Training Your Kids to Go Green

I recently read an article on the importance of training your children on living green and there were opposing views  that one should just let their children choose so that they truely value it later in life.  Personally I think you must train a child and show them how to live green or else how will they know.  Yes, they will always be able to choose as they grow up, but isn't that the job of a parent, to show and train your children in the way they should go.  Yes, I pulled that last part straight out of the Bible, but it's quite simple, watch a young child very long and you'll know that you don't have to teach a child to be bad, it's just in them.  But you MUST teach a child to be good and show them what is right.  I believe this overflows into many other areas of their little lives. 

So with that said, here are 10 things you can do as a family to train your children to go green! 

1) Get green school supplies. Going back to school and going green can go hand in hand! Kids can get green school supplies that will make a big difference in price. Your green school supplies also provide an opportunity to share your thoughts on the environment with other students and teachers who notice that they are a little different.
 *This could include reusing old supplies, using passed down supplies from others, using recylcled paper and pencils, etc.
2) Walk, carpool, or have them take the bus to school. Less carbon emissions and less smog comes from less burned fuel. We have to use gasoline to run most of today's cars - so, let's use as little of it as we can! When you share a ride with others, it means fewer people have to use gas, and when you walk or bike there is no fuel burned at all...except maybe your breakfast.

3) Teach them to turn off the water while showering and brushing teeth. Most people let the water run while soaping up or brushing, but that wastes water. Run the water to get your towel and body or toothbrush wet, and then wash or brush with the water off. It saves water AND time because you end up focusing on getting clean and getting out of there!

4) Start an organic garden at home or school and create compost for it. It's a large undertaking, but if you can get the teachers behind you, it's very likely that the principal will allow you to start an organic garden of some kind and a compost heap to fertilize it.  Also a possible area of extra credit!

5) Turn off lights and appliances/electronics when not in use. Kids who aren't environmentally conscious don't usually think about turning off lights and appliances because kids in general aren't cost conscious. That means kids waste stuff. Kids who reduce, reuse, and recycle know that wastefulness is not good, and one thing they do not waste is energy. Although cleaner energy is becoming more common, no energy should be wasted. When you're not using lights or appliances/electronics (TV, computer, video games, etc.) TURN THEM OFF!

6) If parents recycle, allow the kids to sort.  Going green is a lifestyle, so get in on the day-today activities by doing your part. Find out about recylcing centers that pay you to recycle!

7) Volunteer with community organizations that plant trees. Trees help us enjoy cleaner air and more beautiful landscapes. Find organizations where you live who plant trees, and then volunteer to help! The Arbor Day Foundation is a good place to start if you need help locating a group in your local area.

8) Hand-wash dishes or only run the dishwasher for full loads. Most people don't realize it, but dishwashers use considerably more water to wash a load of dishes than the traditional sink method does. A LOT MORE. So, to conserve water, it's best not to use the dishwasher at all. If you do, use eco-friendly dishwashing detergent and only run the washer when it is completely full. If it's not full or if you can, choose to wash dishes in the sink instead, of course, with eco-friendly dishwashing liquid.

9) Reduce waste by curbing use of disposables. It's easy to use throwaway cups, plates, wrappers, and utensils, but it only creates more waste for landfills. Also, disposable paper products like facial and bathroom tissue and paper towels and napkins also end up in the trash. We can save more trees by using less paper products, and we can keep more plastics and styrofoam out of the landfills by using less throwaway utensils and containers. Also, eating less often at fast-food restaurants cuts down on your useage of these items, too.
When you have to use them, use less. When you don't have to use them, DON'T.

10) Teach your children to ease up on the video games. Playing video cames on both computers and systems uses a LOT of energy! That's why your system or computer feels hot afterwards! They can save on energy by simply doing homework or going outside to play instead of posting up in front of the TV or computer screen. This activity uses more electricity than regular TV or computer useage, so it should be kept to a minimum

Recycling:Glass, Plastic and Others

GLASS

Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every two weeks to fill the 1.350-foot towers of the former World Trade Center.

Most bottles and jars contain at least 25% recycled glass.

Glass never wears out -- it can be recycled forever. We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled -- 1,330 pounds of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151 pounds of feldspar.

States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

If all the glass bottles and jars collected through recycling in the U.S. in 94 were laid end to end, they'd reach the moon and half way back to earth.

PLASTIC

Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas.

Americans go through 25 billion plastic bottles every year.

26 recycled PET bottles equals a polyester suit. 5 recycled PET bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket.

In 1988 we used 2 billion pounds of HDPE just to make bottles for household products. That’s about the weight of 90,000 Honda Civics.

If every American household recycled just one out of every ten HDPE bottles they used, we’d keep 200 million pounds of the plastic out of landfills every year.

STYROFOAM/POLYSTYRENE

It is un-recyclable- you can't make it into new Styrofoam. The industry wants you to assume it is- don't BUY it!

