EcoTrashSolutions

Ten Daily Changes For A Cleaner Planet

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Trash is part of our daily lives. There’s no getting away from it, really. However, there are many things you can do daily to cut down on your trash.

Try to buy items with little to no packaging.

Instead of throwing away grocery bags every week, purchase a few cloth bags instead.

Try to use actual silverware and plates instead of paper plates and disposable cutlery.

It may smell, but a compost heap makes soil very fertile and makes use of your food scraps.

Use rags instead of paper towels.

Drink tap water instead of bottled water.

Don’ t throw out used papers, keep them for scrap paper.

Watch the news on TV or online instead of in a newspaper.

Request that you no longer be sent junk mail. In addition to reducing your trash, it will also save you the annoyance of dealing with it day after day.

Have fun with it. You can always reuse a jar or a coffee can to store miscellaneous items. You can join with your kids in the crafts and make puppets with paper bags. You can come up with many ways to make as much use out of your trash as you can.

Ways To Reduce Your Daily Trash Output

admin — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Resources are becoming scarce. Landfills are filling up. Everyone is looking for ways to reduce their footprint. One way is to diminish the amount of trash you create on a daily basis. A simple and easy to remember formula to follow is reduce, reuse, and recycle.

The first step to making your trash output smaller is to reduce the amount of trash you create. There are a number of smart, and economically advantageous ways. First, stop using paper towels. Instead, use cloth napkins at meals and microfiber clothes or old rags to clean. You can also be a more diligent shopper, paying close attention to the packaging on the products you buy. How much of that packaging is waste and non-recyclable?

The second step is to reuse items that would normally be thrown away. This could mean finding new, creative ways to use something, such as saving wine corks for a craft project. Or it could be as simple as reusing a sandwich bag, using reusable containers instead of plastic wrap, or composting.

The final step is to recycle. Plastic, paper, glass, and most metals can all be easily, and locally, recycled. Most towns and cities have excellent recycling programs.

From Trash To Treasure: Creative Uses For Garbage

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There is an old adage that goes “one’s man’s trash is another one’s treasure and it happens to be very true. So many people are so quick to discard things as trash, but they can actually be worth a-lot more than that. The environment has been under a crisis for quite some time now, so it is time that people think before they carelessly throw something away. Recycling is one of the many things that a person can with something that he or she perceives as trash. Recycling is the process that involves taking something that has been used and turning it into a new product.

Another thing that a person can do with his or her trash is give it away to someone else. Again, one’s man’s trash if often another one’s treasure. Before a person decides to throw something away because he or she no longer wants to use it, he or she should ask him or herself one very important question. That question is, “Is this something that someone else may like?” The answer to that question is most likely a yes. A person can have a yard sale, donate items to a thrift store or sell them online.

Making Our Planet a Home That is Fit for Everyone

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

At www.shopelectricityratestexas.com/shop_electricity_rates.html’ >www.shopelectricityratestexas.com you will find options for energy consumption. Options are an operative word in our current culture in every area of life. Options allow us to make intelligent choices, There is developing a crescendo of concerned voices singing in unison a song of restoration for our planet. There are many choruses to this contemporary and conscientious tune one of them being the creative exploration of ways to reduce the output of trash on a personal and family level. Again we are talking options. We can choose to be unbridled trash producers. Or we can select the option of restricting trash output and contributing to a cleaner planet. If we choose the latter obviously more prophylactic option, we find there are many ways to pursue our objective. Consider eliminating the purchase of plastic bottles wherever possible. There are now seas of plastic bottles floating in our oceans creating a barren wasteland of ugliness. If you must have a soft-drink, you can take a refillable container to the restaurant with you which you can use and return home for cleaning and reuse. Another option is to initiate a recycling program at your job place, school or community if one does not currently exist. Such programs usually originate with one concerned individual.

