TEN WAYS TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT June 2005

2. Canadians generate 2.2 kilograms of waste per day. Think about your garbage and where it goes after you toss it out. Reusing materials is as easy as taking cloth bags to the store or sending your old magazines to the local walk-in clinic. Recycle, using the guidelines provided by your city or town. Composting reduces the garbage that makes it to the curb by 30-50 per cent.

3. Canada is third largest producers of greenhouse gases per capital, after the United States and Australia. The daily activities of each Canadian are responsible for 28 per cent of Canada’s GHG emissions. By reducing energy consumption at home and on the road, you can do your part in helping Canada meet its Kyoto goal of reducing GHG emissions by six percent of what they were in 1990.

4. Save four percent of your heating costs by turning your thermostat down just one degree Celsius. Make a habit of turning it down before you go to bed pr going on vacation. Another effective action is to properly seal your windows and doors. Combined, the area of the average home subjected to the outdoor air, is equal to a 2.3 square foot hole.

5. Only once percent of the Earth’s water is available to support all our needs. Keeping that in mind it’s astonishing to realize that a five-minute shower with a standard shower head uses 100 litres of water! By comparison, a five minute shower with a low flow aerated showerhead will use only 35 litres of water.

6. In 1999 the world’s population reached over 6-billion people. The ecological footprint of the average Canadian is 7.8 hectares. That means it takes 7.8 hectares of land and water to support one person’s food, energy, water and space requirements. If the productive land on Earth were to be divided equally between all of its individuals, your share would be about 2.1 hectares. What can you cut down on?

7. You have 7 days each week in which to enjoy the outdoors. Hike a trail, take a walk on the beach, strap on some snowshoes, and paddle down the river, sketch a bird, visit a provincial par, or organize a community picnic.

8. Each day 8 million kilograms of greenhouse gasses are released into the air by idling vehicles. Break free from idling habits to reduce personal GHG emissions and save money. Remember 10 seconds of idling uses more fuels that turning off your engine, and excessive idling can harm engine components.

9. Producing aluminum from recycled can rather than from “scratch’ saves 95 percent of energy. Shopping strategies to reduce environmental impacts include choosing recycled products, products with less packaging, and reusable items, rather that single use items.

10. By installing compact florescent light bulbs (CFL) which last 10 percent longer and use 75 percent less energy than the standard light bulb you could save $35 in energy costs over the lifetime of your CFL. When you consider the average home has 41 light bulbs, the savings add up quickly.

Thanks to Pat of Ontario for sending in that

What shall we do with our electronic junk

The technological advances that make its addicts get the latest model of cell phone, computer or electronic agenda, has created a problem of enormous dimensions: What shall we do with the trash that this section generates?

In the recent Mac-World conference in San Francisco, one of the most celebrated events of the industry, the darkest aspect of technology suddenly showed its ugly face. While the numerous fans of Apple formed large queues to get one of the tiny computers which had just appeared in the most “in” family of technology, groups for environmental defence protested to call the attention to the fact that it is a “ rotten Apple” as far as recycling of the products went.

The biannual conference of “Apple” showed once again the confluence of two opposite realities in the world of technology. On one side is the most futuristic inventions in constant evolution and their ever more accessible prices. On the other hand, there is the matter of toxic materials present in the products, which do not get recycled and which are harmful to those who use them, as well as damaging the environment.

From www.badapple.biz which says: “There is a very real crisis in respect to electronic trash. The U.S: looks the other way while they use cheap and dirty dumps.” Says Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, a group whose H.Q. is in Seattle. This International network tries to limit the damage caused by electronic waste. They have subscribers from all the developed countries except the U.S.

The Us government have spent years trying to develop a plan together with the industry, but recycling of these products is expensive, and the companies still haven’t come to an agreement as to how to carry it out, whether to transfer part of the cost to the user or charge an extra from the beginning for this concept. In the European Union, though, there are not permitting the sale of electronic products with certain toxins.

Many electronic products have a very short life, and in some cases expire as soon as the next generation apparatus reaches the market, which means that electronic junk is rising in volume like foam. It’s a problem of very scary proportions. In 2002, a group of environmental organizations published a devastating study that showed that the electronic junk coming from the US is recycled using primitive methods in under-developed countries, where it causes serious problems for the environment and for health. Three years later things have just got worse.

Many of the companies sent their trash to countries like India or China, where it is taken apart to get the lead, gold or other valuable metals, a process where toxic components like cadmium or mercury end up in the water or in the air.

These days the U.S. alone throws out 2 million tons of these products a year, among which is 50 million computers and 130 million cell phones. If we go on at this rate, by 2010 the country will throw out 400 million pieces. There is a program on ebay www.ebay.com/rethink that offers users the option to sell or donate computers that still work. Though it is a good idea, this is really only a small thing incapable of resolving the biggest problem facing the industry.

In the City of Olavarria, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, two experts have thought up an ambitious plan to capture and recycle dangerous gases from a land fill site (city dump) The gases are made up mainly of methane and carbon dioxide both of which, if not controlled , can have serious effects on the “greenhouse effect” the world is suffering from. The idea is to capture, neutralize and reuse the gases released from waste decomposition while at the same time reduce the risk of contaminating underground water supplies, and create jobs for those in the area. This is the first plant of its kind to be built in this country, and, should the idea take off, they hope to bring it in to use in other places.

The system, based on what is currently in use in other parts of the world, generates a vacuum from where the gases can be extracted, suction pipes, transport and a treatment unit.

The city in question, generates daily 85 tons of sold residential waste, but it has been found that around 80% of that is organic, of which they calculate 282 cubic meters of gas per hour for the next 21 years beginning in 2006. It is thought that 17 tons of carbon dioxide will be saved for entering the atmosphere in that length of time.