Each year American throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times.

JUNK MAIL

If only 100,000 people stopped their junk, mail, we could save up to 150,000 trees annually. If a million people did this, we could save up to a million and a half trees.

The junk mail Americans receive in one day could produce enough energy to heat 250,000 homes.

The average American still spends 8 full months of his/her life opening junk mail.

GENERAL GARBAGE

In 1865, an estimated 10,000 hogs roamed New York City, eating garbage. Now, one of every six U.S. trucks is a garbage truck.

In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his/her adult weight in garbage. If you add it up, this means that a 150-lb. adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 lbs of trash for his/her children.

The average baby generates a ton of garbage every year.

The landfill gas produced daily at Fresh Kills Landfill is enough fuel to heat 50,000 homes.

TIRES/RUBBER

It takes half a barrel of crude oil to produce the rubber for just one truck tire.

Every two weeks, Americans wear almost 50 million pounds of rubber off their tires. That’s enough to make 3 1/4 million new tires from scratch.

Producting one pound of recycled rubber versus one pound of new rubber requires only 29% of the energy.

FOOD AND PACKAGING

$1 out of every $11 Americans spend for food goes for packaging.

Americans dump the equivalent of more than 21 million shopping bags full of food into landfills every year.

OTHER

One gallon of used motor oil can contaminate 1 million gallons of water.

Most cars on U.S. roads carry only one person. We have so much extra room in our 140 million cars that everyone in Western Europe could ride with us.

If today is a typical day on planet earth, humans will add fifteen million tons of carbon to the atmosphere, destroy 115 square mils of tropical rainforest, create seventy-two square miles of desert, eliminate between forty to one hundred species, erode seventy-one million tons of topsoil, add twenty-seven hundred tons of CFCs to the stratosphere, and increase their population by 263,000.

Almost four million computer diskettes are thrown away every day, which equals over on and a half billion disks per year or a stack of disks as tall as the Sears Tower in Chicago every 21 seconds. It will take nearly 500 years for the disks to degrade.

Recycling: Water

Between 1950 and 2000, the U.S. population nearly doubled. However, in that same period, public demand for water more than tripled! Americans now use an average of 100 gallons of water each day — enough to fill 1,600 drinking glasses! (EPA, 2008)

A recent government survey showed that at least 36 states are anticipating local, regional, or statewide water shortages by 2013. (EPA, 2008)

Most people realize that hot water uses up energy, but supplying and treating cold water requires a significant amount of energy too. American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours per year — enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year. (EPA, 2008)

Appliances and Fixtures in General

If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year! (EPA, 2008)

If one out of every 100 American homes was retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year — avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas savings would be equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year! (EPA, 2008)

Bathroom: Sink, Toilet, Bath, Shower

About 75 percent of the water we use in our homes is used in the bathroom. (California Energy Commission, 2006)

If your toilet is from 1992 or earlier, you probably have an inefficient model that uses between 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush. Newer, high-efficiency toilets use less than 1.3 gallons per flush — that's at least 60 percent less water per flush! (EPA, 2008)

If just 1 percent of American homes replaced an older toilet with a new WaterSense labeled toilet, the country would save more than 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough electricity to supply more than 43,000 households for one month. (EPA, 2008)

The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of two gallons per minute. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth in the morning and at bedtime can save up to 8 gallons of water per day, which equals 240 gallons a month. (EPA, 2008)

Letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours. (EPA, 2008)

Leaky faucets that drip at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water each year; A leaky toilet can waste about 200 gallons of water every day. If your fixtures have leaks, you should get them repaired! (EPA, 2008)

A full bath tub requires about 70 gallons of water, while taking a five-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons. (EPA, 2008)

Other Household Water Needs

The average washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load, whereas newer, high-efficiency washing machine models use less than 28 gallons of water per load. (EPA, 2008)

The typical single-family suburban household uses at least 30 percent of their water outdoors for irrigation. Some experts estimate that more than 50 percent of landscape water use goes to waste due to evaporation or runoff caused by overwatering!
Consider installing a drip irrigation system to water your lawn and garden. These systems use between 20 to 50 percent less water than conventional in-ground sprinkler systems. They are also much more efficient than conventional sprinklers because no water is lost to wind, runoff, and evaporation. (EPA, 2008)

Recycling: Metal, Alluminum & Steel

METAL

Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy needed to produce new aluminum from raw materials. Energy saved from recycling one ton of aluminum is equal to the amount of electricity the average home uses over 10 years. (Keep America Beautiful, 2006)


Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours. (EPA, 2008)

Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch. That means you can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one can out of new material. Energy savings in 1993 alone were enough to light a city the size of Pittsburgh for six years.

Americans throw away enough aluminum every month to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.

