Good Environmentalism
Take some time to consider some good things you can do, without even
sacrificing too much.
- Recycle
- This should be a no-brainer. One thing I recently discovered is that our
local garbage collection company (BFI) doesn’t accept packaging Styrofoam for
recycling. They did mention that Mailboxes, Etc. does accept
Styrofoam for recycling. I called our local store to confirm this, and at
least that store accepts both Styrofoam peanuts and larger pieces, such as
those computers and other equipment are packaged in.
- Use Fluorescent lights instead of incandescent
- This is one of the easiest, yet most effective things you can do to reduce
pollution, while saving money at the same time. Fluorescent lights use far
less electricity than either incandescent or Halogen lights, last longer, and
modern designs are far less prone to noise or flickering. If you run a 300W
halogen bulb 4 hours a day, that’s $35/year in electricity, but the 72W
fluorescent costs only $7/year in electricity. It’s also a safety issue: There
are new fluorescent torchieres that are brighter than their Halogen versions,
yet use less electricity (72W instead of 300W) and run at a much lower
temperature (100°F instead of 1,000°F), thus greatly reducing the risk of fire.
The first manufacturer I’m aware of is Emess Lighting Inc, at (800) 688-2579.
One maker of compact fluorescent bulbs (which can be used almost anyplace a
normal incandescent bulb can) is Lights of America, which can be reached at
(800) 321-8100.
- Stop putting “junk” in your garbage (and thus the landfills)
- The state of California is offering a new, free service to help people and
businesses trade their discarded “junk”. Even though it may be junk to you,
someone else less fortunate may find it very useful to them. The program is
called CALMAX (California
Materials Exchange), created by the California Integrated Waste Management
Board. Contact them to receive a 64-page catalog of items for trade or
give-away, or to place items of yours in the catalog, free of charge. They can
be contacted at (916) 255-2369.
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