ingested, have been found to trigger learning problems in children and to interfere with certain hormones. The other toxic materials are well enclosed and should pose little risk to users, but they could be released into the air or waterways during manufacture or disposal.
Life span: 60,000 hours
Screen size range: 12 inches and up
Energy Use: .12 to .37 watts per square-inch in full operation (about 106 watts for a 27-inch LCD); .32 to 76.11 watts on standby
Disposal: LCDs have the same disposal issues as plasmas (see next slide).
Plasma TVs
What they are: Electrically charged phosphors generate the extremely high resolution images and superior picture quality that make plasmas so popular. These TVs, however, generate excessive heat and have the potential for screen burn. And, like LCDs, the plastic cases and wiring contain brominated flame retardants and heavy metals.
Health: The health issues with plasmas are the same as with LCDs.
Life span: 30,000 to 60,000 hours, depending on the quality
Screen size range: 37 inches and up
Energy use: .18 to .62 watts per square inch while in operation. That's about 234 watts for a typical 42-inch plasma and up to 609 watts for larger screens. On standby, they use anywhere from .3 to 25.12 watts.
Disposal: Although more states now require electronics recycling, little attention is paid to where, exactly, all these recycled electronics are sent. Of those TVs that are recycled, half wind up in Africa, China or India, to be taken apart by poor families, including children, who are exposed to the lead, cadmium and other hazardous substances in TVs. According to U.S. News & World Report, nearly 80 percent of children in some major e-waste hubs suffer from lead poisoning.
Winner
It all comes down to screen size. On a per-square-inch basis, plasma energy consumption is just barely higher than an LCD's. But LCDs come in smaller sizes, and those small screens use less energy (both in production and at your house) and contain fewer hazardous chemicals than larger plasma screens. They'll even cost you less to operate—in some cases, $115 less per year than a plasma TV. Opt for an LCD in the 27-inch range; screens larger than that start using about the same energy and resources as plasmas.
When you do your shopping, look for the Energy Star label. Energy Star's recently updated television ratings judge TVs according to how much energy is used in full operation rather than how much it uses in standby only. Requirements vary depending on screen size, but any 42-inch Energy Star–rated TV, for example, must use less than 208 watts.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Old TV's are Trouble for the Environment
Old TVs cause new problems
RECYCLE IT RIGHT
Activists would be just as happy if Americans would keep their old TVs as plant stands for a few years until better recycling programs are in place. But what if the garage is full and the closets are stuffed? Ask whether the store where you bought a new TV will take the old one. Many do for free, others for a small fee. Or find a nearby recycling program:
• The EPA has a list of recyclers.
• Earth 911 is ZIP-code searchable for recycling options.
• The National Recycling Coalition has links for every state.
• At e-Stewards, find recyclers who have signed the e-Steward pledge, a certification program that is today's highest standard of recycling.
"The rule of thumb is: It's nasty stuff, don't smash it, don't break it and don't dispose of it at the curb," says Robert Houghton of Redemtech.
Batteries are among the electronic waste processed at Universal Waste Management.
Enlarge By Martin E. Klimek, for USA TODAY
Batteries are among the electronic waste processed at Universal Waste Management.
THE REAL COST OF RECYCLING
What a 66-pound, 19-inch TV set would cost a recycler without state subsidies:
Revenue
Sale of precious metals and other recyclable material +$3.96
Costs
Recycling TV tube and screen glass -$4.80
Labor -$4.16
Shipping -$0.99
Net -$5.99
Source: Redemtech
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
EL CERRITO, Calif. — When the hatch popped open on Louis Cornelius' SUV, there were four TVs piled up in the back, all destined for recycling. "My wife wanted to be up to date on the electronics," he says.
Sumiko Flodin's 35-year-old TV "still works," but she bought a new 19-inch set at Best Buy and wanted to empty out her living room. "I don't like the idea of having all this stuff hanging around."
When Virginia Ritchie decided to clear out her old TVs, she loaded up the big one that didn't work anymore, "and then I found three TVs in the basement to get rid of."
For each of them, and most of the 300 or so people who came to an "electronic waste recycling event" on a chilly Saturday here, the motivation was simple: cleaning up. But for the Environmental Protection Agency and activists worried about soil, water and air pollution, it's more complicated.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | Congress | Mexico | New York City | Oakland | TVs | Environmental Protection Agency | Government Accountability Office | Best Buy | Kyle | Cherry | Recovery | El Cerrito
Televisions carelessly disposed of can be toxic to the environment. A huge backlog of unused old ones (99.1 million, the EPA says) is sitting around in people's homes.