Recycling steel and tin cans saves 74% of the energy used to produce them.

Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

Americans throw out enough iron and steel to supply all the nation’s automakers on a continuous basis.

A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution and mining wastes by about 70%.

When you toss out one aluminum can you waste as much energy as if you’d filled the same can half-full of gasoline and poured it into the ground.

ALUMINUM

More than 50% of a new aluminum can is made from recycled aluminum.

The 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million. (Some day we'll be mining our landfills for the resources we've buried.)

STEEL


The steel industry's annual recycling saves the equivalent energy to electrically power about 18 million households for a year. Every time a ton of steel is recycled, 2500 pounds of iron ore, 1000 pounds of coal and 40 pounds of limestone is preserved.

Every day Americans use enough steel and tin cans to make a steel pipe running from Los Angeles to New York... and back. If we only recycle one-tenth of the cans we now throw away, we'd save about 3.2 billion of them every year.

The average American throws out about 61 lbs. of tin cans every month.

About 70% of all metal used just once and is discarded. The remaining 30% is recycled. After 5 cycles, one-fourth of 1% of the metal remains in circulation.

Recycling: Paper

Each of us uses approximately one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree in paper and wood products per year. (EPA, 2008)
More than 56 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. during 2007 was recovered for recycling — an all-time high. This impressive figure equals nearly 360 pounds of paper for each man, woman, and child in America. (Paper Industry Association Council, 2007)

More than 400 paper mills in the United States use at least some recovered materials in their manufacturing processes, and more than 200 of those mills use recovered fiber exclusively. (EPA, 2008)

Savings: Energy, Water, etc.

De-inked paper fiber is the most efficient source of fiber for the manufacturing of new paper products; one ton of de-inked pulp saves over 7000 gallons of water, 390 gallons of oil, and reduces air emissions by 60 lbs compared to traditional virgin fiber processes. (Abitibi Consolidated, 2005)

Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, and 4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough energy to power the average American home for five months. (EPA, 2008)

Recycling paper instead of making it from new material generates 74 percent less air pollution and uses 50 percent less water. (EPA, 2008)

Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp. (EPA, 2008)
Uses of Recycled Paper

Just over 48% of office paper is recovered for recycling. This becomes raw material for paperboard, tissue, and printing and writing papers. (Keep America Beautiful, 2006)
Over 73% of all newspapers are recovered for recycling. Almost a third goes back into making more newsprint. The remainder is used to make paperboard, tissue, and insulation, or exported. (Keep America Beautiful, 2006)

Approximately 1.5 million tons of construction products are made each year from paper, including insulation, gypsum wallboard, roofing paper, flooring, padding and sound-absorbing materials. (American Forest and Paper Association, 2002)

Recycled paper can also be made into paper towels, notebook paper, envelopes, copy paper and other paper products, as well as boxes, hydro-mulch, molded packaging, compost, and even kitty litter. (EPA, 2008)

Recycling: Energy

The world's electricity demand is expected to double between 2000 and 2030. The greatest increase will occur in the developing world, and the most rapid growth will occur in people's homes. (Worldwatch Institute, 2007)

Electricity production is the leading cause of industrial air pollution in the United States, and is responsible for 40 percent of the nation's carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change. (Worldwatch Institute, 2007)

At most, 35 percent of coal's energy in a power plant converts to electricity. The remaining two thirds is lost as waste heat, benefiting no one and often harming surrounding ecosystems. (Worldwatch Institute, 2007)

Heating

Almost half of the average home's energy consumption is used for heating. (EIA, 2007)

Improperly sealed/caulked windows can account for up to 25% of total heat loss from a house. (Environment Canada, 2007)

Lighting

Lighting consumes up to 34 percent of electricity in the United States. (Worldwatch Institute, 2007)

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are an energy-saving alternative to incandescent bulbs — they produce the same amount of light, use one third of the electricity, and last up to ten times as long. (Worldwatch Institute, 2007)

If every household replaced its most often-used incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, electricity use for lighting could be cut in half. (Worldwatch Institute, 2007)

Where electricity is produced from coal, each fluorescent lightbulb used prevents 1,300 pounds (nearly 600 kilograms) of CO2 emissions and 20 pounds of sulfur dioxide from being pumped into the atmosphere. (Worldwatch Institute, 2007)

Appliances and Electronics

If you need to warm up or defrost small amounts of food, use a microwave instead of the stove to save energy. Microwave ovens use around 50 percent less energy than conventional ovens do. (California Energy Commission, 2006)

A refrigerator built 20 years ago uses 70% more energy than today's energy-efficient models. (Environment Canada, 2007)

Today's dishwashers are about 95% more energy-efficient than those bought in 1972 — your old dishwasher may be costing you more money in energy bills than it would take to buy a new one. (Environment Canada, 2007)

