Gas Mileage Standards Rejected!

Okay, I am a little confused. I just read an article that announced that the House committee rejected a plan to raise gas mileage standards for new vehicles. (House Committee Defeats Increase to Gas Mileage Standards) Supposedly this plan is even backed by the auto industry. Now I am not a big proponent of creating legislation to fix our environmental issues. I believe environmental issues need to be solved through grassroots education and social awareness.

However, I am surprised that the proposal was defeated, especially since gas mileage standards have not been upgraded since the mid-70s. With hybrid electric vehicles becoming more popular along with other alternative fuel vehicles, one would think this would be no problem. If anyone has any insight into why this was defeated, I sure would like to hear from you!

Meanwhile, I thought I would review a few of the suggestions on how you can improve your gas mileage and save some green!

Observe the speed limit. Note that fuel economy decreases rapidly at speeds over 60 mph. For every 5 mph over 60 the cost per gallon of fuel increases between $0.15 and $0.20! Ouch!

Keep your vehicle at constant speed. When possible, keep your vehicle going at an even pace. Variable speed increases gas consumption. Use cruise control on the highway to maintain a steady speed. Drive smoothly – avoid sudden stops and quick take offs.

Use mass transit. We recently came back from vacation and spent three days in a large city. We used their bus system and saved! No rental car charges, no gasoline purchases. Bus fare was pretty minimal and we were able to see more of the city! Mass transit isn’t always practical or available, but include it in your considerations. Also consider carpooling or ride-share programs, walking or biking to work or store. You may want to check with your employer and see if telecommuting is available to you on occasion.

Keep your vehicle maintained. Tires should be properly inflated, motor oil should be changed regularly, air filters should be checked and engines should be tuned at recommended intervals.

Let us know if you have any other tips.

Recycling Household Items for Charity

Here are a couple more thoughts on what to do with your trash or household items you wish to dispose of.

Consider donation, it's the ultimate recycling and reusing:

Old books can go to libraries, nursing homes, preschools, or various charity book collections.

Clothing can go to charity organizations such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, women's shelters, and charity resale shops. You can do the same with some children's toys and baby equipment such as strollers, cribs, toys, etc.

Furniture you no longer want can go to charity organizations as well. Consider those that resell those items or those that provide the items directly to people who are financially in need or are disaster victims.

If you just get a bit creative you will probably find many ways to recycle or reuse many of your household items. Our next post will consider ways you can make money off of items you no longer need. In the meantime, feel free to drop us a note if you have more ideas to add to this list.

How to Dispose of Trash Without Using Plastic Bags

We had a great question from one of our readers, Midlife Traveller, who is using reusable shopping bags but wonders now how to handle the trash without using plastic bags. This is not as easy an answer as the shopping bags, but here are some possible suggestions:

Separate your trash and recycle as much as possible. Check with your trash disposal service and find out exactly what items they will recycle. There may be more recycling options than you realize. Also check with the municipality where you live to see if they have any separate recycling programs available for additional items.

Consider composting food wastes, paper, and other organically based products. Composting is a much easier proposition today than it used to be and there are several great composters on the market that can make the job easier and relatively clean. See the example we have outlined below. You can use biodegradable trash bags in the trash containers you are using for any items you are going to compost.

What remains of your trash should actually be fairly minimal. Items such as meat products you may want to use a food waste disposer or you may need to use a plastic trash bag for these items, as they are not compostable. Other non-recyclables I would just put directly into a trash can for pick-up, no bag needed.

This type of trash system will obviously take a bit of effort on your part, but will greatly reduce the amount of trash going to the landfills, will increase the amount of items going to the recycling plants, and will provide you with some rich, organic compost to fertilize your gardens. There are obviously many benefits to making the extra effort.

Here is a great little compost bin you may want to consider:

The Envirocycle Composter
Make your own compost!

Envirocycle has created this composter which produces quality compost and compost tea quickly and easily. It’s user-friendly, eliminates mess and odor, and is compact making it perfect for those with limited space.
Envirocycle Simplifies Composting

The Envirocycle composter is specifically designed to simplify the recycling of kitchen and garden refuse. It produces quality compost more quickly and easily than conventional composters by its rolling and mixing action which keeps the ingredients well mixed and aerated.

Makes Rich Compost Tea

This enviro cycle unit also makes compost tea, a rich organic liquid plant food appreciated by gardeners everywhere. Use it on your house plants, outdoor plants, flowers, trees, shrubs, garden and lawn.

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You may also want to consider biodegradable trash bags. These should only be used when the trash will be composted, as, like any other plastic bag, they will not break down in a sealed environment such as a landfill.

The bags shown below are for pet waste, but they are also available in other sizes for use in the home.

Biodegradable and Compostable
These BioBag Pet Waste Bags are 100% Biodegradable and 100% Compostable. BioBags help to make cleaning up after Fido a little more earth friendly. Made from cornstarch, these bags help to eliminate regular plastic bags from our environment. When disposed, BioBags will biodegrade as naturally as food scraps, leaving no harmful residue.

No Polyethylene
No Polyethylene is used in the production of this product. BioBags are GMO free, certified for use in organic agriculture, yet are shelf stable – just like paper towels.

Contains 50 full-sized bags
Measure 11.5” high x 7.8” wide (Large enough for even big Fido’s!)

Click Here

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Let us know if you have any additional ideas for environmentally friendly waste disposal. The best way to make things better is the free exchange of ideas!