And later this year — either on Feb. 17 or on June 12 if Congress passes a delay — the USA will switch from analog to digital TV transmission. The number of unwanted TVs will go even higher as consumers upgrade to sets capable of receiving high-definition broadcasts.
Though a TV set is benign in the living room, it's not when it is broken up to reach the reusable materials inside. There's a lot of lead, a bit of barium, cadmium, chromium, traces of gold and even mercury in the lamps on some flat screens.
The best way to deal with them is not to throw them away at all but to keep using them, says John Cross of EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Buying a converter box or getting cable or satellite TV will keep a TV useful for years. But if TVs are discarded, the federal agency wants to make sure the materials in them are recycled.
The problem, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year, is that the EPA's "enforcement is lacking." That has left most of the regulatory work up to the states, only some of which license and audit recycling companies.
The GAO report found that although some electronics are handled responsibly, "a substantial quantity ends up in countries where disposal practices are unsafe to workers and dangerous to the environment." Barbara Kyle of the San Francisco-based Electronics TakeBack Coalition puts that quantity at close to 90%.
EPA environmental scientist Robert Tonetti says it's not that bad: "There are hundreds of honorable recyclers in the United States, and some scoundrels."
Taking the set apart
Under EPA rules, cathode-ray tube TVs — anything that's not flat screen — aren't supposed to be put into landfills, but households are exempt. It's also illegal to export them for recycling unless the destination country agrees and the EPA has been notified. But the GAO found that recycling companies routinely circumvent the rule.
Six states have passed laws making it illegal to throw a TV away, and another five are expected to do so in 2010, Kyle says. Eighteen states, as well as New York City, have ordered electronic recycling programs. But "not all the laws include televisions, which in the year of digital conversion is unfortunate," Kyle says.
Jacob Cherry, a third-generation recycler and CEO of Universal Waste Management, the Oakland company that organized the collection event, says he has seen "people just putting their television in a big black plastic bag so they wouldn't get caught."
RECYCLE IT RIGHT
Activists would be just as happy if Americans would keep their old TVs as plant stands for a few years until better recycling programs are in place. But what if the garage is full and the closets are stuffed? Ask whether the store where you bought a new TV will take the old one. Many do for free, others for a small fee. Or find a nearby recycling program:
• The EPA has a list of recyclers.
• Earth 911 is ZIP-code searchable for recycling options.
• The National Recycling Coalition has links for every state.
• At e-Stewards, find recyclers who have signed the e-Steward pledge, a certification program that is today's highest standard of recycling.
"The rule of thumb is: It's nasty stuff, don't smash it, don't break it and don't dispose of it at the curb," says Robert Houghton of Redemtech.
Batteries are among the electronic waste processed at Universal Waste Management.
Enlarge By Martin E. Klimek, for USA TODAY
Batteries are among the electronic waste processed at Universal Waste Management.
THE REAL COST OF RECYCLING
What a 66-pound, 19-inch TV set would cost a recycler without state subsidies:
Revenue
Sale of precious metals and other recyclable material +$3.96
Costs
Recycling TV tube and screen glass -$4.80
Labor -$4.16
Shipping -$0.99
Net -$5.99
Source: Redemtech
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
EL CERRITO, Calif. — When the hatch popped open on Louis Cornelius' SUV, there were four TVs piled up in the back, all destined for recycling. "My wife wanted to be up to date on the electronics," he says.
Sumiko Flodin's 35-year-old TV "still works," but she bought a new 19-inch set at Best Buy and wanted to empty out her living room. "I don't like the idea of having all this stuff hanging around."
When Virginia Ritchie decided to clear out her old TVs, she loaded up the big one that didn't work anymore, "and then I found three TVs in the basement to get rid of."
For each of them, and most of the 300 or so people who came to an "electronic waste recycling event" on a chilly Saturday here, the motivation was simple: cleaning up. But for the Environmental Protection Agency and activists worried about soil, water and air pollution, it's more complicated.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | Congress | Mexico | New York City | Oakland | TVs | Environmental Protection Agency | Government Accountability Office | Best Buy | Kyle | Cherry | Recovery | El Cerrito
Televisions carelessly disposed of can be toxic to the environment. A huge backlog of unused old ones (99.1 million, the EPA says) is sitting around in people's homes.