Is your Trash Art?

www.ecotrashsolutions.com — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:59:57 +0000

One of the main motivations for American’s taking out the trash is it’s unsightly nature, however, with the proper handling and care, even your trash can grow to accent your home in ways you may have never imagined. Perhaps not the excess food, considering the less than glamorous nature of the decomposition process and the resulting bugs who might make your kitchen their new outdoors, but before tossing out discarded items, consider your artistic flair.Found Art as the concept is known, centers around recognizing beauty in commonplace items generally passed over by common onlookers with a less keen eye for beauty. Artist Marcel Duchamp first discovered the genre in 1915, to describe an old bicycle wheel he had come across which was intrinsically striking, needing only slight modification to make it gallery worthy. From there Duchamp expanded his found art repertoire to include what once was a former urinal he titled “Fountain.” “Bottle Rack” was Duchamp’s first completely readymade piece of art, needing absolutely no alteration what so every from the street to display. The art world was slow to take to Duchamp’s new philosophy on this revolutionary artistic concept, but he is now almost universally revered as a forward thinker, with today’s contemporary artists following his light of thought to produce junk art.Junk art literally takes items headed towards the dumpster and uses them in a manner of ways, from painting to reshaping to welding and turns them into visually appealing structures worthy of being shown off. Hundreds of artists have made careers out of turning the unwanted into the desired. So before you throw out the old bookshelf that’s been wasting away in the attic, or even the big bag of bottle caps accruing over time by the fridge, consider how today’s trash might shape tomorrow’s masterpiece.

Reduce Waste, Find Your Old Belongings a New Home

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:39:25 +0000

Over the past century America has grown to become an extremely wasteful society. The portion sizes provided at not only fast food chains, but most American restaurants, are unreal. Or stop to think of how many times you’ve thrown away old clothes or furniture that could have easily been reused by someone else. American industries encourage the constant purchase of the newest product and disposal of the old, whether or not this is necessary. A culture change to incorporate more sparing and less-wasteful behavior should be considered, but encouraging simple habits such as recycling is a much easier change to come about.The benefits of recycling go far beyond simply reducing the amount of trash we send to the landfill every year. Recycling is an entire industry that creates jobs for Americans and can add to market competition. By reusing old products in a new way, limited natural resources don’t have to be expended to create as many new products. Along with the raw materials used in the creation of new products, comes the greenhouse gases that are emitted in production, which is contributing to the problem of global warming. There are many ways to recycle beyond the traditional methods of recycling bottles and cans. When you decide it’s time for a new computer or printer, instead of throwing it away, where it could end up leaching hazardous material into the soil of a landfill, donate or resell it. Sites such as freecycle, Craigslist, and recycle.net are great places to unload old electronics in a less wasteful way. Old tires can also be recycled and used for fuel, in certain types of asphalt or in other new rubber products. Many kitchen items such as foil wrappers, Ziploc bags and metal soup cans can also be recycled and reused for a number of purposes.

Should the US use Waste Incineration for Energy?

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:49:51 +0000

It appears that European countries such as Denmark are finding ways to generate clean energythrough trash. Massive energy plants have been constructed that burn thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste per day. These ‘waste-to-energy‘ plants are way cleaner than conventional incinerators. As the plant converts trash into heat, dozens of filters catch pollutants (such as mercury or dioxin) and prevents them from being released into the atmosphere. Now, waste-to-energy plants are the main form of garbage disposal and a crucial fuel source in Denmark. The benefits associated with these plants include reduced energy costs, reduced reliance on oil and gas, and environmental benefits regarding less landfill and CO2 emission.While waste-to-energy plants are growing rapidly throughout Europe, there is no production or even plans for production in the US. Instead, we continue to rely on landfills to store our millions of tons of trash. Why hasn’t America jumped on this opportunity to decrease landfill use AND create clean alternate renewable energy? According to Matt Hall, director of the Office of Resource Conservation of the EPA, it is because of the abundance of cheap landfills available, opposition from state officials who fear the plants would undercut recycling programs, and a ‘negative public perception’. It seems environmental activists would rather push for zero waste and more recycling than for practical disposal of waste. Other reasons include the ‘not in my backyard‘ responseno one wants a massive trash burning plant in their community.Overall, it appears America is being fiscally and environmentally irresponsible by not latching on to this trash as energy trend. Though some of the reasons stated for NOT engaging in production of waste to energy plants are valid, others are quite frankly immature. If you can’t stand to look at a plant that is bettering the environment, how are you going to stand to look at a world covered in trash when the landfills overflow?