Try Reusable Shopping Bags to Decrease Your Impact on the Environment

ChicoBag Reusable Nylon Shopping Bag holds 20lbs
Measurements: Pouch measures a mere 4” x 2 ½” x 1” Expanded bag is 18" x 13"

Chico Bag Reusable Shopping Bags rock!

Use the ChicoBag Reusable Nylon Shopping Bag for everything – trips to the grocery store, farmers market or out shopping. The Chico Bag reusable shopping bag's made from strong, durable nylon. It's ultra-lightweight and tuck itself into a little bag making it perfect to fit into your purse, pocket or glove box. The Chico Bag fabric is soft making holding the handles a little easier on the hands. They’re easy to pack, durable and hold a lot. Machine washable. 1 year manufacturers warranty against defects in material and workmanship.

Reduce your Footprint with Reusable Bags. Did you know that using reusable shopping bags can save the average American 300 to 700 plastic shopping bags per year, which will save 3 to 7 gallons of crude oil? That’s per person for plastic bags alone! What a great, simple way to conserve our natural resources.

Ways to Improve the Environmental Friendliness of Your Business

Face it; it is easy to waste items at work and to not think about reducing, reusing, recycling, repurposing or regenerating resources. However, maintaining an environmentally friendly business helps your bottom line as well as the environment. So what can you do to improve the green at your place of business?

First, see that policies are put in place which encourages reducing, reusing and recycling.

Maximize energy efficiency. Turn down the heat or up the air conditioning by a couple of degrees. Be sure all windows and doors are insulated. Use energy efficient light bulbs. Turn equipment and machinery off when appropriate.

Reduce your water usage. Install displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs. Stop leaky faucets as soon as they are spotted.

Recycle, recycle. Have specially marked bins for recycling to collect paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics and ink cartridges.

Keep the “e” in e-mail. Don’t print off an e-mail unless it is absolutely necessary.

Check with your suppliers and see if they take back packaging and reuse it.

Look for a supply of paper with maximum recycled content.

Ask all of your suppliers to let you know what “green” policies and practices they have in place. If they don’t have any, look for another supplier.

Reduce paper usage by producing double sided documents. Reuse padded envelops.

Buy more environmentally friendly vehicles.

Putting just a few of these in practice will help you to “Be Green and Save”!

Stop Receiving Junk Mail

I walked out to the mail box and what did I find – 10 pieces of mail. Exciting? Remember how you used to love getting mail? Well going through that mail was 1 bill and nine pieces of junk mail! Not so much fun anymore. That is a lot of paper just going to the trash bin, recycle bin or shredder! How can we stop getting so much junk mail? I haven’t found a way to get rid of all of the junk mail, but here are some ways to greatly reduce your junk mail.

Direct Marketing Association has a Mail Preference Service (https://www.dmaconsumers.org/consumerassistance.html) (MPS). Registering will cost you $1.00 but will greatly reduce the amount of national advertising mail sent to you. Members of the Direct Marketing Association are required to use the MPS list. Keep in mind this will also reduce the number of catalogs and coupons you receive, which may be items you want.

Whenever you order a product, donate money or fill out a warranty card, include a note to not sell your name or address. Most companies will honor this request and mark your information accordingly.

The Credit Reporting Industry has a website that you can visit and register to opt out or opt in to receive firm offers from credit or insurance companies. At OptOutPreScreen.com (https://www.optoutprescreen.com/) you can electronically opt-out for five years, download a form to complete the permanently opt-out or you are able to opt-in.

Contact your credit card companies and ask them to remove your name from their lists that they sell or rent.

Contact your congressman. Currently 14 states have “Do Not Junk Registry” legislation under consideration patterned after the Do Not Call registry. Encourage your congressman to consider and pass this bill. The Center for a New American Dream (www.newdream.org/junkmail/state.php)
maintains a list of states with bills under consideration.

Meanwhile, keep shredding that junk mail!

Hotels - Some Creative Ways Many Are Trying to Be Green

We checked with the Green Hotels Association and found out what some hotels are doing to “be green”. You might want to pass this list along when you travel this summer.

• Meeting and banquet facilities are using pourers for sugar, pitchers for cream and small serving dishes for butter and jellies instead of disposable packaging.

• A Toronto hotel is recycling stained tablecloths into napkins, chef's aprons and neckties.

• Bicycles are being loaned or rented to guests.

• Coins or chips are being used for car parking and coat checking instead of paper tickets.

• Hotels are making cloth laundry bags from retired sheets.

• Mowed landscaping is being replaced by ground cover. Lawnmowers are used less, so air pollution and noise are reduced.

• A Florida hotel bought a mulcher to chop up their garden clippings and create their own mulch. The mulcher paid for itself in three months.

• A Wisconsin B&B has installed beautiful blue floor tile made from recycled automobile windshields.

• Chief engineers have found that toilet tank fill diverters in older toilets save about 3/4 of a gallon of water per flush.

• A Pennsylvania property has a 400' garden and produces organically-grown vegetables for its restaurant.

• Restaurants and bars in hotels are using daylight exclusively for as much of each day as possible.

• Solar energy is lighting signage and heating water for hotels in tropical areas.

Don't be afraid to ask the place you are thinking of staying what they are doing to be green and help the environment. During your travels, if you see something a hotel is doing to “be green”, drop us a line!