And later this year — either on Feb. 17 or on June 12 if Congress passes a delay — the USA will switch from analog to digital TV transmission. The number of unwanted TVs will go even higher as consumers upgrade to sets capable of receiving high-definition broadcasts.
Though a TV set is benign in the living room, it's not when it is broken up to reach the reusable materials inside. There's a lot of lead, a bit of barium, cadmium, chromium, traces of gold and even mercury in the lamps on some flat screens.
The best way to deal with them is not to throw them away at all but to keep using them, says John Cross of EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Buying a converter box or getting cable or satellite TV will keep a TV useful for years. But if TVs are discarded, the federal agency wants to make sure the materials in them are recycled.
The problem, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year, is that the EPA's "enforcement is lacking." That has left most of the regulatory work up to the states, only some of which license and audit recycling companies.
The GAO report found that although some electronics are handled responsibly, "a substantial quantity ends up in countries where disposal practices are unsafe to workers and dangerous to the environment." Barbara Kyle of the San Francisco-based Electronics TakeBack Coalition puts that quantity at close to 90%.
EPA environmental scientist Robert Tonetti says it's not that bad: "There are hundreds of honorable recyclers in the United States, and some scoundrels."
Taking the set apart
Under EPA rules, cathode-ray tube TVs — anything that's not flat screen — aren't supposed to be put into landfills, but households are exempt. It's also illegal to export them for recycling unless the destination country agrees and the EPA has been notified. But the GAO found that recycling companies routinely circumvent the rule.
Six states have passed laws making it illegal to throw a TV away, and another five are expected to do so in 2010, Kyle says. Eighteen states, as well as New York City, have ordered electronic recycling programs. But "not all the laws include televisions, which in the year of digital conversion is unfortunate," Kyle says.
Jacob Cherry, a third-generation recycler and CEO of Universal Waste Management, the Oakland company that organized the collection event, says he has seen "people just putting their television in a big black plastic bag so they wouldn't get caught."
Emperor Penguins at Risk
Emperor penguins at risk as ice melts
By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
Emperor penguins, the waddling stars of the 2005 movie March of the Penguins, could face extinction by 2100 as Antarctic sea ice melts because of global warming, a study reported Monday.
The study, the first to link climate change with this penguin species, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Antarctic sea ice is projected to melt as greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels warms the atmosphere. "Sea ice is essential to the emperor penguin life cycle, as the animals use it to breed, feed, and molt," the authors write in the study.
The scientists, led by Stephanie Jenouvrier and Hal Caswell of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, based their sea-ice projections on 10 computer models used by the 2007 United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
If sea ice shrinks in Antarctica as the models predict, authors say an emperor penguin colony in Terre Adélie, Antarctica, would decline from its peak of 6,000 breeding pairs in the 1960s to about 400 by 2100. Study co-author Caswell, a Woods Hole biologist, says researchers believe that would qualify as a "quasi-extinction," based on the 95% or more population decline.
By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
Emperor penguins, the waddling stars of the 2005 movie March of the Penguins, could face extinction by 2100 as Antarctic sea ice melts because of global warming, a study reported Monday.
The study, the first to link climate change with this penguin species, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Antarctic sea ice is projected to melt as greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels warms the atmosphere. "Sea ice is essential to the emperor penguin life cycle, as the animals use it to breed, feed, and molt," the authors write in the study.
The scientists, led by Stephanie Jenouvrier and Hal Caswell of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, based their sea-ice projections on 10 computer models used by the 2007 United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
If sea ice shrinks in Antarctica as the models predict, authors say an emperor penguin colony in Terre Adélie, Antarctica, would decline from its peak of 6,000 breeding pairs in the 1960s to about 400 by 2100. Study co-author Caswell, a Woods Hole biologist, says researchers believe that would qualify as a "quasi-extinction," based on the 95% or more population decline.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
A Cold Welcome Home
I went to Louisville for two days last week to attend the State Tech Prep Conference. My son Logan was here at home when I left. He was heading back to Murray State. I left him with the usual hug and kiss and "Be careful driving back." Not realizing that when I got home from L'ville that my house would be like a huge chunk of ice. Logan had decided to shut the heat off to save me some money!!!! Needless to say the 39 degree temp was not what I had hoped for especially with single digit temps overnight. He just wanted to save me some money!!!! I try to live Green as best I can but that is taking it to an extreme!
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