Many idle electronics — TVs, VCRs, DVD and CD players, cordless phones, microwaves — use energy even when switched off to keep display clocks lit and memory chips and remote controls working. Nationally, these energy “vampires” use 5 percent of our domestic energy and cost consumers more than $8 billion annually. (Alliance to Save Energy, 2005)

Garbage vs. Recycling

It's no secret our country has an overflowing, surmounting garbage problem. As I drive to and from work I pass what use to be the landfill on the outskirts of town, but now it is right in the center of the growing metroplex. Dump trucks drive in non-stop throughout the day and unload mounds and mounds of trash. The landfill has turned into a gradually rising mountain. When will they stop? What can this land ever be used for again? From time to time I see them spread out the trash on a spread of land and swarms of birds come to find their dinner. It's really quite incredible what we have created.

Until some new invention is created that can evaporate trash into thin air, most of us know that we MUST step up and do what we can now by recycling. It is the only way we can help reduce waste. In the next several blogs we will be touchingon specific ways to recycle, but for now here are some of the most recent statistics on garbage and recycling:

•Each person creates about 4.7 pounds of waste every single day
•In the US 33.4% of solid waste is either recycled or composted, 12.6% is burned in combustion facilities and 54% makes it's way into landfills
•In 2007 99% of lead acid batteries were recycled, 54% of paper and paperboard were recycled, 64% of yard trimmings are recycled and nearly 35% of metals were recycled
•The amount of recycling in 2007 saved the energy equivalent of 10.7 billion gallons of gasoline and prevented the release of carbon dioxide of approximately 35 million cars
•The number of landfills in the US are decreasing while their size is increasing. In 1998 there were 8,000 landfills but only 1,754 in 2007
•Each ton of mixed paper that is recycled can save the energy equivalent to 185 gallons of gasoline
•Approximately 8,660 curbside recycling programs exist in the United States
•There are about 3,510 community composting programs in the United States
•Disposal of waste to landfills has decreased from 89% in 1980 to 54% in 2007
•Recycling 1 ton of aluminum cans conserves the equivalent of 1,665 gallons of gasoline
•In 2007 the United States recycled and composted 85 million tons of the 254 million tons of municipal solid waste created

EPA's Lead Program Solution. Is it really though?

The EPA is starting a program April 22nd that will force all renovators and remodelers that work in homes pre 1978 to have their company and their selves certified through the EPA. I took their certification class this last Thursday. There was some good information to take away from it, but what I don’t understand is that you go through a real technical way to collect all dust during the project then turn around and throw it in the landfill. That’s right if it is less than 220 lbs (which most projects will be) you can just go throw it in the landfill. Does this make a lot of sense to you? On top of that they are really pushing to use tons of plastic to cover everything, and you can’t recycle it. That’s government for you. Yes we have increased the indoor air quality, but what will the side effects of this program be in 5 or 10 years. When will man become the solution and not the problem?

"Gray" Water

The average household of four uses up to 400 gallons of water every day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That is a staggering amount to think about when you realize most of it is simply used for washing your hands, dishes, taking a shower and wasted while brushing your teeth.

Now I'm probably as bad as the next person when it comes to leaving the water running while brushing my teeth, but when I stop and think about the millions of people that don't even have access to clean water I am hit with a hard slap in the face of the reality of my wastefullness.


It's amazing to me how often in this tough economy we complain about needing more and not having enough, but waste the small things on a daily basis. So the more I've thought about this I wanted to pass along some helpful information on not wasting water.

It's been called "Going Gray" and is a form of recyling the water that you normally waste and using it for other things. The wastewater generated by your sink, shower, washing machine and dishwater can cut utility bills while reducing a household's water footprint.

Gray water projects target the biggest water-wasters in the house-particularly bathroom showers and sinks, where a lot of gray water is generated (toilet water, known as "black water" is never to be reused). Some of that water can be recycled via an ingenious contraption called SinkPositive, a hand-washing station that sits atop the toilet tank. Soapy water, falls into the tank, whre it waits until the next time someone flushes the toilet. Then it does double duty, carrying away soap and toilet waste. The SinkPositive sells for $110 plus shipping.

One-third of a household's water, over 120 gallons per day, is used on lawns and gardens. To trim that figure, gardeners often use gray water on their lawnas and ornamental gardens (Young plans usually need fresh water, but once they mature, many can thrive on doses of gray water. Also don't use gray water on edible plants, due to bacteria that could be in it)

Also gray water irrigation can be as simple as placing a pitcher next to the sink and whenever someone doesn't finish a glass of water or cup of tea, dump it in the pitcher. By the end of the day, you'll have enough "leftover" water to keep the houseplants happy.




BY JENAE TANKERSLEY
(Resources: emagazine.com)

How Green Have We Come?

Here's a snapshot of those green measures tha have been embraced and those that still have a ways to go.