Stop the Junk

I am constantly bothered whenever I go to check the mail and I find advertisements or other pieces of junk mail sitting in the mail box. These pieces of paper invariably end up in the trash. It is not always easy to stop junk mail but what about the rest of it. The letters and magazine subscriptions, even Netflix envelopes that get thrown away. In the school mailbox half of the stuff I find is an advertisement. Every one of these actions could become more green. Most magazines that you have to pay to subscribe to you could go paperless for. With websites you could buy a subscription and instead of getting a magazine that is half advertisements and a huge waste of paper you could go online and if needed buy a subscription to the website. Also letters hurt the environment. Whether they have more sentimental value than an email is up for debate but they undoubtedly end up in the trash sooner or later. Something that has surfaced over the past few years are E-cards. For birthdays or any other occassion that you would send a card you could send an E-card. Essentially it is an email that is themed and gets across the message with a personal touch. Every bit of mail we need/receive could end up paperless with just a little bit of extra work. I also see a lot of people printing out articles that are for homework that we need to read. In a class about environmentalism we are really not being that environmentally friendly. We could honestly do a bit better. I read the article and if something is important or it seems to me to be a good idea I write it down. I use one sheet of paper for a 10 page article. You do not need to cut paper out of your life just cut down. By "cutting down" on the paper you use you do not cut down the trees it would cost to fuel the printer.

Car Wash Anyone?

A standard water hose uses 10 gallons of water per minute, this means if you wash your car for a short 10 minutes, you will use 100 gallons of water. If we were to go to a commercial car wash, a 15 minute car wash would only use around 55 gallons of water. That is a significantly lower amount then washing your own car. Going to a car wash is a much more efficient way of washing your car and even though it may cost a small amount, it could potentially save on your water bill in the future. This week I think we should stop or reduce self washing our cars and start taking them to a commercial car wash location. If washing them yourself is still your favorite way then here are some tips to help you conserve water when doing it yourself. When washing your car, always wash it on a grassy surface instead of pavement. When washing on pavement the soapy water runs off into the sewers and other ditches polluting what is there further. Instead when washing on grass the soapy water seeps into the grass where it will eventually be cleaned and become groundwater. Also, use a water hose with a automatic shutoff nozzle to save water as well.

How To Print (The Green Way)

Have you ever thought about ink cartridges? Did you know that the plastics inside of them will take over a thousand years to decompose? It's time to start recycling your empty ink cartridges. You can either have your ink cartridges re-filled yourself or give them to companies that will take them back for you (such as Staples). Also, if you do have a computer on campus you should really think about printing double sided. At least try and save scrap paper which you can re-feed through the printer later on. It's little things like this which can help.

http://www.printcountry.com/recycle_facts.asp

-Adrienne

Back to Basics

http://www.hulu.com/watch/109986/the-office-recyclops

It seems like everywhere you look, there are crazy new ideas for how to be more green. What ever happened to good old recycling? Sure, the new methods and practices are helping, but I feel like recycling is the most important thing we can do as a community to help save our resources. Examples of things we can recycle include plastic bottles, newspapers, almost any other old paper, cardboard boxes, and the list goes on and on. What some people fail to recognize is that electronic items such as old cell phones, laptops, and iPods can be recycled as well. All you need to do is drop them off at a local Best Buy and they'll take care of it for you. It's amazing how much damage electronics can do to the environment if not properly disposed of.

This week, we are going to take recycling up to the next level. Instead of just recycling the occasional water bottle or newspaper, we are going to try to recycle everything possible. Doing this also means buying things that we can recycle when we are finished with them. Companies are doing a pretty good job of letting you know if their products are recyclable. We are also going to try to buy products made out of recycled material. Doing this decreases our carbon footprint and helps the environment.

-Wes

I wanted to switch things up a bit today and do my post on something that is making it a little easier to be green. I have had an iPhone for a few years now and even though it may seem cliché to say, I couldn’t live without it. At first it was just my source of entertainment and kept my life on track but now it’s helping me be green as well.

Green apps have been floating around for a couple of months as the green “movement” gains popularity but on Earth Day this week there was a rush of green apps to help everyone do their part. Everything from tips to being green, green recipes, analysis of so called “green companies” and new social networking opportunities that allow you to see how everyone else is being green have popped up. I’ve downloaded a few and they really make being green fun. They are very convenient and in a world where convenience and knowledge “on the go” seem to work, I think it’s a great thing app developers are doing.

I encourage those with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to check some out. If you don’t own any of those, remember, it’s always fun to mooch off of your friends. Have fun!

-James

Laptops Equal Energy Saving?

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.singleparticles.org/school_2008/img/laptop.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.singleparticles.org/school_2008/laptop_req.html&usg=__7f2GGF99ToZxyJPz7q16iQEByKc=&h=324&w=400&sz=16&hl=en&start=3&sig2=Hf8R0oP0BKI_eQbl96J8Gg&itbs=1&tbnid=GZillys9Cx6dLM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLaptop%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=SwjVS_uJFoH78AbIqrGtDw

I have been thinking about computers lately. It seems that turning them off is not really doing that much. Computers are still the device that probably uses the most energy out of every electronic device in my room. I am almost always on it watching videos, emailing, on facebook, playing games, and whatever else anyone does on the computer. I found a tip recently that should help people save more energy. Use desktops only when absolutely necessary. Laptops actually require less energy than desktops do. Using a laptop instead of a desktop cuts a whopping three quarters off of your energy usage. Not only that but when you are using the battery your are not using any electricity at all. Whenever I go to the library with my laptop I leave my charger in my room and can use my computer without any detrimental effect to the environment. This should be a relatively easy step for everyone in our group considering the fact that all of us have laptops. In fact the only time I ever use a desktop computer is for printing stuff out in the library. I write the paper on my laptop and once I am ready to print it I save it to a draft in an email. Then I quickly log on to a school computer in the library log in to my email find the draft and print my paper. At the most it takes only five minutes and for people who have printers need not even bother with this technique.
The cut down in power comes from what needs power. The laptop uses power for only itself the entire package requires one power source. For a desktop one at least needs to power the monitor as well as the tower (aka Pizza box aka big box that has the power button on it). Desktops also require a power source for speakers if the user wants to have sound. With a laptop it is also combined into one energy saving package.
As laptops become more compact and power efficient I encourage everyone who reads this blog to buy a laptop and you will be doing the environment a favor without ever knowing it. The more blogs I post and read on this topic cause me to think that the title of this blog is becoming more and more laughable. "It's not easy being green?" To the contrary with many of these tips it is.

Happy Earth Day

Since today is Earth Day, I was thinking really hard about the problems that our planet faces. In my thinking, I remembered the Food Inc. video and the problems our society faces with the food and meat industries. Approximately 35 million cows are killed a year, solely for the purpose of meat and food products. The byproducts and manurer of these cows also affects us, creating more than 18% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. For the remainder of the year, we are going to give up meat one day a week, Meatless Mondays. Although this seems difficult at first it really won't be that bad. There are other main dishes such as pastas that do not contain meat but are filling. Nuts are also a good alternative source to protein. This is a good way to give back to your planet.

I also attended that Annie Leonard speech tonight and though we only watched the same video we did and class, followed by Mrs. Leonard proposing some more of her opinions it was interesting to hear her speak. She is a prime example of what we are doing with our blog and project, one person changing a big problem. Hope everyone else got to attend.

Wes found a cool article and although I am supposed to post it on the other groups blog, I liked it so I am posting it on ours also so here it is.

http://www.newsok.com/big-retailers-set-goals-for-stores-going-green/article/3455833?custom_click=pod_lead_local-financial-news

- Liza