Green Options

Two years ago when we bought our Prius, my then second grader had an idea. He thought that everyone should have to give up their old cars and buy a hybrid. That, he believed, would solve the global warming problem that he was so worried about. Someone in Washington has stolen my son’s idea.

The New York Times reported last week that President Obama embraces “cash for clunkers” a government sponsored incentive program that would offer Americans cash for trading in their old, inefficient vehicles for new fuel efficient cars. The program would help both the environment and the ailing auto industry.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the reasons that we bought our Prius was because my husband’s company was offering a $5000 bonus to anyone who bought a vehicle that got 35 miles a gallon or better at the time. There was also a tax rebate - I believe it was $1800, don’t quote me on that figure, but we didn’t know about that when we made the decision.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran the book fair at my boys’ school. This is the fifth year I’ve been in charge of the fair, and the fifth year that I’ve brought home the plastic table cloths that are part of the fair kit I’m sent. They are in perfectly good condition, and I bring them home to use to cover table tops when the kids paint and find lots of other uses for them.

I’ve been seeing a lot of clever uses around the internet for used plastic lately, particularly plastic bottles. Have you seen any of these?

The Recycled Plastic Boat. David de Rothschild is trying to promote the importance of recycling. He’s constructing a 60 foot catamaran and planning to sail it across the Pacific in April. The aim of The Plastiki is to

captivate, inspire and activate tomorrow’s environmental thinkers and doers to take positive action for our Planet and to be smart with waste, ultimately we hope to inspire people to rethink waste as a valuable resource. One person’s waste could be another person’s treasure.

The Plastic Bottle Greenhouse. A public school group from Australia, ECO (Environmental Care Organisation) built an entire greenhouse out of 1,652 plastic bottles. A steel frame supports the structure and the bottles are threaded on pvc pipes. The greenhouse will help to enhance the school’s environmental education program.

The school won the Make a Difference competition run by radio station C91.3, which supported the project.

Earth Hour is Saturday, March 28th. Are you participating? Are you planning? If you’ve already signed up for Earth Hour, you’ve got two things left to do. Prepare to power down and plan what you’ll be doing from 8:30 to 9:30 PM.

Powering Down

Earth Hour is about turning off the lights for one hour. It may seem like just a little thing, but when everyone does it at once, the results are impressive. Look at a few statistics from 2008’s Earth Hour.

Chicago kept 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
In Toronto, there was an 8.7% reduction in energy.
A 10.1% energy drop occurred in energy usage.

Those numbers can be even more impressive if we do more than just turn off the lights. Powering down everything non-essential in your home can reduce your energy usage even further.

Last year, I practically waxed poetic about my public transportation trip into Philadelphia for GreenFest Philly. Yesterday, I again took the same public transportation into the Philadelphia, this time for the Go Green Expo, and there is no waxing poetic. Just a bunch of frustration.
I pulled into the parking lot of my local Patco station to find that parking is no longer free on weekends. Most of the lots require a Freedom Pass to enter - something that someone who has never ridden the train or rides very infrequently would not have. There were signs pointing me to other lots where you could use coins or cash to pay. I drove to one of them. There was no cash option - just an exact change option that I didn’t have.

I finally found off street parking and hoofed it over to the train station.

I went to buy my ticket. I could only use a credit card to purchase one of their Freedom Passes or to put more money on the Freedom Pass. For a one-time round trip ticket, I had to use cash. The directions on the machine were very confusing. I was given my change in $1 coins (I had used a $20 for a $4.65 ticket - that’s a lot of $1 coins). I was also not offered a receipt - something that I need for tax purposes.

Just as I grabbed the last coin out of the machine, I heard my train pull up and leave! I had given myself plenty of time to catch it, but the parking problem made me late. I had to wait 25 minutes for the next train.

I really want to talk to Colin Coon’s parents. I want to know what they did to raise a kid who would take on a project like this. I want to learn from them. I want my boys to learn from Colin.

