Thread: Happy Earth Day. What do you do to reduce consumption and waste?

I held my breath...Didn't want to let any of that nasty CO2 to escape!

Factoid: When a human that is 3 miles away from the Grayling River (North Michigan) takes a leak in the woods, its urine flows all the way back and pollutes the river. Fox, bear and deer don't pollute (theirs go uphill I guess).

Enironment impact study of 1978.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Alum as in Aluminum oxide? as in 'contains a lot of aluminum'?

Well shouldn't we avoid Alumiunum oxide cause it makes you get that diseases that makes you forgot things.
i cann't remmeber how one spells it. When it's called the old people disease.

Originally Posted by Suile

Well shouldn't we avoid Alumiunum oxide cause it makes you get that diseases that makes you forgot things.
i cann't remmeber how one spells it. When it's called the old people disease.

Your probably referring to Alzheimers, but that whole Aluminium thing coursing it is a myth.
Aluminium oxide is one of the main parts of dirt/earth, kind of hard to avoid the stuff.

I do nothing to reduce consumption, I consume what and how much I want limited only by my ability to pay for it.

I reduce waste only if it saves me money (i.e increases my ability to consume).

Some things i do:

Recycle paper, plastic, metal etc. The money saved reduces other costs.

I use energy saving light bulbs as much as possible. Clearly a net saving in both power consumption and cost of bulbs

I minimize the cost of energy to heat/cool my house via a programable thermostat and active energy management

I have a very sophisticated lawn irrigation system and minimize my use of water for irrigation

I turn off the monitor on my computers when they are not in use, I also unplug all those chargers when they are not charging anything.

I turn off lights when I leave the room.

Some things I don't do (and why)

I do not use a cloth shoping bag, it does not save me anything, and I need the plastic bags to take out the yukky garbage.

I do not drive a toy car. I enjoy my sports car, and my wife likes her luxury sedan. We can afford the gasoline, so I will buy and use the kind of cars I like.

Here's my list:

-Straight Razor (of course)

-Folding Bike

-Compost Pile

-vegetable Garden

-Vegetarian

-Small Car

-Bus, and walk or bike to work

-I Insulated all my steam and water pipes in my basement.

Michael

Earth First!

We can strip-mine the other planets later.

My contribution at work today was drive 100 miles in heavy traffic, in a 2004 F-150 Ford pickup that routinely gets 12mpg and leave it running for the better part of 8 hours as it was pretty warm today and the emergency beacons and strobe lights on my truck drain the battery rather quickly.

We did however, recycle about a ton of bent guardrail and guardrail parts.

The contractors are glad to recycle that junk. They pay for their beer with the money it brings.

WIN WIN!!

I try to reduce waste and consumption of resources using the following:
- straight razor and all that implies;
- recycle as much as possible;
- have an old diesel car (sure, it is smokey, but the bill for the incorporated energy has been paid a long time ago);
- folding bike
- cycle as much as possible: no distance under 8 to 10km calls for the use of the car if I'm alone;
- use the car for long distances and try to carry as many people as I can (not always a success...);
- use power-saving light bulbs;
- eat at home and avoid fast food restaurants;
- intent to use re-useable diapers when my son is born.
There are many more things to be done in the future but this is what I can do at the moment.

Originally Posted by fpessanha

... when my son is born...

congratulations