Recycling : saving earth's resources

Recycling is a very important step in slowing down and eventually stopping wasting of earth's natural resources. Scientist worldwide are exploring new ways to have better fuel efficiency and lowering pollution emissions. In an attempt to reverse the effects of overusing earth's valuable natural resources, everyone is called upon. Recycling is a big part of the effort to re-use and limit the use of our resources.

There are many categories of products people can recycle. Paper and its derived products such as carton are now being recycled successfully everyday.

Other resources like metals are being recycled daily. Such metal objects as tin cans, aluminum cans and tinfoil plates. Before recycling metal items, they have to be rinsed and free of food residue as this can cause toxic problems in the recycling process.

Another very useful way of giving a second life to metal products is to use them for storage or making crafts. By creating crafts with our children with used metal objects, we are showing them that many uses can be found and wasting is not the only solution.

Recycling glass has also been around for a while as bottles and jars are getting a second life everyday. Again, all these glass containers need to be rinsed before put in the recycling bin.

Plastic is now part of our lives and is very useful. The quantity of plastic we are discarding everyday is a major problem nowadays. Recycling and reusing plastic containers are the best way to ensure we are not polluting earth. Plastic bags can be also recycled. The easiest way to recycle them is by putting them all in one plastic bag.

Another very important point is to rethink our packaging methods and realize we are overusing wraps and seals unnecessarily. We have to honestly ask ourselves if a brand new music recording requires all this plastic wraps and sealing to conserve its "freshness". It is more commonly accepted to walk out of a convenient store with a very small item and refuse the small plastic bag offered knowing it will be thrown away a couple of minutes later.

Not everyone is aware that milk cartons and juice cartons are recyclable and can be put in the glass/plastic/metal section of the recycling bin. They need to be rinsed out of their food residue first of course.

Another good way of recycling is to have consignment refunds on tin cans and bottles. Not every American state offers a valuable refund and recycles soda drinks bottles and cans. It is every citizen's duty and right to ask their governments in power to implement such recycling politics.

If everyone starts recycling and takes environment seriously, we can have hope that our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy nature's resources as we did.

Important items that cannot be recycled for now are: diapers, used toys, dishes, soiled pizza boxes, food leftovers (although they can be easily turned into composting), clothing and many more.

Hopefully, there will come a time in the future when we will be able to enjoy the commodities of life without sacrificing any of earth's natural resources.

Saving earth: recycling is a great start

Saving earth is now everyone's responsibility. Most governments have now understood the damages imposed on earth's resources and are taking significant actions to slow down and eventually stop wasting our natural resources.

Such clear actions to reduce pollution by manufacturers are rising in the form of laws designed to control the emissions of toxic gas. Many countries have now put in place serious programs to encourage individuals and major corporations to recycle as much as possible.

Recycling is now available in many North American cities and city laws are implemented daily to encourage citizens to make recycling a part of their daily lives.

The younger generations are now taught in school about recycling. Often, as a mother, when I am uncertain if an item can be recycled, I can ask my children and they know the answer.

There are two majors forms of recycling major cities offer their citizens: The first category is paper and related products. The second category includes plastic, glass and metal.

Paper products that can be recycled are: paper bags, cereal boxes( you have to remove the inside plastic bag first),shoe boxes, tissue boxes, magazines, books, telephone books, cardboard, egg cartons, sheets of paper, envelopes, etc

Since recycling does come with a price, considering other earth saving options are also mandatory. For example, many of the paper products can be re-used by our children to create crafts. Unsubscribing from magazines you are receiving and not reading can prove to be a time consuming process but will greatly reduce the volume of paper recycled every week. Another simple example is to write on both side of paper cuts in half the amount of paper a person uses and the amount of trash paper a person produces.

On the long run, these simple steps can add-up greatly and reduce the deforestation process that has been going on. The simple step of recycling and intelligently using paper will lower the amount of trees cut in a year worldwide. As a rebound effect, if forests are preserved worldwide, the animals will have a saver and healthier life and humans will greatly benefit from this greener turn.

Such organisms as Greenpeace have long understood the challenges and long-needed changes humans need to take right now in order to stop deforestation and preserve earth's natural resources.

Everyone should be concerned by the environmental damages we are imposing on earth's natural resources and take part in the joint effort to make this a better and greener world. Participating in discussion forums involved in finding solutions to earth destruction is everyone's responsibility. Furthermore, by making sure that environment and earth's protection is on every government's agenda is our common responsibility.

Will Wind Energy Be Blown Away?

Wind energy is form of renewable energy. This 'new' source of energy is getting more popular and not without reason. In various parts in the world big wind turbine parks are placed by corporate businesses yielding big quantities of energy that can be sold as environmental friendly or 'green' energy. Wind energy is big business. Big companies profit from renewable energy but also invest substantially in this new energy source.