Colin Coon is high school senior at New Gate School in Sarasota, Florida. He’s converted a diesel powered vehicle to run on Waste Vegetable Oil and began a two month cross country trip in his Green Machine that he’s named Norm. He wants to show people that alternative fuels work and that anyone can use them.

He’s also documenting the whole thing on ColinsGreenMachine.com with a blog. As of today, Colin is on day four of his trip and on the first three days, he’s done a blog entry at the end of the day. I like the entries because he’s being honest about how it’s going (not always so great) and it’s so obviously written by a teenager. “I look to where the plug goes in to the blcok and sure enough it is arcing and spewing flames and sparks everywhere.  Poo.”

The producers of Go Green Expo have planned 4 expos across the country for this year. The first one already took place in LA back in Janurary. The next expo is planned for March 13-15 in Philadelphia.

What’s the expo all about? Here’s what the event’s website has to say:

A truly unique event from the ground up, Go Green Expo will change not only the public’s perception of environmentalism but also how events like this are produced and managed. Inviting companies large and small to showcase what they are doing to reduce their respective carbon footprint, consumers will have hands on experiences with “eco-friendly” alternatives to current everyday products and services.

Even the event itself is environmentally friendly utilizing a ZERO Carbon footprint approach to event production. Biodegradable trash bags, eco-friendly printing, table coverings, recycled signs, compostable sponsor banners and more. Event waste will be separated and sorted to ensure the least amount of refuse going to the landfills. Staff travel and a portion of every ticket that is purchased will be carbon offset.

Back in 1990, Ted Turner decided that TBS needed to create the world’s first eco-hero, and Captain Planet and the Planeteers were born. The cartoon ran for 6 seasons and has been largely unavailable since then. Until now. Even more so than in 1990, the world really needs an eco-hero now, and Captain Planet is back.

The very first episode of Captain Planet and the Planeteers is now available on Mother Nature Network, and the environmental news network plans to unveil twenty episodes of the eco-cartoon over the next year.

Here’s a recap of the first episode:

Did you know that by mixing tap water and table salt you can create a substance that degreases, kills bacteria, cleans and costs less than a penny a gallon? Too good to be true, right? But for decades, this method has been used in Russia and Japan, and it’s slowly gaining acceptance in the U.S.

The thing is, you can’t just pour some salt in a container of water and shake it up. You have to scramble the ions in the salted water with an electric current and create electrolyzed water. Most of us don’t have electrolysis machines in our home, but some U.S. businesses are buying them and finding the results favorable.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Sheraton Delfina in Santa Montica is using the electrolyzed water for cleaning rooms and disenfecting produce in the kitchen and the staff, the workers who actually use the stuff, are calling it “el liquido milagroso - the miracle liquid.”

A recently passed New York City law cuts down the acceptable limit of vehicle idling time in school zones from 3 minutes to 1 minute. According to an AP report, the law also gives additional city agencies the ability to issue violations and creates a way for officials to track those violations.

Idling in school zones is not a city problem, only. Take a look at any suburban grammar school, like the one my sons attend, and you’ll see an after school mess of idling cars and school buses. What does this say about our culture?

We aren’t concerned about the waste of our natural resources?
We’ve got money to burn in our gas tanks?
We don’t care about the pollution we’re creating, even when it’s harming our children?
We’re too darn lazy to turn our car engines off?

Yep, all of the above.

Get a new cell phone. Get a new cell phone charger. And probably a new car charger, too, right?
It’s always seemed silly to me that all cell phones can’t use the same charger. Silly and wasteful. That may be changing. Bloomberg reports that mobile phone manufacturers and operators “will develop a standardized handset charger to save money and energy.”

The new chargers will use 50 percent less energy and cut the number made each year by half, lowering greenhouse gases from making and transporting them by 13.6 million tonnes to 21.8 million tonnes. So far, 17 companies are involved, including Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.’s 3 Group, AT&T Inc., Motorola Inc., France Telecom SA’s Orange, Qualcomm Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Telefonica SA and Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile.

Why has it taken so long for this idea to get implemented? It’s so simple. It’s so smart. It makes so much sense.