Don’t Forget the First Two Steps

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:43:41 +0000

“Reduce, Re-use, Recycle” is a longstanding, simple mantra to explain the process that protects the health of our planet. While the campaign to recycle has certainly caught on across the globe over the past 2 decades, the reducing and re-using parts of the three-pronged strategy are often overlooked. Here are some simple tips and reminders to make sure the first 2 steps are taken care of, before you even recycle your used goods.

The process should start at your purchase decision not when you are disposing of old items. A lot of similar products, both in price and function, are packaged very differently. Unless the packaging itself has some sort of intrinsic value you will want to hold on to as a keepsake, choose the one with the least packaging. Once your purchase is unwrapped, the box or bag it came in is more than likely to end up in the bin anyway.
A lot of grocery stores now offer re-usable bags, giving you an environmentally sound option when asked “paper or plastic?” Both paper and plastic bags require valuable natural resources for their production, so any way you can cut down on their usage is a step in the right direction.
When you do end up with plastic bags, because it is inevitable even the most environmentally conscious consumers will, use them in place of plastic trash bags. Department store and convenience store carry-out bags can easily line a trashcan and can be disposed of in the same manner as well.
Just because an item is labeled as “disposable,” it doesn’t mean it has to be thrown away. When possible, avoid tossing plastic cups, bowls and utensils after only a single use. A lot of time these items can be hand washed or re-used as is to increase their lifespan, not bombarding Mother Nature on such a regular basis.

How ‘Trashy’ is the United States

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:40:42 +0000

According to the EPA, the US has around 3,091 active landfills and over 10,000 old municipal landfills. What’s worse, 82 of surveyed landfill cells had leaks and 41 had a leak area of more than 1 square foot. The reality is that Americans generate a LOT of trash and this trash is capable generating a LOT of problems. Here are some stats to give you an idea of where we stand today:

The average person creates 4.39 lbs of trash per day and up to 56 tons of trash per year.
Only about one-tenth of all solid garbage in the US gets recycled
Every year we fill enough garbage trucks to form a line that would stretch from the earth halfway to the moon (63,000 trucks per day)
Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

So, we make a lot of trash. What do we do with it all? Here are some disturbing landfill stats:

Only 2 manmade structures on earth are large enough to be seen from space: the Great Wall of China and the Fresh Kills Landfill (which is now a recreational park)
Barges deliver over 14,000 tons of NYC trash to landfills every day

Thankfully, recycling efforts are greatly improving and massive amounts of municipal solid waste are being removed before reaching landfills to be recycled. While there is still a lot of room for improvement, Americans are doing an overall good job recycling from their homes. For more information on US waste and recycling, visit the official site of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Gross to Gold

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:36:11 +0000

Leftovers, rotten banana peels, and weeds may sound like nothing but useless garbage. However, these unwanted waste products can be composted to create rich soil for growing plants and vegetables, while reducing the amount of trash you send to the landfill.Compost is created when aerobic microbes such as fungi and bacteria digest and breakdown the wastes that are thrown in a pile. Some people express concern that a compost pile full of old food and waste will create an undesirable smell. This is easily avoided by ensuring there are air spaces in your compost so only aerobic microbes do the work and not anaerobic microbes, which produce the horrible stench of rotting trash. Aerobic microbes also decompose waste faster, another reason to allow plenty of air into your compost. A successful compost pile must contain the right amount of moisture. If it becomes too wet or too dry, the composting process can be slowed significantly. It is very important to combine a good mixture of materials to your compost. Items such as fruit and vegetables and fresh grass are classifies as “green” materials. Other wastes such as sawdust and dry leaves are referred to as “brown” materials. Because green compost items contain more moisture than brown materials, a good balance of these two types helps to create a healthy amount of moisture. It usually only takes a month or two for your pile of waste to be turned into rich, healthy compost. When you can no longer see any of the original items from the pile, you have usable compost.A final consideration before starting your very own compost pile is how to contain it. You can either have an open pile that is not contained or a bin or fenced off area for composting. Personally, I would recommend a compost bin for the many advantages it provides. Unwanted pests such as raccoons and possums cannot get inside a bin as easily. It is also less noticeable than a heaping pile of waste in your yard and can be mixed up by simply dumping it into another bin.