As mentioned before wind energy is very environmental friendly. In the search for alternatives for fossil fuels this energy source turned out to be very lucrative. This energy source makes us less dependent on traditional fossil fuels. It is important to lessen the dependence on traditional fuels. There are many reasons why here we will inform you with the most important once. The traditional fuels are predominantly in the hands of countries in troublesome areas. Therefore you are not sure if the amount of crude oil you request will be delivered due to instability in the region. Also the price for these old fuels is increasing and the current reserves are diminishing. But most of all these old energy sources pollute our planet. But as always the beautiful story of wind energy has not only positive sides. Let's look at some of negative points as well.

In the Netherlands a windmill park is located in the north of the country. Although the local people here were in favour of the windmills they changed their minds when the mills were actually placed. The residents were complaining about a constant noise during the night that could be compared to a 747 taking of. These complaints were not taking serious by the corporate business owners. Therefore the residents decided to research their complaints by the local university. The outcome of the research was that the residents were right and their complaints should be taken seriously. It turned out that the windmills produced more noise in the evening and night than during daytime due to a higher turbulence at night caused by very specific changes in the upper air layers. During the day there is less turbulence and the sounds that are produced by the windmills are diminished by the noise of local traffic and wind blowing through the trees. All specifics can be read in this paper: The Sound of High Winds: The Effect of Atmospheric Stability on Wind Turbine Sound and Microphone Noise by Frits van den Berg.

In Germany wind mills where placed in the North Sea. Although the location for this purpose is very good, the park doesn't seem to produce the calculated amount of energy. The windmills often don't work properly due to malfunction. Whilst the location is good and wind is blowing almost constantly the windmills often just don't work. The mills were not moving at all and therefore not producing electricity. This project turned out to be very disappointing, but the project is still running and it is believed that it will function according to plan in the future.

In the United States in Vermont the local residents were opposed by the planning of a new wind turbine park. The locals felt that the wind towers would ruin their beautiful landscape. It is a landscape that many generations have fought to preserve and the current residents our proud of. It is hard to convince people to share their landscape with large wind towers that disturb these beautiful views. The plans for building the windmills in Vermont are of the table.

Although is it a good and economical of energy, wind energy is taking some real blows. The advantages are clear and the disadvantages are becoming clear as well. When placed in a surrounding where the landscape is cherished by the people who live there, one could argue not to place them because it might ruining the beautiful landscape and spoil the beautiful views. Locals and tourist would find these turbines just plain ugly. Also it should be kept in mind that wind turbines with these sizes can produce a lot of noise during the evening and night. Beside these considerations it has shown that wind energy is not always a big success and there is more progress to be made. Technically there are some steps to be made, but a lot of people are working hard in this. Let's hope that wind energy is here to stay and we will find proper ways to utilise this form a way that we all can benefit from it.

Computer Recycling & E-waste - Re-use Vs Recycling

It has become common practice these days to associate e-waste recycling purely with the act of scraping metal and cables. It is my view that recycling in this form is only a last resort when an item can no longer be re-used.

While most recycling does involve the scrapping of raw materials we have to stop and think about the energy requirements of recycling versus re-use.

The cost of recycling includes:
Item collection
Item dismantling and sorting
Raw material transport and containerization
Raw material smelting
Transport of smelted material to producer
Reproduction into new useful item
New item transport and containerization back to us

Compare that process to re-use which usually only involves:
Item collection
Item testing / refurbishing
Transport to final recipient

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that re-using the original item as opposed to recycling it uses a lot less energy (making it more environmentally friendly) and offers a more economical outcome to the final user. This doesn't just apply to computers, but to most items that we currently recycle. So why isn't there more re-use? Why is there such a push towards recycling but silence when it comes to re-using? Shouldn't we be trying to encourage people to re-use rather than just recycle?

In the computer field the answers to these questions come down to marketing and hype from manufacturers. People who do not know much about computers and use their computer for basic word processing feel compelled to go out and upgrade their computer to the latest buzz word machine even though doing so doesn't really offer them any actual benefit. Software manufacturers are also to blame, Vista was released among many complaints that it offers little but requires new hardware to run it. (As a quick aside, consider this. 95% of desktop applications in use today are written to only use one processor at a time, so the purchase of a eight core system doesn't actually do anything for the individual program you are running. Developers are being urged to change their software to utilize multiple processors at the same time, but this requires more development which will probably result in higher software prices.)

The printer manufacturers are an interesting case study when it comes to recycling. While on one hand they are to be applauded for having setup the industry wide takeback program with Planet Ark on the other they keep producing printers that cost as much as the cartridge to replace. Printer cartridges can be remanufactured or refilled and kept working at a lower cost than their new counterparts. Most cartridge remanufacturers also include a 12 month warranty on their remanufactured stock. So why is it that the printer industry is trying to crush the remanufacture industry in general? At the end of the day it comes down to profitability. It is less profitable for them to collect empty cartridges, inspect each cartridge and then remanufacture accordingly.

We are consumers and it's through consumerism that innovation is funded and driven. If we were all happy with what we had we wouldn't have iPods, Flat Screen TVs, desktop computers and so many things that we take for granted these days. But there are many people against waste and making people spend money for no real reason is just wrong. Before throwing something out next time, or releasing it for scrapping, see if anyone could actually use it. Consider calling a local charitable organisation or other initiatives that keep the items functioning and alive.